My stock sold today, so I’m in the market for a Toyota Prius. Why do I want a Prius? Dumb reasons, obviously:

• backup camera – I saw this in Japan and wanted it right away
• quieter ride
• bluetooth hands-free phone – I call my poor sister every time I drive my mom’s car because I can!
• heated leather seats

All pretty silly, but I spend at least an hour a day in the car so why not be more comfortable. There are a couple of things I don’t like about my Honda Civic Hybrid, but really, I’m happy with it. I’d like leather seats, a different color, and a navigation system if I had my druthers. I figure the Prius will have newer and better safety features and how bad can that be?

So the bad idea today was a very small dietary choice. We went to Salvador Molly’s for lunch and they ordered the “Great Balls of Fire” which are habañero corn fritters. I know they’re hot because my buddy Il ate four out of five (you need to eat five to get your picture on their wall) and decided there was no reason to keep going. And he’s Korean and he can eat hot food. I avoid hot foods nowadays, but there was a half of a fritter on the plate so I decided I’d try it. It wasn’t the hottest thing I’ve ever eaten, but my mouth was immediately in pain. The pain went away after a few minutes, but then I started to sweat. Then I started to sweat a lot. The guys I went with started getting worried about me because I wasn’t looking great, but I knew it would wear off as well. After that I started to feel an odd warmth in my stomach and I’m dreading the final outcome, if you know what I mean. And I broke into a sweat several other times during the day. Very bad idea.

We saw a family come in and they bought two orders (10 fritters). The mom and the 10YO son were smart and were just watching, but the dad ate two and looked AWFUL and the 6YO son had half of one and was laughing about how hot it was. That kid cracked me up.