The time: early 2000s, probably mid 2001.

The place: Cerritos Pontiac, Cerritos, California.

We were on our way down to Disneyland for MouseAdventure, and a strange and troubling noise had started coming from my car, a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, as we went through Kettleman City. The mechanic at a local gas station said it was a transmission problem but they couldn't do anything unless I wanted to leave the car for a few days. In Kettleman City.

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We had (and have) AAA Plus service, so elected to keep going and hope we'd make it to Southern California, knowing that if the car failed we could get a tow pretty much all the way. We made it to Cerritos Pontiac, where I'd originally bought the car a few years before, an hour or so before the service department closed.

The service professionals there took a quick look and determined that the transmission was toast and needed to be replaced. The service coordinator, a woman named Solange (memorable name), looked over my warranty details and informed me that although I was still within the 36 month period, I'd gone just a bit over the 36,000 miles and therefore the repair wouldn't be covered.

And then she said, "But we'll cover it anyway, because clearly a three year old transmission shouldn't just fail like this."

We rented a car to drive home and I drove back down a week later to pick up my car, fully repaired and good as new.

I don't know if Solange is still at Cerritos Pontiac, and given GM's troubles I don't even know if they still sell Pontiacs, but this is definitely the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for me and I wish her the best in whatever she's doing.

Chinese take-out
Like many dishes that are combinations of many ingredients, a day or so in the refrigerator gives the flavors a chance to meld and deepen. One day later, it’s better than it was when we brought it home.

My favorite local Chinese take-out place is Jing Jing, on Emerson St in downtown Palo Alto. They specialize in hot-and-spicy Szechwan Hunan‎ cuisine and, barring a couple of missteps, almost everything I’ve tried has been very tasty and well executed.

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Back before MouseAdventure got to its current maximum size of 200 teams / 700 players, we occasionally had actual "scavenger hunts" as some of the quests. These days having 200 teams actually bringing us things during the event would be… a little more difficult to deal with.

Tabasco sauce packet

Having teams bring us Tabasco packets was just part of one of the quests, but it did ensure that we had a ready supply of travel-size seasoning whenever we needed it. For a year.

Invalid FastPass

To get an invalid FastPass, you first have to have a valid one. Most teams figured this out quickly and just hit the same FastPass machine twice in succession to get an invalid one.

Whiz ticket
I couldn’t find a picture of this, and it’s part of the history shared by just a very few people who played the first two a.d.d-quests. One of the items Kevin asked us to find, without explaining, was a “whiz ticket”. I don’t remember how we thought to ask at City Hall, but as it turns out a “whiz ticket” was used, back in the days before ubiquitous credit card terminals, for Disneyland cash handling paperwork. Needless to say City Hall would not let our team have one, but they would let me take a picture and Kevin accepted that.

…but that's only because "half a day" wasn't an available option. Of possible mini-OCDs/fetishes, needing to be clean (take showers) and wear clean clothes is surely among the least disruptive or difficult. And that's how Andrew "C"s it.

Actually, I take melatonin before bed every night and it usually works.

Day 180: Sadly I have had to use this

Which is to say, when I remember to take the melatonin (which is most of the time) I can usually get to sleep within a reasonable amount of time and stay asleep all night. Sometimes it doesn't work, and then I'm awake all night. Thus the name of this site and its origin.