A car person, I am not. That's why the ChiltonLibrary database on the South Dakota State Library's website is a wonderful thing. Here's what I discovered about the maintenance schedule on my car:
At 50,000 miles, I should service/inspect my cooling system hoses and clamps; service/inspect the exhaust system and heat shields; and inspect the fuel system. What? In my world, that's practically a foreign language. But I'll be sure to relay that pertinent information on to the proper individual (my husband). In addition, I need to replace my air cleaner filter. Got it.

In April 2013, a recall was issued for my car: Water Pump Shaft Seal Leaks. Hmmmm. I wonder if this is related to that yellow recall card I re-discovered the other day. Guess I need to call the dealership -- that recall is almost a year old!

I checked out the information on brakes in the repair section. An amazing amount of information was presented on brakes. None of which, of course, I understood. I guess I'll have the dealership check my brakes when I schedule my recall appointment. Come to think of it, those brakes have been a little bit noisy lately ...


Now, onto Mango Languages -- although foreign, perhaps more comprehensible to me than car-speak?

I chose to try out the language Spanish (Latin America), which is spoken by about 329 million people as their first language. It is spoken from Costa Rica to Chile to Buenos Aires (and everything in-between). While I have visited Machu Picchu in books, I'd love to actually see these mysterious ruins in person. The one thing holding me back (besides money!), is the language. I do not know Spanish. (I'm thinking it would have been more helpful to take Spanish in college instead of German!) Besides traveling, though, speaking the Spanish language right here -- where I live -- would be very beneficial. I attend a church that shares a building with a Spanish-speaking congregation. Some patrons at the library, where I work, speak Spanish as their first language. My sister-in-law is originally from Mexico. Really, the benefits of speaking Spanish are too numerous to mention.

So I was brave, and tried out the first lesson. While I was a bit confused about genders of certain words, I was amazed at what I learned about just a few basic phrases in the first lesson. Not only does Mango teach you how to speak the language, but it also teaches you informal/formal uses, genders, and so on. It was easy to understand, and I could listen and repeat each phrase as many times as I needed.

Next, I took a look at Little Pim, which is aimed at teaching languages to children ages 0-6. While I'm finding out that sometimes it's hard to teach an old dog (me) new tricks, I think I'll start my 4-year-old watching Little Pim. He's going to be able to learn much faster than me. And he'll remember it!