Test Drive

Today makes 35 weeks.  We're tidying things up, getting ready for the little one.  One of those tasks is finding a new car.  As much as I adored my Echo, it is, sadly, no longer with us.  And, as practical and useful as Brent's Corolla is, it still has the same principle flaw the Echo did--only 5 seats.  So we need something bigger than a sedan, and we'd like to do it without going into debt.  Not having a car payment, ever, has been a huge blessing during those tight times in our life together.  We still want something that drives like a car, though, not a truck, and gets decent gas mileage--going from 32-36 mpg to ~18 mpg was just not going to cut it for us.  We've kept an eye on our options for several years and knew that with our requirements we would get to choose from the astounding total of 1 model.  (Canada and Mexico both have several more options.  I'm still kind of peeved about that.)

Finding a Mazda5 isn't all that hard, considering that the company refuses to market the poor thing, lest at any time the demand go up and they be required to actually make more of them.  Finding one with a manual transmission is a little more difficult, but still doable.  Finding a used one, though, is nigh unto impossible.  My guess would be that the sort of people who enjoy driving a stick are not the sort of people who trade in their cars "just 'cause." 

Anyway, after months of searching we found one.  We've test driven a couple of them, though not one of the older models, and I wanted to go check it out so that I could make sure my legs actually fit into the car.  I have, in my lifetime, had to rule out a car or two simply because my knee was up against the steering column.  What followed is one of those experiences that was horrifying, at the time, but caused us to laugh all the way home.

I wasn't altogether too worried when the sales guys had to make a few calls to figure out where the car was.  It's a large dealer with a patchwork collection of mini-lots.  We walked across a small side street and past a few other cars as everyone chatted.  James was enjoying the sunshine and his bottle of water that we'd grabbed from the cooler while waiting.  Our salesman went and grabbed the key and opened the front door.  He then pushed the button to unlock the rest of the car and muttered something about getting the car jumped so he could get the locks working.  What was that?  Surely I heard wrong.  He left and I figured out the manual locks for the back doors.  James and I hopped in the back and started poking around while Jonathan looked over the console up front.  Sure enough, the sales guy comes back with a battery starter, pops the hood, and gets things cranked up.  I never did figure out how the battery had died in the first place.  I couldn't quiet believe that they'd left the lights on, and yet that's somehow the impression I was given from his explanation.  Everyone piled in, with me in the driver's seat.

As I was pulling out of the lot, the lights on the dials started flickering.  Halfway through my turn, in the middle of the street, the whole thing died.  Jonathan and the salesman had to quickly hop out, wave traffic around us (we didn't have enough power to even flash the hazard lights), and push the car to the side of the road.  We jumped the battery again.  I pulled around the corner, just as the lights flickered again, and watched as it died, again, while I tried to get it in the driveway.  After yet another jump, and having driven maybe 250 ft., they took it into the shop to get a new battery.  I sincerely hope that that's the only thing wrong with it.

I could tell that our salesman was embarrassed by what had happened, but was bravely holding on and pretending that everything was great.  We played along and asked the price.  There wasn't a sticker on the car, nor had there been a price in the online listing.  His answer?  $19,995.  Excuse me?!?  I can buy a new one, for that price.  He tried to explain that that particular portion of the dealership deals with people who have really bad credit, so the price is to cover the risk, or something like that.  We didn't really let him finish.  A car that age with that sort of mileage is only worth $11k.  That's if it's in great condition, too, and this one was slightly worn with use.  We left, shaking our heads at the sheer audacity of that quote, especially after all we'd gone through at their hands.  We giggled at how awful the whole thing was, all the way home.

I did go back later, though, after they'd replaced the battery.  I still needed to know about my knees.

Date Night

Since Jonathan and I don't get very much time together, we've made the every-other-Saturday he gets off a mandatory date night. We have to do something together, though it can expand to cover the rest of the family too. Orville Reddenbacher has some boxes with RedBox codes in them, so BAM! popcorn and movie night. We piled the family onto the couch (minus James, who was tired and is still a bit small for this sort of thing) and popped in Toy Story 3. The kids were so excited. Jumping up and down, excited. Squealing like leaky balloons, excited. Yeah.

I highly recommend watching kids' movies with actual kids. It's a whole new experience. Joseph nestled into my arm, as the tension cranked higher, while Elena screamed in terror and squeaked "Oh, no! Daddy! Oh, no!" Just as things looked bleakest, she sobbed"Turn it off, Daddy! Turn it off!" We tried to reassure her, tell her that the toys would be OK, but honestly, neither of us was that sure. When it was all over, she said, "That was a good movie, but I never want to see it again." We'll be buying it in a few months, anyway. Hopefully she'll have forgiven us by then.

In A Given Population of 28-Year-Old Women...

How many will be pregnant? If our 10-year reunion was anything to go off of, I think the answer is about 10-15%. I was due the soonest, but only by 6 days. I must say that the belly is a great conversation starter, though. None of my friends were there (boo hoo!) but at least I knew people, and I had a great time chatting with people I never had a thing to do with ten years ago. It's funny how life works like that. You take high school so seriously, at the time, with the cliques and separating by who does what. Now, we've grown up, we're real people with real lives, and what we've been up to is interesting to people who ignored us (with a cheerful return of apathy on our part) way back when.

As a party, it was great. We spent the whole 4-5 hours floating around saying hello and catching up. There was some food, but it was really casual. The weather was fantastic (even with the short, massive cloud-burst) so going out on the deck was wonderfully pleasant. There were enough people to talk to that we didn't feel left out, but not so many good friends that we felt like we were rushed trying to get to everyone. For my "fringes" way of life, it was just about perfect. $45-a-pop perfect? Well, I'm not so sure about that, but at least it was fun.

Night On The Town

My fabulous in-laws were given some theater tickets, and decided to invite us along.


We found a babysitter; convinced our companions to try out our favorite place to eat out, Malaga, and made sure we could get seating as soon as we showed up; and massaged Jonathan's work schedule so we wouldn't be rushing too much.

Dinner was fantastic, still the best calamares I've ever tasted, and the lamb was quite tasty as well. Frances loved how the little forks make you feel dainty. David liked the food enough that he said he wanted to come back, so I think we've made a conquest. It's a very different experience from most American restaurants, so we're really glad they had a good time.

We were only 5 blocks from the theater, and the weather was lovely, so we walked over. (I have to say that I love walking around downtown at night. There's so much to look at.) Our seats were up in the balcony. Not the best in the house, but convenient to the exits and we still had a decent view. We scoured the program for my friend Casey. We knew she was in the play, but I didn't know what part. The play was good, though I have to say that once you've crewed a play, you shouldn't watch one from the balcony. I was distracted from the action by the glow-in-the-dark set marks and seeing how each of the set pieces turned into other set pieces. I'm betting it would have been less distracting if we were on the floor. Ah, well. It was still a great evening, we had a lot of fun, Casey was fantastic (I want her costumes!) and we got the sitter home right when we said we would.

Thanks for the night out!

And They're Off!

It's the Daddy/Daughter Campout, tonight, and my happy campers have just set out. Now that Elena's (almost) three, she's old enough to really get into doing special things with just her and Daddy, and this is their first outing. We've been talking it up for a while, telling Elena that she gets to go camping for her happy birthday, and using it as incentive to keep her panties dry. She helped pack her backpack, and pull the tent and sleeping bags from the closet. She'll get to cook her own hotdog, and will be introduced to smores. Jonathan checked the star chart before he left, so he can show her all the constellations, and they have the camera, so there'll be some great pictures when they get back. I'm excited to have some time with just Joseph. It'll be nice to play with a baby, without an older sibling clamoring (loudly) for my attention.

We Have Date

With Jonathan working so many evenings, it's hard to get out, but we managed it today. We've been so excited for the Harry Potter movie, so we've been saving up for it. Regan may have quibbles, but I thought it was the best adapted of all the films. It may not have been straight from the book, note for note, but everything flowed well and made sense. Considering that most of the book, Harry is alternately shouting at people or sullenly sulking, I think it was wise to turn the focus of the film to the battle for control both Hogwarts and information on the Dark Lord. It reminded me a lot of WWII movies, and also the book, 1984. Especially that giant poster of Fudge. Having reread all the books, and now seen the film, we've started forming theories on the importance of the archway, the continued existance of Kreacher, and what is up with Snape that he feels he needs to serve in the Order as a penance for what he's done. (If you desire more info on any of those, just ask...)