If the rally-romping WRX is Subaru's wild child, the Forester is the nurturing big sister, always thinking of others and their well-being. Man, that's boring. And so is the Forester. While the redesigned model is clearly "better" than the old Forester in terms of performance and appointments, the former model's quirky, Subaru wagon vibe has been washed away, replaced by a generic crossover design. There's nothing bad to put your finger on, but not much of a pulse, either.i'm pretty sure they're referring to the new 2010 forester as the generic crossover design and my '08 model as having the "quirky wagon vibe". (for the record, i love the wally's styling, and think that the '10 models are pretty stunning.) oh, and out of curiousity, just checked kelley blue book - if i were to sell wally right now private party, i should be able to make about $3,000 more than we paid for him! (i'd probably have to get the non-functioning cd changer fixed, though.) the article made me laugh because i can see the validity in their point, but i'll take boring and lovingly reliable any day.
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
the boring list
haha! i was just reading a column on msn listing out the top ten "boring" (reliable rather than flashy) vehicles on the road. while i've expressed my deep-seated love for my forester, apparently it makes the list, with the following commentary:
family week
this is a good week for my family!
today (june 2) is my parents' 31st wedding anniversary, which is pretty fabulous. growing up, i always took for granted that my parents were together (yet loved getting to put their wedding ornament on the christmas tree every year), but as an adult i am thankful that i have parents who are still happily married and enjoy being together and planning a future together. happy anniversary, parents!
today also happens to be our housiversary - the 2nd anniversary of the day that scott and i closed on our house! while i went through a bout of buyer's remorse a few months after the purchase, two years in i'm heartily convinced that we have the perfect house in the best location for us. it has its quirks, takes work, and there are always projects on the horizon, but its ours and i like it.
coincidentally also this week last year (june 4), scott and i bought sir walden, affectionately known as wally - my highly anticipated and much beloved subaru forester. one year and 16,000 miles (yes, you read that right) later, it still makes me smile to walk down to my parking garage, click my unlock button from across the garage, and hear his perky "chirp chirp" in response. my mental image of wally includes big pink heart bubbles hovering over his roof.
today (june 2) is my parents' 31st wedding anniversary, which is pretty fabulous. growing up, i always took for granted that my parents were together (yet loved getting to put their wedding ornament on the christmas tree every year), but as an adult i am thankful that i have parents who are still happily married and enjoy being together and planning a future together. happy anniversary, parents!
today also happens to be our housiversary - the 2nd anniversary of the day that scott and i closed on our house! while i went through a bout of buyer's remorse a few months after the purchase, two years in i'm heartily convinced that we have the perfect house in the best location for us. it has its quirks, takes work, and there are always projects on the horizon, but its ours and i like it.
coincidentally also this week last year (june 4), scott and i bought sir walden, affectionately known as wally - my highly anticipated and much beloved subaru forester. one year and 16,000 miles (yes, you read that right) later, it still makes me smile to walk down to my parking garage, click my unlock button from across the garage, and hear his perky "chirp chirp" in response. my mental image of wally includes big pink heart bubbles hovering over his roof.
ode to walden and snow
wally definitely earned his keep in the last two days! with not having his snow tires on yet, there's no way scott would have been able to get around town in his truck - he said the interstate wasn't really plowed yet when he went up to a meeting in lowry around 10:30am. honestly, if we didn't have wally, neither of us probably would have made it off of our street - we live on a tiny side street that will never be plowed, and the intersection with the secondary street we live off of just gets so snow and ice packed, erma wouldn't have been able to make it out. this morning, scott left at the same time as me with the intention that if he got stuck, we would try to rig up a tow so that wally would help haul truck out of the ice. he managed to get through on his own, but still - it's nice to now that we have an option like that. (although it might be a more solid option if, you know, we actually had a hitch on the back of wally.)
we measured the snow on the driveway at about 5pm last night, and there was actually 1/2" less than there had been that morning despite the fact that it had been snowing all day. i think the snow yesterday was a lot heavier and wetter than the snow from wednesday, so it sort of compacted what was underneath - i noticed, too, that along the back wall, the drifts had fallen about 2" by yesterday night from where they were in the morning. so i'll estimate that we got maybe 17" of snow all told, which really only equals about 1-2" of rain! isn't that crazy? it kind of makes sense, though - i had wondered how colorado has so many drought/water issues when we get such ridiculous amounts of snow in the mountains every year, but the 300+" of snow the mountains get equals probably 20-30" of rain - most likely closer to 20" since so much of it is the dry powder. granted, that is over the entire high country, which is pretty big - colorado has the most land over 10,000 feet in the u.s. i checked aspen, steamboat, and telluride's annual snowfalls, and they're all over 300" of snow, and the three towns are very spread out. hmm, although this other site says like 136" of snow annually for aspen, which is pretty different ... either way, a ridiculous amount of snow doesn't necessarily mean a ridiculous amount of precipitation.
we measured the snow on the driveway at about 5pm last night, and there was actually 1/2" less than there had been that morning despite the fact that it had been snowing all day. i think the snow yesterday was a lot heavier and wetter than the snow from wednesday, so it sort of compacted what was underneath - i noticed, too, that along the back wall, the drifts had fallen about 2" by yesterday night from where they were in the morning. so i'll estimate that we got maybe 17" of snow all told, which really only equals about 1-2" of rain! isn't that crazy? it kind of makes sense, though - i had wondered how colorado has so many drought/water issues when we get such ridiculous amounts of snow in the mountains every year, but the 300+" of snow the mountains get equals probably 20-30" of rain - most likely closer to 20" since so much of it is the dry powder. granted, that is over the entire high country, which is pretty big - colorado has the most land over 10,000 feet in the u.s. i checked aspen, steamboat, and telluride's annual snowfalls, and they're all over 300" of snow, and the three towns are very spread out. hmm, although this other site says like 136" of snow annually for aspen, which is pretty different ... either way, a ridiculous amount of snow doesn't necessarily mean a ridiculous amount of precipitation.
sold!
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labels:
car
erma is sold! i honestly had no idea she would go that fast, wow. craigslist is awesome! i felt a little bad because a guy ended up calling me right at 5, was at our house at 5:45, and we had agreed to sell him the car by 6:10 while the nice guy that called this afternoon was still on his way over, but there's nothing we could have done about it. i had even called the first guy on my way home to let him know there was another person coming to take a look, but he just wasn't here and the other guy was. that's craigslist for you. in the end i had to let scott make the decision, because i just felt way too emotionally invested in it - i'm afraid of hurting people's feelings, whereas his attitude is more "this person is here, has cash, and wants the car - let's just do it".
the person who bought erma took her for $700, which is obviously not much, but still more than we thought we might get. scott asked if i was going to take him out to a nice dinner, but no - i'm going to deposit it first thing in the morning and get it transferred back into savings, to help replenish the account since we sort of borrowed from our emergency fund to buy wally. (sorry, dave ramsey.)
the person who bought erma took her for $700, which is obviously not much, but still more than we thought we might get. scott asked if i was going to take him out to a nice dinner, but no - i'm going to deposit it first thing in the morning and get it transferred back into savings, to help replenish the account since we sort of borrowed from our emergency fund to buy wally. (sorry, dave ramsey.)
for sale
aha! i found the camera - in wally's back seat, where scott had stashed it for the road trip. that makes sense. i think i'll be able to get the bathroom finished up tonight, and if so, i'll take pictures and get them posted. i'm debating putting a clear coat of varnish over the white paint to seal it up, since i felt like my fingernails were nicking the finish already when i was putting new knobs on last night - in which case, it'd probably be tomorrow night that i get the bathroom reassembled and cleaned.
i finally got erma posted on craigslist - we're asking $950 obo, which is a bummer because bluebook would have been about $2500 if it weren't for the engine knock. i think we're willing to go down to about $600 (shhh, don't tell), below which we'd just donate her and take the tax deduction. hmm, i just missed a call and the person didn't leave a voicemail (i hate that - i'm not going to call you back unless you leave me a message so i know who you are and that you meant to call me!), but i googled the phone number and it turns out it was from "crazy tommy's" salvage shop. curious!
oh, and in case you're wondering if i still like the forester now that i have it - yes! dave ramsey says not to get "car fever" when looking at newer cars because you'll be happy with your car for the things it lets you do, the time you get to spend with your family, etc, not because it's the fancy car of your dreams. not going to lie, though, the forester is so the car of my dreams, and i love it. every evening when i walk down to my parking garage, i see it sitting there and just smile.
ooh, in the time i've been writing this, i've gotten two more calls - one guy totally tried to hardball me over the phone, which i didn't appreciate (lots of "hmmmmmm, wellllllllll ..." - grr), and then hung up on me when i wasn't playing along, but the other one was really nice and offered $700 if his mechanic uncle approves of it. we shall see!
i finally got erma posted on craigslist - we're asking $950 obo, which is a bummer because bluebook would have been about $2500 if it weren't for the engine knock. i think we're willing to go down to about $600 (shhh, don't tell), below which we'd just donate her and take the tax deduction. hmm, i just missed a call and the person didn't leave a voicemail (i hate that - i'm not going to call you back unless you leave me a message so i know who you are and that you meant to call me!), but i googled the phone number and it turns out it was from "crazy tommy's" salvage shop. curious!
oh, and in case you're wondering if i still like the forester now that i have it - yes! dave ramsey says not to get "car fever" when looking at newer cars because you'll be happy with your car for the things it lets you do, the time you get to spend with your family, etc, not because it's the fancy car of your dreams. not going to lie, though, the forester is so the car of my dreams, and i love it. every evening when i walk down to my parking garage, i see it sitting there and just smile.
ooh, in the time i've been writing this, i've gotten two more calls - one guy totally tried to hardball me over the phone, which i didn't appreciate (lots of "hmmmmmm, wellllllllll ..." - grr), and then hung up on me when i wasn't playing along, but the other one was really nice and offered $700 if his mechanic uncle approves of it. we shall see!
putting off cleaning
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labels:
car,
date night,
house,
landscaping
walden it is! in thinking of names for the forester, i had been circling around trying to find something naturey, or foresty ... i was trying to think of famous forests and thought of the schwarzenwald (black forest) in germany, but felt it too multisyllabic, thought of the word wald (pronounced "vald" auf deutsch) which means "forest" but it was too foreign, thought of thoreau and walden pond in passing through the walt whitman thing, but nothing was sticking. then my dad (i assume the steve is you, dad? i don't think i know any other steves who would read my blog and comment) left the comment: "For a name, how about Walden? Brings to mind Thoreau, Walden Pond, and quiet contemplation. A forest can also be quiet and contemplative. Hmm, isn't "wald" the German word for forest?" yes! perfect! thank you for bringing it all together for me. so, walden it is, wally for short.
other highlights of the weekend ... on friday night we watched "fireproof"! it was actually really good - it certainly had a fair amount of cheesiness, but i thought the story it told made up for that. if nothing else, it did a great job portraying real marriage and how necessary faith is for true reconciliation and growth. scott liked it too, and afterward thanked me for making him watch it. (we watched "the wrestler" a few weeks ago, which i just found very depressing and lacking hope, so scott told me i could pick whatever movie i liked next time around - i said "fireproof", and scott groaned.) i can't guarantee you'll like "fireproof", but if nothing else, i think it gives a good perspective and food for thought. (christianity today has a good review of it here.)
yesterday was some errands in the morning, followed by a lot of yardwork - doing little bits and pieces at a time, it's easy to forget in the meantime quite how much work there is to do ... but there's a lot. especially since i think we'll just have to pull out all of the river rock in the front, pull up the 40 year old weedbarrier, get the area cleaned out, and just start over. we're still debating mulch vs. washing out and reusing the existing rock. i like the look of mulch, but we already have the rock, and if you use wood mulch, you have to remulch every year, which gets pricey. we'll see. i decided yesterday that while the landscape designer gave us a 5-year plan, it'll probably be more like a 10 year plan. also, i decided that we can never move since we will have things here exactly as we like them ... and i'm never doing this much work on a house again. if we have more than 2 kids, they'll just have to share rooms. sorry, future children.
last night, we headed up to boulder to meet scott's good college friend loren and his wife jess for dinner and hanging out. they're full time missionaries with campus crusade in central asia, in ft. collins for the summer to help with some training; it was really fun getting to catch up with them and hear all about life and ministry over there. then this morning was the ground breaking for our church's new building, so the service beforehand was a lot of vision for the church and new people at mission hills sharing what god's been doing in their lives. it was really neat, and very encouraging. we stuck around for the lunch/hang out time after the ground breaking, which ended up being really fun - a lot of our friends were out of town or just left early, so we ended up getting to catch up with several couples that we know but don't see often. it was a good time!
i really need to go work on getting the house cleaned up a little bit ... scott's dad's flying in thursday night for them to start their roadtrip out to omaha (for the college world series) on friday, and i don't think he'd appreciate the current mildewy state of our bathtub. also, our entryway somehow invariably becomes a magnet for stuff, so we probably have 10 pair of shoes scattered around there, plus a few bags, some books, paper towels, and tools from putting in our new wireless doorbell. yikes.
other highlights of the weekend ... on friday night we watched "fireproof"! it was actually really good - it certainly had a fair amount of cheesiness, but i thought the story it told made up for that. if nothing else, it did a great job portraying real marriage and how necessary faith is for true reconciliation and growth. scott liked it too, and afterward thanked me for making him watch it. (we watched "the wrestler" a few weeks ago, which i just found very depressing and lacking hope, so scott told me i could pick whatever movie i liked next time around - i said "fireproof", and scott groaned.) i can't guarantee you'll like "fireproof", but if nothing else, i think it gives a good perspective and food for thought. (christianity today has a good review of it here.)
yesterday was some errands in the morning, followed by a lot of yardwork - doing little bits and pieces at a time, it's easy to forget in the meantime quite how much work there is to do ... but there's a lot. especially since i think we'll just have to pull out all of the river rock in the front, pull up the 40 year old weedbarrier, get the area cleaned out, and just start over. we're still debating mulch vs. washing out and reusing the existing rock. i like the look of mulch, but we already have the rock, and if you use wood mulch, you have to remulch every year, which gets pricey. we'll see. i decided yesterday that while the landscape designer gave us a 5-year plan, it'll probably be more like a 10 year plan. also, i decided that we can never move since we will have things here exactly as we like them ... and i'm never doing this much work on a house again. if we have more than 2 kids, they'll just have to share rooms. sorry, future children.
last night, we headed up to boulder to meet scott's good college friend loren and his wife jess for dinner and hanging out. they're full time missionaries with campus crusade in central asia, in ft. collins for the summer to help with some training; it was really fun getting to catch up with them and hear all about life and ministry over there. then this morning was the ground breaking for our church's new building, so the service beforehand was a lot of vision for the church and new people at mission hills sharing what god's been doing in their lives. it was really neat, and very encouraging. we stuck around for the lunch/hang out time after the ground breaking, which ended up being really fun - a lot of our friends were out of town or just left early, so we ended up getting to catch up with several couples that we know but don't see often. it was a good time!
i really need to go work on getting the house cleaned up a little bit ... scott's dad's flying in thursday night for them to start their roadtrip out to omaha (for the college world series) on friday, and i don't think he'd appreciate the current mildewy state of our bathtub. also, our entryway somehow invariably becomes a magnet for stuff, so we probably have 10 pair of shoes scattered around there, plus a few bags, some books, paper towels, and tools from putting in our new wireless doorbell. yikes.
toodles, erma!
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car
i am now the proud owner of a 2008 white subaru forester! c. springs called yesterday around 1 to say that they were only able to get one forester at auction, and it was white, but despite the numerous calls they'd received about their foresters since dropping the price, i was first on the list and thus got first shot at the car if i wanted it. (so glad i called tuesday morning!) i got off of work early, we left the house just before 5, made it to the dealership around 6, took a quick test drive, spent literally 20 minutes signing paperwork, and were on our way back home by 7! it honestly felt mildly anticlimactic to be done so quickly after two weeks of "should we or shouldn't we" followed with "yes!" then "no ..." because cars would get sold or dealers wouldn't negotiate. 
(plus, white was nowhere near my top pick for a color, since i've driven white vehicles ever since i was 16 and was just so ready for a nice silver or gray or light blue - but hey, it's a forester. no complaints allowed.)
i love my car, though. it drives so smoothly, no hiccups or rattles, all of the windows work, and it accelerates really nicely. it has about 4500 miles left on the bumper to bumper warranty, so we're going to take it in this weekend and get it checked out to make sure everything looks good. and then i'm going to go to best buy and get an auxiliary cable so that i can listen to my ipod in the car - fancy!! oh, and they said that out of the 40 foresters that were at auction, this is the only one that sold under $14k, thus it's the only one they bought. it made us feel extra good about buying, though, knowing that we got the best deal possible. (they did keep the purchase price of $13,994.)
last night after we got home, i had the forester parked in the driveway and asked scott whether i should drive erma or the forester to work today. he gave me a *look* and said, "we just bought you a forester, why would you not drive it?" which is a solid point (and i did), but i feel like it's this cherished toy that i want to keep in the packaging for a few days and just look at and not mess up just yet.
incidentally, i also need to find a name for the forester. i had been toying with the name whit or whitaker (forester = forest whitaker = whitaker = whit), but whenever i think of the name "whit", i think of walt whitman, and when i think of walt whitman, i think of crazy stories about his homosexual exploits. so i'm not so sure about that one. we'll see what i come up with.
(plus, white was nowhere near my top pick for a color, since i've driven white vehicles ever since i was 16 and was just so ready for a nice silver or gray or light blue - but hey, it's a forester. no complaints allowed.)i love my car, though. it drives so smoothly, no hiccups or rattles, all of the windows work, and it accelerates really nicely. it has about 4500 miles left on the bumper to bumper warranty, so we're going to take it in this weekend and get it checked out to make sure everything looks good. and then i'm going to go to best buy and get an auxiliary cable so that i can listen to my ipod in the car - fancy!! oh, and they said that out of the 40 foresters that were at auction, this is the only one that sold under $14k, thus it's the only one they bought. it made us feel extra good about buying, though, knowing that we got the best deal possible. (they did keep the purchase price of $13,994.)
last night after we got home, i had the forester parked in the driveway and asked scott whether i should drive erma or the forester to work today. he gave me a *look* and said, "we just bought you a forester, why would you not drive it?" which is a solid point (and i did), but i feel like it's this cherished toy that i want to keep in the packaging for a few days and just look at and not mess up just yet.
incidentally, i also need to find a name for the forester. i had been toying with the name whit or whitaker (forester = forest whitaker = whitaker = whit), but whenever i think of the name "whit", i think of walt whitman, and when i think of walt whitman, i think of crazy stories about his homosexual exploits. so i'm not so sure about that one. we'll see what i come up with.
good night and good luck
all things considered, this has been a good evening! (and by all things considered, i mean, it's been a good evening despite the fact that i didn't get to go buy a car.) the c. springs dealer called me again as i was leaving work to ask what color of forester i'd like so that they can keep their eyes open at the auction tomorrow - isn't that the nicest thing ever?? even though we haven't purchased with them yet, they have provided such great customer service. i always laugh when i see the goony complimentary letters that people write to small companies that get posted on the company website, but 8 hours into my contact with this dealer, i would totally write one of those letters. (for the record, i told them i'm fine with pretty much any color except for the bright blue as long as the price is the same as the car i was looking at earlier today - they said they'd be priced the same. apparently they had their two foresters listed at $14,500 last week, they weren't selling, but then they dropped the price to $13,994 and they've had a ton of interest! i love subaru's olivey green, or their lighter "newport" blue color, but i'm also happy with silver or dark gray.)
we ended up doing a workout tonight, which was very needed, and felt great! i had sort of finished my workout but scott was still swimming, so i did 10 minutes on the bike and watched some of "i'm a celebrity, get me out of here!" - and it was AWFUL. truly. everyone on the show was just so stinkin prideful and full of themselves. i literally heard the phrases, "don't you know who i AM?" and, "i'm too famous for this!" come out of several peoples' mouths. blaah. i planned to make a margherita pizza when we got home, but i only had half of a roma tomato, so i made a veggie pizza instead - it was amazing! jiffy pizza crust (made with a little extra water), salt, pepper, garlic powder, italian seasoning, olive oil, spinach, tomato, yellow squash, onion, mozzarella, and parmesan, and it was by far one of the best pizzas i've ever made! oh, i guess i did toss a little pre-browned hamburger i had in the fridge on there as well. anyway, i highly recommend it.
we ended up doing a workout tonight, which was very needed, and felt great! i had sort of finished my workout but scott was still swimming, so i did 10 minutes on the bike and watched some of "i'm a celebrity, get me out of here!" - and it was AWFUL. truly. everyone on the show was just so stinkin prideful and full of themselves. i literally heard the phrases, "don't you know who i AM?" and, "i'm too famous for this!" come out of several peoples' mouths. blaah. i planned to make a margherita pizza when we got home, but i only had half of a roma tomato, so i made a veggie pizza instead - it was amazing! jiffy pizza crust (made with a little extra water), salt, pepper, garlic powder, italian seasoning, olive oil, spinach, tomato, yellow squash, onion, mozzarella, and parmesan, and it was by far one of the best pizzas i've ever made! oh, i guess i did toss a little pre-browned hamburger i had in the fridge on there as well. anyway, i highly recommend it.
or not.
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car
ahem. so the salesman just called me back again and said that they just sold the forester, but there are 40 more at auction this week, so they'll have more in stock by the end of the week and will have them online by friday. i hope they keep the prices as low. so now the plan is that we'll take a look online friday night and hopefully be able to go buy one saturday. my goodness.
c. springs it is!
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labels:
car
well, it seems to be working out quite well that the broker in littleton was closed last night - scott called today, and they were completely uninterested in any negotiations. like, they seemed offended that we had even given them a lower offer. (and i'm sure if that had happened in person, i would have been tempted to just say, "oh, okay," and pay asking price.) when i called the c. springs place this morning, they said there was a pending sale on the gray forester, but they'd know by noon today if it was going to go through or not ... the guy called me back just before 12 and said it had fallen through (one of the other salesman's mom was thinking of buying, but didn't want to part with her sports car just yet)! so we're leaving work a little bit early tonight to get down there, give it a test drive, and hopefully buy it! the salesman i spoke with did say that there's no negotiation - but since this is hands down the best price in a hundred-mile radius, i'm a-ok with that.
why you shouldn't close early
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labels:
car
i left work a few minutes early today so that scott and i could make it to the car place by their closing time at 6pm - i got to scott's office at 5:44, we discussed negotiation strategy for a minute, and were over at the auto broker's office (which is maybe 1/2 a mile from scott's office) by 5:47pm ... and they were closed. the sign in the window was still on, but the doors were locked, and the lights were all off. which was frustrating, since i was ready to just buy a new car already. (we even walked around the building and waited a few minutes in case someone was in the back.)
however, in talking about it further, i think it may not be all bad. today, i had found three '08 foresters with comparable mileage for $13,9xx down in colorado springs (vs $14,9xx in littleton). two of those cheaper foresters are bright blue (think electrocuted smurf - no, seriously), which i'm not open to buying, but one was dark grey. so scott suggested that we confirm the grey is still available, then call littleton and tell them we'd like to buy from them, but unless they match the price, we'll just go get the same product $1000 cheaper in the springs. as scott pointed out, it's worth three hours of our time for roundtrip travel and $50 of gas to go save $1000. and either way, we're going to make an appointment to guarantee that someone will be there. so, that's the plan for tomorrow!
however, in talking about it further, i think it may not be all bad. today, i had found three '08 foresters with comparable mileage for $13,9xx down in colorado springs (vs $14,9xx in littleton). two of those cheaper foresters are bright blue (think electrocuted smurf - no, seriously), which i'm not open to buying, but one was dark grey. so scott suggested that we confirm the grey is still available, then call littleton and tell them we'd like to buy from them, but unless they match the price, we'll just go get the same product $1000 cheaper in the springs. as scott pointed out, it's worth three hours of our time for roundtrip travel and $50 of gas to go save $1000. and either way, we're going to make an appointment to guarantee that someone will be there. so, that's the plan for tomorrow!
weekend report.
we had such a fun weekend! saturday, we met up with friends to go biking in frisco and had a fabulous time! we met at a set of parking lots next to the interstate to carpool up, and ended up hanging out there a while so that we could do things like change a bike tube, get gear loaded up, etc. we finally got to frisco in time for lunch (scott and i were in his 4-cylinder, rear-wheel drive truck with four of the bikes while the other two couples were in a 6-cylinder toyota highlander - on the steep inclines going up i-70, with the pedal to the metal, we were going maybe 60mph ... i think they beat us there by 5 minutes, with both of us leaving at the exact same time), had lunch in a park, then hit the bike trail that started right at the park.
we decided to go uphill from frisco to breckinridge, figuring we would go up as far as we could, then turn around and coast back down, which i think was a good plan. we got caught in a hail-storm midway through the ride, which was surprisingly painful! kinley had gotten her little helmet chinstrap stuck on the strap holding her into maura's bike carrier and was freaking out, so we all stopped while they got her untangled. they were in the midst of deciding to turn back when it started to rain, but the rest of us wanted to keep going for a bit, so we headed off and it immediately started to hail. thankfully there was a school building maybe a mile up the trail, so we made it there just in time for the hail to stop, but waited out the rain under shelter of the school. all told, we made it to probably 4 miles from breck, and my legs literally felt like they were dying and i was seriously contemplating camping out and making them get the car to pick me up - the stretch from the school to our stopping point looked flat to the eye, but obviously was just enough up-hill that it was hard on my poor unathletic thighs. anyway, everyone took pity on me and we turned around, and the ride back was fabulous - enough decline that it was mostly easy (i walked my bike up the few steep inclines), with a few really fun fast, steep declines.
after we met up post-ride, we got coffee at a local shop on main street, then found a free disc golf course! we had 5 frisbees for 6 people, so we alternated taking kinley duty so that everyone could play. none of us were good (i was particularly bad - i think my average was 9 throws per hold, and the par was 3-4), but we had a lot of fun. and the view was amazing! the back of the course butted up to lake dillon and there were peeks at of snowcapped mountains everywhere. then it started raining again, so we had an early dinner and went home. my knees were aching by the time we got home (from the biking, i assume), and i was definitely ready for an early bedtime, but it was a super fun day.
last night we had carlos and tatiana (our class's missionary couple from costa rica) over for dinner with some other friends, and had a great time! we knew them a little bit from talking the last time they were in town two years ago, and a little bit of contact since then, but we hadn't really spent any time with them. it was fun hearing all about costa rica and their ministry stuff, and just hanging out with them - they're probably in their early 30s and just very fun and energetic. we played the game 25 words or less after dinner - they were skeptical since obviously their native language is spanish. they're both very fluent in english, though, so they figured they'd give it a whirl; we did guys v. girls, and while the girls of course won, carlos totally carried the guys' team! they invited us to come down to costa rica either on vacation or to bring a missions trip, and it was super tempting - definitely something to think about.
and the obligatory car mention: we took a look online yesterday to see what the prices are on other car models we'd been considering (impreza, legacy, prius, camry, matrix, cr-v ... i think that's all), and it ended up that the cheapest models in the same model year/mileage range were all about the same price as the forester! so, we decided to go ahead with the forester. i'm excited! we'd been planning on going tonight to buy the car we test drove, but the transfer from savings to checking i made on saturday hasn't gone through yet. we're debating going tonight to get the negotiation process started (but since the cash isn't in place yet, i'm not sure how much we can do) vs waiting until tomorrow so we can do it all at once, but obviously risking someone else buying the car we want in the meantime. oh, and with erma, i think we're going to take her in to a mechanic maybe next weekend to get an objective opinion, then try to sell her on craigslist with the obvious disclaimers, and probably end up donating her if that doesn't work. i added 3 qts of oil yesterday (might should have done that earlier ... whoops - she's been burning through oil like nobody's business for the past year or so) yesterday, and she did sound happier at highway speeds on my morning commute today, which made me mildly optimistic.
we decided to go uphill from frisco to breckinridge, figuring we would go up as far as we could, then turn around and coast back down, which i think was a good plan. we got caught in a hail-storm midway through the ride, which was surprisingly painful! kinley had gotten her little helmet chinstrap stuck on the strap holding her into maura's bike carrier and was freaking out, so we all stopped while they got her untangled. they were in the midst of deciding to turn back when it started to rain, but the rest of us wanted to keep going for a bit, so we headed off and it immediately started to hail. thankfully there was a school building maybe a mile up the trail, so we made it there just in time for the hail to stop, but waited out the rain under shelter of the school. all told, we made it to probably 4 miles from breck, and my legs literally felt like they were dying and i was seriously contemplating camping out and making them get the car to pick me up - the stretch from the school to our stopping point looked flat to the eye, but obviously was just enough up-hill that it was hard on my poor unathletic thighs. anyway, everyone took pity on me and we turned around, and the ride back was fabulous - enough decline that it was mostly easy (i walked my bike up the few steep inclines), with a few really fun fast, steep declines.
after we met up post-ride, we got coffee at a local shop on main street, then found a free disc golf course! we had 5 frisbees for 6 people, so we alternated taking kinley duty so that everyone could play. none of us were good (i was particularly bad - i think my average was 9 throws per hold, and the par was 3-4), but we had a lot of fun. and the view was amazing! the back of the course butted up to lake dillon and there were peeks at of snowcapped mountains everywhere. then it started raining again, so we had an early dinner and went home. my knees were aching by the time we got home (from the biking, i assume), and i was definitely ready for an early bedtime, but it was a super fun day.
last night we had carlos and tatiana (our class's missionary couple from costa rica) over for dinner with some other friends, and had a great time! we knew them a little bit from talking the last time they were in town two years ago, and a little bit of contact since then, but we hadn't really spent any time with them. it was fun hearing all about costa rica and their ministry stuff, and just hanging out with them - they're probably in their early 30s and just very fun and energetic. we played the game 25 words or less after dinner - they were skeptical since obviously their native language is spanish. they're both very fluent in english, though, so they figured they'd give it a whirl; we did guys v. girls, and while the girls of course won, carlos totally carried the guys' team! they invited us to come down to costa rica either on vacation or to bring a missions trip, and it was super tempting - definitely something to think about.
and the obligatory car mention: we took a look online yesterday to see what the prices are on other car models we'd been considering (impreza, legacy, prius, camry, matrix, cr-v ... i think that's all), and it ended up that the cheapest models in the same model year/mileage range were all about the same price as the forester! so, we decided to go ahead with the forester. i'm excited! we'd been planning on going tonight to buy the car we test drove, but the transfer from savings to checking i made on saturday hasn't gone through yet. we're debating going tonight to get the negotiation process started (but since the cash isn't in place yet, i'm not sure how much we can do) vs waiting until tomorrow so we can do it all at once, but obviously risking someone else buying the car we want in the meantime. oh, and with erma, i think we're going to take her in to a mechanic maybe next weekend to get an objective opinion, then try to sell her on craigslist with the obvious disclaimers, and probably end up donating her if that doesn't work. i added 3 qts of oil yesterday (might should have done that earlier ... whoops - she's been burning through oil like nobody's business for the past year or so) yesterday, and she did sound happier at highway speeds on my morning commute today, which made me mildly optimistic.
death rattle
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labels:
car
we loved the forester! it rides smoothly, has good acceleration, is comfortable, spacious, etc. literally everything i hoped it would be. all of the windows and speakers even work!
unfortunately, when we got back from our test drive, a manager was there to look at erma and give us his trade-in estimate: $100. maybe $200, depending. just from walking around her, he thought $1000, but then he turned erma on and pressed the gas while in park and heard what he termed a "death rattle." he said that rattle i've been hearing is a deep engine knock that's indicative of piston problems. super. oh, and that there's no way to effectively and inexpensively fix it - you either have to rebuild the engine, or drop in a new one. hoorah. we could maybe get a little bit more by selling it on our own, according to him, but probably not over $1000 max. but, he also said that while she could last another year or two and be fine, she could also seize up at any time and just die ... or shoot a piston through the engine, if i hit things just right. which, considering that i have an hour and a half of commute time each day, half of which is on the interstate, puts an extra feeling of emphasis on finding a replacement. obviously we'll take erma in to an objective mechanic to get an outside opinion before we decide what to do, but this still changes things as we were hoping to get closer to $1500 on a trade in. so now scott's suggesting that we get something smaller like a camry or prius now, and then in a few years we could get a forester and he would take the smaller car. bah! i'm pouty because i want a forester, and because i don't want to die mid-commute, and because i'm finding it hard to be objective in looking at other cars online.
unfortunately, when we got back from our test drive, a manager was there to look at erma and give us his trade-in estimate: $100. maybe $200, depending. just from walking around her, he thought $1000, but then he turned erma on and pressed the gas while in park and heard what he termed a "death rattle." he said that rattle i've been hearing is a deep engine knock that's indicative of piston problems. super. oh, and that there's no way to effectively and inexpensively fix it - you either have to rebuild the engine, or drop in a new one. hoorah. we could maybe get a little bit more by selling it on our own, according to him, but probably not over $1000 max. but, he also said that while she could last another year or two and be fine, she could also seize up at any time and just die ... or shoot a piston through the engine, if i hit things just right. which, considering that i have an hour and a half of commute time each day, half of which is on the interstate, puts an extra feeling of emphasis on finding a replacement. obviously we'll take erma in to an objective mechanic to get an outside opinion before we decide what to do, but this still changes things as we were hoping to get closer to $1500 on a trade in. so now scott's suggesting that we get something smaller like a camry or prius now, and then in a few years we could get a forester and he would take the smaller car. bah! i'm pouty because i want a forester, and because i don't want to die mid-commute, and because i'm finding it hard to be objective in looking at other cars online.
tgif
yay!!! after all of that talk about waiting a few months to buy a car, we're going to go test drive one tonight! scott's dropping dinner at our friends' at 5 while i head straight to office to meet him - a dealer that has a few well-priced foresters happens to be maybe two hundred yards down the street from his office building. (i just checked their website - they apparently have 36 total cars, 6 of which are '08 foresters ... we think that'll give us a little edge in talking them down more.) i'm super excited. not only have i loved the forester from afar for four years, i've never gotten to be a part of choosing my own car. that's completely fine, of course, because my parents have always lovingly provided a car for me, and chosen good (usually) reliable cars that i've enjoyed ... but there's just something about getting to choose your own car and having almost 100% control over the decision and knowing that this is absolutely what you want that i am excited about. (plus i'm looking forward to hopefully not driving erma that much longer - she's developed a full fledged rattle above 30mph.)
all that to say, i've realized that i get emotionally attached to the oddest things. a few years ago, the summer before my wedding, i found myself really grieving i-55 - it had been a mainstay of my life over the past several years, being the main route between my parents' home and my life at college. and then last year when my work upgraded me to an iphone on the company plan, i was genuinely sad that i wouldn't be able to use my cute pink razr phone anymore. two weeks ago, when we first began the discussion about replacing erma - the car that i've had a mild contempt for since my parents bought her for me back in college, whose back window rolls down but not up, who bucks on the interstate and requires three and a half lanes to make a u-turn - i was surprised to find myself getting mopey and nostalgic at the prospect of not driving her anymore. for all the grief erma's caused me, she still gets 30mpg, has been reasonably reliable over the past few years, was free to me, and fits in the tiny parking spots in my garage at work ... even though she has her quirks, they're quirks that i know. (i think i'll get over it, though.)
oh, and in case you were wondering how that lemon pepper shrimp scampi with orzo recipe turned out last weekend: it was fabulous. tasty, healthy, and really quick to make. in fact, i'm pretty sure i picked it to make in the first place because it was in cooking light's 20-30 minute dinner section.
all that to say, i've realized that i get emotionally attached to the oddest things. a few years ago, the summer before my wedding, i found myself really grieving i-55 - it had been a mainstay of my life over the past several years, being the main route between my parents' home and my life at college. and then last year when my work upgraded me to an iphone on the company plan, i was genuinely sad that i wouldn't be able to use my cute pink razr phone anymore. two weeks ago, when we first began the discussion about replacing erma - the car that i've had a mild contempt for since my parents bought her for me back in college, whose back window rolls down but not up, who bucks on the interstate and requires three and a half lanes to make a u-turn - i was surprised to find myself getting mopey and nostalgic at the prospect of not driving her anymore. for all the grief erma's caused me, she still gets 30mpg, has been reasonably reliable over the past few years, was free to me, and fits in the tiny parking spots in my garage at work ... even though she has her quirks, they're quirks that i know. (i think i'll get over it, though.)
oh, and in case you were wondering how that lemon pepper shrimp scampi with orzo recipe turned out last weekend: it was fabulous. tasty, healthy, and really quick to make. in fact, i'm pretty sure i picked it to make in the first place because it was in cooking light's 20-30 minute dinner section.
relaxin all cool
well we didn't end up doing yard work - or really, much of anything. i had great intentions of getting our master bathroom painted, but it was gross and gray and cloudy and rainy all weekend, and chilling in bed reading was just so much more appealing. so i did! we actually started taping the bathroom at about 4pm on monday - but then goo came over at 4:45 to do laundry and have dinner, so we halted and hung out with her instead.
i got most of the priming done this week - just a few spots left to get primed and then the painting can begin. nice white ceiling, medium beigey-gray walls (the same color as the top of our dining room - i want to say it's behr's castle path - 730c-3, but since i just used behr's color swatches and had them color matched into kilz paint bases, i'm not positive), bright glossy white on the vanity and medicine cabinet and towel rack and shelves. scott was very skeptical about my choice of grey for the bathroom, and tried suggesting green (i've trained the boy well) or at least having an accent wall, but the bathroom is seriously tiny, and i think any actual colors on the walls would just be too much. and i don't want green paint reflecting back on me in the morning when i'm trying to put on makeup - yikes. plus, there are plenty of fun colorful ways to accessorize bathrooms. so that's a side project for the next few weeks! scott's going with his dad to the college world series in omaha june 12-14, so i think i'll try to plan things so that i'm able to do most of the painting that weekend and get it done before he gets back. i'm so looking forward to having a nice clean put-together bathroom to use when we have company.
last night after work i got together with the girls from our small group for dinner, and since scott's last ultimate game was cancelled due to half of his team dropping off, he and the guys got together to watch the nuggets game. it was fun, even if my inner introvert reared its head and near the end and made me very excited to go home and be alone. tonight is small group, tomorrow night is date night (plus taking dinner to friends who just had a miscarriage and are getting a d&c tomorrow - yikes), and saturday we're going biking up near breck/frisco with small group friends! (we like our small group.) and then sunday the missionary couple that our sunday school class supports are going to be in town, so we're having them over for dinner with our small group that night. hmm. i think after sunday we won't see our small group people for a whole week, which may be well needed at that point.
we're still debating the car thing - scott made the point the other night that with all of the driving we're doing this summer, this might be the time to trade erma in (i tallied it up, and we're looking at at least 2000 miles in state this summer). but i think we're sort of waiting on scott's yearly bonus to come in (it's usually late june/early july) so that we can pay cash. so we'll see!
i got most of the priming done this week - just a few spots left to get primed and then the painting can begin. nice white ceiling, medium beigey-gray walls (the same color as the top of our dining room - i want to say it's behr's castle path - 730c-3, but since i just used behr's color swatches and had them color matched into kilz paint bases, i'm not positive), bright glossy white on the vanity and medicine cabinet and towel rack and shelves. scott was very skeptical about my choice of grey for the bathroom, and tried suggesting green (i've trained the boy well) or at least having an accent wall, but the bathroom is seriously tiny, and i think any actual colors on the walls would just be too much. and i don't want green paint reflecting back on me in the morning when i'm trying to put on makeup - yikes. plus, there are plenty of fun colorful ways to accessorize bathrooms. so that's a side project for the next few weeks! scott's going with his dad to the college world series in omaha june 12-14, so i think i'll try to plan things so that i'm able to do most of the painting that weekend and get it done before he gets back. i'm so looking forward to having a nice clean put-together bathroom to use when we have company.
last night after work i got together with the girls from our small group for dinner, and since scott's last ultimate game was cancelled due to half of his team dropping off, he and the guys got together to watch the nuggets game. it was fun, even if my inner introvert reared its head and near the end and made me very excited to go home and be alone. tonight is small group, tomorrow night is date night (plus taking dinner to friends who just had a miscarriage and are getting a d&c tomorrow - yikes), and saturday we're going biking up near breck/frisco with small group friends! (we like our small group.) and then sunday the missionary couple that our sunday school class supports are going to be in town, so we're having them over for dinner with our small group that night. hmm. i think after sunday we won't see our small group people for a whole week, which may be well needed at that point.
we're still debating the car thing - scott made the point the other night that with all of the driving we're doing this summer, this might be the time to trade erma in (i tallied it up, and we're looking at at least 2000 miles in state this summer). but i think we're sort of waiting on scott's yearly bonus to come in (it's usually late june/early july) so that we can pay cash. so we'll see!
to boldly go
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labels:
car,
date night
just one more teensy car comment, then i promise i'll move on. i was looking up specs on my current car ('99 saturn sl2 that goes by the name of erma), and found a roadtest review on consumer reports. technically, it's for the '00 model, but it's totally spot on:
The Saturn provides the worst driving experience of the group. Its ride feels unsettled, with sharp bumps sending harsh vibrations through the car's body. A full load only makes the ride less settled. The car is also noisy. The engine growls when accelerating, pronounced wind noise intrudes at speed, and gear whine adds an air of crudeness.
Although it's the sporty version of the S-Series sedans, the SL2 lacks the handling agility of many other small cars. It corners with fairly pronounced body roll, and the tires squeal prematurely. The steering isn't very responsive, with ordinary turns requiring more steering-wheel input than in other cars. Plus, a wide 40-foot turning circle makes parking clumsy.
we especially laughed at the knock on the turning radius - it's so true. scott usually equates erma to rosie o'donnell when he's trying to pull a u-turn.
anyway, we decided to do our date night on thursday night rather than friday this week, because we are getting old. literally, scott suggested going out on thursday, i said, "or we could just do friday like normal," and he said it might be better to do thursday so we don't have to deal with all of the teenagers at the movies on friday night - and i quickly agreed. plus we based our going out on what coupons we had available. for dinner, we used our 50% off coupon at this colorado chain called c.b. & potts, which was surprisingly good. we figured it'd be sort of like another applebee's (which isn't bad - we like applebee's), but while they had a good burger selection, they also had really tasty "real" entrees. (and the feel of the place was a little bit nicer, but still casual.) i had chicken tenderloins in a porter/mushroom sauce with mashed potatoes and green beans. then, we used our movie theater coupon ($6.50/ea rather than $10/ea) and went to see star trek which was AWESOME! i totally grew up watching star trek: the next generation (and even a little bit of deep space 9 and voyager), but other than the movies, didn't have a whole lot of exposure to the original star trek. they did a great job of making it accessible to non-trekkies, but i think still keeping the feel of the original ... plus they had some amazing action scenes. i had wanted to see it from the first preview we saw, while scott was very skeptical - he changed his tune quickly once it got 95% good reviews on rottentomatoes. seriously, it was fabulous, and you should definitely go see it.
The Saturn provides the worst driving experience of the group. Its ride feels unsettled, with sharp bumps sending harsh vibrations through the car's body. A full load only makes the ride less settled. The car is also noisy. The engine growls when accelerating, pronounced wind noise intrudes at speed, and gear whine adds an air of crudeness.
Although it's the sporty version of the S-Series sedans, the SL2 lacks the handling agility of many other small cars. It corners with fairly pronounced body roll, and the tires squeal prematurely. The steering isn't very responsive, with ordinary turns requiring more steering-wheel input than in other cars. Plus, a wide 40-foot turning circle makes parking clumsy.
we especially laughed at the knock on the turning radius - it's so true. scott usually equates erma to rosie o'donnell when he's trying to pull a u-turn.
anyway, we decided to do our date night on thursday night rather than friday this week, because we are getting old. literally, scott suggested going out on thursday, i said, "or we could just do friday like normal," and he said it might be better to do thursday so we don't have to deal with all of the teenagers at the movies on friday night - and i quickly agreed. plus we based our going out on what coupons we had available. for dinner, we used our 50% off coupon at this colorado chain called c.b. & potts, which was surprisingly good. we figured it'd be sort of like another applebee's (which isn't bad - we like applebee's), but while they had a good burger selection, they also had really tasty "real" entrees. (and the feel of the place was a little bit nicer, but still casual.) i had chicken tenderloins in a porter/mushroom sauce with mashed potatoes and green beans. then, we used our movie theater coupon ($6.50/ea rather than $10/ea) and went to see star trek which was AWESOME! i totally grew up watching star trek: the next generation (and even a little bit of deep space 9 and voyager), but other than the movies, didn't have a whole lot of exposure to the original star trek. they did a great job of making it accessible to non-trekkies, but i think still keeping the feel of the original ... plus they had some amazing action scenes. i had wanted to see it from the first preview we saw, while scott was very skeptical - he changed his tune quickly once it got 95% good reviews on rottentomatoes. seriously, it was fabulous, and you should definitely go see it.
my spreadsheet
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labels:
car
it's been a quiet week at the office, so yesterday, i decided to throw myself headlong into the car researching. i found a website that walks you through all of your desires, expectations, and needs in a car, and then gives you twenty matches to look into - it's pretty neat! so i took the quiz, then eliminated a few models based purely on size (i said i wanted good fuel economy, so it recommended the toyota yaris, which is miniscule - yikes!). it was helpful, though, in showing me options that i either hadn't thought would fit my desires, or that i just hadn't thought of period.
anyway, once i had my matches, i went over to consumer reports to get more info - things like overall rating, road test results, overall gas mileage, cargo and passenger space. then i went to cars.com and looked up each model, and found the lowest priced car that met my requirements (under 35,000 miles, under $17k, and a color that i wouldn't hate driving for the next 10 years - ie, no purple or bright testesterone blue). then i plugged all of that into a spreadsheet, figured out the fuel cost over the presumed life of the car (100,000 miles at $3/gal ... i'm an optimist), the fuel cost per year (12,000 miles a year at $3/gal), the overall total cost of car purchase price + lifetime fuel cost. i used that to eliminate some of the unnecessarily expensive cars, like a rav4. and ... voila! (you can click the pic to make it bigger - i had to 
do a screenshot because i couldn't figure out how to just copy and paste and keep the right formatting.)
the spreadsheet certainly doesn't make the decision for us, but it does help. it's an interesting balance to figure out what is the right car for us. i want a car that's big enough - with enough cargo space - that in, say, five years when we have two kids, one still in a stroller, and we want to drive to see family for a week at christmas time, we can still fit all of our luggage and kid gear and presents and not be driving with our heads stuck out the windows. on the other hand, though, i want something with decent fuel economy so that i'm not killing the environment and my wallet with my current daily commute. in looking at the spreadsheet, scott said he thinks a prius would be too small for our primary family car, which means the honda fit is out as well since they're even smaller. (definitely cars to keep in mind, though, when we go to replace his truck in a few years.)
i had initially compared the monthly total cost difference of each car with the prius, but taking the prius and fit out of the equation, it only ends up being about $30/month more expensive to have a forester than a matrix, or $6/month more to have an impreza than a matrix. enlightening, yes? (obviously this doesn't take registration or insurance fees or maintenance costs into consideration ... maybe i'll see what i can do about that info as we move closer to a real decision, rather than dealing solely in hypotheticals like this.)
next up is test driving some cars, but at this point i think we're leaning toward waiting a few months to purchase, so that we can save up the rest of the cash needed to buy a car outright. so why did i just spend a full day putting together this lovely spreadsheet? because it was fun! also, i like having appropriate expectations looking forward. if i'm going to have my heart broken by a forester being absolutely and completely impractical, i want to know now.
more planning.
i really enjoy planning things. today: car and summer vacation. let's start with the summer vacation ...
i was checking out the meals and steals section on a local radio station's website, and found a deal for a white water rafting company - $50 certificates for $25. scott's been wanting to go rafting for a while, and i'd toyed with the idea of fitting it into one of our summer vacations, so i checked out their website. come to find out one of their bases is maybe a half hour from where we're planning on staying for a weekend in july ... interesting. i called to check availability and make sure i could use the certificates for the trip i was looking at, and it's a go! i can use one certificate per person per trip, which would save us $50, so a full day of rafting for two will only cost us about $120 - much better than the $170+ that it would cost normally (which seems to be the going rate - i checked out a few outfitters' websites). anyway, as i was thinking about it, i had the brilliant brainstorm that i can get the whole thing booked without telling scott, and surprise him with it as a late birthday present! i think it's brilliant, and he'll love it, and now i only need to come up with an excuse to get him to leave the house at 7am that morning ... and figure out a plan to pack rafting gear without him getting suspicious. fun fun! (oh, and it is a surprise, so shhh! i feel free to post it here because he never looks at my blog. and if he does, he just ruined his own surprise which is his own darn fault.)
my second fun-with-planning adventure is car related. we talked a little last weekend and sort of planned to just start saving up money to put toward a newer car later this year, and agreed that the price i found on that used forester was a good one. sitting at work this afternoon, though, i meandered over to postnewsautos.com again (online classifieds) and ran a search. last week, the lowest priced 2008s i found were $15,991 with 30-35k miles on them (used rentals); this week, i found 8 2008s with comprable miles priced lower than that, including 4 at $14,995. intriguing, right? i'd like to pay cash if at all possible (we're working our way toward the dave ramsey debt free plan), and between a small bonus scott recently got, some extra money we had saved toward the backyard wall, trade in on erma, and the extra cash from our budget this month, we're probably about halfway there (give or take). which means that we could either borrow half from our emergency fund, or take a small car loan out for half - either way, i don't know that dave ramsey would necessarily approve ... or we could wait until this fall when the 2010s come out, and see what that does to the 2008 prices (and we'd likely be a lot closer to having enough money to buy the car outright at that point). but this seems like such a good deal! even looking at 07s, there are only 2 that are less expensive than that, and the only '06 with reasonable mileage is the same price as these. hmm hmm hmm. i'm seriously tempted, and scott said we could talk about it tonight. (he also said i could get a forester if he can get a 42" flat panel tv, though - which he's been begging for for months, despite the fact that our 6 year old flat screen tv works perfectly fine - so we'll see.) oh, and keep in mind that despite my glowing adoration of the subaru forester, i've never actually driven one, so that might come into play as well.
i was checking out the meals and steals section on a local radio station's website, and found a deal for a white water rafting company - $50 certificates for $25. scott's been wanting to go rafting for a while, and i'd toyed with the idea of fitting it into one of our summer vacations, so i checked out their website. come to find out one of their bases is maybe a half hour from where we're planning on staying for a weekend in july ... interesting. i called to check availability and make sure i could use the certificates for the trip i was looking at, and it's a go! i can use one certificate per person per trip, which would save us $50, so a full day of rafting for two will only cost us about $120 - much better than the $170+ that it would cost normally (which seems to be the going rate - i checked out a few outfitters' websites). anyway, as i was thinking about it, i had the brilliant brainstorm that i can get the whole thing booked without telling scott, and surprise him with it as a late birthday present! i think it's brilliant, and he'll love it, and now i only need to come up with an excuse to get him to leave the house at 7am that morning ... and figure out a plan to pack rafting gear without him getting suspicious. fun fun! (oh, and it is a surprise, so shhh! i feel free to post it here because he never looks at my blog. and if he does, he just ruined his own surprise which is his own darn fault.)
my second fun-with-planning adventure is car related. we talked a little last weekend and sort of planned to just start saving up money to put toward a newer car later this year, and agreed that the price i found on that used forester was a good one. sitting at work this afternoon, though, i meandered over to postnewsautos.com again (online classifieds) and ran a search. last week, the lowest priced 2008s i found were $15,991 with 30-35k miles on them (used rentals); this week, i found 8 2008s with comprable miles priced lower than that, including 4 at $14,995. intriguing, right? i'd like to pay cash if at all possible (we're working our way toward the dave ramsey debt free plan), and between a small bonus scott recently got, some extra money we had saved toward the backyard wall, trade in on erma, and the extra cash from our budget this month, we're probably about halfway there (give or take). which means that we could either borrow half from our emergency fund, or take a small car loan out for half - either way, i don't know that dave ramsey would necessarily approve ... or we could wait until this fall when the 2010s come out, and see what that does to the 2008 prices (and we'd likely be a lot closer to having enough money to buy the car outright at that point). but this seems like such a good deal! even looking at 07s, there are only 2 that are less expensive than that, and the only '06 with reasonable mileage is the same price as these. hmm hmm hmm. i'm seriously tempted, and scott said we could talk about it tonight. (he also said i could get a forester if he can get a 42" flat panel tv, though - which he's been begging for for months, despite the fact that our 6 year old flat screen tv works perfectly fine - so we'll see.) oh, and keep in mind that despite my glowing adoration of the subaru forester, i've never actually driven one, so that might come into play as well.
car envy
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labels:
car
last friday as i was driving home, i noticed a sudden intense vibration in the steering wheel - to the point where it was vibrating my whole arm. it was vaguely disconcerting (particularly as i was going about 70mph on the interstate at that moment), but it went away after a minute or two, and i could tell i didn't have a flat tire or anything. i figured it was just another sign of erma aging (she also developed this sort of flappy rattle under the hood that comes and goes when you accelerate, and the steering wheel alignment is off), so we started talking about what kind of car we'd want to replace erma with, because at 110,000 miles, she's obivously not going to survive forever.
anyway, i was thinking about her problems just now, and it occurred to me that the vibration and left-of-center steering wheel could both be symptoms of a wheel alignment issue, so i decided to google it. according to at least this site, the vibration isn't necessarily wheel alignment, but more wheel balance! and it doesn't seem to be a problem for anything more than driver comfort, so i'm okay with leaving it be for the time being. i am glad at least to know that my car isn't going to combust in the midst of my daily commute.
in the meantime, however, i started looking at cars and car reviews online (i enjoy researching even if we're not going to act on it immediately - at least i'll have a good idea of our expectations, and we can have a better idea of how much money to save for a car so that we're prepared when the time comes) ... and i've fallen in love. the subaru forester has been my dream car for several years now, and while i've looked at a variety of cars on consumer reports, ranging from the toyota camry to a hyundai santa fe, the forester still just gets me every time. great relability ratings, good fuel economy, high owner satisfaction ... and it's just a beautiful vehicle. plus, such a great price on a 2008 model! i think scott and i are going to maybe have a more in depth conversation about cars this weekend. i don't see us acting immediately, but a girl can dream, right?
anyway, i was thinking about her problems just now, and it occurred to me that the vibration and left-of-center steering wheel could both be symptoms of a wheel alignment issue, so i decided to google it. according to at least this site, the vibration isn't necessarily wheel alignment, but more wheel balance! and it doesn't seem to be a problem for anything more than driver comfort, so i'm okay with leaving it be for the time being. i am glad at least to know that my car isn't going to combust in the midst of my daily commute.
in the meantime, however, i started looking at cars and car reviews online (i enjoy researching even if we're not going to act on it immediately - at least i'll have a good idea of our expectations, and we can have a better idea of how much money to save for a car so that we're prepared when the time comes) ... and i've fallen in love. the subaru forester has been my dream car for several years now, and while i've looked at a variety of cars on consumer reports, ranging from the toyota camry to a hyundai santa fe, the forester still just gets me every time. great relability ratings, good fuel economy, high owner satisfaction ... and it's just a beautiful vehicle. plus, such a great price on a 2008 model! i think scott and i are going to maybe have a more in depth conversation about cars this weekend. i don't see us acting immediately, but a girl can dream, right?
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