Auto Update

I am still loving my new CR-V.  It gets fantastic gas mileage (for an SUV).  I'm getting 27mpg combined city and highway.  And my drive is about half and half.  It's almost as good as what my car was getting, so I'm really happy with it!  

I have someone interested in buying Sam (my Grand Am).  I wasn't going to sell her, but I feel kind of bad just having her sit in the garage without being used.  However, the thought of selling her makes me tear up a bit.  She's been a good car to be for a lot of years.  I know.  I am irrationally attached to my car.  I can't help it.  I'm sure that with time, I will be irrationally attached to Lucius (my new CR-V) as well.  

In other auto news, exactly what I thought would happen has happened.  I knew that when I bought my new car, Philip would start wanting a new one.  You see, Philip does not get nearly as attached to vehicles as I do (like a normal person!).  He just likes having new vehicles.  ;)

Sure enough, about a week after we bought Lucius, we got a letter in the mail from Planet Honda basically begging us to sell them Philip's Honda Civic SI.  Philip was interested in trading it in on a new Honda Pilot but because his car was in an accident where the airbags went off, they cannot offer us as much as we'd like for it.  

So, we are waiting until later this year when the 2012s arrive.  Then we will have paid a little more on the Civic and we will hopefully be able to get a good deal on the 2011s.  :)  

It doesn't stop there though.  Philip is worried about losing his "race car."  He loves how sporty his car is.  A Honda Pilot is a large SUV and will not be nearly as peppy.  So, we will be buying a motorcycle next spring/summer to feed his need for sportiness.  

This way, we can have the best of both worlds.  He can have a large family vehicle (even though the kids are still several years away -- it still fits the dogs really well!) and have something sporty to drive when the urge strikes.  The motorcycle will also be nice for gas mileage in the summertime!  

So there you have it.  Lots of auto news in our household.  It's pretty exciting stuff!

What Really Grinds My Gears

Sorry I've been away so long.  I've been swamped trying to get our wedding invitations put together.  But, they're finally done, so I'm back!

I want to talk about something that really "grinds my gears" (if you haven't seen the Family Guy episode that this is in reference to, shame on you!).  

I work in a large commercial office building.  When I use the restroom here at work, there are often other ladies using the facilities as well.  It really bothers me when in a fake attempt to wash their hands, they simply run their hands under the water for a second or two.  

What good is that doing?  I mean, even if you had mud on your hands, two seconds wouldn't be enough time to wash it off.  So, what makes you think that two seconds of cool to lukewarm water is going to wash away whatever bathroom cooties are on your hands??  

Stop being gross.  Wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds.  It's not that hard.  Those extra 18 seconds are not going to kill you.  But it saves the rest of us from having to touch things that your filthy poo-hands have touched!  ;)

Scariest People of Walmart

Every now and then, I wander around the People of Walmart website.  Sometimes there are some effing hilarious pictures on there!  Today, however, the photo I came across was not so much hilarious as horrifying.  

(Source)

How do you turn a cute bunny into something so terrifying??  I might have nightmares.  This is worse than the Donnie Darko rabbit!  And that's saying a lot!  

Forgot something again...

I forgot something great!  The CR-V is supposed to get 21 city MPG and 27 highway MPG.  I've done a mix of city and highway driving in my first 300 miles (almost -- we did a ton of driving in it over the weekend!) along with a bunch of really stepping on it to see what it can do.  I am currently at an average of 27.9 MPG.

It's amazing!  That's even including sitting in concert traffic on Friday night!  It's doing a fantastic job with the MPG!  It's just slightly less than what my car got (roughly 28-29 MPG -- combined city and highway).  That's far more than I expected from an SUV, so I'm really excited!  

The Stats

I'm still fascinated by my car, so it's probably going to fill up a few more blog posts until the newness wears off.  ;)  Bear with me here, people.  It's my first new car!

As I told you before, it's a Honda CR-V SE.  It's a 4 cylinder, 5 speed automatic.  It has 17" alloy wheels and a Drive-by-Wire Throttle System.

It's got Real Time 4wd.  That means that it will go into 4WD when it is needed, or anytime a single wheel slips, it is compensated for in "real time" by the computer delivering a signal to cause power to be delivered to the opposite wheel to insure that both wheels are delivering power to the ground. When the "power" is not needed to all of the wheels they run free.  I like that because it will kick in on its own and I don't have to do anything!

It seats five with 35.7 cubic feet of storage space in the back.  If the rear seats are folded up, there are 72.9 cubic feet of storage space.  And there is so much head room!  I tried to tap the ceiling on Friday night because I saw a headlight out and it seemed like my hand went up forever before reaching the top!  It really threw me off!  

It has rear privacy glass and folding power side mirrors (to fit in smaller spaces).  It's got a ton of different airbags (let's hope I never need them!) and safety features.  It has three power adapters (one in the front, one in the center console, and one in the rear) and an auxiliary input jack for my iPod (as well as a 6 CD changer).  It has 8 drink holders and steering wheel mounted cruise and radio controls.  

One of my favorite things in the car are the seats.  They are comfortable, but more than that, the rear seats are adjustable.  They can be adjusted forward to leave more room in the back.  But, they can also be tilted back so that people can lean backwards and relax, just like the front seats!  They also fold up in crazy ways to leave tons of room in the back.  :)

One of the best things about the Hondas is the Maintenance Minder system.  It tells me what my oil life is along with tons of other maintenance related things so I know exactly when my car needs to be taken in (and I get free oil changes for life!).  

And, I freakin' love that it tells me what my MPG is along with how many miles I have left on a tank of gas.  It is AMAZING!  

However, the things that I love most about this car: the gas gauge works, it has remote entry,  and it has working air conditioning!  Those are all things that I longed for while driving Sam.  And, now I have them!  I feel so spoiled.  ;)  I am really loving my Lucius.  

I almost forgot!

I'm sure that you must've noticed that my beautiful new Lucius is Yankee blue.  Well, he wouldn't be complete without this:

Now all he needs is my "My Golden Retriever is smarter than your honor student!" sticker, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere yet.  I'm sure I'll find it soon, though.  ;)

The Decision: We Are a Honda Family!

After a few minutes of discussion, it was decided: we would be buying this vehicle.  So, we put our game faces on and stepped inside.  I filled out the credit application and we got the show on the road.  

The salesman went back to the finance department and did his thing.  He brought back an offer.  This is where I thought that Philip would be helpful.  After all, he has been through this process several times since he's bought several cars.  I thought that he would be the master negotiator.  Not so.  He was absolutely ZERO help.  Ha!  I had to do all of the negotiating.  

I haggled some and he went back to finance.  He came back with a counteroffer.  I haggled some more.  He went back to finance.  In the end, we ended up getting a great price.  We got it down to the price we were willing to pay per month for the car, but it also included a lifetime service plan and the 8 year/120,000 mile extended warranty for the car.  I get free tire rotations, oil changes, car washes, etc., for life!  Yay!  :)  

So, here he is:

And there you have it.  My beautiful new car.  His name is Lucius.  :)  And I love him already.  Ha!

Our New Automobile: An Adventure

I talked to Philip on Thursday and we decided it was time to begin the search for a new vehicle.  So, on Friday afternoon, he met me in Denver at my office.  We had tickets for the Kenny Chesney concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater.  

Before heading to the concert, we went to Planet Honda to do a little browsing.  Almost immediately upon exiting Philip's car, a salesman approached us.  We told him what we were looking for and he was just about drooling over Philip's car (a 2007 Honda Civic SI).  He was hoping that we would be trading it in.  Apparently, they can't keep those in stock.  They sell like crazy.  We had to disappoint him.  ;)  That car will be staying with us until it won't run anymore!

We went inside and discussed options.  I told him that I either wanted the Honda CR-V or the Hundai Tucson.  They sell both at the Planet Honda/Hundai.  I asked him how the reliability was on the Tucson (we know that the Hondas are excellent cars!).  He told me that the Tucsons are really cool and cute but they've had 2 people bring back the 2011 model with transmission issues.  He said that it was, of course, covered under warranty because they were less than a year old (the Tucson warranty is actually pretty good -- better than the Honda warranty).  

I knew that he had no reason to lie to us.  He sells both the Hondas and the Hundais and the Hundai I wanted was more expensive than the Honda I wanted.  So, I decided to not even test drive the Hundai.  I knew I liked the interior and exterior of the vehicle better than the CR-V and I just didn't want to fall in love with something that would give me a bunch of mechanical problems.  

Then it was time to decide which CR-V I was interested in.  I didn't want to spend a ton since we are buying the vehicle sooner than we wanted to.  So, I started looking at the basic model: The LX.  They didn't have any in colors that I liked.  So, Philip asked him about the differences between in the LX and the SE (Special Edition).  The SE adds privacy tint to the back windows, adds alloy wheels, and adds radio controls to the steering wheel.  I think there were a few other differences, but those were the big sellers to Philip.  That and it only added $400 to the price of the car.  And, they had a navy blue CR-V SE.  

So, we took it for a spin.  I drove it for a few miles and then Philip drove it back.  It took a little getting used to.  My little car has a good bit of "get up and go."  The CR-V isn't quite as peppy.  Of course, Sam is a V6 but the CR-V is only a 4 cylinder.  Anyway, it rode smooth and it was really quiet.  And, it was very spacious.  

When we got back to the lot, the salesman asked us what we thought.  I asked for a few minutes with Philip to discuss.  The salesmen went back inside while we talked about what we wanted to do and explored the interior of the car a little more. 

Stay tuned for our decision!

Sam's Retirement

It has come time for Sam to retire.  For those of you who do not know, Sam is my car.  I've had her since high school.  I really do love that car.  I wish she would have lasted even longer.  But, it's high time for her to retire.  She's just falling apart.  

But, I have enjoyed the many years we've spent together.  There have been good times and bad.  She's been hit by a school bus, had a blown motor, had a gallon of milk explode in the back seat in the summer heat, been peed on by Cody (my Golden Retriever) when he was still young, and so much more.  But, through it all, she was a damn good car.  I can only hope that my next car will be as good as her.  

So, farewell, Sam.  And thanks for all of our wonderful years together.  

Jack and Cody on our way to Indiana.  Sam is always a comfy resting place.  :)

Jack on our way to Avon, NC.

Jack on our way to Avon, NC.

Jack on our way to Avon, NC.

A car wash several years ago.

One of my senior photos.

My lovely window adventure

Yesterday, I was jamming out in my car.  I, of course, had my windows down because my air conditioning went out months ago.  I hate it, but I'm dealing with it.  I just can't call anyone on my way home (and lately on my way to work -- it's getting hot earlier and earlier!) because the wind from the windows is too loud.  Fortunately, there isn't much humidity in Denver, so just driving with the windows down is tolerable even in the 90 or 100 degree heat.  

Anyway, back to yesterday.  It began to rain, so I started rolling up my windows.  Then I heard a snap and my driver's side window (already almost all the way up), crashed back down into the door.  And then I heard a crack.  I think my window may have shattered.  

When I got home, I tried to look down into the door to see if I could see the glass, but I couldn't.  The passenger side rear window is broken (won't roll up), but the glass only goes to the bottom of the hole for the window and I can still pull it up.  The glass for the driver's side window is nowhere to be seen.  

Gah!  My car is falling apart!  Philip and I are going to try to take apart the door this weekend to see if the window fell shattered or not.  

No matter what, I'm screwed.  If the window shattered, I'll have to put something over the window and then I'm going to die in the heat because I can't roll down the window!  If it didn't shatter, I'm still in the same boat because I'll just have to tape/glue the window up and I still won't be able to roll it down!  Because there is no way I'm paying to have it fixed!  It will cost more than my car is worth at this point.  

Philip and I bought new phones the weekend before last.  I joked with Philip that now even my phone is worth more than my car.  I really wish I were joking.  

We were originally going to buy me a new car this fall because we thought Philip's car was paid off next spring.  Well, it turns out that the car is not paid off until spring of 2013.  So, we've been trying to not have to buy a new car for me until next fall.  I really don't think that's going to work.  The way my car is going, one of the damn doors are going to fall off by next month.  

Shock

(Source)

Casey Anthony was just acquitted of murder.  I am completely shocked.  I thought that it was a slam dunk case.  I guess justice will never be done for that little girl.  It's a sad day.  

RISP

I am so tired of hearing about how terrible the Yankees are with runners in scoring position (RISP).  Anytime I'm watching a game, that seems to be all that the announcers want to discuss.  

I guess it's because there's nothing else to fault them on!  I mean, we are leading not just the East, but the entire American League.  We are second in all of MLB (behind the Phillies).  We are one of only two teams who is above .600 (we're at .608 and the Phillies are .622).  We have more home runs than any other team.  We have 116 while the next closest team (Texas Rangers) have only 95.  The team's average OBP is the second best.  The team's SLG average is the best.  The Yankees have more runs than any other team (421).  

So, yeah.  We're not so great with RISP.  I think I can handle that.  BECAUSE WE STILL ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF!  :P