I own a car.


Dude.

Monday - I forget. dude, that's lame. Oh, I remember, I watched Shark Tale. Not so impressed, but the commentary was interesting. I must have done something else, but I don't remember.

Tuesday - After work, I went to my parents and we took my car to the mechanic. My back passenger side window decided to stop working (AGAIN) a couple weeks ago, and we finally got it to Shutty's. Turns out the part was still under warranty, so Dad just paid labor. The part had to come in, though. So we left it there and headed over to the church for a viewing. The Patriarch of one of the families in the area died the Saturday before, and the viewing was actually at our church. So we paid our respects. I'm trying to remember the last time I was at a viewing where I didn't know the person who died. It was also the most rowdy viewing I've ever been to. After the viewing, Dad took me and Mom (Liz and Albert are both at camp) to Fabio's for dinner (apparently the 2nd best kept secret in central pa). I had Sausage and Pepper Parmesan which lasted me dinner and 2 days of lunches. :-) Then I headed home to watch Evan Almighty.

Wednesday - Went to the library and spent about 45 minutes wandering around doing a scavenger hunt for the summer reading program. Dude, they totally moved everything around. Then I went to Giant where my best deals were $0.18 for 2 muffin mixes (after coupon) and $1.37 for 3 cans of Pillsbury biscuits (after coupon). I also picked up enough taco shells to last the summer. I should have gotten milk, though. I watched Joy Luck Club. I had read the book a while ago, but never seen the movie so I got it from the library. By the end I was crying. And I was eating pretzels. Yes, sillyliss, I was crying in my pretzels.

Thursday - Did a bit of craigslisting. Got my car back. Made granola bars and watched last coming standing. Oh, and I talked to Lindsay.

And just now I finally got out my new laptop cable. I got it about a week ago, but I was too lazy to get it out. My old one got a kink in it, so I would have to do all kinds of crazy things to get it to work. Now no worries and I can lay on the couch with my laptop again! (although, I do love my laptop desk.)

This morning I did some yard sale-ing and I got the following:

Crock pot - $0.50 (they swear it works, we'll see)
Laptop Table/Cart - $3.00
Hexagon-shaped endtable (like this) - $5.00
Savion Onyx Mirror (here) - $60.00 (and worth every penny! I'm going to hang it above my bed sideways)

All of this fit into my car at once. I didn't even have to think twice about each piece fitting in the car, let alone all of it fitting at once. It was beautiful. The worst part was carrying it all up the stairs by myself. But I did it *flexes muscles*... I'm just hoping that I'm not in tons of pain tomorrow. :-P

After the yard sale-ing, I hit:
Post Office (where I didn't get to ship my package because the computers were down)
Lane Bryant (where I didn't find what I was looking for)
Five Guys (where I got a hot dog and a soda)
Giant Foods (where I stocked up on baking supplies and cereal)
ATM (where I replenished my cash)
East Shore Library Book Sale (where a grocery bag of books was $3 and I got 3 bags FULL, some for me, some for Mike)
Hancock Fabric (where I stocked up on Fray Check)
Big Lots (where I got 40 rolls of TP for $10 and storage drawers for my desk supplies)
Rite Aid (where I refilled my prescription and used the drive thru!)
Wal*Mart (where I stocked up on H&B stuff and ran into my Landlord and his wife, Lynn)
Humane Society (where I FINALLY dropped off some donations)

Home. *exhausted*
I've already got most everything put away, and now I'm going to go through the books I got and do the laundry.

This is what I've got so far. Any comments/suggestions/anything, please comment! This will be updated as I think about it more.

Necessary:

Automatic Transmission (you know, so I can drive it)
6 cylinders (?) (I need my get-up-and-go. Mike's car is 4 and his doesn't have any.)

Power locks / Power windows / Power steering. :-P
Cruise Control
Positionable Steering Wheel

Cloth interior
30 mph/gal highway (is this unreasonable?)
decent size gas tank (current is 20+gal)


Would be nice (in order of importance, kinda):
Inexpensive to service
Parts easy to find/order
large trunk and/or fold down backseat
plenty of leg room everywhere / comfortable backseat
low road noise
enough cup holders/places to put things/purse
audio system that plays MP3 CDs & CD-Rs
audio controls on the steering wheel


Must not have:
Console. Hate. Consoles.
Huge Blind Spots (like Dad's Volvo)
Spoiler

So, I'm in the market for a new vehicle. I'm completely overwhelmed by the idea and have pretty much no idea where to start. So, in lieu of actually starting, I thought I'd put these question out there:

What do you like about your car?

What do you not like about your car?

What features/things do you frequently wish your car did/had?


Feel free to be as brief, or as, uh long-winded as you like. :-)

There is something very satisfying about having your neighbors see you working on your car with the hood up looking like you know what you are doing.

Also, YAY for having 2 working headlights again without having to pay $30 for labor.

Thank you, gods of the crappy weather, for letting it clear up this afternoon so I could do this.

Tonight, in lieu of a rehearsal, we sang for the Hummelstown chapter of the Lion's Club. They rented the local VFW for the night, so that was where we were preforming. Mike and I got there at the same time as a bunch of others (at 6:30 when we were supposed to be there) and were told we weren't going on 'til after 7pm (instead of AT 7pm). Also, there is no piano in the building, so someone had brought their 56-ish key keyboard. (fyi: a normal piano has 88 keys).

Um, yeah.

So, I volunteered to go get my keyboard from home and bring it back to set it up and use it (since mine is full size and has all 88 keys). Mike and I go back to the car, drive back to my apartment, disassemble the piano set up, put the keyboard & stand & cables & bench in the car, drive back to the VFW. Mike went in to enlist some help bringing the keyboard into the building carefully under the cover of my ugly blanket since it was raining. Then I went and parked the car in the municipal lot down a block.

By the time I walked back to the VFW, they had the keyboard set up and were trying to figure out which jack to plug the peddle into. We got that figured out and our pianist started warming up on the keyboard. She had never played on an electronic keyboard before! =-O She did really well considering that since it is a way different feel and can take some getting used to.

The singing itself went really well. My solo rocked. The space is very small so the accustics were really tight. If that makes any sense. It was nice, because for once, I could hear every part! OMGs. Yeah. So, it went well. But it was approximately 150 degrees in that building, so we were all sweating. And we should have cut more than 4 songs because we have too many songs for only one set. But anyway.

After it was all over, I got the car and we loaded everything up again. We realized that I now have 2 headlight bulbs out. Before it was only one bulb on the side that was redundant, but now I'm in the whole "illegal" territory. When we got back to my apartment, and got the piano back in, Mike read my car manual and found the kinds of bulbs I need to buy at Wal*Mart tomorrow. And he bookmarked the page that I need to look at when I replace the bulb. Looks just about as easy as the back light sections, so I'm not worried. I just wish it would stop raining so much so that I could actually do it.

Yesterday, the bulb in one of my halogen lamps died, so I have to get one of those at Wal*Mart, too. Especially since it's the lamp that I turn on when I walk in the door so I don't run into walls and stuff. Yeah. Safety.

Now I'm exhausted and if I thought my shoulders hurt after yesterday, tomorrow is going to be really bad.

Thanksgiving was fun, but kind of stressful because everyone was thinking of Grandfather. We found out yesterday morning that he is going to need open heart surgery. He has a 90% blockage at the branch of an artery where they can't simply put a stent in. Surgery is scheduled for Monday. The surgery is going to be at Saint Joe's which means that he will need to be transported. That is also scheduled for Monday. I don't know how that is going to work. He was moved from Intermediate Care to the ICU where he is now. It is all very not-fun. Dad is going back out to NJ after church on Sunday (as of now).

Yesterday, our dryer broke. This was, of course, after mom had put a HUGE load of laundry in the washing machine. Thankfully today is a beautiful SUNNY and slightly breezy day, so Dad hooked up some clothes lines between the trees and I hung the wash (with the hinderance of Albert who was supposed to be helping).

Yesterday, Dad and I also picked up my car from the detail place. They didn't vacuum the trunk or do a particularly good job with cleaning all the dirt off of it. Bah. BUT my tires and wheels look immaculate and, unless you are picky like me (well, who wouldn't be for $100!), it looks pretty damn good. Especially since I don't think I even had it washed since last March.

So, a lot happend Yesterday! I also used my DVD burner for the first time yesterday and it worked like a charm. I backed up my photos from 2005-2006. Very simple and easy (After I figured out what I was doing)! Maybe at some point, I'll make DVDs out of my recital and concert from May. Ahh, the fine art of procrastinating!

Heather is coming today! She's got an interview in Maryland on Friday and she is leaving early Saturday morning. I am excited... and my work days are going to be going by slowly. :-P

Last night was Albert's spring band concert. We found out that he wants to join the chorus next year. Totally random and unexpected. *shrug* Definitely a good thing, though! He wants to do both band and chorus next year and then just do chorus in HS. He likes concert band, but doesn't want to invest time in marching (you can't do marching band and get your eagle scout rank!).... I think it's a good sign that he wants to stay in *some* sort of music thing, though. :-) The concert was good. The band and the chorus did show tunes... and the chorus sang 2 songs (exact same arrangement) that we are singing on Sunday. :-P Of course, it will sound a bit different since they have 100+ in the 7th/8th grade chorus and we have about 12 people. :-P The orchestra was the best I'd ever heard them. But they are under temporary direction at the moment, so that is what I am crediting it to. I hope they keep up the good work.

So half way to DC my car started making a funny noise when I hit the brakes. It didn't feel different, though, and I'm so used to my brakes making *some sort* of weird noise, I figured I'd just have them look at it when I got back. And then I didn't think about it and drove to work on Monday. And then when I got home on Monday I had Dad drive it around the block. Except he just drove up the driveway and came back because he said he just wanted to take it straight to the dealer (where I get all my work done) in the morning. So I got a ride to/from work yesterday and we picked up my car in the afternoon. Turns out my caliper broke or slipped or something so I was grinding my brakes for 200 miles. Yeah, that's a bad thing. So, $400 later.... I've got an entire new brake system! We're not sure if this is something that Goodyear caught back when I had my car inspected or if it was a new and random thing. The mechanic said it could have been caused by hitting something, but I think I would have noticed if I hit something that messed up my brakes that bad. *sigh*

DC was pretty sweet and awesome. I took a TONNNN of pictures, and hopefully I'll get those posted this weekend and write a bit about it.

So that is my back-ass-wards post for the day. :-P