2012/056: When It Rains…
…and you have to wait in the elementary school car lane for 30 minutes to pick up your child, you have to find something to keep yourself occupied!
2011/267: Italian Car Fest, Part 5 – Best In Show
1966 Ferrari Dino 206sp
Wouldn’t mind taking that one for a spin đ While I was there, I overheard someone say that this is a $2 million car!
2011/256: Teaser
A little teaser for all the car lovers out there. We went to the Italian Car Fest in Grapevine, TX this past Saturday. This little beauty was definitely one of the highlights (and my second favorite car).
I’ll have pictures soon!
2011/113: Scavenger Hunt
A few weeks ago, Karen posted a scavenger hunt on her blog, and I thought it would be fun to participate, especially since I missed her first one due to lack of time.
This time she wanted us to find a…
Body of water
This is a pond about halfway between home and Greg’s office (or in this case, the mall đ )
I thought about taking a picture of the outdoor pool at the gym, since it’s now open on week-ends, but that would just be mean to all my friends up north, where it’s not exactly swimming weather yet.
Train
Couldn’t resist getting this when I saw it at Michaels several years ago. I painted it to match the curtains in Sara’s room. Melissa has a train, too, and painted it herself. Sara was still too little back then.
Hood
Yup, Sara plays with cars, too! This Ford Mustang was her pride and joy when she bought it (with her own money) and even took it on vacation with her that year, to show her brothers.
Sprout
No idea what they are
Bud
This may look like a rose bud, but it’s actually the bud of a blackberry blossom
Basket
I had several to choose from here, but I photographed the easiest, that had the best light and required the least amount of work (no digging old Easter baskets out of the closet, or climbing a step stool to get a basket off the shelf). This one sits on the bathroom cabinet and holds my shower gels, body lotions, etc.
Bunny
Another item I found in Sara’s room. This little bunny was one of her first toys, that I bought for her before she was born.
And for the BONUS….. a
Cardinal!
My lucky find! I was sitting at the computer last Saturday, when Sara looked out the window and said cardinal!!! Of course I grabbed my camera, but had to switch lenses… and it flew away before I could do that. I waited and waited, and spotted it sitting in a tree on the other side of the neighbor’s house. I decided to use my 80-400mm lens, but of course it flew away before I could dig out the lens and put it on the camera. I waited and waited, and it finally paid off when he sat down in the tree right outside my window. Still had to shoot through the window and some branches, but I got him!
2010/055: Bonus: Meet BJ
My brand new 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe GLS, deepwater blue, gray interior.
Of course that means my post yesterday was a last good-bye to my Rogue đŠ
We bought the Santa Fe on Saturday, but the dealership didn’t have it in stock and expected it in on Monday. Unfortunately it wasn’t ready Monday evening, so we headed over there on Tuesday after dropping the kids off at school.
Our sales person was nice, although we called him a couple of times on Monday and never heard back. We worked out a fair price on the new car, and the trade-in. They didn’t offer us as much as we had hoped, and we asked for $2000 more than their first offer, and settled for $1000 more. We were OK with that. What we were not OK with, was the 6.99% interest rate, but that was something to take up with the finance guy. Finance people are the worst, and this guy was no exception. Nice guy, really, but he just did not know when to quit! He insisted on explaining in detail what the extended warranty, gap insurance, some kind of tire/wheel warranty, window etching, protective clear coat, and all that other cr*p means, even though we told him right from the start that we were not interested. It’s all dealer profit!!
He avoided the interest rate as long as he could, but there was no way we were signing any papers when we had a much better interest rate on the Rogue. He lowered it by a little bit, but added all the “extras” back on. Um, did we not tell him no? We actually started to walk out of his office, and he was quick to get us to sit down again. He lowered the interest rate a little more, added the “extras” again, and tacked on three more months to the loan!! Again, we start to walk out, and finance guy jumps up, asks us to sit down, because he was going to talk to his boss. Off he goes into the office next door (separated by a glass wall) and they both come back a few minutes later. Boss guy tells us USAA is at 5.85% and he can give us that rate, without any of the extras and without adding the extra three months. We agree and sign the papers. There! Was that so difficult? We had this poor guy shaking in his boots – literally!! His hands were visibly shaking when he tried to feed that paperwork into the printer. It was pretty funny đ
We were finally on our way home and they were going to let us take one of their cars, but I insisted on taking my Rogue so we could clean it out without feeling rushed. Besides, I couldn’t just leave it there when we didn’t have the new car yet.
But here comes the fun part… Greg called our bank Monday morning and applied for a new car loan and they approve us for 4.69%! Greg calls finance guy several times and when he finally got a hold of him, was told that he was going to talk to his boss and call back. Never heard from him. Tuesday morning we show up and I ask him if they were going to match the bank’s offer or if they wanted us to take the loan from our bank. Of course he had to talk to his boss again and after what seemed an eternity, we’re told that the new paperwork was ready to sign. They didn’t match the bank’s offer, they beat it!!! 4.19%!! Now even though we were upside down on the Rogue, with this interest rate and the deal we got on the Santa Fe, our payment is actually less than the one we were making on the Rogue! Definitely something to be happy about.
2010/042: Rainy Day In The Carpool Lane
One of many reasons I don’t like rain… I have to pick Sara up in the carpool lane, which means I have to get in line at least 30 minutes before school lets out or there are so many cars there, the end of the line is somewhere way down the street. It’s boring, waiting there, and sometimes I bother my friends and family with texts, but this time I decided to bring the camera and take pictures to kill the time.
(click on thumbnails for larger view)
2009/278: Hood Ornament
We went to a festival near us a couple of week-ends ago, and they had a small car show, too. This was the hood ornament of one of them. Unfortunately I didn’t take more pictures of this car and don’t remember what type it was. The hood was open, and I got a nice shot of the Indian head against the sky.
2009/211: Cars Under The Stars, Part 1
I sent Greg and the girls to a birthday party, that Sara was invited to, last Saturday while I met Amber at the gym. Afterwards I was able to talk her into going to a local car show with me. It was HOT outside, and no stars yet, but it was fun.
As usual I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures, so this is part 1 of 3. And no worries, you’ll get to read about the rest of the vacation soon (typing all that out is work, though. LOL)
Austin Healey Sprite – my favorite!!
2009/207: Vacation, Part 1
Prepare yourself for lots of vacation posts! đ
We left on June 25th, a day earlier than originally planned. Pulled away from the curb (since we don’t have a driveway) right at 3 pm and thanks to my speed demon (yes, that’s 90mph) we made it to Joplin, Missouri by about 9:30 pm. This was on the turnpike, where the speed limit is 75, but still!
We got up early on June 26 and continued on our drive. Sitting in the car all day is pretty boring, and most of the time there isn’t much to take pictures of, unless of course the sunrise is as beautiful as this.
Since we left a day early, we had time to stop at a couple of wineries on the way. First, St. James Winery in St. James, Missouri, and then Augusta Winery in Augusta, Missouri, near St. Louis.
And, while in St. Louis, we had to stop at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard and get a little treat. (But even that didn’t make the kids cooperate any more than usual)
We met up with the boys and Nikki for dinner and later in the evening, they all came to the hotel in Merrillville, Indiana, to hang out for a while. It was so nice to finally meet Nikki (she and Cameron got married last October). She’s a very sweet girl, and Sara just adores her!
On June 27th we all met up at the hotel and then headed to Deep River Waterpark and spent most of the day there. I left my camera safely hidden in the car, so there are no waterpark pictures to share. Everyone had a great time, though, but the next day Cameron was very sorry he didn’t put any sunscreen on, even though I tried to talk him into it several times. He ended up with a severe sunburn, especially on his back and shoulders. He was miserable! (Next time I will put my foot down and treat him like a 3-year-old and make him put sunblock on!)
Before we went to the waterpark, Sara and I went downstairs with our cameras to take pictures of the flowers while we waited for the “big kids” to get there.
Get Off The Road…
… the dinosaurs are coming!!!
I walked into Sara’s room the other day and saw that she had all her dinosaurs lined up on her race track.
Five In Two
Have you ever driven five different cars in about two weeks? I have! All because of our brand new Rogue. Greg drove six cars in those two weeks!
Of course I drove my Santa Fe (car #1), that we traded in for the Rogue. Got to drive the Rogue (car #2) for about a week and then Greg dropped it off at the Nissan dealer when the car was exactly one week old, to get some scratches fixed that were on the front bumper when we bought it, and to get a rear bumper protector put on. In the week that we had it, we noticed that the outside temperature display was off by quite a bit, and the gas gauge was going a little crazy. It would show a full tank of gas one time, then I would park it in front of my house, and next time I started it up, it would show 3/4 tank and slowly move up to full. It would go back and forth, depending on which way the car was facing when it was parked in front of the house. Greg asked the mechanics to check those things out when he dropped off the car. I drove Greg’s shoebox (car #3) that day and Greg got to drive a Nissan Frontier, that he got as a rental/loaner. We picked up the Rogue that evening… you’d never know there were any scratches, and the bumper guard looked great. The temperature display? NOT fixed! On the sheet of paper they give you, it said that they had to special order the part, but nothing about when it was expected in. They never did find a problem with the gas gauge (doubtful they really checked). Our salesman said he would have the mechanic, who had already gone home, call us the next day. Did he? Nope. Greg called and left messages, never heard back, and he never called back on Monday either. Tuesday Greg was getting a little pissed, called and left another message, and then called the service manager and gave him a piece of his mind. Said that if we don’t get that car fixed, they will be replacing it for us. And wouldn’t you know it, not 30 minutes later, the mechanic calls back and tells us that we could drop the car off the next day and they would try to figure out what was wrong with the gas gauge while they waited on the part for the temperature display. Meanwhile we had driven about 85 miles since the last fill-up and the gas gauge still showed a full tank! Yeah…. wouldn’t it be nice if it got that kind of gas mileage? Something was obviously not right! So Greg dropped it off Wednesday morning before he went to work and got a piece of crap Nissan Sentra as a rental/loaner. Car #4 that I got to drive. The temperature gauge part was in Thursday, and by Friday they had the gas gauge fixed and we picked it up that evening. They even sent us home with a full tank of gas (or at least that’s what it looked like). Everything seemed fine… temperature seemed about right, and the gas gauge wasn’t going crazy either. Same on Saturday morning when we went grocery shopping. Then we put it to the real test and parked it facing the other direction (east) when we got home. A couple of hours later we had to run another errand, and… we’re at 3/4 tank! No, there’s no gas leak anywhere, and we parked it facing west, and when we left to go to Sara’s soccer game, we had a full tank of gas again… and the temperature display was off again, too! It showed 73 degrees, when it was really about 85. Greg had made some phone calls to the service department and never got a call back. Then he tried the service manager again, who told him that we would have to set it up for Monday because he didn’t have a loaner for us, but Greg told him that we would be dropping the car off that afternoon and he would just have to give us a rental. And he would have to pay for the gas, too! We went right after Sara’s game and dropped the car off. Greg made it clear that he expects the problem to be fixed this time. If they think they have it fixed, check again and make sure it’s fixed. And if we have to bring the car back a fourth time, they will be replacing it with a new one! The rental this time? A Nissan Quest (car #5). Hopefully this will be the last rental/loaner for a while!
To be continued…….
Rogue
We traded in my Santa Fe for a 2008 Nissan Rogue SL yesterday. LOVE my new car!!! I would have been happy with just the basic S model, but Greg just had to have the SL because it had a few minor little extras that the S model didn’t have (it’s a man thing I guess… but wait, isn’t this supposed to me my car?)
We didn’t get home until about 7:30 pm, so I only snapped a couple of really quick pics. I’ll have to try and get some better ones in the next few days.
~~ Edited to add more pictures
The Shoebox
Time to introduce the shoebox, aka. hubby’s car. Any smaller and I would have to call it a sardine can, and yes, this is what we’re driving around in on vacation… slightly squished… with the pavement around our necks (or so it seems)…. and getting out of the car feels like crawling out of a hole in the ground. Hubby just LOVES it when I make fun of his car like that! đ  My car would have been much more comfortable, but with gas prices as high as they are, we don’t have a choice. So, I’ll just suck it in up and squeeze into the car every morning.
And We’re Off…
We’re heading to Kemah today for a little getaway. I talked everyone into going to NASA (Johnson Space Center) … not that the kids have too much to say about it. Ha ha! Not sure what else we will do. Kemah has a boardwalk and we might walk around that for a while. And of course Greg wants to buy some crabs – yuck!! – and his oldest brother will meet us here for dinner tomorrow.
Have a great Friday, and I’ll catch up with everyone tomorrow!
The Daily Click 