New Mexico Trip

As most of my faithful readers (all 2 of you!) already know, Shawn and I took a trip to meet up with my family over father's day weekend.  Since Shawn and I are nerds, we generally keep track of the gas mileage the car gets.  We don't have any charts (like Shawn does for our combined Net Worth), but we generally know that in town, the car gets between 32 and 34 mpg and on trips it's usually better.

On trips, we also keep all of the receipts...I'm not really sure why; Shawn claims it's so he knows how much money we spend, but that's not it since we can track that via our credit card statements, so it's gotta be something else.  He also used to set our "B" odometer to log the total number of miles for the trip, but I wouldn't let him do that this trip since I use it to track the number of miles between oil changes.  ANYHOO, we spent $282.28 on the trip (on things that we wouldn't have had to pay for if we had gone by plane).  Of that, $163.57 was spent on gas.  If we had travelled by plane, we would have spent an additional $150 (over the $280).  The car got some amazing gas mileages with the worst being 30.39 mpg (we had only used half a tank and filled up because gas was cheap).  The best, by contrast was 40 mpg.  On average, we got 35.68 mpg.

So, do I love my car (2008 Honda Fit)?  Yes.  Absolutely.

It's like I've been dead for a week

Or maybe longer.

Yes, we've been back in Texas since Sunday night and yet I have not had the time to blog. In fact, I should be doing things like cleaning the house (or rather keeping it clean since we cleaned before we left), or doing dishes, or watching episodes of Moonlight (yes, I am addicted, we shall not speak of this anymore), or hell, making myself something to eat (thank God for frozen corn dogs).

Observations over the last week:

-Thanksgiving is fun. Even if you do have to drive 15 hours to get to family.
-Camping is fun. Especially when it's not cold and you get to see Armadillos and Wild Turkeys.
-Driving across Texas is kinda boring. But there are bright spots, like all the dead deer. And seeing very Texan animals like Emus and Alpacas.
-I think Hitman was a good movie. But then, I also like Lake Placid. In any case, I think we can all agree that it was better than The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
-Meeting your niece for the first time is wonderful. Made even better by the fact that she didn't scream when I picked her up. That is because I really am That Good with babies. Or it may have been because she was watching football on the TV.
-Stopping every 20 miles when you're driving through Colorado because your windshield fluid has frozen in the windshield wipers and you have to rub down the windshield with snow so you can clean it off enough to drive another 20 miles.
-Thanking the nice man who sprays your windshield with Windex because he feels sorry for you. And then realizing that your sprayers have finally become de-iced.
-It sucks that the Fit isn't a 6 speed. Man, think about it, you could get like 3 mpg better on the highway.
-The Fit gets pretty good gas mileage. We averaged probably about 34. Though there was the one time we apparently got 46. But we think the gas pump gave us more than it said it did.
-Coming home to snuggly-butted cats.
-Man, you really do learn to appreciate cruise control across those Texas plains.
-Finding out that your mother-in-law is a Speedy McSpeedersons and that's why they do the Texas/Colorado drive in 13 hours.
-Doing a six mile hike in like 1.5-2 hours. Through the desert. With 1.25 liters of water. For 2 people. Oh, and it's pretty hot (like maybe 75 degrees), especially for November.
-Hiking in the dark through brush up to your waist with a 20lb backpack following a 'trail' that may have just been a low spot on the ground. And then, when you finally decide to just set up camp, realizing that you have nowhere to set up the tent except the middle of a dried creek bed. Yeah, that makes me feel safe.
-Spending time with friends you don't get to see often enough is wonderful.
-Reading the Golden Compass in preparation for the movie release is fun. I like the book. Now, will I like the movie?
-Getting a 3-month subscription to Ancestry.com from your Dad as an early Christmas Gift is sweet. Even if he does mandate that this means you and your sister have to spend all your free time working on the tree to get the most out of the subscription.
-Speaking of family trees, I love going through old photos of family. I especially like finding the funny photos--you know the ones. The ones where your parents are sitting together wearing matching sweaters they got for Christmas. Yeah. That photo was awesome. However, since I teased Bob and Elsie about it so much, I'm sure that Shawn and I will end up with matching sweaters for Christmas. I would post a photo, but I like my life and I don't want it to end prematurely by posting said photo on the interwebs for all to see.
-AND I finally started driving my Fit to work. So far, so good.

Will this be the week?

Will this finally be the week in which I actually drive my new car to work? Everyone (and by "everyone" I mean Bond and Beachy) have said that it is time. It is time for me to drive to work so they can all bask in the gloriousness that is my car.

But

I don't know. I still get all freaked out with other cars around me. Maybe after our roadtrip I'll feel better about it.

Also

I gotta say, it's been awesome taking the bus the last few weeks (okay, the getting up early part has sucked), and I've only driven 140 miles on the car and haven't had to fill it up once. So, that's like about 120 (or so) miles driven to the bus stop over the last 11 working days (I had Veteran's Day off). Which if you consider the norm is 440 over the same amount of time if I actually drive to work.

So

If you say that I get 34 mpg, that means I've gone through about 4 gallons (we'll round it up to 5 since I am sure as hell not getting 34 mpg since I just started driving stick). That would mean it's about 13 gallons 'normally'. So I've saved about 8 gallons of gas just by taking the bus for the last 2.5 weeks. Which translates into like $25 saved.

Interesting.

NaBloPoMo

Yes, it's National Blog month...though I cannot for the life of me, remember what the Po stands for. Damn. Anyhow, I have not signed up for said blog-o-rama, but that that does not mean that I won't attempt to blog everyday (WARNING: This is going to get VERY boring).

Things of note at 130pm on Saturday:

- I drove to the car dealership to pick up the new license plates for the car. I had to go on the highways and everything. Sadly, the license plates do not have the 666 number associated with them. Which is kinda sad...

- And I have decided I like Daemon's TV. Especially the Death Watch portion of it. I love me some counters.

- Nostalgia moment: I remember when Independence Day came out. We went to go see it. It was the same day that there was some major electrical outage over the western half of the US (from Oregon to Colorado if I remember correctly). It totally was like the Aliens were coming. Also, the counter: I downloaded some Independence Day themed screen saver (from the official 20th Century Fox website I might add) and it basically was a counter. And it counted down. And I have no idea what it counted down to. But I do remember that when it got close to completing it's count down, my dad freaked out and deleted the thing because he swore it was going to unleash some computer virus. Which now, if you think about it, he probably should have gone with because then he could have gotten himself a new computer (of course he would have had to do things like back up all the files and disconnect it from the internet before the countdown was complete). [Aside] this moment has been brought to you by Milky Way and Coke [/Aside]

The first picture of 'blue'

Almost one full week (we've got another hour to go or so) and I've only stalled it 5 times.

and I shall deem it "Blue"

My new car is here!!!! it's exciting, no? Unfortunately, however, it is a stick shift and I cannot drive stick. Thus I am relegated to driving around the neighborhood for about 20 minutes at a time and trying not to stall out while at stop signs.

Good news though, I've only stalled out like 3 times. And one of those times is because I took my feet off the pedals BEFORE turning off the car. And this, I know, is just a bad habit from driving automatics--I always want to make sure the car isn't going to move before I turn it off, so I take my feet off the pedals while the car is running. The other times were at stop signs--the first time the guy behind me was nice and didn't honk...though I think it was pretty obvious something was up because it was nighttime and when you pull the key out of the ignition, it will bring up the dome light, and when you start the car it turns off the dome light...and I've got another bad habit of when my car dies, I will turn it off and take the key out of the ignition (thus why my dome light turned on). The last time I stalled out was this morning and it was because I freak out that someone is going to be behind me at a stop sign so I try to start out without giving the car enough gas, thus the stall. And that lady was a dirty bitch and honked. Bitch.

I will post pictures when I'm not being a lazy butt.

The paper signing only took an hour and a half. And that included turning in the satan saturn. Sadly, we only got $500 for it because the dealership said they weren't going to sell it...actually the salesguy told it would probably be taken to Mexico. He did not elaborate past that.

The only "extra" we got was the extended warranty. And we only got that because I said "these are the things that went wrong with the Saturn in the first 5 years that I owned it: Alternator, Battery, Tensioner, Transmission, and Starter" To which, Shawn replied "yes, but the car is 12 years old and that's only what's gone wrong in the last 5 years" But still, we got the extended warranty (7 yrs 80k miles)...besides they were having a sale on the warranties...and when the Honda service guys charge $90/hour, I think it's a much better deal to just have it so they can't charge us on parts and labor because we have the warranty (the basic warranty was 3 yrs).

The only other thing that may have been nice was the window tint. But we can get that at a later date if we so desire.

Now then, I'm off to go drive around the neighborhood for another 20 minutes to get my muscle memory to remember where the clutch point is.

Working for the Weekend

Sigh. My poor little car has re-commenced its slow painful death.

Yesterday Shawn and I went down to San Antonio, and as we reached I35 and 51st street (in Austin), the check engine light came back on, so Shawn exited the highway and we pulled into a gas station and turned off the car...though as Shawn says, for the last bit there we were literally coasting as the car had completely stalled out. We filled the car with gas (as we needed gas anyway) and turned it back on. It started fine (well, it did the same thing as last time where it revved the engine at a high RPM for a bit before settling back down). We pulled out on the frontage road and began to figure out where we were supposed to go to get back on to I35 southbound. We got to a stop light and the car just died. There didn't seem to be any warning, but Shawn knew it was dying right before it actually did. I quickly threw the car into park (see...this is what happens when you drive stick all the time, you forget things like 'cars must be in park BEFORE starting the car, and the car will not turn off unless you're in park'), and he restarted it before the light turned green. We didn't have any other problems on the way to San Antonio, nor on the way back. But still, it's obnoxious when your car just up and dies on you and it seems to be a completely random thing because it was fine for a month and then it goes and dies on us 2 times within 10 minutes, but then afterward it's fine again...yeah, something is probably really wrong....and the bigger problem is that neither of us wants to spend a ton of money to fix up the car because it's pretty much on its last legs anyhow with the transmission and engine. So I think Shawn wanted to check the spark plugs and fuel filter/put in some fuel injector cleaner to see if that helps any. [Update: Shawn has decided after searching the net that there is probably nothing wrong with the spark plugs...and the fuel system was completely cleaned out exactly a year ago, so he's decided that it just means we gotta get a new car]

You may ask why it was that we were so gung-ho to get down to San Antonio. And the answer would be that we had to get down there because Shawn's parents were in town for an interview (okay, Bob was really the one down in SA for the interview, Elsie was just along for the ride). Because of the car problems, and the fact that San Antonio is like 90 miles away, we got there at about 1 pm. We then went with the 'rents to go look at model homes (as there's a very good chance that they will be moving down here). The funniest part was listening to Elsie talk to the sales people (as we went to 'new' subdivisions)--at one of them she said that she and Bob were currently living in a Victorian house built in the 80's. Shawn and I are pretty sure that the saleslady thought they were talking about the 1880's, and this explains why she was questioning why they were only wanting to look at the model houses in the $150K range. We also went to Del Webb's Hill Country Retreat ('The Llano' is pictured to the left) which is a community for "people 55 or better." The salesman was very nice, but it's obvious he is a salesman. The houses were very nice...as in, I wouldn't mind living in one. Of course, they come with a price attached--as in the mid-range houses are about $225K and of course there's the $100 a month in home owner's fees to maintain the entrance to the community, and use of the amenity center. And the amenity center isn't even open yet, nor are there plans to put in a golf course. Plus, you don't get a lot of options with the houses, basically, what you see is what you get, so if you get the mid-range house, you get Corian Countertops, but you can't upgrade to granite. Also, Elsie is very concerned (and I'm sure Bob is too) about having mature trees in their yard (either front or back)...of course, I would figure that if you wanted mature trees, you wouldn't be looking at a new subdivision...even if Texas developers are gung-ho about leaving live oak trees in the ground if they can. Also, it seems that they are looking for something in a cul-de-sac with a green belt behind (very similar to their current house)...But it's quickly becoming "Beggars can't be Choosers" I would think.

I went to a party on Friday night at the Ambitious Mrs. father-in-law's house. That was fun, I got to meet the newest member of their family, plus I got to hang out with the Venezuelan and Ma-Belle, and Miss Sarah and Yam...ah, babies are so much fun when they aren't your own. :) (the picture above is of Miss Sarah and the Ambitious Mrs. taking pictures of their respective children and the child of one of Sarah's co-workers.)

Poor Busted Ass Saturn Part II

My God, I'm surprised this car still works.

It's been what? a week? since my car was in the shop. So, of course that means something has to happen.

And thus, on Tuesday, something did.

I was driving Shawn downtown for NI week. We're toolin' along on 183 and the car starts shifting really hard (and it's an automatic). I say "Why's my car shifting so funny?" and then, immediately, almost like the car was waiting for me to say something, the "Check Engine" light comes on. I exit the highway and drive to the closest parking lot, as I pull in, the power steering goes out (And my God! I had no idea power steering was so necessary). Then all the idiot lights come on. I throw the car into park and turn it off...Shawn said I did it in such a way that it seemed like I seriously believed my car was going to explode if I didn't turn off the car. Right! Now! I let it sit for a little bit and then said "Okay, I am going to turn the key in the ignition, and everything will start up fine and we will have no further problems." And I turn the key, and we drive on to downtown without any other incidences (nor have I had any other incidences since then).

Of course, now I drive like a little old granny. And I'm looking at new cars online. And Shawn's gung-ho about getting a stick shift. Keep in mind that I DON'T DRIVE STICK SHIFT! In fact, I've driven stick a total of 3 times in my life. Once around a parking lot in Parker, and twice around our neighborhood down here. All three times were in Shawn's truck. I think I've stalled out 4 times. Of those 4 times, all 4 were this last time I drove. So, instead of getting BETTER at driving stick, I am apparently getting WORSE. And the boy still wants to get me a stick shift car.

He claims that we just have to take a Friday off, go down and get the car (he'll drive it home), and then I get to drive it all weekend, and magically, I will be a manual transmission driving pro. I don't know....what do you guys think?

Poor Busted Ass Saturn

that's right, my saturn is busted assed...again.

I called in sick because of a migraine (luckily, my symptoms of a migraine usually are just a sensitivity to light (and my eyes hurt--like it hurts to keep them open, I have to close them...and preferably be laying down) and loud noises, with a killer headache and sleep usually fixes it right up). [Aside] odd...some people would say those are the symptoms of a hang over...but I was not hungover...actually, i don't think i've ever been hung over...but that's probably because i tend not to get smashed off my ass [/Aside]. After I call in, I decide I should go get some pain killers. Right before I leave to go to the store, I say to myself "Self go mail off the baby package." I grab the baby package, get out the door and then drive to the UPS store. I mail off said package. I get back to my car. I turn the key. Click. "NO NO NO!" Turn the key again. Click. "DAMMIT"

I call Shawn. He says "Call AAA" so I do. Their service isn't working--it keeps telling me to hang up and call the number on my card. I call Shawn back and explain what just happened. So he leaves work to come to the UPS store to jump start the battery. It won't jump start. So, we take the battery out of the car and drive it to Sears to get a new battery. Bad news: The battery is fine. Shit. So we drive back to the car, replace the battery and call AAA again. (Keep in mind that by this time I'm a cranky whore-bitch and am about ready to cry, or to lay down in the middle of the parking lot and die). This time the service works (thank God! I was about to cry, or lay down in the middle of the parking lot and die). They say someone will be out in an hour to tow the car. An hour comes, an hour goes...the tow truck shop calls back to say the tow truck is running a little behind and "A truck will be there in 15minutes, half an hour." Another hour later I call the tow truck company. The guy tells me that there will definitely be a tow truck out there soon. Half an hour later the truck shows up. That's right, we waited outside for 3 hours. Thankfully I found old pain meds in my purse somewhere around hour one so the killer headache was gone, and laying on a street bench by the bookstore in the shade at least got my eyes to stop hurting, but I was still beat.

We finally got home around 3 and both crashed for a nap. Now, I feel a lot better...Aside from the fact that I have to get up early to go catch the bus to make it to work tomorrow.