# 19 — Buy a new car

.... CHECK!!!!!!

Yesterday, Erik posted about our car buying experience.

BEFORE:


AFTER:


I have to admit, it was a scream to read Erik's rendition of our shopping experience.

Overall, it was ok. Not fabulous, but OK. We ran into a really inexperienced sales person here in Salina on our first trip shopping, which soured my opinion.

We sort of played "good cop-bad cop" with the sales people. Erik was jovial, friendly dude. I played tight-wad wife. I think I got pretty good at frowning, furrowing my brow and shaking my head.

Evidently the car we bought was supposed to be repaired and put on the lot for a higher listing price. So .... by taking the vehicle with hail damage, we got 45% off what their sticker price would have been. That makes the bargain shopper in me just smile. :)

So, why was this on the 101 list? Well ... I knew eventually my car would kick it. Going onto a car lot and haggling seems like a right of passage. One which I hadn't yet had. But let me say: I'm glad Erik was with me. More or less, the sales people latched onto Erik and talked his ear off, which left me to wander and check out a variety of vehicles.

Victory! A new ride is discovered.

Karen came home with some bad news a few weeks ago. The car she had inherited from her grandfather — a 1996 Chrylser Concorde LX — had finally kicked the bucket.

After thousands of dollars in repair and care, the latest Concorde malady was the final straw. The mechanic's advice was to trade it in so that's what we did.

It's been more than six years since my last automobile purchase — my 1998 Mistsubishi Montero, which is still on the road (knock wood). A co-worker and his girlfriend bought a Scion, and he kind of gave me a rundown of the market.

Karen was pretty specific on what she wanted — 4-door sedan, plenty of leg room, good gas mileage a low miles. Since her car did not qualify for the Cash for Clunkers rebate (it was slightly above the MPG requirements — 19 combined, 1 MPG too high ... Drat.) we decided to go the pre-owned route.

What she didn't count on was the amount of hogwash that would pour out of typical used car salesmen. Even after watching her head spin around on its axis, many of these dude wouldn't stop. I suppose that's part of their strategy. It doesn't work with my wife.

We managed to get in a few test drives with no major damage to any salesmen, and I even managed to emerge relatively unscathed. After narrowing our choices — We pretty much eliminated the Kia Optima and Ford Fusion with their less-than-impressive rides — we were down to the Nissan Altima and Chevy Impala. We considered some other sedans, but most often, leg room was an issue.

With no intention of making a purchase Karen and I ambled onto the Mel Hambleton parking lot. The salesman, Andy, came out for the usual chit-chat and tire kicking. Almost immediately, Karen went into "show-me-what-I'm-looking-for-before-I-take-a-piece-out-of-your-behind-and-stomp-off-the-lot" mode.

We finally came across an 2005 Altima at the end of the lot with some hail damage, which was significant but completely cosmetic. We'd driven a couple of Altimas and had absolutely fallen in love with their quiet, smooth ride. This one had heated, leather seats, and a Bose stereo system with a 6-CD changer ... Sweet, right? Even better, it had only 35,000 miles and one previous owner!

After some some run-of-the-mill haggling, the new ride was ours! One never knows how these things work out, but I hope we have this car for another 8 to 10 years.

If you're wondering about the color, it's "polished pewter metallic." Pretty fancy, eh?

Crossover — Dea + Kevin + 5 (1/2)

I tell you what .... we rescheduled oru portrait about 305 times, we thought it'd rain during the session, my car totally overheated while location scouting .... but in the end the rain held off just long enough for our session to come to fruition.

I say 5 1/2 kids b/c they're having kiddo No. 6 around the first of the year. Seriously, I want to look so awesome while preggo w/ baby No. 6. Seriously!

To check it out, CLICK HERE.

On the car front .... there's news. WE BOUGHT A CAR yesterday. :) Yes, there will be photos up in the next few days.

Esse sprawled out

With the warmer weather, our kitty has been enjoying running around outside, but she comes in all tuckered out. And then sprawls out.

She does this funny thing with her front paws in the air .... so odd.


A bit closer ... I'm not sure if I've ever seen her do this before.

As you can see from her eye, she's not amused with me.

Kitchen wall demolished.....

The kitchen was completely redone before Erik purchased our house. I have a few gripes about the kitchen:

1. The wall completely closes off the kitchen from the dining room. :( During Christmas Eve, I was sad because I was pretty much a prisoner in the kitchen .... it was difficult to chat with anyone.

2. The person who put in the kitchen put the dishwasher far away from the kitchen sink. What GIVES? We rinse off the dishes, then drip them across the kitchen to the dishwasher. Ugh.

3. The kitchen is narrow. Erik and I often bump into one another. Now, I know Erik doesn't mind (wink, wink), but it can be a real pain.

WELL, to my knowledge, there isn't much I can do about moving the dishwasher or width of the kitchen. BUT the wall .... well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

BEFORE:


AFTER:


Here's a before from the other side:


A few weeks ago, I pulled off the trim because ... well ... I was getting antsy. But then I got an un-fun summer cold, so it just sat there.






Our buddy, Coop, loaned me his sawsall. Let me say, that bad boy has some serious POWER! It was a lot of fun to use. :)


But it was my first go with it, so I wasn't as smooth as some others might be. But you have to start somewhere, right?


There were a few tricky components .... the first was the electricity in the wall. But we turned off the power and I just cut around it. :)




The other tricky part was we had a vent in the wall. I borrowed the sawsall from Coop, thinking I'd have to saw through the metal vent stuff.


BUT it was not difficult .... we just pulled them apart and PRESTO! :)


And the view from the dining room into the kitchen. :)

Initially, my intention was to move the light switch to the wall right by the fridge ... but Erik suggested we put it on the right side of this photo .... on that wall. I think it will be great. We just have to do it now.

I have to give a BIG thanks to Erik for letting me do this. For TRUSTING me to do this! I think he was initially concerned it would take days to happen, but in truth, it took about an hour and a half to get rid of it. That included vacuuming up all of the dust.

That was the one thing I didn't realize would be there ..... it was just SOOOOO dusty! EEK!

Oh, and for those of you geeks out there who are interested, the doorway/opening was 30 inches before, and opening it up added an additional 22 inches. It's SO luxurious now. :)

Yeah, there's a ways to go before it's 100% finished. We need to get a floor vent and finish the opening off, and install the light switch, but it's liveable now, and it's just nice to be able to walk through where a wall once was!

Erik's fellas ... UPDATE!!!!

Remember when Erik insisted we get a pair of cherry tomato plants? Well, they have started to bear fruit ...... and he is *beside* himself with excitement.


Erik is rather obsessed with salads. He loves to eat his "big salads" ... almost every night. So, of course, the cherry tomato would go on top of it.


First cherry tomato of the season!!!!! Doesn't that salad look beautiful? Yeah, I made it, and Erik gobbled it up. :)

Pumpkin Pancakes

Awhile ago, Erik and I were talking .... and somehow the crazy item of making 1 new recipe/week for 3 months from my 101 in 1001 list came up. Erik really enjoyed eating new foods. And, he pointed out, it forced me to plan what I was going to make, and when I was going to make it .... as opposed to waiting until 5 p.m. to decide what was for dinner (GREAT comment, Erik!).

So,last Friday night (in an effort to keep with our meatless Fridays), I decided we'd have breakfast for dinner. Pancakes are great any time, right? So we had pumpkin pancakes. Ohhhhhhh myyyyyyyyy goodness.


In truth, I've had them before at my friend Nicole's, but they're tricky things to make. The batter is fairly thick, and (like the peanut butter pancakes, sometimes you have to add extra milk to thin down the batter (if you don't do this, it won't necessarily cook all the way through, then there will be ... slimy-ness in the middle of your pancake. ICK!)

Oh, I should also add instead of using 2 cups of all purpose flour, I use 1 c. wheat flour and 1 c. all purpose flour.

But I enjoyed them at Nicole's and I figured I'd introduce Erik to them. :)

I was looking through the recipes at Better Homes & Gardens and found some MORE fun pancake recipes! Thought I'd share. :)

grain + fruit pancakes
apple pancakes
cranberry OJ pancakes
apple honey pancakes

This is interesting sounding .... and if you're like me, you have no idea what to do with the leftover ricotta cheese when you're making lasagna. So this sounds like a good way to use it:

blueberry ricotta pancakes

Aaaaaaand, just for fun, since it's summer and our tomato patch will explode soon:

tomato pancakes

Independence — The Carousel

The carousel!!!!! It's a whopping nickel to ride. Fabulous. :) Evidently the people who donated it to the city stipulated that it stay a nickel to ride forever and EVER. Nice, eh?


Erik shunned the horses. He opted for a seated ride.


Check out the horses.


The horses were evidently painted (actually, re-painted) by a local painter. Just a little detail.


For those of you who care .... here are the hours.


They didn't turn the lights on for us .... and Erik tried to get a free ride out of that. SHEESH!


And this was the concert in the park ... no photos, just video to share.

Know what? This is a really random fact, but I lived in Indy for 2+ years and know what? I NEVER attended one of these. Seems rather odd. Like, I should have photographed it at some point. But no. I never did.

Glad there's something new I could experience while I was there. :)

AAAAAAAND, this concludes my posts on our trip to Independence, Kansas. Phew!

Independence — Food!!!!!!

Ok, I have to say, John's Kitchen and Pub is like my FAAAAAAAVORITE restaurant in Indy. When we showed up for lunch and it was CLOSED, I almost cried. Truly.

They have the best bread on the planet there. And some pretty good BBQ. My favorite part is you can dip your own sauce .... it's not slathered in sauce. Oh ... the meat ...... yeah, I'm getting hungry just TYPING about it. You walk in and you just smell that they've been smoking their meat all day.

Ok, I have to stop talking about the food.


This is amusing: we were parking and there was this fake owl (I'm guessing it was designed to scare off the pigeons). But, as you can see, the pigeons just didn't care. They sat next to it, in fact, on TOP of it. Sheesh!

Independence — Swimming Pool

Another James pic!


Oh yeah ... Erik and I have been hitting aquatic parks around the state ... and Independence was one of them. Especially for the slide.

Erik didn't like the slide too much. Said it threw him around too much.

I like it OK.


James gave those floating lilly pads a run for their money!



Then, Erik bet James on the pads. He told him if James could go on them w/o using the rope, Erik would get him a Sno Cone. Nice.


James is a clever little fella.


Eventually something got bet (I don't remember) and Erik lost .... and had to go down the toilet bowl slide (again).


James was jubilant.

Independence — Burmese Brother :)

Ooooooook, so we were driving down to Independence .... and who should call me but my Burmese Brother, James.


Let me rewind here. When I was living in Indy, James and his family moved in upstairs. They are immigrants from Burma. His father was a freedom fighter and they're a lovely family. Anyhow, James basically adopted me ... and I he. He calls me "big sister" and so he's my Burmese Brother.

So ..... he called Sunday afternoon to tell me he and his mom were going to see Fr. Steve, who lived about 30 minutes from where we were traveling. COINCIDENCE!!!!!!!!! We could have tried to plan a rendezvous for MONTHS but it would probably never have worked out so well. :)


We went to the Tropical Sno stand ....


Who doesn't love a good tropical sno?

Independence — The Reporler

I call it "The Reporler" because the sign in front of the newspaper where I worked for 2+ years .... and the sign out front was (and still is) broken. The 't' has broken off ... and looks like an 'l.'


I always loved that you could look at the presses as it printed.


However .... there are still some things that never change .... like the holes in the carpet. The carpet is admittedly the running joke of ... lots of places in town.


And we were going in through the back door .... and this sign was up. Amusing .... I'm sure there's some sort of story that goes along with this....

Independence — The Quilting Girls!!!!!

When we decided to go to Independence, I told Erik "We HAVE to go over a Tuesday."

I'm suuuuuure Erik internally rolled his eyes. But I spent quite a bit of time with the ladies on Tuesday mornings.




We each made a quilt square .... which was fun.


This was mine .... a blue work square. :) I am currently "working" on my bluework quilt. I have about 2 more blocks to make ... then gotta piece it and quilt it. Yeah, it's been sitting in a box for 4 years. I have been a SLACKER on that front.


Erik took over the camera .....


I'm looking pretty un-stellar here. I think I was trying to figure out if I missed some stitches....


This little mint tin is where I keep my quilting thimble and needles. :)


Pearl and .... Rita, I think.


There's sort of a running joke about me and quilting. The ladies have snack time ... and let's just say I generally showed up right before snack time, would put a few stitches in .... and then have snack time, then have to go back to work. Evidently they STILL talk about it .... evidently, it's called "doing a Karen."


Here's Pat. She's just one of my favorites. I don't want to sound like a meanie by picking faves, but Pat is just a darling!


Check out this cute baby quilt the ladies did!


And of course, they put their tag on it.


Last few of the quilt I was working on. They used gold thread, which was difficult to see.


Pat's comment is she could always tell where I had been working because I quilt so evenly. Interesting comment. I denied it at first, but eventually, I guess she's right. :) I had to traced the stitches with a little line .... the stitches are just below the lines ... but it's a little tough to see. Just in case you care. ;)