Car Shopping

I had no idea buying a new car was going to be this difficult. I have just returned from 7 hours of test driving cars. Two of them I definitely liked -- the Mitsubishi Outlander was my first test drive and I loved it. UNfortunately, the seat is not adjustable enough and aggravated my back terribly. Next I re-tested the Jeep Liberty and love it. However, I'd read a negative review about road noise on the highway, so I asked to test drive it on the highway and sure enough, there's an actual "whine" high pitched sound that might be pretty destracting on a long trip. Back-wise it was good. I also test drove a Pontiac Torrent. The seat was comfortable and adjustable, but overall, the car just didn't have enough power and just plain didn't feel "right" for me. Lastly, I test drove the Toyota Camry. Much larger than I expected, and really "frills-free". I drove a 4 cyclinder and definitely wanted a 6 cyclinder, which still would have been in my price range. But huge problem - despite a lot of seat adjustments, including lumbar support, by the time I finished our 20 minute test drive I was almost in tears from pain in my back. Ugh. I had to come home after the Toyota caused such back pain, so I plan on heading out again tomorrow to test drive the Ford Fusion (which I actually drove last January and loved), the Subaru Outback, and the Dodge Avenger. At this point, the Jeep Liberty is winning. I don't take my car on the highway all that often, so I may be able to live with the whine. As the salesman said, "That's what they make radio's for." LOL!

Wednesday - Hot hot hot

I had to include a new picture of Brayden, taken yesterday at breakfast. Whenever he's here (two days a week), he eats breakfast with his Grampy. I was delighted when Mary brought fruit salad (unsweetened) for his breakfast - and he loved it! Well, the blueberries he spit out, but loved the cantelope, grapes and bananas (which I added). You can also see his new Spiderman hat, which he loves and wears constantly. Such a little BOY!

Today was supposed to be car-shopping day but it's put off until Saturday, when the weather will be almost 20 degrees cooler. This has been the hottest summer here in the Cincinnati area! I believe we've had 17 straight days of 90 degrees and over -- and most were WAY over. I still haven't decided on the kind of car I want, but am going to test drive the Ford Fusion, Dodge Avenger, Mercury Milan and Subaru Outback, and anything else that catches my fancy while I'm out there. It will be an all-day event, but I will come back with a new car!

My To Do List today is short, and most of my day will be spent working on the quilt for Jeff's Aunt's 90th birthday (which you can see a picture of in my other blog).

Today's TO LIST

• Make bed - done
• Make guest bed - done
• Dishes into dishwasher - done
• Pack Jeff's lunch - done
• Jeff's breakfast - done (breakfast burrito of scrambled egg, ham, cheese)
• Quick overall pick up in family room and kitchen
• Put trash cans away - done
• Clean up toys on deck and empty "pool"

About 15 more minutes of housework and it's off to the quilt room for the day. Yay!

Tuesday is NOT Slug Day

As usual, I took Monday "off" from doing housework, so today I need to get busy. It's all about cleaning the upstairs today. Here's my To Do List:

• Vac upstairs, all rooms - done
• Dust upstairs - master bedrm, guest rm, hallway - done
• Wash bathroom area rugs - done
• Clean bathrooms thoroughly - done
• Empty all trash - done
• Wash bathroom floors - done
• Cob web check all rooms - done
• Vac heat returns - done
• Straighten linen closet - done
• Get some lavender from garden and put in linen closet
• Vac stairs, wipe down side molding - done
• Polish bannisters - done

That ought to keep me busy.

Dinner tonight is steak fajitas (leftover marinated steak from last night's dinner with lots of onions, green peppers, tomatoes from the garden served on steamed burrito wraps) and corn on the cob. I think next year I'm going to try growing corn in my veg garden. This is "corn country" and there's no reason it shouldn't do well -- and it will certainly taste better than the corn purchased at the grocery store that's probably a week old by the time I buy it!

Although our weather forecast continues in the 90's, this morning is UNbelievably cool and crisp! I have turned off the AC and opened up some windows and the door to take advantage of getting fresh air into the house. Even if I can just get an hour or so of cooler air, it's nice to be able to air things out after a long hot summer of AC!

Helpful Household Hint

Last year we had a new glass slider patio door installed, and the gentleman who installed it gave me this helpful hint. To keep the door sliding smoothly and to keep the frame clean, use spray furniture polish! Just spray the furniture polish in the grooves and wipe off (and use a toothbrush in the corners and grooves where the rag won't clean). It keeps our screen and glass doors sliding smoothly!

There's a raccoon in my garden, no, wait...

Jeff and I decided last night we were going to get up and view the meteor showers at 2am. HA! For some reason we stayed up until almost midnight, but didn't stay up for another two hours for the meteors. Instead, we set the alarm clock for 2am. I had difficulty falling asleep and remember seeing the clock at 1:55am -- and the next thing I knew the alarm was going off! I was not in the mood to get up, so instead gave Jeff a nudge and made him make the decision -- he promptly hit the snooze alarm and we both went right back to sleep. 10 minutes later, the alarm went off again -- and he got up, glanced out the window, didn't see any meteors (LOL!) and announced it was too cloudy to see meteors. Whether or not that's true I'll never know, because that's all it took to get me back to sleep! Up at the usual 6am, so that's four hours sleep. Luckily, it's Monday, which is my OFFICIAL "Slug Day" so I didn't have much on my To Do List today. Mary came over at lunch time and we had a nice talk -- I always enjoy having some alone time with her :) She's got so much of her life on track that she's still my miracle daughter and I'm so proud of her. Today I surprised her by asking her if she wants my SUV. She can either get it repaired for SIL to drive, or she can sell it and keep half the profit. Of course, she jumped at the chance and said yes, she wanted it. Good. Once less thing to worry about -- how to get rid of my old car. And YES YES YES the check for the new car came in today. Jeff will deposit it for me tomorrow, and I'll be off car shopping on Thursday with full intentions of bringing home a new car THAT day. FINALLY! I wish I could go on Wednesday, but I have Brayden that day, and can't imagine trying to juggle a car seat in all the cars I want to test drive, so it will have to wait until Thursday. Hmmm... Maybe I can go Tuesday evening. Hadn't thought of that. I looked out my kitchen window this morning and saw a raccoon acting kind of crazy on the other side of my vegetable garden. At first I thought he was digging in the ground, but then he started turning around in circles and just being really weird. I couldn't see too well as it was all the way across our yard and between our veg garden and the neighbor's. I went out to the side yard to get a better look (without getting too close, since we had one rabid raccoon in our neighborhood and this one was acting strange enough to be a second), and found the neighbor had a cage out and the raccoon was in the cage. The neighbor has a GORGEOUS vegetable garden (puts mine to shame) and I can't blame him for not wanting a raccoon in there. BUT the poor thing was out there in the cage for hours and hours in the 95+ degree heat! I finally went out and turned the sprinkler on in my garden, because I knew the water would hit the area where the cage was and give the poor guy a drink. Seemed to work because he calmed down quite a bit after that. Around 1pm the cage and raccoon were gone, so I assume he's on his way to a nice wooded area far far from here. Jeff has gone off to a work get-together tonight. Spouses were invited but I opted out for this one. I've gone to all the others and very few of the spouses have attended more than one or two, so I decided it wouldn't hurt anything to sit this one out. Besides, even if it's on the river (Ohio River) it's just too darn hot and humid to sit outside all afternoon.

Sunday - Not much of a day of rest!

 

I was hoping I'd be out car shopping today, but unfortunately, the stock check hasn't arrived yet. Ah well... a few more days without my own car won't kill me. Hopefully it will come in tomorrow and I can get out Monday and Tuesday. I'd like to test drive several cars before making up my mind. I plan on looking at the Ford Fusion, the 2008 Ford Taurus, the Subaru Tribeca and Forester, and a few Toyota's. I may also test drive a Dodge and Saturn as well. I test drove the Fusion a few months ago and LOVE it, and see that the price has come down about $5000 since then. So it's well within my budget.

 

Although it's a quiet day, it's certainly not been a "day of rest" today. I woke up fairly early (7:00) and got moving. I gathered laundry and brought it down to the laundry room, emptied the upstairs trash, brought down the upstairs coffee pot (yes, we have a coffee pot in our master bedroom!), and wanted to clean both coffee pots. Unfortunately, I was out of white vinegar, so decided to get in a run to WallyWorld, which I needed to do to buy the off-white thread I needed to work on the 90th birthday quilt anyway. Who would think I'd be out of off-white thread?!? So off I went to Wally-World, and also picked up a low (6 inches) clear plastic bin to put water in for Brayden to play with. He's been out on the deck playing in water in a tiny 8 x 8 tupperware container (!) with just a cup and a spoon, and having a ball. But then he decides he wants to "splash" and he tries to stand in it...lol.. funny to watch. We had a gorgeous pool given to us by a co-worker of Jeff's -- unfortunately, it had several holes in it and we had to throw it away (sorry June!!!). Too bad, because it was the nicest kid's pool I've ever seen -- with a little "hot tub" area, slide, and all kinds of blow-up toys (we kept the toys). Another co-worker transported it from one place to another -- and I think that must be where the holes occurred, since it didn't have holes when it left the original house, and did when it got to us!

 

Since I've been home, I've cleaned both coffee pots, and done 3 loads of laundry. I have ironing to do this afternoon, which I'll do while the NASCAR race is on.

 

Our weather here is still nasty hot -- 95+ today and very humid. I'd say I'm tired of the hot weather, but to be honest, with central air in the house and air conditioned cars -- who really notices?!?  I don't get out in the garden much during this hot weather, but did get out and pick some green peppers yesterday - gorgeous peppers. They do love this hot weather.

 

This afternoon I'm headed to my quilt room now that I have the thread I need. Should be able to get the pieced and applique strips sewn together and the fabric cut to start the borders. (See my other blog http://joanoh.blogspot.com for details on the quilt I'm working on.)

 

Because we'll watch the race, this afternoon will be a lazy one. Jeff's still suffering from his cold, but I'm happy to say that I feel like I'm almost over mine. Phew. Not nearly as bad as the last bout I had a few months ago!. Jeff actually mentioned going to the doctor this week if he continues to feel so bad -- so you know he's sick if he's talking about going to the doctor!