Did you know it's Dog Bite Prevention Week?
Crazy Dog should be the poster child. Of what you DON'T want. I love this poster that tells you how you can tell if a dog might bite you. We make it easy with Crazy Dog and slap a muzzle on him. Pretty damn obvious that he will bite.
Just some information for you:
If there is any part of your body that is accessible to the corgi, she will lick it. ANY PART.
Ew. Let's not get R rated here. But I mean, armpits, butt cracks, and boob sweat areas are not off limits, provided she can access them. Sometimes when you aren't even expecting it. <shudder>
Evidence of the maniacal obsession:
Oh wait, aaaaaaaand more:
TAG TEAM!!!
Gross.
If you’ve been reading about this adventure here and here, you’ve already heard about how sad it made me to make the decision to sell my old Acura, but how much I do actually like the new Prius C. And I do like it.
After I left the dealership with all my new paperwork, the keys, and a brand new monthly payment, all that was left was to sell the old Acura.
And that was a tiring process as well. I posted the car to Craigslist with an inflated price (by about $500). I have tried to purchase cars of CL before. I know how it works. Everyone tries to haggle with you so you might as well start a little inflated.
Oh, but wait! BEFORE this I went to Carmax, where we had sold our beater Saturn SL1 five years prior, and they gave me a price for the Acura.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
It was ridiculous. They offered me $2500 under Kelley Blue Book. When I mentioned that fact they said, “KBB isn’t buying your car.” Nope. You’re right. They are not buying it. But their entire reason for existing is to accurately price out cars for buying and selling. So no thank you, Carmax, I will be going somewhere else.
When we took our old Saturn to them they offered us $200 over the value so we’ve previously had good experiences with them. Just be warned: When they say it will take 30 minutes to review the car and give you a quote, they are lying. Both times took over an hour. Just be ready to spend some time there.
Digression! The value of my car was between $9200 and $9400 roughly, depending on your definition of “good” I suppose. I listed it on CL for $10,000. I got tons of calls and emails. I also put the price on the window and got several calls from that avenue. I think the reason for the interest is because of the particular car: Acura RSX Type S. It has a 6-speed manual transmission in it and it can really rip around corners. (I’m getting misty just remembering.)
Most people who called or emailed try to yank me around on price and tried to call me out on my knowledge. Here is a word of advice: Be prepared and know the value of your car and be ready to answer questions. Once I did that, most people backed off. I was also super transparent and put up pictures of the small dents in the roof. I also put the VIN in the ad so people could run a carfax report before calling me. I wasn’t afraid of what it would show. You would be surprised to know how many cars out there are salvaged. I had a clean title.
I met with the first person for a test drive three days after posting the car. It was a girl and she brought a friend with her. They did a test drive and asked all the right questions. She had done her homework too! Girl power! She asked about work done to it and the maintenance coming up. Good for her!
She and I had already agreed on $9500 for the price before we met. I let her negotiate another $250 off the price and held firm. I was impressed with her knowledge.
We then followed them to their mechanic to have the car inspected. If you are buying a car, you should ALWAYS do this. The mechanic said HE would buy this car if they wouldn’t. Yay! All that premium fuel and synthetic oil paid off!
Next stop was the smog testing station. In California, the seller is responsible for providing a smog certificate showing a pass that is dated within 60 days of the sale date. A lot of buyers don’t know this but you will certainly find out when you go to register the car in this state. I knew that little car would pass and when she did we drove to Chase bank so the buyer could hand me $9250 in cash.
Hazah!
It was sold within four days of posting on Craigslist. I never knew it would happen so fast, but because both the buyer and seller (me!) were so prepared and knowledgeable, the sale went super smoothly.
Now all that’s left to do is drive into the sunset with the new Prius C and hope for a fulfilling relationship.
I'm not really that crafty. I do get these random bursts of craft-oriented thoughts though. I once decorated a little rocking horse for my niece. It was pretty awesome.
Here, you can see it and agree:
Well, my brother and sis are expecting another little one and it's a boy this time! Yay! New ideas! I want to do a baby shower with a vintage western theme and there was no shortage of inspiration that I pinned to my Pinterest board.
I happened to find these little vintage hankies that I LOVE. And truth: I wrote this blog post mostly so I could pin this on the board since the original site was an asshole and wouldn't let me.
I will try to do a comprehensive post of the party after it's designed. If anyone has links or ideas, let me know!
I already wrote about my sad parting with the first car I ever bought myself. I’m still sad about it, but it gets better every day, thank you.
Better gas mileage: the reason for the new car. It was a quicker decision than one might think. In fact, this is par for the course for me. I tend to over think every single decision (ask my partner for verification), but once my brain gloms on to something that is logical enough, that’s it – decision is made.
I saw a commercial for a Prius C last summer and I think that little car stayed in my brain. When the new year rolled around I heard it was dropping at the dealers in March. In February I paid for my first gallon of premium gas that was $4.83. My relationship with the Acura was over. We saw it coming, if we were honest with ourselves.
And those commercials are hilarious. "This dolphin tattoo isn't even cool in an ironic way!"
Moving on.
I started the search. On my last car I started by calling a bunch of local dealers to see who would quote me the lowest number. I commenced this same act with the Prius. This negotiation was a different animal though. The Pruis C was a brand new model and it hadn’t even landed yet. While I was able to get quite a discount off the MSRP on the Acura, this wasn’t as easy.
As I made my calls, I asked for a specific model and color (I had done my homework). I wanted the Package 2 without the sunroof in arctic blue. Almost exactly the same color as the Acura. Don’t judge. Picking the same color made it emotionally easier. It still had Entune and navigation, but I was giving up the leather from Package 3. This car was all about being economical and practical; the opposite of the Acura. (Sigh) It’s like I was suddenly old. Or my age. Whatever.
Because I had called so many dealers (and the blue was a rare color), I got in my own way. When I wanted to pull the trigger at the dealership I chose, they couldn’t get the car. Turns out no one was willing to release the Package 2 arctic blue without a sunroof because some girl had called and asked about it and, “she was a serious buyer.” I was. Just not with all of them.
I was set and ready to go with a broker (my first time using one) who was getting the car from Longo (largest Toyota dealer). But when I test drove the car at my local dealership, Penske Rancho Santa Margarita, my astute partner pointed out to me as we left the lot: “You should give them your business. The sales guy made sure to only talk to you. He was respectful.”
And it was true. So it was decided. I made Penske match the price from the broker and within three days, was driving my new Prius C off the lot.
The only thing left to do was sell the Acura. <crying>
Here she is all new:
In the stable:
This is about to be a long post...
Never mind. I will break it up into a series <adjusts title of post>. Read on!
I loved my Acura. She was this little blue sporty car, with leather seats and a good grip on the road. She cornered well, had a nice growl when you pushed the gas pedal, and I could drop the gears and pass almost anyone on a hill. I LOVED her. And I bought her on my own. She was my first. I wanted to have her forever.
If I had the money (and a partner who wouldn’t divorce me and a garage that could hold three cars), I would have kept her as a fun car, maybe even finally modifying her as a hobby. Because other than changing out the audio and adding in Bluetooth and a reverse sensor, she was stock. I bet she would corner really well if she was dropped a bit.
This photo is of us back in 2006, the year after I bought her. Funny, I've had several hair colors and styles since then but I am back to dark and long.
This was taken for Ask Patty when I worked there. You can even read my article on why I bought her.
I sold her.
And I only cried a little. My partner rolled his eyes and told me to “get over it.”
Sure, I gave her anthropomorphic qualities, but don’t other people do that? I wanted to stay in touch with the new owner actually. The conversation with my partner went like this:
Me: Do you think I could ask the new owner for update pictures of the car? Like, so I can see if they modify her?
Him: <screws up face and looks at me like I am at once crazy and an asshole>
Me: I guess that’s a little crazy…
Him: Yep.
In February I had decided that paying $6 for a gallon of gasoline was out of the question. My Acura required premium gas. (This last weekend I saw premium for $4.83 so it was going to get there!) The prices together with the commercial that featured the cutest little baby Prius, and my card-carrying liberal status meant I needed a hybrid.
We did the math. It basically was a wash. So it wasn’t cheaper to buy a new car, even as a hybrid – it is rarely a good investment to buy any car for that matter – but the monthly cost of gas would be less, and I felt that there was social pressure to do good. Also, if I was being realistic with myself, the Acura was only going to sell for a good amount if I sold it before it hit 150,000 miles. It was already at 136,000.
So the decision was made...stay tuned for more installments.
This argument over Catholic-based companies and organizations not covering birth control as part of healthcare has been all over the news recently. And here’s the thing: religions should be allowed to do whatever they want, provided it doesn’t harm anyone else. Simple.
But these guys want to not cover a medication that, yes, stops people from getting pregnant, but it also has other medical benefits.
I get that they fundamentally disagree with the use of contraception (as a religious principle), and if you are Catholic and follow that, then you can make that employer extra happy by not buying it. Never mind that most Catholics these days use some form of birth control.
Where I think the problem lies is in their refusal to cover it for their own religious beliefs, when not only do their own followers use it, but there are in fact many non-Catholics who work for Catholic organizations.
In my own experience, I used to work for a Christian organization (not Catholic obviously, but there is a parallel). They had health insurance and it didn’t have any prejudices about medications or care. This is a good thing. Especially since I’m not Christian. If there had been limitations on the care I could receive medically because of their own religious convictions, I am not sure I would have continued to work there. Which would have been a shame because I had some great experiences and met great people.
Here is my take: If you want to not cover it, then you can only hire Catholics who agree to the same principles as you, and you need to disclose this to potential employees. If you are willing to hire anyone else, and are actively doing so currently, then I don’t think you get to bring religion to the conversation.
(cartoon credit to Mike Luckovich)
