Wandering Road

Just got a call from the dealership. Turns out that the 2007 Rav4’s are coming out. I can get the ‘07 for the same price. The best part is that with the 2007 I can get the side impact air bags AND the moonroof! I’m getting my moonroof baby!! So the only option I wanted and couldn’t get was the upgraded speakers which I can easily add aftermarket. I’m so excited!

Yesterday I was driving home with the windows down (loving this cool weather we are having right now - low 90’s), enjoying the breeze. At the stop light, I looked up at the sky through the moonroof and realized that I would really miss having one. Now I don’t have to

Today I ordered my new Toyota Rav4!! I had to order it because they had none on the lot or in the area that met my requirements. Hell, they didn’t even have any on the lot. These babies are selling like hot cakes. But that worked out well for me because it meant I could order one from the factory and make sure it only got the options I wanted. Well, almost. I was able to get exactly what I wanted except for 2 items. I could not get the upgraded stereo or the sunroof. The stereo I only wanted because it came with more speakers and a sub woofer. All things I can add after market. The sunroof I wanted because……well, it’s a sunroof and it’s nice to open it in good weather. But you cannot get the sunroof and the side impact air bags, you have to choose one or the other. I guess I’m officially out of my wild younger years (though my friends at the toga party last Saturday may disagree) since I chose safety over fun.

So what did I order, you ask. Well, I ordered a Toyota Rav4 V6 Limited. My first color choice is the classic silver metallic; second color choice is the pacific blue metallic. I’d be happy with either one. As for options, I didn’t have to get many. The limited already comes with so many bells and whistles that wasn’t much to add. I did add the side air bags as mentioned earlier, a night vision mirror (dims when bright headlights are behind you, displays compass direction and outside temp), cargo net (love it in my current vehicle when we buy groceries), and carpet mats (why are these an option on a limited edition?). Here is a pic from the Toyota site:

I have 45 days to wait for the car to arrive. Basically the dealership tags one at the factory to be mine. If they happen to find one in the area meeting my criteria before then, they’ll try to grab it.

It was weird doing everything for a car that doesn’t exist at this point. I basically signed papers saying I would buy the car when they get one that meets my criteria and the price we agree on. And yes, we did already agree on the price. They even gave me the trade-in value for my Escape. And thank goodness Bobby was there. He is great at all this haggling stuff. He was able to increase their offer for my Escape by 25%! Before I left, I knew exactly what the final cost (including TT&L) would be. Nice to have that bit over with.

So now it is the waiting game. Kind of anti-climatic to go through most of the process of buying a car, and the driving off the lot in your old vehicle and knowing you have to wait over a month for the new one. But it gives me something to look forward to!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the info on the new Honda CR-V came out today. I had been waiting on that before making my decision. I really do like what they’ve done to the CR-V. I actually like the exterior of it better than the Rav4. But I like the interior of the Rav4 better, and that is what you look at the most. Plus, the CR-V does not have a V6 option and as a 4 cylinder only gets 1 mile per gallon over the Rav4 V6. So after perusing the new Honda CR-V info for 30 minutes, my decision was made!

On Saturday morning, Bobby and I were up at 6:30 am to do work in the attic.  Our electric bill has been outrageously high this summer and I thought it was time to do something about it.  After a little net research (is there really any other kind of research?), I found two great docs on repairing a leaky attic and sealing ducts.  On Friday I took a 20 minute “stroll” through the attic to asses what things in the doc applied to our attic.  A quick trip to Home Depot (oh how I love living 3 minutes from it) and I had my supplies.

Saturday morning we were up before the sun to beat the summer heat.  The attic was hot, but not unbearable.  Bobby was in charge of putting mastic on the areas where the vents go out of the furnace or a junction box.  I was in charge of adding extra insulation to knee walls and caulking/foaming around pipes and vents in the ceiling.  Surprisingly, it only took us 2 hours to do it all.  And more surprisingly, we didn’t leave any leg size holes in our ceiling!

I went up in the attic this week and checked the difference.  You can definitely feel the difference around the vent connections.  Before you could feel air blowing out, but now there is nothing.  Plus, Bobby and I both swear that the air coming out of the vents in the house is colder and stronger.  The true test will be when we get the next electric bill.  My fingers are crossed.

Oh, I did find two more spots in the attic that need to be plugged.  I’ll be doing that this weekend.  Luckily, both spots are small and in a very accessible area (ie I don’t have to go crawling through insulation and balance on the edge of 2×4’s).  Now I just have to decide what I want to do with all the money we save.  What can you buy for 2 pennies these days?

Heard a story on NPR the other day about this guy who is running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days.  That is some serious running!  He ran in Dallas yesterday.  His last run is tomorrow.  You can learn more at 50in50in50.com.

The Tivo in our bedroom had been slowly dying for the past few months. In the beginning it was slow or unresponsive to commands from the remote.  Then in the past month or two it would have one or two small skips in a recorded program. Then it became a small skip every 3 or 4 minutes in a recorded program. I did some research and learned that this was most likely due to a dying hard drive. This Tivo was 6 years old so it isn’t surprising the drive was dying after being constantly written to 24 hours a day for 6 years. The solution was to replace the drive. I wasn’t in the mood for such a task yet, so I put it off.

Well, in the past week things got worse. The Tivo started to freeze. I flip on the TV and the picture would be frozen. No response to any button on the remote. I would have to unplug the unit and plug it back in to get it running again. The horrible thing is that while the Tivo was frozen, it wasn’t recording any season passes.

What I haven’t mentioned at this point is that the Tivo in the bedroom is hooked up to the TV in our workout area.  My 45 minutes on the elliptical machine is made bearable by the fact that I can watch Gilmore Girls (yes, I’m hooked…..I’m not afraid to admit it…..it makes for the perfect workout show).  Without a TV to entertain me, working out becomes actual work and I don’t do it.  Seriously, if I didn’t have a TV in front of me, I would not work out.  So it is the TV and not the elliptical machine that has helped me lose the weight

So you can see that the breakdown of the Tivo to the point that it wasn’t recording shows (ie Gilmore Girls) was a very pressing matter for me.  At this point, I was forced to take action.  Monday I picked up a new hard drive at Best Buy (damn those things are getting cheaper and cheaper), and went home to get to work.  I found a great how-to on the web for replacing/upgrading the hard drive in a Tivo.  It turned out being easier than expected.  I hit a few snags when I found out my PC does not have an IDE hard drive and my husband’s PC is unable to boot from a CD.  Luckily, I had a spare computer laying around (meant to be our new server - another project in limbo) and was able to use that.

The Tivo is up and running again better than before.  No freezes, skips in programs, or unresponsiveness to the remote.  And Gilmore Girls is being recorded each day for my workout viewing pleasure.  Oh, and since I put a larger hard drive in (you can’t find hard drives under 80 gig anymore) we have twice the recording time we used to!

I stumbled across this great website today for buying t-shirts. It is simply called Threadless. They have a great gimmick. Anybody can submit designs for a t-shirt. Users of the site then vote on the designs. The designs voted the highest get made into t-shirts. I had a fun time just browsing their catalog. All sorts of designs - humorous, political, artistic, nerdy, etc. I ended up ordering two for myself. I really liked the shirts titled “Adultery” and “Ambition Killed the Cat”. I can’t wait to get them!

I thought it was time I moved away from the default WordPress theme.  I really liked the look of this new theme.  I think it was the header picture that made me love it.  So tranquil.

I also added on a new plug-in for my Amazon wishlist.  At the very top of the page is a link to my wishlist.  Go ahead and take a look at it.  I strongly encourage it

Last week a took a closer look at the Rav4 and even gave it a test drive.  Overall, I was very impressed with it.  The interior is amazing!  I loved all the bells and whistles that it comes with - electronic A/C control with dual zones, mp3 player connections, tons of storage, reclining and sliding rear seats, one latch pull to lower rear seats, 7 speakers, night vision rear mirror w/ compass, rear seat armrest the flips down, and so much more.  The test drive threw me off a bit.  It drives very much like a car.  Completely different feel than my current Escape.  It was disconcerting in a way, but nice.  The sound level while on the road was excellent which made me very happy.
So, yeah, I was impressed with the Rav4.  After the test drive, I went online and priced it out with all the options I wanted.   I was excited about the price since it ended up cheaper than the Escape Hybrid I was looking at.  So I made the decision that I was going to test drive the Rav4 one more time, and if all went well, make that my new vehicle.

That was until today.  I decided to do some research into 2007 models that would be coming out in the new few months.  What did I find, but the 2007 Honda CR-V.  I have loved Honda for years.  My parents owned an Accord when I was about 10.  My first car was an Accord.  And now Bobby owns an Accord.  My experience with Honda has been that they are VERY reliable vehicles that require only basic maintenance and keep running for years.  Plus, I find that their interior stays looking nicer, longer.

I had checked out the 2006 CR-V earlier in my new vehicle search, but was unimpressed.  Right now, the CR-V is very utilitarian and boxy.  Plus, it has far fewer bells and whistles than the new Rav4.  And on top of that, the CR-V only comes in a 4 cylinder engine that gets the same MPG as the 6 cylinder Rav4.  So the CR-V was crossed off my list.  But now I find that Honda is doing a complete redesign of the CR-V for 2007.  I found a few pics on the web.  I definitely like the style.  And I have to imagine that they will be restyling the interior just as much as they did the exterior.  And hopefully, the bells and whistles quotient will be increased since this redesign is being done to directly compete with the Rav4.

So I am back in the waiting game.  I’ve decided to hold out until Honda releases info on the 2007 CR-V (they are being very tight lipped).  From what I read, everything should be revealed in September and they should go on sale in October.  I guess I have a couple of months to keep saving.

I just heard about The Urban Dictionary on NPR. You should check out. Pretty cool site. They have all sorts of words you won’t find in your old Oxford English Dictionary.

I’ve been on a cappuccino kick lately.  I’ve been making one most weekday mornings to help get me going.  Today I discovered how to make a very easy mocha cappuccino.  Just add a handful (8 or 10) chocolate chips/morsels to your espresso before you add the milk.  Stir until the chocolate is dissolved then add your milk.  So simple and so yummy!