Well, I sold the Durango almost a month ago and part of my “agreement” with the wife, was that 1) the new car had to have four doors 2) the new car had to have as many airbags as possible, and 3) i could only spend the money i saved and not dip into our savings. Well, two outa three ain’t bad :)I’ve been looking for a VW Jetta or Audi A4/A6, as well as a couple of other makes and models for the last month and a half. Maybe longer since I think I started looking around before the Durango was sold. I’ve always admired Sean’s GTI and Erik’s various dubbs. I was *this* close to picking up an 03 Jetta GLI in Louisville, because the price was right and I really like the GLI model. It had some issues tho – check engine light and some other stuff. I expanded my search on autos.yahoo.com past the 100 miles to 200 miles and found another GLI 117 miles away in Columbus. It wasn’t in the price range, but Emily was VERY gracious and let me break rule #3. She was happy I found a newer car, with full airbags all around, and it rates extremely high on the NHTSA (4’s and 5’s, with 5 being the highest). Also got “good” in the government testing, which is the highest.
I called the seller and it turned out a guy from Louisville was having a mechanic come up to check out the car that night, and was planning on driving up Tuesday (today) to buy it, if it checked out. I wasn’t about to pass up this deal so I placed a deposit on my Mastercard. So, Emily and I drove up to Columbus after work last night to C and L Performance Auto Sales . We met with Courtney, the owner. He told us he just got off the phone with the Louisville guy and that guy was NOT happy. That made me smile. While we were talking and starting paperwork, the guy from L-Ville called two more times!
Emily and I were extremely impressed with Courtney and C and L Performance Auto Sales. He had a lot of great performance oriented vehicles on his lot and was very open about all of them when I asked questions. We were in and out of there pretty quickly and painlessly. The gas tank was on “E”, and he apologized profusely and even gave us gas money out of his own pocket as we were leaving!
The ride home was about 130 miles and went very well. The heated leather seats are amazing (the GLI includes sport seats with extra bolstering in the sides and seat). The Monsoon stereo is very bassy and sounds great. The cabin is pretty quiet compared to my previous talons and even Emily’s Mazda 3. I have a huge roll of dynamat in my garage waiting to make it even better! The VR6 engine is awesome. I can’t believe how linear and strong it feels. The GLI also comes with a 6 speed manual transmission and is a blast to drive. Here are some pics from the AutoTrader ad. I’m waiting for some nicer weather to take some pics of my own:
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Emily and I drove to Columbus, OH tonight to pick up a car for me. I’ll post all about it tomorrow. I’m in a pretty darn good mood right now!
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This made me smile so I thought I would share:
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I’ve been searching for baskets for under the changing table for awhile now, and finally found some today (thanks again Dad & Colleen)! They are really cute and fit perfectly. I can’t wait to stock them up with diapers, wipes, etc. The room is really coming together now! As soon as the other valance gets in from being ordered, we’ll hang everything on the walls. We really love going in the room now and can’t wait to see (and hear) our little one in there!
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27-week picture is up; click here to see it.
Also, we got our rocker/glider chair for Sean’s room. The ottoman should be in soon. It’s so comfy and I’ve already enjoyed rocking him (and Megabyte) in it each night. We also got a really nice floor lamp (thanks Dad & Colleen!) tonight. It’s the perfect height for the chair and has the 3-way light setting so it’ll be perfect for late night rocks or diaper changes. It makes the room really cozy. Check out pictures by clicking here. We will probably go this weekend to look for some baskets for the changing table so we can organize diapers, wipes, burpy clothes, etc.
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Today was our first snowfall for winter of 2007, a perfect followup to finishing our Christmas decorating from last night. We got 1-2 inches. The streets were all clear, but of course, all the schools were closed. Just like KY.
Check out pictures of Meg in the snow; she was really excited!
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I was looking at Lary’s (Paul’s dad) wordworking page and saw this picture of Paul and Sean in their cradle when they were born! How cute!
Our cradle:
Paul & Sean in their cradle:
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I know I know, I should have posted this a few days ago, but I’ve been sick! 🙂
Like I mentioned earlier, Emily and I made the trek to St. Louis to visit my parents for Thanksgiving. Sean was also in town from Seattle. Wednesday night, my sister Megan and I stayed up sharing a bottle of Chateau Ste. Michelle cabernet and talking until 3:30am (430 my time!). We rarely get to do that, so it was very cool. Thursday was Turkey Day! Man I love thanksgiving…I think we should have it at least twice a year! Although, I’m sure there are a number of turkeys out there who disagree with me. Mom cooked and awesome meal for us and Emily made the famous Marshall Rolls. Aunt Karen, Uncle Ted, and Scott made it down from west St. Louis as well and it was really nice seeing them.
Sean, Manders (friend of ours and Megan’s from high school), and myself then made our trip to the movie theatre to catch our annual bad-movie-on-turkey-day which started back in the day with my selection of “Paycheck” starring Matt Damon. Sean’s selection this year was Hitman. HOO BOY was it rotten. We got to the theatre about 15 or 20 minutes late so we missed the beginning of the movie ( **cue Office Space “I wouldn’t say I was missing it, Bob…” ***). The acting was lousy, the female character in the movie probably only got the role cause she showed her boobs. What can you expect from a movie produced by Vin Diesel? But I digress…
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful – we went out to an irish pub in Belleville, IL that was nice, hung out at a local bar in O’Fallon, had an awesome hamburger at Denny’s (eggs and hashbrowns on a burger! YUM!), and hung around the house. Saturday we did a family trip to Pierre Marquette State Park to lunch on their lodge’s famous fried chicken and take some family photos.
While we were home for thanksgiving Mom and Dad presented us with some new gifts for Little Sean. As we’ve mentioned before, my dad is *very* handy in wood working. When Sean and I were born, he made us a cradle that was also used for my sister when she was born. Well, now we have a cradle of our own:
Paul’s mom has also recently dusted off her knitting needles and made a fun little hat for Little Sean:
Can’t wait to have him try them both out (only three more months to go!!). Here are some highlight photos from the trip:
me showing my approval of the baby bump:
My parents – dad looks great! (mom too!)
I’ll post some more from my dad’s set of photos after I process the huge DSLR snapshots from his Nikon D80 🙂
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26-Week picture is up. Click here to see it. Sorry it’s a few days late 🙂
Only 14 weeks to go! I think within the next few weeks we’ll start our ‘betting’ for date of birth, weight, etc. Start thinking!
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Emily and I took a trip to St. Louis for Thanksgiving this year. My sister and brother were both in town as well. I didn’t bring a heavy enough jacket with me and now I’m fighting a nasty cold….so now I am going to bed and I will post photos and a run-down of turkey day at a time in the very near future.
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