A New Member of the Family

No babies....a new (used) car.

I was in Washington DC last week for work & Jim was successful in selling our truck outright, so the car purchase became a priority this weekend. We had decided that we wanted an SUV (not a big one, but a mid-size). Because Jim is driving so much for his job, he has adopted our other girl (the VW Passat) as his vehicle, as it gets good gas mileage. So this vehicle would be mine & I got to pick! It has been since April of 2002 since I had a new vehicle, so needless to say - I was excited!

I don't know how many of you have heard of CarMax, but we will probably never buy a car from anywhere else again after having such a great experience this time. Basically, they only sell vehicles (trades) that pass a multi-point checklist (certain amount of miles, age, dings, wear & tear). Those that pass muster are those that they sell, all others get auctioned. And they offer no-haggle pricing, which is at least $1,000 under Kelley Blue Book value. And you can search nationwide for whatever vehicle you want that fit your criteria and have it transferred to the nearest location. After dealing with them and getting the whole scoop on their business model - look out for this company - they are doing all the right things.

So back to the new purchase! We located 2 vehicles that we were going to decide between - Jim had gone there earlier in the week while he was in Jacksonville, FL for work & looked at them but didn't drive them. One was a black Acura MDX & one was a black Honda Pilot. After driving both - we chose the Honda Pilot (it was unanimous!). I am loving it & enjoyed the 5 hour drive back in my new car. Of course, now I need to study up on the owner's manual so I know what all it can do. Jim drove it last night to Wal-Mart & played with the voice command feature - CRAZY! You can tell it to change the temperature to 70 degrees inside & it does!! Or tell it what radio station you want - and it goes there! It's like I have my own buddy in the car :)

Other than driving 10 hours yesterday to get a new car, Jim has been smoking the Thanksgiving Day turkey breasts today (and some ribs for us to eat tonight). Ahhh the smells from our house today - heavenly!! Jim does such a good job with the turkeys & he enjoys it so much. Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday - so I just really enjoy him loving this time of year!!

We had our long run of the day - 8 miles - felt good, but I had to go to the bathroom the whole time....too much information I am sure - but it did add an interesting element to the run!