Dec. 3rd, 2009 06:49 pm

Car recs?

textualdeviance: (Bridal Illusions)
So, since M's car is now officially totalled, according to the insurance company, we need to go shopping for a new (or recent used) one. Since it's been seven years since we did this last, we're a bit out of the market these days and have no idea what's really out there.

Criteria:

*$15k or less (preferably way less)
*AWD/4WD (Roads get way too slick here, and we live up a hill. So, yeah.)
*Decent MPG
*Some amount of passenger and cargo room, and the ability to get a car seat/squirming child in and out easily
*Low maintenance. I want it to just run, period.
*Safe! Good crash ratings, etc.
*The usual standard comforts: Power windows/seats/tinted or anti-glare windows, etc.
*Easy to handle, park, etc. No behemoths.

Don't really care about body style, towing capacity, engine size or any of that. Just a safe, comfortable car for commuting and toting around people and stuff.

For the record, I adore my RAV4, so we're sort of looking at other mini-SUVs and crossovers, but I haven't the foggiest what's out there these days.
textualdeviance: (Default)
My obsession with my new cat continues )

He's currently parked on the cat tree in the bedroom, staring out the window watching Mr. Handyman fix our busted gazebo. (Fascinating, really. There's some clever engineering going on there.)

In other news, I desperately want this.

Also, TV is slowly coming back. Yaye! New CSI and Eleventh Hour tonight, and new BSG tomorrow. And all sorts of other goodness next week.
textualdeviance: (Default)
After weeks of agonizing about the cost, we finally broke down and upgraded our phones. The ones we had were cool, but there were definitely issues, including a broken joystick and serious Bluetooth and storage card problems with mine.

So, after 10+ years with Verizon, we took the hit of an early termination fee and went to AT&T to get a couple of these.

So far, I'm in love. This thing takes huge storage capacity, in the form of micro SD cards, and also has a lot more on-board memory than previous generations (it's made by HTC, the same as my old phone.)

Fortunately for our gift budget, they were doing a half-off sale on these things (including rebate) so that helped, too.

Geez. I've turned into such a gadget whore *looks pointedly at M*
textualdeviance: (Default)
Clearing out my china cabinet so we could do the dining room floor has proven to be my downfall. I got to sort through all my Willow and realized that I hadn't really added much to that collection in some time.

So I hopped on e-Bay.

Oh, shit.

An ungodly amount of money (largely credit) later, I have probably two dozen new pieces. And I'm watching several new auctions every day. Turns out that there's a motherlode of the stuff I like to collect (unusual pieces, particularly the multicolored patterns) turning up every day. I think one of the sellers actually specializes in this stuff. And of course, I'm not the only one who collects this stuff, so some of it is getting bid up quite a bit. I'm letting a lot of stuff go when it gets to be way overpriced, but some things I do just have to have. And I just now discovered that there was a multicolored Willow pattern called "Chinese Legend" that came out about 15 years ago that I love and want to start collecting. Oi.

Now, it's not like we're dirt poor or anything. It's been at least five years since we really had to worry about paying bills and such. We have a healthily positive net worth, what with all of M's stock and the house continuing to rise in value. But we do have quite a bit of credit debt, especially with my student loans, and our cash flow could be on a higher trajectory than it is. And we also have potential offspring stuff and our cars are starting to show some age, and there's a lot more house stuff we need to do and...

Sigh...

I'm really not high maintenance. I give less than two shits about fashion, so I spend next to nothing on clothes. Maybe $500/year, if that. I don't go for flashy jewelry. I don't get expensive haircuts or spa treatments and I'm certainly not going to drop wads of cash on cosmetic surgery. I'm not picky about having "the finest" of everything. I drive a five-year-old Toyota and have little to no desire for anything fancier than that. Granted, we have some pretty extensive (and expensive) plans for the house we want to build in a couple of years, but that's a joint project and something we've been looking forward to for ages. And I do hope to pay a lot of the credit off when I get a job. I actually hate how much of a sponge I am. I believe in earning my keep.

But I guess I am kind of expensive when it comes to certain things. My fandom madness, for instance, cost a pretty penny. And there's always the upgrades to my computer so I can run my games. And now this. I feel terribly irresponsible for spending the money this way, but I do have to say that it's making me happy to get all this gorgeous stuff. And maybe that's worth it.

But I'm totally not telling M how much I've spent on this. ;)

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