She Picks 'em up in the Pick 'em Up Truck
Last night at about 8pm Shawn decided to list his truck on
craigslist to see if we could sell it. Within a few minutes (I am not joking) he received an e-mail from some guy who was interested. By 9pm, we were heading out to a gas station near by to meet the guy and discuss selling him the truck. By 9:20pm we were on our way home minus the truck but with a pocket full of cash. I can't believe how easy the whole thing was. Granted we didn't quite get what we were asking for it, but really what we wanted was a bit high anyway. Not to mention we ended up getting quite a bit more for it than a dealership was willing to give us a number of years ago. SO we feel we made out rather well. Now we can replenish our depleted savings account after the new car purchase.
I'm kind of sad to see the truck go as it's been good to us. However for the past few years it's just been sitting there. We used it to move, which was nice, but other than that it's been driven maybe two or three times. The amount we were spending on insuring it and fixing it was just not worth it. We figure for the amount we were spending each month for it to sit there we could rent a truck/car or take a cab/the bus if we need another form of transportation. Not to mention the new car is quite reliable and I don't think we have to worry too much if we take care of it. So for so many reasons it just made sense to sell it.
As a memorial to the truck I will be listening to The Smugglers song 'Pick 'em Up Truck'.
Hell Yeah!
Hell Yeah!
Originally uploaded by lunge_org.This American Hi-Fi song came on the stereo in the car yesterday and it pretty much sums up the way I feel about the new car.
Sometimes I Do and Sometimes I Don't
For awhile Shawn and I have been talking about the need for a new car. We knew that my poor '93 Mazda Mx3 wasn't going to last very much longer. The poor thing had some issues and probably wasn't taken care of well by it's previous owners. I said I'd drive that car to the ground, and truth be told, I pretty much did. The next time something went wrong we knew that it probably wouldn't have been worth our while to get it fixed. It was my first car though, and it will always have a special place in my heart.
Anyway, like I said we'd been talking about getting a new car for quite some time. We decided to make a list of cars that we were interested in and go take a look at them. Sunday we were going to Trader Joe's in Burien (for plantain chips supplements) and there are a number of car dealerships that we need to pass on the way there. We figured we'd stop in at a few and see what they had to offer. I had every intention of just going to take a look.
First we went to the Toyota/Scion dealership to look at the Toyota Prius and the Scion xA. We really had no plans on buying a new car because we thought it would be a bit out of our price range. Not to mention new cars depreciate as soon as you drive them off the lot. We didn't really look at the Prius much as we were drawn to the xA. We met up with a sales guy who explained to us how Scion purchasing works. He said that they come pretty much as a base model and you get to add on the extra stuff that you want. No pressure. We didn't really believe it, but decided that we'd take it for a test drive anyway. It was cute. We really liked it, but of course we weren't ready to make a purchase. We took a car from the guy and went down the road to a Dodge dealership which had a VW Beetle and Golf that we wanted to look at. The Beetle was kind of on the top of Shawn's list, but after we took it for a drive, we realized that we didn't like it at all. The dashboard was waaaay too long and it was just not a comfortable car. We then took the Golf for a drive and it was nice, but it was used and there was this icky smell in it. It smelled like cleaning supplies used at a camp or something. I just did not like it at all, and it was only a few hundred dollars less than the Scion and it was a 2002. The dealer guy there was super pushy too. He was very about selling us a car, and was all "let's see what we can do for you". Shawn was kind of interested in seeing what exactly he could do, but I was having none of it. I told the guy that we weren't ready to buy a car today and thanked him for his time and of we went to finish our shopping.
Throughout the afternoon Shawn and I went back and forth on the pros and cons of buying a car. New vs used. Now vs later. I sat down and went to
the Scion website and picked out the car I wanted, and came up with an amount. Shawn and I looked at each other and decided that since we're not planning on having kids for at least 3-5 years (if ever) nor are we planning on buying a new house for that long, now was the time. So we cleaned out the car and off we went with our list of options in hand.
It was the easiest car buying experience ever! The sales guy talked about some of the options, but we didn't feel under any pressure to go for anything that he said. They had a model there in the color that we wanted with the side curtain airbags (like we wanted) so we decided to go for it. Our xA is in flint mica with the side curtain airbags, rear spoiler (I had to do it!), regular cd player, arm rest and 10 spoke wheel covers. The rear spoiler will be added next week sometime and we got all the other stuff added yesterday. We're totally loving it. Both Shawn and I have never owned a brand new car before and it's quite nice. Sure, it's depreciated in value quite a bit, but it has a warranty and we plan on modifying it a bit (which should up the resale value). We love how the Scions are basically built for people to modify them. We're already planning on adding a sun roof and getting the windows tinted. Then, who knows..
One Trillion Dollars Buying Bullets, Buying Guns
I am in a completely bad mood today. I feel angry and really nothing specific has happened to make me feel this way.
I was speaking to a co-worker about how I was in a bad mood and just bitching about everything that is bugging me, and then I had a revelation.
I've got the "Cheney Vibe". That's right, Dick Cheney, the
devil himself Vice President, has invaded my city (well okay, so not MY city exactly as he's in Everett, but it's still a little closer than I'd like) and his mere presence has put me in an angry mood.
I was telling Shawn about this and he reminded me that Cheney would at the very least only be in Western Washington until around noon and then he would be off to Spokane. I'm hoping that as soon as he leaves my area my horribly bad mood will dissipate.
For the moment though I am starting to feel a bit better. I'm not sure if it's because I have found a vehicle for my anger in Cheney being in town or the two Hershey's Nuggets I just had.
I'll bet it's because of the chocolate.
I'm Eating Vegetation, 'cause of Fast Food Nation
So the other day Shawn and I were eating
Gardenburger Margherita Pizza Wraps and Shawn was carefully reading over the ingredients for some reason. I think it's because he has an issue with mushrooms and a number of Gardenburger products have mushrooms in them and we were rather surprised to find that these rather tasty wraps did not have mushrooms listed.
However, we did notice that "enzymes" were listed as an ingredient in their cheese. Now, that might not seem like an issue, but often "enzymes" in cheese are not vegetarian and they actually come from the stomachs of calves. Granted neither Shawn nor I are vegetarian (although I was for over 7 years) but I know that I prefer eating vegetarian when I can and I really only eat poultry and fish, no pork or red meat. Anyway, the discovery of the term "enzymes" on the container prompted us to investigate further into whether the enzymes used were indeed vegetarian or not. We couldn't find anywhere on the package that said the wraps were "vegetarian". The term "meat-less" came up, but not vegetarian. We couldn't find a damn thing on the package to indicate what type of enzymes were used in the cheese.
I decided to look into things further by checking out the Gardenburger website where terms like "meat-less" and "veggie" were thrown around, but once again, not "vegetarian". The term "vegan" was used on their products without any animal products whatsoever, of course, I couldn't find any mention in regards to the type of enzymes used in their cheese.
So I decided to e-mail them, and I got the following response:
Thank you for writing to us. We pride ourselves on making the best tasting vegetarian meatless alternatives using the highest
quality all-natural ingredients. Our Natural Flavors come from herb and vegetable sources*. Various Gardenburger products
contain cheese. The enzymes in our cheese are biosynthesized and not from animal sources.
Gardenburger products contain, no eggs, and no other animal products or by-products other than cheese. We also produce 17
vegan products that do not contain cheese. We can't divulge a complete list of ingredients in our natural flavors and spices
(our competitors would love to know), but we assure you that none comes from animals.Mystery solved. However, I really think it would be in their best interest to list the enzymes as "vegetarian enzymes". I mean, it wouldn't be the first time a large company tried to pull a fast on in it's consumers. Think
McDonalds and wheat and dairy in their fries.
*Probably contains mushrooms. :P
Ain't That The Truth
This morning I walked into work to find a package had arrived for me over the weekend. I recently purchased some jewelry from
TongueStud.com for a few of my piercings and they had finally arrived. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package to find in addition to my brand spankin new jewelry a lovely sticker that says:
My piercings hurt less than your stupidityIt made me laugh because I can't even remember how many times I've been asked the question "Did that hurt??"
What an amusing way to start out my Monday morning.
