***Hightlights***

Been gone a while.

Last Monday (December 20th), The Spouse and I finished the anime series, Hunter X Hunter. Wow. What an incredible series. From the main character sacrificing a limb to the ingenious methods in defeating their opponents, we have not enjoyed a series so much in such a long time. We then received the latest installment of the series, Naruto, shortly afterwards. Yikes! We totally agree as to why the series is number one in Japan and can't wait for the next installment. Hurry up, Hong Kong!

Enjoyed my time last Tuesday with my friends G. and C. Spoke of books, holiday plans, and cars. I didn't know C. was an autophile.

Friday The Spouse and I enjoyed waking up very late. We ate out and walked around a lot. I finalized all the gifts and cards. Whew! Thankfully my family loves gift certificates.

We wanted to check out the Accord Hybrid but the salesfolks at the dealership were quite rude.

Celebrated the holidays (Saturday) down in Temecula with my parents and siblings and their respective spouses. Got lots of gifts this year including a surprise from one of my sisters. She knows me too well.

My nephew is so cute! And a very active child: he constantly wanted to crawl everywhere. Very interactive with everyone around us.

R., unfortunately, was on-call and couldn't join us.

We checked out again the local Honda dealership on Sunday, getting more comfortable with the idea of the Accord Hybrid.

Note: the $30,000+ car has no spare tire. There's no sunroof and exterior/interior colors are extremely limited. And state law allowing hybrid cars (not SUVs) to use the diamond lanes violates federal law.

But the gas mileage is 30 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 39 mpg on the freeway. The car uses regular gasoline (as opposed to TS's current car which uses premium.) Amazingly, the engine's even more powerful than the standalone V-6 found in the Accord. And the new car's nicely appointed: leather everything, lots of airbags, nicely appointed fit and finish.

We hope to get the car by week's end depending on the latest arrivals. R. wants the silver with the light grey interior. Then, as planned, I'll get the Mazda 626 (with its 168k miles) and get rid of my (sniff) Dodge Neon. I'll drive the former through 2005. What happens next depends on the Mazda and our financial situation. If the car starts to break down, we'll start to look around for another vehicle (new or pre-owned). Otherwise, I'll start looking (again) for the replacement shortly after Thanksgiving.

Ended the evening starting a new anime series, Detective Conan.