***I remember why I hate car shopping***

Yesterday The Spouse and I checked out a local car dealership. I had four brands of vehicles I wanted to check out (the Camry, Corolla, Prius, and the RAV4.)

A little factoid: you don't apply hard sale sales tactics to Filipinos. I've inherited, much to their chagrin, both my parents' tempers. Mom tends to immediately explode when she's irritated; dad's the boiling volcano. Thankfully The Spouse was there to deflect the salesfolks question as:

• I'm constantly asked what color did I want my Camry to be even though I said I was just looking.
  
• Taken to the most expensive, top-of-the line model.
  
• Asked permission to do a credit check to purchase the Camry that night. (I provided no info.)
  
• Told there were no used cars on the lot. (Lie.)
  
• When I asked about seeing the less expensive mini-SUV RAV4, the salesman, not looking at me, told his manager that I wasn't interested, that the RAV4 was a "grandmother's car." (Not only that, he lied about the horsepower in my face.)

While I know there are folks who not only could easily deal with such folks (and revel in the wheeling and dealing), I'm not one of them. As of this writing, I'm still fuming and have put all Toyota products to the bottom of the pile. There were a couple of silver linings, though, from the experience: I know how to react the next time I go out car shopping and I learned the Camry doesn't haven't the head room. That immediately strikes it off my list.

Image found on the Internet and all rights belong to its owner.

At least the rest of the evening was pleasant. We saw the latest episode of Drawn Together later that night. Interesting. Despite the very un-PC storylines involving mentally and physically handicapped folks and hallucinogenic addictive sweat (don't ask), the episode felt less shocking than the prior ones. Overall, still a good episode.

Beyond the Blog

Image found on the Internet and all rights belong to its owner.

World AIDS Day

A to Z about...well...ME!

Clever idea I picked up from here:

A is my age: 35. (I didn't forget this time, Movie Lit!)
B is for bicycling which I haven't done since college. (Accidents make one fearful...)
C is for comic books which I've been collecting since high school.
D is for dessert, which is one of my few weaknesses.
E is for exercise, which is my viagra of choice.
F is that I' m flexible. (Take that as you will, you perv's.)
G is for G-strings. Hmmm. Why did someone invent butt floss?
H is for handsome which I look when in a suit or tie, thank you very much.
I is for Islands, one of my favorite restaurants.
J is the first letter of my real first name, my nickname, and both sisters' first names. Sigh.
K is for karate, which I took back in college and want to resume...some day.

Image found on the Internet and subject to all copyright laws.

L is for love, whom I've been married to for nearly eleven wonderful years.
M is Mom. 'Nuf said.
N is for 'nice", which my best friend once described me. (Rest in piece, bro.)
O is that offer to be a househusband. I'm still waiting....
P are the promises, " 'til death due us part" and "faithful", which are rare in my community.
Q is for quantity: good food, sex, and books, and not necessarily in that order.
R is for Romano's Macaroni Grill, a fave place to eat.
S is for sleep which I prefer ten hours a night if possible.
T is the torture suffered while waiting for the next Naruto episodes. Arrgh!
U is for underwear (boxers).
V is for viagra, which apparently would be useless for me.
W is wondering when this list will be over.
X is for the X-men, which are still my fave superfolks.
Y is for yellow, which was the colour of my first car. (Never had probs finding it back in college.)
Z is for the Zhodani, who were cool. (Yes, I played Traveler.)

***Good Car Hunting***

On Sunday, while scan tens of feet from our house, my car started to sputter. The Spouse took control of the situ (thank the gods for medical torture...er...training) and I coaxed the Neon into the garage where I left it until Monday morning. Quick call to AAA and the eight year old vehicle was safely at the nearby garage.

Diagnosis by the techs later that morning confirmed that the fuel tank was near empty. What? Apparently the fuel gage (or the units transmitting to it) were down, giving the illusion the car had a quarter tank of fuel left.

I barely listened while the tech rattled off other, less urgent probs (like the front tires are smoother than a baby's bottom). This was a sign. Car's over eight years old now and over 125k miles. A quick check over at Kelley Blue Book confirmed the lack of saleability of the vehicle. It was time to move on.

I stopped by the garage Monday evening and rattled off my instructions. Replace the tires. Don't fix the fuel gage. Don't fix the stuck AC/heater knob. Feeling a little better, I started my investigation in my next new vehicles and have narrowed them down to the following four:

Toyota Camry

Honda Accord


Some SUVs caught my eye. My experience with these vehicles has been less than pleasant. My opinion is that they're way too big for typical suburbia and burn fuel faster than a manipulative date (not as though the latter ever happened to me. Heaven forbid.) But I used to have a truck and they've left a soft spot in my heart. However, they're not really as practical as an SUV in my life so I'm also considering the following:

Ford Escape


Mazda Tribute

I'm also looking at the Honda CR-V. Specs looked good except the model only comes with a 4 cylinder engine. But I'll do some more research (on-line and hands on) and am willing to listen to folks who own the vehicle.

(Note that all the above images were found on the Internet. All rights belong to their owners.)

My current plan is to keep my Neon until we purchase the new vehicle by year's end or next year. Whew! Car shopping is not something I like to do but a necessity that must be done.

***Letter to Santa Clause***

Dear Santa,

Well, the turkey's back in the freezer with the rest of the leftovers so it's time that I write to you, Saint Nick, before you're inundated with letters and e-mails. (You do have e-mail, don't you?)

Firstly, could you teach non-flips to offer a little bit more food for next year's Thanksgiving meals? The Spouse and I attended the relatives' home up in Northridge on T-day. The hosts offered a wonderful meal: raisin bread, stuffing (a bit dry but tasty), turkey (duh!), a green bean cassarole (with those little onions) and my favorite, yams. Mmmmmm. And they offered three different desserts: spice cake, a berry tart thingie, and pumpkin pie. However, there was only enough for two servings a person! What's with that? There should have been four servings a person and enough leftovers to feed each guest's family for the next couple of weeks. I'll send you the URL on how to serve a typical filipino family without getting bankrupted for a second time.

When you hand out the coals this year, could you give extra for those naughty (barely) teens who came in the coffeeshop on Friday? I'm not normally this nasty but c'mon! Here I was, working on my NaNoWriMo draft all day (the Spouse was on-call) and evening when they came in, noisy, rambunctious, and loud. I could barely hear myself think as I completed the 5k of words that evening. When they left, the server and I commented about the spilled coffee drinks and cups strewn where the herds (there were at least three groups) had sat.

Could you knock some accuracy to the weathermen (and women)? Folks down here will thank you. Here I was, coming out of Barnes and Noble all frustrated because I couldn't use that early gift you sent (by the way, thanks!). I was venting my frustration to The Spouse when sheets of rain splattered what would have been a clear, but nippy, Saturday. It was like, so gross! At least I got my four pairs of shoes from DSW before the roads really became impassable.

By the by, if that was you who's been getting the Hunter X Hunter DVDs to us on time, thanks. We spent all Saturday night (and much of Sunday) watching the fascinating series. Talk about intense! That first original video anime (OVA) was great. What an ending! And the second one's proving just as absorbing.

By the way (and make sure Mrs. Claus is not reading over your shoulder) thank you for those two wonderful and orgasmic mornings on Thursday and over the weekend! I couldn't believe I could experience the big "O" from someone's own experience without releasing myself. Must be love eh? Hmmm. Could you add one of those karma sutra books to my gift list? Just for review, you know.

And speaking of gifts....

I'll be sending my request shortly in an encrypted zip file. My public key is with your lead elf. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me via e-mail (any of the five addresses), fax, telephone, or--in extremis--via snail mail. I'm sure your database will show I've been over 90% nice with the rest to be either youthful stupidity or under the influence of too much sugar (which my doctor will confirm.)


Sincerely,

Joel



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