Got up early today for softball practice. The second half was a scrimmage with one of the other local teams, which was a good learning experience for everyone.

Ordered a new garbage disposal from Home Depot. Went to pick it up and discovered that they had canceled the order, because it was out of stock. They had called the home phone while I was ( Read more... )

I seem to be running a day behind on my after-action reports here. I will try to do better.

Yesterday's annoying news arrived when I set out to go out to lunch with Gretchen: the driver's side seatbelt sensor in the van is not working correctly and believes that the seat belt is not fastened even when it clearly is. This, in and of itself, would ( Read more... )

Today, Gretchen and I got complete physicals, which we have not had in a while. I'm heading back tomorrow, as they want to run a quick ultrasound to check something and the folks who do that will be there, so best to get it taken care of ASAP.

This afternoon, I went out to take a look at the new Toyota Sienna. The current minivan is getting a ( Read more... )

The phone rang at 5 AM this morning to let us know that school had been canceled. We appreciated the notice, although we might have appreciated the sleep more ( Read more... )

I went out to my car to go get lunch and discovered that the left rear tire was completely flat. Apparently, I picked up a railroad spike and the tire is completely unrepairable.

So now I am getting a new tire.

Oh, joy.

All this talk about Ford discontinuing their sedan line causes me to remember that I owe you all a report on my Ford Edge, which is now a bit over four months old with 2000 miles on it ( Read more... )

The entertaining thing about parking the new car is -- not surprisingly! -- figuring out how to get it in and out of the garage. The Edge is built on the same basic platform as the Fusion; it's just a good bit taller. And the Fusion is a smaller car than the old Five Hundred. So it is actually a bit easier to get in and out of the garage, or at ( Read more... )

So yesterday, I went to City Hall to transfer my old city sticker to the new car. Armed with the ruins of the old sticker and the receipt, I was told that I could not do this without the paperwork showing when I had bought the new car. Sadly, I went home.

Today, I returned with the paperwork, the old sticker, and the receipt. Today's clerk (as ( Read more... )

And the old car is sold. The new car is in the garage.

Once I get the city sticker transferred tomorrow, it'll all be done.

It looks like the problem with the voice dialing was simply a problem with getting the car to suck all of the contacts in from my phone. We'll see if that continues to keep the problem solved.

More on the purchase: I went through the Sam's Club car buying service, which now goes through TrueCar. This referred me to three different dealers and ( Read more... )