Thursday, September 27, 2007

My Wishlist
I keep finding things I'd like to buy, but can't bring myself to spend money on.... so I'm making a wishlist of things I want but don't want to pay for. Maybe eventually, I'll get some of them -- or use this list to tell my parents something they could get me for Christmas. This list is currently in no particular order of importance
1. Brown/black leather belt - example: Fossil
2. Wallet - example 1: Fossil, example 2: Fossil
3. Ceiling Fan - example: Home Depot
4. GPS unit - example: Best Buy
5. A new laptop - example: Best Buy
6. A Watch - example 1: Fossil, example 2: Fossil, example 3: Fossil
7. A new camera bag - example: Circuit City
8. Camera Lens adapter and lenses - adapter, filter, wide angle lens, telephoto lens
9. Gorillapod for ultra zoom cameras - Joby
10. Barstools

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Another Update
Well... things are still going strong between Trent and I since I last posted at the end of August. Either he or I have been on travel for work for a good portion of September though. He was back from the Netherlands for about a week before I left to go to New Orleans. Then, we hung out on Tuesday (the first night I was back in town after getting back from New Orleans and going straight to Atlanta for college recruiting) -- actually he took me out "on a date" to dinner and then we came back to his place and watched a movie. That next weekend, he came with me back down to Blacksburg for the VT vs Ohio game. We went downtown on Friday night and then the game on Saturday and downtown again on Saturday night --- Sunday we went to BW3s in Blacksburg to catch the early NFL games (including the Green Bay game). Then we drove back home. It was hillarious though on the drive back -- he was all goofy and stuff from being bored of driving. I guess then we had Sunday night and Monday night together before he left again to go on travel to Ohio.... I left to go back to Blacksburg on Tuesday anyway for college recruiting and then just stayed in southern VA for the William & Mary football game... On Sunday morning, I drove back to southern maryland and picked up Trent and Bruce to take them to the Redskins game.... and then after we got back home on Sunday night, trent and I hung out and watched the tape of the Green Bay game, since he missed it to drive to the skins game. Then, Monday he left to go on TDY again -- this time to San Diego.

My car broke down again about two weeks after I had it fixed the first time. This time it ended up being the radiator -- but I left for New Orleans the afternoon that it started overheating and stuff, so I had just left it at Avis and was going to deal with it when I got back in town. However, my dad decided to drive up to Maryland to take my car to the shop so itd be dealt with before I got back into town.... long story short, he ended up switching cars with me once my radiator got fixed -- so since then I've been driving his car while I decided what to purchase for my new replacement car.

Last weekend, after I finished with the job fair -- Dad and I spent a lot of time on Thursday and Friday test driving cars. I had done a lot of reasearch and found about 10 cars I was interested in... so then I focused on some of those to test drive. Thursday I drove:
- Pontiac G6 coupe v6
- Pontiac G6 sedan 4cyl
- Mazda6 v6
- Mazda3 4cyl
- Hyundai Sonata v6
- Hyundai Sonata 4cyl
- Honda Accord 4cyl
- Honda Civic 4cyl
- Toyota Camry 4cyl

On Friday I drove:
- Nissan Altima 4cyl
- Mazda6 4cyl
- Toyota Camry 4cyl

By the end of Friday, I had pretty much narrowed the field down to the Mazda6 and the Toyota Camry and was having a hard time deciding between the two. There is a Toyota dealership closeby down here in southern Maryland so it'd be easy to get warranty maintenance done, however the closest Mazda dealership is inside the beltway. The Mazda is more sporty and has the 5-door option that I have reallly liked for a long time. The Toyota has a special bluetooth option that would be really handy for the future when using cell phones while driving becomes illegal. Saturday night, while talking to my parents about making my decision, my dad asked me, "If there was a Mazda dealer next door to the Toyota dealer in Lexington Park, do you know which you'd get?" And I said the Mazda.... so I thought about it for a while, and decided that if I'd get the Mazda if there was a dealer down here... I shouldn't let a little bit of inconvenience in dealer location be this big of a decider.... I should get the car I like the best.

So, hopefully, this Friday I will be picking up my new Mazda6 5door from the dealer in Roanoke. Here's a link to the vehicle locator info from the mazda website: MY NEW CAR!!!

And then, last night, dad's car's check engine light came on... so I had to take it to the service shop to get it looked at today. Turns out the light was triggered due to poor seals in the gas cap, but then they also found that the rear wheel bearings had gone bad too -- so now that's getting fixed. But hopefully this weekend I'll get my new car, it won't be a lemon, and I'll have a nice dependable, pretty, shiny new car that gets me everywhere I need to go!! :)