Need: New Whip

Last week I took my Alleycat aka Oldsmobile Alero (2001 edition - classic) to the shop for a "routine" check-up. Only to find out she needs $990 worth of repairs and soon. She is leaking coolant into the oil pan....grrrrreat. Well as you can imagine my current whip is worth about about the same amount as those repairs so that's a no-go. As of last Thursday I am currently in the car market. Some whips in contention (please stop reading now if you are an American car only kinda person)

• Toyota Prius (duh, what car matches my personality better than a Prius). Potential concerns: does it drive well in the snow? I've heard repairs are expensive and batteries need to be replaced often. Has the whole recall issue, has it been fixed?
• Hyundai Sonata. Went to drive a Mazada 6 and saw this car and decided to drive it. Solid whip, solid price, Ryan loves it. Gas mileage is mediocre as this is a full-size sedan.
• All compact cars and SUV's are ruled out
• The only potential GM car in contention is the Malibu which isn't that appealing

Today I went to test drive a Prius and the salesman was horrible. Knew nothing about the car - I was basically selling the car to myself....horrible and disappointing. My search continues but who knew car shopping sucked so bad.

Taxes Are Done!!

Woop woop!! I just completed our taxes for 2009. It was no small feat either, I completed our federal and 3 states (Michigan, Indiana and Illinois). Unfortunately, my least favorite state is also the state we owe money to! Damn you Hoosiers and that would happen. Now that my taxes are done I can update my followers on my most recent life adventures....



My first ticket...thank you Auburn Hills Police for solving the world's toughest crimes and making a grown woman cry on her way to work. Last week after taking my dog to her first day of daycamp I was pulled over for speeding en route to the office. All the usual attempts to get out of my ticket were epic failures....balling my eyes out, the fact that I still had an out-of-state license and was new to the area....this guy meant business. To make matters even worst my license was confiscated!! What am I a convict?! Well no, it's because I was technically from out-of-state and evidently they don't want me skipping town and not paying my ticket. Later that day I had to go post bond of $20 and get my license back....BEST.DAY.EVER. Don't worry friends more to come here in the next 1-2 months I'll be receiving my court date so I can make my plea in court. Power suit please....

Anywho life lesson learned....don't speed in Auburn Hills and don't speed when you are out of your homestate!

Thanksgiving Adventures

My favorite season of the year is here! That being sale season....woop woop! My holiday weekend started with a trip to Detroit to watch my Packers play. The Packers win, so I am in a great mood! Post-game we are headed back to my car, we hop it and I open the glove box to grab my parents GPS, I had borrowed and it's missing! Ah, where did it go, how did someone get in without the window being broken? Well, I soon found out someone had jimmied my driver's side door lock and stole the GPS out the glove box! From there my main question is, how did someone know it was in there? Every piece of it was completely hidden in the glove box. I'm going to attribute it to the shady parking attendants at Kentwood Academy. And to think I was helping children by parking in that lot, yeah, helping them scam me. Life lesson learned.

After that depressing event, it was back home to prep for the biggest shopping day of the year. Luckily, Best Buy had the same Garmin on-sale the next day so in addition to my Dyson, I was also in the market for a Garmin Nuvi. Awesome.

My Mom and I arrived at Kohl's at 3:30 AM, my Dad didn't feel like waking up that early. I have no idea why not?! Thank goodness, we got there so early within about a 1/2 hour of opening the entire Dyson stock was wiped clean! That fabulous low-quality picture above is my Dyson I snatched up right after opening. woop woop!

Some guys have all the luck...

Most people will say, they definitely don’t have all the luck; but sometimes I will be going about my normal day and think this truly is me. It’s even more interesting when someone else calls you out on your extreme bad luck. Sometimes I think I am truly immune to my severe malchance, and just imagine a cute little French man saying “quelle malchance!”. Yesterday was my grand departure from the mitten state (home state), and I set off first to get gasoline then continue my venture home. Well, too bad the Alero decides she wants to stay in the mitten state a little while longer. After filling up her 13-gallon tank to head home she won’t start. Which is amazing because she just made it to the gas station perfectly fine. Now, as a frequent sufferer of malchance - I keep my smartphone as a trusty sidekick. After a quick phone call to the old man to inform him Alley was out of commission, I Google “Alero won’t start”. Top results: dead battery (not the case here), Passlock security issue, etc. I fell into the Passlock security issue…. which can be fixed by getting the ignition switch fixed ($$$) or patiently waiting in the “On” position 10 minutes and restarting. Now let me debate here between waiting 10 minutes or calling the nearest tow facility, waiting for them to arrive, they haul my Alley off, I'm sans a vehicle, then pay $$$ to get it repaired. Clearly, I chose the former.

My Monday starts off like a typical Monday…except…en route to the train station my ‘Service Engine Soon’ light turns & stays on…FML. Next, arrive at the train station “We are currently experiencing indefinite delays ahead”….FML. A girl just can’t win. I board my train with the car manual in tow, since I’ll have extra time today to diagnose the new problem with Alley. During my train ride this morning I came up with some potential fixes for the ‘Service Engine Soon’ light, which I’m hoping to repair instead of my local GM dealer…we shall see who wins this round my friend Alley or me...