A girl's best friend

We need a new car. And by need, I mean, I'd like a new car that I can use to chauffeur the puppies to their daily dog park trip. Right now, if I take Peanut, I've got to fold the backseat down in the Audi, and now there are dirty dog footprints on the back of the seat, the top of the seat, and on the plastic parts in the hatchback. There are also dog nose prints on the window.

Not exactly elegant for a luxury car. Also, Peanut can't sit or stand up in it comfortably, and squeezing both him and Spike in there is a little tight.

My fabulous, economical-minded (read: thrifty, doesn't like to spend money on what he thinks is unnecessary) husband has written his point of view here. However, this same husband also doesn't believe in buying used cars as daily transportation so we will get something new and shiny.

We are following his process for buying a car: research online to get a long list of vehicles that will work, go see them in person and narrow it down to a short list, and then test drive the short list before making a decision. Very methodical. Which I guess is good because the car I wanted the most going into The Process was the Saturn Vue which we eliminated as soon as we saw it. It doesn't have nearly enough room for The Peanut.

So here are our criteria:

• Big enough for The Peanut (you'd be surprised how many cars we've eliminated based on this!)
• Tows at least 3000 pounds of motorcycle/trailer goodness
  
• Gets decent gas mileage
• Isn't butt-ugly (goodbye Ford Edge!)
• 6 disc CD changer (that's mine)
• No cheap cloth interior, and generally not cheapy looking inside (that's mine too)

We've got our short list now: Toyota Highlander, Toyota Rav4, Dodge Nitro. I think we're going to end up with the Rav4 - that's my prediction. It's the smallest of the three, and meets our needs. But we haven't driven any of them yet.

I hate car shopping - more precisely, I hate interacting with car salesmen. I realize they are doing their job, but it's really hard to be nice when I want to tell them to BACK OFF. Ick.

And of course the price negotiation part is sucky. We're in a good position since we don't *need* a car, so it's not like we're willing to pay whatever they ask, which should make the negotiations somewhat less unpleasant. So sometime in the next few weeks we should be able to get through the rest of The Process and buy a new car. Woo hoo!

Oh and Merry Christmas to everyone out there! TJ gave me my present early because I am short on patience. They are nice and shiny, like the ones in the picture:


These are my very first diamond stud earrings and they match my engagement ring perfectly. So I'd say that my fabulous husband has done well! I'm not sure my presents will be nearly as exciting to him, sadly. But we're opening the presents tonight since my parents are here and leaving tomorrow morning. So we shall see.

Hope Santa is good to everyone out there!