On Thursday D* and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. It's been an eventful decade for us (the rest of the world goes without saying)--two moves, two layoffs, two children and all of the changes they brought, and will continue to bring us for many years to come. This year has been more eventful than most--as D* says, "Surprise baby is surprising." There have certainly been difficult times, but on the whole we reckon ourselves blessed, or lucky, in that the good times have far outweighed the bad and overall things have kept getting better.
We spent yesterday afternoon car hunting, with little to show for it. Hardly anyone seems to be selling what we want. We set aside our disappointment and made our way back to Cambridge. A brief stop at the Wine & Cheese cask (where I confided in the teller that I would kill for a margarita and received a sympathetic look), a mosey down to Harvard in the cool afternoon air, and then we enjoyed a wonderful meal at Dali, a place we last visited while I was pregnant with Lydia (some day I'll get more than a sip of sangria, dammit). Some day we may be able to take the kids out for dinner and they'll actually eat something, but on this occasion they were being babysat by their saintly grandparents, so we had anchovies and baked goat cheese and prunes wrapped in bacon and rabbit and seafood ravioli and... I'm starting to feel stuffed again. And then we had dessert.
We also made it to the Union Square market in the morning, and came back with a fridge full of vegetables, so I am happily spending time now doing the jigaw-puzzle-like menu arrangement that must follow. This is what I have so far (subject to change, naturally!).
Sun
Spicy Oven-Fried Chicken
Fingerling Potato Salad with Leeks and Fennel
Mon
Open-Faced Jerk Vegetable Sandwiches
Roasted Tomato Soup
Tues
Pan-Roasted Pork Chops with Cranberries and Swiss Chard
36 weeks!
Wed
Spiced Kuri Squash and Chicken Stew
The latter half of the week will be improvised, and next weekend will be another busy one--if we haven't gotten the car sorted out by then, we'll have to change strategy in order to get it done with, because we really can't waste much more time on this. Should probably also buy a few baby clothes and stuff!
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car. Show all posts
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
We Got the Car!
Drove down this morning, signed some papers, swapped plates, moved the car seats over, and there it was. Drove it home in something of a hyperanalytical mood, but it's certainly nicer than the old one.
I still don't understand what it is they do with cars like our old one, that aren't worth refurbishing to sell--apparently they get shipped in lots to Mexico or something? I don't get it, but the global market does mysterious things....
Anyway, we have a new(er) car, and we're glad to have it over and done with.
I still don't understand what it is they do with cars like our old one, that aren't worth refurbishing to sell--apparently they get shipped in lots to Mexico or something? I don't get it, but the global market does mysterious things....
Anyway, we have a new(er) car, and we're glad to have it over and done with.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Apple Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze
We bought a car! Swallowed our reservations and decided that we weren't going to find a better deal, so we put a deposit on a silver '05 Accord. If everything goes smoothly, it will be ours in a couple of days, just in time for a nice long drive.
Despite being exhausted, I found time to make a cake on Sunday. One of my co-workers had a birthday back in February, and I had promised him a cake, and with one thing and another we've never gotten around to celebrating his birthday. Well, today the time and inclination finally got together and produced this cake.
Mine does not look like the picture -- the glaze all soaked in, rather than leaving the shiny coating. It is, however, moist and satisfyingly sweet without being overwhelming, and altogether much better than I had expected from such a simple cake. The batter is very stiff, but the apples and the glaze offset that quite nicely, leaving a perfectly balanced result.
The next coworker to have a birthday has requested a tres leches cake. I can do that.
Despite being exhausted, I found time to make a cake on Sunday. One of my co-workers had a birthday back in February, and I had promised him a cake, and with one thing and another we've never gotten around to celebrating his birthday. Well, today the time and inclination finally got together and produced this cake.
Mine does not look like the picture -- the glaze all soaked in, rather than leaving the shiny coating. It is, however, moist and satisfyingly sweet without being overwhelming, and altogether much better than I had expected from such a simple cake. The batter is very stiff, but the apples and the glaze offset that quite nicely, leaving a perfectly balanced result.
The next coworker to have a birthday has requested a tres leches cake. I can do that.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Pork, Cashew, and Green Bean Stir-Fry
Car shopping is exhausting, and strangely unrewarding. We started the day with a list of dealerships that seem to have a car we'd like to see. The first one was to take a second look at a car we like, but have reservations about. We still have them. The dealer shrugged patiently.
The second place we didn't even end up driving the car because the guy only had one plate, and it was out with someone else. We waited for fifteen minutes and gave up; he never even came out to the lot. Guess he thought we were poor prospects.
The third was one of the big name dealerships, and I think we learned our lesson about never going to those places. It was a fascinating textbook display of hard sell tactics, and he put on a thoroughly astonished expression when we informed him rather bluntly that we were not planning to buy a car then and there no matter what he said (they did give L a balloon, so we got that out the day...). In fact, we have no intention of ever buying any car from these guys.
Six hours of driving around the state and looking at cars ate up way more energy than it seems like it should have. The kids were reasonably well behaved throughout all of this; there was a distinct "I want to go home" vibe by the time we got to the third place, and I felt some of it myself. I was tempted to go the takeout route again, but instead made Pork, Cashew and Green Bean Stir-Fry (with sugar snap peas instead of green beans). It's hard to go too far wrong with tenderloin, and this is a good, no-frills recipe, perfect for nights when you're dead on your feet.
Today, I hope, we're going to make up our minds. Next time we'll try to time the whole thing better; the pressure of either getting it done now or it waits until after vacation is not making this any more pleasant. And maybe we won't wait until the car is on its last leg before we start looking.
The second place we didn't even end up driving the car because the guy only had one plate, and it was out with someone else. We waited for fifteen minutes and gave up; he never even came out to the lot. Guess he thought we were poor prospects.
The third was one of the big name dealerships, and I think we learned our lesson about never going to those places. It was a fascinating textbook display of hard sell tactics, and he put on a thoroughly astonished expression when we informed him rather bluntly that we were not planning to buy a car then and there no matter what he said (they did give L a balloon, so we got that out the day...). In fact, we have no intention of ever buying any car from these guys.
Six hours of driving around the state and looking at cars ate up way more energy than it seems like it should have. The kids were reasonably well behaved throughout all of this; there was a distinct "I want to go home" vibe by the time we got to the third place, and I felt some of it myself. I was tempted to go the takeout route again, but instead made Pork, Cashew and Green Bean Stir-Fry (with sugar snap peas instead of green beans). It's hard to go too far wrong with tenderloin, and this is a good, no-frills recipe, perfect for nights when you're dead on your feet.
Today, I hope, we're going to make up our minds. Next time we'll try to time the whole thing better; the pressure of either getting it done now or it waits until after vacation is not making this any more pleasant. And maybe we won't wait until the car is on its last leg before we start looking.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Big Ticket Items
There's nothing like being in the market for a car to make you pay attention to what everyone else is driving. It's a little distracting, constantly noting the makes of cars on the highway, in the parking lot, wondering. Why did they buy that one? Have they had a lot of trouble with it? That seems to be popular, should we look at one?
Having studied the Consumer Reports testimonies, last night we made our first dealer visit. Nice enough place, so low-pressure there was almost a vacuum; the guy just showed us around a bit in a disinterested fashion, even wandering off a couple of times. Maybe this is some sort of reverse psychology in action. We looked at a few cars, made notes, sadly concluded that we can't fit into a Civic, and promised we'd come back over the weekend (without the kids) to drive something.
One thing I am noticing as I do my internet research, there's very little variation in the prices, and I wonder if the internet itself is the cause of that. When you can get every car listing for a hundred mile radius on your screen in two seconds or less, sortable six different ways, it's easy to see if one price sticks out (in either direction), and you're going to get price clusters. Ours is going to cost more than we wanted it to, but that's how it went the first time, too.
To celebrate our impending assumption of debt, we ate frugally:
Three-Bean Tacos
And since that recipe calls for a half cup of this, half of that, and such, I used the rest of the peppers and such in a lunchtime favorite:
Couscous Salad with Chickpeas and Tomatoes
You may notice that the latter recipe doesn't actually call for peppers, but it's one of those blank-canvas recipes to which you can add pretty much anything you like the taste of. I always pour on the veggies, adding peppers, carrots, and whatever else is handy.
Having studied the Consumer Reports testimonies, last night we made our first dealer visit. Nice enough place, so low-pressure there was almost a vacuum; the guy just showed us around a bit in a disinterested fashion, even wandering off a couple of times. Maybe this is some sort of reverse psychology in action. We looked at a few cars, made notes, sadly concluded that we can't fit into a Civic, and promised we'd come back over the weekend (without the kids) to drive something.
One thing I am noticing as I do my internet research, there's very little variation in the prices, and I wonder if the internet itself is the cause of that. When you can get every car listing for a hundred mile radius on your screen in two seconds or less, sortable six different ways, it's easy to see if one price sticks out (in either direction), and you're going to get price clusters. Ours is going to cost more than we wanted it to, but that's how it went the first time, too.
To celebrate our impending assumption of debt, we ate frugally:
Three-Bean Tacos
And since that recipe calls for a half cup of this, half of that, and such, I used the rest of the peppers and such in a lunchtime favorite:
Couscous Salad with Chickpeas and Tomatoes
You may notice that the latter recipe doesn't actually call for peppers, but it's one of those blank-canvas recipes to which you can add pretty much anything you like the taste of. I always pour on the veggies, adding peppers, carrots, and whatever else is handy.
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