A Time For Everything

Happy Friday!

Hope you're well.

The new car continues to surprise and delight. Not only does Google Maps show up on the HUD, but the car will read my texts to include emojis. I got a laugh out of that the other day. I can also pick podcasts from my HUD if decide, in transit, I want to listen to one.

I also discovered that my driver's seat can move in several additional ways. The front edge, over which our knees hang, can be levered up and down! The seat itself can be moved up and down as well as forward and back. The seat back can also be  angled forward and back. All electronically!! No pumping the lever.

It's not a great picture, but I was in a moving car. (DD was driving, not me.) But you know what it means, right? After all this time...?

Yes, after my sad post on Wednesday, the heavenly stars aligned on Thursday night and my boys won in regulation. That means they got the two winner points and the other team got no loser points. And on top of that, the two teams ahead of us in the standings lost last night, meaning we had a four point leap toward the team in that 4th place position we're trying to acquire...

Of course, we have to keep the winning going... :0)

* * * * *

In other news, I opted against moving forward with that online publisher I'd submitted my cookie book too. She wanted more and more revisions before coughing up a contract and I just don't have the time to devote to that process at the moment. There were a couple other reasons, but that's the big one.

Have a great weekend!

I know y'all don't care about the NHL trade deadline, but DH did a little trading of his own this weekend...

I have a new car!

DH did the math and determined that leasing a car costs the approximately the same as owning a car for 10 years and you get a new car every three to four years. So--

I went from the 2018 RAV4 to the 2021 RAV4.

I was a little unsure at first because DH did all the legwork and all I had were pictures. BUT! Once I sat in the car and got a feel for some of the new features, I was super pleased. The center console arrangement is a little different, which is not a big deal. The screen however, where you can see your backup camera feed and radio stations, etc, *is* different and I like it much better.

The new models also have Apple Car Play which means my Google Maps will show up on this screen as well, which is fabulous.

I was hoping for the plum color again, but apparently a lot of other people also like the plum too. All the dealership had on hand were the basics--black, white, pearl red (looked like shiny pomegranate to me), silver, and dark gray. Ultimately, color isn't the most important feature and I ended up with the gray. I like it just fine.

Hope you had a great weekend.

I've started three posts for today, but things are changing at such a rapid pace that whatever I wrote on Friday is no longer applicable.

Today I'm at work. Our office consists of four people usually. One employee is on vacation for the next three days; DH is at home still self-quarantining, but will probably start actually working remotely; the other employee is here to hold down the fort and do the actual work of our business (IT/MSP) while I do the back end/admin stuff.

Our oldest arrived in town the weekend we left on our trip and left this morning to start her new life in Denver with her soulmate (her words, not mine). Now that DH has his office back and we're back to our usual household residents, life can finally return to some semblance of rhythm and routine.

Remember I wanted that last week. Well, it didn't happen. Too many bodies in the house, too many dishes to wash, too much laundry to do, too much going on in the world to focus on writing as I'd hoped to. But now that the home-front is back to normal, maybe I can re-establish some equilibrium and re-gain that focus.

My plans for writing this past weekend didn't pan out as hoped either. With everything going on both in the house and out in the world as well as not being in the story for almost two weeks, I wasn't nearly as productive as I'd hoped. Thank goodness I don't depend on writing and productivity on that front for my paycheck. I'd be in big trouble.

But something normal and exciting did happen this past weekend. My baby girl (aka DD or my Hockey partner in Crime) bought her first car. She's been driving what she affectionately calls The Tank--a 1999 Dodge Ram pickup we gave her way back in the day when she first started driving and the other two didn't. She's been driving it ever since, nursing it through various mechanical issues through the years. But it is really on its last legs without some serious work that she can't afford, so...

Anyway, while her original plan was to get a smallish SUV, much like my RAV4, she ended up with a 2014 Chevy Cruze. As a sedan, it had a smaller price tag, so that was a factor. And the color--well, it was like a sign. :0)



I might have mentioned my love of Pecan Pralines & Cream ice cream a time or two in the past. Well, pecan pralines are actually a thing... I thought it was just combined for the ice cream flavor but not so. And I discovered pecan pralines are an actual thing in New Orleans, so I went in search. I didn't get a picture of the bag before I tore into it, but here are the pecan pralines. I like them a lot, but they're definitely better in the ice cream. :0)



Last but not least, some things to do online during this nationwide shutdown:

Download coloring books from museums: http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/download-free-coloring-books-from-113-museums.html

The Metropolitan Opera will be streaming operas free in the evenings for a while: https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-to-offer-up-nightly-met-opera-streams/

And the Cincinnati Zoo will be offering a "daily safari" via Facebook highlighting one of their animals: https://www.facebook.com/cincinnatizoo/

Take care...catch you Wednesday.

I would have rather not had to do it, but sometimes, Murphy just doesn't like you. Anyway, new vehicle is a Toyota RAV 4 LE, a small SUV. It's nice and I love it and it has some nice features...

Well, here's the car...


It had 39 miles when we took possession!


It has Bluetooth capability so it automatically connects to my phone and gets my music going. I gotta say, this tickles me to death. Also the talking on the phone, hands free, is pretty cool--not that I do that often, cuz I'm not much of a phone talker, but if someone calls me while I'm driving, there's a button on the steering wheel--no worrying about where the phone actually is.


And it has backup cameras, so I can see what's behind me as I backup. Nice!



So Merry Christmas to us for the next several years. :)