Milly was good last night. She woke up sometime in the 5:00 hour for a diaper change then let us sleep until about 8:30. We could have gone even later, but I woke up and figured it was time to get her going.
The whole family went out to meet some clients of mine today. There’s a marketing consultant out of Raleigh that we work closely with, and she was in town meeting some of her clients here in Wilmington who own a few restaurants. I’ve worked with them a little too, and she thought it would be a good opportunity for me to actually meet them. On top of that, they were shooting a commercial and thought a family would make good scenery for it, so we got to meet some nice people and eat some free food.
Just before we left floodgates opened in the sky and it poured. It rained pretty hard until we got to Bob King Volkswagen, where we test drove and eventually bought a silver 2009 Jetta. It’s pretty much just like the one we’ve got now except that it doesn’t have buttons on the steering wheel or memory positioned seats. It does have an auxiliary (read: iPhone/iPod) stereo input, which I’m excited about.
The car was a loaner, so it’s only got just over 12,000 miles on it. It’s certified, inspected, all that good stuff. It’s got an original warranty on it plus another warranty for an extra, what was it, three years? Plus VW has a three year free maintenance thing going on, so we get all kinds of service done for free for the next few years.
Honestly, we’d have been happy to keep the 2005 Jetta we’ve been driving for the past four years, but we made a mistake and leased that one and it’s up on October 12 I believe. We could have bought that one out, but it’s older, it would have been worth less, it was damaged pretty good that time that truck backed over the hood and we have some really good coverage on the new one. All that, and we’re only paying about $10 more a month than what we were paying on the lease.
We did all the paperwork and we actually now own the new car, but we’re going to wait until Tuesday to pick it up. They’re replacing the passenger rear view mirror and cleaning it up for us. Speaking of cleaning it up, we’re also getting some floor mats worth about $200 that were in the trunk.
We’re pleased with our purchase. We looked at the Rendezvous, but that was sold before we moved on it, and another one came in but it was gone just as quick. Amanda remembered not being the most comfortable riding in that when we test drove one a while back though anyway. We really liked the Tiguan too, and probably would have gone with the one that was a loaner if it didn’t have cloth seats. All in all I think we made a smart move, and hopefully before long we can just sell or trade in my car and get something a little bigger. We don’t have an immediate need for something bigger anyway, it is and will just be more convenient from time to time.
You know, this is the first car bought in my name. The Celebrity and the Taurus were given to me and I bought the Olds from Aunt Robbie, but this is the time one is coming off a car lot with my signature on it. The ’05 Jetta had Amanda’s name and was cosigned by her dad.
Milly was really good in all that time at the restaurant and the car dealership, but she stated getting really fussy on the way home. Part of the way back I remembered that though she was in her car seat I’d merely set her down in it while we were doing some paperwork and that she wasn’t buckled in. That’s the second time that’s happened, and all I could think about was that if I hadn’t remembered it, with the rain and the home-going traffic I just know something would have happened.
We weren’t home long before we headed back out to Nick and Amy’s for dinner and a movie. Eli was up for a little bit with us. I think he’ll be crawling really soon. He’s rolling around really well.
We ate lasagna then had cookies while we watched Almost Famous, which neither Warkentien had seen before. Man, that’s a great movie.
Milly was pretty talkative today. While we were at the dealership she seemed to have a whole conversati0n with her lion/lamb thing. She’s gotten to where she really liked sticking her hand in her mouth, too. I’ve been pulling it out when I see it, but I told Amanda that I was pretty sure that was a battle I wasn’t going to win. She sucks on her thumb now and then too, and that one I’m going to stand firm on.
Zach Dotsey