A New Car!

After a few months of dealing with trouble from our cars, we bought a new one yesterday. It is a 2009 Nissan Murano that is slightly used. From the CARFAX report, it looks like it was a rental car. We traded in James' 1997 Camaro. Parting with it was a little sad for both of us. It was the car James had when I met him and we left from our wedding reception in it. However, it didn't drive well on the ice and snow (which we have to deal with now in MO), and it needed new spark plugs. James called Firestone to see how much it would cost to replace them, and they said it would be about $500. The spark plugs are in a terrible place, and you have to take of bunch of parts off the car to get to them. So, we traded it in.

Here are a few photos of it.

These were taken in Little Rock, probably 2003 or 2004. We had a nice little snow fall.

These were taken at the dealership as we said our farewell.

This car buying experience was much better than our last experience. The last time we bought a car was in 2001, just a few weeks before we got married. We spent at least a couple of weekends driving around Monroe, LA going from dealership to dealership, pouring over Consumer Reports in print form, & scouring the newspapers. This time was much easier. Monday night we spent maybe an hour looking online at www.vehix.com and www.consumerreports.com Using Consumer Reports online is so much nicer than having the monthly mags pile up at your house.

We found the car that we bought at the dealer's own website. James called the dealership on Tuesday morning to verify that the car was still available, and made an appointment with a sales rep for 5 pm. It took about 2 & 1/5 hours at the dealership. So we spent a few hours over 2 days instead two whole weekends and who knows how many hours looking through printed Consumer Reports. The Internet can be a convenient thing!

Christmas Lights

This is the first year we have put any Christmas lights up outside, and our lights are pretty meager compared to what our neighbors have up. Imagine living on a street with 3 houses that try to compete with National Lampoon's Christmas. I would rather have money for groceries than to pay for such an extensive light display! We spent $70 at Lowe's on the lights that you see, and they were on sale 50% off!

We were both sick when we were trying to get these up. I was crazy cold outside too - like 20 degrees. Not fun.

We also have a box of lights that match lights that all our neighbors have. They are clear lights that sit in a little posts, and everyone puts them around the perimeter of their yard. We tested ours before we put the out they worked. We spent several hours, in the freezing weather, sniffing and coughing the whole time, putting them up. Then we turned them on. Nothing. Out of like 5 strands of lights, not a single light came on. We called it quits and yanked them up.

I hope we're not sick when we do this next year!

The Rockettes

Friday night James and I saw the Rockettes at the Fox theater in St. Louis. It was a fascinating show with amazing costumes, fun songs, and pretty sets. The finale was a pleasant surprise. It was a living nativity complete with a camel, a donkey, and two sheep. There was the holy family, shepherds, and wise men. They sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "O Come let us Adore Him" and ended by reading "One Solitary Life." I so was not expecting that after an hour of dancing bears, Santa, and reindeer.

The theater itself was worth going to just to it. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, and I was awestruck when we walked up to the exterior, only to be even more impressed when when we got inside. It was very ornate.

Before the show, we ate dinner at a great little Italian restaurant called Vito's. James had pizza and I had shrimp scampi. We both had gelato for dessert. Yummy!