Monday, October 30, 2006
gross
You seriously do not want to know how many dill pickles I just ate. A strange comfort food, I know. Now I'm going to have weird dreams.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
cowabunga dudes
Just got back today from a loop of survey work. Spent last night in Regina with my good friend Kristen. Ah Halloween. I got hugged by a ninja turtle.
Tonight I went to a "Clean and Dirty" party. I dressed up like a dust bunny. I'd say there were about even numbers of dirty vs clean. There were toothbrushes and 50's house wives for the clean side, bed bugs and dressers ("one night stands") for the dirty side and catholic school girls and a half nun half prostitute for the both clean and dirty side. Fun.
And, ah, so if you end up in Moosomin one day and you see a sign on a motel that says "newly renovated rooms", don't you dare think that means the rooms are nice. Let's just say I'm glad I didn't see them before they were "renovated." That was one the nights I brought my sleeping bag in.
Happy Halloween.
Tonight I went to a "Clean and Dirty" party. I dressed up like a dust bunny. I'd say there were about even numbers of dirty vs clean. There were toothbrushes and 50's house wives for the clean side, bed bugs and dressers ("one night stands") for the dirty side and catholic school girls and a half nun half prostitute for the both clean and dirty side. Fun.
And, ah, so if you end up in Moosomin one day and you see a sign on a motel that says "newly renovated rooms", don't you dare think that means the rooms are nice. Let's just say I'm glad I didn't see them before they were "renovated." That was one the nights I brought my sleeping bag in.
Happy Halloween.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
The trade-in: A car buyer's guide
I bought a new car! It's the one I wanted a year and a half ago. It's the colour I wanted a year and a half ago. The only thing was, a year and a half ago I couldn't afford it. Some aggressive saving, lots of mileage money from business trips, and two raises later, I'm sitting pretty.
So what follows is Shannon's guide to getting a good deal on your trade-in when buying a new car. Please note that if you are a car guy or gal who knows exactly why having dual exhaust is a good thing and doesn't have to fake a smile when someone tells you how much horsepower the engine has, this post isn't important to you. Because you can probably get a way better deal than I ever will. If you are, however, a person who couldn't care less about 16 vs 15 inch alloy wheels and really mostly cares about the colour of the car and what the cupholders are like, then this post is for you my friend.
1. The first trick is that you must have a car to trade in. This step is mandatory to the trade-in process.
2. Decide how much you want for your car. Be confident in what it's worth. If you start low then you won't be offended by their first offer. You need to feel offended so you can get fiesty and fight for more cash.
3. Find out how much that car is worth according to something called the "Black Book" (go to a dealer's web page and most of them somewhere have a section where you can appraise your vehicle - I can't find one that will let me link). You need to know about this black book. All the dealers will tell you that your car might be worth toward the high end of the range the black book gives. They may even tell you that at best it's worth $200 less than the high value from the black book with some excuse about how the black book on the internet uses higher values because it's a free service but that they pay for theirs and so it shows more accurate values. THIS IS CRAP. If your car is in good shape, you can get more than the high value. I promise.
4. Decide on what you want versus the absolute lowest you'll take. Once this is decided you have to stick to it. You have to be strong. They will sense any weakness. Seriously, if they offer you $100 less than what you want, you can't take it. If no one will give you what you want, you can always come back later. Remember though that you can probably take a bit less than what you want - they will subtract the trade-in from the price of the car and then calculate taxes. So if you want ten grand, you can accept $9 and be saving enough in taxes to make it like you got $10,300 or something.
5. Have two or three cars in mind. Test drive them all. Have your trade-in appraised by 2 or 3 of the dealarships if they'll do it.
6. Pick one and go for it. Name your price.
7. This is the most important tip I will give you. Be willing to walk out of the dealership if you do not get your price. The only way you have any power is if you are okay with leaving without the car.
8. If you are a girl and you get "Josh the car salesman" (or any other guy), smile a lot and stuff. Not because you will get a better deal if you flirt, but because the Josh salesman is more likely to treat you like a silly girl who doesn't know much about cars. This will (or if it doesn't, it should) make you mad enough so you won't fall for the guilt trip when he starts using it.
9. Don't fall for the guilt trip. Don't feel that because he's spent all this time with you and has "taken a cut in his commission to get you a better deal" that you owe him anything. This step may be harder than it sounds if you haven't bought a car before. These guys are slick, even suave sometimes. Or think they are anyway.
10. He is not trying to get you the best deal because he "can tell you are a sweet girl". You may be a sweet girl, but it's a bunch of crap that that's why he's selling you the car. He wants to make money. That's his job.
11. When he looks at you incredulously because you won't take the fourth "absolute best we can offer" offer he's made, thank him for his time but remind him that you already agreed on a lowest price and you won't take less then that. Then shake his hand, smile, and walk out of there.
12. Be gracious when Jeff "the sales manager" follows you out of the store and says "Do you really think you'll get more than that for your car in a private sale? We really are making you a very good offer you know." Assert that yes you do think you can, but if you don't, then you are okay keeping the car you have. There's nothing all that wrong with it, you just were dreaming a bit about trading up. You've not only complimented his product and shown there's nothing wrong with your car, you've indicated that you really are going to drive away from here unless they give you that extra $500 you are asking for. (By the way, if the sales manager comes running out of the dealership after you, you've got him).
13. When he says, "What's the absolute lowest you'll take?" Say the same dang number you've been saying all evening. At this point, they might get it through their head.
14. Smile a lot and shake their hands when they come in and say you've got your deal. If you are nice, they might take extra good care when detailing your car.
If you follow these steps, you too may have an electric blue mica Mazda 3 with a sunroof just like me.
Zoom Zoom
So what follows is Shannon's guide to getting a good deal on your trade-in when buying a new car. Please note that if you are a car guy or gal who knows exactly why having dual exhaust is a good thing and doesn't have to fake a smile when someone tells you how much horsepower the engine has, this post isn't important to you. Because you can probably get a way better deal than I ever will. If you are, however, a person who couldn't care less about 16 vs 15 inch alloy wheels and really mostly cares about the colour of the car and what the cupholders are like, then this post is for you my friend.
1. The first trick is that you must have a car to trade in. This step is mandatory to the trade-in process.
2. Decide how much you want for your car. Be confident in what it's worth. If you start low then you won't be offended by their first offer. You need to feel offended so you can get fiesty and fight for more cash.
3. Find out how much that car is worth according to something called the "Black Book" (go to a dealer's web page and most of them somewhere have a section where you can appraise your vehicle - I can't find one that will let me link). You need to know about this black book. All the dealers will tell you that your car might be worth toward the high end of the range the black book gives. They may even tell you that at best it's worth $200 less than the high value from the black book with some excuse about how the black book on the internet uses higher values because it's a free service but that they pay for theirs and so it shows more accurate values. THIS IS CRAP. If your car is in good shape, you can get more than the high value. I promise.
4. Decide on what you want versus the absolute lowest you'll take. Once this is decided you have to stick to it. You have to be strong. They will sense any weakness. Seriously, if they offer you $100 less than what you want, you can't take it. If no one will give you what you want, you can always come back later. Remember though that you can probably take a bit less than what you want - they will subtract the trade-in from the price of the car and then calculate taxes. So if you want ten grand, you can accept $9 and be saving enough in taxes to make it like you got $10,300 or something.
5. Have two or three cars in mind. Test drive them all. Have your trade-in appraised by 2 or 3 of the dealarships if they'll do it.
6. Pick one and go for it. Name your price.
7. This is the most important tip I will give you. Be willing to walk out of the dealership if you do not get your price. The only way you have any power is if you are okay with leaving without the car.
8. If you are a girl and you get "Josh the car salesman" (or any other guy), smile a lot and stuff. Not because you will get a better deal if you flirt, but because the Josh salesman is more likely to treat you like a silly girl who doesn't know much about cars. This will (or if it doesn't, it should) make you mad enough so you won't fall for the guilt trip when he starts using it.
9. Don't fall for the guilt trip. Don't feel that because he's spent all this time with you and has "taken a cut in his commission to get you a better deal" that you owe him anything. This step may be harder than it sounds if you haven't bought a car before. These guys are slick, even suave sometimes. Or think they are anyway.
10. He is not trying to get you the best deal because he "can tell you are a sweet girl". You may be a sweet girl, but it's a bunch of crap that that's why he's selling you the car. He wants to make money. That's his job.
11. When he looks at you incredulously because you won't take the fourth "absolute best we can offer" offer he's made, thank him for his time but remind him that you already agreed on a lowest price and you won't take less then that. Then shake his hand, smile, and walk out of there.
12. Be gracious when Jeff "the sales manager" follows you out of the store and says "Do you really think you'll get more than that for your car in a private sale? We really are making you a very good offer you know." Assert that yes you do think you can, but if you don't, then you are okay keeping the car you have. There's nothing all that wrong with it, you just were dreaming a bit about trading up. You've not only complimented his product and shown there's nothing wrong with your car, you've indicated that you really are going to drive away from here unless they give you that extra $500 you are asking for. (By the way, if the sales manager comes running out of the dealership after you, you've got him).
13. When he says, "What's the absolute lowest you'll take?" Say the same dang number you've been saying all evening. At this point, they might get it through their head.
14. Smile a lot and shake their hands when they come in and say you've got your deal. If you are nice, they might take extra good care when detailing your car.
If you follow these steps, you too may have an electric blue mica Mazda 3 with a sunroof just like me.
Zoom Zoom
Thursday, October 19, 2006
to buy or not to buy?
I might buy a new car tomorrow. Then again, I might not. But if they will give me what I want for a trade in, they are going to have themselves a deal. A new house, a new laptop, a new position at my job. Let's add a new car. I mean, I'd rather have a new husband, but if that's not going to happen for awhile, I shall content myself with a beautiful new car. Especially since I spend more time in it then my house these days.
Oh, and I still absolutely love my yoga class. I wasn't the star this week that I was last time, but yoga's not about your ego anyway. You most likely won't remember me explaining how I avoided this particular class for awhile because I was scared of the instructor, but last night I told her how much I was enjoying her class and how it wasn't at all what I expected. I'd been told it was very spiritual and that made me kind of nervous. She laughed at me and explained to me how innapropriate it would be for her to push her beliefs on her pupils, even if she was a practicing Buddhist. But turns out she's a Christain. And to quote her, "My God loves everyone." What a beautiful explanation.
Anyway, namaste yogis. Goodnight.
Oh, and I still absolutely love my yoga class. I wasn't the star this week that I was last time, but yoga's not about your ego anyway. You most likely won't remember me explaining how I avoided this particular class for awhile because I was scared of the instructor, but last night I told her how much I was enjoying her class and how it wasn't at all what I expected. I'd been told it was very spiritual and that made me kind of nervous. She laughed at me and explained to me how innapropriate it would be for her to push her beliefs on her pupils, even if she was a practicing Buddhist. But turns out she's a Christain. And to quote her, "My God loves everyone." What a beautiful explanation.
Anyway, namaste yogis. Goodnight.
Monday, October 16, 2006
it's all wonderlandy-ish
It snowed! A little early, but it's so pretty. I love snow. It makes me want to go skiing right now.
Know what the best thing about this morning is though? While lost of other people have to go outside and brush off their cars, I get to just drive out of my beautiful garage. It's the first time I get to use my garage on a night that it snowed. Excitingness. I think I want to bake cookies tonight or something.
Know what the best thing about this morning is though? While lost of other people have to go outside and brush off their cars, I get to just drive out of my beautiful garage. It's the first time I get to use my garage on a night that it snowed. Excitingness. I think I want to bake cookies tonight or something.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
the newest dusting craze
So, the mc at the wedding last weekend was hilarious. this was worth passing on. the uncle of the bride told the groom that there would be several things he'd just need to get over and become comfortable with as a new husband. of course, he was referring to the buying of pads. he proceeded to tell the groom that he'd soon be fine with holding them and buying them and all that jazz, but that they were really so much more usefull than he might at first imagine. "for instance," he said, "the little things could be soaked in water and thrown into the freezer before a big sporting even. upon return, you can rip the paper off the back and stick it onto any bruises. or if your wife wants some help with the dusting, just pull the paper back off a couple of pads, stick em on your hands, and you are ready to go." he even added that if there is not a lot of dusting, you could use light days.
i laughed very hard. but perhaps you had to be there. it doesn't seem as funny written down without his actions.
hmmm.
i laughed very hard. but perhaps you had to be there. it doesn't seem as funny written down without his actions.
hmmm.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
put another dime in the jukebox baby
Yesterday I attended a wedding back in my home town. It was one of the longest weddings I've ever been to, but it was quite a good time. Both the bride a groom's families are talented musically so there was an abundance of special numbers. The best one in a lot of people's opinion were when the groom's family sang the grace. They must practice at every family reunion because there were about 40 of them and they were harmonizing and everything. The ceremony was beautiful, the dinner was really nice, the mc was hilarious, the stories were touching, the games (yes games!) made everyone laugh and none of it was boring. Even if you only knew one side of the family, the chosen tales were funny anyway. I was sitting at a table with my parents and their friends which meant lots of laughter abounded. One of the guests was telling a story about how the bride's mom had grown all the corn and the guourds for the centerpiece in her garden and that the guords had actually started to rot 3 days before the wedding. Some of them had been saved by cutting the bad spots off. Wes, the man sitting to my right, decided to check our table's guords to see if ours had any sign of rotten-ness and when he did he knocked a silk flower out of the basket into the candle. I was at a wedding about a month ago where one of the bridesmaids started her table on fire too. The difference was they had water in the vases at her table and could put it out. All we had was wine. And so I hesitated, not wanting to pour alcohol onto a fire. I'm not exactly sure what that would do. Would it put it out? Or is there enough alcohol to make it worse? Anyway, we did finally put it out (sans wine). But during each toast we watched Wes to make sure he didn't start another while reaching over to tink glasses.
Now to certain of my friends I must say this. Following the reception, there was a social. It included dancing and karaoke. It was awesome! It's so totally do-able. People were pretty shy at first to sing, but once the bridesmaids did "I love Rock and Roll" there was a line of people waiting to sign up.
Anyway, my grandma, who is here for Thanksgiving, isn't from my town and thus wasn't invited to the wedding. So she spent the day sleeping and relaxing. I came home to find that she'd covinced the rest of my family to stay up late watching a movie. This grandma is 80 and not usually a latester. But she kept us up till 2am. Wild and crazy.
Now to certain of my friends I must say this. Following the reception, there was a social. It included dancing and karaoke. It was awesome! It's so totally do-able. People were pretty shy at first to sing, but once the bridesmaids did "I love Rock and Roll" there was a line of people waiting to sign up.
Anyway, my grandma, who is here for Thanksgiving, isn't from my town and thus wasn't invited to the wedding. So she spent the day sleeping and relaxing. I came home to find that she'd covinced the rest of my family to stay up late watching a movie. This grandma is 80 and not usually a latester. But she kept us up till 2am. Wild and crazy.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
i'm a handy woman
My house now has a dryer vent. Guess how it got there. I put it there. With my dad as the expert consultant (and the cute guy at Rona assisiting me with my purchases) I installed the vent (read: cut a big hole with a saw - dad and I sort of fought over who got to use the saw more b/c it was kinda fun) in the side of my house. Watching those little louvre flaps open as the hot air pushed through them was one of the proudest moments of my home owning life.
Dad also put a new sink in the basement bathroom. It's pretty and I like it.
I'm on the road again but I've planned better this time. I brought a book so if I end up somewhere without tv/internet, I can read. Hooray!
Coolest thing of the trip so far - I was walking from my job site to a courier place and I saw a man sitting on the sidewalk with a guitar beside him. As I walked by he asked me if I'd like to hear a song. Heck yes I did. He played a gospel song for me and I gave him a dollar - even though I enjoyed the song, all I had bigger than a buck was a $20 and that was a bit extreme. He didn't even play all the verses of it. But I was thinking about it after and it probably took him about 30 seconds to make that dollar off me - and another person walked up to listen as I was walking away. That's a lot of money if everyone gives him a dollar! I mean, that's like $120 per hour. That's more than double what my massage therapist charges!!! Good for him. Making money and making people smile.
Hmmm, bedtime now I think.
Dad also put a new sink in the basement bathroom. It's pretty and I like it.
I'm on the road again but I've planned better this time. I brought a book so if I end up somewhere without tv/internet, I can read. Hooray!
Coolest thing of the trip so far - I was walking from my job site to a courier place and I saw a man sitting on the sidewalk with a guitar beside him. As I walked by he asked me if I'd like to hear a song. Heck yes I did. He played a gospel song for me and I gave him a dollar - even though I enjoyed the song, all I had bigger than a buck was a $20 and that was a bit extreme. He didn't even play all the verses of it. But I was thinking about it after and it probably took him about 30 seconds to make that dollar off me - and another person walked up to listen as I was walking away. That's a lot of money if everyone gives him a dollar! I mean, that's like $120 per hour. That's more than double what my massage therapist charges!!! Good for him. Making money and making people smile.
Hmmm, bedtime now I think.
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