Well, if you give a girl a house...

....she's gonna want a car.   Or rather, you find when you own a home that you need a bigger car to haul all the stuff from Home Depot and Lowe's and the nursery (plants, not babies) back to said home.   We were fortunate to have Brendan's folks come over the first couple of weekends with their SUV, but realized we really had to get one of our own.  I actually had originally planned to get one this year, as my Grand Am was 10 years old and I was feeling it was getting to be time...   Then I spent the down-payment I had saved for the new car on the house, so that got pushed to the back burner.   Serendipitously, a friend's son was in desperate need of a used car and wanted my Grand Am for about what I wanted for it.   Not like I don't have enough going on with the house and the wedding, but I just figured I might as well jump right in and do the car thing.   Got cash for the Grand Am on Monday and went to the dealership Monday nite to lease a Nissan Murano.

"How much do you want to put down on this lease?" the dealership dude asked?  In response, I pulled out the envelope of cash I'd gotten for the Grand Am and slapped it down on the table.

"And here is what I want to pay for a monthly payment," I added, sliding a piece of paper with a number written on it across the desk.   He came back about $7 over that number, but I can live with that.   The best thing I ever did was, when I made my final payment on the Grand Am, I kept making car payments to myself, that I socked away for the future down payment of my next car (or...house).   Over the years I upped the amount I was paying to myself, and I would use money out of the account if I had to make any repairs on the Grand Am.   My new monthly payment is a good amount less than I am paying myself, but I will continue to put away that full amount and use the excess to...probably pay for gas.    Anyway, I highly recommend the "continue to pay yourself" plan, so you don't have to come up with any new cash when it comes around to getting a new car.

It is REALLY nice driving a new car again after 10 years.   It is also odd but really nice having a car that doesn't use a key.   As long as I have the fob with me as I approach the car, I can open it by pressing the button on the handle.  Really nice not having to fumble for keys at all.  I just climb in and push the "start" button.  Fancy.    Getting high off the "new car smell", which Kevin has let me know is actually bad for me but what the heck.  I had cancer and that was bad for me too.

Looking forward to squiring you all around in it at some point.   But for now...we have trips to Home Depot and Lowe's planned for this weekend to break it in.

I present to you - the Murano.  Beep Beep.