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Friday, December 05, 2003

Finally - new car news! 

for those of you who have been keeping track (and i know you are :) ) it's been 3 months since I put my deposit down for my new MINI.

I've been calling the dealership at the end of each month since - they find out at the end of each month how many cars they are allotted to order for the next build month. As I said before, I ordered my car though East Bay MINI, which is the only MINI dealership in Northern Cal that doesn't charge over MSRP. Because of this, they have quite a waiting list.... Each month, they are allotted a (seemingly random) number of cars they can order, which are taken off the top of their waiting list. Make sense?

I've been slowly crawling up the list each month... I knew that going into this month (for the January build) I was 13th on the list. They're average allotment is usually in the high teens, but for the last 2 months, they've only been allotted around 8. (is this more info than anyone reading this needs? probably...)

To add even more craziness, when I called last week (last week of November) they said that they were having computer problems, and couldn't access their allotment numbers. UGH!

Okay, trying to get to the point now....

My order has been placed! I'm very excited. This means that I'm in the January build, which would deliver my car sometime towards the end of February.

Now that I have my production number, I can go to the MINI website and track the production of my car.

Really.

And you thought I was obsessed before. It goes from On Order, to Scheduled for Production, Awaiting Transport, En Route, At Distribution Center, then finally to "At Your MINI Dealer". (!)

Crazy man.

Honestly though, I think the tough part is over - I'm really happy that I actually "know" when it'll be made and delivered.

So, what are the final specs? The only good news with having waited to place my order so long after placing my deposit was that I was able to change my specs constantly without any consequence.

here we go:
MINI Cooper
Chili Red w/white roof and mirrors
Chrome Bumper Inserts
Premium Package: Automatic AC, Dual-Pane Sunroof, On-Board Computer, S-Style Sport Multifunction wheel
CVT (automatic transmission)
15" 8-Spoke wheels
Auto wipers/dim mirror
Silver Wheels
Sports Seats
Cordoba Beige Leather
Anthracite Dash

In all fairness to my dealership (East Bay MINI in Pleasanton) they did give me an estimate of 4-5 months from the time of my deposit to when I might get my car. (1-2 months longer than the other dealerships around here that charge a $1000 mark-up fee)

Okay, that's it for now.

Rest assured, I will keep you posted ;)

♥ Noe's Bad Day 

Poor little Noe. She's having one of those very few "bad cat days".

We noticed that she was limping yesterday evening. We didn't know what it was, but thought we'd keep an eye on it. This morning, it wasn't any better, and she was clearly uncomfortable. I decided to call my vet in Milpitas and make an appointment for her today.

Why do I go all the way to Milpitas for a vet when I live in San Francisco? My family has used this vet since the mid-80s. He's seen us through (at least) 5 rats, 2 birds, and 3 cats over the years. Dick and I tried a local vet here in SF, but I didn't like it much - they were a much larger office, appointments were harder to come by, and I usually spent a long time waiting in the waiting room. (which was too traumatic to our kitties, who are vet-phobic)

So, it's off to Milpitas to see Dr. Anderson - he's just wonderful with our little guys.

Unfortunately, (as mentioned before) Noe is especially afraid of the doctor's office. We've had bad visits to the vet (in SF) before where we weren't able to have anything done because she was too upset. (ie: hissing, swatting, etc)

The only solution we were able to come up with was to give her a sedation pill before I drive her down to Milpitas (about 1 hour drive). The pill does a good job of sedating her, although it does make her rather disoriented. This worked well last year, when we brought her in for her annual check up, although we had to put her in "the box" to completely sedate her in order to give her her shots. Truthfully, I think this whole ordeal is far more traumatic on me than it is on her. the way I figure it, she just thinks she's having a really bad dream.... :(

It turns out that Noe had an infected wound on the back of her heel - probably had it for a few days, and it got increasingly worse. The doctor cleaned it up, and gave her an antibiotic shot. He also sent me home with antibiotic pills to give her twice daily for the next 7 days.

Poor little things. She's still pretty disoriented from the sedation. She can't decide if she's really angry, or if she needs to be carried and cuddled. She's probably awfully sore still, too.

I'm experiencing some serious Mama-Cat guilt right now....

Thursday, December 04, 2003

haven't blogged in a while 

I know, I know.... what's going on? what happened to the blogging?

I've been a little preoccupied lately - sorry.

We went to North Carolina a couple of weeks ago to visit Dick's family, and to celebrate Dick's father's 70th Birthday! Happy Birthday to Richard Craddock Sr! :) Dick's sister threw a terrific party, full of wonderful friends and family. It was really nice.

Last week was Thanksgiving. We went down to Milpitas to my parent's house. Almost the whole Chow family was there. Dick would say, "That's a lot of Chow". All 4 of my grandparents came down from Stockton, as well as my Aunt, Uncle and family from Cupertino. We played a few games of pool with my dad and my cousin, Kenneth. I suppose I *can* be a decent pool player (having grown up with a pool table and all) but I'm so out of practice these days, that good shots are fairly random....

I'm working at The Gallery (very) part time again! Only going in for two half days a week. Thought it would be in everyone's best interest to revitalize the animation art again! I'll keep you posted. Anyone looking for any art out there? I'm your girl! :)

We had dinner last night with Omar and Lora over at their place. It was really nice. We haven't seen them in a few weeks. We also had a chance to spend time with their new kitty, Misha! He's so cute! He's getting big - around 9 lbs now. He's like a little Claude! So cute. And get this: he plays "fetch"! Dick and I both thought Omar was exaggerating when he told us about it, but we saw Misha in action last night! That cat can play Fetch!

Got my first Xmas present in the mail yesterday! thanks to my dear friend Sher Bear for that! what a nice surprise! We'll (hopefully) get our Xmas tree this weekend, so now I'll have something festive to place underneath it!

that's all for now. at least I've put a little something up :)
more later....

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