Trina's page of Blogginess

It's been a wonderfully, glorious day!
We had a 10:00am appointment to pick up our new MINI in pleasantly.
We were there for 2 1/2 hours, with our MA (Motoring Advisor) Matt. The whole car buying experience couldn't have been better!

I am IN LOVE with this car!!!! It's beautiful! It's fun! It's cute! It's drives soooo well! Dick drove it up to Twin Peaks this afternoon, and couldn't believe how well it performed!

We went out to lunch with my parents, and got our first "people staring at the cute car, and smiling" today. (I assume that was what they were smiling about, anyway)

I also had someone on the freeway give me the "thumbs up" signal... or am I just imagining these things? :)

I'm really tired from the long day, but I wanted to be certain to get some pictures up.
Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to my sister, Tiffini!!!!!!!!!!!
The two of us spent the day in Milpitas - we went to see "Big Fish" (which I really enjoyed!) and hung out with my parents and Claude, and then had dinner at Baja Cactus!

Okay, not thrilled with my medical insurance (Kaiser Permanente) at the moment. I ordered a prescription refill for my Depakote (for my Myoclonus). Got it in the mail yesterday, and found out that they charged me $117.45!!!! My insurance used to only charge me $10-$25 for prescriptions, but it (apparantly) changed this year. Lesson learned: I should have ordered my refill prescription before 2003 ended. So now, I have a $250/year deductable limit.

Yikes. that's pricey!

Oh well, what can I do? I need my meds.... Plus, I swore years ago (when I was diagnosed with Myoclonus) that I wouldn't ever complain about my health care costs. They ran so many tests, and procedures that would have cost so much had I not been covered.

I've generally been happy with my coverage, and especially with my doctors - especially my Neurologist. It's been tough, though. My insurance costs have tripled over the past 7 years, and (obviously) the cost of prescriptions and copayments have risen.

At least I have insurance.....

I'm such a big dork.

I just spent the last hour creating a playlist, and burning a CD to listen to for when I pick up my new car! (just for the record, iTunes rocks!)

If that wasn't bad enough, I also took the time to create a pretty label for it, complete with a picture of my MINI in the background.

Yikes. Someone stop me now!

I've noticed this for the past 4 years that Dick has lived here: One of our neighbors across the street STILL has their Christmas Tree up. It's in the front bay window, it's still decorated, and they still light it up at night. I assume it's a fake tree, so I suppose there's no worry that it's still there, but....???

curious. (she said, checking the date on her calendar again)

Our cats are so funny.
Noe has a wonderful ritual of giving us the "Kitten wake-up call" every morning. She usually comes in first at 7:30am. (when Dick's alarm clock goes off, if he set it) She'll give a cute little "mew" (that's different from any other "meow" or "mew" that she may say any other time during the day) and will hop up on the bed. Then, she'll slowly walk up to one of us (I think she comes to me first) purring. When she reaches my face, she'll gently start "knitting" with her paws, and will start licking my lips. Soooo cute. Depending on the day, we'll respond by petting her, or sometimes, we'll be too tired to acknowledge her. If we don't respond, she'll leave after about 5 minutes. Here's the best part: every 1/2 hour she'll come in again, and will do the same thing. Yep, every half hour, until we wake up and get out of bed. It's really cute, and such a nice way to wake up.

If we're reallly lazy, we'll get the "Big Cat wake-up call". Meaning if we're not up and about by 9:00 or so, Marcel will walk in, jump up on the bed, walk up onto one of our chests, and lay down. Now remember, Marcel is about 15 lbs! He's quite heavy. That'll usually do the trick, and we'll all wake up, and get out of bed.

So much better than waking up to a regular alarm clock! :)

Okay, I've scheduled my delivery of my MINI Cooper for this Saturday, January 31. :)
The dealership was able to have it ready as early as Wednesday morning, but I wanted to work it out so that Dick, and my parents could also go as well. Big family outing!

You may wonder what I'll obsess over after I pick up my new car.
What lies in the horizon?

If only you knew.....
(more to follow)

Thanks to Pete & Omar for their helpful opinions on what kind of monitor I should get. I ended up getting the 17" Sony from amazon.com. I went to Best Buy on Saturday to look at the different models in person, and really liked the picture quality, as well as the aesthetics. (Sonys are generally so pretty!) I ordered the monitor late Saturday night from amazon.com - it was so much cheaper than buying from Best Buy! Plus, it had a $50 mail-in rebate, and (my favorite) free shipping & no tax!

Lucky me, for placing my order when I did. Last night, the "sale price" dropped by $40, and it was only offered through J&R Music & Computer, rather than directly through amazon.com. $40 more, plus I would have had to pay for shipping.

*phew*

I'm looking forward to getting it. It's driving me nuts working off one monitor, when I've been accustomed to two. Poor me! ;)

I love my Mom! Yesterday, she surprised me by driving out to Pleasanton (about 40 min from her house) to take pictures of my new car for me. :)

I have the best Mom ever.

So, here's my car, in all of it's pre-prepped glory!