Audio Books are our friends

I have fond memories of my mom reading the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder Series, as well as many other books, during our family vacations.  Unfortunately, our long car trips often consist of me solo...and before the kids could read (and before we had a DVD player in the car)...it was hard to read and drive...don't worry I didn't really try it!  Even when Mr. IM drives, I get car sick trying to read in a moving vehicle (on planes, too...blech)....so audio books have been my friend for a long time.  Long ago I bought and borrowed cassette tapes, then CD's, and now I have several favorites burned onto my car hard drive (yes, my car has a hard drive, that is a story for another day) as well as the magic of borrowed play-aways and electronic books (through my phone!) and the car blutooth connection...The public library has been a great resource...the other day I downloaded an audio book for myself to listen to while walking....Anyway...here are some of our favorites over the years with commentary when appropriate.  If the "reader" matters I'll try to note the "right" reader...sometimes that makes all the difference!  (For example...I LOVE Percy Jackson...but the way the reader reads the Pegasus's voice ruined the whole audio book series for me---d'oh!!! and don't get me started on the time I picked up a Elizabeth Peters book read by someone who was NOT Barbara Rosenblat...)  I'm particularly fond of the series books, but there are several stand alones that are quite wonderful.  Many of these would work well as a read-aloud, too--but these are the books that we really enjoyed the reading by someone else.

1.  Masters of Disaster  by Gary Paulsen, read by Nick Podehl.  I've listened to it twice in one day...
2.  Harry Potter.  Any of the Harry Potter, as long as they are read by Jim Dale. I have them all on CD, but I hear they are on audible now.
3.  39 Clues Series --The plot is a bit much sometimes, but the reader is pleasant to listen to (not too pleasant though, doesn't sooth me to sleep) and stimulates a lot of conversation based on the stupid exciting things the main characters do.
4.  Prince Caspian read by Lynn Redgrave  I love, love, love Narnia... but this is the only reader I've found that doesn't put me to sleep or annoy the heck out of me.  I would be very happy if I found any of the other Narnia books read by someone who's goal was to keep me awake, rather than lull me into a coma....
5.  Any of the Peter and the Starcatchers Neverland books read by Jim Dale.  Here's one...There is a second series that we haven't started yet, but it has the same authors and Jim Dale reads it (so it can't be too bad!)
6.  Red Jacket Girls Series --cute little mysteries, nothing too spectacular, but good enough that I'm disappointed there are only 4 or 5.
7. Henry Huggins-picked up this and Tales of a FGN (below) at the half price book store when they were on clearance.  They are very short, but entertaining enough to pass an hour or so.
8.  Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
9.  Percy Jackson series, (and the 2nd series, and the 3rd...)read by Jesse Bernstein...as long as the Pegasus doesn't talk, I enjoy them...Again, usually because they generate conversation if nothing else.
10. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler.  Love this book...forced the children to listen...they loved it (despite the clearly dated museum security...)
11.  Other Gary Paulsen humor books--like Mud Shark, Lawn Boy, Lawn Boy Returns...Hatchet is ok, but stressful in the car...the funny ones are better
12.  Treasure Hunters Series by James Patterson.  I think there are three now...A little is lost in the translation, as they say, in this one--there are a lot of pictures and graphs, but we solved that by checking out the book as well...and honestly, we discovered  we weren't missing much.
13.  The Gregor Books by Suzanne Collins (these are actually better in many ways than Hunger Games...they are a longer series written for younger kids...the last few were a bit too violent but ok)
14.  Moon Over Manifest--again, loved the book and the reader is good...nice choice in the car
15.  The Westing Game--another favorite that they resisted then loved :) I'm tricky.


Slightly questionable for (some?) children...but still among my favorite car trip "reads" (and The Boy loved it last summer...)
Night Train to Memphis By Elizabeth Peters, read by Barbara Rosenblat (Really anything read by Barbara Rosenblat is lovely).  There really isn't anything really objectionable...really no more than most kids books, and Rosenblat has the most lovely reading voice...but I'm prejudiced since I love anything Elizabeth Peters anyway, I suppose.

So what have you read in the car or listened to on CD/playaway/audible?  We're always in the market for something new and good!!

Monarch Road

There are at least two ways to get home from church to our house--one being the highway (which is always under construction) and the other being Monarch Road.  When The Girl and The Boy were much younger I always took the highway, because Monarch Road seemed so long and so foreign.  The other night, as I drove home on Monarch, enjoying the peace and the dark--we even stopped to let three deer cross the road--I thought how interesting it is how something can become so commonplace that the old way seems silly---going out of my way to take the highway now just seems like a waste of time.  

I think it works that way in the rest of my life too--both good things and not so good--that if I do something enough it just becomes "how things are done".  As I drove,  I thought how good that can be when it is something like reading a daily devotional every morning how it is not good when it is neglecting my nightly walk.  

I think I'll keep taking Monarch Road home to remind myself to reinforce good habits and try to change the not so good (and to see the deer).

Puzzles are fun..alternate title...how to fit a SUV into a suburban garage

The new car is a tad bit larger than the old car.  When I measured the garage before bringing the car home, we realized there wasn't going to be room on the side I usually park on.  Well, there would have been room, but we wouldn't be able to get out without crawling out the back end and then we'd have to go in through the front door because it was so tight.  A couple days before I brought the car home I re-arranged the garage and then IM helped me move the freezer (ok, he moved it), so now the car fits in the garage.  Barely.

First world problems....Winter should be interesting.

Funny Story?

I realized earlier today that I still haven't written a post "just" about the new car or posted a picture..

We've had the new car (2011 Acura MDX) for about two weeks now and yesterday was the first time we put both of the 3rd row seats up. The Boy has ridden in the 3rd row a couple times, but he just puts up his side (it is a split row).  IM, Grandude, and I were in the the other seats and both kids climbed in the back...to discover that the back seat is missing a headrest.  Weird.  So after all of us getting out of the car and looking all over...no headrest.  Weird.  I don't think it was in the car when we bought it!  D'oh!

Today I called "our" salesman and told him, "um, we're missing a headrest".  At first he was skeptical, but he said he'd "check around" and get back to me.  I figured that meant he'd call back in a few days with a price for ordering a headrest.  He actually called back in about an hour and said that he had good news and bad news...bad news?  He can't find an "extra" headrest around the shop.  Good news?  He is going to find one, even if he has to order it, at no cost to us, and will call me back.  He left another message a couple hours later...saying he called the previous owners who said they had "just found the headrest in the garage".  What? Um? Under what circumstances does one take the headrest out of the car and put it in the garage and then trade the car in?  Weird. In any case, the previous owners will bring the headrest to the dealer, who will call me when it gets there and that issue will be solved! Yay!

So I told that story to one of my friends and she said, "Well, all my headrests are out of my car...you have to move some of them now to put in carseats"...so mystery solved!

A resolution to the "car issue"

Ok, this is kind of an ad...but no one paid me or reimbursed me in any way to do it...

For those of you who have followed the story the past few weeks, you know that my (not so beloved) 2009 Subaru Outback wagon died unexpectedly on the next to last day of school.  I had it towed to our local repair shop to figure out what had happened. They had a ton of business that week, so it took them a couple days to sort it out... Turns out the engine was blown.  Since the Subaru has 104,000 miles on it, Subaru basically said, "not our problem", which, although true, was uber-irritating.  They did offer me $500, if I had my car towed to them, towards the purchase of a new, not pre-owned, Subaru.  Ummmm......no thanks.

Meanwhile, we were in the middle of the never ending house re-fi--our mortgage lady is great, however, the lender we ended up working with wanted an appraisal and so on and so forth...no problems, just time consuming.  And...no way to finance a car while in the midst of that.  Added to the drama, we still owed money on not only that car, but the other Subaru as well... ("It's a Subaru, we can do a 72 month loan..we'll drive it forever!"  AGGGHHH!)  Luckily, we didn't owe much on either, so as soon as the re-fi was done, I hustled over to both banks and paid off both cars.  Now the good news is that thanks to the re-fi and the car payoff, we don't have a mortgage payment or car payments in July and our total monthly payments (for both/all) will be lower every month after (Ahhhh.....)

So, the Subaru has been sitting in the back lot of our local repair shop, waiting for the re-finance of the house to be finished, so we could pay off both cars and start car shopping.  Oh, and then we had to wait for the title to arrive (it actually came very quickly, in about a week, I was pleasantly surprised) so we can sell it.
Last week, the house re-finance finished so we started the great car shop.  We had actually created a short list of vehicles/amenities we wanted/needed, so "all" we had to do was go test drive and figure out the best deal for financing.  (We tried our credit union, but the dealer actually had a better deal).

Our short list of amenities (some are mine and some are the Mister's) included:  4wheel or AWD, leather seats, pre-owned certified, good (extended) warranty (either included or available), around 30,000 miles (or less) on the vehicle. We also (obviously?) had a price constraint on the total price, monthly payment and amount down...although Mr. Ranch pointed out that he plans to drive his Subaru forever, since it hasn't had a problem (knock on wood)...so I "should" relax and be willing to go up a little on the monthly payment.  He and the car guys thought it was funny that I dreamed of a $202.72 monthly payment...like my Chevrolet Cavalier was.  I think I can still hear them laughing. I also really wanted a sunroof, power seats, and dual temp controls...features I had on the Volvo but didn't have on the Subaru.  Oh, and a sunroof...a sunroof would be nice...I asked if I could have a tape deck, along with a CD player, also like the Volvo and no one laughed..they just blinked at me.  Side note...during our search I discovered that a 1998 Volvo XC Cross Country Wagon can be purchased for about $1500 and that most "only" have about 150,000 miles on them...Guess what The Girl is going to be driving in three years?!

So back to me...the requirements led us to a list of possible types of cars (don't make fun of me if I mix up the makes/models...this is for fun only!):  Hyandui Santa Fe, Honda Pilot, Mercedes something, BMW something, Ford Explorer, Acura MDX..Volvo was briefly considered, but the new ones just don't have the reputation for reliability, so I vetoed those.  Subaru didn't even make the list because I'm angry with them.  Blah.  The Boy suggested a Mustang, but although it was fun to drive as a rental, it doesn't really meet (any of) my other criteria.  From the start, I thought the Honda Pilot was our strongest contender, then I drove it...drives like a truck and has to be switched into 4WD...darn, no thanks.  So we proceeded on, eliminating car models as we went.  Car Max was a great place to do this--they had a lot of choices on the lot.  We considered buying a car there, but in the end, Car Max didn't have "the exact car" we wanted. They could get it, which was great, if we had a working vehicle and could wait...but after three weeks of rental cars, I was ready for a car of my own....Mr. Ranch really, really wanted a Mercedes.  They were very nice cars and the price was about the same as we ended up paying, but here are my "stupid" reasons for not buying a Mercedes...1.  The cup holders had stupid safety rails on them  2.  I'd look like a dofus driving my Mercedes into the woods to go camping  3.  I'd cry if one of my students dragged their keys along my Mercedes in the faculty parking lot, even though it would be covered by insurance like any other car. 4.  There was not an option for a 3rd row seat   5.  The sales guy didn't fawn over me, he actually seemed to be worried that I would "hurt" the car I was "interested" in buying.  So, yeah, stupid reasons....but, hey...

Which leads us to Acura.  In another (interesting?) side note, Mr. Ranch told me after everything was done that his Aunt and Uncle had the same "discussion" as us, leading to the same result (Uncle R wanted his wife to get a Mercedes, Aunt S wanted an MDX...they bought an MDX....giggle).  We were very lucky, when we walked onto the Acura lot, the salesman who came out to greet us turned out to be a great guy.  Leo listened and didn't laugh when I told him the specifications and had a couple cars on the lot that (almost) met our requirements. After test driving and some angst over which car and what price and about three visits to the dealership to see what was "new today"...we ended up with a 2011 Acura MDX (white outside, tan inside) that meets all our requirements and wishes. (Reminder to self...even though praying that I would find a car seemed stupid...I guess it worked...) There were a couple cosmetic things that the dealer already said they would fix/address, so the car stayed at the dealer for a couple extra days, having child repellent (stain repellent) applied.  The Girl has been telling The Boy that he won't be able to ride in the car, because it "repels yucky things", which isn't very nice, but makes me laugh every time.  (I keep picturing the the scene from the second Fast and Furious, when they had ejector seats). If you find yourself in the market for an Acura and are in the Denver area, definitely check out Courtesy Acura on Broadway! (And, I think if you tell them we sent you, we "earn" $100..so we'll take you to lunch or split it or something....)

As one more side note, our car salesman, Leo, is on "vacation" this week because he needs to have some medical issues addressed.  I'm sure he would appreciate a prayer or two that the problems are identified, treated, and hopefully eliminated so he can get back to work.

Now all we have to do is have that darn Subaru towed to the salvage guy (he is also currently on vacation) and hand over the title then the "Great Car Drama of 2014" will (hopefully) be at an end....

Never a dull moment

So it's been an interesting week here.  On my way home from my next to last day of school on Monday my car died, like died-died.  Sigh.  So I coasted off the interstate, onto the off ramp about three miles north of my exit.  I called AAA and Enterprise and had the car towed to our local car dealer. I think it is a sign of what an "Un-Suburu Suburu" my car is that I sighed, pulled out my cell phone and my AAA and Enterprise cards and made arrangements before I even called Mr. Ranch or the kids. I ended up with a rental for the last day of school--they had to upgrade me to a Mustang, so that was fun.  Our drive way looked like a scene from Fast and Furious.  When one of Pete's cousins saw this picture on Facebook he asked where Vin and Paul were.  Giggle.

Tuesday I finished packing up my office at school, in the hopes that the district will really hold firm on their promise to put in at least new carpet an maybe new paint. I was supposed to go to the end of year office party, but instead I came home and took the kids out to lunch then ran as many errands as I could think of and returned the car.  Enterprise is wonderful, because they will "pick you up", but their "call in" price was "meh".  Sorry, Enterprise, next week I'll be renting from your competitor who will rent me a car for a week for the amount you asked for for two days.

Wednesday and Thursday the kids and I spent the day around home--went went to the pool, started summer reading and math activities, nothing too exciting.  We did an adventure when the home inspector (we are in the midst of re-financing the house and needed an appraisal) showed up an hour early.  After corralling the dogs for the  inspector, he was able to finish his appraisal and we were able to go back to the pool.

Friday, The Girl had an all day youth group activity so The Boy and I got up early and went for a walk.  We got about a block before we decided it was really cold, so we came back and got sweatshirts.  Then we left again.  We decided to go on the trail in the open space behind our house.  We took the right branch instead of the left we usually take to the top of the hill and ended up, not exactly lost, but not sure where we were going to end up.  At one point I thought maybe we were going to end up in town, which would have been a bit of a bummer, since town is 3.5 miles from our house and all I had was my phone (no wallet or even library card).  Eventually we came off the trail, started walking along the sidewalk and discovered we were really only one neighborhood to the west of our neighborhood.  Ah, very good.

While I found some breakfast and made some calls--to the auto shop checking out my car (still dead), and to Suburu National Customer Service to ask if they had any great advice (tow it to a dealert). The Boy and I discussed walking to a movie in the afternoon, but the theater is about 3 miles away and a six mile hike for a movie didn't sound worth it to The Boy.  We made salmon cakes for lunch (tasted fishy...no surprise, I guess, but I was hoping for less fishy and more salmon-y) then decided to learn more about Marvel Comic characters by watching Wolverine.  In the middle of our movie my phone started buzzing--surprise!  A tornado warning for "our" area!  Eeesh.  Turns out it was a potential for tornado activity (I thought that was a watch?) so we finished our movie on the Kindle in the powder room and then watched X2.  I feel like an XMen expert.  Or not.  I kept asking, "um, who is that?  what is going on?"   The Boy kept showing me "everything I needed to know" out of the Wolverine book from the library, but I'm still not sure I can pass an XMen quiz.

It has been interesting being a one car family this week.  There are some things that I like about it--not needing to "run out and pick up something" when we realize we "need" it, but that is also the downside, I suppose.  The poor dogs have had to eat Iams instead of their regular food from Costco because Mr. Ranch was able to dash into the grocery store, but didn't have the checkbook to go to Costco. Liberty does not like Iams...she'll eat it, but looks at us like we've lost our minds.  Indy won't even look at us, I think she knows I'm going to Costco on Monday and figures she can live off her fat reserves until then.  Alice, on the other hand, loves this dog food, as she loves all dog food.  Weird cat.

This has been a good way to start the summer though--there is no pressure to "get moving" because there isn't anywhere to go.  We've played frisbee in the park almost every evening and completed a lot of "cleaning" (ok, really just dragging mass amounts of paper from the school year to the recycle bin).  I've spent some time researching new (used) cars and emailing with the re-finanace folks and most of our laundry is done (!).  It did reinforce though that we need to teach The Boy to ride his two-wheeler--if we had bikes (and time) we could (in theory) ride them to the library (although that "big hill" worries me a bit...going down into town and up to get home!).  The Boy has started reading Sherlock Holmes to me and is very impressed that I haven't been falling asleep like I did last summer when he read "Gulliver's Travels". I think that is a comment more about Gulliver's Travels than about me falling asleep... I even started reading one of the books on the summer reading list for my students.They are assigned by the English Dept and next year I won't teach any English classes (probably) so I'm reading "for fun" so I can discuss the books with the kids when we all get back.

Then on Saturday we had the most interesting adventure of all...The last time we took Indy to the vet, they gave us a list of symptoms to "watch for".  We were told that if she started exhibiting them, to get her to the vet right away because, well, that would be a sign that her heart murmur had changed from a murmur to heart failure.  So on Saturday, while Mr. Ranch was out exercising, she had every symptom.  (Google "congenital heart failure in dogs" if you want to know).  To make a long story short,  the whole family was a hot mess, we bundled the dog into the car, took her to the vet to discover that (wait for it) she has indigestion.  So we are the opposite of the old men who don't go to the hospital for a heart attack because they think it is "just" indigestion...The vet gave her basically pepto bismo and a sedative and sent her home.  Indy is definitely showing her age today, I think the whole adventure wore her out (it wore me out).  The vet sent us home with some overpriced dog food that Indy won't eat (we only opened one can though, we're going to return the rest, per the vet's directions). In trying to get her to eat I boiled a chicken breast for her (Indy's favorite food, the only "people food" she has even stolen from us).  She will "only" eat it if we pretend to drop it though--won't eat it out of her bowl.  Crazy dog. Speaking of which, I guess it is time for me to go cook my dog some lunch....

Sigh

I seem to put a lot of miles on my car--I do have an approximately 52 mile commute each day (26 each way, give or take a few miles) and this car has traveled to Seattle, South Dakota, Indiana, Michigan, Arizona, and California since we bought it in 2009.  Last week the odometer rolled over--I now officially have a car with over 100,000 miles on it...eesh.

Gert, the GPS

This is Gert the GPS.  While we were out driving around the other day, Mr. Ranch said that I should write a deep and thoughtful post about Gert and how we sometimes blindly listen to the world and end up getting lost.   He has a point and it was a lovely discussion with the kids--a good reminder as we head into the holiday season, right?

Personally, I like making wrong turns on purpose so Gert will freak out. Or even better, first changing her voice to Yeti, then making wrong turns.