Author: Shane

New Car Update

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So, we’ve had the new car for just over a month now, and I have to say that I’m liking it more and more the longer we have it.

The main thing I was worried about was whether or not we could fit (get it, because it’s a Fit?). A month in, I feel I can say relatively confidently that we fit in quite easily. With that one concern out of the way, I’m free to really enjoy the car.

It feels a lot more “peppy” than the Malibu was, especially around the neighborhood. Conversely, you feel every bump in a way that you never did with the Malibu (which can be rough this time of year). I’ve never had a hatchback before, and I have to say, I’m a convert. Definitely loving that part. Also loving the 37.6 mpg we got coming home from Wisconsin!

There are two very minor things that annoy me about the car. The first is that you can’t lock the doors until they’re all closed. This kind of seems like a good idea, until you have kids. I never realized it, but it turns out that I usually open all the necessary doors, lock the doors so I can put my keys away, and use my hands to carry things. If, instead, you have to keep your keys in your hand until the kids get out, you have to wait for about five hours or so before you can free your hands.

Second, if you unlock the doors but don’t open a door in time, they re-lock themselves. So by the time you load up and round up the kids and herd everybody in the right direction, you get to the car just in time to hear the doors lock. Again, not a good feature if kids are involved.

Okay, but back to the good things. I admit, I was a little worried with how it would be in the snow. But after pushing several cars out of the snow (including 4wd cars) and not having any trouble whatsoever, I realized there’s more than power when it comes to snow. It’s so much smaller and more maneuverable, that I was able to navigate around all the bad stuff.

And finally, the super best part about the car is the little “instantaneous mpg” bar. I cannot take my eyes off of it. It’s like driving and playing a video game at the same time, and very competitive between Sara and I. It makes me realize how NOT fuel efficiently I was driving the Malibu. I mean, on some level I knew how you could drive to get better fuel economy, but watching that meter has 100% changed the way I drive. “Quit your honking, I’m not going any faster. THE METER IS AT 40 MPG!”

I never really concluded the story of the Malibu. After the laughably low offer they gave me for the trade-in, I took it over to Carmax and sold it for >3 times what they offered me. It was so quick and painless for 3 times the money, that I feel a fool for not just going there originally. They were great with the kids too, they solemnly gave them papers to sign to sell the car. It was all very serious, and Oliver spent as long on his name as I’ve ever seen him. It was a beauty.

Anyway, long story short, very happy with the purchase (and very happy with Carmax). Here’s to 198,000 more miles!

Quote Monday usually goes commando

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Me: “Oliver, are you okay??”
Ollie: “Yeah. It sounded like I got killed.”

Me: “If there was ever a day to wear underwear, this is the day!”

I meant long underwear, but they’re not going to let me hear the end of it.

Sara: “You have to clean your room before you can tape your brother’s hands together.”

Unfortunately, that one isn’t out of context: it was really intended the way it sounds.

Me: “Ollie, do you know how to play soccer?”
Ollie: “Yeah. I even know how to play soccer on roller skates!”

The Benefits of Egomania

/ Shane / 1 Comment

A birthday usually seems to require a “year in reflection” type blog post, or maybe that’s just me since my birthday falls right at the tail end of the “2013 in retrospect!” Internet season. The thing is, I kind of hate writing posts like that because I never have anything to say. It’s always, “Yay, life is going great!” which is not particularly interesting to read about, much less read it over and over again.

It begs the question though; is my life really going so well, or am I just so egomaniacal that I always think everything I have is the best? I have a strong suspicion it’s the latter.

Everyone is somewhat egomaniacal, but I think I’m probably worse than most. I think you have to have a pretty big ego in order to be a writer. You kind of have to have the mindset of, “What I write is inherently interesting and people want to read it.” It’s even worse for a blogger, since by definition this is the place for trivial musings. It’s egomaniacal to think anybody wants to hear what I have to say. (Wait a minute, I’m doing it right now!)

So yes, I’ve got a case of egomania. But you know what? It’s not so bad. I never have to second guess any of my decisions, don’t have to worry about self-esteem or depression problems, and I’m so interesting to talk to at parties that it’s perfectly alright for me to go on and on and never give anybody else a chance to talk. Yes sir, it’s pretty awesome being me.

Egomania lets you make lemonade out of lemons. Egomania lets you ignore unsightly blemishes. People build entire careers (nay, empires!) out of egomania.

Forget about year-end retrospectives. Who cares how old I am? On my birthday, let’s just all focus in and remember what’s important: me. After all, what are birthdays for?

Humbly yours,
-The Management

Ice Skating

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Speaking of all of this ice and snow, Evie and I have been doing a lot of ice skating this winter.

I’d say she has continued to improve pretty steadily. I don’t know if it’s the extra practice or just being a year older, but she has taken a significant step forward this year. In particular she finally seems interested in skating by herself (as in, not holding onto my hand hand having me pull her).

Ice Skating

The nice thing about ice skating is that it’s really just a special time between the two of us. We don’t spend a lot of time together without Ollie or Sara, so it makes this kind of special. I also feel particularly proud watching her, since I’ve seen her go from not being able to stand, to being able to keep her legs under her, to really skating on her own and enjoying it. I can see that she feels proud of herself, which makes me feel proud in turn.

In fact, the other day I asked her if she had ever actually seen figure skating. I mean, everybody knows what figure skating looks like, right? But she never had. As soon as I tried to explain it to her, I realized how much she would love it. “It’s like ballet dancing, except on ice. It’s smooth and graceful, like they’re flying.”

When we got home, I queued up a video of Tara Lipinski at the 1998 Olympics. Evie drank in the whole thing with a rapt look on her face. I don’t know if it was seeing Evie’s eyes opening on this beautiful new thing, or maybe the side by side comparison of Evie learning to skate and then this tiny little girl skating her heart out and winning gold, but whatever it was, it got me. I just started sobbing my eyes out. Pretty soon Evie started sobbing too, even though she didn’t understand why I was crying. Heck, *I* didn’t know why I was crying. “I’m crying because you’re crying!” she said.

In any case, ice skating has done pretty well by us.

Now that Evie can skate by herself, I think we can start taking Ollie with us as well. We just took him for the first time this year and he did pretty well. I think that he’ll learn a little quicker than Evie because he has the twin advantages of not quite being so cautious, and being more of an outdoor kind of person. He really doesn’t seem to feel the cold, and consequently, he doesn’t want to come in off the ice.

The only downside is that the rink was recently sold to a new owner. There are now signs up about charging admission, and the price of skate rental has almost doubled. There have been conflicting reports about the price (people I know have been charged $3, $13, and $16, with no rhyme or reason as to why), and they don’t seem very diligent about who they actually charge, but if it starts to be expensive it will certainly limit the amount of time we spend over there.

In the meantime though, we’ll get in all the bonding time we can.

Baby, it’s cold out there

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As you may have noticed, we in the midwest are experiencing a few…weather difficulties. So far this week we’ve gotten ~20 inches of snow, 30 mph winds, and we’re currently experiencing windchills down to -50 F.

The National Weather Service says: “A prolonged period of dangerously cold and potentially life threatening wind chills will occur through Tuesday morning,” and “This will result in frost bite and lead to hypothermia or death if precautions are not taken.”

Of course, the government also recommends the citizens of Chicago should, “Store a good supply of dry, seasoned wood for your fireplace or wood-burning stove”, so it’s possible their recommendations are not exactly up to date.

We’ve been inside since Saturday evening, and the kids are starting to go a little stir crazy (the cat is currently paying the price for that). Unfortunately, our house is not the most air-tight of structures, so we’ve closed off as many vents as we can and turned the heat down to avoid the furnace running all the time. Consequently, we’re all wearing triple layers (including long underwear!) and huddling together under blankets in a few rooms like it’s the end of days. Oliver and I even wore our winter hats during lunch yesterday.

On the other hand, it’s kind of fun, and we all get to huddle together under blankets like it’s the end of days. Lots of tea and book reading and puzzles and scone baking going on around here, with some possible knitting in my future. We even re-activated Netflix!

I did go outside to make sure I could get the car started and down the alley, just in case school really is back on tomorrow like they’ve been threatening. However, just when I was about to try my luck, a 4wd van got stuck right at our parking lot. After spending 20 minutes getting him out, I decided the Fit didn’t have a chance and went back inside. All my fingers and toes seem to be intact (though it was touch and go for a little bit on the fingers…I warmed them up in my mouth).

Stay warm everyone! In another 5 months we’re all going to look back on this an laugh…