Archive for the year 2009
Sunny de Mayo Pictures
Posted on May 11, 2009 by Ching under Flickr, Life.
It took me a whole day to recover from Sunny de Mayo. I’m not joking.
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Ching Wants a New Car
Posted on May 9, 2009 by Ching under Wishlist.
I was doing some comparison shopping for Camry Hybrids online the other night. I figured I could save Brian and I some valuable time by getting online price quotes, instead of having to drive to various Toyota dealerships.
I forwarded him some of the responses I received so far. One in particular rubbed him the wrong way. I have to share it because it cracked me up.
Here is the email I received from the car salesman:
Hi Cherrie,
Thank you for your interest in the Camry Hybrid. I am going to quote you a couple of prices to give you options. By chance would you be interested in a pre-owned? I have an 07 that a gentleman purchased new here but traded just a week or so ago. If not, no problem!
Here are a couple I have in stock.
Specs for an ’09 Desert Sand Camry Hybrid for $28,706 and ’09 Barcelona Red Camry Hybrid for $26,399 were attached. Note that these prices are after rebates but before any taxes or other fees that they try to nab you for.
Now, this car salesman is just trying to be helpful while at the same time trying sell some vehicles. Brian must have been having a bad day, though, because he emailed me back with…
No Pre-Owned. Why would he mention that unless they were trying to off-load it. You asked for a new car quote and they try to offer you some smuck’s used car. I already don’t like them.
I really didn’t mind. I thought the salesman’s email was nice and informative and I appreciated being provided with options. Shoot, a good deal is a good deal — new or used. I’m not above buying a used car. I would prefer a new car, but if I can get a similar used car for a lot less I would definitely consider it. I’m all about saving money.
It irritated Brian a little, though. He feels that if you ask for new car price quotes, that’s what you should get. The pessimist that Brian is always thinks people are being sneaky when they do stuff like this. He thinks I’m naive in thinking that people are nice and want to be helpful in general.
I really do want a new car, though. Brian prefers a Prius, but I want a Camry Hybrid because I am more conventional and I don’t like the body design of the Prius. I do like the gas efficiency of it, though. The Camry won’t be as gas efficient as my current car, but it will be pretty close. Plus, it looks a lot nicer.
If you are selling an ’09 Camry Hybrid, feel free to leave price quotes and information in the comments. Brian and I plan to do some car shopping next weekend, weather permitting. If you know of any really good, trustworthy Toyota dealerships within a hundred-mile radius, please feel free to leave those in the comments also. I’m not feeling particularly loyal to Eddy’s Toyota right now (recall Bebot’s botched oil change last August and everything that we have been going through over the last two weeks) and would cheat on them in a heartbeat if the price is right. 😉
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The Wichita River Festival has Begun
Posted on May 9, 2009 by Ching under Flickr, Things to Do.
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Senior Citizens Get the Best Deals
Posted on May 9, 2009 by Ching under Life.
I told Brian that we should go to ABC Liquor to pick up the two three-liter bottles of Lambrusco on Wednesday. Wednesday is the day that they have 20% off wines.
Our plans didn’t pan out when we were distracted by the arrival of the Lenovo IdeaPad. We scratched all plans and ended up unboxing the new laptop. Much to our disappointment, after having spent almost two hours with tech support, we could not get it to connect to our wireless home network (unlike my old Dell Mini 9, which connected in about two seconds without any problems).
I didn’t remember it until after work on Thursday. “I know what we forgot to do yesterday,” I told Brian. “We forgot to hit the liquor store to buy Lambrusco.” I had promised to provide Sangria for the Sunny de Mayo celebration this weekend. Lambrusco is the type of wine that my favorite Sangria recipe (stolen from Brian’s mom and dad’s old neighbor, Lisa) uses.
Hoping to get a good deal on the extra large jugs of Lambrusco (I wanted to make twice as much this time because we ran out of Sangria so quickly at Sunny’s holiday party), I called around to various liquor stores to find out if any discounts were available. Here’s the phone conversation that took place when I called one of the local liquor stores.
ME: Hi. Do you guys have any specials today?
LIQUOR STORE GAL: What do you mean?
ME: Do you have any discount offers?
LSG: On what product?
ME: Well… On any products, but I am interested in wine mostly.
LSG: Tuesdays you get 10% off any 20-pack or larger beer, on Wednesdays all regularly priced wines are discounted 20% off, and that’s about it.
ME: What about Thursdays?
LSG: No. Sorry. Nothing on Thursdays.
ME: Bummer.
LSG: We do offer SENIOR DISCOUNTS every single day of the week!
LOL. Too bad I have another 25 years or so to go. Senior citizens get the best deals! =P
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Goodbye IdeaPad
Posted on May 7, 2009 by Ching under Babies, Wishlist.
Dropped the IdeaPad off at UPS today. I am kind of sad to be without my old Dell Mini. This whole week has been a bust. On the up side, we got Bebot back from the shop today — but only after having driven a 2009 Camry Hybrid (test drove it while Bebot was getting an oil change), 2009 Corolla LE, 2009 Prius, and 2009 Corolla S. The other three were the various loaner cars we were given by Eddy’s to drive. (This is a long story and I may just leave it up to Brian to whine.. err.. write about it.)
I am still sad about the whole computer situation, though. So sad that I decided to order a couple of dresses from Ann Taylor LOFT to cheer me up. Unfortunately, it will be another week or so before I get them. That should be enough to tide me over until I can get a replacement laptop.
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