We have an asset now

We ventured out into the suburbs again today to look at more used cars. We drove an old Jetta, and after a few miles, we started to smell burning oil. Immediately, Jen's internal radar went off, saying something like "Baby. In. Danger. Get. Out. Of. Car." So for a reliabilty and safety standpoint, we decided to buy a new car instead. We bought the craziest looking, most affordable and likely reliable thing out there: the Scion xB.

Ours is camoflauge green and was under $15K. We'll spend more money on rent this year than on the price of this car. It drives exactly like my old Corolla did, but it's 3 feet shorter. That'll make for good parallel parking here in the city, and since it's a Toyota, it'll just last forever. The plan is to sell some stock after the Chickpea arrives and pay this one off and get another car in the same price range.

It will be interesting to see what the other people at my new job drive. It's a pretty good indication of the vibe at the place. My last job, people drove VW's and Dodges. Pretty blue collarish. At AOL, it was insane during the stock option days. Lots of Mercedes, BMW and Porsche.

It'll be fun to drive this thing to work every day. I need to hook up the iPod to the stereo. If we'd gotten the white, it would have seemed a fitting twin. Of course, my iPod is in a safety cone orange silicone case, so it wouldn't be the same anyhow.