Contest time!

It's time to play "Name That Van!" with our silver Honda Odyssey mommy-van.

Please submit your entry for the contest, and I will try to guess which one has the best chance at being permanent after the Memorial Day weekend.

My first two ideas are: "Bessie", due to the size of our massive chariot, and "Oddity", since it is funny and rhymes with the model name.

Any ideas?

The van, oh my...

We worked out the financial bits today, and the final deal is tomorrow. As of Thursday afternoon, we will be van owners. I am overjoyed. (insert sarcasm here) Yay.

The specifics: It is a 2004 Honda Odyssey EX with 25K on it, but it looks like new as far as I can tell. It is freakin' massive. This portly heifer-monster barely fits through the garage doors. We had to mooooove a bunch of stuff out of the way in order to get porky in the stall. It has fancy automatic climate control up front with rear A/C and heat controls in the back. It has keyless power doors on both sides, which is a pretty nice feature for rainy days. It drives nice, and the seats are much better than in the Ford. The stereo, however, is a disappointingly underpowered single disk player, but it has steering wheel controls, so the stereo stays where it is. (The Ford had a nice subwoofer in the trunk, I will miss that.)

The van is silver, exactly like Daddy's junk. We have matching silver "his and hers" Hondas. Barf.

I only have one legitimate complaint, it is not a 4x4. That is the one thing about the Escape that I really dug. It was like carrying a card that says "I am never going to be stuck in the snow, ever." I would like the van a lot more if it had 4WD. As it is, eh, it's Karen's pimpmobile, and hopefully she will love it. I will really enjoy having it on long trips back to Indiana, and it will definitely be nice for carrying visitiors and friends. It gets much better gas mileage than the truck, but it's sheer girth makes me proporionately look like a very small nerdly child driving Momma's big-ol car. I don't have issues with my stature, I just know what I look like.

Overall, I think it is a very nice van, and I think we got a good deal. I really hope Karen likes it. Maybe we will post some pictures tomorrow?

Gotta run, literally.

I am a loser.

I lost the battle. My Ford Escape (yep, it was supposed to be mine) is in someone else's hands right now, being examined for trade-in value, and Karen has a Honda Odyssey sitting in the parking lot where she works. We did not sign any papers yet, but if they give us a decent deal, we will be the sad owners of a minivan. Okay, okay, Karen will be really happy about it, but I will have loads of regret, I still like the truck. I came to this conclusion, we will lose about 3-5K on the deal, but in the end the retained value of the van may still end up being more than that of the Escape. Several years from now, it will all even out, I think... Not really, but it makes me feel better, and the mommy van will make Karen happy. As long as the van is a typical Honda and not a lemon, it could actually be a decent trade, all things considered. We shall see, I guess. We set a limit on what we are willing to spend, and I hope we will be able to stay there. Honestly, we will stay there or the Escape is coming home again tomorrow.

She better play nice from here on out, and she better get me something nice for our anniversary too... I get to have the next car! Waah!

I am thinking about a Subaru WRX for my next car... It will probably change, since it will be years before it happens, but that is the car I lke today. All wheel drive, decent motor, decent cargo space, and decent gas mileage.

You can run, but you can't hide... from your lack of sleep?

The next time you get less than three hours of sleep, it's a bad idea to go running. Conversely, if you know you are going to run the next day, try to get a decent night's rest. I stayed up until 2:15 or so talking to Karen, then got up at 5:05 to go running with Jason. Actually I tried to run with Jason, but it was more like I labored along intensely while Jason jogged very slowly to keep pace with me. I was a little off my game to say the least, actually it was easily the hardest/worst day of running I have ever had. Next time, I'll just let Jason go out on his own so he doesn't have to barely shuffle along to keep pace with me, or perhaps I'll get more sleep. It took me almost five miles to get loosened up enough to be able to jog anywhere near my normal meandering pace, and it hurt almost every step of the way. Just say no.

Other fun news - Karen has begun her next wave of tactics to try to get me to agree that we need a van. She told me that I must have be thinking about getting a van a lot to be able to talk to her about it so easily. All of this stems from the fact that she said she wanted to trade in "daddy's junk", and I said that the gas mileage was better and the repair costs lower for the junk than for the truck. She is resorting to subliminal messaging, and the jedi mind tricks, I think. I must be thinking about it, so I must agree soon. You are getting very sleepy, vans are good for your garage Obi-Wan. Come to the dark side of the dealership, it is you dessstiny.

(Thank you, Scottie for the inspiration!)

"Shrek the Third" and "Worlds of Fun"

It was a busy day. We started out our Saturday with a visit to Worlds of Fun, our local amusement park, for the Caravan Ingredients (the place that I work for) annual picnic. We had a blast, hanging out with the Dana clan and riding on all of the kiddie rides. One funny note, we (the parents) had to expain to the boys (Darren and James) that you can not hug each other while you are walking, or you will end up with skinned knees. James and Darren tried to walk and hug at the same time and ended up falling over and getting mild knee boo-boos.

James passed out cold in the car on the way home, immediately after we left the park. As soon as we got home, it became nap time for all of us. Post-nap, we ate a quick dinner and headed off to go see "Shrek the Third". It's funny, just like the first two. In fact, the whole movie is just like the first two. It's not new any more, but it is still entertaining. James loved it, but I don't think he understood many of the jokes. Somehow, being scared about being a father for the first time is not something he can really relate to. If you're a Shrek fan, go see it, you'll like it. The little Dronkeys (Dragon + Donkey) are very cute, as are the little Shreklings.

More on the van story: I still really don't want one, and Karen still really does. I think we should drive our cars until they become either unsafe, unreliable, or more expensive to repair than replace. Karen wants a van, regardless of what she currently drives, and thinks that we need a van for a family that may one day require two car seats and two adults. I am still hoping this minivan craving passes, but I think Karen may resort to using more "jedi mind tricks" on me to win this battle. She tried it once, but I didn't fall for it. I am not kidding at all, she really did. Ask her about it.

VW Eurovans are pretty cool, I must say. I really wonder why they aren't being imported any more. They aren't 40K, as Karen suggested in an earlier comment, they are in the same range as most of the other foreign vans. I also like the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey as well. Karen likes the Mazda 5, but I think it is kinda like buying the teenager's version of the minivan. The Mazda 5 is kinda tiny, and fairly inexpensive. It makes me think "pop can" when I see it. I think I say this because I currently drive the original "pop can, teenager-mobile" -my old Honda Civic. The new Civics are not in the same category, by the way... There's nothing wrong with it, but a seven year old Civic with a pile of miles and a couple of dings is definitely not your average "thirty-something year old's" car. I even taught James to refer to my car as "Daddy's junk". Every time James sees a silver car, he points and says "Daddy's junk!" Whenever James hears a car that needs a muffler, or even one of those funny "tuner cars" with the loud exhaust, he does the same thing, since my car has needed a muffler for almost a year.

At bedtime, just a few moments ago, James kicked Karen. Not a nice thing for a little boy to do. James apologized to Karen and gave her the requisite kisses afterward. Karen was trying to tell James that it hurts when you kick people so that he would not kick people any more. She was trying to explain it to him by having him recall one of his own boo-boos, and then she was going to tell him that it hurts when you kick people, just like your boo-boo did. It didn't turn out quite like it was originally intended, she said, "James, do you remember when you hurt your knee?", and he said "I no hug Darren while I walking any more, Mommy." At this point I fell over laughing. I couldn't help it, it was funny. I think any chance at a lesson was pretty much lost to my inability to control myself.

Since I have already written a novel, I might as well go the Forrest Gump route, and keep on talking. Here's the running update. I did 13.5 miles last weekend, and I am going for 18 tomorrow, starting at 5:30AM. Movie quote time: "I'm not right, in the head." I am looking forward to tomorrow's run. I really dig the long runs when the weather is nice. They are a lot easier than the short, fast ones during the week. I am still working on picking out my next race. Karen and I will probably be running in the "popcorn panic" at the annual Popcorn festival in Valparaiso, this fall. Orville Redenbacher was originally from Valparaiso, as seen in the commercials, in very fine print. They still have the festival every year, even though the operations have pulled out of Valparaiso, and Orville is long since dead. After the "panic" run is over, I am hoping to do a full marathon, possibly in New York, with Karen's Uncle.

Slacker!

I have been slacking on the posting a bit. Here is the next installment of pure unadulterated blogging bliss!

Karen has been working on me for a while about getting a minivan. (several months of pointing and sending me links to carmax) So, when I was having trouble thinking of a good present for Mother's day, I was actually considering buying a van. What the heck was I thinking?!?! Please, share your thoughts on this one. Should I commit testicular suicide, and get the van, or should I put my foot down quietly and pray she decides against it???

Karen read this post already, and told me, "What's the difference, you don't need your testiculars anyhow?" I am not sure what testiculars are, but it's a funny word, so I quoted it.

Please keep in mind that I am of the opinion that when it comes to my garage, there are no such things as "cool minivans". I like other people's vans, I just don't want one in my garage.

Post-race wrap-up

We (my brother-in-law Dave Clark, my uncle-in-law Bill Carpenter, and I) finished the race, upright, under our own power, and smiling. We all had a great time, and I would definitely recommend the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon race to anyone. It was a great course, the volunteers and the spectators were really fantastic, and the race was very well organized. I also must note that there are NO HILLS on the course to speak of.

Special thanks to Dave, Jamie, and Neil Clark for hosting the weekend's festivities, even though Neil had just gone through surgery two days before the race. (His last surgery! YAY!) You guys are awesome. I also want to say thanks to Bill for running along with me during the race. Long races are much easier when you have someone to talk to. Thanks again!

It was really great to see everyone (Kuglers, Clarks, Carpenters, and Kowalskis) last weekend, and we miss you guys a bunch. We hope to see all of you again soon. Our door is always open if anyone wants to visit us out here in Kansas City. I mean that in the figurative and literal sense. We often forget to lock the doors. :)