Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Hi again, I'm still here...

Wow, sorry. I've been so excited about the New Kids that I haven't had time for anything else.

Ha.

Seriously, we're all sick. Well, BJ's fine, but someone's got to work for a living, so he's off slaying dragons and I'm here wiping butts and noses. Luckily Grandpa Bob is here to help, and I was able to nap today and feel mostly coherent when it came time to negotiate for BJ's new (used) car.

The sticker price was X. My offer was X - $4000. The salesman comes back with a piece of paper that says "X-0.01." I wrote back, "Ok, (X - $4000)+0.01. I have time." *

Seeing as it was 6 pm and they didn't want to be there all night, he came in and said, "Are we really going to do this a penny at a time?" and I said, "Why not?" and he said, "Ok, do you want to know my lowest walk out of here price?" and I said, "Sure," and he wrote down $88,000 - which we're pretty sure was a typo.

Long story short, I got the car for BJ for X - $1,900, which isn't bad considering that it's a used car and you usually don't have that much room to wiggle. Our neighbor, Morris, who is EXACTLY like Wilson on Home Improvement (in other words, he likes to have conversations over the privacy fence where you can only see his eyebrows and the top of his head), looked at it. Unlike Wilson, Morris is a mechanic, and he found a couple things but said that overall it was a really good car.

Our salesman may have just been sucking up, but he told me that the final price I negotiated was the lowest price the finance guy said he'd take for the car, so I felt pretty good about that.

Anyway, BJ will be the proud owner of a 2001 Jeep Cherokee tomorrow, which will be much easier on the budget than his old car. It is also a much pretty-baby-friendlier car, which will also be happy.

Mary Grace is working hard on her new career as a game show host. She asks random questions all the time. "Grandpa Bob, do you like dogs?" "Grandpa Bob, do you like ice cream?" "Mama, do you like Grandpa Bob?" and so on. It's very much like being quizzed constantly. Do you think it will warp her for life if I start answering in the form of a question?


* and you thought you'd never use all that algebra!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have followers. We just post to your blog rather than wait for texts on our cells.

Also, the algebra thing, one penny at a time? You're evil. I like it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear the you and the girls are sick. Has Grandpa Bob succumbed to the germs too?

I am glad to hear that B.J. has figured out what he wanted to buy. William had a 1997 Cherokee for several years until e traded it in for a Patriot. He loved that Cherokee...he sold it to our mechanic for $400.

Hope you and the girls start feeling better soon! XOXO..B