Sophie's World

9:30 PM (Randall posting): Another day in the bag. Today was pretty eventful, but in good ways. We got an early start this morning to return the car that had been loaned to us by one of Susan's coworkers (thank you thank you!). Susan also cleared out most of our belongings from the Oldsmobile, which we've pretty much decided to junk somehow (if we ever figure out how one does that exactly).

After that we spent some time at the Honda dealership in Durham test-driving the new Civic Hybrid. We're tempted by the 50 mpg, particularly with our commute. When all was said and done, though, we had more reservations about the Civic than we would like, mostly about the size, so we went on our way. We had lunch near the mall and Susan returned something she had ordered online while the girls and I shopped at Nordstrom. Actually, the girls ran around (Sophie skipped) while I chased after them, but we were in a store, so that counted as shopping, I think.

We then went and spent some time at Ms. Lottie's, which is where Sophie was in daycare while we lived in Durham. Of course, Sophie did not want to leave and even had a second lunch while we were there! We finally got everyone loaded up in the minivan and drove home.

This evening we took Elisabeth to dance class and while that was going on, we test drove a used Honda Accord that I looked at yesterday in town. The dealer let us take it home for the night to think about it and, needless to say, the hook has been set. It looks as if we'll be buying a low-mileage 2003 Honda Accord under Blue Book value. We're really attracted by the reliability of the Honda and the low miles and the fair price and the not-too-bad fuel economy. I lined up our finances this evening and we'll have the check at the dealer on Thursday. What a HUGE relief this is!

All in all, in spite of the flurry of activity, we have had a wonderfully pleasant day together as a family for the first time in what seems to be ages. Everyone has been (mostly) happy and healthy and we all enjoyed our day.