vw,did you watch greatest american dog?

No. I don’t watch reality tv. It’s against my personal religion.

Crap. I gotta work.

On a Saturday?! That’s just wrong Scola.

I've always thought dogs work really really hard to earn human status. Witness a dog in a car with two people. If the passenger gets out, the dog will climb into the beta spot, if allowed. If both passenger and driver get out, the dog moves into alpha position. Always looking to move up in status.

This is SO true. I had never really thought about it that way, but it’s SO true.

I suppose. Not to mention, getting grown up stuff. Like real furniture (not futon furniture) and a BIG tv!

YAY! I loved that feeling. Of course, now I’m back in futon land, but…

Yay for grownup furniture, omnis! For us I remember it was buying stuff that we chose, that wasn't a hand down from either family. I remember how utterly mystified they were when we'd say "no," and then go to an antiques mall or show and buy something even older than what they were offering (even though both my mom and the Hub's parents have plenty of antiques themselves).

"But why are you spending money on furniture when we offered it to you for free?"

"Because it's what we chose."

Weird how parents just don't get that. Same way my mother didn't get how I was mightily irked when she used MY money to buy my first car without my input. I wanted a '67 Mustang. I got a metallic brown 1981 Datsun 510 station wagon with faux woodie panels and Naugahyde seats. And she was pissed when I wouldn't speak to her for a month. I'd been saving money since I was five for my first car. *shakes head*

My first car was a Simca 1100, which my dad bought for me. It had a bad starter, so we had to push start it. I was just starting to love it when my dad sold it out from under me. He said he decided that he didn't want me learning on a foreign car that had hard-to-get parts.

I was very sad and annoyed, which is redundant at 16, but there you have it.

My second car was the family station wagon, a 1967 Mercury Commuter painted 1972 Pinto Blue. Dad outfitted it with a over bored 390ci engine he salvaged out of his boss's stock card at the Ford dealership. I was always amused to be able to spin out the posi traction rear end in a station wagon.

My first car (in 1989) was a 1976 WV Dasher (aka Passat). I learned how to replace coolant hoses and flat tires on that thing. Bought it for $800, insured it for less than $100/year, and it lasted for three years. It was a very solid little car, and I was sad when the transmission finally gave out.

My first car was a 1988 Mazda 626 family sedan. I wanted a VW bug.

Adds furniture and cars to the list of things the boys will get to choose themselves. They already get to choose hair, clothes, and food despite condemning looks from friends and family. The cool thing about kids choosing their hair and clothes is that I get to embarrass them with the photos in later years.

Poor son Brendon. He and his father stayed in Florida most of this summer so that dad could coach basketball and get the boys in shape for next season. First game, a month ago, Brendon fell in a game and injured his elbow. Just got another MRI a couple days ago, and still sidelined. DH has done a great job with the scrubs and they just won in playoffs against a team that goes to state every year. My son, may not even get to play his Junior year. This whole thing has been a huge commitment of time, emotion, and money for DH and it has to be killing him that his son can't even participate. My son, he is satisfied to be on the computer all day anyway, probably impeding his elbow from healing. Frustrated.

IOmememeN, just got back from the volunteer fire department rummage sale. Loot included a set of 12 wicker coasters, 4 wine glasses, muffin tins, and a 4' square wood game board set. $5 total. I gave them $10 and told them the other $5 was for the baked goods that I resisted.

First car - 64 Chevy that had been in a flood. Trunk held closed with a clothes hanger. The lot had sold it to me for $75, but I only gave them $50 because they never came up with the title. Had to keep a case of oil in the back seat for frequent additions. 2 years later I left it in a parking garage in downtown Norfolk when I moved to Richmond because I didn't think it would make it that far. Good times.

Timelies

I'm feeling snarly. My cats keep peeing where they aren't supposed to (although on things that seem somewhat easy to clean), my tri top has weird stains on it, and argh!

My first car was a Geo Prizm which I bought after college.

My first car was a 1980 Dodge Colt, which my parents bought for me. It was tiny but tough, a good car.

I didn't own a car while I lived in Philly, so I married into my next car, a '97 Ford Contour. The first car I had anything to do with picking myself was a '99 Mazda 626 we got when it was clear we really needed two cars to function. We ordered it online back in 2000 in the heady days of the dotcom boom from a now-defunct used car website, which delivered it straight to our door.

We still have both of those cars, but the Contour is showing its age, and it's always guzzled gas to a ridiculous degree for such a small car, so we're hoping to replace it by year's end.

First car was a 1977 electric blue Mercury Comet.

Natch, I called it the "Batmobile".

Drove that sucker into the ground.

First car was a hand-me-down from my mom (which *she* had bought used), a Pontiac T1000, which was pretty much the Chevette's bastard cousin.

Drove it from senior year of high school until Jake was two. A lonnnng time. Had no visors, a sprung passenger seat, and about a billion miles on it before it finally died a quiet death.