Pilot, Mario Kart, & 68 degrees

I was up around 7:30am, which has been my default rise time throughout my Xmas vacation. No one else was yet awake. I proceeded quietly so not to wake any of the kids prematurely. I hoped to exercise and walk Ykraps before having to contend with all the kids, and especially Landon’s dirty diaper. I checked the temperature even before starting my exercise routine. It was a whopping 56 degrees. The day’s expected high was 68 degrees! How about that! 0 on Monday – 68 on Saturday. Gotta love Columbus weather. My walk with Ykraps was nice. It smelt and felt like spring. Bring it on, I say! Back at home, I fetched Landon. The other kids were awake too but playing rather quietly. Bella and Rocky joined me downstairs. I urged Bella to the basement to play with her new doll house. She was reluctant at first, given her new found worry of ghosts. Nothing brings all the kids up from the basement like a call for “Frank” the basement ghost. J My dad was slated to be over by 10:30am. I left for my run a little after 9am. Mindy waited until I was back before heading off to the shower. I was back by 9:45am. I was a little stressed mulling over the finances associated with the new car deal. We still had to do all the paperwork, and I envisioned them tossing in all sorts of hidden charges we hadn’t previously discussed. In the end, however, I recognized it as my imagination running amuck. At least temporarily, I casted it aside. My dad showed up just before 10:30am. We chatted briefly before leaving. We gave him his Xmas presents, too – a Bob Evans gift card and a box of Anthony Thomas chocolates. Also, before leaving the house, I had Mindy wrap an extra box of chocolates I picked up to give to Tony, our Honda salesman, after our deal was done. We headed out just before 11am leaving dad helplessly alone with four kids. I worried how he might do with Landon. We arrived at the dealership at 11:05am. There was a new Honda Pilot similar to ours setting under the overhang. We began looking while waiting on Tony to materialize when out of nowhere another salesman told us that that one wasn’t ours. OK! Tony soon came out to greet the two of us. After a brief meet & greet, he went to fetch our new Pilot for review. After much anticipation, it was there in front of us. And because the sky still threatened rain, Tony pulled it under the large over hang. Mindy was giddy with excitement. I was thrilled for her. This would be her first new car, ever. It was as beautiful and luxurious as we expected. The premium running boards we had them add looked awesome on it, too. We headed inside to complete the deal. Mindy did the loan completely on her own merit. Her first new car, and her first new car loan. Go figure! As it turned out, there were no hidden charges – none. For this I was pleased. The dealership’s financing agent has her job down to a science. She had us in & out of there in less than ten minutes. Very efficient! I fetched Tony’s gift from the Trooper while he went for our 30-day tag. I handed the gift to Mindy to present. During our lengthy conversation earlier, we learned that today was also Tony’s 32nd b-day. In fact, we got to know quite a bit about Tony during Saturday’s visit. Tony was pleased to receive a gift. Mindy was very excited driving off in her new Pilot. She was eager to show her sister and then her mom. We stopped by her sister’s first, but they were not home. Next stop was her mom’s. I followed closely behind in the Trooper. She was home and was genuinely excited and happy for Mindy. They went for a quick spin together. I stayed back at the house. We headed home immediately after. Mindy got stuck in traffic behind. I beat her home by about three minutes. Well, Dad survived. But what surprised me most wasn’t that he survived. Instead, it’s that he changed a shitty diaper. Of course he went on in full detail describing how he went about it. He commented that it was the first baby diaper he’s changed since one of mine, last year. No, not really. The first one since I was a young lad, about Landon’s age. It didn’t register until later that, if true, he hadn’t ever changed Tommy, Charles, Bob or Shawn. Although, I’ll bet he changed one or two of grandma’s. Dad and the kids went for a ride in Mindy’s new vehicle before he left. When he did finally head for home, he took his brownie tray, along with his white elephant gift. Not long after dad left, Jacob and I took his rod hockey table back to Target. They asked few questions and gave us no hassle whatsoever. They didn’t even look in the box. Could’ve been empty for that matter. I never even took it out of the cart. Once we got our $115 credit, Jacob went on a mini shopping spree. He wanted to browse the toy department, of course. While he did that, I browsed electronics, just across the main aisle from toys. Eventually, I sought Jacob out curious what he might’ve decided upon. All he had in his hands were two or three new bakugan balls. Curious about his intentions, I only asked what he might need more bakugan balls for. He had no good answer and decided on his own that he didn’t want them after all. He asked my opinion of what he should buy. I suggested something like a Wii game, digital camera - something like Bella’s, or even an MP3 player, but I also told him it was his money and if he wanted toys that’s what we would get. He asked me to help him pick out a camera. They have inexpensive, first digital camera’s for about $40. He loved the idea. He was also surprised to learn he still had enough money left over for an MP3 player. We found a real nice Phillips 2gig player for $42 complete with ear buds, a case, and USB transfer cable. Even after that, he had $20+ left. With that he eventually decided on a Spiderman movie DVD. He was stoked to have ‘big boy’ toys. I was happy for him. The difference in cost of the new versus the old was less than $2. The rod hockey table took up half the car. His new toys were small enough to fit in the glove box. We stopped at Burger King on our way home. We got three value meals, thinking of Mindy, too. He was extra excited to show his momma his catch. His daddy was coming to pick him up around 3:30pm. It was already 3pm. That left no time to ready the camera or download music to his MP3 player. I told him that we’d either do it tomorrow when he got home or I’d do some later that evening in his absence. He was down with that, and went as far as saying he was gonna borrow some CDs from his daddy. We shared the value meals with Bella, Rocky, Landon, and the neighbors, Evan and Emily. Originally, Jimaken was going to take Bella and Jacob. However, she was having fun with Rocky and the neighbors. We called Jimaken to ask if she could stay home. He agreed. That would give him some alone time with Jacob. After Jacob departed, Mindy cleaned out her minivan then moved it to the street making room in the garage for her new Pilot. It took her quite a while to get it all cleaned out. In doing so, lots of little things once thought missing turned up. I teased her about it. Soon the Honda was safely in the garage. And like I mentioned in a previous entry, it’s approximately the same length. The biggest difference we needed to consider was the kids getting in and out. The minivan has a slider on the passenger side only. The Pilot has four doors. We can ill afford to have the kids opening the full swinging doors in the garage lest my BM’er will almost certainly get dinged. For now, we latched the child safety locks. Before transferring the booster seats, we stripped off their covers and tossed them in the washer. Excited about putting her new vehicle through its paces, Mindy left in it for the grocery store. She was gone for about two hours. I stayed home with the wee ones. She brought home a rotisserie chicken for dinner. Picked it up at Wal-Mart. It was surprisingly tasty. Everybody liked it, and it easily fed all of us. The Honda worked out well for the grocery gathering, but then again, why wouldn’t it? I promised Rocky & Bella that we’d get the two new Wii games going after dinner. I followed through with Mario Kart. They loved. I loved it. We played all evening long, or until their bedtime. We put the kids to bed just after 8pm. Mindy & I stayed up talking and playing all while sipping drinks until about 10:30pm. We both got up from bed at midnight, she to eat a bowl of cereal and me to play some Wii Ski. That was fun. Very realistic. Mindy headed back to bed at 12:30am. I stayed up until 1am, the latest I’ve stayed up during my entire nine night vacation, and perhaps the latest I’ve stayed up for months. However, we both stayed up until almost midnight Xmas Eve and Xmas night.