Like A Black Fly in Your Chardonnay

Last week was a bit of a flurry of trying to decide between a patio under the deck (so that the enormous mud pit that has only turned into an even larger, muddier pit with all the rain this year, might go away) and a new car. After hemming and hawing a bit, we decided that, really, the VUE wasn't in bad shape. It was still doing fine. So we would nurse it along a bit longer. And so I made the down payment on our patio, now scheduled to be installed the 2nd week of November.

I'm very excited about this patio.

Tim called this morning to tell me that the VUE is making a noise that he suspects is the alternator. And it's not the noise the alternator is *supposed* to be making.

So after a few calls (to the dealer and to my sister for help with transport), the doodle and I hopped into the convertible, drove the commuter lot with my sister, then she drove the VUE to the dealer following behind me. I've yet to hear from them, but you could practically hear the cash register as I described the problem to the very nice service man.

And thus it was that we found ourselves test driving a Sienna. (My sister isn't always the very best influence on me - she totally twisted my arm into doing this. Or, well, she suggested it. I didn't really fight all that hard.) Gosh it's a nice car (and ever so slightly less expensive than the Honda, and, well, Tim's always been a Toyota guy, so he's much more likely to go for that in the first place.)

We've yet to hear from the VUE folks. And who knows, it may end up being less expensive than I'm imagining (ha!), but the way things are looking I may end up with a patio and a new car and a rather annoyed Tim.