Big Day!

Ooooo-eeeee, we can add colors and fonts here on blogger now!!  :)  Good times.
 
So I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I went into the local paper office two days ago to put an ad in the paper.  It is appearing for 10 days and is also going to be in the "Ad Sheet" and some other local ad things that come out like once a week, as well as cars.com (this is all through the Iowa City Press-Citizen).  So today was the first day it was in the paper, and sure enough, at 8 AM this morning I had a call from a guy who wanted to come over at 8:30 and check it out.  I had to pull myself out of bed, but he came right on time.  His name was Marv and he was going to test drive it and take it to his mechanic, said he would be back in about 45 minutes.  Sure enough, 45 minutes later he was back.  "Good car, needs new brakes."  Apparently there is a 'squawker' on all cars, the thing that makes your brakes squeak when they are getting low, and my squawker is gone!  He said the left brake is actually almost totally gone.  The car was listed in the paper for $1500, and he said "well, new brakes will cost $200, I'll split the difference with you and give you $1400".  Sounded like a great deal to me!  And he knew I didn't know the brakes were bad, so that was cool.  He had no way to easily get the car home, so my mom and I drove it over to him, he lived in a nice house the next town over.  Really good guy.  Very glad it was so easy to sell the car, especially since the Jeep dealer only wanted to give me $500 and my dad thought there was no way to top that... my mom and I proved him wrong.  :) 
 
Speaking of cars, my new kick is naming of cars (hence Jake).  My aunt's family (who I stayed with in Houston) has named all of theirs, names as follows:
Aunt's Black X5: Shrine Mobile
Uncle's White Explorer: White Cloud
Cousin's Green Mustang: Big Bertha
Other Cousin's Black Mustang: BK (Black Knight)
Family Minivan: Minnie (And I'm sad to report, Minnie is no longer with the family, she was donated last week)
 
So in turn I came up with names for all of my family's cars:
Mom's Minivan: Vinnie (the Venture Van)
My Jeep: Jake (the Jeep)
"My sister's" White Malibu: Whitey
Dad's Mercedes: the Jalopy
My Escort: 'Scort (Named by Patrick last weekend, and as we know, this car is no longer with the family either)
 
Against his better judgment, Doug let me name his Saab today... her name is Sam, short for Samantha.  Sam and Jake will be friends.  :)  Jake and I are already good buddies, and as much as I will miss Jake this weekend, I'm looking forward to hanging out with Sam and Doug!  And Russell and I believe Patrick are coming to LA for the weekend, so that will be extra fun!  It should definitely be a good time.  Oh, and if you want your car to be friends with Jake, let me know what its name is and why.  :)
 
Has anyone caught Jeopardy! lately?  This dude Ken is a 32-day champion, he's won over a million dollars!  It's insanity I tell you, you MUST watch it or Tivo it.  He's ridiculous.  He's a computer software engineer from Salt Lake City and he freaking knows everything.  Everyday he goes into Final Jeopardy! in a position where no one else could beat him even if they tried.  There were a few things in the industrial category today that I knew and nobody, including him, on the show knew, but that's rare.  (Fitting though, with the IE love thing, isn't it?)  Anyway, definitely check it out. 
 
The other exciting news today is that I picked out an apartment!  It's called The Verandas at Hazel Grove, and it's decently nice.  It's significantly less expensive than many of the other apartments in the area, and as far as I'm concerned it's one of the nicer ones.  I had one intern acquaintance who lived there last year and seemed to like it okay, so I'm excited for it.  If you want to check it out go to www.verandashazelgrove.com, I have the Burgandy floorplan (the larger 2 bedroom). Apartments.com also has some good pictures of the same floorplan.  I don't think it's quite as nice as where I stayed last year, but they're not running the same specials as they were before, so this will do quite nicely I believe.  Jake and I will enjoy our home there. 

I think that's all for tonight... hopefully you can expect an update tomorrow from the West Coast, where I truly belong.  :)