Planet Zorphskee: Buying cars and playing cards

With our hike of Mt. Washington called off due to weather concerns, we turned our thoughts to more pressing concerns: replacing Joyful's car. We used Autotrader.com to narrow our search down to a handful of cars in the area and on a rainy Saturday morning we drove to a dealer to check out a used 2007 RAV4. It had 60,000 miles and was in our price range. After a test drive we decided that this was the car we wanted so lets try and purchase it. Yes, this violates rule number one of buying a car, that is never settle on your first pick, but I just want this search and process to be over. I can't image how difficult buying a new car would be if you had no idea what car you wanted. So the next process of buying a car is getting it financed because unfortunately we live in a day, time, and society where most people don't have the money to drop thousands of dollars of cash down for a purchase. So we are working with the finance guy, trying to get approved, and get this deal done. You almost feel dirty buying a car from car dealers. You know they are playing a game with you and the creditors. Everybody wants to get the deal done, usually at the customers expense...literally.

The finance guy is talking to us and I'm trying my best not to get tricked. He seems sincere but who knows. I let him talk me into a security system and remote starter, which is fine. A remote starter is the bees knees in New England (so is 4 wheel drive!). We also get the premium Toyota warranty, but I was going to get that anyway. You can't go wrong there. I made him go over all the numbers, explain everything, before signing the paperwork, but even then I'm still not entirely happy with the process. I played the game, hopefully I did ok, and will get to pick up the car on Monday.

From the dealer we headed over to one of the card shops we frequent for the Innistrad Launch Party. We went to the Pre-release last week and on Friday the set officially came out. The format was the same as last week, meaning you get 6 packs with which to build your deck on. There was an amazing 54 people, meaning six rounds then a cut to top 8, with 9-12th also winning prizes. I helped Joy build her deck, which was white-blue like mine, and then it was time for some Magic. My deck turned out to be really good but I only ended up going 4-2. Joy was 3-1-1 going into the last round. If she won, she would make Top, and I would be somewhere between 9th and 12th. But she ended up losing, being 16th overall, and I was at 13th. Almost won some extra packs and Joy almost made Top 8, at a 54 person event! Good effort Team Thomas!

Once we get the car tomorrow, we will have our eyes set on the next big problem: our own place. We have an appointment to see an apartment in a complex on Tuesday, so maybe our grownup problems will be complete! Once we get an apartment again we will really be back to the grind...having all the same bills as before! Great!