First Class Panda: Last Day of Vacation

This has been the most active Christmas vacation in recent memory: loads of cooking, family time, cleaning, organizing, buying big expensive shit, and just checking stuff off our to-do list. I've done a lot over the past few days, but the items the stand out to me the most:

How to Not sell a car.

We test the new Ford Focus. It was a piece of shit, don't even bother if you want a car that will survive New England roads. VW takes us for 2 test drives - the 2012 Passat and 2012 Jetta. We only liked the newer body styles. Unexpectedly we loved the fully loaded Passat, the drive was really smooth and overall comfortable. We sit down to talk about price and our sales guy Would Not Budge. He went from being a friendly old grandpa to being an unreasonable Turd. Finally we realized that the highest level Passat wouldn't come down to our price range, so we could try the next model down and then they argued about Literally $10 per month until we were both willing to get up and walk away. It wasn't so much that the $10 per month was going to break the bank, but it was more than that - we just knew that they could come down more and they just weren't. So we get up and walk out the door, we're pulling out and the manager comes running out, "blah blah blah we can bring it down to within $4 of what you wanted...blah blah" so we're just like, "ok, we're going to eat lunch... we'll call you." We eat lunch, and then they call again and say "Ok, we'll match your offer, will you come back and buy the car?" Answer: NO BITCHES. We went to Volvo, bought ourselves an awesome fucking car for way less headache, way less hassel, a better service plan, and basically the same price. I really don't think that they played that game right.

How To Buy a Treadmill.

Show up in full on running attire. Run on the darn things in the store - try all the features like turning on the fans, inclines, walking vs. running, programs, etc. How much noise does it make? How sturdy does it feel? Is there a place for your water and ipod? Is this something that you are actually going to use or is it going to collect dust more often than not? We found a mid range Sole model that we were pretty happy with and it was on sale. The highest model Precors that you see at gyms are Awesome, but in all honesty it's not going to melt your fat away and more than a mid-range model. This was a really fast purchase, we were in and out of the sporting goods store in 10 minutes. Unfortunately, it won't be delivered until January 13th...which means my full body pain will be delayed until then!

How to Try Something New and Love it.

We belong to Costco and so we tend to buy our cases of beer there for the holidays and just for ourselves - we drink a lot of beer (also the reason we need a treadmill). They change up the beer selection and this time there were cases of Guinness for something really cheap, like $24 or something, so Abe snagged one for Christmas. Christmas Eve was the first time that I've ever cracked open a Guinness and I drank the entire thing and Loved it. This was always a beer that I didn't think was for me - it looks so dark and full bodied, and my taste is usually lighter and stereotypically girly. If you are afraid of this beer because it looks too dark for you, just ignore the color, and you will find that it's actually a very light tasting and feeling beer. I can't wait to have one tonight! I know this is one of those things that most people have figured out much earlier in life, but I'm stubborn.

Surprises.

My mother and father in law offered to bring us a piece of their old furniture up from Florida. They moved from a huge house to a condo and then bought another house so they've been going through their stuff for what seems like years now trying to get rid of things - but they hate the idea of throwing things out. At first I was thinking that this was going to be a terrible idea, I mean who wants a really old Korean chest? It sounded like something that we would take and probably hide somewhere in a room that nobody uses. The look of surprise on my face when it entered the house must have been priceless, I loved it right away. It's very small and fits perfectly in our entrance way, which is a tricky area due to size restrictions. I'd been looking for something to put against that wall for months now but couldn't find anything small enough, and then BAM in came this antique chest. I will try to find something to put on top of it this week, but like most things, it will likely take a lot longer.