It started off as a normal day, then...

My transmission decided to conk out. I drove to Nashville Thursday night and got home around 11:30. I got up at the crack a** of dawn b/c my dad never sleeps late and Teddy wanted outside. We went to get coffee at a local bagel place and then we were off to get my car's emissions checked (you have to do this in order to get your tags renewed in TN - don't ask why I haven't switched over to AL tags). I kept thinking the car was having trouble shifting gears, but nothing major. About a mile from the testing center, my "check engine soon" light came on and when I got the emissions checked the car failed. Great. I then drove the car to a local repair shop and they said they figured that the problem was the transmission and they didn't "do" transmissions. I got back in the car and discovered that my car was not interested in going in reverse anymore. We drove back to the house to get dad's car and then drove to the dealership and had the tech look at it. Long story a bit shorter - my car was pronounced terminally ill and too expensive to resucitate. Let the car shopping begin...We tried several dealerships, but I let my dad and brother do most of the browsing while I weighed in with intelligent comments such as "ick. Looks like a grandma's car." or "I make fun of people driving PT Cruisers" also "ummm, red is just asking the police to pull you over" a couple of "what would I do with a convertible, it would probably just leak and my hair would get all tangled." and finally "eh. I just want something that will get me from here to there." So I finally settled on this:

Click to see my new 2006 car. It's the royal blue. Don't worry, I'm not going to go all "2 Fast 2 Furious" and get nitrous and a black light. Very sedate gray interior, a few bells, a couple of whistles. I am aiming to drive this for many, many, many years. Get used to the look.