Top Gear Contest: My First Car

TopGear is hosting a contest! The winner of which will receive a trip for two to London AND tickets to a TopGear Event! Could this get any better?? My two favorite things mixed into one fantabulous prize!! The contest? To write up to a thousand words about your first car!

(** To clear up any confusion this IS the long version of the story! The story I submitted on the topgear website has been condensed down to the required 1000 characters. **)

I didn’t start driving until I was almost 18. I didn’t start having car accidents until I was almost 18. Coincidence? I think not. “Accidents” may be too strong a word. I liked to call them “Incidents”. My parents liked to call them “Reasons we can’t have you on our insurance policy any more...”

I think back on this year as my “Blue Phase”, as I routinely left samples of my 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera’s powder blue paint job on other cars, lamp posts, garage doors, and the occasional pedestrian. My neighbors think back on this year fondly as “Leslie’s Reign of Terror”. You say tomato, I say WATCH OUT I’M ABOUT TO RUN OVER YOUR MAILBOX!

It didn't help that my poor Cutlass had a blind spot the entire length of the passenger side of the car, since that’s the only side that I ever did damage to. I guess I was a really great judge of distance when turning left, but terribly bad at it when turning right. Hmmm.... I might have done well in NASCAR. Isn’t that really just a organization of guys who turn left really well? I digress.

If I pulled up to a car on my left, they’d look over to their right and see a pretty girl driving a sensible blue car. But, if I pulled up to a car on my right, they’d look over to their left and see a pretty girl driving a chewed up, battle worn, how-is-that-possibly-running, Mad Max inspired vehicle of destruction.

Her Majesty (yes, that’s what I called her) kept me safe for four years. Eventually, as life moved on, I had to leave Her Majesty behind. I’d just gotten engaged, and in the spirit of compromise, I agreed to give her up in favor of a car that featured two undamaged sides.

I'm older now, drive a nicer car and by all accounts have stopped running into things, but there isn’t a day that goes by, (especially when I’m turning to the right), that I don’t still miss her.

I wish I had a better picture than this, but you'll notice it IS taken from the driver side. In fact, I can't actually remember taking ANY pictures of her intentionally. The less evidence the better I thought! (I didn't even take this one...that's me asleep behind the wheel!)

It's A Fact

A list of things I've learned today:

1. Snow makes everything more beautiful.


2. I = Principle x Rate x Time. I know this. Brooke knows this, heck maybe even Dom and Di KNOW THIS. After 2 hours of having this equation shoved down my throat, it has been forever scorched into my soul. Happy to Report though, that Brooke scored an 80% on her first of two quizzes on the subject!

3. Trying to explain communative property to a 7 year old is hard. Saying 12x2=24 is the same as 2x12=24 is much easier. He got a 100% on his quiz!

4. I love snow, hate driving on ice.

5. I suck at building fires.

Awesomeness... by: Brooke

Kudos to Brooke for snapping what might be my most favorite picture of all time!

I'm showcasing this here, before I make it my Facebook profile picture.

Our Private Winter Wonderland

If ever there comes a time when new fallen snow doesn't excite
every fiber of my being, I'll eat my hat!

As we'd expected, a storm blew through last night laying down
a nice soft blanket of our favorite white stuff.

Dominick was the first one up and out this morning,

After running some errands with me, Diana joined her brother...

We even managed to lure Brooke out for a little while:

I took the littles sledding:

and then they took ME sledding

Even Code-O enjoyed the fine weather

Later in the day, Diana had a meltdown

But recovered quickly

Dominick taught himself to snowboard... kind of.

And we ALL acted like snowy little goofballs!

I don't know what I'm doing here, but it's hysterical!

As the sun went down, we all limped back to the house.
Exhausted, but thoroughly entertained!

BEEP:

Hello, you've reached the Fiore family, we can't get to the blog right now.
but if you leave your name and number, we'll be sure to wonder why you did so.

It's a New Year and I want to give the blog a new look and a little more TLC.
Unfortunately, over the past year, Facebook has stolen more of my time than I'd care to admit to, but I have plans to correct the error of my ways and come home to blogger like the prodigal daughter.

Give me a week and I'll have this old girl back on her feet!

New Years Resolution

res·o·lu·tion   /ˌrɛzəˈluʃən/
[rez-uh-loo-shuhn]

–noun
1. a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or other group. Compare concurrent resolution, joint resolution.
2. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
3. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.
4. the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.
5. the act or process of resolving or separating into constituent or elementary parts.
6. the resulting state.


It's that time of year again. The time of year when people all over the world decide to improve upon themselves. I'm amongst the group of people who've singled out a particular part of my life that I'd like to improve upon. For the past few years, I've chosen the same resolution each year: Lose Weight. IF by February I'd lost 2 or 3 pounds, I considered it a job well done and moved on.

This year, I'm doing things different. COMPLETELY different. Losing weight is a thing of the past! This year I've decided that we're going to bulk up! Our savings account that is!
Bargain shopping is already an activity I enjoy, but I want to push the envelope even harder! I have a number in my head, and I won't rest until I get a statement from our bank showing THAT number (plus a penny) in our savings account.

I'll also be blogging about our frugalesque adventure, so stay tuned!