Patriot Pics

Here are a couple of shots that Danielle snapped this weekend of our Patriot.

Our New Car

Danielle recently wrote about the latest addition to our family – our 2008 Jeep Patriot.

Here’s how it came to be a part of our family.

Danielle used to drive a white 1994 Ford Explorer, that, while it served her well, was definitely on its last legs. A few months ago it began making weird grinding noises, and it felt like it was going to die at any moment.

Around that time we started talking about replacements for Danielle’s car, but we weren’t terribly serious. I did some research online, and I ended up at the Jeep site, where I saw the Jeep Compass.

On a whim one night we decided to stop at our local Chrysler/Jeep dealer to take a look at the Compass they had in stock. When we got out of the car we were approached by a salesman. The conversation went something like this.

“Do you offer special financing on the Compass?”

“Well, you know you can only get the better interest rate if you have good credit scores.” (said in a rather condescending voice)

“Oh…ok, well, can we test drive it?”

“Well…this car is ALMOST sold, so I’d really rather not have you test drive it.”

At that point, we said, “thanks,” and left. The whole experience was a real turnoff for us, and we vowed not to purchase our next car from that dealer.

Fast forward a few months, and Danielle’s car is really on its last legs. After trying to sell it at our house and my in-laws’ house, we finally end up selling the car to Danielle’s uncle.

Fast forward another couple of months, and we were back to the research stage of looking at cars. I went back to Jeep’s web site and noticed the Jeep Patriot. A couple of things caught my eye immediately about the vehicle.

1.) I liked the boxy look of it.

2.) It had 4 Wheel Drive.

3.) The price was good for us.

4.) It met Danielle’s criteria of holding two kids.

We talked about the car, and it didn’t really go much further than that.

In the last couple of weeks we started getting more serious about purchasing a car, and we found a black Patriot at Calkins Motors in Troy, PA through the Jeep dealer inventory search.

Last Saturday we went to Calkins to test drive the car. When we arrived the salesman was genuinely nice to us and seemed interested in us. I asked what specials they offered, and he listed them, and proceeded to tell us which he felt was actually the better deal in the long run. We then asked to test drive the car, and he said sure. He grabbed a plate and the keys, and the next thing we knew, we were buzzing down the road, determining if this was the car for us.

Of course the salesman (Bob Morgan) wanted to put us in the car that day, but we wanted to think it over and crunch the numbers (the really fun part). We thought it over, and decided we could afford the car.

This last Monday we went to the dealer right after work to pick the car up. I was amazed at how smoothly the whole process went. Not having ever bought a car before, I wasn’t sure how you got the insurance, and the license plate, and all the things that go along with buying a car, but Bob had everything taken care of for us. The whole experience was really a delight for us, and we feel confident that we made a great decision by purchasing from Calkins.

It’s funny how everyone has opinions when it comes to cars. They go something like this.

“You never buy a new car. You ALWAYS buy used.”

“You never buy a used car. You ALWAYS buy new.”

“You never pay the sticker price on a car.”

And the list goes on and on. I’m happy with the way we purchased our car, but we do thank our family and friends for all of their input.

We got home with the car Monday night, and we couldn’t be happier with it.

And now, a picture of our, “new baby.” Or at least what it looks like (minus the silver trim) on the Jeep web site.

Tiger Handles Controvery

Tiger Woods has taken a fair amount of heat recently for his handling of the noose comment and its ensuing controversy.

I love the way that Woods handles controversies such as these. He usually just lets his game do the talking – which is just fine with me. Woods went out and shot a 5-under today, and he’s currently trailing the leader at the Buick Invitational by a measly 2 shots. Hopefully he’ll go on to win the tournament and this whole controversy can be put to rest.

This isn’t the first time that Tiger has faced a controversy due to racially-related remarks. After he won his first Masters tournament, Fuzz Zoeller made a stupid comment regarding what type of food should be served at the champion’s dinner.

I’m not sure if these episodes motivate Tiger or not, but I suppose his performance since winning that first Masters speaks for itself.

The thing that drives me nutty is that everything needs to be blown up into some huge controversy by the media, when, in this case, the person who should have been offended (Woods) said it was pretty much a non-issue to him.

The media has a delight in stirring up controversy, and I guess that’s what sells for them. It just gets a little much after a while.

Here’s hoping for another phenomenal year for Mr. Woods.

Check Out Barden Photography

As a shameless plug, check out Barden Photgraphy when you get a chance.Danielle and I started the site a couple of weeks ago.At first, I struggled to find good photo gallery software that wasn’t hard to install. At my previous job we had installed Gallery for a client, but it was a giant pain, since we had to actual install it via the command line (think DOS, or UNIX), and Gallery requires several other packages to also be installed for it to function properly. This time around, I happened on the Gallery Preinstaller which made things much easier. I probably had things set up in 15 minutes – tops.Which reminds me, I need to install Leopard for a friend now…

Temple Seal Found

During lunch today, I stumbled upon some news that a seal from the original temple in Jerusalem was found recently.

The article mentions a family of temple servants by the name of Temech, who were also mention in the book of Nehemiah in the Bible.

Very cool to see actual scientific evidence that lines up with what we read about in the Bible.

Palm Centro Commercial

Has anyone noticed that the guy in the new Palm Centro commercial changes accents during the course of said commercial?

The next time you see it, take a listen, and you’ll notice it. They guy starts out with what I would classify as an Eastern European accent, and when he gets to the line about, “people wondering how many of you there really are,” he’s gained a British/Scottish/Irish (somewhere in that neighborhood) accent.

Weird.