My brother’s insurance company will be settling up with him this week and he’ll go out car shopping.

I roasted a turkey and cooked a beef roast. Side items included smashed redskin potatoes, stuffing, gravy, peas and fruit salad. I also put out veggies with the cheeses – tried to take into account healthy eaters!

I read half a dozen books to get ready for the party, and watched hours worth of wine videos. I learned a lot. A mini-hobby to take up my spring. Unfortunately, I only tasted three of the wines during the party! I was afraid I’d fall asleep otherwise, which is my usual response to wine. I’m still working my way through the leftover wine, safely tucked away in the fridge. We’re planning to take another wine class with the same prof from last winter this upcoming fall if he teaches Wines of the New World.

Then, one of Hubby’s friends from his teenage years died. This friend lived 5 1/5 hours northwest of Milwaukee (i.e. B.F.E. – If you have to ask what that means just make the mental translation “middle of nowhere”). We had to make a fast decision about how to get to the funeral. Nadia was getting less and less comfortable. The driver’s seat had broken and I was leaned considerably far back with my arms practically locked to reach the steering wheel. It was great exercise for my stomach muscles to hold myself up. We decided to rent a car for three days to get there and back. We get to Hertz, the same place we’d rented the Malibu from, and they had another mid-grade car available. I said fine. Hubby said, “What else could you do for us?” The attendant flashed a set of keys, “I have an Impala with heated seats” he said knowingly. Hubby would have nothing else. We did 17 1/2 hours in three days and it was very comfortable. And it only cost half a car payment!

Then, vacation comes. This is why were considering buying the Malibu in the first place. By this point the seat was really bothering me. I had begun to actively dislike driving it. But! We were in “driving it into the ground mode.” I had that smug, self-satisfied, I-save-my-money attitude to fall back on. I do not treat myself. I wring every bit of usefulness out of my cars. I am thrifty. I do not have car ego to hold me back and separate me from my money. The dent in the door and the missing hubcap do not bother me. And that would have been fine except for the sound Hubby was hearing coming from the wheels.

At first he thought it was the wear indicators on the tires so we bought new brakes which he planned to install. Parts are expensive, too! He got the wheels off and found that the brakes were fine. We realized we didn’t have the receipt for the brake parts. We still haven’t solved that one. But the sound continued and he changed his mind about the cause. He was concerned it was a wheel bearing and we didn’t want to take a driving vacation with a potentially serious problem looming so in Nadia goes to our mechanic. More than half a car payment later we have a replaced wheel bearing. We asked them to look at the seat but they discouraged it saying it wouldn’t be worth our money to try to fix it, it needed to be replaced. Did we want to do that? Yes, we did, but we decided to do it ourselves.

So the week before vacation we drive an hour one-way out to the only boneyard that was both a. open on a Saturday morning and b. reported they had Chevy Cavaliers on deck. I don’t know what I was expecting, I’d been to a boneyard before, but this place removed the doors and tires of their cars before they put them on the lot. Meaning, the weather and the bugs had free reign with the upholstery. We found nothing and I was not inclined to keep looking. We left for vacation with a sheet stuffed into the small of my back to hold me up straighter.

So! Vacation! I’d been planning since last year to take a day trip up into Sault Ste. Marie Canada this year. Hubby and I both got full passports which we plan to use again in a few years for a trip to France to visit friends. Passports are not cheap. Throw in the photos and you’re talking more than half a car payment. As we’re leaving a lovely hike at Tacquenamon Falls and heading toward Ontario the car starts missing at highway speeds. We’re again in the middle of nowhere, Upper Peninsula, Michigan and headed toward a foreign country. We decide not to risk breaking down in Canada and turn the car back around and return to the cabin and another mechanic.

Hubby and the mechanic do shop talk and in the end we walk away with a $10 bottle of engine cleaner. We continue on with the vacation with occasional misses but no decrease in speed and no real trouble. Sitting on the beach behind the cabin we decide that we’ll get a new car in two months.

But by this point Nadia is really aggravating to drive, she’s scary, and I start pushing when we return to Lansing. Let’s shop for a new car. Let’s buy a Malibu after all. We do considerable online shopping and finally locate a low-mileage, late-model Malibu LT2 at Sundance Chevrolet. We head out there. The car salesman is Ed Fernandez. He’s a great guy. It’s a great car. Sporty. Heated seats. Wood in the dash. Power driver seats. Running stripes. We buy it after a 15 minute test drive. After all, we’d already rented one, right? I’d driven it for a day.

After we buy the car we drive it around for an hour and head home. I’m lukewarm. It’s not comfortable. My back hurts. I’m not going to want to go on any trips in this car and we road trip A LOT. I’m remembering more clearly that I didn’t like the Malibu when I’d rented it and that’s why we didn’t buy it. I break and tell Hubby I don’t like the car. He accuses me of wanting to talk about “feelings” but being a lousy communicator about other things. My response was a double rum and coke and some Tylenol.

I have a trip to Saginaw for work planned. I decide to take the new car and make a final decision about whether to keep the car. In the meantime Hubby calls Ed and tells him we love the car. Why do men do these things? Well, HUBBY loved the car.

I pick up my colleague K for the trip to Saginaw. She admires the car. When I told her we’d bought a new one she said her car was in the shop yet again. “You spent more money than I did!” she bounced back. Yup, I thought, and you haven’t heard the half of it.

We drive to Saginaw and I’m still lukewarm about the car. On the drive back I make the final decision that I don’t want the thing at all. I call Hubby at work and he heaves a big sigh. We agree to go to the car dealership when I get back to town. K assures me this happens all the time.

Ed is surprised. He says he’s never had anyone find the cockpit seats of a Malibu uncomfortable but genially agrees that if a car isn’t comfortable it just isn’t. Hubby tries to explain his, “We love the Malibu” statement.

The paperwork hadn’t been processed by the state yet so they were able to pull the sale back. We tell him we want to try an Impala. We’d rented one of those also and I knew it was comfortable. He searches his computer. He has a 2010 Impala LTZ with 6,000 miles on it. Black. Black on black. With tinted windows. The air conditioner was broken as was the fan (when you turned the car off the fan kept blowing and blowing and blowing, like, it didn’t stop). We drove it for a day. We took a stab at naming the vehicle. I always said I would not allow color to be a deciding factor for me in a used car. And the year and mileage were right. We were settling between Black Betty or Black Mariah. I wasn’t happy with the car and it’s going to cost quite a bit more than the Malibu but I’m trying to be pragmatic and not picky. It’s still under warranty as far as the air and blower were concerned. It didn’t hurt my back and H.E. Double Toothpicks, it’s a luxury car. Naming the car was my attempt to get friendly with the behemoth. Did I mention it feels HUGE when compared to the Cavalier?

We get back to the dealership and Ed says:

“I think I have your car. I know you weren’t crazy about the black.”

It’s a white 2011 Impala LT with a tan interior. 17,000 miles. I immediately feel less intimidated. And the air works. Everything works. Huge plus. We take it out for a good 45 minutes. Pull over. Try everything. Examine the car from stem to stern. When we get back he asks if we want to take it home for the weekend and think about it. We say no, we’ll take it. Her name came easily: Annie! A nice unimposing name for a nice, easy-to-like car.

The license plate numbers are our wedding date. We were married on the campus of Michigan State University. The vanity plate holder was a graduation gift from my mom.

It still feels like the seat is a little funny. Maybe it’s a GM thing. But it doesn’t hurt and that’s what matters. I like the color and I find that matters, too. It has a moon roof which is terrific fun and I can plug my iPhone in bounce around to all my music. God bless iPhones. So, we have car payments again. But we have a great car that is no longer an embarrassment. And many thanks to Ed at Sundance for accommodating  me.

I asked Hubby if he was going to call Stud Boy and complain about what a flake I was over the car. Of course, he said, what do you think?

1. Blue cheese gets its colored veining from ___________________________________.
2. Cabernet Sauvignon is a grape variety which originated in ___________________________________.
3. When a wine bottle has a screw cap it usually means the wine___________________________________.
4. The best kind of cracker for tasting cheese is ___________________________________.
5. The name of England’s most famous cheese is ___________________________________.
6. Beaujolais is a wine from the ___________________________________ region of France.
7. The wine region known as Naples Valley is located in ___________________________________.
8. Sherry wine originated in ___________________________________.
9. The largest wine company in the world is___________________________________.
10. The reason red wines generally age better and live longer than white is ___________________________________.
11. One of the greatest American wine connoisseurs was ___________________________________.
12. In 1850 the American state that had the most flourishing wine industry was ___________________________________.
13. Today the state that leads all others in cheese production is ___________________________________.
14. Montrachet is the name of both a cheese and a wine produced in ___________________________________.
15. France is particularly noted for its ___________________________________ cheeses.
16. The Hungarian term puttonyo, applied to Tokaj wine, means ___________________________________.

ANSWERS

1. A microorganism
2. The Bordeaux wine region
3. Has been pasteurized
4. Blank unsalted
5. Stilton
6. Burgundy
7. New York state
8. Spain
9. Gallo
10. Because of the tannin content
11. Thomas Jefferson
12. Ohio
13. Wisconsin
14. The Burgundy region of France
15. Soft ripened
16. “Bags,” meaning the number of bags of aszu concentrate in each lot of wine

1.Liederkranz cheese was created by

• Bismarck
• Metternich, the Austrian statesman and gourmet
• A Minnesota farmer
• A New York delicatessen man

2. The first people to put up wine in glass bottles were

• Monks in medieval France
• The Romans
• British vintners in Portugal
• French immigrants in California during the Gold Rush days

3. When the vintage year is given on a wine label, it means

• The wine is superior
• That was the year the wine was bottled
• The wine is made entirely of grapes harvested that year
• The bottle should not be opened for ten years after that date

4. A varietal wine

• Is made with a variety of grapes
• Is always an American wine
• Will go well with many different dishes
• Is named for the principal grape variety with which it is made

5. Most red wines should be served at room temperature because

• They will have clearer color
• Their bouquet can be better appreciated
• They taste better with hot food
• It’s a traditional custom

6. The phrase “mountain wine” on a label most often means

• The grapes come from a high mountain slope
• It’sa  premium wine
• The opposite of a valley wine
• The vintner judges it to be somewhat better than his generic or jug wines

7. The reason for storing wine bottles on their sides is

• To keep the cork moist
• To save storage space
• Because the wine ages better this way
• Because the bottles look so nice in a wine rack

8. The reason some cheeses are softer than others is because

• The milk was fresher
• An enzyme in the cheese prevented it from getting hard
• Less of the whey was extracted from the curd
• The cheese was ripened in a warm place

9. Monterey jack gets its name from

• A famous gambler known by that name in early California
• Its origin in or near the town of Monterey, California
• The type of mold in which it is shaped
• Being the favorite cheese of a California gourmet known as Jack

10. The bubbles in champagne are due to

• The kind of cork used as a stopper
• The special variety of grapes used
• Added carbon dioxide
• A second fermentation after the wine is bottled

ANSWERS

1. D
2. C
3. C
4. D
5. B
6. D
7. A
8. C
9. B
10. D

Hubby screened the companies at the show – asking enough questions to determine if they knew what they were doing. He embarrassed me by announcing loudly that he didn’t want any piece of crap wood door and did they carry metal? Hubby is looking to increase security into the house by replacing the side door coming into the garage from the backyard and adding a couple of deadbolts.  Company #1 behaved professionally enough and assured him they could get in a steel door. We set up a time for them to come and the night before they called to confirm. The night of I put off making dinner and we sat down to watch TV news, something we don’t do very often, waiting for them (we’re NPR folks). We waited an hour with Hubby becoming more and more frustrated and at the hour and a half mark we ate dinner and wrote them off. Being stood up really ticks Hubby off.

The the second contractor is a pretty large company. They called after 5 on the last business day before the day we set up for them to come and by that time it didn’t work out for them to come over time-wise. They  had had at least 3 weeks lead time to make that call. We didn’t pursue. Neither did they. They were the overhead door folks and like I said we had prioritized the side door.

So, as luck would have it, another outfit we’ll call by their initials JRN, came by the house. They do doors and windows. They asked if they could do a free estimate on windows. I said we weren’t interested in getting the windows done in the next year but we were in the process of getting the side door replaced and we’d happily take a quote on that. They set up an appointment and, you guessed it, didn’t show. Didn’t call. Dinner late again. A month later the owner of the company called with what must have been sketchy notes. He said he was following up on the sales call and wanted to know if we were still interested in JRN’s services. He was very nice. I told him they’d stood us up and already missed the sale on the side door, we’d gone elsewhere. I said it would be at least two years before we were interested in doing the windows. He said he would guarantee us their quote plus 3% on the windows for 24 months. I said Hubby was more pissed about the situation than I was, he better talk to him. I handed over the phone and said, “Be nice, he’ll guarantee a price for 24 months.” Hubby went into macho mode and told the guy to lose our phone number and never call back.

This, of course, doesn’t change the fact that we want the work done. We drove over to Hansen’s, a great contractor’s store for siding, decking, doors, railing, moulding, etc. It’s also a large lumberyard. Hubby likes them because he’s developed a relationship with an a very good employee there. Hubby puts a great deal of store into personal relationships with contractors and workmen. He asked for a reference for an independent contractor and Scott whipped out a business card for T.R. He said this guy was awesome and was hurting for work. T.R. had talked about leaving the state and now Scott was getting his name out there as much as possible to try to keep him in the area.

We phoned up T.R. He got back to us right away and came over to the house within a couple of days. Turns out he had (has) his own company doing home repair work. He used to have several full-time employees and now it’s just him and occasionally one of his sons. The recession is hitting the housing market hard all over the place. The door replacement and the addition of a deadbolt into an existing steal door is no problem for him, we’ve ordered the door now and it’s a 4-week wait. He’s even willing to do the install on a Saturday so we don’t have to take time off work. I’d seen some new railing for the front porch that I liked so we also got the install cost on that. Again, a not-this-year project, but information to put in the hat. Replacing the front porch railing has been a goal since we moved in. Whatever work he does for us will be for a very fair price. We will definitely not take advantage of his strapped circumstances as, if his work turns out to be as good as Scott at Hansen’s said it is, we’ll hope to be able to call on him again. Maybe for windows when we’re ready.

T.R. treats Hubby with respect and doesn’t make stupid jokes about what Hubby may or may not be able to do being blind. You’d be surprised how many people do. I hate that crap, so does Hubby. Hubby is EXTREMELY handy. He’s putting in a new linoleum floor in the washer/dryer room now including cutting down tiles with a table saw, measuring and cutting quarter round moulding for the room as a whole, etc. Next we’re considering him re-doing the steps as well so the tiling matches throughout the basement. The tile is cracking in a few places but the main reason for replacing it is just that it’s really dated – 1950s gold.

In any case, the title of this blog post comes from a woman at work who is getting new windows put in. She had a contractor come over, look at the house, and then give her a quote for the entire job ON THE BACK OF HIS BUSINESS CARD. No specifics, nothing. Just a single dollar figure. Give me a break. Are we in a recession or what? You’d think people would be a little more careful right now. He ended up calling them back also to check on whether they wanted to go with his services. Luckily he got her husband, who is more circumspect. She was ready to read him the riot act. Spend over $8,000 for windows and two sliders based on a single dollar figure? Right!

Veleta. Produced by Dominio Buenavista. Contraviesa Alpujarra, Granada, Spain. Imported by: Estate Wine Company, Dayton, OH. Tempranillo. Wine party 2011.

Louis Jadot. 2007. Produced by Louis Jadot. Beaujolais-Villages, France. Imported by: Kobrand. Red Burgundy table wine. Wine party 2011.

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. Produced by Maison Fondee en 1772 a Reims. Champagne, France. Imported by: Moet Hennessy. Wine party 2011.

Riesling. 2008. Produced by Schlink Haus. Germany. Imported by: Wein-Bauer, Inc. Franklin Park, IL. Reisling. Wine party 2011.

Zeller Schwarze Katz. 2009. Produced by St. Christopher. Mosel, Germany. Imported by: Wein-Bauer Franklin Park IL. Wine party 2011.

Fat Bastard. 2009. Produced by Thierry and Guy. France. Imported by: Thierry and Guy. Merlot. Wine party 2011.

Six Grapes. Produced by W. & J. Graham. Portugal. Imported by: Premium wines Inc. San Francisco, CA. Grapes: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Amarela, and Tinto Cao. Wine party 2011.