More Details

With a full belly from the Thanksgiving Feast, I can reveal more details of the past few days:

1) Bella and Papa have been inseparable - they've been working on art projects nonstop and she has had a peaceful smile on her face. Their big project has been carving, painting, and decorating a dragon boat. This will join the pirate ship, raft, and dinghy on our dining room plate rail display area.

2) Some funny details about buying that car: The salesguy Max was a riot with strange one-liners and a manic enthusiasm that had us laughing. There were things in the car he simply didn't know about: As he walked up, he found out it had remote start. As he was showing the trunk, he found the video-game plug in area (with a standard power outlet). And there are some things he didn't mention that we're discovering - today I found out it has an activated XM radio. So we've got Satellite Radio.

You also learn that a Toyota is sold very differently from a BMW(mini) or Jaguar - the warranties are much different, roadside assistance, free tire service, and rentals for service are all extras in the Toyota world, while they're standard in the Jag world. And I guess they don't give you a full tank of gas anymore... just had to fill 'er up today. But that's all PROCESS issue - we have no problems whatsoever with the PRODUCT.

I drove Marshmallow Pearl back and forth from thanksgiving (everything in Chicagoland is... far... ) and really grew to love the beast. But I need to spend some quality time with the manual to find out more about the voice command feature, the hands free phone capability, the multi-zone climate control, and if there's any way to make the GPS lady get a British accent...

3) Isaac the maniac decided that his ideal Thanksgiving Meal consisted of:
- 8 ritz crackers
- 3 dill pickle spears
- 1/2 roll
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
- 1 chocolate chip cookie
- 1/4 banana with peanut butter.

For lunch today he sat with the full jar of peanut butter with a spoon. Whatever it takes.

Tomorrow we leave Palatine and head up to a waterpark for the day, and back to the ranch Saturday.