Well, one week and a day until we jet-set for Australia. And it can't get here fast enough. I am totally swamped at work, just totally swamped.

How swamped am I? I worked quite a bit of the weekend, and thus didn't have time to post about the latest asset in my life. My new car.

Found me a nice 2005 Chevy Equinox. It's a "truck" built on a car platform...a small SUV, if you will. But, what made me feel better about it is that it is no more of a gas guzzler than my previous Grand Prix GT. Final count on the Grand Prix, by the way, was approximately 203,500 miles. The car was the talk of CarMax when I sold it to them...because they were stunned at how well it ran, even with all those miles and the physical abuse it had taken (i.e., it looked not so good anymore). They gave me a cool $750 for it...I thought I'd get $400 if I were lucky.

And the trade I made was well worth it. Got the Equinox for a song, as it were. It was the cheapest SUV I could find for the value. It's only a year or so old, has just 8,800 miles on it and is in pretty perfect shape (barring my Dad's full inspection of it on Wednesday--I get five days from purchase to return it for a full refund for whatever reason). It rides a little differently from the Grand Prix, obviously, but it's unbelievably roomy, is a smooth ride and still does have some kick (it's V6 engine is a half-step smaller than the V6 in a Grand Prix--it's got the Grand Am's engine in it). So I'm pretty happy to get a "family vehicle" (since it will last that long, hopefully), a reliable vehicle (my Dad is jealous, because they rarely see them needing work), and one that I like on top of it. It's no sports car, but I like the look. Plus, I can see over parked cars and some traffic now too, which is always nice.

To see what an Equinox is, you can go here.

Otherwise, really, work is taking over my life at the moment, partially because I have to get all my stuff done before leaving next week. Lots to do, lots to do.