Woooo boy

I just signed up for my first half-marathon, scheduled to take place in December in downtown Las Vegas. I munched on coconut chocolate chip cookies as I tried to figure out how long it would take me to complete the race. I settled on 2 hours 30 minutes. I have no idea, really, as the farthest I have ever run is a 12K, and the last one of those I ran was at least a decade and 2.5 children ago. I am pretty much completely freaked out right now, and hope that my attitude changes once I can see my toes again. If not, I will be talking smack about Elizabeth for ages. She swears she will mentally train with me (?) and will fly out from San Antonio to run the race by my side. Or maybe really far in front of me, but at least she'll be in the general vicinity, thinking good thoughts.

We test-drove more cars yesterday. UGH. Someone tell me we are done already! We started with the Honda Pilot, which we both crossed off the list almost immediately. I love Honda, but I don't love that vehicle. There are too many things about it that I don't love, so I'll just leave it at that.

We also drove the GMC Acadia, which is flippin' expensive. I think they quoted us $44K for the one we drove? It was crazy talk. It was the nice model, but still. It was no Acura MDX, I can assure you. So, unless they can come up with a significantly better price and ditch the whole "we're getting a bailout so we don't need to lower our prices" attitude, we will not be buying one of those.

We then re-tested the Mazda CX-9, because it's my fave. I still love it. And it's waaaaay cheaper and better equipped than the GMC, so it's sort of a no-brainer. The only thing I realized, as I rode in the 3rd row, was that there are no ceiling vents. So if you are unfortunate enough to have to ride back there in the nose-bleed section (I'm looking at you, Claire), you have to rely on your older sister to not cut off your AC supply (located in the center console in front of the 2nd row) in the heat of summer. Also, there is no option for captain's chairs in the second row, which is so frustrating! That car would kick ass if it could have captain's chairs. And vents. Those two options are really why the Saturn Outlook and the GMC Acadia are still on the list.

After naps, we also drove the Toyota Highlander. I was in love and ready to walk down the aisle with it until we got back to the dealership and found out that the 3rd row doesn't split. So you either have the whole back seat up or the whole back seat down. I would have to choose between leaving a child home alone (a surprisingly appealing alternative, actually) and piling groceries in the front seat, because where am I going to put all my stuff? Unfortunate design, Toyota. You almost had me at "super comfy leather seats and a flip-up hatch window".

I think we are done test-driving, though, as I can't think of any other vehicles that appeal to me that we haven't already driven. I refuse to drive a mini-van because I will end up buying one of the damn things (see also: captain's chairs, good gas mileage, space space space, and sweet entertainment packages).