While watching Top Gear, I saw a Mercedes ad which totes its E-Class as the most advanced car in the world. The Voiceover man proudly proclaims that the car can help awaken it’s driver, keep the driver in his lane if he starts to wander, and stop itself if the driver becomes distracted. I’m thinking if that’s the typical Mercedes driver, I’m going to start avoiding them on the highways.

It seems a weird thing to tout: “Now you can pay even less attention than you were before!”

If the fonts on your screen look a bit rough around the edges, you may not have ClearType enabled. Here is how you check:

Right click on desktop
Choose Properties
Click the Appearance tab
Click Effects button
Check the box next to “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts”
Choose “ClearType” from the second drop-down menu.
Click Ok
Click Apply

If ClearType wasn’t selected, you should instantly notice a difference in how fonts display in browsers and in Explorer. I don’t know why that isn’t the default setting in XP, and it’s one of the first things I change any time I have a fresh install of XP.

The Mini was a blast to drive, but having two doors combined with other minor but irritating issues was just too much for me. And my son’s stroller didn’t even fit in it without folding a rear seat down, for pete’s sake. I was tired of having to remove the carseat to get anything home, tired of chasing my son around the back trying to get him in the carseat, and tired of the rattles and squeaky windshield wipers. (It’s not a good sign when people on the phone can tell it’s raining from the screech of your wipers.) The last straw was when I accidentally put it in reverse at a stoplight and almost hit the person behind me. Reverse is to the left of 1st and didn’t require anything special to use, like pushing down on the shifter. Ugh!

So I went test driving, my favorite hobby. I was convinced I’d love the Audi A3, so I drove it first. Wow… Underwhelmed doesn’t even begin to approach how I felt about the A3. I moved up to an A4, but they didn’t have an Avant in a color I wanted, and my top choice of red would have to be custom ordered. The A4 sedan is nice, but really didn’t do much for me.

I moved to Volkswagen next where I drove the Jetta TDI (diesel). I loved it and would have purchased it right then and there, but the Jetta lease special didn’t cover TDIs and the dealer wanted way more than I wanted to pay for it.

Frustrated, I thought “meh, the Mini is fine” but a friend convinced me to go drive a Mazda3. My first reaction was “wow that is hideous” but the more I wandered around the Mazda lot the more the 3 started to appeal to me. I mean, it looks like it’s smiling - how could I not smile back? I drove the Mazdaspeed3 first and absolutely loved it, but really wanted to spend less, so I opted for a regular Mazda3 hatchback (I didn’t even drive the sedan). I love hatchbacks and always have, especially as a single homeowner who occasionally likes to buy large items like toilets. It’s just convenient, and it stands out a little in a crowd. I loved the bright blue but the dealer I was at didn’t have a hatchback, and I was a little afraid I’d tire of the color, so I went for pearl white. I’ve never owned a white car before and tend to associate them with work vehicles, but I love that they hide dirt well and don’t show scratches as badly as dark cars. The white is really pretty and I don’t regret that one bit.

I’ve had the Mazda for a little over a month and so far, no regrets. It’s easy to drive (it’s an automatic), it holds everything I need, and it’s a relief to have rear doors when getting my son in and out of the carseat. He still refers to Minis as “Mommy’s car” but also calls any Mazda3 that too, so he doesn’t seem to upset about the loss of the Mini.

I’ve had the Mini Cooper S since April now. It’s still a blast to drive, but I’ll admit I’m quickly getting tired of just having two doors. When I bought it, I told myself that as my son aged the backseat would become easier for him to climb into.

Yes, my parenting inexperience reared it’s ugly head right there, and I know you other parents are snorting at my naivete. As he’s gotten older he has learned to crawl into the seat, but he’s also learned to crawl past that seat and into the trunk, or over the console into the front seat, or his favorite spot: in the rear passenger seat next to his carseat. That means I have to climb back there after him and attempt to wrangle 35 squirming pounds of boy into a car seat that’s practically bigger than the car. *Bonk* goes my head on the roof. *Bonk* goes my head on the doorsill. Whew, I’m exhausted just thinking about it. After just a few months of this I’m starting to eye four door cars very, very wistfully.

According to Edmunds I did an excellent job negotiating on the Mini, so who know… Perhaps it will be worth trading in.

I’ll admit that the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program has me regretting buying a car in April instead of waiting for the program, but a recent article on MSNBC voiced concerns about how it’s hurting the used car industry, charities, mechanics and ultimately lower-income buyers.

I had wondered before how the government plans on paying for it: It’s a great deal for the people getting the rebates, but I hate the idea of those rebates coming out of my taxes. Now I wonder if the entire thing is a huge mistake.

MSNBC article

The MDX was a good car, but a boring car. And an expensive car. So a few months ago I up and traded it in towards something more fun, more gas mileage friendly, less expensive, and most importantly, more me: A 2008 Mini Cooper S.

I opted for a bright yellow model (Mellow Yellow is the official color, I believe) with white hood stripes and a black and yellow interior. I loved the interior because it has piano black inserts and yellow leather trim so it really pops. It’s nice to finally have an interior that is interesting to look at.

I’ve put about 5000 miles on the car in 4 months and I’m working on a short term evaluation that I’ll post soon.

This was going to be a pretty good review, until I hit mile 20,130 and my CD player took a crap. I had just switched from Mozart to Radiohead and it started making horrible sounds and finally gave messages that said “Bad disc” and “Check owner’s manual.” I doubt the disc is bad because it’s a fairly new and very unscathed CD. Later, after restarting the car, it tried to eject it twice on its own volition but ended up refusing to. So now I have 6 dics in the changer I can’t get at. Argh! At least the radio still works (knock on cheap-looking faux wood).

It’s very frustrating because I bought an Acura to avoid these sorts of problems. I loved my Audi but it had some wiring issues that made me nervous about financing a new one. So we went Acura thinking that it was a fancy Honda and would work until we beat it into the ground. Huh. That hasn’t taken nearly as long as we expected. And with Audi I got a loaner car, so taking it into the dealer wasn’t a big deal. No loaner with Acura, and now that I have a baby it’s going to be a pretty big hassle to take it in for warranty work.

Of course I realize this is just a CD player, it’s not like the engine blew up, but since I hate listening to the radio, it’s a pretty big concern for me. It’s actually the third thing to break, but it’s a little more annoying than the other two. The first is that the defroster vent on the passenger side of the dash doesn’t stay down and is always popped up out of place at an angle (I rarely use a defroster here in hot, sticky Houston so I don’t know if it affects function or not - I doubt it, I think it just looks really bad). The second is last week the pop-out cupholder in the middle row armrest stopped popping out. That happened on my Audi too, so apparently they just aren’t designed well on any car.

Okay. Taking a deeping breath… And on with the review.

I’ve put a lot of miles on this car (for me) in a short amount of time - about 16 months. That’s partly because it is a nice car to drive, but also partly because our other car is a two-seater so we have to take the Acura everywhere now that baby makes 3. So it’s hard to say how it compares to other cars we’ve owned, mileage wise.

Roadtrip

The Acura has been on one roadtrip and I was quite impressed with it. It handled steep and rather insane I-40 outside of Asheville, NC as well as it handled incredibly flat and boring 1-10 in Mobile, AL. It was very easy to drive; my mom drove for parts of the trip and had no problems maneuvering it or parking it. Size-wise, it wasn’t too big to park or go through drive-throughs, but it held a lot of stuff. It got great mileage on the highway: 28 mpg on some tanks (mostly through the flat South). My Mom actually offered to use her Chevy Astro minivan for the trip (eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!) because she was afraid the MDX wouldn’t hold enough junk, but afterwards she was quite impressed.

Comfort

I bought the MDX when I was 5 months pregnant and thought the seats were made in heaven. Now that I’m not pregnant, I can’t get comfortable at all. (It’s kind of funny that the only comfortable thing about my entire pregnancy was this car.) The lumbar is in a really weird spot just below my shoulder blades and isn’t height adjustable so I can’t really use it, but I also can’t find the sweet spot with it “off.” I spend a lot of time futzing with it and the seat angle, trying to find something that works. I’ve been trying for a year now. The seat is pretty flexible in height, though; I wouldn’t mind if it lowered another half inch, but on our long roadtrip it only bothered me a few times when my knees would stiffen up - and I think almost any car would do that after 10 hours of driving.

We hated the passenger seat when we first bought the MDX because the headrest was at an odd angle, but that doesn’t bother us anymore. And the middle row is pretty comfortable, although the front head rests are so big that the passenger views are mostly of black vinyl. We haven’t used the third row at all, so we can’t comment on that, except to say people are surprised to find out it has a third row. I bought a floormat from Acura that covers the rear cargo area, so the seams from the third row are totally hidden.

Whizbangs

We love the power trunk door. It can be opened manually, with the key fob, or with a button in the driver’s door. It closes with the push of a button on the door itself. It’s awesome when I’m carrying the baby and need to throw stuff in there but have my hands full. Heck, it’s awesome when my hands are empty just because I don’t get them dirty touching a filthy door. It’s awesome because I don’t need both hands to close it like I do on a lot of SUVs. Did I mention we love the power trunk?

I’ve used the rear DVD a grand total of once, when I was killing time in a parking lot and happened to have a DVD in the car. I like that it came with wireless headphones. Other than that I can’t comment much. I imagine we’ll use it more in the future on long drives, but I’m not a big fan of TV in the car. My toddler can just look out the windows and deal with it. I would prefer not to have it at all, but it came bundled with the power trunk.

The rear a/c is nice to have, although it cools passenger knees more than the rest of their bodies. A/C in the door pillar or ceiling would be nice, but I’ll take knee-level over none any day. I do really appreciate that it can be adjusted independently from the front a/c. Chris can have the front a/c blowing at 71 degrees and low fan speeds, while I can crank it down to 68 degrees and high fan speeds in the back to combat car sickness.

And the rear heated seats are a really nice bonus, although I’ve noticed they get switched on frequently on accident. I can reach the controls from the front seat so I like to play jokes on my passengers with them. If you’ve never sat on a heated seat and don’t know what to expect, it can be unnerving.

Overall Impression

This is a lot of car for the money. Unfortunately, it’s not a lot of interesting car for the money. It drives well, it carries stuff well, it’s decently comfortable, but it doesn’t excel at anything. It’s not awesome-looking, it doesn’t have an awesome interior, it doesn’t have excellent acceleration. It’s very inoffensive. Truth be told, it’s quite boring. I like my cars to have flair. I want them to be unique, or fast, or fun, or old. I want my car to say something about me, and the Acura says “practical but dull” and that’s just not what I’m looking for.

We first tried out this pizza place with our Corvette club; we took our son earlier this year to another club function and he had his first pizza there.

The pizza is great, and if you like football, the atmosphere is great too. I don’t like football but I’ll deal with it for the pizza. They have several TVs all blaring whatever football games are on (or NASCAR or other sporting events in the off-season).

You seat yourself either at the bar or at tables but are waited on for food and drinks. The service was fabulous the most recent time we went and it’s always been good with our club, too (which is impressive since 50 of us eat at once). The pizzas are brought out and set on trays on the table and are almost too hot to eat.

Chris had an errand to run on Saturday and our son and I went with him on one condition: We stop for dinner at Steel City Pizzeria. It’s about an hour from our house, but well worth the drive.

Must Try

If you’re a meat lover’s fan, try theirs. It’s so covered in meaty goodness that Chris orders it minus two meats just because it’s almost too much meat. I personally like pepperoni, pineapple, and banana peppers. A little salty, a little sweet, and a little tangy. Mmm! They also offer sandwiches, but we haven’t tried them so we can’t recommend them - but I have a feeling they are good too.

Official Web Site: www.steelcitypizzeria.com

My registration was due in July but I didn’t realize it (or find the notice) until September. I’m not a horrible ciitizen, I wasn’t trying to avoid paying the fee, I just totally forgot about it. It doesn’t help that the 2008 stickers weren’t see-through so I can’t see the date from inside my car (they go on the front windshield in Texas). I have a personalized plate, and a cool one at that, so I certainly don’t want it to expire.

So I sent off my money and the statement two months late to the Fort Bend County Tax Assessor, Patsy Schultz. I got an envelope the following week, but instead of my window sticker, it included my statement, my insurance copies, my check, and a form that said ‘We cannot process your registration renewal because of expired registration. Please check one and sign below.” The statements I had to check were:

• The vehicle has been ticketed for expired registration: a $20 penalty is due.
• Yes, the vehicle has been driven on expired registration.
• No, the vehicle has not been driven on expired registration.

That’s it. I had to check one of those and send the form back. It seemed really stupid, especially since nothing was mentioned on the original statement (that I saw) about what to do with expired registrations. I duly checked the “Yes, this vehicle has been driven…” box and sent the whole mess back.

Yesterday I got another envelope from them. Half joking I asked my husband what he thought was in it. It sure wasn’t my sticker! It was the statement, my insurance copies, my check, the first form I had to check, and a new copy of the “cannot process” form, this time with a different section highlighted. It said:

• Your check is over, the correct amount due is $137.47.

And below that someone had written “amt. reflects 12 mths. registration/11 mths special plate fee.” The person that wrote this signed their name and is the same person that signed the first form. (But I’m leaving the name off for privacy’s sake, even though I’m totally aggravated at this point). I don’t know if this particular person is just being awful for awful’s sake or if this person is just following awful orders from the tax assessor.

Now, if I send this back with a new lower check, are they going to jerk around until I only owe 10 months on the special plate and have to write yet another check?

I can’t figure out what’s with this office. I’m not a conspiracy nut, but at this point I’m considering that they’re either stalling until I get a ticket, stalling so my personalized plates expire, or trying to force me into coming to the office which is way off the beaten path and a horrible place to visit. Or this person is just nasty (I’m leaning towards that). I can’t pay the damn thing online because the state won’t allow expired registrations to do that, which seem ridiculous - you think they’d be happy to get expired registrations renewed.

I’m so pissed off at this point that I’m not sure if I’m going to mail the whole mess back YET AGAIN or just go down to the office and cause a scene. I’m considering documenting it all and sending it to TXDoT. Not that they’d do anything, but I’d feel better.

Next time you’re on Route 66 in my hometown of San Bernardino, California, check out the Mattel Toy Store. It’s located on the old site of Norton Air Force Base, in one corner of a huge building. Check the hours before you go; it was closed on Sundays and Mondays when we stopped in.

At first I wasn’t interested in the store since I thought Mattel just made Barbies and my one year old son isn’t quite ready for those, but a look at their website showed Mattel owns Fisher Price, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Tyco, Power Wheels and more.

The store was pretty big and arranged in aisles by age/brand. They had a LOT of Barbie stuff, but they also had a lot of Dora the Explorer toys, Hot Wheels, an aisle of board games, and many toys from the movie Cars. And Fisher Price makes high chairs and swings, so they had an assortment of those too. The prices list both the regular MSRP and their price. Sometimes they were the same, but usually you saved at least a little bit.

The real gold mine was the scratch and dent room. It was in the back in the actual warehouse and the the toys were fine but the packaging was damaged. We asked a worker about it and she said if one box is damaged they’ll often write off the whole palette so many of the packages had no damage at all. The prices in that room were awesome. I picked up the board game Apples to Apples for $6; it would be $24.99 in a regular store. We ended up buying Adam two bags of toys and spent only $30.

There are 4 Mattel Toy Stores in California, 2 in Texas, and 1 and Wisconsin.

Official website: http://www.mattel.com/matteltoystore/