FMM - Random Catch Up

When Allie was here for Thanksgiving, we got her car into our mechanic to look at a brake issue; a part needed to be ordered for whatever the problem ended up being and it wouldn't arrive until after she needed to return to Dallas for work, so she took Jeff's car and once hers was repaired, he drove it until she came back for Christmas.  Her car had suffered some damage from mice while it was parked in the garage at her old apartment and her windshield wiper fluid reservoir wasn't working.  Jeff ordered a replacement part and Jimmymeow offered to put it on the lift in his home garage so Jeff could work on it easier, and that's how Jeff, Sam, and I ended up at their house on the Saturday before Christmas.  Jimmy's garage set up is really nice and boy howdy, it sure made doing the installation about a thousand times easier than if Jeff would have tried it at home:

Now that is one cool toy!  Jeff was totally jealous.

They had to remove the headlight to get to the reservoir, but it was easier than anticipated, so that was nice.

The damaged part - dumb mice.  We figure this happened while the car was parked for a week when we went to Orlando last year and yes, it's been that long that she's been without wiper fluid.

Meanwhile, Sam and I looked at the cows.  Hey cow hey!  I still want to do Farm Day so bad - hopefully we can make that happen this spring.

When Allie came home the following day, Jeff took her out to show her the new wiper blades he put on, and casually turned on the wiper fluid - she was pretty surprised and happy about that.

********************

While Allie was driving Jeff's car, we were getting complaints, like it randomly wouldn't start, it was rattling so much her coworkers were scared when she drove them to lunch one day, blah blah blah.  Hey, it's an old car!  But we were aware that we were going to have to put in some repair dollars into it soon, and being that it was so old and had a lot of mileage on it, Jeff, Sam, and I looked into a new car and let's just say that Jeff had a December to Remember:

He bought the one off the showroom floor, LOL.  I'm a little jealous that he got a bow on his car as my Mini didn't come with one.

It's a Subaru Crosstrek, with a massive amount of safety features and Apple CarPlay, and he's pretty happy.  I thought it was interesting that this vehicle, pretty much the same size as my 2002 Ford Explorer (that we replaced with my Mini Cooper four years ago) was several thousand dollars less than what we paid for the Explorer 16 years ago - and the new car has tons more features on it.  Anyway, we are set with two good vehicles now and next time we drive to North Carolina, we won't have to rent a car to make that trek.

*******************

Along with the new car, we also got a new dog after Christmas.  You guys, we love Paco but we have always loved dachshunds, and when we saw this little cutie, we just couldn't say no:

OK, it's not real, but it's as close as we're gonna get to having a dachshund anytime soon.  And for 75% off, we had to get him.

Paco only seemed bothered when we were deflating the dog, although he did try to either jump over its body or else jump on it, we weren't sure, and I'm sorry I didn't capture that on camera because it was pretty funny. 

I did get to unwrap a dog on Christmas day:

Another cute wiener dog!  And the tape is little hot dogs strung together.

 Allie indulged my love of Buddy the Elf with playing cards:

Each card is different and I kinda want to frame them.

And she also added to my Buddy Funko Pop collection:

Already planning my display for next Christmas!

********************

I think all of the Renegades are finally back in town, so tomorrow should be good for a fun run and a lot of catching up both during the run and afterward at Blue Baker.  Have a great weekend!