noodles & company

i spent the majority of my weekend either IN madison or traveling to/from there. it started when i decided to go test drive a rav4 in monroe, then head up to madison to test drive another. i found a few certified used on toyota's website and decided to start the process of buying a "new" car.

of course my mom wanted to go with me, so we started out saturday morning on the BORRRRRRING drive to monroe. it's only about 54 miles but felt like an eternity! the rav4 was nice, v-6 with 3rd row seating and a towing-ready package. it's in really good shape and was a smooth ride.

then we headed to madison and i'd picked out 3 others to test out. on the first try, the weirdest thing happened. i got in the car, fastened my seatbelt, drove about 1o feet and somehow just KNEW this was not the car i wanted. there wasn't anything wrong with it per se, just a weirdness and/or tight feeling in my chest. i backed up the 10 feet i'd driven and told the guy "nope, this isn't it." i think he thought i was nuts. how do you explain to someone that it just doesn't "feel" right when there's nothing physically wrong with the car?

the 2nd choice was alright, but i definitely had a better feeling about the 3rd one. so now i will be trying to figure out financing and which one of the 2 i like better. there are definite pros and cons for each...it's a difficult choice.

after the driving around, mom & i went to noodles to grab some dinner. we decided to take a bunch home with us since we never get there enough to enjoy it. we ended up buying a LOT of take-home...to the point where i had to get a box to put it all in the trunk. i won't tell you the dollar amount but it was a LOT. we pretty much got one of everything and i went tofu crazy because i get excited about eating tofu when it's cooked well. i'm not such a great tofu-cooker so props to noodles.

went to the mall and kicked around for a bit. headed home in the evening, nothing major.

i don't know WHAT my mom's deal is, but she's on this kick where she punches people in the arm or slaps them. it's not to be mean, it's when she's laughing or something but she must've punched me in the arm or slapped me a dozen times, while we were in the car. i have a faint bruise on my arm from her. i'm not complaining or whining about my bruise, it doesn't really hurt or anything but WTF is her DEAL?!? :)

so in addition to our saturday trip, we somehow decided it was a good idea to RETURN to madison again on sunday. we went back to the mall & did some shopping and made ANOTHER trip to noodles. they too must think i'm a lunatic.

bottom line for the weekend? lotsa pasta, 2 cars 1 decision, bruised arm, QT with mom and $10 jeans.