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#5095 – zig, zag, zug

i just got back from the mini dealership, and the motoring advisor said that i’ve been his easiest customer all day. why? because i know what i want. saturdays are very busy at the mini dealership, and the motoring advisor said that there was a couple there who had been there for three saturdays in a row, but they still can’t figure out what they want. meanwhile, i had my spec sheet all printed up with all the options i wanted (good luck if you want to try to haggle, you’re almost ALWAYS going to pay MSRP for a new MINI. you might get some freebies thrown in, but that’s not always the case either.), and i already knew about the $1000 deposit towards the car that you have to put down so they can place the order — i had kind of forgotten about this part, even though i saw the $1000 on my original order sheet for my current MINI i thought for some reason it was just part of a down-payment that i made. i guess that’s still the case, but i forgot about it being mandatory to place the order, so that made me hesitate a little when he reminded me about it since i wasn’t prepared to pay $1000 down today and expected that to be taken from the value of my trade-in.

they took my keys so the service manager could appraise my car, and in the meantime the motoring advisor and i went over some of the details and a few questions i had about one or two features in the car; here’s what i configured. it’s a good thing i’m not getting the clubman (sk8bette 😉 ), since even though the coopers and cooper s models are on schedule, the convertible ones are a little behind and they don’t even know right now when the clubmans are being built and only know that folks ordering clubmans would be taking delivery about some time in october! my car would be built next month and delivered sometime in august or perhaps september at the latest, but i have heard of someone in the local mini club ordering his with time from order to delivery being less than a month, which is definitely much better than the 6 weeks or so i had to wait when i originally got mine (ordered in march, took delivery in early june).

anyway, they said that they’d appraise the car today, and that the appraisal value would change by the time i actually traded the car in when picking up the new one (makes sense, what with putting on extra mileage and such on it). i asked if i could just trade it in today if i wanted and use one of the family’s existing cars in the meantime, and they said that could be a possibility. i also asked if i could put the value of the trade-in towards the deposit, because otherwise it wouldn’t be until getting paid on friday that i’d have the full $1000 handy, and they said that would be possible too.

so after a little bit later my motoring advisor came over and said that they’ve determined that my car is worth… well… what do you think a 4-year-old car with 84,355 miles on it, no working a/c, possible electrical issues, the passenger side panels keyed 3 years ago, a front passenger tire with a scuff along the sidewall, and a front bumper/skirt damaged from a raccoon hit… what do you think a car like that is worth? i paid $22,299 + tax for it just over four years ago, and i estimated it to now be in “fair” condition, meaning (according to the kelley blue book):

  • some mechanical or cosmetic defects and needs servicing but is still in reasonable running condition
  • clean title history, the paint, body and/or interior needs work performed by a professional
  • tires may need to be replaced
  • there may be some repairable rust damage

edmunds.com says that a car like that is worth $9217… kelley blue book says a car like that is worth $9765. i was hoping for at least $9000, and would be happy with at least $9500. they appraised it at drumroll…

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#5094 – my car is weird

somehow, my car’s passenger window fixed itself this morning, and now it operates normally. weird! still no word on the status of my loan preapproval, so i don’t know yet if i might trade it in or try to get this fixed — i’m not very confident with the guy who appraised it.

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#5093 – 0.507

after work today i drove straight to the ballpark so stueypark and i could see the o’s play against the houston astros. the only other game i had been to this season was opening day, but i had to go to this one since it was “wild bill hagy appreciation night” (even if that wasn’t the official name for it), and the first 10,000 fans received t-shirt jerseys — #34, for section 34 — with “HAGY” written across the back. it was also kind of fitting that all of the shirts were extra-large too. 😛 haha

i was kind of surprised, now that the construction is complete, you can’t see the bromo-seltzer tower AT ALL from our seats behind home plate! 🙁

What happened to my Camden Yards?!

the game itself was good. there was some girl sitting next to us who was cheering for the astros (she seemed to be there by herself), and the fans around us respected her for cheering for her team among us. she said that at least she got her picture taken with the oriole bird, so at least she has some cred with the oriole fans.

we almost saw an umpire charge the mound too, that would have been amusing… we thought that the pitcher was ejected, but apparently not. the fans were also annoyed when one of the orioles was intentionally walked, prompting me to jeer “even my grandmother can intentionally walk someone!”

there were some fans who had dressed up like wild bill hagy, complete with hats and fake beards — one of them won fan of the game, hahaha:

Well, who else deserved to win?

there were only about 21,000 fans at the park, but in the later innings when we came from behind to win it was tremendous how much the fans were supporting the team and reminded me a lot of this clip.

on my way in to the stadium, i saw bulldozers and such preparing dirt to make tracks for the dew tour that will be in baltimore soon. after the game there were some people on dirtbikes trying out the track, pretty neat to see:

my throat is now hoarse and my hands are sore from clapping, but we won 6-5 and we’re now 35-34 for the year, and the weather was perfect for a baseball game, so it was definitely worth it. i think i may try to go to thursday’s game as well — it’s nick markakis bobblehead night! 😀

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#5092 – might as well not repeat myself

From: Glenn Fitzpatrick

Date: June 16, 2008 3:25:04 AM EDT

To: “Mary Fitzpatrick”

Subject: Re: Hello from Malta!

On Jun 16, 2008, at 2:32 AM, Mary Fitzpatrick wrote:

Glenn!

We are having the best time ever. Wish you were here.

How are things going with your Mini?

Have you found a new apartment yet? Are you going to wait a few months and live at home for a while?

I will check back later this evening, Rome time.

Love,

Mom

Yay! Glad you’re having a fun time.

The MINI is doing even worse now — as of Thursday, my passenger-side window doesn’t want to roll down, though you can hear a motor trying to work when you hit the switch to open it. Once that happened, I began thinking that the A/C problem may actually be an electrical issue, and it all makes sense then, since everything else that has seemed to be weird with the car was due to electrical issues – I doubt that hitting a raccoon would make the A/C stop working over a year later, especially when the A/C was working fine for several months afterwards. I’m going to take it in to the body shop today for the insurance appointment I had already scheduled, and then I’m not sure but I may take it over to the dealer and see what I can get to trade it in, because even if it is an electrical issue, from talking with some other MINI owners there’s nothing to definitely say that replacing something like the wiring harness will fix the issue. So we’ll see. My driver’s side door also doesn’t want to unlock all the way, but that seems more of a mechanical issue that the heat may be causing since it works sometimes without problem. I may try popping off the panel on the door to look at the mechanism if I get a chance today.

Not sure about an apartment yet. One of my coworkers says she lives at the place where Carrie used to live in Columbia and she said that the management is changing for the worse, so that’s two management changes since Carrie lived there and it doesn’t sound like it’s done well since then, so I think that place is off my list. I’m supposed to have another interview for the position with the executive relations team at work this week, but I still haven’t found out if I get the position if there’ll be a raise or not, so I’ll be at the house for the time being. I’m moving stuff back little by little while you’re all away so when you return it’ll just be a matter of moving the larger stuff.

We also haven’t had any A/C at the apartment either for about the last month. We’ve reported it several times to both the front office and the emergency number, and they keep claiming that it’ll be fixed, and they’ve said that it needs a part but there’s been no sign of the part they said they needed or the window A/C unit they’re supposed to give us to use in the meantime. We’ve even called the Montgomery County office of landlord/tenant affairs on Thursday since they say that landlords don’t have to provide air conditioning, but if they do then they have to keep it in working order per housing code enforcement, but there’s been no word back from them yet either, so I’m going to try to call them back today. I’m hoping that we might be able to get back some/all of the rent for this last month since it’s been going on for so long.

That’s about it. Cats and fish are doing fine. Crackers says “hi” to Anne. Kelly says she doesn’t have access to internet yet, but she also sent me a text message to say that the van is parked in lot B – get off at stop #8 and it’s directly across from the lightpole N4.

See ya!

– Glenn

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#5091 – yay insurance

STILL no a/c in the apartment. zenmetsu says that he called up the apartment complex angry yesterday and they said that they’d bring by a window a/c unit. surprise, surprise – no a/c unit arrived yesterday, and there’s still nothing here today. LAME.

i called the auto insurance this afternoon after work and told them how it might seem a bit weird that hitting a raccoon over a year ago has caused the a/c to crap out in the car now. they were very nice about it and offered to have someone come out to look at it while i’m at work and appraise it, but since my parking lot is kind of secured and since i have monday off from work i told them i’d bring it by the auto shop on monday to have it checked out. they asked if bruno_boy and i were wearing our seatbelts and if anybody needed medical assistance after the incident and i said “no… well, the raccoon probably did,” bahahaha…

they say that if i have it repaired at one of their locations then it’ll be 100% under warranty for the time that i own the car. would be kind of funny if i end up trading it in right after i get it fixed, hah. 😛