Saturday, February 21, 2015

Fozzie

From J:

Our long car search is finally over! We're retiring Henry, our faithful 2003 Honda Accord, and upgrading to a car that fits our current (and future projected) lifestyle better. I give you...Fozzie.

Welcome to the family.
Fozzie is a 2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i Touring. He has all the features you would expect in a car of this caliber!
 
An engine!
2.5 liter boxer 4 with a CVT, in case you were wondering.

A steering wheel and radio!
 
With appropriately modern buttons.
A back seat and cargo area!
 
And even a seatbelt for the middle passenger.
 
As I do with most things, I obsessively researched cars before we reached this point. I've known for some time that Henry (good as he's been) was not going to be my daily driver for much longer. I wanted something safer, all wheel drive for our occasional snows, and something with more utility, as I find myself hauling around a dog and other things frequently that a sedan isn't suited for. Obvious choice: a Subaru. But for due diligence, I also looked at some competitors: Mazda CX-5, Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4.

The Honda was too bland, the RAV4 was too expensive for what it was, and the CX-5 (while also expensive) had an engine compartment that nightmares are made out of (didn't even want to think about trying to change out that serpentine belt down the line) and pretty poor visibility out of the back. Never really considered Hyundais or Kias; despite their excellent warranties they just didn't impress on the spec sheet. And I REALLY never considered domestics. Sorry guys, you'll have to do better for longer to convince me otherwise.
 
Now, I'd casually visited this Subaru dealer before and walked around their showroom, as the Honda dealer where I used to take Henry for service is next door. That Honda dealer's service department ended up being a huckster-ridden cesspool, but that's neither here nor there. I was familiar with the offerings, so when the time came I knew that I wanted to test drive an XV Crosstrek (smaller) and a Forester (bigger). On paper, the Crosstrek seemed like it would be big enough for around-town stuff and a great commuting car, but not large enough for a vacation with two kids and a dog. The Forester's styling didn't gel with me in comparison and the gas mileage was a bit worse, but it was certainly large enough for almost any need. Time for test drives!
 
We drove the Crosstrek first. It felt like a go-kart. Very peppy off the line, but you had to really lean in to the accelerator to get up to highway speeds. Steering was solid and the overall feeling was decent. I liked the size of the passenger area. Visibility was so-so out of the back glass.
 
In the Crosstrek. It was cold, but the seat heaters quickly left sear marks.
Now for the Forester. Subaru clearly has their A team doing the design and engineering for this model, and it showed. The engine felt much more substantial, even though it's only 20-some horsepower extra. The visibility was ridiculous, with glass everywhere.
 
This is...the one?
I got over the styling reservations when I saw the Touring trim. Nice spoiler, dark gray (nice and masculine), good looking wheels. And all of the interior goodies - leather, navigation, automatic climate, power everything. It makes a difference. We ended up with a great deal on a used 2014 Forester Touring that was previously part of the loaner fleet at the dealer. It came with the Subaru Certified Pre-Owned warranty and the remaining factory warranty. The only real hassle: the printer broke at the dealer and it took 3 hours to complete the paperwork.
 
Hour two.
Perseverance paid off: after five hours total at the dealer, we had keys!


Welcome home, Fozzie! You'll be with us for years to come.


You fit so nicely in the garage.

[Added by A: Flashback to our test drive post from four years ago!]
 

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

It('s) Snow Problem


Our three-day weekend (for President's Day) unexpectedly turned into a four-day weekend thanks to a snow day! This was the very best kind of snow day for several reasons: (1) it made a long weekend even longer, (2) the snow was light and fluffy which made shoveling easier, and (3) although it was cold, we had a sunny day without wind so being outside was actually quite nice.

We got about 6 inches total. Enough to make any remaining birds re-think whether they had flown far enough south for the winter.


Have I mentioned that Allie absolutely loves the snow?!






We're both back to work today (although schools are out again today), but we all thoroughly enjoyed our snow day!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Kale?!


In this week's produce delivery, we chose pink lady apples, carrots, curly kale (OMG), a double portion of bibb lettuce, and a double portion of baby bella mushrooms. Side note: the produce company threw in a half gallon of apple cider to "help us make it through the rest of the winter" which was a very nice touch. It's also really tasty.

Now normally we are not kale people (we've tried it with limited success), but I've recently attended some brunch potlucks with egg casseroles containing kale that I really liked. So I was willing to give kale another shot.

I found a recipe for an egg casserole with both mushrooms and kale online and went to work.




Once the casserole was ready to go into the oven it looked like this:


And here it is after baking:


Right out of the oven the casserole has a great flavor and texture. And I feel good eating it because of all the veggies (and the fact that eggs are no longer considered to be terrible). We plan to reheat pieces of the casserole for breakfast, so hopefully it will do okay in the microwave.

As for the rest of the mushrooms, the carrots, and the lettuce, we made lettuce wraps.



Although the recipe calls for a lot of different ingredients, I found this great Soyaki marinade at Trader Joe's that contains many of them. It has soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, vinegar, ginger, garlic, etc. We both agreed that the lettuce wrap filling would also be really good over rice for a more substantial meal.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Weekend Thaw


Mother Nature took pity on us this weekend and gave us warm, sunny days. Today's high was 68!!! We went for a long walk around the lake which is still partially frozen.

Snaps from the weekend:
These two are crazy.

Snuggles!

Allie got all fixed up in anticipation of Valentine's Day. We gave her a bath and full grooming. It turns out that J's workbench doubles as a pretty good grooming table! And no, we don't use the saw as clippers.

Showing off her dressy bow from Aunt Colleen.
J is also hard at work on his next woodworking project. He's making a storage tower for our entryway and it's coming together very nicely!


Two shelves, two doors, and a drawer still to come.

Looking forward to Valentine's Day and J's birthday coming up very soon!

Friday, February 6, 2015

Stuff Our Dog Does


Loves (and terrorizes) her raccoon:


 Sticks her head in the shower while it's running to drink the water:
 
 
Goes shopping...


... and picks out the largest toy in the store:


Kicks back on the weekend with a little cider:


Happy Friday!