James says hello and happy Friday!
He is quite excited. We have a fun doggie afternoon planned – I’ve got to clear out of the apartment because my landlord is showing it to not one, not two, but four possible tenants this afternoon. I have a feeling my barking poochies won’t exactly help sell the place, so we’re off to find a pup-friendly place to hang out. (Here’s to hoping we close on our new home before we get kicked out of this place…)
Speaking of buying and selling, I spent the morning hanging out at the Ford dealership, helping DadHTP buy a car. He’s officially moved to Charlotte from California and is giving up the RV lifestyle, so he needs a car and apartment of his own. Car is first on the list. Apartment should be resolved later this month.
My dad used to be a salesman and can haggle with the best of them – he told me all these things to say when the salesman was around and used eye contact to indicate I should start packing up my purse at key moments. I knew we were going to be there for a LONG TIME so I brought food.
After three hours of intense haggling, Dad’s got a brand new set of wheels. Whew. I never haggled like that. Too much confrontation!!!
Lunch #2 was leftover Thai, pumped up with extra steamed broccoli and beans.
I should probably tidy up the apartment…
Okay – here’s MY version of this morning – I did my research through Consumer Reports Car Price Guide so I knew what would be a deal they would take. I let the sales guy – who was good – go through his thing, wrote my offer down, spoke with Caitlin for half an hour, he came back, said it was impossible, so I said thanks and got up to leave He says, wait…, repeat three times. At the end we were $100 apart and split it. Total interaction time with the car guy haggling – 20 minutes, and I paid $100 less than I was willing to – good deal. Talking with my daughter for the other three hours? Priceless – and I saw the baby kick!