FOR DANAE (our landscape architect)

here it is. hope you can hear me.

new wheels...someday. maybe late spring??

this is a toyota 4runner. it has been my dream car for many many years now. in fact, in 2004 hillary failed to tell me she got one until i saw it in person for fear i'd be crazy jealous. i wasn't, but envy does exist. :)

now i'm going to tell a little story. we, the neills, ventured to eastern oregon for fun in the snow around new years. our friends have two dogs of similar ages to ours and so our doggies were also invited. well...needless to say, the camry is just not the vehicle for such things. sparky was on the lap of the passenger and leo's bum was on the back of the backseat while his head rested on the middle console up front. he's already too big! and he's only due to get bigger.

so...with our standard of living increase we thought we might be able to swing a car/truck payment. initally we were thinking of an actual truck and getting a canopy put on. so we went to find out about the tacoma double cabs. they are an excellent truck. totally feels like a car while driving, spacious, decent gas mileage (for a truck). but....since i do so love the 4runner i wanted to try driving one of those too (well rob did the driving. we dont' own it and i'm not used to the length...). well. they had just happened to have a 2006 4runner being inspected. it wasn't even detailed and cleaned yet. but IT had the moonroof! and the back has a pull out shelf which eliminated my concern of not enough room when camping. plus it was big enough for both dogs and two kids and ice chests and could tow a camper and an additional canopy wasn't needed because its all enclosed. it was beautiful. trouble was it was a v8. gas issue. really want only the v6 (our towing capacity really doesn't need to be that much). it was love.

but we came home and talked about. slept on it. and woke up realizing that we could probably do a $250 car payment but...we wouldn't have money to have fun with the vehicle...so we'll wait and see how things go for me and something part time. but one day in the near future i do hope to be posting pictures of my very own 4runner. maybe even a 2009 which comes with gps and DUAL CLIMATE CONTROL. that would be soo awesome!

dumb dog :)

we saw marley and me yesterday and came home with much love for our doggies. leo must've been feeling the vibe because for about 2 hrs afterwards he was a complete dork chasing his tail and "talking" to us. so here's a snippet. he's so funny. having a younger dog is so different than an old farty one.