So...Colleen and I met in Portsmouth on Saturday, intending to go shopping in Kittery. No sooner had I climbed out of my car than a guy ran up to us and said I had a gas leak. And what a leak it was! Parked for three minutes tops, there was already a massive puddle under the car. Uh oh.

We thanked the helpful man, and retreated to Colleen's car. I Bought a cell phone in September, mostly because my car was old, and you never knew... Who knew it would be pressed into service so soon? First I called my folks for advice, which turned out to be what we'd already discussed, then AAA. A few times.

I suppose it's a testimony to how often things go wrong that I was calm throughout. Colleen seemed surprised, anyway. These sort of things happen. At least they do to me!

Less than an hour later my car was on its way home, and we went to Maine. What, you thought we'd let a little thing like that cancel our plans for the day? Nah. Some day I'll tell you about our failed attempt to get to NYC... We shopped a lot, and walked about five miles. Literally. It's hard to find parking up there right before Christmas so we found a spot and walked from there.

I got some more Christmas shopping done, and ended up with some silicon baking stuff and a sweater from the Gap for myself. The Gap. I'm so ashamed =)

Once I got home, of course, I had to decide what to do about my car. It turned out that it would cost a small fortune to have it towed to my regular mechanic. Who said it'd need a new gas tank. (something I'd had replaced on my first car, which wasn't cheap) Which, coupled with the fact that that I already expected that i'd have to replace it sooner or later when the temporary fix of the transmission would cease to help, made the idea of repairing it less than sensical. Why pour money into a car I'd only have a few more months? It would cost more to eventually replace the transmission than I'd paid for the car.

So after looking about and spending six days within wheels, I got another car today. It's a 2000 Kia. With luck I'll have it for a while, at least until the car I really want - a toyota yaris - gets at least a second model year under its belt.