Old and Busted, meet...New Hotness

                   [Old & Busted, w/yellow house "cameo"]
It will surely come as a surprise to some (especially those who forgot —again— that I ever had an automobile), that there's interesting news on the Texas transportation front: the blue beast= gone.

Sold to a Mexican mechanic's sister for the price of 2 tickets to the Spice Girls' reunion tour, after massive brake failure (not while driving), I was pleased to get such a fee for the beast that transported Nina & myself down the Eastern Seaboard to its southern retirement in Central Texas. This Snow-bird has flown the coop.

(whoa, wait, less than those tickets.)
After, oh, about a month of searching, and a small-business loan from the bank of mom+pops, I've come across its replacement. Enter The Red Baron:
                                      [New Hotness]

A '99 TDI (YES, it's a DIESEL, folks...), I got it on Ebay (scary!), from a guy in dallas who then drove it down to A-town. Nice! Lucky for me, it was a no-reserve auction, and I (by which i mean my parents) got it for a very low price. . .at a time when TDIs are selling for 2-3000$ above blue book!

So, as soon as I resuscitate my ersatz manhood, (no flower-holder included, *ahem*) I'm planning on putting Biodiesel fuel in the Baron... the real reason I'm down w/ the beetle. (that, and 45 mpg!).

Let me conclude with this final thought, loaned from Phil:
MEGA ROADTRIPS!!!!!