McCartney's new Song/Video

Paul McCartney released a new track from his upcoming album. The track is called 'Dance Tonight' and you can see the video here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xTNXrkBSp_o

The new album is called "Memory Almost Full" and will be released on June 5th.

To buy, or not to buy...revisited...

Authors addendum 5/10/2007 : As I started to make repairs on the Maxima, more problem started to emerge. As I see them, I'm actually more excited about having a fun project to work on. But, I've come to realize that the maxima has to be just that..a project. Not our main family car that we rely on to get to groceries, slurpees, medicine and church. So, we're back in the market for a new car, and will plan on keeping the max unless a dealer wants to give us a decent trade-in for it. (And believe me, my ideas of decent for this car are low) .

In the end, I need to have my family driving around in a car in which they feel safe, and that we can expect to last 5-10 years. And I also hope I get to keep my project car. I have a sentimental attachment to it. :)

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So, it's finally time to get our Nissan Maxima through the Maryland safety inspection. Our Kansas plates run out at the end of May. I had the inspection done, and it turns out that a few things need to be brought "up to code" as they say. Namely, the following need to be replaced:

• Steering rack and pinion
• Break rotors (What?! I replaced them both last year! Might be under warranty)
• Front-right tire (Might also be under warranty)
• Some light bulb
• One of the rear view mirrors (cracked and broken)
• Parking brake(not replaced, but adjusted)

Does sound so bad. Everything but the rack and pinion is easy peasy lemon squeezy. My good car guy wants $1200 for all of this work.

$1200? Hmmm. It's a 14 year old car with 145,000 miles on it, 100,000 of which we've put on it over the past 7 years. We seem to have that car in the shop too much lately as well. Is it worth it?

Well, to make a getting-too-long-story shorter, we looked at a bunch of used cars. Everything in our price range doesn't really work for us. And most used car places were willing to give us only $300-$500 for our Maxima!

So, we finally decided to fix it, and keep it going for a few more years. I think it's got another 50k in there. I can fix it for only a few hundred dollars, saving us a ton. It's a big project, and I'm look forward to getting my hands dirty, and keeping our savings where it belongs.