The Friday 4: Worst Purchases

In honor of my blog's just passed 1-month birthday, I'm instituting a new post, the Friday 4: the top four of any topic of my choosing. It was gonna be the Friday 5, but 5 just seemed like a little too much. And, really, this has nothing to do with my blog's birthday and everything to do with me making an excuse to talk about what I want to talk about. But since it's my blog, I guess I didn't need an excuse, but I like to make the effort. 

This week, the four worst things I have ever spent my (well, actually, "our") hard-earned moola on: 

4.  A trip to Orange, VA 

"Where?" you say. My point exactly. This two-day snoozer set Brad and me back about $600 or $700. My mom, who came to the B&B with us and stayed down the hall, said, "There's not even a tv in my room." That was the least of the problems with this "trip." (The nights at the B&B were "won" through eBay; read on to learn of a much, much worse eBay purchase.) 

3.  A 2000 Chevy Blazer 

Not ours, but might as well be 

That is, Brad's current vehicle. I'm saying it, and I don't care who disagrees:  I love the way Blazers look. When Chevy stopped making them, I was saddened. They're old school, solid-looking SUVs. But they are pieces of crap. I could ennumerate the problems we've had in a year and a half, but that seems like fodder for another top 4. Mostly, I miss my $6500. Next time, we'll buy the Hyundai. 

2.  Olive, our one-time lab/collie mix puppy 

Brad looking happy b/c this is Olive on her first day 
at her new new home (that is, not our house) 

While cute in theory, in practice the experience was a nightmare. We had her for three weeks this past Nov./Dec. and managed to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 (Brad will weep when he sees that figure in writing). These weeks rank as some of the most taxing, draining, and miserable of recent history. Do you know what it's like to write two final papers for graduate courses with an insanely frenetic, intense, destructive, un-potty-trained, and unsleepy 4-month-old dog? For your sake, I hope the answer is no. Originally a shelter pup, the little terror now lives, thankfully, with a friend who is a true dog person - she's got two others whom Olive just adores. 

1.  A 1990 white Jeep Cherokee from eBay  

I hardly need to say anything about this; it speaks for itself. In almost any situation I can imagine, Car + eBay (+ 1990 when it's 2006?) = trouble. I hardly need to, but I will say something about this giant (read:  $3000) screw-up. In fact, I will say three things. 

First: it was my stupid idea to buy a car sight-unseen. You don't even need to comment. I know. I was 24, so that should explain some of it. Second:  it was Brad's fault for handing over the check when he and my dad went to pick it up. I was sick, so they went without me. But once they realized what they were paying for, they could have done any number of things. Instead, they gave away the money. Three: it was a flood car. Oh, yes, it was. You never smelled mildew like that. Not even in the garage of our last apartment. Needless to say, this hunk of junk got driven by Brad only once more: to the car dealership where it got taken on trade. 


Take that front thing and the scenery away, and you've got a
good idea of the pile of poop Brad brought back from the WV hinterland 


I can't possibly be the only person with a few (albeit major) flub-ups on her buying record . . . can I?