first, the good news

In honor of my friend and mentor Nelia Beth's visit yesterday, I made a treat I'd been craving for quite some time: Butterscotch Blondies. These bars are quite easy, and you probably have everything you need already. Plus, my brother-in-law, Andy, has proven that they're a great base for additions like chocolate chips and M & M's. Hungry? Click here for the (light!) recipe.

And now for the bad news: The day after we bought my car, I got rear-ended by a woman who I highly suspect was talking on her cell phone when she drove into me at a stop sign. Her pickup doesn't have a scratch on it, but my poor car is sporting a pretty big dent (and until this morning, a dangling license plate light, visible at right). I don't doubt the car's great safety rating: I definitely heard the impact but hardly felt it.

Now I just have to wait for her insurance company to approve the ($1,800!) bill. The man who did the estimate told me he thinks it will take two weeks before my car's fixed. Thank goodness I'll have a loaner. Have you ever been in an accident? How long did it take the shop to do the repairs?

zoom zoom

In honor of my shiny, new job (associate editor of home and garden books at Readers Digest Milwaukee -- woot!), we got a new car. And we thought our experience buying the Civic made us feel grown up... It has nothin' on the Mazda3. The Mazda3 is new -- brand spankin' new. As in, its 16" alloy wheels have only traversed over 88 miles of God's green earth. It is, in fact, so awesome that the camera decided to focus on the car instead of us. But as you can see, we're pretty happy. Full disclosure: I'm crushing a little bit, but I don't feel one ounce of guilt because Ian is, too.

So...what should we name it?

PS: In case you're wondering, we picked up the Silver Bullet (hmm...just trying that out) from the wonderful folks -- especially Jim -- at Concours Motors in the lovely city of Milwaukee.