A new car and Great Big Sea!!!!!!!
Feb. 12th, 2006 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenchurchOh yeah, there's been a whole lot of Squeeing going on today!
First things first... NEW CAR!!!
We headed out this morning with the intention of doing a bit of test driving, since I'm finally able to drive. We hit the Hyundai dealership, met up with the salesman who had helped us when we'd stopped in a few weeks ago to take a look at what they had (and who, we found out today, is a Browncoat -- it's such a small world!). Anyway, I took the Tucson for a spin and absolutely loved it. The car fit like a well-worn glove.
We'd already eliminated the Suzuki Grand Vitara from the running after it hit three strikes, even though it was priced well, had good reviews and had almost all the things I was looking for in a new car. The strikes being :
1) Pretty lousy warranty (3yrs/36,000miles)
2) The closest dealership is over 30 minutes away
3) The model that came with all the stuff we wanted also came with wood trim. I *hate* wood trim in cars. It always looks fake to me, even when it's not.
After test driving the Tucson, we talked about it a bit and decided to not bother with the Toyota RAV4. It had really comfortable seats, but was fairly expensive and also had a short warranty. Besides which, we've really liked the guys at the Hyundai dealership and have had really good work from their Service department in the last three years.
So, we got an Alpine Frost Hyundai Tucson. Don't you love those wonderfully descriptive color names that really give you very little clue as to what they are? If you click on the link for Alpine Frost, you can select it from the list on the side, to get an idea. For those who don't want to try, well... it's a sort of light blue-ish, greenish, frosty metallic color.
The second majorly squee-worthy event... the Great Big Sea concert!!!
We had the most fantastic seats... the only thing better would have been to be in the front row! As it was, we actually ended up being five rows back, not two... but we were dead center and right up close. The venue was really designed for staging plays and such, so there's quite a bit of space between the front row and the stage -- they'd stuck in three rows of seats up there, though I'm not entirely sure how they sold them, since I never saw an option online. Ah well, our seats still kicked butt.
The only major downer, for me, was that I still can't use my right arm for much, so I couldn't join in on that whole "clapping above your head" thing that's so popular at GBS concerts. But wow... they played songs from nearly every album... with the first half being sprinkled with a few more from their newest CD (the one I gave Rackham for Christmas, that we only got to listen to once before the accident -- it's probably still stuck in that CD player) and was slightly more folksy, though still pretty wild. The second half definitely hit on the "rock" aspect of Newfoundland Celtic Rock... and we all danced and pumped our arms and screamed and clapped and sang along. I'm half-deaf and mostly hoarse, but it was soooo worth it.
Oh, and they did something rather fun and funky this time: they had the audience sing to them. Not just the standard stuff of singing their music and filling in when they stop, nope... they launched into the music for "Video Killed the Radio Star" and had they audience do the singing, then sequed into something from the Eurythmics, followed by a whole host of older rock tunes that I'm completely forgetting now... finally ending with them launching into "Run Run Away." It was just incredible.
I do have to say that the sound system didn't seem to be particularly well balanced, but that may have just been because of where our seats were... so close to the front and the speakers. Great Big Sea is the sort of group where you really want to hear the vocals as well as the instruments and, on most of the songs, they were completely drowned out. It made the a capella pieces, and the ones with minimal accompaniment (such as just a bodhran), that much better. Oh, and in one of the encores, they came right to the front of the stage (just a few feet in front of us!!!!) with the microphones still behind them, hushed everyone down, and then sang "Old Brown's Daughter" completely a capella and without any enhancement. Absolutely lovely... and it was astounding that they were all still going so strong after the long concert.
They also sang us a little ditty with all sorts of stuff that was specific to the latest leg of their tour... mentioning Seattle and also talking about the bus accident they were in up in BC (if it's not at the top of the page, just scroll down to the entry for February 10th), where the bus apparently tipped over! Yikes! Fortunately, it looked like everyone was okay...
Oh! The other cool thing happened during the intermission... Rackham had gone out to the lobby in search of water, and I was standing and stretching, when I heard my name being called. Turned out two old friends, D and H, who we used to know back in Utah (from the SF&F and filking communities there) had spotted me. We haven't seen them in close to a year, even though they just live down in Tacoma! It's weird, because I keep forgetting they're there... D was in graduate school in Newfoundland for so long, that I keep forgetting he's all graduated and working at a small college here now. Just the icing on top of an already wonderful day!
And I could probably go on and on about both things for a whole lot longer, but I'm VERY tired and more than a little sore (and I'm so glad the concert was this weekend and not any earlier, or there's no way I could have done it). Be prepared for possible residual squeeing over the next week!
First things first... NEW CAR!!!
We headed out this morning with the intention of doing a bit of test driving, since I'm finally able to drive. We hit the Hyundai dealership, met up with the salesman who had helped us when we'd stopped in a few weeks ago to take a look at what they had (and who, we found out today, is a Browncoat -- it's such a small world!). Anyway, I took the Tucson for a spin and absolutely loved it. The car fit like a well-worn glove.
We'd already eliminated the Suzuki Grand Vitara from the running after it hit three strikes, even though it was priced well, had good reviews and had almost all the things I was looking for in a new car. The strikes being :
1) Pretty lousy warranty (3yrs/36,000miles)
2) The closest dealership is over 30 minutes away
3) The model that came with all the stuff we wanted also came with wood trim. I *hate* wood trim in cars. It always looks fake to me, even when it's not.
After test driving the Tucson, we talked about it a bit and decided to not bother with the Toyota RAV4. It had really comfortable seats, but was fairly expensive and also had a short warranty. Besides which, we've really liked the guys at the Hyundai dealership and have had really good work from their Service department in the last three years.
So, we got an Alpine Frost Hyundai Tucson. Don't you love those wonderfully descriptive color names that really give you very little clue as to what they are? If you click on the link for Alpine Frost, you can select it from the list on the side, to get an idea. For those who don't want to try, well... it's a sort of light blue-ish, greenish, frosty metallic color.
The second majorly squee-worthy event... the Great Big Sea concert!!!
We had the most fantastic seats... the only thing better would have been to be in the front row! As it was, we actually ended up being five rows back, not two... but we were dead center and right up close. The venue was really designed for staging plays and such, so there's quite a bit of space between the front row and the stage -- they'd stuck in three rows of seats up there, though I'm not entirely sure how they sold them, since I never saw an option online. Ah well, our seats still kicked butt.
The only major downer, for me, was that I still can't use my right arm for much, so I couldn't join in on that whole "clapping above your head" thing that's so popular at GBS concerts. But wow... they played songs from nearly every album... with the first half being sprinkled with a few more from their newest CD (the one I gave Rackham for Christmas, that we only got to listen to once before the accident -- it's probably still stuck in that CD player) and was slightly more folksy, though still pretty wild. The second half definitely hit on the "rock" aspect of Newfoundland Celtic Rock... and we all danced and pumped our arms and screamed and clapped and sang along. I'm half-deaf and mostly hoarse, but it was soooo worth it.
Oh, and they did something rather fun and funky this time: they had the audience sing to them. Not just the standard stuff of singing their music and filling in when they stop, nope... they launched into the music for "Video Killed the Radio Star" and had they audience do the singing, then sequed into something from the Eurythmics, followed by a whole host of older rock tunes that I'm completely forgetting now... finally ending with them launching into "Run Run Away." It was just incredible.
I do have to say that the sound system didn't seem to be particularly well balanced, but that may have just been because of where our seats were... so close to the front and the speakers. Great Big Sea is the sort of group where you really want to hear the vocals as well as the instruments and, on most of the songs, they were completely drowned out. It made the a capella pieces, and the ones with minimal accompaniment (such as just a bodhran), that much better. Oh, and in one of the encores, they came right to the front of the stage (just a few feet in front of us!!!!) with the microphones still behind them, hushed everyone down, and then sang "Old Brown's Daughter" completely a capella and without any enhancement. Absolutely lovely... and it was astounding that they were all still going so strong after the long concert.
They also sang us a little ditty with all sorts of stuff that was specific to the latest leg of their tour... mentioning Seattle and also talking about the bus accident they were in up in BC (if it's not at the top of the page, just scroll down to the entry for February 10th), where the bus apparently tipped over! Yikes! Fortunately, it looked like everyone was okay...
Oh! The other cool thing happened during the intermission... Rackham had gone out to the lobby in search of water, and I was standing and stretching, when I heard my name being called. Turned out two old friends, D and H, who we used to know back in Utah (from the SF&F and filking communities there) had spotted me. We haven't seen them in close to a year, even though they just live down in Tacoma! It's weird, because I keep forgetting they're there... D was in graduate school in Newfoundland for so long, that I keep forgetting he's all graduated and working at a small college here now. Just the icing on top of an already wonderful day!
And I could probably go on and on about both things for a whole lot longer, but I'm VERY tired and more than a little sore (and I'm so glad the concert was this weekend and not any earlier, or there's no way I could have done it). Be prepared for possible residual squeeing over the next week!
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 09:02 am (UTC)I'd be surprised if D&H *hadn't* been there. D was the one who got me hooked on GBS in the first place, while he was still up in Newfoundland.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 04:16 pm (UTC)I'm thinking I need to try giving them a call at some point... At least I finally found out they'd had a little girl (I knew they'd had a baby, just not any of the details). H was saying that last night was only the second time they'd ever left the baby with a sitter so they could go on a date.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 09:47 am (UTC)I *hate* wood trim in cars. It always looks fake to me, even when it's not.
Me too, and the husband - it's been a deciding factor for us in the past as well.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 10:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 10:06 pm (UTC)And I'm not familiar with the GBS music, but glad you had fun. You certainly needed it.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 04:14 am (UTC)Alpine frost should be like an icy, metallic blue or white, I would think. :/
GBS
Date: 2006-02-16 05:08 am (UTC)