Well, to start off here’s some good news: As of this week I am now receiving unemployment again. Yay! It’ll run for ten weeks, which gets us through to the end of November. This is a much-needed shot in the arm and means that we won’t be financially hemorrhaging quite as badly.

Then there’s the bad news. As expected, we got the call last Friday that the Saturn is officially totaled. Although we got a fair valuation for the car, I had to put on my “angry face” (a la Ralph Wiggum) and explain to the insurance agent that there was no way in hell that I was going to let him deduct the $200 of teardown work that the body shop did on the car from the settlement. He finally backed down, saying they would waive it “since it was such a small amount.” (Fine, let me take $200 out of your pocket, a**hole, and then you tell me how small an amount it is…) Anyway, they’re settling up with the bank that had the loan on the car and we should be getting a check for the balance of the settlement sometime this week. That’s good, since the rental car runs out on Friday.

So, we’ve been spending the last few days car shopping: researching, reading reviews, test driving. Thanks to Edmunds and Consumer Reports we have a pretty good picture of what’s up. Edmunds has some great articles on car salesmen (thanks for the pointer, Daveqat!) and buying over the net that were really helpful and I think will help us avoid a lot of hassle.

So, cars that we’ve investigated and discarded: Toyota RAV4 (too stiff a ride for me, and the 4-cylinder felt underpowered. Takaza liked it, though), Toyota Camry (nice car, too expensive), Honda Civic Hybrid (neither of us fit in the front seat), Honda Accord (too expensive), Saturn L-300 (gas pedal too close to the brake for people with big feet, trim was cheap and cut me [!] when we drove it), Saturn VUE (too stiff a ride for Dan, steering a bit too unresponsive for me). So, what does this leave? Two possibilities: the Ford Escape and the Honda Element. Yeah, the Element is gimmicky and astonishingly ugly, but there’s also a remarkable amount of room and it’s comfortable. It only comes with a 4-cylinder engine, but it’s pretty responsive for a four-banger. The Escape looks good and has all the appointments we’re looking for including the V-6 engine I prefer, but we still need to test drive it. Both of these cars have the big benefit that they’re cheap, too! We’ll have a decision on this by Thursday or so.

Financing is going to be interesting: I have great credit, but I’m unemployed. Dan has so-so credit, but he’s got a job. We may find ourselves delving the exciting world of joint ownership, particularly if we go with the Escape since Dan can get a supplier discount through his employer (Siemens). Negotiating the financing is going to be exciting, I’m sure.

So, stuff other than that. Classwork is going OK. I’m caught up with all my classes after my “vacation” in Chicago and now I have a projects to start in on in two of the classes, one of which will require me to hit the NC State library later today. No problems there.

Oh yeah, and that big freakin’ hurricane that’s headed for North Carolina. What fun! We’re situated far enough inland that if it followed the center of the track plotted at 5 AM this morning we’d probably only get grazed. But we’re also well within the possible track area, so I’m keeping a close eye on it. I lived in this area when Hurricane Fran came through in 1996, and I know what it’s like when a category 3 hurricane lands on your head. We’ll be ready – we picked up some water (good to have anyway) and I need to get some batteries for the radio today but other than that we should be fine. Our roommate mentioned that his back yard is in a 100-year flood plain, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on that as well. Although the creek out back would have to rise a good 10-12 feet to endanger the basement (which, incidentally, holds 80% of our possessions), we’re ready to move stuff in a hurry if we have to. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it won’t be necessary, though.