My Early Birthday Present

Martin suggested that we go out to dinner Friday night since it had been a long week and we both were feeling that we needed to wind down a bit. We decided to eat at a new Mexican restaurant not too far from our house. While we were eating, Martin said he wanted to talk to me about something. He had something in his pocket that could be my early birthday present, if I agreed.  So he pulled a picture of this cute red Fiat 500 out of his pocket and you could have knocked me over with a feather. Martin and I both fell in love with these little cars when we visited Europe and were happy when we found out that Fiat had decided to start selling cars in the US.  Martin had been running the numbers in our budget and figured this would be a good time to get me something to drive back and forth to work.  I have been driving our van for the last 6 years and we are keeping it because it is the best thing to transport our wolfhounds to where we need to go.

 We visited the dealership yesterday, did a test drive and what do you know a cute red Fiat is in our garage. I will get about 10mpg more than driving the van and will probably get gas mileage in the mid 30's. I am amazed how much comes with this car that was 12k cheaper than the vehicles we currently own. It has everything I need with the exception of the programmable garage door opener which both our other vehicles have.

We are saying good bye to Martin's  Toyota truck that is 23 years old and has 220k+ miles on it, though we are giving it to Martin's daughter Kate, so it will stay in the family. This is a birthday present I never expected in a million years!