The Burb.

Everyone in the family is happy about the Suburban, especially me. It's so much more me than a mini van ever could be, I think, other than the fact that it sucks gas.....Mark filled it today and it cost $78. Woof. But Mark said it also got about 20 miles to the gallon driving to LA. That's not as bad as I thought it would be. But still Mark will not be using it on his daily 15-20 minute drive to work, unless I end up with a job that's farther away. The MG and the Cirrus are better commuter cars.
Zach approves of the Burb, although it's no Honda Oddessy. His friend had one and he was really looking for us to get one of those top o' the line oddessy's. But the Burb has three! power points so the kids can hook up our little tv and a video game when we are traveling. Tess and Thor also have put their stamp of approval on the Burb... All three are thrilled with the idea that they no longer have to squish together in one back seat. And they really like to play with the rear fan/AC controls. They can even choose between ceiling and floor vents as well as fan speed and tempurature levels.
The guy who owned it put some weird polypropalene or something seat covers on it that are waterproof, which mark likes but which I think are sweat-inducing. So I told him that he could keep the seat cover on his seat (the front passenger seat) but I am going to try my seat ( the driver's seat) without the seat cover because my lower back and thighs are sweaty after driving it. They are covering gray leather seats anyway, which is a shame in my book.
There are three army LTC's on DM, including Mark, and the guy we are buying the Burb from is one of them. (Three that we know of anyway). After driving to fort Huachuca I am very happy that Mark is stationed here in Tucson, rather than there because it is a typical army post and Sierra Vista does not seem like that big a community. Of course, Tucson doesn't seem like it's over 800,000 people either, except that it takes forever to get from one side to the other. It took us something like 35 minutes to get from DM, which is SE Tucson, to the mall in the NW corner of Tucson. There are very few tall buildings here, they just spread out instead. Driving to our new house is cool, because we drive through an area that is not yet built up. So we drive through desert rather than endless strip mall/gas station/fast food world. Hopefully they won't get around to filling in that area until long after we are gone from Tucson...

It is really really late and I am going to try to get some sleep now. Bad thing about being back in the states... I can't call family when I can't sleep at night because it is actually night for them too!