We left work and got to the dealer yesterday around 3, and did not leave that place until after 6. Luckily there wasn’t too much traffic (probably because everyone had already left for the holiday weekend the day before – something my boss and I discovered on our way back from the San Francisco office Thursday afternoon), so we managed to get back home with enough time to pick up my parents and get dinner before continuing on to Davis for the play. There was a brief moment of consternation as we realized we had no clue how to actually *start* the Prius once it was stopped – this model comes with the Smart Start system, which means that as long as the key is within a few feet, the doors will lock or unlock, and the car can start without having to actually touch key to car at all. But starting it does required the combination of pressing a button and putting one’s foot on the brake – something they neglected to tell us at the dealer – so we had to frantically look it up in the manual and figure it out ourselves.

(As an aside, I should note that we have, quite possibly, looked at the manual for this car more than any other car either of us has owned in the past few days. We looked up how to fiddle with the 6-disc in-dash CD player. We looked up the size of the gas tank. We looked up how, exactly, it notifies the driver when the tank is empty. We have taken turns driving it, and while one drives, the other is pressing buttons or pouring through the manual, trying to figure out all the gizmos and gadgets)

Richard and I have been more than a little disappointed in this season’s quality for the musical theater company in Davis, and so we were both dreading this last play just a little – after all, we walked out at intermission in Music Man, and we did not even try to reschedule when it turned out that we were going to miss Gypsy (my parents told me later we were lucky we missed it). But neither of us had ever see Damn Yankees before, so we figured at the very least, it would be vaguely amusing, even if it was horrible, and after all there would be the traditional ordering of pie afterwards. And to our surprise, it turned out to be perhaps the best play of the season. The man who played the Devil was wickedly funny, and the woman who played Lola managed to be both a little bit sultry and a little bit wholesome at the same time. The guy they got to play the younger version of Joe was perfect for the role – ruggedly handsome and a little awkward in his own skin (as would be expected, considering his character’s recent transformation). In all, it was funny and sweet and ended the season on a higher note than I’d have thought possible. I’m actually looking forward to next season now, now that there was this reminder of what this little company is capable of doing.

Today there had been grand plans of moving bookshelves from downstairs to upstairs (in preparation for converting the guest room into a library), but with the acquisition of the new car, we ended up doing a lot of driving instead. We headed back down to the dealer because they’d forgotten to give us the extra key and we’d forgotten to bring along the title for the Maxima, and then we swung by Trader Joe’s since we were in the area and stocked up on enough of our favorite cheese blintzes to stuff the freezer, and then we swung by the grocery store to get everything we’ll need for tomorrow and now we are home, relaxing with what is left of the day, and each of us pondering where we could possibly drive our shiny new car next.