They're all together ooky

Well, it only took six weeks.

I mean, really, if your family was walking around in 102 heat index, pushing shopping carts a half mile or hoping the box of popsicles won't melt on the bus, you'd want that to continue, right?

It's character building. And there'll be a lot less whining when the temp is like 96 and they only have to walk a quarter mile. In fact, I expect to hear a lot more, "Wow, Daddy, that walk wasn't hot or long at all when compared to others we've done."

And really, our bikes are here. So what's the problem?

But after some half-hearted online 'shopping' and several non-contiguous hours standing in front of bulletin boards with our heads half-cocked sideways and our lips silently moving, we followed through and actually called a couple of the numbers.

The first one I test-drove shimmied at stop signs and slow turns. I didn't immediately rule it out because if parking was a problem the car was small enough to put in my backpack or Brenda's purse, which could prove reaaaaaly convenient. The next one looked on the outside as if it had partied just a liiiiiiiiitle too late and too much last night. But it ran well, so I thanked the owner and kept looking.

After blowing a thousand yen for a cab to troll through the lots out in town, I came back dejected and realizing not only did I have no ability to haggle, I had even LESS ability to haggle in another language. In fact, I'd say I have a negative ability to haggle in Japanese. I'm not sure, but I think the yen went up compared to the dollar just because I asked how much those cars were.

So at the end of the day we settled for the slightly overly-loved three-door SUV type deal with a

decent interior and at least a mil of blue paint left in several exterior splotches. In a Piper Family tradition, we have named our new car. It has a long line of honored predecessors. Mabel was Brenda's Saturn, Rosalita was my bad-ass Probe. Then came Maisie, our first van. Nana and Pap gave us Sandy, a Malibu, for a song. We were especially proud of Pearl, our NEW pearl-blue van. The new car? Well, in honor of its rough exterior yet status as indispensible member of the family: Uncle Fester.