Karina had an excellent suggestion in her comment to this post regarding planning ahead so that any new car will be suitable for "life" for the next decade or so. Possible children and the whatnot. This way of thinking makes sense for people like Karina and me who drive their cars until the car will no longer run.

Following this train of thought, really small cars should then be ruled out, like the smart car, probably the Yaris, the mini (which we already felt was too expensive), and maybe even the Scion (it also got poor reviews for driving noise). A part of me is now crying inside after writing that sentence, because I really like cars that get 35+ MPG, which largely only small cars can achieve.

Whether or not to use the "decade" mentality is a tough decision though, as we will likely need to replace our current car, the duct-tape-mobile, in about two years. So I'm not sure how much we need to worry about a decade out yet, since we could always solve that problem with our next car.

However, that being said, one of our favorite cars, the Toyota Matrix, would fit the decade test. It gets pretty good gas mileage, is a nice car, and is big enough to support life. However, it is definitely at the top end of our budget. Edmunds says the 2008 Matrix starts at $15,510, and the 2009 starts at $16,290. But that sounds unrealistic, since all the local car dealer websites show the lowest, no frills Matrix cars starting at $20k.

We've also added the Mazda3 to our list of car possibilities, based on feedback from a friend in Boston who just bought one. He needed a car and went through the same thought process that Miah, Karina and others have gone through. He considered the Civic, Fit, and other cars like that, but thought the Mazda3 was the most fun to drive. Plus he got a great price, with 0% interest for a few years. Nice!

Tuesday game night is on for this week. I'm not entirely sure how many people will be here this week, but it will probably be a good number. Probably 8-10, assuming the regular crowd shows up and Heidi brings her two friends (they are really nice). We may need to break out the second table.

Nat and I are pretty busy this week; I'm writing my thesis and applying for jobs, and Nat is still spending not only a lot of time studying to learn her new job, but over 2 hours a day commuting. Yuck.

Anyway, we won't be able to run the food this week. If someone else could champion dinner that would be awesome. Or if people want to do food on their own, that is fine too. Feel free to plan things out in the comments section if you feel like it.

Also, due to our busy schedule this week, Nat and I probably won't be able to make debate night. Sorry Goldie and Datrick, but I'm sort of in a time crunch right now and am feeling the pressure to get the job apps out.

I'm writing a research statement, and was talking about the need for scientists with interdisciplinary skill sets in order to analyze all the vast amounts of data generated by the human genome project, microarrays, and the like.

I originally typed "skill sets" as one word ("skillsets"). Of course, Word told me I was wrong. In it's place, it suggested "skillets," which actually made me laugh out loud.

Because indeed, what the scientific community truly needs are interdisciplinary skillets.

If anyone wants to go to the Blazer pre-season game with me tonight, I have an extra ticket. Nat was going to go, but decided not to because she wants to spend some time studying up on all the new things she needs to know for her new job.

Game starts at 7pm.

Sarah lets you know how you can make sure Obama gets elected. Word to Nana.

From The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Last time, I asked for feedback on games that we had already played. This time, I'm looking for feedback on games I'm debating buying. If any of these catch your fancy, let me know. Let's get right into it.

Pandemic Co-op game where up to four players play on the same team, trying to eradicate disease outbreaks. Each of the players has a specific skill. Either all players win, or all players lose. Time: 45 minutes Game Page Reviews	Battlestar Galactica Co-op game for 3-6 players. Game plays as humans against the cylons, but in the beginning the cylon players are kept hidden. So while this is a co-op game, there are traitors (cylons) that are randomly assigned each game. You play as one or more characters from the show, each of which has special abilities and, throughout the game you must make jumps and fight cylons, etc. Time: 120 minutes Game Page Reviews
Puerto Rico Players are plantation owners in Puerto Rico. You must grow crops, run an efficient business, ship goods to Europe and develop San Juan with useful buildings in order to win. Each round players choose different roles which have different actions and bonuses associated with them. Time: 90 minutes Game Page Reviews	Power Grid Players bid on power plants to provide power to their cities. Players then use these power plants to supply power to the cities in which they have connected. Virtually no luck in this game. Player must balance upgrading existing power plants versus expanding their network and buying new power plants. Time: 120 minutes Game Page Reviews
Agricola Be a farmer! You own a farm, and must decide how to grow it. Build a fence to keep animals, expand your house so you can have kids, collect clay or wood, harvest your field, etc. You must balance what few actions you have in order to build the best farm. Time: 120 minutes Game Page Reviews	Hollywood Blockbuster A pretty lightweight auction game where you produce movies. How much money will you spend on the script? What actors are you willing to pay for? Which director? Real names are used here, so you could, for example, make "Braveheart" starring Keanu Reeves and directed by John Hughes. Whoa. Time: 45 Game Page Reviews
Cash n Guns Party game involving foam guns, samurai swords, and shotguns. This is effectively a press your luck game. Each round you point your weapon at someone, and play a card. Each card has 1 bullet, 3 bullets or a blank. Most cards are blank. People who survive the round share the money. Get shot too much and you die. Time: 30 minutes Game Page Reviews	Say Anything It's like Apples to Apples, but the judge gets to pick from a number of "green" cards, and the contestants can write their own "red" card. After judge secretly picks the winner, contestants then bet on what answer they think the judge picked. Time: 40 minutes Game Page Reviews
Race For The Galaxy Using cards, build a galactic civilization, complete with social and tech tree. It's sort of like a Puerto Rico light (or a heavy San Juan) type of game. Pretty short game, can be played in <60 minuts. Time: 45 minutes Game Page Reviews	Colosseum In ancient Rome, build a colosseum, expand it, put on shows and events, attract nobles and the emperor. Person who attacts the most people wins. Time: 60 minutes Game Page Reviews
Thebes Be an archaeologist. Manage your time to collect materials to excavate, acquire knowledge about ancient civilizations, then use this information to dig for treasure... er, artifacts. Time: 60 minutes Game Page Reviews	Kingsburg You are a Lord, who must build up your town, gather resources, gain influence and defend your castle from roaming monster hoards. Utilize advisors to accomplish your goals. Time: 90 minutes Game Page Reviews
Age of Empires 3 Explore, colonize, trade and manage your empires economy. Civilization building game. Very little war. Time: 120 minutes Game Page Reviews	Arkham Horror In the year 1926, defend a small Massachusetts town from the Ancient One, Cthulhu. This is an incredibly complex game, but once you learn it people seem to love it. Time: 180 minutes Game Page Reviews
Pitchcar Build a race track (made of wood). Each player gets a disc that represents their car. Players then take turns flicking their car down the track, trying to prevent it from falling off. Dexterity party game. Time: 30 minutes Game Page Reviews	Galaxy Trucker You have a short amount of time to construct your ship in order to haul cargo, people, and defend itself against space pirates. Then you fly around the galaxy completing objectives, while being facing random encounters (asteroids, pirates) that blow chunks off your ship. Doh! Time: 60 minutes Game Page Reviews

Boardgame night will not be held at my house this week. Instead, Datrick is hosting a debate night that will also have some board games. He also has video games (Rock Band) etc.

Email myself or Datrick or post here if you don't know his address (basically drive to the Civic Stadium downtown off Burnside). Carpooling is recommended if possible, as the neighborhood parking only lets you park for 1.5 hours at a time, so we'll have to play musical cars.

Game night will start a bit later than normal due to some logistical issues. Nobody will be at Datrick's house until probably around 6:45pm, so probably aim to get there at 7pm.

Datrick is providing food. So come hungry.

Let me know if you have any questions.

As Nat and I will be hosting a halloween party, we thought it could be fun to also have a pumpkin carving party. Anyone interested? I was going to get an electric knife to make some of the carving easier.

We were thinking of having it on the weekend of the 18-19th. We'll set a specific date/time soon, so chime in if you have a preference on either of these days or if you'd like to come.

Punch and pie.

I forgot to post this after last board game night. But as promised, here are the Charlie the Unicorn videos that Natalie was impersonating.

Charlie the Unicorn

Charlie the Unicorn 2

We have a car. It gets excellent gas mileage (35+ MPG), is very reliable and we got it really cheap. Natalie will be using it as she starts her new job next week to commute from NE Portland to Hillsboro. In a few months, she will likely be using it to drive to doctors offices and the like to help marketing. The problem is that the car looks like crap, as it has a dent on the front left side, duct tape holding on the back ride side of the bumper, a couple rust spots, and even more duct tape on the driver side rear-door.

So it's not exactly the kind of car that instills confidence in your current and future clients.

In the next few months we will be looking to buy a car that looks a little more professional. This goes against many fibers of my being, as I don't usually care what others think about my car, but as it will be used in a marketing/sales capacity, it really does need to be at least respectable.

What we want in a car is as follows:

• Good gas mileage
• Professional looking
• Early 2000's at the oldest
• Air conditioning
• Lower mileage

We had generally been looking at Toyotas and Hondas because we've seen firsthand how reliable they are, and we had hoped to spend about $5,000.

Fat chance! says craigslist.

$5,000 will buy you a car matching our requirements above from ~1998 or earlier. That's an 11 year old car! How much are newer cars? Well, a 2002 Honda Civic (7 years old) will set you back $8-10k. Compare that to a *new* Civic, that includes a warranty, has no miles, will hold it's value longer and has not been potentially abused by a previous owner, and costs ~$16k.

This becomes a slippery slope. Certainly a 2002 or so year car would be perfectly adequate for our needs. But is it worth $8-10k? If I spend just a little more, I can get a better, new car. But then I'm spending closer to $20k on a car, which is WAY more than I'd like to spend (4x my original budget).

The crazy thing is that insurance is virtually the same on a 2008 car vs a 1998 car. It was only about a $20 difference a month. So increased insurance prices aren't really a factor.

Then there's the issue of financing. We of course wouldn't do financing through the car place. I'd probably go through my bank, or zopa or something. Or do you just pay cash? That's a huge loss of liquidity at a time in our life when we may actually need the money.

A number of you have recently bought new cars. What are your thoughts on these issues?

From PhD Comics

We'll have a special guest at board game night for a while: Peeks!

He's in town now for an internship and will be at board game night tomorrow.

Game night is on for this week. Let me know if you will be coming.