Pettitopia » katie http://www.pettitopia.com Pettit + Utopia = Pettitopia Tue, 05 Apr 2011 06:15:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Katie’s New Ride http://www.pettitopia.com/2010/03/29/katies-new-ride/ http://www.pettitopia.com/2010/03/29/katies-new-ride/#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:35:16 +0000 Josh http://www.pettitopia.com/2010/03/29/katies-new-ride/ Katie’s 2008 Jetta has been due for it’s big 30K service for a little while now and we wanted to wait until we got her up to the bay area to get the work done. On Friday, I had to run to the office really quick and Katie came with. Not too much excitement but on our way back to the apartment, I remember that her car needed service and the VW dealership was on the way home. We swung on in, made the appointment for the very next day at 9:30a and proceeded to peruse the lot. Now, we love to fantasy shop… we know good and well that we have no intention of buying a car, right? Yea, that’s what we thought!

So we met up with a salesman, Mark, who reminded us of our pal Joe back in SoCal. We liked him immediately. We first had our eyes set on a used 2008 Toureg, but it turned out to be WAY too expensive for our taste. We wanted to look at other options and started to make our way down towards the Routan’s (VW’s mini van) and Katie started to lose it! She kept squeezing my hand and shaking her head… but I’m not getting it. I was warm on the idea, she wasn’t, so we moved on. Maybe after the second kid is born we’ll explore the mini van option, but until then, we’ll stick with the SUV range!

We finally made our way to Tiguan country, VW’s mini SUV line. Katie and I both were very fond of the Tiguan SE Wolfsburg Edition and started to wheel and deal. We couldn’t reach an agreement on Friday, so we left having no intention of pursuing a deal any further. We still had a very low mileage Jetta that was in great shape, nothing lost.

The next morning we go in for service and are met by the sales manager and finance manager as soon as we walk in the door. Before service begins, they want one last chance to see if we can strike a deal. For 30+ minutes options are thrown at us but until they can make a deal fit within our parameters, it isn’t going to happen. In the end, the sales manager works out a deal that not only puts our monthly payments below target, but also nets us a healthy amount for our trade in.

While the Tiguan (yet to be named by Katie) is being prepped, we said good bye to our reliable Jetta “Gretta”, cleaned her up and wished her luck with her new owner. We grew very attached to the Jetta, I mean it’s the car we drove to get married in. The vast majority of our Disneyland trips were made in her. Yes, we know it’s just a car but she’s been such a big part of our life.

]]> http://www.pettitopia.com/2010/03/29/katies-new-ride/feed/ 0 Katie’s Big Surprise http://www.pettitopia.com/2009/10/28/katies-big-surprise/ http://www.pettitopia.com/2009/10/28/katies-big-surprise/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:12:10 +0000 Josh http://www.pettitopia.com/?p=107 Katie turned the big 3-0 this year and to mark the occasion, I (Josh) collaborated with her mother (Ann) to make it as memorable as possible. Probably about a month and a half out, I decided that a surprise party was in order after Katie told me she had not had a proper party in years. Invites went out and the planning had begun. Ann called me about 30 days out and suggested she fly down from Seattle to further enhance the surprise and to be my partner-in-crime in planning/setting up the party. With all the wheels in motion… all that was left was to wait.

Ann flew in on Thursday the 15th to Burbank Airport and because I worked so close, I picked her up on my way home, losing no time to raise Katie’s suspicion. On the way home, we decided the story was that Ann would stay outside of our apartment and I would go in, concerned that I thought someone hit Katie’s recently-out-of-the-shop car. When I got home, the plan worked perfectly! She was extremely surprised, almost to the point of tears. Part 1 complete!

On to the party… on the day of, Sat Oct 17th, Katie had class until 1p. While she was at school, Ann and I ran errands for the party. The plan was when Katie got home, Ann would take her to The Grove to go shopping for a birthday present while I fake a work emergency and have to stay behind. Worked like a charm! Katie was ticked, but left with Ann, giving me roughly 3 hours to get it all set up. With the streamers up, house quasi-clean, I rant to the store to get the food. Guests arrived while I was out, but we made it home with 20 minues to 6p, when Ann had planned to get Katie home.

We all were talking very low when we heard keys rattling at the door. We kept it locked so we would have a little warning, which worked perfect. Matt, a good friend of mine and one of my groomsmen, was at the front door so he was the first face Katie saw. We all yelled “Surprise!”, Katie stepped back, cocked her fist to hit Matt… then laughed and said “You almost got hit… I mean, there’s a man with a mustache in my house when I expected, well, nothing.” The party commenced and I worked the grill while the rest of the guests talked and viewed the slideshow I made for Katie. Overall the night was very fun and I love that I could give her a great start to her 30′s by having so many people there who adores her. Photos have been posted on our Flickr page.

The celebration continued the next day when we took her to Disneyland to renew her season pass. The crowd was huge and I guess there was a charity event at the park that morning which made traffic a nightmare. We made the best of it and enjoyed our day at the park. Photos are here. We had to leave at 3:30p to get Ann back to the airport in order to make her flight on-time. All-in-all, a very busy weekend and Katie had a whirlwind of a good time.


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