The "Element" of surprise

A Hummer H2 knocked up a Cooper Mini and now I have a Honda Element!

I've been working pretty hard to stick to a budget so we can have a very low-key, casual and meaningful bar mitzvah. Every little expense is weighed against the bar mitzvah budget. Unfortunately our 2000 Honda Odyssey did not share my thriftiness. After 5 years, 133,000 miles and two transmissions, the transmission needed replacing again and the warranty on the 2nd tranny had expired. Since we travel a great deal, we couldn't afford to risk the transmission completely failing so we HASTILY began a search for a new vehicle. While we had always thought we would just go with yet another Odyssey, this last transmission problem soured me on the model (even though it hasn't been a problem since the 2002 models and they redesigned the tranny in the 2005) so I test drove 3 other models Friday...twice (thanks to the kids for the first long test and Ginger for the second in the pouring, blinding rain) then again Saturday after I got off work (thanks this time to Ginger, William and Uncle Mikey!) and by Saturday night I made my decision and had convinced Ginger of my choice! So after 2 days of shopping about 24 hours of parlaying bids between four dealerships, we are now the proud owners of a 2005 Element EX 2 wheel drive, automatic transmission in Rallye Red (that's how Honda spells it.) She'll be lugging decorations and food to Lichterman for the party real soon and if William and Mikey have anything to say about it, she'll no doubt be sporting various after-market accessories too. Somehow I just don't see myself driving a vehicle with neon undercarriage lights and spinners...