We are getting a new car on Saturday, if all goes well.

I thought that we could handle two kids and a dog in the Civic for a while, but um...we can't. It's fine if it's just me and the kids, but when Dan comes along it's uncomfortable. Adrian's carseat is long, so the passenger seat is practically pulled up to the windshield. Unless the passenger is a legless human torso, the passenger is not happy.

And even less so with a dog on his/her lap, which is the only place for Bugs to ride when he comes along. Did I mention that Bugs is a terrible car dog? He insists on STANDING, first of all, so here is this dog who must STAND on your lap. And then he fidgets, and freaks out if the road is curvy. So just imagine being wedged into this seat with no legroom, your forehead practically resting against the windshield, and holding a wildly clawing dog on your lap who won't sit down. THAT'S why we need a new car.

We were going to wait for some kind of hybrid station wagon or minivan to come out, but who even knows when that will be. And I'm not settling for one of those "hybrid SUVs" that get like, 20 miles per gallon. What the hell's the point?

There is a beauty of a hybrid minivan out in Japan right now. It has tons of cargo space and gets fantastic gas mileage. But it will probably take forever to arrive here, and when it does it will be so beefed up that it will probably be a 25 MPG waste of time like all the others.

So in the meantime we are going for the best option currently available, which is the 2005 VW Passat Wagon. It's not hybrid, it's one of those new clean super-efficient diesels that get an average of 38 MPG, and we can run it on biodiesel. There is even a biodiesel filling station here in San Jose.

I'm trading in my Hybrid Civic. The dealership is all the way in Petaluma though, a 2 hour drive. With two kids in the car, one potentially screaming at high volume. Ugh. And then we have to sit at the dealership while they inspect my car and do the sale paperwork. Several hours. I'm considering just sending Dan, because this trip does not sound fun in the least.

But it will be nice to have a new car, especially one that sips gas. Bugs gets his own spot. And I get heated seats!