Picture to come later (if I have the energy once I get done with everything else). But:

Car has successfully been obtained. The name I had picked out will fit as it's the color I wanted. (I always expect something to go wrong at the very last minute).

The car is a bright-red (they call it "candy red") Ford Edge.

Her (yes, this car is a 'she') name is "Ladybug."

Yes, it's silly, but if you can't be silly about something like that, what can you be silly about. (I will now pause to ignore the objections from VW drivers claiming that only a VW product can be given a name with "bug" in it.)

I could probably also have decided the car was male, and named it Edward, because it sparkles in the sunlight. But that would have been even sillier.

She is also paid for, thanks to my father. (That's what I meant - I say with a bit of embarrassment* - when I say he "helped" me buy the car. Oh, he went through all the negotiation crap for me as well. He did it kind of without my knowledge - I went out shopping with my mom and when we got back, he was on the phone with the dealer here and had it nearly all worked out.)

(*And yes, it does embarrass me a bit. I feel like, at 41, I should be required to buy my own dang car. And go through the negotiations for same. I had actually been planning on either doing the 0% financing Ford has (and having to make a payment every month) or waiting until next spring, when a bond I am holding matures, and cashing that in.

Then again, if my dad is capable of doing it and it makes him happy to do so...and I think it did make him happy to be able to take care of it for me (he's retired and looks for things to do), then who am I to stand in the way of his happiness?)

Interestingly, I he paid only a few hundred dollars more for THIS car than was paid for Eggbert. (And I know, because I found the old paperwork when I got out the folder with the title for Eggbert in it). So maybe inflation isn't so bad after all. Or, basic-model cars are getting cheaper, despite the additional bells and whistles.

I felt a little sad abandoning Eggbert on the lot. He was a good, good car.

Then again: Ladybug has a free 6-month Sirius subscription. Being able to put the "Symphony" channel on and drive around town to classical music makes me miss Eggbert less. (Yes, I'm fickle that way).

I updated my insurance but they don't have the title totally ready, so I have to wait (ugh) to get the new plates. I really wanted to do so today - just to get it DONE with - but no dice.

(The dealer let me keep the old plate but made me promise I wouldn't just slap it on the new car without paying the excise tax. I told them about my colleague's ordeal and the finance guy said he knew of other people who got messed over that way.)