Product check

We've had our Audi A3 for about 10 months now... and some review notes after driving it around for this amount of time. The car drives great - handles well, small turning radius, very responsive. We got it in manual, and it's fantastic. There are several items, though, that bug the hell out of me in this car, items that make me suspect that they didn't think the design through thoroughly.

When you sit in the passenger seat, the adjustment tuner for the clock blocks your view of it. Pulling up on the parking break causes the drop-down arm-rest to pop up a bit, a flaw that our salesman tried to sell us on as being "designed that way." I'm short, so I pull the seat all the way up to the front - but lo and behold, while driving sometimes, the seat re-locks itself into another notch just behind where I've pulled (and thought locked) it up to. The glove compartment has too many, um, compartments - enough to just not allow you to fit a whole hell of a lot of whatnot into it without it not being able to close properly or your stowaway to break. There are no pockets behind the front seats. It comes pre-hardwared for their own phone, and doesn't allow for you to hard-wire your own phone into it (but then, I haven't tried taking it after-market for off-the-shelf product installs either). The salesman toted the rear windshield wiper as smart for automatically turning on and wiping if you have the windshield wipers turned on and happen to go in reverse - but I've had this not turn on 2 times during the course of my driving our car. The head rests on the front seats don't seem to go all the way down. And, if only, there's power running to the rear-view mirror for auto dimming in bright light, but damn if they couldn't have just put a navigation compass on it too.

This is an Audi, right?

Storagewise - we got the smaller vehicle because I didn't want the mom-mobile du jour (read: SUV), but we also got the hum-v of the strollers. When we have the stroller with us, it's all that can fit in the trunk. The car is narrower, which makes for great maneuverability, but it also makes for narrower trunk space. I was thinking about it the other day though - I still think that the larger the vehicle, the more crap you lug around. So, I'll stick with the smaller vehicle, and lug less shit around. It's a sacrifice one way or another - either you get the monstermobile and lug all kinds of crap like you're carrying your living room with you when you go out, or you get the smaller vehicle and have to really prioritize what you do or don't want to lug out. It's all good.

OK, so Hubby, Baby, and I have ventured our way out into restaurants of late. You can read some of my reviews at my yelp.com site, http://www.preggiechef.yelp.com. I'm still cooking, learning to do things ambidextrously and single-handedly. What did I make recently - oh yes, celebration of Hanukkah, I made my first batch of latkes and matzo ball soup. Matzo balls ended up too heavy. Latkes were just a little too thin. Alas, it is the first batch after all.

My latkes, I did find, way easier to just process everything in the food processor - potatoes and onions all together. Definitely press the potatoes and onions out to drain out before mixing in the eggs. Frying, it really was about 5 minutes a side. They weren't the best batch, but they were latkes nonetheless.

And the world's easiest chicken soup to accompany the matzo balls: whole chicken, make sure to salt/pepper/season the inside cavity, and cover in water. Add chopped carrot (coarse, just 2" pieces); whole onion skins and all, with ends cut off; and celery pieces as well. Bring to boil, and let simmer for 1/2 hour. Remove chicken, and remove legs and wings. Place legs and wings back into soup, and set aside the breast/body of the chicken. Let the soup simmer for about 2 hours. Return breast to soup for another 1/2 hour. When ready to serve, chop carrots and celery into 1/4" thick pieces.

Honestly, I've let the whole chicken simmer in the soup, no problem. Really hands free, and oh so good for our winter nights.