I ALMOST FORGOT . . .

Friday Five, baby:

1. What vehicle do you drive? A Toyota 4-Runner. I love it. She's big and powerful and holds lots of stuff and people. Good girl.

2. How long have you had it? Just over two years.

3. What is the coolest feature on your vehicle? There's a button you can press to activate the 4WD Traction Control. Four green lights depicting my tires light up on my dashboard, she bears down a little and gets a bit heavier, and the engine revs up a tiny bit more. In three seconds, I'm driving through feet of snow, patches of ice and flooding rain like it's nobody's business. I love it.

4. What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle? Well, given that she's not really a luxury SUV, she kind of bounces a lot -- there is no "hugging the road" or smoothness like in the commercials where the dusty SUV is going over Mt. Kilamanjaro, but the little girl in the backseat is peacefully coloring a picture while her parents drink open cups of coffee in the front. I kind of like her 'ruggedness' but it gets kind of jarring and/or embarrassing when I have guests in the car and we go over local roads and/or potholes and they're like "Errrrrr, scary." I kind of just sheepishly grin, shrug and say "That's my girl."

5. If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now? I'm not the biggest car aficionado, so I'm sure someone out there will look at my answer and shriek in disbelief at my simplemindedness, but honestly, I would have to say that it's a toss-up between a metallic ruby-red VW Passat, a black VW Touareg, or the 4-Runner I have now . . . or a silver Mercedes AMG. Smirk. Hey, I'm a simple girl with simple needs.