Some while back, Jane and I spent a number of weekends test-driving various fun cars. As a quick recap, the MINI Cooper won; and the rented Mazda Miata with 97,000 miles tied with an ancient (but well-preserved) bottom-of-the-line Toyota pickup. Fast forward a couple years, and there’s the upshot, to the left there.

We call it the TARDIS.

• It’s a blue box.
• It takes me to different places at different times.
• It has a chameleon circuit so that it can change its appearance (i.e., the top goes up and down).
• And (drum roll) it’s bigger on the outside than on the inside!

There is some dispute as to what the word “TARDIS” stands for. Here are the current contenders:

• Transporting A Relaxed Dad In Style
• Top And Related Devices, Including Seats
• Towards And Relative Directions In Streets

Any suggestions?

I’d like to point out again that it is blue. Blue. BLUE.

I have always wanted a bright sky-blue car. Sky blue is not often available, but when shopping for a car I’ve always looked for something as close to it as possible. And for a variety of reasons always ended up with some shade of metallic red.

When I started looking at MINI Coopers, I didn’t like the shades of blue they had available; so when we went to the dealer to do some serious shopping a couple of months ago, I was looking to get a bright red one: a bright, non-metallic flashy red. (Heck, it’s a convertible!) And we walked out on the lot to due a test drive, and there was a pretty little MINI Roadster in this beautiful sky blue. “Wow! How come the regular convertible doesn’t come in this color?” “Oh, it does. It’s called Kite Blue.”

Clearly, I should have tried shopping for a red car years ago.