For more than two years now we've lusted for a Toyota Prius, but the circumstances have not yet been right — until last week. Mid-April we finished a very satisfying refinance while John was busy signing up three new piano students to completely fill his schedule. So after a few minutes of research online, we began our hybrid shopping at Magic Toyota in Edmonds, which turned out very well. Kevin and Tyson were extremely helpful at the dealership: we test-drove one Prius, predictably fell in love with it, got a favorable deal on it, bought it, and drove off that same afternoon with giddy grins.

That act alone will probably slash our emissions by 15 percent — our household's gas mileage just shot from 27-28 mpg to 45 mpg or above, since we'll use the Prius for at least 80 percent of our trips. So now we set ourselves a new goal: Can we still cut 15 percent from our CO2 output EXCLUDING vehicle use? Almost all our lightbulbs are changed, our heating habits are re-programmed, and we're better about managing waste. Let's see where that gets us. Game on.

(Oh, and anybody want to buy a perfectly OK '97 Taurus, whose only fault is not being a gas-electric hybrid?)