Smash And Crash Go To The Car Show

Rick is my next door neighbour. Between the two of us, in little more then a year we been in 5 car accidents (3 in the last 2 months). So why not make our way out to the Toronto Autoshow and have a look at the cars we may be crashing into in the future.

Two years ago I went to the show with another friend on the opening weekend. The place was a madhouse and it was hard to even see any of the cars, let alone ever sit in one. This time Rick and I went on the last day of the show and it was much better. We were able to sit in all of the cars we wanted to (well the ones the manufactures let you sit in anyway).

After paying $25 bucks to park and another $20 bucks each to get in we were forced to grab something to eat inside the show as well (where were all the sausage vendors out on the streets?). Pizza Pizza seemed to be a sponsor of the event and after a credit check, granted us permission to pay for lunch as well.

Well things went extremely well and in the tradition of my family (we, especially my father, have a history of going to look at something, only to come home with it) so here I am with my new ride.

This is the Shelby GT500 (based on the new Mustang). 500 hp for $52K (Canadian), the most cost effective muscle car available to the public today. It looks great and is an excellent commuter vehicle.

Okay, I have lied, this is not my car but is sure is pretty. It looks like operation ‘minivan’ is a go. I would guess we will be the proud owners of a family mobile in the next couple of weeks. I will be rolling in the Envoy until it’s lease is up, next January. Then I will be able to pick out the car of my dreams (as long as it fits in our budget, which we are not sure what will be).

Rick is going to be in the market for a new vehicle this summer when the lease is done on his Toyota Camry. He has been pretty set on getting a full size pickup. So we used the car show as an opportunity to check out all the competition. We sat in everything available and Rick has it narrowed down to 3 …

• Toyota Tundra
• Chevy Silverado / GMC Sierra
• Nissan Titan

And I would agree, even though it is probably only a race between the first two on the list. He plans to take them out for a spin in the coming months and make a decision. I would guess the Tundra wins out (he currently drives a Toyota Camry, his wife rolls in a Toyota Sienna … do you see a pattern?). I was a little disappointed by the Ford F150 (the best seller in this category) as well as the Honda Ridgeline (which has received rave reviews). The Ford was just really plain and the Honda was overpriced (which seems to be the norm for Honda trucks and Vans), but isn’t really a ‘full size’ truck, it more like a SUV with small bed, comparable to the Avalanche or Explorer Sport-Trak.

We also took the opportunity to review all of the minivans and I will need to get used to them. I was disappointed with all of the GM offerings (Uplander, Rendezvous, Montana and Relay). The big names in this segment are the Dodge Caravan, Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey (once again I rule the Honda out because of price). The surprising offerings came from Kia and Hyundai (because of their relationship their vans are identical to each other … but also seem to be complete copies of the Sienna which isn’t a bad idea). Everything I have read says the Sienna is the better choice over the Caravan, but since we are buying used we are most likely going with a Caravan because the used price is much more attractive (Toyota retains it’s value much better). If we were buying new I would seriously consider the KIA it looked really good, it’s priced really well and I have heard really good things as well.

As for my future car, I am not sure what my price range is plus if the used experiment goes well with the van we will probably do that again. Nothing I learned will probably be practical (though I have a short list in my mind for just about every class if I needed to make a decision in a pinch).

But here is what I learned at the show.

• I always wanted a Subaru WRX but I must be getting old because the size of the car (especially the non-existent back seat) make it really impractical.
• The new Mitsubishi Lancer looks really, really good. Well priced, seems roomier then the old model (though they had it locked up so we couldn’t sit in it). Rumours have it the at new EVO will be available in Canada soon too.
• The BMW 323i really impressed me. I never really considered myself a BMW kind of person. (Though a M3, M5 or M6 always seemed okay to me) but it is under 35K and the build quality and finish is significantly above others in this price range. Previously, I would of just ruled this vehicle out, if I happened to be looking here.
• The RS4 may be the only Audi I like.
• Everything Lexus makes, looks the same.
• I look good with the GT500.

Not For The Feint Of Heart

This is pretty much how I imagined the ‘Jason Robar Baseball Incident’. You know, the one where Jav forces Jay to play baseball in the rain and Jay never walks properly again (and then aggrivated during the ‘Jason Robar Bowling Incident’).

The most amazing part of the whole thing … apparently the player in the clip (Shaun Livingston) only suffered a dislocated knee cap from this incident.

11 Month’s Old

Well one more weekend behind us.  No change in my weight.  I need to lose 52.2 lbs in 46 weeks now.  That’s just a little more then a pound a week so it doesn’t seem unreasonable so hope is not lost.

But at least Travis turned 11 months old yesterday.  He is doing so good.  I have seen him walk up to 10 steps in a row before falling down (good thing those diapers have lots of padding).  Most of the time he is chasing Guinness around.  Guinness is really good about it and takes a lot of abuse.  Plus he really doesn’t get walked or played with much these days.  He really is a trooper.

My sister babysat for us on Saturday so that we could go to our ‘do’.  It was Mr. and Mrs. Jorge‘s baby shower/house warming/cocktail party extravaganza.  I managed to score some Outback gift certificates from work so we were going to get some meat to celebrate our night out of the house (with the hockey on Tuesday that makes it twice in the same week, we are living large!). 

There was only one problem with our plan … the Outback we went to doesn’t exist anymore.  Apparently the one on Mavis has been changed to a Milestones.  Not my favourite but Heidi loves them.  So we ate there instead (so if you like Outback maybe you should talk nice to me because I still have those gift certificates).  Heidi had the Surf and Turf (they had a fancy name for it but this was easier for me to spell) and I had Prime Rib.  Heidi loved hers and my was ‘decent’ but not as good as the prime rib at The Keg or Outback or Heidi’s or her Mom’s.

Shortly after diner we arrived at Jorge‘s place.  The house was easy enough to find … determining from the posted signs where an when you could park and not get a ticket or towed, not so much.  But we managed to get pretty close and not get towed so I am calling that a success!

There may of been several thousand people in the house/tardis.  They are really friendly and outgoing people plus Jorge makes friends and networks like a Mo-Fo so it didn’t really come to us a surprise.  There was wine, beer and food (including a seemly infinite supply of samosa’s) and much rejoicing.  It was a really interesting mix of people (including the drama teacher from my high school). 

I definitely know that some other world famous bloggers like Kelly and Shaun Hatton were there.  I am pretty sure I saw Callis2006 but that is just a guess based on a picture Jorge posted a while a go as I never managed to get to that side of the room to find out for sure.  I would guess there were other people I should of known but identification and names have never been skills of mine. 

I was in shock to find out how many people had seen an awful video we (Jorge, Dave and Myself among others) made many years ago in my basement which features me dancing around in a very non-manly way wearing a leather brimmed baseball hat and lime green Public Enemy flag as a cape.  Drinking would be my only excuse, but it would be a lie.  I fear this will soon arrive on YouTube.  But know this … if this does indeed happen I will release a tape I have in my possession of Jav with a pony tail, walking like Charlie Chan and almost dying water skiing.  It is like Mutually Assured Destruction but with two nations that don’t know anything about each other.  Trust me, it will be bloody.

That’s enough blathering one for one post … tomorrow part 2: Smash and Crash go to the autoshow.

Another Whirlwind Week

Wow, that one really flew buy quick.  I don’t know what is going on around work these days, I have become very popular and people I have never talked to before, seemed to of found my desk.

Heidi and I were at the Leafs VS Boston game Tuesday night.  We missed most of the first period because of traffic and parking.  Toronto lost 3-0 but they did have 43 shots (vs 24) on net (though most of the time right at Tim Thomas’ chest).  Raycroft let in 3 weak goals (though one was dis-allowed for reasons unavailable in our upper bowl seats) and the Leafs just couldn’t put the puck in the net.  We did manage to spend 30 bucks for Cheese Steak Sandwich, BBQ Pork Sandwich (highly recommended), Poutine and a large Drink.  Our credit history check must not of passed as we were unable to procure (or chose not too) one or more of their 12.75 large draft beers.  Wow.

Heidi just brought this to my attention but it seems I did fairly well at the 2006 World Poker Cup.  Congrats to me and my team.  It was nice that Isabel ‘No Mercy’ Mercier took some time out of pro schedule to play on our team and bump up the overall ‘hotness’ factor.

Pretty big social weekend coming up too.  Heidi and I are going to a ‘do’ Saturday night that I am sure I will talk about next week.  Sunday I am going to the Autoshow with ‘Crash’ my next door neighbour.  Hopefully I can sneak in a nap or something because I am worn out these day.  ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Daddy’s Little Helper

Recently there was a loud pop and the odour of burning electronics in our kitchen. Shortly after we found ourselves purchasing a new dishwasher. These events may be related.

Even after the accident I still think I am a pretty handy guy (no pun intended). So that means we do our own appliance installations around these parts. Did you know that dishwasher are hard wired into a circuit and don’t just plug in like the stove or refrigerator? Well I do now.

Well thankfully Travis is around now so he can help with some of these projects. He gave me a hand doing the final wiring once we had the the new dishwasher in place.

Of course, shortly after this picture Travis gave me the wrench (and by ‘gave me the wrench’ I mean he whacked me in the heard with the wrench). He also managed to stab me in the leg with the drill.

It is nice to know that I wear my pants/boxers the same way as my 10 month old son.

I Blizzle Fo’ Shizzle

In some sort of weird Internet blog chain letter or pyramid scam, it looks like I am supposed to provide five reason why I blog and then get five other bloggers to do the same. The person directly at fault is of course the in-famous (as in more then famous) El Guapo (aka Jorge).

Using my incredible sleuthing skills I have identified the top of the pyramid as Edward Mills. I am not exactly sure how the scam works but please if anyone sees this guy walking around with a million dollars please let me know.

At the same time I don’t want to mock the forces that be so I will submit my list. We are not interested in any more bad ju-ju around these parts. There is a bit of cross over with the other lists

1. Creativity – If the people who really know me were asked to describe me I don’t think creativity would come up as one of the adjectives (feel free to list some in the comments). I don’t feel I am very creative either (I am pretty math/logic orientated, most things to me are black or white) but this blog gives me enough of a outlet to fulfill any little creative need I have.
2. Information – Having a kid and making a ridiculous commute takes up most of my free time. I started feeling a little disconnected from my family and friends. The blog gives me the ability to communicate with many people in a little bit of time.
3. Comfort – I am much more comfortable conveying stories, opinion and information when I have some time to writing it out. Looking at some of my posts this may blow your mind but it is true. Heidi is a incredible verbal debater … my combination of apathy and inability to explain my point make it hard to get my point across and still seem valid. I suggested once that we should have these types of conversations via email.
4. Motivation – When I started this blog I intended to give a weekly recount of my weight struggles. Lying to myself is easy, lying to my imagined audience is harder. This does help me a bit but I haven’t been a mountain of self control either. I was 250.4 lbs this morning, down a little but plenty short of where I should be to meet my goal for next year. It seems I still continue to do more talk about doing then actual doing.
5. Truthiness – I enjoy being able to say things and behave like it is the absolute truth. The Internet provides some amount of anonymity to hide behind to make ridiculous claims like they were fact. Once it is on the Internet it pretty much is fact isn’t it?

Well now that is done and Mr. Mills is up a couple more bucks there are the 5 suckers I anoint to do the same. I have a feeling some of them may break the chain and feel the wrath so don’t stand too close to them in the near future.

Jay, Jav ,Matt, Graham, Boyd

Cadillac Pimpin’

I’m chillin, wood spinnin
No Bentley’s, Cadillac pimpin
I’m cruisin, hoes choosin
That’s cool cuz I’m Cadillac pimpin
Spoke spinnin, gold grillin
Liquor spillin, Cadillac pimpin
Keep ridin, car slidin
That’s cool cuz I’m Cadillac pimpin

-YoungBloodz

What a hectic week.  This is my first chance to even catch my breath.  I returned the rental car on Monday and picked up Pop Duke’s Caddy (’99 DeVille).  After years of driving compact cars it is a big change to get in this land-boat.  It feels more like sailing then driving too.  There are radio controls on the steering wheel which is nice, since you can’t reach the radio controls while sitting.  But it has ‘ass warmers’ so it is all worth it.

Heidi and I are still discussing what we are going to do vehicle wise.  Seems we are leaning towards buying a couple year old minivan and then buying something new for me when the lease on our other vehicle is up next January.  This option makes the most sense, but I don’t know if I am ready for a minivan.  At least I will get to drive the truck we bought for Heidi when I got a new job (I still don’t understand that math).

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day.  Being parents really makes this a different day.  I got hand made cards from Travis, Guinness and Heidi which were really nice. We didn’t really do anything special last night as next week I have tickets to the Leaf game and the neighbours are going to watch Travis.  Nothing says ‘I Love You’ like hockey.

Go Go Gadget Blog

Well things seem to be working again. Silly plugins interacting poorly with each other. Still have some cleanup to do and I would still like to find a decent picture or something for my header but I am pretty happy with the ReDoable 1.1 theme. So let me know what you think.

Comments Now Working Again. Go ahead and say your filthy things.

Baby Steps

Yesterday both Heidi and I had chiropractor appointments at the same time.  So we loaded Travis up in the truck and made a family trip of it.  While we were waiting in the room to  see the doctor, Travis (who was standing while holding on to the super-adjustable table) took two steps on his own to get closer to mommy.  We set him up again and he did it again.  Two seemed about his limit as he just sat on the ground after that.

We have spent hundreds of dollars on camcorders and cameras that are close at hand at home for those important baby moments but he goes and takes his first steps while we are out.  He gets that from his mother.

Stereo Reclamation Project

Well yesterday I actually ended up taking a day off of work.  There were 2 objectives for this.  First, as mentioned before, Travis is sick so no one sleeps well.  Getting a good night of sleep would help Heidi get over her own illness.  So I let her sleep as much as she could Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.  Hopefully it did her some good (even when given the opportunity she isn’t the greatest sleeper).

Secondly, I needed to get as much of my stereo equipment out of my car before the insurance company becomes it’s official owner.  Other then working for a couple of hours outside in a car that was -15 degrees Celsius things went pretty well.  I managed to get my 4x75W Amp Staging, 1x1100W Mono-D Bass amp, 1 Farad Cap, my subwoofer box (which I was afraid may be stuck in the back with the crushed trunk area), my 6×9 rear speakers (though I think I torn the cone of one of them) and my Kenwood head unit.  The only thing I didn’t get were the door speakers because I was never really that happy with them, my fingers were frozen and taking the door panels off to get at them is NOT FUN!

You may see that we are rocking a new theme.  This one is called Redoable and I like it quite a bit.  There is a problem with the comments that I am trying to work with the theme developer to fix.  If we can’t get it resolved over the weekend I will return to default and continue my search for the perfect, new theme (I actually have a couple loaded up I like).

Hopefully we can get the comments working and then you can tell me what you think.