Shannon’s new grocery getter

Looks like there IS Roo for you.  After basically taking my car off the market back in December, I decided to have some fun with it again. I ordered a new exhaust and some other goodies for it. Most of which back ordered till early March.  Parts showed up, in they went. Not 24 hours later, I receive my first of many emails about the car. Turns out, I had forgotten to take the ad off Kijiji.  Emailed back and forth with the potential buyer, during which time I updated my ad, and had it bumped up to the first page for the first time since December. 30+ potential buyers and 2 weeks later, I finally had a solid sale, and the car has now been paid for and shipped off to Winnipeg. Yes, Winnipeg. Isn’t the internet a wonderful place? New owner is a car guy, and will hopefully enjoy the old girl as much as I did.

With the Subaru sold and gone, and Shannons lease on the Jetta quickly coming to a close, we decided to replace my WRX with a ‘family car’ for Shannon that we can both share during the months after she goes on maternity leave. Come June, we could likely survive on 1 car fairly easily. Come October, when the Jetta goes back to VW, we will have to. At least until I decide to go car shopping for myself again. Sometime between October ’10 and June ’11 I will have to decide exactly what I want, and go get it. Nice thing is, I have all that time to find the right car. No need to worry about rushing around or settling. I’ve got the time to wait it out, and let the right car and the right deal come to me. Absolute worst case scenario, my Dad has been letting me borrow the old white golf when we need it. Its not the fastest, or prettiest car, but it gets from a-b, has satellite radio in it (now), and gets pretty good mileage (31-33mpg).

Car shopping will be much more limited this time. Criteria is much tighter.  REQUIREMENTS: Manual transmission, hatchback, sunroof, performance oriented.  Strong preference will be given to all-wheel-drive cars.  I also am pretty sure I will be sticking with German, or north American or sweedish?! (Golf R32, GTI, Audi a3, CooperS, Volvo C30, HHR-SS).  Right now, as it has been for the past 5 years, the R32 is where my heart lies. Has all the functionality and comfort of my GTI/Golfs from the past. Adds All-wheel-drive and lots of power with great sound like the WRX had, and because they were NEVER sold in Canada, and only 5000 sold in the entire USA, its much more rare and unique then the CooperS.  Time will tell, but with luck, that car will be in the driveway before this time next year.

Shannons shopping was quick and painless.  Back in December, we started discussing buying from a friend of ours. Andrew had brought up an Audi a4 wagon a couple years back. In fact, it was his step by step directions that I used to import my silverado a few years back. Anyways. Shannon had fallen in love with this car back when she first seen it. She has always had a major thing for Audi wagons. Especially performance versions that also have All-Wheel-Drive.  Andrew’s car fit the bill perfectly. We know the history about as good as you can know a used cars history. And price wise, we made it work. So, Shannon is the proud owner of a 2005 Audi Avant UltraSport, (apr stage 1+chipped with injectors 1.8T engine, 6 speed manual, leather, AWD, sunroof, rollin’ on OEM 18’s for those of you who want details). Shannon couldn’t be happier with her choice. Thanks for taking such good car of it Andy!

Possibly the biggest news of all. Stelco err Lake Erie Steel err US Steel has signed a contract, and after a year of being off work, my Dad is FINALLY back to work. Congrats to all the workers for getting back to work. It sucks that so many people had to basically put their lives on hold due to a companies piss poor practices, but hopefully now, things will finally get back in order.

Lastly, Shannon is now officially 6 weeks from her due date. YIKES! So much to do, so little time!

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March Broke…

For the first time since I was a student in high school, I have officially had a March break off. The weather was incredible. Shannon was also lucky enough to get the week off.  We did a whole bunch of nothing, but it was nice having the week to just hang out together with Abby and have some fun together.

Shannon’s baby belly is coming along nicely. She will be 27 weeks along come Monday.  13 weeks to go. More or less.  We sill have lots to do to get ready. Thankfully there won’t be any painting this time. A lovely shade of green was good enough for Abigail, it will be good enough for baby #2.

Warmer weather also allowed me some time to install my new rear sway bar and exhaust on the WRX.  With some help from Kevin to get the downpipe off, the swap went fairly smoothly. One bolt was a major pain in the ass. But eventually it gave up, and we won.  Sounds deeeeep. And the power difference is immediately noticeable. Typically this upgrade is good for about 285hp or so. Not bad seeing as the car started with 227hp. I almost forgot how good stage 2 felt 🙂

Aside from seriously jonesing for a motorcycle, and looking forward to getting the bug on the road, there isn’t much else on the go right now.

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Time Flies when you are swamped

Happy be-lated Christmas/New Years to the 3-4 people who actually check this site. Things have been a touch busy since Christmas, so I have fallen behind in my updates.  This happens when you pull your house apart 4 days before Christmas… More on that in a bit.

First off: Christmas. It was an awesome holiday once again. Things were a tiny bit different though. Basically, the one big change was Christmas morning. For the past 31 years, I have celebrated Christmas morning at my Grandma/Grandpa Armstrongs, and later on the Shoup’s house. (Same house, but Grandparents live upstairs now). It has always been crazy and awesome all rolled into one. This year however, we started our day with my family at my Parents place. Was it a bit strange? Yes. Did I miss the normal holiday crazyness of all my aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents together? Of course.  Would I have it any other way? No.  Although it was a bit of a change, I feel it was a good one. It was very nice to be with just my parents, my sisters and their signifigant others, and Shannon/Abby. It was the start of a NEW tradition.  We still spent Christmas Eve, and Christmas night with the extended family. There is no way I’d give that up. We have a very close extended family, and I simply couldn’t imagine not getting together for at least some of the festivities. Thank you EVERYONE for great holidays and wonderful gifts. 

Other then the change in Christmas morning venue, everything else pretty much went to plan. Christmas Eve at the Shoups for snacks and finger foods, and Christmas dinners started at Shannons Dads place on the 25th and continued back at the Shoups in the evening.  Thanks again for everything! 

Next up: Abby growing like crazy. This kid is growing like a weed.  Shes now talking up a storm. Starting to sing! and string words together in sentances. Everytime I hear “what’s that noise?” I laugh.  She just wants to know what everything is, and what everything does.  I also can’t help but laugh at how tightly she has her uncles wound around her baby finger. Grant, Brian and Alex can’t come over without getting suckered into tea parties, or playing dolls. Her aunts don’t seem to be able to say no to her either. I think they inherited that trait from my Mom and Dad. A bunch of pushovers…. the whole lot of ya!

Baby #2 halfway there! Shannon is just past the half way mark. So far, so good. Baby is measuring perfectly, and momma is as well.  We had the first ultra sound recently, and got to see the wiggly little bugger flipping around and doing gymnastics in Shannons belly. Nothing better then watching your baby play. Even when they are on the inside 😉

Finally the basement reno’s part 1 is nearly done. The main recreation room/living room/man cave is nearing completion. Still a handfull of small tasks to do such as carpetting the stairs, painting the handrail, etc. But the room is useable. Tv is now setup and being used on a daily basis. Still seems odd to be using the basement after all these years of the room being a grey concrete bunker, but we’re getting use to it. Stage2 for the basement will be finishing the bathroom (already framed in, and roughed in, just needs to be finished) and also the small hallway between the bathroom and main room. Thank you SO much to my Dad and Alex and Grandpa for all their help. There is no way this room would have ever got finished if it wasn’t for you guys. Thanks again!

Picture updates will be coming soon. They have all been sorted and uploaded, I just need to put them on the web page. Check back this weekend.

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