Bugs Palace!

Lots of updates, so I will try and get them all in one post. If I missed anything, feel free to leave a comment to let me know.  

Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers/grand fathers out there. (Especially mine!) Hope you all have a great day with your families and friends. Also, while i’m on it, happy birthday to my Grandpa, my father-in-law Jeff, and also brother-in-law Jordon.

Next up. Andrew and Lonnie’s wedding reception was a couple weeks ago. The crazy kids got themselves married in the tropics. This reception was for those of us who weren’t on the island to see it. Had an awesome time, as we always do with the group. Thanks kids!

Speaking of weddings, Jeff and Nicole got married this past weekend up in Manatoulin Islands. Sadly, given the distance Shannon and I was not able to attend, as long car rides + 6 months pregnant aren’t going well together lately. I’ve seen some pics, and talked to some who attended, and apparently it was a crazy good time up in the islands. Congrats to you guys, and sorry again we didn’t make it.

The only upside to not going to Jeff’s wedding, is that I was able to attend the June Jitterbug car show in Niagara Falls. Shannon, Alex and I headed up around 11am. It was the largest dub show they have had yet. I heard 350-400 cars. All I know was there was a pile of cars. I didn’t get as many pictures as I had wanted, but I got some good ones anyways.  Pictures are HERE

Speaking of VW’s, mine is coming along nicely. Currently, the car is back in Cayuga with Paul having the headlights, and running boards mounted, as well as some black paint going under the hoods, and under fenders.  For the week between the headliner shop and going back to Pauls place, I got a bit of work done. Bryan and Kevin came over one night. Brakes have been bled and adjusted, new ignition switch installed, and the wiring has been sorted out to the point that I can actually turn the key, and start the car. Once it comes back from Pauls place, theres a bit of wiring cleanup to do, install the interior, and lower the back and and she will be ready to drive!

Last and certainly not least, Shannon and I got together with some friends we haven’t seen as often as we would like. Rob Rankin was in from the UK for Jeffs wedding. Even tho we didn’t get to go to the wedding with them, we all met up in Burlington at Emma’s restaraunt and were able to get together with Rob and the crew for food and drinks.  We cut dinner a bit short to meet up at a VW get-together, also in Burlington where two good friends were in from New Brunswick for holidays. Mike and Shelly (with a friend of theirs who I can’t remember his name, but was a cool guy just the same), made the long drive from NB to Ontario to partake in the June Jitterbug. Rob, Mike and Shelly: it was awesome seeing you guys. Hope you all had a safe drive/flight home, and that you will be back again soon!

Lots of beetle updates. Not sure where to begin.  I won’t get into the dirty details, but long story short, until this week, I didn’t technically own the bug. A mixup with paper work 5 years ago left the previous owner as the current owner. It has been all sorted out now, and I officially own the car.

Bryan stopped by this week with my new brake line. Hopefully throw that in tomorrow night. (Thanks Bry!) Picked up the new interior early this week. Seats are all recovered with a sexy coating of white goodness.  Today, the car came home from the shop with the headliner and windows freshly installed. Looks really good. I’m very impressed overall. It’s not perfect, but I am still very happy. Thanks for all towing me all over the place Paul! Pictures of the seats and install can be found HERE. Also, last week, my new header/exhaust showed up the for bug.  Pretty good shape for a used piece. Hopefully it is as loud and menacing as I am hoping it will be 🙂 Worst case scenerio, I’ll just remove the muffler from the header, and throw on baffle free stinger.

Going to be a busy week. Hopefully I can get a lot done in a short period of time, as the car is supposed to go back to Paul next weekend for a 1-2 week stay to get the paint work finished off, and the headlights/running boards mounted. Last stop after that is Dions house to finish the suspension.

And for the none beetle updates 🙂

Momma and Baby are doing well. Getting bigger by the day. We went in for a second, more in depth ultra sound yesturday. After a nerve racking hour waiting for results, everything checked out, and looks ‘perfect’ as the doctor put it. 3 more months or so to go. I’m starting to get impatient. I kept myself busy tonight, painting the babies room 🙂 On the upside, I finally felt the baby kicking !

 Only other update is I spoiled myself, and picked up a new Yamaha acoustic guitar. An FG700MS I believe the model is for anyone who may care 🙂 Love the sound of it. My mad skillz are slowly coming back. I can actually ‘play’ and Shannon is able to identify the songs 🙂 It isn’t much, but it IS progress.

Shannon and I are now past the half way mark with the baby. If I am not mistaken, we are now in the 22nd week. Things seem to be going well. A little discomfort here and there, but at this point nothing unbearable. (touch wood!).  We now have the babies room nearly cleaned out. Still need to remove a couple things, but we are nearly ready to paint and fill the room with baby stuff. And man, is there ever a lot of baby stuff.  Shannon and I went to ‘Babies R’ Us’ to register for baby items. Partially for any baby showers, and partially just to get an idea of what we need to buy. A bit overwhelming when you see just how many things you could get.

Well, at long last (after a 10 year hiatus), I am finally getting back to a hobby I once loved. Playing guitar. As those who knew me in highschool, I spent a great deal of time trying to tame the six stringed beast. I wasn’t very good, but I really enjoyed playing. So after years of me saying ‘I have to start playing again’, I took the plunge, took my old electric guitar in to be ‘set up’ and bought a small practice amp. Only other thing I really want is a good acoustic guitar. It would be nice not to have to plug in all the time, and also, its nice to have both types, so I can play any type of song I want. I will keep you informed on my progress 🙂

And lastly, could the beetle actually be on the road this year? Yes, it’s almost looking that way. It is going into the headliner shop tomorrow to have the headliner, seats and windows installed. Once that is done, with any luck, it will only be a few more weeks until it is road worthy. I imagine the car will be there for no more then a week, so hopefully next week at this time, I will have some more updated pictures.

 Here are some updated galleries that I had put off uploading until the server was behaving again. Looks like its finally good to go.

• Florida pics
• Old Towne Car Show Pics
• Final Day with the Mini CooperS
• Pics of the beetle before it goes in for the headliner