Bugs Palace!

Hurray Hurray, The first of May. Outdoor screwin’ begins today!

At least thats what my Grandpa always told me. How’s everyone out there on the web these days? Things are busy but quiet for me.

Work is nuts as always. Started re-imaging the schools this week. Plan is to get 2 schools done per week. It’s going to be tight, but barring any major issues, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Bug updates. Well. There isn’t any this week as far as body works concerned. Paul and Alex have been busy helping a friend get his tow trucks engine replaced. Until thats done, my bug will likely be on hold seeing as they need the tow truck to haul it to the paint booth. I still have confidence I will be painted and back home in the not toooo distant future. 

Speaking of beetles, I have been talking to a semi-local vdub hot rodder who is going to do some custom brake work for me this year.  The plan right now is to have the front beam narrowed 3″ and have some new adjusters put in, as well as have the front brakes converted to new Golf/Jetta style disk brakes. Bug should stop on a dime, as well as look cool rollin on some current style big wheels. Consider me excited.

On to other car news. As of last night, Kevin finally was able to get his Talon back together and running. As some of you know, Kev blew out his timing belt back in February which in turn, destroyed the top end of his engine. So instead of taking the easy way out, and just replacing it, Kevin yanked off the cylinder head, had it ported and polished and rebuilt the entire top end, by himself, on the side of the road in front of his moms house. Couple parts blunders and some all around shitty luck slowed the re-assembly, but it is finally together and running. I for one am glad to see it back on the road.  Good job X.

Lastly, after trying to avoid it for several months, I finally decided that yes, I will in fact take the head coaching position for my sisters ball team this year. Now I have helped coach the last two summers, with Donna as the head coach. But this year, Donna will be playing on the team, so she can’t coach. And thats when I stepped in. I had origionally planned on keeping it quiet this summer and not coach, but since they were stuck, and I do actually enjoy doing it, I thought “what the hell”.

Hope everyone has had a good holiday weekend. I’m personally 3 days into my 4 day weekend. Hopefully tomorrow will be quiet and relaxing.  The last 3 days have been full of family gatherings and turkey dinners.  Thanks to everyone for everything, Shannon and I have had a fantastic weekend. Oh, and we’re stuffed too.

Some new pictures on the MINI page. Got my new wheels on and the suspension almost complete. Just have to add some new control arms and an alignment. Then I don’t have to worry about eating up my tires.  HERE ARE SOME PICS from todays photoshoot. Found a neat little place in Hagersville for the pics, and Shannon gave me some ideas on photo ideas.  I think some turned out pretty good!

I’m sure I have more to add, but I’m done for now. Night all

 Time to finally use this new word press, seeing as I have a pile of things to say. I’m gonna be out of cronolical order a bit so just know it all happened in last 3 weeks.

March 14th, Shannon, Jim, Alicia and I met up in Font hill, and drove down to Buffalo to get a nights sleep before heading to Hawaii. Next day, after about 14 hours in flights, we were on the beach in sunny Hawaii. We had a fantastic time. Spent 2 nights in Oahu, and then flew over to Maui until the 26th. Highlights while on the islands include going to see Pearl Harbour, snorkelling on Molokini, and driving up a 10,000′ volcanoe named Haleakala. We took an assload of photos while down there. I will go through and remove some of repetitive images, and boring stuff, but for now, I’ve simply dumped everything into the gallery. Thanks to Jim and Alicia for coming down and sharing in our holidays. And a HUGE thank you to Shannons Uncle Mark, and Aunt Judy for the generous gift of accomodation. We can’t thank you enough. We both had a trip of a lifetime, and hope to come back again someday in the future. Pictures from the trip are HERE

Whilest in Hawaii, my beautiful wife celebrated her 28th birthday. So for one full week (our birthdays are 1 week apart); I have my older woman 🙂 Happy Birthday sweety. I hope you had a great day.

Before we went away on holidays, my MINI was given a gift from my buddy Ken. You see, Ken also has a MINI CooperS with some upgrades, but is planning on trading the car in this spring. Ken and I got talking on IRC one night, and said that if I wanted to do the swap, I could have the sway bar for free. I’d like to say a huge thanks to Ken.  I assure you I will enjoy the sway bar alot more then who ever would have bought your car from the dealership. Another huge thanks goes out to Kevin. Even though I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable workin on cars, I’m a better helper then a leader. So Kevin was nice enough to pick up the car from Ken and bring it out to Hagersville. We then spend the day swapping the sway bars, and starting on my rear springs. End of the day, Kens car was back to a stock bar, and my rear end was complete. Hopefully soon, we can swap my front springs soon too, as the car looks pretty funny an inch lower in the back. Thanks agian guys. Pictures from the swap are HERE

Lastly, I stopped by and checked out the beetle. Some good progress has been happening. Car has the first layer of primer on the sensitive areas, and the some filler has been added to get it completely smooth. Hopefully things keep going good and quickly, so I can get the car home soon and start the re-assembly.  Most recent pictures are HERE, but you can also go HERE for the full restoration history

Thats all for me for now. Night all.

PS Happy Birthday Uncle Wilson

PPSS: Since i posted this and was dead tired, I knew I would forget something. THANKS MOM and crew for sneaking into our house while we were away and doing some spring cleaning for us. It really makes coming home easier when you don’t walk into the disaster area you left after packing. AND Thanks Mom/Dad and girls for watching our babies while we were away. You are the only ones I can leave them with and not worry at all