Bugs Palace!

Yes, I know it has been a month since my last post. Been busy, and also took the time to rebuild my web server. Page should load a pinch faster now. At the very least, I am no longer in critical danger of locking up the server from lack of disk space. I pulled one of my old drives out of retirement to allow moving the OS. Long story short, I’m now at 60% usage instead of 98%.

Firstly, happy birthday to My Dad and Katie. Hope you guys had great days. Birthday dinners were excellent 🙂

Also this month, Katie had her high school graduation. One of these days I will post pictures.

Next up, MINI upgrades are nearly complete. Intake and exhaust have been done for a little while. Now the pulley is in (big change there). Next up is the ECU. I’m hoping to put it in this weekend, and colder plugs next week. Then my performance upgrades should be done for a while. Remaining upgrades are costly, and may not ever get done. I’m pretty happy with the way it runs. However, I know damn well its like a drug. Addicting.

Couple little updates. Saturday Shannon, Alex, Kevin and I went to ImportFest in Toronto. Some really cool cars. Some really ugly ones too. The part that sucked about the whole thing was my camera wasn’t working. So, 5 hours at a huge car show, and not one – single – picture.  Yeah, I was pissed too.

Also, Last weekend, I was lucky enough to be the new home for Adam’s pool table. Turns out his brother doesn’t have room for it in his new  home, and Adams parents don’t have room anymore either. So until Adam or Pete find some room, the pool table will be in my basement getting used nearly every day.

Beetle update: 11 months of random evening and weekend wiring, the re-wiring of the beetle is complete. Today, Kevin came over and he and I spent several hours with some final cleanup of wiring, removal of the engine, and disconnecting/labeling of the wires which were to stay in the car while it goes to the body shop. Things are all working, and look good. Form AND function are in full swing here. Next up, off to Alex and Pauls place for paint and body work. Hopefully in the next a couple  months it will be back for final assembly. Any interest in the last day of wiring, HERE is some pics. Ok. Alot of pics.

Can’t let an entire month go by without posting nothing. This month has been fairly quiet.  Had several Thanksgiving dinners. Shannon put on a great meal at our place for her mothers side of the family. And a big thanks to Aunt Val/Uncle Brett and Shannons Dad and Cathy for the other two turkey dinners.

Last weekend Alex gave me a hand installing my new exhaust system onto the Cooper. Wow, what a difference. I ended up getting a Borla Sport exhaust system. Nice and throaty with a deep rumble, without being too loud or obnoxious. Not to mention the extra 10 or so HP. Nice kick in the pants. Now I can’t wait to get my reduction pulley on the supercharger. 15-20 hp has been fun with the intake and exhaust. the additional 25 from the pulley and ECU should be AWESOME.

Got home from work tonight and found Kevin in my garage finishing off a fuse holder for the beetle. It turned out excellent. From the inside of the car, it looks like its meant to be there. Quite happy with how it turned out. Nice and easy to add functions on as well.

I’ve been put on a couple more projects at work (in between getting bitched at for things taking longer then principals want).  People need to learn that there is only so many hours in a day. And I’m only willing to work so much extra time without pay.  Oh well. They can complain all they want. I know i’m doing as much as I can.  On the upside, I’ve been put on a project to create a new blog server (much like I’m running here). The neat thing is it allows for easier remote administration, and allows people to add comments. Pretty neat. So neat in fact, I may try and rebuild this page using the software. So if things go down here, or change drastically,  you will know why 🙂