Bugs Palace!

Yawn. February is almost over. Hurray. Not a whole heck of a lot to report. Dads in Florida right now visiting my Grandparents, and having a great time from the sounds of things. I really wish I could have went down with him. This was his first trip on an airplane (would have been mine too).  He comes home later in the day Monday. Can’t wait till he gets back. Starting to miss the big lug.

GTI: I’d like to say a HUGE thanks to Kevin. He has been out the past two Saturdays to help get my stereo installed. I would say its about 80% done. Wires are all ran, everything is functional. I did some minor tweaks today, and its starting to sound good. Only thing left is the final touches. Build an amp rack and mount the amps, trim the wires up so that there is no access wires hanging around, properly mount the cd player (its n there, but needs about an 1/8th of an inch more room. And of course, some fine tuning once its in place. These things can wait till its warmer and I have more patience as this is the tedious stuff that you can’t rush. It sounds pretty good now that I have cleaned some of the bass up from the componenet sets. Also during the install marathons we installed the pre 2002 GTI headlights which have integrated fog lights. Its a minor touch, but I’m liking them. Next question is do I focus on show or go. I’m leaning SHOW for this summer, simply cause I got enough go to make me happy right now, and also, I’d like to get through a bit more of the warranty before I start voiding it. I’m still leaning 337 Body kit with the R32 front bumper, and of course, drop it like its hot.

Jetta: Back finally! Brand new engine installed and running great. Huge thumbs-up to Mel Henderson VW for their excellent care and service!

Beetle: nothing. I suspect late March when we can work with the garage doors open again, I will talk Kevin in to coming over and helping finish the wiring, and also get the engine put back in. I’ve got a couple more leads on paint shops, but time will tell. See what kind of time frame things get done in. I am really hoping to get it on the road this summer at SOME point.

House: nothing. Still standing. I’m almost looking forward to spring cleaning. Also gotta get prices on paving the driveway.

*cough* cough * . Man am I sick. This one hit me out of no where.  I have no voice, no energy, and feel all around horrible. First time I’ve been off work sick with anything other then I migraine in as long as I can remember. On to other news.

Last weekend, Shannon, Jim_, Alicia, and I went to visit our good friend Erle up in Ottawa. We had a fantastic time. We skated on the canal, checked out Parliament and all the other sites to see in the Ottawa area. Sunday we hit Hull to visit a museum before heading home. I’d like to thank Jim, Alicia, and Erle for giving Shannon and I such a great weekend! And Ollie too 🙂 (they’re puppy). Speaking of puppies; thanks to my family for watching ours. We missed the babies while away, but never worry about them while they are at Grandmas/Grandpas house. Pictures from the Weekend are HERE.

Onto religion. I’ve never said I was a great catholic, but I do consider myself a good one. This year, albeit a bit late, I’ve decided to follow the lent ritual of keeping myself from something I enjoy. Pepsi. That’s right. For the next 40 days, starting February 18th,  not only will I be Pepsi free, but I will be pop free. Water/milk/juice/etc are all fine. But no pop until March 30th. March 30th will mark 40 days, and also my birthday. Soooo I get Pepsi on my birthday. Many of you probably think big woop. No pop for a month. Those of you obviously don’t know me very well. Saying NO Pepsi to me is like telling most people “just don’t breathe”. Its gonna be rough. I will keep you updated.

**Edit 12 hours later** : Screw it. I will drink Pepsi in hell 🙂

Onto cars: Nothing much new in this field to report.  I got the wiring harness from Giusti to install my headlights which have been in my living room for 3 months. As soon as my Cd player shows up (supposed to be no later then Friday of this week), I will be installing everything. Stereo, lights, amps, subs. You name it. From the sounds of things, Kevins coming out to give me a hand. Yay for winter installs.

Finances: my credit card debt is coming down. I’ve paid down 60% of my credit in the past 2 months. And that was with Christmas! Still on par with my mid March deadline. May be end of March, but we will see how things go. Ottawa and repairing my door have, and will slow down the balances decent.  This thing WILL go away. Eventually. I have passed on a lot of good deals since Christmas. I’m actually quite proud of myself. 

D’oh! In case you were wondering, my domain name expired yesterday, hence my page being down. I have renewed the subscription and am back online. Sorry for any delays or what have you. If you have sent me an email within the past 24-36 hours, odds are its been returned to you or simply sent into oblivion.  Email should be back online soon as well, if its not already.

Nothing much new to report around here. Life is quiet and boring when you are trying to get bills caught up. Hopefully by March I will be back on top of things and not paying interest on credit cards. I hate credit cards.

Satellite dish is being a bitch. Although being Super Bowl weekend, I expected it to go down like a whore in the ghetto. It doesn’t bother me too much, but if its not back up in time for kick off, I’m sure Shannon will have something to say. Marriage counselors will be called, as well as the police for a domestic dispute.

Shannons car is getting its biggest modification to date. A new engine :-   Due to a problem with her current motor, VW decided it was best to simply swap the entire thing instead of trying to fix the problem. Sucks, but at least its under warranty, and her car should be back home early next week. On the fun side, we got a little beetle to drive around for the time being. Automatic, and slow, but fun just the same.

GTI still has a mondo dent in the door. I’m not gonna fix it till March at the earliest. I don’t like fresh paint in the middle of winter. Other then that, she aint gonna see any money put into her until the credit cards are sitting at -zero-.

Not much else going on. Think I may go work on the beetle for a while.