Today we went to the Auto show. It was a great time! Riley was so funny. On our way there and even right up until I sat in the first car, Riley kept saying, "I don't WANT to sit in a car! I don't want to go to the Auto show!!!" Then I sat in the first car and he wanted to sit in it too. After that, he kept saying, "Can I sit in another car?" LOL! It was a riot!
We had a great time, about 3 hours worth. We're not looking to buy anything right now because we just paid off our cars and it's nice to not have any payments. But we do have a few that we're interested in, so we checked them out. First, the new Mustang convertible. I REALLY want a fun car to replace mine, I miss my Honda S2000 a ton and a convertible family car would be awesome. The last time we looked at the new Mustangs, it looked like they had plenty of backseat room. I got it, adjusted the drivers seat, then looked in the back. DANG! Once again, as long as the person had no legs, everything was fine. :( Oh well, that's one reason I like going to the Autoshow, it can cure me from wanting a car because I don't fit, or other reasons. So I no longer want a Mustang - well I DO, but it's not a practical family car. Sure, the kids could fit, for another 5 years max. Not what we're looking for. We MIGHT get a new car now, and then another in 5 years, but I don't want to HAVE to get a new car.
Next we looked at the Honda's. We LOVE Honda cars, they have always been great for us. They had an Element SC, which is the new Element meant to compete with the Scion's, cool, trendy, extra stuff that 20-somethings are interested in, but us 40-somethings aren't. Loved sitting in the front seat, lots of room, nice. My head hit the roof in the back seat and not a lot of room. Well, I had to sit up REALLY straight to hit the roof, but I wasn't happy with how little headroom there was. Of all the cars I was interested in replacing mine with was the Element. After today, while I'd enjoy it, I don't think it's something I would enjoy for more than a couple years. Again, a great thing about the Autoshow, I no longer MUST HAVE an Element.
Honda has also just introduced the Civic Si Sedan, a 4-door version of their Si. It's REALLY nice! The seat went back far enough for me AND the steering wheel not only tilted BUT telescoped too! AWESOME!! I could get the seat back far enough AND the steering wheel right. It felt great and I really would enjoy driving it. Of course no one could sit behind me. I sat in the back and there was good headroom, my head didn't hit the roof at all. Overall, I liked the car a lot, and the fact that I fit and the whole family could fit was great. BUT, I must admit, I found it a tad on the cramped side and found another I fit in better. Though I must say, it was a tough choice because this would be a GREAT car to drive!!!!
The other that I really liked was the new Honda Fit, it's been sold in Europe for a long time as the Jazz. This is their little car that gets great gas mileage, 31 & 37. I sat in the front, TONS of room. But that's normal, I usually find lots of room in the drivers seat then sit in the back and hate it. After I was sure the front was enjoyable and I adjusted the seat for me, I sat in the back behind the driver. WOW!!! I couldn't believe how much room there was!! Amazing!! TONS of headroom AND legroom!!! What an amazing car!! Of course almost NO room behind the backseat for anything but some groceries, but WOW!!! This was a very cool car!! I have read and seen some reviews of this car and compared to others in its class, all the reviews have said others get better gas mileage, have better get-up-and-go (0-60 in 11 seconds for the Honda), but this is my far the most fun to drive and the most well equipped. I could certainly see that. It was a very cool car.
So we talked about trading my 2001 VW Passat (bottom of the line) in for a Fit. Honestly, I would hate the sucky performance, I want something that goes 0-60 in 3 seconds. BUT, I drive about 6 miles, 12 minutes to work every day and that's almost all of the driving I do. My car is RARELY driven compared to our Honda Pilot. So why would I need a Porsche? I miss my S2000 more than I can say, I'd KILL to have it back! But would I really enjoy it? I'd never get it over 50, and rarely would be able to drive it like it should be which would really make me thrilled to enjoy it. SO, the Fit would be a a great "fit" for me. I - sorry, I'm watching "The Family Guy" and they just did a skit with Stewy doing a dance with Gene Kelly, the one he did with Jerry Mouse, and I had a HUGE smile on my face, I LOVE Gene Kelly!!!! - anyhow, after lots of thinking, I decided to email some Honda dealers about the Fit. Turns out it is still REALLY popular and NO ONE has it in stock and even one dealership isn't taking any orders for at least 6 months (Wilsonville Honda)! So looks like if I want to get one, it'll take me 4-9 months to get the one I want. :( Oh well, that's probably a good thing, give us time to really think about it instead of buying on impulse.
Oh, and Maddie LOVED sitting in the cars too! I mean if she didn't get to sit in the drivers seat, she got mad! It was really funny. We had a lot of fun and as we were waiting for the elevator, she fell asleep on Marci. A fun and enjoyable day!
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Back from Boston
It was a freaking long flight, 5 hours. But I didn't sleep much the night before I left, so I was REALLY tired on the way out there and slept nicely on the plane. I was quite surprised when I got there, no snow to be found, and it wasn't that cold!
It was a good trip, but I'm glad to get home. Oh, the flight back was awesome because I upgraded to FIRST CLASS! Had some Bailey's on the rocks, then a good salad, a very tasty hot beef teriyaki dinner (tasted like I was at a good restaurant), some warm mixed nuts, AND a fantastic ice cream sunday with hot fudge and whip cream! Oh ya, that's definitely the way to fly on a freaking long flight! Alaska also has the Digeplayer things. They are little portable video devices that hold like 8 movies, about 6 tv shows (each 30 minutes long), about 25 music videos, and a bunch of different kinds of music. In first class they are free, coach they are $10. It's money well spent and really makes the time pass much better. If you're on a long flight on Alaska and they offer these, get one, you won't be sorry!
The weather warmed up enough the other day that Riley was able to ride his bike around the block, he enjoyed that a lot. He and I are also having fun playing a PS2 game, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. It's a two player game and he's actually quite good at it!
We were talking about things coming this year and realized Riley will be heading to kindergarten this fall. Kindergarten. wow. Riley will be five in May and Maddie two in June. How time files...
It was a good trip, but I'm glad to get home. Oh, the flight back was awesome because I upgraded to FIRST CLASS! Had some Bailey's on the rocks, then a good salad, a very tasty hot beef teriyaki dinner (tasted like I was at a good restaurant), some warm mixed nuts, AND a fantastic ice cream sunday with hot fudge and whip cream! Oh ya, that's definitely the way to fly on a freaking long flight! Alaska also has the Digeplayer things. They are little portable video devices that hold like 8 movies, about 6 tv shows (each 30 minutes long), about 25 music videos, and a bunch of different kinds of music. In first class they are free, coach they are $10. It's money well spent and really makes the time pass much better. If you're on a long flight on Alaska and they offer these, get one, you won't be sorry!
The weather warmed up enough the other day that Riley was able to ride his bike around the block, he enjoyed that a lot. He and I are also having fun playing a PS2 game, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. It's a two player game and he's actually quite good at it!
We were talking about things coming this year and realized Riley will be heading to kindergarten this fall. Kindergarten. wow. Riley will be five in May and Maddie two in June. How time files...
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Snow Today!
Well, I decided to work from home today, too many idiots on the road for me. We got 3-4 inches and Riley had a great time playing outside. Maddie had fun too, it was her first time seeing snow.
Tomorrow I leave for Boston. I'm a little worried about getting to the airport, but I've booked a shuttle so I should be fine. Just have to leave at 3:30am, YUCK! I just uploaded a short 35 second video I took with my new digital camera (Sony H2). Click on the photo above to view the rest.
Feeling better & Snow...
So last week I slammed myself into the concrete. Here it is a week later and I'm feeling pretty good! Pretty much everything is much better, my knee is a tiny bit sore, my right elbow is almost completely better, my face never got any bruising (which surprised me since I hit really hard), but my back is still quite sore. Obviously that's where I did the most damage, I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle or something. I just need to take it easy, which isn't easy with two little kids around. haha
Today we have a snow storm here in Portland. I know many other parts of the country laugh at us for getting 1-2 inches and having problems driving. We just don't get a lot of snow here so people don't know how to drive in it. And we have a LOT of hills here, you can easily go from 300 feet to 1000 feet in a matter of a few miles. So what looks good where you are is really bad trying to go over the hills. These are days I'm glad to be working in IT where I can work from home!
Riley went outside once in just his sweats (no shoes or socks), ran back in because it's freezing cold, then quickly put his boots and jacket on and announced, "I'm ready!" He really wants to go out and make a snow angel, it'll be a fun day for him. I'll get some photos posted to our Flickr later today.
Today we have a snow storm here in Portland. I know many other parts of the country laugh at us for getting 1-2 inches and having problems driving. We just don't get a lot of snow here so people don't know how to drive in it. And we have a LOT of hills here, you can easily go from 300 feet to 1000 feet in a matter of a few miles. So what looks good where you are is really bad trying to go over the hills. These are days I'm glad to be working in IT where I can work from home!
Riley went outside once in just his sweats (no shoes or socks), ran back in because it's freezing cold, then quickly put his boots and jacket on and announced, "I'm ready!" He really wants to go out and make a snow angel, it'll be a fun day for him. I'll get some photos posted to our Flickr later today.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Which is harder, concrete or my body?
First, I have to say I thought this blog thing would be a cool way to keep people up with what's going on with us. I still that, however for it to work, I kinda need to actually write stuff here. D'OH! Last year from Sept on got crazy busy in every way possible. I took a week off from work between Christmas and New Years and that really re-energized me. I feel refreshed and ready to go! So this year one of my New Years resolutions is to blog at least once a week. SO, to start it off, here's hopefully a good laugh for everyone from this last weekend. I know I'm laughing about it. :)
We get our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving and take it down the weekend after New Years. This year we had a fantastic tree, it was still taking water even the day before we took it down!
So this last weekend my wife was at the beach with her mom and I was home with the kids, they were actually very good and we had a great time. Sunday morning at 8:45am I remembered the Christmas tree had to be at the curb by 9am for the boy scouts to pick it up. I quickly took all of the ornaments off the tree, the lights, and shoved it out the door top first (I know that was the wrong way to push it out, I can only say I'd been up for about 15 minutes so wasn't thinking clearly, which probably explains the rest of this story, that or I'm just stupid which is always a possibility). Of course it got stuck, I took off the tree stand and pushed it out the rest of the way.
It went out fine, but then started to fall to the right. I didn't want it to fall on a plant so I was trying to guide it. As it was falling faster than I could guide, I went to move my right foot to catch myself, but I caught it on my pajama pant leg and proceeded to fall over off a two foot step onto the hard concrete in front of our house (and ours has those little rocks coming out, not the smooth kind).
Hit my left shoulder, left side of my head (my cheekbone and head), my right knee a little on the inside, my right hand to catch myself, and after I was down my feet finally came down too. I laid there thinking, "Oh great, my wife is at the beach and I've done something stupid and probably broken something." Took a quick inventory and nothing felt broke so I started to get up. My left side hurt (upper back and upper front on my chest) and my right knee, I couldn't put pressure on it to stand up or use my left hand, which is of course how I always get up so had to change position to stand up.
Got up, checked everything again, all felt ok, nothing broken or out of place, so I finished taking the tree to the curb.
When I got back in the house, I looked at my knee and it had a HUGE welt on it! My left should only has a few little marks and they look normal, and very little bruising. My right hand has three cuts which are healing fine. I went into the bathroom to checkout my head and was shocked to find NOTHING! I mean there wasn't any sign I'd tried to shove my head through the concrete! Very weird, but I've always known I'm thick headed. hehe
When my wife got home, I asked her to check my back as it was still sore and hard to lift my left arm. (Did I tell you she's a licensed massage therapist?) She said it felt like I pulled a muscle or really strained it. By the end of the day my knee was feeling better, my back was ok, but now my right elbow was acting up, really sore. I think when my right hand came down I kinda jammed it or something. This morning my knee feels great, just some cuts and it's still tender where I hit it, my hand is fine, my back is sore but better, my head still feels fine with no signs of anything, and my elbow was feeling better, though today I've been leaning on it too much and it's hurting again. I did think I might have gotten a concussion from that, so I looked it up online and had none of the symptoms.
I'm quite shocked that I came out of it feeling pretty much just fine, just a few scratches and bruises. So now I can laugh about it cause I'm sure I looked really stupid, I certainly felt stupid.
But I did get the tree out in time and they did take it! WOOHOO!! And that's what really matters as I didn't want to have to deal with it. hahaha
We get our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving and take it down the weekend after New Years. This year we had a fantastic tree, it was still taking water even the day before we took it down!
So this last weekend my wife was at the beach with her mom and I was home with the kids, they were actually very good and we had a great time. Sunday morning at 8:45am I remembered the Christmas tree had to be at the curb by 9am for the boy scouts to pick it up. I quickly took all of the ornaments off the tree, the lights, and shoved it out the door top first (I know that was the wrong way to push it out, I can only say I'd been up for about 15 minutes so wasn't thinking clearly, which probably explains the rest of this story, that or I'm just stupid which is always a possibility). Of course it got stuck, I took off the tree stand and pushed it out the rest of the way.
It went out fine, but then started to fall to the right. I didn't want it to fall on a plant so I was trying to guide it. As it was falling faster than I could guide, I went to move my right foot to catch myself, but I caught it on my pajama pant leg and proceeded to fall over off a two foot step onto the hard concrete in front of our house (and ours has those little rocks coming out, not the smooth kind).
Hit my left shoulder, left side of my head (my cheekbone and head), my right knee a little on the inside, my right hand to catch myself, and after I was down my feet finally came down too. I laid there thinking, "Oh great, my wife is at the beach and I've done something stupid and probably broken something." Took a quick inventory and nothing felt broke so I started to get up. My left side hurt (upper back and upper front on my chest) and my right knee, I couldn't put pressure on it to stand up or use my left hand, which is of course how I always get up so had to change position to stand up.
Got up, checked everything again, all felt ok, nothing broken or out of place, so I finished taking the tree to the curb.
When I got back in the house, I looked at my knee and it had a HUGE welt on it! My left should only has a few little marks and they look normal, and very little bruising. My right hand has three cuts which are healing fine. I went into the bathroom to checkout my head and was shocked to find NOTHING! I mean there wasn't any sign I'd tried to shove my head through the concrete! Very weird, but I've always known I'm thick headed. hehe
When my wife got home, I asked her to check my back as it was still sore and hard to lift my left arm. (Did I tell you she's a licensed massage therapist?) She said it felt like I pulled a muscle or really strained it. By the end of the day my knee was feeling better, my back was ok, but now my right elbow was acting up, really sore. I think when my right hand came down I kinda jammed it or something. This morning my knee feels great, just some cuts and it's still tender where I hit it, my hand is fine, my back is sore but better, my head still feels fine with no signs of anything, and my elbow was feeling better, though today I've been leaning on it too much and it's hurting again. I did think I might have gotten a concussion from that, so I looked it up online and had none of the symptoms.
I'm quite shocked that I came out of it feeling pretty much just fine, just a few scratches and bruises. So now I can laugh about it cause I'm sure I looked really stupid, I certainly felt stupid.
But I did get the tree out in time and they did take it! WOOHOO!! And that's what really matters as I didn't want to have to deal with it. hahaha
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