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R.V.

This weekend Ill be going camping. In addition to my wife and daughter, my parents come too. (O.K. O.K., so my Dad actually owns the camper.) We get to leave early Thursday and won’t be home until Sunday night. Britny is also bringing a friend with her, so she will have something to do the whole time instead of constantly saying “I’m bored.”

I just can’t wait for the smores.

I got some amazing progress done on my car this weekend. I fixed 2 things that have been bugging me for the past year, and one that I have wanted to do ever since I got the GTi.

Ever since I got my new square bolstered seats, the front passenger side seat belt buckle has been messed up. Every time you would lift up the seat to get in and out of the back, the buckle would swiftly spring back underneath the seat faster than a puppy between your legs while youre making a sandwich. Needless to say, this was highly annoying after having Britny getting in and out on the drivers side, and when ever the passenger seat was pulled forward, I had to grab the buckle and pull it thru the center console so that the seat could be pushed back.

I removed the seat and bent back the bracket, thus freeing me of single door ingress. plus my wife is a lot happier too, and isnt that what it’s all about.

Love you Krista /wink.

Secondly, my emergency brake has been broken (haha, I make dumb jokes) for over a year now. I ordered 2 new cables from ECS Tuning andput them in all by myself. It really is not as bad as it sounds, you dont even have to take the rear wheels off, just jack up the car so you can get underneath it, a little bit if interior adjustments to clean everything up, and it’s good as new.

And what was the problem you may ask? Well, I must have ran over something because where the cable crosses under the rear axle pivot point, the whole outside of the cable was rusted and torn. The drivers side was fine, and honestly, could have just been left alone, but I read that it’s best to replace them in pairs since they will strech a bit over time. Of course, like the awesome blogger that I am I took no pictures whatsoever of the entire procedure. That how I roll. Descriptive writing FTW.

Speaking of ECS Tuning, I also needed some new wheel bolts (long story, short version… I bought spacers with bolts, 2 bolts were stripped, I needed new ones) and while I was ordering, I also got this super awesome wheel hanger guide tool. It makes swapping out all the sets of wheels between my car and Krista’s wagon so much easier. I have to say, one of the better tools that I own, even in it’s simplicity.

The third thing that I have been wanting to do forever was install a subwoofer in the trunk. I have has subs for abot 4 years now. I was going to put them in a custom designed box for the trunk, but in the end, I ended up buying a $20 sub box from Circuit City. Its nice, cheap, and it matches the trunk carpet EXACTLY. Probably the most important thing about the sub box is the fact that it’s DONE. If I was to build this thing, it would be most like other projects I begin. And therefore, this post would never happen.

All in all, I have to say it was a productive weekend. I didnt get a thing done to the house, but my car can now brake in an emergency fashion, fold down the seats like the germans intended, and sound nothing like the germans intended.

You know it has been a long day when you go thru an entire case in one day, at work.

I was wondering the other day about what i was going to do with my whole day off. It has been a good while since I have done anything remotely close to cleaning my car, so why dont I do that? Well, cause it gets about 106 degrees here during the day and I don’t own a garage. Not aven one of those little fold up tarp guys. But it is something I need to do, and soon.

Getting my new tooth!

So, long story short. My company is building out into the adjoining office effectively doubling the office space.

They started work about a month ago and are finishing up this week. Of course, there is a wall between the existing space and the new space. That wall, obviously, needs to go. I guess they cannot do all of it (demo, drywall, painting, electrical and carpet repair) in the 2 day weekend, so they need 3 days to do it.

What does this mean for me and the rest of my fellow employees? Why, a 3 day weekend and a 4 day workweek! Now, even tho I only work 5 hours on Friday, the company will not just give 11 people 5 hours of vacation, so that means that our usually long days of 8.75 hours get extended to 10 hours with a 45 min. lunch. This means instead of working 7:30am to 5:00pm, I now stay until 6:15pm.

Every day this week.

So yeah, I get a 4 day workweek, but not by choice.

Wow. Over $60.00 fill up.

So, about a year and a half ago, my switch broke on my car radio. Now, mind you, this is not the actual electronic switch, but the little plastic knob on top of it. It actually broke becauase I change XM radio channels like I do tv channels, mainly, a lot. So basically, I wore out my radio.

I still have it, all the little pieces that crumbled off, but i figured I would just buy a new one. It’s a piece of plastic, not like it could be too expensive right?

Wrong.

At the Pioneer Parts website, its listed for $31.50, and thats without shipping. It’s out of warranty (as it was when it broke) but still, this is rediculous. http://parts.pioneerelectronics.com/part.asp?productNum=CSX1065

Do you know how much they want just for the remote, with 30 some buttons, a bunch more plastic and various lead and copper based electronics inside?

$33.50 http://parts.pioneerelectronics.com/part.asp?productNum=CXC2665 

I’m convinced that this knob must be made of gold.