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So a few months ago (yeah..and I’m just getting around to posting this…shows how fast the project is moving), I bought a 1987 Mitsubishi Montero 2 door. For those that don’t know, is the car I had in college. It was the car I had my first stereo system in (thanks Kurt) and the car I had when I met Emily. I loved it. Took it off road, road trips, trips down south (beer run for non-Murray State folks). It started having some engine trouble and the Auffenburg Mitsubishi dealer told us the head was bad and would need to be replaced for a couple thousand bucks. My parents sold it to a friend of my sisters for $300 and he fixed with plugs and wires.

Ever since then, I’ve wanted another. I finally found one in Ohio. It was in okay shape for a 30+ year old truck and definitely fits the “project” status it has been given. It currently isn’t running though. After poking around the engine bay, it looks like the previous owner replaced all the obvious stuff – plugs, wires, rotor, cap, and even the coil and carburetor.

After buying it, I found *another* that did run, but its body and frame is in really bad shape (as in there basically isn’t a rear passenger frame rail). I got it for a steal to use as a parts truck and the guy had a barn full of of spare parts. I chucked a good portion of them though – who needs six passenger tail lights??

So anyway, that’s that. My goal this summer is to at least get it running (or at least firing!), and barring that, get any bad rust spots coated with rust kill, primer, etc. to stop it. I’m probably in over my head…but hey – we didn’t use the garage anyway, right?? Hopefully I’ll be able to find some time to work on it after baby #2 gets here in November!

Here’s a shot of the Montero sleeping and a link to the other photos:

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I’ve been really busy lately with work, travel, being a dad, husband, etc and haven’t really posted anything significant in a while. So what have I been up to?
Last month, I took a long weekend trip and flew to Seattle to visit Sean and Tim and Bridgette’s family, and go to a Mighty Mighty Bosstone’s concert (YAH!). While in Seattle, Sean and I visited one of my co-workers, Debbie, at her parent’s cafe – Chelan Cafe. Its a great place with AWESOME food. On our way out to the cafe, we drove by an import dealership and saw this parked on the street:

Its a VERY rare BMW M1 and it was in awesome shape. In the sun, you could see the carbon fiber reflecting back under the pearlescent paint.
So after our brunch at Chelan Cafe, Sean and I got on the road for our drive to Portland, OR, to visit Corey, Aija, and their newborn daughter Zora. I haven’t seen Corey and Aija since Stephen’s wedding, and have never been to Portland. on the way up, we passed this weird sculpture:

Its a very pretty city. We had some good meals there (especially lunch the next day!) and hanging out with old friends made the weekend worthwhile.

While in Seattle, I got to hang out with Tim, Bridgette, Rylee and Tyler. Turns out Rylee and Brig are big fans of So You Think You Can Dance, which is my anti-masculine guilty pleasure TV Show that Emily got me addicted to. Rylee LOVES the show. She knows every name, dance style, choreographer, etc of every person on the show. The three of us watch the show while Sean and Tim played some PS3 game
I got to swim in the Snohomish (?) river. The river was VERY high and the curretn was so strong that sean and I couldn’t get more than 10 or 15 feet from the bank without getting a chance of us getting swept away. A great public park..things you just don’t see in this area. Another thing that was great? I actually got to see the sun shine in the Pac NW. The three or four times I’ve been up there, its always rained (surprise!).
So the last night there, Sean, Tim, and I went to see my all time favorite band, The Might Mighty Bosstones. They got back together and this was the main purpose of my trip – to see them again. Of all the concerts I have been to, I”ve seen them the most. I think this was my 5th or 6th time seeing them. This show did not let me down. I’ll post some video and photos (ala cell phone so not great…) at a later time.

So fast forward to a week or so ago. For Father’s day, Emily got me a gift cert for Boi na Braza (sp?), a Brazillian steakhouse in Cincinnati. For those not familiar, these places charge a flat rate and you get a pretty decent salad bar. Also, they have waiters walking around with 15 different cuts of meat – sirloin, lamb chops, chicken breasts, filet mignon, and plenty of others. It was amazing. While NOT cheap, one of the things Emily and I enjoyed the most was the personal time. The wait staff doesn’t bother you. Because you let them know when you want more food, they basically stay away from your table unless you need a refill on your beverage. We had a great time talking all night without some person interrupting us to see if we wanted to buy something else. And MANY thanks to Aunt SheShe for watching Sean so we could have some time out. Oh..and the deserts are freaking great too! I love a perfectly cooked flan. Their wine list is pretty decent also. We had a nice pinot grigio.

Coming soon – my twin brother Sean is flying in from Seattle for a visit over Labor Day weekend. When he is here, my mom, Megan, and Megan’s boyfriend Matt, plan on coming down and we are hoping to see Stephen and Amy as well. (Little) Sean is going to have a BLAST!

Tonight, I gave Sean one of my die-cast cars. Its a Porsche that I got when I was in the 8th or 9th grade as a Christmas present from (I think) my grandmother’s brother, my Uncle Jack McNaughton (the Scottish side!). Sean LOVED it. Its bright orange. When Emily picked him up to take him to bed he cried. He wanted his car! So she gave it to him and carried him upstairs. Up in his room, she tried to get him to put it down on his dresser so they could get ready for bed. He wanted nothing to do with that. He was hugging and snuggling her…while hugging and snuggling his new car!! I knew I loved this kid for a reason!!

Can’t wait to see what happens when he finds out I have 20 or 30 diecast cars in storage He likes that orange Porsche 959 so much he may go into overdrive if sees the others!

Last night Uncle Phillip and Gramma got back from their trip to the Cabin and NYC and Phillip brought Sean back a present! Sean is now the proud owner of some Air Jordans!

He thought they were so cool. He is wearing them to “school” today. Phillip has a matching pair so we’ll have to get a photo of them wearing them together. He is in size sixes now, and when he gets to size sevens he gets to wear his Chucks that Megan and Matt got him

Links for the various galleries related to the posts above:

Seattle Trip:

Sean’s new car:

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Sean (the big sean, not the lil sean) works for CarDomain.com and they are looking to get more content on their website. If you are in a car club and want to spread the word about it, check this out:

We’re looking for people as crazy about cars as we are to give us the inside scoop on all the great auto events happening around the world. Everything is on the table, from 4×4 parties in the woods to hot rod meets at the local hamburger joint to Friday night showdowns at the drag strip.

You don’t have to be a photographer. You just have to take pictures. It’s a great way to get press for your car club, or just show off your pictures to the world. Plus, submitting events earns CarDomain swag! Interested? Click Here

Oh – did I mention you get free stuff for doing it?  You will get a free CarDomain Tshirt for each event you cover (they make really cool shirts too!  I’ve got two or three).  They are working on other stuff to sweeten the pot as well.

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My brother has worked for CarDomain.com in various titles and positions over the last few years.  When CarDomain shuttered its retail sales operation, they moved him over to the editorial department where he was blogging for the CarDomain Blog.  In the last month or so, he was given a whole other project, the SoundDomain Blog, in which he monitors and writes about all things car audio related.  If you need a place to keep up on all things car audio, including the latest in new electronics, custom installs, tools, and car shows – check them out!
Sean has also written two pieces for Forbes’ Magazines online car site.  They are Here and Here.

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Well, I sold the Durango almost a month ago and part of my “agreement” with the wife, was that 1) the new car had to have four doors 2) the new car had to have as many airbags as possible, and 3) i could only spend the money i saved and not dip into our savings. Well, two outa three ain’t bad I’ve been looking for a VW Jetta or Audi A4/A6, as well as a couple of other makes and models for the last month and a half. Maybe longer since I think I started looking around before the Durango was sold. I’ve always admired Sean’s GTI and Erik’s various dubbs. I was *this* close to picking up an 03 Jetta GLI in Louisville, because the price was right and I really like the GLI model. It had some issues tho – check engine light and some other stuff. I expanded my search on autos.yahoo.com past the 100 miles to 200 miles and found another GLI 117 miles away in Columbus. It wasn’t in the price range, but Emily was VERY gracious and let me break rule #3. She was happy I found a newer car, with full airbags all around, and it rates extremely high on the NHTSA (4′s and 5′s, with 5 being the highest). Also got “good” in the government testing, which is the highest.

I called the seller and it turned out a guy from Louisville was having a mechanic come up to check out the car that night, and was planning on driving up Tuesday (today) to buy it, if it checked out. I wasn’t about to pass up this deal so I placed a deposit on my Mastercard. So, Emily and I drove up to Columbus after work last night to C and L Performance Auto Sales . We met with Courtney, the owner. He told us he just got off the phone with the Louisville guy and that guy was NOT happy. That made me smile. While we were talking and starting paperwork, the guy from L-Ville called two more times!

Emily and I were extremely impressed with Courtney and C and L Performance Auto Sales. He had a lot of great performance oriented vehicles on his lot and was very open about all of them when I asked questions. We were in and out of there pretty quickly and painlessly. The gas tank was on “E”, and he apologized profusely and even gave us gas money out of his own pocket as we were leaving!

The ride home was about 130 miles and went very well. The heated leather seats are amazing (the GLI includes sport seats with extra bolstering in the sides and seat). The Monsoon stereo is very bassy and sounds great. The cabin is pretty quiet compared to my previous talons and even Emily’s Mazda 3. I have a huge roll of dynamat in my garage waiting to make it even better! The VR6 engine is awesome. I can’t believe how linear and strong it feels. The GLI also comes with a 6 speed manual transmission and is a blast to drive. Here are some pics from the AutoTrader ad. I’m waiting for some nicer weather to take some pics of my own:

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Emily and I drove to Columbus, OH tonight to pick up a car for me. I’ll post all about it tomorrow. I’m in a pretty darn good mood right now!

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Last night I finally sold the Durango. While I did enjoy the truck – drives smoothly, it was quiet, etc…I hated going to the gas pump. The Durango had a 25 gallon tank and got between 13 and 17 miles per gallon. Every two weeks or so, it cost $65 to $75 just to fill up it! That hurt

I had the truck listed on Craigslist for quite a while and had a couple of lowball offers on it. Last night Matt at City Auto Sales in Elsmere, KY bought it from me. Now its time to start shopping around again. Hopefully going to get into something like a VW Jetta VR6!

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I finally got my new car hood yesterday.  I looks really great, but already has 2 bug splats on it   Pretty soon it’ll have rock dings and everything….oh well.  Looks really wonderful though!

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Getting restless with the website. Its been online in this format since at least December 2005. Those that know me well, know that I get restless after 2 or 3 years of the same old same old Maybe that explains my car “habit” (time for a change about now isn’t it?). I guess it goes back to my military childhood of moving every two to three years.
Anyway, I’m thinking its about time for a theme change on the old blog. Of course I haven’t mentioned it to Emily yet This all came about after doing some work on Heather and Ashley‘s blogs. I think I am still using an older version of the blog software, so it would have to be upgraded to the 2.x version to work with many new formats and layouts. So keep your eyes peeled, there may be some new changes afoot.
On an unrelated note, my Dad is doing really well. His recent trip to the oncologist brought back some very positive feedback on his treatment. At 42% reduction in the tumor size and a significant reduction in the [stuff] they measure for cancer in the blood. As Mom says, he is a poster boy for his current treatment plan Their website is listed on the links to the right of the website.
Emily and I will be going to New York for the first weekend in August. We’ll be visiting her dad and stepmom and spending some time at Diana’s cabin. Maybe I can finally watch a movie in the home theater room that I designed and installed? (and never got to have fun with!)
My brother is taking the Motorcycle Safety Course up in Seattle this weekend. I think everyone should take this class.  Heck, even if you don’t plan on getting your two wheel note on your ID, I encourage anyone to take it. Could save the lives of many of us on two wheels. Plus you will learn the thrill of riding a motorcycle. Its truly a freeing feeling.
Guess I should go to bed now as work draws near.

-pc

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Found out yesterday that my work WILL be paying to get my car fixed, on their insurance.  I’ve been standing firm on not paying since it’s happened.  I got the feeling for a long time that they weren’t going to pay it.  Their insurance company is sending me a check then I can get it fixed!  Woohoo!

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