Dinner at Robert & Kittie's (TwistyBitz)

I just got back from a really nice get together hosted by TwistyBitz Robert and Kitty at their beautiful home. Robert cooked an awesome meal of gourmet Mexican food. The chicken with cheese and carmalized onion and mushroom enchiladas were awesome, and the presentation of the food was so pretty.

Mostyn & Cyndi, Chris & Brittany and Jennifer and Andy along with Robert and his wife, all members of SCMM were there. We spent a nice evening just talking and getting know each other better. I had a great time. Thanks Robert and Kittie!!!

Got pulled over by the CHP

I'm on my way to work this morning, and this minivan totally cuts me off, I'm not too happy about this and speed up and cut across two lanes (didn't cut anyone off) to get away from him, then get back in front of another car. I guess I did this twice, then slowed down. A CHP sees the whole thing except the part where the minivan cuts me off, and pulls me over. I asked him what I did (Knowing that he got me for speeding) and he says he got me for 2 moving violations. I'm surprised by this and I asked what the second violation is? and he says illegal lane change, So I proceed to tell him why I did it and I understand about the speeding but I'm confused about the illegal lane change because I had a clear shot and no one was cut off either time I did it. I guess he saw my point, because he goes back to in his car, then comes back and says, I'm not going to give you a ticket for the 2 moving violations but I am going to give you a ticket, so I ask him for what? and he says no front license plate and tinted windows on the 2 front side windows. (I knew that one was coming, but I wasn't about to argue with him). To top it off for some reason my car registration was nowhere to be found. He let that one slide too.

Wow that was nice of him, he really should have given me the ticket for speeding even though it was only for a few seconds. This incident could have capped off my already pretty miserable week, but he actually made my day for being so nice and letting me off the hook, it also helped that he was pretty cute too. Oh yeah he said he liked my car and all of the stickers too. He also stated that at first he didn't get my license plate until he saw the sticker of Woodstock, then he understood. I've gotten out of tickets before, but I really thought I was going to get one this time, I'm glad I didn't....

Woodstock bonds with his nephew

Me, Niki and Woodstock had to spend the night at my moms house last night and again tonight, cuz I still can't use the water due to my massive sewer replacement. It was the perfect time for Woodstock to bond with his nephew, the still unamed Little Black Mini. Woodstock is used to being nice and warm in his garage, but had stay out last night. I wonder if they were cold last night?

Today was a fun day - Not!!!

Today was not a good day, it started off with the water overflowing everywhere. No problem, I figure I'll call a plumber and he can snake the line and cap off the open clean out sewer pipe (thats a whole other story). I call Service Magic (This service is awesome) and they recommend Red Lilly Plumbing, they have a 4.6 star rating and are in my neighborhood. They quote me a price of $89.95 to snake the line, which is a fair price.

The guy gets here, and proceeds to snake the line, but the snake gets stuck, that is not a good sign. He finally gets the snake out and it is entangled with roots, in the mean time the water is still there and not draining at all.

Well after all is said and done, I find out the the main sewer line from my house to the street needs to be replaced at a cost of $3800.00, he did give me a discount and it will end up costing me $3500. not too bad considering the plumber that came before him quoted me a price of $8000 and he never came back to finish the job he started several months ago.

They had to dig down approx 13 ft, 3 feet of that was under the retaining wall and sidewalk, then they will replace the pipe tomorrow. So far these guys are awesome, they are fast, really willing to work with you, and their prices are fair...

So as of now, I can't use the water, toilet etc. so me and Niki are going to have to camp out at my moms house tonight and I'll be $3500 poorer tomorrow. All in all not a fun day...

MINI Financial - Free ITouch Water Game

While trying to set up automatic payments for Ashley's new Little Black no name MINI, I found this cool free game app for your ITouch/IPhone from MINI Financial, called MINI Liquid Assets. If you remember those water games where you pressed the buttons to make the balls go up on in the water, this is the computerized version. Its pretty cool, here you press the buttons to make coins float up then you have to catch them in the different MINIs on the screen. I made it through 3 levels, not too sure how many levels there are. It utilizes the tilt screen actions so you can tilt the screen to steer your coins into the MINIs. Its a pretty cute game..

Gas Cubby For ITouch/IPhone

About a week after I bought Woodstock, I wanted to keep track of all his vehicle expenses, so I bought one of those little Vehicle Expense logs from Staples. I would write in it everytime I filled up with gas or did any kind of service. It was king of a pain cuz after I wrote in it, I would have to go home and calculate what the MPG was, then total everything for the month. I was pretty good about keeping it updated, but sometimes if I didn't have a pen or I left the book at home I would forget and skip some fillups.

Well, I found the perfect application for my Itouch, its called Gas Cubby. This thing is amazing, it keeps track of your services, gas fillups, total amount paid, mpg, etc. It keeps track of multiple cars and even has graphs and the best part about it is, it calculates everything for you... it gives you mpg for your last fillups and gives you an average mpg plus so much more. I think I only paid 4.95, which was cheaper than the dumb little book that I bought. I also carry my Itouch wherever I go, so its always in the car and I don't forget to add to it.

If you love to keep stats for you MINI and have an ITouch/IPhone this is a great app to add to it.

Stuck On Minis Vendor at AMVIV6

Magical Mystery Tour SF 2008 Ash & Tiff

I just wanted to let everyone know that Stuck On Minis will be a vendor at AMVIV6 this year. This will be Woodstock's and my first AMVIV and we're really looking forward to it.

I'm currently working on my inventory of sticker designs and my online Stuck On Minis store. So check back often for new stickers that are being added daily.

There are only 32 days until this event which starts on Mar 26st and ends Mar 29th. So far there are 196 cars registered. If you haven't already registered and want to sign up, just click here AMVIV6 .

Hope to see you there!!

Guitar Hero is addicting!!!

I bought a Playstation3 a little less than a year ago. I really didn't buy it to play video games, because the new generation video games make me motion sick. I know that's dorky but I really get physically nauseous when I play most video games on the PS3, especially car racing games and the first person shooting games, which really sucks because these are my favorite kinds of games. I played the racing game Moto Storm that came with my PS3 when I first got it and was sick and dizzy for 2 days.

So now I mostly watch Blueray DVDs on it and play the older generation Playstation2 Hots Shots golf games, that is until I bought Guitar Hero. My niece got it for Christmas and made the mistake of teaching me how to play it. Before she knew it, I had taken over the only guitar and didn't want to share. I ended up buying another guitar just so she could play.. I love this game and play it all the time. The graphics are awesome on my 40 inch Sony XBR LCD. I'm only on the beginner stage, cuz my goal is to get all perfect before I move to the next level. I have 40 perfect scores of 42. Those last two songs are killers and I'm not sure I'll be able to get perfect on it.. Oh well, I'll just keep playing until I get those two also.

Got some semi good news today

Since it is getting closer to my contract end date of March 31st, I figured I would call my recruiter and see if she has any updates on my status.   Yesterday she told me that she had not heard anything but she would follow up with my director to see if they had any plans on extending my contract end date.  

Well, I got a call from her today and she told me she has some good news.  The good news is they have all intentions of extending my contract but they don't know how long they will extend it for. Considering that many people I know are losing their jobs now, I am happy to know that I won't be losing mine in March.  Even if I get only get extended until the end of April that still better than March... So I'm crossing my fingers they will extend me 3 or 6 months, but whatever they do,  I'm just taking it one day at a time and will be happy for whatever extra time they give me.

Mmmm my sis BBQ'd ribeye steaks

Yahoo, I went to my moms to pick up Niki and my sis tells me to stay for dinner cuz she's barbequeing ribeye steaks... Mmmm my sister is the best BBQ'r... She makes them perfect!!!. I on the other hand am a very bad BBQ'r cuz I'm impatient and always burn the steaks...

I am eating my steak as I type this... Yummy, I haven't had a steak in awhile and she made mashed garlic potatoes too... I love ribeyes they are so tasty, juicy and tender!!!

2 of my friends are in the hospital

In the past 2 weeks I found out 2 of my friends are sick and in the hospital, both of them have cancer. I am so sad about this..I wasn't going to write about it, but I wanted them to know that I am thinking and praying for both of them. The last time I saw my friend Edgar was at George's Christmas Concert, I hadn't seen him in awhile and it was really nice to see him. I did not notice anything different about him. George told me a couple of weeks ago that Edgar was diagnosed with Lymphoma and that it had spread to his bones, stomach spleen etc and that he is in isolation and can't even start chemo until they get him stabilized. They think he's had it for awhile now. The doctors are confident that once he starts chemo that he should be able to recover.... I am hoping and praying that they will be able to kill the cancer cells.

My other long time Army friend, Nancy was in the hospital last week and was released on Sunday after her surgery to remove a cancerous something.. Her husband called me early this morning to tell me that they had to go the emergency room this morning due to complications.. They found a big blood clot between her liver and her heart. He sounded so worried and I know he was, and needed to talk to someone. I told him that she is in good hands and the doctors will take care of her.

I'm sending out my thoughts and prayers to them both and I hope they will recover and get better soon, I can't bear to lose another person I love.

Bored Today

Not much to talk about today, it was a rainy Tuesday after a holiday. It was my usual work from home day, but I needed to fax in my timesheet and I don't have a fax machine, so I had to go into work just to fax it. Knowing that its my normal work form home day, it was a bummer to have to get out of bed on a rainy day, take a shower, then take Niki for a walk which she hates to do in the rain, got soaking wet again, then headed to work with muddy paw prints (even though I tried to dry her off) all over the BMW... Other than that excitement, it was a really boring day... hopefully I'll have something better to say tomorrow.

Pics of the White MINI Computer

Ok here are the pictures of the new White Mini Computer. It got its first real tryout at the SCMM DIY day where I used it to load alot of Garmins. I had it on for about 3 hours, plus another 5 when I got home. Awesome battery life!!!. The keyboard is a little small and is taking me a little while to get used to, but it has a really nice click to it and its not bad at all. I really like the Acer Aspire One, its a full fledged computer that is great for facebook, emailing, surfing the web and blogging all packed into a Mini Computer while on the road.

The 2nd picture is showing the size difference between the Acer 8.5 inch screen, my Macbook 13 inch screen and my Gateway 15 inch screen.

Wow, I never realized how many computers I have, geez, I'm such a electronics gadget freak. This doesn't even count my work computer, my Apple Desktop computer or the old Sony Viao, and the old IBM laptop I just sent to my cousin in the Philippines.

I'm so glad tomorrow's a holiday

Whew, this was one busy stressful week and I'm happy that I got past my oncall and production outage without too many hitches. I did get called at 2:30 this morning cuz there was a problem with a server but other than that the outage went pretty good. I was a little under the gun due to time contraints but I got it done within my time frame. Nothing worse than trying to get something done and you have a million people calling and IMing you to find out when you are going to finish. That drives me nuts, just leave me alone until I call you, then I can get it done faster.
Ok, rant off...

Anyway, I am sooooo glad that tomorrow is a holiday and I don't have to go to work YAH!!! Hmm, I was thinking of going to wash my disgusting Woodstock, but from all accounts its suppossed to rain tomorrow, so we'll see. Maybe I'll just stay home and play Guitar Hero.

Valentines Day with the Maniacs (SCMM)

What's the best way to spend a Valentines Day? Spending it with the ones you love and doing the things you love, what else is there?

I spent my Valentines Day hanging with the Maniacs, first for breakfast at Ruby's then the rest of the day at the 3rd Annual SCMM DIY day. The Dr. graciously opened his awesome shop to all the SCMM members for a nice social gathering of eating (of course) members helping members doing oil chances etc. and vendors providing windshield repair, dent repair etc.

I did my part by helping some new members update their Garmins with the latest MINI jpgs and MINI pointer icons. I also made deviled eggs for the potluck which disappeared pretty fast. Poor Lex and Hope did not get one, but Bill our new SCMM President did, and apparently he loved them enough to give me a kiss on the hand. I'll have to make a special batch for Lex and Hope, they were really looking forward to them but were having the oil changed on their cars, by the time they finished so were the eggs.

Well the day had to come to an end, after a few hours we finally said our goodbyes and I had to head home to work. Since I love my Mini so much and I love to hang with the Maniacs, it was a great way to spend Valentines Day. I can't wait for our next event!!!

Maniacs, Kyra, Jen & Sue

Dent removal guy was awesome!!! He took some really bad dents out of Jens car

Created the Stuck On Minis Store

I finally created the Stuck On Minis store, it's still a work in progress and I will be adding more and more stickers as time goes on, but it's a start. If you use paypal, it has an "Add to Cart" and checkout through PayPal, feature. Also if you don't have PayPal, you can still enter your credit card number and PayPal will process it for you. I will never see your credit card number. I still accept check (will wait to clear) and money order, so you can send me an email at jfelix@stuckonminis.com if you want to order and not use a credit card.

I am also still doing custom made stickers, just email me with your ideas. I really don't do stripes or huge designs, because there are many other companies that specialize in this. I'm mostly doing window stickers small or large and I can do the numbers for your door, my biggest size sticker is 14.5 inches wide and as long as you want.

Please check out my new store, there is a link to the right of this post, or click on the link at the beginning of this post.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think or what I should add.

Why are some people so obnoxious?

I've been stewing about this all morning, and had to get it out..

After I dropped Niki off at my moms this morning I pulled up behind a huge SUV at the stoplight on my mom's street. The light turned green, but the lady wasn't paying attention, I figured she would realize the light changed and would go, however after approx 15 seconds she still wasn't looking at the light, so I honked (it was a friendly honk) well she still didn't go.. So the guy behind me honks really long.. then she looks in her mirror, and all of sudden (you can see by the expression on her face) she decides she wants to be obnoxious, she pulls up about 2 feet then stops. Luckily I wasn't on her butt or I would have had nowhere to go, so I have enough room to get around, but then she floors it so I can't get past..Remember she has this big lumbering SUV, and I'm driving the BMW, so I whip by her and get to the light. By this time I'm not a happy camper!!!

I know I shouldn't let things like this get to me, but geez, I can't understand why people have to act this way... I'm glad I wasn't driving Woodstock, cuz he stands out like a sore thumb and I park him in the driveway at my moms house all the time. Don't want something to happen to him if someone gets evil thoughts in their minds over something like getting honked at, at a red light.

I bought a Mini Computer

I'm on the road so much and bring my computer with me wherever I go, but I hate lugging around my big laptop and I also hate Vista. So I started looking at those new Mini Computers (netbooks) and found the perfect one. I went to check them out at Best Buy and tried the HP, the Gateway and the Acer Aspire One. The keyboard and the whole look and feel of the Acer got me hooked. I've been looking for awhile now, I happened to log onto Amazon last night and found the price of the Acer with 1gb of Ram, 160gb hard drive, Windows XP and a 6 cell battery(5.5hr) had dropped from 379.00 to 329.00. I figure since I got a really big tax refund what the heck. So I bought it, they shipped it today and I should get it by the 13th. Just in time for DIY day, I can load everyone Garmins with it..

The Mini (it measures 8.9 inches) computer is the perfect item to bring with me on my Mini Adventures. I'm going to have to get a usb aircard though, cuz this computer does not have a regular PCI slot to fit my current aircard. Ooh I can't wait to get my new white MINI.... I'll post pics when it arrives

Who's going to AMVIV6?

This will be my first AMVIV and I'm really looking forward to hanging out with my SCMM friends and meeting new ones at this awesome event. I've already signed up to be a vendor for Stuck On Minis and plan to either leave Wednesday night or caravaning with the Maniacs early Thursday morning.

I looked at the AMVIV website and it looks like there are already 171 registered cars, that's awesome!!!. I'm hoping more people will sign up, it will be nice to be there for my first AMVIV with a record breaking MINI attendance. If you own a MINI and don't know what AMVIV is, just click on the link and check it out.

So who's going??? Hope to see ya there!!! Leave a comment below and let me know, and tell me where you'll be coming from too. I'm Just curious...

Why is the price of gas rising?

Why is the price of gas rising? It shouldn't be!!!

I'm baffled by this, I have been keeping a daily log of the price of gas at my local Arco gas station and the price of a barrel of oil since 11/17/08. I wanted to see if the cost of a barrel of oil really did have an effect on the price of gas. I also wanted to see if the demand for gas also has an effect on gas prices.

Well, all indications (for me anyway) is that none of these really control the price of gas. I'll give you an example: on 12/12/08 I recorded the cheapest price for the time period I have been collecting of $1.83 at Arco for 91 octane gas. On the same day the price of a barrel of oil was $49.22. Today, a barrel of oil sold for $39.56 and the price of gas at the same Arco just went up to $2.35 for premium.

Everything that I have read in the last several months states that demand for gas is at an all time low, so that means with the price of oil and demand declining, gas prices should be getting lower. Today a barrel of oil sold for $39.56. My calculations indicate the price of gas should be somewhere around $1.46 for premium, not $2.35

My conclusion is that the price of gas is not set by the price of oil, or by supply and demand but by the greedy highly profitable Oil Companies who wish to gouge us at every opportunity, but we already knew this. Now I have concrete evidence that proves to me that this is what they are actually doing.....

It's a rainy Sunday

Not much happening today, pretty much the whole family except me, Jess and mom are in Vegas for Deb's Birthday. Since it's raining out, its the perfect day to just veg in my cozy bed with Niki, read the paper and surf the web. I love these kinds of days.

Nice to get together with my SCMM buddies

Fellow Maniac, Pillar keeping Niki warm

Today was a beautiful but rainy day. I woke up early and me & Niki drove down down Sunset to meet the Maniacs for breakfast at Coogies. It actually didn't start to rain until I hit PCH which was nice, someone up there listened to my request for no rain while I was driving Sunset. Thanks!!!

By the time I got to Coogies it was raining pretty good, so the Maniacs hung out under the covered area by Coogies and just caught up with everyones lives. Since it was raining, I had to leave Niki in the car, she gets cold so I didn't want her wet and freezing. She was wearing her jacket and had her pillow so she was good to go while we ate breakfast. Me and Kenny had the breakfast pizza, it was pizza with bacon, spinach, 3 eggs sunnyside up and feta cheese, it was a really weird concoction but very tasty... As usual it was very nice to see everyone. It won't be long before I see most of them again, since we have our DIY day next Sat. See ya guys then...

I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow

It's been raining all day today, and is forcasted to rain the entire weekend. Geez, after a month of no Mini activities, I wanted to get up early tomorrow morning and cruise on down Sunset to PCH and meet up with the Maniacs. I usually like to drive in a very "spirited" manner down Sunset on Saturday mornings, cuz it's usually empty at 7:00 am and the slowpokes are still sleeping.

I have never liked driving in the rain, not because I can't do it, but there is so much more you have to be careful with, and for me its not as much fun driving when you have to be extra careful. So I'm praying for no rain between 7:00am and 8:30am tomorrow so I can get into Woodstock and just go without having to worry about sliding around in the mud and stuff. I'm not being greedy it can rain on the way home cuz, by then all the slowpokes are awake and I can't drive fast down Sunset anyway.

Pics of little black no name MINI

It's official, Ashley loves her MINI!!! He/She is very cute but still nameless. I told her a name will come to her as she gets to know him or her better, its still a baby... So for now, my name is Little Black MINI.. original huh?

Ok here are the pics:

Woodstock is an uncle!!!

Woodstock is an uncle!!!

We just got back from buying a 2009 Astro Black Mini Cooper for my niece Ashley. We tried to keep the price down because she's a hard working college student, who also works full time and doesn't make that much money. Here's what we got her, an all Astro Black Cooper with Chrome boot handle, Bluetooth, Multifunction Wheel, White Turn signals, Automatic, 16 inch wheels, 6 year, 100,000 miles maintenance, and Tire and Wheel insurance. I think we got a pretty good deal, almost $400 off of MSRP. This car just came off the boat and no one not even her, test drove it, it had 9 miles on it when we picked it up. Dummy me forgot to bring a camera, so I'll post pictures tomorrow.

We ended up spending a little more than we wanted but, in the end she was happy with what she got, so that's all that counts. Now all she has to do is find a name that suits her MINI. We are now a two MINI family. Now my mom wants a Clubman, so we'll have to see how that goes.

Not feeling well today

Here's another short post today because I still have a pretty big headache that I can't seem to get rid of and I'm not feeling really good. Not much to talk about, I skipped lunch and left work early and came home. Just now getting caught up with all the SCMM and NAM forum posts.

I hope that I feel better for this weekend, because I don't want to miss our SCMM Malibu breakfast meet. Maybe I'll have more to say tomorrow.

I can't wait until Saturday

This one is going to be short today cuz I have a really big headache and can't concentrate. All I can say is, I can't wait until Sat. so I can take a fun ride down to Malibu and meet up with the Maniacs for breakfast.

Have a great week everyone!!!

Ashley is a copy cat

I'm laying in bed for my normal Sunday ritual of reading the newspaper and surfing the web when I get a call from my niece Ashley stating that she wants a MINI. She loves my MINI and for some reason likes all the stuff I like, she's such a copy cat... Well she just bought a car a couple of years ago and still owes a significant amount on it. I tried to talk her out of it, because if she trades in her old car in they will tack the difference that she owes onto her new car payments. However she was prepared and persistent, she proceeded to tell me all the merits of having a new car vs her old car that she bought used. It actually made sense to me, wow I think she's finally growing up. She can't afford a Cooper S, so she is happy to look for a Cooper, which is better because she drives like me and a Cooper S is too powerful for her. So instead of laying in bed all day, my mission is to find a car for her. We have an appointment today at South Bay MINI to test drive a Cooper. I wonder what color she's going to end up with?