The Adventures of Woodstock my Mini Cooper

MINI Factory Tour

2011-07-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

It isn't an easy thing to do, but after months of trying we finally, this morning, got a confirmed reservation to take the MINI Factory Tour in Oxford England. This is really dumb but of all the activities we have planned this is going to be one of the highlights of our trip and I can't wait too see where Woodstock, Yoshi, Stitch and Jack's MINI were born.

If you would like to take the tour, more information can be found here - http://www.mini.Co.UK/about-us/factory-tour, just remember to be patient it's a very frustrating process.

Our Dream Garage

2011-06-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

Well we finally finished our dream garage, well almost ( just a few decorating touches and some pegboard and it will be done)

Floor - Garage Deck

Cabinets and Bench - Gladiator

Chairs - Craftsman

All made in America

As promised here are some pics:

Yoshi's Big Brother & New Home

2011-05-26T21:26:00.001-07:00

Well I finally got pictures of the garage with the Race Deck Flooring, painted walls and the mounted tire racks. I also added some pictures of Yoshi's new big brother the all new 1 series M Coupe better known as Bowser....
Sorry for the bad pics.

We have one last phase to go before the garage will be complete. We'll soon be adding Gladiator Cabinets with a bench. I will post pics when we get the cabinets in and clean up the garage. Not enough time in the day, we've had the new car for approx 3 weeks and only have 600 miles on him. We've been itching to take him out for a really good twisty run. Hopefully that will be this weekend.

New custom iPhone Skins

2011-05-09T07:17:00.001-07:00

Just in time for AMVIV, personalize your iPhone with your MINI. Stuck On MInis Custom iPhone Skins

Getting Ready for AMVIV8

2011-04-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted lately, but with moving finally done, I am now able to get ready for AMVIV8.

Are you guys going?

Here's something I've been working on, Stuck On Minis just bought an awesome Roland VersaCamm printer/cutter, we can now make your custom die cut stickers, just send us an email and a picture of what you want in eps, ai or high res jpg and we can print and cut your sticker.

See the AMVIV8 Promo sticker below:

This sticker will be contour cut around the grill badge so when you pull the sticker off you won't see the Stuck On MINIs ad.

Hope to see you in Vegas

Yoshi's New Home

2011-03-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

Check out Yoshi's new home, well it's not quite built yet but it should be done within the next week. His old home was a small 2 car garage which was about 16w x 17l. It was a tight squeeze but we were able to get Yoshi and the Vette in it, we have to park as close to the wall as possible, then have to be careful opening the doors so we won't dent the other car. We also don't have any room in the rear for storage cuz the Vette barely fit in lengthwise.

I've always wanted a nice garage with Race Deck Flooring and some nice cabinets to house all of our car stuff. Our new garage will be 18w x 24l, even though it is only 2 feet wider, it's 8 feet longer, now we won't have to park against the wall and we shouldn't have a problem with the doors and definitely no problem with storage. We just ordered our Race Deck flooring and will also be putting in Gladiator Cabinets with an 8ft Work Bench. I can't wait until our garage is complete, that is the last thing we need to be completed before we can move in to our new house. I'll post some pics of our Garage as we add the components, my goal is to have an awesome show garage that Yoshi and our new BMW 1M will be proud to call home.

Not just another BMW

2011-03-04T09:05:00.000-08:00

I have been BMWless since the year before last when I sold my 2005 325Ci , I've been itching to get another BMW since then. One of my favorite cars is the M3, I've wanted one since they came out in 1986, the only problem is they have gotten too big, too long and too heavy for me. So when we heard that they were going to make a 1M and that it will be roughly the same length as the original M3 we decided we had to have it. We put our name on the list at the dealership, but didn't think we would get one cuz we were number 5 on the list. Well out of the blue our motoring advisor called us to let us know that one of the guys in front of us on the list changed his mind and that we would get his allocation, which is one of the very first 1M builds. (not so sure that is a good thing though) So we now have a supposedly limited 2011 Sapphire Black BMW 1M on order and in production, with a scheduled delivery date of the 1st week of May. Ooh I can't wait to get and drive this car, it's going to be awesome. I told you it's not just another BMW, it's the new 1M.

Who's Going to MINI United? NO ONE!!!

2011-02-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

I can't even tell you how disappointed I am but I just found out yesterday that MINI has postponed MINI United until 2012.

Wow, how can a company announce to the world that they are holding an event on a certain date and place, then decide to postpone? I guess they don't care that people made plans, bought plane tickets, rented cars, paid for hotels and took time off from work to attend their event. It's sad really that a big company like MINI can't get their act together to plan an event 2 years off from their last one and that they take their core customer base for granted. Lucky for us that we planned this trip keeping in mind that something like this might happen. Yes I'm disappointed in MINI for getting my hopes up and for taking me as a customer for granted, but we are still going to Europe, MINI United or not.

Who's Going To MINI United? We Are!!

2011-01-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

I was so bummed that I chose not to go to MINI United last year, but I'm not going to make that mistake this year. Yahoo, not only are we going to MINI United in the South of France, but we're going to England for a week and taking the 7 Day Disney Mediterranean after that. All reservations have been made and paid for, all we have to do is wait the 200 plus days until we leave. We're going as regular attendees not as a vendor for Stuck On MINIs. We would love to be a vendor but did that all last year, and now we just want to go and enjoy the event without having to work the event.

So the question is, are you going to MINI United? We are and hope to meet some of you.

Dry Carbon Fiber by Vinyl Styles

2010-12-07T21:42:00.000-08:00

Day 3 of our month long journey brought us to San Carlos the home of the master vinyl man Lyle from Vinyl Styles. He spent almost 6 hours installing dry carbon fiber on the A and C pillars, the hoodscoop and the tail light surrounds on Yoshi. I must say it came out awesome.

Can you see the rainbow and the seal?

2010-12-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

Today we stopped to visit the seals in San Simeon, (can you find it in the pic?) ate lunch at the amazing Village Restaurant in Carmel, checked out the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, went to see Unstoppable (great movie), lots of rain (can you see the rainbow?) 4 cops, 19 MINIs, 2nd stopover in Newark (not New Jersey)... yeah I know where the heck is Newark??? If you must know it's a little south of Oakland... It was the closest Marriott to San Carlos, which is where Vinyl Styles is located. Yoshi will be all dry carbon fiber'd out tomorrow by the master vinyl man, Lyle... I can't wait to see what it will look like

Month long Honeymoon Road Trip

2010-12-05T17:02:00.000-08:00

We started off our month long honeymoon yesterday eating breakfast with our SCMM buddies at Coogies in Malibu.This will be the last time we hang out with them until we get back sometime in Jan. We'll be driving up the Pacific Coast Highway To Vancouver Island. We don't have any plans set in stone, except to have Lyle with Vinyl Styles install the rest of our dry carbon fiber on the A and C pillars and the taillight surrounds . Other than that, whenever we see something we like, we'll stop.

Our first stopover was the Bluebird Inn in Cambria, this is one of my favorite places to stay on the way up to SF. We ate dinner at Lombardies in Cambria, wow the food is awesome here.

My tradition of counting cops and MINIs continue, the goal this trip is to NOT GET A Speeding Ticket. So 21 cops, 5 MINIs and pair of rubber duckies capped off our 1st day on the road.

You Can't Own Just One

2010-11-29T08:03:00.000-08:00

We did it again, bought another MINI, but this isn't just another MINI, this is a very special MINI. It belonged to one of the founding members of SCMM who died of Leukemia last year at the age of 78. His dream after watching the Worlds Fastest Indian was to take his MINI to Bonneville and make it into the 130MPH club running it in the standing 1 mile. Sadly he died before he could do it in his MINI, he did do it in another MINI though. This is a 2004 JCW with all the bells and whistles and has been raced at Willow Springs, Buttonwillow and many other tracks. Bill was very good friends with Jack and he didn't want to see this car go to someone that wouldn't appreciate it's specialness. So now we have 4 MINI's you know they're like Lays Potato chips, you can't just have one....

MINI Wedding of a Lifetime

2010-11-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

I've been soo busy with Stuck On MINIs, we just got done with MTTS and Minis in the mountains in Aug but have also been busy planning our MINI wedding that happened in Oct. I'm just now writing about it. All I can say is wow, I met my husband in our MINI club, SoCal MINI Maniacs almost 3 yrs ago, but we were just casual friends. I don't know how it happened but we fell in love and got married on Oct 24th at MB2 Raceway in Thousand Oaks Ca. We had almost 250 people in attendance and half of that number was our friends from the SoCal MINI Maniacs. It was the best wedding anyone could ask for. We both wore t-shirts and shorts and did our first dance in go karts. Our close friend Robert from Twisty Bitz designed our wedding invitations, save the date magnets, t-shirts and thank you cards as a wedding present, and I must say they came out awesome. I cut the stickers and the vinyl for the shirts but he did all the design work. If you want a special MINI wedding too, you should contact him. Thanks Robert we love you and appreciate all the hard work you put into making our wedding special, it was definitely a night to remember. I love you Bill!!!

Yoshi's First Boo-Boo,

2010-08-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

The first dent is always the hardest one to deal with. Well it happened alot faster than on my other cars and I didn't even notice it, Bill was the one who told me. I'm not really sure how it happened since most of the time I park on and end spot with lots of room between me and the car on the left, but somehow it did and I'm not happy. Luckily it is a small one and there is no paint missing so I can get one of those paintless dent repair guys to fix it. Geez some people are so rude, I always make sure when I open my door that I don't hit the car next to me. How hard is it be be considerate of other peoples property? I guess it's pretty hard considering all the door dings I see on other peoples cars. Oh well I guess it's a fact of life at least Yoshi's first Boo-Boo wasn't a car wreck or something, I should be happy it wasn't anything worse.

Stuck On Minis at MINI of Ontario Booth MTTS

2010-08-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

I just got a call from my friends at MINI of Ontario and they asked that Stuck On MINI's share a booth with them at the MINIcross on Saturday, Aug 7,2010 Santa Anita Park, Parking Lot B
285 W Huntington Drive, Arcadia Ca 91007.

Come by say and Hi, I'll be selling stickers til about 5:00 pm. If you mention this blog post I'll give you a free MITM/MTTS sticker that looks like the one in the post below.

Hope to see ya there...

Ready for MITM & MTTS?

2010-07-27T08:51:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, I was supossed to post something once a day, but what can I say? Being the SCMM event Director, participating in MINI events almost every weekend, making T-shirts and stickers for MINIs in the Mountains and MINI Takes the States, planning my wedding and Bill's 65th Birthday party there's just too much to do.. I guess blogging had to take a back seat.

Can you believe that we've only had Yoshi for 4.5 months and he already has almost 13,000 miles on him? Geez at this rate we'll put 40,000 miles on him in a year..

Anyway, back on topic, are you ready for MITM and MTTS? I can't believe this huge event is less than 2 weeks away. I'm doing pretty good, I'm not quite ready, but I came up with 2 more t-shirt designs and numerous new stickers. Not much to do except figure out how to pack all the stuff in Yoshi. We did it for MOTD8 we should be able to do it for this. Stuck on Minis will have a booth at Minis in the Mountains Wed Aug 11th thru Friday Night Aug 14th. We'll move from Winter Park to Denver and will set up at MTTS on Sat Aug 15th. We hope to see you there.
11 more days to MITM and MTTS, Let's Rally!!!

Back from The Dragon

2010-05-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

We're back, we were gone 15 days, drove 5674 miles, went thur 16 states, stopped 23 times for gas, which we bought 198 gallons of, at an average price of 3.13 per gallon. We averaged 28 mpg, got 1 speeding ticket, washed Yoshi 4 times, experienced a low of 16 and a high of 92 degrees and drove thru the torrential downpour in Knoxville.

We had a blast at The Dragon, got to see some old army friends, ate awesome steak in TX, took a boat ride on the Lost Sea in TN, visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, bought some cheese in Wisconsin, was in awe at Mount Rushmore, froze our butts off in Winter Park and finally made it home. Oh yeah, we did not have 1 single problem with Yoshi and put a total of 8300 miles on him in our first 2 months of owning him.

It was a trip of a lifetime, not only did I get to see things I've never seen before but I got to do it with Bill which made it so much better, and guess what? We are going to do it again next year. We already reserved our room for MOTD9 and we're going to drive a different route so we can see and experience new things. I can't wait, anyone else want to join us next year?

Packed and ready to go

2010-04-24T21:14:00.001-07:00

We packed up Yoshi last night, so all we had to do was get in the car this morning and go.

We decided a couple of days ago that today was going to be the longest stretch, we needed to get to Albuquerque the first day so that we could make it to The Dragon by Wed.

We hit the road around 6:15 and headed out, we also decided that we did not want to get any kind of tickets on this trip and that at the most we would only drive 10 MPH over the speed limit. Luckily we actually stuck to this, because we counted 25 police cars either giving tickets out or waiting to give tickets. Our handy Passport Escort 8500 helped us, but we were pretty safe cuz we weren't driving much over the speed limit anyway.

Can you believe that we drove over 730 miles and we only saw 3 other MINI's? I wonder where all the MINI's were? Well we got to Albuquerque around 7:30 and we figured we averaged 29.3 mpg, not too bad considering the car is packed with alot of extra weight, plus the extra drag from the rooftop mounted storage pod.

Tomorrow we will head to Oaklahoma City..

Roadtrip - The Dragon or Bust

2010-04-23T07:09:00.001-07:00

Ever since I got Woodstock I have been wanting to go to the Dragon. When my contract ended in Oct we decided to put off looking for a job and be a vendor at most of the National MINI events, so we registered Stuck on Minis for, AMIVIV, The Dragon and a few days ago MITM and MTTS. Well the time has finally arrived, we got our new JCW Clubman "Yoshi" last month and finally got him ready for the long 17 day roadtrip to NC. On the way there and back we are going to visit some old Army friends, meet some new friends and do some good old fashioned sight seeing. We are also going to try eating at some of the Diners, Drive-in and Dives. This is going to be a great trip, I can't wait for today to be over so I can start my vacation already.....

5 Weeks and 2450 miles later

2010-04-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted pics of our new car but we've been so busy getting ready for AMVIV and The Dragon, that time just flew by. We picked up "Yoshi" on March 16th and have been motoring like crazy since we got him. Not only have we been motoring but we've been modding too. He's got awesome suspension now, with Eibach Mega MINI springs, Eibach 19mm sway bar, Koni FSD shocks, M7 Heat shield, Tinted Windows 18% rear and 40% front with custom Mellow Yellow stripes installed by my friend Robert from TwistyBitz. Oh yeah and since we couldn't fit all the stuff for AMVIV in the car, we got the MINI roof rack crossbars with a Yakima RocketBox to hold all of our stuff for the trips to The Dragon, MINI's in the Mountains and MTTS.

I really didn't want a clubman for everyday driving cuz I thought it would be heavier and not as fun to drive as Woodstock but we needed the extra space for all of my Stuck On MINI's activities. Boy was I wrong, I love this car, it's fast, handles great and the extra space is wonderful. It's been 5 weeks and we've already put 2450 fun filled miles on Yoshi. Sat we are leaving for the Dragon and we'll put another 5500 miles on him in two weeks. Wow with The Dragon, MITM and MTTS, this car is going to rack up alot of miles this year. Hope to meet some of you at some of these events.

Started my new job

2010-03-01T10:31:00.000-08:00

I've been jobless for the last 4 months mostly because I needed a vacation and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue being a Unix Systems Admin or if I wanted to make a career change. Not to mention that it is pretty hard to find a job right now. I also figured that this would be the perfect time to take Stuck On Minis on the road and be a vendor at all the major National MINI events, like AMVIV, MINIs on the Dragon and MINIs in the Mountains. I wanted to find a job but I also wanted to see if I could make a go of having my own business. Bill and I had pretty much agreed that I should wait until after Minis on the Dragon before I started to seriously look for a job. Well it figures, just when we decided to go for it, I get a call from a recruiter, long story short I interviewed, got the job and started last Thur. It's nice to have a job again, but the really great thing about this job is that it's so flexible. I requested the AMVIV and Minis in the Mountains vacation days and they agreed to let me go for 4 days in March and 2 Weeks in Apr/May to attend these events. Wow, not only do I have a pretty good job, but I get to go have fun with all my old and new MINI friends. Not to mention that I get take a 2 week road trip in our new JCW Clubman, just wish it would get here already...

WW - Madame Butterfly

2010-02-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

Yahoo, I just found out the my new baby will be delivered via the WW - Madame Butterfly. The ship is scheduled to depart Southampton UK on Feb 16th and arrive into Port Hueneme, Ca on Mar 11th. If all goes as planned I should have him around Mar 18th just in time for AMVIV....

Waiting to be transported

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, the wait is killing me, even though this is my 3rd MINI, this is the first one that I conceived and ordered. My 2 other MINIs were adopted, so I got instant gratification and was able to bring them home the same day. Well my new baby completed production on Feb 5th and is now at the port waiting to be transported by ship. (he's way too big for a stork) Once he gets on the ship, he'll be at sea for approx 21 days. Hopefully I'll get him before AMVIV but I think that is a longshot. Anyway, I'm so glad that MINI allows us to track our babies throughout the process, it makes the wait so much easier to know where he is everyday. Now I need to come up with a name...

Feb 4th Due Date

2010-01-29T20:15:00.000-08:00

I just called ASK-MINI and found out that my baby will completed by Feb 4th. Then I have to wait the longest time for the stork to deliver him to me. I was really hoping he would get here before MINI's on the Dragon, but since he went into production much faster than I thought, now I hope he gets here before AMVIV, that would be awesome.

My BRG JCW was Born Today

2010-01-28T09:11:00.001-08:00

Well, it happened faster than I thought it would, my British Racing Green JCW was Born Today. My Motoring Advisor Amanda from South Bay MINI in Ca just sent me his first baby ultrasound and this letter:

"Congrats

Guess what… its looks like you have a MINI delivery on the way our doctors at Plant Oxford sent this over for you!

Your MINI has started production as of today! Let me know if you have a name for it already or when you come up with one let me know!

Congrats again and thanks for ordering with me and South bay MINI! I will keep you updated as your MINI makes its moves through production.

Motor Safely

Amanda White
Motoring Advisor
South Bay MINI
310-939-7154"

Wow this is so exciting, my first two Mini's had already been delivered to their temporary homes before I adopted them. This is the first MINI that I configured and conceived from the very beginning. Boy this is going to be a long 2 months, I can't wait to get my new baby....

New Stuck On Minis Mobile

2010-01-27T21:36:00.000-08:00

I finally heard back from the Lemon Law lawyer, Woodstock will be turned back to MINI USA in a couple of months. We've had some great times, but it's time to move on. I'll miss him, but it's not like we'll be MINIless, because I just placed my order for a 2010 BRG JCW Clubman. Hopefully it gets here before Minis on the Dragon, cuz we are driving out there to be vendor for Stuck On Minis. I guess the crazy tracking of my new baby begins tomorrow. I didn't have to track Woodstock because I bought him off the lot. It's going to be torture waiting for the updates on the MINIusa site. Oh well that's the fun of ordering a new MINI, watching his progress as he's born.

Being jobless sucks but not as bad as I thought

2009-12-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

My contract with WB ended on Oct 31st. I remember it clearly, even though I knew it was coming and did my best to prepare for it, it still hit me pretty hard. I didn't quite freak out but it was close. I have always been defined by what I do and how I do it, so being jobless made me feel really worthless. I know that is pretty bad because there are more things to life then being a recovering workaholic, but that thought didn't make me any feel better. Luckily I have been preoccuppied with being in love with Bill, otherwise I think I might have gone slighlty crazy. I'm not suprised that I can't find a job, but I'm a little worried because for my whole life jobs have pretty much fallen in my lap and this time it hasn't.

I have never taken a vacation between new jobs, so this time I made up my mind that I would take a much needed vacation after my contract ended. I figured I would start seriously looking for a job at the beginning of the year. I made up my mind that I would put being jobless of out my mind for the 2 months before the new year. So far I have been pretty successful and have really enjoyed my time off and spending it with Bill. Since my last day in Oct, we have stayed at Disney for 2 weeks, went to Laughlin, Sedona and back to Disney. So even though I'm jobless, which sucks and I've let it come into my thoughts a few times in the last couple of months, I've really enjoyed the downtime and spending it with Bill. If I'm not careful I could get used to this, because being jobless isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I have a good excuse, really I do

2009-12-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

I know, I haven't updated my blog in more than 2 months, but I have a good excuse, really I do. It's not that me and Woodstock haven't had some excellent adventures, cuz we have. It's just that something totally unexpected happened to me in Oct. I fell in love... My life has taken a different path that I did not think was possible just 3 short months ago. I lived by myself for over 20 years and I liked it that way. I was free to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I never wanted to, or thought of the possibility of getting married.

Well, my life has changed drastically and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I love my life even better now. I now have someone that I can share my life with and we can still do whatever we want whenever we want. Me and Bill got engaged Thanksgiving week and just set the wedding date for Oct 24th 2010. Wow, Love is a wonderful thing which I knew but somehow forgot about. Thanks Bill for reminding me that life without love is not worth living.

The Perfect Sunday

2009-10-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted in over a month... What can I say? life is just so full these days that my blog has taken a back seat. I'm going to try and get back on track with the one post a day thing again though.

Yesterday was one long workday, I ended up working something like 17 hours straight, so needless to say, I'm beat. Sundays are usually my veg days, but lately a certain someone is not making that very easy, so I haven't vegged on a Sunday in a few months now. Well today, I'm going to veg, first of all cuz I'm really sleepy and have no engergy and second, I just don't feel like going anywhere. It turns out that this is the perfect day for vegging, it's one of those dark gloomy days where you can stay in your cozy bed all day and surf the web and fall asleep in between every once in awhile. Not sure I'll be able to do that cuz Bill is coming over, but hey you never know. So yeah today is going to be the perfect Sunday maybe curled up on the couch with Bill watching movies or something, who knows??? I just know that I'm spending the day with someone I really like and I'm not leaving the house for anything.

Woodstock is lonely

2009-09-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Well I finally did it, I sold my 2005 BMW 325Ci. Actually I sold it last month, but I was waiting for the title to come so that I could sign it over to it's new owner. Yesterday was the day, the new owner met me at the DMV where I signed the car over to her, can you believe they charged her $1500 in sales tax? This was the first time I ever sold a car and didn't know they charged sales tax on a car that I had already paid sales tax on when I bought it. What a scam...

Anyway, my friend who bought the car always drove old hand me down clunkers and this is her first nice car. I went over all the car's features, just like they do at the dealership and after all was said and done she left. I looked in the garage and poor Woodstock looked so little and lonely all by himself in there. Poor thing had to sleep by himself last night, he's always had big brother BMW next to him. I know both of us will eventually get over the loss. =o(

Lemon Law Process

2009-08-14T11:43:00.001-07:00

As much as a love my cute little Woodstock, we've had some great times but we've also been to the shop 1 too many times, (over 65 days at the dealer for some major repairs). It was fine when I had 2 cars, but since I recently sold my BMW I don't have the luxury to have such an unreliable car. It's sad really cuz aside from the numerous problems he runs really good. I'm just worried that one of these days I'm going to be stranded somewhere. I contacted a Lemon Law lawyer who states that I have a pretty solid case. It will take around 6 months to complete, so we'll see how that goes. I really want another MINI, I just don't want to get another one and have the same kinds of issues. It seems like many people are having reocurring clutch, transmission, flywheel failures and MINI hasn't addressed these problems yet. So for now, I'm not sure what kind of car I'm going to get, it's a toss up between a MINI JCW or a BMW 135i so far I'm leaning towards the 135i

Back at work

2009-08-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Well after a last minute reprieve from joblessness on the 31st of July I'm back at work. I got to work but I have no access, so I decided to update my blog. Lets backtrack just a little. My last day was the 31st of July, I had already cleaned up my desk and was deleting all the stuff off of my computer when I was told that I got extended until Oct. Wow, was I surprised. I had already made plans to do the swap meets and take a break for a couple of months. This was great news, the only problem was even though they put in the paperwork for the extension, It had not been approved yet. So they told me to take a vacation for a week and come back today. Wow a 9 day vacation, boy did I use every min of that vacation to try and get caught up with my life. I got stocked up with tshirts for Stuck On Minis, sold my BMW, had lunch/dinner with friends and just a had a really nice relaxing 9 days off.

So I'm now back at work for at least another 2.5 months and hopefully the economy will get a little better by the end of Oct so I can find another job, or maybe they'll extend me again? At this poing who knows what the future will bring job wise, but at least for now I'm working which is a good thing.

09 Wine Country British & Euro Car Show 08/23/09

2009-07-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give you a heads up that Stuck On Minis will be a vendor at the REME (Redwood Empire Mini Enthusiasts) sponsored 2009 Wine Country British & European Car Show on 08/23/09 at 5525 Old Redwood Highway (Between Fulton & Shiloh Roads) Santa Rosa, Ca. A portion of the proceeds are to benefit the Safari West Wildlife Foundation
So far there are many MINI/Mini's, MG's, Rolls, etc signed up, it looks like it's going to be a really nice event.

Please come out and join us, it should be a great day with all the classic British Cars in attendance.

MINI's at the shooting range

2009-07-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

I love to go to the range and shoot targets, I used to go at least once or twice a week. Ever since I got my MINI, I have been doing "MINI" stuff pretty much every weekend and my shooting activities have been sidelined. Well this weekend, me and my fellow Maniacs, some experienced, some newbies got together and went to the Oak Tree Gun club. We all had a blast, some of us shot trap and some of shot steel and paper targets. I'm so glad that I was able to share my other passion with my MINI friends. I hope we do it again soon.

MINI's at Mission Tiki Drive-In

2009-07-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

SCMM had it's 4th annual MINI's at The Mission Tiki Drive-In on Sat to see Transformers 2. This was kind of a last min event so the usual amount of people could not attend. We did get a respectable showing of 24 MINI's including Tavis's classic mini, an Acura (Scott just sold his Classic MINI) and another non MINI.

Even though we didn't have the 80 cars that we had last year, we still had a really nice time. There was an original Hawaiian Shirt Contest and a raffle. Ontario BMW came out to promote their new MINI Dealership (it will open in Nov of this year) and they raffled off many cool MINI items. I won a nice MINI keychain and my sis won a t-shirt. They will also send an email to 3 lucky Ipod winners. I hope I win one...
Looking forward to next years event...

The countdown begins

2009-07-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

There are only 21 days left in my work contract and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get extended. I've had a bunch of interviews but nothing has panned out. So I think if I don't get a job, I'm just going to hit the road with Woodstock and be a vendor with Stuck On Minis at some of the car show events and swap meets in California. I've always wanted to have my own business and I think this is the perfect opportunity. Who knows maybe if things work out I won't have to go back to a "real" job.

What are the odds???

2009-07-07T08:17:00.000-07:00

Me and my niece signed up with 4 different emails each for the Michael Jackson Memorial and we didn't win one ticket. Her boyfriend who was with us when we were signing up wasn't even interested, but he signed up using a couple of his email addresses. Can you believe that out of approx 1.6 million entries he won twice, meaning he won 4 tickets!!! Geez, what are the odds, that is one lucky guy. Well, Ashley at this very moment is at the Staples Center with him. She's going to take lots of pictures for me.. I'm glad that one of us got to go.

Who registered for Michael Jackson's Memorial

2009-07-05T11:37:00.001-07:00

Ok, I admit it, I was one of 1.6 million people who registered to try and win one of approx 17,500 tickets to see Michael Jackson's Memorial at Staples Center. I know the odds aren't that great, but you never know, maybe I'll get lucky.

If anyone wins one, please comment on this post, I'm really curious to know who you are and where you're from.

Good Luck everyone.

My home away from home

2009-06-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

Yay!!! I'm up here in Ventura at the Harbortown Point my home away from home. Every year for the 4th of July week my family heads up to Ventura for rest and relaxation and to get away from the heat in L.A. We have done this for the past 20 plus years and me, my family and friends always look forward to coming here. However, for the past couple of years, it's also been a sad week, because this is the same week my dad died almost 3 years ago. We miss him dearly but coming here always reminds us of all the fun we had with him and brings back all the fond memories of the past 20 years. I miss you dad and wish you were here in body but know you are here in spirit.

I was a fan - R.I.P Michael & Farrah

2009-06-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

I am not ashamed to admit this, but I was one of those crazy almost obsessed Michael Jackson Fans in the 80's. I saw his Victory tour twice in Atlanta, then drove to Jacksonville Florida and saw him there. I also drove from Utah to Los Angeles to see him, except he cancelled at the last minute due to an illness.

I was also a huge Charlies Angels fan, I remember I had to have the Farrah feathered hair =o)

I am in shock and I am saddened that we have lost 2 shining stars. R.I.P. Michael and Farrah, the world will miss you..

The economy is not improving

2009-06-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

I've been reading lately that the economy is improving. I don't know where these economists are getting their data from, but I don't see the economy improving at all. My best friend just got called into a "big" meeting about an 1 1/2 ago and was told that his and his entire department's jobs had just been eliminated. He was then escorted out of the building. So many of my friends are in the same position and I'm afraid that this is just the beginning. Due to outsourcing, my contract ends on July 31st so if I don't find a job within the next 40 days I'll be in the same position as them.

What is going to happen when all the jobs in the U.S. have been outsourced to other countries? I'm afraid we are going to become the next 3rd world country if things don't start to change in the U.S. I am saddened to see my Country in the shape it is in and I am afraid for my nieces and their futures. What happened to people caring about people, courtesy, consideration, selflessness, loyalty etc. it seems it has been replaced by greed, which is sad and will or could be the demise of the U.S.

MINI 50 years - Rebel without pause

2009-06-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

Check out this cool video, My friend Scott and his "Silver Brick" Classic Mini are in it.

"1959 - 2009: It has been a fantastic journey and the most exciting is still to come! The brand film "Rebel without Pause" focuses on MINI fans and drivers all around the world and their personal experiences with MINI. ..."

No road rage today

2009-06-12T17:57:00.000-07:00

I didn't write about this when it happened but I got road raged last friday by a pyscho BMW driver. It came totally out of the blue, basically we were driving and I was following him, but not close and we were of course driving pretty fast. When we came to a light he waited for me with his window down, I didn't think much of it, cuz there was really nothing to be worried about. We were just sitting there waiting for the light when all of sudden he throws this green disgusting stuff all over my car. Boy was I pissed, I chased him down got his license plate and filed a police report. I guess he was just jealous that he didn't have a MINI..

Well anyway, that incident kind of put me on edge so I haven't driven Woodstock the entire week. I decided to drive him today and was pleasantly surprised when I turned into parking structure and a Blue MC drove by a flashed me a Peace Sign wave. I was so happy, I haven't gotten a wave from a MINI in a very long time. Then on the way home I was stopped at a red light and the Lexus IS owner next to me commented that my car was gorgeous.

Wow what a great Friday compared to the rage incident last Friday..

Stuck On Minis - All MINI Car Show Tomorrow

2009-06-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you that Stuck On Minis will be at the Enderle Center in Tustin for SCMM's annual All MINI Car Show. I will have a booth and will be selling vinyl stickers and taking T-shirt orders. I will have some shirts available for sale too.

Hope to see you there tomorrow.

The All MINI Car Show - Jun 13th

2009-06-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

Don't forget the All MINI/Mini Car Show at the Enderle Center in Tustin

View Larger Map

So far we have 98 Minis signed up, we would like to beat last years total 0f 106 Minis

All MINI/Minis are welcome to come hang out with us, there will be vendors, prizes for the best MINI, Road Warrior Etc., free Krispy Kreme donuts

Where: 14081 S. Yorba St. Tustin, CA 92780 (Enderle Center)
When: Sat Jun 13th - Car Show starts 8:00 AM
Why: Benefit the Animal Assistance League of Orange County & SCMM
Cost: $10.00 at the Gate

Hope to see you and your Mini there...

$5000 over MSRP?

2009-06-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, curousity got the best of me and I had to go see what this Cube was all about. I went to my local Nissan dealer and there was nobody in sight, which was good cuz I was just looking. I went up to the most expensive Cube model the Krom and much to surprise I found out that this dealer is marking the car up $5000 over MSRP. It turns out all Cube models had the same ridiculous markup. I thought MINI dealers were bad when they marked the MINI $3000 and the Clubman $5000. I talked to one of the salesman and asked him if people were actually paying that markup, he said no but they were paying anywhere from $2500 - $3000 markup. I told him they were crazy in this economy nobody pays that He stated the the dealer was only out to get what they could get while they could get away with it .. Wow unbelievable!!!

Nissan Cube - Borg vessel in disguise?

2009-05-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I'm writing about a car that's not a MINI but here goes. On the way to our monthly bowling dinner with some of the Maniacs, I saw one of the ugliest cars I've ever seen before, not counting the convertible PT Cruiser which is probably the worst of all.. I know I just offended alot of people, sorry but this is just my opinion. I had heard about the Cube but had never seen one, this one was a charcoal grey car and for some reason it reminded me of a Borg ship... It was so ugly that it was actually kind of cute. I think it's one of those cars that can and will grow on you. Well, at least it's original and has personality and doesn't look like every other car out there, and I can totally appreciate that...

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

2009-05-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

It was my mom's birthday today and I wanted to wish her a very Happy Birthday!!! I'm lucky my mom is the best mom anyone can have, she would do anything for me, my sister and my nieces. I love her so much and wish she could live forever..

SoCal Krispy Kreme - MINI owners promotion

2009-05-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

This just in:

MINI owners! Get your fix of Krispy Kreme donuts, for FREE, every Monday during the months of June, July and August. Just show your MINI key at any Southern California Krispy Kreme and receive a free box of mini donuts.

Ooh I can't wait until the first Monday of June to check out this new promotion.

All MINI Car Show Jun 13th - All MINIs are invited

2009-05-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

The Enderle Center and the SoCal MINI Manics

present the

2nd Annual All MINI/Mini car show at the Enderle Center in Tustin

When: Sat. Jun 13th 2009

Time: Entrants should arrive between 7:00-7:30

Entrance Fee: $10.00

Open to all MINI/Mini cars and their owners

Entrance Fee will benefit the Animal Assistance League of Orange County

Please RSVP to Dan Skorcz:

email: dan@pacific-tek.com

cell: 714-936-9613

or comment to this post and I will rsvp for you

There will be be awards, raffle prizes, and several MINI vendors

Last year's event brought the largest gathering of Maniacs MINIs to one place at one time, we had over 100 cars. We would like to beat that record this year.

You do not have to be a SCMM'r to join in the fun, if you have a MINI/Mini you are more than welcome to register your car and join us for a fun filled day. Actually you don't even have to own a MINI, come out and check out the cars and have some fun.

Oh Yeah, how can I forget, Krispy Kreme will be there giving out free donuts!!!

As of now the following vendors will be there:

Carnuba Store

Tropical Shine

Krispy Kreme - Free Donuts

Hope to see you all there!!!

Got my new MAXX Heat Press

2009-05-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

Yay, I got my new heat press today. I finally did it, after much research I bought my MAXX 15 x 15 digital heat press. I decided to go with a heat press cuz I tried going the silkscreen route and that is just way too expensive and time consuming. With a heat press, I can make sample shirts and also do shirts on an order basis without having to buy huge quantities of 1 design, it just made more sense than silkscreening. Here is a shirt I designed for SCMM's annual MOAT (Mother Of All Twisties) The front has "I SURVIVED"and the back has SCMM's logo.

Rest & Relax Day

2009-05-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

This long weekend was jammed packed with activties starting Friday getting ready for the big BBQ, Sat big BBQ, Sun geochaching/hiking over 4 miles. Whew, I'm beat and my feet are killing me. I decided to stay home with Niki and just veg the whole day. It was great to camp out on the couch and watch disaster TV all day...

I hate snakes!!!

2009-05-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

I've been doing pretty good with the hiking thing, and have hiked at least once or twice every week since I made up my mind that I needed to get in shape. A bunch of SCMM'rs went on a geocaching/hike early this morning. It was a nice cool morning, so I wasn't expecting to see any snakes out and about. Well, I was wrong, we were looking for our first cache of the morning when Diana yelled snake!!! I hate snakes and of course screamed and ran, well the snake was a baby rattler and was less than a foot away from me when it started slithering... Totally freaked me out. On the way back from our hike on a fairly big fire road, there was another bigger rattler just sunning himself on the side of the road. I really didn't want to pass him, but I had enough room to get around him,...I'm glad he didn't bother us..

BBQ - MINI's at Mom's

2009-05-23T22:18:00.000-07:00

To kick off the summer, I hosted a BBQ for the SoCal MINI Maniacs on Sat. When I set this up I didn't realize that it was the Memorial Day Weekend. I was a little worried that people made other plans for the weekend, but my worries were unfounded. A little over 50 Maniacs showed up and we had such a good time eating all the wonderful food. I provided the the handmade hamburgers, hotdogs, devilled eggs and potato salad, and each person brought some kind of side dish. Wow, we had sooo much delicious food, it was one of the best BBQ's ever.

IE Errors trying to open my blog

2009-05-22T04:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what happened but something is wrong with my blog, and I can't get it to load in Internet Explorer. It will open using Firefox and Safari but I get an error when trying to open in it IE. I did a search on the web for this error and it states to remove all of my java applications one by one to find the culprit and I did that but it still seems to error every once in awhile. The funny thing is, I haven't added a Java app in awhile and it this error just started happening, so I'm not sure what happened. I'm still in the process of trying to fix it...

Went to the Tam O'Shanter for Mother's Day - Los Angeles

2009-05-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Mother's days was very nice this year, we really haven't celebrated in the last few years since my dad died, I guess cuz my mom, didn't want to, without him there. This year she wanted to go to the Tam, so she made the reservation about 4 months ago ( you have to make them at least 4 months in advance to get a decent seat time). For those of you who don't know about this restaraunt I'll give you a little background, it is located on Los Feliz blvd in Atwater and has been in business for the last 80 years, the food is awesome and the atmoshere is Old World Scottish, we have been going there since I was a kid, they have the best prime rib!!!

Well anyway, I think this is the first time we've gone out with just me, my mom, my sister and my 3 nieces for a nice meal. My nieces usually have to bring their entourage of friends, boyfriends etc to every outing we go to. This time, it was just us and we had a nice sit down meal, talked and enjoyed each others company which we rarely do. It's hard to get them to commit to spending time with us these days and it was really nice that they did today.

Hung out with Maniacs,saw Star Trek

2009-05-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

Sat was a great day, I met the Maniacs for breakfast at Ruby's in Long Beach, then afterwards of few of us went to see Star Trek at the AMC. I don't want to ruin it for you, so all I'll say is I really liked that they gave you some of the back stories of the characters. It did take some getting used to, not seeing the familiar faces in the same roles, but I got over that reaction pretty quick and ended up really liking the movie.

After the movie I went to pick up Woodstock and am happy to say that he is a good as new. The clutch feels much better now, and for now I can downshift from 3rd to 2nd without the screaching noise, I'll test it more when we do the Mother Of All Twisties next week. It was a great Sat, hanging with the SoCal Mini Maniacs, seeing Star Trek and getting Woodstock back....

Been too busy to post

2009-05-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy with work, hiking, making stickers for my cousins Dragon Boat team and MOAT, taking my car into the shop etc. that I haven't had time to post anything for the past week. So much for my 1 post a day commitment. Oh well, that's the way life is, you just have to go with the flow otherwise you'll go crazy. It looks like this is going to be one busy summer, so I think I might end up skipping alot of posts.

There are lots of MINI activities in May

2009-05-03T12:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, the month of May has many MINI activities going on. There's the first of the month Coogies breakfast meet the first Sat of the month. Then Seal Beach Ruby's breakfast meetup and Star Trek Movie on the 2nd Sat of the month. Then we have the 4th annual SCMM Mother of All Twisties run and lunch on the 3rd Sunday of the month. Then last but not least we have the MINI's at my Mom's BBQ on the 23rd. It's going to be a busy and fun month filled with lots of MINI stuff to do.

Got a MINI Cooper Loaner for a week

2009-05-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

Well, once again Woodstock is in the shop for some major work. He is getting a brand new clutch, a new under the steering wheel panel with new clips, a new Punch Leather seat cover and they are going to fix my armrest that never seems to keep closed. He's going to be at Mini of Monrovia for at least a week.

John was able to get me a brand new 2009 Oxygen Blue Mini Cooper loaner car, granted, it's not an S, but this car is pretty loaded, it has the convenience package, auto air, bluetooth, sunroof etc. At first I thought the Oxygen blue was ugly, but this color is actually pretty nice and I like it now. Driving a Justacooper isn't that bad either, I look forward to putting some miles on this car during the week.

I thought I was going to die

2009-05-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but not by much. Wow, I didn't realize that I was so out of shape!!! To be fair this is the first attempt at exercising I've done in a few years and Ashley did take me on the hardest trail there is. Plus I had Niki with me, she ended up walking me....I wanted to quit so bad, but I was determined not to wimp out and after Ash slowed down a little I made it the entire 3 miles. Hopefully this will get easier as I do it more often....

Time to lose weight & get in shape

2009-04-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

I've let my weight get totally out of hand and this is the worst shape I have been in, in my entire life. I got the job at WB and joined SCMM right around the same time last year, the problem with these two things is that they are both all about the eating... I sit at work all day and munch on all the stuff people bring in, and you wouldn't believe all the vendor lunches we get taken too, then on the weekends when I hang out with the Maniacs all we do is drive and eat. My problem is I love to eat, so I finally decided I need to do something to at least offset the eating. I've decided that I need to start walking or hiking at least 3 times a week. Tonight me and my sister are going hiking, I know I need to do more, so I'm cutting way down on the snacking at work too. Hopefully I'll be able to lose some weight and get back in shape soon.

Finally installed front license plate

2009-04-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

I've always hated to put a front license plate on any of my cars and have always requested that they don't drill the holes into the front bumper. I figure I can get away with it for awhile unless I get a ticket. Well I got the ticket a few months ago and now I need to get it signed off, so I finally gave in and had the dealer drill the holes. Woodstock is now almost legal, I still have to take the window tint off the front 2 windows which I really don't want to do... That's what I get for speeding, I guess it was better to get a fixit ticket than a speeding ticket.

Krispy Kreme minis Sweepstakes - Los Angeles

2009-04-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

Great, I just decided I wanted to lose some weight and now I get this email from Krispy Kreme about their new mini's promotion. For every purchase of their new mini's donuts you will get a chance to win a new MINI Copper. The contest runs from 4/27/09 - 05/31/09. There goes my diet...

Went Bowling last night

2009-04-26T21:38:00.001-07:00

I got invited to join some of the Maniacs for bowling and dinner last night. I was a little apprehensive, I haven't picked up bowling ball since I was in the Army and even then I didn't really know how to bowl. They all assured me that it was more about the getting together with friends then it was about the bowling. You know, they were right, it was about the friendship. I of course, bowled very bad, but I still had the best of times hanging out with my MINI friends. It was such a nice day of bowling, friendship, food and shopping. It was such a nice day and it's so cool that they do this once a month, a different person picks the bowling alley and dinner spot each month. I can't wait until next month so we can do it again.

Woodstock needs a new clutch

2009-04-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

Took Woodstock to MINI of Monrovia to get the panel under the steering wheel replaced due to excessive squeaking. While I was there I mentioned that when downshifting from 3rd to 2nd gear, it makes this horrendous squealing sound. The tech took it for a test ride and the same thing happened to him. So guess what? I need a new clutch at 12999 miles on the car. Luckily there's a warranty TSB that covers this problems for the 2007's and above so I don't have to pay for it. This is the 4th major problem I've had with the car which I've only had for a year... I might have to think about lemoning my poor baby =o(

MINI Clubman meets Airstream

2009-04-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

I just noticed a thread on the SCMM forum about MINI and Airstream, so I had to do a little research. Wow even though this was just a collaboration with MINI and Airstream and a Swedish designer, it's a pretty cool idea. They are displaying his work in Milan at some design show in April. I don't know how feasible it is considering that the trailer probably weights too much for the MINI, but it such a neat concept, and I love the design aspect of it. For more info just click on the link jalopnik.com/mini-cooper-s-clubman-airstream-concept-lets-motorlounge

What a difference a year makes

2009-04-21T08:13:00.000-07:00

Well, since my contract officially ends on July 31st, I have kept my eyes peeled for another job. My resume has been posted on Dice since before I left Disney. I used to to get 2-3 calls a week and last year at the height of it all, I had 5 job interviews in a week and 2 job offers. Dice is an amazing resource, my last 3 jobs I was placed by recruiters that got my resume from Dice. Now I rarely get called and after looking at the jobs posted on Dice I notice, there are hardly any AIX jobs at all. Geez what a difference a year makes..

It's 95 degrees out!!

2009-04-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

Geez, I was in the air conditioned building all day and just went out for lunch. Wow my car registered 95 degrees.... Yucky I hate hot weather, my ideal outside temp is 75 degrees. I'm sooooo glad I got my central air, condensor fixed last year....

Bakersfield was better this year

2009-04-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

My Bakersfield WTSOB5 weekend has come to an end. This is one of the best trips I've taken with the club. Last years WTSOB4 was fun, but I had so much more fun this trip. I think it's cuz last year I was only a club member for 2 weeks, so I was a little apprehensive about the run itself plus I really didn't know that many people. This year, I knew everyone and even though we didn't have as many people as last year we still had a great time. The weather was beautiful where as last year it was freezing. Niki got sick last year and injured her paw and since we were in the 3rd group this time and didn't to the extreme twisties she was much happier.

Woodstock runs soo nice and smooth, he is meant to drive those nice newly paved twisty roads up there. I can't wait until next year!!!

It's all about the food, friendship and fun

2009-04-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, what an amazing day!!! It was the perfect way to spend my Birthday.. We ate breakfast, went to the Tehachapie Loop but did not get to see a train do the loop.

We proceeded to the meet up point where we broke up into 3 different groups. The first group was Pedal to the Metal group, not very many choose this group but there were a few diehards. The majority of us were in the 2nd group, which is a little slower than the first but not much. Last year I was in the second group and Niki got sick and started hyperventaliting. I didn't want to kill my dog this year so I decided to go with a newly formed 3rd group. They called us the slow group, but I would prefer to call it the scenic group, cuz we weren't exactly going slow, and following the Kern River route was so beautiful. We actually made it to McDonalds before the second group and that wasn't suppossed to happen.

We met up at McDonalds for a potty break and snack, then headed to Kernville for another meal.. After lunch the 1st and 2nd group headed for the mountains and the 3rd group, back tracked to follow the Kern River again. We all met at the Lengthwise Brewery where everyone got together to talk about our amazing day, to drink beers or in my case a Coke Float. The guys gave me this great card that everyone signed.. That was soo sweet of Debe to cooridnate. Then we headed to the bowling alley for some friendly competition.

It was a day filled with lots of food I think we stopped 4 different times for food, driving (we drove approx 200 hundred miles) and friendship (approx 24 Minis and maybe 50 people attended)... that's what life is about and I love the time I spend with my SCMM buddies!!!

BBQ in Bakersfield

2009-04-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

I met a bunch of Maniacs in Sylmar to caravan up to Bakersfield, we thought we would miss the Friday traffic by leaving at around 3:15pm, but no such luck. There was so much traffic and we saw approx 10 CHP's just sitting or giving tickets. We were good and none of us got pulled over. We made it to Bakersfield around 5 and checked into our hotel and then headed over to Tavis and Angela's house for the BBQ they were hosting.

Tavis BBQ'd this awesome tri-tip stuffed with something yummy, and the rest of the Maniacs brought all kinds of food. Lisa was so sweet and baked me a birthday cake which she brought all the way up from Oxnard, that was so nice of her. My birthday isn't until tomorrow but they figured we would be on the road the whole day so they did it a day early.

Well I have to hit the sack cuz we are getting up early to hit the road to meet the rest of the Maniacs driving up from OC and L.A.

Packing for the annual Bakersfield trip

2009-04-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, who in the world goes to Bakersfield, voluntarily? Well the crazy SCMM Miniacs, that's who. This is the clubs 5th annual Walking The Streets Of Bakersfield outing and it starts tomorrow. My first one was last year, only a few weeks after I bought Woodstock. This is the trip that got me hooked on SCMM and drving my MINI. Unlike the title we really don't walk the streets of Bakersfield, we fly through the twisties up through Kernville, this is one of the best events of the year and I'm really looking forward to spending of couple of days with the Maniacs.

I gotta go pack now...I'll post pics of the event when I return.

I've got Bloggers Block

2009-04-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hmm, not sure what's happening here, I usually have so much to say, but lately I can't think of anything to write about. Hopefully I'll get over my Blogger's Block soon, cuz I already messed up my 1 post a day thing.

Ridemakerz customer service is awesome

2009-04-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm really impressed by this company, their customer service is top notch and they follow through with everything they say they are going to do.

I received my replacement Mini on Sat, as promised, they didn't wait for me to send mine back which is really cool..

Their website is pretty good, but there are a couple of issues with it that need to be refined a little. When I ordered my MINI I added my giftcard info, but apparently the web page doesn't automatically enter your giftcard unless you hit apply, the apply button wasn't very obvious to me so it didn't apply the giftcard amount. I also forgot to fill out my Certificate of Title and forgot to check the box that I wanted the stock wheels. After I hit the buy button, I found out the giftcard wasn't applied to my purchase and they charged my card the entire amount. I immediately sent them an email stating all the issues I had. I spoke with a customer service rep,and she fixed everything, she credited my account with the giftcard amount, and since the order already went out (they are super speedy for fulfulling orders) she sent me the stock wheels in a separate shipment and the Certificate of Title via Federal Express, without charging me additional shipping charges.

That is awesome customer service, it's nice to know there are still companies that put the customer first. I will definitely be buying another Ridemakerz car in the future!!!

Happy Easter!!!

2009-04-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

What a nice peaceful, happy day, I hadn't planned on going to church, but my sister called and wanted to suprise my mom, so I got up and went to church, which made my mom so happy. After church, I spent the rest of the day at moms, Deb made everyone breakfast and mom made pot roast for dinner. My mom was so cute and made little plastic eggs filled with candy and a little bit of money for everyone. I felt like a little kid again. Me and Niki ended napping the whole day which was sooooo nice. I don't normally take a nap but it was such a nice quiet day we fell asleep on the couch with the windows opened and a nice breeze. It was a great day spending it with my sis, mom and nieces, I don't do it very often so it was extra special today.

Too lazy to post

2009-04-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

My 3 day weekend has turned into a I'm going to be a bum and do whatever weekend. These are the best kind of weekends cuz you never know whats going to happen. That's why I flaked and was too lazy to post anything for the past 2 days, I just didn't feel like posting anything.

Today was a great day, me and Robert (TwistyBitz) caravaned to Ruby's to hang out with the Maniacs. It was such a beautiful puffy cloud day and we hung out longer than normal. Afterwards, we headed to Roberts house and he showed me all of this artwork and studio for his TwistyBitz t-shirts and stuff. He is so artistic, he's been giving me pointers for my little sticker and now maybe t-shirt business. I totally appreciate his friendship and his help.. day 2 of my weekend was awesome, I wonder what I'm going to do tomorrow.

Looking forward to my 3 day weekend

2009-04-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

WB is the first company I ever worked for that gives Good Friday off as a holiday. Pretty cool huh? There's really no Mini activities except the Ruby's Long Beach breakfast on Sat, so now I need to figure out what I'm going to do for the other 2 days. Hmm, maybe I'll go to the range, haven't done that in awhile

There's another Angel in heaven today

2009-04-07T08:22:00.000-07:00

My good friend Edgar died early this morning and right now there are no words that can convey my sadness. We/he just found out a few short months ago that he had lymphoma. The cancer spread so fast and I never got to see him due to complications before he died. I guess maybe that was a good thing because I'll get to remember his smile instead of remembering him in a hospital bed in isolation.

Edgar was the kindest, considerate, most generous person I know, he never had a bad word about anyone, he was artistic, both with his flower arangements and his watercolors and he loved to dance, boy could he dance... He leaves behind his beloved dog Toby, his cats and many friends who loved him. I will miss him, but heaven is lucky because they got another Angel today.....

Got my Ridemakerz MINI yesterday

2009-04-05T21:58:00.000-07:00

On the way back from the monthly SCMM Coogies breakfast, I stopped by the Post Office and was happy to find that my Ridemakerz MINI had arrived. Wow that was fast!!!

I went home and was like a little kid opening my Christmas presents. There was so many cool things in the box. The neatest thing was the tool to assemble my MINI, it was shaped as a car key and is so well made. It's amazing the amount of attention to detail this company has put into their product and their packaging. You can even customize your license plate, which they send to you but I haven't gotten yet.

I assembled my car by attaching the RC chasis and bolted it down using the supplied key tool, then started adding all of my accessories. I was a little disappointed that while putting everything on I noticed that one of the plastic tabs was broken. However I called Ridemakerz and they told me no problem, they will ship another MINI car body out with Monday's mail. The kit that comes to the house already has a prepaid return label and a return form. All you have to do is put it in a box and ship it back with the prepaid label affixed to the box. Like I said this company has paid attention to all the details.

I got to play with my car for a little bit and I have to say this thing is amazing.. The MINI is so detailed, it looks exactly like my car except it's black. The headlights come on when you are driving forward and the brake lights come on when you reverse.

This is one of the best RC cars I've ever had... I can't wait til I get my replacement one so I can really play with it.

Woodstock turned into a Bunny

2009-04-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

I met the Maniacs at our once a month breakfast in Malibu this morning, it was a beautiful day. Ken & Debe turned Woodstuck into a Bunny Rabbit...

You should have seen the faces on the tourists as I drove home on Sunset, they actually took pictures... Too funny...

Finally joined Facebook

2009-04-03T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well after much prodding and poking from my sister, friends, nieces etc. to join Facebook, I finally gave in and joined. (actually I joined several months ago, but have been too busy to post about it) I was reluctant to join cuz, I have so many other things going on in my life that I didn't think joining a social network would be a good idea. I figured it would take up the remaining spare time I have left during my already busy days..

At first my fear came true, I pretty much spent all my free time on Facebook trying to find old friends, talking with friends that I reconnected with etc. It's pretty awesome to find someone that you have been thinking about for 20 years and not really sure how to find and then actually find and connect with them... that happened a couple of times already, and my life is better because of it..

It's really cool to see what's going on in my family and friends lives in real time. I have a personal rule, I don't add anyone that I don't personally know and I don't add anyone that I currently work with. Which means that all my friends are actually my friends and not friends of friends, so facebooking is more personal for me... The work thing should be pretty obvious. I have explained this to my friends at work and they totally understand. It's not that I have anything to hide, it's just I don't want to mix my work life with my personal life.

I'm still on Facebook everyday, but now I just leave it logged on and I read whats going on in my friends lives and comment when appropriate. Facebook has not taken over my life like I thought it would but it has enhanced it and I'm glad I joined....

Got the Flu bug or something

2009-04-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

Not sure where I got this but I started feeling not so good in the middle of my work day, ended up falling asleep in my car with the chills and everything. Went home took some Dayquill and my sis brought me some wonton soup...Fell asleep in the middle of ER and woke up later feeling much better. Weird...

Ordered my Ridemakerz RC MINI

2009-04-01T21:06:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Andy who gave me the $50.00 giftcard he won at AMVIV, I finally ordered a Ridemakerz MINI RC car. I have been wanting one of these for a long time, ever since I saw them at MTTS L.A. last Aug.

They did not have a yellow MINI so I ended up ordering the Asphalt Black RC MINI with pretty much everything on it. I got the extra set of wheels, tires, construction light kit with orange cones, the battery pack, the side lights and some extra stuff that I can't remember. The total cost was approx $96.00 but since I had the giftcard it only cost $46 which is awesome for all the stuff I got... They shipped it yesterday, I can't wait to get it an put it together.

I wish they would open one of their awesome stores here, cuz it looks like it would be so much fun picking out all the stuff in the store and putting it together. Think Build A Bear but for cars... really cool idea!!! I'll post pics of my new MINI when it gets here.

The other Woodstock

2009-03-31T11:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry the picture is so bad and you can't see Woodstock flitting all over the car...

I finally met the other Woodstock from Washington state.. He is sooo cute, where is my Woodstock is a little badder looking....Other Woodstock got his amazing graphics from Athestic Creations, he is liquid yellow and a convertible and I must say he looks awesome, so much so that he won this years AMVIV car show.. Congratulations other Woodstock!!!

AMVIV is over until next year

2009-03-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, AMVIV came and went sooo fast. Time always flies when you are having a good time.

We packed Woodstock the night before so we could checkout and head over to the Palace Station for breakfast and some last minute sales. For some reason I thought breakfast started at 10:00 but it actually started at 06:00 and ended at 10:00. When we got to Palace Station at around 8:00 am there was hardly anyone around, cuz most of the people had left or were in the process of leaving. We applied the custom stickers for the people that ordered them the night before and since it was so dead we decided to leave earlier than we had planned.

Andy & Jennifer stopped by before they left, Andy won a Ridemakerz $50.00 gift card and he gave it to me before he left, which was totally awesome!!! I've been wanting one of those for awhile..I just got done ordering it a few minutes ago. Anway, Jeff & Lindy, Evie and me and Aunt Clara left at around 9:30. we got home around 1:30..

I was beat, so I went home, halfway unpacked Woodstock washed some clothes and hit the sack early... My first AMVIV went by fast but I had a great time, I can't wait until next year...

AMVIV continued Sat...

2009-03-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm finally caught up with my posts and no more back dating...

After the Las Vegas strip cruise, we were exhausted and went back to the timeshare. I had to make a whole bunch of custom stickers, for the people who had ordered them during the day, before I could go to sleep. I was up til 2:00 am.. I finally got to bed and it seemed like only a few minutes had gone by and the guys who were staying in the room above us woke up and started taking showers and walking around.. Geez I looked at the clock and it was freakin 5:00 am.. so I started off Saturday one sleepy girl...

I decided to stay at the booth and sell stickers all day. We sold and installed so many stickers I couldn't even keep track of how many we sold. Luckily my aunt was organized and kept track of everything. I just did the installs, for some reason people like me to stick them on their windows for them.....

Oh yeah the organizer for Mini in the Mountains came by and wanted to me consider being a vendor in Aug.. I'm seriously thinking about it since my current contract ends July 31st, and this event is the week after that.

Sat was pretty much the last day, and since my sister flaked and went home early I was stuck with a huge tent and an extra suitcase and no room in my MINI. I'm soo lucky to have SCMM friends, cuz Andy L. and Jennifer T. did me a huge favor by taking my tent and two folding chairs home with them. There was no way they were going to fit in my car since it was already jammed pack with everything else. Thanks Andy and Jen!!!! I totally appreciate your help...

Me, my aunt and Robert and his granddaughter went to the banquet, it was pretty good and we had a nice time and met some people from the Arizona Mini club and some other people. It was an enjoyable evening meeting with friends and meeting new ones.

AMVIV Temple Bar (Hoover Dam) run

2009-03-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Another back dated post, but now I'm caught up.

We woke up before the alarm clock on Friday and was ready to start our day. Thank goodness the heavy winds had died down. We got to the Palace Station and Robert (TwistyBitz) was already there and setting up his booth. He helped us put up our tent and immediately people started coming over to buy stickers. We were still setting up at the time so we were all little unorganized, but eventually got into sync. I really wanted to go on the Temple Bar run because I had never seen the Hoover Dam before. So my Aunt told me she would man the tent while I went on the run.

Well, I have never driven a regular cooper in manual transmission before and I had told one of the club members the night before that I wanted to test drive one. She offered to let me drive her Justacooper in the Temple Bar run, because she wanted to go but she didn't want to drive. So we headed off with approx 110 Minis to Hoover Dam in Lee Ann's cooper. It took a little while to get used to the difference between my 07 MCS and her 04 cooper. I almost stalled out (how embarrasing) a few times. The run was a blasst, and Hoover Dam was amazing. It was so nice of Lee Ann to let me drive her car, I'm so wierd and don't like anyone driving my car, so it was extra nice of her to let me drive hers.

We got back sold alot of stickers then went out with several Maniacs to this awesome Mexican restaraunt. Then we did the famous Las Vegas strip cruise. Can you imaged almost 4oo Minis jam packing the strip? It was a fun tiring day!!!

Too windy to set up tent at AMVIV

2009-03-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

I'm going to cheat a little and back date this post. I know it's cheating about my 1 post a day resolution, but the only reason why I didn't post was because there wasn't enough time in the day, not because I didn't have anything to say.

Ok, I'm back on topic now. Well our early morning caravan got into Vegas in pretty good time, and we rolled into the Palace Station at around 11:30 however, there weren't too many people around the top of the parking structure due to the 50mph winds and freezing weather (I might be exagerating a little about the freezing part). We checked in and asked the other vendors what they were going to do and they all said they were packing up and leaving. Someones tent had blown around and hit a Mini, so we didn't want to take a chance of injuring another MINI.

Geez, I was sooo bummed because I was really looking forward to setting up and starting my first AMVIV experience. Since it was so miserable on the top deck we decided to go check in at the timeshare, Sue wanted to see the it, so she came with us to check out the new place and was really impressed, it was the first time I'd ever been there since they moved from the old location.

We goofed off for a little while then went back to take a nap considering we woke up so early... That night, SCMM (SoCal Mini Maniacs) hosted a pizza party that was supossed to be on the top deck but it was still too windy so the Palace Station graciously gave us a conference room to host our club party.. Wow George always finds the best pizza places wherever we are at, it was so yummy and as usual it was really nice to hang out with the Maniacs. We left early and headed back to the timeshare so we could go to bed early and get an early start on Friday. I was hoping that Friday the wind would die down.

Early AM caravan pics

2009-03-26T22:40:00.000-07:00

I actually managed to get up at 5:00 am this morning like I was supossed to. We made it to Walmart at 6 on the dot and Robert was already there waiting for us. Evie showed up a few minutes later, then the new guy Bruce was right behind her. We waited until about 6:20 and headed out and was perfectly synced with he O.C group who converged with us at the 605, that was pretty amazing timing.. by the time we reached Barstow we had 10 Minis in our Caravan, which is a pretty respectible turnout considering this is the first time I've ever organized a caravan.
First Potty Stop Victorville
The group stopped in Barstow to eat at Denny's then headed out. They made me the sacrificial lamb and lead car. The drive was great and no one in the group got a ticket, and made it to Vegas in a little over 4 hours even with 3 potty stops. We did hit a really scary sand storm and you couldn't even see the front of your car, luckily it didn't last that long. Our final caravan count was 11.. Denny's Barstow

This is bad, I took this pic while I was driving

Too tired to write anything

2009-03-25T23:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I just got done packing Woodstock and I'm beat. I have to get up at 5:00 am so I can meet the Maniacs at 6:00 in Monrovia.. Yahoo AMVIV is finally here.. I'm too tired to write anymore. Goodnight

How do I fit all this stuff in the MINI

2009-03-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

Since we are meeting some of the gang at Walmart in the wee hours of the morning, I started to pack Woodstock tonight. This is going to be tough, I've got all the inventory, cutter/plotter, two computers, luggage, 2 chairs, roll up table, display signs, table cloths, first aid kit plus all the snacks, drinks etcx.. I'm just wondering how I'm going to get it all in the car without having to put the roof rack on.... This is going to take some creative packing...

Almost missed a day

2009-03-23T23:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I was going to post my pictures of the 2 new shirts that I silkscreened today, but right in the middle of it I got a call from work.. Since I'm the oncall I had to drop what I was doing and reboot a system.. Gotta get back to it, I'll post more tomorrow..

Silkscreened Promo Shirts for AMVIV

2009-03-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be easy to silkscreen my own shirts so I bought a kit and learned how to silkscreen a few weeks ago, but it turns out that is is a very long involved process. After much trial and error, I was able to get two designs on a some promo shirts for AMVIV today, which is great. I also have two screens in the process of drying and will be able to print some more shirts with different designs tomorrow.

My grand plan for AMVIV was to have several different images for shirts but since I ran out of time, I guess I'll give the promo shirts out with purchse of $20.00 or more...

Have a scheduled work production outage

2009-03-21T21:34:00.001-07:00

I have a scheduled outage today, actually I'm now in the middle of upgrading our 55 production AIX servers from TL7 to TL8. Luckily there are 3 of us, so I only have to do 18 of them. 2 weeks ago it took me 8 hours to upgrade 18 QA servers with Centrify and AIX, that was a long night because I had to do it by myself, plus I was oncall, so you get all these calls while your trying to do your work, it takes twice as long to get anything done. Since I'm not the oncall tonight and just a worker bee, I'm now wrapping it up, plus we didn't have to upgrade the stupid Centrify which saved me about 4 hours of work. I can't believe we finished before midnight... Yeah now I can focus the rest my weekend on getting organized for AMVIV which is in 4 days....

Sticker Making Monster

2009-03-20T22:18:00.000-07:00

I've been scrambling around for the last 2 weeks to get things done for AMVIV. With 6 days left, I've kicked into high gear and turned into the sticker making monster. Hopefully I'll get most of it done before Wed...

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be

2009-03-19T22:18:00.000-07:00

I was dreading going to lunch and leaving work today, so I went to lunch a little earlier than I normally do, and the traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. There were a lot of police and reporters around, but the only streets they closed were Buena Vista and Riverside for a couple of blocks. Not too bad at all. It did take me 1/2 hour to get home when it normally only takes me 7-10 mins, which was a little bad but still not as bad as it could have been. I guess I was worried for nothing, I was expecting huge crowds, there were alot of people but not the masses I thought were going to be there.

I normally don't watch the Tonight Show, but I think I will tonight, it's hard to believe this is our first President to do the show.

How hard to get to or leave work tomorrow?

2009-03-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

Our new President, Barack Obama will be going on the Jay Leno show tomorrow, which just happens to be right across the street from where I work. I wondering how hard it will be to either get into work, leave for lunch and or leave from work tomorrow? Everyone usually lines up for the show around 1:30 - 2:00pm so I figure it won't be to hard getting to work but will be a pain in the butt to go to lunch and leave work....Geez, I hate crowds, it's going to be crazy, I wish it was my work from home day but Thur belongs to Eric....

Caravan to AMVIV6 early Thur AM

2009-03-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

9 more days to my 1st A Mini Vacation in Vegas (AMVIV6), I can't wait, this is going to be so much fun. As of today there are 312 cars registered for this event. I'm not sure how many were there last year, but I was hoping there would be at least 300 and we made it. The more the merrier!!!

I'm still scrambling to get everything made and organized so that I can pack up the car. It's going to be a tight squeeze, but luckily my sister is driving up the day before, and she's going to take my ez-up tent and table with her..

For anyone that isn't an SCMM'r (you should really think of joining) I will be caravaning up with several SCMM'ers to Vegas early Thur morning. We will meet at the Monrovia/Duarte Walmart (off the 210 at Mountain Ave) parking lot at 6:00am and leave shortly after. Hope to see some new faces... If you decide to join our caravan, see you early Thurs morning on the 26th....