Yuck, Woodstock is soooo Dirty

Since it rained last week, Woodstock got all nasty and has been sitting in the garage for the whole week that way. Today was a beautiful day so I decided he needed a bath and some tender loving care. The only problem is I injured him on the way to the car wash. As I was driving into the car wash, I saw a Pepper White Mini in the bay next to the one I was going to use. Since I was looking at the other MINI, I wasn't paying attention and slammed my wheel into the curb at a wierd angle. It took a chunk out of the wheel, its probably out of alignment now. I'm so mad at myself for being such a dork. Luckily I have an extra set of wheels so I'll just change the rim, I just hope I didn't do any other damage.

Well, Woodstock is all nice and clean now, but will need his rim replaced and probably an alignment. So much for tender loving care. =o(

MINI/Mini Hood Emblems Pic

Last year, SCMM hosted an all MINI/Mini Car show at the Enderle Center in Irvine. There were approx 110 cars including several classics Minis too. Rich from the club took several photo's of different emblems and assembled this awesome picture. I just wanted to showcase it on my blog, because I'm pretty sure the emblem on the botton left hand corner is Woodstocks. Great job Rich!!!

The longest time between SCMM events ever

I'm bummed, ever since I joined SCMM back in March of 2008, I have spent almost every weekend doing something MINI...with the longest time between events at approx 2 weeks. Well this month has been pretty much MINI eventless (Is that a word?) for me. The last time I saw any of the Maniacs was at Santa Anita Race race track for the annual SCMM birthday party and that was on Jan 10th. I couldn't go to the SCCA/SCMM at the California Speedway last weekend because I was oncall, and our next event isn't even until Feb 7th, for the first of the month get together at Coogies. I'm so sad, that's almost an entire month of no MINI activities, which is I think is a record for me. I'm itching to get into Woodstock and hit the road for some twisties or something. Oh well, I guess I have one more week to go, then its off to Coogies and the awesome drive down Sunset to PCH, I can't wait, I love that drive.

Cool MINI Cooper Commericials

I compiled 18 of my favorite MINI Cooper commercials. Enjoy

Please vote on your favorite commercial in the poll to the right of this. Multiple choices are allowed.. The poll lists the videos in the order they are played.

Trying to get my best friend from HS to go to AMVIV6

This is really weird, I haven't seen my best friend from high school for approx 8 years. We used to see each other every once in awhile at the Disney Studios Commissary but we would just say "Hi" in passing . We never really kept up with each others lives, which is sad because in high school our lives were so entwined. Well, its amazing how Facebook and Myspace can bring people either together or back together. Through some twist of fate, a friend of a friend commented on a Facebook or Myspace account and somehow it got back to my sisters network, it really is a small world, and she arranged for Dorinda to meet us for dinner.

Well last night we met up for dinner, and wow it was the like the past 28 years (OMG, I didn't realize I'm that old, yikes, that's scary, I never quantified the years before today, that's depressing) disappeared, it was like old times, we got caught up with each others lives, you know the usual stuff about the kids, husband, (well in my case, my dog and my MINI life), job etc. We talked for hours over an awesome dinner at Skaf's a Lebanese restaurant in Glendale. We talked about AMVIV and how she should go with us to Vegas in Mar, she doesn't have a MINI but I told her that was OK. So she's seriously thinking about going, it should be fun. I hope she does because no one really understands my obsession with my MINI and the club unless they go to one of our outings. While talking we both realized how much alike we are, which is probably why we were best friends in the first place. We promised to keep in touch and meet up on a regular basis. I hope we can meet up and do a MINI event together, its a good thing she doesn't get car sick unless she sits in the back....

Anyway, I'm so happy to have gotten together with my old and dear friend. I can't believe we let 28 years pass before we actually got together again and just talked. As I get older I realize that we do need our friends and that special connection. The really good ones see us through thick and thin, are good listeners and good advisers, are there for the fun times, the bad times and the sad times.. I'm so glad and lucky that I have many good friends, I truly treasure and love them all for their unique personalities and situations....

My blogging goal for the rest of the year

Ever since I joined the Army I have kept a journal of what I do everyday, though I've never been really consistent with it. I would start one and write in it everyday for a couple of months, then would get busy and forget or just didn't do it, then a couple of months later, I would start it up again. I'm not sure why I started doing this but I think its because I wanted to document what I went through in the army or maybe it was out of boredom when I was on guard duty. Anyway, I still have my journal from basic training, and since I'm getting old and I'm starting to forget stuff, its kind of cool that I have this journal and I can go back and re-live what I went through so many years ago. I read it a few years back and was bummed that I stopped halfway through basic training, I had forgotten what an ordeal it was and I'm amazed that I actually accomplished some of the stuff we did. The journal proved that I didn't just dream about it.

This brings me to my blogging goal for the year. I'm going to attempt to update this blog everyday until the end of the year. I know this is an ambitous goal but I'm going to try anyway. That means I only have 342 more posts until the end of the year, hmm, that doesn't seem so bad.. Well, I didn't say it had to be a long post maybe just a blurb if life is boring that day. I figure this is going to come in real handy when I'm really old and I want to remember stuff, unless the Google blog server dies and all my blogs get deleted.

Outsourcing might affect my MINI fun

This past week was a wierd one for me. On Tuesday Warner Bros officially announced that they will be outsourcing their IT department to Capgemini. We all knew it was coming however the delivery of the news had a lot to be desired. It was a 6 min and 38 sec prepared speach, read directly from the piece of paper it was written on. None of the usual courtesy's, just a curt read of the letter with no question and answer period and a "This meeting is over" ending. Since I am a contractor I was not invited to the meeting, but one of my friends gave me the conference call number and I dialed in. I have to say it was one of the worst meetings I have ever heard. This really sucks, when I interviewed for the contract to hire job at Warner Bros 9 months ago, I specifically asked if they were going to outsource and they pretty much told me no. I had just gone through outsourcing at Disney, after working there for 9 years we got outsourced to IBM and I didn't want to go through that again. Well, I guess I have to go through it now. Needless to say they froze all the open positions in Oct and I did not get hired on directly. My contract officially ends on March 31st, with the possibility of an extension til Aug.

I have never been jobless before or collected unemployement but with the current econonmy I think it might be hard to find a job. (Actually, I'm not even sure I want to find another computer job, I've always wanted to have my own business.) So with that in mind a few months ago I started to think about cleaning house. Having a job that pays really well is awesome however there is truth to the statement that the more you make the more you spend. That is especially true for me, since it is just me and Niki I pretty much buy and do what I want with no thought of what it costs. Things have changed and as I look around my house and my garage I see that I have so much stuff that I don't need, like a really nice BMW that I rarely drive (ever since I got Woodstock), but I still make car payments on. So, instead of curtailing my MINI activities, I think I'm going to get rid of all the unecessary things (clutter) in my life and start fresh. With this new purpose in life even if I lose my job and can't find work for several months, at least I'll have something to keep me occupied.. So come to the SCMM DIY day in Febuary, hopefully I can get my act together and bring alot of the stuff that I no longer need or want. Also if anyone is interested, I'm selling the BMW for $20,000, its still under warranty..

My MINI Cooper got me into blogging

I’ve never wanted to blog before, actually I didn't even know what a blog was until a friend told me about blogging. Now I think its the perfect way to keep track of my adventures with Niki (Isn’t she cute?) me, my Mellow Yellow Mini Cooper S "Woodstock" and my Stuck on Minis venture.

I have always loved cars but I have never loved a car like I love my Woodstock. I used to think Mini Coopers were dorky, but also very cute and fascinating, I had to drive one and when I did I was hooked. Wow, these little cars are amazing, they are fast, they hug the curves like you wouldn't believe and they bring smiles to most everyone that sees him. Ever since I picked up Woodstock, I have had soooo many fun adventures, I wanted to start a journal to keep track of them all. So far I've chronicled most of our adventures through the photos that I have posted on Photobucket, I'm still trying to figure out how to add them to my blog as a slideshow. Now I will chronicle our adventures through my new blog.

Considering I bought my car 10 months ago, I'm way behind on the journal so, I'll just give a brief overview of what we've done in the past 10 months.

• March 14th 2008 picked up my much loved all Mellow Yellow 2007 MINI Cooper S "Woodstock", tinted windows 18% back 3 windows and front windshield and 40% 2 side windows, added Sport Stripes and a JCW carbon fiber hood scoop. WOW Woodstock is looking good!!!


• Joined SoCal Mini Maniacs as LUV_WDSTOCK Joined too late to go to AMVIV5 (A MINI Vacation in Vegas)


• Joined North American Motoring as LUV325Ci-MiniCoops


• The first weekend of almost every month me and my copilot NIKI my Skye Terrier head on down to Coogies in Malibu on PCH for the SCMM monthly breakfast. We just hang out, admire our cars, yap and of course, eat


• The second weekend of almost every month I head on down to meet the Maniacs at Ruby's in Long Beach and pretty much do the same thing as we do in Malibu but with different people.



• April, me and approx 40 other Maniacs headed to Bakersfield for the annual Walking the Streets of Bakersfield weekend, this was my first real SCMM outing and wow was it great, we did lots of twisties, I met so many great people and made lots of friends. It was priceless to see the faces of people as 40 MINIS drove by. My poor Niki stepped on a rusty nail or something and her paw got really infected, by the end of the weekend her paw got really big and I had to take her to the emergency room. The vet had to put her under so that he could drain her paw, then she was on antibiotics for 2 weeks. Poor baby I felt soo bad, plus she got a little sick on the twisties, so I think this year I'll leave her home with my mom.


• May, me and my Aunt from Hawaii, and Niki along with approx 50 Maniacs went to the Mission Tiki Drive in to see Speed Racer, the movie wasn't that great, however the maniacs had a blast!!! it was about 101 degrees but it was still a lot of fun, we shared all kinds of munchies and had a dress up your MINI Hawaiian style contest. Woodstock didn't win.



• June, the club held an all MINI car show at the Enderle Center in Irvine, we had approx 110 MINIs, and we raised some money for a charity, I can't remember which one, there were several different prizes for the MINIS. that was a lot of fun too. This years all MINI car show will be held at the same place, and I will be there as vendor for Stuck on Minis Miniac Vinyl Stickers & Things.


• July, I didn't do much with the club, cuz Woodstock was in the hospital for a problem with the clutch, the dealer gave me a Pure Silver Mini Cooper for approx 3 weeks. Me, my mom and my best friend George went to Ventura for our annual 4th of July week. We just hung out, went to the beach and were just bums for an entire week. This is my favorite place to be for the 4th.



• Aug, Hmm, wow, I don't remember what we did in Aug, I think I was preparing to be a first time Stuck On Minis Vendor for the Magical Mystery Mini Tour in San Francisco in Sept. I made tons of stickers to bring with me. Oh, I remember now, we had dealer day at South Bay and Irvine Mini. South Bay provided prizes, pizza and drinks for the Maniacs, after South Bay we all caravanned down to Irvine Mini, which provided and awesome catered tri-tip meal and some really great prizes. Oh geez, who could forget MTTS, I forgot all about that. We had a huge contingent from the Maniacs and had a blast, too bad it was so hot on the blacktop at the Rose Bowl. Later on I found Woodstock in the MTTS article in MC2


• Sep, this was Stuck On Minis very first event as a vendor for the Magical Mystery Mini Tour, and I have to say we did pretty good. We sold lots of stickers and met soo many Mini Owners. Me and my two nieces packed up Woodstock and headed to San Francisco, poor Tiffany she got stuck in the back of the Mini and didn't have much room to move around with all the luggage and stuff. Woodstock was so packed, I had to buy a roof rack and basket so we could pack all the other luggage. That was an awesome trip with approx 350 Mini in all, we took a great run through SF and over the Golden Gate bridge. Later that month we joined the Maniacs for the annual Crusin for a Cure at the Orange County Fair grounds. This event is awesome, there were approx 3000 cars, and the event is held to raise money for Prostate Cancer.



• Oct, approx 50 maniacs went to Solvang for the weekend. That was an awesome trip, it rained a little and once again Woodstock was in the shop so I had a black MCS as a loaner. We did a lot of back country twisties to get to Solvang and I almost lost it in the loaner. (I'm not used to driving and automatic) Later in the month Me and a bunch of other Maniacs did the Italian Job 08 Rally for charity. I designed the rally stickers and we had a great time. Me and my copilot Ladystarlight actually won one of the legs and our team of 5 drivers (Scott, Ken and Sue's son) won the overall prize. The money was donated to the Boy Scouts of America.


• Nov didn't do too much with the club except the regular 1st and 2nd of the month breakfasts



• Dec approx 150 Maniacs got together at South Bay Mini for the annual SCMM Holiday Toys For Tots Christmas party. Everyone brought presents for the Toys For Tots and also for the white elephant gift exchange. The Maniacs really bought some nice gifts, we were only supposed to spend 10.00 but people spent way more money than that. I brought my mom and my two nieces and they had a blast. Woodstock dressed up for Christmas



• Jan SCMM celebrated its 6th anniversary at Santa Anita Race track. All the local dealerships donated raffle prizes. It was a great day, even though I didn't win anything. Actually, Evie, Mostyn & Me won top taggers Starbuck Gift Cards. Thanks SCMM

Ok, I know that was really long, at least I got caught up with the last 10 months, there were many things I left out, like how much I really love hanging with all my Mini Friends. They are like family to me, who would have thought? My Mini has changed my life in a good way, and because of it, I have made lifelong friends and had many cool adventures with many more to come. My next big adventure is AMVIV6. I am currently designing stickers and t-shirts for the event. I can't wait to see 600 MINIS in Las Vegas!!!!