Grazing Rites

Better Know An (Electoral) District: Vancouver-Kensington

The Candidates
BC Liberal: Syrus Lee
NDP: Mable Elmore
Green: Doug Warkentin

At first glance none of these names mean anything to me – I suspect people in this district will vote for party or perhaps leader but the representatives themselves seem largely unknown.

BC Liberal: Syrus Lee
Wow, their website has no information on this guy except for a picture. I had to Google this guy to find out anything about him. This is what I found care of The Georgia Straight:
“A well known personality in the Chinese-Canadian community, Lee, a longtime realtor, was the charter president of the Vancouver Chinatown Business Improvement Association Society. He has been a director for the Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association for the past 15 years.”

NDP: Mable Elmore
The NDP only do slightly better with their candidate – there is a page but the page only contains a picture, upcoming events, and a link to an article from…guess who? The Georgia Straight. Apparently she is a bus driver and social activist. What does that mean? I’ll let The Georgia Straight explain:
“Elmore has been the cochair of Stopwar.ca, which has been a harsh critic of Israel’s conduct in the Middle East. She has been a member of the Vancouver and District Labour Council. As an active member of Local 111 of the Canadian Auto Workers, she has campaigned vigorously for more buses.”

So thus far we have a choice between a realtor and a bus driver. Huh. Not what I was expecting. Although I can’t say I’m surprised to see the BC Liberals field a realtor as a candidate. I do find it surprising that a bus driver beat out former B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jinny Sims though. In name recognition alone that’s surprising.

Green: Doug Warkentin
Well I’ll be damned; someone actually wants to contest this riding. This guy has his own page with his e-mail address and phone number, a photo, and best of all a blurb! Check out the blurbtasticness:
“Professional Engineer, Entrepreneur and Community Advocate, Doug Warkentin is committed to the ideal of building a stronger province through economically, socially and ecologically self-sustaining communities. Doug’s business experience includes developing technologies for recovering value from municipal waste and cleaning heavy metals from waste water. In 2007, his company was awarded the BC Hydro Sustainability Prize in the New Ventures BC competition. Doug has demonstrated his commitment to the guiding principles of the Green Party as a volunteer and as a Green Party candidate during the past 12 years, and has regularly volunteered in community support and development projects in Marpole, and more recently in Sunset and Mountainview.”

If this guy doesn’t have a skeleton in his closet he could actually stand a strong chance of winning this thing. He’s an engineer so he’s intelligent, he’s an entrepreneur so he has executive experience and understands business and the economy, and he clearly cares about the environment. He’s one of the people at the front of the green jobs movement and there seems to be a lot of feeling out there that green jobs are the future way out of the recession at least on a continental scale. All he needs is a comprehensive and in depth position on crime and he’s got the whole package for what voters are hopefully looking for. I know it’s very early with the election over a month away but I am strongly considering endorsing this candidate.

Generally speaking I hate the BC Liberals on all fronts: policy, past practice, leadership, cabinet members, whatever. I tend to gravitate towards the NDP but I’m not very fond of Carole James (it will be easier to support the NDP when someone like Adrian Dix becomes leader). Perhaps it’s time for a third choice and maybe it will bring with it some real change.

Later I’ll look at party platforms but for now this Green is looking mighty appealing.

Monday is such a huge day for new TV for me now that ordering food is no longer a celebration, it’s a necessity. I have too much to watch to waste time away from the TV making food. There’s 24 (Fox), Castle (ABC), Big Bang Theory (CBS), How I Met Your Mother (CBS), Chuck (NBC), The Daily Show (Comedy), and The Colbert Report (Comedy) – and on a good Monday like today they’re all new. Not to mention Countdown (MSNBC) and Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) which I may try to fit in as bonus points.

I must say the state of our union on TV on Mondays is strong – if TV always had such quality programming I’d never leave my house. Thank heaven for timeshifting that I don’t have to make painful decisions about what to watch.

So suffice to say finding the time to blog in detail is nigh impossible on these wonderful nights that seem to serve as apologies for the days they follow.

As I’ve mentioned before, the vacation I’m envisioning this year is a road trip to California. If Jon is to come it looks like it would have to be in November. Let’s check the amusement parks…

• Disneyland hasn’t closed for a day since 9/11 according to Wikipedia
• Knott’s Berry Farm, which I’ve never been to, open everyday
• Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, which I’ve also never been to, closed
• Six Flags Magic Mountain, which I’ve also never been to, open weekends only
• Six Flags Vallejo open weekends only
• Universal Studios open everyday

Of course if we bring the kid amusement park activity would be curtailed to some degree anyways. Would probably also rule out talk show filmings like The Tonight Show. Of course we’d run into the same problem in Orlando or Las Vegas. Cancun and Hawaii might be more kid-friendly for that age but much more expensive.

The Fantasyland hotel in Edmonton offers babysitting service but that would be over a grand for 4 nights in September and the dates are pretty limited, the damn thing is already booked up pretty heavily – in fact completely booked for November already so no Jon. I’d probably be willing to do that though but it wouldn’t be my first choice. Ever since my dad got shot down trying to stay there on our road trip when I was in high school I’ve kinda wanted to go back and do what he couldn’t – that’s probably about my one daddy issue which as such things go, is pretty good. 3 days in Edmonton really is enough, plus 2 days of travel each way and it’s a week. Maybe camp in Jasper (if it’s September and weather is good) and stop in Calgary along the way. Maybe even visits to Vulcan and Drumheller…probably want GPS for that though.

Don’t think I’d want to be in Toronto in November. London would be a savings killer. And with the car in pretty good condition I wouldn’t mind making this vacation a roadtrip to take advantage of our new(er) wheels – that limits us to California, Edmonton, or Las Vegas really.

I need to be more flexible in my thinking. With a little added flexibility I could make California or Edmonton work either way really regardless of the kid or Jon’s attendance.

I thought I would share some other useful tidbits from my used car buying experience from a dealer. If you have the time you might want to do more than just this but if you were a somewhat motivated buyer as I was this could serve you well to cover most issues.

1. Check the dealer’s Better Business Bureau rating. A- or better should inspire confidence, anything less and you might want to consider going elsewhere. This can be done quickly online before going to the dealership.

2. Do they offer, at minimum, a 30-day drive train warranty? If not, they clearly don’t have any confidence in their vehicles so why should you?

3. Check the paint. Is it dull just because it needs a wash and wax? Have there been little touch-ups that might be concealing hidden rust or damage?

4. Check for body damage. Would a hammer fix it? Is it cosmetic?

5. Check for Rust. Check the edges of the hood, doors, and trunk.

6. Let the engine idle for a few minutes; listen for clatter or unusual noises. Listen from both the inside and the outside – have the salesperson do it if you’re on your own and sit in the passenger side for a few moments and stand outside for a few minutes.

7. Put the car back and forth between drive, neutral and reverse; motion or clanking is bad. Some engine movement if you’re looking under the hood while someone is doing this is okay depending on the model.

8. After the test drive run your finger inside the exhaust; oil is bad, water is okay, and nothing is obviously okay.

9. Inspection, inspection, inspection! No, don’t do it 3 times, I just repeated myself for emphasis.

10. Watch out for a paperwork filing or vehicle history research fee. Anything much higher than $50 is suspicious. Make sure they give you the accident history of the vehicle but don’t be surprised if some details might be missing – this usually indicates that the damage was so minor or inexpensive the accident was reported but the person decided not to file a claim.

These 10 steps plus a 30-day drive train warranty should cover pretty much all of the most expensive or likely problems.

There are other checklists out there with 15 to 30 or more steps but if you’re buying from a dealership and you follow the 10 steps above then the longer checklists probably have a lot of time consuming redundancy in them.

My friend Jon is always trying to get me to watch TV shows. Now by-and-large the shows I have watched as a result of this have been good (Firefly, Doctor Who, Politically Incorrect, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) with the odd exception (Dead like Me). It’s not that I don’t want to give Jon’s shows a chance; it’s just that I have other things I like to do. For example I enjoy shows he has yet to fully discover like Dragon’s Den, Chef!, and The Sarah Jane Adventures. But every now and then I find myself with the opportunity to check out one of his shows. In the past he has had to almost literally tie me down and force me to watch pilots like Firefly and Doctor Who but others I get around to on my own like Dead Like Me, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, and Politically Incorrect although Jon’s growing queue of things he thinks I need to watch is so large he often forgets that I do on occasion go into this willingly. Just the other day I tried giving a couple more episodes of Battlestar Galactica a try – it didn’t really gel with me.

Enter Chuck. A show I recently became somewhat curious about once the commercials actually started explaining the premise of the show. It’s been on since 2007 but I swear I only just got an inkling as to what it was about 6 months ago. I suppose Jon saw an opportunity to strike – he had the first season of Chuck on Blu-ray and I got an HD setup on Boxing Day which he knew I’d be itching to use to death. Jon also had a huge ally in Chuck as its regular cast includes Adam Baldwin (Firefly), is produced and frequently directed by Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), and has several guest stars I enjoy like Tony Todd (TNG, DS9, 24), John Fleck (Enterprise, DS9, TNG), James Hong (Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, The King Of Queens, The West Wing), Rachel Bilson (The O.C.), Julia Ling (Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip), and Rick Hoffman (Knight Rider).

“The O.C.?” I know you’re thinking it so I better address it now before you get distracted and leave snarky (but not entirely undeserved) comments – get out in front of it sort of thing. Yes, I was a confused bachelor with limited television channels for a year…I don’t want to talk about it. I even watched most of The Princes of Malibu but that was largely because I saw it as a parody of reality TV since it was pretty much totally staged. You can’t begin to plumb the complexities of me.

Anyways, back to Chuck. Yesterday we sat down and watched the first 10 episodes straight, with only a pause to make dinner and another to put the kid to bed – we didn’t even stop when Jon himself called. I must say I like living in the 24-era of television where movie-level production values from writing to special effects to acting can be seen on broadcast TV. Even the title sequence is great – we giggle a little when that little guy falls out of Chuck’s nose and when he rides the bullet. One thing I really appreciate is that the characters don’t really stay static – there’s evolution and arcs that make them three dimensional. Overall I am very pleased and impressed with this show. I highly recommend it, you know, if you have the time.

Jon will likely be insufferably pleased with himself now. That’s okay, just so long as he doesn’t think he’s on a roll or anything and tries to force more stuff on me anytime soon – I have lots of Chuck and Knight Rider to catch up on at the moment.

As for Battlestar Galactica I think reading the Wikipedia page will be enough to satisfy my curiosity – the few episodes I caught the other day were laboriously slow paced for my tastes.

And don’t think this relationship goes entirely in one direction – I got this kid hooked on 24 and Lie To Me.

Yesterday I finished watching my entire new Chef! DVD collection. I was able to appreciate the first 2 seasons much more with the improved quality – the food actually looked like food and the laughing didn’t overpower the dialogue like it did on the VHS version so I was able to get a handful of new jokes. The third season I had never seen before so that was all new to me.

I was very upset that they had recast Gustav, Jeff Nuttall did a great job but his interpretation of the character was essentially a new character. Ian McNeice, the original Gustav, wasn’t a quick-witted wise-cracking kind of character – his early interactions with Chef were so funny largely because of this. I think Jeff Nuttall should have just been a new character; they only made use of the Gustav back-story for one joke in the entire season anyways. Why couldn’t they get Ian McNeice back? They got the guest star that played Gareth’s father back for pete’s sake!

At first I totally hated Savannah, her voice was irritating and her character was more of a caricature, as the series progressed she became somewhat more three dimensional but I don’t know if she ever overcame the original gimmick of her character. One thing that made Lucinda great in the first season was that she was a fairly normal person – the strength of Chef! was in the reality of it, Savannah was a cartoon character by comparison. Chef! simply wasn’t that kind of sitcom, it was something better and deserved a better character.

I had read online about the Janice-divorce plotline and was concerned that this would be done poorly, that they’d boot her off in the first episode of the season and then forget about her but thankfully they handled that story very well – it was an arc plot throughout the season and after two seasons of the arc story being financial difficulties this was a refreshing change. As someone who has to manage an ever-decreasing budget at work I’d rather not come home to endless plotlines about budget cuts.

The ending reminded me of Sex & The City in a way but the acting just fell apart in the last few scenes – and having an imaginary sequence in the final episode when you’ve never done one before was jarring and a poor choice in my opinion. The final resolution of the characters however was excellent – they put all the toys back in the toy box in good condition when they were done playing with them…now if only someone would open the toy box again.

Overall the complete series of Chef! is a great entertainment investment, on excellent crazy sale from Amazon or not. I highly recommend it.

As you may know I’ve been having trouble with my Insignia Blu-ray player that I bought online from Best Buy on Boxing Day for $100. After trying everything in the book, contacting Best Buy and Insignia tech support, and even buying a Blu-ray lense cleaner I finally broke down and took the damn thing back.

I expected a fight to the death, threats of legal action, and a grueling back and forth…but all I had to do was tell my story and I got an instant exchange despite being MONTHS beyond the exchange period. They even offered to give me full credit towards a higher end player if I didn’t want to give this particular model or brand another chance. I chose the exchange because dropping another $150+ to upgrade would negate the sweet deal I got on Boxing Day. When the floor staff brought an open box replacement I was content but the rep I was dealing with yelled at them to get me a factory-new player. And the exchange resets the 1 year warranty.

I got home and hooked the replacement player up and thus far it’s behaving itself. Pretty serendipitous timing too as my complete series of Chef! on DVD arrived today.

The true measure of a company is what they do when things go wrong, they passed with flying colours.

2 recent news pieces have made me decide to stop helping the economy by making purchases or trips that I don’t, strictly speaking, need.

First there was this story: http://www.news1130.com/news/local/more.jsp?content=20090316_091532_8788
It said “We’re still shopping and we’re still dining out.  A new poll finds despite the economic downturn, many of us are still spending. Nearly half of Canadians surveyed by Harris-Decima for Scotia Bank say they have not changed their spending habits in the last six months… just over one third of Canadians admit they’re spending more these days.”

This made me think the Canadian economy is doing fine and no longer requires my help.

Then there was this story:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/03/16/bc-borderprotectionism.html
The short version of which is basically a guy that sells things in Canada made by Americans and therefore creating jobs in the US, was not allowed entry into the US because the border guard decided he was stealing American jobs even when he was in fact doing the opposite.

This made me think that if the US wants to go protectionist and allow this kind of behavior, they don’t need my money either.

Now I still want a decent vacation this year, don’t get me wrong the economy good or bad isn’t going to stop that but I may put Edmonton and Toronto back on the list of possibilities given that border guard story – I’d still much rather go to California but I’m ever so slightly less in love with the idea, but only slightly.

But extra trips to Krispy Kreme or making an effort to dine at my favorite restaurants or buy things I don’t need can be suspended. To quote C.J. Cregg, “I’m moving the goal posts and declaring victory”. I pronounce the Canadian economy fixed and the American economy can go to hell for all I care. If Six Flags goes under someone else will probably come along and buy their parks anyways – the parks themselves are profitable, it’s the company’s asset and debt management as well as a falling stock price that got them into trouble. Now I’ll focus on rebuilding my savings and only buying things I need like new shoes and a new umbrella. Maybe some sweet Rock Band DLC if they ever get the Wii caught up with some decent offerings like R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion, The Killer’s Mr. Brightside, Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way, Duran Duran’s Rio and Girls On Film, or Foo Fighter’s The Colour And The Shape album.

Lots of additions but this represents 2 days of play…

Easy
Interpol – PDA
Go-Go’s – We Got The Beat
L7 – Pretend We’re Dead
Modest Mouse – Float On
Nirvana – Drain You (x2)
Nirvana – Polly
Panic At The Disco – Nine In The Afternoon

Medium
Billy Idol – White Wedding
Jimmy Eat World – The Middle
Nirvana – Polly
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
Ratt - Round & Round
Rage Against The Machine – Testify (first try)
L7 – Pretend We’re Dead
Speck – Conventional Lover

I would like to complain regarding the misleading advertising over your 5 Bucks deal. The price is NOT $5 but rather $5.55 which even simple math would round to $6. Plus I dislike that the checkout screen for online ordering no longer gives a price breakdown of each item.
 
This is just the latest in a long line of disappointments from your company. First you replace the real cheese in stuffed crust with processed cheese which tastes like plastic. Then you go for a couple years without any online coupons and using a coupon from a flyer by entering a code has never worked on your website. And the couple of times I have ordered whenever I select electronic payment the deliveryperson almost always expects cash and doesn’t bring the debit/credit machine. And when more serious issues occur like getting the wrong pizza I have to explain myself a half dozen times to as many people and jump through several hoops to get it corrected.
 
I am so sick of your shady and disappointing business practices over the last couple years I don’t think I’ll ever order from you again. When I e-mailed to ask a question about stuffed crust when you made that change I never even received a response. I used to be a pretty loyal customer, ordering significant sized orders several times a month but unless you clean up your act you’ll never see any of my money again. It’s such a shame too, several years ago you had a quality product at a reasonable price and respectable business practices - now all I’ve come to expect is a substandard product at overinflated prices and deceptive business practices. You may think this behaviour helps your bottom line but not when it costs you customers like myself.

While the first day it was about doing everything on the list in order the second day was much more laid back. We didn’t really follow the clock at all.

The bath products smelling like tasty food made all of us pretty keen on eating once we left the hotel. After a wrong turn or two in the dim hope of stumbling upon an IHOP (as I hadn’t planned on going to one) we decided to just go to the Cheesecake Factory (which was the original plan). We all had some tasty food after a bit of a wait where I entertained the kid with my PDA. Knowing the Cheesecake Factory portions tend to me enormous and my unwavering desire for cheesecakes I just had appetizer nachos which I shared with the group and still couldn’t manage to finish. For dessert I decided to try something new and was very pleased to discover, although not much of a surprise, that the cookie dough cheesecake is fantastic. Not quite as good as my usual white chocolate raspberry but a runner up to that. Meanwhile we treated the kid to a goblet of strawberries and whip cream which he shared with his mom.

Then we went to Westlake Mall and took the monorail to Seattle Centre but the Space Needle had an enormous line-up. Well over an hour, if not two by the looks of it. All of us except the kid had done the needle enough times already that we were fine with skipping it, and as far as the kid goes he’d just as likely hate it or have a freak out so perhaps we dodged a bullet there. We were too far away from the Museum of Flight for it to be practical and the Science Centre also had a huge line-up. We played some arcade games, walked around, listened to a busker, let the kid run around a lot, got some free WiFi in the food court and then went back on the monorail. The kid had a blast on the monorail, he’s train-obsessed these days. Back at Westlake I bought a Barenaked Ladies CD I didn’t own for the trip back as we had burned through the 6 CDs we brought already.

Back on the road we decided to skip dinner entirely we were still so full from lunch. I was in the back seat and the stereo was oddly configured so I wasn’t actually able to hear any of my new CD but the kid was able to get a nap which was good. We made some excellent time and ended up at the Krispy Kreme before long, and before the kid was ready to end his nap but parking was enough to wake him up in a poor mood.

The border wait was nonexistent but that didn’t mean we had a smooth time crossing. Compared to the hassle we got with only having photocopies of the kid’s ID on the way down they seemed ready to make a federal case out of it on the way back. The guy was a bit of a jerk about it too, “photocopies are just pieces of paper, they’re as good as garbage – do you understand?” he said. I suppose “we require original documents so please bring those next time as you may have difficulty crossing otherwise” would have been too polite. It’s odd that the American border guards were far more polite than their Canadian counterpart who just seemed interested in rudely talking down to us. He seemed genuinely upset with us. I’m all for taking your job seriously but taking your job personally is something else entirely especially when we were apologetic and polite about the whole thing from beginning to end.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful, the kid saw a train, and we dropped Jon off at the ferry in time to catch an earlier sailing. The only weird thing was the amount of snow that had fallen in our absence. For all the weird weather we encountered on the trip from rain to snow to hail to sun within an hour’s drive it seemed like we had avoided the truly odd weather of serious snowfall in the second week of March back home.

We had a 2-room suite on the fifth floor facing the Space Needle. The view was great although we didn’t spend much time enjoying it. I’ve read people complaining about traffic noise but we didn’t find it to be a problem at all. The room was spacious and the beds very comfortable, although the sofa bed left something to be desired but it is a sofa bed so what can one expect? Probably the first time I’ve had more pillows than I knew what to do with. The check-in process was quick and painless and we even got a little welcome package with bottled water and popcorn. The room had everything we needed and then some, I am particularly appreciative of the fridge.

My nearly 2-year-old came along for the trip and he seemed to enjoy the room; it gave him room to play and was reasonably child safe - and a decent selection of channels including cartoons helped.

The indoor pool isn’t very big and is rather simple so we didn’t bother actually trying it out. The TVs in the rooms are good size with decent quality although the power button didn’t work on one of our remotes. Getting up and running on the internet did require a call for some technical support but they walked us through the process quickly enough. The water pressure in the shower was impressive and refreshing – the provided shampoo smelled like cinnamon oatmeal and the conditioner almost had a custard aroma (you’ll likely come out of the shower feeling hungry). They even provided cotton swabs which I always forget to pack.

As mentioned in other reviews the parking is incredibly tight, that really would be my only criticism of this property. I’ve stayed in a few hotels in Seattle and the surrounding area like Everett and I have to say this is the first one that I would not only stay at again but look forward to the opportunity. It does cost a bit more but the Seattle market for accommodations is a little tricky so given what’s available it’s worth putting out a little extra green for. I am very impressed with the Holiday Inn Express brand based on this experience and will probably start my next hotel search with them in mind.

When making my timeline I didn’t know the kid would be spending the night before with his grandparents so I didn’t factor in the time it took to pick him up and I didn’t expect an hour long border wait. It wasn’t that the border was busier than I expected, I had just never seen it move so slowly. I found myself wondering what the alert level was and given the scrutiny we got for only having photocopies of the kid’s ID it was clear they were being thorough. So despite starting the day sooner than I would have liked we were a little late getting stateside.

One nice new feature at the border was a light half way through the waiting area. This kept cars stationary for about half the wait time rather than perpetually inching along. This way you could shut your engine off, get comfortable, and have a conversation. This new procedure is so much better for the environment, your car and pocketbook, and stress levels that the wait hardly felt as long as it was.

The waiting having been longer than anticipated and our departure rather rushed we were pretty hungry when we got to our first destination, Cost Cutter in Blaine. They didn’t have the Jones Soda I was looking for so we just picked up some Wild Cherry Pepsi, Vanilla Root Beer, and Vanilla Coke Zero instead. Then Jon got us some stuffed crazy bread from Little Caesar’s which, while very good, the cheese felt a little thinner than back home and by that I mean less dense.

Next it was off to Ross. Jon got a desk organizer while I was happy to discover Rockport makes socks and I found a wind-up powered light, both for dirt cheap. My girlfriend made a pass through the women’s clothing area and came back with about a dozen shirts which after trying them on were whittled down to 4. Given that this stop was largely for her this was a pretty good result. As for investigating the American recession – the Ross was not only hiring but so desperate for people they had to advertise with a huge banner. Just down the way was a Circuit City – Jon and I had hoped to find some deals at the liquidation but it seems we were too late, it was shuttered and evacuated. So there were contradictory indications on the economic front.

Then it was off to the Premium Outlets (which seemed to be doing very good business with a couple stores hiring) where I went a little crazy in the Kenneth Cole outlet store. Now I normally come out of that store with one purchase, in Vegas it was a couple golf shirts for less than $40 USD. Well this time I spent nearly $100 USD on pants, a belt, and a zip-up outer sweater thingy which Jon and the girlfriend were both very much in favor of. I was slightly on the fence with regards to the sweater but asking me to take a leap of faith on Kenneth Cole is like asking a cat to try a platter of milk. As the trip progressed the sweater really grew on me and I discovered its usefulness. I picked up 2 pairs of sunglasses for the kid at The Children’s Place and a new golf shirt, khakis, and 3-piece sleepwear set for the kid at Carter’s. He stained the khakis later that same day with red Gatorade, I am not impressed but you better believe we’re not throwing those out even if he only wears them on Mr. Mom days. Jon got a pair of shoes for himself and a shirt for his son. My girlfriend spent what felt like an eternity in a women’s store and ended up not getting anything although her search was interrupted when my son randomly and quite suddenly went crazy – just crying inconsolably.

Back on the road the kid calmed down pretty quickly but we were behind in our schedule which wouldn’t have mattered but unbeknownst to us until mid-journey Jon had specified a 2-hour check-in window at the hotel which we would now be quite late for. We arrived at the hotel without incident and checked in just fine though – more details of the hotel will be included in an upcoming post from an upcoming Trip Advisor review.

After settling in at the hotel we set out for the Rainforest Café with a bit of a false start due to some backseat driving. Once there the wait was 45 minutes – so this business about the Rainforest Café being in some kind of financial difficulty seems a little inaccurate. I think other business streams must be dragging the company down as this place was bustling with activity. My son became a bit of a handful but my girlfriend and I traded off dealing with him during the substantial wait time. The service was great and the food was good as always and the volcano dessert was an event. After a brief stop for some essentials at Sears (they had crazy clearance sales going on so word of their financial difficulty seems accurate enough) we headed back to the car. It was a 5 minute walk that started out in hail, became rain, and eventually became hail again which was par for the course as we encountered all sorts of weather when on the road all day.

Back at the hotel no one but me seemed interested in swimming and given the somewhat unimpressive pool at the hotel I couldn’t really blame them. So we put the kid to bed, watched some TV, and then went to bed ourselves.

So while things didn’t go exactly according to plan Day One was a huge success – we made every stop we had planned and got quite a few goodies along the way.

I am having an awesome day and it’s not even lunchtime yet.

Not a cloud in the sky. I got some sun on the bus ride to work with an awesome mp3 mix on my PDA at top audio quality with my Bose earbuds. Gotta love it when shuffle makes some magic happen.

I get in to work feeling great when some news crosses my desk – R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion is coming to Rock Band on March 10th. I couldn’t be happier about that. If this is the beginning of releasing all of Out Of Time this could well make my season (I’d say year but I have high hopes for a California road trip in late September).

Then on Twitter Brent Spiner was discussing hybrids vs. electric cars and said “True, the batteries aren’t so green. But, you don’t see us invading countries so we can control their battery supply”. I almost hurt myself laughing. Then “I’m thinking of starting a new company. Celebrity Limo. The twist is it’s the celebrities who do the driving. I’ll take Tuesdays.” And finally “Some are saying it would make a good reality show. Is there such a thing as a good reality show?”

I love Wil Wheaton but today Brent Spiner is my Twitter hero.

Tonight I’ve got gallery suite tickets to the big game for myself, my girlfriend, and Jon and the kid’s spending the night with his grandparents. Tomorrow begins a 2 day road trip minibreak with the girlfriend, kid, and Jon.

Got paid and got my tax return yesterday so finances are looking up, I was able to repay a bit of what I owe to my savings. Warren’s facebook relationship status drama has been resolved to my satisfaction as I predicted it would be. Jack is out of his coma.

Life is good.

So it turns out the front right brake pad was essentially gone and one of the back brake pads was nearly gone. The front right pad having being gone caused serious damage to the rotor such that the mechanic couldn’t legally let us drive it without making repairs – not that we planned to. So in the end we got 4 new brake pads and had to replace the front right rotor.

How much of this did JJ cover? Half the cost of one brake pad. It barely counts as a gesture. Frankly I’m disappointed in them. On principal I don’t think I’ll buy from them again in the future but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t – just get that safety inspection before purchasing. If we hadn’t been so poor on time we would have done so but we were in a somewhat urgent need – never a good way to buy a car. And even though the free inspection is with a company they have a relationship with I would trust it. The repair place didn’t even seem to completely understand their relationship with JJ and the communication between the two was very poor which is bad on a professional business customer service level but is a good sign that they’re not in collusion.

In the end it cost us over $200.

Hopefully the major issues with this car are done with for at least a year. I’m perfectly willing to shell out some dough to maintain my ride in a year or so but other than fluids I don’t want to have to put a dime into this vehicle until at least the beginning of winter; particularly since I hope to take it on the minibreak soon and perhaps a full-fledged road trip to California in the fall.

Now as for names it hasn’t been the smooth sailing I had hoped for. I mean, it seemed a no-brainer to me at first: Sideswipe. He was cool, red, and an autobot – win-freaking-win. A Lamborghini with a jet pack, come on! It turns out however that my girlfriend has been sideswiped. Then I suggested Cliffjumper. Not as cool but tended to get more dialogue and again, a red autobot. Apparently there is something wrong with car names that describe potentially fatal accidents. She’s really tied my hands here. She suggested an autobot that hadn’t even been on television! I’m not going to name my car after some dumb toy – I’m going to name it after a cartoon character, I have my self respect after all. Plus the name she suggested was a semi-major character on 24, even the suggestion confused me. So my top two choices rejected I had to get creative.

Optimus Prime or Rhodimus Prime would just be the height of arrogance – for one thing how could I dare name a used car after them? It’d be unconscionable.

Hot Rod would have to be a sports car and much as I like our car, a sports car it isn’t. At the very least it would have to be more of a cherry red.

Ironhide could work but could cause confusion due to the new movies.

(I would also like to take a moment to once again officially object to Jon naming his green Elantra Mirage – he should have been Hound or Springer but I digress.)

It looked like I was going to have to relax the idea of it being a car. This put Perceptor and Blaster into play.

Given the surprise aftermarket 6-disc changer we found in the truck after driving the car home for the first time, something the dealership didn’t even seem to know about; Blaster seemed a more natural choice.

Any thoughts?

Easy
Interpol – PDA
Go-Go’s – We Got The Beat
L7 – Pretend We’re Dead
Modest Mouse – Float On
Nirvana – Drain You (x2)
Nirvana – Polly
Panic At The Disco – Nine In The Afternoon

Medium
Billy Idol – White Wedding
Jimmy Eat World – The Middle
Nirvana – Polly
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer