Kevin and Christa tied the knot this past weekend. It was an awesome day, and lots of fun. Congrats to the happy couple. Pictures will be uploaded when I finally have a minute.  Not much more to say. Can’t remember laughing that much, that long in a long time.

Sorry for the cheesy Grease 2 reference in the topic,  but guess who bought a bike After years of wanting one, Kyle and I finally struck up a deal, and I am the proud owner of a 1990 Yamaha FZR600. Needs a tiny bit of TLC from the bike sitting but its in good shape, and should serve me well. Really looking forward to getting it on the road in the spring. I could probably do it this summer/fall, but with Shannon off work, insuring yet another vehicle is a bad idea. Ian has been giving me a hand with the tear down. Currently sitting with the carbs removed ready to be cleaned. Once that’s done, oil change, new sprockets, and clean the chain, and it should be all ready for spring. I can’t wait to take it for a rip

Jetta is nearing it’s lease end date. It doesn’t expire till middle of October, but with us being in Florida at that point, we will be returning it later September, so it is done and finished before we leave.  As of today, I have about 4500kms left to go until 100K. Considering I want to drive it till end of September, I may be a bit tight on Kms. When I’m in the last 1000, I will likely drive the Audi until the Jetta is gone.  Shannon can drive the Jetta for errands at that point. Once it goes back, Dad has been nice enough to let me borrow the Golf until we buy something for me to replace the Jetta with. See my car shopping blog HERE.  Originally I was planning on getting something right away. I think I may hold off until after Christmas, more likely closer to March before I seriously start looking at cars to actually buy. Longer I wait, the more months we have with out the car payment, the easier Shannon’s maternity leave will be on the finances. So sometime after January 1st and before June, I will have something new, but not before that.  That said, the blog above will be updated as I plan on spending alot of time really deciding what to get. Test drives will commence pretty much any day now. Give me some serious time to decide.

We had a boy!

Joseph (Joey) James Peter VanDalen

Born: Jun 17, 2010 @ 12:39am. 9lbs 6ounces. 21.5″ long. And boy is he a cutie.

Things went perfect from 6pm-12am. Then things went south in a hurry. Complications forced another scary emergency C-Section. In the end, baby Joey is happy and healthy. As is Mommy. However, Mommy is quite sore. I guess that’s what happens when they cut a baby from your body before being able to let the epidural work fully. Nothing better then feeling the cuts being made.

We have the perfect family.

1. 06-08 VW GTI
2. 05-06 MINI Cooper S
3. Volvo C30 R-Design
4. Chevrolet HHR-SS - simply impossible to find.
5. 04 VW Golf R32 -hard to justify 6 year old car at inflated prices. Then ad importation fees + aggravation.
6. Mazda Speed3  - no sunroof available.  Prefer other cars on list despite this being fastest on the list.

House Mods : With the pending baby, I’ve been busy getting the house where we want it. Dad and I spent a few hours and ripped up the carpet in the living room and replaced it with a nice laminate. SO much nicer then the carpet was. Also, finally have central air installed. Too bad we’ve had a cold snap ever since. The damned unit has been on just long enough to make sure it works.

And two final updates. Shannon is STILL pregnant. Baby is holding on till the end just like Abby did. Eviction notice likely to be written up next week at her appointment if the baby is still not cooperating.  Also, early this summer I will be getting this damned site moved to a faster box with all the new updates done. This old site has been update free for 3+ years.

One Final, Final update.  HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY GRANDPA! Hope you have a wonderful day!

With the Subaru sold and gone, and Shannons lease on the Jetta quickly coming to a close, we decided to replace my WRX with a ‘family car’ for Shannon that we can both share during the months after she goes on maternity leave. Come June, we could likely survive on 1 car fairly easily. Come October, when the Jetta goes back to VW, we will have to. At least until I decide to go car shopping for myself again. Sometime between October ‘10 and June ‘11 I will have to decide exactly what I want, and go get it. Nice thing is, I have all that time to find the right car. No need to worry about rushing around or settling. I’ve got the time to wait it out, and let the right car and the right deal come to me. Absolute worst case scenario, my Dad has been letting me borrow the old white golf when we need it. Its not the fastest, or prettiest car, but it gets from a-b, has satellite radio in it (now), and gets pretty good mileage (31-33mpg).

Car shopping will be much more limited this time. Criteria is much tighter.  REQUIREMENTS: Manual transmission, hatchback, sunroof, performance oriented.  Strong preference will be given to all-wheel-drive cars.  I also am pretty sure I will be sticking with German, or north American or sweedish?! (Golf R32, GTI, Audi a3, CooperS, Volvo C30, HHR-SS).  Right now, as it has been for the past 5 years, the R32 is where my heart lies. Has all the functionality and comfort of my GTI/Golfs from the past. Adds All-wheel-drive and lots of power with great sound like the WRX had, and because they were NEVER sold in Canada, and only 5000 sold in the entire USA, its much more rare and unique then the CooperS.  Time will tell, but with luck, that car will be in the driveway before this time next year.

Shannons shopping was quick and painless.  Back in December, we started discussing buying from a friend of ours. Andrew had brought up an Audi a4 wagon a couple years back. In fact, it was his step by step directions that I used to import my silverado a few years back. Anyways. Shannon had fallen in love with this car back when she first seen it. She has always had a major thing for Audi wagons. Especially performance versions that also have All-Wheel-Drive.  Andrew’s car fit the bill perfectly. We know the history about as good as you can know a used cars history. And price wise, we made it work. So, Shannon is the proud owner of a 2005 Audi Avant UltraSport, (apr stage 1+chipped with injectors 1.8T engine, 6 speed manual, leather, AWD, sunroof, rollin’ on OEM 18’s for those of you who want details). Shannon couldn’t be happier with her choice. Thanks for taking such good car of it Andy!

Possibly the biggest news of all. Stelco err Lake Erie Steel err US Steel has signed a contract, and after a year of being off work, my Dad is FINALLY back to work. Congrats to all the workers for getting back to work. It sucks that so many people had to basically put their lives on hold due to a companies piss poor practices, but hopefully now, things will finally get back in order.

Lastly, Shannon is now officially 6 weeks from her due date. YIKES! So much to do, so little time!

Shannon’s baby belly is coming along nicely. She will be 27 weeks along come Monday.  13 weeks to go. More or less.  We sill have lots to do to get ready. Thankfully there won’t be any painting this time. A lovely shade of green was good enough for Abigail, it will be good enough for baby #2.

Warmer weather also allowed me some time to install my new rear sway bar and exhaust on the WRX.  With some help from Kevin to get the downpipe off, the swap went fairly smoothly. One bolt was a major pain in the ass. But eventually it gave up, and we won.  Sounds deeeeep. And the power difference is immediately noticeable. Typically this upgrade is good for about 285hp or so. Not bad seeing as the car started with 227hp. I almost forgot how good stage 2 felt

Aside from seriously jonesing for a motorcycle, and looking forward to getting the bug on the road, there isn’t much else on the go right now.

First off: Christmas. It was an awesome holiday once again. Things were a tiny bit different though. Basically, the one big change was Christmas morning. For the past 31 years, I have celebrated Christmas morning at my Grandma/Grandpa Armstrongs, and later on the Shoup’s house. (Same house, but Grandparents live upstairs now). It has always been crazy and awesome all rolled into one. This year however, we started our day with my family at my Parents place. Was it a bit strange? Yes. Did I miss the normal holiday crazyness of all my aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents together? Of course.  Would I have it any other way? No.  Although it was a bit of a change, I feel it was a good one. It was very nice to be with just my parents, my sisters and their signifigant others, and Shannon/Abby. It was the start of a NEW tradition.  We still spent Christmas Eve, and Christmas night with the extended family. There is no way I’d give that up. We have a very close extended family, and I simply couldn’t imagine not getting together for at least some of the festivities. Thank you EVERYONE for great holidays and wonderful gifts. 

Other then the change in Christmas morning venue, everything else pretty much went to plan. Christmas Eve at the Shoups for snacks and finger foods, and Christmas dinners started at Shannons Dads place on the 25th and continued back at the Shoups in the evening.  Thanks again for everything! 

Next up: Abby growing like crazy. This kid is growing like a weed.  Shes now talking up a storm. Starting to sing! and string words together in sentances. Everytime I hear “what’s that noise?” I laugh.  She just wants to know what everything is, and what everything does.  I also can’t help but laugh at how tightly she has her uncles wound around her baby finger. Grant, Brian and Alex can’t come over without getting suckered into tea parties, or playing dolls. Her aunts don’t seem to be able to say no to her either. I think they inherited that trait from my Mom and Dad. A bunch of pushovers…. the whole lot of ya!

Baby #2 halfway there! Shannon is just past the half way mark. So far, so good. Baby is measuring perfectly, and momma is as well.  We had the first ultra sound recently, and got to see the wiggly little bugger flipping around and doing gymnastics in Shannons belly. Nothing better then watching your baby play. Even when they are on the inside

Finally the basement reno’s part 1 is nearly done. The main recreation room/living room/man cave is nearing completion. Still a handfull of small tasks to do such as carpetting the stairs, painting the handrail, etc. But the room is useable. Tv is now setup and being used on a daily basis. Still seems odd to be using the basement after all these years of the room being a grey concrete bunker, but we’re getting use to it. Stage2 for the basement will be finishing the bathroom (already framed in, and roughed in, just needs to be finished) and also the small hallway between the bathroom and main room. Thank you SO much to my Dad and Alex and Grandpa for all their help. There is no way this room would have ever got finished if it wasn’t for you guys. Thanks again!

Picture updates will be coming soon. They have all been sorted and uploaded, I just need to put them on the web page. Check back this weekend.

So, I’m going to re-kindle my love afair with the WRX. Odds are, once Shannon goes back to work from her maternity leave, I will be more then ready to move onto something newer.  At this point, i’d hazard to guess an 04 Golf R32 or a 08+ WRX. (both hatches, both manual trans AWD, both sound awesome). But for now, time to put some go fast goodies back on the old gal, and tighten up the suspension again.

First off, LETS GO YANKEES! Yes, that was the chant around my house throughout September-November. Heck, I even got Abby chanting it too. And it worked! The Yankees won their 27th World Series Championship.  I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening, then with my daughter on my lap cheering on the Yankees during playoff baseball.

I’ve been busy in the garage since my last post. I built a set of cupboards under my desk in the garage to store my tools in.  I also built a storage unit above the garage door as well. Good place to store our folding chairs and other items which aren’t needed too often.  Both turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  I still have a bit of work to do: mounting whiteboard, some more wall brackets for larger hand tools etc. Come the spring, I will finally be ready to paint the garage and hopefully cover the floor with some sort of coating as well.  Need to be a nice home to keep my bug in

Christmas is on the way, and I have one excited little kid. She has really embraced the whole ‘ho ho’ thing. Christmas decorations, lights etc really light her up. Cutest thing you have ever seen. The house is lit pretty well this year. Slight increase from the last couple years.  Each year we spend a bit more on lights, so I figure in 5 years or less, I should rival Clark Griswold

If you have been following my facebook status, you probably already know that i’ve put my Subaru up for sale. I know I haven’t had it too long (only a year). It’s a great little car, but I’ve decided I’m more of a hatch man…. oh, and since Shannons lease comes up next year, and the fact she is pregnant with our second child,  we need something slightly bigger then the roo. Putting a rear facing seat in the Subaru won’t likely happen unless Shannon stays home all the time.

Yes,  you read that right. We have a baby on the way!!! I couldn’t be more excited. The due date is June 21st, so I expect the baby to come a bit late. Likely June 27th (the day of June Jitterbug). Before you ask, no, we won’t be finding out the sex. Shannon is starting to get a nice baby bump. Hopefully going into the second trimester she will start feeling like herself again.

Happy birthday Abigail! Mommy and Daddy love you very much.