Funny

old episode, but one of the funniest dialog I've heard on TV:

"... and then I have a Brabus Mercedes 550"
"Tom Cruise is a Brabus fan isn't he"
"I don't know."
"You not know?!"
"We attend different churches so I don't know... I'm at the one with Jesus baby"

How you know if it's going to be a good day

Email-of-the-Day from my poor co-worker Chris H:

1. Get up at 5:00 to start work early because you have so much shit to do

2. Proceed to spill an ENTIRE 24oz coffee in your Bimmer because you are gunning it around a corner and forgot that the idiot German engineers don't know how to make proper cup holders.

I felt sorry for him, but yet can't help but crack up laughing. It's unfortunate because I can relate. I've spilled coffee on this puny cupholder in my previous car and man, clean up is NO FUN AT ALL.

Failed: road trip

The planned road trip to Charlotte N.C. did not happen as intended.

Da boy and I woke up at 4 a.m. so that we can be on the road by 6. That we accomplished.

We ran into freezing rain 5 mins into our drive, it came *splat splat splat* down the windshield, but we continue to crawl on doing only 45mph on I44 heading to I64.

Right past Scott AFB it got worst. We saw cars after cars flipped or spun off on the side of the interstate. At one point, there was even a pickup truck that was at a complete standstill in the middle of I64, the traffic had to swerve to avoid hitting it.

Da boy drove even slower.

Finally we exited at Lake Carlyle and pulled up at a McD to rest our nerves and to wait things out. Applying brakes was futile, I can just hear the ABS forcing the wheel to go *thunk thunk thunk*. And the McD parking lot was a sheer sheet of ice.

After a hearty but unhealthy breakfast and almost 1 hour later, we got back on I64. We both made a joint decision to abandon this road trip - the radar shows all PINK (ice/sleet) from IL to IN to KY, which are in our driving paths.

At around 10 a.m. we pulled into our garage, safe and sound. Tired. Back to square one.

Shortly after that, we saw on the news that I64 was closed at Rt 158 due to accidents. Thank god we left when we did. It would not be fun to be caught stuck in the middle of no where in IL.

On a happier note, the last minute plane tickets are real cheap now for some reason.

Fun but surefooted

Check out my tweet and greet over here.

new toy

This post deserves some more explanation.

I flew up to Chicago one beautiful Tuesday morning. Took a cab to Westmont to check out the car that I saw on Autotrader. I liked what I saw, so I signed the papers.

Before making the 4-hour drive back to St. Louis, my salesperson and I taped up the front end with painters tape to prevent rock chips. Yep, painters tape from Target. The tape comes off clean, and I did a quick detailer spray wax over the taped portion.

On a side note Westmont IL must be where the monies are. On my way to the dealership, I saw the following dealerships: Ferrari, Maserati, Land Rover, Lexus, Toyota, BMW, Audi (where I was), Mercedes, Lamborghini, Porsche. I thought I died and gone to heaven. Haha.

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Freakin awesome plate

Taken from The German Car Blog:

Audi RS4: Numberplate of the year

I love the Imola Yellow RS4, but love the license plate even more! This cracks me up.

funny

I was chilling at my desk, eating Hardee's cheeseburger for lunch, and reading In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Audi R8.

I chuckled and about choked myself as I read thru the first 4 comments:

quote of the week

Rahul Sood is quoted on the strategy of the HP and VoodooPC acquisition saying

Voodoo inside HP is very much akin to the acquisition of Lamborghini into Audi. In the new Lamborghinis the quality is 100 times better, and in Audis, the styling has gotten more aggressive – it’s a win-win situation for both companies.

Whether I agree or not with the statement is a different story. The analogy, however, is something I can relate to.

Life. Liberty. And The Pursuit.

Cadillac's most recent "Life. Liberty. And The Pursuit" TV advertising campaign had really caught my eyes. The dialogues, or rather, monologues, are excellent and made me laugh.

The first one that caught my my attention was the 30 sec slot with Kate Walsh in the new 2008 CTS:
When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?


My second favorite—also featuring Kate Walsh as well—is the "My favorite things" slot:
These are a few of my favorite things


The one that is closest to my heart, is this particular one:
Link: If it had a bathroom... (links to the ad on youtube, embedding disabled)

While I won't be running out buying a caddy anytime soon, this particular commercial echoes how I would feel if I have an Audi RS4.

Check out the rest, especially the "Graduate" and "Cupholders", if you're into cars and love automotive commercials as much as I do.

Link: Cadillac Commercials and Downloads

Cargasm.

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the drive

Yesterday I got up early and joined the local watercooled Volkswagen club for a drive out in the boonies.

In my previous life, I've done the mountain curvy roads Spring Drive with the club in my 1.8T Jetta. Four words: Sweaty palms, white knuckles. The Jetta was a lease and completely unmodded performance wise, and was easy to push it out of control (fun to most, but not a good thing to me), but regardless, I had tons of fun in all the previous Spring Drives.

With my current car, I've upgraded the OEM suspension parts with some H&R sports spring and Bilstein shocks, while aesthetically it lowers the car by about 1.75", it made the car helluva fun in the twisties. Lots and lots of fun. Knowing that I'll never be able to outrun the R32 flying past 8 other cars and mine in the next lane, I learn to love turns more and more.

Maybe I'm getting better at driving, or maybe it's because the rear tires of my current car will never spin out of control on dry road, but the Sunday drive I was actually quite relaxed and thoroughly enjoying myself, windows down, trance music blasting and just following a snake of VW in front of me.

Here we are at Fort Kaskaskia over in IL. Looking forward for the Fall Drive in 6 months time.

brakes

Yesterday I twittered about the car and how weird it felt when I first started it up and drove it in single digit weather.

Other than the clutch being all gooey, it felt like the e-brake wasn't releasing (Yes, call me anal retentive, but I always park in 1st gear w/ e-brake engaged). At that point I wasn't sure if that is possible - that is - if the e-brake is mechanical or electrical.

So I stopped twice before getting on WB I-44, first time next block down, and second time at World's Fair donut place, to make sure that my brakes wasn't burning red and to make sure I don't smell burning brakes. And also to get my favorite apple fritters.

Was posting on another topic when I saw this post on Audizine this morning:
"Get a two foot long piece of 3/4" dowel rod and keep it in the car. When the E-brake sticks look through the spokes of the wheel and you will see the E-brake arm. Use the dowel rod to push it back and the brake will release."

Well good to know. Apparently it is quite common when it gets real cold. DON ya hear that?!

Seriously...

Spotted in South Charlotte. I HAD to snap a pic. It's a BMW E34 5 series I believe.