We are off to the south (Sacramento) tomorrow morning to see my son and wife . We're taking the truck . Probably good since we may see snow on the pass. I was willing to sacrifice luggage space but it's the boys in my family needing room for xbox(with guitar for guitar hero) and wheel chair, space for an 18 year-olds legs etc...

Scoopmama - sounds like you've had your share of natural disasters for a while. The MINI book sound really neat - I still have one Christmas coming I wonder if it's too late to hint...

Mini2NA I'll be anxious to hear how you like your black wow. Sounds like the family was listening to you hints!

 

Good Morning all! I'm FINALLY feeling like myself again, after a few months of being a stress case and a half!

I thought I'd share a few fun quotes from the MINI 50 YEARS book by Rob Golding.

The endearing looks and scurry-hurry demeanour of the car on the road generated an affection that crossed social divides.

. . .Mini was saved by its personality, if it can be reasonably argued that cars can possess such a quality. Because Mini was so round, cuddly, small, and vulnerable, owners-and especially female owners-developed a parent/child relationship with the car rather than the more common adult-to-adult relationship in which the car owner expected responsible and dependable behaviour.

Hildebrand is the head of design. He describes the MINI as: It has coziness. You want to hug it. It's like a teddy bear.

This book is great! It's full of the history of the company (ies) involved from the beginning after the Suez canal crisis in the '50s, the personalities of the individuals involved, design ideas, both failed and successful. . .

ISBN, for Amazon orders if any of you can't resist, is:
ISBN-10: 0760326274
ISBN-13: 978-0760326275

Fun fun fun!

Hope all up north travel safely in the weather! Remember, you aren't in your MINIs, folks. . . take those turns gently!

 

Finally, Holiday company should materialize in an hour or two. I am off to the kitchen to make a big pot of beef ribs bourguignon.

On another note, Kermit is filthy. This rain has really taken its toll on his boot. Poor little boy. Lucky he is a frog!

Scoopmama - the book sounds like lots of fun. I may have to look into it.

Everybody have safe motoring this New Year!

 

Well we made it to Sacramento - after a visit with the kids we're tucked in our motel ...

On our way down (in addition to a display of serious road rage ) we saw a true MINI driver worthy of his beautiful red Cabrio. We caught up to him on the south side of the Siskiyous with snow all around and he had the top down!

OK Scoopmama - you're making me miss my MINI. That may explain why I forgive her every time she has a problem. I am definitely a sucker for cute - it's what got my kids past 3 years old!

 

I'm with you! It's helping me see the son I love in the 13 year old lurking in the kitchen at all hours!

 

I am officially a wimp, and am going to bed before the ball drops. Winds are howling again outside, and I just want to snuggle up in my flannel (spelling????) sheets and blanky!!

Have a great end of 2007 and a happy new year beginning tomorrow! May miles of MINI joy await us all!

 

Happy New Year All!!

 

YES, Happy New Year to all of you.

I made it until midnight!! We played Wii into the New Year.

 

Happy New Year!

I am finally alive (sort of) - went to a neighborhood party and rang in the New Year in a highly inebriated state until about 2am. I do believe that we (spouse and I) are the first ones up and around some 15 hours later (some attendees are still in bed not faring so well).

On that note, I have to go to work tomorrow. I hope that everyone had a marvelous holidays!!!!

 

Finally alive at 5pm? Pretty enthusiastic greeting of the new year!

Clean living last night (translation: boring) saw me up at 8am with the Rose Bowl Parade on TV and the Bisquick coffee cake that has been a New Year's morning tradition since I was probably born. I think I only make it on Jan 1st. Yum!

Stocked my CD case with some misc. music, and am trying to coordinate Scoop's new accessories color-wise.

 

What a day of organization.
The tree is down and stored
The holiday decorations are boxed and ready to rest for 11 months
All my lights, save a halogen bathroom light are now CFs
Got to drive Dirty Frodo on errands
Got to spend the whole day with my wife
Life doesn't get much better

Hope everyone is well. Wind and rain in the NW tomorrow!!!

 

Sounds great, Mini2Na! Don't worry about Frodo. . . there's no point to washing him until May, right?

Took Scoop on the one non-windy, non-rainy day we've had in a few weeks and went out with my mom. It's amazing how she just loves this little car, especially since she complains about the Saturn being too low to the ground!

There was a gap in traffic ahead of us, and she mentioned that I'd need to get over when all the cars passed us. Well. I ask you. WHAT is the gas pedal for? Speed up and zip in!

Mom's face: Then she busted up laughing and talking about how much FUN the MINI is!

Cool thing about her handicapped sticker: got primo parking right in front of California Pizza Kitchen (yum) and got to watch my baby being admired while we ate. Life IS good!

 

Boy Kermie sure does get whipped around by wind and puddles! What fun! Conditions force you to be on your toes and very alert - I wish more people would do that - less accidents and all. Anyway - going to load Kermie up with hubby (and myself) and go do some sofa shopping today (for delivery ).

Mini2na - you sign up with PDXMini yet? They have a new year kickoff party at Rockbottom in a few weeks - lots of prizes to be awarded.

 

[quote=Kimberely;1964212]Anyway - going to load Kermie up with hubby (and myself) and go do some sofa shopping today (for delivery ).

quote]

Ya know, I saw pictures of a MINI that was used to bring home some large piece of household furniture somewhere here on NAM. You never know what Kermie can do!

 

So... It's back to school for me. I hope the kids and teachers are awake and cheerful today. It will be nice to see all the cute little faces.

I'm trying to work out a mount for my GPS. Some good stuff on the Audio/Nav section of the site, but most have $400-500 units, mine is less than half that. I hope to be able to mount it on the left side of the dash. I'll let you know.

Frodo was making a clacking noise on start up today. It varied with engine speed and went away after a minute or so. Anyone else experience that?

Still no was for the dirty baby. Someday....

 

Hi! Well, I could have used a third week of Christmas break, but it is good to be back in the routine and away from the See's Chocolates. Oh wait! Students gave us See's and they're here too! MUST take a long walk and work out!

Mini2na~ Pics would be great when you work out the Nav holder! Someday I'll start using my Ipod, and might want to mount it.

In the meantime, motor on!

 

4th attempt at a posting today. . . busy day!

Good afternoon, all! Looks like you are all busy as well.

A local club is having its monthly breakfast meeting at Ruby's diner Saturday, and it should be GORGEOUS by the beach where they meet. I'm looking forward to a MINI excursion!

OK. Here's the deal. I have resolved (before New Years, actually) to lose some weight. So I am going to post here what I've done each day. If I haven't done anything physical, you can harangue and harass me (nicely ) to get my sorry butt in gear! I'd love the support!

Thanks, dear Tagus friends!

I have also resolved to partake in social happy hours. . . you can hold me to that as well!

 

Which one of those resolutions is going to be the stretch for you?

The MINI Garmin NUVI mount for the left hand dash is $175. Why am I surprised. It does include the wires too, but not the install. More thought is needed.

 

Which one of those resolutions is going to be the stretch for you Scoopmama?

The MINI Garmin NUVI mount for the left hand dash is $175. Why am I surprised. It does include the wires too, but not the install. More thought is needed.

 

 

Hey Tagusites,

I've been off internet for a while lately. I switched from dial-up to DSL. It took a bit of figuring, but it is done now and those frustrating delays between screens have been reduced. Yea!

Frodo will:
Get washed this weekend. I can't open/close the boot without getting my hand filthy. (Why doesn't the MINI have a boot open button along with the unlock???)
I'm going to attempt to take off the Piano Black dash piece to the left of the steering wheel. That will be the first step to attaching the GPS. Wish me luck.
I'm continuing to research speaker options. I think that is where most people start. Then they decide if they need more power and a sub woofer. Looks like big bucks though.

I'm toying with the idea of "shiny" wheels. The Koenig Brights are reasonably priced and look nice, but getting rid of perfectly good wheels seems quite extravegant.

I hope everyone is doing well. Have fun safe weekends.

 

Hi all!

Mini2Na~ Nice switch. You'll never go back to dial up, but you'll also never forget that sound. . . Donnng, Donnnng, du-donnng!

Does Frodo gleam and sparkle once again?

Scoop got her Meguire's quick detailing after our club breakfast and a nice amount of OC driving. It was clear and cool out, just perfect for a nice drive. We didn't do the race track event, though. Probably next year. On this club's birthday, they get the center grassy area of a race track reserved for MINI Cooper parking, and the MINIs and their owners get to watch the horses race! What a blast. . .

Next month we're going to test drive the Clubman at another event. I certainly can't afford one, but it would be perfect for hubby!

Next weekend it's the Pasadena Doo Dah parade! A direct antithesis to the Rose Bowl, irreverent, funny and only slightly out of control!

Have a great weekend!

Kimberley? Minicounter? Lil A? How are you?
Others? We're missing you!

 

Frodo looks GREAT. I forgot how nice he could look. Even the neighbors mentioned how dirty he was.

Christmas gift reviews:

Black Wow - WOW!!!!! The black around the wheel wells, rocker panels and the bumper look better than new. I will be interested in how long it will last. More on that as time goes on.

I also used the OXO dish washing soap dispenser sponge as a Armor All tire applicator. Nice! It makes putting the stuff on easy and it doesn't get on the wheel, only the tire.

I also used a Mr. Clean Auto Dry Washing nozzle/dispenser. It makes it so you don't need a bucket because it can wet the car down, then flip the switch to dispense soap with the water the flip the switch farther and put out filtered/treated water that is supposed to "sheet off" and dry without waterspots. It works ok as a washing tool, especially since I hooke it up to the utility sink and got non-chilled water to work with, but the "sheeting action" is a bunch of sheet.

Have a great week everyone.

 

Thanks for sharing! I love OXO stuff, and now I have something NEW to buy~ in addition to the Black Wow. I've been using the Meguire's, which is fine, but not "wow" fine. First must use up the Meguire's though.

I checked your gallery. . . Frodo didn't look too bad earlier! I like your MINI stickers on your visors. I put mine on every which way. . . upside down for people outside, rightside up for me? the other way? I decided to do what you did too. I like it!

A new thing to buy. . . check out the Converse website. You can design your own driving shoes, color coordinated with your MINI AND embroidered with his or her name! It's about $60.00. I'm hovering on the brink of clicking the "Pay Now" button. . .

Better call it a night and be ready for the 160 shiny, zitty little pubescent faces tomorrow! (At least the huge, saggy pants look is out of favor these days. Emo is more in. Tight jeans on super-skinny boys. Boy, are THEY going to love their yearbook photos someday!

 

Hello all. Sorry that I haven't popped in to say HI. After year-end busy with printing W-2s and such. So many reports and taxes. Light at the end of the tunnel will materialize around Ground Hog Day.

Kermit hit 5000 miles this weekend. My little tadpole growing into a frog. Took him through a carwash too. I was terrified that it would hurt his paint - but all turned out fine and he had a clean boot for about 6 hours. Probably going to do it again on Friday as we are taking a small trip to the Oregon coast next Saturday / Sunday. The pugs will utilize their back seat cover. They haven't had a trip in a while.

This Sunday was lovely - it almost hit 55 degrees. I got all of my gardening and outside cleanup done. Would have been a lovely day for a drive - but who knows when we will see that nice of weather again for a while. Work - then play.