+1

 

RaceTripper - The plate looks good!

 

It's been a bit cooler here in Houston, how's the weather everywhere else?

 

temp: 14º
wind chill: 7º

we had a bit of ice last night

 

In the low 50's yesterday, and still in the 40's this morning, but temperature has been dropping all day. Now in the upper 20's. Going to warm up in a few days again, then get cold again. Winter came too early to Ohio this year! I finally got the last of my (wet) leaves raked yesterday.

 

Whew, finally got power back last night after being out for four full days. This area is still a mess, still over 100k houses without power in my state.

Ugh.

 

We had that situation two years ago. I remember sleeping in front of the fireplace for a few nights. 500K+ people without power, some for over a week. It sucked. Glad to see you are back in business. We were supposed to get an ice storm yesterday but it never really happened.

Meanwhile, we just ordered a new TV. We sold our older 61" 720P DLP and ordered a new Samsung 67" 1080P DLP and a BDI stand. Hopefully it'll get here before XMas. I could have bought some pretty cool stuff for the MINI for what I paid.

 

I'm happy that you are OK, and that the power is back on. Compared to what the NE has experienced, our big power outage (due to high winds) back in September was easy. We lost a lot of food, but at least it was warm while the power was out.

 

67 inches! Wow, you must have a huge room. I can imagine that you could have purchased a used Mini for what you paid for it! Samsung does make a nice television, though. We have a 40 inch Samsung 1080p and it's great. Love the HD channels on the Samsung - beautiful!

 

Glad to hear your power is back!! What system do you use for heat?

 

It goes in our living room, which is 14' x 22'
We paid less than $2K for the TV. DLPs cost less than LCD/Plasma and if you want that size it's that or plasma at 3 times the cost, or a front projector which we don't want in the living room. The largest LCDs right now are 52-56"

 

A pellet stove and baseboard hot water or whatever it's called.

 

No way, they have 65" LCDs now.

 

At least they keep you warm! My current abode is totally electric, which is not good if it was in any other climate other than the one we're in. The design for my next residence will have off grid power support - if I can afford it I'll size it to run off grid and sell power to the electric company!

 

Sure, and Sony has a 70", for $20K

LCDs in this size range aren't in the mainstream yet, although they probably will be in the next year. There is the Aharp Aquos, but they have limited availability and are expensive. The largest Samsung and Sony have otherwise are 55"

For the cost of the giant LCDs I'd rather get a plasma and have a better picture.

 

Does anyone use an electric engine heater with a MINI?

 

Hi All!

kechman8, received my dog tag yesterday - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! Thank you so much!!

RaceTripper, nice plates!! +1 I don't think I ever posted my plates - I'll have to do that!

Weather here has been great the past 2 days.. reaching low 80's!

I just checked my mileage yesterday.. I work from home and some days don't go anywhere.. so I was surprised to see that I still have higher miles them some of you. I just hit 2700 miles last night and my husbands Clubbie is right at my heels.

We both are still in love with our Mini's... and I seriously think my next new car will also be a Mini!

 

Pics, pics, pics!!!
My wifes work place is 3 miles away and that's my main run every day!! Of course I often take a longer route just to drive Hilla!!

 

Must be slow night or is it too close to Christmas?
I feel like I'm grinning every time I drive Hilla, I hope the feeling continues, and I hope everyone is doing well. Any trips planned over the holidays?
The west coast must have fell into the Pacific since there have not been any MINI reports in a while!! Kechman8, you should still be awake!!!

PS save the thread post!

 

Yes, slow here. No trips planned, but I do plan some time off work over the next 2 weeks. Just daily driving a dirty Phantom - just passed 2700 miles. There's been no chance to do any car cleaning due to the weather. We had a "fun" day with ice on Tuesday. Took me almost an hour to drive home (usually 20 - 25 minutes). It's kinda scary driving a new car when the roads are bad/dangerous.

 

I've been busy negotiating business for my team for 09, wrapping up projects, and getting ready to take 12 days off starting XMas Eve. Our new TV and stand shows up tomorrow, along with a Blu Ray set of "Band of Brothers," so my activities for the immediate future do not involve much motoring.

 

RaceTripper, with your new TV and blu-ray, about the only thing the movie theater will have on you is that at the theater they make the popcorn. Enjoy your new TV. I hope to catch up on some movie watching over the holidays, too. And I, too, expect to be doing very little motoring over the next 2 weeks. If all goes well, today is my last day in the office for 2008.

 

We finally got our new license plate. Here's a photo. It's "2SCALE" as in built "To Scale" or the scale is 1:1 Actual Size...

 

And I have better audio than at the theater (Dolby/DTS 7.1 Arcam and Dynaudio). The main reason I don't go to movies anymore (not once since Return of the King) is because theaters drive their systems so loud they go into clipping distortion that is hard/painful on the ears. Never could understand why people think louder is better. When it's better it doesn't even seem loud nor need to be that way.

 

At least you share the road with people who have seen ice on a regular basis! How does the front end feel going over ice? I've hit a couple of ice spots long time ago, and felt lucky I was in a front wheel car. But growing up in Houston doesn't give you much of an opportunity to practice winter driving skills. My dad learned to drive on ice, he said the best thing about that was that there was nothing out there to hit!