Monthly Update

so, as i thought i might, i've let myself down regarding updating the blog more often. no one's surprised, so we'll move on....

we're moving steadily toward parenthood, and it's a little scary. lol just not knowing exactly what it's going to be like and how we're going to be as parents, but i think that all new parents feel that way, and you just learn as you go. there's no doubt that Olivia will be showered with love at every chance, and that we'll give her the support and encouragement she needs. it's going to be an adventure, for sure! we also just completed our "special delivery" class this past weekend, which went well and answered some questions regarding natural vs. medicated vs. c-section births. toni is still planning on going completely natural but knows that she may change her mind once things get going. we're slowly but surely getting the nursery and other things done around the house but we've got a ways to go yet. luckily Olivia won't be in the nursery right away anyway, so we've still got some time.

made a few more upgrades to the Jeep as well. Got some bright LED bulbs for the interior as well as the license plate:





License Plate comparison:

License Plate final:

The photos don't do them justice - these things are BRIGHT, especially at night!

I also found out about a guy on ebay who sells decals you can put into the "Compass" stamped in the rear bumper. they come in a variety of colors, several of which also offer "reflective" so i opted for the "white reflective" ones since our jeep is white though i tried to get toni to go for a contrasting color to make it pop even more... Anyway when they came in they were more of a silver color when just looking at them, which i confirmed with the seller was correct. i was a little put out by this at first, but once i got them on, you can't tell as much and it looks really good. Here are some installation pics:

Before

Halfway done:

Finished (no flash):

Full View, Day, No Flash:

Full View, Day, With Flash:

Full View, Night, With Flash:


Toni drove behind me the other night and said it looks really good, so i'm happy with the looks as well as the added safety at night. And for only $11 shipped (from Canada) it's hard to beat!

That's all for now folks!

Birthday Bash and Jeep upgrades (kinda)

First off, I know it's been about a month since my last post. I know. I'm sure there are some excuses I could use to some extent, but honestly I'm just not that concerned about it at this time. Though I will say that I (again) am going to try to post more regularly. I know you're laughing on the inside, too.

Had an AMAZING rock star karaoke birthday bash in Bham this past weekend - all I can say is WOW! Such a great time! Toni did such an amazing job putting it all together and everyone got into it, which made it even better. By far one of the best birthday parties I've ever experienced. We're not sure it could ever be topped, so we may end up doing a sequel for my 40th! lol I'll be sure to post more info with pics as soon as we get them all compiled. And tomorrow, I'll officially be in my thirties....and have a baby by the end of the year! 2009 is definitely a great year!

On to other news: as I posted last time, we got a new 09 Jeep Compass and have been enjoying it thus far. I've always been into lights (just like the look of the whiter, higher temp waves rather than the somewhat dingy looking regular halogen), so I invested in some Silverstar bulbs for the fog lights. Here's a look mid-install (Silverstar bulb is on the right, stock on the left):



Pretty decent difference for me from the outside (you can see the higher temp range on the ground as the Silverstar is noticeably whiter), and from the inside the visual range immediately in front of the vehicle seems to be much better. Here's a shot with both fogs installed and headlights on:



Last night I also installed Silverstar bulbs in the headlights, but the images didn't turn out great. They seem to be brighter looking out, but looking at them head on, you don't see as much of a difference as with the fog lights, but I'm still happy with them, especially for the price I got them for.

I just ordered some LED bulbs for the interior and license plate and reverse lights, which I'm really excited about (what a dork, right?). I'll be sure to post pics of the before and after as soon as they come in, hopefully this week. I also plan on putting in (not sure if I'll do it myself yet, or get the dealer to do it) a Cold Air Intake by either K&N or Mopar (which is made by K&N from what I understand, but is blue instead of red and may go over better for the warranty). That may be the extent of my upgrades for this vehicle, but we'll see.

Well, until next time!

What do we have for them Johnny?

It's a brand new 2009 Jeep Compass!

As some of you are aware, the government was offering (and may still be, it's kind of up in the air now) the Cash for Clunkers/CARS program, where you could get between $3500 to $4500 for your "clunker" (a vehicle that gets a combined 18 MPG or less) to be used towards a new car. Well, we so happened to have such a vehicle (a 2000 Montero Sport - 17 MPG). We were originally planning to do this in September (the program was slated to run through November 1st or until the money ran out) but when we started seeing articles online last week about how they thought they were already out of money after 4 days and may be suspending the program, we knew we had to make a move.

Knowing this was coming up, i've been looking around at affordable fuel-efficient SUVs since we've got the new addition to the family on the way. For a while I wanted the Nissan Rogue which was pretty nice looking and would get the job done.

Then last week my wife pointed out an ad for the 2010 Chevy Equinox . I'm not really an American car kind of guy, but this one really did a number on me. Not only was it sharp looking, it got 22/32 MPG with great cargo space, etc. Granted, it was going to be several grand more expensive due to adding the touch-screen navigation and rear entertainment (dual seat-mounted DVD screens) for the kiddie, but it was still pretty affordable considering the $4500 we'd get. Well, we sorely underestimated not only the popularity of the CARS program in general, but also that of this new vehicle. We called or visited all of the dealerships around town, all but one of them didn't have a single Equinox on the lot. One we called said they had just gotten one off the truck and we said "We're on our way!". Thirty minutes later, we walk in and the guy says "Sorry, I just found out that my boss already sold it." Wow. I won't get into what else he did to piss us off, but let me just say that i may not have purchased from this guy regardless.

Well, after all this i'm pretty bummed out since i don't really want to settle for something else after falling in love with this ride. So finally we go out to eat and we're talking about what we're gonna do, and we start talking about the possibility of selling my wife's Beetle. She loves her car, and it's been a good one for the past 3 years, but the more we thought about trying to get a car seat in and out of it, the more we realized we'd need to get something else for her. Since she's not as particular as I am, I brought up the Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge matching deal we'd seen advertised. We knew they had a few cars that were relatively cheap that we could get for her that would give her the additional room she would need. We ended up thinking the Jeep Patriot would be pretty good, especially after taking $8000 off the price.

We headed to the Jeep dealership first thing Saturday. Within 15 seconds we find out they don't have ANY Patriots on the lot. We're then like, "What about the Liberty? Does it qualify?" The guy (Skip is his name, good guy) takes us over to one and we take it for a spin. Drives great, but I can't help thinking about the V6 engine it has and the fact that the combined MPG on the sticker was 18, only one more than my "clunker". So we get back and I ask him to double-check it in the system to see if it qualifies, cause if not we're not interested. Sure enough, it's a no go.

While he's checking, I notice a white Compass on the floor. Now, to give some background, about a year or so ago, we looked at the Compass, even test drove it, and HATED the interior. It was all monotone and looked like cheap plastic. Pretty terrible. So when I saw one on the floor, I didn't really think much of it until I poked my head in. Apparently they had revamped the interior for 2009. It was pretty decent now. I called Toni over and the more we looked at it, the more we liked it again. So we took one for a spin, liked the drive, and said "We'll take the white one on the showroom floor." It has a sunroof, the upgraded sound system, fog lights, a year of Sirius satellite radio included and a few other options. It's not as decked out as the Limited edition we test drove, but it's good.

Other than having to wait quite a while to get in to see the finance guy, the whole process was extremely smooth (I had my doubts, especially about the government part of the deal). We're even happier knowing that the CARS program may not make it much longer, so we feel we made a good decision doing this earlier than planned. Now we can put up Toni's car at our leisure, hopefully get top dollar for it, and put a nice chunk down on an Equinox whenever they become more readily available, maybe even later this year. Here are a few photos of our new ride: