astarte

I have Wet Okole seat covers i put into my 4Runner in 04, those aren't just for appearance, they made the car more comfy and I remember the time right before an interview i dumped an entire soda into the drivers side seat and it just sat there in a puddle and i used a napkin to wipe it onto my rubber floor mats and then dumped it onto the street and i could drive 40 seconds later in a wool suit. the dogs have barfed on them more times than i want to admit. they're worth the money i spent on them 1000x over. -l.

I'm voting for NRA since I have to take the dogs to march in the Leesburg parade that morning and then drive home wash the dog goo off myself and then switch cars (alexandria->leesburg->alexandria->?) if anyone wants to come help strut two happy dogs in the leesburg parade as part of collie club and hand out candy canes you're welcome to go with me. Line up in Leesburg is at 9:30 (I'm going to have to carry the poor dogs out to the car as they're not usually up that early) I've got a SIG mosquito (.22) SIG .40 and Paraordinance 1911 (.45) all are easy to shoot with little recoil, although especially with the .45 I'd appreciate people who are shooting my stuff to grab ammo. -l.

then i am going to collie club afterwards, i get to pick up my mini on the 30th!

Link & Zelda are my 19 month old collies. I almost feel bad about buying a car they can't fit into, except I will own one thing that hasn't been barfed in by a dog or cat and it will be lovely. -l.

I think this is also collie club weekend plus i won't have my mini yet so we might be there.

I need to tell my boss what leave I want to take between now and June, which is fun since we're getting married end of July. I think we want to do MOTD, could someone give the idiot version of here's how much leave you should expect to take? Also I see people are already getting housing!?!

my mini is supposed to come off the line 11-11-11 how awesome is that! Any ideas on when I'll see her?

With winter coming I'd be tempted to replace that battery with a new one. I know my truck started cold starting a little tempermentally so its going to win a new battery (I like a quick key flick to start my truck, never know where i'm going to be) I've replaced my 03 Toyotas battery at least once since I've had it, probably twice so its probably past time. They were probably short driving the car too which is hard on batteries. I've always gotten the rest of our batteries at Costco so its not worth taking the chance...

I hope it only takes a month to get her, that would be awesome! then maybe I could get some time before it starts icing and snowing and i swap back to my beloved 4Runner.

we are ordered with options galore! The dealership is saying 6-8 weeks and is hopefully that I'll see her before next year.

Elie was asking me if I wanted to add the optional JCW suspension piece (I've fogotten its name) that connects from the top of the struts to add stability/rigidity? Some places are saying its useless, other places won't let you race with it so I'm leaning against it. Am going to go order the car this afternoon before I go check out Yet Another Wedding venue <headdesk> So incredibly excited about this review: http://www.roadandtrack.com/tests/impressions/2012-mini-coupe must try not to do this now that they've put all of the stupid speed cams on 295...

so now i'm totally looking at the blue bottom with silver stripes and silver top with blue stripes (originally I was looking at the black top but then I saw the silver top) I am so incredibly excited--thank you to all of you for all of your advice! I'm also so incredibly excited about all of the events DCMM holds, I need to order Legend so that she can come and we can come play (until then maybe I can ride along with someone and take photos of the fun). The idea of modifying the suspension aftermarket is something that had never crossed my mind and would take the decision out of my hands right now and let me do it once the current suspension needs replacing (which considering I'm going to be doing 295 through DC a lot will probably be hard on my poor car, plus the fact that I'm going to let dear fiancee drive her.) I'm hoping there's going to be another autocross class next year (although he'll want to take his Legacy) and that will actually be a really good thing for us as we'll be able to compete against one another in a Very Safe environment. I think I'm going to pick up 17" All Seasons and then maybe a set of 16" snows plus fall back to the other cars during those months. Thank you Thank you Thank you! there's a lot of this stuff about the not upgradable I would not have thought of. I am so happy!

That was so much information. With the coupe there are not a whole lot of options on the dealership that I can drive (I was going to drive a S vs a JCW but they sold the JCW before I even had a shot at taking it out! I think the S will be fast enough considering how fast I got in 5th gear--much faster than my beloved 4Runner.) I will have to see what the dealership can let me try in the way of suspensions and wheels--due to the amount of highway driving I'm initially planning for the car I'm willing to take some hit on initial comfort if it increases my safety. The words on the stereo system is worth knowing--I would never have guessed although I should have how terrible an upgrade to them would have been. It will be interesting going from massive normally rear wheel drive auto to tiny front wheel drive stick right as winter hits--am hoping that I don't hit a spot of black ice and kill both of us in the first week! We will definitely be joining DC Metro Minis--I am trying to get my cousin to join too.

I think I saw some of your cars on Saturday at Mini of Alexandria (I was the dazed and excited blonde running around in jeans and a orange jacket who eventually got into the Subaru Legacy) Anyways, I'm about to order a Mini Coupe-s 2012 and I'm debating features on it. I know I want the upgraded seats and the dimming mirrors (I wish it came in a hardtop convertible but they're only going to make it in a ragtop starting next year...) So now I'm looking at the creature comforts. Dear fiancee is telling me to go down a wheel size from the 17" to the 16" for comfort while the guys at work are telling me to stick with the 17" wheels for additional safety, same deal with the sport suspension and the xenon headlamps. The interior that I saw at the dealership looked good, but I'm not sure if I'm going to cry when i see something better than I couldn't visualize (I like the blue with the black and stripes) and I'm thinking on the AC and the radio packages (the sales guy seemed to think that the AC auto pkg wasn't that great and that I'd be happy with the manual standard stuff but I hate it when I get rental cars--never comfy!) Also, if you have that dark blue Mini in Alexandria, you may find me stalking your car to get a photo of it, because I like your stripes, so please don't hurt me! -l.