Cleaning photos out of my cell phone…
I took Damien to the vet today and because Josh was out of town (and I can’t lift him more than a foot), I put him in my Mini Cooper. He fit surprisingly well. He slept the whole way home and was sleepy when it was time to get out of the car and did the cutest thing, rested his head on the back ledge and just closed his eyes to go back to sleep. It was adorable… so I took a quick photo with my cell phone…
And then I learned how to transfer photos from my bluetooth phone to my bluetooth laptop… so I ended up cleaning all the pics out of my camera that I had intentions of posting the last year or so…
When I was in Philly visiting Tracey… we went to Urban Outfitters and maybe she wanted this lamp… so I took a photo of it?
My Mini with the rat in it… being towed to the dealer where the rat meets his end.
The subway stop by the LA Civic Center… on my way home for LA Detour Festival… people are flying/floating overhead.
Subbu brought back this Taj Mahal figurine from India on his most recent visit home. It’s made of the same white marble the Taj Mahal is made of (heavy)!
Mini Takes the States!
I’m so ready for this year! They’re doing a whole weekend thing in several cities and one is LA (August 1-3), so I’m all about it. It’s going to be at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. They have a huge festival goin on there and there will be a Mini Rally Saturday morning. I can’t wait. They even have a small track set up to test drive Minis for the “future Mini owners”.
Other fun stuff:
- MINI Parking Corral at festival grounds
- MINI-Autocross Test Drive
- Live festival entertainment
- Headliner band Saturday night
- The “Bootload of Fun Zone” with activities for all ages
- MINI Vendor Village
- An official MTTS Welcome Kit for each paid attendee
- Friday night Meet & Greet (MINI Owners only)
- Rise and Shine Saturday Rally (MINI Owners only)
Josh is in (mostly for the test drive I think)! Who else is in??
What’s wrong with my car?!
Last Friday morning, I get into my mini cooper to go to work and it doesn’t start. Argh. Not this again. My brand new mini was plagued with problems the first year I had it until they replaced the computer that they say was the cause of the problems. Sad experience for my first new car. Now this. I’ve been having a rough couple of months so this was the last thing I needed. I got a ride with Josh to work, thank goodness I only work 3 miles away. A friend of mine at work drove me back home for Mini Roadside Assistance to tow my car to the dealer.
The dealer called later that afternoon…. the problem… here goes…. a RAT was living under the hood of my car! Three things go through my head:
- Wha?
- The engine barely fits under the hood of a mini cooper, how does a rat find room to live under there?
- Where did this rat come from??
They said this rat lived under there for a while because they found rat droppings (but I drive the car everyday! granted it’s only 10 miles of driving a day… but still!). They also found the rat alive. So they pulled it out and killed it. They say they have photos of this rat because it’s the largest rat they’ve ever seen. I guess it’s a common thing the dealer says they get about 30 of these a year… is it just minis?!
So the rat apparantly did $2000 worth of damage to a few electrical wires as well as the engine harness. It was a Friday at 4 so of course the insurance company is closed. I opened a claim and just today they sent an inspector out there to look at the damage. They say they can now start the repair, but need to order parts. It’s looking like I get my mini back on Friday or Saturday. Glad the insurance covers it and I only pay my $500 deductible. They insist my insurance premiums will not go up, but I find it hard to believe. So I got names of the people that said it won’t!
Photos of said rat to come when I get my car on Friday or Saturday.
oops! i broke nucleus…
I broke my nucleus CMS install when trying to upgrade to 3.24 and then move it over to word press… Just the upgrade broke it for a while and I finally had time to play with it and figure it out.
I’m working on getting all my posts over to Word press AND properly tagged.. maybe another week and it will be all set… I’ll post the new RSS link in the last post from this system so if you only look via RSS you can update that feed link…
New Years I did the mini skirts annual rally from Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank through Mulholland drive and PCH and ended up in Santa Monica and the group did some bowling down there. Really fun! 9 minis… which is a LOT more than it sounds like… I’ll post pics in the photo gallery and in the word press post when I move it over 
warm weather = productivity
It was super warm this weekend. I went down to Universal City to pick up a rental car since my mini is STILL at the dealer. Their diagnostic machine is up and down all the time and it’s down again.. so my car is waiting for help again. I got a ford focus (yea not even a mini rental after a week of NO CAR!) and headed to the beverly center. I found an awesome BCBG dress that I picked up for the Oscars.
Sunday it was 80! Josh and I washed all 3 dogs and Damien was quite amusing. You know how cats chase a laser pointer spot? Well imagine that scenario.. but Damien (full size rottweiler) as the cat.. and water stream from hose = laser pointer spot. It was quite amusing watching him chase it, pounce it and bite at it over and over. He never tired of it and we never tired of laughing at it.
I also went through my garden and threw away most of the dead plants that the “Buffalo weather” killed. I left the Queen Palm in hopes that it will come back to life sometime soon. Of course the weeds are thriving…
Also just finished an awesome book, “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides (wrote “The Virgin Suicides”). Amritz’s g/f, Sarah let me borrow it. It’s fantastic. 2003 Pulitzer prize winner. Took me a while to finish it beause I don’t have time to read lately, but I finally got through it and it was well worth the time spent. Lots of Greek history and immigration history that was interesting and then Detroit that reminded me of Buffalo in some respects and then there’s Cal the intersexual narrator and main character. I can’t give the story justice explaining it, so I’d suggest reading it It seemed very nonfiction to me, like this is a novel, but it’s real life for many people out there. A bit of an eye opener.
new mini advertising
Josh pointed out this new advertising campaign for mini:
Billboards that talk to you when you drive by, if you’re a mini owner and vouched in for this campaign. Cute. It’s like a personalized amber alert sign just for mini owners 
My mini is still at the dealer. Their diagnostics computer is out of service. It will be fixed tomorrow sometime so I don’t expect my car until Wednesday where I’m going to demand they drop it off to me. I’m so stressed out with this mini lately.
Mini Rally!
Here’s a pic from the MINI skirts rally I went to on New Years Day. Josh got sick from my driving + what we call his ulcer and we had to end it at PCH but it was a fun drive starting in Universal City- Mulholland Drive
(The MINI skirts is an all girls MINI rally group. If you have a MINI and you’re a girl in so-cal, you should join!)
I drive it in manual mode most of the time now. I really like driving it that way too.. perhaps I could drive a stick one day!
Is it a lemon?!
Last night Josh and I went out to get a pizza with my car and it took 3 times to start.. weird but we figured it was pretty cold.. maybe that was it. This morning I drove to work and it was fine. I leave work on lunch to go home and eat and visit doggies and the car stalls in the middle of auto center drive and magic mountain pkwy. in the intersection of course.. i start it and it starts again but only goes 9mph and the check engine light and EML light go on.. wonderful 9mph is EXTREMELY slow when you’re in an intersection.. you’d be surprised..
i got it into a parking lot near the mall and called roadside assistance who said they’d be there in 45 mins. After 45 mins I called them back and they said oh, i mean 6 hours. Yes, they said SIX HOURS. wtf. So i escalated the call to supervisor and supervisor again and they paid an “out of area” tow company to get my car at in 90 more minutes. so i walked back to work and then had the tow company call me when they were nearby. And so my mini is back at the dealer for a diagnosis tomorrow. 
I hope i get it back tomorrow night. I need it for my sisters’ visit!!
i own an awesome car from an awesome company
check what they sent me in the mail today!!!
yea it’s way cool.
