Friday, February 09, 2007

Catching Up

So my brother is doing well and has made arrangements to have everything cleared up. He has to serve a few weekends but he's been there before so no big deal. Mom is very relieved. As am I, but still not ready for contact.

Things have been way busy lately. Not sure if I mentioned it before but we bought a 55" HD television a couple months ago. This was followed by new livingroom furniture (I think he was tired of my bitching). Then I needed lamps (of course!!). And decided I wanted to paint. Well, we got that started when I decided to have some people over to watch a Senators game, in HD, on the big screen.

So then it was panic time to get everything done before company. Which we did, and, I had the get together this week as planned (hubby had to be in Pennsylvania - we really hate that job of his). It was great!! Definitely need to do this again. And definitely need to take a break with buying furniture for a while!!!

So earlier this year, I got a new car. A 2006 Chev Cobalt... like this one, only black with darker tint...

I was planning to add a cold air intake, headers and a performance exhaust when I heard about the new Camaro at the Detroit Auto Show.

Well holy crap!

At first I heard they were coming out in 2011. But they're actually planning to start in 2009!! That's SOON. And!! AND!!! its got a 400hp V8!!

The reason I'm so excited is that Camaro is my all time favourite car. My first two cars were Camaros. So, this is my next vehicle - hopefully in 2009, and it had better come in black.

By then, this year most likely, hubby will have his truck - so we'll trade in the Cobalt.


What else...

Work is great. I've got 3 big projects on the go. I'm doing literature reviews on ethanol fuel, and N2O emissions - these will probably be written up for a journal (omg I'll be published!) and I'm also working with data from locomotive emissions testing we did last year. Currently our techs are in Montreal doing another round so there'll be 2 reports. I also help manage a research funding program for which my boss is the leader. There's pretty regular work out of it and since year-end is coming, there will be lots of reporting to do.

A day doesn't go by without my learning something new. And I've been here long enough now that I'm able to apply my knowledge to problems without needing guidance. Well, some of them anyways. I never thought I'd have a job doing complex math and chemistry!

University has really paid off.

I'm reading some interesting books right now so I expect to have one of those good old opinion posts. Like a good little atheist.

TTFN (as Tigger would say)

10 Comments:

At 11:50 AM, Blogger Pete said...

Good to hear your brother is on the improve Boo.

Car size and culture or personal preferencess are an interesting topic.

As a closet environmentalist (well except for being pro nuclear weapons for Australian defeence) I reel back in horror at the very thought of angular muscle cars with huge wasteful engines.

While I go about the vast Australia bush preaching the virtues of pacifism and the BOMB I'm going to downscale from my current 3.5 litre car to a modest 1.8 litre subcompact.

In Australia petrol "gas" costs around US$4 gallon. So we probably go for smaller cars than North Americans - though not so small as the US$10 gallon Europeans in their little diesel "buzz boxes".

So what will your Camarro's engine capacity be in litres Boo?

Pete

 
At 12:24 PM, Blogger Boo said...

Y'know Pete - its funny, because my Cobalt is VERY efficient. Fuel here is about $0.89/litre, so its definitely something to consider.

Not sure of all the details of the Camaro, but Chev does have an engine, curretly in the Impala, which is 8cyl but has 'cylinder shutdown' technology, so it only runs all 8 when you need 'em. Otherwise, in the city and such it will go as low as 4cyl.

I've been kinda hoping its someting like that. I do however, drive only 8 kms to work so at least I'm not burning too much no matter what I drive... :)

I'm a Gearhead - what can I say?

 
At 11:06 AM, Blogger Pete said...

Hmm

In my county we call it "revhead" :D

Lets see one Canuck$ = 1.09 Aussie$.
So "gas" here costs the equivalent of 97 cents (Canuck). Yours is about 10% cheaper than ours.

Cylinder shutdown sounds quite an advance and it would also allow Detroit to continue selling high powered cars rather than trying to sell pure Japanese-South Korean sized "Buzz Box Bubble" Cars

I imagine Canada (politically) needs cheaper "gas" for heating oil? The TV news has been reporting Toronto temperatures as a cold -17 Celcius to a "warm" -6 recently). If its like that in Ottawa what can you do outdoors?

Pete

 
At 4:15 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had a new AEM cold air intake installed and i love the performance...i encourage you install it too. ;)
Tell me when you have it.

 
At 8:18 AM, Blogger Boo said...

Pete - I honestly dont understand the 'cost of oil' stuff. Even when the cost/barrel went WAY down the price at the pump stayed pretty high. We're getting it in the neck from Big Oil.

Extra-frustrating is that Canada really has enough oil to supply the nation - except we export the crude and import it refined. I'd rather close the doors and take care of ourselves.

Wood - thanks for the tip - except I dont think just an intake will get me much performance - I'd need headers and exhaust too... wouldn't I?

 
At 8:29 AM, Blogger Pete said...

Boo

Off Topic a bit. How do you insert those side adverts eg "stop shark finning"?

Pete

 
At 11:05 AM, Blogger Boo said...

Hi Pete...

The Tattoo Artists one came as html from the site... it was really easy - "copy and paste this code into your blog...".

The shark finning one is a .jpg from their site - I think I used the tattoo artists html and changed the relevant portions.

Here's the code (I changed the < into $ and the // into & so you wouldn't just see the links again):
$a href="http:&&www.sharkfriends.com&">$img src="http:&&www.sharkfriends.com&conservshark.jpg" width="200" height="104" border="1">$/a>

$a href="http:&&www.tattooartists.com&">$img src="http:&&www.tattooartists.com&tattoartists-member.gif" width="256" height="104" border="1">$/a>

So its a link that refers to an image... you can change the size too just by fiddling with the numbers.

 
At 10:00 AM, Blogger Pete said...

Thanks Boo

I'm gonna have to experiment.

Pete

 
At 9:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So aren't ya worried about running over blameless little mooses girl?

 
At 11:07 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"whatever happened to the separation of church and state??? pro-life is all about religion..."

Pro-life has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with science. Ask any abortionist and they'll tell you that they're killing humans.

As for separation of church and state, that has nothing to do with the US Constitution.

The only thing that happened to that is that certain people with no morals decided that it should be the motto of the United States, even though it has nothing to do with the Constitution.

 

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