Well, the Cards/Eagles game is over and now we just need to watch the Ravens' game to find out if we have another trip to the Super Bowl ahead of us. All we can hope for is the best possible play from the team, but with Rolle out of the game, Rothlesberger will have a bit of an easier time.
Go Ravens!
Tomorrow I will post about the Written Warning I got last night.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The tail of two halves
I am watching the NFC Championship game, and man it has been the tail of two halves. In the first half, it was all Arizona. They had a strong lead, and it looked like they were going to walk away with the game. Now the second half, the Eagles have taken the lead by one point. What a difference a half makes. Of course, my biggest interest is the Ravens/Steelers game, but I am somewhat routing for Arizona, so it will be interesting to see how this game continues.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Still updating
Man, even with a decent internet connection, it takes forever to update an old laptop that hasn't been turned on for a year! lol
Old laptops don't die
They just relocate into the garage to use VAGCOM! Finally resurrected my old laptop so I can stick it in the garage. Now I need to update EVERYTHING on this laptop. XP SP3, FF3, etc... Luckily it runs XP Home so it still works...lol
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
G-raag
I still don't know the verdict on the TDI (the clutch should make it to the shop tomorrow). In the mean time, we had cleared out the garage so we now fit two cars in there (yay!). Well, now that we can park two cars, we need an easy way to open and close the garage, so I took my last day of home leave to install a garage door opener (better than paying $119 to have it done). So, now we can park two cars in the garage, and go in and out of the front door to make sure that the garage door is locked! And we have a keypad to get in from he outside too. The install was a bit of a pain in the ass, but it was worth it.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Clutch go boom
The Clutch in the TDI went "Boom"...sorta. The car was driving weird, having weird vibrations, and a little slow on the uptake. I thought I had broken engine mount. I took the car to the local VW-Only mechanic (been in business 42 years), Dick's Autohaus. When we stoppe by on the way home to see what was the deal, we got an unpleasant surprise....lots of metal shavings and transmission fluid all over the bottom of the engine that had been hidden by the plastic cover underneith the car. Oh, and there were bits of clutch that came out too.
So, I have a single mass flywheel and clutch on the way, but there is a story there too. I had tried to use that when I had my clutch replaced a while ago (which begs the question, why did it blow up, but I digress). Anyway, the parts I got in went with me to the VW Dealership in Germany and when I showed up to pick up the car, it was still sitting there apart because the flywheel wouldn't fit. It turned out it was because the distributor had received two flywheels that were incorrectly machined, and I had received one of them....joy! So apparently, that problem has been fixed now, so I am going with the single mass flywheel again which costs a total of $389 for the flywheel and clutch, as opposed to over $900 for the dual mass flywheel that is prone to fail.
On the up-note, did an oil change on the Rabbit in the garage tonight. I love having a garage. No wind, can work at night, it is wonderful. And thanks to the old cardboard box from our bigscreen, no oil on the garage floor!
Anyway, it had been a long time, but I will try to post more frequently, but that's all I have for now.
So, I have a single mass flywheel and clutch on the way, but there is a story there too. I had tried to use that when I had my clutch replaced a while ago (which begs the question, why did it blow up, but I digress). Anyway, the parts I got in went with me to the VW Dealership in Germany and when I showed up to pick up the car, it was still sitting there apart because the flywheel wouldn't fit. It turned out it was because the distributor had received two flywheels that were incorrectly machined, and I had received one of them....joy! So apparently, that problem has been fixed now, so I am going with the single mass flywheel again which costs a total of $389 for the flywheel and clutch, as opposed to over $900 for the dual mass flywheel that is prone to fail.
On the up-note, did an oil change on the Rabbit in the garage tonight. I love having a garage. No wind, can work at night, it is wonderful. And thanks to the old cardboard box from our bigscreen, no oil on the garage floor!
Anyway, it had been a long time, but I will try to post more frequently, but that's all I have for now.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
That will be $25.00 and 5.00 €
Wait...what?
So, I am driving around in my rental car....the Plymouth Horizon....I mean....Ford Focus. This thing has a whopping 1 hp and 2lb-ft of torque (actually, I think it has like 89hp....1.4L Gasser with no guts). Anyway, I had been saying how hard the thing was to get up to speed (Autobahn speed that is) It could hit about 80kph ok, above that, I had to keep the revs above 3,000 to get anything resembling acceleration.
Well, it is that up to 80kph part that got me in trouble. In that range, the car accelerated enough to keep up with...I dunno....my old Nissan Frontier if it had a bed full of gravel AND was towing a trailer. Anyway, I made a left hand turn, and was a little aggravated with the car, so I punched it (the gas pedal, not the car....I really wanted to punch the car though). I am screaming through first and second, the whole time the engine sounding like it is going to explode. 10kph....20...30...40..........50..........................................60 *flash* Swearing, slowing back down to 50kph.
A little further down the road the nice Polizei waiting to flag me down to give me my ticket. He starts rambling on in German, and pauses, so I say, in German, that I only speak a little bit of German. He repeats back a little, and then says "English?". Yes.
"License and regsitration"
I hand them over.
"This road has a speedlimit of 50kph and you were observed going 62kph with the speedlimit of 50kph so that is 12kph over the speedlimit." (All this time I am thinking....Yeah, I know I saw the flash.....oh, only 62...whew.....I thought I had almost hit 70).
"That will be a 25 € fine right now."
"Oh, ok, well, let me check my wallet.......oh...I only have 5€"
"Ok, how about dollars"
Look on my face must have been like ?????????????
"Um I have $27.00"
"No, that is not good enough"
"Well, I have $27.00 and 5€"
"Hmmm......" says something in German to the other Polizei, that guy kinda looks up.
"Ok, well, $25.00 and 5€?"
Since he posed this as a question, I thought he was confirming how much I had, so I said back, "I have $27.00 and 5€"
"No, the fine, it will be $25.00 and 5€"
He hands the money to the other officer, and brings back one receipt for 5€. "This is for the Euro and he will give you a receipt for the dollars" Hands me back license and registration.
Other officer walks up to the car, hands me a reciept for 25€ with the € scratched out and "Dollars" written in.
He walks around the front of the car, and is still writing so I think I am not done yet but he sees me looking at him waiting for him to say anything and he says. "Oh, you are free to go"
As I pulled away, the only thing I could think of was how I wanted to get myself a ticket before I left Germany, but of a fine-only/no points variety with me flicking off the camera. This would not have been the time to do that because I didn't even get the picture, plus I don't think the polizei would have taken to that so nicely, but it was still all I could think of.
So, there you have it. If you are pulled over by the Polizei, you have no idea how much or in what currency you will be paying your fine.
So, I am driving around in my rental car....the Plymouth Horizon....I mean....Ford Focus. This thing has a whopping 1 hp and 2lb-ft of torque (actually, I think it has like 89hp....1.4L Gasser with no guts). Anyway, I had been saying how hard the thing was to get up to speed (Autobahn speed that is) It could hit about 80kph ok, above that, I had to keep the revs above 3,000 to get anything resembling acceleration.
Well, it is that up to 80kph part that got me in trouble. In that range, the car accelerated enough to keep up with...I dunno....my old Nissan Frontier if it had a bed full of gravel AND was towing a trailer. Anyway, I made a left hand turn, and was a little aggravated with the car, so I punched it (the gas pedal, not the car....I really wanted to punch the car though). I am screaming through first and second, the whole time the engine sounding like it is going to explode. 10kph....20...30...40..........50..........................................60 *flash* Swearing, slowing back down to 50kph.
A little further down the road the nice Polizei waiting to flag me down to give me my ticket. He starts rambling on in German, and pauses, so I say, in German, that I only speak a little bit of German. He repeats back a little, and then says "English?". Yes.
"License and regsitration"
I hand them over.
"This road has a speedlimit of 50kph and you were observed going 62kph with the speedlimit of 50kph so that is 12kph over the speedlimit." (All this time I am thinking....Yeah, I know I saw the flash.....oh, only 62...whew.....I thought I had almost hit 70).
"That will be a 25 € fine right now."
"Oh, ok, well, let me check my wallet.......oh...I only have 5€"
"Ok, how about dollars"
Look on my face must have been like ?????????????
"Um I have $27.00"
"No, that is not good enough"
"Well, I have $27.00 and 5€"
"Hmmm......" says something in German to the other Polizei, that guy kinda looks up.
"Ok, well, $25.00 and 5€?"
Since he posed this as a question, I thought he was confirming how much I had, so I said back, "I have $27.00 and 5€"
"No, the fine, it will be $25.00 and 5€"
He hands the money to the other officer, and brings back one receipt for 5€. "This is for the Euro and he will give you a receipt for the dollars" Hands me back license and registration.
Other officer walks up to the car, hands me a reciept for 25€ with the € scratched out and "Dollars" written in.
He walks around the front of the car, and is still writing so I think I am not done yet but he sees me looking at him waiting for him to say anything and he says. "Oh, you are free to go"
As I pulled away, the only thing I could think of was how I wanted to get myself a ticket before I left Germany, but of a fine-only/no points variety with me flicking off the camera. This would not have been the time to do that because I didn't even get the picture, plus I don't think the polizei would have taken to that so nicely, but it was still all I could think of.
So, there you have it. If you are pulled over by the Polizei, you have no idea how much or in what currency you will be paying your fine.
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