I would love to do this!

Last week I ordered a set of subframe connectors and a shock tower brace from UMI Performance for the Trans Am.   After only a week they showed up and I was very impressed. The build quality was top notch and the fit of the parts was impeccable.

Justin and I installed the parts in his garage.  It took a little less than 2 hours to jack the car up in all 4 corners, install the subframe connectors, the strut tower brace and do an oil change.  The car was back on the ground and we jumped in it to see if these things made a difference.

Read more »

When you snoop around my camera and then take pictures of yourself for me to find, they WILL end up on the internet

.

This one goes out to Angry Dave.

Play scrabble the right way…  or play some palace at the tarsi house… I remember you being on the wrong side of victory.

My good pal Ryan Fitzgerald has just released his debut CD, called “Edge of Eternity” on iTunes!!!!! I met Ryan, a.k.a. Fitz, when we worked together 2 summers ago at Cedar Point Yacht Club in Westport, CT. I was lucky enough to snag a copy of the CD back in 2006 and now he’s finally getting it together (J.K. Ry!) and really starting to promote it. I’d describe his sound as laid back with a kick, and his lyrics are poignant and thoughtful. His musical influences are John Mayer, Jimmy Eat World, Lifehouse, Third Eye Blind, Copeland, Ben Folds and Dashboard Confessional to name a few.

PLEASE check out my favorite hometown singer and songwriter on his myspace music page @ http://www.myspace.com/ryanfitzgerald1

If you have a dollar, buy a song of Ryan’s! (Or the whole album!) You won’t be disappointed and you’ll be supporting a 21-year old Connecticut resident with his heart and mind in the right place.

Best of Luck, Fitz, and God Bless YOU!

For all you red box renters, there is a new red box code for when you are shopping at Shop and Stop. If you enter the code SHOP you will get a free rental per card! I have over 6 cards in my wallet, so that’s 6 free rentals. The only catch is that you have to rent before April 18th when the code expires. Two a week till then is perfect.

Also noticed some redbox competition today while at super food mart in the form of DVD Xpress. This is the first time i’ve seen one of these boxes but it seems to be the same deal as redbox. $1 per day rentals. I’m rooting for redbox.

After a 2.5 hour drive we finally made it to Boston Saturday night. After dinner we ended up drinking at Goodbar. It was a really fun time and only $10 cover which I wasn’t expecting to be so cheap…

Some highlights from the night… “t-surfing”, Picc not allowed into the resturant, Tequila shots, Meeting up with Teddy, Picc, Sean and Mike going home in a limo and who could forget the white shamrock tie…(thanks Mandy)

Maybe Mandy can chime in with more about the night.

Anyway it was a fun road-trip.

Here are a few pictures from the night.

Read more »

I thought this article was really cool. It talks about your rights as a photographer and is a brief description of what you are and aren’t allowed to photograph. Read the full text at Photojojo.

I. Anyone in a public place can take pictures of anything they want. Public places include parks, sidewalks, malls, etc. Malls? Yeah. Even though it’s technically private property, being open to the public makes it public space.

II. If you are on public property, you can take pictures of private property. If a building, for example, is visible from the sidewalk, it’s fair game.

III. If you are on private property and are asked not to take pictures, you are obligated to honor that request. This includes posted signs.

IV. Sensitive government buildings (military bases, nuclear facilities) can prohibit photography if it is deemed a threat to national security.

V. People can be photographed if they are in public (without their consent) unless they have secluded themselves and can expect a reasonable degree of privacy. Kids swimming in a fountain? Okay. Somebody entering their PIN at the ATM? Not okay.

Read more »

Nick got a new bike and I got a new football. So what else is there to do, but throw the football and do some wheelies on the bike?

I finally picked up some new tires for my Trans Am.  I went with 275/40/17 BF Goodrich g-force sport’s.  I had them put on at Sears in the Danbury Fair Mall.  I’m extremely happy with the tires so far.  I’m upgrading from Sumitumo HTR ZII’s.  These tires were terrible!

I’ll get some pics of the new tires on the car soon, but here they are sitting in my garage…  They are large.

Review of Sears Auto Center:

There isn’t much to say, they didn’t mess anything up, but they took 2 HOURS to put these tires on!  I got there at 8:30 am in the morning and I didn’t get my car back till 11:00 am.  There was nobody in front of me.

Anyone who says that the Deer population isn’t getting out of control is crazy. We had 9 deer in our front yard this morning. I had the camera handy so I snapped a couple pictures.

Thanks to Josh I got quite the laugh yesterday.

So a friend and I were driving to get a Duchess E&C (2 for $3 for the next couple of weeks, by the way) and we saw a Corvette convertible. She made a comment that she’s always thought of Corvettes as WT (White Trash) cars. Although I admit to being WAY more attracted to a Corvette hard top than a Corvette convertible, (this may be the product of dating a Corvette Z06 addict) I wouldn’t ever consider a Corvette WT material. As a treat to our more oblivious readers, maybe Matt could elaborate a little on what makes a Corvette a Corvette, and why it attracts such a fan base.

So my family discovered that we had mice in our attic this winter.   The mice were partying every night above our heads while we tried to sleep, and this being the first evidence of rodents in the 25 years of owning our house, my parents were pretty concerned.  They took different approaches.  My mom refused to go in the attic and put all of the responsibility on my father, who responded by declaring war — literally — on the mice that had invaded our otherwise serene environment.

I had no issue with the mice, I slept soundly through their fun upstairs and had faith in the various traps my dad set out.  They were doing their thing, and I was doing mine.  A few days after we set the traps, we killed about 4 mice and haven’t heard anything from them since.

UNTIL, I realized I had a crack in my windshield and called Norwalk’s Glass Doctor in to replace it.  He did a great job, but called me outside mid-job to let me know that I had a MOUSE NEST under my hood.  The thought of the mice climbing under my hood leaving droppings behind drives me nuts.

So really, no other point to this story except that mice can get into the tiniest of spaces and even if you keep the cleanest of cars, they’re still probably crapping under your hood.