My World...

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted....

As far as the golf tournament goes, we had nice weather and the foursome I was in came in 5th out of 15 groups. Not too bad. Regardless of how we did, it sure beats a day in the office!!! My new drivers and wedge didn't arrive in time for the tournament, so I was a little bummed. But I did get to play golf again the next day which is a rare treat. Playing golf back to back days is something I've only done on 2 or 3 occasions. I've only gotten a chance to hit the new clubs at the range so far. If the weather cooperates, I intend to hit the new clubs tomorrow when I play at Kissena with Niel and Kelvin.



Car hunt 2003 has taken a dramatic turn towards the practical. Two weeks ago Rachel and I went to test drive the Mazda 6. The car was pretty cheesy looking inside and didn't have a real solid feel to it. If the car were around $15,000 I would consider getting it, but paying almost $20,000 for a car like the 6 doesn't seem very worth it. As far as the BMW's go, after contacting some dealers here in the Northern VA area, I discovered that a 15,000 miles a year lease for a 325 with automatic tranny, sunroof and the sports package would cost me around $450 a month. So I quickly ruled out getting a BMW. Would I like a BMW? Sure I would. Do I want to spend $600 or more a month for a car, insurance and gas? HELL NO!!! I have sunglasses, watches and golf clubs to buy!!!!



So I have the car hunt down to 2 or 3 cars right now. The Accord EX is in the lead at the moment. Rachel and I test drove one the other night and the dealer is willing to sell me one for under $20,000 out the door including tax, tags and processing. The car is very smooth, quiet and just overall a gorgeous car. Rachel and I were in agreement that this is a car we both like. The only problem we are having now is that we can't decide on a color. I initially wanted a silver one, thinking that the interior would be gray. But it turns out that Honda makes the interior black now when you get cloth seats. Rachel's golden locks tend to get everywhere, so the darker the interior, the more visable her hair will be. The other exterior color I like is blue. The only problem with the blue is that it's the same exact color as Rachel's Civic. Then the 3rd color we liked was the redondo red. It's not a fire engine, chili pepper red like my Jetta, it's a much darker shade of red. Both the blue and red Honda's come with gray cloth interior which looks really nice. The wild card color is one that is a dark slate gray color. It looks nice, but I think it will be too hot in the summer and show too much dirt. So I think the two choices we're most likely to go with are silver or red. Red is Rachel's pick, while I tend to be leaning towards the silver.



Last week I asked one of the guys who works for me to drive his Corolla S. He's had it about a year now, and seems to really like it. I drove it with the idea that it would be underpowered and sluggish and that I would most likely cross it off my list of potential new vehcles. As soon as I started his car, I could feel that the car had some balls. It was pretty quick despite only having 130 horsepower. I was next to a guy in a Saab, a car that probably cost two times what the Corolla cost and I took him off the line really easily. Plus I have talked with dealers and can get one for around $17,000 fully loaded. So it's a serious contender. Only problem I have with it is that it's a very small car, and it's not as quiet or refined as the Accord. The Accord is beautiful in and out and handles nicely.



Well I got my domain up and running at home. I'm having problems with getting Exchange to work however, so I am using POP3 and SMTP for now. I may format and try to install Exchange again. But I'll probably wait till I get a copy of Exchange Server 03. Eventually I will move all my web content to my server as well. I like this blog, but I can't include pictures or audio, so it holds me back a little.

I head up to NY tonight after work. We;re smack in the middle of a nor'easter so I hope the weather clears a little by tonight. It would suck to have to drive in the rain for 4 or 5 hours straight. But I haven't really seen my family for a while, so it will be good visiting with them. Even if it's only for 3 days. Sure I saw them at the wedding, but that day was so hectic that I hardly got to talk to any of them.

That's all for now, I'll try to post next week about my trip to NY. Then I hope to have some new material based on my trip to Colorado. Looking forward to going out there since I've never been out west before. Plus work has been quite hectic, so I am looking forward to relaxing.

posted by Mike @ 11:47 AM