SwimFinsSF

Audi and a disposable society…

What ever happened to cars that were made to last. Its becoming more and more clear that these days even car companies that I would have considered reputable (Audi, Mercedes, etc.) are conducting business in a way that encourages people to replace their cars regularly.

Case in point. Our Audi just fell out of warrantee. While it was in warrantee they covered EVERYTHING. Oil changes.. repairs.. tune-ups… the works. I got lulled into a false sense of security thinking that these guys were great and the car was a great car. But now that I’m out of warrantee its a completely different story. All SORTS of problems are starting to come up and every one of them seems to require very expensive repairs. Most recently the check engine light came on (again) and when I took it in (to a repair shop that wasn’t at the dealer) they asked me how often I changed the oil. Turns out that the oil changes they were doing under warrantee weren’t frequent enough and now the engine is showing signs of the damage that results… I was furious…

What’s worse is a friend of mine was considering buying his Audi that was just falling out of lease and was asking around for advice.. He is basically hearing the same thing from everyone he’s talked to (and I had heard it from another friend myself). I don’t know if its unique to audi but it clearly isn’t unique to my car..

Anyway.. I suppose its not entirely surprising.. The car makers need to sell cars to make money so why not make cars with a self destruct so they can sell you another one.. It just pisses me off – like the world needs big landfills full of cars that are less than 10 years old… its nuts…

Sorry… Just ranting

Tags: audi, auto, service

HAPPY New Year

My little walgreens elf.. (don’t ask)

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF.

Just a quick happy new year to everyone.. More to come later but we all had a very nice holiday (with a few exceptions)… Spent christmas in Sacramento with my ‘rents, sister and brother in law, and step sister.. Then the rest of the break relaxing at home and playin with the puppy… New years eve was mellow at home then a 40th b-day party at brian’s yesterday…

Lots more to talk about but i need to work now…

(oh.. and this picture made me laugh out loud so I had to share… thats my boy! :):))

Halloween the way its supposed to be

Shocked the hell out of me – but it seems that they were relatively successful at shutting down the party in the Castro this year. That meant that this year Halloween at our house was what it should have been… A bunch of cute little kids trick-or-treating at our doorstep and no line of freaks passing by to go cause trouble at the party.. Kevin laughed at me because of how excited I was to be able to pass out candy – but i haven’t been able to do that since I moved to the city.. One of the trick-or-treaters even gave out glow sticks to the houses he visited.. was so cute…

anyway.. was cool to see a more sane Halloween.. 🙂

One more then I promise

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF.

to give it a rest… well… maybe not give it a rest… but at least not turn this into my dog blog..

but isn’t she adorable?

She isn’t without her challenges though… My lord puppies are a LOT of work…. no really… A LOT OF WORK… But, bless his heart, Kevin has been doing the lion’s share of the work..

Housebreaking her is definitely a challenge.. We’re working right now on paper training her and once thats down then we’ll start the outside training… Outside training is a challenge living in the city without a lawn. since she doesn’t have all of her shots, she can’t be around places where other dogs have pooped which includes the front driveway… Those who have lawns can just let puppies out there but we don’t have that luxury – so it adds to the fun….

on top of that she really doesn’t like being alone… REALLY doesn’t like it.. if we can fool her into falling asleep we’re good but otherwise she’ll whine a lot.. we’re working on teaching her to be OK with it but thats coming slowly…

We just have to keep reminding ourselves that she’s just a puppy and isn’t going to quite get these things…

But she’s cute and a lot of fun so we’re OK putting up with an awful lot! 🙂

Nina’s first day

Nina’s first day

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF.

check it out…

we have a new member of the family… A new little Vizsla puppy… and I must say, she is just the cutest puppy in the whole wide world… Definitely a little trouble maker and kept us up a little bit last night.. but not too badly really…

Anyway… off to bed now – but I had to share! :):) There are more pictures of her on flickr! 🙂

So… The wedding. :-)

Mother and Daughter

Originally uploaded by SwimFinsSF.

so… Detals about the wedding.

Kevin and I flew out to Denver on Wednesday and met my mom and Webb to drive out to vail. Weather in Colorado was great and the drive was really nice. Wednesday night we had dinner with Katie at the hotel which was great.

Thursday kevin and I had a little quality time before everyone showed up. We explored vail and then went to the spa for masages. That night Kevins friend Laura ( ok – our friend 🙂 ) came out to hang out with us. The three of us went to dinner and then came back to our huge condo to hang out ( it really was huge and nice – we were spoiled ). Pretty much as soon as we got back there nearly my whole family showed up to have drinks and hang out. It was a lot of fun. Katie and Nick ( bride and groom ) , aunts laurie and susan, mom and Webb, Carrie and her new daughter, nick’s dad, Katies friend julianna, etc. Very fun.

Whoops. Almost to work. I’ll write more soon. 🙂