Brandie’s Baby Shower and New Orleans with Devin & Chad
To recap with the bad first, during my trip through Houston, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, I accumulated two speeding tickets worth $450 total, neither of which ended up on my driving record thankfully. Everything else was great! Would also mark my meeting of Chad.
After spending a good amount of time at Bush Intercontinental figuring out which rental place was best suited to our rental situation, we left with a Pontiac G6 with terrible alignment. Car was decent, steering on acceleration, however, was dangerous.
We drove into Baton Rouge from Houston around 4am without having researched much in the way of lodging. Ended up at the Ramada Inn on Airline Hwy. Not a very impressive stay but for the price and timing, it had to do.
We got the keycard to our room. Much to our shock on walking in sleepy heads popped up in alarm. NOT vacant. For this error, we got two rooms for the price of one. Didn't really matter the rooms were pretty dingy - namely the bathrooms - Sleep is sleep [as long as no strangers walk in to startle you].
wide awake.. some thoughts
With my last established paying project complete for this quarter, car repaired, rent paid, and groceries put away, my thoughts now point to doing something to cover my part of next month's rent and my cell phone bill which is due in just 5 days - for one cannot either brush off their responsibilities or rely on others without losing some credibility or taking a hit to the image one wants to maintain.
I woke up buzzing with ideas echoing louder than the fans dutifully whirring at their highest settings. It's only been 4 hours since we laid down, yet I'm wide awake and have a cranky partner pleading that I stay asleep.
i will always give an exact cause for my action but never a full reason. people, you understand, are never truly concerned with details, only ever requesting explanation to satisfy their need to feel that they deserve to know and that this need is being fulfilled.
I need to create money out of nothing as usual though in the past I have generally had a head start. The thought of creating my own leads or source of income is of course daunting.
My Birthday 2007 – new music stuff!
PF Changs, new Rode NT1-A, and new Line 6 Tone Port UX2... Also, some new face scrub and aftershave balm from Origins (more on the face care later). Amazingly, nothing new for Otto.
On my birthday, devin took andrea and me to eat at PF Changs, it was a toss up between there and Los Cucos - Andrea being the coin and PF Changs being tails. I have this strange obsession with their chopsticks, which are not like normal chopsticks where one end is tapered and enlarges on the other end. These are tapered on both ends and somewhat flat in the middle. They are very well balanced and simply different - here you see the obsession with such a simple object set. So I kept a pair.
The bill came out above $100 food was excellent as usual, with getting my usual Chang's Spicy Chicken, Chow Mein (without meat this time) and my favorite, the Nutty Uncle alcoholic beverage (strawberry, coconut, almond liqueur, and an unspecified rum) - Andrea tried a tofu ordeal in which the tofu had a very disturbing texture, but good taste (on the outside - no taste inside)... Devin, the usual - something completely different. It was a fun evening, and now you know what we stuffed ourselves.
Oh the upgrades
Otto - my volvo 240 DL sedan - since I haven't posted in a while, has gotten the first of several suspension upgrades. I've finally decided it's time to start, so I've started collecting the parts to perform this - culminating in new 
16" VOXX MG's (which is a 2 inch upsize) and Goodyear Eagle ResponsEdge (which is a stiffer sidewall, wider tire upgrade) to match my already running 25MM IPD Anti-sway bars and freshly installed Koni Sport (lowest stiffness setting) rear shocks and soon-to-be Bilstein HD front struts. B&G 1.6" lowering springs (red) are on order which would go on at the same time that I get the bilsteins. It would be nice to get it all at once, but budget and availability issues (mostly availability) make me wait at least 7 days after I buy any components to have them. 
But patience is a small price for ride quality - which I will say might end up being a little more harsh but I definitely will have better control over rough Houston roads - considering that the car is so narrow and bouncy from the factory (if right now with fresh rear koni yellow shocks and ipd sway bar kit already feels great). It already handles like a sports car for the most part, since the front shocks which are only a year and a half old (KYB standard) and new bushings and mounts up front so I can only imagine what it will feel like when it's all done - Houston roads, Otto will be nearly rally ready.