Trina's page of Blogginess

I think my MINI missed the boat at the Port in Northampton. :( That's okay, what can you do?

In my head, I have the vision of my MINI, sitting at the port, by itself, wondering, "Hey, where did everyone go?" :D

I think I'm the only member on the mini2.com forum who didn't make it on today's boat. Now, that's just sad. Oh well, I'm sure I'll be joined by others soon.

Next boat is scheduled for December 29th, and arrives in Southern CA on January 22nd. (24 Days!)

In other news, we went to see "The Return of the King Yesterday"! Man, a great movie. What an amazing trilogy. Epic. Go see it!

I'm such a dork. Isn't that okay, though? I mean, if you know you're a dork, and acknowledge that you're a dork, doesn't it mean that it's okay that you're a dork?

Today is my new car's birthday! I just called ASK-MINI, and it currently in the last stages of the Assembly stage. It's actually going through the final quality check "as we speak" (said the guy at MINI).

Yesterday, it finished in the Paint Department, and started the Assembly stage.

I'm hoping that tomorrow it will be on route to the port in Southampton. If that's the case, it just may make it on the boat for Saturday's journey across the pond.

"run, little car, run!" (said like Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker in "Star Wars")

Okay, I'm assuming that no one else out there is really interested in this, but humor me, please.

I figure I can use this as a journal for reference in the future..... :)

Latest status of my car:

Yesterday, Monday December 15, 2003: Body Shop Started
Today, Tuesday, December 16, 2003: Paint Shop Started

The guy at ASK-MINI who I just spoke with said it would be in the paint shop for a couple of days, before going to "Assembly Started" then finally "Production Completed".

I have an estimated Completion date of this Friday, December 19th.

There are two ships sailing from the port in England (Southampton) to the corresponding port here in CA (Port Hueneme - in Southern CA).

The Hyndai (!) leaves on 12/20/03, and arrives on 01/09/04. That would be spectacular, but I don't really think my car will make it on that ship.

The next ship (The Elektra) leaves Southampton on 12/29/03, and arrives in CA on 01/22/04. I think my MINI will probably be on that one.

Isn't it crazy how much information I have about the production of my car? It's really very odd, but I'm enjoying it.

What did we do without the internet? ;)

Okay, I just ran Disk Warrior for the first time. I guess it went fine - it found a few problems, and fixed them. It was fast - did everything within 1/2 hour. (that's VERY fast, compared to Norton Utilities' day-long marathon last week!)

I don't think it found/fixed anything too major, so we'll just have to see how it goes over the next few days/weeks. I'd really love to put my 512MB RAM chip back in, but I'm afraid that it was the cause of the initial problems.

Maybe Santa will bring me RAM for Xmas..... :)
Isn't that what all "good girls" ask for?

Ahhhhh............. don't you just love a little retail therapy?

I bought a new cell phone yesterday! It's so cool, and cute to boot ;)

I've been eyeing a new cell phone for a few months now. My 2-month contract was fulfilled a few months ago, so I've been shopping around for new plans and a new phone.

I've been with Cingular over the past 2 years, and have happy with the plans, and coverage so far. Figured I didn't have any reason to switch to another company. Dick and I came up with the bright idea to have a "family plan" instead of 2 separate plans. We added my phone number on to his existing Cingular account, and only have to pay $9.99/month extra, and we share the minutes. This works out quite well - he has plenty of minutes, and neither of us have ever come close to going over. Also, with one account, they only hit you with all of those unexpected monthly taxes and fees once - no need in both of us paying that each month.

So, back to the new phone: It's a Samsung SGHx427. Isn't it cute? It has a pretty good UI Design- which is most important to me. I bought it at Best Buy for $49.99. It was a good deal - the prices for phones at the Cingular store were more pricey, and you had to sign up for a 2 year contract instead of only 1. If you're shopping around for phone plans, or a new phone, check out all of your options before buying it directly from the carrier. Could save you a lot of money, or, at the very least, it's good to know you have more options.

..and that I'm not thinking about my computer, and my new car all of the time....

Last night, we went to Dick's company's Holiday Party.

It was fabulous. really, it was!

It was at the new San Francisco Asian Art Museum!!! We knew it was going to be held here for some time now, so we've been holding off going to see the museum, in anticipation of the party.

What an amazing, beautiful space! WOW. they did such a wonderful job there. If you haven't had a chance to go yet, I highly recommend it. The building itself is a gorgeous work of art. The collection was amazing. Go. now. What a treat it was to look around at the exhibits without the regular crowds!

What a great party, too! They served all kinds of yummy food. I mostly ate the sushi (yum) but they also served carved turkey and roast beef, veggie curry, cheeses, etc.,

The had all kinds of great entertainment: Taiko Drummers, a Chinese Lion Dance, and live music. They also had booths set up with palm readers, henna tatoo artists, Chinese calligraphy, etc., Very cool!

Okay, I LOVE Toast!

No, not the kind you eat for breakfast, although that usually is my breakfast of choice during the week.

I'm talking about "Toast Titanium 5.2". My wonderful friend, Sheri, bought it for me for my Birthday earlier this year. It's made backing my files on CDs so much easier! Painless, actually, which is how it should be.

I'm taking a moment to back-up all of my important files on CD. Dick and I back up our data daily using Retrospect onto our "little" 60GB external drive. (or is it 120 GB? I'll have to check) Anyhow, since I've been having continuous computer problems, I thought I'd better back up again to CD....just in case. You never know, and it's better to be safe than sorry.

I'm going to finish backing up my client and web files, then I'll try running "Disk Warrior" to see what exactly is going on with my little computer.

If you haven't done so in a while, here's your friendly reminder to back-up your data! It's a good time to do it, since it's the end of the year :)