You can read more about the kid’s Box Car Drive in adventure on Fran’s Blog (and see more pictures too). Fran did a great job on these little cars. I hope one day our kids realize how lucky they were/are to have their mom. I did help paint the cars after the kids went to bed. The kids are kind of lucky to have me too.
Posted November 14, 2010
Make no mistake, this blog is for me. I have previously mentioned that I’m using WordPress as a format to write a book. Once in awhile I will make a public post, but that’s not my primary focus right now.
Most of the posts on the website are private, as they contain somewhat sensitive business information. My goal is to literally write about my business experiences as they occur. Hopefully, one day… one sunny happy day, I can compile all of my adventures into an enjoyable (and helpful) book.
In the future I may post excepts from these private posts or allow people to access them with a password. And I will sometimes post something business related that I don’t consider private or feel would harm my business.
So… where have I been? Oh man. What a story that is. Let’s just say I’ve been very busy with my businesses. When I started the first one back in 2002 I had no idea that it would become a never ending rollercoaster filled with thrills, despair, joy, pain and indescribable mix of feelings that often leaves me in a state that defies description.
What do I do? Knives. Survival gear. Emergency preparation. Mostly Knives. I operate BladeHQ, BladePlay, EmergencyMatters and other online ecommerce sites. We have some really cool stuff. If you like knives start here: Benchmade Knives, Microtech Knives, Protech Knives, Boker Knives and Tops Knives.
We have such amazing plans… I wish I could talk more about them. Our goal is simple: become the best knife company in the world. Next year- 2011. That’s when we’ll start running. All this time, the last seven years, that was the framework. That was us crouching in the perfect position to begin our sprint. When the the shot is fired we will start running, we won’t stop and we will win.
Right before Disney Land we participated in our annual tradition of going to ConrBelly’s . We hit up this Thanksgiving Point attraction every October with a group of our friends.
Our agenda is eerily similar each year. Run around for a bit, go through the “no left turn” mazes, pretend we’re going to play dodge ball, go through the corn maze, start throwing corn at each other, make bad corn jokes/puns (it’s a salt and buttery on the ears), give up and cheat our way out of the maze, go on a hay ride, play on the slides, and then curl up in the fetal position.
I confess that sometimes it seems like going will get old, but once I get there I have a great time. Sure, there’s some stalking and the conversation gets a bit corny. And someone always tries to cob a feel in the maize, but the corn jokes get butter and butter each ear. Good friends and corn… that’s all a man really needs to be happy. Shucks.
Posted November 09, 2010
UPDATE (October 16, 2011): Yes, I’m still hard at work adding stickers to my car! I recently found a company who manufacturers stickers that fit in the “CORVETTE” indentations on the rear bumper and passenger dash. I picked Victory Red for the exterior and Cobalt Red for the interior. The same company also offers black vinyl stickers to cover the white and yellow air bag warnings on the sun visors. Done and done!
In addition to stickers I’ve been adding some accents in the car. I recently installed a tone shift knob and some leather door wraps (both Cobalt Red) that match the seat. I also put in new Autometer ES series gauges (backlit red) and I’m considering replacing my gauge cluster with a red model. To me form is as important as function.
To begin with, I apologize for the pictures. First, because no one really wants to see them. And second because I took them on my iPhone. Cameras on phones have come a long way, but it’s still hard to take pictures in low light (a lot of graininess and motion blur), close ups, and anywhere you might need a half way decent flash. But you can’t beat a camera phone for convenience. But I digress. I now present to you my… quirk.
Plastered across my rear windshield is a “Benchmade” banner. My company, BladeHQ, sells Benchmade Knives and, being a loyal fan and purveyor, I proudly advertise Benchmade on the back of my car. I also have a Microtech sticker (Microtech Knives are also very cool) but I’m not sure if there’s room for it right now.
On the front left of the windshield I’ve got an ACT sticker (I just put in a new ACT clutch) . The red and silver won me over. I’m a sucker for a fun sticker.
On the front right of the windshield I’ve got an HP Tuners sticker (this is the program I use to tune my car). I thought the white added some nice contrast.
On both sides of the car, below the Z06 badge, I added custom “800 HP” emblems (from West Coast Corvette). I unabashedly promote the current crank horsepower of the car in the same way the stock C6 Z06 badge does (in tiny red letter it says, “505 HP”… but it’s not anymore!). I get a lot of flak for this, but I can take it.
Inside the engine (on top of the intercooler) I’ve got a little plaque that that has the engine specs for the LS7 (left side) and then an “LS7” emblem (right side). They add a nice little splash of color to the engine bay (can you tell I like red, black and silver?).
And of course I’ve got my car peppered with various red Autobot decals. Yeah, maybe I need some help. I try not to make things tacky (believe me, everything looks much better in real life), but it’s possible that I do go overboard sometimes. To my credit I haven’t added a “twin turbo” emblem…. yet. But then again, I am guilty of putting a Hannah Montana sticker on the drill press at work and insisting that everyone refer to it as “Miley.”
Anyway, I hope this handy guide will help you to recognize my car. It may be hard to see anything though, since I’ll be blowing past you at light speed. Ooooh!
Posted November 09, 2010
I swore I wouldn’t do it. But I did. I went on a vacation. As Fran likes to point out, it’s our first “real” vacation in over six years (a “real” vacation is a trip where we’re gone longer than overnight- seems fair). The destination? Disney Land. We felt like the kids were all finally big enough to enjoy it. We went six years ago with my parents. This time my Dad decided to come with us which worked out really well; three kids and three adults.
We decided to drive there this time around (my Dad drove separate do do some sight seeing). We broke the drive up over two days each way. On the first night we swung through Las Vegas and ate at the Rainforest cafe at the MGM Grand Casino. The food was okay and the atmosphere was exceptional. I have to confess that it was a little weird walking though the casino with our kids. Despite their protests I didn’t let them gamble.
The drive went really well and our kids were great (my mom had prepared little game bags which really helped). We rolled into Disney Land Tuesday evening. We had reservations at Disney’s Paradise Pier. We’ve stayed previously at the Grand Californian hotel. Paradise Pier isn’t as luxurious, but it’s definitely more kid friendly and still very nice. The next morning we were off for days of fun and adventure in Disney Land and California Adventure Land.
My Dad has his birthday while were at Disney Land. He wore his “It’s my Birthday” pin most of the time and used his clout to score several pictures with celebrity ducks.
I think it’s fair to say that the six of us had a great time. It was a little harder than I expected with three kids. I was very grateful that my dad had come with us. The kids constantly wanted to be carried, couldn’t agree on rides, argued about who would sit with who on the rides, obsessed over churros and relentlessly overpriced imports but it couldn’t overshadow the magic of the Disney Land park.
We ate in the park. This is astronomically expensive, but if you let cognitive dissonance do it’s job you can escape with the illusion that somehow it was better and/or worth it. Red’s Rocket Port has some great salad and pasta. It was as good as I had remembered.
Old favorites like Space Mountain, Splash Mountainm, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Indiana Jones still delivered all the thrills I remembered from six years ago (our last visit). Since we opted to go during school, the crowds were nearly non-existent. Most of the rides we walked right onto and worst case we waited about 15-20 mins. There were several new attractions, but nothing really stuck out over the classics.
We also ate the the French Market (and here’s a photo of all of us). Fran was disappointed and I’m pretty sure I got food poisoning there (chills, headache and vomiting ensued). Being sick put a damper on the trip, but I recovered quickly enough .
After spending a day in Disney Land we headed over to California Adventure Land. They had pulled out a couple of rides to make room for a new attraction based on Cars (they’re basically building out a Radiator Springs). California Adventure isn’t quite as magical as Disney but it’s still got some fun rides like Screaming, Soaring over California, Tower of Terror and the 3D shows.
There’s my dad with the Ferris Wheel of death behind him. Some of the cars on the Ferris wheel slide along rails. It made my Dad and me really sick. As I get older motion sickness isn’t fun like it used to be. California Adventure is a blast, but with thin crowds there’s not quite a day’s worth of stuff to do and so we headed back to Disney Land. Just to prove how tough we were my Dad and I rode the teacups.
One of the trip highlights was the Wold of Color, in California Adventure. We went to the show on Friday night (and by Friday the crowds had increased exponentially). The show consists of water, lights, projected images, lasers and music. My picture doesn’t do it any kind of justice (you can find the show on You Tube).
And then it was time to head home. We briefly considered hitting Lego Land or the San Diego Zoo, but we were pretty exhausted (I would say the recovery time for me personally, once we got home, was about a week). The only real casualty of our trip was the mini-van. Our kids have a gift for making messes. Here’s the back of the car by the time we got home.
Overall a great trip. Looking back we might have waited one more year to go, and we may have flown. But hopefully we built some good memories and the kids will look back with fondness on our trip. I’ll be ready to go on another vacation in about six years.
Posted November 7th, 2010
I like to get little accessories for my car. Maybe it’s the same way that moms seem to enjoy dressing up their little girls. But guys can’t dress up their little boys- it would be weird (yes, I just compared my car to a child). Anyway, I got a new shift knob for my car. Red & black. I think I like it. Aesthetics aside, the real advantage is that it sits an inch lower than the old one. That makes the throw shorter and, in theory, could improve my shifting.
Also, here’s a quick peek at my garage at work. My wife kicked me out of our garage here at the house (spurred by the “falling exhaust” and “tulip bulb” incidents). When we moved the business to it’s new location I commandeered a little corner of the warehouse for myself. It’s nice to have the space and it’s big enough that I can do projects (stereo install, oil changes, switch tires, wash/wax, etc). Sometimes wish I could park the car at home; it can be hard to get over to work to get the car. But hey, soon enough we’ll need the space at work for “work” and I’ll get to move back home. Hopefully that time frame coincides with whatever development needs to occur in my children’s brains to create some common sense.
Next up, my strange obsession with stickers and little emblems. For some reason ever since I was a kid I’ve compulsively put stickers on things. Maybe it’s some kind of territory marking ritual. Maybe I just like them. Can’t really say. I hope it’s nothing serious (did I mention I even want to put stickers on my wife?).
Posted November 07, 2010
I did manage to get the clutch installed before the last race at Rocky Mountain Raceway (RMR). More on that in a bit. First, I’ll do a quick review of the clutch. As I mentioned the clutch I went with was the ACT T1S-G01 (BTW- I ordered it from AA Corvette and I can easily recommend them as a great source for parts).
After getting the clutch installed (another BTW- clutch installs on the Z06 models are a PITA!) I only had a couple of days to break it in before th race so I drove the car a lot. I’d been warned to expect harsh engagement and a lot of noise from the clutch, owning to the fact that it’s a twin disc model. I found the engagement to be very smooth. In fact I can put the car in gear and just slowly life my foot off the clutch and it and it rolls forward without so much as a shudder. No problem on that end.
Noise-wise there is a lot of chatter in lower gears (when the RPM range is sub 2K). Occasionally when the clutch is disengaged it will even sound like popcorn popping (I’ve got not better way to describe it). The sound goes away when the clutch pedal is depressed. My understanding is that this is normal. In any event, I can live with the noise so it’s not an issue (my stock clutch had almost as much chatter)
Performance-wise the T1S-G01 is a rock. The clutch grabs perfectly and my street tires spin out in 1st, 2nd and sometimes 3rd . In fact, I had no idea just how often my previous clutch was slipping until now. The stock Z06 clutch weighs in at 55 pounds (I popped in on a scale when we got it out). The T1S-G01 weighs in at only 39 lbs. That’s a difference of 16lbs of rotating mass! It took the car a couple of weeks to adjust (it was surging at stops pretty bad from the change). The new clutch is rated up to 85o lbs of torque so it should last me awhile (I’m only sending about 670lbs to it so there’s still room for a few upgrades). Overall I really like ACT T1S-G01 and would recommend it to anyone wondering who’s considering it.
And at the same time I decided to upgrade the sway bars in my car. I went with the PDAFT Z06 Light Rate Racing Sway Bars and so far I really like them.
The stock sway bars hit the turbo piping in the front of my car. The PFADT bars are adjustable and so we were able to make them fit better. They still hit a little (when going over larger bumps) but it’s much better than before. Additionally the car’s handling is improved it sticks to the road even better than before. Another upgrade that I’m very happy with.
But you can’t win them all. It was sway bars or slicks. Since it was the last race off the year at RMR I decided to skip the slicks and do the sway bars. (there were still months of driving left). The clutch wasn’t quite broken in, but I decided to go for it. I actually ended up near the front for my first run so the track was really fresh. I wasn’t completely comfortable with the clutch, but I was not prepared for the spinning. I launched and spun… and spun… and spun. I ended up running a 13.8 at about 117 mph. Ouch. I got a second run too which wasn’t much better. Next year I’ll be ready though. Slicks and some practice and I’ll bet I can hit the 11’s. Fingers crossed (again).
Posted November 06, 2010