Gabriel's Word of the Day

I continue to work on Gabriel's French... Although he rambles through parts of it, he knows the whole French alphabet.

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Gabriel's Word of the Day

Gabriel learned a new word today...

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Photoshop was the Devil's Creation

I'm gonna be honest with you - I hate Photoshop.  I don't believe it was developed by Adobe, but but Satan's minions working in a dot com-style loft in the Depths of Hell.  CNN said Photoshop is an "industry standard for graphics professional."


Bull.  It's really an industry standard for those wishing to manipulate decent images of co-workers.  Two case in points, our Scrum teams at work needed to come up with logos.  Nobody had the individual creativity to come up with original works.  Instead, they had to bastardize photos of others, including yours truly.

   

It's just rude and disrespectful, people.  Next thing you know people will be pasting images of wholesome female public servants onto bodies of bikini models or taking well known celebrities and Photoshopping them into porn.

Damn Photoshop.  I hope you're happy with what you created, Satan.

Gabriel's Word of the Day

When I arrived home from work tonight Gabriel informed me that (a) "When will Daddy update Daddy's blog?" and (b) "Gabriel wants to do Word of the Day!" So tonight we did both, using the phrase Gabriel came up with while at dinner.

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Eight years and counting...

Yesterday Esther and I celebrated our 8th anniversary... Eight years already!  Time flies when you're moving 4 times, changing jobs and having a child!  In honor of the anniversary we decided on our "new" annual tradition (i.e. this was the 2nd year in a row) of dinner at Sage in Alpharetta followed by a new-release movie.  Last year it was Transformers.  Yes, I realize that Transformers doesn't scream, "Happy Anniversary, honey!" but she enjoyed it... Honestly!  This year we debated between Wall-E and Hancock; since Wall-E was playing at the not-as-desirable UA theatre we chose Hancock at AMC.  Will Smith certainly "owns" July 4th flicks; Hancock was a laugh-out-loud funny movie, especially when you factor in the hilariousness of Jason Bateman.  Finally, we wrapped the night with a sundae and some coffee at Steak n' Shake, reliving some memories from early in our relationship.



Happy Anniversary, Esther - I love the life we've built for ourselves and Gabriel.



(Sage took great care of us... They asked if we were celebrating anything, so when we told them it was our 8th anniversary they decorated the oil plate and also gave us a delicious and complimentary crème brûlée, flight of champagne and a nice painted plate.) 

My new ride has Fahrvergnügen!

I don't care that that Fahrvergnügen is an old term... My new car has it!  After several protracted months of research and test drives, I walked into Gossett VW late this morning and walked out, several hours later, with a new 2009 Jetta SportWagen!

I honestly wasn't planning to buy a car this weekend, especially since I was supposed to be at work all day today, and after yesterday's test of the Mazda 3 I was leaning towards buying one in a month or two.  However, after an aborted production deployment this morning, I had the rest of the day at my disposal, so we decided to head over to our local VW dealer just to see if they had a SportWagen to look at, which they obviously did.



At first I was a little aprehensive about getting a hatchback with anything other than a turbocharged engine, so Greg took me out for my first test drive of the day in a 2008 Jetta with their 2.5L 5-cylinder engine.  It had more horsepower than my 2000 Jetta, and was a great ride.  After some more deliberation, they moved the only SportWagen they had outside so we could test that as well, this time with Esther and Gabriel.  It was another great ride, great steering and suspension, as I expected, and unless I looked in the rearview I wouldn't have known I was in a wagon.  And it's an automatic :)



So, after close to 5 hours (thankfully my father-in-law swung by to look after Gabriel for a while!) and lots of deliberation, we signed the paperwork and I drove home in the new wheels.  It was a bit more than we were planning to pay, but the 2009 includes all service and standard maintenance for 3 years, and my 2000 was starting to get long in the tooth.  I've never leased before, so I'll be watching my mileage carefully, but I'm super excited about my new VW.

To stick or not to stick...

I mentioned earlier this month how, in the quest for a new vehicle, how I've been looking at three cars - the Mini Cooper (which is fundamentally out of consideration now), the VW Passat Wagon and the Mazda 3.  Ever since my trip to Blankets Creek over Father's Day weekend I've been pretty excited about the Mazda 3.   There was a fellow rider with a great looking 3 (I thought it was an A3 at first!), and he gave it a glowing recommendation.

So, my wife and I took a trip to Mazda of Roswell this afternoon to check one out and try a test drive.  What impresses me about the 3 is how much car you can get for the money, especially when you compare it to the Passat.  The Grand Touring trim level has every bell and whistle I could possibly want, at a price several thousand less than the Passat, and the interior is styled just as nicely as the exterior.  We took the 3 for a test drive, and while I really enjoyed the tight steering and comfortable feel to the car, the 2.3L 156hp engine didn't give the car as much "zoom-zoom" as I'm used to with my 1.8L turbocharged Jetta. 

And then we looked at the Mazdaspeed 3... still 2.3L, still with 4 cylinders, but turbocharged with 263hp.   It's a sweet ride, with solid torque and a tighter suspension.  Oh, but it also only comes with a 6-speed manual transmission.  That's right, no automatic option on this sucker.

I haven't driven a stick since... Um... Maybe the late '90's?  It's been a while, so I was a bit nervous of making a complete ass of myself in front of Jeff, our salesman.  (I wasn't as nervous about my wife being in the car, only since I make a complete ass of myself in her presence almost weekly daily.)  Jeff started us off up Alpharetta Hwy. just so we could feel the difference between the 3 and Speed 3; he pushed the car through the first 5 gears and up to around 70 really quickly.  Then I took over and proceeded to stall out about 5 times in the next 10 minutes on the drive back to the dealership.  And - I'm not gonna lie to you - there's nothing like the smell of burnt rubber up front while your wife is trying to keep her lunch down in the back.  On the flip side, once I got used to the clutch I was able to enjoy the drive, and it certainly was more fun than the 3.  More zoom-zoom.

So assuming I decide to pull the trigger on a Mazda, to stick or not to stick?  I'm pretty confident it'll only take me a few days to get used to driving a manual transmission... But do I really want one with Atlanta traffic the way it is?  Meanwhile, my wife has *never* driven a stick before.  I'm confident she'll pick it up as well, but I know she'd also rather not have to worry about it in the first place.  But if I decide not to go with the Speed 3, will I be disappointed with the ride in the 3?  Ah... decisions, decisions... 

Any ideas? Leave 'em here or email me at michael.thisishowiroll@gmail.com.