Car upgrades and Temptations concert

A couple of things have been going on lately, so I'll update real quick.  I purchased some new motor mounts for my car a little while back from a Mazda performance company called Race Roots.  They're more of a solid mount than the OEM ones.  I installed those last week.  Wow were they violent at first! The whole car vibrated when the engine was under load.  They've settled a bit since then, and now they're quite a bit more livable than before.  So far I like them, and will probably keep them around.  I ordered a midpipe yesterday from Corksport, because I think my catalytic converter is starting go.  So I figured why the hell not just remove it?  I've been wanting one for a while anyway, so this is basically my excuse for getting it.  I want to eliminate any problems before they occur; I want to keep this car running for as long as it can!  I've heard good things about the Corksport Midpipe though.  They seem to have really good build quality and service from what I hear.  I'm excited for it.

So anyways, while I was away, Candy and I went to our June event!  We went to see The Temptations at Hoyt Sherman Place!  I've been a HUGE Temptations fan ever since I first saw the mini-series back when I was in 7th grade.  I used to memorize all of the routines, and do lip syncs for school and family events.  It was pretty awesome.  Eddie Kendricks was always my favorite.  His voice was just so smooth, and the way he sang Just My Imagination was just beautiful and sexy.  That's my all time favorite song.  So a little info about The Temptations..  Otis Williams is the sole remaining original Temptation.  Paul Williams, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, and Melvin Franklin all passed away over the years.  Other have filled in, but that was the original group where all the magic happened.  I've been wanting to see them for a while, but never got to it.  Once I heard they were coming to Des Moines again I definitely wanted to see them.  So we bought tickets and it became our event of the month for June.  Our tickets were pretty sweet, right in the center in the 6th row.  I thought they did a great job at the show.  They sang all of the classics, and they did a great job doing it.  They mixed a couple of their newer recordings in the show too, and I was pretty impressed.  The group did really well, and did all of the dance routines to a T.  I was expecting it to be more of a classy and less exciting show, but they ROCKED the house!  I was seriously impressed with how these guys did; it was great.  Here's a video of their closing song.  They did I'm Losing You right after they sang My Girl for their last song.  I thought it was great, here you go:

New Stuff!

An update and it hasn't even been over a month yet!  I'd say that's amazing progress.  The past few weeks have been pretty full of fun and new things.  I've gotten a lot done to the car, Candy and I got our May event done, and a few other noteworthy things have happened along the way.

So first off, Candy and I went to Bella Salon and Day Spa for our event of the month for May.  We got some body treatments in the form of clay mud wraps and also some massages.  On a scale of 1-10 I'd give them an 8.  The massages and body treatments were good, but we had to wait a while in the lobby for them to get ready or something.  We were scheduled for 1:40 but didn't actually go back there until around 2, and I don't like waiting.  The massages and body treatment were great though, so neither of us had any complaints there.

So the past weeks I've gotten my car all done up and officially ready for the Summer.  My wheels that ordered back in February finally came in, and we were actually able to get the suspension put on also.  For the wheels I got Rays Gram Lights 57DR in 18X9.5 +38, and wrapped them in Hankook Ventus V12 Evo tires (245/40/18).  The suspension that I had ordered are Tein S-Tech Springs, and Koni Sport Shocks.  So I got the wheels mounted on last Thursday, and then on Friday my buddy Jimmy and I did the suspension.  I won't bore you with the details, so here are the pictures...

Before:

After:

I really need some center caps, so I'm probably going to get some pretty soon.  I think it looks pretty good so far though.  I'm not sure what else I'll be doing for the rest of the Summer to it...  There's a car show in August that I'll be going to, and I want to get the car ready for it as best as I can.  I have a few things I know that I'll be purchasing to clean it up, but I'm just not sure if I want to buy anything big before then or not...  So far I know I'll be cleaning up the engine bay with a few little things. Black Halo Racing makes an air box tray replacement that I'll be getting.  Since I have the AEM Cold Air Intake, the bottom part of my stock air box is still in there, and it doesn't look very pretty.  So this will make it look a lot cleaner.  I'll probably try and grab a carbon fiber radiator cooling plate just for kicks, and they're not crazy expensive or anything.  I'll probably get a few things for the interior also.  I need a new shift knob, because the stock one is a little faded.  There's also a carbon fiber gauge cluster that would look reeeeaaaally nice in my car.  I'd like to buy an exhaust too, but I'm not sure if that's in the cards for before the car show.  

I did an oil change yesterday, and switched over to some new oil.  It's Idemitsu 10W30.  It's a full synthetic oil made specifically for rotary engines, and should be a decent upgrade from the standard Castrol GTX I was using.  I wanted to switch to a heavier oil, especially since it's Summer now and it's going to get crazy hot.  So I figured I might as well go with something like this.  I also bought a Greddy magnetic oil drain plug to swap out my stock one.  I needed a new washer, so I figured that was a good enough excuse to just buy something nice like this.

http://instagr.am/p/Ln_k8aySNi/

That's all the updates for now.  I'm sure to update again, because Candy and I have our next event of the month coming in a couple of weeks, and I'm certain more will happen between now and then.

Peace out everybody.

Light My World

Hello!  Oh man it's been so long since I've updated!  I keep telling myself that I'm going to update regularly, but then I don't.  Blah!  

So lets see what all has been happening.  The last time I updated was when Candy and I went to the Bulls game.  Oh man that just makes me think of Derrick Rose and his ACL injury.  Ahh!  This could have been a great postseason for the Bulls, and it all went down the drain...  There's always next year...

So for our April event we ended up not going to Minnesota.  Instead we went up to Ames to watch the play Rent.  It was great!  It was a part of Veishea.  We went and ate at Chinese Homestyle Cooking (CHC) at ISU's campus town.  CHC has the best chinese food anywhere.  Anywhere.  Yeah it's that good.  So after that we went to the play, and Candy and I both thought that it was amazing.  The cast was great!

Towards the end of April I was stressing about school, because my semester ended the first week of May.  We didn't do too much then.  I ended up getting pretty good grades for school.  Now I just need to finish up these three classes I have now, and I'll be good.

A couple weeks ago there was an autocross event/car meet here.  We went to check it out.  It was packed!  There were so many cars racing, and even more at the meet.  Here's a few pics:

Here's my car with my buddy's Evo IX at the meet.

This month Candy and I are talking about going to the spa for a spa day for our monthly event.  We're probably going to go to the Spa at West Glen for some massages, facials, and body treatments.  It should be a nice relaxing day for the two of us.  I think probably next Thursday or Friday.  I'll have to schedule it pretty quickly...

Here's a little update on the ride.  I bought some new LEDs for the interior lights to swap out the crappy stock ones.  Installed them this morning and they look sweeeeet!  Here's the pics!

Lol at my Gaara doll hanging from the mirror!  They're pretty bright, and I like 'em a lot.  I'm still waiting on the rims that I ordered back in February.  The suspension that I bought will probably go on next week maybe?  Sometime soon.  I've got the Koni Sport Yellow Shocks and Tein S-Tech Springs sitting here waiting to be installed.  After that I'm not sure what is next for the car.  I have a lot of plans, but I'm just not sure in what order I should get them done in.  We'll see.  

Went and played some basketball today with a  few buddies.  We went last Friday too.  It's probably going to be a weekly thing.  It was so hot outside!  We were drained after the first game.  We'll keep working at it, and get our endurance up.  It's fun.

Well that's all for today.  Maybe I'll update again soon.  Maybe not.  Who knows?

Da Bulls

Oh man it's been so long since I've updated!  I've been pretty busy with work and school and school and work.  I have been able to have a little bit of fun here and there though.  Last weekend Candy and I were able to take a trip to Chicago to go to the Bulls game, and have some fun around the city.  We had 3rd row seats by the Bulls bench.

We've adopted this new idea that we have to go to some event every month for the entire year.  So far we had New Year's in Chicago, and the Lady Antebellum Concert in January.  We had 2nd row seats to go see West Side Story at the Civic Center in February.  For March we were to go see Chicago Bulls vs. Toronto Raptors on March 24th.  Next month we're planning on going to Minneapolis to go to the Mall of America and a few other places.  We haven't gotten May or June's events planned yet, but July and August are going to be pretty fun!  

Anyways, on to the fun.  The trip to Chicago was great.  When we got there we went up towards the northern part of Chicago, kinda by Wrigley Field.  We were originally going to go to this place called Hot Doug's, but it was closed.  I pulled up my UrbanSpoon app, and found a place a couple blocks away called The Square Bar and Grill.  It was a really small place that seemed to be a pretty big favorite among a lot of people.  It was packed when we got there, and people kept showing up.  After that, we did a little shopping around there, and then headed to Chinatown to pick up a few things that Candy collects.    Once we were done in Chinatown, we went to our hotel to drop our things off.  We stayed at the Chicago South Loop Hotel, right down the street from McCormick Place.  The hotel was pretty nice, the rooms were huge!  So we dropped off our things, and then went down to the Water Tower Place to do some quick shopping before the game.  

Well we stayed a little too long at Water Tower Place, and ended up being a little late for the game.  We walked into the United Center right as they introduced Carlos Boozer.  I was upset, but what can you do? I basically ran to our seats (I'm a huge Bulls fan if you didn't know).  We sat down just as they were heading out to the court for the tip off.  Well enough of my blabbering, here's some pics!

So the game ended up being pretty amazing!  The Bulls didn't play too well throughout most of the game, but things started to heat up in the 4th quarter.  The Raptors led for most of the game, but the Bulls kept coming back.  Derrick Rose didn't play due to his injury, and Rip Hamilton was out also.  They both were there and we got see everybody up close and personal (we were right by the player tunnel so we got to slap everyone's hands as they walked in and out of the stadium.).  Derrick Rose and John Lucas III kept looking over at the jersey that Candy was wearing.  Check out candy-rella.blogspot.com to see it.  It's a Derrick Rose home jersey that she sewed sequins in to; it looks amazing!!!  So the Bulls ended up tying the game towards the end of regulation, and the Raptors couldn't pull off the winning bucket so we were on to OVERTIME!  Overtime was nuts!  It was a great experience to witness up close and personal instead of at home on TV.  The Bulls and Raptors were going at it, but neither could really come away with the lead.  It was coming down to the final seconds, and the Raptors were up.  The Bulls couldn't convert on a couple of plays, and the Raptors were struggling to extend the lead.  The Bulls had a shot to get the lead, but couldn't get it.  The Raptors ended up with the ball with 6 seconds left, so Kyle Korver had to foul to keep the Bulls alive.  At this point, everyone in our row had left because they lost hope.  Not us!  The Raptors ended up missing both free throws, and Luol Deng got the rebound.  Bulls called timeout, and we had a shot to win.  The Bulls inbounded the ball to C.J. Watson, and he drove in to the basket.  He put up the shot, but got blocked!  Luckily Luol Deng was there to tip in the loose ball up to the hoop right as time ran out.  The ball left his fingertips, the buzzer sounded, the ball was heading up to the basket... and went right through the net!  Everyone in the stadium erupted!  Candy and I both jumped to our feet screaming!  Everybody was going nuts!  So the game ended up being great!!!  While the Bulls shouldn't have let it be that close in the first place, it was definitely one of the best experiences I've witnessed.  It was a great time!  

After the game, we went back downtown and headed to a place called Portillo's for some hot dogs and beer!  It was awesome!  I'm glad we found a place that was still open that wasn't McDonald's or some crap like that.  The hot dogs were soooo good.  We then went back to the hotel to end the night.

The next night we packed up, and left for the Oak Brook Shopping Center.  That place was pretty awesome!  A friend from work told me about it, and it didn't let down.  It's an outdoor shopping mall with tons of stores.  We had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, and shopped for a while.  It was a beautiful day too, so that really helped.  Afterwards, we headed back to the car for the long ride home.

It was a great trip, and I can't think of any way that it might have been better (except if we got to the game early...).

So that's enough for this update.  I'll try not to take so long to update next time.  I do have a few other updates that I should post, so I'll get to that sometime soon.

Own the Night!!!

Hello all!  Well not much really has been going on with me lately.  I've been busy with school and work and whatnot.  So last night I went to the Lady Antebellum concert here in Des Moines!  It was part of their "Own the Night" Tour for 2012.  Thompson Square and Darius Rucker opened up for em.  It was a GREAT show!  Thompson Square was good, but it seemed like their sound levels were a bit off.  Darius Rucker then came on and everyone went nuts!  It seemed like a lot of people went just to see him.  He did a lot of songs off of his album, and did some old Hootie and the Blowfish songs too.  I really like when he did "I only wanna be with you."  To close his show he did a cover of "Purple Rain," and it was awesome!  I wish I had recorded it, but my iPhone was dying and I wanted to record the opening of Lady Antebellum.  So Lady A came on, and they were awesome too.  Here's the opening of their part of the show:

It was great, they did a lot of the songs I was hoping they would play.  I was really glad that they did "Perfect Day," because that's one of my favorite songs by them.  I was secretly hoping they would play "Heart of the World," but that's not really a good 'concert' song so I understand.  Other than these stupid girls that kept having to squeeze in front of us to go get beer ever other song (you can see them in the beginning of the video...) the concert was great!  There were these other girls behind us that kept talking throughout the show too and that sucked.  I couldn't really hear them too much because they were down a little ways, but every now and then I could.  Overall I wasn't too bothered by anyone, and it was an amazing show!  I would definitely go again!



Other than the concert I have a few other random bits of news..  I booked a cruise earlier this month for Candy and I!  It's going to be awesome.  It's not until next November, but I figure that's fine and gives us time to get ready for it.  It was a great deal though, it is a 7 day cruise and we got a cabin with a balcony (for dirt cheap).  We'll be leaving out of Baltimore, MD.  The plan is to head to Baltimore a couple days before we embark.  Our first night we'll hang out in Baltimore for a bit, and then the next day we're going to take the train over to Washington D.C. and see all of the sights.  Plus, my Dad is friends with a retired Secret Service agent, so he said he'll talk to him and see if he can hook us up with something while we're there.  After that we'll embark.  Our ports are in Port Canaveral, FL, Nassau, Bahamas, and Freeport, Bahamas.  Anyway, I'm super excited for it.

I've also been buying a few different parts for my car...  So you'll have to stay tuned and see what all I've purchased.  They will remain a secret for now...  ;)