Wedding Pictures

Lets see if anyone still reads this. The first batch of photos from my wedding are now up at the photographer's blog. Check em out.

http://studioatticus.blogspot.com/2010/05/anna-sean-5810.html

My New Toy: 2008 Subaru WRX STi

I completed several months of research and shopping last night with the purchase of a lightly used 2008 Subaru WRX STi from Chaplin's Subaru. Its Dark Gray just like the picture above.

I went out to Chaplin's to look at a Dark Gray WRX Premium Hatchback w/ Navigation. The sunroof on the Premium loses you at least an inch of headroom and I wanted to see if it made a difference vs the base model without the sunroof. This car was also the only Dark Gray or Black (only acceptable colors) WRX Hatchbacks in Washington. After some pretty heavy negotiation I got the salesman down to invoice and the trade in on my Porsche up to what I was trying to sell it on craigslist for. I took the car home to see if my helmet fit and unfortunately it didn't.

So I headed back to the dealership thinking I'd just return the car and head home to decide if I wanted to settle on a sedan or hold out for a hatchback. However being the tricky salesman he is, he showed me a used WRX STi that had just come in. All STIs are hatchbacks and they had don't have sunroofs. It also has 40 more hp and 50 extra ft-lbs of torque and a fancy electronic diff. I took it for a spin and it was very quick. This one was loaded with the DVD Satellite Navigation and the Silver BBS Wheels. I talked him down to a price pretty close to what I was going to pay for the WRX Premium and we had a deal.

I feel like I really belong in Seattle now since I have a Subaru like everyone else. It has been a lot of fun so far and I can't wait to get it to the track.

I'm writing up a review of all of the cars I looked at and test drove narrowing it down to the WRX. I've found very little help for finding fast cars that tall people fit in, so maybe it can help someone else.

P.S. If you are a car salesman and you want to sell me a car, let me take my test drives alone. Its a huge plus for me and you can possibly make another sale while I'm gone :-)

Porsche has been traded in

If you are interested in the Porsche I've traded it in to Chaplin Subaru in Bellevue, WA. More details on its successor soon. :-)

1999 Porsche 911 Carrera For Sale

I'm selling my baby. After two years I'm finally willing to admit I'm too tall for my 911. I want to start doing some track days and autocross, but I need to get a helmet on do those.

I've put an ad up on Craigslist to see who is interested.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/1040902135.html

I've already gotten a few really good questions so I thought I'd just post the answers here.

1. Why are you selling it?
I can't sit in a proper driving position in the 911 without my head hitting the roof. I did a short search for one without a sunroof, but it turns out they were standard, so cars without sunroofs are really rare. I also looked into putting in custom seats, but I don't think they would make enough of a difference.

2. Do you have the service records?
I have the records from the time I've owned the car.

Major Service Items
2006-11-13 Intake Manifold Gaskets replaced by Park Place Ltd
2007-02-21 45k Service by Barrier Porsche
2007-10-30 Four New Tires
2007-11-29 New Clutch by Barrier Porsche
2008-04-23 Low Mileage Yearly Service by Barrier Porsche

3. Has it been in any accidents?
Carfax is clean, no accidents.

4. Does everything work?
Everything works, but there are a few minor issues.

Airbag light is on. Everything still works, but passenger airbag might deploy in an accident even if no one is in the seat. Search for 996 airbag light and you'll find an explanation of the problem.

Passenger's side window doesn't drop properly when you close the door. Minor annoyance just have to remember to push it down before you close the door.

Minor Oil Leaks on the engine. Barrier service guys say they will take care of it at the 60k since they have to go in there to change the spark plugs anyway. I don't even notice, I've never had to add any oil and no burning oil smell or drips under the car, but the Barrier guys say they are in there.

If you can live with a few minor issues you can get a very nice deal on a very nice car.

New House!

Ballard House

I'm moving!  Anna and I have just signed the lease for a house in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.  Check out the pictures.  There aren't many of upstairs, but there are three bedrooms so we'll have a proper guest room and everything.  We'll be moving in during June.

Google Madison

Bubbs sent this to me.  Now I can finally start recruiting all of those people I know in Madison. :-)

Bern and back

I'm finally recovered (only took 3 months) and realized I still hadn't told you about going to Bern.

The plan all along was that Bart was going to work for a week, then go on vacation for two, then finish up with another week of work.  So after the first week (and getting our luggage fixed) Bart took off for some fun in the Alps.  Unfortunately after three days I got a call from Bart and he told me he had an accident sledding and he had torn his knee up pretty bad and he would be heading home early.  I said I was sorry and let me know if I can do anything.

The next night after dinner I get a call from Bart.

Bart: I need you to do me a favor.

Me: Ok, what?

Bart: I need you to come to Bern.

Me: Umm, ok, why?

Bart: I need help changing trains in Bern since I can't lift my luggage.

Me: Ok.  I'll head to the train station and let you know when I can get there.

Bart: Thanks.

So I headed to the train station and started trying to decipher the Swiss train system.  Unfortunately the manned ticket booths were already closed, so I had to try to use the automated kiosks.   Now normally I'm a big fan of automation and not having to deal with other people, but the I'm using an automated system in its 4th language its not always that intuitive.  I finally managed to buy a round-trip ticket from Zurich to Bern that included use of the local transit in Bern.  So I only over purchased a little bit.  The ticket was 99CHF (or about 90USD) and the trip is about 125k  (77miles) each way, so thats not bad.  Also the trip was only about an hour each way and a train ran every half hour.

Called Bart and told him I'd be there in just over an hour and headed for the train.  I didn't understand the markings on the train and ended up sitting in First Class until the ticket taker came around and told me.  So I moved back to 2nd class, but it wasn't a big difference.  It was fun watching us pull away from the traffic on the highways so I'm sure we were going 80mph+.

We pulled into the station in Bern and I called Bart to find out which track he was on and it was just the next one over.  He had gotten someone to help him off his train from Interlakken.  It turned out that the train we were taking back to Zurich was on the same track he had just come in on.  So we waited about 20mins and got on that train and rode back to Zurich.

Once we were back in Zurich we had to decide which would be worse: making Bart walk further to catch a tram sooner or just waiting at a closer stop for the tram.  Bart thought he could make it so he headed out to the tram stop.  In retrospect we should have just waited at the closer stop.  He was in a lot of pain and moving pretty slow.

I got him back to the house in Zurich and he got cleaned up and waited for his cab to the airport.

So thats that.  The Bern train station was very nice.  I'm impressed with the Swiss train system.  It also seems like you could choose a lot worse places than Switzerland to injure yourself.  If this had been anywhere else I probably would have had to rent a car to go pick him up.