awsome news

Just a quick one today. My mom got the word back, and she's not going to need the radiation therapy. We're all stoked.

That and the Mazda dealership agreed to repair my car without anymore hassles.

cheers

the run around

So I recently was looking at the new car, and lucky for me it happened to be a sunny day down here in Vancouver, (one of the rare ones) and I noticed that something wasn't right with the front of my car. The clear coat seems to be missing from a portion of the bumber. Here, let me show you what I mean. Of the two pictures, the lighting is the same and the sun angle was approximately the same as well. As you can see from the second picture vs the first, there seems to be a dull finish to the paint job. You can even feel it by rubbing your hand over it. Whereas the first is smooth the second is rough. Of course this concerns me. I bought a new car with a nice shiny paint job and I want a car with a nice shiny paint job. The autobroker I bought the car through said to call the dealership if I had any problems, to which I did. Of course I was expecting them to shuffle me back to the broker, so when I called Greg he gave me the number of the salesman who handled my deal. The thing is, although the deal was done through the broker, my sale was completed with the Mazda dealership. In fact, I bought the car from Mazda, not the broker. It would appear now that I am getting a little bit of a run around. I talked to a salesman, (not the one that I should be dealing with) and was told there was nothing they could do about it.

This isn't the first time that I have had problems with this auto dealership. When I initially starting my car shopping, they offered me what I thought was a fantastic deal... Until I found out that at the end of 60 months (the terms of the sale) I would owe another 7000 dollars to be paid out over the next 24 months in interest charges. See the cost of the car would be what I would have paid for while over 5 years interest would compound on the interest of the financing. Of course I wasn't told this by the salesman. He wanted me to sign the papers and I would have found out most likely in 60 months. Sheisters. If anyone finds themselves in the Port Moody area I suggest stopping by the West Coast Mazda dealership. The "sheister" vibe runs rampant through there. When I got a quote from them, I asked to have a print out of what I was paying for. In other words, the option prices of the car, taxes, delivery costs, and interest on the financing. They wouldn't give it to me. He jotted down a few numbers on paper for me though, and this I found quite curious. Only 30 bucks, but it made me think about what else I was getting screwed over. He wrote down 60 bucks for lock-nuts. Those special lugs that you need a tool to get off so no one with a regular tire-iron can steal your nice rims... Anyway, according to the Mazda.ca website, those lugs are only 30 dollars. Odd wouldn't you say?

So anyway, I am currently in a holding pattern, waiting to hear back from the salesman that I need to deal with, but I somehow get the feeling that I am going to have to put on the boxing gloves for a few rounds before this gets taken care of properly.

That's all for now folks,

cheers

ps Oh, as you can see, I bought a camera, so I'll snap off some pics every now and then to go along with this blog.

gotta love it

Yes people, it's that time again. Playoffs. Gotta love it. Weather is turning warmer, the patios at the pubs are opening up, and nothing beats a pint in the sunshine while watching a hockey game. So I've got some obvious choices this year. Vancouver is of course number one in my books, and I think this year they have a team that might actually be able to pull something off. That's not to say they have a team that can take them all the way, but they have a team this year that has a little more depth to it than previous years. Back in the days of Burtuzzi and Nasland, the Canucks seemed more of a "run and gun" team, just hoping to outscore thier opponents rather than beat them. And with Cloutier in net, I don't blame them for trying to run up the score and demoralize thier opponent before they woke up. This year though they have a lot more depth at the blue line this year, with the exception of course being Sopel. He's good for at least one give away a game, and usually at the most inopportune time. Thankfully he's injured at the moment and Fitzpatrick is taking his place. He's listed as day-to-day cause he hurt his back... picking up a cracker. Good god man, why even tell people that? Claim you slipped on a wet floor if anything. No matter though. I'm firmly in the corner of the Canucks no matter who is playing the blue line. Doesn't hurt when they have an MVP candidate in the crease either...

I'm actually sort of glad they drew the Stars for the first round. I guess it's because I get to see so many division games, but I always cringe when they play against division rivals. For some strange reason Vancouver has this crazy ability to loose games against div teams that they should win easily. Need I remind you of how well they did against the Blues last season? At any rate, with the exception of the Red Wings, I don't think the Canucks could have pulled a better team to play against. I'm not basing this off any stats, or season record, but because when Vancouver plays against Dallas, they seem to bring thier "A" game for the most part. Here's hoping anyway.

As for the rest of the match-ups this year, I'm watching the Sens and Pens closely, and I would have to call this one 50/50 as to who I am chearing for. I want the Pens to do well, but as I am watching the game as I write this, they look a little too young out there. Gripping the sticks too tightly and the nerves seem to be showing. As my brother says, "They have to learn to loose in the playoffs before they can learn to win." The Sens are killing them too, obviously the bigger and more aggressive team, the game is fast but with the majority of the hitting being done by the boys in red, it's putting the Pens back on thier heels. I have some faith that the Penguins will get themselves snapped out of this mental block and make a series of it though and when they do, it's going to be good.

Finally, and strangely, I find myself a NY Islanders fan this year. Well, not so much of a fan, but just happy that Toronto didn't make it because of them. The Islanders have thier work cut out for them though against the Sabres and Miller. The few games that I've seen him in this year, he has been able to bail out his team more often than not.

Well that's all for me today. This game is all but iced, but I have a Canucks game in thirty and I still need to make something to eat.

Cheers.

ps I pick up my car tomorrow after work. Looking forward to it.

at long last, some good news

So some good news on two fronts. For those of you in the know, and I guess for those of you who aren't, my mom was recently diagnosed with cancer. Thankfully after much poking and prodding and visits to the doctor she went in for surgery this afternoon and the prognosis according to the surgeon looks good. They took some tissue samples to be sent away for a biopsy, but the doc said that the entire tumor was removed and it doesn't look like it was spreading. Of course we already knew that things were going to be good. To us it was just a matter of getting the surgery over and done with so that we could just simply move on with our lives. But to confirm our own thoughts, the biopsy should be back in about two to three weeks at which time we'll find out that she doesn't need the radiation therapy.

And second, after much looking and haggling and bargain hunting, I finally bought myself a car. I settled on a 2007 Mazda 3. Not a bad little car, and I'm looking forward to taking possession of it next week sometime. I ended up going through an autobroker, and I have to tell you, it's nice that route. I'm sure that with some serious arguing I could have gotten a little bit of a better deal somewhere else, but when the autobroker came in with an offer that was 800 bucks cheaper than the cheapest dealer, I told him as much and gave him my business. No haggling at all. Sweet. The funny twist on this is that he's purchasing my car from the same dealer that I went to in the first place. They originally offered me a deal and wouldn't budge at all on the price. When I called them and said I found the exact same car for 2 grand cheaper from a different dealer (which was actually the truth, and not just a haggle angle, and to boot another dealer price, not even the autobrokers price) I was told to take my business to them, so I moved on. And so the Spaz goes into the buy and sell this week, and the money I will recieve for it will finally buy that camera so that I can start firing off pictures for you all.

At any rate it is getting late, (although 9:30 isn't really that late), and since I have to work tomorrow at 7 am, I am going to cut this short. Yeah, yeah, I know tomorrow is supposed to be a holiday, but hey, the company likes to give me money for working a stat so who am I to complain. Take this easy folks.

Cheers