It has been a long year of hard work for both of my kids in pursuing their passions, but they are each about to pursue the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

PONY Thunder

The passion that drives my oldest son is baseball and his pot of gold is the PONY baseball playoffs, which will begin this weekend. His team, modeled after the Trenton Thunder Minor League Baseball team, will be ranked as either the #2 or #3 seed depending on the outcome of the final game on Saturday.

Throughout the season, he has been a fixture behind the plate as one of the few kids that enjoy playing catcher. With a fair share of foul balls off of the mask and chest pad, and even an errant bat off of the elbow (ouch!), all of the hard work and pain is about to be forgotten as these kids enter the post-season.

As a dad, I have had the pleasure of numerous proud moments on the baseball field this season – including when he hit his first triple and throwing out two baserunners, one at third base and one at first that had taken a large lead.

But what I am most proud about is how he has worked hard on and off the field to improve his skills, supported his teammates throughout the season, and had fun.

Good luck in the playoffs Thunder!

Storm Dance Alliance

After trying baseball and coming away unimpressed, my youngest son found his passion in the dance studio as a member of the Storm Dance Alliance Hip-Hop Company. This coming week he will be in hot pursuit of his pot of gold in the form of the National Finals Dance Competition being held in the Wisconsin Dells.

The schedule has been grueling with more than a few 10-12 hour days at the dance studio and having to miss out on fun with his friends for extra practice sessions. All of the previous practices and competitions have provided the opportunity to fine-tune each dance in preparation for this moment, as he is now about to step out on the largest stage.

The dance studio has provided me just as many proud moments as a dad, whether it be his insanely long handstands or his latest trick of doing a headstand and pushing himself up into a handstand (go ahead and try it, it will humble you).

What makes me the most proud though is how he has overcome the fear of stepping out on a stage in front of hundreds of people to perform, ignoring the criticism from friends, and having fun doing something he loves.

Good luck at Nationals Storm!

The one bad thing…

As the kids embark on this journey to the pinnacle of their respective passion, the one bad thing is that the PONY playoffs and National Finals are scheduled for the exact same week.

That means a divided family between the baseball fields and the dance stage, so I am sure the text messages will be flying back and forth as we keep each other updated. Fortunately we both have nice new phones, otherwise we would have had to take a stab at winning Steve’s free iPhone 3GS contest (now how is that for a contest plug Steve?).

JB and G*Slick, I am extremely proud of you both!

(And no, we could not have planned it any better if we tried to have one son at Storm dance and the other on Thunder baseball. LoL!)

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With gas prices denting our pockets more and more (although recently it has leveled off a bit) people are pulling out all the stops to try and reduce their driving and/or improve their mileage.

Surely you have read the tips about how your driving habits can improve your mileage – drive slower, consolidate trips, maintain proper tire inflation, and more. While these tips can certainly improve your fuel efficiency, gains will most likely be minimal unless you are a reckless driver right now.

How would you like to double your gas mileage?

When a friend of mine mentioned a product that he recently saw that claims to do just that, my ears perked up. With a daily commute that is more than 120-miles, I would sure like to double my gas mileage even though I already get a respectable 30-33 miles per gallon.

Hydrorunner has developed a “Hydrogen On Demand” system that is controlled via a pre-programmed computer that can be used with any EFI internal combustion or diesel engine. The system uses an old technology, electrolysis, to create hydrogen without the need for any catalyst.

The hydrogen is then pulled into the intake manifold which results in a more efficient burn of the fuel. The flow of hydrogen is controlled by a computer that is specifically programmed for the make and model of your vehicle.

With this system, the only maintenance requirement is to add tap water on a periodic basis.

According to the company website, test results indicate that the Hydrorunner doubles gas mileage, increases the engines horsepower by 10%, the torque by 8%, and extends the life of the engine considerably. Results also showed a decrease in the need for oil changes.

At a cost of $3500 for gas engines, it certainly isn’t cheap – although they do offer a 100% 90-day money back guarantee and a 2-year parts & labor unlimited mileage warranty.

Is it worth it?

Hydrorunner claims that most clients are enjoying an increase of 75-125% in fuel economy. Using my commute as a basis and estimating an average cost of gas at $4/gal, an increase within this range would basically be cash-flow positive after two years. After the third year, I would have potentially saved between $1200-2500 in fuel costs if the product delivers.

But does it deliver?

As appealing as the claims of Hydrorunner might be, can we be sure that the product really works?

There is an article on Yahoo! Green discussing why water powered cars will never work that seems to discredit the claims from Hydrorunner.

There are a lot of variations on the water-powered car, but they’re all bogus. People who say that adding gasoline-generated hydrogen to gasoline increases your gas mileage by 30% are full of it. It doesn’t matter if they call it HHO or H20 or Brown’s gas. It doesn’t matter if they’re creating it with a battery or a flywheel. It doesn’t matter if they’ve postulated a sixth dimension from which flows seemingly endless amounts of energy.

Who is right?

Without a thorough understanding of the science behind everything, I am not sure who is telling us more of the truth.

As much as I would like to believe in the claims from Hydrorunner, I do have my doubts and at the going price I don’t plan to find out for myself any time soon – even though it would be a fun experiment given how much I drive.

Do you think Hydrorunner can double your mileage?

Images from Hydrorunner.com

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After posting about the fact that I was going to return my MacBook in order to save $200 through Amazon , I planned to stop by the Apple Store on my way home from work tonight.

When I arrived at work this morning, I was greeted with an office complex lacking any hint of power as a construction crew had accidentally cut right through one of the main power cables.

Thinking that lady luck was smiling upon me, I jumped back in the car to head towards the Apple Store and an early trip home.

With only a few miles to go before I arrived at the mall, I was traveling along in the left lane on the highway when the car in front of me hit a big piece of metal lying in the road. As it flew up into the air, I swerved to the right in an attempt to avoid it.

I didn’t swerve far enough…

As you can see, I failed to avoid the flying piece of metal and it took a nice little chunk out of my front bumper. It is kind of difficult to see in the picture but it also scuffed up the headlight lens.

Once I arrived home, I gave a call to my insurance company to discuss the matter with them and then called the local Scion dealer to inquire on the cost of a new bumper. They referred me to a local body shop that they work with and the final quote came in at $627.32 to replace the bumper. With a $500 deductible on my insurance, I will not be filing a claim as I would only receive $127.32 and my rate would increase slightly.

Here I was on my way to return the MacBook and save myself $200 and my car gets damaged. In the end, I may have saved $200 on the computer but it has cost me an additional $427.32 in car repairs to do so. Had I kept the MacBook that I had, I would have come out ahead.

The next time that you have an opportunity to save money, hopefully it doesn’t take a turn like this and end up costing your more money.

Maybe I can find 427 people that all want to donate $1 towards my new bumper, any takers?

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In my day to day traveling to work, I drive through a total of six toll booths – which is one reason that I try to work from home as often as possible.

Due the volume of tolls that are paid on a regular basis, I naturally signed up with the I-PASS system. This is the automated toll system, called E-Z Pass in many other states, that uses an RF tag to automatically bill you for each toll that you drive through.

You might be wondering why I am commenting that the Illinois Tollway Authority needs to embrace technology when the use of RF tags to automatically bill a customer sounds pretty technologically advanced.

The issue with the ITA is their management of the I-PASS system, as clearly they have not developed a robust system on the back end to monitor and manage the transactions.

Yesterday I received a Notice of Toll Violation that indicated I had not paid 10 tolls dating back to 2006. The fact that it takes them over two years to notify a commuter of a toll violation is one sign that their back end systems are lacking.

But the clear sign to me that the Illinois Tollway Authority needs to embrace technology is that they do not have the ability to cross reference the toll violation – which has captured my license plate number – with their list of I-PASS users to see if my car is registered and appropriately charge my account for any missed tolls.

Why do they need to send me a letter that includes $200 in fines when they should be able to easily determine that I have an I-PASS?

Maybe I should make a proposition to the Illinois Tollway Authority – I will build you a system capable of cross referencing your I-PASS user list and automatically billing an account for any missed tolls in exchange for exemption from ever paying another toll.

It is bad enough when the state makes you bend over and take the tolls, but when they make you waste time in your day to deal with their ineptitude that is just adding salt to the wound.

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After a long day at the office, I was enjoying my drive home tonight until I received a call from my wife that my oldest son had spewed in the car as they were driving to our youngest son’s guitar lesson.

Shortly after ending the call with my wife, I had looked down at the dash and noticed that there was a “dummy” light illuminated on the dash that I did not recognize. As I looked at the indicator, I was trying to remember if it had been there before or not.

Part of the confusion was because I have had the “Maint Reqd” indicator illuminated for a few hundred miles as I haven’t had time to change the oil and the light has been a constant reminder. When I had convinced myself that this new light had always been there as part of the maintenance light, I felt something a little strange as I changed lanes.

It was then that I realized that the indicator was the Tire Pressure Monitor trying to tell me that the pressure in one (or more) of my tires was below the acceptable level. By this time I was nearly home, so I pulled over to make a quick visual check that the tire was not flat and proceeded to drive the rest of the way home.

With the rain coming down, I decided to just pull into the garage for the night and I will deal with the tire in the morning. The timing works well as Wednesday is my day off from the full-time job so once I get the kids (although it looks like our oldest will be home sick tomorrow) off to school, I will give the tire a good visual inspection in the daylight and fire up the compressor to properly fill the tire.

Once I have the tire filled again, I will check for leaks and try to get the tire repaired if needed.

Much like my tire, I am feeling a little flat tonight and plan to call it an early night. Even though I thrive during the late hours of the night, I need to recharge my batteries and get more than three to four hours of sleep tonight.

My lack of sleep indicator light has been on for awhile and much like the maintenance required light in the car, I have been ignoring it for too long.

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While the Ford Crown Vic can easily be considered an “old man’s” car, I have given serious thought to buying one of the used Crown Victoria Police Interceptor models.

Before buying my Scion tC, I had done quite a bit of research on the Police Interceptor (PI) as a possibility. There are quite a few police departments that replace all of their cruisers when they reach a specific mileage, usually in the neighborhood of 50,000 to 80,000 miles.

The Crown Vic has a pretty good track record for being a workhorse of a vehicle, particularly when you consider that the Crown Vic is also a popular choice among taxi drivers. But I would be lying to you if I said that I was considering a PI because of the reliability.

Think about the last time you were driving along on the highway in the left lane and you looked in the rear view mirror and saw what looked like an unmarked police cruiser closing in behind you. Chances are you quickly looked for the first opportunity to move over to the next lane to let the officer cruise right by you.

That is why I want one of these cars, preferably with the crash bar installed up front and the spotlight on the driver’s side window. With all of the highway driving that I do on my commute to and from work, I am sure this car would make that drive much more enjoyable and would likely reduce the number of people that crawl along in front of me.

While I am happy with my Scion tC and do not regret making that purchase, I still think it would be fun to own a Police Interceptor that is pimped out with as much equipment as would be street legal for a civilian vehicle.

Would you move over if you saw one of these closing in behind you?

Photo credit: CHEYKA Motors, Inc.

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You know that nervous feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach when you might be driving a little over the speed limit and you pass a parked police car hidden on the side of the road.

I had that feeling tonight on my way home from work and it reminded me of the one and only time that I have been pulled over and did not receive a ticket.

Now you might be one of those people that has the gift of escaping a ticket and if you are – keep it to yourself! I’m not one of those people and every time I have ever been pulled over, I have received a ticket of some variety. Although on a warm summer evening last year, I finally experienced the joy of getting out of a ticket.

Background

While I was in college, I always renewed my drivers license through the mail and received a sticker to place on the back of my license with an updated expiration date. Because of this my license still had my parent’s home address even after I had been married and bought my first house with my wife.

My wife never understood why I didn’t just go and get myself a new license with our home address. To be honest, it was mostly out of laziness but this worked in my favor last summer.

On my way home from working out with a buddy of mine, I was cutting through the back streets of a neighboring town. I was anxious to get home and show off my new muscles. There was a woman driving in front of me as we approached a three-way stop sign. When the woman came to a complete stop and sat there for a second, I was disgusted with the prim and proper road etiquette that she was displaying.

The Rolling Stop

By the time she finally made her way through the stop sign, I decided to just kind of roll through it and might not have come to a complete stop. That was when I looked down the side street to the left and saw the police car sitting there.

As I drove forward, nervously checking my mirror, my fears were realized as I saw the lights flick on and the police car ease in behind me. Sitting there in my workout clothes, I draped my arm out the open window as the cop approached my door. He took my license and retreated to his cruiser.

The Great Escape

A few minutes later he returned to my door, handed me my license and asked what I was doing over in this area. As I mentioned I was just leaving a buddies house after working out, I realized that I couldn’t say I was heading home because you’ll recall that my license had my parent’s address – which was in the opposite direction of where I was headed. So I casually mentioned that I was heading over to a friend’s house before returning home.

I’ll never forget the next comment from the cop. He said, “Is it a lady friend?”

I responded with a polite, “Yes sir.” At this point he told me to enjoy my evening and to try and do a better job at the next stop sign. As I sat there in disbelief at what had just happened, I think I realized what may have gotten me out of my ticket.

While sitting with my arm out the window of the car, he may have noticed my wedding ring. When I explained that I was heading over to see a “lady friend” that was in the opposite direction of my “home” address, he assumed that I was cheating on my wife and didn’t want to make me have to explain to my wife what I was doing in that area.

Now I have no idea if any of that played into his decision to let me go with a warning but given that I had never been pulled over without receiving a ticket, that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Photo courtesy of southernfried

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How often have you planned out your day just right only to have a monkey-wrench thrown into the mix?

Yesterday I experienced that monkey-wrench, along with a few socket wrenches and cut knuckles for good measure.

After having a completely unproductive weekend due to attending my son’s Little League games and celebrating my birthday (gifts are still being accepted), I had planned to work from home and still have a little time with my wife and kids.

With the time saved by eliminating my commute, I would be able to make a large dent in my list of outstanding items before everyone got home from school and work. After a short break for dinner with the family, I’d wrap up the last few items on my list and call it a night.

Everything was going according to plan and I was actually being even more productive than I had hoped. With the homework finished and dinner being digested, the kids asked if we could make a quick trip to the skate park so they could show me their new tricks.

Since everything had been going so well earlier in the day, I figured that I could spare another hour before getting back to work so we loaded up the truck with the skateboard, roller blades and necessary safety gear.

Click…click…click!

Don’t tell me!

Let me try that again.

Click…click…nothing!

The battery in my wife’s truck was toast. The kids were bummed that we couldn’t head to the skate park and I was bummed that I had to head out to get a new battery. I’d certainly not planned for this mechanical interruption but with my wife needing her truck to get to work the next morning there wasn’t much choice in the matter. Rather than stopping off at the skate park for a little fun, we had to hurry over to the auto parts store down the street before they closed.

I told the kids that if we made it to the store before they closed and I was able to get a new battery, we could still stop at the skate park on the way home. The kids were thrilled that the store was still open and after purchasing the new battery, we were on our way to the skate park for a little bit of fun. After 30 minutes of twists, turns and crashes, it started to rain so we packed up the car to head home.

With darkness upon us and the rain coming down, I realized that I would be standing out in the rain to change the battery as my wife had parked outside. I tried to push her truck into the garage but there was no way that thing was moving, at least not forward. So there I was out on the dark driveway, standing in the rain replacing the battery when I thought the kids would be in bed and I would be back to work.

Can someone please explain to me why you need two brackets, one bar, six screws and a locking cover to secure one truck battery?

That’s right, no easy battery change for me. After finding all of the various screws, brackets and bars holding the battery in place, I had the new battery installed and the car was back in operation.

With soaking clothes and the hours of my night just about gone, I still had a my list of work to be done but I was able to spend some quality time with the kids. And you know what…

I wouldn’t change a thing!

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How would you like a chance to win a Scion tC?

Prija, the self-proclaimed sneaky bastard over at Blogging the Movie, has kicked off a contest to win a free Scion tC.

Given that the car chosen for the contest is a Scion tC and I drive a tC for myself, I had to give this a little mention here.

However, reviewing the posts about the car contest do not really reveal any details on how the winner of the car will be selected as the focus is more on what you will receive if you sign up as a sponsor.

Details
Prija is attempting to sell 500 ad spots for $100 each, which will cover the cost of two Scion tCs (one is apparently for his sister), sticker ads for each of the sponsors to be placed on both vehicles, booth at Blog Word Expo and initial filming of the documentary. By purchasing one of the ad spots you will receive:

• Your domain advertised on both of the vehicles
• Two reviews of your site – minimum 200 words each
• Permanent link on the page about the car contest

Questions
Reading through the information will likely leave you with a few questions, hopefully Prija will stop by and help shed some light on these as I have a few myself:

• Do I have to buy a sponsored ad to be eligible for the free car?
• How will the winner of the car be selected?
• When will the winner be selected?
• If you only get enough money to buy one car, will you buy the car for your sister first?
• Is this a scam like Ashwin Khanna’s contest for $2500? After all, Priija is the sneaky bastard.

I’ll be following along to watch the progress of this contest as I think it is a really cool idea and has some potential. Being a blogger with a shoestring budget, I’m not sure that I have $100 to throw my name into the mix but it would be kind of cool to have my domain plastered on two Scion tCs.

What do you think about this contest?

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There may be a new addition to my garage in the not too distant future.

My wife would really like to replace her 2003 Chevrolet Trailblazer EXT with a 2008 Scion xB. Ever since I brought my Scion tC home from the dealer, my wife wanted to replace her car with a Scion with the manual transmission.

The other day we were running errands and decided to swing by the Scion dealer to take a look at the new xB. There were two models out on the lot and we were taking a look, although couldn’t really see much since they keep the cars locked. We decided to head inside to pick up a brochure and ask about the availability of the xB. When I purchased my tC, I had to wait a few months until my car was built and shipped from Japan so we weren’t sure how the xB was moving.

After a brief conversation with the salesman, we walked back outside so he could open up the car and we could get a closer look at the interior.

At this point the salesman asked if we wanted to take it for a spin and my wife was more than happy to give the car a test drive. While I wanted to go along, the kids were not interested so I stuck back at the dealership with them. Upon returning from the test drive, my wife was even more interested in replacing her Trailblazer.

She is ready to make the deal and sign the papers for a new Scion xB but I am much more cautious and take my time with making any financial decision. In order to see how serious she is about replacing her current car, I asked her to take some time to do some research into the potential price that we can expect if we sell her truck. In addition, I wanted her to calculate out the expected difference between what we can sell her car for and the cost of the xB so she can determine how many months we will need to save until we have the cash to cover the difference.

Much to my surprise, she has already taken action and has a plan to work with in terms of expected sales price and saving for the difference. While I didn’t have any plans of replacing her truck, I do think it could benefit us financially as the gas prices aren’t going any lower and the xB is certainly more fuel efficient than the Trailblazer. However, we do need to think seriously about our interest in off-road motorcycling as we use the Trailblazer to haul our kids’ Honda out to the track for them to ride. They haven’t been out riding much and have been staying busy with other interests so maybe we can sell the Honda as well and let that hobby go.

As long as my wife can demonstrate a plan where we can replace the truck without incurring any car payments, I will be more than happy to make the switch so she can have the vehicle she wants. One more thing that I need to do is call our insurance company to get an estimate on the costs to insure the xB compared to what we pay now for the Trailblazer.

What do you think about the Scion xB?

Anyone interested in purchasing a 2003 Chevy Trailblazer EXT with leather interior, heated seats and DVD entertainment system?

Credits: Photos from Scion.com

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