Surprise surprise, look what showed up today – we weren’t expecting it to be ready until next week, but the prep folks had been working overtime to get them all done, so in addition to signing all the paperwork, we picked it up too!
So far, this is the fastest little car I’ve driven, with a super high quality of materials on the inside. I’m having an issue with the XM radio they installed (it doesn’t receive a signal), but other than that things are working great.
A friend asked me what Boxing Day means in Canada, and I was embarrassed to say I didn’t know the real meaning behind the term.. (besides the present day “go out and spend a lot of money the day after Christmas”).
So, a little Google searching, and here’s the first result:
The day after Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is better known as Boxing Day. The term may come from the opening of church poor boxes that day; maybe from the earthenware boxes with which boy apprentices collected money at the doors of their masters’ clients.
Nowadays, we often see, in certain families, gifts (boxes) given to those who provide services throughout the year.
“Boxing Day” is listed in the Canada Labour Code as a holiday.
This is a picture of my nieces Sarah and Emma, as the sit in a cabinet underneath my parent’s built in unit. This was on the day we arrived in Canada.
The MINI is at the dealership in Portland.. I think I’ll be picking it up Thursday morning, if I can get up in time.. 
We’re almost home – we’ve stopped in the night in Spokane, Washington, on our way back to West Linn, OR.
Christmas was really good – I loved getting to know my nieces Sarah and Emma (they are now 1 1/2 years old), and hanging out with my nephew Evan. We also got to play some Halo 2 on XBox live (Tim, my sister Nicole’s husband had it, and Robin, my sister Michelle’s husband got it for Christmas). Went out for lunch with my brother Steven and his wife Nancy, and checked out their new house… It was a very busy week though, I’m going to try to do a few things for work, and take Wednesday and Thursday off, instead of trying to do a lot of work (being as tired as I am, it’s not worth it).
I have to admit, even with the few screams of the kids, I was totally into them.. made me want to start trying to have one of my own, but Jennifer isn’t there yet. Maybe after a few days of being home, getting the dog back on Wednesday, I won’t want one either.
The trip also made me want to move home – just to be near my family again, to stay in contact so Sarah and Emma don’t forget about me, and I don’t miss them growing up.. that’s probably why I want a child of my own, to experience that.
Anyway, excuse my rambling about personal stuff – I’m super tired from the driving – but I had a few comments a few weeks back from some friends who read this weblog that they liked the personal touch, so I’m going to try to voice some more inner stuff here.
We are driving to Canada today.. stopping in Sandpoint ID tonight. We have no maps, just my knowledge of the last time I drove, and the nav system… wish us luck!!
The Entheos Christmas party was a ton of fun last night.. a great cap to a great year!
My status for the mini changed at some point today from en route to at the distribution center (in LA). Yes, I have been tracking it multiple times a day.. It seems as though the tracking system miniusa.com has setup is always a bit behind the real world.
Still, it’s pretty cool to know where the actual car is.. I look forward to the day (hopefully before 2010) where I can log onto ford.com or miniusa.com, completely configure my car, figure out all the paperwork, and then track the day by day status of the building of the car. (all the pictures and video archived on a dvd that is delivered with your car).
Auto manufactures would just need outlets or branches to handle the test driving of the vehicles.. (consider the there’d be no backroom dealing, no shady sales people..
Thinking about it.. that’d be my ideal job, it matches my love for cars with my love for computers… anyone want to offer me a job to make it happen by 2010?
Check out this picture of “my car” – it’s the orange one (with black stripes too)… I’m getting really excited now! Although I probably won’t be picking it up until after
His description of the weekend and the pics kinda makes me want to move back to CA, given our lovely oregon winter of clouds and coolness right now.
This is a test post from 
, a fancy photo sharing thing.
Canada air must be good for having kids, my sister Nicole has had her second child early this morning:
Baby boy Ryan Douglas Steven Smith was born at 1:24 a.m. today (by c-section).
He is 23 inches long, 8 lbs 11oz, and has dark blonde hair and blue eyes.
