More Small Cars in the US - Fiesta and Maybe the Fiat 500!

It looks like the success of the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit over is having a big effect on the plans of some of the other automakers. Ford announced yesterday (I think anyway) that the European Fiesta is going to be coming across at the end of next year, while the CEO of Fiat sort of maybe suggested that they might start selling the 500 over here (which I think is probably my current fave in the small car world, although it's Fiat, so it'll break down and rust to nothing in no time, so I probably wouldn't buy one). No word on this version though.

Ho on the Go? You need this....

A special little kit for the unplanned overnight stay somewhere.

Apparently this all comes in a tiny little pack that can be hidden in your purse (handbag) and you're good to go.

And the only reason I'm posting this is coz my wife sent it over to me as something that obviously entertained her. I have no need for panties, condoms or moist toilettes, but of course use a toothbrush on a regular basis.

Headphone Cord Solution?

Ever almost been choked to death by your headphone cords? Or had the buds ripped out when the cord got caught on something it wasn't supposed to? Apparently, it's a common problem, so someone came up with this solution. Just wrap them on the man, and you're good (and safe) to go.

F40 vs Veyron

I'm never going to get inside both of these cars, so I have to make do with videos on YouTube. The film isn't that great, but the driver giggling like a little kid when he puts his foot down was a good bit, and the Ferrari driver nonchalantently applying opposite lock as he came out of a corner was the highlight for me.

Wallstrip On Oakley

My wife is perplexed why I like their shades so much, but she's given up on trying to persuade me otherwise. Last summer I tried some Prada ones, which ended up getting bent within a week (I somehow dropped them during the BBQ frenzie known was Heidi's Birthday Party), and cracked a few weeks ago, to the point where they cut my head every time I put them on. So back to Oakleys now (and almost bought 2 pairs! but saw sense and my bank account before I did that), and funnily enough, Lindsay ended up talking about them earlier in the week (one day I will add the Wallstrip widget...)

Fratellis are on Letterman tonight

And in Denver next Wednesday by the way (I think Wednesday, my concert consultant and expert concert photographer is on the case with tix).

Talk Talk: Nicolas Cage, Don Cheadle, Garry Shandling - TV Squad

Evo X and New STI

Neither car is out yet, but that hasn't stopped Road and Track putting together a comparison already. All based on what information they know, some educated guesses, and a little work in Photoshop, if you're desperately scanning the Net for more info on either (or both) of these cars, it's a decent place to start.

Get ready for the frenzy to build in the coming months (and I'm probably going to get a little excited and carried away as usual, even if I'm not getting either one this time out)

Wedding Season is Almost Upon Us

This summer is going to be a bit of an epic, now that last years engagements are coming to their natural fruition. Not only are the weddings going to make for some great weekends, there's always the trips to Vegas, or Pub Crawls (I'm sure literally) along Colfax to test the liver performance (not to mention the influx of friends from various continents to join in the celebrations).

So first up is Neil and Lauren (June though, so still a bit of time to try and get the belly small enough to fit into the suit), so in honor of their unusual obsession with music (and because I know they're the other readers apart from my immediate family), I've dedicated the following to them.

Pete Gets (another) New Blog

Going for an all time record in number of blogs and web pages created (rivalled only by Mr Goodrich, but his don't count as he never actually deploys them), Mr Batty has set up a new one that he's actually keeping up to date (more posts than days in existence so far). I'm guessing the extra spare time he has is a direct link to the extra output, so at least there's a chance of him keeping this up for at least a week or two. Site is here if you're interested (and he's tracking to see where you're coming from.....).

Chuck Liddel Wasted

Or something like that. Thanks to Jason for the link...


Chuck Liddel Passes Out During Interview - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Best Looking Cayenne?

Everyone knows the Porsche Cayenne isn't the prettiest car/suv/anything on 4 wheels (and some go as far as saying it's the ugliest, but having seen some shockers over here, I'd have to disagree, although a little).

Anyway, this one looks better than any of the others I've seen - it's a pretty classy upgrade from a company called Top Car. And can you believe these lot are Russian? I thought the only car companies they had were Lada's, and those scary big old secret service cars they used on Rocky 4. More pics here if you want to see some more views.

Lauren's Bachelorette Party

Last week was Lauren's bachelorette party, and as I'm a boy, I know nothing about what happened - my role (no, not stripper, although of course I volunteered) was kept as designated taxi driver for the wife and sister for the night, ,which was fine by me - I got a night on XBox, accompanied by my faithful servant, KFC for one.
Anyway, it sounded like everyone had a blast (and Lauren avoided doing too many shots). Heidi posted some pics on Flickr if you want to check them out.

Weekend Update

A pretty hectic weekend (so far anyway) - date night last night meant I got treated to a night at SwimClub32 for our (delayed) wedding anniversary night out. Today was a whirlwind tour of a decent number of shops - I missed the early morning start required to get a free t-shirt at the new Apple store in Park Meadows, but we went later on to see what it was like - looked pretty cool - I like the new layout they're using - very simple and clean, with lots of demo stations to play around. We actually managed to hold off from buying everything, but the place was packed and lots of people were making purchases. Park Meadows actually had a load of stuff going on today - the Nuggets had a playoff kickoff event, with cheerleaders signing autographs, and the mascot their for photos. The highlight of being there though was wandering past the window of a really expensive crystal shop, where some parents had decided it was safe to take thir eyes off their young kids for a while - just long enough for a kid who looked about 3 or 4 to take down the window display with one hefty push. Glass shattering, horrified parents and even more horrified sales staff followed, and we didn't stick around for any of the shouting.

Target was next (or should I say Super Target) for a few bits and pieces, including The Last King of Scotland, which we haven't watched yet. I doesn't look much like Scotland on the cover :-) Of course, we had to fit in the weekend trip to Home Depot (flowers for the garden though - nothing doing with the bathroom this weekend), Bed Bath and Beyond for too much stuff to fit in the car, and then the once every few months trip to the Liquor Store (off license) for way too much alcohol for me to drink alone (luckily, Heidi is arranging a bit of an event for her new co-workers, so hopefully they'll have some of it, especially as it included a case of Bud Light, which under no circumstances am I going to touch).

And then finally home after the almost 7 hour shopping epic (oh yeah, Safeway for tea and magazines), to watch the UFC (supposedly live) from Manchester. Another decent set of fights (although the Pit Bull Russian guys fight was a little on the boring side), topped off with the supposed next challenger for the heavyweight title and heavy favorite, Cro Crop, getting completely knocked out by a head kick. It was a pretty decent shot - Cro Crop's legs ended up at an awful angle underneath him as he went down, but he was completely out, but walked out of the ring about 10 minutes later, so looks like he didn't suffer anything too serious. Michael Bisping was one of the big draws on the card - the English fighter fighting on a UFC card for the first time in his home country. Although he got caught once at the start of the first round, and nearly got beat, he dominated the rest of the fight until the ref called a stop midway through the second round. The other guy was pretty beat up (make that very) by the end, so it was a decent win, and he's still unbeaten. I wonder when they're going to let him step up and work his way to a championship fight - hopefully it's soon, but not too soon - I think he's got a decent chance to go all of the way, and his fights are always pretty exciting.

Anyway, think that's enough of the rambling - just trying to make up for the lack of posts in the last few months, especially when I manage to grab a few minutes out of what seems to be a pretty hectic life these days. What happened to the weekends when I only made it out of bed to hit the pubs? Long, long time ago I think, and probably never likely to return....

Most Dangerous Coffee Table in the World?

One minute you're warming your feet, the next, you have burnt toes - I'm not sure how this product could ever be sold, but apparently it is. And what happens if you have kids, or long hair, or trip over your feet?

A fire in the middle of the room is a pretty cool idea, but it somehow has to be a little safer than this thing.

Office Batting Practice

Following on from the post below, here's something for the more sporty office crew (or for someone requiring an automated multiple response if you've consistently been beaten up by a flying boss....).

Product page here if you need one.

Toss Your Boss!

I mean, throw him. And not even literally, just pretend. I'm sure the boss fights in the office would get out of hand pretty quickly with this little thing in the wrong hands, but at least it would be fun. And then of course, someone would go out and buy this, and a full on arms race would erupt....

The worst crash ever?

I don't think so, but pretty impressive never the less. There were no other cars involved (this is just one car, in case you weren't paying attention), but the most amazing thing is the driver walked away from this with no serious injuries (although I bet he needed a new pair of pants!).

Maps, Google, Humour??

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Click on Maps
3. Click on Directions
4. Type "New York" in the From section
5. Type "London" in the To section
6. Click Get Directions
7. Look at instruction number 24

Blades of Glory II

What happens when you put someone who used to know how to skate back on the ice after a 20 year break? Something along the lines of the body not quite performing as the brain expects....

New Mac Ads

I'm obviously more suited to being a PC these days, but I dream of Mac...

Pen, but with Paper

Finally something that seems like a great idea (although when they invent the really thin pen that is included with the paper, I think I'll be more impressed).
If u want to buy one click here.

Imus Dead!?

Not really, but Yahoo news posted this headline I presume to just get a lot of hits. Do they need them that bad? I know I do, but I get like 4 people looking at this site a day (and 3 of those are family).

Boxers for the Geek Generation

Boxers made out of a keyboard? Can't imagine they're comfortable (or any girl would be impressed if she ever saw them on, but lets face it, the chances of that happening are a little remote.

Link to product page here if you're that sad.

Very (very) short escort (of the car variety)

Don't think this one needs any words really....

Weather Forecasters Suck - Panic Over

So the supposed 12 to 18 inches of snow that was still predicted on the 10pm news last night managed to turn into absolutely zero snow (and the sun is now coming out, so it's not like it's just late). The news sites even have their excuses posted, just so people don't get too upset.

Some people say "It's just Colorado - the weather forecast is just too difficult to get right". Personally, I think it's bollox. As I've mentioned to anyone who would listen to me today, it's the only job where you can get something 100% wrong and you don't even get a written warning, never mind escorted off the premises. Do you think these guys have their pay rated against their success in predicting the weather? Of course not - that would imply that they actually did something, as opposed to just have a random guess based on some pretty pictures coming out of the national weather service. I even read one site (can't remember if it's the one that I linked above) who blamed it on the fact that they only sent balloons up to measure the Jet Stream twice a day (even though by my reckoning, 6pm is still plenty of time to adjust your 10pm weather forecast). Shit, why can't they send up their own balloons - they're always presenting their little slot from the "roof" of the studio.

So, rant over - I guess I should be happy I didn't have to dig the car out this morning. I think my next mission in life might be to try and get one of these jobs - if no-one cares whether I'm right or wrong (and when I'm wrong I can blame something or one else), isn't that the perfect job for slacking off?

Leopard Delayed - It looks like it

Fresh news coming off the wire this afternoon that it looks like Leopard (the new Apple operating system) is going to be delayed until October. Original estimates were for "spring", which had been interpreted as the WWDC in June, but now it appears only a beta version will be available then, and the real deal will come out just before the Holidays.

I just hope this means that they've got a lot of very cool stuff in there - it seems a little weird for Apple to be late on an operating system, especially when they were giving Microsoft so much grief about Vista last year. I'm betting on no longer needing Boot Camp and Parallels - they've just built virtualization into the desktop - double click an app, and it just works, whether it's an OS X app, or a Windows app. But that's just me speculating.

Oh, just got the official reason - looks like they pulled some of the developers off Leopard to work on the iPhone - here's the full text

iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can't wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price -- we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS(R) X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones.

Gotta Love That Weather!

So not content with blasting us for the first couple of months of the year, the weather has decided to throw a few more punches before winter finally disappears into the history books.

Snow totals on the left are meant to be a forecast for the next 24 hours in Denver - however, they were based on the latest predictions of a mid evening start to the snow, and looking outside now (at 52 minutes after midday), it's started already. So I have a feeling I may end up working from home tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes. I'm just glad I got my little driving trip up North (which I may post about - haven't decided yet) out of the way yesterday, when it was a little windy, but nice and sunny and clear.

And, according to the weather man last night, this storm isn't the big one - the one coming in on Sunday night is the one we should be worried about. Of course, Denver being Denver, there also predicting sunny and 60 degrees on Sunday day time. You gotta love this place - at least it's never boring. And just for the record, Mr Wallace asked my advice 2 weeks ago on whether or not to put his summer tires on, and I recommended no (which of course he ignored, and will be stuck in the house for the next few days, 4-wheel drive or not).

Go Larry!

In what I hope is an end to the never ending press coverage of Anna Nicole Smith and her dodgy life and death, the father of her baby has been confirmed as Larry Birkhead, her ex, and not the dodgy live-in lawyer, lover boy, named on the birth certificate Howard K Stern (not the radio guy).

The End.

After DNA test, Birkhead ruled Smith's baby's dad - CNN.com

Aston Martin DBS

PistonHeads spotted the DBS out in the wild, doing some AutoBahn testing. It looks pretty special, and there's plenty more photos here..

Wallstrip Hits the Big Time

So I've been meaning to post this forever (and maybe even add a Wallstrip widget on here) for the last few months, but it's another one of those things that sorta fell by the wayside. Anyway, given today Lindsay is talking about Lindsay Corp, I thought it would be worth a mention.

So, if you haven't head about it, they do a video blog (vlog even...) of stocks that have recently hit a high on the stock market. Not very interesting you might think, but they add in a decent amount of humo(u)r to make it watchable, and it stars Lindsay Campbell, survivor of a self inflicted spell in the Penn household (and pictured here with another survivor, Mr Al Brown, dancing man).

Anyway, here's the vid.

Huge Salary!

When I say huge, I mean ginormous. The boss of Occidental made $400 million last year, which seems a little on the ridiculous side, even for the oil industry. The company tries to justify it based on shareholder return, but in reality, can one man be worth all of this? I mean, was he the only person in the world who could increase the share value of the company given what was happening with the industry as a whole anyway?

Personally, I'd love to make $400 million in a year, but somehow I don't think it's going to happen. And even if I did, I'd probably end up feeling way too guilty about it for the rest of my life...

Occidental boss nets $400M - Apr. 9, 2007

The Weekend

Well, it's about time to start keeping up to date on this thing, and actually writing something, instead of just the quick 3 second link to some random car, gadget or site.

So let's start with the weekend. I was lucky enough to get out of work pretty early on Friday, courtesy of the Easter Holiday. Of course, that just meant a slightly earlier start to work on the bathroom, which is finally starting to come together. Actually, I could probably sum up the majority of the weekend as working on the bathroom, intermingled with trips to Home Depot (1 long one for the wife, 3 short ones for me). We did make some decent progress though - tiles are almost all complete (this photo was from Friday night, so we're further along now), we worked out how to install the rain tile shower thing (and that we didn't have the right tools to actually do the work - actually, no-one did, so Kohler are kindly sending out the required bit that we need). The floor tiles now have the first coating of sealant on them as well, so fingers crossed this all should be finished in a few weeks (he says making vague date statements as nothing ever quite goes as planned).

Saturday we ended up having a couple of people over at the last minute to watch the latest UFC event. It was actually a pretty good one, although the fight I thought would be the best (Diego vs Josh) turned out to be the worst - not sure what was going on with that one - Diego looked like he couldn't work out how to fight for some reason, and ended up losing his unbeaten record. Also managed to watch the Calzaghe fight (all 2 and a half rounds of it) in the afternoon - one of the benefits of fights being held on the other side of the Atlantic means it doesn't conflict with the nights activities. The fight was ok, but the fact the ref stopped it so soon was pretty disappointined - there was no way the other guy was going to win, but stopping it so soon when he wasn't hurt was a bit much - just glad that wasn't a fight I had paid money for, either to be there or on PPV.

Sunday meant we finally got a chance to meet up with the long lost traveller known as Lauren (and Neil too of course). Working in between everyone's schedules meant a brunch meet up at Snooze. I have to say, this place is great. It was obviously pretty trendy judging by the clientele, and the line out of the door and into the snow, but the food was amazing, and Neil enjoyed the fact that you can order Stella with your breakfast. Anyway, if you're looking for a decent breakfast downtown, this is the place.

Sunday afternoon was spent being completely frustrated with everything I touched. The bathroom, Home Depot trips (including realizing that they shut early on Easter Sunday, but only when I almost walked into the entry door), web-site touch up turning into a complete change coz I couldn't get some things to work, Sopranos starting again (I somehow just feel a lot of dread everytime I watch this - it looks like the world is all going to come tumbling down around Tony, and I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with that), and snow in April to top it all off. Even a high speed blast in the car didn't seem to get me out of my stroppy mood completely, so apologies if you were anywhere near me yesterday.

Oh, and finally got around to uploading a load of pics from the last few weeks/months, so check out Mine and Heidi's Flickr if you want to check them out.

Snowboarding Classic

One of the cool things about living in Denver is the ample access to plenty of decent snowboarding to get you through the winter. It's obviously a big draw for the family when they come over from England, so here's the best clip of Matthew flying down the slope (sometimes even the right way up!)

New Look

Not sure if I like it yet or not, so before you read this it could be something completely different. But, felt like it was time for a change, and needed to do some semi-coding today just to make sure I could still work out what a variable was, given work time is spent in Word, Excel and Exchange these days.

Obviously, if you hate it, let me know.

BMW M3 Offical Details and Advert

So I told you I wouldn't mention this again until it was all official, so they went and made it all official. Specs are here, and here's the first ad (apparently every road is a racetrack....).

Bex and Matthew Visit Denver

So the last few weeks, we've had the pleasure of a visit from my brother Matthew, and his girlfriend Bex. They went home on Thursday night, so thought it was about time that I got around to uploading a few pics etc from the visit. Hopefully they had a blast - I know we definitely did.

We did manage to get them both to the top of Brecke, and they actually survived the whole way down...





We also got a great impression of Matthew's seal like ability to catch the occasional shrimp that gets thrown at him too. It was obvious that him and Gareth had been practising all the time in the basement, when we just thought they were playing XBox.

Music Stuff

So I just wrote a huge post, and managed to lose it coz I'm a bit of an arse sometimes, and I was trying to get this out in the middle of doing 300 other things. So, this is going to be a lot quicker, less blabbering, and direct to the point.

If you like music, check out The Hype Machine and Last.fm. There, that was easy, and saves you listening to my bollox.

Stay Clean

And the rest of everything will be so much easier.

Pic courtesy of the brand new camera Claire got for her 21st (again!) birthday yesterday. So, Happy Birthday, and keep the pics coming!

Die Hard 4 Trailer

In case you haven't seen enough sequals, here's the trailer for Die Hard 4 (or Live Free or Die Hard, as it's apparently correctly titled).

I'm actually quite looking forward to this one - the Die Hards have been one of the few movie franchises that at least matched the original, and in some cases bettered it. Here's hoping this one keeps it up.

Kiss the Ground Halle

Strangest pic of the day goes to Halle Berry. Getting a star in Hollywood apparently drove her to get to her knees and kiss the ground. At least it gets her pic back in the press - has she done any movies lately that were any good?

Favorite Cancelled TV Shows

Must be TV Day (I'm deliberitely staying away from cars, despite it being the start of the NY Motor Show today, at least for a couple of posts anyway). AOL put together a list of TV shows they wished would come back. I have to agree with Firefly and Thirtysomething in there, and there's quite a few that I never had heard of before, but I think I was just too old for Buffy when it came out, so it doesn't get in my list (but Blakes 7 does!). And a big shout out to a Brit show getting in there - AbFab makes it!

Favorite Cancelled TV Shows - TV Shows We Wish Could Come Back From the Dead - AOL Television

Soledad and Miles leaving American Morning?

So it looks like Miles and Soledad are leaving American Morning (the CNN morning show) - not offical yet, but TV Week seem to suggest it's a done deal. This makes me kinda sad I guess - when I'm travelling on the east coast, I always watch them as I'm frantically trying to get ready on time. And they've definitely had their highlights - I think one of my faves was when Soledad supposedly was reviewing the Zune, and ended up giving a big shout out to her new Shuffle.

Hopefully the new team will be as cheerful and relaxed as these guys, and I don't end up gettign depressed before I even walk out the door in a morning.

2008 M3 (Lot's more details)

OK - this is (probably) going to be my last post on this particular car until we get the full official press release and pics. I had sort of decided after the last M3 post that I was getting a little too obsessed, and would refrain, but there's finally some new pics and a lot more (semi) official information available here. And that's it until the press release or reviews appear (or maybe more mp3's of the engine noise, coz I liked the last one)

Baby Scary Spice Born

Scary Spice had her baby earlier this morning over in Santa Monica - to be honest, I didn't even know she lived over here - I presumed after her split with the equally scary Eddie Murphy, she slinked off back to London or something. Anyway, in the wake of no new news about who's the father of Anna Nicole's baby, this one may take the place - Scary (or Melanie to her mother) claims it's definitely Eddie's, but Eddie isn't quite so sure. I thought he was gay anyway - wasn't that the rumour that went around a year or two ago?

'Scary' Spice has baby; has said it's Murphy's - CNN.com

Niall Quinn's Disco Pants stop EasyJet Flight

Not literally, but looks like things were a little too boisterous for the plane to take off. The big news about this is that Niall shelled out eight grand to get taxis for all the fans to get from Bristol back to mackemLand. Somehow I can't see Freddie doing this, although I bet there's a decent sized expense bill going in this morning, courtesy of the Disco Pants.

Fans thrown off plane over Niall Quinn's Disco Pants | News | Guardian Unlimited Football

2008 WRX Sedan

Is this any better looking than the hatchback? I'm really scared now - it better be amazing to drive, otherwise it may not sell at all...
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