The Pony Car

I know most of you have seen pictures of my new car on Facebook, but I thought I'd post them here, along with a little more info on it. On September 20, we acquired a 2003 Ford Mustang convertible, with 64,000 miles. It is white, with a white top, white seats, and black interior. It is the 3.8 liter V6 engine. It has alloy wheels, a 6 disc CD changer, and a nice Mach stereo system.

I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far, especially with the top down. The convertible top goes up or down in about seven seconds. Mustangs have been one of my favorite cars for quite a long time, since high school or before, and in fact, this model of Mustang in convertible form was my #1 car for a while.

The trunk is a little small, but still good enough for me. Though, it will become rather useless over the winter, as it will be more or less full of bags of salt, so there will be a little more weight over the driving rear wheels in the winter. But that's okay.

So now my wife and I purchased 2 cars within about a 2 month period, and had saved up enough to buy both with cash. Hopefully they both end up being good cars and last a long while.

What Happens in Vegas

... ends up on my blog.

On Saturday, we got back from a five night vacation in Las Vegas, which was good fun. It was my first time there, and Megan's second. We stayed at the Excalibur, which looks like a castle. It was pretty neat. We walked around a lot, saw a couple shows, and had some very good food. Here's the overview.

• Oddly enough, the very first thing we did was go on a timeshare tour, where they were trying to get us to buy a timeshare in Vegas, which we had absolutely no interest in. But, we got a good discount on tickets for The Lion King play at the Mandalay Bay hotel. We paid $25 a ticket, instead of the normal $75, so we saved around $100 total. The play itself was on Wednesday night, and was rather good. (I enjoyed the Phantom of the Opera play we went to earlier this year, because it was darker, but this was still good.)
• On Thursday night, we went to see magician David Copperfield perform at the MGM Grand, which was a great show, and to me, the highlight of the trip. He did a lot of neat and crazy tricks. It was a lot of fun.
• On Friday, we went to the Palazzo hotel and walked through the Lamborghini Las Vegas showroom. They had several very nice cars there, but unfortunately, their Lamborghini was not there, as it was rented out. I don't have any idea how much it costs to rent a Lamborghini in Vegas, but it can't be cheap. However, they had 5 Ferraris (I had seen 3 total before, so now I've seen 8), and a few other nice cars. It was very cool. (I have seen 3 Lamborghinis in the past, so that's okay.) Another neat car-related sighting was that, sitting outside one of the hotels, we walked by an Aston Martin Vanquish. Not only had I never actually seen an Aston Martin before, but the Vanquish currently tops my favorite cars list. So that was awesome. Unfortunately, I failed and did not take a picture of it. What was I thinking? There was also the added bonus of it being parked right next to a Dodge Viper. How slick.
• We walked around many of the hotels along the Strip, and saw the neat fountain shows in front of the Bellagio and the Mirage.
• We ate a lot of food, including several buffets, which were quite tasty. We also went to a nice Italian place in the Excalibur, and I had swordfish for the first time, which was pretty good. We also ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was the first time I'd been there.

It was a fun trip, but as always, I'm happy to get back home and back to normal life.

That, and on Sunday I drove down to Jack's and picked up my Mustang, which is very exciting. It's good fun. It was a bummer to wave goodbye to the Cavalier, but I am very happy with my new ride. I'll post more about the Mustang, and more pictures, in an upcoming entry.

The Workless Week

My wife and I are going to Las Vegas during the week of September 14-19. It should be lots of fun, and will, of course, be nice not to have to go to work for a week. We can both use the vacation. I've never been to Vegas myself, but Megan has, and she rather enjoyed it. We will be entertaining ourselves with activities that do not include gambling, as there are lots of shows to go to (none of which include showgirls), and the hotels themselves are interesting to look at and walk through. We are staying at the Excalibur, a hotel that looks like a castle. It should be a good time.

And then, on September 20th, I get to drive down and trade my Cavalier in for the Mustang. I'm super pumped. In case you hadn't seen it on Facebook, I've included a picture of my Cavalier's odometer on August 29. It's been an excellent car, as I've had it for almost 7 years. But, time came to get something different. Only 17 more days until The Age of the Mustang begins... :)