So, one of the bimmerforums dudes, Mat (MKS) came by and scanned my ECU, and sure enough, it showed a problem with the pre-catalytic converter O2 Sensors, which cascaded into a misfire status (the ecu causes a misfire when it detects a clog in the exhaust so it won’t blow a head gasket, if only humans could do the same, wouldn’t that be nice).
I’ve never gone hang-gliding, I’ve never sky-dived, I’ve never Scuba-dived, I’ve never bungie-jumped, I’ve never played with the New York Phil harmonic Symphony, I’ve never Played Bethoven on the Piano, I’ve never performed Open Heart Surgery, I’ve never painted a classic…
….and I never restored Anna’s faith in marriage…
she did that all on her own, through her own devices…, her own perceptions, her own realizations, her own attempts to embrace love, her own efforts to remember what love is truly all about, her own acceptance that Love means hanging in there ..even when it’s really really really not the easy thing to do, her choice to be in love, to stay in Love, to risk it all to have Love in her life, to move away from what is familiar at the risk of everything, her daughter, her future, her happiness, Cassidy’s happiness, and for what? ………. Love?
Anna may not know what she wants to do as a career, but she DOES know what she wants for her personal life, she may try to fool you, ..but she knows, it pours out of her in every action, she wants to be completely and utterly in Love, to embrace Love with me, and that too, is what I want.
Love is hard, but it’s worth it, and with her I’m reminded of both of those things everyday.
…the cliche’ “Home is where the Heart is”, so for me… Home is where Anna is.
Backstory: When I first put the Dinan exhaust on my Supercharged M3, it caused a problem. There appeared to be to big a difference in pressure between the SuperCharger side of the Catalytic Converter, and the Muffter Side of the Catalytic Converter (i.e. the Catalytic Converter was not designed to have the amount of gasses flow through it that the Supercharger needs). The result of this in not too long is the Catalytic Converter cells start to litterally fly apart. So (sigh), today, my 2nd catalytic converter finally threw a CEL (Check Engine Light), and has now clogged my exhaust. Ben Checks the Score:
Catalytic Converters – 2
Ben – 0
Present Day: So, I could put another cat. back on there, but this too will fly apart. My secondary solution, which is probably going to actually happen now is to buy and install the Active Autowerke Track Pipe. This will not blow apart, and will actually enhance the performance (inadvertently) of my car. Just comes at a bad time, Anna and I are already stretched for cash. The good news is I found a guy on Bimmerforums that will sell his shipped for $500 and it’s almost brand new… More to come…
Over this last weekend, Anna’s ex-step-mom Amber (good friend of Anna’s) and her daughter Carrielee drove up from Bakersfield to visit for the weekend. I really like Amber, and enjoyed getting to see her and her daughter for the weekend. Cassidy and Carrielee love to play together, so both of them were ecstatic about being able to play together.
Saturday morning we drove down to Monterey and took them to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Anna’s father sent us a year’s membership which includes access for Anna, myself, and Cassidy. I think the part Cassidy loved best was the tidal pool. There are two sides of it, one inside, and one outside. The outside part, you get to see the tidal wave drain into the tide pools, it’s pretty cool. On the inside (of the building), you get to see the beginning of the wave against the glass, which is very exciting to a five year old 
. We also picked up a book for Cassidy about the Ocean, which talks about the occupants of the sea, and how ultimately they’re one big family. Cassidy has asked myself and Anna to read it to her the last two nights in a row. I think we scored big on that one (the book). Here are all of the Pictures.
We grabbed some grub at The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. I’ve heard of the place and seen it before, but had never eaten there before. The shrimp was awesome, as was the clam chowder. Our server was some Honda-drivin’ street racer guy that thought Sarcasm was ‘good customer service’, mannn was he wrong! But at any rate, the food was awesome, and so was the company. ..we ate so much we had no room for desert even though they had some on their menu that looked QUITE good.
I volunteered to drive home because Amber had driven Carrielee uber early on Saturday Morning up to San Jose, thought it was the least I could do. We also stopped by a Starbucks at the 101 and 156 intersection, where, with strange looks to me, I picked up a Peppermint Mocha Frappachino (it was already quite cold out, but HEY! it was reallllly good).
It was a nice calm drive back after that up the 101, fueled Amber’s car back up, and settled down for the night. At least, I thought I had. I was enlisted to go fetch some Coldstone. None of us could decide on just one type so I picked up a pint of some really good Rasberry Sorbet, another pint of Rocky Road, and for Anna and I, our ‘ultimate Bucket’ (48 Ounces of really good Chocolate ice cream mixed with 1.Chocolate Chips 2. Caramel 3.Macadamia Nuts 4. Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Cups and 5. Brownie). That bucket is pure bliss.
Amber also brought up a bunch of Carrielee’s old clothes for Cassidy. Thanks so much Amber, she thought it was Christmas again!
Now all we have to do is take down the Christmas Tree and Decorations. It was certainly a nice break, that’s for sure.