Johnny Marr made a cup of earl grey tea for me today. This has to be one of the best encounters I've had.

Survived the weekend just about... coming down with a cold which sucks. Why can't I fall asleep right now?

Ah so Bimmerfest was amazing as it was last year.

Washed my car at the crack of dawn on Friday and took it to Steve Tran to check the oil, only to have the battery completely die on me. Oh well better Friday than Saturday. At least I didn't got over there for nothing! Such bad car luck this past week with nail in tire and battery!

Met the So Cal caravan at Balboa Park at 7:30am on Saturday morning (managed to get the robot boy ready and out the door on time!) There was a bit of confusion.. people went to the parking we met last year.. but there were the same amount of people in another parking lot actually on Burbank Blvd. But alas after a 15 minute wait I got on the 101 north and the trek to Santa Barbara began.

Was a VERY conservative drive this year compared to last year. A few people overtook me around 90mph, but for the most part it was 75-80mph the whole way up there. Saw maybe 4 cars pulled over. No accidents like last year.

Got to the fairgrounds area in Santa Barbara around 9:30am. The bimmerfestdvd.com guy asked me some questions. So I was a total dork going on about how excited I was to be there. Hopefully the tape won't surface when I'm famous.

Didn't get to park in the bmw-only section which kinda sucked. But another '98 M roadster parked right next to me. Bu tof course my car was far superior with european tail lights, wheels and hard top to say the least.

Lots of M5s, my next car ;) Saw about 10 of the 16 other M roadster that were supposed to be there. Some ppl in the bimmerfest forum spotted an M6. Damn... that is my next car after the M5. Got pics of everything I saw. Nice blue M5 with DINAN wheels. Z8... aahhh... and of course more M5s!!

Steve Dinan talked about all their products. Very impressive guy. He seems to know everything there is to know about any model BMW and all their products. He wasn't even salesy. Yes DINAN is the most expensive. But it is not mass-produced aftermarket junk. Everything is made in their HQ in Nor. Cal and made for the intended car model and no other. Anyway YES I will be buying from their company eventually to go with the stage 2 chip and intake I already have but first must pay off the damn taxes, credit cards and perhaps some student loans.

Also saw a talk with the Brembo guys from Costa Mesa. Another quality product. Hee i will buy DINAN Brembo brakes eventually too!

Man the CHP were just after BMW ppl on the 101 on the way to the road rally.. giving out tickets for 74/79mph.. wtf is that about?

Road rally was disorganized but fun. 101 -- 154 -- 101 it was supposed to be. There were reports there was a police checkpoint up the 154 pulling oveer people with vehicle violations. Hee.. tint/plates/lights.. im not risking that. So we all stopped and went back down the 101. Turns out the police checkpoint was actually a DUI checkpoint cuz there was some wine festival going on.

Drove back around 6:30pm. Made some good time. Shiiit.. went past a CHP dude outside Ventura at around 70-75mph.. but alas didnt catch the little black car. What is up with that? Still no speeding tickets in two years??? I drive 40+ miles a day?? Anyway knock on wood.. i won't jinx myself. My lisence is clean on Aug. 15th.

Had a yummers meal at Souplantation in Camarillo. Really needed to pig out on some salad. and their pineapple upsidedown cake was the shit. Such restraint.. didn't go to the outlets!! Was so damn tired after only 4 hours sleep the night before.

Got back around 9pm. OMG just showered and read some bimmerfest posts and crashed. But despite the tiredness it was a really amazing experience. I mean driving with 300 crazy bmw ppl... all of us sharing the love of the car! Pretty damn cool. Can't wait til next year. Really need to check out other BMW gatherings.

Just called to renew my web hosting. Have to download my entire site and reupload. Why does it say that it will take a day and 7 hours to upload again?? I thought I was only allowed 100mbs of space... wtf?

Alright got to sleep!

OMG.. I cannot believe I forgot it's Bimmerfest this Saturday in Santa Barbara. Positively bad BMW parenting!! So much to do to prepare...cleaning...waxing..vacuuming etc... Leaving from Balboa Park in Encino at 7:30am on Saturday morning. Need to catch up on some sleep before then too.

I'm one of only 16 M Roadsters. Yay! There are over 130 e46 M3s.

Incidentally my poor baby had a nail in the rear right tire today so I spent an hour and a half at Grand Prix in Monterey Park. They were so busy. Must be the rain or something.  But alas.. my time and the $15 tire fix was far better than the $1500+ I paid last time my tire got a hole in it (405 in Carson, 80mph --bad bad news.) While I waited I watched some weird psychic lady on the Montell talk show thing. She was able to tell people about ghosts in their houses without even visiting the house. I'm skeptical about that. Very interesting day time tv... all these commericals for insurance and career colleges promising a huge career leap. Ha - is this the American Dream?!

Went to Hollywood and Highland tonight to pick up Lightning Seeds "Best Of" I've been forgetting to buy for months cuz it's not available on YMU. Ate at Wolfgang Puck's place  "Vert." Was ok. Nice salmon with horseradish/herb crust & lentils. Not the greatest service and they neglected to tell me you have to wait 10 mins for the  chocolate souffle cake so I passed on that $8 delight. However I found the best dessert at this place called Beard Papa.  Ate their $2 Fondant Chocolate cake which was molten inside and only two seconds to prepare... YUMMMMY!!

OK so I was doing some laundry and suddenly thought... has my Paul Frank t-shirt collection spiralled out of control?

Many people have commented on my weird fashion sense. Top comments include: "Too much monkey (when out and about with PF shirt, bag, belt and hoodie,)" "why do you like that monkey so much?" or "look at that little kid (points to kid in PF shirt) - you have the fashion sense of a 5 year old!"

So in my geekiness I decided to conduct my first official inventory:

Hanging in closet (clean:) 25

Hanging up drying (also clean:) 8

Ikea laundry thingy (not clean:) 2 

Total Paul Frank T-shirts I Own: 35

Other items:

Total PF Hoodies: 4
Total PF Bags: 3
Total PF Jammies: 2
Other Misc. Items: 10+

That doesn't seem like TOO many, does it?