I started a new project tonight. I am working on my car. I recently found out that my car has a V-Tech engine which is Honda's performance engine. When I bought the car, it was rated as an Si, and that was it. I guess I assumed the engine was the standard engine . . . what a pleasant surprise . . . now seven years after I bought the car.

Anyway, it has opened up a new world of possibilities with engine performance. I bought a new cold-air intake which delivers more air to the engine. This will cause a better burn in the chamber. I installed that tonight. What a difference it made. Not only does the engine sound better (you can hear her sucking in all that clean air), but it runs to red-line in a heartbeat. The new air intake boasts that it adds 15HP to the car. Cool!

On Tuesday I will receive a new external distributor and high voltage spark plug wires to deliver more spark to the chamber for a hotter burn. This also boasts improved performance and greater horse power. I'll take more pics and let you know.

If this all goes well, there may be a supercharger in the future. We'll see. I am pretty pleased with what was delivered today. This may be enough to satisfy my need for speed right now . . . and all for under $150.00 . . . thank you E-Bay !!

Pictures are in my album.

Picture Number Two

Yesterday started the next home improvement project here at the house. Peter and I have been talking about re-doing the back porch. The roof was leaking worse with ever rain. The former owner of the house told us that he installed the roof only to block the afternoon sun from warming up the kitchen so bad. And it served that purpose well, but it did nothing for the rain.

So, I climbed up on the roof and began ripping up the tar sheets. Yuck! What a task. When I finally revealed the wood underneath, I could clearly read, "This Side Down." Maybe that's why it didn't do so well to weathering - the weather seal was on the wrong side!

Last weekend, Yesenia and I went to Cedar Hill State Park. It's a beautiful park in the southern part of the metroplex, located on Joe Pool Lake. Because of the rain and snow we had the two weeks before our visit, the walking trails were closed. Lucky for us, though, the Ranger recommended that we check out the Penn Farm, located within the park.

Penn Farm is an Agricultural History Center built on the farm that was originally founded by John Anderson Penn and his two sons in the mid 1850's. The farm buildings are still standing and date back to 1859. Buildings were added during time, so walking through the farm is like walking through this family's history. There were two family houses that were built, a guest house, a barn, and several buildings to support the farm. All of the buildings have been restored to preserve their appearance during the period immediately following the Second World War. You can even find several of the original pieces of farm equipment along the paths on the farm and within the several buildings.

Peter and I just got back from Miami. Peter had a presentation today; so I tagged along, and we made a weekend out of it. We flew up EARLY Saturday morning and arrived in Miami at about 11:00am. After getting the rental car, braving the confusing infrastructure that is the Miami freeway system, and getting checked in to the hotel, we were on the beach. It was wonderful!

We stayed in South Beach which had wonderful food, beautiful beaches, plenty of shops to pick from, and a good crowd of people. It also had the highest prices of anything I have seen. One meal for the two of us was equivalent to one night in our hotel (which was right on Ocean Drive). The prices were extraordinary along Ocean Drive. Once we drove in to Miami Beach prices dropped - but so did the attractive nature of the place. Miami Beach was a slum! It was dirty, there were bars on the store fronts, the stores were run down, and there were lots of thugs and homeless walking the side walks. What a difference a few blocks makes.

Downtown Miami was very nice. The sky-scrapers were beautiful, the shops were high-end, and everything was clean and shiny! But go three blocks in any direction, and it is run down and dirty. What a shame. But if you stick to the tourist spots and the beaches (as we did), you will love it!

We enjoyed 75 degree temperatures (which felt much warmer), bright sun shine, and swimming in the ocean. It was a weekend well spent! Take a look at the photos!

We celebrated Peter's Birthday over the weekend. His birthday is not really until Tuesday, but there's nothing wrong with celebrating early!

To mark the occasion I reserved a hotel right on the River Walk in San Antonio. We went right after work Friday. When we got there we took a nice walk along the not-so-commercialized section of the River Walk, ending our stroll in the commercial section among hundreds of restaurants.

Saturday was the big day. I took Peter to Natural Bridge Caverns where we went on the Adventure Tour. It is a three to four hour excursion through the caverns 233 feet below the surface. It was amazing! We were lowered by rope down the original drill shaft that was about 32 inches in diameter. I had to curl my shoulders in order to fit well. It took about four minutes to get to the cavern - the entire time dropping down a dark shaft with only your head lamp, rubbing the bare earth as you went. It was GREAT!

After reaching the cavern, we hiked, climbed, belly crawled through slime and mud, rappelled down a 20-foot drop, and explored the entire time. It was so much fun.

We had two guides that went with us, and there were two others that signed up for the adventure tour as well. It was the perfect sized group.

By the time we were done, we were dirty from head to toe, grinning from ear to ear. You can check out our photos in my album.

Yesenia and I dressed up our house a little more this past weekend. Actually, it was over the past two weekends. About one week ago, we went to a local furniture store and bought a new table for the entryway. It actually took longer to find the perfect table, because most store seemed to have short sofa tables.

This past weekend, we also bought some paintings for our house. Well, we bought one, and Yesenia's mom bought another one for us (thanks!). Those two paintings really help warm-up the two rooms.

We got a Venice-like scene for above the fireplace, and we got a still-life for the study. Both paintings were bought at the local "Starving Artists Sale." If you have this in your area, you should really go check it out!

To wrap up this holiday season, Yesenia's mom and family came to visit this past weekend. It was a short visit (about one full day), but we really had fun. We filled the 24 hours with shopping, eating, movies, and more shopping. In my next post, I'll show off a little of what we got this weekend.

Thanks Mom, Silvia, Roxana, and Emanuel for coming this past weekend!

To see a couple pictures, see our Album.

... er, El Paso. A little known fact, especially if you're from El Paso, is that Joseph Magoffin was the "father" of El Paso. He was, in 1873, one of the incorporators of what was called "El Paso." Before that, the area occupied by downtown El Paso was Magoffinville. Unfortunately, it seems that very few El Pasoans even know this. Thankfully, Yesenia found the Magoffin Home Historical Site in our State Park guide, so we went with my parents to check it out.

The house was built in phases from the 1870's through the 1880's. The Magoffin family actually lived in the house until 1986. Actually, the family sold the house to the State in 1976, and Joseph's granddaughter, Octavia Magoffin Glasgow, lived in part of the house for 10 more years until she died. Now, the Parks and Wildlife Department owns the entire house.

While we were in El Paso, Yesenia and I went to the Franklin Mountains State Park. It's a beautiful, natural, section of the mountains located on Transmountain Dr. We actually went on the morning of Christmas Eve, so at 8am, it was just us and the Park Rangers.

It was damn cold when we started up the mountain, since we were still in the shade of the mountain. On our way down, the sun was up high enough to give us some much needed heat!