The "Keeper" Ghia

We had to sell the blue Ghia and that makes me sad. I had such HIGH hopes for her. Found her in a field and saved her from the crusher and all. But she had waaaay tooooo much rust to be salvaged. By us or anyone else. She's going to be a parts car. And I'm positive she'll be the best at it. Bon Voyage Blue, I'll miss ya.........

But Shawn found me a CHERRY of a Ghia in Marysville. And she's got quite her own little story to tell. (more on that later) She's a CALIFORNIA car. Which means she's DRY. She's rarely, if ever, seen the rain. She comes from the southern Bay area - Stanford, Pleasanton, Palo Alto, Danville, Berkeley. And we've got receipts from about everything that was done to her from 1991 to present. (but that still leaves a huge gap from 1969 to 1991, I'm working on that)

She's beautiful. And I'm really digging the color! We may keep it, who knows.
"Raspberry Beret" ?? "Strawberry Shortcake" ?? Hmmmm.....

This is her, circa 1998, in California,

on the road and running!

Fast-forward 11 years to 2009, in her new home

Vancouver, BC & The Canucks

Shawn decided we needed a little vacation - his company merged and he's been working 12 to 14 hour NIGHT shifts so that the transition goes as smoothly as possible. He needed it. No wait, he *deserved* it.

He got some great seats to the Canucks game, about 6 rows from the ice! And with Canada's dollar being worth less than ours (if you can imagine) we got a steal on a beautiful hotel room at Le Soleil.

Vancouver is such a beautiful, modern, city-city. Very chic, very metro. We even had a few snow flurries to brighten our walk around the city.

The Canucks won 3 to 1 and we proceeded to celebrate with fellow Canucks fans into the night!

Our Hotel room and view of the city

warm-up practice

HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA

Getting revvvved up for the game!

Mats Sundin, one of Shawn's favorites since forever

"I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out!?!"

A brawl right in front of us

It's March ?!?!?

I can't believe it's March already...... it was just Christmas and we were post-poning the honeymoon to the Caribbean to April. That's next month!!!!! Aye!!

How is it that when you have a job, you get all these tasks done along with your regular work schedule....... but when it comes to having NO job, your day takes flight in really weird ways?? I don't sleep in *that* much, I get up at by 7:30 to get in the shower and get Cole up, fed and off to school at 8:45........ I get dishes done everyday, I throw in some laundry, pick up around the house, etc., etc......... but I never really feel like I get anything MAJOR accomplished. Am I the only one with this problem? Don't get me wrong, I have my Super Hero days where I get a sh!t ton done, but that's rare. Do my other stay at home mom friends have this same dilemma?

Much. Needed. Evaluation. Or RE-evaluation. But somethin's gotta change.

In other good news, we are down to just 4 cars (physically) and only 3 in our name! At one point we had: '08 Pathfinder, '97 Golf, '88 Pulsar, '72 Dodge truck and '73 Karmann Ghia.

Since we didn't need the Golf any longer and since my bro & Chantale only had one vehicle, it seemed only right to 'give' them back the car they initially 'gave' to me. (which saved my butt in all sorts of ways!!) I say 'gave' since they had given it to me after being newly divorced and stuck with a (great!) car that didn't always like to go after it was stopped. They sold it to my Dad for a decent price and now he 'sold' it back to them and it now goes into the Anderson Family Trust. A family car. In case things happen. Like they always seem to do.

So the Golf is gone - down to only 4.

We decided it was in the best interest to -sniff, sniff- sell the Ghia.........
It really does make me sad. I had the best of intentions for her. But she's just not well enough to be restored. Too much rust around, well, pretty much the bottom 1/4 of the entire car. All 4 fenders and the Rocker Panels (where you step into the car, that 'railing' along the bottom), those run $500 bucks A PIECE thru any catalog!! We discovered she had major nose damage and the previous owner did a shotty job of piecing another half of a nose (from a green Ghia) on to this one and just slathered it with Bondo.

I had it on Craigslist for a few weeks at $500 bucks (figured they could talk me down to 300-400), stating that it was a "SERIOUS project car" and that if you had metal fabrication skills, this one was for you! No takers. Well, just one guy who chapped my hide a little and offered me $250. for it. Grrrrrrr.

So we parted it out on Craigslist. No takers. Except for that guy again. I let Shawn deal with him. Turns out, his 14 year old daughter fell in love with them and he's building one for her, for when she's 16. Awwwwww...... :) He paid us for it and will be here to get it in a few weeks. It saves us from cutting pieces off, and having the skeleton hauled away. I'll be so sad to see her go.........

So that leaves us with -technically- 3 vehicles!! Yay!! And our neighbors will be so happy.

The new Ghia we get this month will fit nicely in the garage :)


And here's some SUNNY photos - we did have a few nice days with BLUE skies and everything! Bugsy even ventured out a little!

Bugsy in the Sunshine!