Sorry for the lack of posts in the past couple months. Things have begun ramping up in my life that Infamous has been the only person in the IJ tower cranking out whatever it is he cranks out on Import Junkiez. I have been spending my time running around getting married as well as preparing to have a baby. Yes, its like I woke up one day and said, "Today, I think I'll go make me a family." Little did I know that would entail a lot of changes. For instance, gone are the days of spontaneously jumping on a plane enroute to destinations around the world or those weekends filled with grinding out video games on no sleep.

Yet, one thing that I may have a harder time departing with is my 1995 Honda del Sol, a.k.a. Buddy the del Sol. We have been inseperable since the day we drove off the lot of Gardena Honda. There was little doubt what kind of car I'd be driving once I finally bounced out of high school and right into college. At the time, my dad had a '76 Civic, my mom with the '85 Accord, the brother with a '90 Civic followed by the sister with the '92 Prelude. So it was inevitable I'd be getting a Honda. In an effort to differentiate from the flood of Civic coupes, hatches and sedans overflowing the high school parking lots of Southern California, I settled for the awesomest little car Honda made for $15k out the door. It was so awesome that I was stopped at a gas station to be asked if it was a new Porsche. Yikes, dude must've been blind. "Honda? Really? $15k OTD? Wow. del Sol..." Is all the guy could say.

Not so awesome? The del Sol was basically a bloated Civic. Even though it was an Si model, Buddy wasn't the quickest kid on the block. The Ford Escort would laugh in our faces from time to time. Buddy may have been lethargic but he still had that Honda drive: severely underpowered, yet addictingly tossable. The car got the tuner basics: AEM intake, DC header, and GReddy exhaust. Throw on some wheels, ST springs, Tokico struts, a Civic OEM lip, knock out the ambers and you got my car. Buddy ended up being pretty modified for an average high school senior/college freshman at the time. Off at college I took the car out whenever I could - this car covered every corner of the Southland multiple times, I've driven the car as far north as San Francisco, south through San Diego to the border, and as far east as Vegas. On most of these drives, I had the targa safely stowed in the trunk just because I could. Rolling through ungentrified downtown LA? Meh! It could have been raining out and i wouldn't mind - the car was designed to keep the important parts dry

Then one year, El Nino came to town. Buddy was suffering from lowered car tire cancer which caused him to fly off the 10/5 freeway interchange east of LA. I had lost traction at the beginning of the turn, proceeded to fly across the freeway, jump the curb through the embankment, and stopped sliding at a tree. My little invincible car had met its match I thought. Since then, it just felt like it didn't drive the same and needed to go. Even though I had the car repaired, I tried to speed up the process of junking the car for a new one. In a couple years, I did whatever I could to make the car break: Stopped washing it, not slowing down for speed bumps, just hooned the car where ever I could and at one point I stopped changing the oil  - yet whatever I threw at it, Buddy wouldn't die. It kept chugging along without abandoning me on the side of the road. Just when I had given up on trying to junk the car, an unidentified object along the 60 freeway decided to jump up, rip off the lip, set off the airbags and puncture the gas tank. Since my insurance company claimed Buddy a total loss, they sent me a fatty check to replace it. My dad (who loves hoarding cars) bought the car back from the insurance company, then parked it in the driveway to take up prime parking space. I called him crazy, since for the past couple years he'd complain about the car: "Its too loud. Its too low. Its really ugly. Its really slow." Regardless of his complaints, he said I would thank him one day, which by the end of this story, I did. At the time, though, I could care less where Buddy went cause I was free to get a new car, so I bought the only car I thought that would be able to replace It: a S2000.

That S2000 was a great car to drive, but after a couple of months was plagued with roof leaks, transmission problems and was t-boned by a BMW in downtown LA. Whenever the S2 was in the shop, it was the del Sol who came back to me and seemed to tell me, " I'm still here, even if you don't want  me." After extensive body repair (thanks Backyard Creations!!!), 2 engine rebuilds, and a new roof, the S2 was about new again, so my dad sent Buddy up north with my brother. I thought, "Finally that del Sol is outta my life." Next thing I know a couple years passed when BOOM! 2010 hit. Life took a really drastic turn to where we are now. I started out the year wanting to cut excess spending. A couple months later the first thing to go was the S2. Sad to see it go under the circumstances, but thinking it through I just couldn't keep the car. Honda didn't build them like they used too. It was evident I'd be facing more issues with the car if I kept it. After that, I took a flight up north to go get my del Sol from my brother. On the drive back down, I popped the top for one more joy ride back to LA. Even though Buddy wasn't as spunky as before, it brought back memories of why I loved this car so much - just me, the car, clear sky above and open California highway ahead. Also, that gas mileage - big difference going from 20 mpg on 92 to 30 mpg on 87. That's when I realized that Buddy just refused to quit on me no matter how hard I tried to ditch it. No matter where I left the car for dead, somehow it would creep back into my life still working on little maintenance.

Now that we are at the beginning of 2011, I have been sitting on the news that I'm going to be a dad. As the due date inches closer, I know that Buddy will need to be replaced. Even though Buddy has been rolling along to almost 300k miles of relatively trouble free driving, you just can't carry baby in the trunk on family outings. Buddy may just be a car, but it has done me well for a good chunk of my life by becoming a part of who I am. Maybe that's why I just don't want to see it go this time around. I might just have to ask my dad to hoard it again, so that it can sit in the way of my next car - reminding me that if I'm ever in need of a ride, that it'll be there for me.

I'm sure Infamous joins me with saying, "Thank You for Your Support!" We can't seem to say it enough really. It's thanks to you that we have made some big strides by jumping onto Facebook and Twitter. We will be taking advantage of this new fangled social networking idea in the near future, but until then we will be updating as usual here as well as over there. If you haven't already, be sure to visit us on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We provided nifty icons on the sidebar to the right for you to click on! --->

Also, if you haven't been around lately be sure to check out our photos from the LA Street Food Festival! Although we couldn't stay the entire event (work didn't want to give me the day off ), we did our best to capture the moment. We had fun, for the most part, just wish we had more time to wait in more lines for more magically delicious treats. We will definitely be keeping an eye out for the 2nd installment of the Food Fest when it comes up. I'm still craving some Uncle Lau's sliders...those things were awesome.

Not much else will be going on this weekend for me. I'm looking forward to just relaxing and doing nothing. Probably work more on other backend stuff to tie the site back together. How about you? Leave us a comment! We like those. For the most part Otherwise, have a safe weekend!

-Tanker

On a sidenote: I tend to get the question, "What does, 'It's my Thursday' mean?" Pretty much, its the Import Junkiez version of the Weekly Round-Up/Weekend Post. It got it's name because it's Friday night and people are gearing up for their weekend, while I, unfortunately, still have one more day of real work. So while most of you folks out there have already begun their weekend, I'm still on Thursday in my work week    Sucks huh?

Other than the game, my Saturday is pretty much open at night. Maybe head with some friends to eat dinner at Tokyo Table. I haven't seen them in a while and it'd be a good time to catch up. Either that or catch Oktoberfest at the Old World Village in Huntington Beach. Had fun there last year...man was that last year? I don't even remember, but it is prolly one of the funnest Oktoberfests in the Southern California region...that I've been to. The one at Alpine Village in Torrance is also pretty good. If your in the area you should check either one out - German beer can't be beat. Well maybe not a Guiness or Boddington's, but still.

Sunday is my day of rest for the most part, but my buddy scored some tickets to Game 3 between the Phillies and Dodgers in the NLCS. So gonna be out a Dodger Stadium late afternoon to catch the game. GO BLUE! That prolly means I'll be missing the finals of Formula Drift. Yah, I didn't know it was this weekend, where have I been?! So if you can't make it out to Chavez Ravine, you might want to spend sometime down at the Irwindale Speedway, in Irwindale, and catch some cars slide sideways around the track. Can't be that bad...

Hope you all have a great weekend and maybe tune in on Saturday to catch another installment of IJ Saturday Mornings. Going to start that up again so keep your eyes peeled! Again, if you registered a while back, like before 2008, or you haven't registered at all, I encourage you to register with Import Junkiez. It'll give you the ability to comment back on the posts and maybe someday, something special! That I think I'll let you all know about at another time. For now, it's time for me to go, see you all later!

It's been a while since I had a weekend post...I guess it's because I haven't been at work to really have a weekend post. This weekend tho, is a special one. Welcome to Rivalry Weekend where the USC Trojans take on the UCLA Bruins in a crosstown rivalry that is unmatched anywhere in the US (Just because the two schools are actually like 10 miles apart.) ANYHOW, it's game day and I'm ready to watch the Bruins go down in flames and the Trojans to take their 6th Pac-10 title and another bid to the Rose Bowl. Since my bum leg is still...uh....bummed, I have decided to forgo making the trip to the Coliseum and instead hang out with some friends for the game. Should be a good one, don't miss it! FIGHT ON TROJANS!!!

Anyhow...it's been a couple days since I posted something worthwhile...if you could even call it that, eh? Been busy planning trips for later on in the year, running about doing errands that I should have never put off, and possibly on the verge of getting sick. I'm guessing Oktoberfest didn't help, but oh well. Hopefully I can get back to a normal schedule in the coming week...

Well the Honda Homecoming is this weekend. I though, will not be attending as I have work in the morning. Hopefully I can get a buddy, if he isn't lazy and forgetful, to get some pics or what not. Even a write up would be nice. But I wouldn't count on it. Still, if any one has anything on this S2K event at the Honda Headquarters, feel free to tell me your experience cause it sounds like a nice chill afternoon.

Tomorrow is part two of my ramen showoff I have with a friend. She swares up and down about this place called Daikokuya in J-Town. So we'll be hitting it up and discussing the qualities of Daikokuya's and Shin Sen Gumi's ramen. Who knows where tomorrow will end up after that. L.A. lounging as it is on Saturday nights, I suspect.

Sunday will be fun as I'll be hitting up Oakenfold/Underworld at the Hollywood Bowl. I went last time Oakenfold was playing at the bowl a couple years back, when "Starry Eye Surprise" was his biggest hit. Good show back then, although this time around Oakenfold is the opener. Underworld is the headliner and this group ain't bad either. They became more popular by providing the song "Born Slippy" to the Trainspotting soundtrack. Shouldn't be a bad show overall, especially when your paying for the cheap seats all the way at the back. lol.

Hope you all have a good weekend, I know I will.

Tomorrow is Saturday. You know what that means? BBQ heaven as it will be the Season Opener for my beloved USC Trojans. Tomorrow's game will be against Idaho, so might not be the biggest game to watch, but heck it's been a while since the last college football game! FIGHT ON TROJANS!!! Not much else worth watching...prolly keeping a close eye on Notre Dame and California tomorrow.

After a good dose of beers and steak...I'm finally going to crack open Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Wii. I got it this week, but just haven't had the time to play it. I think I will also try to finish up Resident Evil 4 this weekend. We'll see how far that gets.

Sunday I was invited to Visionshock's Yacht Party. Can't decide if I want to go...alcohol and open water isn't the greatest combination for me. Plenty fishing trips decided that one. We'll see how I feel the day of, I guess.

Other than that, most likely just running about jumping from Labor Day Weekend party to another and what not. Hope you all enjoy this very humid holiday weekend. Be safe...especially when doing those crazy bat races. LOL. Anyhow, I promise when the week starts, I'll be paying more attention to updating the site with stuff. I sware... =P Till then, have a good one!

Tanker

EDIT: Looks like my friends decide...Old Town it is! See ya!

Anyhow, anyone up for Disneyland on Sunday? A couple friends want to head out so I think I'll be doing that.

I'm going to cut this short cause I'm running a little late and I need to be in LA at 6! Yikes. Time to get crackin'! Friday nite downtown traffic ain't the greatest. Have a good one!

Tanker

It seems that once you get into summer, it's pretty much over. Then again, in the working world, "summer" doesn't really exist anymore, yet somehow we cling to doing vacations and just plain chillin' out during these 3 months of the year.

Although I'm not on my Friday yet, I think I"ll be starting my weekend off a bit early by taking a quick stroll back to Anaheim to meet up with some friends at the Disneyland Hotel's Lost Bar. Not only a tourist favorite, it's a favorite of many locals just cause it's a small cozy place in the middle of "The Happiest Place on Earth!" "Where Dreams Come True!" It's a favorite of my friends and I since we spent many summers hanging out at the Lost Bar after a long day of work. It's become some kind of a tradition for us since that's when any of us usually see each other anymore...summers at the Lost Bar. *sigh* good times indeed...

Anyhow, checking the calendar it's gonna be a festive weekend with L.A.'s Nisei Week kicking off tomorrow. With that brings Import Showoff Nisei Showoff Car Show & Carnival. It also means Nikkei Games, Tofu Festival, Sumo matches, cosplay competitions, Anime Festival, taiko drumming, and the crowning of the Nisei Queen. Should be loads of fun! Even better yet, there should be good eats too...hopefully the Oreo dangos will be there...just like a fried Oreo, just using dango batter. It's making my mouth water just thinking about it.

Hope you all have a great weekend. Keep it safe! Maybe you'll catch me at a Nisei event - if you do buy me a dango and say hi! =) Don't forget to set the Tivo/DV-Rs! Naruto Hundo starts today...

For info on Nisei Week [CLICK HERE]

For info on Nisei Showoff Car Show & Carnival [CLICK HERE]