The restaurant situation in Lansing is ridiculous. Its impossible to eat anywhere on a Saturday night without waiting 2 hours or more. So with a group of six last night we finally settled on good ol Texas Roadhouse which only had about a 1 hour wait.

We wanted to go shooting, but no ranges were open past 6 in the area either. I should say range (not ranges) because there is only one indoor range in the entire area, an odd situation considering the high concentration of hunters and guns in this largely rural locale. So then we decided bowling was the next best group activity.

Again it was hard to find an open lane after 9pm with less than a 2 hour wait, even though there are plenty of lanes in the area. These people just love bowling I guess. I was handicapped by the fact that my expensive resin composite ball mysteriously cracked recently, leaving me at the mercy of the dreaded house balls. Anyway, I couldn’t break out of the 150’s, but big man Ted kicked all our asses with a personal best of 223!

Good lord, the Dodge Caliber SRT-4 has been revealed at the Chicago Auto Show. This thing kicks so much ass its not even funny. A bump in power to the new engine has it keeping pace with the outgoing Neon SRT-4 which posted wicked 0-60 times below 6 seconds. If the Neon had one downfall it was an outdated interior, which the Caliber remedies mightily. As a taller vehicle the Caliber may not end up being the race track king the SRT proved to be, but that hardly matters to the broader market. I had thought (hoped) Dodge would offer AWD in the SRT which they have not, though its worth noting it is available in the RT. This was probably due to the likelihood that the AWD would have slowed the car down with the weight and hurt the improved fuel economy numbers. This also takes it out of obvious direct competition with the Subie and Evo, which may be a smart strategic move. It matters not, I still want one.

Link to Dodge SRT site for Caliber.

So I locked my keys in the Cobalt last night, fortunately my AAA membership saved me. Then today I got locked out of the training room at work with all my stuff inside and no one around. I eventually did get in, but it was a bad sign.

Some people may be wondering why I haven’t written about work. Probably because I commute 2 and a half hours a day at present and don’t have time. Plus there’s not much to talk about since I’m still in orientation. On the bright side today I disassembled an engine and tomorrow I will be putting it back together again. Fun!