I must of course mention the incredibly soothing 4-nil victory Chelsea earned against Leicester City on Sunday. With the recent poor form of the team and inklings of dissent among the squad (paramount being manager Claudio Ranieri's displeasure with Hernan Crespo's handling of his injuries), it's very nice to see the squad pull off an impressive win. JFH netted twice, and Adrian Mutu got back onto the score sheet after a long drought. With United drawing against Newcastle, we pulled back within 5 points of the top. If we can hit our stride again, a challenge for the title this spring is not out of the question.

I finally made good on my promise to buy myself a new car after we got back from Boston and i moved into my cushy new job. Yesterday Veronica and i headed to Fremont, picked up my dad, then headed over to Bob Lewis Volkswagen in Fremont. My parents had bought a 2000 Cabrio there two weeks earlier and had spotted several Jettas and Passats that they thought i might be interested in. We were quickly snared by a salesman, who let me test drive a new 2003 Jetta 1.8. Not bad. My dad then suggested i test drive a V6 to see the difference in power, so we spotted one in the used lot and asked the dealer. Turned out it was a silver exterior, black interior 2003 Jetta GLX VR6, top-of-the-line, with only 750 miles on it. The test drive was purty nice, so after perusing the lot a bit more, we went inside to talk specifics. My negotiating skills (or lack thereof) didn't do me any favors, but three hours later i'd signed all the papers and was handed my new keys. Don't have a pic of the actual car yet, so for now you'll have to look at this stock photo.

Going from a car that is beat-up and noisy to one that is pristine and decked out (it has heated leather seats, fer chrissakes!) is a bit weird. I feel like i don't really belong in it, in some strange way. I love it, that's for sure, but i feel guilty somehow. Odd.

On Saturday i was able to finally watch my tivoed copy of The Godfather Part 2. I think i liked it better than the first. Excellent parallels and contrasts between Michael and Vito Corleone. I'd like to see Part 3 now, despite the plethora of horrid reviews of it. Tivo snagged Scarface for me last night. I'm catching up on all the classic gangster movies i never got around to seeing. Still have to keep an eye out for Goodfellas and Casino. And of course there are other tivo goodies waiting for me, including The Who film The Kids Are Alright and Donnie Darko.