The Basement

I have a friend and coworker named Penny. She's a little off, but then again, I like folks who are a little off. She made up a holiday called "Pennukkah" which is celebrated on January 31. The tradition is to wear bright colored clothing in order to celebrate summer in winter. She brought a Pennukkah cake to work so I figured the least I can do is spread the word.

So there it is. Happy Pennukkah!

Hazel's 3D ultrasound from late October and again at 24 hours old.

Those of you that have been following along know that my wife and I have been expecting our fouth (collective) child. I say collective because she has two from her previous marriage and I have one from mine, but we both consider them all our kids. We've very excited to add a fourth - we're the modern version of the nuclear family. Since my son is adopted, I like to say that I have three kids by two different men. It makes me feel all Springer. So the interesting thing is that while I've got three kids, I've never experienced the whole birth process - or the pregnancy or first year for that matter. Needless to say, I'm a little nervous.

Today was the "official" due date for Hazel, but we were expecting her to be late. We're hoping for the 13th. A few months ago - in late October - we had a 3-D ultra-sound done. I've been meaning to post the image and realized tonight that I'm running out of time. It just won't seem as cool once we have a regular picture. So anyway, here it goes...

(Alternate title - 120 not-so-standard features actually worth talking about.)

If you've been reading my blog for a while you know that a few months ago I was car shopping. I've written a lot about the poor job Volkswagen did at earning my business, but truth be known, they weren't the only ones that did a lousy job... they were just the worst of the bunch. In fact, I investigated cars from a dozen or so manufacturers and visited seven dealerships in three days. Of the seven, I was most unimpressed with my Volkswagen experience, but five others were also pretty lousy.

For example, I went to two dealerships owned by the same folks - Riverside Chevrolet and Riverside Toyota Scion. Both experiences fit the average car dealership stereotype - focus on pushing current inventory instead of what the customer actually wants. Ironically, both of my visits were followed up by customer satisfaction survey phone calls. Now don't get me wrong, customer sat surveying is a good thing - even if they didn't ask the recommend question (I would have answered 'no' BTW.) The interesting thing is that the Riverside folks use some sort of predictive dialer with an unacceptably high no-op rate. This means that they make more phone calls than their operators can handle so they just hang up on you when you answer. Thanks to caller it's pretty obvious who's calling. By the time they did get a hold of me (4^th or 5^th call) I was pretty annoyed. Had I been satisfied (which I wasn't) their customer satisfaction survey procedure would havechanged that. Lesson to marketers - try not to piss people off when conducting customer satisfaction surveys.

While six of the seven dealerships I visited were lousy, one was completely different - Jim Norton Toyota Scion. Ultimately I bought my new car from them. To be fair, a positive car buying experience can't be made by the dealership alone and as it turns out Scion had a lot to do with my positive experience. In fact, Scion does a lot of things to encourage their dealers to go the extra mile for the customer and provide them with exactly the right car. But not all dealers take the hint - had Riverside Toyota Scion been a little more Scion-esque, I probably would have never made it onto the Jim Norton lot.

So what's different about Jim Norton and Scion. Well, first off, they have no inventory - everything is built to order. But unlike Chevy from which I might have ordered an HHR if I had been able to see one, Scion encouraged their dealers to keep one of each of their three models on the lot as display models - strictly not for sale. While I couldn't drive one off the lot, I could test drive one, listen to the stereo and see if the baby seat would fit in the back with two other kids. Then, I could sit down and pick colors and options and order my own.

Sure, I had to wait a bit, but I got my car - the one I built online.

In an Amazon.com - long tail world, car manufacturers have got to wake up. We are no longer living in the era of mass production, we're now living in the era of mass customization. The folks at Scion really get this.

I mentioned that my Scion was built to order - this is not exactly accurate. All Scions are built in Japan but not for specific orders. The only differences in Scions xBs, for example, that come out of Japan are the paint color and the transmission - everything else is the same. They are shipped to LA and then taken by rail to Houtson where the customization happens. In Houtson, new Scions are driven from building to building where each option is added - aluminum wheels, electronics, spoilers, etc. Then they are shipped to the dealer.

But wait, there's more. The dealer has a few official Scion cosmetic options that they can add, but that's not the cool thing. Scion encourages their dealers to work with local customization shops to offer options that are beyond what Scion offers. This is what really got my attention at Jim Norton.

I went to Jim Norton to look at the Scion xB. They of course had one to look at, but it had lots of things that I wanted - like leather seats and a sunroof - that Scion didn't have on their website as options. I learned that Jim Norton, with Scion's blessing, works with local shops like Auto Tops of Tulsa to provide these options. They offer everything from video displays in headrest to after market tires and wheels to performance parts. Scion authorizes these modifications to be made before the car is delivered to the customer and the cost rolled into the car loan underwritten by Toyota Financial. Very cool. Since Scion's cars are very low priced to begin with, you can have a completely custom car without spending an inordinate amount of money.

This is another important point, Toyota (including Scion) has begun to separate high style and high cost. Sure Ford and Chevy have cheap cars, but they look and feel like cheap cars. Not so with Scion.

So what does all of this have to do with my iPod? Well, this is the icing on the cake. All Scions come standard with 6 speaker Pioneer CD/AM/FM stereos, but for a bit more money you get an upgraded stereo that is Satellite ready, has a line input and ... has an iPod connector for complete integration. Once your iPod is plugged in, everything is controlled from the stereo console in the dash - you can see artist, album, and song name, play play lists, randomize and repeat. The iPod integration option makes any Scion the Ultimate iPod Accessory.

I took two months, but I got my new Scion xB right after Thanksgiving. I love it. It looks great, it's fun to drive and it's the ultimate iPod accessory. You just plug it into your iPod and you can drive your iPod around town. The best part is that it's my Scion... it's unlike any other Scion on the planet. What makes it different? What options did I get?

Well, I started with a manual transmission green 2006 Scion xB. I upgraded to the factory aluminum wheels, and some cooler tail lights. I added cruise control and had the front windows tinted to match the stock tint of the back windows. I, of course, upgraded the stereo to include iPod integration. Then we went off the Scion menu... I added a custom leather interior (Scion only offers a black cloth interior and leather is much easier to care for with small kids) and a sunroof (I've always wanted a sunroof.) After going through the experience, I can't imagine buying a leather interior from the factory - I got to pick my colors from swatches. It's unlikely anyone is going to offer green and orange leather from the factory any time soon.

So here are some photos of my coolest iPod accessory...