We’ve had a ping pong table on our wish list for awhile. I’m not exactly sure why but at some point last week it rose right to the top and we got one. Fran did all the legwork on this one- she picked it out, ordered it and drove up to the warehouse in West Vally in the middle of a thunderstorm to pick it up. It’s a two part design that sits right on top of our pool table- practical and convenient.

Initially I thought that the ceiling fan hung too low in relation to the table (we kept hitting it at first becuase we sucked), but I think “Wind Pong” might turn into a fun variation. I want to try playing with eye patches (“Pirate Pong”- very hard with no depth perception).  Fran also proposed putting in black lights and playing with a glow-in-the-dark ball (no name yet).

So far we’ve had three “tournaments.” It’s  nothing organized enough to determine if there is a definitive champion (not everyone has played everyone else), but so far it appears that Apana is the King of Ping (or Kong of Pong- whatever you like).  Jake has vowed to dethrone him and I will be holding secret practice sessions each Saturday. Anyone up for game? Bring it.

A couple of days ago Justin and I finished the stereo wiring in the car! Ultimately I had great time and I learned a ton of fun stuff, but the stereo upgrade was a way bigger project than we had thought. Running all the cables and keeping them hidden was really tricky (we ended up pulling out tons of the body paneling). The mess of wires behind the head unit was intimidating but we got everything wired up a-ok. I will confess that it was a little frightening to see my car in so many pieces.

I got everything put back together earlier tonight and spent some time road testing it. For the most part I’m really happy with everything.  The two subs (JL Audio 8″) are fantastic. They give off nice tight base (which is what I wanted) but still sound very full. I replaced the stock speakers in the rear with some 5 1/4″ Kenwood Exelons (nothing fancy) which have a nice bright sound that complements the subs. I left the 10″ stock speakers in the doors- for now they get the job done just fine. Everything (subs and mids) run of the two Alpine amplifiers (both 250 watts).  As an aside, cramming everything into the trunk and still leaving room for the removable roof was difficult, but we pulled it off! Visually I think the set up is very appealing.

There’s a lot of tuning left to do, but I think the final result will exceed my expectations. Sadly I’ve got  humming noise that parallels the engine speed. I need to figure out where it’s coming from and what’s causing it. My initial hunch is that the ground wire is too long (the chassis of the car is fiberglass to we had to run the ground wire back to the battery- nearly 16 feet). It may also have to do with poorly shielded wires in the engine bay (i.e. spark plug wires). This, coupled with my Blu Ray sync issues, has made it a bad month for sound! Ah well- it makes me feel manly when I fix stuff.

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