Restaurant Review: Ten Restaurant & Wine Bar

Went to "Ten Restaurant & Wine Bar" at Hwy 10 and Lakeshore last night with friends from work. Started with a Guinness - only had the cans but that's okay, its what I have at home. Had the wellington burger - excellent, one of - if not the best hamburger I've ever had!

Product Review: Cool - pre-soldered copper pipe joints

Found something very cool at Home Depot - presoldered copper pipe fittings! Elbows and connectors and caps - everything - with a ring of solder inside so all you need to do is clean the contact points, put on a bit of flux, and heat until the solder flows! No more trying to juggle the solder and the torch and never quite getting it right. I like this product a lot!

I didn't have any problems with the installation that I did. My Dad tried one of the elbows at his place, but was in a dark location and he didn't see the solder start to flow, so he just kept heating - until there was no solder left in the joint! Needless to say that he had to do it all over again. For someone who is new to soldering copper pipe, this is much easier but without a background in soldering you might not know what to expect. For those who have experience - you will see the benefits immediately!

I checked a couple of forums on plumbing and found that the "pros" don't really care for this product - but I like it for the occasional do-it-yourselfer...

Product Review Update: Nextar MN2707 GPS Nav System

Previous review here.
Additional issues and suggestions provided here.

Product Review: Dolfino Soft Sided Pool[okay I guess, but can't replace a "real" pool]

We bought one of those soft-sided pools with the inflatable ring around the top. We had a full in-ground pool at our last house and this smaller pool is definitely as much work - or more, as for the full pool. The pump and filter system is not capable of vacuuming the bottom, so difficult to keep it clean. If you gotta have a pool, it is a relatively cheap way to keep cool in the summer - but definitely a short-term thing...

Product Review: 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid[love the technology, got some rants]

I love the auto-stop function when waiting at a light or stop sign, it makes total sense to have the engine stop when not needed. The only draw-back is in the way Honda decided to implement the restart - the engine restarts as soon as your foot comes off the brake, which becomes very inefficient when in stop-and-go traffic. I'm also not sure why the engine would restart when shifting between "drive", through "reverse", to "park". When I come to a stop in my driveway or at work, the engine goes into auto-stop but then restarts as I shift into park, and then I turn off the key...? I have started getting into the routine of stopping, car goes into auto-stop, I turn the key off (but it won't come out while the car is in drive), shift into park, and turn the key off the rest of the way and remove before getting out of the car...Ugh. In general I am a big fan of the hybrid technology. I think my next car will be a Toyota since it does not restart the engine after an auto-stop until a minimum speed is reach or the batteries need charging.

I'm also a little concerned with some recent performance of the Honda hybrid. It has started revving by itself... When driving at relatively constant speeds I will sometimes feel the car surge forward and slow, surge forward and slow, and the tachometer will show a slight fluttering. I have also experience sudden excess acceleration when slowing for a turn and then accelerating out of the turn - it is a little unnerving... The discussion groups I belong to on hybrids indicate the EGR valve - which I had replaced at over $400 with labour, and I still have the problem. The other culprit seems to be the transmission, requiring a rebuild. I think it is time to trade-in the Honda for a Toyota sooner, rather than later.

In short, I love the hybrid technology and look forward to more innovations, but I think Honda may have missed the mark with their implementation...(though it is hard to complain when I am getting about 4.8-5 l/100kms, or ~48 mpg).

Product Review: Nextar MN2707 GPS Nav System[Excellent idea and product, got some bugs that need fixing]

I recently received the Nextar MN2707 GPS Navigation System from my birthday. I have been using this product for a few weeks now and have found that some of the existing bugs and operation glitches make some features effectively unusable. Specifically, the lack of a random-play feature for the MP3 player, coupled with the stop-play operation when the navigation voice warns of an approaching turn makes the MP3 player unusable while navigating to a destination - or navigation unusable while listening to MP3s. I have a more complete list of bugs that I believe need to be fixed which I will post when I find my list again...

UPDATE: a recent firmware update mutes the navigation voice while MP3s are playing. Not the best fix but better then before. I haven't done a full test of the features since the upgrade, and there was no upgrade documentation, so I'm not sure if any of the other bugs were fixed.