Apr 222024
 
E46 M3 Coolant Change

Last weekend I changed the coolant on my 2006 M3 at a club DIY event. BMW of Sterling was our gracious host for the event, giving us access to its large and state-of-the-art facility. I had done the same maintenance in 2018 at Sterling. I went in hoping I could again borrow a fluid exchange […]

Apr 152024
 
Central Coast Wine Tasting

Earlier this month Gabriele and I attended a California Central Coast wine tasting put on by the Neighborhood Restaurant Group. We’ve been fans of NRG for a long time. It was a fun thing to do on a Saturday afternoon and we got introduced to two new favorites. The host of the tasting was NRG’s […]

Mar 312024
 
An E46 M3 Headlight Saga

I’ve just completed what became a long saga improving my E46 M3 headlight performance. Regular visitors might remember it started about a year ago when I replaced the projector lenses in my headlights. All was fine for a while afterwards. Then last fall I noticed that the passenger side light was much lower than the […]

Mar 122024
 
Original Thought in the Age of AI

Ever since the broad availability of artificial intelligence exploded last year, I’ve been wondering about its impact on B2 marketing. There is already a lot of “me-tooism” in much of B2G content marketing. Would AI make that even worse? Or could it, in fact, amplify the value of truly original insights for thought leadership? Or […]

Feb 292024
 
Recent Wine Recommendations

Happy early spring! We’ve enjoyed some new wines this winter and here are a few standouts. The 2019 J. Christopher Volcanique Pinot Noir is an excellent wine. From the Dundee Hills region in Oregon, the wine is a beautiful balance of raspberry fruit and acidity, light on the palate but with a lot going on. […]

Jan 192024
 
2023 U.S. BMW Sales

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post on U.S. BMW sales. Bottom line up front – partly that’s because there is very little connection between enthusiast BMW owners driving older cars and those interested in purchasing new BMWs. (Certain M models like the new G87 M2 are the exceptions that prove the rule). […]

Dec 272023
 
French-Italian Wine Dinner

The holiday season seems to increase the number of restaurants doing wine dinners. These are enjoyable ways to learn about different wines, and usually a pretty good bargain as well. Recently we attended one featuring French and Italian wines at Cedar Knoll, a conveniently local place right on the George Washington Parkway. The first three […]

Nov 202023
 
BMW Fluids and Diffuser Change

The last two DIY events have involved straightforward changes of BMW fluids, so I’m combining them into one post. In the first I changed the differential fluid and rear diffuser on my E39 M5, and during the second I changed the power steering fluid in my E46 M3. I had last done the differential fluid […]

Nov 152023
 
Nuggets from GAIN 2023

Recently I attended the GAIN 2023 conference, an event dedicated to business-to-government (B2G) marketing. I’ve attended GAIN since it began in 2016, sponsored by Government Marketing University. In 2021 GovExec purchased GMarkU and produced this year’s event. Attendance seemed strong and fully recovered from depressed pandemic levels. Many of the speakers and presentations were excellent. […]

Oct 222023
 
Crystal Coast Dining

Earlier this month Gabriele and I spent a fun week in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. This area of North Carolina is a stretch of barrier islands and coastal towns also known as the Southern Outer Banks. While there we of course sampled some of the nicer restaurants in the area. Our first dinner out was […]

Sep 062023
 
M5 Labor Day Tweaks

The Labor Day weekend is a great time to do some simple tweaks to your car. This past weekend I did some M5 Labor Day jobs that didn’t warrant waiting for a club DIY event. I replaced a leaking intensive windshield wash reservoir, added a euro trunk cubby and replaced a chipped plenum badge. When […]

Aug 142023
 
Blue Ridge Mountain Wine Weekend

Last weekend Gabriele and I got away to the Blue Ridge Mountain wine area of Virginia. We stayed in a nice VRBO, had a couple of great meals and hit four wineries on Saturday. Our first stop after driving down Friday was the Ivy Inn in Charlottesville. It was a bit of a drive from […]