Year: 2002

Miatas For Everybody!

Rode to work with the top down. Put it up on arrival because it was going to rain (it did a little in the early afternoon.) Top back down for the trip home, but it went up minutes later when Donna drove the car to water aerobics. Around 8:00 PM, in spite of the gloomy radar picture, we dropped the top and drove to Augusta. Felt for sure we would have to pull over any second and raise it, but didn’t start raining until 5 minutes after we got home.

Hope that luck keeps holding, because the last minute 40 mile run to Augusta was for a couple of tickets in the Big Game lottery. Jackpot is up to $155 Million. If we win – Miatas for everybody!

Started down, went up, back down, back up, and down again, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 79

Blast-All

Kinda chillier than we thought this morning for a top down ride, but once we got going we just rolled up the windows and turned on the heat.

Came home and put the better aluminum bit in for the hazard and barndoor toggles. I also readjusted the radio mounting to center it in the opening so I could put the trimmed bezel on. Better, but I have to move the radio out a little further so the bezel will click into the HU, it is held in place with double stick tape for now. I’ll work on that when I get the AWD A/C panel in and have the dash apart again. While I was at it I swapped the MGW shift knob for the Voodoo again. The spun look had faded again, so I toke it to work to chuck up in the lathe when I noticed to blast-all in the corner of the tool room, hmmmm. I bead blasted that sucker. When I got home I sprayed it with a couple of coats of semi-gloss clear lacquer – I like it. Maybe I’ll do it to the vent rings….

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 75

Nice Car

Today was the make-up day for the last leg of Aiken’s Triple Crown, the Harness Races. All our company is gone that we were going with last week, so we invited some friends and their 2 kids. Things went pretty well for the first couple of races as the kids seemed interested, but being kids that was enough. Then they discovered friends their own age to hang with and things were OK again, for a while. After getting thoroughly muddy then cleaned up again they headed off to see some rabbits in one of the barns. It was the youngest one’s birthday so he wanted a rabbit. Dad prevailed and refused to get him one. This sent the birthday boy into a crying fit…we had seen 6 of the 8 races and were getting tired of the sun anyway, so we left.

As we pulled the cockpit cover off the car to leave a man standing there holding his dog said, “Nice car.” I thanked him and wouldn’t you know it, upon starting the car up the lifters made a horrible clatter as I backed out. I wonder if he changed his mind?

Started down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 75

New ATM Software

Our bank’s downtown location just got some new ATM software installed. Pretty colors and clunky graphics. You now have to hit the enter key after putting in you PIN number, before, as soon as the 4th digit was pressed you were taken to the next screen. A minor inconvenience compared to what’s next. When ever you do a transaction, fast cash, balance inquiry, anything it pops your card back out. If you want do more than one transaction you now have to remove the card and reinsert it and enter your PIN and hit enter, geez.

Chicken Breast

Way back when, I lambasted the frozen TV dinner folks for changing what they call chicken tenderloins from breast meat to thigh meat, well they’ve got me again.

Ever since then, I have buying only the dinners that say “Chicken Breast”. Today’s entree was Chicken in Wine Sauce with Whipped Potatoes and Vegetables. It was supposed to cook on medium for 8 minutes. All the microwave that have a temp control were in use, so I stuck the dinner in one on high for 4 minutes figuring mathematically I was OK. The dinner was hot like is should have been, but the chicken was kinda rubbery. It did not have the right consistency for real breast meat, so I checked the label. Ingredient # 2 after potatoes, was chicken breast meat made from chicken breast meat, water and seasonings (the seasonings were made out of about a dozen things including xanthan gum, mmmm.)

Not even chicken breasts are real breasts, they are molded from multiple chicken breasts bits….

Selling E.T.

Did they decide to re-release ET just for the commercial aspects? Toyota Sienna mini-vans, Special Olympics, Kodak Photo Quilt, Universal Theme Parks, Reese’s, Dairy Queen, Kraft….

And will I be in trouble, if when I see Drew Barrymore the kid, and think of Drew Barrymore the grown-up, flashing her boobs at David Letterman.

Taking Money Seems, Dirty

Seeing as I have a high speed connection a friend at work asked if I would download Slackware 8.0 for him. Did it and I just finished burning the ISO’s. All I wanted in return was for him to give me 3 blank CDRs. He doesn’t have a burner so he doesn’t have any CDRs, he will give me $2 for my troubles. For whatever reason, taking money seems, dirty, but I’ll take it and buy a big bag of chips or something. Would have rather had the CDRs….

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 73