Year: 2005

Well Endowed

I don’t really like the Japanese license plate on the front of the car, but I don’t want to take it off. I posted a thread over on the Miata.net Forums asking if I should keep it or lose it yesterday. So far the yeses and noes are running about even.

Chinese and Japanese share the same lettering scheme, but the “letters” have different meanings in the different languages. The kanji characters along the top is supposed to represent the location of the plate owner (like our states) and possibly reads Ueno, a prefecture of Tokyo. A couple of Chinese speaking members of the forum noticed the kanji characters are reversed giving them an unintended meaning. In the Cantonese dialect they represent a slang for ‘long dong’!

If I parked in the front row of a glass walled Chinese restaurant I might get very good service from the waitresses, but the plate will have to come off for sure now as it is a blatant misrepresentation of the truth. 🙂

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 23

Unprotected

I had a dentist appointment for cleaning this afternoon and I put the top down and left it that way. I didn’t bring the cockpit cover, it was at home on the workbench in the garage, so it felt really strange to leave the car sitting outside unprotected. There wasn’t any chance of rain, but I’ve gotten so into the habit of putting the cover on, even for short spans, that I was uncomfortable the whole time I was in the dentist’s office. Turns out I had good reason, I’ve developed a couple of small cavities requiring a revisit for filling. The car on the other hand was fine.

When I got back to work I left it down again. I did think about putting the top up, but in the end I left it down. The weather was clouding by quitting time, but it was still warm enough to ride home topless without my usual light jacket. Seeing as we had no commitments this afternoon we turned the 6 mile ride home into 26.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 22

Spring?

Today it made it to at least the middle 60’s. The sun seems to be getting a little higher in the sky, so even at 4:30 for the trip home it was fairly warm. I kept the jacket on though as in the shade it was still kind of cool. My cubical neighbor guarantees that there will be no more cold weather as yesterday he finally finished the install on his wood stove he has been monkeying with for the past couple of months.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 20

Priceless

Jack wakes up at home with a huge hangover after the night of his office Christmas party. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins next to a glass of water on the side table.

And, next to them, a single red rose!

Jack sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. Jack looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotlessly clean. So is the rest of the house. He takes the aspirins, cringes when he sees a huge black eye staring back at him in the bathroom mirror, and notices a note on the table: “Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping– Love you!”

He stumbles to the kitchen and sure enough, there is hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. Jack asks, “Son…what happened last night?”

“Well, you came home after 3 A.M., drunk and out of your mind. You broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and got that black eye when you ran into the door.”

“So, why is everything in such perfect order, so clean, I have a rose, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?”

His son replies, “Oh THAT!…Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you screamed, “Leave me alone, lady, I’m married!”

Broken furniture – $85.26
Hot Breakfast – $4.20
Red Rose bud -$3.00
Two Aspirins -$.38
Saying the right thing, at the right time…”Priceless”.

Sunday, Sunday

Got up this morning and finally took some photos of the Japanese plate on the front of the car (obviously, looking at the previous post.) I guess now I can take it off the car. Trouble is that even though I don’t really like the way it looks, I like it’s look. (huh?) There was all the money, time & effort it took to get the plate on there, especially by my friend who actually fabricated the trick mounting bracket. On top of that, and maybe the hardest to swallow, there is the fact that I would have to admit to poor judgment in conceiving the mod in the first place.

After the breakfast bagel and skimming the newspaper we went over and took a fairly long hike in Hitchcock Woods. First time we have done that in a while. We have long since given up trying to keep track of the miles, but we walked for real close to 2 hours, so I figured we covered 5-1/2 to 6 miles.

This afternoon we watched, well mainly me, Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. OK movie, but in typical Hollywood fashion it was over blown and derivative.

Speaking of derivative, I’m kind of watching the Stupor Bowl and I’ve seen commercials for 3 upcoming films from Hollywood so far; a new Batman flick, War of the Worlds and The Longest Yard. The Longest Yard? Adam Sandler? Chris Rock? Heaven help us, because it will probably make millions…

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 18

Isn’t That Kind Of Redundant?

We did out weekly grocery shopping this afternoon (top down, woot, first time is has gone down in over a week) and it was time to stock up on my favorite elixir, Diet Dr. Pepper. As I picked up a twelve pack I noticed a box right next to it that said Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, a strange impulse came over me so I bought one of those too. I sure hope I liked the taste or I don’t know what the heck I was going to do with the other 11 cans.

As we are checking out the kid bagging asks, “Is this any good?” while pointing at the cherry vanilla version. My response was, “I don’t know, but I will in a couple of hours.”

It has been a couple of hours and if that kid is reading this, “It ain’t bad.” I’ll have to wait until I’ve tasted a few more before I decide if I buy it again… Trouble is that it doesn’t seem wildly different from regular Diet Dr. Pepper. Come to think of it, if you tried to describe the taste of Dr. Pepper, you might just use the words cherry & vanilla already. So isn’t this new soda flavor kind of redundant.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 18