Year: 2007

Not So Busy Sunday

ConnecticutChanged the oil in the Emperor and rotated the tires. I did it a little early in preparation for our driving trip to the northeast starting next weekend. Then later in the day we changed our plans for the trip for the 8th and final time. We’re now flying into DC and renting a car. I say final because we are now locked in to some non-refundable airplane tickets. Two days in our nation’s capital, two days of who knows what, two days visiting my family in CT and two in NJ, before driving back to DC to get on a plane for SC.

I may get a second chance to sign the Ultimate Drive northern fleet’s signature vehicle that I forget about last Thursday in Columbia because they will be in Sterling, VA on Monday, April 8th. Its a mere 30 miles from where we are staying in DC.

We went for a tandem ride after I got done with the car. Cruised through some neighborhoods and hit a couple places to shove some bills into slots and then the Post Office to mail the rest. We ended up tallying over 15 miles, which is about 5 more than the last few rides and it felt pretty good. A few more weeks of 2 rides per and we’ll be ready to tackle a 25 mile loop. We have gone so far as thinking of adding some rack to the tandem so we can try to ride it to work some Fridays.

I re-upped for citizenship in the Red Sox Nation tonight. It was supposed to happen automatically, but they had the number on file of my comprised card that is no longer valid, so it didn’t happen. Tomorrow is opening day for the FRS in Kansas City, but the real season doesn’t start until Friday the 20th when the Bronx Bombers come to Fenway.

At approximately 9:40 PM my wife made the mistake of flipping through the channels and pausing long enough on USA for me to recognize what was showing – TDPM.

Will Turner: This is either madness… or brilliance.
Jack Sparrow: It’s remarkable how often those two traits coincide.

In other exciting news, with the 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath & Beyond that was in today’s paper, I got a new pillow for sleepy time. We bought a new one for Donna too.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 106

Busy Saturday

Painting At The Horse ShowWe started the day with breakfast at our favorite place, no not Hardee’s, but the New Moon Cafe. We got there just after they opened and had to wait in a line 6 deep, but as always the food was worth it. We both had a Cranberry Pecan Muffin and we split a bottled water. We also bought two Everything Bagels for our Sunday breakfast.

Meal Cost: $5.53
Tip Jar: $1.00
Spent This Meal: $6.53
Year to Date: $771.49

After eating we went over to Hitchcock Woods and took a hike. Not only did we want to take a walk in the woods, but we wanted to go watch a bit of the 91st Annual Horse Show (even though our neighbor wasn’t participating.) After buying some note cards and becoming “Friends of the Woods” it was time to hike back to the car.

Once home, we ate lunch and did a couple loads of clothes, before semi-dressing up for dinner out with the Master’s Miata Club Dinner Out Auxiliary. It was member Patti’s birthday so we went to a little fancier place than usual, Calvert’s. We were there at 5:30 specifically so we could take advantage of the “Sunset Dinner for Two.” We both eat for $28.95 and that includes salad, entree and desert. I had salad with Blue Cheese dressing and the London Broil (mmmm) with steamed veggies and twice baked potato. Washed down with a glass of Pinot Noir. Donna had Creamy Vinaigrette on her salad and then the Seafood Crepe with Sprite to drink. The b-day girl got a special Chocolate Roulade desert with a candle in it, while the rest of us were served Chocolate Bread Pudding. Donna took one bite and didn’t like it, so I sacrificed for the cause and ate both deserts.

Meal Cost: $40.50
Tip: $6.50
Spent Meal: $47.00
Year to Date: $818.49

The other two couples live over in Augusta, so they had a shorter drive home, too bad for them. When we left for our 35 mile drive the temperature was 70, the sun was setting and the full moon was rising. We pulled into our driveway at almost full dark. This is why convertibles were invented.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 104

Baby You Can Drive My Car

NoseI posted 24 pictures out of the 74 that Donna and I took at yesterday’s BMW Ultimate Drive. They are posted on page 2 of the 2007 gallery. To the left is one of the 50 that didn’t make the cut. So far I’ve got just titles on them, but I hope to add captions over the weekend to both yesterday’s event and from the Augusta event a fortnight ago.

We are already thinking about next year. The crew that was in Columbia had just come from Charleston and said it was a blast and the food was good, so we may head down there in 2008. We are also thinking of helping out by ferrying the cars to the next city. There are 19 numbered cars in the fleet, a crew X5 plus the support van and they have just 5 crew members, so they need at least 16 people to help get the cars to the next city. When you drive the cars depends on the distance to the next location. Short hops can be done right after the event or early the next morning. For these you drive to the next location, they feed you and put you on a bus back to where you started. Long hauls are started the morning after the event and you may get two meals out of it and a longer bus ride home. Might be fun to drive in a 21 vehicle caravan.

But why wait until next year, the Southern Fleet will be in Columbus, GA (about 250 miles away) in 3 weeks on Saturday April 21st…

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 100

101 Post Offices

101st Post OfficeJust got back from Columbia where we participated in our second BMW Ultimate Drive of the year. The weather today was the opposite of what we had 2 weeks ago. In Augusta it was sunny and bordering on hot, but today was cloudy and bordering on cold with a little rain tossed in.

Today’s loop was only 10 miles and Donna and I took it a little easier this time, we only made 10 laps in 8 different cars. There always seemed to be a lot of cars just sitting there not being driven, I think the gloomy weather was keeping the crowds away. Here is a rundown of what we drove/rode today:

  1. 530xi Sport Wagon
  2. 2 laps in a 335i Convertible (w/folding hardtop)
  3. 750 Li
  4. 2 laps in a 650i Convertible
  5. X3
  6. 328xi Sedan
  7. 335i Sedan
  8. 335i Coupe

While as friendly as the Southern Fleet Crew in Augusta, these folks seemed a little less organized than them. Might have just been an off day, the rain probably and they were a bit burnt out. The day before in Charleston they had a mob, 207 different drivers.

Taylor BMW in Augusta won in the refreshment category as well. All they had here was water, soft drinks and Subway sandwiches. In Augusta they had a couple kinds of sandwiches, wraps, pasta salad, cookies and brownies to go with the drinks.

Like last time we had lunch before we drove over. Don’t ever get the Southwest Chicken Salad at Hardee’s – yuk. We shared that, a small drink and a small order of curly fries.

Meal Cost: $7.39
Tip: None
Spent on this Meal: $7.39
Year to Date: $744.96

After driving, our plan was to drive home and have linguine & clam sauce, but it was rush hour and I-20 was backed up, so we got off an exit and headed into Columbia against traffic flow. We’ve missed placed our Columbia city map and I’ve misplaced my memories of how to get around, so boy did we get around. Hopelessly lost we stumbled onto Five Points which has plenty of eateries, so we stopped and ate at a place called Yesterdays. Eeeh, I’m sure there is some place better right around the corner, but we didn’t know any better. Lasagna and salad for me and Donna had black bean chili and a salad. The usual water and tea to wash it down with.

Meal Cost: $16.49
Tip: $3.51
Spent On This Meal: $20.00
Year to Date: $764.96

To top the day off, we caught the elusive 4th Post Office in Lexington, the Pastime CPU [29072-2117]. As luck would have it, the PO was in the same shopping center as an ice cream place. We had desert and finished the drive home.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 99

I Forgot The Title

SouthpawOne Biscuit n’ Gravy for her and one Sausage n’ Egg Biscuit for him with a water to drink.

Meal Cost: $2.74
Tip: None
Spent Today: $2.74
Year to Date: $737.57

I’m charging up the camera tonight so hopefully the battery will make it through the whole afternoon tomorrow.

Alright, what is the gimmick with all the offers I’m getting for 1.99% or 2.99% on balance transfers ’til the balance is paid off. I’ve got a pretty big balance on one card that is at 15 or 18% and I’ve been tempted to give one of these offers a go, but I’m sure I’m missing something that will come back and bite me.

Called to set up my six month follow up urologist appointment and was informed that the doctor I’ve been seeing is opening up his own separate practice. I was more than welcome to stay with the group, but would see a different doctor. Or I could choose to stay with my current doctor. They couldn’t give me his new number because they didn’t have it yet (so the receptionist said.) So what happened? My guy has only been there a couple years and he took over the patients from my previous doctor when he retired. He didn’t get along with the other two in the group? Did he do something the other two didn’t approve of? Get caught with his finger in the wrong cookie jar? Are the other two that difficult to get along with that they caused the retirement and now the split?

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 98

Can You Hear Me Now?

Inspired by of all things, a WordPress plug-in, I have resumed my search for intelligent life in outer space. I reinstalled the BOINC software again, and have attached myself to the SETI@Home project again.

As a rule my PC sits here running 24/7 and although my wife thinks its more, I spent about 4 hours in front of it each day. The other 20 hours it idles, except for a few milliseconds when it checks for new SPAM every half hour. I have a love hate relationship with the SETI@Home project. I love the whole ide of it, but hate the fact that I always seem to have trouble reliably connecting to their servers to keep me in work units. (As is the case right now after rejoining 3/27/2007 10:02:59 PM||Access to reference site succeeded – project servers may be temporarily down.)

So as to not waste my previously wasted CPU cycles I also signed up to help out with Climateprediction.net which is trying to produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century and Rosetta@home which is trying to determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins.

Anyway, my SETI@Home credit stands right now at 68,853.20. If I ever get connected, download some work and crunch some numbers, that total will go up and you will be able to follow the progress, along with everyone else, over there in the sidebar. Of course if I do discover a signal from intelligent life on another planet, I’ll probably blog about it here.

And it goes without saying that if I ever discover a WordPress plug-in that monitors the search for intelligent life on this planet I’ll add it to the sidebar as well.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 97

North? South? What’s the Difference?

North or South Lake DrApparently there is a big difference. I have the address of the missing Lexington post office in the master spreadsheet as 929 N Lake DR STE B. When I wrote about not being able to find it yesterday I put North Lake Dr in the post. The reason we couldn’t find it was because I had made a map of 929 S Lake Dr and that was where we were looking.

It bothered me that I couldn’t find the place, so tonight I went to the Hardee’s web site and search for Lexington locations and there was one at 917 South Lake Dr. I then went to the Postal Service site and repeated the search and it was then I realized that there was a difference between north and south – about 2-1/2 miles.

Two garden salads (Blue Cheese for me, Italian for her) and a 14″ 5-topping pie (sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, onions and banana pepper rings) at Ferrando’s in the alley on the way home from work. Water for both to drink. As usual we have half the pizza left for dinner another night at home or maybe lunch one day instead of a microwaved packaged meal.

Meal Cost: $20.56
Tip: $3.44
Spent Today: $24.00
Year to Date: $734.83

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 96