Miata Washings

Been Awhile

We took the afternoon off work today and on the way home we ran a couple errands. Paid the water bill and stood in line for a long time at the Post Office so I could mail back the no longer needed GROM AUX-IN Adapter. Because of the time of day and our unusual route home we ran smack into some nearly standstill type traffic on Whiskey Road. I zipped a quick left in a brief traffic gap so we could come home along a couple of Aiken’s on purpose dirt roads through the horse district. That meant that I needed to wash the Miata this evening because it needs to look its best tomorrow because Donna and I are organizing the MMC’s monthly breakfast.

It sure is nice to have the garage back, really keeps the top transitions to a minimum. That and only driving on days it is not going to rain. I had to go all the way back to April 22nd to find the last time the top changed status.

Been awhile since we did any geocaching, but that is going to change tomorrow as we are at least going to go hide a cache. Might even look for one.

It is also been a while since we’ve been for a walk in Hitchcock Woods, but that is due to change on Tuesday when Donna and I take some company visitors for a stroll in there.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1222

Kitchen Before & After Photos

From February 2nd:
Here is our soon to be remodeled kitchen. The cabinets are original to the house. As is the yellow tile counter top and back splash. The floor is currently covered in dark blue commercial grade carpet and there is at least 2 layers of vinyl under that, who knows what is further down. Currently the dishwasher is the old fashioned manual kind.

If all goes according to plan in about a dozen days this will be an empty room, maybe even just a skeleton. D-Day is February 11th.

Here is our newly remodeled kitchen. The cabinets are Shenandoah Breckenridge in Maple Spice. The counter top is Caledonia granite and the back splash is 3 x 6 white tiles in a subway pattern. The floor is 12 x 12 light gray tile laid in a staggered pattern. The dish­washer is a GE Top Control Dishwasher with Steam Cleaning.

If all goes accord­ing to plan we will never remodel another kitchen.

This morning I washed off the Miata car cover to get it clean in the hopes I can sell it for a few bucks. I placed it on top of the Emperor to spray it off then left it on to dry. This afternoon I removed the cover and washed the car underneath. Then I washed rinsed off the Sonata too.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1219

Disappearing Dumpster

No Dumpster

For the first time in 61 days the Emperor could park in his Throne Room. It was supposed to be gone last Friday, and then it was supposed to be yesterday, so quite frankly we were surprised to find it actually gone when we pulled into the driveway after work today. Even though pine pollen season isn’t exactly over, the Miata got a washing before being driven into the garage.

We have been driving the Miata for the last couple weeks, so the Sonata has been just parked under the awning gathering a layer of pine pollen. To keep both siblings happy, I was going to wash the Purple Whale too, but dinner was nearly ready, so Donna insisted that I put the wash bucket away and after eating we’d run the Sonata through Lu Lu’s, a local car wash. It felt like cheating and it cost $10, but man that was easy.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1215

Monday Musings

We have a BCS Bowl Pool at work. All 35 bowl games were used, starting with Arizona vs. Nevada in the New Mexico Bowl on December 15th and culminating with the Discovery BCS Championship Bowl in Miami pitting Alabama against Notre Dame. We include the point spread as published before the first game and don’t adjust it. And if the spread is an even number, a half point is added to the underdog to eliminate ties. We have 36 people playing and with just tonight’s game left my wife is in the catbird seat. If the Tide rolls she wins having picked 23 of 35 correctly. If the Fighting Irish win or lose by less than 10 points she will be tied for first and can do no worse than getting 2nd place money, if the tie breaker doesn’t go her way.

We have a MMC event this weekend, so in preparation the Emperor got a sponge bath this evening. By the time we get home from work these days it is too dark and too chilly to be getting out a bucket of sudsy water and a hose, so I opted for the soft towel and Meguiar’s Quik Detailer option. He is a small enough car and not too dirty that it didn’t take too long. I also put the top up and washed the windows. Tomorrow or the next day I may go ahead and give him a waxing in the garage as well being sure that I do wheel it outside in the daylight at some point to ensure I get all the dry wax buffed off.

We have a cache over in Augusta that we didn’t find when we first looked for it, so we put it on a watch list. This means that every time someone does or doesn’t find that cache we get an email letting us know what happened. Tonight we got a couple of emails telling us that some folks from Canada had found it. Somehow the mundane log of “Found with so & so. Thanks for the cache.” sounds so much more exciting in French, “Trouvé avec Pascal70 et lolo001. Merci pour la cache.”

The bank called this afternoon, the home equity loan is ready, so we meet one last time with the contractor tomorrow and then on Wednesday it is back to Lowe’s to talk with the cabinet guy to iron out the final details. Looks like this thing is gonna happen.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1189

Skaneateles

We went to watch polo this afternoon and took along the new guy at work. The weather was perfect, sunny and low 70’s and the game was awesome. It was the finals in an 8 Goal* Tournament and after 5 of the 6 chukkers the score was tied 7-7. The final ended up being Skaneateles 12, Hutchinson Farms 9. Vaughn grew up around horses, but had never seen polo, so he had a great time. We couldn’t have asked for a better game either, usually when we go to a polo match we are lucky to see 10 goals scored total.

*The goal total is not an indication of how many goals the team should score but a player handicapping/ranking system.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1177

The Autotrophs Began To Drool

Since we last spoke a week ago*:

The Miata has gotten a bath to wash last Saturday’s bugs off only to put some more back on yesterday when we took the MMC to Sardis.

I’ve got the new shocks for the Emperor in the garage which will probably get installed this week some time. Went with the non-adjustable Koni SRTs this time, because why spent twice as much for the adjustable Sport models.

The FRS have won 3 games and lost 4 which is pretty much on par for the way this season is going. Unfortunately the MFY won all seven (now nine in a row for them) putting the Red Sox (who are still in last in their division) 8 games out.

Mad Men is over for another year and we now have absolutely nothing to watch on TV except for The Big Bang Theory and we only have 4 episodes of that to watch before we are all caught up with all the Season 5 shows.

*Where the heck did it go? Seems like yesterday…

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, up again, down once more, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1152

Close Encounter Of The Google Kind

It’s Friday, so, as usual, Donna and I rode the tandem to work. As we parked the bike in the rack Donna noticed something hanging from the back tire. On closer inspection it turned out to be a section of the tire about the size of 2 quarters side by side that had separated from the kevlar belts. It was still holding air so we opted to ride it home, but agreed not to bomb down the hills and take it easy on the corners in case of sudden air containment failure.

A little more than half way home we came to a halt at a stop sign we usually don’t have to stop at. Not because our tire blew out, but because there was a car coming from the left. It looked a little weird, there were some odd stripes and it had green doors, so I knew it was vinyl wrapped to advertise some business. I was so intent on trying to figure out what they were advertising for for that it took a while to register that there was something very weird about the car.

It had a 3′ stalk sticking out of the roof with a red disco ball on top – it was a Google Street View Car! I waved meekly as it passed. Because it was going the way we were going, we turned right and followed. The Google car got stopped at the light at the next block and I pulled up right behind it to wait. The light turned green and the car pulled off. I gave another wave as Donna and I turned left to continue on the way home.

I don’t know when they will update the Street View for that intersection and stretch of road, the current images are from December 2007, but when they do, we’ll be famous.

The Emperor got a bath this afternoon because tomorrow is the MMC Tech Day and heaven forbid I show up with a dirty car.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1135