Sturgeon’s Law Ninety percent of everything is crap.
Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, “Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That’s because 90% of everything is crud.” Oddly, when Sturgeon’s Law is cited, the final word is almost invariably changed to ‘crap’.
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The Taurus is gone and the Miata is back. They fixed almost everything on my list and came close on the other two, so I got our car back and will learn to live with a couple of minor imperfections.
The trunk lid is off kilter by just a little. Funny thing is that the gap changes noticeably on one side while it is hardly perceptible on the other side. Is the trunk itself crooked? They bought it through the local Mazda dealer… The thing that worries me the most is the thing that is supposed to reassure me, a sticker on the inside of the lid that says “Mazda.” Like that really confirms it is a genuine Mazda part. After only a month or so with my original Miata in 1989, I got a cracked windshield from rock kicked up by a big truck. The glass replacement guy made a big deal of showing me the little white lettering that said Mazda to prove he was installing an OEM piece of glass. Neither of my subsequent Miatas had that white lettering on the windshield.
They got most of the scratches out of the shift knob, I think after a while I’ll not notice the leftovers. But it is now summertime and each afternoon when I get in the car and burn my hand trying to shift with that hot metal ball I think about getting something different anyway. I wonder if I could get an upholstery shop to cover it with leather? I really like the round shape.
Actually, all in all, it is better than when it went in because they fixed the two small dents and 2 small scratches on the right rear fender. Now that they are through fooling with the car I’ll go ahead and put the replacement Calvin & Hobbes sticker on the bumper.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 178
The good news is the trunk is fine, just the way I looked at it was off. This morning at work I walked out to the parking lot with my digital calipers in hand. I measured the gap on the right side of the trunk lid, near the front it read .196 inches and at the rear it read .151 inches. That I could see, so now I measured the let side which I thought looked good, near the front it read .165 and near the rear it read .209 inches.
Time to do some ciphering. The difference between front and back on the left is .044 and the difference between front and back on the right is .045 meaning the trunk lid sides are parallel, but it is installed crooked. If we add up the gaps at the front we get .361 while the back adds up to .360 inches. At this point we’ll go ahead and throw out that odd thousandth of an inch because of not measuring in exactly the same spots on each side. The gap between trunk and fender should be .180 inches all around. I guess tomorrow morning I’ll go out to the garage and loosen the 4 mounting bolts and see if I can it all lined up.
For fans of higher math let’s use a little trigonometry and see what the angle of error is on the freshly painted trunk lid. The error between front to back was .044 inches or the opposite side of our triangle. The distance between front back measurement locations is 22 inches or the adjacent side of our triangle. Using my favorite mnemonic, Oscar Had A Hairy Old Ass, I know the tangent of the angle is the Opposite divided by the Adjacent. I can divide .044 by 22 and get .002, now I just have to figure out what angle has a tangent of .002, or what is the arctangent of .002. The calculator that comes with windows does tangents, but not arctangents, so a googling I go. I am led to Carbide Depot.com and their free online trig calculator which gives me an angle of 0.11459140° or if you like, 0° 6′ 53″.
Not much of an angle, but noticeable (at least on one side) to me.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 181
Put on the replacement C & H sticker on the back bumper. I think it is a little bigger than the last one. The original sticker in silver that I put on crooked was 6″ high and I thought it looked a little big, so when I went to dark yellow I got him to make it 5–1/2″ high. This one looks like we reverted to a 6″ size. Seems a bit too big and I put it on leaning a little too much, but it looks good back there anyway.
I had one zoom-zoom sticker left and I put it in the same spot I have on the last two cars, on the inside of the trunk lid with each zoom straddling the trunk latch, so you can see it when the lid is up.
Now we just have to make a trip to Deal’s Gap to get a dragon sticker and start the under lid collection in earnest.
While I was there I straightened out the lid. loosened the 4 nuts and pushed and pulled until it is pretty good, not perfect, but better than before. I used an 11/64th drill bit as a spacer. On Monday I’ll take the calipers back out and give you the new measurements. Oooh, goody, more trigonometry.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 182
Chemo treatment number 3 for Donna was Friday and this one made the last one look like vacation. The last two we were able to leave from the Cancer Center and have a nice lunch, this time it was straight home for chicken & barley soup thoughtfully provided by a friend. More soup for supper too.
The last two chemos caused a lot of stomach pain and low grade nausea that we kept pretty much in check with the 3 different meds we were given prescriptions for. This time, in spite of trying to stay ahead of the nausea with medicine, early Saturday morning Donna was visited by Mr. Upchuck, twice. Mid-morning on we didn’t feel terrific, but everything stayed down. We made a short trip out to the Cancer Center for another Neulasta shot at 11:00AM and managed a slow walk around our 1 mile long block, but other than that the couch was her friend. This morning we had a repeat performance of Saturday morning, but once again the stomach settled for the rest of the day. She even felt good enough to get a cup of ice cream and walk a block of downtown Aiken tonight.
We have a couple of things we would like to blame for being hit so hard this time. Four days prior to this chemo we spent 4 long days on the road to and from Virginia which was tiring. By Thursday she wasn’t feeling good, stomach-wise, already and we went out to eat with the Miata Club to a not so great restaurant. At least we hope this is what caused it, because we can control them and the lead up to #4, and last, chemo will be less eventful and less stressful.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 184
Didn’t get to post last night because my webhost misplaced my SQL Database. Put it down with his keys I guess… He must have found everything late last night because when I got up this morning the database was right where I left it yesterday.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 186
The recent 80’s with low humidity weather, which is very much unlike SC in June, has been perfect weather for top down motoring. After dinner Donna wanted to go over to Hopeland Gardens and take a walk, so we drove over. The parking lot was empty except for two other cars.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 188
Just less than a mile from home on the way to work this morning the odometer glided past the 41k mark.
Tonight we went out to watch a friends son play baseball. We have watched Jacob play since T-ball (he just got his driver’s license 6 days ago) and now he is playing with the big boys, the 15–18 year olds. The T-ball was fun because the kids were just so cute, but at this age it is almost like real baseball.
We have been known to watch his younger brother play baseball too. But with a four year difference in ages, Jared’s games always seem a lot less structured than big brother’s. Don’t get me wrong, we like to watch Jared play, he pitches a mean game, but Jacob’s games have the benefit of being played by older more experienced kids.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 190
…So Little Actually Worth Saying.
Are you as I tired as I am of the incessant promotions and marketing for the movie Cars? On ESPN’s Sportscenter last night they interviewed on of the actors who voices one of the cars. And some of the characters are so stereotypical they border on insulting; Mater, the slow speaking and possibly dim witted southern rusted tow truck voiced by Larry the Cable Guy. George Carlin the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman voicing the psychedelic VW van, Fillmore. Plus Ramone, the bright purple hydraulically enhanced low-rider voiced by Hispanic Cheech Marin.
Do we really need a movie version of Miami Vice? An 80’s style rap commercial for Pepto Bismo?
And speaking of commercials were these made by the same ad agency? For the Hummer H3 the stylish, eye catching “Urban Techno” and the totally lame and unimaginative “Goldilocks and the 3 Bears.”
Is it WordPress or more probably, my lame web host, but all of a sudden the plug-in I use to attach the thumbnails to posts is no longer working. Tried stopping and restarting the plug-in, but that didn’t work and if I shut it off all the past attached pictures disappear.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 192
About 9:30PM, when the FRS were safely ahead of the dreaded Yankees and Donna bouncing around on the couch because of cabin fever I decided that now would be a good time to go get that snack she asked for earlier. Her taste buds are all out of whack the last couple of days. Yesterday she would drink nothing but hot chocolate and earlier today it was pink lemonade. Tonight she wanted a Frosty from Wendy’s or one of those dollar “sundaes” from McDonald’s.
So we climbed on the tandem, fired up the lights and wound our way through neighborhoods taking the long way to Mickey D’s that is about a mile and a half from home. At 99 cents it is hard to beat a cup full of creamy soft-serve vanilla ice cream with hot fudge on top. With tax it set us back a whole $1.06. Donna left the 4 cents change as a tip for the barista.
7 miles.
In spite of their past mistakes, I went over the my LTS and had new Toyos installed on the car. Except for a brief interlude of the OEM Turdenzas on the Emperor when it was new, the last three sets of Miata tires have been Toyo T1-S’s in 195/50 x 15. An excellent summer tire with tons of grip, wet and dry, fairly light weight and pretty affordable. The T1-S is no longer made and has been replaced by the T1-R.
With the new tire purchase I decided to try and kill a couple of birds with the one stone of a set of T1-R’s in 205/50 x 15. The 205 is the width of the tire in millimeters and the 50 is the sidewall height expressed as a percentage of the width, so this means that the tire should appear to fill the wheel well better with its .2 inch taller sidewall. Second, according to the Miata.net tire size calculator, my speedometer will now read 1.7% low. This is a good thing because the stock speedometer appears to be almost 7% high right now and a little compensation the other way will help make it more accurate.
The LTS was busy and they told me it might be an hour and a half before they would have my car done. No problem I told them, I brought a book. True to their word, it took almost exactly that long. When I handed them the keys I reminded them the torque spec for the lug-nuts was 75 ft/lbs and asked them to at least start the lug-nuts by hand before they impacted them on because last time they stripped one of my studs. To which the guy behind the counter replied, “When you do as many tires as we do you are bound to strip a few.” Jeez, nice attitude.
When I got home the first thing I did was check the torque and it seemed about right as I loosened them all, at least I didn’t need a breaker bar to get them off. I then re-torqued all 16 to 75 ft/lbs. Next up I checked the tire pressure. The door jab sticker says that Mazda recommends that they be inflated to 26 p.s.i. I’m guessing they inflated them by counting off so many seconds, one Mississippi, two Mississippi…because the pressure ranged from a low of 34 p.s.i. to a high of 42. I used to run 29 p.s.i. in the T1-S’s, but these are supposed to have a slightly stiffer sidewall so I took them all down to 26 and we see how they feel. While I was doing tire things, I decided, what the heck, to go ahead and clean the tire installer’s greasy hand prints off my wheels. I don’t even want to get into the whole leaving the thin foil tire label on the treads so that they would slowly flake off leaving a trail right to my driveway from the store.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 194
…for not blogging.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 198
 After a mere 6 weeks my membership card arrived in the mail yesterday. After today’s split with Texas and the Yankee’s loss to Oakland the FRS magic number for clinching the American League East crown is 101.
Also yesterday I had a chance to see if the new tires helped make the speedometer more accurate, short answer no. The borrowed GPS unit showed 66MPH when the speedo indicated 70. GPS said 37 when the speedometer read 40. Looks like when the speed limit on the Interstate says 70 and I want to go 75, I’m still going to have to get the speedometer to read 80MPH.
Trunk Lid Update — I finally used some calipers to measure the trunk lid gaps on Friday. The left side moved in the correct direction by .013 and right by only .007, but it looks much straighter to the naked eye.
Paid bills via tandem this morning. Went 15 miles to accomplish it too, first time we have been in double digits since New Year’s Day.
Behind the Scenes — Updated to Word Press 2.0.3
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 198
Not only has the Sticky Image Plugin stopped working, but the image gallery thing stopped too. I did manage to get it going again, but the thumbnails don’t work.
As I’ve mentioned somewhere here before, the gallery script author is no longer supporting it (his web site has completely vanished,) but there is an enhanced version created by a couple other folks out there. I think I’ve even tried it, but for whatever reason didn’t like it. May have to try it out again.
My freeware HTML editor I’ve been using, TSW WebCoder, started throwing errors at me when I use it on the laptop. I went to the author’s web site to see if there was an update available and there was. Unfortunately it isn’t freeware anymore. Still seems to work OK on the desktop. Guess I’ll try the old uninstall/reinstall fix.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 200
Brian the Red: I was just thinking, Web Surfer.
Web Surfer: What?
Brian the Red: We got a great life ahead, you and me, and nobody’s going to take that away from us.
Web Surfer: Why are you looking at me like that?
Brian the Red: I’m memorizing your IP Address. I want to memorize everything about you so no matter what happens, I won’t forget you.
Web Surfer: What’s going to happen?
Brian the Red: Nothing’s going to happen. You’d never forget me either, would you? That thing you said you saw in me. Something in my eyes, remember? If some day somebody came up to you, maybe a football player, and he acted like he’d seen you before, you’d notice that same thing, right? You’d give him a chance? He might be a good guy. He could even be a quarterback.
Web Surfer: I don’t understand.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 201
The latest beta of Microsoft’s next operating system, Vista, is available for previewing from here — Windows Vista: Customer Preview Program.
You have two options, order a DVD ($6 for the disc + $4 for shipping) or you can download the DVD iso. I was going to just buy the DVD, six bucks didn’t seem too bad, but the shipping put it over a threshold that I didn’t want to cross. I tried downloading it at work, but I could never connect to the download site. Downloaded it from home, 3–1/4 Gig in about 2 hours. Trouble is I don’t have a DVD burner at home, They do have a portable at which which I borrowed tonight. Burned a disc for me and another for the DVD burner lender. Seeing as the laptop really has nothing on it but XP and some programs I decided to install it on there.
Started the install and went out for dinner. When we got back all that I needed to do was set the usual language and time zone stuff and Vista was up. Runs pretty slow, but that is because they recommend the minimum system RAM be 512M with 1G being better and the $500 laptop only has 256M (shared). It found the wireless router fine and connected to the net no problem. IE7 has tabs on the browser, what a concept. I’ve got to get it connected to the desktop for file sharing yet.…
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 203
In my usual cavalier manner I just went ahead loaded up Windows Vista Beta 2 on this here laptop last night.
It wasn’t until afterwards, when I realized the laptop was running real slow, that I checked to see if my machine was up to the minimum requirements for the software. It wasn’t.
It wasn’t until I decided to unload Vista that I realized that I didn’t get any restore discs with the laptop. I went to Dell.com’s support site and discovered that the recovery software was built in to the computer. Reboot, hit the Ctrl + F11 keys and I get nothing. I guess that is what I get for doing a clean install, must have overwritten that partition…oops.
Back to the support area. I tried the live chat to see what I had to do to get some restore discs. According to the CSR, because I was out of warranty I was not entitled to the discs. When I went home at lunch there was a message on the answering machine that said they were mistaken I could in fact get a restore disc, just call them. Only they didn’t leave a number.
Live chat #2 and this time they thought I should get the disc(s) right off. Ten minutes later I was told to expect my restore stuff in 2–3 business days.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 206
Put the Vampire Teeth back in the mouth and washed the car. Tomorrow is the Ridge Spring Peach Festival and the MMC is in the parade…
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 207
Donna and I got up early this morning and took a tandem ride. It was a very unsummer-like 65 degrees around sun up, perfect for a bit of exercise. I even wore a light jacket for the first part of the ride. As we rounded the next to the last turn on the way home Donna called out from the back that we had been 9.25 miles. I replied, “I can take a hint.” and turned right instead of left and made a little extra loop to put us over into double digits mileage-wise. Tomorrow the morning is supposed to be cool again, so we have a walk in Hitchcock Woods planned.
I’ve petitioned the Encyclopedia Britannica to place the above picture next to dork in it’s next edition. That’s me on the right. And I guess that it goes without saying, poor John Nichols, must be one too by association. The photo was taken just inside the festival grounds at the Ridge Peach Festival in Trenton, SC just after we had driven in the parade. I think I’m a bigger dork, because John doesn’t have Vampire Teeth on his car.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 210
My father wasn’t much of a presence and I’m not one at all, so today is pretty much just another Sunday.
Donna and I did take advantage of the nicer morning weather and go for a short walk in Hitchcock Woods. I took the camera and snapped a couple of uninspired images. I realized that I had started a gallery for one image from the woods per month and I was a couple months behind. I posted a shot from today and because May was a total wash out due to weather and chemo, I added a May photo from last year. Sorry, but the thumbnails in the gallery are still not working, so I’ll just link you right to today’s image: Palmetto Ride.
I did spend a little quality time with the closest thing I have to a son, the Emperor. Pulled the vampire teeth back out of the mouth as they had served their purpose. Changed the oil as it had served its purpose for the last 3000+ miles. I usually rotate the tires at this point, but these are only a couple hundred miles into their lives so I left them on their respective corners. I did take them off the car though. The center caps were starting to turn yellow, so I repainted them with some Duplicolor silver wheel paint. This was a known issue with these center caps, as in 1998 when they first appeared on the Miata, there was an undocumented TSB as the caps were turning yellow within a few months. I know the history of these wheels and they were replaced under warranty way back in late 1998. So the replacements have held up pretty well, needing retouching only after close to 8 years.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 210
What do you want? I’m just glad it’s over.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 212
 This morning when I walked down the main aisle to the mail room to see what exciting things might be in my slot, I spotted a dead palmetto bug, AKA: Big Ol’ Roach, right there on the carpet.
This is not a totally surprising sight, but what usually happens with this sort of incident is that tens of people will walk by the carcass several times a day and not do anything about it. They are always careful not to step on the roach, but will be sure they are looking the other way when passing so as to not be saddled with the responsibility of having to dispose of the body. Sometimes even the “cleaning lady” will waltz pass on her rounds emptying trash cans and not do anything either.
I figured that if this poor bug was going to be lying around all day it deserved a proper bit of roadside memorial, so I took some white strips of Velcro and a push pin and constructed a cross for it.
With in the first half hour of the day I had no less than 4 people ask me if I did that…
Today Mazda released some photos of the new 2007 Retractable Hard Top MX-5. It is power operated and adds about 80 lbs to the car. The big thing is it does not encroach on any of the existing trunk space. Now we know why the trunk is shaped the way it is.
Everyone questioned why they make the lid so short, why was it reshaped to be slightly bigger, but less usably shaped. When I look back at the new car’s introduction photos they showed a bare frame and it seemed like there was a lot of empty space below the storage area for the folded soft top. They added some behind the seat storage area plastic cubby holes in there, even put covers on them in the higher trim levels. Obviously they were thinking of this folding hard top contraption from the very begining.
They must not be so proud of the direct side view with the top up because of the angle this shot was taken from. There is another image that shows the top mid-change directly from the side and the hard boot cover has some funky looking bulges in it…
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 213
Kicked over an envelope that FedEx tucked between the screen door and the front door on my way out to get the newspaper this morning.
Tonight I reinstalled WindowsXP back on the laptop. I’m downloading and installing the 47 “critical” updates that Microsoft has issued since Service Pack 2.
Next I’ll be downloading trial versions of various Mahjong games in search of a nice replacement for the game that came with the Vista Beta.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 215
It is coming up on July and that means it is time for a month of digital cable for the Bogardus household. July 1st is the first stage of the Tour de France and it is only available on OLN which is only on G Force digital. With the digital upgrade we get both the Encore and Starz movie channels for free and last year I got in trouble because TDPM was running about every other night and I spent way too much time in front of the TV.
This year there are a whole bunch of new channels on the digital spectrum. Just about anywhere else in the country the Horse Channel would be a freebie, but here in horse crazy Aiken you’ve got to pay extra for it. One new one that does look interesting is B-Mania, tomorrow in their Premiere Theater at 8:00AM is Life on Mars . 
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 218
A few weeks back Donna sent me out for a small Wendy’s Frosty. They cost 99 cents and with our local 6% sales tax my total was a buck five. I went through the drive up and I didn’t have the nickel, so I gave the cashier a dollar bill and a quarter. She handed me my Frosty and then gave me my 15 cents change. Buy the time I realized I had been cheated out of a nickel, it wasn’t worth going back inside to get it.
Tonight she wanted another Frosty. Back to the drive up I go. Cost was the same as before, $1.05, so I gave the cashier a dollar and then rummaged around in the center console looking for the 5 cents. After watching me struggle for a bit, she finally said, “I’ve a got a nickel, just go ahead.”
Now we’re even.
Yesterday was Donna’s 4th and final chemo session. I went with her for her first and was going to go to all them, but she rather I just drop her off, come get her afterwards and then spend the afternoon with her. This worked for sessions 2 and 3. It was a good plan because for the first two sessions she didn’t start to feel bad until later in the afternoon. We even went out to eat lunch together those 2 days. But during chemo number 3 she started to feel punkish part way through, so she asked if I’d come with her for the last one. To which I readily agreed.
We went out to eat breakfast at the New Moon as usual, she had a bagel and I got one of their giant muffins. We finish the paper and headed over to the cancer center. The first thing they before anything is take some blood and analyse it to see if it is good enough to be zapped down with the chemo drugs. Her numbers came in great, everything was in the normal range with even one a little high. The numbers might even have been better than the ones that were from before the first session. Donna settled in the recliner, I got comfy in a chair beside her and he nurse got the IV started. First up in the IV is saline to keep her hydrated and then they start an anti-nausea agent before they get to the real juice. Donna has always brought some light snacks to nibble on during the treatments and this morning she ate some watermelon pieces first thing.
Not two minutes after finishing the watermelon Donna reached for the trash can near the chair and threw it right back up. The nurse ran off to get some towels to clean up and I got her a wet paper towel to sooth her forehead. Just about the time we got everything settled back down, Donna grabbed the can again and Mr. bagel joined the watermelon. This, all the while she is getting the anti-nausea medicine in the IV! The nurse went off for a couple more towels and brought back the doctor. The doctor came in and said, “OK, you are not feeling good we’ll postpone the chemo until Monday or Tuesday.” Donna said, “NO WAY! I’m here let’s get the show on the road.” He said, “Maybe it is just nerves. If you want the chemo now, fine.” She said maybe it was nerves, but she really hadn’t been feeling well since Wednesday and now that she had thrown up she felt pretty good.
After that interesting start, things went smoothly for the rest of the session.
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 220
That Damn Super Hero Movie
Well it has happened again. As I mentioned the other day we have access to the Starz/Encore families of movie channels and as I feared, I have lost a major chunk of my life to watching a movie too many times. In the span of 36 hours I have seen most of “The Incredibles” three times.
In between all this movie watching I did manage to sneak in watching the FRS beat the Philles 5 to 3 on Saturday afternoon and most of the Bourne Supremacy today.
We actually got out of the house a couple times this weekend too. We took an early morning Miata drive of a couple hours on Saturday before the heat hit. We went out and did the weekly grocery shopping late yesterday afternoon after the heat subsided some. We beat the heat again this morning, but went out on the tandem for about 11 miles of neighborhood and local road cruising instead of Miataing.
Lucius: Honey?
Honey: What?
Lucius: Where’s my super suit?
Honey: What?
Lucius: Where — is — my — super — suit?
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 220
I was in the living room on the laptop and Donna was in the back bedroom on the desktop went the first big thunder sounded. She shut off the desktop and said I think I’ll come in with you because there is a line of yellow, orange and red coming this way on radar.
When I shut off the laptop she suggested we go outside and watch the storm roll through. A quick side trip to the kitchen to toss a few strawberries and cool whip into some small bowls and we retired to the screen porch overlooking our backyard.
Ahh, summer in the south, fresh strawberries and nature’s light show…
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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 225
Your Final Quiz Score: 35 right out of a possible 60 The Monkey’s Final Score: 15 right out of 60
You asserted your intellectual superiority brilliantly! The monkey is now left contemplating his own inferiority. Where others have failed to claim the mantel of unequivocal dominance over lesser species, you have truly succeeded! Congratulations on besting the ape and reaffirming the capabilities of the human mind. You have done mankind proud.
You scored in the 84th percentile.
(84% of quiz takers scored worse than you)
| Geography |
Your score: 10
Monkey’s score: 4
– Quite a sufficient job. |
|
| History |
Your score: 8
Monkey’s score: 6
– You might have done better. |
|
| Science/Technology |
Your score: 9
Monkey’s score: 2
– Well done. |
|
| Random Trivia |
Your score: 8
Monkey’s score: 3
– Good but not great. |
|
Link: Take the Quiz at MonkeyQuiz.com
A 6 year old and a 4 year old are upstairs in their bedroom. “You know what?” says the 6 year old. “I think it’s about time we started cussing.” The 4 year old nods his head in approval. The 6 year old continues, “When we go downstairs for breakfast, I’m gonna say something with hell and you say something with ass.” The 4 year old agrees with enthusiasm.
When their mother walks into the kitchen and asks the 6 year old what he wants for breakfast, he replies, “Aw, hell, Mom, I guess I’ll have some Cheerios.” WHACK! He flies out of his chair, tumbles across the kitchen floor, gets up, and runs upstairs crying his eyes out, with his mother in hot pursuit, slapping his rear with every step. His mom locks him in his room and shouts, “You can just stay there until I let you out!”
She then comes backs downstairs, looks at the 4 year old and asks with a stern voice, “And what do YOU want for breakfast, young man?” “I don’t know,” he blubbers, “but you can bet your fat ass it won’t be Cheerios.”
Tonight at Fenway Park the Mets are in town for an interleague game against the FRS. Before the game they will have a small ceremony “celebrating” the World Series of 20 years ago. If you are a Mets fan you remember the final out of the 7th game with your team mobbing each other in victory, but if you are Red Sox fan you remember Mookie Wilson’s ground ball towards first base in the 10th inning of game 6.
I Forgive You Bill Buckner
Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 228
Every couple of years I get a college student as a summer helper. It is both good and bad. The good is that as a self taught AutoCAD user they usually teach me some stuff I didn’t know about the program and the bad is that they are kids which means they can’t sit still. This year it is Adam Kitchings who is the son of Tim our Plant Engineer and Controller of the Air Conditioning.
Adam, like all those hip kids these days, has a page on MySpace.com. I was going to leave a comment on his page, but I couldn’t because I’m not a MySpace member. I figured what the heck I join up too. I feel like such a novice though, I can’t even figure out how to change my background over there. Brian’s MySpace & Adam’s MySpace.
Here, for your further entertainment, is Adam’s Top Ten Peeves:
#10 — Microsoft (would be higher if not for the X-box & Halo)
#9 — Illegal Aliens expecting all the same rights as citizens
#8 — The world’s right-handed bias
#7 — Sugar free energy drinks
#6 — Qwiky Mart customers who buy a half dozen Twinkies & a Diet Coke
#5 — People who drive 95 MPH in the 55 MPH zone
#4 — People who drive 45 MPH in the 55 MPH zone
#3 — Snapping Turtles
#2 — Gar
and Adam’s #1 Pet Peeve
Jet Skis
Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 231
Next door to ASCO is a little place called Bobby’s Clean Up that, while I’m not exactly sure what, has a lot to do with cars. Every now and again there is something unusual parked over there. This week it is a 1959 Cadillac Sixty Two Convertible. It showed up on Tuesday and has been inside the shop since then. Today I noticed it parked out front as I came back from taking Donna home.
I pulled in and poked my head inside the building to ask if it was alright if I took a closer look at it. The fellow inside said that it belonged to a local home builder and he had spent about $35k for it. It was there getting it all nicely detailed for this coming Sunday’s downtown Aiken cruise-in.
The car is absolutely beautiful. Every panel is faultless and the interior is in nicer shape that mine. It has either been hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar on the porch of Funk & Wagnalls or been recently fully restored.
I really wanted to get a picture of it with the Miata parked behind it, so it looked like it was the big cars dinghy. It was high noon with the sun extremely bright and with the Caddy backed in under the awning, the contrast was so intense taking a good picture was nearly impossible. Here is one that came out OK:
Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 234
About 42,000 feet outside of Anderson,SC the odometer clicked over 42,000 miles. We are on our way to a mini-vacation getaway to western NC and the destination of choice or both of us. For her a two night stay in her favorite B & B, the Blue Boar Inn, and for me a couple days of twisty roads, including the king of curves, Deal’s Gap.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 235
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