13 Trillion Yen Man

Dice-KI was all set to listen to the Red Sox game on the Internet tonight when I found out they played an afternoon game. On the mound was their new acquisition, Daisuke Matsuzaka (AKA Dice-K) that they paid around 50 million bucks just for the rights to try and sign him to a contract. Then they spent 50 more to sign him. So far he looks like he may be worth the money, giving up just one run on six hits while striking out 10 in seven innings. Twenty more games like that this year and I may take up learning Japanese.

Tomorrow is a holiday for ASCO, so Donna and I will probably sleep late and take a hike in the woods. Saturday we will probably sleep late and try a bike ride. Sunday we will get get up at 4AM to drive to CAE and hop a plane to our nation’s capital. We are off to visit Donna’s friend Sally for a couple of days. She is back from Africa for a few months and learning Spanish now, because her next Embassy assignment is Tegucigalpa, Honduras. After DC we will head up the the ex-Hardware Capital of the World (New Britain, CT) for a brief visit with my family. After that, next Friday and Saturday we will be in NJ for a memorial service for Donna’s aunt Mary who passed away in January. Should be interesting, Mary had 4 daughters, three talk to each other, but two of them aren’t talking to one.

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 112

Don’t Forget NaviGirl

SuperheroesAll Donna could do after reading last nights post was shake her head. (Wait’ll she sees this one.) What’s a good superhero without a sidekick? While Garnetman can drive like the wind, spot the apex of a curve in a flash, the big picture of proper course is his Achilles heel. He needs direction, so who reads the maps that keep him on trajectory? NaviGirl, that’s who.

Why Garnetman might have starved this very evening had not NaviGirl led him to the golden doors of the China Palace. Sizzling Rice Soup for two and a serving of Double Fried Pork split down the middle. Water to drink.

Meal Cost: $13.50
Tip: $2.50
Spent Today: $16.00
Year to Date: $834.49

Once again I “borrowed” the superhero images from The Art of Andy Smith. I did email him to see what he’d charge for his You be the Superhero! program. We’ll see what he says. Of course if he finds this site first and sees the liberties I’ve taken with his art, I may hear from his lawyers instead of him.

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 110

Garnetman

Garnet Red MiataWarning, those of you with a low threshold for stupidity may want to skip this post.

While wiling away some time on the Miata Forum I came upon a post in the NC forum from a woman about getting the exact car she wanted. It is a new MX-5 in Galaxy Gray which is a fairly dark gray with blue undertones. When the folks in that section put their car color in their signatures this color is abbreviated GG. I don’t remember exactly what she had to say, but I really did like her forum name – Galaxy Girl (which could also be abbreviated GG.) I could readily imagine the costume a superhero called Galaxy Girl would have, all dark blue with small silver stars throughout and a big ringed planet on her chest. A chrome silver cape and boots with a dark blue strap mask that had star shaped cutouts to see through.

It was almost enough to make me want to buy a Galaxy Gray MX-5 in 1336 days just so I could change my forum name to Galaxy Guy. Wait, can’t I just change it now to something like Garnet Guy or maybe just Garnetman. Let’s see, dark maroon uniform with a faceted GG or G on the chest in shiny bright red. Red boots and cape with gold piping. For a mask, maybe something like Geordi from ST:NG.

I have commissioned a caricature for the last two Miatas, maybe I could get an artist to draw up Garnetman for me. A Google search led me to a few possibilities, including this one: The Art of Andy Smith.

Andy Smith's Superman Andy Smith's Quasar

The guy has done work for Marvel comics, so his work probably wouldn’t come cheap. I may go ahead and ask anyway. I kind of like this pose of Superman or this other one of Quasar from his Commissions page. Boy if I did get my very own superhero alter ego, you could bet that this web page would get a redesign…

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 108

You Mean It Counts Now?

Parking Lot PollenSomeone forgot to tell the FRS that it wasn’t spring training anymore. They lost big time to the KC Royals today on opening day. I was listening to the game on the net until I stumbled onto the ESPN broadcast. Kind of wish I hadn’t. Plus the Yankees won meaning we are already a game back…

The only thing that saved the evening was my after game channel surf discovered TDPM on USA Network again. I came in almost exactly in the same spot as last night too.

Jack Sparrow: I really rather hope we were past all this.
Barbossa: Jack… Jack! Did you not notice? That be the same island we made you the governor of on our last little trip.
Jack Sparrow: I did notice.
Barbossa: Perhaps, you’ll conjure up another miraculous escape, but I doubt it. Off you go.
Jack Sparrow: The last time you left me a pistol with one shot.
Barbossa: By the powers, you’re right. Where be Jack’s pistol? Bring it forward.
Jack Sparrow: Seeing as there’s two of us, a gentleman would give us a pair of pistols.
Barbossa: It’ll be one pistol as before, and you can be the gentleman and shoot the lady; and starve to death yourself.

This time I watched it all the way to the end and when I did I noticed that they added a little bit there to perhaps explain the very end of movie #2. The original movie ends with Jack at the helm of the Black Pearl, tonight it cut back to the cave and showed the monkey (Jack) swimming past the apple Barbossa drops when he dies. It hops up on the Aztec treasure chest and picks up a piece of gold, thereby turning into a skeleton. He hisses at the camera as we fade to black. I guess we are to assume that the monkey then puts the coin in Captain Barbossa’s pocket and that is how he shows up in the end of Dead Man’s Chest. Did we need this to explain his resurrection? I was perfectly happy to believe that Tia Dalma had brought him back to “life” by using some voodoo magic.

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 106

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.

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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.

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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…

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 100