Year: 2022

Gyros

Today the Miata made a 5.7 mile dinner run to the only “Greek” restaurant in town, that’s right Arby’s, for gyros.

We needed to cleanse our palates after last week’s attempt to make our own at home following a recipe Donna found online. It turned out very, very disappointedly. It used a mix of beef and lamb like a gyro should, but it was using ground meat of both in an oblong patty fried in a pan, unlike the traditional vertical rotisserie method. The meat turned out tough. 🙁 The pita wasn’t that great either, we couldn’t find them anywhere in Fred Meyers, so we bought what we thought were the best ones on the shelf at Walmart. The pitas fell apart after warming them up. Our tzatziki sauce was from a premade tzatziki yogurt dip we found and even after adding feta cheese pieces to it, was not really that great.

Having had good luck with Arby’s gyros before and after our home disaster we figured that these tonight would just blow us away, but for some reason they just didn’t hit the mark. I think we’ll give them another chance, but two strikes and they’ll be out.

We have tried a gyro at a place over the Cascades in Medford and it was a bit different, but not worth going back there for one. On a trip in Washington state we found a chain called Pita Palace or something like that and had a similar experience, meh.

When we lived in Aiken we were regulars at a family run restaurant called Acropolis that did a real nice gyro. There was a nice little Greek place in the French Quarter that we ate gyros at semi often when we lived there after discovering this wonderful food at the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition.

Ed Note: Donna swears it was at the 1982 Knoxville World’s Fair!

15.3 miles from 2 sperate trips yesterday & today.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 31

 

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Volkswagen Edition of SORT
As of Monday, June 6, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2004 Volkswagen R32 1989 Volkswagen LT45 Dually Camper Conversion 2012 Volkswagen Touareg Executive TDI
I bet you thought when you saw Volkswagen Edition in the title you were going to see nothing but bugs, buses and Karman Ghias. Ha, I decided to go another way, but as to not disappoint my public, here are some of the usual suspects:
Beetle, Beetle or Beetle Bus, Bus or Bus Ghia, Ghia or Ghia

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1973 Lancia Fulvia 1600 Bid to $52,000 on 6/3/22
Off-Road: 1981 Daihatsu F55 4×4 Sold for $22,500 on 6/3/22
Touring: >1968 Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 Bid to $204,000 on 6/6/22

Hammered Copper

When we first bought our current bed frame it was because we really liked the shade of green of the one on the display floor. The trouble was that the one on the floor was already spoken for, the person had paid for it, but hadn’t picked it up yet. The only other colors they had were a brown and a white.

We picked white with the intention to paint it a color that would approximate the green we saw in the store. We went to Home Depot and got some paint chips of the color we thought it was, but when we compared it to frame in the store, nothing came close. Instead of painting the bed frame we picked one of those shades of green that we could agree on and painted the bedroom walls with it. Some time later after watching too much HGTV we turned the wall the bed sat against a darker shade of the same green family to create an accent wall.

After last week’s “over the bed” art print purchase, we thought that maybe we needed to repaint that accent wall. The forest scene had a lot of dark greens in it and it might get lost on the dark green wall, so we went back to Home Depot and picked up a quart of the lightest shade from the same family to cover it. Now fearing that the while bed would get lost in the light colored accent wall, we picked up 3 spray cans of Rust-Oleum Hammered Copper paint for the bed frame.

Earlier this week I parked both cars outside, laid down a giant tarp and placed all the bed frame pieces on it. I used up almost all of the three cans of paint on just one side of the parts. I did get two coats on them though. And because I tried to get as much of the sides I ended up covering two thirds of all the surfaces. I was looking pretty good and the only down side was that the index finger on my right hand was extremely sore. So much so that I was experimenting with using my left hand, but I was awful at it.

The following day we returned to Home Depot to buy a few more cans of paint and a little something else that was needed if I was going to be pressing a spray nozzle at all, because my right index finger hurt and was practically numb, a High Performance Comfort Spray Grip Accessory. And man, this thing is cool, I only wish I had bought one to begin with.

Yesterday the bed frame went back together and I hung the picture over it. Everything looks really nice, the bed pops and the forest picture doesn’t get lost in the background. Now what the heck am I going to do with that quart of light green?

Miata Moves

Yesterday’s lunch was a medium Boss from Rodeos Pizza and because it was a beautiful afternoon the Miata was pressed into aa pizza delivery vehicle.

This morning we took the Mini to Fred Meyer for grocery shopping and while Donna was was restocking the selves with food, I was sent to High Lakes Dispensary to restock our cannabis shelf.

When I got back home, while the Miata was still all warmed up, we both made the trip to Walmart for some food items we couldn’t earlier. Then from there we looped east over to Home Depot for some more painting supplies.

28.2 miles from 3 sperate trips yesterday & today.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 29

 

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Memorial Day Edition of SORT
As of Monday, May 30, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1973 Lancia Fulvia 1600 1981 Daihatsu F55 4×4 1968 Ferrari 365 GT 2+2
I was hoping to find three military style vehicles to put here, but came across just
this one, so I went with the red, white & blue theme for the Memorial Day holiday.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 2006 Porsche Boxster S Sold for $28,250 on 5/24/22
Off-Road: 1974 Ford Bronco Ranger Sold for $72,000 on 5/25/22
Touring: 1949 Buick Super Sedanet Sold for $145,000 on 5/28/22

Adventures In Picture Hanging

When shopping at Fred Meyers last week we started at the back of the store because we needed some stuff out of the Garden Department. On our way over to the grocery section we walked by the Home Décor area and right there on an end cap were these 40″ x 30″ photo prints on canvas for sale at 50% off.

As we leafed through the stack we saw a forest scene with a trail through it and Donna said, “Ooh, I like that one.” I said, “Me too!” Not only was it the scene, but it was the color too. It would fit perfectly with the greens of our bedroom colors and we did need something to hang on the wall behind the bed. When this type of synchronicity happens, we knew that this was a must buy. So we did.1

Yesterday I decided to hang it up. First up I hammered two sawtooth picture hangers into the back of the frame of the photo 5″ in from each edge to hold it up. Then I measured the wall horizontally and the space between the top of the headboard and the ceiling so that I could figure out how to put the picture in the center of the space.

The ceiling height was at 93″ and the top of the bed was 54″ from the floor giving me 39″. I then subtracted the picture height and divided it half to give me the height of the top of the picture to the ceiling, 4-1/2″ The wall was 102″ wide, subtracting the picture width of 40″ and dividing that by 2 gave me 31″ from the wall edges.

I dragged the bed away from the wall and got out my laser level and transferred my measurement to the wall and drilled two holes to mount the screws. As I held up the picture to hang it I quickly realized that the screws were no where near where the sawtooth hangers were. Doh! Homer Simpson head slap. I forgot that I had mounted the hangers 5″ in from each edge of the picture.

So, I measured five inches in from both wrongly placed screws and drilled 2 more holes. I placed the picture back on the wall and stepped back. Nice, got it two. I’ll spackle the extra 2 holes later. I pushed the bed back up against the wall, using the existing dents in the carpet to get it back exactly were it was. Stepped back again to admire my handy work and the picture wasn’t centered over the bed. #%$&#@!

The bed itself was not in the middle of the wall. One side was further right to allow Donna an easy path out along the side wall without having to turn sideways. The main bath is behind the wall the bed is on, so that my side has almost four feet of room to the other side wall.

I took the picture down and stood it up against the wall it has been leaning on for the last week and a half. Sometime later this week I will try and get the photo mounted correctly. You know what they say, “The third times a charm.” Keep your finger crossed…

7.1 miles on Fred Meyers run.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 29

 

Choosy Brians Choose Jif Peter Pan

I was aware of the Jif peanut butter recall for possible salmonella contamination, but didn’t really pay attention to it. We’ve had a jar of Jif in the cupboard, but it was half used up and neither of us has gotten sick. If it was bad, we surely would have had a problem by now.

When the local paper published the the product codes yesterday Donna asked if ours was in range listed. I shrugged (once again we have had no issues.) So she went and looked at the jar. Sure enough ours was smack dab in the middle of the recalled numbers. So, better safe than sorry, into the trash it went. On today’s grocery shopping trip we picked up a jar of Peter Pan.

The Miata has been driven 3 times since the last update. It was driven a whole 4.9 miles to go fill up the tank with premium unleaded on Monday. This was the 130th fill-up for me with this car and it took 9.347 gallons at $4.49 per2 returning a 26.08 MPG. For reference the very first time I filled up the CTBNL was on September 2nd 2016 and at that time it received 9.856 gallons at $1.699 per3 for a MPG of 25.9.

The Miata was driven to my doctor’s appointment this morning for a round trip of three whole miles. The only real drive of consequence it took was a 25.7 mile evening cruise yesterday. Because it was dusk and the temps were in the upper 70’s the bugs were out in full force we managed to collect quite a few on the nose and windshield, so this afternoon it got a bath in the driveway.

33.6 miles on 3 trips.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 28