Miata Mileage

74,000 Sequins

74,000 SequinsDonna is in the other room watching the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships on ESPN. Tonight was the Ladies Short Program which Italy’s Carolina Kostner won.

I am in front of the computer watching the NCAA basketball tournament. With 28 of 32 1st round games played in the “Big Dance” I have correctly picked exactly half, which leaves me nearly dead last and in the company of people with names like Susan, Lorrie, Kella & Jean…

We went back to Augusta today to order our tile for the bathroom. Afterwards we went back to the Home Depot in Evans to try and get a look at the top color for the vanity we have picked out. The floor tiles are grayish-blue and there is a stock color by the company that makes the vanity we have picked out called blue pearl that we wanted to see. Our Home Depot in Aiken had a sample of every other color but that one. When we told the tile lady that we really did want to see the vanity top before ordering. She asked what the color was called and when we told her, she said we have a sample of that and she showed us. It was a lot more black than the blueish tinted web photo, but it would definitely work.

I still wanted to see what Pegasus called Blue Pearl because it might be completely different. Well the nice new big store in Evans did have the color and lo and behold it was just like what they had at the tile store. As we walked the bath aisles there was a vanity sitting in the middle of one that looked awfully familiar. Wait a minute that is our vanity! It was at a reduced price because it was damaged. There was a whole section with that style stuff in various sizes, including the desired 48″ one. These things, according the HD web site, are online order only, what’s this store doing with them?

Donna went up to the service desk to ask if we bought it here would they transfer it to our local store. The person wasn’t absolutely sure, but delivery would be expensive for us because of our over 25 mile distance from the store. We weren’t buying just then, so we figured we would ask that question at our store later. Big mistake, the people at our store knew even less. They even doubted that the store in Evans had what we saw with our very own eyes.

We have got a 10% off coupon (Thanks Patti) and it would be nice to take advantage of the discount on that high priced item. It has to be used on a single in store purchase, so I guess we will need to figure out how to do that. Unfortunately in this case a Miata is not as good as a pick up truck because of the objects size. We may have to borrow a friend on this one.

On the way back from Augusta the Emperor passed the 74,000 mile mark.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 86

73,000 Pieces of Hair

Haircut DayTonight was our every four week haircut appointment. Because one of the stylist’s other appointments didn’t make it in both Donna and I got got taken care earlier than we expected. Which left us enough time for her to make a Pampered Chef party over in Augusta. I drove her over and stayed behind at John & Carol’s house while she and Carol proceeded to go to the “party.” Soon John and I were joined by exiled husband of the hostess of the party. John grilled burgers and us guys hung out, chatting about guy things and watch the History Channel show, Modern Marvels: “Trucks.”

On the way back from Augusta, somewhere on I-20, the Emperor hit the 73,000 mile mark.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 51

72,000 Grains Of Rice

The “Gang of Six” meet tonight at Miyabi Japanese restaurant in Augusta for dinner. We had a 5:30 reservation and it is a good thing, as Donna and I arrived first, a couple minutes after five, and there was already a wait for walk-ins of 45 minutes.

Every one is seated at tables of 8, so we six are joined by a woman and her 5-year old son. They sat on the same end of the table as Donna and I and the little boy was very well behaved. Turns out they have eaten here before and it his favorite restaurant, even more so than McDonalds. He even ate with chop sticks (although they did have training wheels.)

If you have eaten at one of these places, you know the drill, a chef comes out and cooks in front of you. There are slashing knives and flipping spatulas. There is copious amounts of food cooked in a lot of butter and soy sauce. He sautees up some vegetables and then brings out this giant bowl of white rice and inverts it on the grill. It is the size of a basketball, I bet there are 72,000 grains of rice there. After it is separated into 8 parts, each serving is 3 x 6 x 2″ thick. Finally the meat is cooked and added to your plate, the pile of food in front of you is now enough to feed a small African nation. All 3 couples left with enough stuff in a to go box for lunch for two for another day.

For dessert we had homemade raspberry yogurt at one couple’s home and discussed everything from Presidential campaigns to Japanese after market parts for Miatas to whether Gene Simmons either aced the previous evening’s Celebrity Apprentice challenge or maybe marked himself for firing next week.

On the way back to Aiken the Emperor clicked over the 72,000 mile mark.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 1o

71,000 Lights

Christmas TreeWould you believe 7,100? How about 710? 71? There are probably somewhere between those last numbers decorating this spectacular Christmas tree on the back wall of my cubical/office. It is two sections of mesh net lights that go on the shrubs in front of a house. They used to grace our old artificial tree, but now that we have a smaller tree they are obsolete. When I first put them up I just hung them as a big ol’ rectangle. It looked awful, but I didn’t know what else to do. When my wife showed up for lunch she suggested the tree shape by letting the top panel hang from a center point. Smart girl.

Christmas DecorationsWe gathered some small bits of discarded valve parts for decorations, but more was needed. So I brought in a box from the attic at home that contained all my old drafting supplies from way back in the day — pre-computer. I probably have the only tree decorated with circle & lettering templates, pencils with different grade leads, technical pens of varying line widths, a compass for drawing big circles and a pocket protector. Plus there are even some small actual Christmas ornaments on there.

On the way back from checking the MMC P.O. Box in North Augusta tonight the Emperor clicked over the 71,000 mile mark.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 495

70,000 Sunrises

Sunrise Which is over 191 years worth, neither I nor the condo balcony I was standing on when I took this photo will ever see that total, the Emperor won’t make that many either, but it had traveled over that number in miles by late this afternoon.

Donna and I went to bed around 9:30 last night so we were up at the crack of dawn, literally. After breakfast we postponed our usual walk on the beach because it was quite chilly and windy. Instead we hopped in the car and drove to Bluffton, Hardeeville and Ridgeland to take Post Office Portraits. Our little loop brought us back to HHI where we ponied up the $5 for a day pass to nab the missing Harbortown branch PO on the Sea Pines Plantation.

Along the way we made several stops, ostensively to shop for the few remaining folks on our Christmas list, but I think Donna and I made out better than anyone. Our last stop was a used book store near the entrance to Sea Pines where we both got a couple of hardcovers to read. One of the ones I got was the latest Robert B. Parker Spenser novel which some one had just brought in today.

Right next door to the shopping center the bookstore was in was a Sticky Fingers restaurant. The one in Augusta had catered a lunch at ASCO when we had some visitors in and those who had the food said it was good. Being lunchtime Donna and I, let the car sit and walked the 100 feet over. It was 12:30 on a Saturday and there were two cars in the parking lot. Both in the back. One cook and one waitress? I was a little hesitant to eat at a place were we were the only customers, but it was a chain, so it couldn’t possibly be awful. It wasn’t. We split a lunch combo plate which consisted of 2 big ribs, a pulled pork sandwich, some beans and some slaw. Everything was tasty except for the slaw which was bland which means we would, if the opportunity strikes again, eat at a Sticky Fingers again.

Late afternoon found us at Donna Horsman’s house for some grilled chicken, roasted new potatoes, green beans and salad. We hadn’t seen Donna since attending Jerry’s memorial service back in May. She, with the help of her daughter, has continued to manage the 18 condos at the Beach & Tennis Resort and will for at least one more year. I think it helps keep her busy and mind off the loss of Jerry the Condo King. I guess I’ll have to start referring to Donna as the Condo Queen and Lisa can get the “title” of Condo Princess.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 481

69,000 Pieces of Aztec Gold

Last night we turned the clocks back and took advantage of that extra hour to sleep it away. But somehow, even though we got moving this morning at the “normal” time, it seemed like we were an hour behind all day.

Might have been the time we spent walking around at the Cowpens National Battlefield or it could have been time spent walking a block of downtown Gaffney looking for a Post Office or it could have been the time spent circling Newberry looking for a lunch place before ending up at Taco Bell or maybe it was…

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot,
Drink up, me ‘earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot,
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho.

I told her not to do it, but she did it anyway, Donna switched the channel over to USA at 8:00PM tonight and another 20 minutes were lost — watching the beginning of TDPM.

Somewhere between Carlisle and Union the Emperor kicked over 69,000 miles. With 3 weeks to go until HRH’s 4th birthday he may even reach the 70k mark before then.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 468

290 + 9 = 68,000

Caesar's Head LookoutWe set out to get the remaining eight Post Offices in the northwest part of the state and ended up with 9. Midway between Travelers Rest and Liberty we passed right by a mystery CPU. I did a u-turn and went back to get a photo. The closest town to us then was Dacusville, but it didn’t have a Post Office. Donna wrote down the address and this evening when we got home I looked for a Post Office in that town, none was listed. There was a new CPU for Easley that wasn’t on my original spreadsheet, the addresses matched. We have 299 PO photos taken, but we now have 162 to go as the state total just got kicked up a notch. About halfway through our loop we detoured up to Caesar’s Head State Park to see if any of the leaves were changing, they weren’t. The photo above is the view from the lookout near the ranger station, that granite faced mountain off in the distance is Table Rock Mountain with Pinnacle Lake in front of it.

Somewhere south of Calhoun Falls on SC81 the Emperor passed through the 68,000 mile mark.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 444