Miatatude

Top Down Day

Not to rub it in on those of you in the frozen north, but Donna and I went out to Burger King for lunch and rode with the top down. I don’t know what was better the nice open air drive or the Whopper served hot and fresh for a change.

Go to the BK site linked above. Then select the Nutirition tab. You can build your meal and see the totals. I had a Whopper – no mayo, medium Sprite and we split a medium fries, so my totals were:
1050 calories
300 calories from fat
34 grams of fat
12.5 grams of saturated fat
3.25 grams of Trans fat
75 mg cholesterol
1280 mg sodium
130 grams total carbs
6 grams fiber
66 grams sugars
33 grams protein

Dueling Car Washes

On the way home from grocery shopping yesterday afternoon I decided it was time to wash the car. We had just drove home from Hilton Head in the rain that morning and the car looked ugly.

Just a couple of days before I bought the new Miata, our neighbors got themselves a new “car” too (the word car is in quotes because they bought a Dodge Durango.) When we pulled into our driveway, Omar was in his, washing the Durango. He had his bucket and sprayer and was going to town.

I parked the car in the driveway and we unloaded the trunk of groceries. I came in and swapped a load of clothes (taking one out of the dryer, putting the one from the washer into the dryer and reloading the washer.) I then went back outside with my bucket and sponges to wash our car. By now Omar has been at it at least 15 minutes and I didn’t know how far along he was, but as I filled the bucket with water I hollered over saying, “I bet I’m finished before you are.”

I washed the Miata from top to bottom, stem to stern. I rinsed it off a second time with a low pressure stream to aid in sheeting the water. I dried the car. I shook out the mats. I wiped off the interior dust with a damp towel. I washed the windows inside and out with Windex. Finished, I pulled the car into the garage. When I walked back out to get the bucket and reel up the hose, Omar was just finishing up washing the back of the vehicle, all he could do was shake his head and smile.

Back From HHI

A pleasant little diversion was had this weekend. Drove down to Hilton Head Island to take more pictures of condos. My friend Jerry who manages a bunch of places at the Hilton Head Island Beach & Tennis Resort has snagged a few new ones (bringing the total to 25) and I need to update his website with the new places.

Took Friday off from work and drove down in the morning. We had Japanese food at Donna’s favorite spot for lunch, met with Jerry, took pictures then we had pizza at my favorite spot for dinner.

Saturday was up “early” for a walk on the beach, leftovers for lunch and a movie in the afternoon. Dinner that night was over at Jerry & Donna’s (Jerry’s wife’s name is Donna too) place. When we got there they came out to ooh and aah appropriately over the new car. I handed him the keys and said, “Let’s go for a ride.” We then proceeded to terrorize the neighbors and their dogs by driving around way too fast for his quiet little plantation development. Back in the day, Jerry used to drive of-road rally cars and it shows. At one point he said aloud, “Not bad clutch work for someone who has only driven automatics for the last 4 years.” I commented that it was pretty much like riding a bike and he responded back by heel and toeing a double clutch down shift through the next corner. To which I kidded, “You know they have synchros in the transmissions now a days.”

This morning it was raining, so Donna (mine) and I cancelled the beach walk and drove on home. Sometime on the drive home the CD Changer switched to disc 2. Not bad, nine days to finish listening to all 170 songs. At this rate I will have to swap out the 10 disc magazine, sometime in early April.

Remind me tomorrow to tell you about this afternoon’s dueling car washes.

I’m Number Four

Moved into 4th place on the Seti@Home Miata Club today. It helped that the old Number Four quit processing WUs back in November. I would have eventually caught him, probably just a couple months further along. #3 is about 1,000 WU ahead of me. I am currently churning out 8 WUs to his one, so I should catch him in under 6 months (that is unless the SETI folks implement their transition to BOINC before then.)

Take The Long Way Home

Nice break in the weather today. it was still warm after work, so this afternoon, Donna and I took the long way home.* It will be back to winter by Friday as the temps will fall into the upper 20’s overnight.

I’ve Been Framed

After Donna and I had lunch at our “favorite” place we walked over to Advanced Auto and I bought a nifty thin black metal license frame and the matching screw caps. Ever since I came home with the dealer plate on the back with it’s dealer black frame I kind of wanted a frame for the real plate. every time I went in a department store or auto parts place I looked. Today I found what I needed. Looks pretty good there.

The Miata plate is held on with only 2 screws at the top so the bottom holes are just there staring back at you. Well I fixed that. The screw covers came in sets of 4 so I epoxied the other two to the bottom of the frame for a more complete look. pardon me while I pat myself on the back….

The word favorite is in quotes up there because we have a love hate relationship with Popeye’s. The service is dreadful and the food is hit or miss, but when it hits it is great. Today, like a Vegas slot machine, they paid off with a hit, hot food. This minor success of a visit will make us forget all the other past failures and probably get us to go back again (when we will get cold food no doubt, and the cycle will start anew.)

FM

Today while over running the Master’s Miata Club‘s newsletter through the postage meter at the dealer, I mentioned the ugly spots on the outside rearview mirrors to the salesman and he said, “I know just what you need.” We walked around back to the detailing area and he grabbed a white bottle with no label on it. Poured some clear viscous fluid on a white rag. We went back over to where the car was parked and he swirled some on the mirror, let it sit while he swirled some on the other mirror. Got a clean rag and wiped/rubbed off the stuff from both mirrors. Spots all gone.

When I asked him what it was, he said, “I don’t know, we call it ‘water spot remover’.”

I call it Fucking Magic