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Santa Fe, NM – Day 21: Check Surroundings For Safety or Big Robot, Little Dog

Eighty Foot Tall Robot

Today’s Roadside America picture is of an 80-foot-tall robot that shares a parking lot with a giant spider and a huge wolf here in Santa Fe. It only added a couple miles to my morning run to Dunkin.

After finishing my breakfast and coffee, it was time to head south to the town that Bugs Bunny keeps making wrong turns in, Albuquerque, to visit the Revlimiter Factory to get some nifty custom gauges installed. Adam will install the gauge faces for you for an extra fee, but you have to remove them from the car and mail them to him. Instead of mailing my cluster to Adam, I brought the whole car to him. I disassembled what seems like the entire dashboard of the car with his guidance so we could get the gauge cluster out of the car. Adam then gloved up like a surgeon to swap out the actual faces. We then tag-teamed the reinstallation and assembly of the dash.

I was so busy “fan girling” about being at the epicenter of Revlimiterness that I forgot to take any pictures. Adam actually moved the famous Sharka out onto the driveway, under a tree no less, so that I could pull into the garage. Mona, the transforming ND RF, was parked in one garage bay over. Anyway, the pics below happened once I got back to Santa Fe.

I had one last request of Adam. Some people get Tom Matano, a founding father of the Miata, to sign their trunk lid. Hah, that’s nothing. I got Mr. Revlimiter to sign my trunk lid, right on his sticker. And I got to meet Mabel the wonder dog too, and she loves me. I got the sticker to prove it.

Santa Fe, NM – Day 20: “I Made Rice!”

Gates of Santa Fe 3


Gates of Santa Fe 3 
Tonight was dinner in, and Sally cooked us up some shrimp etouffee. It was supposed to be something else but came as a last-minute addition because there was a nice deal at Smith’s for raw shrimp at $4.99 a pound. This also means she got to try out a microwave rice cooker her friend Kevin recommended.

Ever since she has lived in Santa Fe, she has not been able to get her rice fully cooked. The center always ended up crunchy, and if it was cooked more, the rice would be mushy. She is blaming it on the 7,000′ elevation, but it also might be the lack of moisture in the desert air.

The cooker came with instructions that laid out how much water and how long to cook it for several different types of rice. I was also optimized for an 800-watt microwave, so she had to cook it at 80% power in her 1,000-watt oven. When she tasted the rice, she proudly shouted, “I Made Rice!” Quickly followed by, “There’ll be no living with Kevin now.”

Bonus Roadside America photo:

Life-size Brontosaurus Family

Santa Fe, NM – Day 19: Baby It’s Cold Outside

Shop Here


 
This morning we woke to colder than normal May weather in Santa Fe, the temps were in the mid 30’s. My morning drive to get a Dunkin’ coffee was shrouded in fog. The temperature barely moved, and if anything, they decreased close to freezing. Then it started raining lightly on and off, and there might have been a flurry or two in there as well.

Because we didn’t walk much in Hammond, and yesterday in Santa Fe we barely walked a 1/4 mile before it started to drip from the sky and we turned tail for home, we decided to go walking/shopping at the semi-filled Santa Fe Place Mall. We were still shopping for shoes for Sally, and she did find a pair at another Shoe Show or Shoe Town or Show Something.

Wanting more, we headed over to the almost really empty Fashion Outlets of Santa Fe to the Merrill store. It advertised “Buy One, Get One 1/2 Price.” I was sort of shopping for shoes too since I donated the Skechers Step-Ins because the tread pattern was a magnet for small rocks that I had to pick out every time I walked in them. She found a pair that was on clearance that started at $50 and was marked down to $25. I, of course, found a pair of Jungle Mocs that I used to wear back in my ASCO days and loved, at the full price of $99.

Naturally they take the 50% off of the cheapest shoes, so Sally got out of there at a measly $12.50 while I spent nearly a C-note. When I tried to reason with her that maybe she should give me $12.50 seeing as I bought that pair of expensive shoes, I sort of earned it. What if I didn’t buy shoes? She shut me up with, “I’d just buy a second pair.” Sigh.

Illegal Parking?

Today’s errand was twofold, first I needed to drop off a couple of Amazon returns at Kohl’s and I had to pick up a few items at Fred Meyer. Fortunately they are in the same shopping center and only about 100-150 yards apart. As I got to front of Kohl’s a car was just leaving a parking spot only 3 deep in the lane, so I pulled right in. But, there was sign there that said “Reserved For Kohl’s Online Order Pick-Up Only.” I wasn’t going to be long and how are they going to know I’m not picking something up. After a short wait in line at the Amazon Drop-Off Kiosk I left the store and I thought about leaving the car there, but moved it over nearer to Fred Meyer.

Not because I was worried that I was going get a ticket or anything, but part of the grocery shopping included a couple of 12 packs of Sugar Free Ginger Ale and I’d have to schlep them and the other few items all the way back across the parking lot. My best laid plans fell thru almost immediately when Freddy didn’t have any of the Ginger Ale, plenty of regular, but no sugar-free. Everything else fit neatly in a grocery bag, so I could have easily left the Mini by Kohl’s. As I am about to get to the car Donna texted me from home that the fleece joggers I had ordered online from Kohl’s was ready.

Cool. Instead of driving over I opted to walk there and back, but now I get a pass for parking in that Kohl’s Online Order spot even though the timing was not exact. Walking through Kohl’s on my to their order pick up area I opened the email about my order and was greeted by the full email title, “Your Order Is Ready To Ship. Sigh. I turned around and headed back to the Mini in front of Fred Meyers.

I guess it was illegal parking after all.

One Last Insulated Mug Post

The Pluses:

  1. I don’t have to wait near as long until the temperature is drinkable compared to the metal insulated mug.
  2. It tastes great, maybe even better than from a ceramic mug.
  3. It holds the temperature longer than the ceramic mug.
  4. It looks cool as hell with the powdered latte mix from Maxwell.

The Minuses:

  1. It feels really delicate, like little tap and it will shatter into a million pieces.
  2. I miss the heft of the ceramic mug.
  3. The temperature doesn’t stay warm that much longer.

Insulated Cup Update

When I used the new free metal double-walled 12 ounce mug for a second time I waited a bit before taking a sip. I even took the plastic sippy lid off to cool it down before taking a drink so as not to burn my tongue. But now that my tongue’s taste buds weren’t singed, the coffee tasted awful. Turns out this is the biggest complaint about the metal mugs. So I’m glad Amazon refunded the money, I don’t feel bad at all, because after washing, the mug got placed in the Goodwill donation pile.

Undaunted by my first try, I went back on Amazon to look for a metal double-walled mug with a ceramic coating. Didn’t have much luck on that front. The one that I did find had either 5-star reviews that were great or 1-star review because the coating wasn’t total or flaked off.

I was about to give up when I exited Amazon and tried a just plain Google search. I found something that looked interesting a Double Wall Insulated Glass Cup for sale. Of course it was for sale on Amazon…

It’ll be here Wednesday.

I Feel A Little Bad About It

There is nothing really finer than drinking coffee from than a thick walled ceramic mug. The only downside to it though is that it draws a lot of the heat into the mug from the liquid. Recently, I was becoming tired of having to reheat my cup of coffee, sometimes more than once, before finishing it, so I ordered a metal double-walled 12 ounce mug from Amazon earlier this week.

It arrived today and when I pulled out of it package it looked too thin. The metal of the cup was the same thickness as the strap handle. Crap, this thing was supposed to be insulated. I immediately went into the Amazon account and started the process to send the mug back and try a different one. When asked for a reason, I typed in, “Not insulated.” When I was offered the option of credit the charge card or get it faster on an Amazon gift card, I picked gift card.

The next screen surprised me:
Refunded
There’s no need to return your item.
Your refund has been issued.

Okay, cool. Free mug. So before ordering something else, I thought I’ll try it out anyway. Made my usual afternoon cup, placed the plastic cover on, and sat down. A minute or so later I took a sip and it was so hot I burnt my tongue. Huh. Felt the outside of the mug and it was cool to the touch. Hmmm, this thing is insulated. The cup walls must be pretty dang thin…

I went back to the Amazon order page to see if there was anyway to take back my refund request. Nope. I’m sure Mr. Brazos is not going to miss that $12.99, but I still feel a little bad about it.