Minor Win thread - Life is good!

Despite being wildly productive, my weekend was also relaxing!  Friday, I got the brake controller installed in der Scheißwagen, figured out why the trailer electrics didn't work, and loaded up the old couches that were taking up half the garage and the old trailer tires that were still hanging around the shop.  Saturday morning, we took all that stuff to the county clean-up day and properly disposed of them.  That took so little time, that I was able to make a scrap run and get rid of more stuff from the garage and the shop.  Hung out with eastsideTim for the day, welcoming him to Mercedes ownership by stranding his car on the lift, and then "helped" my middlest daughter make gnocci for dinner.  She thought she wanted help, but all I did was drive her to the grocery store and then hang out in the kitchen and occasionally stirred things for her because she's more capable than she realizes sometimes.  Sunday started off with F1 on TV, and then my mom & dad's house, but we left there early enough that I was able to spend the day cleaning the garage up enough that the wife can park her car in there again.  Which is a double-win because now she will need to walk through the very narrow laundry room at least twice a day.  This means I will have an ally in the "get your laundry out of the laundry room and back upstairs" battle that I've been fighting with the kids.  And the wife.  I also test-fit der Scheißwagen in the garage and verified that once the motorcycles are gone, the cover for the Blackstone griddle is completed and I can put it on the deck, and I tear out the crappy workbench that the original owners of the house built, we'll be able to get both daily drivers in the garage!  I finished the evening out by finally starting to watch the new Andor series with my wife.

I am assuming that I'm so relaxed as I start the day today because I had all those things that I needed to do for so long and I've finally checked them off my list.

I found tito's taco truck off a backroad a few weeks ago. 

Wound up going by it again today. 

Holy E36 M3 that man can cook. 

About a year ago, I got a new customer at the shop.   Recent Chinese immigrant family.  Wife is going to school, hubby drives for a living, I think, based on the miles his Mazda racks up.  English is a challenge, shall we say, but we get through.

They stopped by today, just before Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, to thank me with a bottle of whiskey for my services.  I thanked them, and thought, "Well, that's not really what Thanksgiving is about"... and then I thought that maybe it should be.  Or maybe it is, and I have had it wrong.

Anyway, I have a bottle of blackberry flavoured rye whisky now, and I am happy.

Free tickets, courtesy of my lawyer friend, for Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction?

A suite?

Ok, sure.  I can do that on a Friday night. 

Mr_Asa said:

Free tickets, courtesy of my lawyer friend, for Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction?

A suite?

Ok, sure.  I can do that on a Friday night. 

Saw Iron Maiden last night. First time seeing them. I would say I have only been a casual fan of a handful of their songs in the past.

That was stupidly fun. I was giggling.

I think I've found a cheap source (~$200) for an RX8 complete rear subframe for future project. Would be a great price!

Apparently my state sent out a tax return because of a surplus.

I don't have anything offhand that needs a couple hundred bucks, maybe I'll buy a really good bottle of scotch.....

In reply to Antihero :

Or a real ride cymbal.  

11GTCS said:

In reply to Antihero :

Or a real ride cymbal.  

Not a bad idea at all but I've actually traded for one here, got another one in the mail(a cheapy) got another weird one on the way ( because I'm me and apparently must have weird things) and a Sabian Monarch Big and Ugly on the way as well.

We've got a lot going on right now. Family visiting, medical stuff, school and sports, trying to fit in hobbies and keep up in general.
 

But tonight, the kids are cleaned, fed, and in bed by 8. 

The inside of my house smells like homemade chicken soup. 

20-some-odd pounds of brisket dropped into the sous vide.  It'll come out in about 72 hours, get a little rest in the fridge, and then a finish cook in time to take it to a bonfire Saturday night.  I'm already salivating.

I've been thinking about things that make me feel happy lately. On that list is setting up new tech I haven't used before. I found that the Windows on ARM Samsung Galaxy Book Go (MSRP $349) was being sold by Best Buy as an open box at $105. With some credits I had in Best Buy points and Paypal, I ended up at about $87 out of pocket.

It's prolly the best $87 I've spent. I just had it playing music videos from youtube for like four hours sitting directly on a velour couch. It's not even slightly warm on the bottom, and the battery barely took a hit. It's legitimately a pretty good laptop if you understand the limitations of small ram and storage. Windows 11 is great here. It pushes Edge around really well. Same for Ubuntu via WSL2, and Visual Studio. They did a good job of making a laptop that is cheap but not E36 M3ty.

One of today's 'to do's for me was getting a replacement battery for the E6 convertible- the battery it came with when I bought it 2 1/2 years ago wasn't holding a charge, and the smaller battery I've been using is, well, definitely smaller than I'd want when the weather gets colder (and also slides around in the battery 'tray'). I wanted an AGM battery since it will sit a good bit over the winter when it's definitely not the best vehicle to be driving, and after some searching found that Advance was the best price for it locally. But then I remembered a discussion about batteries here a while ago, and out of curiosity checked to see whether Costco had the AGM batteries and if so how their price compared- and it turns out that they do carry the AGM batteries in the right size- and the price was something like $50 cheaper than what it would be from Advance. A basic Costco membership is only $60- so joining and buying the battery only cost $10k. 

If I really wanted, I could just cancel the membership anytime- but I've for a while looked at whether the savings on fuel would be enough to make a membership worth it, so I know that it won't take entirely too long for the savings on fuel to offset the remaining $10. Only slight downside: they don't have mid-grade, just regular (89) and premium (93)- but technically the E46 & QX4 call for premium even though most of the time I use mid-grade, and premium from Costco is about the same price as mid-grade from a normal station, so I'd still call it a win (and if I fill up the truck, which uses regular, it's about 15 cents less per gallon- so probably a $1.50 or so savings given when we usually fill it up.

22 years ago today, I was less angry

I'm slowly getting rid of a three day sinus headache. Yes, that's a win.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

You certainly out kicked your coverage, well done sir. 

For the first time in my life, I have my own garage. And even after we move all our extra stuff and storage in, I should still have room for the samurai. Woot!

So after a poor showing at Nationals, a Cincy event where I went 5th of 175 and a CKR event where nothing worked and I finished 23rd of 104.   Today I traveled to the NCM track for a KYR event and brought home some solid hardware.   Big fast course suited my machine this day.  Woot!

M2Pilot said:

I got an email from Nicole yesterday letting me know that I've won the VIP package for 2  for the Hiilton Head Concours that Classic Motorsport  was giving away.

I may be sharing this with one of youse guys. Will post early this coming week if that's gonna happen.

We had Burning Mando tonight.  I made a giant brisket. It was great.

DarkMonohue said:

It's potty training time, and I've been openly bribing the kid to use the toilet - a technique I highly recommend, incidentally - with the understanding that whatever he earns throughout the week can be spent on Hot Wheels cars that Saturday.

Today was Saturday, so out we went for more Hot Wheels. The kid knew ahead of time that he wanted some station wagon he remembered and a donut car we've seen a few times. When we got there, he started looking around, and immediately found a very green Mazda REPU. He pulled that off the shelf and then glanced up and exclaimed, "Oh! There's that Honda!" And that was it. The die was cast. No further shopping was necessary. We went home with a REPU and a Honda City Turbo, and a three-year-old contentedly making Wankely bbzzzz! noises.

Sonic said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

You certainly out kicked your coverage, well done sir. 

I never heard that one before. Yeah, pretty much. 

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Your kid is growing up our way! Cool!