Is There A Topic I Didn't Hit On?
Thursday, Mar. 13, 2003

Yesterday, a day�which will live�in infamy.

Well, I stood up my Dad for lunch.

Oh, the humanity. I can just see Dad, poking around the parking lot of Guadalajara looking for me. I can invision this since he told me he did his usual lunchtime walking thing around the parking lot.

I had some lame Campbell�s beef and barley soup. That�s not what it�s called, but it should be called that. In fact, I believe in the past it actually was called that. But this is the �Select� stuff, like Chunky soup, but not so chunky. But what makes it good is pretzels thrown in.

Well, when I checked my mail at around 12:30, I saw that Dad had emailed me and said, �I guess you forgot lunch.�

I�m a bad son.

I called Dad and talked to him for a while, apologizing profusely at first. He would rather quiz me on digital cameras. Oddly, I�d just been reading about them since some freaky company called Digital Dreams (if I remember correctly) has come out with a tiny digital camera. It�s called the L�espion, which I found out if you write that quickly on a post it note and leave it on your desk, when you look at it later it looks close enough to those Ellen Degeneres type people that you want to throw it in the garbage.

And I keep myself from saying the L word since my blog isn�t blocked from Google. And let me tell you something interesting�

One of the blogs I read is A Girl Named Bob (actually Bobbie) and her and Paul Frankenstein have found out that there is a Japanese server out there that is taking all the blogspot sites which are blocking themselves from google and is making a mirror of them, that can be searched by google, and putting a porn ad at the top of it. This, understandably, makes these people irate.

Another thing I wanted to mention, a fun thing, was when, on Sunday, my nephew and I went driving in the Miata, we were �stuck behind� a 1969 Jaguar X-type convertible on the way up Green Mountain. The reason I know it was a 1969 X-type is that his license plate was 69XTYPE, which is not a bad personal license plate, ya know. And I put stuck behind in quotes because we could barely keep up with him. I don�t know what kind of engine or weight that the X-type has (but it sure has a cool name) but it didn�t seem to struggle at all up the mountain. Not even the fun steep parts.

Now, don�t get the wrong idea here. The Miata doesn�t struggle up normal mountains. In fact, on the way back the other day (not Sunday, but coming back from driving when I was stalling for time before we closed on the house (refinancing, dropped about $100 off our monthly payment)), I stayed in 5th and let the cruise control take it over Monte Sano and it never bogged down.

Another neat thing is that I made some iced coffee for Aisai yesterday morning. It�s actually taking the Folgers instant latte and making it up in a mason jar and keeping it in the fridge overnight. She drank the full 20 oz of it before going to the Ford place to have two recalls taken care of. When I left, she was merely peppy and jabbering. She told me that by the time she was at Ford, she was shaking a bit. Then, at work, she was whistling and doing her job about 4 times as fast.

I think my Playstationness has worn out again. Soon to be rekindled on the 28th or so when Auto Modellista shows up. It�ll be the first online game that really fits my genre:

1. Involves the concept of money.

2. Car racing, not car combat.

3. Customized tuning of the car, and thus choices to make with the money and settings to set once the stuff is bought.

We�ll be detailing Aisai�s mom�s car over the weekend. Aisai will pick it up on Friday and leave her car over there. Aisai�s mom says she doesn�t need a car, which is fine, don�t drive the Focus then. But it�d be convenient if we could just leave it over there.

I�m planning that we�ll actually do two different sessions this summer with Ai�s mom�s car. The first one will take care of the problems such as oxidation, scratches, and impurities embedded in the paint. The second session, probably in June or so, I�ll kick the shine up and put a polymer sealant on it to protect it. Then, before it gets cold again, I�ll chuck another three or so layers of Zaino (the poly) on it to last the winter.

This first session, we�re actually short on time due to two social engagements. First, we�ll wash the car. No need to do a dawn wash since it won�t get the Zaino this time and, besides, it�s not like there�s any wax on it now anyway. Then the clay. I�ve already bought a box of clay magic for it and I have little left of the clab that I used on my car, as well as plenty of the lubricant, so both Aisai and I can work at the same time. Then we�ll do Meguiars ScratchX on it�s numerous scratches. And, due to the shortness on time, we�ll just use Zym�l cleaner wax. Allegedly it�s not so easy to get off the car, but unlike the Meguiars it won�t stain trim, and it lasts much longer. Also, it smells nice. The Zym�l should last for at least two months since the garages the car.

I�d like to give her a gift of a new bucket, a chenille spongy, and some car wash. If she decided to wash her car with dishwashing detergent and strip off all the wax, I�d be upset. But what�ll more than likely happen is her taking it through the Scratching Foam car wash at Texaco, which will not only add more scratches, but the harsh detergent will also remove the wax that Aisai and I�ll put on.

I�ve never heard of her washing a car. She�s a little old, and sometimes people get to the point that they say they don�t know how. But washing a car is like washing a plate, just don�t do it in the sink, and be careful.

When we hit Hel-Mart today for groceries, I�ll pick up some of the Black Magic (cherry scented) quick detailer that I read a review of at Autopia yesterday. I�ll get the Zym�l cleaner wax, some foam applicators, and some Armorallish type product to spray the wheel wells. And no, I�m not so foolish that I�d put it on my dash. I like my car (long term use of Armor All will make the natural oils in your dash leave, replacing them with silicone, and then it�ll crack on ya).

[Note: I�ll also use Eagle One A2Z on the wheels. EO Tire Shine on the tires. We�ll use Finish 2001 with Sunstop on the dash. Mother�s Back to Black on all the trim and weather stripping. And I�m tempted to change her oil for her. Maybe go Castrol Syntec�wait�haven�t I rambled about this already? Oh, well. I�m looking forward to it. Doing my car is easy. It�s small, and pretty much, it�s all nitpicking at this point.]