csammisrun

As promised, I got it washed and took many a’picture!

Click for the Flickr set

I finally did it: a week ago I signed the papers for a new 2008 Mazda3 5-door, and on Tuesday I took delivery after it had been driven in from St. Louis.

Click for the Flickr page

That photo’s not very good, I admit this. The new car looks sort of black next to Dethkar, whereas it’s actually a dark blue, but I wanted to get a picture of the two side-by-side while I could. The guy who sold me Dethkar last September is buying it back, possibly as soon as tomorrow. I’m rather amused by the whole circle-of-life thing going on here.

As for the new car, it’s pretty outstanding. I’m still getting accustomed to shifting it, it’s got a much newer transmission with a much shorter throw, and the presence of a fifth gear is making me miss third occasionally. It hasn’t quite hit me yet that I own this beast - right now it still feels like I’m driving around a rental car. I imagine I’ll get used to the idea

More pictures are definitely forthcoming, most likely this weekend as the weather clears up and becomes sunny again.

Before I get started with the entertaining stuff, a small tirade on the wonders of federal government bureaucracy. I’ve been waiting on the economic stimulus check in order to round out the down payment / sales tax for my new car purchase. I still maintain the entire idea of the stimulus was and is a terrible idea on the part of the g-men, but at least I’m actually putting it back into the economy like they intended. Anyway, today I got a letter from the IRS dated the 3rd of July. Evidently they couldn’t find the signature on my tax filing, and want me to send in a form with my signature on it, they’ll get to any sort of payment in another 6-8 weeks. This really fries me - not because they can’t find the signature, okay fair enough, but because they sure didn’t sit on their asses for three months before they cashed the check I sent them. It only took about two days for them to rip open the envelope and process the important parts. Nicely done.

Alright, rant over. Yesterday I went with Courtney’s family to watch some 4th of July fireworks. We got a pretty great spot, ~1200 feet from where they were firing them off. I brought my camera and tripod to try my hand at firework photography. I took about 130 before the batteries gave out, and of those I only ended up keeping 23, but that’s the upshot of digital photography. The keepers are all on my Flickr page.

Taken using a 25-second exposure time

My apartment’s porch has a high (5′ 6″) privacy wall, and I think that might be perfect for a windowbox full of herbs. And I’m right!

Click to see all pictures

In addition to a separate pot of fresh catnip (which the cats love), I’ve got basil, rosemary, chives, cilantro, and dill. Delicious cooking soon to come!

Last Friday my friend Emily came to visit for the weekend. I hadn’t seen her in probably about four years, even though we’ve only ever lived about three hours worth of driving apart. We had a really good time; Friday evening we had Japanese, as Em had never had sushi before. Saturday we went to the Nelson-Atkins art museum*, wandered around the Plaza, helped my friend Tim fix a valve cover gasket on his car, then capped the evening with Greek food and a party at Josh and Lauren’s new apartment. We slept in this morning, had kolaches and coffee at Latte Land for breakfast, and she left around 1. I finished the day by napping until 5, going to the auto parts store for some wire and parts to replace a ground cable that might be causing the starter troubles, then decided to be lazy and not fix the wire so much as watch TV.

* A PICTURE WE SAW

Last night there were a pair of occurrences that made me grab my camera and tripod, and don two sweaters and a coat. The first was a total lunar eclipse, and the second a 2-degree wind chill. Through some masterstroke of luck, Kansas City skies were clear for most of the eclipse. I took pictures from about 8:15 PM to 9 PM, taking a break to change camera batteries and restart circulation in my right hand. Fortunately I’d been out that early, because by 9:30 (the supposed peak of the eclipse), the entire sky was overcast in preparation for the snow we’re due for the next couple days.

All of my eclipse photos on Flickr - I haven’t had a lot of time to sort them yet, but I really like this one:

The eclipse is almost complete, and two stars (possibly one is Saturn?) are visible to the lower-left and top of the moon.

edit: Here’s another good one:

I am a little frustrated with my camera (and my brain) because I couldn’t for the life of me find the setting to change the shutter speed. A bit more exposure time would’ve brought out more color in more of the shots. Oh well, c’est la vie.

I decided to fill up the blank spot on my dining room wall with some of the better photos I’ve taken over the years:

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I like the arrangement, but I swear that my head must be screwed on sideways. I got out a level, made sure it they were all level, then stepped back…and they all looked like they were tilted too far to the right. This happens with every single picture hanging in my apartment. I need a consultant :/

In other news, my clock has revealed itself to be a bit bizarre. I fixed it enough so that it chimes on the hour, which made me realize that the hands aren’t showing anything close to what the gears think is going on. Every hour + 2 minutes, it chimes three hours ahead of what it displays. Huh.

edit: Here’s the Flickr page with the pictures I framed

Today I went to the Brass Armadillo antique mall with the aim of getting a unique sort of clock for my dining room wall. I like older clocks, and I found something pretty sweet for only $60:

It’s a bit beat up on the wood and veneer, but it works beautifully. It’ll be a fun project to refinish the wood so it looks new again. There are more pictures of it, including close-ups on the damaged areas, on my Flickr page.

While walking around the Brass Armadillo, I found just the damnedest old thing: a mint-condition box that once contained a bottle of Zoagriaine, a turn-of-the-20th-century blood tonic and general curative elixer.

There’s hilarious pseudo-medical writing all over it, as well as a rather intricate design of St. George slaying a dragon (with a sword named Zoagriaine). For $18, I couldn’t afford not to get it for my bookshelf. Close-ups of the box’s sides and text are on Flickr.

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Last weekend I attempted to do my own vehicular repair work yet again. A mechanic informed me that the right front tie rod end was worn out and was destroying the tire (true story, it was pretty bald on the inside), and after consulting my service manual, I gave it a shot. This is what I found:

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Long story short, I couldn’t penetrate its +1 Armor of Rusted-The-Hell-On, and I had to take it to a National Tire and Battery to have it fixed. That weekend did not end well in terms of my ego, but I turned that situation around with the advent of this gloriously long weekend.

On Saturday, I got to use my grill for the first time in quite a while. Overland Park has this ordinance that prevents grills from being used or stored at apartment complexes that are built like mine, and so my Weber has resided in the trunk of my car since I moved here. It was released back to the world by the grace of a barbecue that a friend of mine hosted Saturday evening, at which I was the grillmaster. It was only four people, burgers and brats, but it was indeed a good time.

I spent Sunday being mechanically apt. I finally put my Nerf Longshot - a very large Nerf bolt-action rifle - back together after modding it for increased distance and speed. Better o-rings in the cylinder, a second stronger spring on the piston, and removal of the Nerf-installed air restrictor have given it quite a kick (no fooling, you can feel the recoil now). I was planning on taking it to work to stage a little inter-team warfare and take down a remote controlled helicopter that’s been buzzing us, but I had forgotten how very large it is…I couldn’t even begin to get it in the door without raising a few eyebrows.

After the Longshot, I took out my French horn. It’s been a long time since it’s been out, and it needed some cleaning and oiling, but once it was fixed up I decided it needed a more prominent place in the apartment:

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