Today is Kat's birthday, and I have been promised that I shall not be pelted nor pummelled with anything for saying so. She's planning on coming up here tomorrow, and though I don't know what we will be doing quite yet, I'm certain that it will be relaxing, and hopefully fun. Which reminds me, I was planning on posting some recipes that I've worked up recently...
September 2006 Archives
Well, approximately a little while ago, I got into a car accident. The weather was very crappy, and I was just coming back to work at about 5 after running some errands when a BMW and myself had a meeting of the cars in the middle of an intersection, due to our mutual inability to stop.
On the upside, I knew who to take my car to. You see, almost exactly one year earlier, Matt wrecked the Z. And he went to the place recommended by Progressive, our insurance company. D's Auto Body in Peoria took care of him. There were little bumps as I recall, but seeing as they had never worked on a new 350Z before, relatively minor. More importantly, they made it right, whatever it was.
So I had Blightning Jr. towed to D's, and Kat, who was there for the weekend came to pick me up. My car being new, it took a little time for parts to come in, so now I was riding around with Matt. That worked for about a week and a half. Then Matt's car (a.k.a Donut) broke. His clutch glazed, and he was getting no grip whatsoever. By the time we finally got it home, he could let his foot all the way off the pedal and the RPMs didn't even twitch. Matt needed a new clutch and flywheel and didn't particularly have the free cash to pony up for it, especially as he wanted quality parts instead of the crap Nissan puts in there.
Awesome news, right? Somewhere close to 60k worth of cars between us, and I was driving a rental. Insurance covered it, and it wasn't bad for a rental, but it sure wasn't my car. After about 3 days of the rental, I was ready to pick up my car. D's however, was not ready to release it to me. Their attention to detail had discovered that my seatbelt retractors no longer worked. Obviously they couldn't let me drive it like that, and being a new model, they didn't really know what the problem was. The local Honda dealership was also somewhat stumped. It seems that the seatbelt sensors are attached to the same sensor as the airbags. So that whole controller had to be replaced.
Eventually, finally, I get my car back. All exterior damage repaired, I just have to wait 9 weeks for the paint to cure before taking it back to Honda to get re-Auto Armored. I leave it with Matt, just as I am taking off to go to Santa Barbara.
When I get back, something is wrong. Something that wasn't quite right. There were some smudge marks on the fabric of the interior, but more importantly, my front-right turn signal wasn't working. The hazards worked, but the turning signal did not. So, back to D's. They apologize profusely (don't take anything I'm saying as negative towards them, they are great people and they do great work), and promise to get the smudges cleaned, and find out what's wrong with the lights. They give me a rental car, a Chevy Cavalier. Small, underpowered, but it's a good loaner car. It was immediately dubbed Medium Pimpin' (as it certainly was not, Big Pimpin').
I get a flat 15 miles later on the way home. Thankfully, the spare is in working order (were weren't sure for a few seconds), and whilst I jacked up the car, Matt changed the tire. Now I was driving a middle-aged Cavalier with 3 donuts and a life saver for tires. The car was immediately re-dubbed Small Pimpin'. It's amazing how rediculous I felt driving that thing on the highway, I'm certain it can't have been safe.
So the next day, I'm back out at D's. They give me my car back, still no clue what's up with the light, the folks at Honda couldn't figure it out in the short time I had it. So I make an appointment to come back next week, when they can give me another loaner.
This one finally works out. I get another white Chevy Cavalier, which doesn't try to commit suicide with me inside. A day later, I hear from D's that my car had a bent pin in the wiring harness for the light and that it is now fixed. With relief I retrieve my car. It's nice to have it back.
Another 5 weeks go by. This time, it's me shuttling Matt around. Finally, parts are ordered, Matt's Z is towed to a really nice shop, and he gets a new clutch. He had a smile like a maniac when he got his car back.
And that, is the tale of 3 cars, Blue Lightning Jr., Donut, and Small Pimpin'.
A 'few' weeks ago, I went to Santa Barbara for the NIST Cryptographic Hash workshop. It was a great experience. I learned much about hashing that I didn't know, and got to listen to some truly intelligent people talk passionately about mathematical abstractions. It was almost like being back in school, with a cash bar.
During the trip, I wrote down a journal of what went on, where I went, and what I did. Suffice it to say that I am not going to retype it. It's long, and for the most part boring. The highlights were the conference itself, with which I shall not burden you, the flights, and the food.
I spent about 6 hours in the air in both directions, on the way back spending a little over 12 hours total in transit. The only really entertaining parts of the flight were between Santa Barbara and LA. First off, they put you in a little plane, then they take off and fly over the ocean for about an hour. A great view, it's really quite pretty out on the coast. Santa Barbara Airport itself is even smaller than the Peoria Airport, very nice, but couldn't quite handle the volume of people that were leaving when we were.
The food was good. This being the first time in a few years that I've been to a coast, and I had to take advantage of it. Sole stuffed with shrimp and scallops, sprinkled with capers and a dollop of hollandaise. I have to say, it was very tasty. The swordfish steak was also quite good and cooked to the perfect just-done-ness.
I figured while I was out there was also the time to give fresh oysters a try, since I could probably figure on them being extremely fresh. They were absolutely delicious with a few caveats. First, their outsides had not been cleaned. I understand that you don't want to mess around with something that simple, but barnacles were coming off on my lower lip, and the grittiness of that kind of got in the way of full enjoyment of the experience. Secondly, the oysters had not been detached from the shells they were in. I don't know if that's the way things are done or not, but I can tell you that I was not the greatest fan. You see, if they don't detach them, and you have no tools to detach them, you kind of have to start gnawing on them to get them off the shell. Not really the down-the-hatch I was looking for. Eventually I gave up and detached them by hand (not as easy as one might think), and finally got one that didn't leave sand on my lips. It was great. "Fresh" is the only word that I can think of to describe it. I liked it alot, when I finally got one that didn't make me struggle for it. All-in-all, the best tasting "still alive on the way down" food that I've ever had. I think it's the only one, but that shouldn't diminish the achievement.
In any case, the trip was informative, the weather beautiful, and the area wonderful. California is a great place, I could do without some of the Californians. I am however, certain that they could likewise do without me, so we're even. Besides, California has some interesting hazards that I could do without.
I'm still alive. My car has been restored to me and is in original condition. I swear I'll make a real update one of these days, but I've just been too busy lately.
