Apparently it's the Finals for Fantasy Football this weekend. Uhh, good luck everyone!
20 thoughts on “December 22, 2018: Is This Just Fantasy?”
Looks like the StL Symphony trombones won't be here to play along with the Low Brass Collective this year, but it's still a pretty decent turnout.
I was wrong - they did show up, and they were excellent.
Just did the front brakes on my wife's Sorento. It was almost insultingly easy. Of course, I'm used to rusted parts that practically require a blowtorch to loosen.
Ditto on the blowtorch thing, plus penetrating oil, breaker bars, impact wrenches, air chisels, etc., etc., etc.
Remind me to never, ever make a comment about how easy a repair is before the job is finished. Both rear calipers were seized, but, of course, no auto parts store carries those and there aren't any Kia dealerships nearby. So I forced them open to at least get the car back to driveable. When I went to return the caliper tool to O'Reillys, I found out I forgot to tighten down the lug nuts on one of the wheels. That was a harrowing drive. Once I jacked it up to get the wheel on there, I cross threaded and stripped one of the nuts. Yay!
Replaced the shocks a couple years ago, but didn’t torch the last bolt and shered it off. Many, many french words spoken. Bought a reverse thread screw remover which worked (!), but didn’t have a replacement grade 8 bolt. Found one in the spare kit after hours of kicking shit in the house. I was completely proud of myself afterwords, though I’ll never, ever make that mistake again.
Man, I been there. I cross threaded a rear shock bolt on my last car. It banged like hell over every bump because it wasn't right enough. Since the car was twelve years old at the time, I decided to just muscle that sumbitch tight figuring it'd be the last shock I'd ever put on it. I was right, too.
We have finished the first leg of our cross-country driving triangle, arriving at my mom’s house in Minnesota last night. It was two days to get from California to Colorado, then we spent a few days skiing, followed by 2 more days to get to Minnesota. So far, so good.
Hope you have clear weather for the rest of your travels.
We planned on heading out for Virginia on Thursday, which is currently supposed to be in the middle of a snow storm, so we’ll see....
Enjoy your time in God's Country- I'm envious
Your cross-country trip sounds a bit more leisurely and relaxing than my recent one was....
With stops for meals, kids, and dogs, we’ve figured out we can do about 8 hours of driving time easily, 10 if we push it, and 12 if we really need to. That mid-trek ski trip definitely helped the kids enjoy the trip more, though.
When we moved from Illinois to Cali, our kids were 3 and 6. There was some sightseeing. Dinosaur Nat'l Monument, relatives, friends in Provo.
So I made a batch of Pinot Grigio from a Northern Brewer kit in MN in October, with the idea that I would stabilize/clarify while here in Thanksgiving, then bottle while here for Xmas, thinking I could add Fizz Drops to make sparkling in Grolsch bottles, that can handle the pressure. But prior to bottling today, I talked to the dude at NB who said if you already stabilized, you cant fizz now - the stabilizers kill out all of the stuff that would create the CO2. Lessons learned ...
Weird. You can't add fresh yeast?
The stabilizer is strong enough to kill new yeast iirc.
Eww. What is it, bleach?
Hey, I’m in that! The finals, I mean. Been a while...
Looks like the StL Symphony trombones won't be here to play along with the Low Brass Collective this year, but it's still a pretty decent turnout.
I was wrong - they did show up, and they were excellent.
Just did the front brakes on my wife's Sorento. It was almost insultingly easy. Of course, I'm used to rusted parts that practically require a blowtorch to loosen.
Ditto on the blowtorch thing, plus penetrating oil, breaker bars, impact wrenches, air chisels, etc., etc., etc.
Remind me to never, ever make a comment about how easy a repair is before the job is finished. Both rear calipers were seized, but, of course, no auto parts store carries those and there aren't any Kia dealerships nearby. So I forced them open to at least get the car back to driveable. When I went to return the caliper tool to O'Reillys, I found out I forgot to tighten down the lug nuts on one of the wheels. That was a harrowing drive. Once I jacked it up to get the wheel on there, I cross threaded and stripped one of the nuts. Yay!
Replaced the shocks a couple years ago, but didn’t torch the last bolt and shered it off. Many, many french words spoken. Bought a reverse thread screw remover which worked (!), but didn’t have a replacement grade 8 bolt. Found one in the spare kit after hours of kicking shit in the house. I was completely proud of myself afterwords, though I’ll never, ever make that mistake again.
Man, I been there. I cross threaded a rear shock bolt on my last car. It banged like hell over every bump because it wasn't right enough. Since the car was twelve years old at the time, I decided to just muscle that sumbitch tight figuring it'd be the last shock I'd ever put on it. I was right, too.
We have finished the first leg of our cross-country driving triangle, arriving at my mom’s house in Minnesota last night. It was two days to get from California to Colorado, then we spent a few days skiing, followed by 2 more days to get to Minnesota. So far, so good.
Hope you have clear weather for the rest of your travels.
We planned on heading out for Virginia on Thursday, which is currently supposed to be in the middle of a snow storm, so we’ll see....
Enjoy your time in God's Country- I'm envious
Your cross-country trip sounds a bit more leisurely and relaxing than my recent one was....
With stops for meals, kids, and dogs, we’ve figured out we can do about 8 hours of driving time easily, 10 if we push it, and 12 if we really need to. That mid-trek ski trip definitely helped the kids enjoy the trip more, though.
When we moved from Illinois to Cali, our kids were 3 and 6. There was some sightseeing. Dinosaur Nat'l Monument, relatives, friends in Provo.
So I made a batch of Pinot Grigio from a Northern Brewer kit in MN in October, with the idea that I would stabilize/clarify while here in Thanksgiving, then bottle while here for Xmas, thinking I could add Fizz Drops to make sparkling in Grolsch bottles, that can handle the pressure. But prior to bottling today, I talked to the dude at NB who said if you already stabilized, you cant fizz now - the stabilizers kill out all of the stuff that would create the CO2. Lessons learned ...
Weird. You can't add fresh yeast?
The stabilizer is strong enough to kill new yeast iirc.
Eww. What is it, bleach?
Hey, I’m in that! The finals, I mean. Been a while...