So after learning all the cool things to do in Syracuse courtesy of the NY Times they referenced the goldensnowball website. Which aparently has the cities of NY competing for the most snow. Logical. However, I'd like to point out that aparently I have just really bad luck with weather, per this summary because if you recall, or you're a stalker, or even worse, you were there, I was in Rochester from 98-02. 2 of those years they won. Which wouldn't be bad, except that its not like the 3rd year was especially better (and syracuse won) but over the decades kept track, rochester has won very infrequently, only 6 times in the last 53 years, and oh wait, I'm there for 2 of them? Oy.

Not to mention Cleveland, which I believe I've mentioned before, 3 of the top 10 snowiest winters have been 3 I've been here before, 05-06 was the only one that didn't make the list. Which brings me to May of '06. Its rained for like 2 weeks straight. I keep wanting to mow the lawn, but it seems to only be sunny between 11 and 2 or so. Which is nice for going out to lunch, but does me little in lawn mowing, and it wasn't even nice last weekend. I think the grass is starting to get taller then the herbs (which are sitting in pots mind you, so they can come in for winter).

Is it sad I'm complaining about the weather? Or should I just point out I'm observing, and whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger? I think I'll do that. Ok, its 9pm. I'm going to watch tv.

So shortly after leaving work today, (keep in mind the trip to work is on 4-8 lane highway for about 35 miles) the low pressure warning light came on. I realized this, tried to reset it, figuring maybe there was a blip, and I haven't had my summer tires on long anyway, so something could have just trigged the warning light. The light didn't go out. Fast forward 30 miles. Light is still on, but I didn't want to stop to see why, because it really sucks to stop on a road where everyone else is going something north of the 60mph limit. Anyway, as I got off the exit to go the last few miles home, I noticed the right front tire was not only making odd noises, but seemed a bit squishy. I figured I had nothing to lose so I finished the trip.

Once I got into the driveway, I noticed that indeed, that tire had no air pressure, and was kinda steaming and smelled like rubber. (Having toured a rubber factory, I can admit that it smelled pretty close to that, not that it was burning, but more of just heated up enough that something was probably starting to happen). Anyway. So It being like 6:30 by this time (I actually went to the gym after work, just my luck I suppose). I made a call to the dealer, who while they sell official accessories at a 20% discount and are having a special for 25% off, have really low margins on tires, and thus don't discount them at all. Of course by the way, runflats are really freaking expensive, at least to replace them, I have no idea how much mini actually pays extra for them - especially since they don't need to provide a spare when they put them on cars. Anyway, back to the dead runflat, that has admirably performed its job. So while the tire costs $220 or something from the dealer, its $179 from tire rack. Mind you, tire rack is in Indiana, and shipping is $15 from them, and will get here the next day. I asked the parts person why theirs cost so much compared to tire rack, and he said I should buy it from tire rack. My slightly businessminded head says why don't they not stock tires, or at least the minimal options, and get them all from tire rack. Logically you could get a bulk discount from them, and they would ship you whatever you wanted next day. Obviously customer service in the tire department is not a goal. They could even sell them for the same price, but have room for discounts, to avoid losing business. Sorta like how they give you that magic 20% discount if you ask for it, but otherwise charge everyone else full price for parts.

Regardless - after not being able to call any other tire places, since the local one that's nice closes at 6, I pumped the tire back up, and it seems to hold air, so maybe I can postpone the official replacement. I stuck an extra snow tire and the good 12V compressor in the back in case something goes pear shaped with that plan.

I also decided it was a good time to check up on my stolen tires, which contrary to entry 108 I sort of haven't picked up yet. The short story on that (which I might have mentioned earlier, but really, I can't remember anymore) is that they kept them until the guy was convicted, which was after I graduated, when I moved to Parma, and by then it was far away, I didn't have any use for them, and so I never picked them up. I need to call back tomorrow to see if they still have them, aparently the person I need to talk to, like the tires place is also not around until the morning.

About it from this end, and in case you're still confused, in the Queen's English, its tyre. But I think its still called stupidly-expensive-but-useful-runflat if you want the long version.

Those not into cars, ignore this.

There is a Diesel in europe, but its only on the MINI One, the 'base' model not even sold in the US. It has a toyota based engine that's in the Yaris (Echo replacement in the US) in europe. It has 89 hp and ~150ft/lbs, and does 0-62 in just under 12 seconds. Anyway, I think the issue besides its insanely slowness (and its easily getting over 55 imperial mpg) is that they'd need to redo the engine to use high sulfur fuel. With the official switchover in the US to low sulfur in October or whatever, and the upcoming redesign of the MINI and the engines for 2007, I'd suspect future diesels will make it to the US. There's rumors of Diesels being 15% of future sales, so I could see the future being bright. for that.

Umm, little else to discuss, the weather is nice, I need to go pick up dinner, its an exciting takeout day. I think I'll go and try to sleep with the upcoming macbook annoucement. I think its noteworthy because it means that yet again, both computers (all 4 if you count the old ibook and the pc) are outdated extremely through various reasons when the macbook gets annouced. Its so difficult to keep up with technology these days. Maybe I should just worry about fashion and wearing white at the correct time, its probably easier and less expensive overall - with these intel macs costing more too, you'd think they're just trying to keep me from upgrading until this computer is 6 years old like the last one.

I'm the one who occasionally says things on here, then leaves it blank for weeks on end, just to keep you guessing. Or encourage you to use the RSS feed so you don
't need to check, or oddball plugins for omniweb and firefox, whatever works for you.

Anyway, Went to a Bela Fleck concert last saturday, it was fun, though spiderman 3 sorta got in the way. See, they needed to film some stuff outside, but when they went to NY, and asked to close down a few blocks, they didn't get the warmest reception, or at least the price was so high they ran away, they also suposedly looked in LA. After that when they asked Cleveland, aparently it was ok, so they closed 15 blocks of Euclid avenue during the day for a week and a half. It sorta caused some traffic issues, and combine that with an Indians game (I think they played the Red Sox, but really I have no idea who won) it made driving around and parking creative since I had to go past like 10 garages to find one - however walking down Euclid to playhouse square where the flecktones were playing was cool, and showed things like this there's lots of other pictures if you're bored search google, but those had the flecktones on the zippy sign thingy, so i thought it was cool.

Uhh, what else. I mowed the lawn. I want someone to invent, and then give me credit a lawnmower that has a trimmer built into it. Like you can use an upright vacuum, then pull off the hose and attach a nozzle and you can get out the stuff that got caught between the couch cusions. Shouldn't you be able to put the lawnmower on hold and pull out a trimmer and get the corners? It seems stupid to have to get out another thing, when its all just gas power spinning stuff. Of course since Honda's mower that keeps the engine running and disengages the blades when you let go of the squeeze bar costs like $400, I could only imagine how much it would cost to add an entire trimmer and the flexible driveshaft to use it to the whole deal, but it sounds like it'd be a nice convienent idea right? I'm marking this as my idea. When someone else comes out with it and sells it for $200 then I'll pout and they'll prove my idea was lame, and they actually did it, and then the 5 friends who are lawyers (it does seem to be popular to go to law school if I know you, doesn't it?) will tell me I have no recourse and should have spent 5 years developing this in my garage if I wanted credit instead of just talking in here.

Hrm, what else. There's another MINI in the world. A friend at work just got one. Of course in full disclosure with 200 miles on it and about 48 hours after pickup a hose broke and it dribbled fluid and had no power steering. But it I think was fixed by Friday, and the dealer gave a cooper convertible as a loaner - which was my first time in one on the road, so that was fun. That makes 2 that I've bought, and 2 more friends have gotten at least somehow related to me. Someone else should get one to round it out, or maybe I'll just wait until I get another one - the traveller is coming out - an extended version with rx8 style suicide doors, sometime in the next few years.

Summer has almost started (or has started, if you follow the you can wear white pants after memorial day rule, aparently memorial day has moved, thus summer must have moved). So its time to ponder what to do for a vacation and such. Not a whole lot of ideas yet, plane tickets seem to be really pricey for stuff later in the summer, so may need to wait to figure out, but its good to start looking. I think someplace warm is a good idea. That's about as far as planning has gone.

So jen has taken up knitting. This is relevant because now she's taping knitting shows on the DIY network. I find this ironic, because A. it fills up the DVR, and b. I recall complaining about my watching DIY a while ago, now something interesting is on it, and then its the best network ever.

The herb garden is planted. There was an attempt to procure organic herbs this year, but that got to be too much of a pain, so we went to the farmer's market yesterday and bought a selection from a local greenhouse. Its possible to grow stuff from seed, but the logic of paying a few $ for each kind of seed to only use one or two plants seems odd, when you can get a a whole nicely growing (including a 3 year old 2' high rosemary tree) for $2.75 each from the greenhouse that is an hour away and at a market 15 minutes away. I think the problem is demand. And we don't have a Whole foods yet. The mustard seed market (a whole foods competetor) was giving away seedlings for earth day, but as this was for an herb garden in the city, not a red maple tree in the suburbs, their seedling supply was limited, and they didn't even have any organic herbs for sale. Oh well. if there are some heirloom tomato seedlings to be found, maybe those can get planted once the soil warms up a bit more. (I guess the soil didn't get the memo about white pants being ok and is still cool. and no, I don't have any white pants, I'm just discussing this. I stick to white shirts, which my degree says I'm always allowed to wear, as well as carrying a pocket protector and slide rule the entire year).

Ok. That's the 30 line update on the last few weeks. I'd say I'll try to keep up, I was feeling ok because I wasn't slacking more then TOWMFKAP (I think we need an abreviation for his acronym) but now I'm losing that battle as well, so I need to get to updating.