More Trees

All the dangerous cutting part is done, no more tree limbs over the house, the garage, the neighbor's fence or anything. So far the biggest tree is still standing, but we cut off the large "trunks" that were leaning towards the garage side. Now if anything were to happen it would just fall in the woods (would it even make a sound?). The cleanup project will probably last a LONG time, who knows maybe even pictures with next blog post about it. But does anyone even read this anymore?

Trees

So lately the work I've been doing around the house has been cutting and dragging tree limbs. One day we also broke up the concrete patio, but that was fast compared to the tree project. I have a great helpful friend doing the felling of the limbs, but it leaves a huge amount of work still with how large my trees were. One tree's branches pretty much fill up the entire backyard and take hours to cut and move smaller branches to brush piles. 3 down, still some limbs to cut up and drag, but 5 more similar trees to go. There are also 2 REALLY huge trees that need to come completely down, but that is so big its almost it's own project. Who know's, maybe it will be enough to actually post another time...

Time for another post

So my Eclipse runs again after getting the part back from AEM and it's inspected and everything, probably needs some new spark plugs, but no biggie there. It's been up for a while, but I don't really post too often lately.

Next tech purchase will probably be the sprint HTC EVO 4g phone (link). I still have a touch pro 2 and it's nice, but it seems windows mobile is dying and it's time to give android a shot. That will be August though for my 2 yr upgrade to kick in. I guess there might be a post about that if I do get one.

I guess that's about it for now.

someone reminded me that i have a blog

Not sure how many other people still know i have one, but here's a random update for ya. Tonight I managed to get my digital over the air TV working again. In my boycott of the cable company i decided i didn't need their monthly price increases a long time ago and with FIOS and over the air tv i was fine. Well actually i can't remember the last time i watched my tv for over the air, but i wanted it to work. Instead of using those tuners with the 40 dollar rebate and composite connector i wanted to use my Xbox 360 as a media center extender. This uses my PC tuner and has dvr capability all with no monthly fee (for media center the 360 still doesn't need to be on xbox live). For the high definition digital signals though you need a lot of network bandwidth and i didn't have a network cable in the bedroom. Fortunately they recently came out with a wireless N network adapter so i jumped on that and a new router. It's been working well now that i got passed the problem of my antenna connections needing to be checked for the channels to come in again. Another feature of media center is internet tv, but unfortunately now that i upgraded to windows 7 that isn't supported on extenders (the xbox).

All this to say, i'm really happy that i can watch tv in my bedroom now, even though i probably won't.

Tech toys

Any idea what my next tech toy purchase should be? I was looking at the following:

Nextar - 43LT GPS
Gps with free lifetime rds detailed traffic info, but not in all areas.

A Cheap used xbox 360 for another media extender. Probably from craigslist or something.

HTC Touch pro 2 for sprint

Not really sure I need any of those though. Anyone else have any must have tech toys?

Yay!

The car runs again, thanks for all the suggestions! (double checks for comments, ok just checking....)

M3 updates

Anyone like installing alarms or remote starts? I'm part way there, but it's not quite right. Take a look at the pictures and let me know if you see the problem =)

Oh, incidentally, once again I can't drive it.

Someone reminded me I have a blog

I guess for update on M3 i FINALLY fixed the rubbing issue with the eastwood fender tool and rear bump stops. Car doesn't look much different than last pic but i can actually drive it now. I also fixed the sway bars. Front needed new end links, rear needed a new subframe....lots of work, but well worth it!

New Rimz Dawg

WOW I updated my blog!!!!!!


So now that it's nice out i finally put on the new rims for the M3. Good news is they look freaking awesome, bad news is that they rub the fender even sitting in the driveway. So at this point I backed it up the 20 feet into the garage and it sits awaiting some options. Perhaps raise it back up a little which may not be the preferred option, perhaps look into rolling the fenders some. Maybe a compromise. Either way the old rims have not yet been burnt up due to lack of suitable parking lots with no surveillance. I do still plan to remedy this at some point, but I'd like to drive the thing for a little while with the nice rims anyway.

HID lights w/ Angel eyes

Finally installed the new lights in the M3 today. There was in issue and i had it started earlier, but it works now. They definitely need to be adjusted because they shine super high, but that can be fixed. I tried to take some pictures, but they just looked like white light so i'll wait til daytime when it will be less trouble for the camera. Also gonna have to spark a rim soon as the new CSLs are in. The old rims got some tread though so they'll be good through winter i'm thinking.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I just noticed I haven't posted an entry since Nov 22nd. That could mean I'm off doing things that are super exciting and I don't even have time to write about it. Or, that I'm really up to nothing at all and don't have anything interesting to write about. Who knows it could just be that I haven't gotten around to it though and interesting things happened that didn't get written about for no particular reason at all. You decide.

Trucks first snow and 4 wheeling

I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one.

Ok one comment, it actually looked more muddy after it dried later in the day

New M3 exhaust

Installed a new exhaust on the M3. That was probably my least favorite part of the car previously due to how it looked, this one is a little quieter i think, but MUCH nicer looking and it sounds clean. The fit was a little interesting to make work, but its about as good as it can get now. Only busted one bolt in the whole exhaust job and none were totally seized, not bad. Next will be all the exterior lighting, HID lights and some clear lenses to replace all the orange. It should be a much cleaner look on the blue car and they are already ordered.

Update: Here's a daylight shot

"My" new project car

Its a 1995 BMW M3 with a nice Vortec supercharger. Here are a few pics. Enjoy, I know I will!

oops, forgot to post during on call

I actually got paged a few too many times this time around, but oh well. Good news for tonight is that I just installed a rebuilt and upgraded transmission with a new twin disc clutch in the Eclipse. I still have a little more work to come on that one I think with a modified slave cylinder, but it runs and is quite grabby.

Still ringing, but life goes on

So I went to the Specialist the other day and they basically said that there is nothing they can do about the ringing in my ear that started over a month ago.  The sympoms he can see are just that I have a slight high pitch hearing loss in my left ear.  Which he said looks to be about normal, but I notice it because it was about perfect before.  I'm kinda thinking it might be worth a second opinion.  Not that they will definitely be able to do anything, but his explanation doesn't even address the fact that I was near deaf for a week in that ear and the doc saw swelling so gave me meds that helped.  

Bottom line: I can hear ok, but ringing is still there and still feels like a little pressure as well.

Since last post I went to Cedar point which was awesome, also a DSM get together and race.  My Eclipse is currently undergoing a transmission upgrade as last time at the track made me angry at the current one.  Oh and tonight I had a bunch of people over for a game night, good times!

New Truck!!

So it turns out that high gas prices make for cheap trucks! I have wanted a full size pickup for the ability to tow a vehicle for a long time now. I had a ranger, but that wasn't cutting it. After looking around at every place i could find lately i noticed all brands had huge rebates til the end of the month. The one that really caught my attention at first was a 30% off sale at Nissan! And that's right off the bat no fighting for it. That makes a 37,700 sticker price truck down to around 27,700 out the door after taxes tags etc. Nice deal! Thought that's about what I'd be getting after trying all brands. Then I looked on the internet to make sure it was the best nissan deal. Turns out it wasn't! There was a 40% off deal and they had a fancier truck. It made a 41,000 truck down to about 27,100 out the door. Needless to say more options and less money sounds like the way to go. Some of the options weren't deal makers, but there were a few I really liked and hey if it costs me less money why not? It went from an SE to a PRO-4X for those interested. It's color is listed as smoke which is a nice dark charcoal gray.

Needless to say i'm excited and this is made to haul so hopefully it will lead me into my other car hobbies that will go better with a car trailer =)

On another note i have a weird ringing in my ears that has been there since saturday. went to the doc today hopefully the meds will fix it pretty annoying to test the new car stereos and be like, well i think the one side sounds good. Left ear is very muffled and ringing though.

World of Coca-Cola!

So had to go to Atlanta for a class for work and it turns out that's where the world of coca cola is. You might have guess that I'm a Coke fan so this was definitely a good time! The class was ok, but I was very glad to go to the Coke Mecca for the first time. They have a museum of different coke historic items and art. There are a few movies, one is the happiness factory (the ones in the coke machine where the quarter rolls in) another was "4d" or 3d with moving chairs and similar additional effects. The best part though is the sample room where they have cocacola products from around the world. There were about 63 flavors and i sampled most of them right away. I didn't waste room on the ones that said diet and might have skipped a few US ones, but there was Bibo from south africa (mango), Inca Cola from south america, and the infamous Beverly from italy to name a few. The Beverly is one that every has to try when they go there hehe. I didn't even get very sick afterwards....just wasn't really hungry from all the sugar =)

Hmm, never posted about that?

So a few weeks ago i went to a rally race! It was awesome as was expected. It was kinda hard to pull off though as i had to work the day before and after the 3hr drive. I'm willing to sacrifice sleep for that though. Saw some cars hit a bank pretty hard, one jumped up in the air with all 4 tires when it hit. Overall it was nice to see now that i have a little more background from the team o'neil course over the winter. I could see where they took the lines and which worked and why some hit the wall.

Another fun part was the day before i went to the rally the gutter decided to fall off of my backporch. The roof definitely needed to be redone, but i didn't think it was as drastic until that happened. I ended up putting it back up myself with some nails and a little handy work for a temp fix so i could go to the race and not think about it, but i still needed a real fix.

Now it's been redone with new decking, fascia boards (it had none before, part of why gutter fell), rubber roof and soffit. All thanks to some friends that hooked me up with the skills and tools/materials. its all done now and looks good and i don't see water getting in now.

Unusual twist of fate

So yesterday I went to the garage and heard a noise in the attic which I've heard many times before. The lovely sound of the metal trap rattling because it caught a squirrel. About two days before this I had caught another one and let it go about 30 miles away so it wouldn't come back.
This time it was a little different though. When I picked up the cage the weirded thing happened. I believe the direct quote from my own mouth was "Darn it this one's cute!" It was a tiny squirrel so I didn't feel as happy about releasing him miles away as usual. I figured at least a "last meal" was in order.
So my brother and I went to get some peanut M&Ms (squirrels actually shell even chocolate M&Ms) and went to the park. We left the little guy in the cage and tried to feed him the treats, but he wasn't eating. We sat and ate a few to make sure he could tell there were peanuts inside and even opened some up for him.
After that got boring we figured it was time to open the cage and let him go to the pile of M&Ms we left for him. So I spring open the cage and he stays put. After a little coaxing he finally got out, but instead of going to the food he went towards my brother. This kinda freaked my brother out so he shouted "ahhh!" and kinda ran a little. Then the squirrel turned around confused and started going towards me. Nothing aggressive or fast, but just coming closer.
This went on for a little until I said to my bro: Ok, if it goes back in the trap we'll take him with us. So I set up the trap with no bait and stepped back. I don't think it was even 30 seconds later the squirrel had gone back in the trap as if it knew what it meant.
Needless to say neither my brother or I actually thought we'd be taking the squirrel back with us, but we did. We were both hungry though so we went to eat while trying to figure out what to do with it.
Finally we took it to a friends house and pampered him a bit. He is pretty cute and actually fun. He slept a lot, but when he was awake he chased me slowly around the kitchen and crawled up our arms and sat on our shoulders. Not bad for a wild animal we tamed with a bag of M&Ms that it didn't even eat. He didn't draw blood or anything and I think everyone is just as healthy as they were yesterday too incase anyone was worried.
So if you have read the rest of my blog you'd know I'm probly the last person you'd ever expect to end up with a squirrel as a pet, but thats kinda what happened. What a start to my first weekend without work since early April.