"No good deed goes un-punished..."

That's what a supervisor said to Will (a co-worker of mine) and I as we scratched numbers off 150ish cans of welding wire. Nothing like being on the bottom of the totem poll. I like to think of it as paying my dues.

Corinne and I have spent the last few nights watching some movies. One of them, Brothers, is a great movie about of a man going to war (present day) just as his younger brother is getting out of jail. Some scenes are graphic, but I guess that's how they get the point across these days. I recommend watching it.



Another movie I'd like to recommend is Law Abiding Citizen. The twists in the plot keep you tied into the story from beginning to end (if you can get past the first scene).



HOWEVER, we didn't make it all the way through The Men Who Stare at Goats. Another George Clooney movie with the same acting George. It's like he doesn't become a character, he just plays as George, but in different movie rolls. Not worth the watch.

So... we watched a LOT of movies in 3 days. The others, which were all OK in my opinion; The Goods, Sherlock Holmes, and She's Out of My League.



WEDDING UPDATES

I forgot to mention a while back we chose our JP for the celebration. It will by my mothers Uncle Mack. I am very excited to be married by someone I know, but more importantly, another member of the family. Corinne has got her dress, shoes, and all the other fixings for the day. Most of her brides maids have got their dresses and shoes. I know there's a lot more, but I can't remember it all right now. I'm not sure what's next,

Waiting for orders...

Today is Corinne's birthday!

Happy birthday to you!

Last night we went to Applebee's to use a gift card she received for her birthday AND to watch the pay-per-view fights that were on. I'll be honest, it was a little nice seeing Frank Mir's dreams get crushed in the first round. We ordered three appetizers, two drinks, and a huge dessert; bill came to $18.XX!!!!

We had a great time!

Now, we wait for her family from CT to arrive... for more food and gifts!

It's been a while...

I haven't posted at all this week. I've had something to do every night. So.. I am about to start working on Corinne's car. Her driver's side headlight housing has loads of moisture in it. This blew her HID low beam bulb out and a ton of fuses, too. We replaced the bulb and fuses, but no dice. This means I've got to remove the front bumper to get the assembly out, bake it so we can remove the lens, wipe it dry, put it back together, and reinstall. Before I can put car back together, I need to swap her light ballasts to see if the problem moves to the other side. I hope it does, then I'll know what the problem is. If it's not the ballast we will probably have to take it to the dealer.

If only doing it was as easy as typing it.

______ Sauce...

Picture by Toan Trinh. ------> http://d3m14n.blogspot.com/

Some quick video...

This is a walk down the long line of cars that rolled in from CT. After meeting up with some others on the Mass Pike, I think we had a 25 car caravan!


Just a random video of someone's exhaust, followed by some "wicked cool kids" pulling out of the parking lot.

Spring Bean Meet 2010

Here are some shots from today's meet in Boston. Enjoy!

The CT countryside....

Here are some photos I took while Corinne and I were in CT this weekend. I'll start with the best breakfast joint I've ever been to; The Country Diner


I had what they called The Eiffle Tower. This was a cinnamon bun cut in half like a hamburger bun, and made into french toast. Words cannot describe the flavor. Well worth the trip to CT.

Here is a house with their livestock on the front lawn.



And to finish, our mode of transportation;

Went to Hampton Beach....

And took some photos of the fire damage that still remains. This happened early morning on Friday, February 26th. Same day as the damn winter hurricane. Here's what I got;







This is the building across the street from the fire. The siding melted from the heat.

I don't have a cool title for this one...

So I finished my overhead test yesterday at work. This one went very smooth and I'm most confident of this one. This morning I returned a defective rotor from Advance Auto Parts and finished my front 5-lug swap. Results:



Corinne and I dropped her car off today for our friend, Jeremy, to do a timing belt/tensioners and other things while he's in there.

Cats...

The other day I found the laser pointer that was lost for months. The cats were thrilled! Silvia is the one who attacked the camera at the end, LOL!

Cruise'n this weekend!

Should be a good time. I'm very excited. I know it's only Tuesday.. When will this week end?!

I still have some wrenching to do. New shoes;



Work has been frustrating! I'm progressing though.

"Keep ya head up"

A message from my sister!

We got our 2010 Census today... Did you?

Please fill it out and mail it back. Not so that we are fairly represented in the legislature, or so we have enough teachers. No, the reason I ask you to complete it is so that in 72 years Hailey's grandchildren can research us and learn more in their genealogical searches. :)

See, that's about as personal as you can get with the census, and you all know, I am a genealogy junky.

Thanks!!

Val

Now I had heard on a morning radio show that there was going to be a "long form" with more questions on it. Well, after a quick google search, About.com says;

While in previous decennial censuses, some homes received a "long form" questionnaire and most homes received a "short form" questionnaire, in the 2010 Census, there will be no long form. Every home will just receive a short questionnaire that should take about ten minutes to complete.

Fill out your census!!!

Keeping my fingers crossed...

Today I finished my vertical welding test. It was a battle from start to finish. It wasn't the prettiest plate, but it shall do... I hope. This took me a total of 8 hours over 2 days. I'm glad it's over with, and hope I never see it a gain.

Today Corinne started (and nearly finished) out "save the date" magnets. We need a few more addresses but the bulk of them will be in the mail Monday. I'm not sure what my next role in this process will be. Maybe looking at tuxes? Joe and I discussed briefly about what to do for a bachelor party. Not sure what's going to happen with that...

I'd like to finish this post with a picture I took 5 years ago. This is Sean's (a co-worker at the time) dog. His name has drifted from my memory, but I like the picture. So here ya go.

Words cannot describe...

My apologies for another car post, but RB30DER.. Pretty much everything in this supercharged Godzilla-eater is one-off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjT7l76EHqU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9BX6RhXeD8

In other news, I started another test today that I will finish tomorrow. I'll be glad when this one is over. *sigh*

Inspiration:

Inspiration to wrench on cars, get up early every morning to make that cheese, and get to some events to I can get my feet wet in this sport.

Success!

Well Jay and I finished my rear hub swap! It was a battle from start to finish. I'm liking the way to looks and the ride is a bit stiffer in the rear. The rim is 1" larger in diameter, and the offset it a bit more favorable than the stock steel wheel. Here are some pics!

Started with some parts.



Then stripped down everything, now ready for the new stuff!



Everything installed.



And finished product!

Made some progress yesterday...

...on someone else's car! It's all good though, I had a good time. I like wrenching on cars even if it's not on mine.

Anyone looking to see Pat's blog, click here!

Now Jay is headed over to help me tackle this rear hub swap!

No more teachers, no more books...

It's the weekend! I'm about to cook up some steak, and listening to Breaking Benjamin's new album. Doing some work on the car this weekend! Can't wait...

An acquired taste...

Yes, a bit too radical for my own car, but you get the idea!


Taken from the HellaFlush blog.

A fresh start...

As I've posted before, my PC shit the bed on me. My anti virus software expired and I didn't do a thing about it. Until it stopped turning on, then I couldn't do a thing about it. Well after a few weeks of no computer, I decided to learn some thing new; erase everything and start fresh. About a month prior to my computer dieing, I backed up all my music and photography to my external HD... good thing. Thanks to Kurt and Charlie for helping me get this done!

Now that my computer is up and running, I am trying my best to wrap my head around this tuning software (tuning in general really). With older Nissan ECU's (the computer that controls the car) you can edit and reprogram the files that control EVERYTHING. This is as good as it gets without spending 2 weeks pay to do it with a big name standalone ECU. A friend of mine actually has everything to do the job, and is pretty much going to do it all. I just want to understand everything that's going on so I can add some input and maybe do this on my own later.

New delivery!

Got my hubs in today. I am sooo excited! The brake lines are in the mail, too. I might just drill my rear rotors for 5-lug to save the $$$ from rotors and pads. I am bringing a caliper into work tomorrow, and the other on Friday, to get the pistons out of it. It's the easiest way I know of (if it works), then I can have them powder coated in Greenland next week. Hope everything goes as planned!

At work, a few things just clicked over the past few days. I've moved on to running vertical beads after submitting my horizontal test. It was like learning to weld all over again. After every practice plate it looks better and better. My instructor (Billy) came in yesterday and said "That looks great!" Well, that's not what I wanted to hear. I was getting loads of undercut and had no idea how to avoid it. So Billy said it's my speed, rod angle, and bead placement that are great. I got a few pointers and WOW, what a difference. No more undercut. Hoping to submit my vertical test early next week!

Parts on the way...

Last night I order 5-lug hubs for my car. Today I bought some stainless braided brake lines, too. I'm doing what I think is the largest mod I've done to the car; going from 4 to 5-lug. I am also upgrading the front brakes at this time. The stock front rotors are smaller than the rears.... that's just not right! With my future plans of finishing my motor rebuild and further down the road, turbo, I will need to be able to stop more efficiently. I am going with the front calipers/pads and rotors from the 1990-1996 Infinity Q45. They are a direct bolt on for the S-chassis, and are a substantial upgrade over the stock setup. I still need to repaint the calipers and rebuild them... hopefully later this week if the parts come in.

For the rear, I am using S14 5-lug rotors and new S13 pads. I will be running my stock 300ZX wheels also. I like the OEM look; clean, subtle, and it will look great! This will be a great improvement and I will be enjoying my car that much more!