• Yesterday I went to pick up my EV from the paint shop. There were a few minor problems. The biggest problem was the way I was handled.

    Continue reading "Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Painting Problems"

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  • This weekend and this morning I prepped Silent E for new paint. It's just going to be original color; Eri wanted red, but I think red with bronze jams and brown interior would be nauseating.

    The kids helped out, of course. And got in the pictures. This is my first time doing anything of the sort, so I'm nowhere near professional. But the paint guy was pretty happy about it. And so was I.

    Continue reading "Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Prepped for Paint"

  • For my birthday, my brother bought me a paint job. A nearby shop put in a $1400 estimate to eliminate all the dents and dings, then paint everything but the trim in the original color.

    This weekend, I tried to remove all the trim, so there wouldn't be any ugly lines where old paint transitioned to new paint. Like everything else in the world, it turned out to be many times more difficult than my initial estimates. I worked part of Saturday and all of Sunday, but I got all the door molding off, as well as the fender trim and bottom edge moldings.

    Continue reading "Judebert's EV Conversion Diary: Preparing to Paint"

  • I'm driving a friend's gasser right now, because I'm preparing Silent E for painting and windshield replacement. So the electric vehicle charging space at work has been going unused.

    Until yesterday! I came out of work to find a plug-in Prius in my spot!

    I didn't get to meet the driver, but the stickers indicate it's one of Sarasota county's plug-in Prius hybrids. I wish my cellphone camera was better, so it could capture all the awesome!

  • My two eldest kids just spent a weekend with their aunt in Miami. She's much cooler than we are, of course. They had a great time, and even brought us back some souvenirs.

    Naturally we had to make sure the youngest had a good time, too. We went to DisneyQuest. (When the eldest kids found out, they were royally pissed. Melissa actually sat on the bed and not-talked to Eri... until she fell asleep.)

    Unfortunately, Kayla didn't enjoy DisneyQuest as much as we had hoped. She would rather have gone swimming. In fairness, she did have a lot of fun. She just didn't think it lived up to its hype. She wasn't all that impressed with the VR games, she didn't like pinball, and she couldn't go on the Buzz Lightyear ride. She was much happier when we went walking in the rain, and when she got to play at the Lego store. Of course, she hated getting pulled out of the Lego store when I pulled up with the ride home.

    On the other hand, I loved it! Lots of classic games, mostly in good working order. Plenty of modern games, also in good condition. Skee-ball, air hockey, pinball machines... I was very happy. I hated the virtual reality games: they made me sick. But I actually got a partner to play Karate Champ with! And they had a Tux Racer arcade machine!

    We tried to make it up to Kayla with a steak dinner. Yesterday evening, she told me she had a great time at DisneyQuest. I guess time heals all wounds.

    It's nice to have the bigger kids back, though. The house was kinda lonely without 'em.