stripethree

Yeah, Halloween was a few days ago, but the title is appropriate.

So we have these ‘Pounce’ treats for the kitties and they love them. Shake the little tube of goodness and they come bounding and meowing from wherever they happen to be in search of a piece of kitty chocolate.

We have seen them get a hold of the closed container before and were quite surprised at how they attacked the lid in an intelligent manner in attempts to open the treat jar. Despite their best efforts (even working together), they could not pry the lid from its place. It was entertaining to watch them tug and fight as the carton rolled around, tightly closed. I however, now believe this to be a game of possum so as we did not worry about where to keep the treats.

The first time it might have been a fluke, but again today it happened again. I came home to find the jar of kitty goodness on the floor, lip nowhere to be found, treats no where to be found. Our little fiends gobbled every crumb of Pounce deliciousness up. I picked up the empty carton and turned to see them sitting there, looking at me, holding the carton, trying to look as innocent as possible and avoid scolding through their cute kitten faces. The mischievous little mongrels are even watching me type; from on top of the ironing board they aren’t supposed to be on, no less.

Cumberland Airport, July 29 and July 30. It was hot. Too hot. At the same time, it had been too long since an autocross. Nearly two months. Way too long. Things did not start off in the best manner, as I discovered a broken bypass valve and an unusable intake when I thankfully popped the hood to check fluids. After some engineering (I use the term lightly) a short ram intake was born. Saturday runs I simply could not get things clicking right and finished nearly two full seconds and three slots behind the STX class leader. Saturday times:

1. 62.897
2. 62.126
3. 62.844
4. 61.955 2
5. 62.936 1

On run three or four, I cannot recall which, I pulled into the grid and was greeted by a scraping noise, which I discovered to be the driver side HID ballast dragging on the ground. Both sides came loose, probably due to the heat and harsh conditions. and the driver side fell through and was dragging on the asphalt. Luckily the damage was not bad and the ballast is still functional. Furthermore, the same torx screw on the inner fender liner of the driver side has popped out so right turns of more than a full lock are once again met with a rubber on plastic rubbing. Yum! I suppose it could be worse given the beating this car takes.

Sunday was better. Shaved time on almost every run, hit fewer cones, and cut two and three quarter seconds off from run one to five:

1. 55.943
2. 54.271 1
3. 53.978
4. 54.170
5. 53.261

Much better, well, the car that is. I could be better. I do not know how one catches such a nasty cold when it feels like 115 outside, but I got it. No, I have not been smoking even though I am hacking up a lung like I have been sucking down Marlboros for 20 years. It really needs to go away, as in, five days ago. I have too much shit to do to be sick.

The kittens, or should I say, the kitten and the cat, are doing well. After some initial friction, they have grown to like one another. Llama is a brave little pound of a kitten and Monkey has realized he is not being replaced and takes good care of his little brother. Monkey though, he is no kitten anymore. Hes still only four pounds, but he looks like an adult cat now, and he acts like one too. Both are mischievous little fur balls and its fun to watch them chase one another.

Yesterday marked something else very cool and notable. Yes, thats right, the start of some livin in sin. The apartment is pretty empty right now, since between work and other things, the move in will take place over a few weeks, but still, in principle, it has begun. As Ted proclaimed, “It’s all over for you now”. Hahaha. Im excited and happy, and so is Kharissa.

Ok, thats enough out of me, Im going to try and not cough up my lungs.

We adopted this little guy from Howard Country animal control, so now he and Monkey can do battle, I mean, play nicely all the live long day.

And yes, we named him Llama.

Where have I been? All over the place, seriously. Over three of the last four weekends I have taken seven flights to four different cities (if you include the stop over in Atlanta) on four different airlines, attending two weddings and seeing in person what I have looked at in pictures for months. Las Vegas, Detroit, and Smyrna (Tennessee, near Nashville). Wedding in Vegas, visiting people and a car in Detroit, and another wedding in Tennessee. What follows are lessons learned

- The house always wins. I should have quit when I was ahead, but thanks to a dealer nicknamed Mr. Clean and another who was telling mother-in-law jokes, I ended up going home in the red. Not by much, it could have been a lot worse, and I’m hopefully somewhat wiser in the ways of casino Blackjack.
- Planned weddings in Vegas are fun! It certainly helps when you are on a first name basis with the bartender at the open bar within the first hour and when your table at the reception is that table, the one thats just loud and rowdy enough and no one is allowed to not have a drink in hand. It was fun and congratulations to Rebecca and Chuck (I promise, I havent forgotten to send the pictures!)
- Acrobatic maneuvers when intoxicated are not as fun. Stardust 1, my right knee, 0. Still sore from this act of stupidity, I thought I could be slick and hop a 3 or so foot barrier after the above described reception and open bar. Apparently not.
- Coupe Quattros are not for me. Moving onto the Detroit leg of my journey, I learned that as cool and dare I say, new age classic, as they look, a CQ is not a car I’m going to have fun with. A sad realization, but alas, it’s for the better.
- There are parts of 8 Mile Road that are not ghetto as hell. True story.
- Running through Detroit International Airport is not my favorite thing to do
- Tennessee is, well, Tennessee. How are we getting to the wedding? Take a left after you see a Mexican in a cowboy hat on the corner, then a right at the Wedding sign. Awesome. Self serve kegs, and a groom that says “Yes Ma’am” and then gets uppercut by cake courtesy of his new wife. Thats just how they roll.
- Drinking with your girlfriend’s parents can result in massive amounts of hilarity. I was called “one of the kids”, referred to as “Kharissaa’s husba… boyfri… ah, whatever husband”, and was told they only had one daugher left to marry because “awww honey, shes sure smitten with you”. Hahaha. These guys are awesome.
- Best t-shirt of the weekend goes to Kharissa’s father: “I traded my wife for this new gun best deal I ever made.” Awesome.
- Best Western isnt much in Tennessee, but the hot tub in the room was clean and worked and Dominos delivered, that’s all that mattered.

So thats all about the past. I think I;m good on airplane travel for a while. No bad experiences, just had enough of airports, planes, and the shitty rude people that tend to populate them.

The present, well, near present, will include Kharissa changing locations and moving in with me in Columbia. I’m very excited, but still somewhat nervous, mostly because I have not yet lived in sin. I’m sure it will be fine, and I can’t wait until August. Plans for a BBQ at the place are in the works, probably sometime around my birthday when its cooler and weve had time to get the place in order.

The big part is the future, this is not news to a lot of you, but come January, I’m picking up and moving to Arizona with Kharissa. Next August we will be relocating again to California. Again, I am madly excited for this, even though it’s still months off. Maryland, you’ve been good, but its time to try something new. My masters will be nine tenths complete, and the last class can be done online. I am working on the work situation, which hopefully will result in my ability to stay with the same company. Hopefully.

No blog after this long would be complete without a car update. As you may have guessed with the CQ experience, the R is staying, for now. I have not decided what to do once we move across country; driving two cars seems silly, shipping it is expensive, and then theres the inevitable issues of when the time comes to register it in Arizona and probably even more hassle in California. I have to get cracking on some research to see what will fly. So yes, the idea of selling it is not completely out of the question, but the opportunity to keep it and track it at some of the awesome venues SoCal has to offer (Laguna Seca anymore?) might be temptation enough. Theres still two Audi Club events to be had in the area, one at Summit Point in Ocotober and VIR in November. Theres finally a hope for fixing the Celis headlights which I hope to get to this week, and then hopefully I can whittle down the list of projects and pile of parts that I need to either use, put away, or sell off.

Then there’s our fat ass cat who becomes more of an attention whore every day. With the exception of last night when he acted out on being left alone all weekend, and not in a positive way, this guy is awesome. He’s feisty (yeah, well see what happens when he gets that manhood taken away), and playful, and generally entertaining. His acrobatics are awesome; making the name we have bestowed upon him an excellent fit. I am not around him enough on a daily basis to notice, but apparently he seems lonely during the day, enough that the suggestion has been brought of whether to get another kitten to keep him company. This makes me kind of weary because I think hes still young and crazy and should calm down and that effectively doubles the things that need to be taken care of with regards to pets. Sure, its not all that much, but, is it really merited to get another one? I don’t know. We’ve agreed to see how he is once we move in together and are not away on the weekends as much and then see if he will get a little brother or sister. Also in mind is that were going to have to cart these guys across country, spending over 30 hours in a car. Hmmm.

Well, that’s all I got, and its about time to go to class.

Hello kitty!

This little guy is awesome. We took him along on a trip to Giant and an impromtu trip to Petsmart and he was loved by all who saw him wrapped in his little towel. He’s going to be a lady killer with those eyes, as long as he doesn’t let any of those smelly farts go. Yikes.