Saw the new 2012 Focus 5-door today. Quite sharp and aggressively styled.
(0)Monthly Archive for May, 2011
Cass’s Pizzeria is all papered up and shut down. That didn’t last long. I’m not really sure how long it’s been boarded up. Even though I pass by almost daily, it’s in the morning, so “not open yet” and “shut down for good” don’t look too different. Oh well – Fabio said it wasn’t very good anyway.
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Picked up at Safeway this Sierra Nevada seasonal. Reading the blurb had me a little worried, said it’s a Pilsner, but since I have had a few pilsners that I have liked, decided to chance it. Pours moderate head, clear yellow. The floral isn’t too strong, but the bitter from hops is pretty strong and the floral does come out later. The bitter lingers for quite a while. Mouthfeel is pretty clean and light. Thankfully there isn’t any skunkyness, but I still can’t say I really like this beer. I think it needs some pretty strong flavored food to go along with it, I find it hard to drink by itself. 2 out of 4 bitter puckered monkeys.
So here’s the improved version of rally FX mudflaps. Used what I had from Derek, could be longer, but looks like it’ll help even more!
Derek had given me some leftover rubber diamond plate sheet material earlier in the week and the idea was to use it to make extended mudflaps for the rally FX. Friday evening before the next event, I decided to start on the project, should be an easy thing. I then remebered I had stashed in the floor of my closet, a set of Toyota pickup truck mudflaps. Wait, I’ve never had a Toyota pickup, you say. Yes, this set was scavenged from back in the day when we used to ride mountain bike, a lot. If my memory serves me right, this was even way back in the days when Tantalus was open and we rode it. We’re talking at least ten years ago. And if my memory through old geezer colored glasses hasn’t fogged it too much, I’m pretty sure this was the late afternoon ride with me and Dave where we explored down an undocumented trail and found an abandoned wrecked Toyta truck. This was the event that made the phrase “it’s easier to go down than up” famous with Dave and me. We kept riding until it got too narow and grown in, and then continued on foot. We had a good idea where we were, and eventually we got to a point where we knew where the Makiki Valley trail was. But now it was serious hiking, no bushwaking, with bikes. We decended the steep valley side, Dave occasionally having to cut vines loose with his pocket knife and passing the bikes between the two of us to get over rock drops, and finally dropped onto the valley trail, just as the sun was close to dipping below the valley top. Anyway, these flaps are the bounty from that adventure. Continue reading ‘Flap Neglect’
“Unchi-kun Choco” white chocolate lollipop version. For those not versed in Nihongo, “unchi” is “feces”. Yeah. Go figure. I want the milk chocolate version. Available at a dagashiya near you!
I picked up a set of these at Soul Trex in Windward Mall for use with Fage yogurt. My Snow*Peak titanium spoon was too large to get at the fruit component, and these were a more environmentally friendly alternative to disposable spoons. I guess I could wash and reuse the disposable plastic spoons, but it ends up being pretty easy to throw away something that is free rather than something I paid cash for. For around $7 USD, this smallest version of the Swedish-made Light My Fire Sporks come in a pack of three assorted colors. The set I got has white, black, and chromate green: I think the other combination was red, pink, and white. It’s nice to find plasticware that isn’t made in the PRC. I feel a lot more confident that it isn’t going to poison me with mystery substitute materials slipped in after the test batch is inspected. Continue reading ‘Light My Fire Spork Little’
Mmm… Tiramisu. How can you go wrong with espresso-soaked chocolaty goodness? The shape of this version from the Patisserie La Palme D’Or bakery in Ala Moana Center is a narrow bar instead of a single round or a pie wedge, but it’s all good. The added flavor and texture from a layer of caramelized brittle really makes this special. It’s a little on the sweeter side of neutral, which is somewhat odd coming from a Japanese bakery. Continue reading ‘Patisserie La Palme D’Or Tiramisu’
My Lassa Rally 1 tires came in our group order from rally-tire.com. Didn’t have a choice, this was the only 14″, but they look pretty burly and I think will do okay.
I missed out on an earlier order that had some mud oriented tires that I wanted to order, but maybe it’s just as well. I’ve seen under the conditions we race, those tires got chewed up real fast. The KRP surface is slick and muddy when wet down, but has lots of rock and coral in it. These made in Turkey tires are aimed toward gravel conditions and durability. And as “competition use only” tires, they have super stiff and thick sidewalls, I could lay one on its side and stand on it and it barely budged. This 175/65-R14 tire is considerably taller than any tire I’ve run on the FX so I was a little concerned with fitment. Test mounted them and looks like there are no clearance issues.
Time to test them this Saturday at the rally-x race! I wonder how much of a difference they will make, but heck the tread is more aggro than 90% of the tires on SUVs and 4×4 out there.