First weekend of 2006

Except for what appears to be the beginning of a cold that I haven't been able to shake (thanks Primm!) the first weekend of 2006 was pretty enjoyable.

Wen and I didn't do much for New Year's Eve, we celebrated by watching episodes of "Law & Order: SVU" and Dick Clark as midnight appeared. Yes, I officially feel old now.

New Year's Day Wen's mom came over to have me fix the problem with the heater on her Tercel. It wasn't blowing hot air on her commute home from Borrego Springs to Shelter Valley and she noticed that the temp gauge would real close to the bottom of the gauge. Sounded like a thermostat problem, for some reason it wass opening up too early or stuck open so we searched for a thermostat and replacement radiator hoses as well.

4 car parts stores later, some crazy chicken (El Pollo Loco) and a gallon of paint for Chloe's room, we finally found one that had the hoses in stock. The install went pretty smooth, until it came time to install the top hose where I found that the new one was about 1/4" bigger in diameter than the old one. Wen and Mary ran off to another store which had one in stock which fit perfectly after some trimming. A quick test drive had the temp gauge sitting in the normal spot (slightly below half-way mark) and the heater blowing hot air, so problem solved.

I spent yesterday installing Eibach springs on my WRX, then returning the radiator hose which didn't fit and the spring compressor I borrowed from Kragen. Install was pretty straight forward, the toughest part was getting the top-hat bolts off. That bolt likes to spin with the strut-shaft, so you have to use an offset wrench so you can hold the shaft with an allen key and/or a strap wrench to loosen and then tighten it. Breaking it loose while the car was on the ground seemed to make that go a lot easier, too.

I think we caught the last rat which has been pestering us. Sunday night I heard a bit of a commotion in the attic which sounded like rat activity, so I made a mental note to go up and check on the traps we set in the attic with peanut butter. Found a trapped rat along with an empty one without any more peanut butter. Hopefully that's the last of them!

Next weekend there is more car maintenance due, both Wen's Civic and my WRX need coolant flushes and brake flushes. Hopefully I'll get to paint Chloe's room, too!