Obviously made it back from Australia, need to get the pic links up on the main page. The woman sent the links out to a bunch of people so I ended up putting them on the public page. Once people have seen their fill I'll move them back to the private area, don't like leaving stuff out where a crawler that ignores robots.txt can find crap (even if the file names are generic).

Got the bar risers installed on the bike and so far other than a bit of leaking from the new brake line it's all good. It says torque to 20 ft/lbs and that just seems like a lot of torque. That or my torque wrench is toast and it's not clicking at the low settings. I probably just need some new crush washers. The neighbors probably think I'm strange as I was out testing the ABS after bleeding the brake lines. Zoom up to 35mph, slam on the brakes and stop. Zoom up to 35mph, slam on the brakes and stop. I could get the rear to lock and then feel the ABS do it's thing, but not on the front. The bike just stopped really fast with no drama. Wasn't bottoming out the lever so I'm guessing I was applying maximum force but just maybe there isn't any feedback through the lever like there is on the pedal? The BMW ABS was like that too.

Wonder of wonders, Chrysler sent me my check for my warranty refund. Sweet, my plan worked and I saved 12% more on the Jeep. Took a while, but in the end it was worth it.

Finished at work (only took about 30 minutes) and now I'm packing while the woman is at the barn. Next stop, Australia.

Exciting. You can put amazon gift cards on your account so they just show up as a payment option next time you go to check out. That's cool, now I don't have to remember to have the number handy next time I order. So the $50 I got from Taos for my 1-year anniversary (only 9 months late). What to get, what to get? Maybe I'll actually get some non-free iphone kindle books now.

Saturday was a totally wasted day, but in a good way. The woman went for a ride, and I, uh, what did I do. Not much, probably some WoW and then I went to Fry's to get mom a charger for her camera (she lost the original one). I wasted some time at Fry's looking at all sorts of cool stuff from Parallax, vowing to get their basic stamp kit and try to make something at some point. It says it has 30 experiments in the basic kit, I can handle that. I can even use my reloading bench upstairs as my electronics workbench too. I may never even be Clay-like in my abilities, or even Kenny-like, but I bet I can make some lights blink!

After Fry's I wanted to test the new position of the Vstrom's windshield with a high speed run so I zipped out to the barn. The woman was just finishing up grooming her rental mule Emmitt. She was happy to see me and was excited about the Dale Jr. USB memory stick I got her. It looks like a little race car and the tail lights come on when you access it. Lame, but she loves it and now she can give me her old stick so mom can use it. Figured it was better to buy something quirky rather than just another 4gb stick.

After the barn she went to the bank and home while I just went home and finished measuring the bike for the custom brake line I need to get made up. After she was showered we went to Ikea to look for coffee tables and end tables/a place to stash the hamster cage. I think we found something she likes, but I'm worried it's too high to sit on the floor and eat off of. Can't sacrifice utility for style.

After a ton of time at Ikea we went to the big mall for a pretzel for me and to look for watches. I want an analog every-day watch that has a stopwatch in it so I can use it for my runs while in Australia. Found a Swatch brand watch that I liked that seems to meet the criteria but I didn't get it. I'll just use my current one and call it good, I don't need another random watch. Next up we went to Santa Row across from the mall and looked at coffee tables in the adult stores ($1600 for a table?!?!?) and the woman looked for hamster holiday houses in the container store. We managed to waste enough time that it was time for dinner and since we weren't dressed well enough to go to Straights, we went to Roux Kitchen, a Louisiana themed place. The food was boring and ick, (menu) but at least they had alligator chips which oddly are not on the on-line menu. If it weren't for that it would be a totally unremarkable, if overpriced, dinner.

Today has just been Starbucks, going over Australia details, laundry, a bit of grocery shopping and wonder of wonders: getting rid of the old Porsche battery. It's been sitting in the garage forever and I finally took it over to Walmart only to find they don't really take them in unless you buy a new one. Fortunately I didn't talk to the counter droid, I talked to the mechanics outside in the pit and they just took it off my hands and put it on the huge pallet of batteries going off to recycle. They don't give a crap. :) I also made up the rabbit jerky using the meat I ground on Friday and seasoned Saturday. It's a bit funky, but not too bad.