An American Tradition®

For Christmas this year, I adopted a new corgi puppy, bought the most oddly-equipped GMC Yukon you ever did see (Cloth bench! Manual dual climate control! Three rows! Two-way power driver seat!), and received the Order of Lenin (For this, Captain). All things considered, ending 2025 on a high note.

"Good evening, Clarice."

I just filled out an application for a second corgi, to keep Kingsley company. Please tell me I am not going bonkers.

Street parking to get coffee at The Domain in Austin, TX. As one does.

Introduce yourself with the first 5 cars you've owned 1987 Ford Taurus MT-5 wagon 1989 Chrysler’s TC by Maserati 16V 1991 Dodge Spirit R/T 1989 Geo Metro LSi 1992 Dodge Dakota 4x4 (extended cab, V8)

Update! Office studio is done! Wall-mounted standing desks have 40” Samsung 4K monitors with USB-C PD charging and data.

Whichever designer at Samsung thought that a two-piece mounting bracket for their Frame TVs, that you must align by taping two different pieces of paper template together, was a good idea:

A year ago, my wife asked for an outdoor studio/office. I’m almost there. The wall-mounted stand desks go in tomorrow.

Friend and I are planning a drive to Prudhoe Bay from Chicago in something that makes success not guaranteed. Something that can be fit with spare tires, Jerry cans, sat phone, winch, LED bars, and hope. My vote is an OG Cayenne V8 because I liked the Transsyberia. Suggestions? Budget is $10-15k.

Spotted in the wild, a big-bumper/big-door Mk2 Golf on collector plates. I could hear it idling from across the parking lot. Those 8Vs were a lot of things, but refined wasn't one of them.

I know it’s not everyone’s favorite, but the Jubilee dial gives me such a rush of nineties, dot-com, techy nostalgia. I love it.

Update! I've finished running the entire Lucky Ones series through the upscaler - it gave the Mac Studio's M3 Ultra a good workout - but I'm happy with the results, and while YouTube caught some of the music, it still passes copyright validation so they're all here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

A wild 337 appears!

BMW might have given us the Clive Owen short films, but Mercury gave us the miniseries Meet The Lucky Ones. I just bought a DVD of the episodes and am starting to run them through an AI upscaler to remove 20-year-old compression and 480p "quality". Anyway, here's the intro: youtu.be/sg3a-z6xbKY

I might have bought some tile tonight.

Yes, I just bought a DVD of the online miniseries “The Lucky Ones” that was made for the launch of the 2004 Mercury Mariner. Yes, I have the theme song stuck in my head. Yes, I am not normal, thanks for asking.

Once you see the filthy, gunked-up headliner in the "Baby Driver" WRX, you'll never be able to watch this scene again without noticing it.

What nobody tells you about rolling out a layer of RedGard is that, for at least a brief moment, you can have your very own Barbie Dream House.

I’ve washed my hands, like, five times and I still can’t bring myself to take it out of the sealed bag.

Happy birthday to me.

We interrupt *gesticulates wildly at everything* to bring you my cat and my corgi nuzzling.

Fancy-pants gutters are up. Never mind that one screw in the corner; it’s holding the cap on until the copper rivets come in off back order.

Five years ago I bought a 1970s Weltron ball radio that the seller described as "buttercream yellow" - this weekend I decided to stick it in the ultrasonic cleaner, submerged in a 12% peroxide solution that was heated to 50F, and bombarded with UV lights. Turns out, it was actually white all along.

Just spitballing here but I’m pretty sure the 12V battery on the ‘24 Lightning isn’t supposed to bulge like this… right?

Can’t say how pleased I am with the Ubiquiti 60GHz building bridge. Connected to a USW Flex and an old U6 Enterprise access point, and right out of the box these are the speeds I’m seeing in the studio, on 5GHz. I need to go configure the 6GHz radio and try again.

Twelve feet of 16-gauge copper gutter. At least my backyard studio will be fancy, I guess.

So, we did it. One week, and dragged up rolls of soaked carpet, particleboard furniture that tripled in weight, yanked the meter and replaced the main panel and all breakers, removed and replaced the water heater and softener, new washer and dryer, new furnace, hosed down a quarter inch of muck

My parents’ house flooded at 4 this morning. I already booked the first flight there, a hotel, and a rental F150. I texted them I was on the way and… silence. No acknowledgement.

My swept area. Let me show you it.

Well, my day officially sucks. That’s what you get when there’s a giant chunk of broken-off curb in the lane, combined with my awful eyesight and a bad hand placement that prevented me from avoiding it.

Current mood.

I saw it! The first XM of 2025!

Free gift from J.D. Power and Associates! 😐

First tank of fuel. One year of ownership. 189 miles.

Update! The wood has moved. I repeat, the wood has moved. I am pleased to report the S10 Blazer remains intact.

*checks watch*

The 1/10-second dial is just the bee’s knees.

A Home Depot review I recently left for some “reclaimed” barn wood planks: "What you get in the box are boards made of pine so wet that it had birds nesting in it a week ago; boards with more cupping than a clumsy prom night; boards bent enough to be part of Tammany Hall."

Flew SEA-ORD again and, as it turns out, on the same plane, in the same seat.

Me: “We should probably cut down on expenses and save more with all this uncertainty in the markets.” Also me, stopping at the jewelers to “just look”:

All of Jeep’s slogans work here. • “Wanger Donger: There’s Only One!” • “Only in a Wanger Donger” • “It’s a Wanger Donger thing; you wouldn’t understand.” Don’t even get me started on the Willys angle.

When I worked in the industry, writing for Car and Driver was considered the brass ring. Which is why I am disappointed, but not surprised, at them printing such a dogshit, pudding-brained take as "The Cooper EV is disappointing since the Cooper JCW is 0.2 seconds faster to 60."

Okay, forgive me for being a watch dork, but talk me off this particular ledge. Local jeweler just got in this 2020 black-dial Milgauss. I have similar chunky pieces already (pictured) plus a Pulsar P2, 42mm Murph, and a Citizen Bullhead that's being restored. I want, but do I need, the Milgauss?

British “yield” signs just hit different.

My new life goal is to find whoever decided that all “sporty” cars with high-dust brakes must all come with fussy gloss black multi-spoke wheels, and absolutely thrash this individual within an inch of death using just a wheel brush. I’m looking for accomplices. Are you in, or are you out?

Work trip is best trip because I can justify new toys by convincing myself I need to keep up appearances.

I mean, yeah, it’s annoying to have to parachute in on an engagement that requires a week working from an office in London with six days’ notice, and scrambling to board the puppy and arranging to have the cat fed. But then there are really nice saving graces, too.

You could be profoundly depressed and your whole life would get better when you see what this person in front of me had to drive.

Turbo Dodge owners - doing the same dumbshit modifications to their cars since 1992 to make them louder, more polluting, less comfortable, less reliable, even more fragile, and still slower than a Hyundai Elantra. An American Tradition™.