I've been off work since last Wednesday and I don't go back until this Wednesday, but I still can't shake the feeling that I should be going to bed early tonight in order to get up for work in the morning. Traci and I finished all our xmas shopping yesterday in Provo/Orem while her mom watched both of the kids--it was nice to be alone together again. We also bought bunk beds for the boys while we were up there, and I spent a good part of today putting them together. Of course, it'll be awhile before Bradley will be sleeping in a regular bed, but we had to kick Michael out of the crib (which we've been using as a toddler bed) because Bradley's almost ready for it.

We started potty training Michael last weekend, and this entire week I've been thinking to myself that it just can't be this easy. He's slept in his bed without a diaper on all week and hasn't had any problems, and only a couple of accidents during the day when he wasn't able to get to the bathroom fast enough. I hope Bradley is this easy when his time comes.

Another blurb in the Salt Lake Tribune this morning:

Remember the story of Richard Udink, the Price resident whose request to put his last name on his license plate was denied by the Division of Motor Vehicles, which found the name offensive?

The Price Sun Advocate, in its special Veterans Day supplement, ran a picture of the five Udink brothers, including Richard, who served their country during World War II.

But their name still can't be on a license plate.

I threw together a little something briefly explaining the whole license plate situation that I had going on with the Utah DMV. It's not pretty, but I'll work on it more when I've got the time. I'm eventually going to scan in all the documents I've sent or received relating to the matter and include them, plus links to any mention of the story on the internet, and whatever else I can scrounge up.

Tim & Mark from KDKB in Phoenix, Arizona, are going to interview me on the air next Wednesday at 7:40 am. It's so much nicer when radio stations here in the West call me--none of this 5:00 am crap. =)

I think I got the Mazda all put back together without any problems, but I'm still not very trusting of the work I did. I was going to tap the stripped bolt hole and use a larger bolt on the thermostat housing, but there wasn't room to use the tap without removing the fan and water pump pulley, which requires special tools. I ended up just threading the larger bolt into the hole without tapping it first, so who knows how long it will hold. This time, I torqued all three bolts down to 10 ft-lbs, which is what the manual says to do. I let the engine get up to operating temperature and kept adding coolant to the radiator as the air was purged from the system, and didn't see any leaks so far. Though the temp gauge never got as high as it should, the heater seemed to blow much hotter, but that could have been due to me freezing my ass off in this below-freezing weather and heavy winds. Update: I took it for an actual drive around town just now, and the temp gauge is working like it should now, so the old thermostat was bad. I'm relieved that all this work wasn't for nothing.

It feels like a Saturday, and a really shitty one at that. I took half a day off work today to replace the thermostat on the Mazda, and it turned out being hellish. First, it took me forever to get the thermostat housing off, but putting it back on turned out to be worse. The Chilton's repair manual I was using is way inadequate when it comes to explaining exactly which parts to take apart--it failed to mention that the alternator, idler pulley, and alternator bracket would all have to be removed in order to turn a single bolt that holds the thermostat housing on. After I figured that out, one of the thermostat housing bolts stripped the bolt hole in the engine block, so after that happened, I just gave up for the day. I went out and bought a tap set so I can tap the hole out to ¼" and thread a new bolt in, but I wasn't about to work on it anymore today. I was to the point where I was throwing tools across the driveway, and I didn't want to take my anger out on the car. The sad thing about this whole thing is that the old thermostat seemed to be ok (it wasn't stuck open like I'd expected), so it looks like the heater core and and temp sender are both bad. Maybe it's time to by a Chevy...

Oh, the irony! Utah DMV's old website now a porn site (NSFW). [link thanks to Jeff]

One set of Warrior shackles + one set of coil spacers from an F-150 + the 31x10.5 tires in my garage = one badass Mazda Navajo (for less than $100). Hopefully I'll be able to do this in a few months.

Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau? I don't think so. At least some people have the right idea (Kevin Kline). [link via Bret]

I took half a day off work today to drive to Provo to pick up a computer that I bought through my company's surplus auction (Dell P-III 500 w/17" monitor for $35), and while I was up there, I decided that I'd head up to Transwest Auto to pick up some parts that I've been needing for the Mazda for awhile. When I started telling one of the guys working there which parts I needed, he stopped me when I mentioned the inside driver's door handle. He told me that it was an integral part of the door panel, and that I had to buy the entire door panel for $100 in order to replace just the handle. I told him, "Bullshit!," since I had already removed the door handle from the Mazda, then he changed his story a little bit, saying that it was supposed to be glued on and isn't supposed to be removed from the door panel. I called bullshit on him again, but he stuck to his story, obviously trying to rip me off (maybe I looked naive). After all that, he told me that they don't allow customers in the yard with tools, and that I had to wait for one of the grunts working there to pull the parts for me (like windshield washer nozzles are a high-ticket item or something). So not only do they not trust their customers to pull their own parts, but they are untrustworthy themselves, so I told him I'll just take my business elsewhere. The only problem is that there isn't anywhere else I can go except somewhere around Salt Lake, so I suppose next time I'm up there I'll have to plan on hitting the junkyards there.

I absolutely hate it when people spout out bullshit like this:

"Now that society has solved poverty, hunger, racism, war and terrorism, it is nice to see the good women of Sandy fighting for a woman's unalienable right to breast-feed at Burger King. Bravo!"

I got the exhaust installed on the '87 Subaru and took it for a drive just a few minutes ago. It turns out that it's got a blown head gasket as well, so all this work was for nothing (well, except for the experience). At least it didn't cost me a dime to do the transmission swap--I didn't even fill up the transmission with gear oil before driving it. I think I'm just going to part both cars out, and at least that way I'll be more than able to recoup the money I paid for the '87. The thing I'm bummed the most about is that I won't have a Subaru to off-road in during the winter, and I certainly don't want to beat on the Mazda since it's our only mode of transportation for now. I think what I'll eventually do is take the money I make from selling the camper, my truck, and the Subaru parts, and just buy a decent 3/4-ton truck. But I'm still going to keep an eye out for a cheap Subaru to drive as a beater.

Is it just me, or does the Utah personalized plate search not allow the use of two "o" characters in a row? I've tried dozens of character combinations, ones that nobody could possibly already have on their license plates, and can't get anything with "oo" past the damned thing. Double zeros, however, seem to work just fine. If you can get something with "oo" in it to work, leave a comment here with the character combination so I can check it.

Hah...here's a great column by Bob Lonsberry that I found while doing a search on Google--there are 84 comments so far, and well worth reading. I got woken up yesterday morning just after 6:00 by WTKW, TK-99 Classic Rock in Syracuse, New York. I was going to get up early to drive to Provo for work anyway, but an extra half-hour of sleep would have been nice. =)

I ordered the valve cover gasket set for the Subaru today, and it'll be here tomorrow. I wasn't initially planning on fixing the oil leaks just yet, but after running the engine for two minutes the other day, it lost way too much oil on the garage floor. I'm not looking forward to resealing the valve covers, and especially the camshaft cases, because I have to remove the timing belts in order to do it. I might as well replace the timing belts, and hell, while I'm at it, why not the head gaskets too? This is turning into more work than I really wanted to do, but it'll be worth it in the end. I'll end up being into the car about $250, so if I can thrash on it for a year before it dies on me, it'll have been worth it.

Once again, the Rolly & Wells column in the Salt Lake Tribune has a little tidbit about the name Udink being too vulgar for a license plate, yet points out that my cousin Allen Udink's name is on the Vietnam Memorial at the Utah State Capitol. I knew his name was on the national memorial, but had no idea about one here in Utah.

There's an article in the Salt Lake Tribune today about my appeal being denied, and also about last week's Administrative Rules Review Committee meeting. At the meeting, Commissioner Bruce Johnson (whose last name would also not make the cut for a personalized license plate) defended the Tax Commission's position, stating that he believed they were making the right decision. Mike Dmitrich is considering introducing legislation that would bypass the DMV's rule, so there's hope yet. There's also an AP article today, so it'll be showing up everywhere once again, though I doubt it'll be getting as much radio and tv coverage this time around.

I had my doubts as to whether or not I'd be able to swap out the bad automatic transmission in my '87 Subaru for the manual transmission from my '88 Subaru, but those doubts turned out to be all for nothing. I just finished it up today (here are some pictures), and though I've got a few small things left to do, it's at least drivable. After installing the manual transmission and driveshaft yesterday, I reconnected the front suspension and did a few other things today. When I was finished with all that, I dropped the car back to the ground and started the battery charging while I messed with the wiring in order to bypass the starter safety switch (basically fooling the car into thinking the transmission is in Park). Once I got done with that I started it up (damn, it's loud without any exhaust), then mashed on the gas and dropped the clutch. I forgot that I'd left the 4WD lever up to get to the wiring under the center console, so I left four skidmarks in my garage. I also damned near hit my '88 Subaru, since the brakes need to be bled on the '87.

Tomorrow I'm taking my exhaust down to the shop that repaired it a few months ago to get fixed again, since the welds are really shitty. After that I can install the exhaust, then bleed the brakes. I think I'll also replace the front brake pads while I've got the wheels off again, then I'm gonna get the car inspected. If it passes, I'll get started on fixing the oil leaks on the engine within the next week or so, then I'll get it registered. I think I'm going to apply for personalized license plates for this car as well, so we'll see how that goes. =)

I came home from work today to find a letter from the Tax Commission--they denied my appeal. I wasn't angry, or even surprised, which in itself is surprising. I have 30 days in which to request a formal appeal hearing, though I think it's time to throw in the towel. Based on their reasoning, I'm sure that even if my case went all the way to the Utah Supreme Court, it would be shot down, as was the McBride case mentioned in the Order.

My only hope, however small, is that the legislative committee that met today will be able to effect a rule change. At least somebody in the state government is willing to stand up for what is right, regardless of how politically incorrect it seems to be. This country is going down the shitter as far as political correctness goes, and Utah is the big piece of shit swirling in the center.

Man, I just about froze to death during the drive into work this morning. I think the thermostat on the Mazda is stuck open, because the needle on the temperature gauge barely moves when it's really cold outside, and the heater puts out next to no heat. Either that, or the temp gauge/sender is broken, and the heater core is shot. Hopefully it's just the thermostat, which I plan on replacing this week sometime.

It's been snowing almost all day here in Provo, so I'm expecting the drive home to be really slow. That is unless the weather is like it was last Thursday on my way home from Salt Lake, when the bad weather stopped just south of Spanish Fork Canyon. It seems strange to me that I'd much rather be driving in this weather in a Subaru rather than the Mazda, even though the Mazda is supposed to be more off-road capable.

The minutes for the October 8th meeting of the Administrative Rules Review Committee are finally online, and basically all that happened is that they asked the Tax Commission to put together a proposal regarding a rule change and present it at the next meeting. That meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, though I'm not certain that any final plans will even be made then. Whatever happens at the committee meeting, and whatever decision is made on my appeal, I probably won't find out about either for another month.

I did some more work on my Subaru today, and it's damned near complete. It took me more than six hours over the course of three days to remove the pedal assembly from my '88 Subaru, but after getting the hang of how it's removed, it only took me 20 minutes to remove the same assembly from the '87 Subaru. After getting them both out, I realized that I'd have to reuse the assembly from the '87 anyway. The '88 is fuel injected, while the '87 is carbureted, so the '87 has an extra bracket welded to the pedal assembly that holds some sort of switch for when the throttle is wide-open. The problem with reusing that assembly is that the one from the '88 also has an extra bracket welded on that acts as a stop for clutch pedal. To remedy that, I drilled a hole where the bracket should have been and simply put a bolt through it, which now acts as a clutch pedal stop.

The only major things left to do now are raise and bolt-in the transmission, reconnect all the front-end pieces, install the driveshaft, rewire the park-position sensor leftover from the automatic transmission (so the engine will start without having to be in park), and drive away! It's really only another day's worth of work, but I don't think I'm going to get to is this weekend. I really need to spend some time with my family, 'cause once I get this car on the road, I'll probably spend a lot more time with it. =)