My baby's back

Ahhh, that new car smell. Actually, not the new car smell, but rather the one most of us never get because it's faded by the time we get even a brand-new car. It's that newly painted car smell. Yes, my baby's back. I picked up my repaired Passat from the body shop (where Trish's brother-in-law works) last night. Took about 10 days, during which I drove a red Chevy Malibu. A serviceable vehicle for a rental, although it burned through more gas than I expected.

Now I get to find out how hard my insurance will try to collect from the uninsured driver who hit me. I'd like to get my $250 deductible back, after all. I mean, if it were my fault, okay, that's the price I pay (actually, it'd be double that). But I should pay half my deductible because she was too lazy to insure her SUV as required by law? Sorry, I'm not gonna feel much sympathy for someone who lives in what appears to be a 4000-square-foot house one street away from a country club, decides not to renew her insurance, knows she's not currently insured, and yet doesn't pay attention when approaching a stoplight. Although I will give her credit for giving me her real name, address, and phone number. Since I didn't think to insist on seeing her driver's license, she coulda made it up completely. (Well, except that I did think to jot down her license plate number, so she woulda been found eventually).

But regardless, I'm glad to be back in MY car. The body shop (that's Able Fix-a-Wreck, by the way) gave it back to me all squeaky clean; not only did they wash it, they also vacuumed the interior and dusted the dash! The repair work looks good. Haven't had any sunshine to get a real good look yet, but under the overcast skies, the paint seems to be a spot-on match. They also set up the rental for me and let me drop it off with them. They even reminded me to fill it up before I left it; I'd forgotten to. So that was nice.

Most of all, while having to get it repaired was an inconvenience, at least it didn't take 2 months...

Bob's Hawaii 5-0

As you may have heard, Bob turned the big 5-0 on New Year's Eve. To celebrate Bob's 50th, we threw a, what else, Hawaii Five-O themed party. As part of the festivities, Tom shot new footage to edit into the Hawaii Five-O opening credits.

If you're lucky (or maybe unlucky), in a later entry I'll post my rendition of "Tiny Bubbles" as Don Ho from that party. But for now, please enjoy these behind-the-scenes photos I took on our video shoot, followed by the original Hawaii Five-O opening credits and Tom's revised version for Bob's birthday celebration:

Tom directs Kyle
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Tim runs
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Dipu mad!!!
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Notice Kyle's footwear
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Original opening credits
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Tom's version
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In hot water ... and cold

Okay, so I'm probably one of the last to post something in the new year. Today's won't be terribly profound or anything, but I figure I should get something posted. So, while some like Lisa, Trish and Brian, and Anita are all dealing with the excitement and perils of building new houses or renovating, during my 3 weeks of unemployment in November, I did some remodeling of my own. Well, fixing. On a slightly smaller scale.

Okay, I only replaced a bathroom faucet. In my spare bathroom. Which I hardly ever use.

Whoooo.

I couldn't do it completely by myself either. While trying to remove the old faucet, one of the water pipes refused to budge. And I couldn't pull on the faucet while also being underneath the sink to see what I was doing. Fortunately, I knew Barbara was out running errands, so she was able to help pry it loose.

I did manage to install the new faucet by myself. This was one of the main accomplishments of my short unemployment, and it only took about an hour, most of which was trying to get the stuck pipe to release its 25-year grip on the old faucet. Still, considering that this faucet has been leaking for the past, oh, I dunno, 4-5 years, and that because of the leak, I had the water to that faucet shut off except when I had people over, rendering that sink unusable most of the time ... well, it's just nice to have a working faucet in that bathroom all the time again. Especially a nice brushed-metal faucet. Now I just have to replace all the rest of the ugly-ass '70s-era shit around the faucet.

So, the before and after shots:

Old faucet...
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New faucet!!
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