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Saturday this weekend was spent in the Focus. we participated in the Spring Run organized by the New England Rally.

the premise is that a bunch of people get together and drive somewhere as a group, have lunch, drive somewhere else as a group, have dinner, drinks, socialize. sounds great. this years course was Rt 1, all the way to Maine.

there was good and bad; i won’t get into the specifics here but a few misunderstandings led to 1/2 the day being unpleasant. all in all it was 15 hours spent mostly in the car, and i don’t know if i can convince my better half to do that again.

Sunday we started out with plans of productivity, and to brew later on in the day. by 1pm i called shenanigans on our intentions of productivity, and we headed to Kettle to Keg for brewing supplies. that afternoon/evening, we brewed a batch of Double Brown Ale as an end-of-tax-season celebration. afterwards, we followed up with a Golden Ale recipe designed to be a drinker and not knock one on their respective sorry butt on a weeknight.

that was the weekend. at some point, we need to look into this ‘relaxation’ we hear people toy with on their 2 day break.

no, sigourney weaver is not selling cars. i’ll get to the title in a bit. drove to buffalo for the weekend, to surprise my mom for her birthday and to get a little work done on my focus at my brothers house.

i spent a lot of time debating whether to leave my snow tires on or switch to my summer tires. turns out it didn’t really matter either way. time (or lack thereof) ultimately decided to leave the snows on.

work accomplished on the car: stainless steel brake lines from goodridge, new DOT 4 brake fluid, brake bleeding courtesy of motive via focussport. new front disks by brembo to compliment the hawk HPS brake pads.

oil change with royal purple. that’s where the gorillas come in. last time the oil was changed, it was done @ the dealer. both my brother and myself literally injured ourselves trying to get the oil drain plug out.

note to AutoFair Ford in Manchester, NH: Ford’s official torque specification for the oil drain plug on a focus is 33 lb-ft. not “hammer it on with the impact wrench.” thanks.

next up, filter. hand? ineffective. strap wrench? dented it. ineffective. giant pair of channel locks? crushed it into a rectangle-like shape and got it to turn. note to AutoFair Ford in Manchester, NH: there’s a gasket on the oil filter. let it do its job. thanks.

well, i got over my rocking pneumonia. and i’m using prescription medication to control my boogie woogie blues. but now i’ve come down with a case of spring fever!

wednesday it got up to 56, something snapped in my brain. i opened windows, put the box fan in one, and made a wind tunnel in the house. then i vacuumed the whole place.

yesterday, i finally picked up summer tires for my focus. (not installed, the snows are still on).

today, it’s snowing. 2-4″ they say, but it’s coming down like mad out there. sigh.

of course you’ll see this in my flickr feed, but i’ll elaborate.

we’ve had the 4-tap kegfridge for quite some time now, even going so far as to have it transported from WA to NH when we moved (is that legal? probably. it was empty at the time).

we were never really happy with our chromed faucets. they quickly chipped, leaving a nasty appearance. also, their traditional design left most of the internal valve mechanism exposed to the room air while in the sealed position. this meant that both they would get sticky and difficult to operate, and that various microorganisms in the room air could waft up the nozzle and take up residence in the aforementioned stickiness.

as a christmas present to ourselves (okay, i ordered them and carrie went along with it) we purchased four Ventmatic faucets. their design is significantly different - a “forward sealing” design which means that they aren’t subject to the standard faucet issues. also, the entire faucet from tail to tip is made from stainless steel.

plus, i think they’re awfully handsome. if i only would have cleaned up the plastic tap handles before taking this shot:

we got hit again overnight friday to saturday. after i got done shoveling saturday afternoon, i thought i’d take a few pictures.

first, from across the street. you may not quite get the scale of it:

until you realize that hiding behind the pile is a mid-size SUV:

i wonder where i’m putting the snow from the next storm.

i previously mentioned the new neighbors across the street, the building being renovated kitty-corner from us, housing, amongst other things, the city of manchester’s new police substation. apparently they haven’t completed refurbishing all the apartments in the building, and work is ongoing.

every day i hear random crashes as lazy workmen heave things off the 3rd story balcony into the dumpster below. (the jewler located just on the opposite side of the wall must really enjoy this cacophony while he tries to do his precision work).  i’ve started to tune it out, as much as one can tune out random crashes, or how your monitor shakes when a tractor trailer drives by.

this morning at 9:23am they heaved a bathtub off the balcony to the street below. it was heavy enough that it took 3 of these clowns to wrestle it into their ridiculous pickup truck afterwards.

one might be under the impression that there were laws against such threats to public safety and sanctity. if only there was a police station nearby!