Seemingly the entire weekend was spent on car-related stuff, and lots got done. Clint and Brad came over on Saturday, and the previous statement about spring compressors held true to an even greater extent.
First up was the task of putting the stock shocks, springs, intake, and exhaust manifold back on the car. Intake and manifold were pretty straightforward, and removal of each shock/spring takes about 4 minutes. Then the spring compressor fun began.
Basically, we couldn't compress the stock spring without the compressors slipping to one side, and just trying to compress the first one took a solid hour. Final solution? Buy another set of spring compressors, and just put so many of them on that they can't slip enough to create a problem! :-P After that, everything went pretty smoothly.
So now I have the car back at stock ride height, and man, it's not fun at all any more. Turn-in is slow, it rolls all over the place, and ride height feels like that of a small SUV. :-\
After that, we attempted to put my new camber plates in the Evo. The instructions were entirely in Japanese, so they were of no use. The stock strut assembly came out easily, and the whole process went pretty smoothly, except for a couple little spacers that seem to have a place to go.
So both plates go in, I shove the struts all the way in to max out the camber, tighten things up, and go for a test drive.
"Clunk clunk clunk"
Fantastic, it's making noise, and I'm running out of time. I had to leave by 5:20 or so to make it to a softball tournament, and the car work isn't complete.
Fortunately Brad and Clint come through, and offer to stick around and fix it for me. As it turns out, those spacers were needed underneath the top mounting bolt, as otherwise the bolt runs out of threads before it's all the way down. I drove the car when I came home, and it felt great. Now off for an alignment this week, wait for my wheels and tires to come in this week, and I'll be ready for this Saturday's autocross.
Sunday I spent plenty of time cleaning up the Integra parts I removed so they can go up for sale, and cleaning up the garage in general from the previous day's activities. Evan also came over to put a new fuel filter in his Camaro, which made the garage smell all kinds of fumey.
Finally, I went to two different Costcos today, including one I had never been to before (near Val Vista and the 202). :-D
Costco trip count for January: 2
The Vizio 47" 1080p LCD tv is finally in stock at the Tempe store, priced at $1899. It was set up right next to a Sony 46" 1080p LCD...and as uncalibrated as they may have been, the Sony did look better IMO. At $2899, I'm not sure if the amount it looks better is worth the extra $1000. Regardless, it's good to have a low cost option now.
I also noticed on my way out the door that their rack of tires for advertising has at least two sets worth of 13" tires in it. I doubt they sell two sets of 13" tires all year! But then, I suppose that might be why they're advertising pieces and not in the tire center.
Walking down the automotive aisle, I noticed some new Turtle Wax products that I haven't seen before, as well as a 3-pack of microfiber wash mitts with a mf drying towel for just under $11.
Finally, after advertising outside the store for so long, there's a little kiosk set up with information on their granite countertops. Too bad I don't know anything about countertops; I have no idea how good a deal these might be.
Costco trip count for December (final): 23
Costco trip rate for December: 1 trip per 1.35 days
I'm kind of surprised I would get so many Costco trips in, despite the holiday crowds and everything.
Costco trip count for January: 1
Went today at lunch to see if they had any of the new Vizio 47" 1080p tvs in stock. I've heard the Chandler store had them, but not Tempe yet. They might be holding them back for the Jan 15th coupon that was sent out in the latest book, but who knows. The other Vizio news I read was the development of a 60" 1080p plasma some time in 2007. The more I think about it (so maybe I should stop thinking...), the more I'm interested in a plasma for my next tv. While I like my current tv just fine for bright stuff, dark scenes in movies and games are disappointing. I know a standard LCD would be better than what I have (LCD RP), but why not just go all the way to the high-contrast option.
Somewhat related to tvs, I've been hearing a lot of rumors about Costco changing their return policy on televisions some time this month. It would be unfortunate, but certainly understandable. With tvs falling in price and increasing performance at a similar rate to computer hardware (which already has a limited return policy), it would make sense.
A new item I saw at Costco today was the G-Floor (this looks to be a better-yet-unofficial site). It's basically a roll-out garage floor covering that's made of some kind of thick vinyl. In particular, Costco had 7.5' wide rolls of the diamond plate pattern in gray for $179. I haven't found any real reviews of it to see if it's any good. Obviously the installation would be a lot easier than a traditional epoxy flooring, there wouldn't be any potential issues with it being pulled up by tires in the summer, and you can take it with you if you move. On the other hand, in anything but a single car garage you're going to have a seam somewhere, and I don't know if the edges are going to get caught on things if you roll over it.
I got some nice stuff for Christmas this year. Teresa gave me a big toolbox from Sears, which is so much better than the little one I had before. I even have 3 empty drawers in the new one, so there's room for some expansion. I made some labels on old magnetic material I had laying around and loaded up the box, and I think it will work out well.
Teresa's dad gave me a great beer brewing kit, and I'm hoping to start my first batch soon. Came with pretty much everything but ingredients, and he even threw in some old 22oz bottles he had. One batch should make about 2 dozen 22oz bottles, and another 6-12 12oz bottles. I'm not sure what kind of beer I'll make first, but you can bet it'll be something with a reasonably short fermentation time. ;-)
I picked up three new 360 games over the holidays as well, Gears of War and Tiger Woods 2007 were gifts, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance was a post-xmas purchase. I finished up Marvel already, and a pretty good number of achievements to go with it. There are still a number of things I'd like to unlock though (for completion's sake), and I'd like to try some other characters. It was a pretty enjoyable game to run through IMO.
Costco trip count for December: 3
Saturday I had the task of hanging Christmas lights on our house for the first time. I'm not a big fan of ladders, or heights in general, to be honest. And my balance is often somewhere between acceptable and atrocious. But up I went anyway, with three 67-foot strings of multicolor LED lights from Costco. Staple staple climb, staple staple climb. So, LED lights still aren't quite there yet. The lights are a medium size, with a fairly thick plastic bulb. The four colors were blue, green, red, and yellow. Red and green seem ok, but the yellow is kind of weak, and the blue is pretty overpowering. Also, the blue lights look kind of purple from a distance. I think the thickness of the bulb wasn't helping the light output, as they're not as bright as they could be. Still, I'm attracted to the fact that they should last nearly forever, and the power consumption is relatively low.
Costco samples on Sunday afternoon were fantastic. Lots of dessert, cheese, meat, everything. They also started carrying egg nog puffs in the freezer section, which promptly made their way into my cart for a little more personal sampling.
Another interesting thing they had going was personalized Crown Royal bags. Someone from CR was there with a sewing machine putting whatever text you wanted on the bag. I think it could have been cool if I had a reason to spend $36 on a handle of alcohol I'll most likely not drink for a long time.
Costco trip count for November (final): 18
Costco trip rate for November: 1 trip per 1.67 days
Making a final trek to Costco for the month of November, I was in search of something warm to eat on an unseasonably cold day. The makeup of shoppers was interesting, as people were getting out their winter clothing that was completely unnecessary a day before. I saw one woman wearing a scarf. I'm sure she was ecstatic over the fact that she could even wear one and not suffer from an overheating of the neck, as the weather some years seems to preclude scarf-wearing entirely.
But onwards toward the food section. I wandered through the refrigerated aisles of prepared and/or pre-packaged food looking for some good soup. I walked past lobster bisque, then past the alaskan king crab corn chowder. As I was passing the Kirkland-brand butternut squash soup (new this year), another container caught my eye. A container of Costco-sized proportions, that screams out "you'll be eating this for days." The sticker indicated that it was a freshly-made food product. It was a great idea, I don't know why it hadn't been thought of earlier - rotisserie chicken noodle soup. It a 58oz container that resembles a "bucket" more than anything else. It seems that they simply took the chickens that hadn't sold that day, and turned them into soup. The bucket I purchased had been produced that very day. And home it went.
When I opened up the bucket at home, I think my first reaction to the aroma was "wow, that's chicken-noodly!" Scooping some into a bowl for microwaving, I noticed that the chicken pieces were rather large, almost too big even. The carrot and celery slices were much bigger than what you normally get in soup. For whatever reason though, noodles were noticeably absent from my bowl. Scraping the bottom of the container yielded about a half dozen noodles. Apparently they forgot that part of the "chicken noodle soup" equation.
Into the microwave it went, and several minutes later I had hot soupy...soup. The chicken was good, but again, almost too big to eat with a spoon. It still had that rotisserie chicken flavor, which is kind of odd when outside the context of eating big chunks of chicken off a plate, with a fork and knife. It was also quite peppery, which I didn't expect from a pre-made soup. Most soups aren't so bold as to assume that everyone likes that much pepper, though I enjoyed it. The lack of noodles definitely hurt.
If I had to give it some kind of rating, it would probably be in the 3.5/5 area. It was good enough to eat again, but the lack of noodles and unwieldy chicken pieces drops the score.
My Costco trip rate for November (the first month I've kept track) seems pretty good - I seem to go a little more often than every other day. :-D
Costco trip count for November: 17
I actually didn't mean to go to Costco over the Thanksgiving weekend, yet there I was on Saturday (and it really wasn't as busy as I thought it would be). Picked up some CDRs for half price, pants on sale, and they were still giving away copies of the Costco Cookbook.
Today there wasn't much new and interesting...the 360 bundle with the extra controller, play-and-charge kit, and a number of Live Arcade games on disc was marked down $25, to $450. Apparently Clerks II came out today as well, I had no idea. :-P The idea of seeing a Clerks movie in color just seems a bit strange, for some reason. I'm glad to see they finally have a decent (though not huge) selection of 360 games to buy, maybe 12-15 or so. Compared to the zero they had for a few months there, I suppose it's an improvement.
Thursday night, completely satiated by two Thanksgiving dinners, I headed out to Best Buy around midnight to camp out for Black Friday deals with a few of my friends. Packing the "couch" and two thermoses holding about 10 cups of coffee, I set up my spot and waited. And waited. Then it got kind of cold, and I waited a bit more.
Around 3am, cars started rolling into the parking lot regularly. The traffic was probably comparable to a normal saturday afternoon, except it was 3am. :-P Around 4am employees started handing out tickets for the big items, and I got one in particular I was looking for. One of my friends was hoping for a tv, but didn't even come close. Unfortunately, getting there at midnight meant there were a couple hundred people in line in front of us. Having finished all of my coffee (without a restroom in sight), the store finally opened at 5 and we all piled our way in. I found just about everything I was looking for, so in that respect it was somewhat successful. Got in line about 5:45, got to the checkout counter around 7:45. Ouch. The guys behind us in line got to the store at 3am, so obviously we didn't gain a whole lot by getting there 3 hours earlier.
There were lots of good intentions going around, people wanting to hit up the mall or other stores after Best Buy, but those faded away as we exited the store and were greeted with sunshine, exhaustion, and extreme hunger (we didn't bring any snacks, way to think ahead). Off to Amados for some breakfast burritos, then I came home and slept until about 4pm.
Lessons learned:
* Just go at 3am with everyone else, and one person in the group gets in line to check out while everyone else shops.
* Bring food.
* Don't drink all of your coffee at once.
* It's not only darkest before the dawn, it's also the coldest, so dress accordingly (I already knew this, but was still cold.
Costco trip count for November: 15
Browsing the store today, I noticed something I hadn't seen before - an endcap full of Kirkland "Rabbit" corkscrews. Usually I believe these go for about $30-40 with plastic handles, and $50 to over $100 for metal handles. The fact that this one is metal and only $20 in-store really surprised me.
Also of note, Costco is almost overflowing with pies. They're big and relatively cheap, and for being store-made, I think the pecan pie is pretty good. I believe they have pumpkin for $6, caramel apple for $8, and pecan for $10. Tomorrow they'll probably put them in racks at the front of the store for the Thanksgiving rush. If I didn't have T-day plans, I'd probably just sit down with a pie for dinner, washing it down with a big glass of eggnog to usher in the Christmas season. Nog-tastic.:-D
Finally, Tostitos "hint of lime" chips are great. Though they should just be called "lime chips" or something, because there's way more than a hint of limey goodness on them. To quote this review:
If they wanted to, Tostitos could take the lime powder and sell it in dime bags to junkies, Corona drinkers, and Rush Limbaugh.Yes, they're that good. My purchase was made that much better by the fact that there was a "buy two bags of chips, get a jar of dip free" promotion going on.
Costco trip count for November: 12
After purchasing my standard hot dog & soda combo at the food court today, I sauntered over to the soda machines, and I may have actually gasped - Mr. Pibb was nowhere to be found, replaced by Hi-C lemonade. A sad day indeed. :-(
Other Costco-related items of note:
* One of the samples today was the alaskan king crab corn chowder, which was good enough to make me want to buy some. Unfortunately the chopped garlic sample wasn't ready yet, but it smelled great.
* No KS vodka to be found, despite many unsold bottles of other vodkas stacked up around its former position.
* Fresh shipments of Heineken and Fat Tire showed up recently.
* Costco.com is going to start selling PS3s tomorrow (11/17) at 9am AZ time. I'm guessing they'll sell out pretty quickly. :-P Sounds like the stores won't have any, which doesn't surprise me. At the very least, it'll be nice to finally see what's in their bundle. I've read that for the Wii, they'll sell it in a two-game bundle for $339 (one of which is Zelda), so we'll see how true that is in a few days.
This thread rekindled my interest in beer brewing, so I may have to make a go at that in upcoming months (though obviously on a smaller scale). There are several brewing shops in town and a number of decent online stores that sell everything you need, so there's no shortage of available supplies. The Brewer Starting Kit from midwestsupplies.com seems like a good place to start, though the upgrade to Intermediate with the "better bottles" seems like it might be worthwhile as well.
Costco trip count for November: 11
It seems that the Tempe warehouse sold out of Kirkland vodka on Sunday, and the price sign was taken down on Monday. :-( Hopefully it will be back soon.
Not much else new there, other than some new additions to the dvd aisle (which also happen to go on my wish list). The Family Guy Season 4 set came on on Tuesday, so that was there. Volume 4 of the Looney Toons Golden Collection was also released on Tuesday, and they happened to have the other three volumes available as well. The ones I don't care about so much, some of the really big box sets have come back - the complete sets of Friends, West Wing, and Six Feet Under (complete with fake grass box top) are nearly $200 iirc. Related news, Simpsons Season 9 is due out on 12/19. :-D
Costco's Black Friday coupon book is in the store now, but there's not a whole lot on there that seems interesting. Related, bfads.net has ads for many of the "good" stores already. They had to take down Best Buy's ad, but some items of significance (to me anyway) were a number of 360 games for cheap. The Outfit was $10, maybe 5 or 6 others that I don't think are on the Platinum Hits list are $20. I know Table Tennis was on there, but I don't remember what else. :-P
Costco trip count for November: 7
On my trip to Costco last night, I noticed the incredibly low stock on Kirkland vodka. It has had the "Star of Discontinuation" for several weeks now, though I refused to believe it. It's not like it was selling at a slow pace or anything, and it just came out. The only thing I could think of is that perhaps they can't get it restocked quickly enough, and it will be out of stock for some time. That's my hope anyway. :-(
Playing Guitar Hero 2 has been fantastic. The widescreen and progressive scan options are quite welcome, though I wish progressive scan wouldn't have to be turned on whenever the game is started. There's a "recalibration" option that could have been useful if I had done it right from the start, but I played about 6 hours the first night without calibration, and once I tried calibrating it I could barely play at all. So back to zero for me there.
I've played through all of the songs on Medium difficulty with 5 stars, and all but the last 3 songs on Hard. Regarding the track list in this game, I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. While there are plenty of great bands, and lots of good songs, there haven't been many yet that made me think "yeah, I really enjoyed playing that one." Perhaps that'll come when I get better at them on Hard, rather than fumbling my way through. Compared to the original, it seems that there are plenty of longer songs, and the Hard difficulty in GH2 is more difficult than Hard in GH1.
I've been running occasionally for the last few weeks, and actually not dying. Last night I finally made it over 3 miles without stopping, so I'm always happy to see improvement.
Costco trip count for November: 6
Actually went to Costco three more times over the weekend. Saturday we went to the Chandler store to look for some glasses that weren't at the Tempe store, almost immediately followed by a trip to the Tempe store. The odd thing (that I didn't know) was that both stores had the exact same samples. So I learned something new. :-P Then yesterday was just a trip for food. I noticed that the 1-gallon containers of eggnog are now in stock, awaiting their deployment to my refrigerator.
I installed Xbox Media Center (XBMC) on my old Xbox this weekend, and it seems pretty cool. Other than the part about hot-swapping IDE hard drives that kind of weirded me out, it went well for the most part. I had some problems unlocking the xbox hard drive at first, but eventually that worked. Then another time I forgot to plug the power cable to the hard drive back in, so that explained one of the errors I was getting. ;-) After that though, it was great. I could FTP into the box just fine, load up all of the software, get some emulators on there, stream video/music, everything. Streaming video is a lot easier than it is on the 360, plus you have lots of options for the video...it can be deinterlaced, contrast/brightness can be adjusted, lots of things. How much use will I actually have for it? Who knows.
I took some screenshots, but forgot to download them from the xbox. Lame.
...until Guitar Hero 2 is released.
Costco trip count for November: 3
I went to Costco twice yesterday and once today (so far). Yesterday they had one of my favorite samples, the illustrious Hershey's Chocolate-covered Pretzels. I would eat this as breakfast cereal in a bowl of milk if I could. The Halloween section had been replaced with Christmas trees since Tuesday, no post-Halloween candy sales here! :-P
Whenever I go to Costco with Evan, he has to check out their high-dollar watches. He has a thing for watches. But the watches they've had on display have never really done anything for me, really.
Until yesterday.
They brought back the watch that comes with a tire pressure gauge, but I don't care so much about that one. No, they had an Omega Speedmaster. For $4500. :-( It's the first better-than-a-Fossil watch I've actually wanted.
Today they had something almost as awesome - pecan pies are back!! I'm guessing they're a good 12" in diameter, for $10. It's a sizable pie, and fairly delicious. They also added the big stack of "gift books" today, as they usually do before Christmas. They're always nice to look through, but I have no idea what I'm going to do with a 30"x18" picture book of India, or the complete works of
Also, the built-in spell checker in Firefox 2 is a nice feature.
Ah, last day of October, and I haven't made a post all month.
I think I might try turning this into a Costco-themed blog for at least a little while. Track how often I go, what's new there, what kind of food samples they have, boring stuff like that. :-P At the very least it gives me something to write about, and as long as I'm writing anyway, perhaps I'll be more likely to throw in the "normal" stuff I used to write about.
Onward then.
I've been to Costco three times in the past two days. :-D Yesterday and today for lunch, and yesterday for dinner actually. Lunch yesterday was easily one of the better sample days in recent memory. Chicken tacos & flautas, cheesesteaks, orange chicken, pizza bagel bites, some kind of granola bar. Samples are lunch during the week typically aren't as good as the weekend bonanza, so this was pretty nice.
Lunch today didn't have quite the variety of good samples, but did include two of their "fine cheeses." One was a soft, white, herb-coated soft cheese from France that was pretty sweet, really soft, and had a little bit of tang to it. The other was a hard white cheese from Italy, firm and dry almost to the point of crumbly, but not quite. I honestly can't remember what it tasted like. :-P It was good, but at $18, I don't think it's going home with me. ;-)
I also noticed that they're finally starting to carry more 360 games now, compared to maybe a month ago when they didn't have any. I saw most of the 2007 EA Sports games, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, the older Need for Speed game, maybe a couple others.
I'm hoping they carry Guitar Hero 2 for PS2 next week, but I'm not exactly counting on it.