Stream of Consciousness

I've been trying to spend my season of free-time (Mindy yells at me when I say "unemployment") to spend lots of time with friends before we leave for 7-14 weeks.

It has been wonderful.  I don't know how I ever had time to work before!  Steve and Amy and the kids came over on Saturday.  Their kids love Tim.  When they see me, they're like "Oh, hi Stephanie.  Where's Tim?"

10 tips for being a great car nurse

We've had our fair share of car trouble over the years.  If I didn't know any better, I might say that Tim actually likes fixing the car.  Sometimes.

We've had a pretty major issue lately-- the clutch slave cylinder went out.  For those of you who maybe aren't familiar with car-speak, this is a transmission issue.  You know that's bad, right?

The process of trying to fix it has been grueling.  In fact, Tim says this is the worst car work he's ever done... at least that he hasn't totally erased from memory.  And this is a guy who put a new engine in his '86 mustang, and replaced the timing belt on two different cars.

This particular fix involved maneuvering a part in very close quarters, while not being able to see what you are doing.

Enter, the Car Nurse.

New car!

We got a new car!...about a month ago.  There's not really much to say about it besides the fact that it's an '02 Audi A6 Quattro 2.7T (so it's turbocharged) with 130kish miles, 6 speed manual, with a black leather interior, the sport package (hence the stock BBS wheels pictured) and a host of other added goodies such as full exhaust, short throw shifter, diverter valve, boost gauge, drivetrain stabilizer, and the all important GIAC chip with the Flashloader (meaning I can switch from stock to performance tuned in a matter of seconds).  If that went a bit over your head, here are a few pics.