I saw this car in the parking lot this afternoon at the post office. I need to meet the person who drives it, as he also works for the university and daily drives it. It isn’t the prettiest, and it isn’t the smoothest running old car out there, but it seems like I need to know this person anyway.  Maybe he’d be…

This morning I’m taking my Dad’s car back up north. No snow this time, which will make for a less interesting drive, but there should be some freezing fog further North. I imagine the truck will welcome stretching its legs, as I don’t think it’s gone over 30mph this past week.

My dad’s car is now done (which is good, because I go back to work tomorrow). It just has to go back to Albuquerque next weekend.

My cousin-in-law gave me a variety pack of European beers for Christmas, many of which I’ve not had before. This is one of them. It’s a bit on the malty side for my preferences, but it is indeed flavorful. ESBs aren’t my beer of choice, but I’d have this one again. It does get extra points for Crimean War references.

A Rockauto box showed up for the Mustang. It contained a way better than average magnet. This one I’ll actually keep.

Marble is one of the great breweries of New Mexico. I found this guy and five of his friends at Spec’s in El Paso, and I felt I had to repatriate them back to New Mexico.

I worked on this Miata a bit this morning.  So far, all this work equates to the cam and crank seals being replaced, but atleast pretty much everything from here is on the putting things back together side of the job.  First, lunch.

I’ve got my Dad’s Miata down here for a timing belt service/tune up/svending for the next week or two. The racecar gets some fellow red company in the garage. His 05 Miata has finally hit 61k, which is another way of saying his commute is 3 miles round-trip (and he only works 3 days per week/semi-retired) and their…

We got a little bit of snow today in Southern New Mexico. Ellie votes for snow, and she’ll even play fetch with snow balls.

The ITA household has entered a brave new world wherein periodic charging the doggos’ collars is now a thing. On the plus side, I can now actually see the dogs in the backyard when we go out before bedtime.

Santa brought me a Thrustmaster TX, and today I finally got chance to set it up. Initial testing is highly positive, although after messing around with a Xbox one controller for so long I’m basically learning to drive all over again.

We got a dusting of snow in Las Cruces last night. The German Shepherd loves the snow. The lab/pitbull mix is curled up on the couch hoping it goes away soon.

Thank you all for being part of the best little corner on the internet. I hope everyone is enjoying the day and spending time with loved ones.

The funniest take on SCCA club racing you’ll hear this year. I’m watching it with my Christmas gift from my boss. He knows how to give good gifts.

Steam has F12018 for $24. Since I hear Santa is bringing me an Thrustmaster TX for Christmas, I’ll go ahead and pickup F12018 a few days early. After playing through F12016 and F12017 on an Xbox One and controller, I’m looking forward to F12018 on a capable PC and wheel set up.

I finished laying out the floor in the master bedroom tonight. Baseboards will go back on tomorrow. Shelby approves.

I actually hauled it out for the season a month ago, but it had been at the fiberglass shop getting a fresh coat of bottom paint and barrier coat. Since I was heading up to Albuquerque anyway today, I picked it up on the way North. As always, the 2.7 ecoboost is deeply impressive towing. It was real windy today, so…

Since my last houselopnik post, I’ve spent the last few weekends doing the master bedroom closet and the entryway and closet. First up was the master bedroom closet, which was just big enough that I treated it as its own room. It wasn’t terrible to start with, but it had the same cheapo carpet that we’re tearing out…

The overnight low was 19 degrees (nonsensical units) in Southern New Mexico last night, which was by far the coldest temperature we’ve seen since buying the house in March. This is also unseasonably cold for this time of year here, which means people are walking around wearing fur in the desert this morning. The…

With the conclusion of my last home improvement project, I’ve moved on to updating the 1990 out of the spare bedroom/study/office and the hallway. I’m now about 1/3 of the way through updating the house.