Another "I did stuff this weekend" update.

In the continuing theme of settling into the house, I once again spent the weekend making myself mildly crazy.

On the plus side, I fabricated the brackets needed, and properly assembled my head & footboards to the new bedframe. This meant I could finalize where the furniture in my room went, and get most of the boxes in there unpacked. Pictures were also hung, so the bedroom is very close to done.

Several hours were put into the "Make the garage not a disaster." Right now Emily & the Bug are sitting on the lawn for lack of garage/driveway space. So I and a sweetie started trying to make sense of the junk filled garage. Several things were hung on the walls, and we emptied several boxes into cabinets and shelves. The rocket engines off Patchworks were hung about 10+ feet up on the back wall of the garage (The heaviest thing in there, mounted the highest up, Brilliant!). This both cleared up a lot of space, and made the place look really cool.

I also posted a bunch of things on Craigslist, and proved I shouldn't be allowed to post to craigslist while punchy.
As is usual with Craigslist, I have had about three emails each on both the futon and the couch saying essentially "I want it! I'll pick it up today!", and once I sent them my address, phone # and that I'd be free all afternoon they never contacted me or showed up. Except the one guy who said he'd be free after 5pm, and called me at 9pm asking to come look at a $40 futon. I'm currently resisting the urge to edit the ad with "People who emailed wanting this: 3, People who actually showed up to get it: 0", and just keep updating it.

Meanderings on cars

I've been wanting to sell the Subaru, as I've tired of it, and really don't need all that space most of the time. And given I'm now living with someone with a pickup and someone else with a 7-passenger minivan the rare times I do I can probably work something out.

I was liking the idea of getting an older diesel Mercedes, and doing a veggie-oil conversion to it. And running it in bio-diesel as well. Problem is, my commute is all of 10-15minutes, which isn't long enough to heat the car up enough to actually switch over to the veggie-oil. So 5 days a week I'd be running on diesel. And you can't really run bio-diesel in the dead of winter as it gels to easily. So all winter (when diesel is most expensive) I'd have to run at least partially on regular diesel. the only time I'd really get to take advantage of the veggie-conversion is on long trips, which I don't make as many of as I used to.

I was also thinking of Dodge Neons (first gen '95-'99), and am still keeping my eye out for a cheap good one. The one thing that is keeping me from being really enthusiastic about them is that they are sedans, and as such there is a greater limit to their carrying capacity.

But lately I've been eyeing Honda Civic hatchbacks. They are minuscule little cars, but with the hatch and the rear seat folded the can carry a fair amount of stuff, and with the rear seats up they can carry four people in a pinch. Plus they can easily get 35+mpg, which is nice.
I've actually been thinking that it might be fun to play with it in terms of upping it's MPG. put it on a crash diet, and lose all the stuff I don't need (but keep the things that make it not horrible to drive, like sound deadener), maybe to some aerodynamic modifications, etc. And see how high I can get the MPG while still keeping it a completely usable car.

Plus whether I get a neon or a civic hatchback, It'll be cheap enough my brain will slot it into the "beater" category, which means artcaring it, or just generally messing around with it can be done without the slightest twinge of guilt over messing with its resale value.

Course this all requires me to sell the damn Subaru.