so it's that time again. vehicle registration is due and california makes us get our cars smogged every 2 years. problem is that my check engine light is on and the code from it says my catalytic converters are failing. i talk to the dealership and they tell me i need new ones and the new cats cost over a grand a piece. my car has 2 of them. add in labor and i'm looking at around $3000 if you factor in tax. not looking good for me. i've had the codes reset before, but they keep coming back so i figure i have to bite the bullet this time.

just by chance i'm looking up something else on yelp and i catch this rating for a shop near me. everybody gives this shop 5 stars and i figure what the heck, might as well give it a shot. i bring in my car and he tells me new cats run about a grand. i give him a dejected look and ask about aftermarket ones. he says that he might be able to get me rebuilt ones for about $500 each. things are looking better already. then i tell him, i just want my car to pass smog and if we can do it without replacing anything, even better. he says he'll see what he can do.

flash forward to today and he calls me. he says he's been resetting the check engine codes and he's been driving my car for a few miles here and there all week. it's popped back on a couple times, but he's waited for it to stabilize out. once he got it to stay off for a while, he made a mad dash to a smog check station and got it to pass!

so much for the bad catalytic converters that the on board computer was telling me. if they were really shot then i don't think my car would have passed. anyways, he ended up charging me only $260 for the labor. not a bad deal considering that it's less than 10% of what the stealership was going to try to take out of my bank account. that money is well worth the work and hassle he put into that car.

i'm glad i found this shop. i think most shops would have tried to get me to get new cats installed. he was totally cool and worked with me to get it done the cheapest way possible. i'll be taking all my cars to him in the future.

ticki

my girlfriend and i have this monthly dinner thing that we do with a married friend of hers and her husband. it's a couple's night out and we just pick a good restaurant and have dinner and drinks. it's a fun time and we get a chance to eat at places we wouldn't normally go to. it's a good way to find great new restaurants, and believe me there's a lot of good eats in the cali bay area.

i love me some good louisiana cooking. in a previous career, i got sent out east and i spent a LONG year in mississippi. i probably doubled the asian population in that town when i got there. there wasn't much to do so my buddies and i made a few trips down to the bayou to get our dirty on. that's when i really found my appreciation for creole food.

so upon a recommendation from another friend of mine, i dragged us all to Nola's in palo alto. the atmosphere was good and fun with the bar packed with twenty and thirtysomethings. i wouldn't call the food authentic cajun cooking. typical california, it was more like a new orleans fusion if anything. regardless, the food was great. especially memorable was the crab risotto and the jalapeno cornbread. the risotto had a lemon cream sauce that was to die for and it was topped off with popcorn fried crayfish. i'm still drooling thinking about it right now. the cornbread came with something like a honey chili sauce that wasn't overly sweet and the slight bite of the peppers was satisfying. YUM!

afterwards, we met up with a group of friends of mine at a sports bar down the way. lively place and they had a freakin' mechanical bull there! i have to shamefully admit that it's not hard to make me do stupid shit. my friends were trying to get this one girl and her fiancee to ride the bull, but weren't very successful. so they're like, "Quan will ride it and he's not even drunk yet." it only took a beer and 30 seconds for me to agree to it. haha, i'm such a sucker. i have to admit, i did really well. it started out slow enough and then they started to kick up the speed. i was hanging on for dear life and making a good run at it. what ended up knocking me off was my damn thumb. the bull was kicking hard and a sudden direction change ended up knocking me over to one side of the bull. the way i was gripping the rope caused all my weight to be put on my thumb and i just lost my grip. it's still a little tender now, but totally worth it because i shamed the rest of my wuss ass friends into riding the bull too!

ticki

So I tallied it all up. Month to date I have spent over $400 at the MAC store. Most guys spend their tax return money on power tools or electronics or car stuff. Me? I spend it on makeup. I'm such a freak. Haha. Although, I do have to admit that I have quite a bit left over. Maybe after this, my girlfriend won't begrudge me getting a PS3... She thinks video games are a waste of time that would be better spent snuggling on the couch.

I've been there so much, I'm starting to befriend one of the MUAs. She's a total sweetheart and I spent almost an hour with her picking out stuff and playing with the colors. The only bad thing was that I overstayed the meter and ended up getting a parking ticket. =( Oh, and I spent over $200 on that shopping expedition so I guess that makes it 2 bad things.

ticki