Date Night
So Rebecca and I have determined that Wednesday night is thenew 'date night'. First we went to flying saucer for dinner, on California just south of Division. This was where I went for breakfast with Chad and Bob and Jeff when they were in town. It has a good vegetarian selection and the food has been really good both times. Prices are also decent. We had pierogis as an appetizer which were good (although not homemade, but that is fine). I had the vegetarian tacos, which was seitan chorizo and mashed potatoes with normal taco stuff. Quite good. Rebecca had the special which was some chicken and stuff. Total bill was $27 with tip (I am a heavy tipper). Great food.
Then we went over to the AMC River East and saw Proof. It was recommended to me by my Audi friend Alan, who worked on the film as the Director Of Photography for the Chicago Second Unit. He said he worked on lots of the exterior Chicago footage (the interior work was done in the UK) and worked directly with John Madden.
Overall I thought the movie was very good. I would give it 4 stars. To me that means I enjoyed it a great deal, but not so much that I would buy the DVD or anything. But I rarely buy DVDs or rewatch movies, so 4 is pretty good. I would recommend it to my family and friends. It has math humor, which I like. The time line moves around a bit, and you can see how it was a play in its original form, but the adaptation to screen was fine. The acting was good, although I am not sure I would have cast Jake Gyllenhaal based on his appearance and that I think of him perhaps in Day After Tomorrow and Bubbleboy, but whatever. He did fine. Gwyneth Paltrow did a very nice job as well, as did Anthony Hopkins. Overall a good movie, and a nice date night.
Emissions
So the audi was supposed to be emission tested in april... but at the time, I didn't have a working transmission, so I filled out the form and said the car wasn't operational, etc. They rescheduled me to august... And I was still putting it off. In IL, if you have a 1996 or newer and have a check engine light, you automatically fail. Since the 2001 Audi A4 is a ULEV vehicle, the cat and it's efficiency are checked pretty hard. I have a high flow cat in there that throws off that reading. I am sure that the car is still well below the state limits, I usually have a CEL all the time for the cat.
About 6 weeks ago, I reset the CEL with the stalk and it hadn't come back on yet. I hadn't been driving it much, but still, it was off. Saturday morning I was supposed to pick up Dylan and some concrete to work on the house... on the way out I decided I would drive past the emissions place, fingers crossed the CEL came off. Since Russ had said that the cat is not checked at WOT (and that had been proven at track events), and the car wasn't all warm, I drove it hard to the emissions place. Pulled in, line was really short, and I was out in 10 min. with a nice sheet saying I passed. Score. Avoided for another 2 years.
The jetta is up for testing this month. And I am pretty sure it won't pass, since it has a freaking beer can on the exhaust and they actually CHECK the exhaust. Gotta fill that form out and tell them it will be ready in the spring. The new motor should pass fine.
progress!
So dylan came over yesterday and we worked on the floor in the basement. I patched a some places (albeit not that well) and we laid the subfloor in the back room. I need to add the subfloor in the hallway and the closet and the subfloor will be DONE. Then it will be time to lay the actual hardwood. it will be SOOOO nice to have that done. I am thinking now that I will work on the sub floor after work a couple days this week and get that done. Then I will work on the hardwood floor on sunday of next weekend. (Audi Club Autox on saturday, last of the season!).
So that is the plan. I also need to figure out what I am doing for shelving in that room and wire routing, etc for the projector. I have ideas:
I am thinking a darker wood stain or a black shelf that runs the perimeter of the room like 16 inches below the ceiling would be cool. I would like some rope lighting up in there for ambient lighting.
But alas, more work, less time.