Standing On Boxes

Some minor things really.

1. For the benefit of Ms. Kite. has been moved from the ‘Odd fic’ page to the ‘Works in Progress’ page where it really belongs
2. The Slayer Mercury story has been updated, a chapter or two renamed, and a link fixed.

Over the next month or two, expect a few fics to move to different places as I play with a new organization before the move (I hope) to a new site. The ‘Oddball Fic’ page will eventually disappear. Among other changes.

Leatherette really ISN’T pureed bits of leather bonded to vinyl. It’s just plain old vinyl. But wouldn’t that be so cool? Even if PETA wouldn’t approve….
So… do I order the official BMW sheepskin sport seat covers ($400/set) or the two-tone vinyl seat covers from BavAuto for $200 /set?
Hmm…

I’ve only had the car for a month and a half….
It has “leatherette” (Or do they call that pleathur?)seats (basically, a layer of pureed leather particles glued to vinyl.
The seats look really good for a 8 year old car with so many miles.( I suspect they aren’t the original seats.)
Or they did…
It seems that whenever I get in the car, my hips hit the side bolster on those fancy sports seats. (I’m a wide person (No, not fat, just wide (mostly)) And that seems to have a detrimental affect on that part of the seat. It’s worn the leather coating thru in that spot. And there’s a tear next to the spot.
So, my choices –>

1. Drive naked so my clothes don’t rub against the leather (uhmm… no. Scary thought! Most likely illegal anyway.)
2. Tape? Or something to protect that spot.
3. Some kind of car cover
4. Real leather seats.Iwonder if there’s a junkyard around here…

I think I’ll go with the car cover. If I can find one that’ll fit that style of seat. Or maybe something that protects JUST that part of the seat? Like a band of material around it?(Hmmm…. how would it attach?)

Okay –

Updated ‘Ms. Kite” with the two parts I just updated on “TtH” and a basic outline for the following part. I hope to get back to it before the end of the year but I need to do some research on Stars Hollow and its denizens first.

Oops… the links for parts 6 and 7 are now correct in the story index.

Finally updated the next part (2) of the “The Other Girl” – “The Burrow” with some bits and pieces I’ve had lying around. Not a huge change but closer to being finished.
Next up? Time to close my eyes and throw a dart. I want to finish off SOMEthing before the end of the month (something short – to be realistic). Not sure what. Yet.

Okay… didn’t do a fic update like I’d planned. Maybe later in the week…

So… I’ve been replacing cosmetic things on the new(er) red buggy. Age related stuff.

Most of it from GetBMWParts.com. Excellent customer service dealing with the one part I had issues with (they overnighted a $4 metal bracket when it was accidentally left out of a box of other parts I ordered.)

(And some floor mats and a Roundel for the rear from the old stand-by)

The dealer replaced the headliner (but the bodyshop used the old pins(?) that hold the C pillar covers in place (and I assume the A and B pillar covers). And they are worn out on one side (the driver side C pillar cover was already falling off when I bought it.) So every day or so I have to give the C pillar cover a whack to stick it back on.

Need to order that part. Might order a couple other things (the trunk panel for the CD changer so I have a place to put my MP3 player when I install the BMW Radio-iPod adapter that is sitting on my desk.)
The point of this entry… I bought one of those headlight restoration kits at one of the local auto parts store. The plastic headlight covers on both sides are badly weathered (very badly)
Spent 3 hours this afternoon doing it. It looks better…. but not as good as I want it to.
Not sure how good it’ll be at night.
So… time to order headlight covers? (and the seal that goes between it and the car, and the inner seal between it and the rest of the headlight holder.) And I noticed the air dam being the grill needs replacing.
Gonna be expensive. $200-300
And I still need new brakes (rotors mostly) and non-summer tires.And at least one part only a BMW dealer can install (Because it involves the car computer) if they would ever get me a quote!!!!

I’m really close to deciding to move to another web host.
I’ve already got a spot (and domain) staked out at Yahoo’s web hosting farm:
NeoCOWS.net (I’ve also staked out neocows.com and neocows.org but there’s nothing there yet)
(It’s more than I’m paying Userland for my Radio based site but it has a LOT more space and etc. like PHP and MySQL — Details and a commercial or two here: Yahoo! Web Hosting)
But first I’ll need to replace my cms (content management system) and etc. Do I write my own (something simple) (and risk fighting off The Company lawyers since, in theory, anything I program the Co. has first dibs on.) or go with something open source?
We’ll see…

I’ve been working on ‘Ms. Kite’ and hope to have an update up here and elsewhere before the end of the weekend.
And possibly an short update to ‘Runaway’ by next weekend.
I’ve worked a little on “The Other Girl” but the next part isn’t finished. Hopefully I’ll remember to put up the most recent version of the current CHIP (CHapter In Progress) before the end of the weekend.
After that… I plan to focus on two older fics ‘The Two’ and ‘Apprentice’ — I’d like to have those done (or close to done) before the end of the year (yes, THIS year.)
We’ll see…