X-O Plus Odor Neutralizer Spray (8-oz bottle) asin: B0001M7BZ4 binding: Misc. list price: $14.99 USD amazon price: $8.60 USD

The other night I watched three acrobatic rats climb from the roof to the loquat tree over the telephone wire. I'm really tired of the rats. Apparently rodents are taking over the city - caused by a bumper crop of pecans or something. A member of our old neighborhood's mailing list recommended using XO -- "otherwise designed to get rid of the smell of decomposing bodies." I wonder if we would trigger any alarms if we bought huge quantities of it. It's not like we don't live in the South...

We finally finished up installing the Masterflux compressor package in the Saturn project on Sunday and took it to an AC technician to get things checked out and the system charged. Long story short... Brian is now driving around in an air conditioned EV. Yay!

Brian's car is 144V which is on the low end of the range for the controller for this unit. We were pleasantly surprised that the four of us were able to drive home in the car without breaking a sweat on a "warm" central Texas day (102 F). The car doesn't currently have a low-E film on it either which would help a great deal.

Gluten-Free Without Rice: Easy Cooking for Variety on a Gluten-Free Diet author: Nicolette M Dumke asin: 1887624155 binding: Paperback list price: $9.95 USD amazon price: $9.95 USD

I'm learning how to cook gluten-free. It's rather annoying, since beer is ... wheat ... and the gluten-free beer tastes, for the most part like ... not-beer ... but since giving up wheat and dairy and ... *sigh* ... beer I haven't had my gut-wrenching stomachaches and indigestion and all other types of ailments that used to leave me crying in the corner from the pain. But I still refuse to be tested. I like beer too much. And I don't want to be one of those annoying people who believe in following trendy diseases. I just happen to hurt and get phlemmy after eating certain foods. That's all.

Before I head out to the garage, I will update on the Mazda 3 as well.

The Mazda 3 took the Saturn's place in the garage and I immediately set about removing the engine, the exhaust and the fuel tank. We needed to get to it as quickly as possible because we are switching to a digital design process for our work.

With the engine out and the transmission separated from it, we can now use our digitizing arm to grab all of the important points on the transmission. That has allowed us to design our adapter plate more easily and will allow us to store this transmission information for future use should anybody need a 2008 Mazda 3 adapter.