I am the poud owner of my very own bikini top.

Yea, I know, not a mental image you really needed, so here’s an actual picture to go with it;

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I live in Maplewood, a suburb on the north side of Saint Paul. I work in the Uptown section of Minneapolis (I still haven’t figured out why Uptown is south of Downtown). My usual route for getting home from work was to to get on 94 east, take the 35W north out of downtown and across the Mississippi river, and depending on the traffic exit to some residential streets or continue on to Hwy36 east to get home.

Last summer, they started doing some work on the bridge across the Mississippi, resurfacing and such The usual four lanes were down to two, so I would often exit before the bridge, cutting through the U of MN campus. August 1, 2007 I was heading home from work 5:30-5:40ish, and figured traffic might be letting up and I would take the bridge to see how the construction was going. I don’t build bridges, but I am in construction so that sort of thing is interesting to me.

Some of you may recognize the name “35W Bridge”, it is the one that collapsed in to the Mississippi River, killing 13, injuring about 100 others.

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Ok, tomorrow is April 1, right?

I had no snow in my back yard when I left for work this morning… and it is still coming down, three hours later.

This next one I just thought looked cool… it’s the rear fender of my Jeep after I got home.

My neighbor drives truck, but he’s been a car mechanic in the past and does a lot of work on his cars and for friends. My thermostat broke, so I’ve had no heat in the Jeep for the last week. Tom offered to fix it as I’ve helped him when he’s needed a second pair of hands, and actually swapped out his home tstat for a new programmable one on Saturday.

So I pick the stat and gasket up yesterday, and yesterday evening we start working on it. And by we, I mean I was pretty much just watching. This is probably something I could have done if I had known where it was to begin with, but he’s even got the pressure tester and the whole deal.

First attempt, the stat shifted (we figured out later) so it wasn’t seated right and cut the gasket and leaked. We rush out (it’s 6:30 on a Sunday) and the first two parts places are closed - the third, Auto Zone, is open till 7, we got there at 5 till.

I pick up a new gasket, and since the hoses are all factory, figure we’ll replace the upper radiator hose while we’re at it. We get back, everything is going fine… but there’s a… snap… as he’s tightening one of the bolts. Well, long story short, we hook everything up and get no pressure… add fluid… pump it up… and the housing (I have no idea the real name of it) for the stat where the hoses plug in has turned in to a mini-fountain.

So… I’m stuck at home today (oh darn). Tom is gonna try and find a replacement part today. And hopefully we’ll get it fixed tonight. The pressure test showed there may be a bit of leaking around the top of the radiator too. That one isn’t critical I suppose, but will have to add it to the list. Feh.

The first part of that crack happened bit over a week ago, rock kicked up by a truck. Stopped somewhere before work yesterday morning, it was cold out. I parked facing the South. It was sunny. Came out about an hour later and the crack now goes all the way to the top of the windshield.

Get a new one tomorrow. whee.