Category: Slice of Life

Finished Dragon Zakura Season 2

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X-E4, 27mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
 “Dragon Zakura Reunion” Cedar Park, 2021

Today I watched the final two episodes of Dragon Zakura 2. It was a great continuation of the first series, which aired 16 year earlier. What I really liked about it was that besides Abe Hiroshi reprising his role, Nagasawa Masami returned in a starring role. In the original series, she was one of the students in the class that was aiming for admission into Tokyo University, and in this series, she is now a lawyer, after graduating from Todai.

The plot of Dragon Zakura 2 is more complicated, with deeper subplots, but both stories were interesting, and both casts were also very good. It was really cool that almost all of the original students came back for cameos in the second series. I actually didn’t think Aragaki Yui (whose is enjoying a successful acting career) would come back, but in the final few minutes of the last episode, she makes her cameo. In fact, only Yama-P didn’t return, which I didn’t really care about anyways. 😄

I highly recommend both Dragon Zakura and Dragon Zakura 2. Lots of fun!

A Safer Quill Stem

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Photo info: Apple iPhone 12 mini, 4.2mm, f/1.6, 1/30 sec, ISO500
 “Quill Stem” Cedar Park, 2021

One thing I’ve learned while restoring my Peugeot bicycle is that the cast alloy stems used on many of the bicycles of that era are prone to catastrophic failure. In fact, they have the nickname “death stems”! With that in mind, I ordered a modern quill stem to replace my old one.

The old stem has a 22 mm diameter, but modern bicycles are 22.2 mm diameter so the new stem requires a little modification to make it work. Basically, you have to shave off that .2 mm using sandpaper or a file. I opted to use the file to quickly take off the extra width, then sandpaper to clean it up a bit.

Photo info: FUJIFILM X-E4, 27mm, f/2.8, 1/80 sec, ISO3200
 “Filing Stem” Cedar Park, 2021

Before putting the stem in the fork, I put a light coat of marine grease on it to prevent corrosion and make it easier to remove later.

The new stem has a handlebar clamp that will accommodate the common 25.4 mm handlebar size but my old handlebars are about 23 mm, so I thought about buying some new handlebars. For now, I will try these shims to fit the original bars to the new stem. I might buy wider bars in the future, but I’d also like to keep Sophie as close to original as possible.

Another advantage of the new stem is that it is a bit longer and I can position the handlebars a little higher making for a slightly more upright riding position.

I’m excited to ride with the new set up (as soon as the shims arrive)! It will be nice to be able to ride in the drops without the nagging thought of the stem breaking and crashing the bike.

And soon I’ll be adding new bar tape and brake lever hoods. Sophie is looking better and better! 💜

Yakiniku

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X-E4, 27mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
 “Yakiniku” Cedar Park, 2021

Tonight’s dinner was yakiniku with Japanese wagyu beef, sliced pork belly, sausage, mushrooms, cheese, and homegrown nasubi and jalapeño peppers. The beef was amazing, and the peppers were off-the-chart spicy! We also had some store-bought peppers which were very mild, thankfully.

I love spicy food, but these peppers were almost too much. I’d say these were almost as hot as habaneros! 🔥🌶 I loved them though. 😂

Off to the Shop

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Photo info: Apple iPhone 12 mini, 4.2mm, f/1.6, 1/5600 sec, ISO32
 “Poor Prius” Cedar Park, 2021

Our poor Prius was showing us the “red triangle of death” light on the dash this morning, so we had to send it off to the auto shop. Luckily, our AAA service towed it there for cheap (our mechanic is a couple miles farther than the 7 miles that AAA gives you for free). We’ve taken our Prius to the same mechanic for years now, and I trust them to be honest with the work. In fact, one of the mechanics there has a Prius as well, so he knows a lot about the common issues, and lets us know what he would do if he were in our situation.

This time, however, I’m expecting a larger bill because it’s got almost 200k miles on the odometer, and the motor batteries are probably just about done for. I love the Prius, though, and Bay will be driving it down at college so I want to make sure it’s safe for him. Anyways, we’re crossing our fingers that it won’t be too expensive a fix.