But Beer Bad? Gave us "fire bad, tree pretty" which is a gift that keeps giving

That was Graduation Day 2, and the "fire bad" part was originally Frankenstein.

Like, I swear it makes me thirstier as I drink. It's not sane.

It's Slurm.

ION, we have Dinner Win! JZ is vegan on Fridays during Lent so I wanted to make something nice for her. I was inspired by our food truck adventure so I made her crispy tofu and served it over a spinach salad. Salad had some cucumbers and pistachios in it, with a balsamic vinegarette. I cooked the tofu until it was crispy and golden on both sides, with some mushrooms and green onions. After I took it out of the pan I heated up a sauce of soy, honey, garlic and rice vinegar and drizzled it on top of the crispy tofu then served that on top of the salad.

Man, crispy tofu is good. It's a very satisfying texture, lightly crunchy on the outside and creamy in the middle.

oh, i asssociate it with Beer Bad when that was actually a recall joke. d/oh

Unrelated to Buffy episodes or atheists and gender stereotypes, I took my car in for brake work today. Turns out that the rear brakes are at 4 mm -- which is 80% for drum brakes. When I asked the guy at the dealership about it, he said that they actually had a meeting where they were instructed to tell customers the percentage left, not the mm amount, because the amount is confusing for most people.

It was the front brakes, which hadn't been replaced in many a year. Fortunately the dealership was running a special on front brakes. But I also had the oil changed and a fuel intake thing done, so I still gave Toyota a large chunk of money. But at least the car will continue to stop when I ask it to. And for an 11-year-old car, it runs fantastic.

However, apparently my exhaust system is fucked, and Toyota Echos are notorious for needing the entire damn thing, from catalytic converter to the muffler, being replaced. The estimate made me actually gasp. I think I scared the dude. I find it hard to believe an exhaust system can't be fixed in parts, unless the whole thing is falling apart (which it is not). So before I raid the emergency fund for a ginormous repair, I'm taking it to another shop for a second opinion.

(I know nothing of exhaust systems -- seriously, and I shouldn't admit this publically, until today I thought the catalytic converter was in the engine. So it's very possible I need the whole thing replaced. But I'm hoping like hell that's not true.)

I knew catalytic converters weren't in the engine because people crawl under cars and steal them for the platinum. They stole ours from our 12-year-old Toyota 4Runner WHEN IT WAS PARKED RIGHT NEXT TO OUR HOUSE. The DH did a blog entry on his SUVs blog about it, and he got hundreds of responses. It turns out that these converter thefts are happening all over the country--apparently, the thieves somehow all know about this, although the car owners and the general public don't.

It turns out that these converter thefts are happening all over the country

That's even weirder than the copper pipe thefts you hear about.

We were flabbergasted. I mean, how do crazy junkie thieves all over the country know about this and people like, oh, auto-journalists don't?

That's even weirder than the copper pipe thefts you hear about.

Heh. As immortalized on The Wire.

Also, my friend who was living on his own at age 15 in Boston would go out at night and steal copper pipe with his buddies to make money. This was back in the 80s.

That's even weirder than the copper pipe thefts you hear about.

The lady who knocked all the internet in Georgia and Ukraine or where ever was digging for copper pipes!

I knew catalytic converters weren't in the engine because people crawl under cars and steal them for the platinum. They stole ours from our 12-year-old Toyota 4Runner WHEN IT WAS PARKED RIGHT NEXT TO OUR HOUSE. The DH did a blog entry on his SUVs blog about it, and he got hundreds of responses. It turns out that these converter thefts are happening all over the country--apparently, the thieves somehow all know about this, although the car owners and the general public don't.

I even knew about the catalytic converter thefts, because Tim works for a metal scrap recycler, so they are very aware of the current copper theft and the SUVs' catalytic converters being ganked.

And even though I knew about all that, including the thieves crawling under the SUVs to do it, I *still* somehow got it into my head that the catalytic converter was in the engine.

No, I can't explain that. That is a perfect example of common sense stuff I should know, but didn't. (I am not saying that everyone should know about catalytic converter theft; I'm saying that, given the data I already knew -- that catalytic converters were stolen from SUVs by thieves who have to crawl under the car to steal them -- I should have put 2 and 2 together to realize that the dang thing could not have been in the engine.)