It's just fried dough

I made donuts last night, well sort of. They look like donuts but they were just fried biscuits. I remember back in kindergarten the teacher showed us that you could take a can of biscuits, cut the center out of them and fry them to make something similar to donuts. I made a mess with the powdered sugar trying to dust the donuts evenly but ended up with clumps of it everywhere.

Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt

I have this salt shaker that I found in my house when I moved in. It was one of the few items that I kept when I cleaned out the kitchen cabinets. For two years I have searched on eBay trying to find a match so I can use the set. It reminds me of a miniature sugar shaker with the fluted sides and flared out base. I had hoped to have found a clue with any markings on the bottom but it only has "made in china" and 15 so no luck there. Maybe one day I will stubble upon its mate until then it lives in the spice cabinet.

I can finally see coming and going now

So I put Hella 500 off-road lights on the front of the truck. I wasn't happy about the headlights being brighter than the off-road lights so I upgraded the hella's with KC 100w bulbs. I also upgraded the truck's factory fog lights with Philips 45w bulbs. I been content with all this extra lighting on the front.

Backing the truck up in the dark is a different story, the stock reverse lights are simply inadequate. Most guys will swap these bulbs out with something brighter and I'm planning on doing the same but I also want something to light up the rear so I can see while hooking up to a trailer. My solution was to take a set of white strobe lights that had a steady burn mode and mount them to the bottom of the receiver hitch cross beam using angle iron as brackets.

I used a rocker fog light switch from a earlier model Toyota and mounted it to a empty slot on the dash. Wire was ran from the auxiliary fuse box into the cab and then out under the seat to the rear of the truck. Since these were strobe lights they had two extra wires, one to sync the two together and one to set the flash pattern. I laughed to myself the first time I turned the switch on to test everything. I had a disco party going on behind my truck. Once I had everything wired properly I wrapped everything up wire wire loom and electrical tape.

Factory reverse lights and auxiliary backup lights on

Factory reverse lights on.

Auxiliary backup lights on.

Revamping the kitchen hardware

I have been slowly replacing pieces of hardware in the kitchen. Recently replaced all the cheap plastic measuring cups with heavy glass cups. All my drinking glasses finally match, I had a selection that didn't quite match my style or the rest of the glassware I had recently purchased. Finally got rid of the cheap mixed match set of steak knives replaced with a nice set I got for Christmas.

I finally got around to adding to the set of Corelle plates that my sister gave me. There were only five dinner plates and four bread plates. I added two more dinner plates over the past couple years. Couple weeks ago I decided that I wanted to compete the set with bowls and a few more plates. I visited Wal-Mart only to discover they were no longer available on the shelf. I checked online and the sets were there but Wal-Mart didn't offer open stock in Classic Cafe Blue. Even Corelle's website don't offer much of a selection. I did purchase six of the larger 28oz bowls from them and will be getting a set of lunch plates. Replacement.com had a better selection; I ordered one dinner plate, two bread plates, and six cereal bowls that matched.

This gives me a total of:

8 dinner plates
6 lunch plates
6 bread plates
6 18oz bowls
6 28oz bowls

I currently don't know if this design has been retired or just most places stopped selling in favour of a more popular or fresh design. I have always liked the simple blue striped design, the nostalgia of it makes me think of a small diner sitting on the side of route 66. The plates stack more compact than most and they are not as heavy as ceramic plates.

My flatware is also getting some new additions. For years I have tried to find more pieces to add to the set of Watertown stainless steel flatware made in Japan. I knew nothing of the set. One Etsy listing has me to believe the set was produced in the 1960's. My mom and sister saw that I was looking for more of this design and took a look through their flatware and found a few more spoons and knives for me. Ebay has a few listings that were reasonably priced and I have about 16 pieces in the mail already. The flatware has a simple but interesting design, the handles has a border made up of a repeating pattern of crickets or maybe they are praying mantis.

Deadpool and bright lights

Got the chance the go watch Deadpool this past Thursday. Went over to Texarkana with four of my friends. The plan started out with just me and one other friend deciding on going while we were sitting at work the prior weekend. I texted three other friends and everyone was up for the idea. I wish it was two more, someone that my best friend has been talking to for the past couple weeks and someone that I was interesting in getting to know. Yeah I stuck out once again but still had a great time going to Olive Garden and entertaining out waiter, then seeing Deadpool. I Learned that the combination of the five of us is a great comedic troupe, we fed off each others energy and had everyone else constantly laughing the entire night.  I even had the entire audience in the theater laughing during the credits when I yelled "Deadpool".

Tonight I finally got around to wire up my off road lights. Yes for the past few weeks I had them mounted but not wired. So this weekend I had my power wires crimped, switch installed, all the wires ran, and now I have more lights. I do notice that my head lights do out shine the off road lights, guess I need to replace the bulbs or maybe replace the lights themselves with something brighter. Led light bars are still on the back burner for now, I like to have them behind the grille so they are not as noticeable. I like the wire mesh grille on the Tacomas so I might do that soon.

Upgrading to a Taco Supreme

Been making several changes to the Toyota Tacoma lately. Since getting it back from the body shop I have added a bull bar with a set of Hella off road lights. I have also mounted a UWS toolbox so I can finally carry extra gear. I hated the provided j hook bolts that UWS used with their toolbox so I ordered two sets of DeeZee toolbox mounting kit. I drilled new holes in the toolbox to have a bolt in each corner instead of one in the center.

I have owned several vehicles and have added electrical accessories to all of them. In the past I used the provided wiring harness and always ended up with a rats nest under the hood with the power wires and inline fuses. With the Tacoma I decided it will be different. I installed a auxiliary fuse box with a 100 amp breaker switch, everything is mounted to a fabricated bracket bolted in the space between the fuse box and brake master cylinder.

Future projects include led lights in the toolbox, leds lights in the bed, auxiliary back-up / work lights, finish the speaker upgrades.

Most expensive way to go deer hunting

Couple weeks ago I had to go into work after dark and ended up hitting a deer with the truck. Forcantully the truck was still driveable and made it on time for work. The deer damaged the front bumper, the grille, both headlight buckets were broke loose from all mounting tabs, even the passenger side fender was slightly damaged.  The damage done by the deer came out to be roughly $3,000; this being the most expensive deer hunting trip I ever went on.

While the truck was in the shop to get fixed I made the decision that I would just keep the truck instead of trading it in for something newer. This was partly due to the fact that the trade in value of the truck would have gone down because of the recent accident and also because it is about the roll over 100k miles. So instead of trying to get a new vehicle I would spend some of the money I have saved up and do some much needed upgrades on the truck.

The upgrades would make my everyday driving experience a little more enjoyable. Adding a bull bar to the front to give some little more protection from future accidents, also will allow some auxiliary lighting to be installed. I plan on having a set of Halogen spot lights mounted to bar as well as a LED light bar mounted to the top of the bar. Backing up in the dark has always been a challenge withe the stock backup lights, I plan to replace the bulbs with LED's and add a set of auxiliary backup lights that will only come on when I am in reverse and a switch is turned on, no need in such bright lights backing up in a Walmart parking lot. A toolbox would allow me to actually carry my recovery gear instead of removing it whenever I have passengers in the backseat. I also plan on upgrading the front door speakers and to also install speakers in the rear doors like they were in previous year models.

I also have been shopping for recovery gear that I never  gotten around into getting. Items like shackles, recovery strap, recovery hitch, things of that nature. I started getting all of these items when I had a vehicle that had enough storage to hold such things, but somehow lost interested even though the current truck I own is four wheel drive and has a need for such things even in my everyday driving around.

In addition to the decision of keeping the truck, I also plan on getting a second vehicle for the times I wish to go play,I miss having a vehicle that I didn't mind if it gets a dent or scratch, let alone something major like a CV joint or front hub breaking.