Transporting an engine, shoelaces, and an Albanian sausage

I had an eventful and fun day yesterday.

Some of you may remember my Maserati engine coffee table. Well, years ago, it was deemed by my wife as a hazard, both physically and aesthetically. It was banished to the garage, where it sat, gathering dust and spider webs. Now, she wants it out completely to make room for massive boxes of Viva paper towels and 55 gallon drums of laundry detergent.

Fortunately, someone wants it. All I had to do was deliver it to them in San Francisco. But how? I'm about as handy as Donald Trump, so I researched extensively and asked the friend who originally helped me transport the engine from Santa Rosa to home. (Friend and truck no longer live in the area.) I even went to the local hardware store to get advice. I ended up buying a rope and deciding to put the engine in the TSX wagon.

I needed an extra set of hands to lift the engine so I recruited my friend (and friend of this blog) Chris. He brought some bungee cords. Bungee cords?!

I really wasn't sure if this was a good idea. My greatest fear was that we were going to get into a crash and the engine was going to fly forward and decapitate Chris. But as I closed the hatch, I said out loud and thought to myself-- Chris is an engineer; he knows what he's doing.

We delivered the engine to San Francisco without incident. The new owner was stoked. Mission accomplished. I took Chris out to lunch as a thank you.

It was over pan fried turnip cakes that I learned I was in the presence of an engineering rock star. I was lamenting about how I was five Economist issues behind in my reading when he told me that he was in last week's issue in an article about why shoelaces get untied. OMG!

After lunch, we walked across the street to an Eastern European market to check out its merchandise. I picked up this Albanian sausage, which I will count in my Eating the Globe series. The energetic Bosniak cashier recommended that I just fry up ten thin slices with some eggs for breakfast.