Smoke em if ya Got em

I tried out my new kitchen top smoker the other day with a nice salmon steak.  It was really good!  Even the kids ate it and that is saying a lot.  Wish I had taken a picture, but I guess it didn't look like anything too special.  Tasted great though.

My check engine light has been on for the past 3 weeks.  I just haven't had time to take it in.  I have felt lately that I am driving on borrowed time.  Every time I am sitting in traffic on the 405 I think, uh oh, this is it, my car is going to die right here.  That would be a real pain.  So I finally loaded my bike into my trunk and took my car to my favorite independent VW repair place in Venice.  It took me only 20 minutes to ride back to my office.  Not too bad.  So 4 hours later I called the repair guy and he said to come in.  He told me that the computer was telling them that I had a bad glow plug.  They pulled out the supposedly faulty item and tested it.  It appeared to be fine.  So they put it back in but swapped the #3 plug for the #4.  They test drove the car around and the engine light never came on.  The bottom line was they didn't want to sell me a new glow plug since they tested fine and that might not be the problem.  It could be a connection to the plug.  It is that kind of honesty that I have come to appreciate from these guys.  I am sure if I had taken it to the dealer they would have charged me $500 and just swapped out all the glow plugs.  Hopefully I don't see that engine light come on again.  The repair guy said if it was going to happen it would happen in the morning because the glow plugs help the car get started when it is cold.  I wonder how hard those things are to replace yourself?