in good shape, isolde - part 4

This resumes from a previous post in good shape, isolde - part 3. The quest for a perfect cup holder continues.
In the previous post, I have only done preliminary design and order a few RAM piece parts that I am sure I will need to put this together. As I done more research I found out the permutations of putting together one with RAM's huge range of product is like trying to build something with Lego - literally infinite.

fried tofu snack

My preliminary design was based on the few RAM cup holder configurations that are commonly sold, with 2 ball joints. The advantage of this is great articulation. The disadvantage is it cantilevers very far out when fully extended. While I was planning to build one with 2" arm, instead of the standard 3" the effective cantilever length between the vertical mounting plane and the center of the cup is still about 8-inch when fully extended. Of course you can shorten the projection by folding the arm in, but that will also force you to pivot the cup holder to a different location far away from the base. It is very hard to picture how this articulation will give you until you have all the parts in your hands.

I strife to shorten it, and I today I found the part that I need. It is a round base with an integral short ball socket that is about 2-inch in height total. By combining this with the bare cup holder it forms a cup holder with mount that has a cantilever of about much short 4-inch.

This combination will fix the cup holder at where the mounting base is, though with a little bit of single ball articulation. I can live with that. Then I found out I cannot get this part without paying unreasonable price. On Amazon only one vendor listing it for spite - $80.87 shipped! Also the down side of this part is it has a 2.5-inch base. This rules out mounting it on the narrow 1.25" steel surface of the dash front. It has to go onto the plastic heater blower cover below.

Ordering it from RAM at list price but the shipping cost is more than the part.

No big loss. I did a bit more looking and I found this other single socket mount that is $4.50 more as it comes with one ball base. If I removed the ball base it will give me the same part as above but in the standard diamond base that I can mount it where I have planned! I placed the order on Amazon with free shipping and a small discount. Patience pays, I am awaiting the slow boat shipments with my Amazon sub-Prime purchase. If you don't have Prime, Amazon's shipping is almost always slower than any other online vendors. Checking my purchase history, I observe recent prices of many items has increased 10% to 20% in a mere 1 to 2 years.

Case in point. An order I placed on the 8th, have not ship on the 14th. This happen all too often. I cannot help but to suspect it is the company's deliberate delay to get people to sign up for $99/year Prime membership. On an order consisted of many items, one item ($12.99 RAM Mount part with 13% discount off list with free shipping) shipped from a affiliated vendor arrived in 3 days, and the rest from Amazon still has not shipped after 5 days - the day of the original first ETA date. This happened countless times. Amazon is so on my shit list. I used to enthusiatically post positive comments on the things that I purchased and satisfied, but no more. Amazon broke my trust. I, however will not abuse the generous return policy. I just switched my credit card on my account to Amex because I know it charges the merchant more than VISA and Mastercard:-).

mahi mahi

I cannot remember when was the last time I bake a chicken - this is my improvised rosemary chicken

the only thing I looked up on the web is bake at about 350F for 20 minutes per pound and it is very close; the white dust on the skin is flour because I hand sprinkled too much on - no negative effect on how the chicken taste

the chicken is well seasoned as I rubbed salt under the skin and left in the refrigerator for 18 hours

yum! I should have garnish it with a sprig of plum blossoms