el narfo!

who'da thunk it.

open source beer!

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that's a good experience.

on saturday, i discovered that one of the hangers (that's what it is) had broken and stopped by the MONRO (OF WATERTOWN MASS SUCKS ASS!) and it was a really shitty experience. the guy behind the counter was a prick. i will admit that M had given me mixed reviews from co-workers, but that things tended to be more negative than positive. but i was figuring it would be a quick fix, easy money and a quick way to end the day. instead, the prick behind the counter blew me off.

so, fuck 'em.

fast forward to this morning. i call Midas down the road from me (one i actually went to a few years ago, still had me in their records with my old addy) to see if they can look at it, and after a minor shock of "a few hours" (i think he was figuring the whole exhaust system would need to be fixed, which i spose would take "a few hours"), i headed down there. a few minutes to take a look at things and the result is this:

• 3 broken hangers (2 on the muffler, 1 on the tailpipe)
  
• 30 minutes to fix
  
• $40
  
• satisfied customer: priceless

so off i went to get coffee and a muffin, walk back and hit an ATM and by the time i got back, my car was on the ground getting ready to be backed out of the bay. it took 20 minutes.

so, i'll cry from a mountain top - GOTO MIDAS! MONRO SUCKS ASS! GET THE MIDAS TOUCH!

it was pretty cool and i'm kicking myself for not having my camera with me, but i've never been under my car (either one for that matter) so it was kinda surreal being under it and looking at the underside. there was something of a simplicity to it. cars to most people seem like these complicated devices, and what we can't see, must be complicated. but looking under mine and it really is pretty simple. i was able to identify pretty much everything. found out that my fuel tank runs parallel to the left side of the car (makes sense as the spare tire is under the trunk) so i'm practically sitting on it as i drive. but it also explains why the 2-door has a 17.3 gallon tank vs. the 4-door which has a 20 gallon tank. (the wheelbase is longer on the 4-door, more room for the larger fuel tank)

there is a plate that covers the fuel tank, the transfer case (that's what provides power to the front wheels for 4WD), the muffler, suspension. things were looking a little rust covered, but everything looked sound from my layman perspective. but all in all, it was pretty cool. i realize that it's just another car for mechanics, but as someone who knows far less about cars than i'd like, it was pretty cool.

so, remember people, given the choice of Midas or Monro, go Midas.

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well, i meant to post this friday night, but that's ok. those of you who will read this won't care which is the joy of publishing things on my own. anyways, here it is. now with more bloggy freshness!

silly drivers.

actually, stupid drivers. the other day i complained about NH drivers. yesterday, it's people who have expensive cars. why do they feel entitled to drive like idiots? i was behind some jackass in some pricey merc. and here we are, after he made some foolish lane changes (squeezing between cars w/o signaling), we're zipping along in the speed lane and as he is passing a car, he decides that he needs to reach for something.

in the passenger seat footwell.

i decided to back off a little more than i had already. he did drift left and then right. i backed off a little more.

he wasn't the only idiot in a fancy car. i saw a few others that made some questionable lane shifts. one guy when whizzing by me on the right only to get stuck in traffic, back off (so i passed him) and then he flew into the speed lane and went blowing by me on the left. (i wasn't in the left lane at this point)

and then today, it was 18 wheelers. i realize that they are busy drivers, and like to zip along, but it really is frustrating when they make lane changes that don't make sense. one was zipping along so quickly that he blew by me and i was going 70. then he came up on slower traffic so he had to back off, but had i not been able to get around him before he hit the traffic, i would have had to slow down and i wouldn't have been able to get around him for a little while. then another truck decided (farther down the road, but not too much) that he wanted to go around a slower (70mph) truck so he shifted lanes and forced me to shift into the speed lane so that i could go around both of them.

at least i didn't have to deal with a flat tire. i saw one on the way home. he went flying by me, but about a mile or so down the road, he pulled over. then as i was pulling into the parking lot at work this morning, someone had a very flat tire. wasn't anyone in the office, otherwise i would have noted their parking sticker number and had Pag look it up.

sucks for them.

and i've decided that i'm tired of MdD's Cobb salad. it's quite tasty, but i think i've had it enuff i'm to the point of not liking it anymore. it's kind of a shame, as it's one of the few things i like on the menu. but i'm tired of it now.

the new phone system is going live very shortly. LB had a startling moment this afternoon. some vendor called her back and her batphone rang. we checked it (oooo...thunder in the vicinity! w00t! lesse where it is. rats...manchester. lucky bastards.)

anyways, we checked it out and when i called her using my cell, it worked as expected. so she headed home. i'll have to find out how to check that. anyways, in a little over a week, we go live. kinda scary. esp as i'm the unofficial admin of the system. but, i've been poking about so i've found some things, and JD showed me a few things today. and i expect he'll continue to do so in the coming week. then we get a full day of admin training. that is going to be a LOOOOOONG day.

but it should be fun. at least i have the 29th off. gonna see The Machine w/TK in plymouth. that should be good, and i got an email from them today, they are playing in wooostah at the end of september. i may have to make a pilgrimage (get it - pilgrim?) then. but that's 2 months out. wonder what they'll play next friday. they've been doing Dark Side of Oz from time to time. the last time i saw them (in nashua some time ago) they did On The Run, only it was the original version which was more of a jam. very cool. i have yet to hear them play a full version of Echoes yet. but here's hoping.

tiger power cereal commercials are amusing. the animals they use are very inspired by the creators of Wallace and Gromit. wonder if they are...

well, as i stated above, it's now sunday, so i'll fill in a few things and then post it.

yesterday i got my haircut. short, altho i'm not crazy about the gel N used. i felt like a porkypine, but it got better as the day went on. before that, stopped by strawberries to pick up tickets for friday nights show in plymouth. discovered that they wanted cash for tickets, so i had to hit the ATM, but it will be worth it. i don't quite understand why you can't just charge tickets, but if that's what they want, i'll play. i don't buy concert tickets that often, so i can live with the minor irritation.

the only major frustration of yesterday is the bracket that held the end of my exhaust pipe on decided to rust itself off. so now whenever i go over a lot of bumps, i hear the banging of the tailpipe on things which sucks. i'm hoping i can get it fixed tomorrow morning. but i stopped by a place in watertown (M needed to pick up her laptop) and the guy was a real prick. i got there at 3 and he said that they were closing in 40 minutes (3:40pm???) and they were trying to finish what they were already working on. he didn't even say 'sorry'.

at least the weather is really nice. for the first time in a little while i've been able to leave my windows wide open and not have this layer of humidity on everything. we get it back tomorrow they say, but for the moment, i'll enjoy this. at least it happened on the weekend so we can enjoy it. so often it arrives during the week, so you can't enjoy it, but for once, we get it timed nicely. i still think we need to find some way to control the weather, or have this massive dehumidifier. maybe that's the trick. houses need dehumifiers installed that sucks the humidity out of the air and stores it in a tank that can be used to watering the lawn. there's a thought. that might work in urban areas where there are a lot of houses. the heat just rises up as they suck the moisture out of the air.

oh well.

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random observations (July 20, 2005)

stepped out to head to work and thought to myself, this would be a nice day. was 73 (according to my car), nice breeze blowing, could be a little lighter on the humidity, but certainly an improvement over the last few days where you step out and are hit with a wall of goo. but that was short lived as i started hearing sirens heading in my direction (hadn't left the driveway yet) only to watch a Mass HazMat truck go flying by my house. then i realized that it was going to be a lot warmer and no where near as nice as it was in my little world of the driveway.

sure enuff, 84 on the way to dunkin. 88 on rte93 and i didn't bother to check when i parked. i did get a good parking space, so i can't complain about that.

as i was driving in, speaking of complaining, today seemed like the day that new hampshire drivers decided that they wanted to prove that they could be worse drivers than drivers here. it seemed as tho all of the cars that i felt made stupid driving decisions (lane shifts, passing, etc) all had NH plates. now, this isn't to say that the vast majority of drivers in NH aren't safe and courteous drivers, but for this morning, those i saw painted a very poor picture of NH drivers.

well, i'm having to crack open pandora's box. i've resisted doing it, but it was going to happen sooner than later. i'd like later rather than sooner, but oh well. so i put out a brief questionnaire for management people here and have sent it out, so for the last 20 mins or so, i keep getting emails from people which at this moment i'm ignoring. i put a read receipt on it as i want to make sure people actually do look at it. reply, different matter, but we'll see. so far i've gotten a bunch of responses. no real suprises. but i have until next friday for responses so i'll just tally things so far and go from there.

ok, now THAT is cool. i think i mentioned last week i had to build a PC for testing the phone system and that i had failed miserably to get Win2000 installed on a laptop (better suited for the testing than a full PC). so i figured i'd give it another shot this afternoon using Bart's Boot Disk and much to my suprise and delight, i was able to boot the laptop, and it even detected automatically the on-board NIC. that i hadn't expected, so at this very moment, the Win2000 setup is removing the pre-existing setup files from the aborted runs and we'll see just how well it works. i've got to figure out how to get all the various laptop drivers onto it, but for the moment, this is a good sign that i might actually be able to get this to work. that would be nice as i can then image it, as well as make it available as a floating laptop for the IS department, or even *cringe* other departments. but for the moment, i'm just going to let it do its thing and see what happens.

so as i have Pink Floyd playing Wish You Were Here (Olso 8/29/94), i can hear some of the women in the office yelling. i'm not sure what it is, but i believe it's a self-defense class, but w/the windows to the conf. room covered, i can't look in. but i spose if i did, i'd get my ass handed to me so i'll just let them yell.

TK had a pretty shitty day. he's off for the next few days (trip to LI to visit the in-laws-family-gathering thing) so in typical fashion, he's trying to finish up his work and more gets piled on, plus he has to try and train LP and LC so that they can give him a hand. fortunately, compared to many people at work, both of them (esp LP) have good heads on their shoulders so things seem to go ok, but as he is discovering, they are finding things that he missed explaining. doh. fortunately, i gave him the afore mentioned VeePeeN thing so he can do work from home. not ideal, but he is able to do a lot more work at home due to a lack of idiot distractions. wonder if he remembered to pick up the duff on the way home or not.

this removal of pre-existing attempts at installing Win2k is taking a long time. i figured it wouldn't take quite so long, but it certainly is. i'm not gonna be able to finish this tonight. rats. how long does it take to delete files? just have to ask some of the users around here, they seem to be rather adept at it when they need something. oh well. something to do tomorrow. oh, now it's copying files. oooooo....that only took 40 mins to delete those files. i could have rebooted the laptop, deleted them manually and then restarted this process. oy.

the good news is i found an article the other day on how someone had installed Win2000 on a PC w/32MB RAM. and had it running well. sure, that's a little light, but it is cool to see that it really is a pretty good OS (given the source). but then, being able to run on a 486 w/4MB RAM, isn't that far a stretch for some other operating systems.

one of these days i'll have to dload Solaris. it's free. for the most part. maybe i can do something and get it integrated in here. hmmm....min requirements - 120mhz, 256MB and 2GB free. those are pretty minimal. esp the CPU. performance will be pretty poor, but if you need to throw something together pretty quickly, this ain't a bad option. ponder ponder ponder....

87% copied...88%. sluggish. i wonder if that's because i didn't let it use the smartdrive thing. hopefully once it finishes copying the files, i can turn the laptop off and finish it tomorrow. typically, Win2k copies the files over, reboots and then starts the install process. the same should hold true here. i guess i'll find out in a few minutes. 92% well, it did exactly what i hoped. it wanted to reboot. so i shut it down. heh.

had a very nice salad for dinner w/M. helps when the bulk of the prep-work is done the night before. walk afterwards. discussed how this summer's reality shows are revolving around tattooing. it's only 2 shows that i'm aware of, but it's a change. at least it's something more interesting in the reality genre.

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random picture of the moment

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a prayer for the jennkitty:

today we offer no praise for the *boing* *boing* *boing*, for that is to be saved for another day. today, instead, we offer a prayer from the Book of Pink, chapter Floyd, dated 2 of July in this year of the Pig, 2005.

let us pray.

we bow our heads so that we may let the almighty *ping* fill our soul
we open our ears to the almighty *ping* and all will be well
we open our hearts to the *ping* and all will be well
we listen to the heartbeat that Speaks To Me
we Breathe for the *ping*
we offer no Money for the *ping*,
as we never have to tell *ping* that we Wish You Were Here
and finally, in all that is Comfortably Numb, we *ping*
ALL PRAISE TO THE *PING*!

Rev. Molius, 7/19/05

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random pondering throughout the day (Friday, July 15th, 2005)

not sure when i'll post this, but i'll try and write things down as i think of them. we'll see how this concept of a running journal goes.

had a good drive into work today. not as nice as the drive in last night (see last post for details) but compared to most of my early morning commutes, it was one of the better ones. i did prepare with a large ice. yum.

TK stopped by to drop off a laptop. it's got a flakey keyboard which seems to be the biggest problem we have with the laptops aside from the latch issue. he was wondering if they are pounding on the keyboard to generate these issues. i wouldn't be suprised. you need a light touch with laptops, not this banging pound the crap out of it typing style.

the flea market committee here at work was providing a complementary breakfast stuff (muffins, yogurt, coffee, fruit) so i grabbed a yoplait raspberry. i'll save it for mid-morning when i get that mid-morning munchie feeling.

scanning thru one of the boards i frequent, someone was asking if Led Zeppelin ever played a bad show at the LA Forum. quick and dirty answer: no, they did not. even their 'lacking' shows were oftentimes better than other shows from the same tour. but as the discussion grew, a fan of the 1977 tour posted the following:

what surprises me is that out of all the shows they played in Los Angeles and LA being the media mecca it is... that there is NO pro-shot or at least really good quality footage out there... you would think someone out of the thousands of attendees in LA didn't have access to a top of the line camera themselves or through a friend in the movie business.

good point me thinks. i've seen some of the footage that does exist and it's all audience stuff, but we at least get to see some of Keith Moon on 6/23/77 which is neat. anyways, someone else replies with the following:

....I think Bob Crane was using his video equipment for other things.....

....sorry I just couldn't resist such an easy shot..

heeheeheehee....

well, that's it for this moment in time. more as the day progresses....

on thursdays, the New York Times (soul-sucking registration required) sends me a thing called Circuits and David Pogue writes the lead article for it (weekly thing) and the last few weeks he has been on a cruise. so upon his return to the column, he wrote some of his observations, and i couldn't help but think of the lesson to be learned. he needed up upload some 70MB movie file, and the cruise ship he is on has web access, but costs an arm and leg, only available in public areas (leaving a laptop alone in public area = BAD idea) and is painfully slow, so his story of how he got it uploaded was pretty funny. i can certainly sympathize with him, having had similar situations of my own. he was able to do it in the end, using a cyber cafe and a USB key to move the file, but it got me thinking.

the lesson i learned, and i'm sure he (and others) have learned is this:

buy a USB key, the larger the capacity the better. think about what you need/want to be able to do with it. in my case, i want to be able to browse the web, using my bookmarks, check mail and send files via FTP. (his ultimate goal)

then, before heading off on your trip install a web browser (Portable Firefox), a mail client (Portable Thunderbird) and an FTP client (don't really use one currently, so i cannot offer a suggestion, but look around, there are some pretty easy to use stand alone products.)

you can configure Firefox, and if you are an IE user, it has the ability to import all of your bookmarks, so you'll keep all of those. i've found Thunderbird to be a very nice email client, and it's certainly (IMO) easier to use than Outlook Express. plus the spam filter it has is pretty good and it certainly gets better over time. anyways, using the portable versions of software, or software that doesn't install files all over the place is a definate plus for you when travelling. you can control your 'private' information a little more tightly (Portable Firefox will keep a cache on the USB key rather than the hard drive, same goes for your email) and you get to keep all of your bells and whistles w/o having to remember a URL, or even a password if you want. w/o compromising your own personal security. of course, if you lose the USB key, you are potentially screwed, but that's like losing your wallet, you'll be screwed anyways.

so the ultimate lesson? lock yourself in your house, disconnect everything and sit on the edge of your bed with a shotgun shooting at anyone who comes within 100' of you. or don't travel. become someone who lives 'off the grid'. a hermit. recluse. nutjob.

now that was rather random. friday's at work are a bit of a dress down day (like most places these days) and today i'm wearing sandals (nothing new, i wear them to work all the time actually) and decided to take them off for a few mins to wander around the immediate area of my desk, and as i'm walking around, KC walks by and asks if i'm airing my tootsies, to which i reply no. as she passes me on her way back to her desk, i comment that i prefer being barefoot when walking around and she replies 'how asian of you'

well, it's now Saturday, so i'll fill in the rest of the details. unfortunately, i came up with a brilliant idea which generated at lot of busy work that i needed to get done before RB, TK and i headed off to see Charlie. we seem to run short of loaner laptops at work, and i figured out a way to add 4 more to the mix in short order, so i spent the last hour of my day fussing with those much to my frustration. but i finished at 3:58, so we were able to get out pretty quickly. the original plan was to get out of there sooner than that, but as i commented to TK, it always seems that when you have a quiet day or quiet start to a day, the last hour comes back to bite you in the ass and hard. so, it was a mildly frustrating end of the work day, but once out, it was nice.

tailed RB to the theater, used the ticket kiosk (no service charge thankfully) so we wouldn't have to wait in line. gave into the blue raspberry icee urge (RB and TK got stuff as well, and i didn't want to be left out). it exploded as i was paying. the girl behind the counter filled it and then gave it a stir, placed it on the counter and i handed my money over. then it erupted like a science fair volcano. so i start scrambling to get napkins to start cleaning up the mess, comment to RB and TK who stare at it wondering what's going to happen next and she hands me my change.

completely oblivious to the fact that my blue raspberry icee blew up all over the place. it wasn't until i pointed out the fact that it had exploded (my 3rd attempt to tell her BTW) that she finally realized that something was wrong.

so we head off to the theater and find our seats. as it filled, it was an interesting experiment in human behavior. the door to the theater is on the left back corner, so as it got close to the start of the movie (things started 5 minutes late and had a few false starts), the left side of the theater was more filled than the right side. we really are a lazy society. (for the record, we sat in the middle of the theater)

the movie was really well done, and i enjoyed it for the most part. the only thing i was less crazy about was the ending, which revolves around Willy's issues with his father (a sub-plot not in the book). i won't ruin it, but up until that point, i really enjoyed it. it really is a lot more faithful to the story than the Gene Wilder version. the songs the oompa-loompa's did were funny, the effects were pretty good. the boat ride was fun, altho we only get the 1st and last lines of the 'poem' willy recites during it (the 'there's no earthly way of knowing' bit). i thought it would have been fun to have willy do it in a fun sing-songy voice. the elimination of the kids was pretty good. the demise of veruca salt was my favorite, and the squirrels did a very good job of cracking the nuts.

all in all, it was lots of fun, and given how good the movie was, i can forgive the tacked on ending. definately worth seeing.

headed home afterwards (after dropping TK off at work so we could get our laptops) and settled in for new episodes of Stargate, Atlantis and Battlestar. Battlestar still rules and picked up with a bang. hopefully they'll be able to keep the intensity up like they did last season. should be good. afterwards i pretty much collapsed and crawled my way into bed.

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well, tonight was a bust

started out ok. got home, altho the start of the ride home was fucked up. for some reason, something had rte99 doing a wonderful impression of a parking lot. only i couldn't get around the loop to get onto rte93, so it took me nearly as much time to go 100 yards as it did to go 10 miles. rather disturbing, but i just bear with it and do my best to keep my cool. which certainly helps with A/C.

did some quick shopping over at Market Basket. they have some Smart Ones on sale this week (2/$3) so i picked up 10. they didn't have a huge selection, and 1/2 of what they had were the 'carb counting' or 'bistro' versions that weren't on sale. i haven't done the Smart Ones before. usually it's the Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine. i started getting them some time ago as i found they were a lot more affordable than buying lunch every day. for the price of a sandwich (usually a BLT), i could buy 2-3 Lean Cuisines. the economics pretty much sold it at that, and they seem to go on sale (until recenetly) when i'm running low. i think this is the least i've had (1 at home, 2 at work) before they have gone on sale.

got back only to have AP call me and say that our VoIP vendor is having problems connecting to the server that they were working on (they fucked things up pretty bad so they were trying to undo the damage). so i log on, unlock things and give them my phone number in case they need more help. i'd rather them call me directly than have to page AP (his turn for the beeper) who in turn has to call me, i call them. avoids the whole middle man thing.

so then i get a call (much to my delight) from RP whom i haven't talked to in a while. she's doing well. frustrated at the whole buying a place thing - i think it's a town house type thing, but i haven't wanted to ask for too many details as they were sposed to close on it last month. she said they'll be lucky if they can close on it this month. construction difficulties apparently. otherwise, i have her a rundown on how things are with me. she even ran into a friend from school way back when who is a friend of JR, whom RP and i were friends with in college (RP and JR had a fairly significant falling out however) so she got a little info on her. apparently JR hasn't changed much since college which is a shame. the whole 'world is out to get me' attitude. she's had family related problems, but even so, you'd hope that after some time, she'd be able to pick herself up, find a direction in life. oh well. i wish her well.

but then shortly after that, i was rudely interupted by the VoIP people again. apparently they were kicked out of the server and needed to get back in. only when i connected, i couldn't give them access so we rebooted the server. unfortunately, something hung soi ended up having to go into the office to click "end now" a few times. fortunately that was all i needed to do, but i certainly didn't enjoy having to go back into the office. had i not been talking with RP, i would have been pretty pissed.

oh well. time to start getting ready for bed. it's my last night (for the moment) where i have to try and get to bed early. i've been pretty good about it, but waking up, i've been up really early which sucks. night all.

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random mid-day ponderings

saw on the news this morning that Wareham, MA was posting a drinking ban on their water. apparently their water has "higher than expected e-coli levels", which raises the question: What exactly is a SAFE level of e-coli? this page seems to provide some answers, but upon hearing this, all i could think of are the nasty eat you alive strains. i really wish the news wouldn't be quite so sensational about this. it's a most annoying habit of theirs...

so far, today has actually be very productive. a bit of a slow start because unboxing and setting up 8 laptops is time consuming, but once set up and wired, things started to flow pretty quickly. blew images on to them in short order, as well as run thru my little staging laptop script (that cuts the busy work down significantly) so at this moment, 7 are installing SP2. i was somewhat wary about it when it came out, but so far it's been playing nice for me, and i like the wireless config better in SP2 than i did SP1.

and to top things off, BK stopped by (great, just got email from DC - she's going to lunch with daddy. first she blows us off for tomorrow nights movie (willy wonka) and now lunch? and she's taking tomorrow off? sheesh...well i hope she had a good lunch.

anyways, BK stopped by and dropped off my pay stub. i had forgotten it was pay day so WOO HOO for pay day!

so back to the grind. i was hoping i'd get this posted before lunch, but PA called and distracted me, so i went to lunch after getting off the phone with her. you'd think someone would get the hint when they ask "how are you?" and i answer "hungry." at lunchtime....

happy b-day CD. i hadn't realized he was younger than i was. AS tried to give him grief (by telling him he was 35 rather than 30) so i told AS that he was 80 and he was unable to come up with a retort. i'm sure i'll get one later, but it was funny.

NP: Tool - Eulogy (Poughkeepsie - 3/1/97)

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this is just plain nuts

before i bitch and moan, i figured i'd start with a laugh. at least i thought it was funny and it helped to lighten my irritated frame of mind.

on the way home, there is a house for sale, nothing unusual about that, but the owners were trying very hard to sell it themselves. the 'home for sale by owner' sign had been up for some time now, and they've even held open houses. i thought about it one time, but where the house is located is in a kinda crappy spot, right near a traffic light near the top of a small hill that creates a pretty crappy visibility issue. it looks to be a pleasant little house aside from the lacking (IMO) location, but i wouldn't be suprised if they were asking too much for it anyways. in any event, as i drove past this morning, i saw the usual 'for sale by owner' sign. this afternoon on the way home, low and behold, the 'for sale by owner' sign was gone, replaced by a spiffy and shiny clean sign for a local real estate company. one wonders if they were over their head...

so that gave me a little chuckle and helped lighten my mood slightly (augmented slightly by a medium ice hazelnut, cream, 2 splenda). anyways, last week when i fed my car (a ford explorer sport (2-door)) last week, i paid $2.19 9/10 (i'll bitch about that whole 9/10th issue some other time, suffice is to say, it bugs the hell out of me) and i was grumbling to myself about how that was a pretty significant rip-off. so, as TK-8103 and i are driving to the movie theater to see Land of the Dead (which we enjoyed), i noticed the gas station where i had not 2-3 days before paid $2.19 9/10 was now up to $2.29 9/10 and i commented to TK about how that really sucked. this weekend, i drove past another gas station i'll sometimes get gas at, and they were selling it for $2.32 9/10 and i cringed as i drove by. they were cheap. that is until i fed my car this afternoon.

fucking $2.48 9/10 per gallon. regular.

(yes, i know there are places that would love to see these prices again, but i don't live anywhere near there, so sorry if this is old hat now. and yes, i know that is cheap compared to the rest of the world that pays that per litre, so remember folks, 3.8L/gallon)

i have NEVER in my life had to pay so much for gas. what the fuck happened in the last 2 weeks that spiked the price of gas to these disgusting levels? (if i was working normal hours, i prolly would have heard about this on Marketplace) but this is fucking INSANE!

RB asked how it was the other day (knowing what i drive) and i said that things are ok, but that was before this. for fucks sake people, this is nuts!

i've been looking forward to this fall, when i have my car paid off IN FULL. final payments are now, and i'm loving the idea of not having to pay a car payment monthly. but right now, i'm beginning to wonder if i'm going to save anything at all. i've started wondering what car will be my next one, and gas mileage is now a very important factor, but right now, i'm wondering if the bulk of my soon to be gone car payments wouldn't be better off actually making new car payments on a car that might actually SAVE me money by being more fuel efficient than my current car is. i'm really beginning to wonder. esp as the explorer doesn't have quite the enjoyment factor that i had with the cherokee. (it's nice, but i really really do miss not having a standard transmission. plus, the jeep was the first car i owned, title and all. or lock, stock and rusting bolts as i referred to it.)

RB seems to like his little Matrix. maybe that isn't such a bad idea afterall. it does have trunk space. and i think i can get it with a standard transmission...yup.

and as a related aside, i've mentioned my watching Motorweek on sunday mornings. lately i've noticed the trend to describe the average mileage of their long term test cars to be 'good' at an average of 20-21 miles/gallon.

uhhhh...THAT'S PRETTY CRAPPY! esp for some of the sedans and cars they are testing. i tend to average 19/20 (better on longer trips) and i'm driving a big honking car (the jeep fared better than this, usually 22/24). i have a hard time believing that 20/21MPG is 'good'. i may consider it good for my car, but i really do think that a car that is smaller and lighter than mine should do better in the mileage department. and this is seems to be a trend with all car makers, both american and overseas (including japan).

well, i'm going to get off my soapbox now. need to start prepping dinner stuff so M&i can have a lovely dinner.

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*PING*

Overhead the albatros hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant tide
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine
And no one showed us to the land
And no one knows the wheres or whys
And something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb towards the light

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
and lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can
And no one calls us to move on
and no one forces down our eyes
and no one speaks
And no one tries and no one flies around the sun

Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Comes streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning
And no one sings me lullabies
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the skies

words/music by Pink Floyd

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hey pig

hey pig piggy pig pig pig

yeah you

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it's always laundry day...

that's what i did this morning and for the first time since moving here, i actually had to wait for the big washers. usually, if i get there by 830am, i'll have the pick of them but today, they were all taken. most distressing. and to add to that, it seems as tho 1/2 of the normal top load washers were out of service, so i had to search for one. but i found 3 in a row i could use, so dropped my basket in queue and loaded the 3 top loads w/sheets, towells and part of my normal laundry. then i was able to shove the rest into the jumbo washer, but it certainly threw my normal laundry routine off. oh well. at least it's all done and i'm back home.

while there, i saw a guy who reminded me of someone i went to college with. only older. phyically, he really did have a very striking resemblance to RH. similar body structure, hair, poor eyesight. talk about random. he apparently just moved to the area as he told someone on the phone that he his phone line will be installed on tuesday.

i also ran into DA at the supermarket (right around the corner from the laundromat). i kidded him about being there in the morning. when we talked a while ago and found out that we live in the same town, he said that he usually went shopping sunday afternoons, so we chatted for a few mins while we paid for stuff.

then when i got back, i chatted with my landlord about the windows and some of the construction he has planned. things for the windows should be finalized monday night, but it's around the 20th that things will start. no more than a day or two he figures. he's also going to take out the concrete stoop that me and crazy neighbor lady use to get in and out. replace them with wood and i asked about the possibility of extending it either back or out to the driveway. after giving it some thought, he realized that bringing it out to the driveway might be a good idea. bringing it back brings it close to their bedroom, so that wasn't such a good idea. but i may need to use the back stairs to get in and out for a few days while he works on the side. he figures he can get it ripped out in 2 days, i'm gonna guess it will take a little longer than that.

some time ago, M & i discussed how it would be really nice to have a small deck off my kitchen. put in some sliding doors, a small deck, we loved the idea. turns out my landlords loved the idea too. only problem is the way the house is situated on the lot. crooked. apparently, he can't put anything on the front of the house as it is within 20' of the street. he can't put anything on the side of the house because it's within 15'. and these are the stupid town rules. so i can't have a deck because the corner of the deck would be 12' away from the street, and keeping it the required 15' away from the street would apparently make it an awkward shape and not really worth doing. HOWEVER, there is some light. the other idea that he had is to put a small deck on the driveway side of the house, which would be very cool. the only problem with it is that it would be a little too much to take on right now.

taking the concrete stoops out (both front of the house and side) and replacing every window in the house is a bit much. the biggest hold up has been the town. much of what he's wanted to do has been caught up in making sure that everything fits within the town rules.

fucking town rules. i can sympathsize as my rens dealt with similar things when they were doing some work on their house. you can do this. you can't do that. don't even think about doing this. you are fucking nuts if you want to do that.

note to self, when buying a house, make sure that i know where the property lines are and how far i can extend things if i want to.

oh well.

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HA!

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every once in a while

i'll run across something in the paper that i look at and think to myself "that's how i would have answered the question"

from sunday's globe (automotive section):

Q. Due to chronic back problems, I purchased a Buick Century four years ago for its expansive and comfy bench driver's seat. I was able to drive cross-country both ways in complete comfort. They're not selling the Century anymore. What can I do?

A. Justing by my e-mail, lots of readres long for the days of the bench. I can come up with three vehicles (pickup truckes excluded), all in 2005 or 2006 models: Buick LaCrosse, Ford Crown Victoria, and Mercury Marquis. Me, I'd go for the Crown Vic. Get it in black. Put on custom baby moon hubcaps. Add a whip antenna. Then watch the sea of highway traffic part before me as though I were Officer Moses on highway patrol.

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