mr. fixit strikes again

Slept in. Rest of the weary, though I did spend a few hours lying awake thinking about stuff.

Baby is on it's way...tomorrow morning. 

Today I helped Dad change the brakes on my car! We did the rear and front. Not worn to the bone, but in need of a change. 260k miles on the original pads! I helped hold the new pads on, and held the light. Dad did the hard labor. But I'm happy to learn more skills, or to observe the skills. Too bad repairing requires so many tools.

I got the news that the baby would be coming tomorrow, so I chilled at home. Movie night at Celia's was Hellboy on Netflix, because we couldn't get St. Trinian's 2 to play.

I'm trying to do better about flossing my teeth. They no longer bleed when I floss, so that's good.

gal and val

Ahhh! I meant to blog before I left on Saturday, but I forgot. So here is a three day post!

Friday!

Did some work, then met Karen in Bremerton to celebrate Galentine's Day. Mom, you didn't tell me that you ran into Karen on the Ferry! Or rather as of this blog entry, you haven't texted to tell me you say Karen.

First I swung by Comics Keep in Bremerton to procure the first issue of Help Us! Great Warrior, by Madeleine Flores and colored by Trillian Gunn. Gotta support cool people making comics! And I also got the first volume of Sex Criminals (not exactly what it sounds like) and some Lumberjanes issues. And I started up my box again (I had a comic subscription box here before I left Washington for Portland, pre-blog era) to make sure I got more HU!GW and Lumberjanes, and whatever else I want on order. Dana, the shop owner, remembered me. How nice!

Then I met Karen for sushi and chat. I adore her, she's so great. Her company is always wonderful, and having a friend who has seen you go through stuff, and you've seen them grow. Such a good thing.

Together we saw Inherent Vice...and I kinda wished we'd seen Jupiter Ascending instead. IV was just... unneeded. The filming was good, the shots were excellent, casting on point and all that but the plot was unintelligible! Like it would just go on and on and on and we were both looking at each other going "this is really weird, what is happening I'm so lost..." yeah. Nice to look at but uhhhg nah.

We parted ways and I went to Trader Joe's and got food and I noticed my tire was looking a little low, so I topped it off before heading back home.

Saturday!

I made an appointment at Walmart to get my tire fixed (it was leaking, but not at an undriveable rate). Did some laundry. Got all gussied up and left with plenty of daylight to see Aaron for Valentine's Day. Daylight so that we could walk Banjo. And it's nice to spend time with a fella that you like. We walked Banjo down to the beach and the tide was low and clams were spurting water.

On the return, we made a calzone for dinner! It was mozzarella and goat cheese and prosciutto. I picked up the supplies at TJ's based on a recipe I found. Can't let Aaron do all the cooking, though he is very good at it. It was a tasty meal, but could have used some more flair. We watched a movie and I stayed over.

Breakfast was a drive up to Kingston, too long a wait at the brunch place, and a short walk to the crepe place and then crepes! We (sans Banjo) walked down to the dock and looked at the boats.

I left relatively early to make my appointment at Walmart. Got my tire fixed no problem. Picked up some discounted candy and went home. OH! I also got some fudge in Kingston.

I managed to catch Darrah during her visit with Celia. She and Jill hosted me over in Massachusetts way back when. After a property walk around, we got into the fudge and chatted. Now Darrah is flying back to Boston and I'm up late after doing some work and I'm tired so time to hit the hay!

One more flat tire, and the hazard insurance has fully paid for itself ($10/tire for four tires and three repairs).

struttin' my stuff, torqueing that wrench

Monday:

Got up at a somewhat decent hour and had a muffin and Dad arrived at 11 for car stuff. I put on long johns under my work clothes. The heat of the heated garage quickly vanished with the garage doors open. The time had come to replace the struts on my car! The tires were removed fairly easily, as were the windshield wipers and the bolts of all sizes and out came the old worn struts and boy were they filthy! I have a very dirty wheel well. Hundreds of thousands of miles crusted on there. But once the struts were off it became evident that we needed another part: the cover for the piston thingy. The protective cover. We ordered it in at Napa (they said it would arrive at the Silverdale store at 4:30) and got as much other stuff done as possible. At 2:30ish we went to the Geoduck Tavern. I had the fish and chips basket, dad had the burger. Then we drove in to Silverdale and...the part wasn't there! It didn't make it onto the delivery truck in time! Dang! All that way, for what? We returned (in the van, not my car, my car only had two wheels at this time) to Seabeck and I had some tea and grabbed a few things, and then returned home in the van.

Tuesday:

Slept in a bit. Had udon and egg for breakfast. Ma & Pa showed up at around 1 to resume car stuff (Mom tagged along so that she could drive home and Dad would take my car, so that I wouldn't have to drive out and pick him up and rendezvous and come right back here and whatever). They brought my presents! Ma relaxed in front of the fire while we worked. And uhg what work! The spring needed to be compressed more, and then redone because the rubber at the base was crooked, and just the amount of force to compress the spring so that the bolt would lock into the thingy! So much work! It took many tries to get the first one all screwed together and oriented right, but we got it! The second went together in a couple tries, and boom it was back on the car and my car was rolling again! All it needs now is the alignment checked and corrected.

We took a break for turkey burgers for lunch. I opened my presents! Lots of sweets and plaid pajamas (that I am wearing right now) and Elsa Lanchester's book, and a Mignola book, and a Tamaki comicm, and socks and even MORE SWEETS! Yesss! And we took another break to eat the cake they brought over. Boston Creme Pie! Very delicious. Ma left after the cake. Dad left at around 9ish. Hopefully tomorrow we get to swap our cars. I ate some pasta for dinner, had some candy, watched some television.

And it's past midnight so now I'm 27! How 'bout that?

car repair extraordinare

I need to buy some more cadburry creme eggs. And regular eggs.

Saturday:

Drove in to Silverdale to meet Dad at Meinecke so that they could inspect the alignment on my wheels. Wanted Dad there so that he could properly make sense of what they were saying about my wheels and whatnot. I don't trust car dudes to treat me with respect. Nor do I trust myself to remember all that there is to ask about my car.

In the time waiting for my car we went to Elendil and checked out how it was. It's looking nice! Can't wait for summer to toll around so that I can boat it up.

Picked up my car and we decided to install the new struts ourselves and then get the alignment done. It'll save us ~$400 and I'll get to learn something about car repair, and Dad will drive it in to the shop to have the alignment done so if the tires fall off on the way there, I won't be the one to die! Hurray!

After the car we went to Hakata. I had katsudon and Dad had udon and we shared a crunchy roll. Good sushi there! At least Silverdale has good sushi restaurants. It may not have much, but it has that. We checked out the hobby shop and I snapped a pic of the "graphic arts" merit badge at the scout store, so that I could post it and declare that Mel had more than earned one for herself. I drove back home, knowing that if I went to Trader Joe's I would splurge on food I don't need immediately.

Then I settled in for television and not much else.

Sunday:

Slept way in, in my blanket cocoon. The power went out during the night, but it came back on before I was even up. Had a scramble and later on went over to Celia's for a dinner of rice and stew and TV (an episode each of Fleming and Top of the Lake, and three episodes of Parks and Recreation). Dad is coming up tomorrow to do the car stuff!

So here is hoping that goes well.

out of Cali to Pulali

And once again I am several days behind because I've gotten lazy!

Job status:

Still unemployed, but I called to say "hey?" and they said they are still interviewing and they'll get back to me early next week.

Packing:

Dad and I got breakfast at 9ish in the hotel. I had the quick pancakes, tea, a cinnamon bun, an egg, and bacon. It was good we got a full rest in before the day and night and days efforts that would occur. We checked out, went to the Uhaul and got the 5x8, and got out of Target with snacks and string at 11:15ish. At the storage unit, the mattress was hauled into the trailer at 11:26am and five more trips up and down later, it was all in the van and trailer! There was room to spare, but it couldn't get too heavy and stuff was packed juuuust right. And at 1:15pmish we headed north to Pulali!

Driving:

Dad did all the driving up, as I'm not currently equipped to drive a towed thing. But I did my best to stay awake and keep him company and rotate out music and podcasts and conversation. I treated him to some snickers and In-N-Out, as it was his birthday! And he was spending it with me! And he even got to fix something when the bolt was rattled off the front passenger's side brake caliper. Just across the border it started humming and thankfully we were close to a rest stop, and the car was driveable and we didn't have to stop on the highway. Dad took the other bolt and moved it to the top, so that we couldn't properly brake in reverse but we could get to a place where we could get a replacement bolt. So good to have a mister fix it for a father, because that could have been damn bad! 9:20pm and a messed up brake? Miles from anywhere (well Ashland was the next city, still).

We drove on into the night and at 1am I made Dad pull into a rest stop for a nap. I used my alpaca as a pillow, like the good old days when I had a stuffed cat plush for a pillow.

I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT CAT.

And we drove on into the sunrise and scooted around Portland and got McDonald's in Olympia and a new bolt for the caliper and got to Pulali in under 24 hours since leaving Santa Cruz. I unloaded my stuff into the garage, pulled a few shirts and jackets for Seabeck use, put some mugs into the main house, and made tea for Dad and I. All locked up, we went to Silverdale and dropped off the Uhaul then Poulsbo to check out some marine stuff and candy. Then back to Seabeck to see mom and get some tasty chicken soup!

And then an early to bed night for us weary travelers.

Wednesday:

Called to see about job status. Slept in. Took it easy. Mom and Dad ran some errands. What else happened? Uhhmmmn. Did I help with something? I feel like I helped with a chore or task or... I dunno.

Thursday:

Helped Dad check the brakes on my car. Took off the wheels, did the measurements, all was well. I torqued the nuts on the wheels myself getting them back on. Felt pretty good about my skills at that skill. It's good to know how to take off your cars tire. Lunch was sandwiches. I felt really tired in the middle of the day. Almost took a nap, but didn't. Picked up delicious Seabeck Pizza for dinner. Mom made smoothies in the fancy smoothie thingy that Nathan got them for Christmas.

I took the Meyrs-Briggs test, and I came up as an ESFP. I'm pretty happy with that analysis. So I'm an ESFP, Ravenclaw, Aquarius...and some other stuff.

south into the bayou

5/20/2014 10:15pm a rest stop right after Boonville, Missouri

I’ve finally figured out the best way to sleep in my car: I drape a pillow over the arm rest and drape my legs over that, so my feet are on the passenger’s seat. Then I have a pillow against the driver’s side door, so I am sleeping sorta sitting up, but it’s also slightly reclined. And the eye mask is wonderful. So I’m sitting like that right now at the rest stop. Hopefully I can get a good night sleep and not be bugged by a squirrel in my car. No sign of him, but it wasn’t a big rodent. Tomorrow I’ll drive into Columbia and get my oil changed. Then I’ll figure out what I want to do in Missouri. St. Louis? Mark Twain National Forest camping? There are options. I could do with some more camping. Two days in some state park that hopefully has a shower…

Anyway! Kansas City! Is a pretty cool city. It has a lot going on in lots of different areas, and woah is it warm. Also: heads up if you are visiting, lots of things are closed on Monday. And Tuesday. The main museum was closed today, but not the contemporary art museum. The Kemper. Kempler. The… that one. It had hammocks outside, and I took a late afternoon nap in one. Not a long nap, thankfully. I wasn’t burned. Interesting art installation to have: hammocks. I say more museums should have them. It’s a good feature. The museum had free admission, which was nice. Not a big museum. I saw some great Thiebaud etchings. I really liked Paula Rego’s Recreation. I found it odd that one of their pieces, the medium was described as “silkscreen ink”. Uhm… There are many kinds of ink that go through screens. Which one is it? Acrylic? Feh.

There was a Jamie Wyeth painting with a whole bunch of whale bones. Interesting bit of repetition in this trip, as there were actual whale bones at the last museum I visited.

My first stop in Kansas City wasn’t the museum, but Hammerpress. The letterpress studio where Karen interned years ago. I didn’t name drop her, I just procured a few cards and looked at all the nice letterpress stuff they had. The guy working the shop recommended I go to “Little Freshie” for a snow cone, which I did! I got the pear green tea cone and it was delicious. I ate it and read a bit of the Hockney biography. I wandered around that area for a bit, then drove on to the museums. I was suspicious of how easy it was to find parking wherever I went. Suspicious in that “can I really park here for free for under 3 hours?” way or the “is this actually a permit area and I’m going to get a ticket?” way or the “is this really a parking lane or are the other cars on the street delusional?” way. But no tickets!

After the museum (and hammock nap) I went to YJ’s Snackbar, at Karen’s suggestion. The dinner special was an hour and a half away, so I got an iced coffee and let my brain solidify after being melted in the heat. I read, I drew, I talked to one of the fellas in the café. It was a great hole in the wall, three tables inside with lots of flotsam on the wall type place. Very charming. The dinner special was a soul food plate: pork, muffin, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, collared greens I think, rice with sausage. It was the perfect size to consume as well, and I gobbled it up! So good! I highly recommend YJ’s if you are ever in Kansas City.

Once my tummy settled, I hit the road. I opted to continue east on 70, as I was unsure if I wanted to go to St Louis or head down, but both would be options. And Columbia is a major intersection on the Interstates so I’ll figure it all out tomorrow. Once I get my oil changed.

And I should probably wash the bugs off the front of my car. There is starting to be a build up…

5/22/2014 Table Rock State Park, Missouri

Oh man, that night after writing that blog post! What a show. So that mouse (not a squirrel) was STILL IN MY CAR! It started scurrying about at 11 pm. I set out a bag with some candy in it, hoping it would go in the bag and I could snatch the bag and take it outside and release it far, far away from my car. But it didn’t take the bait. It continued scurrying about. I tried to lunge for it with a towel when it was on my dashboard, but no luck. Then I remembered: Walmart. Most are always open, and when I googled it, there was one 8 minutes away! So at 2:30am, I entered in my jammies, looking frazzled and tired and headed for the kill aisle. Traps! Poison! Hurray! I got some snap traps and set them with peanut butter and set them under my seat and on the dash board. And I waited… and the mouse didn’t go for them! I added some Ritz to the traps and set them both in the back, and the mouse did go for it! And I sat in my seat, still and eagerly awaiting the sound of the snap. But it never came. The mouse wasn’t setting off the traps! It just got the snack and … didn’t die! So I returned to Walmart and bought glue traps, because if it was too small to set off a trap, it should be small enough to get stuck in glue. When I returned to my car, the mouse was on my dash and quickly vanished into the steering column!! If it nibbled some wires that I need, I’m going to be so pissed (and hopefully not in a car accident). So I set a trap on the dash, two in the back, and one on the floor. The sun was starting to come up at this point, but I did get some sleep. And I was woken by the sounds of struggle from the floor glue trap. There it was! Caught! I grabbed a bag and quickly put the trap & mouse in the bag and poured out my water bottle into the bag, drowning the mouse and putting it out of its misery. I know there is a way to release a mouse from a glue trap using vegetable oil, but I didn’t want to buy yet another thing and at the end of the day: it was vermin. It wasn’t a lost animal that found its way into my car. It was a pest, it was getting into my dashboard, it would just find somewhere else to scavenge. It wouldn’t go “into the wild”. So I don’t feel bad about killing it.

At 7:30ish I wandered back into Walmart, changed, got a victory doughnut, and drove to Jiffy Lube. I got my oil changed and the Jiffy Lube manager told me that Table Rock State Park is a great park, so that is where I went! Though it was slow going. I had to stop and rest my eyes pretty often. Never got a full nap, but little bits here and there. It’s rough driving on just a few hours of sleep. And I wasn’t about to pump myself full of caffeine for, what, 4 hours of driving? I could take my time. And even taking my time, I still arrived with plenty of daylight.

Branson, Missouri is an interesting town to drive through. All the attractions seem to be family oriented, and run by families. Lots of team shows. Like a PG Vegas, but with no one I’ve ever heard of. I got a chocolate crème pie at a 50s diner and that was a nice cool treat. I drank a bunch of ice water too. Hydration is important! It was a short drive to the park, and there I got a site, returned to Branson and got a 5 dollar Subway footlong for dinner and breakfast, and got back to my site. Set up my tent. Had a lengthy, cherished shower, and then ate half my sandwich, worked on my scrap book and journal, then went to sleep right as the sun went down.

And oh did I sleep. It was warm, not windy or rainy, and just all around wonderful. I woke up 7ish and then just let myself nod back asleep. I’ll take my sleep when I can get it.

I showered once again in the morning, and had the other half of my sandwich. I think I’ll go find another State Park in Missouri, camp there, and then go down into Arkansas tomorrow. But first I need to restock my food: bread, PB&J, apples, carrots. Need em! This isn’t a big state, so it’ll probably be only (only!) 3 hours of driving.

3-4 hours: easy no problem, 4-6: oi this’ll take a while, 6+: well, I’ll just plan a day to drive towards there and find a rest stop.

5/25/2014 Suds n Stuff Laundry, Alexandria, Louisiana

Oops haven’t updated my blog in a while! I’m doing my laundry. I was running low on clean clothes, and due to how much I’ve been sweating I’m not about to rewear worn clothes. So I’m washing my clothes. I slept at a rest stop on I-20, and at just about 6 I set Alexandria into my GPS. But my GPS halted and I missed my exit, so I ended up taking much longer, but it was a beautiful scenic route. Just small roads winding through small towns with fluffy trees that I wish I could identify, and crops, and fields, and just beautiful scenery. Even a few herons. It was a great drive that reminded me of those accordion picturescapes, the way the trees came up in batches.

So I guess I left off at Table Rock. I got out of the campsite at the last minute allowed. I checked out the visitor’s center for the dam, and then decided that Lake Wappapello sounded great for camping. Catchy name. It was a nice drive across Missouri. It’s another surprisingly scenic state, but I guess being near the river creates for some lush landscapes. It isn’t dry like Texas and Kansas. It got dark. And then there was a lightning storm to my left. But that wasn’t wear I was going. It was just flashes far in the distance. I ended up pulling into a shop on the side of the road to ask them to show where I was on the map (GPS wasn’t getting satellite connectivity for whatever reason). Bless the shops that exist on roads that are not all the time traveled. The benefit of Interstates is the ubiquity of the same 5 shops, but they do become dull commonly tread vistas. I’ve been seeing lots of nice small towns, but more husks of towns with caved in buildings.

Anyway, I got into Lake Wappapello late at night, and got a spot for the night. The sounds of nature were so loud! Just insects going at it, and toads too probably. It was marshy and I swore to get some bug spray as soon as possible. No bug bites on this gal!

Noise aside, I did have a good rest. I got up early though, because in Missouri there is no self pay. Gotta pay the camp person. I like the self pay, because then you just put up a little ticket and people know you paid. Without it, there is the worry of some person bugging you to pay or maybe a fine for failure to pay! But just gotta play it camp by camp.

Wappapello was a boating lake, not really a swimming one. I prefer swimming. But I also like salt water. Fresh water lacks … substance.

Anyhoo. After Wappapello I went south on 67 towards Arkansas, and crossed the border in no time. My accent now absolutely singles me out.  67 goes diagonally down through Little Rock, then I swerved off to Hot Springs. No camping available at the nearest campground to the park, and the Hot Springs National Park is urban, not so much a park park. So it was in the downtown of the town of Hot Springs, and it was more buildings to visit than landscapes. I like the landscape parks. I decided to try Lake Ouachita State Park before deciding to sleep in my car, and there was a spot for the night! Spot 69, which was my spot at Wappapello as well. The tent site had a nice little platform, and it was in the woods. Really lovely park. I didn’t get one of the lakeview sites, but that’s okay. I came in at just under 13 minutes for tent set up. There was still plenty of daylight, so I went for a swim at one of the swimming spots. It was nice to get a bit of exercise after so much driving and driving.

I had a PB&J and showered and sat in my tent and read and had an early night sleep.

And an early morning due to my tire being flat! Someone left a note on my windshield, and also informed me when I crawled out of my tent in the morning. It was a full on obvious flat, so I doubt I would have missed it. But my camp neighbors came to my rescue! Thomas and William had my car jacked up and the spare tire on in less time than it took to unload my truck to get at the spare. I had rolled over a nail, which was thoroughly imbedded in the tire. Thankfully I bought road hazard insurance at Wal Mart! So all I had to do was drive to the nearest one and get it fixed for free. But seriously, William and Thomas (and Thomas’s daughter Alyssa who tended to the daddy long legs) were just great. How awesome to have helpful people like that around.

The Wal Mart was only 30 minutes away, by way of slower streets, and I got it repaired with nary a hitch, and then I was back up to Ouachita. I got my site packed up (blessedly, there was a 3pm check out) and I went down to Hot Springs. I got my journal stamped and did a little self tour of one of the historic bath houses, but to get an actual bath was thirty bucks! I’m not paying that to just get a bit of a soak. It was free at Big Bend! And that had better scenery.

I drove up to the Mountain Tower vista, then plugged in Monroe, Louisiana into my GPS and headed off. I crossed the border when there was still daylight. It was dark when I procured my bug repellant in Monroe, and 10 when I got to the rest stop. The weather is muggy, but not as hot, but muggy makes any heat worse.

So now it looks like my laundry has finished rolling in the dryer. Going to give it a feel. Might put in a few more quarters. One guy, Terry, commented that I look from out of town based on how I dress. If only he knew I never dress like I belonged anywhere. Haha.

5/25/2014 6:30 pm New Orleans, Louisiana

Got my laundry folded and filled up my tank and zoom I was outta there! I took the scenic route down 90, and it was lovely and scenic and warm. I treated my car to a car wash because it was getting a bit … dirty on the outside. And bug splattery. I finally, after 50+ dead ones on the road, saw a living walking armadillo! It was super cute. Hopefully it isn’t dead by the time I’m writing them. They don’t seem to have good odds.

Nothing too amazing happened on my way to New Orleans. Traffic only got dense when I was a minute from the hotel (which Dad cashed in some points for, thank you! I’ll enjoy having a bed and being able to walk around the French Quarter!). I checked in at 4:30ish. Unpacked way too much stuff from my car, but it would take longer to sort out 2 days worth of stuff than it would to just take half the stuff out of my car and lug it up. So my car is in valet, and I have two nights in New Orleans. I better get on that! I’m showered and ready to go. Garth recommended a place for po’boys, so I think that is dinner for me sorted. See you on the flip side!

a man, a plan, and no coyote corpses to show for his effort

WHooo!! What a day! Energy was high and lots of changes were made. Good changes! And the print came out pretty good. Finally done with that job! Lots of exclamation marks in this post!!

It ended up being a shorter day, though Jeff had arrived early so it was a full day for him.

I started Ruby in the Smoke, but as it is a shorter audiobook I'll probably be onto another one in no time at all. Yay audiobooks!

I called Toyota about my seat belt. Now I have to find a Toyota dealer and get an estimate about parts/repairs and compare that to DIY.

Zappos had Roos on sale, so I bought another pair but this time in purple! Now I'll have three good pairs of work shoes!

car parts

Boss and I managed to get the seat belt retractor out of the side of the car. I was mighty in strength as I pulled off the side panel to expose it. Haha. But there were a buncha warning signs about contents being under pressure and stuff, so neither of us wanted to undo the thing further....so it was agreed that the best course of action would be to order the part and replace it. The adventure continues!

Today was a clean up day. I listened Locke Lamora, a book I'm becoming less interested in as it goes on (just isn't as dynamic as I would have hoped). I cleaned allll the used squeegees and floodbars. I cleaned alllll the screens. I reclaimed 9 screens and coated them at the end of the day. It's good to get on top of things like that, because they can pile up. Oh! I also used a staple gun to put up some banner scraps to block off the cleaning tank from splashing on the clean stuff to the left of the tank. Yay staple guns!

Was an early day. Spent some time cuddling with Joey on my bed. Talked to Ma and Pa.

We've got some big printing to do in the next couple days. Let's do this!

vampires, zombies, nords, Oh my!

I made tacos! Delicious tacos! I should have bought eggs, so that I could make a scramble, but I feel they might go to waste because Nathan isn't around to cook that often.

I got my car back today! Dad did some sweet talk and got the cost of repairs down. The shop probably thought they could pull a fast one because I'm a gentle lady, but they weren't prepared for my papa! The car runs super better. A lot more was wrong with it than just the loss of power. Now it doesn't rattle and rev when it is idling at stop lights and such. Sounds very much less like it is having a fit, in fact it doesn't seem like it is having one at all. Go car!

Listening to The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (part two in this vampire book trilogy) and Skyrimed it up. Probably my last night playing Skyrim. Waaah, sad. Well, I might play it a bit tomorrow before I head out to San Francisco.

Did some shopping. Nate is unable to play his precious Diablo III. He will eventually. He is playing the Day Z Arma II mod in the meantime.

saturrday

Nathan is watching In Bruges on his monitor. Ahhh I love this movie.

I spent the evening drawing. Working on the Quentyn Martell drawing, and a little something something for mother's day. Nathan brought home a burrito after mountain biking. I watched Alien, he played this Zombie mod on a game. It was a good afternoon and evening.

Morning and early afternoon sucked. Took the car in to the shop, bright and early. Didn't seem like I really needed to make an appointment, but it was for the best I think. Better to have it, and have them ready for me. One of the car helpers said "Hey Washington" to me, so I dug that. But yeah, turned in my car and got a shuttle back. Had some orange juice, toast, and other breakfast. Nate went biking. I got the call about how much the repairs will cost, and I emailed Dad the amount. Lots of back and forth and now my car is getting fixed, and I'll get it back on Tuesday or so. Hopefully we'll get another 50k miles out of it without any other major improvements, ya know. Hopefully by the time it kicks the can, I'll be all employed and making bucks and things. That is a good thing to hope for.

So car bummer for the first half of the day, movie fun time and drawing and burrito in the second half. It balances out?

meet & greet

I'm all caught up on dishes! Whoo! Though I broke a small plate. It slid right out of my hand and clattered into the sink and broke. Ah. Oh well.

I played a bit of Skyrim. Doing some roaming and killing of bandits and leveling up and all that fun stuff. I think I'm getting a hang of it.

I also applied for a few more jobs. Yay! My cover letters keep getting better.

At 6:30, I headed to Palo Alto for a meet and greet with Nate's company. Carmen was there as well, as a sound engineer looking to rub elbows. She talked to the CEO, which was neat. I didn't talk to him, but that is okay. I had a couple beers and chatted up Justin, Dean, Other Nate, and other people from the art department. Got advice on portfolios, websites, and those things. It was fun! I high fived Marco. Did lots of chatting.

My car is rattling more, and the check engine and warning lights came on majorly. Tomorrow I'll check all the levels and oils and things, and see if I can figure out whats up. It can't go kapoot now! I need it! For driving!