Trent the Uncatchable

Checking in

I went to Peter Pan, Part 2, which was pretty darned cool. I'll write a review of it in time. On Friday I built a new bookcase, which I'll need to rebuild 'cause I made a mistake but it works for now. And I saw The Avengers, which was awesome. On Saturday I went to a fighting thing (there were ten of us in armor, one of whom just fought a couple pickups, and the rest of us alternately sparred and ran melees), then met up with Laura and Ben - Laura was returning from her conference in Michigan, Ben from Halifax - at Mars Cheese Castle and brought them home. Sunday we rested.

I've worked late every night this week, and I'm sort of fried. I also went to Curia on Tuesday. Tonight is fighter's practice. We haven't discussed plans for the weekend yet - options include

There's a buzzing in my ears. I hate that.

End of line.

Gah.

Gah. Too much to remember.

Right. Friday night we went back to the car place and bought the Jetta. It's a nice car, it's got some bells and/or whistles, and Laura really likes it. I got to drive it last night (for the first time) and enjoyed it too, but I don't forsee that I'll spend a lot of time behind the wheel. Still and all, go team us!

Saturday I slept in, then ran errands for a good part of the day. Took the spare Ford keys back to the VW place and handed them over, did a final pass through the car, clicked the gear shift lever a couple times as farewell. Took the mower in (again), and was informed that my current problem *might* be carboretuer, might be a fan thing, but was most likely vapor lock. (The other mechanic there said 'Never heard of vapor lock on this model...') He demonstrated how to clear the vapor lock, a process which requires an acrobat or a couple people. And I took it home to mow. I did some of the front lawn, then the mower died. Tried doing the vapor lock trick and did a little more, tried doing the vapor lock again and did a little more, and so on until the vapor lock thing didn't work anymore. I did the last third of the lawn using the old-fashioned lawnmower (a push mower, no gas involved). Which cuts grass, but jams on twigs and for some reason ignores dandelions.

Sunday I rebuilt three swords and did some armor repair. Watched some tv, watched the rain. Laura and I ran around in DDO for awhile. And Monday night was more DDO.

Tuesday was the Stritch demo. Everyone set up in 'the quad', which is visible from all over the classroom side of things but had little to no foot traffic. The heavens opened around 7:15, just as the six fighters pulled on their helmets and started hitting each other. We all ran inside and finished in the normal practice space, damp and tired. I went home and unpacked everything into the garage, and hopefully nothing's too rusty or moldy.

Last night I dropped Laura off at the Kenosha Starbucks, where we met up with a group of medievalists headed to Kalamazoo for the International Congress on Medieval Studies. They'll be back Saturday night. Home for me by way of some shopping, and I had a nice sausage pizza while I caught up on recorded tv. I was going to go watch The Avengers but mis-timed it and had to be back to do some server work, so that will have to wait. And it was late work, too.

Tonight is opening night of Dream Theatre Company's Peter Pan's Shadow Part 2: Everland, and I figured I might as well go. (I'll go again with Laura and maybe others, but I really wanted to see this one twice if I could.) Tomorrow night I'll probably go see The Avengers. Saturday is a fighter's practice and Ben flies in to O'Hare around 5:30; Laura and the medievalists will swing through to pick him up. And Sunday we have no plans.

Right. Must eat. End of line.

Cars and So On

The time has come for us to consider replacing our Ford Focus, for various reasons that I'm not going to go into. It's paid off, or very nearly, and it's in pretty good shape. But that's important background for the rest of this post.

Tuesday night we had a lovely dinner at Little Cancun, then dropped off the car. Since we were there we spent a few hours poking around the Don Jacobs lot. Laura nixed the Scion IQ and the Toyota Yaris, the two small cars they had on the lot. We looked at some used cars and took an 09 Beetle out for a spin, and Laura liked that one. We decided we'd think about it and come back, since we had to come back to get the Prius anyway.

Wednesday the Toyota guys told us that we needed a new catalytic converter and other stuff, and they could have the car done on Thursday. So we stayed home and talked about cars, then played some DDO.

Thursday I took the shuttle to the dealer and got the Prius back, then went home and picked up Laura. We went out for dinner and then visited the VW dealer, where Laura predicted that she would fall in love with a Jetta and it'd all be over. We decided that we couldn't just get a Jetta without also looking at Ford, partly because we expected a better trade-in from Ford, partly because of the price of a Focus vs. a Jetta, and partly because it's just not fair to make up your mind about a car based on how it used to make you feel. (One. How it used to make one feel. Or something like that.) Anyway, we looked at their range of used cars and test-drove a couple Jettas. The dealers could tell that we were struggling and offered to let us take one of them home overnight. And so we did.

So, Laura's just called. She's been tooling around all afternoon in the Jetta, and is *almost* sure. We have more discussions to have. And so on.

This weekend is the Metal Moot and a fighter's practice in Stevens Point. I need to kill some dandelions and do other yardworky things. And so on, like that. I expect that we'll have a different car by the end of the weekend, just in time for Ben to come home. (Which happens next weekend, by the way.)

So, right. Time to go home, and end of line.

Then the weekend happened

Saturday I ran some errands - dropped some stuff off to be delivered to DTC, visited Half Price Books in Northbrook - and then went to the Moot. The five of us with armor fought, and I think I took third. (Jean and Murdoch were first and second, Ambrose and Fiona took fourth and fifth or possibly fifth and fourth.) I stuck around for feast and court, and was called up to receive a map case (marking me as a member of the Castle's Commanders, an award I received in December) and then again to be thanked for my work taking notes at Curia for the last few years. As I already have all of the Barony's service awards, and to riff on a running theme, I received a jar of Awesomesauce. (I'm waiting for pictures.) Then I helped clean up and went home to my wife, and we watched some tv until bedtime. Sunday I did more errands and chores and finished up some tv series and mostly relaxed. And hey presto, there's the weekend.

Last night I helped the Marquette students take their armor back to the storage room in the Physics building, which was an interesting challenge - four fighters' worth of stuff has migrated into the back room of the practice space, which is generally unsecured, and then sort of exploded. I provided them with some rubbermaid tubs into which they sorted the individuals' gear (though I miscounted and only had three for four fighters), and they packed it all up; I then drove it all back to the Physics building for them. Though I drew the line at carrying the loads down the stairs. Then back to fighting, where I joined Magnus, Murdoch, Corydon, Akira, Randall, Jean, Ambrose, and Grimm already in progress. After fighting I went home while the rest of the horde closed out Sobelman's, and we chatted with Ginger for awhile before bed.

Tonight we're taking the Prius to the shop. Tomorrow night we're probably picking it up again. Thursday and Friday we have nothing planned. Saturday is, in no particular order, Free Comic Book Day, the Metal Moot, and Eastern Regional Fighter's Practice. (Three hours away, 'cause I'm going to look this up later, and site opens at noon, so it's daytrippable.)

Right. Time to take the car in. End of line.

With Great Caffeine Comes Great Responsibility

Last night I went home after work and then turned around and came back. Stayed until about 4:15, then went home for a couple hours of sleep. Now I'm back at the office, treading the carefully caffeinated balance between jibbering incoherently and catatonia. Which is also the balance between nail-in-the-skull headache and the inability to focus on anything long enough to complete a sentence.

I recall that after the last all-nighter I declared that I was getting too old for this. I'm not sure the nap helped.

To top it off, the 'check engine' light came on as I drove home last night. I called this morning and set up an appointment for next week, which is soon as they can get me in. It's also time for the oil to change. Like the times. Which are, you know, a-changin'.

Otherwise, tonight will likely consist of me going to bed earlyish. (Stupid head, though - if I get too much sleep I'll wake up with a migraine. If I don't get enough sleep I'll develop a migraine over the next week or so.) Tomorrow is Spring Court, whose details are a little vague. And that's all we have planned, as far as I know.

Right. I should get some lunch. Today is Nacho Typical Friday, apparently. Or maybe that's the sleep deprivation talking.

End of line.

Daisy Smash

Last night we gamed. Then we forced our guests to watch the first couple episodes of Corner Gas and kicked them out. My favorite line from the game was when Laura described Daisy (the Barbarian with a low intelligence) and her experience with alcohol: Daisy smashed.

Tonight I'm going home, dropping off the lawnmower, and coming back to work for a little while. Tomorrow we have nothing planned. Saturday is Spring Court. And that's as far as my brain goes.

I've left a message with Ross Land Care to talk about the lawn, and we'll see how that goes. And I bet there's more, but my brains are running out of my ears.

Right. End of line.