evilrottenspawn

I haven't posted in ages!  At least I have kind of good reasons.

1. I was on vacation
2. my laptop power adapter died (and summarily killed my battery)
3. I've been busy with things ... important things ... like playing Sims :D

First of all, our vacation was great!  We hit almost all of the national parks in the Four Corners region: Zion, Arches, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, and the Grand Canyon.  Yes, I know, Monument Valley is technically not a national park because it's owned and operated by the Navajo Nation.  So sue me.

I'll post much more detail about that trip soon.

As for my laptop battery, well, I've been using my original external power adapter almost daily since I got my laptop more than 5 years ago.  It's been kind of wacky for about a week or two and it finally bit the dust last week.  Unfortunately, my laptop was on (in standby) when it happened.  So, when the power adapter died my laptop started using the internal battery.  Once that was drained, I was done for.  I ended up having to order one, which arrived today!  That was fast!  It only took about three days.

Now, Sims, that's another story.  The kids pooled their money to buy Sims 3, but have only gotten to play it a little bit because the specs are ridiculously high.  Even with the settings turned all the way down, it bombs out after about 10 minutes.  I can play it on my laptop for about 45 minutes before it goes all BOSD on me.  I've gone back to playing Sims 2 Double Deluxe with the Apartment Life expansion pack.

DON'T JUDGE ME!  That game is fucking addictive as hell.  I just wish I could keep more than two characters alive for entire episode.  One of them always ends up dying.

On another note, I feel like I'm surrounded by fires.  I'm closest to the Azusa Canyon (Morris Fire), but the Oak Glen fire is close enough.  I can see the billowing clouds of smoke from the La Canada Flintridge (Station Fire).  The sky is ... icky: all brown and gold, thick enough to chew.  My allergies are killing my eyes and chest and I've been coughing for the past several days.  According to the news, the smoke is blowing in an easterly direction and has moved as far as Denver.  Sorry, Denver.  Containment isn't looking too good for some of the fires and it sucks that Mt. Wilson and its communication towers are (or were) in jeopardy.

Lastly, the kids (finally) start school on Tuesday!  The boys are all registered--they still don't have a clue where any of their classes are, including their homeroom.  They both opted for band this year (and this should make Penina happy).  They'll both be playing cello.  Originally I said no because I couldn't afford to rent two full-size cellos.  When we went to sign them up, I told the band director that I was going to put one into violin, but the other wanted to play cello and I couldn't swing it so I was trying to convince him to play violin.  She perked up and told me that she had seven cellos in her band room just waiting for players.  Hey, if they're willing to loan them, I'll give them not one, but two budding cellists.  In middle school, band is a minimum one year commitment.  There will be no dropping out.

This was just one of those nothing's going to go right no matter how hard you try kind of days.  I feel a bit overwhelmed.  I'm trying to get vacation plans finalized, keep appointments, deal with Alan's grandfather's funeral preparations, and just life in general.

Alan thinks that I'm just bitching, but I'm a bit frustrated because I'm trying to do all of these other things and it feels like everyone around me is either oblivious to my plans or simply doesn't care.  We leave in just over a week and I haven't had time to finish making reservations yet.  I'm also trying to get both Alan and Dakota to the eye doctor before we go on vacation.  The week after we get back I have to get the boys registered for school, which starts on September 8.  

Time is ticking and there's no slowing it down.

I can only really do things on the weekend--Friday (this week is my Friday off), Saturday, and Sunday, and those days seem to have been reserved for the viewing (Friday), the funeral (Saturday), and a "farewell" dinner (Sunday).  It sounds so cold, I know, but I don't intend it to be.  I'm deeply saddened by Grandpa's death and the funeral is bound to be a painful affair.  But, unfortunately, we do have other things going on in our lives ... it's just finding the few moments to actually do them.

I did attempt to make some hotel reservations today, but our internet connection at work wasn't worth shit for some reason.  The frustration is really starting to get to me.

Mother fucker.  I had half a page written and my computer decided to step back a page just for the fuck of it.  Of course, the autosave draft feature hadn't kicked in yet.


It's not that I've been busy, it's just that I haven't had time to be here or anywhere else.  Between the hotter than the fucking sun heat, the joys of home ownership, familial health issues, trying to plan a real vacation, I simply haven't had time to breathe.

Since there's nothing I can do about the heat but suffer, it does me no good to even talk about.  At least it was only 104 today.  With any luck, it'll start to cool down soon.  We don't have any air conditioning and no plans to buy a unit any time soon.  We're sticking to low lights and fans.

A few weeks ago, my dryer decided to snap it's belt.  Wonderful.  I stopped by the local home improvement warehouse to get a new one, only to find out that it was too small.  I have a heavy duty washer, so the "universal" belt that they sell in the store is too short.  I ended up ordering a "tune-up" kit.  To the tune of $34.  Apparently, the last person to "fix" the dryer forced one of the short belts on to it (unbeknownst to me) and broke the tensioner.  The tune-up kit came with new wheels, clips, tensioner, and the aforementioned belt.  It only took Alan and I about 90 minutes to fix, and voila, we were back in business.  According to the website, we shouldn't need to do anything else to it for another 25 years.  ... Except for replace it with something newer.

Well, about 2-1/2 weeks ago, my daughter decided to wash her stuffed animals.  All of them.  In one load.  You guessed it, she broke my washer.  Son of a bitch!  Again, I have a super heavy duty extra capacity washer.  Nothing standard there.  Dryers are easy.  They don't have lots of moving parts; washers, not so much.  After taking a look at it and being told that the agitator wasn't working.  I did a little research and everything pointed to the motor coupler.  Yeah.  That's the part behind the water pump, behind the motor, and in front of the transmission.  All of that is under the tub, which means taking the whole fucking thing apart.  I figured that I'd replace the hot/cold water mixer while I was at it.  After all, my hot water hasn't been flow for a couple of months and I've had to wash everything in cold water.

Once again, I ordered my parts online. (Kudos to Parts Depot Online.  They rock!)  I got home from work on Thursday--I was off on Friday--and immediately got to work.  The directions said it would take about 2 hours.  I was prepared for that.  I got all of the necessary tools ready and took everything apart; it seemed easy enough and went smoothly.  About 30 minutes in, I had taken everything apart--case, unclamped the water pump, unclamped the motor, and reached the ... perfectly normal motor coupling.  Uh-oh.  If they're not broken, then why does my washer not work?  Okay.  I went ahead and put the new, super heavy duty motor couplings on then, to my great dismay, discovered why they projected that it would take 2 hours.  For the life of me, I couldn't get those mother fucking motor clamps back on to save my life.  I tried for about half an hour and then asked Alan to try.  He tried for about 15 minutes, and FINALLY, the clamps were back on.  Then I finished up with the rest of the clamps and completed the remainder of the assembly.  Whew!  Less than 2 hours ... but damn close.  I swapped out the water mixer, finished the rest of the assembly, and I was ready to start it up and get moving on the 20+ loads of laundry that had begun to pile up.  First thing I checked was the hot water.  Woo hoo!  It worked.  And it flowed very freely.  So far, so good.  I started up a load and .... the agitator still didn't work.  *groan*  That's about the time that I realized that I could lift the top half of the agitator right off.  There didn't seem to be anything hold it in place.  Well, that's odd.  I didn't remember it being like that before.  I took a closer look at it, and then looked at the schematics (yes, I have the schematics, shut up), and I ended up realizing that the reason that my agitator wasn't working was because the whole unit had popped off of the screw that was supposed to be holding it down.  *groan*  I just spent two hours and $20 that I didn't need to.  But, hey, I'll never have to replace those parts again.  Now, my washer works perfectly, and I'm finally caught up with all of my laundry.

I'm proud to say that I did a good 99% of the work all by my lonesome.  I think that's my new job:  fix-it-mom. 

I've been downright exhausted lately.  I just can't seem to muster any energy.  Probably the heat, it's incredibly draining. 

In the bad news, we lost Alan's grandfather this afternoon.  He's been in the hospital for the last couple of weeks suffering from kidney failure.  He'll be sorely missed by all, but I'm grateful for the fact that my children have spent so much time with him.  I don't know a lot of kids that have gotten to spend so much time with their great-grandparents.  The funeral will probably be this weekend.

The other drain on my mental faculties is the whole Planning of the Vacation chore.  Originally, we were going to drive up the coast to see the big trees.  But, if we take the coastal route, it's a 16 hour drive ... with my kids ... arguing the entire time.  Hmmmmmmm ... yeah, that's not sounding so good.  Mix in the fact that the governator is closing state parks, and it's a recipe for disaster.  Then we started to think, or rather, I started to think that my kids have never been out of state.  Hey, let's go to Four Corners.  Yes, I know, it's not exactly in the right spot, but the concept is there.  That way, they can stand in four states all at the same time, and they can say that they've been to Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.  We're planning on spending about six days driving the ~2500 miles.  We were hoping to hit Zion, Mesa Verde, Four Corners, the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  More than likely, something will have to get skipped.  Of course, some of it is just driving through and snapping pictures; some of it is gently hiking ... and snapping pictures.  One way or another, it's a vacation.

Maybe I'll create a photojournal when I get back.

I've signed up for a .... Facebook account.  It's not as bad as MySpace, but it's a little complicated to use.  Definitely not user friendly.  I found James, and wished him a happy birthday, but I don't think he knows it's me.  I'm not so crazy about having to use my real name.  I can understand it, but ... eh.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to switch to a user name.  If so, it'll probably be braindead.idiot.

I still haven't done the Twitter thing. 

Other than the boys promotion ceremony, Jordan's and Christian's birthdays, and school getting out, not much has been going on in my life.  I am scheduled to be off next Friday.  Let's see if I actually get the day off.

I'm still working on my Illustrator skills--I've gotten pretty good, if I do say so--and now I'm working on learning Photoshop.  I've secured a copy of Photoshop CS3 Extended (portable) and I've been scooting right along.  Yesterday, I learned how to desaturate a photograph and selectively recolor areas.  It didn't take long and it looks fucking AWESOME!

Rules:

01. Post this meme along with your current wallpaper.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!

From Misc Stuff

Ummmmmmm … I’m having trouble with my Incredimail.  For some reason, ever since I moved two of the profiles on my laptop to my external drive, I’ve been experiencing repeated crashes.  Just for the hell of it I decided to submit a crash report.  I click on the link to retrieve the crash report and this is what I get:

From Misc Stuff

Now, the form seems pretty up front and simple … except for the fact that I have a whole inch of space to describe my problem.  I love the “… describe the exact actions you took before the problem occurred:”  Really?  In a whopping inch of space?!?  That should be interesting.

In other news:

• I’m sadly disappointed in the California Supreme Court’s ruling on Prop (H)8.  Next time it’s on the ballot, I’m pretty damn sure that it’ll pass.  I just feel it.  Here’s to keeping my fingers crossed.
• My niece just tested positive for HIV.  Wow.  Right now it’s wait and see.  I mean, what else can we do?
• The only additional news I have regarding my nephew is that he doesn’t have any insurance and no doctor in the state of Kentucky will even look at him.  I think the plan is to have him come out for his planned visit here in California and see if he can get help here.
• Last week Alan’s starter went out on his truck so he drove my van to work.  On his way home, the driver’s side rear tire blew out and damn near ripped off my bumper.  It did tear off the molding kit beneath the driver’s side sliding door, smeared tire ick from the bottom of the fender to just beneath the rear window, scratched the crap out the fender, and cracked the mud flap nearly off.  I went ahead and called AAA to report the damage, and whatta ya know, they’re going to cover all of the repairs AND provide me with a rental car.  It’ll cost me $250 (the deductible for comprehensive insurance) and take a couple of days, but it’ll be good as new when it’s done.

Your results:
You are Geordi LaForge

Geordi LaForge 60% Beverly Crusher 55% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 50% Will Riker 45% Mr. Scott 40% Chekov 40% Jean-Luc Picard 40% Spock 37% Data 36% Uhura 35% James T. Kirk (Captain) 30% Worf 30% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 25% Deanna Troi 15% Mr. Sulu 0%

You work well with others and often fix problems quickly. Your romantic relationships are often bungled.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz

There are minor things and (semi) major things happening.

 

In the minor arena, we have a problem with Alan’s truck.  Apparently the starter has gone out and it won’t even turn over.  Argh.  Neither Alan or I trust “retail” mechanics.  We have an awesome shade-tree mechanic, but unfortunately, he left for Illinois on Friday morning and won’t be available until Tuesday evening.  That means that—since I don’t have any way to get the kids to school on Monday—the kids will have to miss a day of school.  I’m sure they’re crushed.  As it is, I’m going in to work at noon on Monday so that Alan can use my van to get to work.  He goes in at the butt crack of dawn, and he’ll be home by then.  Tuesday, my sister will take him to work, and that evening, we should have his truck fixed.

In other minor news, our surround sound/DVD player bit the dust.  After all, it is more than 10 years old.  We’re surprised that it lasted as long as it did.  Yesterday we went on the hunt for a new one.  We managed to find a Phillips set-up for $170.  Obviously not top of the line, but it’ll do.

My last bit of minor info: we have just recently discovered that doing 77 in a 65 costs $212.  And that’s without traffic school.  Day-um.  (Alan, not me.)  We’re not too worried about traffic school since he hasn’t had any tickets or accidents in more than 12 years. 

My only “major” news item involves Alan’s nephew Michael.  He and his mom (and step-father) live in Kentucky, which apparently is only an eight hour drive from Niagara Falls.  The three of them drove up there for a long weekend.  They were just about to get on a boat for a tour when Michael had what they thought was a stroke.  He’s 18.  They rushed him to the hospital—my sister-in-law called her sister from the ambulance—and immediately started treatment.  I guess he didn’t have a stroke, but they thought it was because they said that his face looked funny.  Apparently, he had a grand mal seizure, which was so violent that it dislocated his jaw, which explains why his face looked so odd.  While in the emergency room, his started vomiting, which popped his jaw back into place.  They took him up for a cat scan, where they found a “spot” on his brain.  No word on what it is or how severe it is.  We’re still waiting to hear more information.