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Weekend update [May. 4th, 2008|10:38 pm]
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It was largely a quiet weekend for me, Jodi had a big catering at the school, the reunion, so she was busy. I did manage to accomplish a couple loads of laundry and some more simpsons game levels. only 3 left and unfortunately, i'm stuck on Never Quest and dunno how to pass it.

we saw Chris Rock tonight and he was decent. it's no bigger and blacker but it's better than his last tour was. but it's kinda the same stuff, if you hve herd one tour you heard them all. ecept this time was the added bonus of the election, in which he made fun of 2 of the 3 candidates and the 3rd only about his name. i'll let you guess which.

I got a summons a couple of weeks ago for jury duty the week of may 19th. I guess I have to call in each day and see when I have to go. it's not the nearest courthouse,b but this one has better parking and is at least away from the city so it's also against traffic. but it is 45 min ride.

work has been eh, it's slow going, we release stuff that works fine in the development environment and then in production t doesn't. it's annoying cause we have no valid system to test on cause it is too expensive, we look stupid, and management can't get what they need, all the while there is a lot of pressure to get stuff done before june 1, when our consultant leaves (unless we find more money) and my business sponsor goes before upper management to demo this and explain what they do. so I dunno what's going to happen then.
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Weekend update [May. 4th, 2008|10:26 pm]
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It was largely a
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hello peoples [Apr. 19th, 2008|12:04 am]

Well it's tax time and i'm happy because i didn't have to pay this year.  ironically my smallish refund will go to pay my property tax bill in 2 weeks  :-)

Haven't been up to much, work's been busy as we're releasing a large chunk of code we did.  it's a messy process, i hate when there is such a backlog.  Saw Michael clayton one weekend, i didn't see what was so great about it.  it was very slow.  i like those kinds of movies and george clooney but this one was only mildly entertaining.  least it was cheap on demand

Last weekend was tres busy.  starting thursday i felt like crap, i went into work late, left early (for my allergy shot) and then never went to work friday.  i had some kinda stomach bug, i spent the day sleeping and running to the bathroom.  fortunately my g/f has a baby shower sat afternoon and i again rested and finally began feeling better by evening.  it was her sister's bday, so a bunch of folks came over for dinner and it was really nice.  it managed not to rain so we were able to smoke some cigars.

Sunday she was going over to her sister's house for a girls brunch, i went and some guys went to the Mets game.  we grilled up some food and drank some beer and made our way by the 3rd inning.  the seats were loge, level above field, but all the way in the back and under the mezzanine.  anytime a ball was hit into the air, it could be a homerun for all we know.  talk about obstructed view.  we moved down a row and then i was able to see the bottom of the scoreboard with the count so that was nice.  the weather wasn't that great (plus we were not getting any sun anyway) and they stunk it up so by the 8th we split back to the house to play texas hold'em (and drink some more beer).  i ended up winning, $80, not too bad.  It's weird, they say i always win, but i think it's just with my g/f, her sister and her b/f.  i am not that good, and when i play in other games by people who really can play, i get beaten.  so i don't think of myself the way they do.  they just stink i guess  :-P

So it was a good weekend (eventually) but busy, and it wasn't until a couple days ago we got all the dishes cleaned up and some laundry done (speak of which time for that again).  Tomorrow is supposed to be nice weather, but part of the house we didn't finish was repainting a radiator cover, and i need to sand it more still so i may do that.  we'll see.  then going to my brother's g/f's mom's for passover dinner and my dad will be there.  it's not really my thing, but i'm going to be polite for him (and her), to like meet her family (i met her mom once).  it's the right thing to do, i'm told  :-)  Sunday supposed to meet up with a friend of mine, but the weather is supposed to be more crappy so i'm not sure what we'll do (if anything).  he's like done everything already and suggests a movie, but i honestly have no idea what's out other than Ironman.  and movies are not cheap anymore, so i only go see what i actually have interest in.  maybe i'll cave just for something to do and we can say we hung out (even though it's not like we talk during a movie).

Trying to do some new stuff at work, need to do something on a webpage, but on microsoft, so i need to learn a little ASP.NET and C#.  i've always been happy not to know it, so i'll see if i can learn enough just to do what i need to and that's it.  methinks i have to stop at barnes and noble this weekend to get a book...

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Happy Birthday to me! [Feb. 4th, 2008|12:49 am]
So this is a bit late and out of order, but i'm so pumped about the superbowl, i had to post it first.  and still can't sleep  :-)

tuesday night we went to see Kathy Griffin at madison square garden.  she was good, funny, but we had seats way int he back, and the screens were too small, and she wore black and the lighting was terrible so it was hard to see her.  in fact all of us left and our eyes hurt and we had headaches from looking at the screen.  next day was my birthday, we went out to dinner to a steakhouse in manhattan which was very good, but not excellent.  partly perhaps because i wasn't feeling well and perhaps as to while i had the hangar steak, i usually order the new york strip but could not bring myself to spend $48 o a 14 ouncer.  but hey, it is manhattan so i shouldn't be surprised.

Thursday i missed work since i felt still crummy, though i had to call inf or a meeting.  i exercised and got my alergy shot, and then my cell phone crashed (lovely windows it runs) and it took me several hours to get it working again.  It's since happened again and i was able to restore it faster having dealt with it now already.  pain in the ass, i need it just to work.  but anyway i wasn't able to sleep during the day and that had me up so friday i still felt crummy and was home again.  i slept until 2pm lol, and so i think i slept off whatever it was that was bugging me.

Saturday was mixed great and crappy.  That day we got another piece of furniture in our ongoing saga of dealing with the slimeball lying salesman, and i spent 6 hours installing a new door lock on my front door with my dad.  and it still barely works as the things are not lined up.  i knew it was going to be hard because it's such an old style, there's no drop in replacement.  we were dropping in a piece of wood in the door to replace the huge hole from the old one so we had something to screw the new one in.  and we should have done that in the frame itself, but we fought with it, trying to get it to line up, cutting pieces and angling screws because so much wood was missing, we had nothing to screw into.  it locks now, but it's touch.  we will have to redo that part, just cut the whole thing out, put a new block of wood in place and drill nice new clean holes.  yay, another fun project.  i put off doing this for 3 years now.  oh and to top that off, i dropped off my care for an oil change and to fix a noise in the rear left wheel.  yeah turns out i needed all new brakes and rotors, and also an axle (one of the boots was bad and leaked out all the grease, i saw it), so there goes $800.  So for the evening i was exhausted and not in the best of moods.

However, that was my bday celebration night.  family and friends came by and 11 of us went out to dinner to a local steakhouse we'd never been to before (i love meat  :-)  )  and it was actually excellent.  the NY strip was 16 ounces, and only $37  :-)  hehe but i didn't pay anyway.  prices were not unreasonable and everyone's food was good, and many drinks were had, bottles of wine and several margaritas (which were essentially Patron with a splash of sour) so that put me in a better mood.  back tot he house for coffee and cake, and the only thing that would have topped it off was a cigar, but it was too cold and i was fairly loaded, so that was ok anyway.  it brightened my mood.  plus i got a few gifts including Wii blasters from my brother, and he's loaning me some games he completed for me to play - as if i have time lol.  So that was nice.

Slept late today since well, busy day and night yesterday.  had a 70th bday party for my dad's wife today at a restaurant and oh my god was it boring as hell.  i swear the one oldest table was full of people in their early hundreds.  it could have been a hearing aid convention, lol.  her kids are cool though so that is at least someone to talk to but the rest of her family is a bit odd, so we just kinda made it thru.  And then tonight of course the superbowl and all that wonderful excitement.  :-)

Gotta get in to work tomorrow though, but i think the day after the superbowl should be a national holiday.  move martin luther king's birthday or something lol.  chris rock is also coming to the garden, i'm gonna try and score ticket tomorrow morning if the scalpers don't snatch them all.  but only if we can sit closer since those screens are horrible.
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THE GIANTS WIN THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!! [Feb. 3rd, 2008|11:04 pm]
The Patriots are now.... DEFEATED  :-)  suhhhhweeeettt!!!  we don't have to put their season int he books with an asterisk for spygate, and the '72 dolphins and can pop the champagne!!!  man that was exciting, right up until the end.  well ok, the 2nd and 3rd quarters weren't but Eli played great, they pressured Brady, got 3rd down conversions...  man everything!!! and We won the boxes for 1st and 3rd quarters.  we had 2 boxes at $20 each and won $200 for each, so won $400 on $40 (well on $60 if you count that i also entered 2 boxes at work for $10 each).  that was awesome.  so close too for the final score, we had 7-7 so if the pats didn't score and the game had ended 17-7, we would have won another 800 bucks.  but i'm ecstatic still for the giants win and the patriots loss.  congratulations!
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Trip to north carolina [Jan. 22nd, 2008|06:43 pm]
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So the trip was largely a success. jodi made it down despite having the flu, but sunday we were supposed to go to charlotte and we didn't make it as she didn't feel up to all that driving. she needed a nap so we had breakfast and then napped. then we made it out and drove around raleigh, durham (saw Duke), Cary, and Chapel Hill. also drove by the RBC center where te Hurricanes play. we stopped in to 1 apt complex that was open on a sunday for a tour and some info, but mostly we drove around just to get a feel for the area and what it is like.

caught the tail end of the Pats - Chargers game and it was what I expected. too bad though they actually might have had a chance if they had LT and scored some TDs instead of all field goals. the Giants won too but I can't be excited. jodi was more excited. and she's now spoiled watching the games on a hi def tv vs our hotel rom lol. they played better than gree bay, eli played well but how long can that last? they still always have some issue, they drop way too many passes, can't snap or kick the ball, its sill. granted neither team probably would beat the patriots as I hope, but Green Bay at their best would have had a better shot I think.

and damn was it cold there in green bay! new york gets cold but not quite *that* cold. and in raleigh it was at or below freezing, they got a snow dusting while we were there. that stunk, esp since they all run home nd close things when there's even a dusting. I managed still to swim in the indoor pool after the game though.

saturday we saw my friend for lunch and weeks nt to check out downtow raleigh. We parked and found a local place for lunch and on the way there someone ask me for two dollars even though we were "good republican white folk". some things are the same everywhere lol. downtown was not the nicest, but cities often aren't. I liken albany in ny to be similar. but we wnt to the museum of science which was pretty cool for being free. didn't make it to the history one or do much of a walking tour since the weather was so awful. we left and saw an apt complex, then we split for a nap. rejoined him and met another friend from college and his wife for dinner. I haven't seen him in 5 years or so, since before he was married. then they went home and we went back to the hotel and drank and played pool and hung out.

monday met that original friend for lunch with a couple of his coworkers and then off to the airport. well we stopped at frankie's amusements to kill an hour, it's like a dave and buster's with video games, rides, etc and in the summer, go-karts and mini golf. the flight home was dellayed and bumpy, the way there was nice and smooth despite flying these tijy 50 seat puddle jumpers, jodi did not like that at all. she hates flying and i'm not a huge fan either.

we stayed in a nice marriott right across from crabtree valley mall, so we ran over there for dinner friday night at the cheesecake factory. we brought the GPS and it came in very handy for going wherever, off into developments and being able always to get home. it doesn't replace a map which shows you the big picture though, so I will bring my atlas or print some next time. we're hoping to go back in march for longer and spend 1/2 the time in raleigh and the other in charlotte to see more.
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North Carolina Bound? [Jan. 17th, 2008|10:51 pm]
Well I am supposed to head to North Carolina tomorrow.  But yesterday, Jodi seemed to pick up the Flu.  she is feeling awful.  dunno if she is going to go, and if i should stay home or go without her.  my friend the consultant changed his flight to be in town this weekend though for me to be there so i kinda have to go, but i'd feel bad.  plus we'd lose the $.  it's just sucky.  also since there is snow down there and it is now coming here, so the weather is also not at all cooperating.  took 1/2 day today so i could be with her a bit and get my allergy shots.  2 people on the team (the other 2 main developers) are out so no biggie.  and 1/2 day tomorrow so i can make the flight.  -sigh- always something.  anyway, we'll see what happens.
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[Jan. 8th, 2008|09:00 am]
yeah so the posting with pics is cool.  but i didn't mean to!  Stupid program, it decided every time i moved over a picture on the web browser on my phone to try and post it.  nice.
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1/7/08 [Jan. 7th, 2008|01:07 pm]
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So what's new? trying a new mobile poster from my phone. somewhat busy weekend, firmed up our plans to north carolina, reserved a car etc. it's soon. my mom gave us one of those digital photo frames for xmas so we went thru our pics and filled it up last night. saw assorted pics of the house before we renovated. have to post the difference, it's crazy.

the bruise on my hip looks really angry and still hurts from when I fell on the ice. speaking of we still have to clean up the basement now so we can put away all our xmas stuff. that prmises to be fun lol. and I have a mountainv of filing to do in order to get ready for tax season. another joyous activity lol.

I still have chest congestion but not as bad so i'm getting better though. once that clears up and my bruise I can start on the new elliptical we got. it better clear up by our trip to north carolina. i'm looking forward to that. oh and I got a hot stone massage saturday which was nice also. :-)
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hello all [Jan. 2nd, 2008|01:09 am]
hope you all had a good holiday.  we finally finished our floors and got some of our furniture in time for xmas when we had 25 people over.  it was a bit stressful but nice  :-)  i'm so glad to be done though some of our furniture wasn't in (the guy lied to us about it repeatedly) and then the dining room table had a big crack in it at the warehouse so they didn't deliver it.  My girlfriend was pretty upset and has been bitching this guy out pretty good, and he did give us a couple of loaner tables for the holidays so we could make do at least.  so we have those until the rest of the stuff comes.  but the couches are great, and the paint and stuff on the walls, i think everyone was impressed compared to what they all grew up with in this house.  part of the floor got scratched from the chairs at dinner, but it's localized so a light sand and repolyurethane can easily fix.  she was upset but got over it.  no big deal.

we got our elliptical setup and rearranged a couple of the rooms upstairs, now i just have to use it hehe.  but lucky me, i got sick late last week, went tot he doc yesterday to find out it's an ear infection.  so i've felt fairly crummy.  new years is one of the times i'm prone to getting sick for some reason.  not that it always happens, but i've missed several new years' parties before.  And Jodi is sick too, though hopefully not as bad, hopefully for her it's all just congestion.  So i need to recover and get cracking.  but so far i haven't felt like doing crap else with the house and whatnot.  the only major thing left is cleaning out the basement (cause we just thru a bunch of crap down there) and being able to put the outdoor xmas decorations back.  we never did put up the tree.

i have a few additional minor things, tacking the cable down int he exercise room now fixing my wireless internet (ordered a new access point int he mail), putting up my air conditioner covers (need to use duct table, the wind keeps blowing them off with just tying them which pisses me off).  but all in all i'm not complaining (too much).  went to jodi's sister's for new years and basically just hung out.  we both felt crappy but i said hey, at least we're sitting around someplace other than home, it's a change.  i slept a bunch of hours today but time to go back soon, i need to try and get in to work tomorrow, i don't want to miss more days.

Watched a few movies, Talladega Nights was nearly unwatchable, Ocean's 13 was good, 12 Monkeys was ok, could have been a lot better, especially the ending.  I want to see the bourne ultimatum.  next weekend we're going for a massage at a new place here that is relatively cheap to try it out.  we shall see how it is.

I also started seeing an allergist, and now i have to go for shots.  i went when i was a kid, every week or 2 weeks from ages 2-14 or so.  but turns out they wear off in 10-20 years, so that could be why mine seem worse and of course that triggers my asthma.  not fun but i'll be glad if it improves my situation there.  Also went back to the ear nose and throat doc to find out the polyps in my nose are back.  i had them removed about 4 years ago when i had surgery for my sleep apnea, but apparently, they too come back.  Allergist thinks he can help prevent them, but regardless i'm thinking i'm going to have to have surgery to remove them.  Cortisone nose sprays aren't enough to get rid of them.  But hey, it's another reason why my allergies and asthma are worse, and my regular doc (who i'm not happy with) just keeps throwing medicines at me which don't (and can't) help.  Oh and he tells me i'm too fat.  which of course i know and is true, but seriously, that's not all of it.  i mean shit is that all they teach you in med school?  i'm slightly bitter i guess because the more people i see aside from him, the more i'm truly finding out some causes  to how i'm feeling, such as the allergies, polyps, sleep apnea, and that in fact here are things that can be done about them.  but i have to do it on my own.  Too many years i'd complain of these things and now i've been nowhere when i could have had these things better controlled.  I don't want to be a hypochondriac, but i have to take the initiative ad see the right folks, he's not going to take care of it all.  that's frustrating andyet liberating to learn at the same time.

Oh and so i'm like a month behind on Cooper Lawrence Show podcasts now too  :-)
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Happy Thanksgiving All [Nov. 22nd, 2007|11:01 pm]
I had a good one, lots of yummy turkey  :-)  and another day off from work, so of course, spent working on my damn $%^& floor!  more sanding and scraping.  i will say this was a good learning experience, but in the future, when i have a place, i would totally pay someone rather than refinish my own hardwood floors.  it's absolutely worth it.  and i'm not trying to do a professional job, but at the same time, when i see ruts or unevenness int he floor, i can't help trying to make it look decent, so i spent extra time on it.  so it's taking a longer time.

  I have to work tomorrow but that's ok.  we're working on building a data warehouse at work, and i'm actually enjoying this project so this is cool.  learning a lot.  but we have a deadline for the initial stage and we need to have some reports to show business so we can make it look like this thing is useful :-)  so i need the days to work on some reports for them.  and then seeing more family tomorrow night for thanksgiving part II.  and then the weekend, more working on the floor, and sunday seeing my dad for part III  :-)  this week, went to his retirement party.  it's mostly boring, it's all people from work of course i dunno and that's what they talk about but i'm sure he appreciated me and my bro being there.  he must have since he paid for us  :-)  i had a few drinks to get thru it hehe.  it's so foreign to me.  retiring - working somewhere for 37 years - for the government, i mean who does that nowadays  :-) 

hope y'all are doing well and had a happy one.  maybe i'll be more in touch one the house is done.  for now we're like hermits, hardly seeing anyone or doing much, spending most of our free time doing that
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[May. 18th, 2007|07:50 am]
walking thru NYC streets is like running a nascar race.  only without the car, and on an obstacle course.

i've been so busy it's crazy.  finished up my classes at work, took the quizzes this week, i'm off now until july which is nice.  they're good but it's hard getting home at 10pm.  Selling my house in AZ, so i have been gathering all kinds of paperwork, filling out forms, dealing with tenant moving out, getting the place in shape - pinting, carpet cleaning - getting the utilities in my name, etc.  Also seems we have pigeons in our attic (or maybe raccoons, but in a week we haven't caught any so the guy thinks it's pigeons now).  sunday he comes back to get the trap and go into the attic and clean up there.  i had to fix my laptop as well, order a new battery for it and a new drive that can read dvds so i can install some software, and a new network card that i can hopefully get some better range with.  and i reformatted it because it kept locking up.

gotta go back to the doctor to have blood work done sat then see him monday.  i gotta find out what's going on with my heart and my cholesterol.  also my elbow seems to be hurting me for a few months now and i have no idea why, but something's wrong with it.  i haven't really lost any weight which i really need to.  it's depressing.  we did finally join a gym, but with mother's day last weekend we had no time to go.  this weekend i can go hopefully (between the doc and dentist) and memorial day i definitely will.  i need to do a little more computer work, but otherwise i can actually relax a bit i think.  it hardly feels like i've had 10 minutes to relax and just hang out or watch tv or whatever.  i like seeing friends and family and having bbq's and all, i just need some time to relax now and then  :-)

Other than that, we're just psyched for our cruise to alaska in 27 days :-)  well we go to seattle first for 3, but then we cruise.  only thing is, the price has dropped because i guess they haven't sold everything, so we're a little miffed, we'd have saved if we waited.  but then you could get screwed out of getting a room too.  we're going to see if we can get something, ship's credit at least since they can't really upgrade us to a different room.
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so much for pathos [Mar. 12th, 2007|09:44 am]
hello all in LJ land *waves*. it's been a while I know. I had a busy weekend.

I went to the doctor to follow up on some issues, but all I found out was I need to come back for blood work and a physical. as well as see the gastroenterologist to follow up on my GERD. so in 2 weeks I return, hopefully i'll see then but at least i've been feeling largely ok. I have to call that doc today. fixed an outlet for my mom after the doctor also.

went all over looking for a paper shredder to replace the one I had which was decent but starting to wear and has no off switch. found one at office max for $50 that does 10 sheets, not bad. esp since staples wanted 100. they only had heavy duty like for 50 shreds a day or crappy 6 sheet light duty ones. I didn't want to spend that much so I was glad and surprised office max glad the other models for cheaper.

cashed the check from the guy who hit my car, hopefully it won't bounce. that guy is either doped up or a litle slow or both. I feel back but I need to get it fixed. I need to call today.

finally completed my filing! today I have to go to the post office and mail them out. I still need o go thru all my receipts and junk to see what I can deduct, but I got the basics I an envelope waiting to be sent to the accountant. I have to followup on reimbursements for my parking as well as some healthcare, prescriptions mostly. but i'm in good shape now with everything sorted and filed at least. I renewed all my prescriptions before the march 15th deadline to file for reimbursement.

my sirius crapped out finally, it says no antenna. it was flaky for a while so I suspect a wire was loose and now is disconnected altogether. I can't see it so I will have to bring it in.

put my new registration and parking stickers on my car and enjoyed the nice 50 degree weather.

went out to dinner for mexican saturday with a friend of jodi's and last night had leftovers and my mom came. she was asking me about getting married which was weird, she's not usually like that. I guess she likes jodi and that jodi invites her to dinner lol.

I start with some financial classes i'm taking at work this week. they run until 9:30 pm for the next 6 wednesdays. that sucks, I won't get home until 11pm but it's free and so i'd be silly not to take advantage of it. it will only help me to understand finance stuff if I stay at bloomberg or want to work for a different financial company.

so I had a busy and productive weekend and have a busy day ahead with calls to make, appts to setup, checks to cash, and things to be mailed. and I suppose I should do some work while at work too heh
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heidiho neighbor [Feb. 26th, 2007|12:36 am]
so, i'm a bit behind, but not ready for sleep yet so i'll say hello.  Last weekend was a 4 day weekend for me, i had one rollover day left so i took tuesday off.  I never did (once again) get my taxes done.  and time is really running shorter now.  i was productive, and had a lot of crap happen to me.  I haven't felt well for a couple of weeks, having a lot of headaches, i'm not sure why since i normally don't get those.  so i wasn't highly motivated.

nevertheless, i did do stuff.  one afternoon, i spent chopping ice.  it took several hours to do thanks tot hat ice storm and it being so damn thick.  i was sore after that for a week, and not even in a good, i just worked out way, like an i overdid it, and i really just don't feel right way.  Now that was preceded by trips to 5 hardware stores, all of which had no salt or snow melt left and the amount i put down just didn't have a meaningful effect.  And in the parking lot of the last one, some guy backed out of his space as i was waiting to pull in to one across the way and backed into my car.  That was followed by a trip out to brooklyn to have dinner with Jodi's mom which actually was nice.  except, on the way home, in the freezing weather, i got a damn flat tire.  i swear we have no luck with cars lately.  several years and i was fine, now since i have known jodi i've had like 4.  and like the last one, this happened on a parkway, so i had to keep driving a bit to get off onto side streets and find a place that had no ice on it so i had a flat surface to put the jack on.  i got lucky though, the tire wasn't frozen on completely, so with some effort, i froze my ass off, couldn't breathe well, but changed the tire.

the next day which was a holiday, i then went to get a new tire, and fortunately Mavis tire was open.  but crowded since it was a holiday.  and this time it was the rear, i didn't hit a curb or pothole, i'm just driving along and i heard a noise all of a sudden and knew what it had to be.  anyway, this would have given me 4 different tires on my car, so i decided to replace a second one, so i had at least 2 the same on the front, and get an alignment in the meanwhile.  feels safer.  for $111 a tire i paid, got good cooper tires, replaced that crappy one i had gotten at walmart when i had the last flat tire and i had paid the same price (but they were the only ones open on sunday and i had to get home from jersey so i had no choice).  so that was a nice chunk of change with 2 tires and the $70 alignment.  but they have the greatest thing, for $10, if you hit a curb or run over a nail, they will replace the tires for free.  not sure for how long, but with my luck lately i opted for it lol.

Jodi meanwhile got one of her doorhandles fixed so she can get in the driver's side now.  i just hope her car doesn't freeze again.  the weather here is pretty sucky tonight.

So the following day (tuesday) was then spent getting an estimate to fix the damage from the parking lot.  $350.  there is no such thing as a $100 repair on a car anymore.  even at less than 5 miles an hour.  so i need to call the guy who hit me tomorrow and see if he will just pay it.  it's just a hassle, i hardly care it's so minor over the wheel well, but the thing is, it's creased metal not plastic, so if i don't fix it, it could rust and then i have bigger problems.  so i will likely have to go thru the hassle of dropping it off.  the guy who hit me was nice, and he has a bunch of pins in his neck, which is prolly why he didn't turn around all the way and see me, i was in his blind spot.  he was in a handicapped space, he just got back from the military, he's got bigger problems, i feel bad even charging him, cause it shouldn't cost as much as it will.  so i think that has delayed my calling him.  -sigh-

After many hours in several malls also over those 2 days, jodi finally found new shoes and sneakers she needed sot hat's good.  her feet will hurt less.  assorted errands were completed, some fixing of my phone occurred also so that's a plus.  PC Richard's got my tv saturday morning to repair it and are bringing it back tuesday.  so kinda sucky 2 weekends without it, i wanted to watch the hockey game yesterday but couldn't, and no video games.

It was a short week at work this week, but it's been a long week for me starting from last weekend.  saw my dad for dinner and then went to Jodi's sister's place for like a housewarming deal.  brought the rest of the beer from my birthday.  and i actually drank quite a bit.  somewhere int he double digits in beers and maybe 1/2 as many shots.  had a real fun time though and talked to people, it was pretty cool.  it was really nice actually.  i felt really bad this morning though.  got home around 3:30am, slept until 1:15pm.  woke up a few times for bathroom, water and tylenol.  but ugh.

i now finally feel recovered after some vitamins, fluids and eating.  i slept so late though, but i am still tired but not sleepy yet.  we had tickets to Mamma Mia, featuring the music of Abba.  went out to Jodi's mom's and we all had lunch and then went to the show.  it was actually really good, we all really enjoyed it.  the 3rd quarter wasn't so good, it was slow, and too many songs, not advancing the plot.  also it was too hot in the theater.  but other than that, very enjoyable and i'm glad i went instead of sleeping even though i was so drained and tired.

And i actually read some LJ posts heh.  some of you graduated school, some of you had things going on with pets, being awakened middle of the night for broken servers and all kinds of stuff.  and listened to lots of the cooper lawrence show podcasts.  i listened to it at work lately while working.  It's pretty good and i suggest you guys all check it out if you're interested.  plus it's a little weird hearing her talk about long island girls and spots and coney island and stuff and it's like heh, i hung out there too  :-)  she and anthony and chad seem to work well together.
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yay it's the weekend [Feb. 16th, 2007|02:24 pm]
almost anyway. busy busy which is good, though now i hit a snag on this project for some reason.

this ice storm has been killer. i put down almost 2 50lb bags of salt and my walkway is still covered in 3 inches of solid ice. 2 of jodi's car door handles broke off so now we have to get that fixed on sat (the driver's door one). luckily i was able to get into mine without any problems, well after some careful working and then 30 min of scraping afterwards.

going out to dinner for vday tonight, Jodi got her flowers late thanks to the storm, she left early that day which good for her. seeing the hockey game tomoirrow night which shoudl be fun. need to get more salt now.

have off monday and i took my last rollover day for tuesday, so it will be a long weekend. i can just relax, woot :-) and i can get my tax stuff done, i desperately need to do that, i keep getting side tracked.
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i almost forgot [Feb. 13th, 2007|12:24 pm]
well ok, since i'm posting again, i guess technically, i did forget, but i digress :-)

can ya'll walk downt he stairs without lookign at them? this is sort of akin i guess to looking at the keys when you play piano or type, which if you do it correctly you can't because your eyes are on documents (or sheet music). i've walked down steps a million times, but i tell you if i don't look, it's like i get suddenly lost in space or something. i don't know if there's more steps, how far down they are. it seems quite idiotic actually that i do this. the one thing i will say is that in my house, the steps always have things on it that in in queue to be transferrred upstairs or downstairs ont he next trip, so there obstacles to avoid. this could have led to this habit. i think i'd have to make a concerted effort of repetition to break myself of it. the same as i woudl ahve to in order to learn to type correctly. the problem is, you get good and fast at doing it wrong, so practicing the right way is painfully slow and difficult. i think for the steps i have
more of a shot than for the typing.

so fess up, am i the only idiot here or is this normal behavior?
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sideways? [Feb. 13th, 2007|11:19 am]
so over the weekend we had a couple friends over. we had dinner and got to talking about sideways and decided to rent it and watch it since they said (like everyone else) that it was so good, and i had wanted to see it after all the buzz. Frankly, i don't see it. it was certainly ok, not bad, but nothign great as was made out to be. do you guys agree or disagree? i could easily forget it tomorrow and no biggie. i don't think those guys were so great in their roles, i mean it was interesting but eh. i mean i could imagine it as real life, largely boring in otherwords, nothign notable or interestign for me to say wow that engaged me in some way. i'm thinking maybe it's largely character driven, and i know from books i just hate that. authors spend pages and pages describing a character in detail, all this backsotry etc and i keep reading and saying ok when is something going to happen. and nothign does and then i get tot h end and feel intimately acquainted to some
fictiona character whom nothign will happen too. i'm all about that stuff as necessary for the forthcoming action, i'm all abotu the plot. but i guess some people love the other. for me, the mexican jodi cooked and some specialty beer that i got as birthday presents were the better part :-)

congrats Chad on your honda pilot, i'm a bit behind on cooper lawrence show podcasts :-) i've had to read XML on the train to learn it as i am now needing it at work. that seriously sounds like the coolest job, doing a radio show, just like hanging out and talkign abotu stuff for a few hours with people. i had a hell of a time finding anyone to take an extra hockey ticket this weekend, reminds me of how many of my friends don't live around here anymore -sigh-. but i'm still having fun, still busy but not as much so now that the bathroom and my party are done. a little time to relax, but it's still time to finish my paperwork for my taxes. i need to get on that business.
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tweet tweet tweet [Feb. 5th, 2007|07:57 pm]
well i survived the weekend and had fun. saturday involved of course shopping and cleaning to prepare for the party. this was largely a success with only one coupel as a no show, but then 2 extras came so that was nice. it was a bit crowded, hampered by the weather since it was so damned cold. and people left early due to that as well. perhap i should have had it earlier than 7pm, but then again it's a 1.5 hour drive back to NJ either way, so i dunno if it woudl have mattered. had some good beer, no cigars though. 9 degrees with a wicked wind is really suck-ass let me tell you.

Last night was spooked that people were breaking into the house witht he wind blowing so hard. my house is old and like stuff is blowing off it and banging around so that makes it worse. though i normally don't get like that. i was up late paying bills after the superbowl (which sort of was a dud considerign the way rtex grossman played and the chicago D just stopped putting any pressure on peyton after the first quarter).

then this morning i was a mess trying to find stamps and i knocked over a glass of soda. i spilled and then had to go to the post office since i needed to mail out a tax bill. got my prescription as logn as i was late to work, got in around 11am. to find out a i missed a meeting which i had forgotten about. and i got a BF that some code i checked in broke the build and it needs to be fixed asap. great. it was a hectic mornign and i'm exhuasted but still here since i got in late. Got more work to do from that rescheduled meeting and i'm largely done so that's good.

the house is mostly cleaned up, i just need some sleep :-) the food was good though we had a lot and ditto for the beer. and all my friends know me, they all brought me speacialty beers :-) awww lol. we had a good time. bbqs are better though, it's much nicer to be able to be outside.

my tv works again at least that was an easy fix, retarded that i can't buy the bulb cheap, it's liek 1 screw to replace it. to fix the broken pixel they gotta take my tv in to the shop so i'll be without it for liek a week or something. but *shrugs* it's annoying, and it's under warranty so i'll have them do it.

time to relax man! at least for a bit lol.
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not a great morning so far [Feb. 1st, 2007|10:41 am]
just had trouble getting out of bed. knocked my elbow something fierce on the night stand next to my bed. it was a good whack. it's too close but it's squished in next to the bed and that's all the room i have. caught a late train in and for whatever reason it was packed. largely with little (15 year old?) girls. i'm glad i at least had my iPod, thank god.

i keep thinking it's wednesday, but apparently, it's thursday. and it's feb 1st. good thing i did put my new train ticket in my holder behind the january one, though the dingus train conductor didn't check, which was fine. they're a different color, so i'm not sure how he looked at mine and decided it was ok.

some tubby chick elbowed me on my way down the stairs and said "excuse you" as i was hurrying to make the train as everyone got off before it left. this is always a tough time as so many people are getting off and going up. but you have to be aware that you are in no rush, while the people coming down (if any, there are few) are indeed hurrying to get the train before it closes. so you have to expect them to hurry past you and the considerate person makes some room. i know i do. now this is a double stairwell with a rail in between. people began going up the left side as well as the right which, happens when so many get off. but she was starting to go up on all the way left, as in the 4th lane of travel, making it impossible for anyone to go downwards. sorry but you have to leave one lane open for downward travel or expect that when people do come down, you have to be the one to move as you are in their way. it's just the laws of the subway riding. Worse, she was
at the bottom, not on the steps yet as she saw me halfway down and continued on her course of action, so it was purposeful to be just a pain in the ass. if i'd have known i'd have had so much time to make the train, i woudl have elbowed her back and said "excuse you tubby on the wrong side of the stairs". but i didn't.

now that was long and completely pointless.

i get to work and it's cold, stupidly i ghaven't taken off the ipod yet so i can't hear. i badge in and the guy nods me thru (or so i think). i miss the first elevator, no big deal so i walk back towards a second which a couple guards are waving me to. turns out no, they're waving me back to badge in cause my badge didn't go thru. so first i feel stupid that they're like waving me to the waiting elevator cause it was behond me and i didn't hear it, and then second cause actually it wasn't even that. all mostly cause i can't hear. but then again when the badge alarm goes off it's usually like the shopping mall when they forget to take the thing off your clothes. they do it 15 times and it still beeps. usually it's like a car alarm, you ignore it even if you hear it.

i'm tired and i have to look into an issue with somethign i thought was complete. and i don't know what the heck i did all day yesterday, how did it take me 6 hours to code review something. i hope the day gets better.
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happy birthday to me [Jan. 30th, 2007|11:08 am]
so what's new? well this weekend was a doosy. expensive :-( groceries were bought to replenish those lost in the Great Fridge Outage of 2007. 12 cases of 25 different varieties of beer were purchased for this weekends party. a new humidifier to replace my old one which unfortunately cracked (again). assorted wall anchors, bathroom cleaners and sink uncloggers purchased at home depot. this one in fact uses lye and is fairly toxic, all kinds of warnings and the seraled bottle comes even in a plastic bag. i put it in last night and i think it may have helped my slow runnign bathroom sink, though it might just be my wishing imagination. i'm going to keep dosing it untilt he bottle is gone, it says 2 cups at a time for liek 8 hours. even snakign this thing didn't work, so i hope one of these things does.

we did get the cabinet together and up essentially completing the bathroom renovation. now all my shaving stuff and deorderant is back where it belongs, and the house is cleaned up. the last big load of garbage went out. so that is nice. Verizon's phone tree sucks to get to a person, and then they suck. particularly on weekends. but cablevision is no better, and in fact i returned our cable boxes to them.

my tenant is likely moving out of my house in AZ, leaving me to try to sell the house or find another. my agent seems to fele that the house is in a desireable location, now that roads and shopping plaza is completed, and we can get the $50 increase i wanted in rent (well ok i wanted $100, but $50 is more realistic). so i think i'm going to try and rerent. i had visions of selling and paying off debt, but that also would require a trip down there (which i may have to do anyway, just to check ont he place, i like to do that once a year) and scrambling to list it and etc etc. it's a good tax deductiona nd pretty much takes care of itself, so i'd sooner keep it and slog away at my debt for now.

my tv kindly also blew out, meanign the lamp did. i went to pc richard to get a new bulb figuring i'd replace it, but they guys says well is it under our service contract, then u can call and they will come do it free of charge. i was liek ok is that really necessary, then i gotta wait until saturday etc, is the bulb expensive? he's like well it's a couple hundred bucks. he must have seen my jaw drop. he said oh you thought it was what like $10 bucks? i was like yeah i figured how much can it be lol. So now they are coming saturday hopefully to be done before the party at 7pm. Also one pixel went bad, so i'm hoping they will fix or replace it, but i'm not sure if they will for one pixel. it's noticeably bright red, but atthe same time i couldn't see callign them in just for that. now that they are here for another reason, i'm going to ask them about it.

other than that everything is chugging along. busy busy still for the next few weeks.
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renovations [Jan. 23rd, 2007|12:32 pm]
ok so the renovations are just about done. basement is all cleaned up including the work bench. lots of crap thrown out, lots more neat tools and stuff kept that i now know we have heh. got a few more tools at the hardware store, snow shovel since winter is here. replaced a few outlets in the kitchen, some to make them gfci or just polarized or just actually working :-)

did a major clean up on the computer room, putting my cds (both music and data) in those cd books, got rid of a bunch of cases, and now you can actually see surfaces again heh. i still have a bunch to go thru and see what's ont hem as well as a bunch of magazines to go thru. i got smarter and lately i started only keeping the computer articles i wanted, but still i have a whole bunch i just kept he whole mag, so i gotta go thru and piull out what i wanted. still gotta finish my filing for taxes especially. and my server is not getting to the internet ont he new verizon fios which is annoying, i have to figure out why. the other computers seem to get out though.

the fios is cool, though we gotta call up for HBO. the speed seems comparable to cable for the chepaer plan, for the $10 more a moth it'd be double, which i don't need so far. the tv works with some minor snafu, but nothing major. it did take them all day though to put it in. the phoen works fine so far.

the painting is finally done and the bathroom is virtually back to normal. we got the color right ont he 4th try. i have to say it does look really nice. we just have a cabinet to put together to put on the wall to put all our stuff back into. gotta get to that maybe the weekend.

i was out sick yesterday, bad headache. perhaps from all the dust and fumes, i think i should not have let my mom close the window (cause she was cold) while we were putting up the shelves and crap in there. that was a mistake.

i gotta now sit down at the computer and take care fo some bills and filing andf updating and all that crap. that will take a few hours perhaps on the weekend. then i'll be caught up and can relax a bit, but things are startng to return to nromal thankfully.
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Testing email post [Jan. 17th, 2007|09:06 pm]
Test posting via email
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Posted using LJ Talk... [Jan. 17th, 2007|11:47 am]
arrrgh what a mess. So the paint was the wrong color, and didn't cover anyway. we got different paint and we have to repaint the bathroom this saturday. our firdge also died, shorted nearly causing an electrical fire. lots of smoke but the circuit breaker cut off fortunately. so now we ordered one of those also to arrive saturday, and verizon is coming sunday. so darn much going on, i'll be glad when all this is settled and done.
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holiday cheer [Dec. 27th, 2006|10:38 am]
hope all of you had a good holiday. mine was nice. had my family over and everyone helped out so i just need to give the house a vacuuming and i'm in good shape. I got a lot of what i wanted, including a memory upgrade for my laptop so i can breathe some more life into it. and the ipod of course from Jodi i already had. lots of food. some dvd's and PS2 games - including star wars battle front II (for after i finish the first one and the 2 lego star wars) and NHL '07 which i get the new version every year. One season of the family guy, i'm not sure why he got me season 4 when i don't have any of them but hey....

We did a lot of cleaning in the basement, finally got rid of a lot of stuff that was either mine or grandpa's that we don't use or is broken. i never went thru some boxes when i moved in, i wasn't planning on staying here that long and he might come back, but at this point that isn't gonna happen. he's gonna sell the place when i leave. so i'm not chucking everything, but some stuff that won't be needed or can be replaced cheaply if it is really necessary. Also cleaned up the garage a bit, got rid of a lot of empty boxes and moved some stuff out there. hopefully we can even setup the ping pong table again downstairs. my mom helped out with that and then we had dinner and went to jones beach to see the light displays. different than least year but it was still pretty cool. they had ice skating this time for the inside part (the light displays you drive thru) along with santa and some real reindeer. they also had some fluffy white dogs from the samoyed racing team that were very soft.

ran some errands yesterday including opening a joint bank account with jodi that we will pay some bills from, that way if i stay here at bloomberg she can go on my insurance since her health insurance stinks. also got the phone bill put in her name as proof she lives with me now and she got insurance for her car. today she and her mom are going to the DMV to transfer the title and get new plates. we ripped the old one off the back, the bolts are still rusted int here so i have to still solve that problem. we went to her mom's last night for holiday type dinner and brought our last loads of laundry until saturday when our new appliances arrive. i forgot my badge and we stayed over so i had to get a new one this morning.

we decided to replace the washer as well since the new one is stainless steel and matching, rather than one new one (the dryer) and one 30 years old (the washer). this one has a little more frills, gentle cycles and various temperatures that will help jodi wash her clothes without destroying them. i never cared since mine are all permanent press but for her it matters. they will hopefully also be more energy efficient than 30 year old ones. we were only able to do it since we can buy them at best buy with no interest for 2 years. we're going to split them, each pay about $30 a month for 20 months. meanwhile money is really tight right now as i never got my rent check (a new one is on the way) and i don't get paid until january sometime (usually we get paid end of the month, so it's a day or 2 more). and due feb10th is a tax bill, bleh. so we're trying to budget for the next couple of months seriously.
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Posted using LJ Talk... [Dec. 8th, 2006|12:37 pm]
been doing so many family things these days, which is weird cause it's so much. i mean i always saw my parents now and then, especially when i was single cause i had more time. andf we always get together for major holidays. but now it's been more birthdays, jodi's mom also i guess, and witht he holidays more stuff. not that it's bad, just takes up a lot of time. i always have too much to do. but things are cool. got my early present from Jodi, a video ipod yay it's way cool, i've only had it 2 days but i'm totally intot he podcasting. music you can get bored of, even your own, but podcasts is always new stuff of radio shows and thigns that i miss cause i don't drive to work. Also got the radio receiever, which is the side of the new shuffle, very small, so i can listen to fm, and have the little clicker to change songs (radio or music) and pause, etc while keeping the ipod in my pocket. so far haven't used it much because i have been doing the podcasts and also playing solitarie and mahjongg and pacman and tetris lol. the calendar and contacts sync to outlook, and while i already have my phoen that does that, it's still pretty neat. i don't like the photos, it has one view that lumps them all together and a second that shows only the top level of the hierarchy how i have them organized. i need to actually like specify which ones i want put ont here, make a separate directory for the ipod. then again, i did that for my songs too because i didn't actually want all of them on there even though i ahve them. Less exciting but costing twice as much is what i got jodi, fixing her car a few months ago.
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Posted using LJ Talk... [Dec. 8th, 2006|10:55 am]
last weekend we put up holiday decorations, so my house has some lights and an inflatable snowglobe outside along with a tree and menorah inside. Jodi's mom and mine came over and we had a nice time. then her sister joined us and we all went to dinner at macaroni grill which turned out to be not so nice, at least the food and service. the company was good. my mom tripped on the way up the stairs coming home and hurt herself, she broke her fall on the cement and i was afraid she'd broken her wrists. she never went to the emergency room for xrays which in retrospect we shoudl have taken her to make sure there were no stress fractures. but she coudl move them fine, she just has a big bruise and her arms are really sore still, and she was shaken up. she's feeling a little better but it was really scary, and i'm still concerned until she isn't so sore.
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Posted using LJ Talk... [Dec. 8th, 2006|10:51 am]
man what is with this weather? the temperature is all over the map - 70, 30, 28, 48, 19? wtf? and 19 degrees today is cold folks. brrr. not pleasant. i can handle down to about 30 beforei need my heavy coat which i wore today. it's puffy and i can't move in it too well, and my face and hands still get cold, it's just not pleasant.
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Posted using LJ Talk... [Nov. 28th, 2006|10:04 am]
this is a pretty cool list from tvland http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061127/ap_en_tv/tv_catchphrases_3 most of these are pretty ubiquitous indeed. more on vegas later. had a good time, except for gambling which we both had the worst luck we've ever had. i could have saved myself a chunk of money without blackjack, and a little more without poker. saw lots of stuff though. everything's expensive, even food. hotels are all gigantic.
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Off to Vegas for Turkey Day [Nov. 21st, 2006|10:11 am]
last day at work before vacay. gotta get up way early tomorrow like 5am for my 7:20 flight. and that's liek being right near the airport. the last thing i wanna do is miss it because i'm still going thru security on one of the busiest days of the year. I got stuff to finish here at work and i dunno if that is gonna happen, may have to wait until i return. Meanwhile cleaned up the hosue a bit over the weekend and it's an improvement, got rid of some clutter, threw away more stuff. Got a bunch of old books that i either read, or don't use, fiction and computer books, for obsolete technologies and things i just don't work on. anyone have any idea what to do witht hem? i'd hate to just toss them if i can sell or donate them, but then who knows if anyone wants them even... hope you all have a good turkey day
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Testing LJ Talk posting [Nov. 6th, 2006|10:40 am]
well my weekend didn't go entirely as planned. Saturday we visited Jodi's Unlce and Aunt and cousin in NJ and we were supposed to just have lunch and head on to a friend and his wife's nearby for a party. we ended up staying late talkign about family stuff and whatnot and then on the way to the party, i was making a uturna nd hit a curb (it was dark and there was a dip and i just didn't see it) and immediately knew i had blown out my tire. So i changed that and we went tot he party (we were already right there) and stayed for like 1/2 hour and went back to the the family's to sleep. Meanwhile waiting at the light to make a left, some lady just drove right into me from behind. maybe she was drunk or medicated or just not paying attentioon, i dunno. no damage done, but i was fried already, it was a long day. Then a deer ran across in front of us and so i thought we were going to hit it and go for the tri fecta.

We had breakfast the next mornign and then got a tire eventually, ended up staying for dinner and made it home. We had redropped Jodi's car off on saturday at the shop for a quick fix but they were closed sunday byt he time we got back (which i had completely frogotten about). i picxked it up this morning, luckily i am able to walk to the mechanic's shop. but then i was in a little later than i wanted to be at work of course. and i didn't get up early, i was so exhausted (and still am) from all that driving, and sleeping ona pullout that wasn't too comfy. Jodi didn't sleep much either. I need to get some rest tonight
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