o/` Massive Attack – Dissolved Girl o/`

So I was thinking last night while reading through the chatroom names on psiblade (irc.psiblade.net), and I came across #Vampires. This is a chat room that *tried* to move from irc.scifi.com (failed I guess, there is still one on scifi), and from what I understand, these people play a morphed-for-the-web version of Vampire: The Masquerade. So THAT got me remembering the fun I had playing Vampire, and since I didn’t have much web access, let alone a web log back when I played, this part of my entry will be a bit of “remembering” %)

I had played a little Dungeons and Dragons, but I guess I wasn’t interested enough to get into learning all the information needed to play a successful campaign. But Vampire was different. Vampires are cool! And White Wolf‘s Vampire “Mythology” is quite interesting… I found a copy of Revelations of the Dark Mother in a pile on our dining room table (at the time I was living with a bunch of roommates, stuff just got piled on the table when we’d clean. Anyway, the book is basically about Lilith, and although the book was fictional, it had some interesting truths to it that I was dying to weed out, it turned into a bit of a project, and while doing this I discovered the game that this book was a prop for. So the next time I went up to Syracuse, we bought a few books… a couple of our friends got REALLY into it.. our buddy Pat ended up selling something like $200 worth of Magic: The Gathering cards to finance his buying of tons of Vampire books so we could put together a campaign. My boyfriend at the time (the evil ex!) got into it too, and bought some source books, and stuff about one of the clans. I was content to just focus on Clan Ravnos. Ravnos is a clan that co-existed with Gypsies (in retrospect this choice on my part played a huge part in my real life too, I still can’t seem to settle down ;)), but were mostly wiped out during the Nazi Holocaust. Anyway, it was cool %) and fun! We were allowed to clean out the back room of the card shop we played Magic at so we could play vampire back there, we weren’t allowed to play in the main area of the shop because of the “violent and sometimes “adult” nature of vampire games” heh. Ah those were the days. Sometimes when the card shop was closed, or we couldnt get together for the scheduled time we’d have all-night sessions, where our friends would come over and we’d eat, play vampire, listen to music, fun stuff %) At one time we ended up playing two separate campaigns, one with people who could show up at the card shop, one with people who could come to our nighttime sessions. My ex headed the one at our apartment, and Pat was the GM (game master) for the one at the card shop… Once my ex killed Pat’s character for hitting on my character in his campaign… so the next day in Pat’s campaign he put my character into a situation where I’d die if I didnt drink the blood of my ex’s cousin (a kid about 3 years younger than me that had a very public crush on me)… My ex was furious, but it’s just a game, and humorous parts like that make it all the more memorable and fun %) YAY for geeky role-playing game! *PrincessLeia2 rolls the dice

Ugh, I hate it when I get all snuggley warm, with big comfy socks on and then I go into the bathroom and step in water, UGH!

Ah so last night was pretty boring, ate dinner, watched some tv, read for a little bit. But as always, boring is OK! We are supposed to get a snowstorm tonight! Well, it’s not exactly the normal definition of snow storm that I’m used to, not quite a north-easter (or anything like the last storm, that was *historical*), but they are expecting a good 4-8 inches, woo! I love snow!

So I discovered Celestia today. It’s a program that lets you “travel” around the solar system, and g
alaxy, it’s really great looking. Of course you need a decent graphics card to handle it %)

Ah! So I got my PHP page all done for my site! I installed it last night! My site doesnt really look any different, I changed the layout of the updates so they dont look like crap in netscape anymore. But you cant tell from the page that there is any php in use, it is much love! Hehe. PrincessLeia.com has gotten over 9000 hits now %) YAY! And Wallaceandgromit.net just broke the 700 mark, the number of visits there has been increasing steadily %) Makes me very happy! I love my websites…

I guess I am going to go try to get something done today, I’ve wasted most of the day already chatting and playing with Celestia, doh! *wanders off*

o/` Gob – Paint It Black o/`

I’ve been going through all my mp3s since thrusday, I’m on the G’s! Hehe… this is taking forever. I want to get rid of all the corrupted ones because they are annoying. Then I’ll regenerate my mp3 list, because it has changed a bunch since november.

So I never realized how easy setting up a wireless network in windows is these days. But I was on the phone with my mother the other night (she called me, amazing! It had only been two months since the last time I called her…). Anyway, she says she can get online with a “wireless thing” ..Eh? Well in the end I realized it was a little wireless network, apparently they are pretty much plug and play now, nice! So easy even my mother can do it!

I ended up calling a different doctor yesterday to get an appointment since i don’t feel like waiting the months to find out what is or isnt wrong with me, I have an appointment March 20th, yay!

I still have this cold, but it’s mostly going away, I’m still tired and I have this cough (i’ll probably have the cough for a while), but at least I’m hungry again, and my sinus congestion isnt as bad. I didn’t take any DayQuil all day yesterday! Only took NyQuil at night so I would be able to sleep. I felt sorta groggy this morning, but on a whole much better, yay *waves goodbye to her icky cold*

Anyway, I am in the mood to work on my site now, so I am going to go clean up that php script, make it pretty, and package it up for my buddy ph1gm3nt. And I’ll make mine specially pretty for my site… maybe add some more advanced content if i am in the mood.

*wanders off*

o/` Enya – No Holly For Miss Quinn o/`

The cold seems to be going away luckily, I woke up this morning and I still have the cough, but the sore throat and sinus congestion have mostly gone away, yay! Don’t worry, I won’t go out partying tonight ;) I am going to continue to try to relax to make sure the rest of this cold goes away.

I got some bad news today. Uh, if you read my web log for linux stuff and not for my “life” then I strongly suggest you skip this paragraph %) It’s not for the faint of heart! I had a gynecologist appointment last month, it was a bit stressful because I had an irregular pap smear the time before. But 4 weeks had passed and I didnt hear anything, so I assumed that this time it came back fine. Then this morning I get a call, irregular again. They want me to go in for a “colposcopy” I have to make an appointment soon *sigh* I got online as soon as I was off the phone to learn about what this was, apparently it’s not painful, and it’s a rather short precedure But it still scares the crap out of me, what will they find? One of the possibilities for this is just some sort of infection or inflammation, but since it’s been almost a year between visits i think that’s unlikely. It could be dysplasia, it could be just some harmless cells that are irregular (but good to keep an eye on), or it could be early signs of cancer. Cancer doesnt run in my family, and I don’t believe I have ever been exposed to anything that would cause it, but it still scares me. Especially since it’s so easy to look at a cancer victim and think that it “can’t happen to me” heh, well it can … I just called to try to make an appointment, all booked, dammit! I need to call next week to see if I can get an appointment, ugh… This definately has not helped my mood any *sigh* Before getting that phone call I was actually getting out of my depressive rut, but now I’m right back in it, I am a notorious worrier and this wait will not be good. I think I need to talk to a woman about this, I’m scared… any volunteers? Heh…

Ok you can start reading again ;) I am not sure what started me feeling depressed yesterday. It was just one of those days when I wake up and for some reason I am thinking of all the reasons I suck. I guess part of it is that I am sick, it’s like I’m *always* sick, even though I know that to not be true. I dunno, I hate feeling depressed, I really do have a nice life, but of course thinking “i have no reason to be depressed” inevitably makes it worse because I think there is something wrong with me. Bleh… stupid depression.

I’m doing pretty good on that php thing, I worked out a few bugs it’s almost done, I just need to clean it up, finish the readme, and get it all tarred up. I don’t know if I will do that this afternoon. I probably could finish it, but I think I am too depressed and not feeling like doing anything. But maybe working on it will get my mind off of things. And just a quick thanks to Teanah for sending me that mycathatesyou.com link, I was amused %)

So I am finally going to post all *5* book reviews of the books I’ve read in the past three weeks…

Guards! Guards!, By Terry Pratchett, 355 Pages
This, another book in Pratchett’s Discworld series, tells of a group of people who decide to cas a spell to raise a dragon. Of course things don’t go according to plan and we are introduced to that Ankh-Morpork City Watch. I really enjoyed this book. Not only was a lot of attention paid to the big dragon, but more than ever there is a great amount of time spent focusing on the small swamp dragons! I love the dragons. So Pratchett’s usual with, humor and memorable characters is paired with a story that will entertain all sorts of dragon lovers, a great book.

Homebody, By Orson Scott Card, 430 pages
As with most of Card’s stand-alone books, th
is one starts out fairly slow. It shows the read a quite normal situation, the characters are regular people, which allows the reader to feel a sort of kinship with them. About 130 pages into the book, the plot takes a turn for the strange. Don Lark, a master craftsman who specializes in restoring old houses, purchases an old mansion in a quiet southern town. His plans to renovate are quickly influenced by several strange occurances. A trio of old women from next door warn him of the house’s evils, a young woman is discovered to be living in the house, and some of his own personal demons come back to face him. I enjoyed this book, the second half I read almost in one sittings because I just couldn’t tear myself away from it. Another great book by Card!

Intensity, Dean Koontz, 436 pages
This novel tells the story of Chyna Shepard, a young, shy woman with a troubled past, who finds herself in the path of a serial rapist and murderer. I can’t say I enjoyed this book much, the story was gripping and of course I wanted to know how it ended, but I was frustrated at the “cheap” writing style of Koontz that keeps the reader interested, and turns a 24-hour ordeal into a 400+ page book. The ending was alright, but it felt rushed, like Koontz struggles with resolutions, or maybe he does this intentionally to satiate his impatient audience? Unless I hear awsome reviews from someone I trust I think I’ll stear clear of his books in the future…

Eric, By Terry Pratchett, 197 pages
This is another book in the discworld series, and it brings back the Wizard Rincewind! Eric is a teenage demonologist who follows in his grandfather’s footsteps by being terribly unsucessful. Instead of a demon, he summons Rincewind (who is stuck in another dimention, after events in a previous book, Sourcery), much to the dismay of the demon king Astfgl. Not believing that Rincewind is not a demon, Eric demands him to grant him three wishes. While executing this request, they travel on a humorous journey through time and space, and quite literally to Hell and back. I enjoyed this book, the luggage tags along as always, and Rincewind’s clumsy cowardice is as entertaining as is always is. Short but sweet!

Ender’s Game, By Orson Scott Card, 324 pages
I first read this book about four years ago (1999), maybe it wasn’t what I expected, maybe I just wasn’t ready for it, but whatever the reason, I didnt enjoy it nearly as much as I did this time. It tells the story of Andrew “Ender” Wiggins, a brilliant child who is chosen to be, with dozens of his peers, trained for military combat. The enemy? An alien race of insect-like creatures that attacked the human race decades before. Card is masterful when it comes to making the reader feel what the main character feels, and this book is no exception, Ender is so REAL, and even if you can’t relate to who he is as a person, you can understand him. The story is amazing, it’s sad, yet full of triumph, at the end you are not sure whether to smile or cry, but you don’t want to put this book down.

Yay books. Honestly, I don’t know why I didnt like Ender’s Game when I first read it, it’s a really awsome book… ok so my opinion may be a bit biased because of my known fandom for Orson Scott Card, but this one DID win the Hugo and Nebula awards %) I am going to start to read Children Of Dune tonight… hopefully I can find a friend to tape the scifi mini-series of it for us (we don’t have cable).

Anyway… wow it’s gotten late %) *wrote this entry on and off all day* … right, I should go do stuff *wanders off*

I am depressed, and I have no reason to be depressed… that makes it so much worse.

o/` Red Delicious – Bring You Down o/`

So Naru_Chan dropped into #13thHour this morning, it was an interesting time… and the room was unusually busy, which is cool. And earlier this morning neofreak dropped by, but was quite quiet ;) .. Ah I forgot to mention, MorganHorse used to drop by there “back in the day” when we were in high school *gasp* Oh so long ago that seems now…

I still feel pretty crappy today. Yesterday we ended up going to Unos with a friend of ourse, I felt ok… and as I always STUPIDLY do when I am feeling better I decided to take advantage of it and I had a couple beers *sigh* I came home after Unos and crawled into bed and slept for 2 hours. Woke up around 9 am and felt *awful* … a feeling that carried into this morning. Luckily I was able to relax by the fire last night snuggled in a blanket and finished Eric, great book, Rincewind is hilarious. I watched some CourtTV last night, from about 1 – 3 am ’cause I was feeling so crappy but wasnt exactly tired. I can’t say I slept very good, woke up with my chest hurting again *sigh* … S’ok tho a cold can’t last *too* long, and I have lots of time to rest.

I talked to my youngest sister Annette (13, well 14 in about 10 days…), I confronted her about her school problems, and she was pretty unresponsive, gives me the same “i dont care” answers as usual… I hope she knows at least that I’m concerned, and takes SOMETHING I say seriously. Then she started joking about being a white trash ho… like that is cool or something? Gah… she is utterly hopeless! And it makes me sad.

I guess I am going to go lie down ’cause i dont feel good. I am reading Ender’s Game again, since it’s been about 4 years since I’ve read it, and I am going to be starting to read the entire series. *Yawns and wanders off*

o/` Craig Armstrong – Rise o/`

Have you ever tried to do scripting/coding/programming after taking DayQuil? Well don’t, all you end up with is 3 hours wasted and a big mess of incoherent code *grins* Needless to say I didn’t get anything done on that script yesterday. It’s ok though, I’ll have plenty of time next week.

Well last night escapepenguin joined the ranks of xanga people who have entered into the vast depths of my favorite chat room, #13thHour. He follows in the footsteps of sevenoverzero (yes, I saw you come in one night, don’t try to deny it, too bad it was dead), and radbatik who visited often enough to be put on the members page. It’s cool to see people dropping by, too bad I wasnt there when escapepenguin came in, I was relaxing by the fire reading that Dean Koontz book (on a side note, I agree with you escapepenguin about Koontz, definately a “ramen writer” the book held my interest but sucked, hehehe). Myk (Time is the nick he uses in IRC) came into the livingroom with that moderately jealous look on his face that he gets when a guy drops into the room saying he knows me to tell me someone I knew had dropped by… poor Myk, sometimes I dont think he realizes how much I love him (% Anyway, by the time I wandered over to the computer it was too late *shrugs* be sure to come back some time! That invitation extends to everyone of course %)

So last night when Myk came home I was feeling really zoned out. I hate that! I ended up snuggling with Myk and we took a short nap (I was so exhausted), then he got up, I didn’t even hear him, which is odd… I woke up finally around 6 not feeling much better than when I had lied down, Myk told me to stay in bed while he made dinner. He’s such a sweetie %) We had a nice fire last night too, luckily had some of those starter logs because the wood outside had gotten snowed on, and while the temperature went up last night it melted so the wood was *wet* and just didn’t want to burn. Myk did manage to get a really nice fire going tho, it turned out to be a really nice relaxing evening, YAY! I love our new livingroom setup, it’s the perfect snuggling/reading place now, I always feel reluctant when I have to go to bed from there, hehe.

So it’s raining out. Yesterday the temperature was in the 50s! So all the snow is melting… Usually I’d be sad about this, but because the roadcrews around here arent great at removing snow, there are snow piles in all the worst places! Half the roads we drive down to get to the local grocery store are almost blind to people coming out of a side road, and the people coming out of the side road are just as blind to oncoming traffic… I don’t worry too much about my own driving skills when it comes to this, but there are some crazy crazy drivers out there, and they love to cut me off. So the sooner those huge piles are gone the better. Oh that makes me feel so old %( Thinking about the practicality instead of the fun.

I finished Intensity last night, that markes the 3rd book I’ve read since I last posted reviews… I should get on top of that. I’m reading Eric now, a Terry Pratchett book. It’s only about 200 pages so I’ll probably finish it by the end of this weekend. *Frowns at her bookshelf* so few books I havent read! I still have about $20 on that gift certificate to barnes and noble that my mother gave me for christmas, and I wouldnt mind reading Orson Scott Card’s Homecoming series again, hmmm… Yay books! %)

Oooh I hates colds! Each year is almost the same tho, Around October-November I get a cough (no other symptoms) that lasts for weeks, every year whoever I am living with says “you should see a doctor, you have had that cough for a long time” … I never do because I know it’ll go away eventually. Then, sometime when the weather is changing in the winter I will catch
a cold that’ll be pretty icky. Luckily I don’t often run fevers, havent had one in *years* but I still do not like feeling tired and coughing so much, bleh. Ok, I’ll stop complaining now, I just hope Myk doesnt get sick.

I spoke to my sister Heather (PurpleDragon11, 19 years old) yesterday, she seems to be doing alright. Of course she HAD to tell me that her Canadian boyfriend now has a warrent out for his arrest. “It’s all a big misunderstanding” oh boy! A great misunderstanding and yet he doesnt want to turn himself in to get this worked out like any normal person would do? Hmmm smells fishy! But it’s her life, I remember what it was like at her age, falling for a complete loser… nothing I can say will make it better, but I clearly expressed my disapproval. *shrugs* I guess all of us Krumbach girls have a tendancy to lose our heads when it comes to men, ugh! Ah, and she informed me that you can get a US-Canadian dual citizenship. She assured me of this after she mentioned that she might move up there after graduating college, oy… I guess she has “ties” (family) to the US so she can get this dual citizenship, I don’t know, I havent looked into it, but moving to another country for a guy? Oh man, what if things dont work out? You aren’t a couple towns or states away from family, but in another country! What a mess… she’s only in her freshman year of college tho, hopefully she’ll see the light, or this guy will clean up his act before then. Anyway, she asked me when I was coming to visit, I told her about the car troubles and she seemed to understand, I’m sure she’ll relay that to my father. I need to email my Aunt Elaine too, she wanted us to visit *sigh* that is definately not an option anytime soon, stupid cars! Rar.

I doubt we’ll do anything today, I don’t really feel up to going out anyway. Maybe we’ll make another fire this afternoon, mmmm that sounds nice %)

I have to say I am really liking this Linux Chix mailing list. The PLUG list is full of men with big egos who get off on proving each other wrong while exhibiting their “vast knowledge” of linux. It’s really not very helpful to someone like me, and prone to flames %) I don’t know why the linuxchix one is so much different, maybe because there are more newbies on the linuxchix list? Maybe because most women dont have that ego problem? *grins* Whatever the reason I have actually replied to a couple posts (I have never replied to anything on PLUG), and I feel really comfortable with it.

Yeah, so I should go grab some breakfast (or lunch now?) and take my daily dose of Quilly so I stop sneezing and coughing all over my poor desk, hehehe *wanders off*

o/` Better Than Ezra – At The Stars o/`

This is going to be short.

I officially have a cold. Yesterday I coughed so much that I made the pain in my chest get even worse, and when I woke up this morning I felt like my insides had been taken out, stomped on, and put back inside me… ugh, not to mention the fact that it felt like I hadn’t slept at all. I cleaned the apartment like usual this morning. I’ll have to leave the mopping til tomorrow, I’m just so exhausted.

I actually got quite a bit of work done on that php stuff yesterday once I pushed myself into being interested in it. The mysql database has 4 columns, one for an id number, one for title of article/update, one for article/update text, and one for status. The ID will be used to reference each entry (it auto-incriments with each entry), the title and text of the update are sorta self explainatory %) and the status will be either “active” or “inactive” which will be read by the php, if inactive it will not be posted on the page, if active it will be.. this can be toggled easily by the php admin interface. The Admin interface will allow you to add new updates, edit old ones, and as mentioned before, toggle active/inactive. It’s actually fairly close to being finished too %) After I finish I am going to put in comments and write a readme file about putting it together, mostly for that friend of mine who was interested in the script, but if I am going to go through all this work I’ll probably post a tar.bz2 file of it on my website as well, we’ll see.

Anyway, I am going to go try to focus on working on that script some. Stupid DayQuil *zones out*

o/` Peter Murphy – Subway Epilouge o/`

I just read back through the past couple entries, boy what a week! I don’t do well under stress, and this was all quite stressful… I am so happy it’s over.

I woke up this morning with a lot of tightness in my chest, each time I breathed in I’d start a restricted asthma-like coughing fit, it hurtys %( … hopefully it’s just a morning thing (I often have cold-like symptoms when I wake up in the morning that go away before noon). But until it goes away, yuck, I hate feeling sick.

*Goes to take a bath*

That didn’t help much *sigh*

I am not in the mood to work on that php update thing, bleh… Maybe I can just zone out most of the morning and I’ll eventually get into the mood. I think it’s because today is like a monday, Myk went back to work this morning, so although it’s thursday, I still have the “i have all week to do stuff” lazy feeling %(

I shouldn’t complain so much, what’s with me today?

I started reading Dean Koontz’s Intensity last night (finished Homebody wednesday). It’s starting out ok… Koontz is a pop author, so employs pretty cheat tricks to keep the reader interested, and it’s a bit easy to read for my taste *shrugs* I’ll read it tho, the story seems pretty good I guess.

Anyway, I put together a little page that has some of the pictures from the snow storm this past weekend, YAY! Check it out: Snow Storm 2003

Bleh, I’m obviously not in the mood to write %) I am going to try to get some work done on that update php project, yes, I will MAKE myself work on it *wanders off*

o/` X – Crystal Ship o/`

They just towed the Jeep away. Hmmm, maybe some history would be good %)

Yesterday was quite busy, and I guess I started getting out of the “freaking out” mode and into the “depression” mode. But then I tried to get ahold of myself. In the end, Myk is the one who needs to worry about getting everything paid for, going to work, etc.. so what am I to do? I HAVE to be there for him emotionally through this whole car trouble, so I can’t be weak. I was able to pull myself out of the depression. We rented a car last night (Enterprise again… they said they’d pick us up at 4, instead they came at 5:30 and did all the paperwork in our doorway since the place was closed already. It was kinda sketchy. Sketchy! Hah! Anyway, we got a crappy Ford rental, decided to eat dinner… then go to the Toyota dealership to look at the Rav4’s.

We get to the dealership (after an interesting partially snowy drive in the stinky Ford, I HATE FORDS), take the Rav4 for a test drive, and it’s SOOO nice. Exactly what we need, and despite it being white, we decide that that’s the car we want (hey, we don’t have the time or money to be terribly picky here). It’s a 4-year lease, but not bad all around, we are very pleased.

Of course I have to make a HUGE fool of myself and freak out about driving it home. See, Myk had to drive the rental car back, so I was going to have to drive the BRAND NEW Rav4 home, eaaak! On big scary 309! AH! … ok it’s not that bad, I should really have more confidence in my driving skills, but I *did* feel really stupid for asking. Anyway, the sales guy said it was no problem… and we ended up just driving to the rental car place, and then we drove the guy back to the dealership. On the way back Myk and Will (the salesguy, who was young and not an asshole like most young salesguys) started talking about Jeeper (the deadish ’95 Jeep Cherokee). At the mention of what kind of car it was Will said “really? What are you doing with it?” At that point we hadnt really thought that far… and Will said that he had been looking for one, we told him it didnt run, but apparently he’s a mechanic and can get it fixed up as his “playcar” Woo! So we had someone to take the jeep off our hands! He even offered to give us some money for it and take care of all the towing fees and fees associated with changing the title over and everything. So my reluctance to drive the Rav4 back turned out to be really great for us! %)

Anyway, money is going to be tight for some time, I mean who expects to have a car die on them? The Jeep had been running great. Luckily we will survive, it’s not like when I was living in Seneca Falls with no money %) It’s nice to NOT be in a situation where you just HOPE that nothing goes wrong, and get screwed in anything ever does…

Bleh. I hate cars.

Myk took a day off from work again today so we could get everything worked out with the new car stuff, and get the Jeep sold to Will (these things are very hard to do on weekends!). I guess everything is for the best now, I mean the air conditioning in the Jeep stopped working a while back, the rear windshield wiper fell off during an icey storm this year, it had begun to rust… we did need a new car, and I am quite fond of this Rav4 %)

Best of all, we got through Sat-Today without having a single beer! YAY! Can this be proof I dont have an alcohol problem?

Hmmm what else has been going on? Isn’t this enough!? Gah… Hehe. I am feeling better now that most of this is cleared up tho, even if we have to eat ramen noodles for the next 4 months %D

So I think tomorrow I am finally going to get around to writing that PHP update thing on my site, like a little admin page (behind my firewall, I am veerrrry paranoid) that will update an “Updates” database (MySQL)… updates are the updates on the index.php site of princessleia.com. From this admin page I could add, edit, and delete any updates that appear on the index
page. After everything I’ve done with PHP recently it shouldnt be difficult %) And a friend in #goddess recently asked me if I knew of an existing script that does this (I don’t), and I offered to send him the finished files. Yeah, so that shouldnt take much time, it’s a good project to occupy me these next couple days before the weekend %)

I guess that’s it for now… *wanders off*

o/` Bel Canto – In Zenith o/`

Where to begin?

Yesterday morning I woke up, looked outside.. there were flurries. I looked at the weather forcast and they were saying then that we’d get 8 inches by monday morning, woo! Around 1 I woke Myk up before the snow got too bad, so we could return the rental car (luckily they had a key dropoff as well, so we don’t have to worry about getting there today). Anyway, I should have woken up Myk earlier to go to the car place, there was two inches of snow on the ground by the time we left home, and I guess I am spoiled by the good job New York and Maine crews do on snowy roads, PA doesnt know anything about snow removal! It was a mess! I drove the Jeep, behind Myk who was driving the little Metro.

So we’re halfway to Enterprise, I stop at a stop light, and the Jeep stalls! AH! It had *never* done that before! I get all scared, but I’m able to start it again… it stalled twice more before getting to Enterprise. We pull into the little parkinglot there, and I hop into the passenger’s seat and smoke starts coming from the Jeep, FUCK!!! (I don’t often swear, but as recent entries have shown, cars drive me to it!). I shut it off. We realize it’s not *too* bad and that we can just drive it home real quick. It stalls out once more while driving home (Myk is much better at keeping a car from stalling then I am, and he has much more experience with Jeeps), then the engine starts knocking (like when you have no oil), and something makes this huge rattling noise, we stall out again in front of a Wawa (a chain convenience store in this area), we are able to pull into the parkinglot. Things are not good. After about 5 minutes we are able to start the Jeep again, we’re only about 1 1/2 miles from home. We finally get home, park the Jeep, go inside, and go into a prolonged state of panic.

What do you do without a car? Myk needs a car to get to work! etc, etc, etc…

Finally, we get sorta calmed down… I guess we’re going to look into getting a new vehicle, maybe a new jeep? We are thinking about leasing this time. *shrugs* anyway, in the meantime we’ll have to rent a car, YUCK! Luckily the forcast is better for the rest of this week, so if we rent a little crappy cheap car it shouldnt be too much of a problem. Still, it’s expensive to rent a car, expensive to buy a car… we werent expecting this *at all* especially since we just spent freaking $400 to fix it! Pisses me off that Pep Boys didnt see that the Jeep was fucking falling apart… we are NEVER going back there *sigh*

So the stress level was much higher than we expected yesterday. Things just fucking sucked. I made some pasta, and we tried to relax, but it was difficult. We considered drinking some beer, but went for lots of caffeinated soda instead, luckily. I read for most of the afternoon, while Myk did some “shopping” for cars online. We had a fire in the fireplace, it was relaxing, but worrying about things kept creeping in the mood. Around 9 Myk said “We should move the couch so it’s facing the fireplace.” It’s a fairly known fact that rearranging furnature is an excellent cure for worry and depression %) It gets your mind off problems, and if things are rearranged it’s a nice feeling of acomplishment. Anyway, we decided to move the TV into the bedroom, make the couch face the fireplace, put the stero under the couch, hide the speakers between the turntables and the couch… (Pictures! Before and After. It’s really comfy %) and I feel much better having the fireplace as the focal point of the room, rather than the television. Anyway, around midnight we finally finished, it wasn’t just moving stuff, when we began all we knew was we wanted the couch in front of the fireplace… everything else took a lot of time to figure out %) It was nice moving everything around…

After that was finished, I sat down with a book and relaxed (see the “A
fter” picture). We had sorta silently decided not to mention the car troubles last night, and that helped us a lot. Sorta pushing off all responsibilities for the night (with the snow piling up outside we knew Myk wouldnt have to worry about getting into work this morning)… it turned out to be a fairly good night, in spite of everything.

There is close to 2 feet of snow on the ground, Myk has the day off of course, I believe this area was declared to be in a state of emergency. I love snow %) … but tomorrow we are going to have to figure out what we will do with the car situation… bleh, very stressful, I HATE CARS!!!

I guess I’m going to try to keep my mind off the troubles today… nothing is open around here, we can’t go anywhere, and worrying will only getme sick and depressed. I finished Guards! Guards! last night… started reading Orson Scott Card’s Homebody, it’s starting out slow
, but most of his best works do.

*Yawn* I’m gonna go wander off and see if there is anything to do… I gotta get caught up on the PLUG and LinuxChix lists, hmm… right. *wanders off*