Bullet Bundle

I've been meaning to write, even put it on my To Do list in my brand spankin' new Franklin Covey planner. I'll admit I procrastinated on Tuesday and Wednesday and then Thursday and Friday sort of got away from me. But I'm here now. And so I don't run on, and on, and on, I'm going to try and just hit the main points.

• So yeah, I finally got my new Franklin Covey planner on Monday, well after the start of the year. I like to buy my planner refills in person because in my mind a planner is an organizational tool much like a purse, and I would rarely buy a purse sight unseen. So I made trips to all 3 of the Franklin Covey stores near us only to find that they've been closed down. Not all that surprising really given the economy, but all 3 of them? So anyhow, I ended up ordering online after the new year started and just got it.

• I finished loading my entire CD collection into iTunes and I've discovered I can no longer sync my iPod because I now have 12G of music and only 8G of storage on the device. So now I'm slowly listening to everything in the library and weeding out the songs I really do not care for and placing songs into playlists. I'm looking into ways to sync just the playlists and not the entire library full of files. (If any of you know the secret to this, please share.)

• Also, I need to decide what to do with 100± CDs because selling them at 20¢ a pop on Amazon just isn't worth the trouble. A few options: donate them to the county library, donate them to a co-worker's child's school for a fundraising auction, or give them away for just the cost of shipping here on the blog.

• Reader Becca at Becca's Little World introduced me to an amazingly funny blog, Sleep Talkin' Man. The English husband talks in his sleep and the wife puts the random things he says up on a blog. Some of the funnier things I've read there:

Hey, don't... don't say anything. Why don't you put it in an email, then I can ignore it at my pleasure.

Shhhhhhhhh. shhhhhhhhh. I'm telling you: your voice, my ears. A bad combination.

Do you like what you see? No? Well, bloody look harder. Strain your eyes!

• I know there was something funny (to me anyways) that I wanted to write about and I was so sure that it was so funny that I couldn't possibly forget so I didn't write myself a note about it and guess what…I plumb forgot what it was now.

Anyhow, as soon as I do my hair, we're off to Sacramento to sell the car. Whee!

Subbie Drama

And it's a darned good thing we didn't sell the car this weekend because mine wouldn't start when I tried to leave for work this morning. So I'm working from home today while I try to figure out what's wrong and make arrangements to get it fixed. My guess is the battery is dead dead dead.

There's no clicky noise when I try to start the car, so that makes me think the ignition switch could be a factor, but the alarm, radio, and door locks won't work either and the car is approaching 5 years old, so the battery is definitely a huge piece of the problem. Luckily we still have Scoob's car so we can try to jump it and run about for parts if we need to. (Not that we have any tools to do anything with the parts.)

I need to take the Subbie to the shop anyhow. Actually tried to do it before we left for North Carolina, but there was a good chance they'd need to keep the car overnight to finish the work and life was just a little hectic already approaching the holidays and I didn't want to risk not getting my car back before we left town and then getting stuck with "storage" fees.

And what needs to be done to the car besides the battery? Well I'm glad you asked. I'm about to roll 96,000 on the odometer and I haven't had the 90,000 mile service done. It's been about 9,000 since the last oil change and tire rotation. (I know, I know.) And I received a recall notice at the beginning of December. Apparently there's a fuel valve in the fuel tank reservoir that is not functioning as designed and they need to replace it.

As I understand it there's the fuel tank, and then there's also this reservoir so that when the tank is empty, it's not truly empty and the engine will draw fuel from this reservoir. Only problem is that the yahoos that designed this thing used a one-way fuel valve between the reservoir and the tank, so sure the engine can draw fuel from the reservoir but the reservoir can't refill because it's a one-way valve. So yeah, gotta get that fixed.

Okay, and my check engine light came on right around the same time I got the recall notice. The check engine light is on solid while the cruise control light flashes. I did a bit of digging on the internets and found that this is something of a common problem for the Subarus and apparently Subaru has had a very difficult time fixing it properly. Most people I've found online have had recurring issues with this.

So, since I have to take it in for service anyhow (and I know I can't pass smog tests if the check engine light is on) I'll at least give them the opportunity to try to fix it. If they can't, I may take it to a tech in Santa Rosa. A friend at work had the same problem with her Subbie and her mechanic eventually fixed the problem (after, like, 7 tries), but he's in Santa Rosa.

And, I really would still like to put a trailer hitch on the Subbie. But I'm thinking I'd better wait to see if they can fix the check engine light problem before I shell out the cash for a hitch. Because if they can't resolve the problem I'm going to need to get rid of the car.

Almost, But Not Quite

Well, we almost made it to Sacramento this weekend to sell Scoob's car. Almost, except that we never left the house. And it's mostly my fault. Okay not mostly—it's all my fault. First I chose to sleep in. Then I dragged my ass getting ready. But what really did it was the fact that neither of us had given any thought to what else we wanted to do as long as we were making the trip.

It's a 3 hour trip there and back and that's if traffic cooperates. And seeing as how ski season is in full swing and we'll be on the same road as all those people heading to Heavenly, Northstar, Boreal, Kirkwood, Sugar Bowl, Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Sierra-at-Tahoe, Mt. Rose, and Diamond Peak (and those are just the slopes near Tahoe) you know traffic won't be cooperating. So anyhow, I wanted to make the trip seem less chore-like and plan something interesting to do as long as we were there, but neither of us really gave it any thought and that's why we didn't go.

Now we're planning on next weekend.

I've Got the Shutter Bug

I've discovered that I really like taking pictures. I smile a lot when I'm taking pictures. I'm a grinnin' fool, I tell you. Scoob laughs at me, but he likes to see me smile like that. I caught my reflection the other day while taking photos and I looked so happy. All the way happy deep into my eyes and I thought, "I know that girl. She has a woman's face with lines around the eyes and mouth, but I know that girl."

I kind of get lost in time when I've got my camera out and trying to capture something. It's like I can detach myself and temporarily step outside of life and everyday worries and just enjoy the moment. I'm getting better at gauging whether I should adjust the aperture setting or shutter speed to get the effect I want. I still can't take a good picture of a person worth a damn unless they're totally posing, but I'm working on it. And I think I'm getting better at composition and framing as well. At least that's what people have been telling me lately. And seeing as how it's not just Mom and Scoob telling me, I'm thinking it might actually be true. Could it be that maybe I've finally found a creative outlet?

I was totally jazzed when I was using that tripod to take pictures of Christmas lights. It was cold out that night, and I was shivering because I didn't grab a jacket, and my nose was drippy because I was just getting over being sick, and I loved every second of it. As I folded up the tripod and headed back into the house I thought "I could totally get into this" I was thinking about hiking, taking nature photos; exploring new cities, taking architectural photos; and visiting gardens for botanicals. So yeah, I think I've just added a tripod to my wish list.

Anyhoodle, here are a few more photos from our North Carolina trip:

We saw this flower at the florist stand in A Southern Season and I
couldn't resist. I tried describing Southern Season to someone as part
Sur la Table, part World Market, part Pasta Shop (gourmet foodie
store in Berkeley) but all of it on crack.

Clearly this was taken before I got my hands on a tripod.
I still like it though.

In addition to hosting Christmas Eve dinner,
our friends also had a desert and wine tasting party.

Thankfully, I took pictures of more than I ate.

Sparkly. (I so think that should be spelled sparkley,
but spellcheck disagrees.)

The Duke University chapel.

Stained glass in the chapel.

More stained glass. It takes such a slow shutter speed to get the
colors that it's very difficult to keep in focus without a tripod.

I think this is the Divinity building at Duke University.
I love the contrast of orange-ish stones and blue sky.

This could be more of the Divinity building (it's not labeled on the
campus map), but again with the orange stone and Carolina blue sky.
And the moon!

A Plague on Both Your PCs

Or all 3 of them. I'm not sure why that line from Romeo and Juliet came to mind but it did. And I shared. Aren't you happy?

We've been having computer problems again. It all started in December when the graphics card in Scoob's gaming computer started acting up. The folks at Falcon NW are great and have been taking care of him. Then there was the disc shattering experience with my Dell. Then Scoob got the replacement graphics card installed on his Falcon… and the hard drive took a dirt nap. Then, to top it all off, the sound card on Scoob's HP laptop just stopped working Sunday night. Kinda hard to telecommute and attend webinars without a sound card.

Scoob's Falcon is about 5 years old but got a complete upgrade in August. My Dell was new out of the box in August. And the HP laptop was a replacement from work for the last one that died, guess when—in August. I do hereby solemnly swear to avoid making major electronics acquisitions in August. You can't make me.

On a positive note, the repair tech from Dell came by today and replaced my disc drive and all the opticals. So at least we have one fully functioning computer in the house now. HP FedEx'ed parts for the laptop which got here this morning but aren't installed yet. And we're waiting for the new hard drive for the Falcon, which is currently sitting on Scoob's desk behind me with its casing open and guts spilling out. Charming sight.

For Your Information

Oh. My. God. This remix of the Slap Chop commercial came on tv last night and I was stunned. Like a deer in the headlights I was. That is until I started laughing uncontrollably, but even then I couldn't tear my eyes away. As if the original commercial weren't bad enough ("you're gonna love my nuts").




Ok, off to physical therapy and then work. I've had a solid 2 weeks off work and I wonder if I can find my way back to the office?

Scratch That Idea

So we did some running about today. See, I haven't done any grocery shopping since we got home and I think I've raided the pantry all I can so we went out for a Chinese lunch. There wasn't much in the way of Chinese restaurants while we were in NC—Thai and Japanese, but not much in the way of Chinese. Then we did the grocery shopping, which means I get to start cooking again. Yea me. But it also means we'll save money. So I guess there's that.

After unloading the groceries and putting things away, we headed to Walmart to make a couple returns/exchanges and walked out with a new Brita water filter pitcher. The one I'd been using for years had sprung a leak and it was just time to replace it.

Then I sat down to start listing items on Amazon for sale. First up, some of the CDs that I managed to get copied before the CD drive said enough already. I looked up 3 or 4 CDs and checked what other sellers were charging—20¢ plus $2.98 s/h. Seriously, 20¢? Okay, so forget that.

Then I looked up some of the Disney VHS tapes. I thought for sure these might be worth trying to sell, but no. The best price I saw was for the Sleeping Beauty Limited Edition—$1.98. And the worst? Oliver & Company for 1¢. A freakin' penny!

Okay. Clearly this is not going to be worth the effort. I'll get Scoob to bring up the boxes of books (maybe tomorrow) and take a look at those. But honestly, I'm not very hopeful. I'm now seriously thinking about donating everything to the library or Good Will and taking a write-off.

Okay, off to cook dinner. I totally scored at the store today and got flank steak Florentine pinwheels for about $4.00. So along with a salad, dinner should be delish.

I'll leave you with some of the pictures I took at the Sarah Duke Botanical Gardens, not that there was a whole lot to see with it being winter and all.