This evening I discovered that the electrical outlets in my garage are wired in series. I discovered this because one of them is a GFI outlet, and something tripped it. I discovered it via the simple expedient of having a freezer full of meat turn rancid. I am not happy about this discovery. Fortunately there wasn’t much in the freezer, but it was still a lot of wasted food, and I *REALLY* hate throwing away food.
Grr.
Don’t use a BIG KNIFE as a pry bar.
Just thought you might want to know.
Someone very cool got me a Flickr Pro account, and I spent the entire evening playing with it. *Wow* it’s addicting.
On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in
the morning, the time and date will be
01:02:03 04/05/06.
Oh, yeah, there was something else.
This morning we went looking at cars. The price of gas has crossed that magical threshold where I have to start considering whether to get rid of the Jeep. I love my Jeep, but it gets 12 miles per gallon, which isn’t great. I have to start looking at vehicles that get better fuel consumption.
This is somewhat complicated by the fact that I have no car payment. So in order to get savings in fuel, I have to add a car payment. I’m not sure how much sense that makes. It’s all rather irritating.
So we looked primarily at the VW Beetles, convertibles. I think that we’ve decided that *IF* we have to get rid of the Jeep, that’s what we’ll get. We also looked at a PT Cruiser and a Mustang. Sarah didn’t like the Cruiser. We both loved the Mustang, but the gas mileage really isn’t much better, and they are pretty pricey.
I think we have decided to hang onto the Jeep for another year, and see what happens to gas prices. But the Jeep is also going on 9 years old, and I really want to have something that I can rely on, so maybe that decision will have to come again pretty soon anyway. 🙁
We looked at a Diesel VW Bug, and that gets crazy mileage. Apparently, according to the salescritter, US Diesel is far dirtier than European Diesel, and that’s why Diesel cars are so uncommon in the US. The US government, so keen on alternate fuel sources, and reducing our reliance on oil, are keeping these cars out because they produce more emissions, but they’re not encouraging the gas companies to clean up the Diesel.
I really hate our government sometimes.
We finally did some caching today, finding all four that we looked for. Unfortunately, they were all micros, or at least too small to have interesting things in them, so Sarah was somewhat disappointed.
I went to get my hair cut, and the barber (“hairdresser?”) was a little too enthusiastic. I’m pretty sure I haven’t had my hair this short since I was 15 and got that unfortunate crew cut. Oh, well, I suppose it’ll grow back. I feel a bit like a shorn sheep. On the plus side, I won’t have to comb it for a few weeks.
Meanwhile, not much else going on. Trying to write some conference presentations, and be somewhat prepared for my trip to Dublin next weekend. Nothing else planned for the weekend.
Skippy has announced CookieCast:
CookieCast.org presents a daily fortune, taken directly from real fortune cookies and read by me (with the occassional special guest).
I’ve been subscribed since the beginning, and have had a couple guest appearances. It’s not great literature, but it’s always an interesting listen.
For some reason, the results from the online vote for superbowl mvp still haven’t been updated. I wonder if just maybe the online vote was completely different from the official result, and they’re trying to avoid controversy. I’ll bet somebody like the punter was way ahead.
While driving through West Virginia, we saw enormous signs that encouraged us to call 1-800-492-tips for terror tips. I’m not entirely sure what this means. I presume it doesn’t mean what it sounds like – ie, that I could get some good suggestions from them. Or even that they’re looking for good suggestions. ‘Cause I have a few.
I didn’t quite have the nerve to do it. I don’t imagine they have a sense of humor.
But, if you do call them, make sure you record it.
We’ve been talking about getting a pet for a long time. This weekend we picked up Shadow, and she was with us for the first night last night. She seems to like it here, and Sarah certainly likes her. I think this is going to work out just fine.