This morning we were up pre-dawn to get tigergladys and Lucy off to tracking. Then I followed out the door a little while later to go get my car serviced. The fuel injection system needed a cleaning, or so has been said to me a couple of times, by a couple of different places. I was the 3rd car in line (you make an appointment for the day, but it's first come first serve), and waited from about 7:50 till 8:30 before they opened up. Totally worth it to get there early. I told them what I was here for, and then sat in the waiting room. I am continually amazed at just how crappy most TV is. They've got this big screen, and it was playing one of those morning shows. Then, after the morning show, it changed to a game show with local high school kids from 3 different schools. Oh so bad. All of it. Bad bad bad. I'm so glad we don't have cable TV!

After that I cam home and wrapped the things for paperbackswap and swapaCD and the econ text book that I sold on half.com, and then went to the post office and the gas station. Then home again.

This afternoon we had an appointment to go see the house again. 2nd viewing!! Still looks good. raven296 and her husband came to see it too, and I think the realtor thought we were even weirder because of that. I feel even worse for the guy still living there. However the house looks good. We figured out where the attic access is, and checked that out. There isn't any insulation on the roof itself, so that'll be something to work on for next winter. We also spent a lot of time in the basement looking for any water that may have come in from all the rain we've gotten the last couple of days.

We didn't find any!!

Now, just need to get some cash for the earnest payment to go with our offer.

It's now 6pm, and aside from a little more reading and dishes, I don't really have anything to do tonight!

Happy onomatopoetry Day!!

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( 5 on Friday )

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I’m 7 books away from 50 book challenge. I don’t think I’m going to pull it off. Even if I managed to finish the 3 books I’m in the middle of, I don’t think I could get another 4 done before the end of the year. However, when I consider that I’ve also been in school and working full time since the summer, I don’t feel too bad. 40-something books isn’t bad for a year.

In other wacky news, a couple of miniatures that I had sold on e-bay way back in July to a guy in Belgium just got returned to me, marked "delivered damaged." The "damaged" box is really only slightly crunched, and (I'm guessing) the miniatures inside are completely intact. There isn't any odd rattling or anything. What makes this even weirder is the fact that the guy never left any feedback, never contacted me, never requested his money back, nothing! So now I'm wondering do I contact him? Do I try to mail it again? Or do I go ahead and repost the miniatures?

It's an original X-Box, not a 360. I'm not sure my system could handle going from a N64 to a 360 with out some severe shock!! I'm currently bidding on a couple of games, but suggestions are still welcome!!

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Plans for Today:
Breakfast
- home made biscuits
Post Office
Frederick
-Pick up a pair of Crocs for me!!
Accounting Homework

Plans for Tomorrow:
Lancaster
-Kill the Mumak battle

I got the car back on Saturday, and it only cost me $20 for my free oil change. But now I have a new oil plug. Isn’t that great? In other car news gas has topped $3/gallon. As an environmentalist I would like to see $5/gallon gas. As a consumer it hurts.

I finished painting two more of the Last Chancers this weekend, and am so close to finishing the last one. I also spent a fair amount of time cleaning up minis. Mostly this means getting rid of mold lines. The next group of minis I want to paint are some D&D Elementals. They were part of the mini set that was released just before the short lived Chainmail game that preceded the pre-painted plastic minis. I figure that I’ll be able to test out some different techniques. I have an elemental for each of the 4 basic elements (earth, air, fire, water). I’m not sure what color to paint the air elemental. It’s a whirlwind, so it probably has a lot of dust and dirt in it… so maybe like a tornado? The water elemental is going to need some greenstuff to smooth out a fairly significant miscast. It looks like the mold didn’t line up during casting, so there is a 1mm shift in the middle of the wave. It’ll be easy to fix though.

( Elementals! )

The one that I’m not really sure about is the earth elemental. I mean, how do you paint something to look like rock and dirt and make it look interesting? I was thinking about maybe putting gems or crystals in it, or maybe having grass growing on it. Any ideas? The fire elemental is going to be fun though! Lots of reds oranges and yellows!

Balticon starts in 4 days and still no schedule. No list of guests. Nothing. *Sigh* Can you say frustrating? I wonder if there will be a panel about solar energy from space. You know, like this!

The fish are doing well. We’ve been holding at 6 neon tetras and a small algae eater named Waldo. He’s the only one with a name, and he got it because every time we look at the tank we do a fish count and end up spending a lot of time finding him. The tetras are all doing well, but the algae eater is getting FAT! We’ve been thinking about getting a second one, because it’s fairly obvious that this one has too much to eat!

( Fishes! )

I can’t name it exactly, but I really enjoy having the fish tank in the living room. It’s definitely added something to the room. Rather like in The Sims actually…

Today after work I’m going to the post office. Due to the agility trial we volunteered at on Saturday I didn’t get to mail off our most recent paperbackswap requests or the lamp I sold on e-bay. Actually the guy who won the lamp (even before he bid) has been a bit of an ass hole about the whole transaction. His communications have been very terse and demanding. Spiteful even. He started with:

Quick question what is the basis for charging $30 to ship something that will not even cost $10 with the insurance included. I'm debating not bidding because of your insane price for shipping.

Tigs handled that one by pointing out the fact that the USPS had just increased all their rates, and that it was a large and heavy package. When he won (damn it), and sent payment he included a note that said

I will provide appropriate feedback after receiving [sic] the item to verify condition and shipping cost.

Then on Sunday he e-mailed me again. Now I had said in the listing that I would mail the item on the Saturday following the receipt of the payment. This is what he sent

Since payment was sent 1 minute after the auction ended on FRIDAY can I assume that you mailed this on Saturday as stated in the description? If so were [sic] is the tracking information that was promised also in your description?

I wanted to reply with “Life got in the way, other things are more important to me then you, it’ll be mailed on Monday. PS Bite me.” I actually sent him something far nicer. I have the feeling that at best he is going to give me neutral feedback. We'll see.

Edited to add
Box mailed. I look forward to seeing what feedback he gives.

Lucy had some suggestions about what I should put on Ebay.



Unfortunately for her, I didn't take her suggestions and I only listed more miniatures.

I had things I wanted to write about... Last night in fact something happened that I said out loud to tigergladys that I wanted to post about, and now I can't remember what it was.

Nope, still can't remember. Ah well.

Yesterday we were considering going down to DC to see all the cherry trees in bloom, however the unseasonably cold weather combined with Tigs suffering from bronchitis (again), and having no idea where to park in DC for less then the down payment of a small house made us head out to Frederick instead. We walked around the down town area about 3 times, hitting the usual places (Two Paws Up, Ten Thousand Joys, and The Trail House) and Lucymonster visited with everyone she could!

When we got home we snuggled on the couch and watched the first disk of the first season of Star Trek Voyager. I really think that they should have spaced episodes 2 and 3 farther apart. They were really too similar. In fact the treknobabble was almost exactly the same.

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What if Joshua Bell played for over 1,000 people, and they didn't even notice?

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I tried to sign up for my summer classes. It seems I have to take a placement exam before they will let me, so I'm gonna get out of work a little early tomorrow and do that. Can you say waste of time? I have 2 college degrees done already, what are the chances that I'm going to fail at an exam that covers such things as basic mathematics? Needless to say it's silly, but then I was expecting a good portion of this whole exercise to be silly. I just need to remember that the goal is worth a year or 4 of silly. Besides it's free!

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What the hell is up with the weather? Seriously, I left New England, and expected that wild shifts in temperature wouldn't follow me. Well, it seems they did. It was in the 80's this week, and it snowed yesterday.

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I've posted a couple of role playing things to e-bay. They are items I've never used, and I know I'll never use, so I'm clearing the shelf space for things I'd rather have! Like seasons 4 & 7 of Voyager!

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I was looking for some computer game recommendations. Both Tigs and I really enjoyed Diablo II and are looking for something else pretty much exactly like it.

I was also thinking of picking up one of the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games. Which one should I go for, or does it not matter much?

Along the same lines, what is everyone's experience with The Sims?

Written on Friday

1. What inspires you?

All sorts of things, from the colors I see at dawn and twilight, to random swirls in plaster on the walls, a song I half hear. Most of the time though, other people's work inspires me and helps to mold the direction I go in.

2. What blocks your creativity?

Lack of sleep, lack of direction.

3. Do you do anything special to get your creative juices flowing?

I usually do something rather mindless, like chores, or go for a walk. Generally something unrelated to whatever it is I’m trying to work on.

4. What time of day do you feel most inspired?

It varies a lot!

5. How do you like to express your creative energy?

Mostly through my painting of minis and building terrain. I’m working on sculpting and also playing piano. Neither of those are at the stage where a whole lot of creativity is taking place though.

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Tonight we are off to the bank to see about a loan. We both wish it were for a mortgage. Tomorrow the car goes to the dealer for a second opinion. Once we have that, then we make our decision.

Also tonight the auction for Amon Hen ends. I must admit, I thought it would be higher by now. Then again, I haven’t been able to check it since last night, so who knows where it’s at right now. I hope it sells for something approximating it’s actual value, which for me is at least $20… considering the effort that I put into it, I feel that I should get at least that much! More would of course be better.

I wish I had more to write about, but at the moment I really don’t. I finished another book last night, and have yet to post about any of the ones I’ve finished this year. Figures too, seeing as I’m ahead of schedule. I’ve actually finsihed… 5 books so far, and I’m about to finish another, and halve already started book 7 for the year. It’s a pretty good start for me! Better then ending January behind my goal.

In some ways I can’t believe it’s already Friday, already the end of January. Time marches inexorably onward. Sometimes I feel like a little piece of flotsam just caught up in it. (Lucy eats flotsam.)

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Written today

It sold for $15.50. Not bad, but I was hoping it would be closer to double that. Ah well. My other auctions are doing better then I expected, so I guess that helps make up for it. I hope the winner really enjoys it though.

The car is currently at the shop, I'm off to the post office, and then to take Lucymonster to the park. Keep your fingers crossed for us! We'd like some good news from the bank or the dealership.

It's done... and here are the final steps in getting there!

Priming


( The rest of the pictures are under here! )

Now that it's done it's time to part ways with it. I am selling it on E-bay.