Bleah.

Had an off-site meeting today that was supposed to start at 10 AM and last until 3 PM. The 10 AM start time meant I got to sleep until 9, which made me very happy. The meeting, however, ended around 12:30 and so I went off to handle my duties to the State of New Jersey, namely: renewing my driver's license and registration, and getting my car inspected. Both my rear tires failed inspection, and the light over my license plate was out, along with my passenger side parking light. Fortunately, all the expensive tests were passed - emissions with flying colours, I might add. That one had worried me. Suspension was ok too, and despite the 'eek I'm hot' light coming on for the radiator two days ago, nothing else went wrong or triggered alarms in the testing.

I got the tires replaced in back; it cost $125, labor included. I need to replace the front ones at some point but they're not as bad as the back yet, so the state says it's ok for me to keep going with them for a while. Maybe when I have money. As it stands I had to put this on my credit card. The parking light had to be ordered online, as it wasn't the bulb but the whole assembly that was missing; I think it was broken a year or more ago on a trip up to Canada where I seem to recall finding broken reflector bits in a parking lot at a rest stop in upstate New York. I'm getting the plate bulb at NAPA and having my dad install that and the parking light. I have 45 days to get this done, then bring the car to a state facility for re-inspection on the bad items.

Took myself over to the nearest DMV to the inspection place, rather than one near my house. They were pretty well organized and very quick, and no blaring TV or screaming kids, which I appreciated. I just wish I'd thought to bring my knitting from home; it would've been something to do. Trust me to pick the one day I would really need distraction to leave my knitting and my books at home. At least I got my license & reg done quickly.

Now to get things cleaned up around here. My sister has a shower going on come Sunday, and mountainspeak is coming to New York later on in Sunday, so I want things to be in some semblance of order. Just not my room. It's a mess beyond all telling and it'll take forever to straighten up.

And bleah again.

The 'Hi, I'm the radiator' light came on again today. Oddly, it came on at roughly the same place it did last time, even though the coolant temperature needle was well inside the lowest portion of its range. It flashed for about thirty seconds, then turned off. It didn't do this yesterday at the inspection station - if it did I'm pretty sure one of the guys who dealt with the car would have told me - and it hasn't done it on any of my other drives, although some of them had the heater on so may have vented the heat from the engine. Not sure whether this is a real radiator problem or the car's electric system making stupid noises, but I'm going to take it to Jiffy Lube anyway; I haven't had a tuneup in far too long, I can't afford a full tuneup right now, and Jiffy Lube does radiator flush/refill/etc. for $90, which I can just barely swing.

mountainspeak, I hope you don't mind, but we're gonna be doing real basic stuff in New York until Friday. I get paid Friday, so I should be able to manage at least something decent afterwards. But before that, well, just so's you know. I'm really sorry. Fair warning.

A note to those of you who RP with my characters

but are not familiar with me in RL:

Last night I made a comment on one of my MUSHes about needing to find my second knitting needle. A few minutes later I announced I had found it. This comment engendered a number of responses along the lines of 'I didn't know there were guys who knit'.

I play male characters at WoD MUSHes, for the most part. Occasionally I play females, but WoD usually gets guys and other game systems get women.

For the record, for those of you who could not tell from my RP, my past LJ posts, or my membership in tmi_chix, I'm female in RL.

That is all.

Because I cannot trust my brain to play quietly,

and because this morning I had a cup of Folgers mint mocha latte and two choco choco chip cookies (they were free), I have just spent some time running database queries and changes while composing more speculations about the two-legged riding animal. Specifically its evolution, which is my favourite part.

( I'm pretty sure it's not kosher. Not unless hyraxes and/or manatees are kosher. )

I'm going to break off there for the moment. It's almost lunchtime. Comments so far?

Huh.

Popped the hood on my car today. Couldn't get the overflow tank on the radiator open, but I could make out the level of the fluid through the side. It's not full up all the way but it's well over half full. I couldn't find the top to the radiator itself, but I have it on good authority that if there is appreciable fluid in the overflow tank, then there is fluid aplenty in the radiator - hence the name 'overflow tank'. Since the last time the light came on the temperature was in the bottom 1/4 of the needle's range, I'm guessing - only guessing - that I am dealing more with a faulty sensor than a genuine radiator problem. I shall drive home tonight and see if the light comes on again. If it does, to Jiffy Lube we go. If it does not, then on Monday I will drive to work via a different route and see if the light comes on at all. For now I shall wait.

On another note, God bless the United States Postal Service! I got to my PO box today - I couldn't yesterday, between the meeting in the morning and the DMV stuff in the afternoon - and lo and behold, my three latest Netflix arrivals were there. That's Postman Fights Back, Hong Kong 1941, and The Heroic Trio. And so was the collection of Feng Shui books I won on eBay. w00t!!!

Oh, hush. Both Blackadder Back and Forth and The Emperor's New Groove are in my queue for the next set of movies. I'm perfectly capable of watching and enjoying European and American stuff, thanks.

We've got a newcomer.

Say hi to my friend riversky, folks. She's a classmate of mine from Kean University. We both graduated from the MIS master's degree program on 7 May, 2003. She's totally new to Livejournal, but I thought I'd introduce her to all of you.