Rarely do I get too stumped with something when it comes to computers, but when I do it's beyond frustrating. I'll spare the details since it's fairly complicated DNS and Active Directory issues and probably no one would know what I'm talking about anyway... the jist of it however is that I must have ran into at least 4 things I couldn't fix or had an overly hard time figuring out today. Makes for a long day, that's for sure.
And Dave beat me in one of our games of 21 today in the gym... only the third time he's beaten me so far out of probably 50 or so games, but I'm competitive enough to remember it's the third time.
We had a pretty good weekend though. Happy hour Friday night was fun, albeit short. Saturday we decided to finally do something with our foyer and got a two-shelf bookshelf, a lamp, and some picture frames. I'd post a picture, but I haven't gotten around to painting the wall behind it yet. Had to patch some holes where we had other things hanging... so, it's ready for paint now, just haven't found the time yet.
After going over to see Jane and Wendell's new house and all of the projects they have ahead of them it makes me want to work on our house again. We just got burned out when we first moved in and ended up doing nothing after the first year or so. In fact, the door handles upstairs are all still brass instead of the brushed nickel we were trying to swap them all out with at first. We finished downstairs and sort of just quit.
I've got some touch up painting stuff to work on, the door handles, three light fixtures, a new casing on the garage, some outside painting, and either replacing or painting the shutters. I think they're vinyl (I haven't checked yet) and they're pretty faded to gray. If they're vinyl, I could use that vinyl dye, it's like spray paint for plastic... however, even if I'm careful and spray them evenly, I doubt that stuff will last all that long. Probably better to just get new shutters.
Nothing really going on lately. Work and then some more work. With a little work on the side.
But good things are going on. We're only one step away from being able to move our test group over to the Microsoft domain from the old Novell network setup. Sad that we've been sitting on these new servers for almost a year now, but there have been extenuating circumstances like my boss Robert being out so much that have delayed things.
Him being out so much has meant I've gotten to take care of a lot of different things lately. It's kind of funny how I'm basically running everything now and how Marty and Scott look to me for various things Robert would normally decide or take care of instead.
I'm not complaining, it does get my foot in the door if Robert ever does end up leaving. I was supposed to have my annual review last Friday but that was another thing that's been delayed. It'll be interesting to see if the extra work turns into a decent raise again this year or not.
Outside of work we haven't done much really... We had a happy hour with some of the people I work with last Friday at the Flying Saucer. Lots of fun, but Christina wasn't feeling too hot after a handful of beers so we ended up leaving a little early. At least we stuck around for the growing tradition of spilling beer that happy hour group is getting known for. We're 2 for 2 so far... first happy hour a girl we work with spilled her entire glass by laughing so hard she hit it with her head (yes, we have fun!) and last Friday I was fighting with a table trying to get leaves to slide out since a couple new people were joining us and my hand slipped and knocked my entire beer into another girl's lap. I think our next happy hour everyone's going to bring sippy cups with nice tight lids.
Randall wrote saying the baseball game thing is off. I can see where Detroit making to the World Series last season could make it a little harder to get a luxury box for a game this year. So, a trip up to Michigan isn't really tied to any real date any longer. Itching to go somewhere anyway, so we'll see.
Anyway, I'm about to leave work and enjoy what's left of our beautiful mid-70's and sunny day. We're heading over to Jane and Wendell's new house to check it out. Jane works downstairs and they're two of the people in one of our happy hour groups.
Sitting at home this morning after I rolled my ankle pretty good last night in the gym. You've all seen those injuries basketball players get when they jump and end up landing on another guy's foot and their ankle makes a 90 degree turn to the side?
Well that was me yesterday... though I guess I was lucky since I realized it quick enough to just roll with it and hit the court. So, it's just tight and a bit painful this morning when I put weight on it instead of torn this-and-thats.
Also, I should clarify... earlier when I said "those injuries basketball players get" I by no means meant to insinuate I am a basketball player. I'm just a person who plays basketball... trust me, there's a difference.
Still, it's good cardio and I do win almost all the games of 21 we play because Dave is even worse than I am, so it's all good.
My friend Randall back in Michigan wrote after reading my blog with a simple reason for the starting problems with Christina's car and the Security light flashing. His Dad's Lumina (GM product also) did that and it turned out the car thought it was being picked with a bad key. Well Christina's key to her car is a copy like mine and is a good bit more worn down. He also said there's a 5 minute time out before it'll start and that explains why after waiting a while it was started fine by the time I got across town the other day.
Needless to say it's fired right up since then without problem.
So now it's got a complete coolant flush and cleaning and it's starting fine. I suppose the plugs and wires and the ignition coils should still be replaced, though that's not as essential as getting that lower valve gasket replaced.
Talked to my brother the other day and he said he could do it if I drove the car up there to Michigan, so that's an option. It would be great to help out too and learn more about all of that stuff myself.
Randall said they were thinking about getting another box at Comerica Park for a Detroit Tigers game in late April, so maybe that'd make for a really good trip up to Michigan anyway. So, keep me posted on that Randall... it'd be nice to plan a trip then.
Last weekend we did drive around looking at cars and I even test drove a Pontiac Solstice. Fun little car... key word being little. To say it's cramped is an understatement... but, it's a roadster, so that's expected I guess. The sight lines in the car are awful too. However, it's a fun little car to drive even with just a small 4 cylinder in it.
We also tried to go test drive a Mustang GT, but the Ford dealer says they don't let anyone test drive them until all the numbers have been run to make sure you can buy it. So, we skipped that one... plus, the guy at the dealership was a jerk anyway.
The car she ended up liking the most... though we didn't drive it... was the Pontiac G6 hard top convertible. Cool car with an automatic retractible hard top.
But still, I think we'll just put the money into her car for now. It's nearly paid off and in decent shape otherwise I guess. I washed, waxed, vacuumed, and cleaned it up last weekend too and it certainly doesn't look 7 years old. That and it drives smooth and has plenty of power, so it'll do for now.
Saved a little money towards it by getting back my RMA'd motherboard on the new computer the other day. Thankfully Newegg replaced the board after a bad BIOS update... it basically wouldn't boot up anymore. So I put the old computer back together for a week and a half and waited for the replacement board. Came the other day and it works great. Been going through installing the 3 or 4 dozen programs back on it... takes forever to get everything set up the way you had it before when you get a new system.
Thought about installing Windows Vista on it since we have our copies at work now, but that will be a long ways off for any systems I use. Half of our applications at work won't run on it including anti-virus and email. And get this... even our email's Web Access page in your web browser doesn't work under Vista. No clue why, but Auburn's Web Access for Groupwise was the same way so it's not just us. I think Microsoft doesn't like Novell so they don't want anything Groupwise to work! Nah, I really blame Novell... and Trend Micro anti-virus... and others for their software not working... they've had over a year of beta releases to work with. Oh well, at least right now there's no reason whatsoever to move off Windows XP... everything works just fine on it, so Vista can wait.
Anyway, you have to love Saturdays... 11:30 and we're just getting around to getting out of the house. I need some clothes for work and new shoes, so we're off to fight the crowds.
The bill on Christina's car today was $1,500. You have to love hearing that... and... it wasn't even the timing belt that cost that much. Turns out the Grand Am has a timing chain thankfully.
No, instead it was the lower intake gasket. It's not bad at all, just starting to show the first signs of leaking. If it leaks, it can drip coolant out in the best case. In the worst case it can leak into the oil pan and mix with the oil, end up in the engine, and cause it to cease up.
But, at least it's not even really leaking... yet.
Also, a couple of the coils have rust and should be replaced, the spark plugs and wires are stock and should have been replaced 27,000 miles ago, it needs new front brake pads, and the cooling system needed flushed like I mentioned in a previous post.
I'm told that "other than that" it's a good car. Uh huh.
So, I just had the cooling system flushed today since that was really bad like I mentioned. Since it fired up great today numerous times, I'm not sure why it had a hard time starting up the other day for Christina. She did say the Security light was flashing too... so, who knows.
Needless to say, now we've got to decide if we want to sink an additional $1,300 into her car, or look at getting her something else. We've talked about replacing her car a few times, but with it being pretty close to paid off, we thought it'd be nice to go a while without two car payments. Though I don't mind car payments that much since I've had one since 1999 basically between the Eclipse and the Pathfinder.
Who knows what we'll end up doing. We'll have to look around at some prices on cars she likes and figure out what payments would end up being. And there's always the option of a lease since we're used to payments anyway and it would be nice to get something new every 4 years or so.
I just hate to drop $1,500 on a car, even if it's good otherwise, when that could go towards a down payment on something newer...
However, since I'm posting this update from work, that should tell you that we didn't quite get enough snow or ice.
I will say this... when it was coming down this morning at around 8:15 - 8:40 it was by far the largest flakes I've ever seen. And growing up in Michigan for 20 years, that's saying something. They were massive... and falling so slowly that it looked surreal. It almost looked like it was an animation the way they were all falling in perfect unison and falling way too slowly for their size.
But, the show only lasted for 20 minutes or so and it turned over to sleet and then rain... just in time to come to work at 11:00 when the University opened. Bummer.
