This post is about puzzle pirates and choir and baseball

HAHAHAHAHA. Got this while jobbing for the awesome attesmythe tonight on one of the best short pillage runs ever (what was it, 1200 per person for a 30-minute run?) It was so good to finally run into him in-game!

Oh no! Combo Stopped! (14)

I'm Legendary in Carpentry now.

Beyond that, tonight was pretty good with choir rehearsal. We had our "Dress" rehearsal except nobody was dressed up and we didn't have the soloists, so it was basically going over the choruses with the orchestra. My throat was really sore afterwards... as were my feet. I'm not used to standing up for that long. I decided to stand in the front row with Ellen because hey, I'm cool like dat, and then I can hear other people singing behind me instead of hiding in the back. Things went pretty well, I guess. I hope I have enough energy to sing the whole damned thing on Friday and Saturday though.

Incase you've forgotten, you should totally come to our CONCERT! We're performing Handel's Messiah abridged (2.5 hours instead of 4), this Friday and Saturday night. It's free to attend, there's no tickets or anything, just come in and listen, but there will be a free-will "pass the hat around to collect money for the hungry" thing at intermission.

Also, the phone company seems to have come by and fixed our phone, since they left me a bill for it. But, I'm online, the phone's on the hook, and there hasn't been an outage yet tonight. WHEE!

While I'm at it, you know what else makes me happy?

WE RE-SIGNED SHIGETOSHI HASEGAWA!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Ok, so in theory I should be worried that they're giving up a whole bunch of the other free agents. I'm vaguely bothered that they're putting up John Mabry. I think he coulda done some good stuff for the team if they'd kept him. Willie Bloomquist is totally gonna be Mark McLemore's replacement, but eh... I'm wondering what our outfield situation will be next year. Oh well. Sleep now, ponder baseball later.

Well, there's always a first time for everything (flat tire)

Drove in today... dropped off Eli... was on I-5 driving towards the Dearborn exit when I heard a big thump from the back of the car. I figured it was just something shifting in the trunk... until I got here and the parking lot guy says "Do you know you have a REALLY FLAT TIRE in back there?"

Oh my. I have no idea how long I was driving on a flat... probably since before I got off the highway, though!

Ugh. I've never had a car of my own, being as I only got a driver's license last May and all, and last time our car got a flat, it was while Eli was driving, so he took care of it. And he says our spare tire doesn't hold air very well. Yay.

So, whee. I called Sears Auto, who says they can replace the tire, and I called AAA, who said they'd come tow it for me, and I *think* this should all be good. I'll bring my laptop with me and sit at Sears and... yeah. It's not the end of the world, even if I was kinda freaked out at first :) It kinda reminds me of Nick and the Cedar Point adventure...

The saga of the flat tire, part 2

AAA guy showed up at PacMed... it only took like 15 mins from the time I called AAA! Go them! He was already working on the car when I got out to the parking lot... trying to fill the tire up with air, but we found it was leaking air through this huge gash. (By huge I mean like... 3/4 of an inch long).

He saw that I had a spare tire and I told him we'd had problems with it in the past, but he filled it with air and checked the gauge and said "How about this -- it's more of a pain to tow the car, so why don't we put the spare on, and I'll follow you down to Sears Auto, so if anything happens I can get the car?" I agreed, and off we went.

Got to Sears Auto okay. I told the guys at the counter what was up and they were like "okay," and so this one guy came out and checked the tires (he said the front two were great and the back two were awful, including the one that blew out). So after talking a bit I decided to just buy two new tires for the back. Now, here's what bugs me - I don't know crap about cars, so I let him talk me into having them also check the steering and alignment, etc. Overall the two tires, alignment and whatnot, parts and labor, cost me $250.

I don't feel particularly ripped off since I had figured on spending about $50-$100 per tire, but Eli thinks I was. Does anyone really know? The tires themselves cost $70 each, they're some sort of Michelin... Agility? Yeah.

Anyway, I gave 'em the keys and walked down the street to the Sears/OfficeMax/Starbucks plaza thingy. Despite it being in the middle of the industrial area, it was really quite nice! I ate lunch at starbucks and I shopped around OfficeMax for a while and picked up a few random things. Was fun, even. Went into Sears for a minute or two, and by then it had been an hour and change, so I walked back, and the car was ready, and yay! And I drove back up the hill to work and found street parking and here I am.

The odd thing is the way people acted the entire time... the AAA people on the phone were super-friendly, the tow truck guy was really nice, and even the tire guy did not seem like a tire guy - he looked more like he should have been working at a Gap or an art museum or something. I'm not kidding, it was really kind of strange. He asked about Eli's "Honk if you passed P-Chem" bumper sticker, and tried to make conversation and stuff. It was kind of weird. And even the cashier at OfficeMax was all friendly like "ahh, another southpaw! We lefties have to stick together," or something. I don't know, it's sort of weird, since I felt like I must be giving off a super-grumpy "flat tire" aura all day, yet people were super-friendly in return.

I guess that's good.

Now I'm gonna buckle down and do a ton of work since I lost half a day.