• the apartment search continues apace. have not actually gone so far as to venture out to look at any apartments, but i am thinking very hard about doing so. (actually, the hold up is that if i go to a place i want to be able to write a check on the spot if i decide that that’s it, and i don’t have the means to do that just yet. i shall by my next regularly scheduled day-off-for-apartment-hunting, however.
  • on the flip side of moving tasks, packing is right on schedule. (of course i have a schedule. did you miss the post about how i love lists? this particular schedule breaks out a couple of categories of things i am to pack up each work, in descending order of how much i’ll miss them in the mean time. last weekend was stationary, office supplies, and art supplies, plus some knick-knacky stuff.) i’m sort of getting a little routine down: sunday afternoon i pop in a DVD of some TV show (i’m wrapping up season 5 of The West Wing, and mostly through season 1 of Stargate SG-1, with some occasional ER for local flavor. i think i’ll start up on X-Files or maybe Harsh Realm when i finish TWW.), and put boxes together and put things in them, then i vacuum. it’s all too exciting for words, honestly. but as a routine for getting through boring shit, it works pretty well.
  • i disassembled my cell phone yesterday to see if a thorough cleaning would help it any — my phone is three years old, and the “3” key hasn’t worked very well in a long time, and the “Yes” key has worked hardly at all for such a long time i’ve learned to live without it. despite that, i really really like this phone. it’s a great size, it’s very durable, it’s reliable, it does the bluetooth internet thing with my laptop perfectly, it’s great. if it wasn’t for that freaking “Yes” key being broken i would have no reason to want to replace it. but it’s very, very annoying to not be able to dial a phone number that isn’t in your addressbook already, and although the “yes” function will often also be triggered by pressing down on the joystick, that trick doesn’t work for saying “dial now”; instead it pops up a menu. so i’ve toyed with getting a new phone, but i resent the idea that i should have to pay a $20 “upgrade” fee just to get a new phone, and i further resent the idea that after five years with the same company i should have to be re-signed to another two year contract just to upgrade my phone through them, and i resent it enough that i’ll fucking cope with my broken-ass “Yes” button in order to not giving cingular fees i don’t want to pay. also, all the phones currently on the market fail to appeal to me. so — i don’t suppose anyone has a spare Sony-Ericsson T68i they’re not using that i could have, do you guys? dangit, i like this phone!
  • also, i feel pretty clever, disassembling my cell phone and thoroughly cleaning it and putting it all back together and having it improved when i’m done (the “3” button works right, now). also i executed one skilled repair with scotch tape. and i got to use my swanky tiny torx driver set. geek girl represent!
  • something weird happened to me yesterday. on my way to work, i saw — heard, really — this red, ’96 or so BMW 325is on lsd. its poor engine was damn near wailing. i mean, it was bad — if i were a cop, i would have pulled him over for failure to take his damn car to the damn mechanic. since we were driving at approximately the same speeds, i couldn’t get away from him the entire way to work, and it was a pain in the ass because i could hear his car over my own music even from like two car lengths away. i could not decide if (a) it was someone who had no idea how to drive stick (i.e., they were in too low a gear), because it really sounded like the car was, like, stuck in second gear every time he accellerated, or if (b) it was an automatic but the transmission is fuck. because his car was plaguing me, i noticed a few details about it — the plate number and state, and the fact that it had illegally tinted windows all the way around, and the masons sticker on the back. through the day, i kept up a mental, internal debate about what the hell was the matter with that poor car. anyways, eventually the day ended, and i went to go home, which involves a slightly different route than i take to work because i make a little loop rather than backtracking. imagine my surprise when i spot a very familiar sounding red ’96 or so BMW 325is with new york plates ABC 1234 and a masons sticker, and illegally tinted windows two cars in front of me at the stop light waiting to turn north onto LSD. however, at least i was able to answer part of the question: as he took his foot off the brake and rolled slightly backwards while anticipating the light change, it’s obviously not an automatic transmission.
  • in order to avoid being stalked by noisy-ass red ’96 BMW NY plates ABC 1234 on the way to work today, i left for work like an hour late. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
  • the kasey’s pool table sucks. actually the table’s not so bad, once we discovered how to hax0r its broken ball-release thing, but the “only two feet between table and wall along both sides” thing meant a lot of very ballet-reminiscent cue manoeuvres, which led to both rachel and me sucking a lot more than normal, even if that engendered plenty of opportunities for good-natured mockery. next time, pool will be played elsewhere. on the bright side, kasey’s wifi is a nice improvement over bluetooth ppp.
  • michael made me a pie and brought it to me at work. michael is a true friend.
  • my much beloved ultra 80 is making intermittant rattling noises. i’m worried it’s about to blow up its hard disk. don’t die, qbert! i love you! you’re such a good and loyal machine! i have backups but it’s not the same!
  • i stopped by the parking office on my way to work today in order to attempt to get a permit to park in the lot behind my building, rather than doing the drive-around-the-residential-area spot scope thing. despite the fact that the lot in question is always, always at least like 20% empty, there’s apparently a waiting list. so i signed up to wait for a spot. lame.
  • today is turning out to be one of those days where i want to drink heavily, and — based on how late i got to work — it’s not even half over yet. plus i have to go run errands after work. fuck.