Enjablog

ARRRRRbor Day!

Hahha. Hope everyone has fun plans to plant a tree this weekend! Or maybe another weekend if you don’t live in the same region as me.

Hmm… I feel like I should make an Earth Day resolution or something. I know I’m more wasteful than I should be and it’s mostly out of laziness. So, I can at least try to do something about it.

I get a lot of tote bags from conferences and stuff. I think I’m going to gather some of those up and throw them in my trunk for when I go grocery shopping. I have a lot more plastic bags at home than I need. I usually use them to line small trash cans, but I also try not to produce so much trash. So I have a lot of plastic bags around already.

I also need a lunch bag. I usually put my lunch in a plastic bag and put the bag in a box at work. Then, when the box is full, I bring all the bags home and start over. But, alternatively, I could just use a lunch bag. Thrilling life I lead, right? :)

What’s your Earth Day resolution?

I got up bright and early yesterday with plans to get Henry’s battery replaced. I called Jiffy Lube Friday afternoon to make sure they had my battery available, but they said I didn’t need an appointment and to just come in. They would look my car up and get the battery I needed. Great. That sounds reasonable…

Until I show up and they tell me that they don’t have my battery. But there’s an auto parts store about a mile away where I can pick one up and then they’ll install it for me. Only $120. Ok, but what about the part where I can’t turn my car off? Oh, just leave your car running outside the store. No one will steal it.

Right.

So the Jiffy Lube dude calls over, confirms that they have my battery, and I go over to pick it up. Except when I get over there, the guy laughs and says, “I just checked. We don’t have it.” They can get it for me in about an hour and a half.

Thanks, man. I’ll just sit outside with my car running for 2 hours.

So, I head home to regroup. Call Ian and my parents to get suggestions and my parents tell me that Costco should have it. So, I head over to their place and get my dad to drive around town on a Henry scavanger hunt. We get to Costco just as they’re opening and look at the car batteries. Huh, they have about 30 different batteries, but not mine. Sigh.

Enter: Goog411.

I called Google and asked for auto part stores near where we were. It connected me to one place with my battery in stock for $105. And I tried an Advanced Auto a little farther away, but they had my battery for $80. They even offered to hold it for me!

My dad and I got over there, they gave us some tips on replacing the battery, I got Henry some new wiper blades while I was at it too. And back to my parents’ house.

My dad tried replacing the battery for me, but we couldn’t get the last nut unscrewed. There was too much rust and we couldn’t find a wrench that fit on properly. We decided to wait until after lunch and get Lenny to help.

Two hours later…

My dad, my brother, my uncle all taking turns trying to get this battery out of my car. My mom, my sis, my sis-in-law, and niece spectating. We finally decide it’d be better to just put everything back together and bring my car in to Advanced Auto and get them to change the battery out for me. And we get the battery put back into place, try to jump Henry and… he doesn’t start.

Then one of the neighbors got home and we asked to borrow a wrench. This time, it works! Lenny got the last nut loosened, we got the battery changed out, and Henry is back and good as new!

Whoa… Have you guys seen the traffic option in Google Maps? It lets you see the current traffic conditions or traffic conditions for a specific day/time based on past data. That’s so cool!

So, apparently you’re supposed to replace your car battery periodically…

I went out to my car (aka Henry) this evening and he wouldn’t start. The last time I drove was Tuesday night. No warning, no trouble or anything. Just dead today when I went out to drive him. My lights automatically turn off, so it wasn’t anything I left on that drained the battery. I had Ian come over to help me. So we jumped Henry and I drove over to Ian’s place to give the battery some time to recharge. But after turning Henry off for 10 seconds or so, he wouldn’t re-start.

This is the original battery though, so I guess it’s time to replace it. Well, according to the internets, I should’ve replaced it like 30k miles ago. But now seems like a good time.

Just a reminder to Hokies who haven’t yet pledged hours for VT Engage… Today’s a good day to sign up.

Not really sure what else to say about today, so I’ll just leave it at that. Go do something nice for someone.

Man, with all my new-found free time, I’ve been staying up late and goofing off. Which means I’m more tired now than when I was being responsible and studying all the time. Sigh.

Went to see the SNAME student papers tonight. Entertaining, as always. I also discussed my grad plan with a friend of mine and he made a pretty convincing argument for me to do a thesis instead of waiting for classes to be offered over the next 4 years. I could be almost done with classes after next semester. It’s something to consider, at least. I had previously written off doing a thesis because I didn’t think I could … and because it would be too hard or time-consuming. But I think I’m getting better at this time management thing. And I think I could do it.

I even got a chance to chat briefly with my adviser about it. He says a distance learning thesis is a possibility… so we’ll discuss.

I think the technicality I need to face at this point is actually passing my class next semester so I have enough credits to officially be off provisional status and off probation. Right. Getting there.

*Phew*. So, I took the Professional Engineering exam on Friday and followed that with an evening of drunken debauchery and a weekend o’ fun.

I spent the last 4 months studying for this exam. Way more than I’ve ever studied for anything before. And I still walked in feeling completely unprepared. The exam was difficult and different from the practice problems I had been studying from, but not impossible. I definitely had some areas that I didn’t study enough or the right material… and I had trouble keeping my timing in check, running out of time in both the morning and afternoon portions. I kept spending time on problems I knew I knew how to do, but making easy mistakes in my rush and not coming up with a viable answer. At least if I do end up having to take this over again, I’ll know what to expect and be able to prepare for it. That will make a world of difference.

Saturday, I started out going out and watching Ian’s ultimate frisbee game. There were a couple little bouts of rain, but overall, the weather held out and it was a pretty nice day. There were some nice, sunny stretches as well. Family lunch was rowdy, as usual. Not much going on, but the usual crew minus Lenny this week. That was followed up with some shopping with Ian.

I looked for some new planters and bought some dirt for my plants. I had a talk with Ian’s mom though about my plan to make self-watering planters for all my plants and apparently that’s not a good idea, so I will have to rethink my plan. I still need to get new pots though. The afternoon flew by after that with some reading, wii sports, and other goofing off.

Sunday, I slept in nice and late. Dawdled over breakfast and the Sunday paper, took a nap, watched one of the Grindhouse movies with Ian, read some more and took another nap.

A pretty full weekend. Man, I was kind of apprehensive about blogging today. I know a lot has happened over the past few months, but I haven’t gotten around to blogging it. And people keep saying things and declaring them quotes of the day… which I had every intention of blogging, but I either didn’t write them down, or they’re not as funny anymore because it was so long ago. And I’m tired. And I thought I would sit down and have nothing to write about. And now I’m just saying “and” a lot and babbling. I’m tired.

I have so much free time between now and August though (when classes start up again). I have so many projects I want to get done before then. This is going to be such a fun summer! :)

I’m in class right now and realizing that I don’t have a stapler at home. I thought I did at one point, but I have no idea where it would be. So maybe I never had one. It seems terribly important right now. I don’t have a stapler!!

QOTD: “So, there’s only one person missing. We can still have a mutiny!”

Introducing Gmail Custom TimeTM: Be on time. Every time.

This is so good. Google is letting people change the timestamp on their emails now. *giggle*

OH! And. They’re going to space! Virgin + Google = Colonizing Mars.