Warming Up?

A little over a week ago it got cold enough to warrant kicking on the heater. Unfortunately, when I tried to do so nothing seemed to happen. I heard the familiar click that occurs when the heater first turns on, but after that there was nothing. I then tried to manually turn the fan on, and that didn't come on either. We had this same problem back in March and had someone come from Service 1 Heating & Air Conditioning come to service it. He said something had overheated which flipped a switch, sort of like a breaker, and that it had to be manually reset. He then swapped it out for an automatic one that wouldn't need to be manually reset if it happened again. He checked that it was working before he left, but then a couple days later when we tried to use it again it wouldn't turn on. I was going to call him back in the morning but by the time morning rolled around the heater was working.

I thought maybe the same thing would happen this time so we waited a couple days to see if the heater would kick in. On the morning of the third day I went up into the attic and did the pilot light reset procedure to see if that would help. The reset procedure didn't seem to help, but while I was up there I noticed the heater was warm which got me to thinking that perhaps it was only the fan, not the heater, that wasn't working right. Even with the heater off I couldn't manually switch on the fan; every time I tried, nothing happened. So I thought maybe the overheating of the heater was due to the fan not blowing air through it. I turned off the heater, and later in the afternoon just before calling Service 1 Heating & Air Conditioning I tried turning on the fan one more time, and this time it worked! I still called because I don't think the guy fixed the actual problem back in March. I got their answering service so I left my name, address, and phone number. As of today I still have not received a call back.

Breakdown: Attack of the Alternator!

Last Friday night Treese drove down to visit me and my parents in Vallejo, but halfway down her battery light came on and a few minutes later her car lost all power and completely shut down. She was able to coast over onto the shoulder and while she was on the phone to our insurance company trying to get a tow truck sent out a CHP officer saw her and pulled over. This was a turn of good luck since he was able to help relay precisely where they were, since they were in the middle of nowhere not near any major city in the dark in the rain. He waited with her until the tow truck showed up, and towed her to a motel in Williams.

A few weeks prior to this her battery light had come on so she took it to O'Reilly and they said there was something wrong with her alternator. We had purchased the alternator from AutoZone only a couple years ago and it had a lifetime warranty so she took it in and they tested both it and the battery and said there was nothing wrong and to bring it back in the next time the battery light came on. Well, the next time was when she was 100 miles from home coming to visit me.

The next morning I drove up to meet her along with my dad. We got the tow truck to come out and the driver wanted to try jumping it first to see what would happen. The car started up and idled for a bit, and there was no strange sights or sounds from the alternator so he thought it might be a bad battery. We drove it to a nearby. She drove it to a nearby Napa Auto Parts while we followed behind. Once there, they tested the alternator and battery, and both read as fine. After a minute idling they re-tested the battery and it was significantly lower than the first reading, which lead him to believe the battery was dead. We also got that battery from AutoZone not too long ago so it was also under warranty. We then drove to an AutoZone that was about 15 minutes away.

Once we got to the AutoZone we explained the situation and the guy came out to test the car. The battery read as pretty low, but other than that they both read fine. After a minute he tested the alternator again and this time it wasn't giving the numbers it should have been. He determined that the alternator was definitely bad, but only intermittently which is apparently very rare. So since we couldn't simply exchange the alternator, we had to buy a new one and then we'd get refunded once we turned in the old one. He called around trying to find someone who could replace it for us but nobody was available. The earliest we could get is a Tuesday appointment in Vallejo, not even in the town we were in or any of the nearby towns. So we tried to make it to Vallejo.

About 20 minutes in all the lights on her dash lit up again so we pulled off on the next off-ramp and called for a tow truck. We had to wait a couple hours since they had to get someone who could tow it 70-80 miles. It wasn't too bad, though, as the weather was nice. When the tow truck showed up and hauled away the car we followed behind until it had to get off and onto the truck scales. We had it towed to my grandparents house since there wasn't a lot of room at my parents house. Then on Tuesday morning we were able to drive it over to Pep Boys and drop it off. When we picked it up later that afternoon they said they also found a nail in one of the tires so patched that as well. Later in the day we both headed back to Redding, with me following behind Treese just in case she had to pull over again, but we made it home with no problems. Let's hope this new alternator lasts longer than the last one.

Under the house

Yesterday I ran a 100 foot ethernet cable under my parents' house, from the room with the router to the room with the main DirecTV box. When the DirecTV installers set everything up they didn't bother with network cables, instead just opting to rely on wi-fi which has not been working out well at all. The box would constantly disconnect from the wi-fi with the only way to get it to reconnect being to press the red reset button on the side of the box, and even when it was connected they had constant problems with on-demand streaming buffering and just flat out stopping. I initially wanted to run the wire through the attic and down into the walls but after I went into the attic it didn't seem to be very feasible. The room with the main DirecTV box was an add-on and doesn't have an attic to speak of, plus the wall it needed to be on was an outside wall which meant even if I could somehow get over to that wall and find a way to drill down into it I'd still have to get through a bunch of insulation. So instead I used the existing hole that was being used by the cable wire and ran it under the house up through the office floor where there used to be another cable wire. I'm pretty sure the cable wire was there before the DirecTV people came so did they cut off the end and push it through the floor? What's the point in that? Like it would never ever be used again at some point in the future?

Painter on the roof

I finally got around to painting the little bit of wood that we have on the roof of our house. It hasn't been done since we've lived here, so it was a bit overdue. It's not much, just two boards in an upside-down V shape, but it's up on the roof. On Wednesday I went up and scrubbed it clean, and while I was up there I saw the gutters were full again (didn't I just clean those?!) so I wound up cleaning those as well. The next day I went up and did the actual painting, then today I went up to put on a sealant. Definitely glad to have that done with. I think next I'll need to work on sanding and painting the shed.

Kmart's Free Shipping Con

I had a bunch of Shop Your Way points I needed to spend at either Kmart or Sears so I went online and browsed their inventory. I came across a collapsible storage ottoman which looked neat, had dual functionality, and was the right price to be able to use my Shop Your Way surprise points in addition to my regular points. Plus, it qualified for the free shipping on orders over $30 that Kmart was running, so I wouldn't even have to go pick it up. But then when I went to my shopping cart to check out, I saw that the $30 minimum changed to a $49 minimum! I confirmed this on the checkout page when it was trying to charge me for shipping. So what kind of free-shipping con is Kmart running here?

Oh, and by the way, those points I needed to spend were not the $100 worth of points I won in a Shop Your Way sweepstakes on February 9th. Nope, I still haven't received those points yet even though the email said "Please allow 4-6 weeks for most prices to arrive" and it's actually been over six months. I've contacted Shop Your Way member services about this at least twice and never received a response. I just checked the page for that sweepstakes and it still says "Status: Winner Pending".

Best Buy Batteries & The Hitman's Bodyguard

On July 30th I had ordered two two-packs AAA rechargeable batteries from Best Buy for in store pickup because I had a $5 reward certificate I needed to spend there. A single four-pack would have been cheaper, but it was also under $5 and the reward certificate wouldn't work on anything under $5. This was supposed to be an in-stock store-pickup order, not a ship-to-store order, but it took nine days for them to finally send me the email saying it was ready to pickup. By that time I had already left Vallejo and was home in Redding so dad had to go pick them up. Had I ordered those same batteries from Amazon I would of had them in my hands within 2 days.

On Tuesday Treese and I went to see an early screening of The Hitman's Bodyguard along with a work friend of her's and her husband. We all loved the movie, just as the rest of the audience seemed to. It was both action-packed and funny. My parents went to see the screening as well and said that they enjoyed it and laughed throughout the movie.

Return of the Parents

My parents finally returned from their three week long Crossroads of the Adriatic vacation yesterday afternoon. They had a good time but were happy to be home. I had been looking after the house while they were gone, getting a lot of work done and getting to spend time visiting with my grandparents. Even though I was working a lot it still felt like a little vacation. And Treese had come to visit me a couple times so I didn't get too lonely.

This morning we went out and had a nice breakfast at Black Bear Diner. Afterward mom tried to finish some laundry she started earlier but the dryer wouldn't turn on. I took a look at it while she went to visit with her mom, dad, and brother. Thankfully, after a lot of troubleshooting, I found that the issue was due to a broken lever for the door switch, a cheap and easily replaceable part. I ordered one off Amazon but it won't arrive for a couple days so Mom and I went out back and found a way to hang up a clothesline she had. We'll try it out tomorrow and see how it goes.

New Mouse! No more scroll wheel woes

My new USB mouse arrived in the mail today. It's a really cheap LIIR GM02 gaming mouse with adjustable DPI that I bought on Amazon and so far it's working fine. My other one was also a cheapy I bought off Amazon, an Azio GM2400 gaming mouse, and it lasted about a year before the scroll wheel started going wonky. When I would use the wheel to scroll down it would scroll down but then scroll up a little, and when I would scroll up it would scroll up and then scroll down a little. This started several months ago and has been getting worse and worse over time, until finally it became so bad that the wheel was almost unusable. I would try to use it to scroll down a page and with each notch of the wheel it would scroll down then up so much that I would be about in the same spot in the page as before I started scrolling. Hopefully this new mouse will last a full year before it needs replacing. I wouldn't mind spending a little extra on a mouse if I knew the scroll wheel would last, but that's the problem, I just don't know and I don't want to drop a lot of money on a mouse that I'll need to replace in a few years. This mouse was under $6 so if it dies in a year I won't really care.

My First Pedicure

I had my first pedicure yesterday afternoon, and it was quite nice. I had cut my nails only two days prior but the lady doing my feet still found some bits and pieces to clip, apparently indicating that I don't know how to clip my nails all that thoroughly. Of course, she had several different types of clippers to use whereas I only have one. It wasn't just about cutting nails, though; there's also the foot bath and cuticle scrape and foot scrub and calf massage. I could have gotten them painted as well but I just opted for a clear coat. My mom got blue with sparkly glitter tips which looked really nice.

Korn!

Treese and I went to see the Korn concert last night and it was great! It got started at about 8:30pm, which was a half hour later than it was supposed to start. The opening band was Islander, whom neither of us knew anything about. They sure rocked, though! The song lyrics were pretty much unintelligible as they get completely lost in the sheer intensity of the music, but that's to be expected at any metal concert. The same thing happened with Korn but they played songs I already knew so it didn't matter. Both bands were high energy and played very loud, so loud that it would vibrate my whole body. After Korn's first song there was some technical issue with one of the guitars so the drummer gave us an awesome drum solo to keep us entertained while they got that fix. The rest of the show went on without a hitch and after it was over it took quite a while for my hearing to return to normal. We hadn't had time to eat before the concert so we went to Denny's for dinner. So did several other people from the concert, which made sense seeing as how it's one of the few places in town open that late.

Digital Dental X-rays

I had a dental cleaning this afternoon. They did x-rays with a new digital system the recently got, so those thingamabobs stuffed in my mouth had wires coming off them that connected back to their computer. Apparently these digital x-rays use much less radiation than the traditional method, which was good to hear considering some of them had to be taken several times. I had been flossing every night since my last cleaning so my teeth and gums were all in excellent shape and the cleaning didn't take too long.

Crimping Cable: Charter Select

Our cable bill went up a couple weeks ago and when I had called to get it reduced like I do every 6 to 12 months, the lady on the phone said there were no better rates. Thus, I spent the last couple weeks (minus the time we were in L.A.) looking into streaming options in preparation for canceling the cable portion of our Charter service. This morning I called to cut the cord and was surprised when the guy on the phone presented a new offer: local network stations plus 10 cable channels of our choosing plus a free year of HBO or Showtime, all for just $11 more than our Internet bill... plus tax of course. That caught me off guard, but since it was about what we would have been paying if we subscribed to Netflix I said lets do it. When Treese got home we picked out our channels, then I called them back up and got it finalized.

Transformers: The Last Knight

Last night we went to see 7pm showing of Transformers: The Last Knight. Treese had already pre-purchased the tickets, which were for assigned seats, so we didn't need to leave early, but she did have to rush home from work so that we wouldn't be late. Once we got there we learned they had pushed it back to 8pm, and we were expecting to get free popcorn but that turned out to be for participating locations only, of which this location was not. We hadn't eaten since lunch and popcorn is too expensive to buy so we were quite hungry. On the plus side, our friend Cindy was running late so she was able to meet us there without missing any of the movie.

These Michael Bay Transformers movies are all dumb. Everyone knows it. You're expected to just turn your brain off and enjoy the ride and I was able to for some of the previous films, but this time I just couldn't. Perhaps because I was hungry, or perhaps because this is the fifth one of these things and they have yet to improve anything other than the CGI. I didn't understand why Optimus Prime decided to return to Cybertron to meet his maker and didn't understand how he thought he could get there by just using a jetpack. So now Tranformers don't need spaceships to fly across the galaxy? And I really, really didn't understand how he actually made it there in only a couple years! How fast was he going?! How close is Cybertron?! I also didn't understand how Cyberton, a freakin' planet, could arrive right next to Earth and yet not affect the oceans or the weather or gravity or anything else.

These films are known for their action and there was no lack of it here, but it was shaky, zoomed-in, and cut so fast and often that I could barely tell what was going on. I didn't care about any of the characters so I didn't care who won or who died. I also didn't like the sexy professor lady. She was smart, sexy, clumsy, and completely generic. The banter between her and Mark Wahlberg felt forced, never clever or witty. I liked that 14 year old girl they introduced in the beginning but I didn't like how she was barely used at all and I hated how they ended up using her at the end. There's so much more I didn't like but I'm sure you don't want to hear all about it. There was some humor which got me to chuckle a few times towards the beginning, however I got bored early on and after a while the jokes stopped feeling humorous. There was a ton of fighting and explosions and eye candy but not one reason to care about any of it. If the next Transformers movie also ends up being done by Michael Bay, I think I'll pass.

Back from L.A.

We had a great time in Los Angeles this year for the E3 convention. We started the drive down on Monday morning and got there in the late afternoon, of course stopping at Harris Ranch along the way for lunch. Chad missed it last year due to a scheduling conflict but he was able to make it this year and so flew in from Las Vegas. The next day we all went to the convention, which was pretty terrible as for the first time they let in the public which made it super crowded. The walkways between the booths were so packed with people that we could barely move through them, and the smell of B.O. was quite unpleasant. Plus, all the games shown were simply sequels to existing games so there wasn't really anything new at all, and we saw only a handful of people dressed up. We only spent a few hours there and about half of that we spent outside the halls where we could just sit and breathe. Later that evening we went to see The Book of Mormon which was a fantastic play. Totally worth seeing if you have the chance.

The next day we skipped E3 all together. Chad had to go do some recording but the rest of us went to a store filled almost entirely with soda pop. There were so many different flavors it was overwhelming. We bought several to bring home and try out, including banana, caramel root beer, and birthday cake. Later that afternoon we went to Jimmy Kimmel Live! where we met up with Chad and hung out in the green room until it was time for the show at which point we were taken into the audience. The main guest that night was Jamie Foxx who was extremely entertaining. After the show we had to drop Chad off at the airport afterwards so he could make his flight home, then we met up with Stephanie to get caught up with what she's been doing this past year. We had planned to meet up and eat at Umami Burger but when we got there we found it was closed for renovations so instead we went to the deli near our house. We had a delicious meal and great conversation, a perfect way to end our last night in Los Angeles. The next morning we started our drive home.

Wonder Woman

We went to see Wonder Woman yesterday afternoon, and we both enjoyed it. When we got home I started looking into what kind of options were available were we to ditch cable, as our rates are going up this week. Every year the rates go up and I have to call and say I want to cancel and then they find another promotional rate for us. I was thinking that this year perhaps we really should cancel. It's not like there's a ton of great stuff on cable. Some good shows, yes, but enough to make it worth the money?

Return of the Treese

Treese got back from the New Kids on the Block / Boyz II Men / Paula Abdul concert yesterday. She saw it first in Sacramento on Saturday with her sister and some friends from work, then again in San Jose on Sunday with another friend who lives near there. She really enjoyed the concert, both times, and says it was totally worth it. I spent those days pretty much just working on Absolute Anime, though on Saturday night I did take a break and watch an episode of the new Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Ken: Unloaded

Yesterday morning I had the privilege of helping to unload over 500 boxes off the back of a semi-trailer. The boxes contained the Summon Night 6: Lost Borders - Wonderful Edition external boxes (which are simply beautiful, by the way). To our surprise the boxes were not stacked on pallets, they were just piled loose in the back of the trailer. Victor was able to round up some pallets from Design Time down the street so at least the boxes would be on pallets after we got them out of the truck, but that didn't help with the unloading. I got up in the trailer and moved the boxes to the edge where Victor and another guy named Ken could easily reach and transfer them to the pallets. It was a tad warm in that giant metal box and my lower back started aching half way through from the constant bending over, but it wasn't really too bad as the boxes were very light and I never got winded thanks to my daily post-breakfast cardio workout. Glad to know that my morning misery is paying off!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend. We went to visit my parents which was a nice little getaway. I got to visit with Grandma Jean on Saturday morning then the other grandparents later that afternoon when we all had a wonderful BBQ dinner that Treese and Mom made. We were going to go to Black Angus but they had no seating available so we did that on Sunday.

A New Type of Alarm Clock...

A spider woke up Treese at 3:30 this morning by crawling across her chest. Her hand just reacted and before she knew it she had a palm full of spider guts. There was no going back to sleep after that, and I'm going to attempt to purge that entire situation from my memory or else I will never be able to sleep in that bed again.

Microwave Repair, Redux

A Sears technician came by this morning to finish fixing our over-the-range microwave. We were his first stop of the day so he arrived a little before 8am. It wasn't Dave from all the other times, it was some other guy. What needed to be done to finish up was basically just removing one screw that was stuck 3/4 of the way in and replacing it with a new one, but it gave him a hell of a time. I lost count of how many times he had to go back out to his van, and in the end he was unable to get the screw removed and just had to cut the head off it and screw a nut on top of it. Not the most aesthetically pleasing solution, but it is hidden behind the cabinet doors so it's not like it's normally visible.

BBQ at Anderson River Park

We went to a company picnic this morning for Treese's work. The last company picnic was hosted in the park right near our house, but this time is was hosted in Anderson River Park, the next town over. The weather was nice, sunny but not too hot, and we found a nice shady spot under a large tree to set up our seats. I got introduced to a lot of the people Treese works with, and she enjoyed visiting with them all. I enjoyed being outside, relaxing, and not having my face in front of an electronic device all day.

Alien: Covenant, a Wedding, and a Car on Fire

We went to see Alien: Covenant this morning. There was hardly anyone in the theater, maybe 10 people total, including us. During the movie there was pretty much no reaction from the audience at any point, and after it was over we both agreed that it was just okay. It wasn't great. It wasn't scary and was rarely tense. We liked it better than Prometheus, but that's a pretty low bar. There were several enjoyable scenes, and Danny McBride gave a terrific performance, but neither of us liked the opening, the story didn't feel like it made a whole lot of sense, and the one "twist" near the end everyone saw coming a mile away. Prometheus gave us so many WTF? questions that weren't answered here, and this movie raised some more.

After we got home from the movie we had lunch then got all dressed up and headed to Chico where Treese's friend was getting married. On the way there we ran into some traffic, and up ahead we saw a plume of white smoke. We figured it was a controlled burn until we got closer and notice a plume of black smoke beside the white smoke. As we slowly moved forward we saw a firetruck arrive to about where the smoke was, and when we finally got close enough to see what was going on we saw a car that was completely engulfed in flames. There was a police officer waving traffic on past it and as we drove by we could feel the heat through car, even with the windows rolled up.

Ghostbusters: The Return

Nine days ago, on my birthday, I received an email from camelcamelcamel.com about a price alert I set up for the book Ghostbusters: The Return which usually goes for at least $60 for a used copy. The email said the price dropped to $7.98, so of course I immediately head over to Amazon and purchased it. I've done this twice before and both times the order got canceled so I didn't hold much hope of actually receiving it, but lo and behold it showed up in the mail today, and it was in very good condition. Now I'll just have to find some time to actually read it.

First Morning with the New Mattress

Our first night on the new mattress went well. Treese woke up with no back pain, which hasn't happened in a long time. I slept just fine as well, but I usually do anyway. When I got out of bed it didn't feel like I was going to roll off the edge so that was quite nice.

New Mattress Arrives

Our new mattress arrived this morning. One of the delivery guys turned out to be the husband of someone Treese works with and was one of the people at the BBQ we went to a few weeks ago. I showed them to our bedroom and the bulging side of our old mattress was so obvious that they noticed it as soon as they stepped in the room. They packed up our "old" mattress in a clear plastic bag and hauled it out to the truck, then brought in our new split California king. They also dropped off the mattress protectors. The sheets were being shipped and those arrived via FedEx later in the day. I guess tonight we'll find out if the mattress is just as comfortable after a full nights sleep as it was for a few minutes in the store.

Another Year Older

Happy birthday to me! We didn't do much of anything special today; we both just worked like usual, but Treese did bring home a Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner and some super-chocolaty cupcakes for dessert. For gifts I received a George Foreman grill with cleaning brush, a Voltron: Legendary Defender 14" figure, and a Diamond Select Toys Ghostbusters Select Ray Stantz action figure. All great gifts!

Treese had my car today because hers was in the shop for its 90,000 mile service (which is crazy expensive, by the way). We dropped it off yesterday morning and it was supposed to be done by today but there were some small parts they needed which they couldn't find locally and had to order. They said it should be finished by tomorrow.

Sears Phonecall Headache

I donated platelets today and while there I started watching the anime series One Punch Man. I'm only a few episodes in but so far I'm really enjoying it.

I called the Sears service center today to check on the status of the replacement parts the technician needed to finish getting our over the range microwave properly installed. The guy I spoke to said he could find no record of any parts being ordered other than the ones that the technician had used to initially repair the microwave. He put my on hold while he called someone else. I was on hold for a while and then got disconnected. I called back and got a lady who could barely hear me, and I could barely hear her through the voices of several other phone representatives I could hear in the background. We got disconnected shortly thereafter. I called back again and got a different lady, and after explaining the whole situation for a third time she confirmed what the first guy said about there not being any record of additional replacement parts being ordered. So she set up an appointment to have a technician come out and see what exactly it is that we need.

New Mattress on the Way

Yesterday we went into Sleep Train (which is now actually Mattress Firm, they just haven't changed the name on the building yet) to once again look at mattresses. We bought one there two years ago but it recently started bulging out on the side so I had filed a warranty claim. After paying them $25 for them to send me an envelope containing a standard round metal washer (that could be picked up from the hardware store for maybe a dollar), some red string, and a paper card with measurements printed on it, I snapped the required photos and submitted them to the website. Not long after they sent us a letter approving the warranty claim, so we brought that letter in with us. We tried out several mattresses and found one that we both really liked. Of course, we can't really know for sure if we like until we spend some time sleeping on it, so we'll see.

This afternoon we went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Usually sequels tend to disappoint, but we both really enjoyed this one. We didn't see it in 3D, and it looked like it would have been really great in 3D.

On the Roof Again

It was a pretty nice day out today. I headed over to our local Office Max to see if they had any great clearance deals since they're shutting down that store. They have a large banner on the building that has a giant 70% off written on it, but once I got close enough to read the fine print I noticed that it say "up to" 70% off. In the store, only the cell phone accessories seemed to be 70% off. Everything else was around 25% to 30%, with some 50%. They didn't have much, and what they did have seemed to be about normal price if purchased anywhere else, even with the discount, so I didn't get anything.

When I got home I went up on the roof and used Liquid Nails to permanently attach some of the concrete tiles in place (the ones which had slid out of place last month). I also used it to attach a bunch of little pieces that had broken off several of the tiles. I guess we'll see how well it works. I brought a broom with me up there so I could sweep off all the dead leaves which had build up. That stuff accumulates so fast!

Happy Star Wars Day

Happy Star Wars day and may the force be with you! Treese went to work dressed as Anakin Skywalker from Revenge of the Sith. Last night we got her costume out to do a test fitting, then I steamed it to get out all the wrinkles. Apparently nobody else in her department dressed up, but the higher-ups all loved her costume. I would have dressed up in my Obi-wan costume had I anywhere to go, but alas I spent all day at home working.

A Nice Evening with Ray & Dawn

On Saturday evening we visited our friends, Ray and Dawn. Usually when we get together we end up watching a few movies, but this time we started out watching the White House Correspondents' Dinner with Hasan Minhaj, who was hilarious. We then caught Samantha Bee's Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner which also also funny and entertaining. Split, by M. Night Shyamalan, was the only actual movie we watched. I didn't have high expectations going in since it was made by Shyamalan, but it actually wasn't too bad. And there wasn't any stupid twist at the end... well, not exactly. There was a surprise revelation but it had nothing to do with the story, it was about connecting this film to another of his films, indicating that both take place in the same universe.

BBQ and a Band

We had been invited to a BBQ that Treese's friend was having at her house, so we went to that yesterday afternoon. There were a lot of people from Treese's work there, which undeniably meant a lot of talking about work. I followed along with the conversations as best I could and contributed a little, but mainly I just listened. And ate, of course! I had a couple cheese burgers and some of the pasta salad that I had made and brought. Treese skipped the burgers and waited for the chicken.

Later in the evening several of us went to a bar called The Firehouse to watch a live band play classic rock and metal. The band was quite good, but they were really late getting started so we didn't stay for the whole set. They were also loud, which normally I would like but it was such a small, enclosed area that after we left both of us had a hard time hearing anything.

Busted Toilet Seat Hinges

The hinges for the toilet seat in the master bathroom broke yesterday. I kinda knew it was coming since the same thing had happened on the other toilet seat last year. They were plastic hinges, and as far as I know they've been there since the house was built. I went to Ace Hardware to pick up a metal hinge replacement kit, the same one I got last time when I fixed the other toilet, but I discovered that they no longer carry it. Instead all they had was a cheap bright-white plastic one. Our toilet is more beige than white and I didn't think it would have looked right, so I passed on it until I could look around a bit more. Apparently that was a good decision because when I got back home I found that I couldn't remove one of the hinges from the toilet seat due to the screws being old and rusted. All the screwdriver did is make a hole in the screw, so it seems like I'll just have to buy a whole new toilet lid and seat.

Slidin' Shingles

Yesterday our next door neighbor stopped over to let me know a couple of our concrete shingles had come loose and slide down, exposing the inside of the attic, so after I finished lunch I went up on the roof and slid them back into place. It was raining part of the time and it didn't go quick as I had to chip away a lot of the old hardened adhesive stuff so that I could slide them up as far as they needed to go. I checked the rest of the roof and found two more tiles that had slid out of place so I had to do those as well. I used some caulking as a temporary adhesive and sealant until I get a chance to purchase the real stuff.

Pull Cord Busted

The pull cord for my recliner broke this morning, and fixing it was no easy task. Thankfully I had a spare cord which I had previously bought just for the handle, but getting it installed was a huge pain. I had to pretty much disconnect the entire arm of the couch in order to get access to where the pull cord is connected so that I could remove and replace, and there was very little room to work in so using tools to get the bolts and screws removed was very challenging. It took half the day but I eventually got it done. I sure hope the replacement pull cord lasts a while because I don't want to go through that again anytime soon.

Microwave Repaired-ish

The microwave repair guy came by this afternoon to fix our over-the-range microwave oven. He had previously ordered the parts so today was just about installing them. Getting it down was a minor pain as the bottom right corner was having a hard time releasing from the bracket. Once he got it down he removed the part that needed to replaced, and one screw decided to fall and get wedged somewhere such that it wouldn't fall out even after shaking the microwave. He eventually got it and got the new part put in, and then noticed a couple of moderately deep scratches on our Corion countertop. He was frustrated that he caused that and apologetic. He gave me a number I need to call to have someone come out and buff out the scratches.

Finally it was time to put the microwave back. The two screws that hold it in place were hard to twist in. I offered my drill which helped very briefly due to the battery not being charged enough. His drill was too tall to fit. He couldn't get the right screw in and it seemed to have gotten stripped so he just ordered a new top which comes with new screws. So the microwave works but it doesn't look pretty. Once the new parts arrive we'll set up another appointment and get it securely bolted and looking like it used to.

We tried to use the heater tonight, the first time since it was repaired, and after clicking on for a few seconds it failed to begin heating. So I guess tomorrow I'll be calling Service 1 Heating & Air Conditioning and have them someone back out.

Heater Repair

Yesterday the heater repair guy came to look at our non-functioning heater. It turned out that some part had overheated which triggered a switch that needed to be manually reset. But instead of just resetting it, he was kind enough to completely replace it with a switch that would automatically reset itself should it ever happen again, thus I wouldn't need to climb up into the attic, unbolt the side panel, and stick my arm inside a dark piece of equipment. He didn't have the switch on him so he had to go get it. He also gave us a new disposable air filter to replace the reusable one we've had for years.

Jury Duty Concludes

It was raining on the drive to the courthouse for jury duty this morning, and also on the walk to the courthouse. I didn't have an umbrella, just a jacket and a hoodie, so I kept my head down while I walked and got a bit wet. We continued our deliberation, going over the murder charge more, and ended up finishing at 10:30am. When everyone was back in the courtroom our verdict was read out loud and we each had to confirm the verdict.

Now that the case is over I can open up about some of the details. Tyler Christopher Schweizer was charged with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and second degree murder for killing Wallace "Pete" Shelton on February 11, 2015 when his red pickup collided with Mr. Shelton's white pickup at the intersection of Highway 273 and Thomas Road. Schweizer's defense attorney conceded the manslaughter charge in both his opening statement and his closing argument but argued that Mr. Schweizer actions did not constitute second degree murder.

I had kept an open mind throughout the entire trial. Once it ended and we entered the deliberation room I still did not have a decision in mind regarding the murder charge. We started discussing the manslaughter charge first since that one seemed much easier. We ignored the fact that the defense attorney conceded that charge, but all the evidence presented made it very clear that he was guilty.

The murder charge took much longer to decide as it had to do with his knowledge and state of mind at the time. We went through all the evidence multiple times, the witness statements, the photographs, the diagrams, and even had the testimony of the only actual eye witness to the collision read back to us. We also went over each of the points needed to prove second degree murder many times, breaking down the wording and meaning behind it, and how they applied to this case.

We had a great jury foreperson that helped make sure everything was gone through multiple times, that everyone had a chance to voice their concerns and opinions, and that all perspectives were covered. I also felt that we had a very fine group of people in our jury. Some of them had gotten to know each other during the lunch breaks, but being shy I ended up not getting to know them until we entered into deliberations. It seemed to me that everyone was being fair, considered all the evidence, and did not rush to judgment. Nobody in our jury tried to convince anyone else to think the same way they did. If someone expressed concern over a specific area then we would all discuss that and look at it from different perspectives. Should I ever find myself in the position of needing a jury, I would accept this one in a heartbeat.

After the verdict was read and we were dismissed, some of the ladies went out for lunch at Mary's Pizza Shack. They invited me along and I accepted, because it felt good to be out of the house and interacting socially. Plus, our heater is broken and it's like 60 degrees outside so I was in no rush to go home. Dee was nice enough to give me a ride since I am not familiar with the downtown area and had no idea where the restaurant was. One of the alternate jurors met us there and we all had a nice lunch and discussed the case. I was still fairly quite but I did make an effort to speak up a few times.

I didn't enjoy waking up early, and finding a man guilty of second degree murder was no easy feat, but overall I did enjoy my jury experience and am glad I didn't try to get out of it. Who knows, maybe the next time I receive a jury summons I won't throw my head back and groan loudly in annoyance.

Kong: Skull Island

Yesterday we went to see Kong: Skull Island with our friends, Ray and Dawn. We saw it in 3D, and like most movies I see in 3D I barely noticed any of the 3D elements. I notice them only in the very beginning and then I just kind of get used to it and stop noticing. But the movie was good. At least, we all enjoyed it. I liked it more than Peter Jackson's King Kong and way more than 2015's Godzilla reboot, which happens to take place within the same universe Kong: Skull Island. Most of the human characters could have used more development, and more to do, but there was a lot of Kong action and all that was fantastic.

Hard Drive Failure

I've been having hard drive problems for the past couple weeks that just kept getting worse, and yesterday I got the black screen with white text saying Windows didn't exist so I had to break down and order a new drive. I have a backup image so once it arrives I should be right back to where I left off.

The Trial Begins

I had jury duty again today. The trial was scheduled to start at 9AM but the judge had some other business to take care of and was running behind so we all to wait out in the hall for until 9:50am. I can't discuss any details about the trial, but I can say that things move a lot slower than they do on TV and in the movies. For every picture the prosecuting attorney wanted to show he had to first show it to the defense for them to approve and then show it to the testifying witness and ask if the picture was indicative of what they saw on the day and then ask the judge for permission to display the picture and then the judge would ask the defense if there is any objection and then finally he would show the picture. And yet somehow things moved faster than expected and we were released for the day an hour ahead of schedule.

Microwave on Strike!

Our over-the-range microwave decided enough was enough yesterday morning, that it wasn't going to take and heat up any more of our food. It lets know by making a loud throaty sound when we tried to use it. So that kind of sucks. We have a another microwave we got for free of Craigslist some years back but it's much smaller and not as powerful so it takes longer to heat stuff up.

Deep Cleaning

I had a deep cleaning at the dentist this afternoon. I had the left side done last month so today was the right side. Even though the entire side of my face (and my tongue) was completely numb, it was still quite uncomfortable and my gums were very sore afterwards. Apparently using a water flosser instead of actual floss isn't good enough, so I've returned to regular flossing every night as I don't ever want to go through that again.

My PC experienced a major crash today. There was a notification that errors were found on the hard drive and it wanted to reboot in order to run chkdsk to repair the errors. So I let it, and the next thing I know I'm seeing a blue screen with some error code saying it can't boot. Even attempting a repair didn't help as it couldn't find a Windows installation. Thankfully I have it do daily system image backups so I was able to restore from a system image backup. It did take a while, though. This was the second crash in the last couple weeks, I hope that doesn't indicate hardware failure.

Juror No. 9

The jury selection process continued today. For the past two days juror after juror kept getting dismissed, and that trend continued today so it didn't take long before I found myself sitting in the jury box, even before our first break. Getting dismissed by either the defense attorney or the prosecutor would have been quite simple, but I decided to not do that as I found myself curious about participating in the whole trial process. It's scheduled to take place only three days a week and I'm at the tail end of a project so it wouldn't interfere too much with my work. By the 3PM I was sworn in as a juror along with the 11 others in the jury box. We then took a short break, after which four alternates were chosen. By the end of the day, of the 150 people we originally started with 3 days ago only two remained. Next week the trial begins and although I'm not sure what to expect I am confident it will be an interesting experience.

Jury Duty Again

I had jury duty again this morning. This time I didn't have to be there until 9AM, which is definitely better than the 8:15AM time of the first day but still a little early for me. The downside is that the boiler wasn't working so it was about 59 degrees in the courtroom all morning. We got a lunch break at noon and the heat was partially working when we returned. Apparently it has been breaking down constantly and they are going to be replacing it, but doing so its a big deal so it won't happen before this trial ends. During the shorter 20 minute break at 3PM I ran up and down the stairs to get some exercise in and get warmed up. By the end of the day they still hadn't finished picking the jury so once again I'll be heading back there.

Pacific Heat

I had a platelet donation appointment today. It was cold and rainy out and I had work to do, but I went anyway. While in the chair having my lifeforce drained I watched a hilarious animated show call Pacific Heat. It reminded me of Archer and Moonbeam City, and I was surprised to find out later that it only scored 17% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.1/10 on IMDb. I'll admit it's not as good as Archer but I found it quite entertaining and funny. I hope the low ratings doesn't mean that we'll miss out on a second season.

Working on a Saturday :(

Treese went to a bachelorette party this evening while I stayed home and worked. Before heading out she made some of her salsa to bring over, and as usual I got to help taste it. The jalapeños we got at the store last night when we were buying the needed ingredients turned out to be pretty mild. There wasn't time to get more so she just took it as-is. It was still good, though, just not too spicy. I worked pretty much all day today. Such fun on a Saturday! So did Treese, though. She worked from home on her work laptop. I much rather would have been playing videogames, but unfortunately we're not independently wealthy yet. We got some hail this afternoon while we were working. Hearing what sounds to be a ton of little pebbles slamming into the house is a bit distracting and can make it hard to focus on work. Thankfully it only lasted a couple minutes.

Jury Duty

I had jury duty yesterday, and it was the first time in quite a while I had to get up at 7AM. Ugh! That's not easy when you're used to going to bed at 3AM. There was a long line leading into the courthouse as people went through the security check, and it was pretty cold outside which made it that much more fun. If you've ever been to jury duty then you know there is a lot of waiting involved so I practiced my Duolingo for a bit then read a novella called The Last Days of Seabreeze by Ray Garton. I got through pretty much the whole thing while I was there, only needing to finish the last couple pages at home, and I really enjoyed it. Very creepy! I was disappointed when it was over because I wanted more.

Jury duty lasted until 4:30PM with one lunch break and one 10 minute break. Unfortunately they didn't finish the jury selection process so I'll have to go back next week. The case is about a dude who was allegedly speeding and crashed into someone, killing them. I wouldn't mind hearing more details, but there's still of ton of people up for jury selection so odds are I won't be one of the choose few.