Yesterday, I changed the insurance over from my old LeSaber to the 'new' Lacrosse, and finished the title transfer- that stung to the tune of $350. Ouch. My insurance is going up by $132 every 6 months, but that's not a real problem- I was at the very bottom of their pricing.

Left to do is cleaning the interior and getting new floor mats- I'm seriously considering the 'custom' prefit mats you can geet, as opposed to the 'fits all' trim-to-size mats that are a bit cheaper.

Not a ton cheaper, mind you. Not having the added trouble of trimming the damn things down will definitely make the pre-fits worth it.

I'll run it through the car wash after groceries on Thursday. Other than that, I have bills to pay (delays there whilst I find out how much I'll be socked for Spaz' dental work), but I'm in no danger at all.
I might start posting adventure write-ups here; I haven't decided. Right now I'm only doing them for the Sunday Shadowrun campaign; that's bloody well enough work, honestly. I might do quick recaps or something for the other games- I haven't decided.

Right, then! We are on the market with the house on Monday! We met with the realtor today, and the price has been set at $165,000. There is a bunch of little fiddly things left to do, with one or two things left that could be considered 'big': moving my possessions to a storage facility, and painting the garage. Other than that, it's just about done.

The realtor is VERY optimistic that the place will sell within a month, and as there's nothing for sale within a quarter-mile and NOTHING equivalent to the bargain that this monster represents (5 beds, 1 3/4 baths with 4 off-street parking spots and TONS of updates), I have a lot of hope too. :)

Just about done.

Not a lot has been going on since I last posted, really. Life has gone on and things are pretty much as they usually are. I'm still blasting through books, and I'll be getting a few more tomorrow. However, something ELSE happens tomorrow too- the cats go for their yearly vet-visit. Its a bit early, but I've a reason- they've both been sneezing! Spaz more than Lady. Today I got another reason too- Lady pissed on the rug again by the TV stand. I replaced the litter in the box, but It might have some kind of territorial-thing with Spaz going on that's triggering her to to it. Regardless, to the vet they go. This'll prolly nuke the plan to get the Ipod, but I've got the laptop at work again, so its not that big a deal.

Its going to be about $200 between the two of them for the visit. Ouch. So I am DEFINITELY looking into pet insurance for them- that'll make for 'free' annual visits and shots, and the monthly cost will be easier to handle than the $200 once-a-year charge. In addition it'll help with emergency stuff, may I never need to use that!

In other things, I took a couple of days off as sanity-days this weekend. Four days away from work, woot! I plan to do very little, though it has been insinuated that we're gaming on Sunday, playing in a 'Dungeon Hack' in AD&D 2nd Edition. Yes, I said SECOND. The GM doesn't like 3rd or 3.5 for whatever reason.

Oh! Right, I nearly forgot. The (hideous, pain-in-the-ass) bifold door that leads into the basement broke this week. So I went out with mirrdae to Home Depot and got a new one. It needs to be finished, and I got a can of 'one step' varnish and stain to get that accomplished. I'll either do it myself or pay my brother $20 to do it- I HATE working with stain. I'm just bad at it, regardless how simple it actually is. This one lacks the dust-and-grease-collecting louvers that the old one had, and generally just looks better. I may get a second one to replace the door to the stairwell pantry too, and it'd look better and the hinges on the current door there are flat-out shot. Rather, the screws are pulled loose and hard to repair, and the bifold would be a MUCH easier solution than screwing around with the old door.

Lastly, the chance that we'll be getting new carpet seems stronger- the folks want to 'talk' about it, which is code for 'we need to figure out cost and color'. Woot! I think I'll repaint the front room before it goes in though- it needs it. Besides, with khirsahdrgn having moved the WII downstairs the room badly needs to be rearranged. All in all it ought to look pretty nice when its done.

Currently I'm thinking a nice light green or something for my room and the family room, and a 'neutral' tan or light blue or such for the front and hall- something that ISN'T the hideous off-orangish-brown that I currently have. As to the paint color up front, I've no idea. I'll talk to the folks (and friends) for ideas- If you have suggestions, keep it simple- I don't want real dark colors or fancy textural work. :)

Last bit of news- at some point I'm going to have to take Lady to a specialist. She's apparently got a heart problem referred to as a 'galloping rhythm', which means two of her heart chambers aren't pumping quite right, resulting in a 'sloshing' effect in the chambers. She's in no immediate danger, and likely won't be for years, if ever. But it IS something that needs to be looked into. BUT. Right now, I can't. Its $600 or more to have the tests done. I'll be keeping an eye on her though, and I'll be getting the recommended 'fountain' style waterbowls for both of my fuzzballs, to hopefully deal with the dehydration they found in Lady. Thanks for the recommendation, Karen. :)

On Tuesday joshuwain, foeclan and I took feezlekahn out for his birthday; we hit Old Chicago for dinner (marred only by the table of screeching harridans by the door), then went to Best Buy and Half Price Books. It was a nice night, and aside from his gift I went and got myself something- 'Godzilla Raids Again' which is also known as 'Gigantis the Fire Monster'. Whee!

In other news, yesterday I picked up one of those rubber grooming brushes for Lady, to help her with the shedding issue- she's been having hairballs, so the more loose fur I get off of her the better. She likes it, and I should be able to build a third cat soon. O.o I also got them a new water bowl, one of those with the flanged bottom so Spaz can't dump it anymore!

Work is work, and I've decided to stay at Baker. It could be a LOT worse after all, and the walking isn't too terrible compared to the walking hells that Ive been on. Saturday is the return of the Vanguard game, which is slowly winding down to its conclusion, and Sunday is the second run of Ben's 7th Sea campaign! I'm looking forward to both, especially since I now can get actual sleep before the Saturday game!

Oh, and on Monday I made a roast REALLY late, inviting foeclan and feezlekahn to share in it. The roomies went out for food, and joshuwain was at a Fringe Fest play, else they would have been invited too. There was also chocolate cake. ;)

Here's a little update.

I'm felling better these days, aside from a self-induced bout of sleeplessness; I stayed up WAY too late several days in a row and messed up my schedule. I think I've gotten it squared around, because I did sleep today. Several good things have happened of late as well, the biggest of which is that I now have a new(er) car- Its a white 2001 Buick LeSabre, formerly my brother's car.

As I posted a while back, my old burgundy LeSabre had a major mechanical problem where the support spring on the front wheel beoke loose and was resting on the tire. Dad took it to work on, and I was driving his car (white 1999 LeSabre) while this was happening. He found a LOT more to fix while he was working on it...

Anyway, while this was going on, my brother found a steal on a Olds minivan- given he has kids, this was a better vehicle for him and he got it. This created a situation where he now had a spare vehicle he didn't need. Also, a friend of his at work turned out to be looking for a cheap, reliable car.

So it went down like this: his friend is buying my old car, I'm getting HIS car, he's got the minivan and dad has his car once again. Yay!

In other news, I'm FINALLY getting caught up on the bills- Yay reduced stress! I've dealt with the electric bill and made a serious dent in the gas and water bills; I should have one of those two totally caught up after I get paid this week, and while the credit debts are still a problem, things are improving there too, slowly. When the Bush-Bullshit-Bucks come I'll be paying off the computer loan, and that'll leave just the two credit cards, which I may consolidate to make easier to deal with.

Inch by inch...

I have still a LOT of cleaning to do; I wanna get it done before the arrival of the new roomie and before the arrival of the new cats late in May, around my birthday- Hopefully, I can get that done.

Ramblerambleramble...

But thats most of it. This weekend is the Vanguard campaign and the start of the next Traveller set on Sunday- I'm looking forward to both, tho my character Goblin ISN'T looking forward... ;)

Here's a general update on whats been up, as I've been posting less than usual here. First off, Happy Birthday wishes for ataramos and feezlekahn! Giftage is in the works! Next up, the actual news of life- Not much. Other than the 35W bridge collapse, life here has been pretty quiet. I got a couple of new pics done recently, and I may post them here soon- they're of my City of Heroes characters ShadowMatch and Genetic Blue. I've been playing a bit less recently, though the addiction is still in full force.

At work I've been able (in the nights that I've been in the 'sit on my ass' post in suite 300) to watch a few movies on the laptop- So far, I've rewatched 'Fight Club', 'The Quick and the Dead', 'Die Hard' and 'Die Hard 2: Die Harder', and a few others that I've forgotten at the moment. It's got me wanting to go on another DVD buying spree. ;)

In general Gaming news, the Saturday Vanguard game is on hiatus until mid-September for various reasons- I'm looking forward to the return to that game! In the Sunday group, we did the last of the set for Traveller; I'll have that written up either tonight (its 0210 as I write this, so I doubt that'll happen) or early this coming week. Next up would be Werewolf, but due to scheduling conflicts it looks like another 'filler' run of the Buffy Horror will take place.

Further- My roomie zxizaraxii has started a journal for the posting of Rikti War Stories; its at http://community.livejournal.com/invasionjournal/ I dunno if its open to all, so ask him. I might have something short for that soon.

And that's pretty much it for now. I'll post again if there's something else.

Edit: Damn, I got it done. Next post is the Traveller writeup!

So we've made it to another year. I think this is a good thing. :) In any event, this is my first post for 2007, and I'm prolly just gonna make a few random comments. First off, the Xmas party is on Saturday for those who've I've invited. It'll start at 5 PM and go til People leave or I can't take it any more. Whee! To those few who are bringing stuff to assist with the foodage, if you could get here at 5 PM it'd help- Or drop stuff off Friday.

Before then, I have to do some housecleaning, which will not be nearly as hellish as it was before the Halloween party! Just the kitchen is in need of REAL work; the carpets need to be vacuumed and general pickup is required otherwise.

The menu once again will be Spaghetti Marinera (homemade), meatballs and sundry side-components; I'm still debating the desserts that'll be available, but the following are likely possibilities: caramel rolls, peanut-butter chocolate-chip bars, ricer crispy bars and/or cookies. There'll more than likely be more than one selection.


I'll make mac-n-cheese if there are munchkins and its needed. :)

In other news, this week heralds the return of one of the two wayward roomies- khirsahdrgn gets back Thursday (I think); One of us here might be able to retrieve you from the airport if you give us a call, Khir! As to the other 'stray', ataramos gets home next week as far as I know- Ata, let us know if you're okay- we've not heard from you! I hope you had a better holiday than it started out to be...

Tonight I head back to work as usual. Its a four-day week for me, cos I'm NOT working Saturday. I have it off for the party. For now, I think that's about it. Hoppy Gnu Beer!