It's Only A Paper Rose

See, I've even got a craigslist ad up for it and everything.

Seriously, I love this car, but if we can avoid shipping two cars south I'd far prefer to do so. If you know anybody local who'd love a reliable little grocery-getter that's also way cute and fun to drive, let me know - I'm asking $8500 (the Kelley Blue Book is over $10,000) but I'm willing to bargain.

Seems like it's been a while since I did one of those random bits-of-life updates that nobody else really cares about, most people don't read, but that often grow in personal value as time goes on. I guess that means it's time to do another one. So, without further ado:

• Ever since the yoga class I was taking ended, I've been slacking off on it. Still doing a routine a few times a week, but with significantly less frequency - and I'm starting to feel it when I wake up in the morning (stiff sore muscles and joints = boo). It seems like lack of variety might have something to do with it, so I ordered a couple new DVDs, each of which includes a slightly more varied selection of routines. I'm also thinking that if I can do at least one routine per day for the next month, I'll get myself one of the super-nice thick yoga mats they have at the Balance store (a local climbing/yoga supply place that's located in the Rock Dump).
• Things are looking fairly good financially. I finally got car repairs and taxes and things paid off, and (with some not-insignificant thanks to my mother) we've got a fair chunk of cash stashed for the wedding. We should be able to do the wedding and possibly the honeymoon without having to go into debt, which makes me very happy. This wouldn't be a middle-class financial story, however, without something ominous on the horizon; in this particular instance, Kitty needs her front bumper cover replaced, as one of the particularly nasty crop of potholes this year has de-attached the already-weakened right side. She seems to still be in drivable condition, but I should probably get it checked out nonetheless, and I'm sure that's not going to be cheap to replace. Sigh. (On the plus side, if/when I get it replaced, all the scuffs and dings and dents she's collected from previous years of plowing through snow drifts will be gone. Yay!)
• Had my one dental appointment today, which ended up requiring three shots of novocaine - it all wore off only about an hour ago. I also finally got down to the DMV to trade in my old-school laminated driver's license for a spiffy new solid plastic one. Hopefully now the bouncers at Seattle clubs won't think it's fake (I nearly had my old one confiscated, but I think at the last minute the guy decided not to bother 'cos I was from another state). I think the picture came out cute, too, in a girl-next-door sort of way. Although, given that the entire left half of my mouth felt stuffed with cotton, I'm surprised my smile isn't crooked.
• On that note - holy carp, has it really been five years since I got my license? I guess it has. Which means I've been keeping this blog (for a given value of "keeping") for about five and a half years. Dayum.
• Brian read me Neil Gaiman's latest novel, The Graveyard Book, which is absolutely one of the sweetest and most authentic stories I've ever read. I'd say it absolutely deserves to have won the Newbery medal, and I highly recommend it. I know I'm a big Gaiman fan so my recommendation might be viewed as biased, but I'd like to think that's not the case - there are several stories he's written that I admire but that haven't grabbed me in the way this has. And while The Graveyard Book isn't quite a spit-and-polish perfect story, it has that emotional resonance that makes it feel like it's about real characters who are important to you. Which, I think, is what separates a perfectly decent story from a truly great one. 
• Brian invented a drink recently and requested I put it up here, which I'm happy to do because it is simple and delicious.  So, here it is:

Stygian Sunrise

1 oz vodka
1 oz pomegranate liqueur
orange juice

Build over ice in a short glass.  Fill with orange juice; garnish with a maraschino cherry or an orange slice.

Grey 2004 Mazda3, hatchback configuration, 2.3L 160hp four-cylinder engine, 42000 miles.

Extras: Automatic transmission, moonroof, xenon headlamps, tire pressure monitoring system, fog lights, six-CD changer and premium sound system, front side airbags, four-wheel anti-lock brakes, traction control.

Price: $12,000

Location: Juneau, Alaska

Name: Kitty

Kitty's been my primary car for two and a half years now, and I had every intention of keeping her until she became irreparable. Unfortunately, moving to a house on the top of a hill meant getting a car with four-wheel drive, thus rendering her unnecessary. So I'm putting her up for sale.

She's in excellent mechanical condition; I have maintenance records available to attest to that. She does have a couple small dings in the rear bumper thanks to Juneau snow berms, but no major cosmetic defects. According to Edmunds, she's worth $14K private party, which seems a little high; I'm hoping to get $12K but will entertain serious offers.

Pass the word along, please...

Funny how the longer one goes without updating one's journal, the more intimidating that blank "update" page becomes when you do pull it up. I think this is about the fifth time I've started an update in the past couple weeks. The last few have ended up unsaved for various reasons - too trivial-sounding, not interesting enough, or (and probably most truthfully) too personal and/or difficult to put down. But I'm determined to get something down now, trivial or personal or no.

To start, however, is something I promised everyone a while back (even though I doubt most of the folks who read this will actually care one way or the other, not having seen the movie in question) - my Final Theory (TM) on David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. It's probably not going to be as thorough as I'd hoped, but I'm going to put down the basics. I might get into it in more depth in a year or so, when I get the urge to watch the film again.

For those who haven't seen the film, I'm going to put a cut here because what follows is both extremely spoilerific and would likely be extremely boring/confusing (which isn't to say that the film itself isn't extremely confusing, but you get my point). However, if you like movies that really make you think, and that inspire discussion and dissection later, I highly recommend this film.

( Handeth me the razor, for lo, I hath promised my readers a cut. )

Hm. That went a heckuva lot longer and more in-depth than I figured, so it's probably a good thing that I added the cut. However, I may well post on it again in the future - that's kind of what happens with movies that require a ruminiant's digestive system to, y'know, digest.

Here in Juneau, we got our first snow this morning. It was pretty wussy - I'm pretty sure that by now it's almost all gone - but it did make everything very pretty this morning. And I'm finding that it's much easier to enjoy the snow when you've got a vehicle with state-of-the-art traction control and therefore aren't worried about plowing into a berm on the way home...

In other news, Brian and I have been having a bit of a problem with fruit flies. I'm not sure how they got in - apparently contaminated foods and ill-fitting/ripped window screens are prime candidates, and this is the time of year when they're most prevalent. While pesky, their presence has inspired some good changes on our part - cleaning the kitchen every night rather than twice a week, for instance, and wiping down the counters with bleach-water every night. We couldn't figure out for a while where they were coming from, but eventually I discovered a rotting potato crawling with the little buggers underneath a shelf - that was a fun mess to clean up, let me tell you. (Brian was conveniently in Sitka at the time.) Having removed all food sources and put up a couple of different traps, we've put a pretty significant dent in their numbers in the kitchen. Unfortunately, a lot of them seem to have moved into the bathroom. I really don't know what they could be eating in there, but if their numbers don't drop significantly in the next couple of days I'll have to clean out under the sink in there and see if there's anything organic that we've missed. Ah, well.

As for the more personal business...I'm trying to get going with my music again. Part of the problem is lack of direction; I wasn't really very interested in Tommy, which is the musical Perseverance is putting together this year, and it's not like there are a surfeit of bands looking for singers here in Juneau. However, I'm going to be investing in a decent microphone with the eventual goal of having a couple of songs recorded by the end of the month. Fortunately I have a friend who's willing to do some accompaniment, and Brian has a copy of Garage Band on his Mac, which is supposed to be a very easy program for recording and mixing tracks. So we'll see what comes of it all. I have an idea about what I want to do with the songs once they're recorded, but it's kind of a one-in-a-million lottery-esque thing, and what's important at this point is, I think, just getting something in a tangible format. It'll be a step in the right direction, anyway.

And that's really all the news from the last couple of weeks...

Y'know, it's funny. I can usually save a little over $1000 in my savings account, but after that it mysteriously disappears. Sometimes it's for legitimate expenses (car insurance, tuition) and sometimes it's for more frivolous things (furniture), but my savings account appears to have a roughly $1000 ceiling. I've really got to work on that.

This time around, I spent about $825 on new tires for Kitty. Which kind of sucks, but on the other hand, they're all-season tires (so I won't have to switch them in the winter) and they're also the nicest ones Costco had - they should last a good 50,000-60,000 miles at least. I'd say more, but y'know - they're tires. There's just not that much more to say.

Brian is sick again. I'm really starting to worry about the poor boy. I think a lot of it might simply be location - as much as he likes his job, he's really not happy here in Juneau. The constant rain is starting to seriously bug him and he misses his family. I guess it's not so hard for me (I never had much extended family wherever I went, so I'm used to being isolated), but his family seems somewhat tighter-knit than mine. Ideally he'd be able to get over it until we move in a couple of years, but if that isn't an option, I'm beginning to think we should move up our moving plans. As much as I love Juneau and my job here at J&W, having a happy boyfriend is more important. And it certainly couldn't hurt in terms of opportunities for my music career (such as it is).

It seems like a lot of folks on my friendslist are having uncool things happen in their lives, or are simply having a difficult month. I just want to send good wishes out to all of you, whether you read this or not. (I've been lucky enough to be pretty okay, although I had a bit of a scare yesterday morning when Brian appeared to fall off the face of the earth. Fortunately we found him and he was perfectly okay - he just hadn't told anyone except BD that he was going to be working first thing that morning in a place with no cell reception. And since BD doesn't generally get here until 10:30 or so and nobody else had seen or heard from Brian, I was getting pretty anxious.)

I managed to give Kitty her first really nice scuff this morning - I was driving between a very wide minivan in a very narrow lane with some of those large decorative rocks on the other side, and managed to *WHAM* right into one as I was driving past. To be honest, I'm not that upset about it - mostly, I had been scared that I'd dented the body, but the scuff isn't actually that noticeable (it's on the bottom right corner of the front bumper). So maybe I'll pick up some touch-up paint, since I'm guessing a body shop would charge me to sand the whole thing down and repaint it. Since it's a plastic part, though, it's not too urgent.

Brian and I went climbing again last night, and finally invested in month passes to the Rock Dump - it's going to be our goal to go at least six times in the next four weeks, which will more than cover the cost. Meantime, I feel like I'm actually making progress again - I've managed to make it up a couple of more difficult routes, which is a nice feeling. I'm still nowhere near in Monica's league, though - I swear she looks like the Amazing Spider-Woman going up those walls. Of course, she goes two or three times a week if she can, so maybe it's not that surprising.

I invested in a copy of Advance Wars: Dual Strike for my DS recently. (I hadn't planned on buying it right then but it was one of the games that I really wanted to play and they had one copy left at Fred Meyer's for weeks - and I knew from experience that if I waited until I was planning on buying it and came back it'd be gone.) If turn-based strategy games are your thing, it's pretty awesome. Gets pretty complicated later on, but that's not a bad thing. The hardest part is remembering all the various little details - some of them can have a pretty big effect on the tide of battle. Maybe I'll invest in a strategy guide - the one I had for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was pretty essential.

Weekend was long, and fairly restful. Adam didn't make it in until late thanks to a flight cancellation, so we weren't really able to give him the grand tour we'd had planned, but it was good to see him nonetheless. Today has consisted mostly of him following Brian around preparing to head out to the mine, where they're going to be for the next couple of days. House is going to seem awfully empty again...but oh well. At least it's only for a couple of days.

Meantime, I've bought myself some more music (I've been going through it a lot quicker since getting a desk job, I've noticed). This time around it was all about the Js - the main features were Joan Jett's new album, a couple by Jack Johnson, and one by Josh Joplin. (No Janet Jackson, though.) The Jack Johnson CDs made it in today, and I'm enjoying them a lot - his music is very "hang loose, bro"ish. Neither Brian nor I were surprised to find out that he's a surfer who lives in Hawaii and taught himself the guitar while recovering from an injury.

Lost Girls should be here today or tomorrow. I hope. *crosses fingers*

I finished my weekend job on Sunday; it was a lovely day for it, too, which is nice - through a bit of luck I managed to avoid the only two really crappy Sunday afternoons all summer. I'll probably get my final paycheck in a couple of weeks, which should have my $100 end-of-season bonus with it...that'll be a nice chunk of cash, even though I'll probably stick it straight in savings. (I went ahead and ordered tires for Kitty from Costco; I got the nicest ones they had, which are going to run me just over $800. But I should have just enough between this and next paycheck to keep my savings account over $300, the minimum to avoid fees.)

I know I've been out of college for a year and a half now, but it's still such a nice feeling, being able to afford everything I need and most of the things that I want. Even if I don't save as much as I probably should. =)

Yeah, I bet you all thought I'd given up on the second-job gig, hm? Not exactly - there was an ad for part-time work with the Juneau Empire, so I sent a resumé in with a cover letter telling them I'd be interested in something evening/weekendish, figuring that the worst that'd happen would be that I'd never hear from them again. Instead, I got an call from a very nice guy with their circulation department, who offered me a temporary job passing out flyers and whatnot to tourists once a week. Not bad pay, either - $9 an hour, plus a $100 bonus at the end if I can stick with it for two months. Doesn't seem like it'll be too hard - might be a bit miserable on especially rainy days, but I'll just make sure to wear good clothing. And I can darn sure use the extra cash - I'm going to need new tires for Kitty in a couple months, and it looks like a full set of all-season tires is going to set me back $800. (Downside to having a car with all the bells and whistles available - low-profile tires are more expensive to replace and don't last as long. D'oh.)

And in first-job news, I got another $1.50 an hour raise for all my efforts in reining in BD and keeping track of his billable time, as well as a very nice letter from Wade praising the job that I've done - he even called me an "asset to the company". Coming from Wade, this makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :) I'm going to have to put it in my me-file along with the nice letter Nancy wrote for me when I got my three-month raise.

So here's to good job opportunities, generous supervisors and the ability to make ends meet with a little room to spare. *toasts*

While I was driving to work this morning, I noticed that Kitty's tire pressure sensor light was on. What concerned me was not so much the idea of low tire pressure as the fact that the car wasn't handling any differently, and none of the tires seemed to be particularly flat after a visual inspection - I was under the impression that the pressure sensor was there to warn you if one of the tires was seriously over-or-underinflated, and would've been very annoyed if the sensor was having issues. Fortunately, after pulling in to an air station, I took a measurement and discovered that the front drivers' side tire was actually somewhat underinflated - 24 psi instead of the normal 32. I filled it up and lo and behold, the sensor light turned off. Apparently it detects "getting low" status as well as "seriously low" status.

I really love my car. =D

Nothing really to see here, so unless you haven't anything better to do you're excused.

That said, the transmission on my car is doing the same thing as before - a rather distressing "THUNK" while upshifting combined with the AT and Check Engine lights coming on. Fortunately it had the courtesy to do so as I was on my way home from work last night, so it was a fairly simple matter to detour to the dealership and hand them the keys again. Here's hoping that they actually fix the problem this time, rather than just rebooting the computer...although I also hope that I don't end up waiting a week and a half for whatever esoteric part they need to come in from Nigitizushi, Japan. They gave me Bessie (the powder-blue PT Cruiser) again to drive, and I like her and all, but I miss my car - especially when I have to do a three-point turn to get into a parking space that Kitty would've been able to zip right into.

In other news, I owe the people at Dr. Sapp's office $136 - apparently they charge something like $160 for a simple office visit, and I haven't met my deductible for the year. I was really pissed off about this until I learned that Valley Medical (the place we took Brian when he was really ill) charged him $186...I mean, what the hey? If I'd just gone to the emergency room like I felt like doing, it would've only been $150, albeit a bit more of a wait. Times like this I really wish I was a dog - an office visit alone at the vet clinic was less than $40. On the other hand, now that I've paid the deductible, it'll be somewhat less than that if I have to go in again. (Have I mentioned lately that I really don't like the way our health care system is run? I shudder to think what it must be like for people who get really ill and don't have insurance...)

The good news is that I do have the money to pay them; the bad news is the fact that I have to use that money to pay them means I'm going to be more or less broke for another couple of paychecks - I'll have enough money for rent, groceries, car payment and not much else. I know I should be grateful that I have enough money to cover everything, but I was kind of looking forward to the not-being-broke thing for a while...*sigh*

Ah, well. Now that my grumbling's over and done with, I'm going to go off and be brave and keep my chin up and count my blessings and be grateful for what I have and all that...

Also, for those of you who were kind enough to listen to my grumblings (or just smart enough to skip to the end of the entry), here's the link to a nifty little game that borismarkovich sent me. Not an entirely original premise, but well executed and certainly good for killing an hour or two.