I will never understand why this college doesn’t have a Germanic or Scandinavian studies department. Its library is LOADED with books in those subjects! Not to mention mythology in general…good gravy, I underutilized this resource when I was here.

Honestly though, they ought to hire me to start up a department for them.

It is now 1:38AM. I can get 2 hours of sleep (or so) to get down to my lil’ bro’s to head out by 5AM to go back to God’s Country.

A variety of factors led to this decision to act like this, namely one of my good friends had to head back to her home much earlier than planned, so we had a going away party for her tonight. That coupled with trying to get the washing machine going the last couple days meant that my time was at a premium for getting stuff done…and hence staying up until now. The plus side is that almost everything is packed (outside the bathroom stuff) and I”ll get that on the morrow.

Good times, good times.

at least they’ll find you handy.

The last few days has been a hubbub of moving and getting things squared away. Between yesterday and today there was an epic struggle between a dryer, a washing machine, and myself.

Both appliances were free. And these experiences merely underscore my long held opinion that free things are more often than not more trouble than what they’re worth. Anyway.

I had to go to Lowes because the dryer hookup kit that I had gotten was missing a piece, and that piece was necessary to hook it up. So I went there with a faucet, because a faucet for the Washing Machine was leaking like a sieve when turned on. I wanted to just exchange the one, but the people at lowes either would give me cash or put the money on the card, instead of just letting me exchange it. Talk about a waste of time and energy. Jerks. Anyway, so I go back and try to find what I’m looking for. I find it, also picking up a universal washer waste pipe hose.

Funny story there, I had to move the washing machine so I could close and lock the door because our gardeners were here when I left. These guys are getting fired, and I didn’t know if the landlord had told them that or not, so I wasn’t about to leave any doors open and unlocked with them around. So I was moving the washer, and the old rubber hose didn’t have near as much play as I thought it did and snapped off the plastic piece coming out the back of the dryer. I was not pleased.

So that’s why I picked up the other rubber hose, hoping that it’d fit nice over the broken bits still out the back of the washer. Anyway, so I return to the house. The bolt and the washer won’t come off the pipe in the wall. NOrmally this wouldn’t be a problem because the faucet looked to be an almost exact fit. Almost doesn’t cut it when water’s involved. Sooooo….I head on over to home depot.

I get an EXACT match on the faucet this time, get the water hooked in correctly, no leaks. I test out the rubber hose. I can get it over the broken plastic bits, but it still drips water. “Well, slap me in the face and call me sally,” I said. Actually, I didn’t say that. There was much more profanity during this whole process than any sane person could probably imagine. Anyhoos, dripping water. So I took the broken end off the old rubber hose and head down to home depot again.

I manage to find some tubing that an employee was kind enough to cut down for me that fit into the broken plastic pipe, and we got a clamp for it. I also picked up some plumber’s epoxy hoping that’d help. And back home I went.

I first tried to epoxy the plastic tube inside the broken bits on the washer. That didn’t work so hot. At all, actually, even giving the epoxy time to cure. “Well, sweet sassy molassy,” I said. Again, no, not really. Anyway, I then struck upon the brilliant idea of putting the plastic hose inside the broken pieces, and then putting it inside the rubber tubing, and then clamping it as close to the washer as possible. I didn’t try this before with just the rubber hose, because that would have just snapped the plastic more. Anyway, that did the trick. No more leaks from the back of the washer.

So then I walk the washer back into it’s lil’ nook and cranny, and bring in the dryer to hook up. With the correct kit, I hooked up everything necessary and turned on the gas (yeah, this ain’t a regular electric dryer). I didn’t hear any hissing or smell any odor. So I got some soapy water and dumped it on the connectors just to be sure. No bubbles. This pleased me. So I walked the dryer back in the corner and tested it out. It works great, the only problem is that it is REALLY noisy, and there sounds like a screw or something rattling around when it rolls. I’ll fix that after the MN trip.

Soooo back to the Washer. I notice that the washer is leaving about a gallon of water inside everytime it runs. I try a variet of things, and nothing works. I check the hoses, I check the drainage. Everything works. I siphon about 10 gallons out of the tank, and try to get it working that way. No go. I try unplugging it in the middle of the drain, and then replugging it in. Nothing.

So this morning I decide to take it apart. My roommate was not pleased. I made mention of two things then: 1. The washer was free. 2. the washer wasn’t working anyway. He relented and went somewhere else to do his laundry looking a bit put out that our free washer wasn’t operational. I tried all electrical connections, tested the water level situation, everything checked out. Unplugged some more pipes, no problems.

Finally, in desperation I call my Father, he isn’t home. So my Mom checks the maytag washer manual there for any troubleshooting, but no go. So I hang up and putz around with it some more until my dad can call back. My mom then calls MJB in bemidji apparently, and they say could be a loose belt. So she calls me and lets me know, and I check the belts. Sho’ ’nuff, the pump belt is exceedingly loose. So I unscrew the pump move it over as far as I can to tighten it up, and then cross my fingers and hope it worked.

And ye, there was no water left in the tank afterwards. It was good, and now I’m cleaning clothes.

Enjoy.

dependent, or course, on finding a prophecy about me moving stuff today.

almost done by the end of tomorrow, I’ll just have my computer stuff to move which is a one trip car drive. Don’t get to do that until the 24th though. Good times.

Also, free stuff in southern California is of significantly higher quality than free stuff was in northern minnesota.

too bad that most of the people in this state just don’t measure up.

was a long week. We got a new house to move into and that’s this week’s hassle. I got all my books, video games and dvds and TV over there this weekend. Now it’s the kitchen stuff, clothes and misc left. I’m going to try get the big stuff such as bookcases bed and tables over there this thursday or friday.

moving is kind of a hassle.

On the plus side, we are getting a free washer, I picked up a free dryer today, and someone is letting us use their mini fridge until we can find one of our own. They’re out there on craigslist, but I’m waiting until a good deal pops up.

Good times, good times.

The worst part about moving is getting your cable/internet moved over. Can someone explain to me why it takes TWO DAYS TOPS for someone from the utilities company to come over and hook up your electricity, water or gas, while it takes 10 days for someone to come over to hook up cable? What the deuce?

Stupid cable companies. As such, I’ll be driving back and forth each day until the 24th in order to work. That sorta sucks, but I’m not moved into the new place quite yet so it’ll have to do.

my headphones, logitech, which are quality, were cutting out on me and getting uninstalled from the system. It wouldn’t reinstall when plugged in without a significant amount of messing around with the plugs. freakin’ usb troubles.

So I read up on the issue and saw that the best way to deal with it was to update my BIOS. My motherboard is an M2N-E, and the ASUS updater utility never worked worth $#)(*7. As such, I downloaded the files from their site (which also never worked worth $#*&) to my flash drive. I restarted my comp and ran the flash updater utility in the BIOS management system. Worked great until the most recent update that ASUS gave…wrong BIOS warning flashed AFTER IT HAD WIPED MY PREVIOUS BIOS, and then shut down the comp. It checked out fine in the prelim stage.

This meant that I had to take the damned computer apart, take out the CMOS battery and switch a jumper to reset the stored memory to default. Suggested time to let it sit: 5~10 seconds.

Bullshit.

I tried that. I tried 2 minutes. I tried 10 minutes. The computer would start up and hang. Nothing on the monitors, no booting from the cd rom, nothing. So in a bit of a rage, I took out the battery switched the jumper and did the only thing that was left to me. I went to sleep.

I got up this morning and plugged everything back in, and the comp worked fine.

this week = hassles and nothin’ but.

than being broke. Honestly. I would rather speak naked in front of a crowd of 300 than be broke. And it’s not really that big of a thing, I guess, but it shames me to no end.

I managed, after screwing around all afternoon worried about this, to pull off some financial wizardry (which I’m sure will bite me in the ass) and made some money appear as if from no where from credit cards. So after the dust settled, and before supper, things were taken care of for paying for rent and deposit.

However, this whole shit storm coupled with the massive frustration of not getting paid as soon as I could have (the one time I needed it and would have been fine had things been done the way I had planned for) plus student loans taking about a week longer to get to me plus other non-related crap, it’s been a hell week for me.

Thank God it’s half over.

we get the house, but they expect the down payment and rent on Friday.

and Pacifica isn’t getting the loan payments out until next week at the earliest.

which means that I am flat fucking broke until then…which means that there’s a whole mess of fucking problems that arise with moving in.

This week has rapidly been spiralling down into it. That is all.

more cat pictures

all day in the library today. I want to get a bunch written. Wish me luck. I’ve gotta stop at the store first and pick me up some dr. pepper.

When going for a phd, it’s best to drink pop which already has one.

I rule now. Plus my head is cooler.

Ffft. C’mon. That was a fib.

Is it any possible for my head to be cooler?