A test posting...

So yesterday, for reasons unknown to me, Blogger wouldn't update my
entries to the blog. It said that no path could be found to the site,
although when I clicked to view one of the previously posted blog
entries, it could get to those just fine. Anyway, I managed to post
them this morning using the girlfriend's computer. Now I'm going to
try this post-via-email capability, which I've not tried before. I'm
not sure if it will still do the same thing, since I'm sure it uses at
least parts of the same engine, but I guess we'll find out.

Yesterday I took the car down to the dealership where I bought it, so
I could get it inspected. That was another $40 that I can't really
afford right now, but I really needed to get it done so I can drive
around and look for a new job. I got there around 1:30 or so, after
dropping off some magazines and such at the recycle center and getting
some gas in the beastie.

After dropping off the car at the service center, I went over to the
office and sat and talked with the girlfriend, who works there as one
of the phone operators. We talked about what we're going to do as far
as money, which is really kind of weighing pretty heavily on both of
us at the moment. We were discussing what kinds of food to make to be
budget friendly, and other similar ways that we can manage to keep a
little more of the money that we do manage to make.

The service department closes at three on Saturday, and I got a call
from the service department about 20 minutes till. It seems that my
car wouldn't pass because the gas cap wasn't holding pressure. The
girlfriend called the salesperson who had sold me the car, only a
couple of months ago, and asked her if they don't check the cars
before they sell them. Long story short, she said that they could
probably take a gas cap from a similar Ford Focus and swap it with me.

So I ran over to the service department and got my car and keys back
after explaining the situation to them. I drove over to the used car
area and got a gas cap from a different car. I wound up having to rip
off the little cord that holds the gas cap onto my car, as well as
having to rip the cord on the other car, but I let the porter at the
dealership take care of destroying that one. I drove over to the
service department, but they had already closed down the area where
they do the inspections, so I just paid my bill and headed back over
to the office. Guess I get the privilege of driving back down there
tomorrow morning and getting the inspection completed.

After telling the girlfriend what had happened and talking with her a
little bit longer, I drove back home. She had asked me to do a couple
of things if I was feeling up to it. I was actually feeling rather
bummed when I got home, and I sat down and watched some of the World
Baseball Classic on the tube and nearly dozed off, but I finally did
rouse myself to do some of the cooking she had asked me to do. I
browned some ground beef that we already had defrosted and cooked a
big pot of rice. I didn't tape off the baseboards so she could paint
them, though. And I doubt I'm going to do that today, either.

When she got home, she made a sort of meat and rice casserole. It was
originally supposed to be a meatloaf, but it was a fair bit more rice
than originally planned, so it didn't really hold together in loaf
form. She also made some potato wedges as a side dish, and that's
what we had for dinner. She watched a few of the things she wanted to
and then went upstairs and worked on a couple of her projects up
there, and I sat here and watched some show about Einstein and an
episode of Iron Chef America that I hadn't seen before. I pretty much
just feel asleep on the couch while watching, and she woke me up after
she came downstairs, so I didn't just sleep on the couch all night and
screw my neck up more than it already is.

I fed the bratling and headed off to bed after that. She was watching
some of her home shows on the tube, and she asked if I wanted her to
turn it off, but I told her not to worry about it. Sure enough, I was
asleep in about 20 minutes. Didn't even hear the end of the show that
she was watching when I lay down.

I woke up this morning at about seven. I thought it was six, but I
didn't realize that last night was the change to Daylight Savings
Time. I couldn't sleep after that, probably because of sleeping on
the couch for a couple of hours during the evening. So I got up, went
upstairs and gave the cat her breakfast and checked the status of the
taxes and posted yesterday's blog entries on the girlfriend's
computer. I came back downstairs and made some coffee, and then went
in and talked to the girlfriend for a little bit, since she was awake
by then. After that, I've been mostly just sitting here doing stuff
on StumbleUpon and trying to keep my screwed up power cord from
shutting down my computer every five minutes. There's a hockey game
on, Boston vs. New York, but it's coming to an end soon. After that,
I suppose I should get ready to head out for the day. We have book
club today, which is fortunately at Betty and Scott's house, so we're
not going to have to spend any money on it. They asked us to come
down a little earlier than the actual meeting, so we could just hang
out and chat for a while. So that's most of my plans for the
afternoon and evening...

Now let's see if this thing will post...