Druid in a three-piece
Feb. 23rd, 2005 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
triadruidSince several people have inquired about ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kittenpants observation of me leaving in a pinstripe suit this morning, I guess I should update. It's been a busy couple of days again.
I opted not to take the Trance intensive class this weekend, and insteadfeatherynscale and I ran errands and were Mighty™. Saturday morning we got up with every intention of getting pancakes at IHOP but were thwarted by the masses trailing out the door. So we went down the road to Applebee's instead (following our family tradition of eating whatever/wherever the third person doesn't like to go, when only two of us are out), and had some serious Boneless Buffalo Wings. We asked for mild and they were enough to make my lips tingle, which isn't exactly difficult but it is impressive. It wasn't pure heat either, but actual flavor, which is always a plus in my book.
From there we ticked off Chilton's Car Care Guide on my list, because the next stop after that was to pick up the replacement door for my car (see a previous entry for the reason that was needed) in Independence. We both agreed that Ind. is "dingy", but the gentleman who runs the salvage yard is fully capable. He had to let me know that he was mistaken about the original door he promised me (the green one for my red car) because it was for a 2-door Aspire, not a 4-door, and hence the wrong side. A colleague of his happened to have one he'd sell to him to sell to me for only $10 more, which happened to be the same shade of red as mine. So we got that loaded in the back of the car and headed west. (Note that while this limits the need for decorating the car to mask the color scheme, it does nothing to reduce the want for a Car of Kells, as amusing as that idea is. We'll see...)
Next up was a stop by the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which was another placefeatherynscale had never been. We both oohed and ahhed over cabinetry, doors, ductwork, and paint in various shades of "dark neutral" and "light neutral", but didn't actually purchase anything. It was determined that the ReStore couldn't solve any of our fencing problems, but they do carry several types of things that could help with the new office desk, or piping heat and air conditioning down to the basement, those sorts of clever things. They also had large buckets of driveway sealer which caused a parking-lot conference with her grandfather. Explaining basement leaks to Floridians is somewhat amusing, but eventually he wrapped his brain around the fact that it's like repairing a leaking boat: it's never taken out of the environment that causes the problem, and getting at it from the outside is much more difficult than from the inside. In that vein, he recommended a marine-grade sealer and extensive caulking, if it's a relatively minor leak. It seems to be, so we'll see what we can do with it once the weather dries out a bit. Then we stopped by a real hardware store to order fencing materials for finishing out the back yard, so the Chaos Hound can have free rein of his territory and possibly even a friend, if he plays his cards right.
We got home too late to actually start working on the door replacement that evening, so instead we celebrated by doing another thingkittenpants wouldn't have enjoyed joining us on: Constantine! Actually, it was not a bad movie as apocalyptic comic book translations go; I particularly enjoyed both the Gabriel and Satan characters. It does not require a lot of familiarity with the comic books, which I'm sure horrifies the fandom, but I enjoyed it. Probably won't buy it, though.
Sunday morning rolled around without much enthusiasm on our part, despite being the planned second take on the IHOP excursion. About 9:30 it occurred to me that if we wanted pancakes, it would be simpler to just make them! (I'm not sm4rt, but I can be taught) A plethora of pancakes with peppered bacon were prepared, and there was much rejoicing. Even more rejoicing occurred whenkittenpants arrived home from the Trance class, although she was too tired to move and opted to go to bed rather than go to Gaia for the forum on Pagan Clergy. The forum went well, with a lot of good discussion on the topic and a fair number of people present. I think the new system of notifications for Sunday events will turn out for the better, as people can choose to only attend things they are actually interested in; hence less complaining when they get surprised because they didn't read the newsletter, the previous week's announcements, or go to the website. Ahhh, the life of a Communications Chairperson. After that we dropped by the Turner Chaos Parade for a bit and then skidded home because everyone was still pretty tired.
As Monday was President's Day,featherynscale cursed my name while kittenpants and I slept in (being a Government employee, I had the day off), and then we got up, had breakfast, and got started on the Door.
Taking the door off was relatively uneventful, with KP reading the Chilton's while I executed the maneuvers. The door lock cylinder was the first big difficulty, mainly because the book let us down with its instructions. Display exactly which bolt, and where, is to come off for the door trim panel? Great. Describe the steps or show a picture of the "lock cylinder retainer" that you are to remove? Nothing. *grumble* Luckily we had two doors to mess with, so at the end we had one full working lock mechanism. He asked for all the pieces back of the broken door to replace the one he bought; he didn't specify that they all had to work the same.
Getting the entire door off, we realized that there was no torque wrench on premises and no metric socket set, which ledkittenpants to flashbacks of her ex "dismantling his cars, and then having to take her car to go to the store to get more tools to put it back together". This was a *little* more difficult than anticipated, because torque wrenches aren't sold in as many locations as you might think, but by 4pm we had everything we needed. Much cursing and muttering followed, and I am unafraid to admit that she actually bolted the door back on while I just held it up, for the most part. It's so nice to have a greasekitten around the house. :) featherynscale got home just as we were finishing up, and besides poking me for touching her ass with my grimy fingers, we were all in much better spirits. Having reassembled my car, I happily drove us for dinner sans flapping plastic in my left ear.
Which leads us to today. My court date for the car accident that led to my car door having to be replaced was this morning, and having only been to court for a traffic incident once before, I wasn't sure what JoCo expected. So I grabbed my "banker's suit" out of the closet and dithered about locating a tie that actually worked with it. My other thirds were momentarily speechless when I walked out of the bedroom (I should clarify that my usual work attire is frequently a polo shirt or button-down shirt with slacks or nice jeans). Couldn't hurt, right? Off I went.
I found the courthouse without much trouble, and navigated both security and finding Traffic Court without much trouble. I will say for the record that I have never seen so many people of minority extraction in Johnson County as I did at that morning; I leave the reasons for that as an exercise for the reader (Driving While Black is a frequently cited offense in the 'burbs). I brought the wrong book for one reason, as I finished Max Barry's Jennifer Government before they were through the F's, but the irony of reading about a libertarian dystopia while sitting in traffic court was worth it.
They have an interesting setup: The Prosecuting Attorney's office brings in four staff who negotiate any applicable offenses, and then there are the usual options of pleading guilty or asking for a bench trial. Interestingly, the option I used last time I was in court, Nolo contendere, was not mentioned there. Eventually they got to the R's and I stood in line with my fellow miscreants, including a rather nervous woman who asked me a lot of questions about the process. Apparently she had been caught going at least 84 mph in a 65 zone, and was going to push for a bench trial. I got to use a bit more of my college education than usual in explaining the process, and it killed some time. Talking to the Assistant Prosecutor was interesting, because without prompting she explained how to get my infraction-with-accident reduced to a non-moving violation, provided the other driver agreed. After regrouping my arguments, I got a continuance until next month to accomplish that additional task. This leads to two separate benefits:
kittenpants observation of me leaving in a pinstripe suit this morning, I guess I should update. It's been a busy couple of days again.I opted not to take the Trance intensive class this weekend, and instead
featherynscale and I ran errands and were Mighty™. Saturday morning we got up with every intention of getting pancakes at IHOP but were thwarted by the masses trailing out the door. So we went down the road to Applebee's instead (following our family tradition of eating whatever/wherever the third person doesn't like to go, when only two of us are out), and had some serious Boneless Buffalo Wings. We asked for mild and they were enough to make my lips tingle, which isn't exactly difficult but it is impressive. It wasn't pure heat either, but actual flavor, which is always a plus in my book. From there we ticked off Chilton's Car Care Guide on my list, because the next stop after that was to pick up the replacement door for my car (see a previous entry for the reason that was needed) in Independence. We both agreed that Ind. is "dingy", but the gentleman who runs the salvage yard is fully capable. He had to let me know that he was mistaken about the original door he promised me (the green one for my red car) because it was for a 2-door Aspire, not a 4-door, and hence the wrong side. A colleague of his happened to have one he'd sell to him to sell to me for only $10 more, which happened to be the same shade of red as mine. So we got that loaded in the back of the car and headed west. (Note that while this limits the need for decorating the car to mask the color scheme, it does nothing to reduce the want for a Car of Kells, as amusing as that idea is. We'll see...)
Next up was a stop by the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which was another place
featherynscale had never been. We both oohed and ahhed over cabinetry, doors, ductwork, and paint in various shades of "dark neutral" and "light neutral", but didn't actually purchase anything. It was determined that the ReStore couldn't solve any of our fencing problems, but they do carry several types of things that could help with the new office desk, or piping heat and air conditioning down to the basement, those sorts of clever things. They also had large buckets of driveway sealer which caused a parking-lot conference with her grandfather. Explaining basement leaks to Floridians is somewhat amusing, but eventually he wrapped his brain around the fact that it's like repairing a leaking boat: it's never taken out of the environment that causes the problem, and getting at it from the outside is much more difficult than from the inside. In that vein, he recommended a marine-grade sealer and extensive caulking, if it's a relatively minor leak. It seems to be, so we'll see what we can do with it once the weather dries out a bit. Then we stopped by a real hardware store to order fencing materials for finishing out the back yard, so the Chaos Hound can have free rein of his territory and possibly even a friend, if he plays his cards right.We got home too late to actually start working on the door replacement that evening, so instead we celebrated by doing another thing
kittenpants wouldn't have enjoyed joining us on: Constantine! Actually, it was not a bad movie as apocalyptic comic book translations go; I particularly enjoyed both the Gabriel and Satan characters. It does not require a lot of familiarity with the comic books, which I'm sure horrifies the fandom, but I enjoyed it. Probably won't buy it, though.Sunday morning rolled around without much enthusiasm on our part, despite being the planned second take on the IHOP excursion. About 9:30 it occurred to me that if we wanted pancakes, it would be simpler to just make them! (I'm not sm4rt, but I can be taught) A plethora of pancakes with peppered bacon were prepared, and there was much rejoicing. Even more rejoicing occurred when
kittenpants arrived home from the Trance class, although she was too tired to move and opted to go to bed rather than go to Gaia for the forum on Pagan Clergy. The forum went well, with a lot of good discussion on the topic and a fair number of people present. I think the new system of notifications for Sunday events will turn out for the better, as people can choose to only attend things they are actually interested in; hence less complaining when they get surprised because they didn't read the newsletter, the previous week's announcements, or go to the website. Ahhh, the life of a Communications Chairperson. After that we dropped by the Turner Chaos Parade for a bit and then skidded home because everyone was still pretty tired.As Monday was President's Day,
featherynscale cursed my name while kittenpants and I slept in (being a Government employee, I had the day off), and then we got up, had breakfast, and got started on the Door.Taking the door off was relatively uneventful, with KP reading the Chilton's while I executed the maneuvers. The door lock cylinder was the first big difficulty, mainly because the book let us down with its instructions. Display exactly which bolt, and where, is to come off for the door trim panel? Great. Describe the steps or show a picture of the "lock cylinder retainer" that you are to remove? Nothing. *grumble* Luckily we had two doors to mess with, so at the end we had one full working lock mechanism. He asked for all the pieces back of the broken door to replace the one he bought; he didn't specify that they all had to work the same.
Getting the entire door off, we realized that there was no torque wrench on premises and no metric socket set, which led
kittenpants to flashbacks of her ex "dismantling his cars, and then having to take her car to go to the store to get more tools to put it back together". This was a *little* more difficult than anticipated, because torque wrenches aren't sold in as many locations as you might think, but by 4pm we had everything we needed. Much cursing and muttering followed, and I am unafraid to admit that she actually bolted the door back on while I just held it up, for the most part. It's so nice to have a greasekitten around the house. :) featherynscale got home just as we were finishing up, and besides poking me for touching her ass with my grimy fingers, we were all in much better spirits. Having reassembled my car, I happily drove us for dinner sans flapping plastic in my left ear.Which leads us to today. My court date for the car accident that led to my car door having to be replaced was this morning, and having only been to court for a traffic incident once before, I wasn't sure what JoCo expected. So I grabbed my "banker's suit" out of the closet and dithered about locating a tie that actually worked with it. My other thirds were momentarily speechless when I walked out of the bedroom (I should clarify that my usual work attire is frequently a polo shirt or button-down shirt with slacks or nice jeans). Couldn't hurt, right? Off I went.
I found the courthouse without much trouble, and navigated both security and finding Traffic Court without much trouble. I will say for the record that I have never seen so many people of minority extraction in Johnson County as I did at that morning; I leave the reasons for that as an exercise for the reader (Driving While Black is a frequently cited offense in the 'burbs). I brought the wrong book for one reason, as I finished Max Barry's Jennifer Government before they were through the F's, but the irony of reading about a libertarian dystopia while sitting in traffic court was worth it.
They have an interesting setup: The Prosecuting Attorney's office brings in four staff who negotiate any applicable offenses, and then there are the usual options of pleading guilty or asking for a bench trial. Interestingly, the option I used last time I was in court, Nolo contendere, was not mentioned there. Eventually they got to the R's and I stood in line with my fellow miscreants, including a rather nervous woman who asked me a lot of questions about the process. Apparently she had been caught going at least 84 mph in a 65 zone, and was going to push for a bench trial. I got to use a bit more of my college education than usual in explaining the process, and it killed some time. Talking to the Assistant Prosecutor was interesting, because without prompting she explained how to get my infraction-with-accident reduced to a non-moving violation, provided the other driver agreed. After regrouping my arguments, I got a continuance until next month to accomplish that additional task. This leads to two separate benefits:
- I may end up with no points or moving violations on my driving record after all of this;
- If you come over to E3HQ after work on 3/21, it may be possible to see me in a suit once more.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 10:27 pm (UTC)That's why there's two of us. Duh.
I'll grab the camera and
no subject
no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 04:53 am (UTC)(Driving While Black is a frequently cited offense in the 'burbs).So sad but so true LOL
no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 01:09 am (UTC)Not in a suit, but...
Date: 2005-02-24 05:31 am (UTC)Sailors! (hehe)
Re: Not in a suit, but...
Date: 2005-02-24 11:21 am (UTC)Re: Not in a suit, but...
Date: 2005-02-24 07:20 pm (UTC).
.
.
That pic was from trick-or-treating back in 2003, if memory serves. The menfolk were escorting their honorary nieces around the neighborhood...moms everywhere were calling into the house for people to come see the "ohmygod sexy sailors!"
Re: Not in a suit, but...
Date: 2005-02-25 01:25 am (UTC)he he he
Date: 2005-02-24 10:09 pm (UTC)He's also ex-Navy for real (that's most of his original uniform), and as
Re: he he he
Date: 2005-02-25 01:33 am (UTC)Re: he he he
Date: 2005-02-25 03:10 am (UTC)I'm sure he'll let you make it up to him sometime, should you get the chance. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 04:14 am (UTC)Perhaps the suit helped. Perhaps you seeming like a nice, innocent person helped. Perhaps raced helped. Perhaps the woman thought you were cute. The gods only know. As for me. I hate Overland Police with a passion. They have taught me complete disrespect for the law. With the exception of one police officer, who was the nicest OP Police officer I ever dealt with. However, that was went the Leawood bitch totaled my car. It probably helped that she was being a bitch, almost left the scene, and I was bawling because I was just trying to go to school to take a test. :-)
Enough rambling... Sorry about that...
no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 05:58 am (UTC)