The Caffeinated Penguin

Posted By matt on August 19, 2007

So, I'm kind of unimpressed by the Deepest Sender widget and am back to using the LJ web interface, which is fine, especially since FF now has spellcheck.

Anyway, we've been reasonably productive. We should be getting new potatoes soon, the peppers are coming in nicely, and I got a recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds from a friend, since we have several very large pumpkins.

Last week, I decided that I sleep too much (about 8-9 hours per night), so I've cut back to about 7-8 hours per night. I'm getting up an hour earlier, which allows me to spend about an hour playing video games in the morning. This actually does wonders for morale, because it gives me something to look forward to each morning. It has helped counter the general malaise and job dissatisfaction I've been feeling recently.

I've also decided to make a go at my own RPG rules based on the d20 modern SRD. This will afford some level of compatibility with many of the published rule supplements out there, while “fixing” a lot of things which are wrong with it. Not only am I going to write it, but I think that I will publish it through Lulu.com in both print (and they can do spiral bound so that it folds flat!) and PDF formats. Maybe it will sell well, maybe it won't.

Ordered a carburetor refurb kit for the tiller as it's slowly leaking gasoline. I think I nicked one of the seals while I was cleaning it.

Also, my car has been making this odd ticking noise. I thought it was the crappy plastic skid plate just vibrating, so I pulled it off. Most of the mounts had ripped loose anyway. I need to get one of these skid plates. Much beefier. Also, I figure that I might get one of these, the idea here being that without a lift, it's a bear to get all of the oil out, because the car has to be level and I need to get underneath the car to get at the drain plug – easy on trucks, not do easy on this car which only has about 6″ of ground clearance (hence the need for the skid plate). The idea with these pumps is that you can suck the oil out of the dipstick tube, so you don't need to drain it. I tried this in an emergency overfill situation with Liz's car, but the pump we bought was a $10 Wal-Mart job and didn't really work. These units hopefully work a little better. Back to the point – I tick off the skid plate and the resonance went away, but the ticking was still there. I figured that I was just hearing the engine noise a little louder, since the skid plate was now off – until the check engine light went on. So, today I'm going to hook it up to the computer and see what it can tell me.

In other news, we've finished the wardrobe and drawers we bought, so I'm unpacking the rest of my clothes, ironing all my shirts from being in boxes, etc. Liz has decided to paint the breakfast nook, which is not a bad project, and then we will probably start finishing the drywall in her closet (it was poorly done in the first place and needs to be sanded). I'll also fix the drywall around a light I installed (new light was too small for the old hole, so there is a gap which I need to fill in), and if the rain holds off, cut down some more stuff with the chainsaw. However, I don't hold out too much hope for this, so it's a good thing that I have a garage.

I also need to weld up a broken bracket on the mower deck, and weld wider skis on to the feet for the snow blower.

Oh, and replace one of the dimmers with a better 3 way + dimmer arrangement (whichever switch you hit goes through the dimmer, so the light level is always constant, rather than being dimmed from one switch and full on from the other).

So, lots to do.

Category: LJ Import
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