Journal Entry: June 27, 2008

I probably mentioned that K-- and N-- got home from their Vegas trip on Tuesday night. I knew they both had the day off Wednesday, so I invited them to join me for lunch. Alas, I do work a long way from their home, so that didn't work out, but T-- came anyway, so we had lunch at Schlotzky's, and it was good.

I also learned that the Schlotzky's Original was first inspired by a muffuletta. Never knew that. Actually, I've seen muffulettas on menus before, and always thought they looked gross. Who knew?

After work, on my drive home, I had a handful of movies that needed returning to Redbox. There's a McDonalds not far from my house that has one, so I stopped in to dump the movies. Then when I got back in my car, it wouldn't start. Joy. D-- came by fifteen minutes later and gave me a ride home.

We did get together with K-- and N-- (and D-- and Shannon's family, actually) for dinner at Johnny's Charcoal Broiler. So that was good. We had a fun time of it, and afterward D-- and I went home to meet Toby, who had come up from Norman to learn how to play Heroscape.

Heroscape is the tabletop game D-- taught me a couple weeks ago, and which Toby and I are thinking about programming. It's fun. After setting up the game board and selecting our armies, we got about fifteen minutes into the actual game before church ended and K-- came by to help me fix my car.

We ran up to McDonalds and jump-started it, let it run for a while, and then I tried it again without the cables. Nothing. Turned out, the battery was completely dead. It wouldn't hold a charge at all. No bid deal -- battery is one of the cheapest things to fix on a car. We jump-started it again, and I went home. I'd already called my boss to let him know I wouldn't be in Thursday morning.

So, Thursday morning I woke up bright and early, and we jump-started the car again, and took it in to Wal-Mart. I asked for an oil change, rotate and balance the tires, and a new battery. Then T-- drove me back home in the Saturn, I watched AB for an hour while she had a business meeting, and then after a lunch of Taco Bell, I drove the Saturn in to work for the afternoon.

After work, we stopped by Wal-Mart to pay, and I learned that they hadn't rotated the tires because there was tread damage and they needed to be replaced. Of course, it would have been nice if they'd called me with that information, because now I'm going to have to find another opportunity to drop off the car to get new tires. And, of course, now I have to get new tires. That's not Wal-Mart's fault, but it irritates me just the same.

I paid up the bill, anyway, and then we went to the gym, where I was unable to do my jogging for the day because of back pain. I did my four-minute warm up walk, then cranked up the speed and took three or four jogging steps (calling out "Ow!" at every one, which is embarrassing in a crowded gym), and then turned the speed back down and settled for a twenty-minute brisk walk.

We had dinner with K-- and N-- at the Arby's right by the gym, and then came home and watched a Boston Legal. Pretty busy day, all told.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.