Easter grass is an evil, evil thing.

Today was long, and it's not near over yet. I've been awake for almost 13 hours, and knowing me I'll be up for much longer. Even when I wake up early in the morning, I can't fall asleep early at night.

I saw shitloads of nice Jeeps and other monstrously-lifted vehicles on the highway today, all heading down to Moab for the Jeep Safari. I even saw a few boats heading for Lake Powell. If my truck was in working order, I'd have gone camping this weekend, probably down in the San Rafael Swell. Instead, I'm going to do some yard work, and probably a little mountain biking...nothing too exciting.

Mike Marshall moved back to Orem, and I'm pretty excited about that. Since I'm up in that general vicinity almost every week anyway, I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot more of him in the future. In fact, I'm going to try to get him and his wife to go on a little picnic with us tomorrow up by the Red Narrows. He got a Nissan 4X4 recently too, and you know what that means--more 4-wheelin' stories. =)

I'm heading up to Provo yet again for work tomorrow. I'll probably only work half a day in the office, then work the rest of the day at home. But while I'm up there, I'm going to do some much needed shopping. I'm gonna hit Sam's Club, probably spend a shitload there, and I'm also going to look for a used 15" monitor so I can get my old computer running. I figure I'll use that computer for getting the pictures off my camera and for printing, since I never did figure out the USB problem with this new machine. If I disable my soundcard in the device manager and reboot, my USB works, but it's a pain in the ass to reboot every time I want to print something or grab some pictures off my camera.

Speaking of my camera, I'd like to get rid of my 340MB IBM Microdrive and get a regular 256MB flash card, but I'm not sure how to go about selling it. They're retailing for around $135 right now, and a 256MB CF card is going for about $85, so I should be able to get enough out of it to pay for a new CF card. Hell, maybe I'll settle for a 128MB card and use the extra cash for something I really need. Maybe I'll try Ebay...

My little sister and her daughter moved down from Ogden, and they're staying at my house for awhile, at least until she gets on her feet down here. It'll take some getting used to, having somebody other than just Traci and Michael around.

I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but I happened to catch The Colin Quinn Show last night. That little skit about the stoner kid was just completely stupid (I can see why they cancelled the show after three episodes), but that crack about Halle Berry's Oscar speech was just hilarious. In fact, that whole part where all the guys told jokes was just funny as hell.

Yet another uninformed, ignorant jackass spouting off about those evil SUVs. When will people learn that it's the engine in the vehicle, not the shape of the vehicle, that does the polluting?

I would very much like to be here right now.

It's so damned nice outside right now, and it sucks to be inside working all day. It's supposed to be significantly colder this weekend, with a chance of rain or snow. I would really, really like to throw my bike in my car and go for a drive somewhere (or nowhere, actually), then ride my bike for a few hours until I get good and sore, and spend the rest of the weekend just loafing around the house. That would be a nice weekend, but I don't think the weather will permit it.

Instead, I think I'm going to spend some time in my garage (now that my truck isn't taking up every square foot of space in there), fixing a few things that have needed fixing for a long time. I broke my bedroom door several months ago (throwing a temper-tantrum), so I'm going to glue it back together and refinish it. I'd also like to paint the drawers and doors for the cabinets in my office--hopefully it'll at least be warm enough for that. And since it looks like Spring may be just around the corner, I'm going to tear apart my mom's old tiller and try to get it running. I think all it may need is an oil change, but if not, there's no harm in disassembling the engine and cleaning everything--it couldn't possibly not work any more than it already doesn't work.

I wonder how long it'll take 'em to file a lawsuit...

I went down to the Ford dealer today, they still haven't finished writing up an estimate for my truck. They did find out that the rear driveshaft is bent, but the output shaft is just fine (phew!). The oil leak is due to a cracked extension housing, which is located between the transmission and the transfer case. They're not sure if they can get a new one from Ford, so they might have to get one at a junkyard. I'll have them put new seals in there though, since they'll have everything torn apart anyway. They also found that something is putting quite a draw on the battery when the key is turned off, but they haven't tracked it down yet. As soon as they get a price on the extension housing and track down the electrical problem, they should have an estimate for me. I have a feeling I'll have to do without the front driveshaft and the other front-end work for now, 'cause the rest could easily eat up my $1,200 budget. Maybe I can do the front-end work myself, and just have them align it when I'm finished. That'd probably save me $150 in just labor.

Provo is on its way to becoming a Nazi police state. If a new city ordinance passes, police will have "sole authority to sign off on each event and spell out the conditions organizers of dances and other public amusements must follow."

I just put a new poll up. If you understand the significance of the options, you might vote differently.

This weekend has flown by, and I've done absolutely nothing the entire time. I think I watched tv all day yesterday, but I'm not really sure--I can't remember doing anything else, but I can't imagine myself staying put all day either. Today I watched the race (which sucked), then cleaned the house just a bit and made dinner, then played cards with Traci the rest of the evening.

Tuesday is going to suck, because I have to work the entire day at the office. Usually I just go in for 5 hours or so, then head home and finish my 8 hours there. But I have a meeting that lasts until 4:30 on Tuesday, so I have no choice but to work an entire day there. I've also got to get a modem for my aunt while I'm up there, and I'll probably be bringing my mom back to Price with me too. Her '93 4Runner has a leaky head gasket (after only 35,000 miles), so she's going to see if she can get it into the dealer that day--there's no Toyota dealer in Price. And I think it'll be covered under warranty, because apparently the head gaskets on that year of 4Runner have been recalled. I'd offer to fix it myself if it wasn't covered by the dealer, but the engine compartment is so jam-packed with stuff, it'd take me a few days just to get it torn down to the heads, and even then I'm not sure I could put it all back together the right way. Kinda makes me glad I own an old piece of shit rather than a new, harder to work on vehicle.

Hmm...Jeff Gordon's wife filed for divorce. Wonder why? =)

Ugh...every single time I drive to Provo for the day, I end up with a headache, and today is no exception. I got up at 6:00 this morning in order to be at work at a decent time, and I'm tired now too. I think I'll just take a nap, and I'm sure I'll end up awake all night now.

I drove my truck, unregistered and uninsured, down to the Ford dealer today. I did between 20 and 25 MPH the whole way, except for the last few hundred yards where I gunned it up to 40 and felt the truck try to shake itself apart. I found out that nobody sells driveshafts for trucks that old, so I was going to bring the front and rear driveshafts up to Dave's Drivelines in Provo (right near where I work) and have them rebuild, recondition, and balance both of them. I was just going to remove the rear driveshaft after I drove it down to Community Motors, but the guy at the service desk there told me they have a shop in Emery County that they work with who'll do all that work for me. So I went home and fished my front driveshaft out of my garage and brought it back down to the dealer and left it in my truck.

I don't know if I can even afford to fix everything that's wrong with my truck, but they're going to check everything out and give me an estimate, then I can pick and choose what I want done and what can wait 'til I have more money. The things I absolutely need fixed are the rear driveshaft and/or output shaft (including new spiders, caps, bearings, snap rings, etc), the transfer case and/or transmission oil leak, and the voltage regulator (which keeps draining my battery). I also need a new tie-rod end and a new ball joint on the front end in order to pass a safety inspection, but I can always take it to my wife's uncle to get it inspected--my vehicles always seem to pass inspection there for some reason. =)

Well shit, it's been pretty dead around here. Not much has been going on, I've just been waiting to see what's going to come of my thing with the city. If I don't hear from my attorney tomorrow, I'm going to give him a call and find out what's going on. I talked to him Monday night, and he said he'd be talking to the city's insurance company today. I'm pretty sure this thing will be resolved in a week or two, and either way it goes, I'll be glad it's over. If it comes out in my favor, everything will be all good. If it doesn't come out in my favor, I'll finally be able to say "fuck it," at least I did everything in my power (short of killing people) to make it right.

I sold my car tonight. Earlier today, a guy who had test-driven it last week called me and said he'd give me $1,000 for it, and I accepted, so he was going to come by tomorrow and get it. But a little before 10:00 tonight, the guy who had given me the $100 to hold the car for him until last Friday came by and gave me the full $1,200. I didn't really expect him to come up with the money, and I figured if he wasn't here by the time the other guy got here tomorrow then he wasn't coming at all. I'm just glad he came.

So now I've got $1,200 to fix my truck, and hopefully I can get it done pretty soon. I'm not sure whether I should go to either of my wife's uncles--'cause both of them would give me a good deal--or if I should go to the Ford dealer, 'cause I know their work will be better and have a better warranty--but then I'll pay out the ass.

Just made a new 404 page. Yay.

Despite everybody except me and Jaysen backing out of our trip to Nutty Putty, it was pretty fun. We only went through one section of the cave 'cause we didn't really have time to do the other half. I wasn't too sore yesterday, but today my back and side muscles ache like hell. I think we're going to go again in a month or two, and this time we'll have to drag people out there. =)

I was quite surprised at how far I drove my car up the hill (here are some pictures). I expected to have to park at the bottom and hike five or six hundred yards to the top, but I put my Subaru in low range and decided to see how far I could go. I made it about 2/3 of the way up the hill, which is as far as I dared to take my Toyota and my mom's 4Runner the past few times I've gone. Hopefully next time I'll have my Ford running and I can drive all the way up.

Oh joy...woke up to snow this morning. I checked the weather forecast for Santaquin, the nearest town to the cave, and they're supposed to get up to 6" of snow by tomorrow night. Saturday morning should be loads of fun, seeing as how I'll be driving my Subaru through either a lot of snow, or a lot of mud, to get to the cave. I'll be sure to bring my digital camera, 'cause I'm sure something will happen worth taking pictures of.

I've been working on a Winamp skin on and off for the past few days, and this is what I ended up with. I like this one much better than the last one I did, and it'll be easy to change colors if I get bored with it. I'm not sure what to do with the title bar yet, but having "udink.org" there probably makes it less likely that people will download it...as soon as I figure out what to do with that part, I'll submit it to Winamp.com and you can download it there.

Anybody tried that Bacardi Silver? Is it any good?

I tried fitting my bike carrier (trunk mounted) on my Subaru yesterday, and it won't fit the damn car. I can position it two different ways, but the rear wiper gets in the way if I try to mount it low, or most of the weight is on the rear window if I mount it high. I could get a roof-mounted bike carrier, but it would cost me over $300--more than a third of what I paid for the car. So the only other option I have for now is to fold down the back seat and throw my bike in the car, at least until (if) I get my truck going.

My DSL has been on the fritz all weekend. It would work for about a minute or two, then quit working for the same amount of time, and it would just cycle constantly through working and not working. The "Line" LED on my DSL modem would also go on and off, indicating that the signal from my ISP was intermittent. I called my ISP this morning and told them about the problem, and the guy told me that my DSL modem is probably too close to some other electronic equipment, so he asked me to move it and see if that helps. I told him I'd try, but I didn't actually expect it to work--my modem has been wedged between my monitor and my computer case (with the cover off the case) and sitting right below my cordless phone ever since I've had DSL, and I hadn't had any problems until now. But moving the modem worked, surprisingly, but now it's just sitting on the floor next to my desk. I've got to find a better place for it now, preferably somewhere where I can see the LEDs on it.

I was planning on going biking & hiking up this little canyon tomorrow because the weather was supposed to be nice, but the forecast now says it'll barely get above freezing. Next Saturday I'm going to the cave, and I don't know if I'll feel up to any more hiking the next day, so I may not go for two more weeks. Damn those weather forecasters. Well, damn the weather anyway.

You never really know how much your parents worry about you (or you think their worry is unfounded) until you have children of your own. Michael had a fever of over 105°F the night before last. We gave him some children's Advil and a cool sponge bath, which cooled him down enough that we weren't worried, but for a while there I was pretty scared. The only choices I would have had if the fever hadn't gone down are to take him to Casketview Hospital, where I'd be worried that he wouldn't receive decent treatment and I'd pay more because my insurance co-pay would be double that of any IHC hospital, or I could have rushed him to Provo, where I know he'd get good treatment and it'd be cheaper for me, but it would take me an hour to get him there. I'm still not sure what I'd have done, but hopefully I won't be put in that position again.