Stranger in a strange land

Search this site
Ma Blog‎ > ‎2010‎ > ‎

January

January 31st Vic got up early and headed to McClure to go hang gliding, where she got 1 flight of around 15 minutes while Tilly and I stayed in bed. I'd aimed to go to the airfield, but the battery on the DRZ was dead - the van's still at Stephan's Autohaus.

So, I sat around the house and played World of Warcraft, getting my death kniggit up to level 76.
January 30th Vince called in the morning, wanting to go and get the headphone socket wired in on the Flightstar, so we headed over to the airfield and got that finished. While we were there, I installed the new VSI, then we took the thing out for a quick flight. I'd have been happy to fly longer, as it wasn't that cold, but Vince's legs were getting cramp in the small cockpit. So we headed back. Vic was cooking, so we sat around talking for a bit, then had an early dinner. After Vince left, we were watching a movie when Keven called to say that the hang mob were going to McClure in the morning, so we loaded up the Subaru before finishing up and heading to bed.
January 27th I'm still waiting for some of my tax stuff to come in, so I can get those done. I'm expecting to not get the W2 from my previous employers, as it was a battle to get one last year when I worked there - this year'll be fun. I'm waiting to call the IRS and go through their "trying to recreate a W2" process, which is all well and good, except the last few months I didn't receive a pay slip - just a cheque. I have no idea how much, if anything, I paid in tax, social security and suchlike. Anyway, today I received the interest paid form from the bank, and I was looking at the small print to see:
Box 5. An amount in this box means the fishing boat operator considers you self-employed.

And people say the tax code here is cumbersome and panders to too many special interest groups. The funny thing is that the tax software still downloads updates every time I start it up, so they're still tweaking the tax code, even though the financial year ended almost a month ago.
January 25th After work, I managed to play World of Warcraft for a while, getting my death kniggit to level 75. Tilly and I have a system worked out where she drops the ball next to me, and I pick it up and throw it into the family room. Unfortunately she doesn't know the difference between work and Warcraft, so she's been trying to get me to throw the ball all damned day. She was happy when in the evening I could throw the ball for her for a few hours.
January 24th Another sucky day, so I played some World of Warcraft, but also got out into the garage to try and finally nail the oil leak on the YSR. It's where a previous owner has cut into the engine case removing the gasket with a knife, and I've had trouble sealing it before.

I went out to test the water in the hot tub, only to find the water's pretty cold. The thermostat says it's 106F, so I figure that's done for, and it's why the heater isn't running any more. Bugger. I'll add that to the list of things I need to fix.
January 23rd I wandered around the front garden picking up the wreckage from the recent storms for a while. I did try and clear up the seeds from the trees, but it's too damp to sweep them away, so screw that for now.

There had been talk about going to the airfield and tinkering with the Flightstar, possibly even flying it, but the weather just plain sucked again, so we figured it wasn't worth the aggravation. Still, in World of Warcraft I got my death kniggit up to level 74, and ran out of Outlands quests to do, heading off to Northrend.
January 21st Another grim day, so after work I played some World of Warcraft, getting my death kniggit to level 73. I'm running out of Outlands quests, so I'll be headed off to Northrend soon. At this rate, I reckon I can have 5 level 80s by the time my subscription runs out and I start getting out of the house again :o)
January 20th Another wet and windy day. How wet? Very - about 1" of rain. How windy? I don't know for sure, but the anemometer started working again, and I saw 35mph at one point. There are bits of tree all over the front garden and driveway again.
January 19th Another wet and windy day. How wet? Very - about 0.8" of rain, when we usually get around 12" a year. How windy? I don't know, the anemometer stopped working. It's still reading the direction, but no longer shows the wind speed. It's done this before, and it magically fixed itself, so I'm not about to get out on the roof to see what the problem is. I scared Tilly by coming around the corner with the ladder so I could unblock the patio gutter - it doesn't have a very big spout at the top so it clogs with leaves, and I'm always worried it's going to tear itself off when it's full of water.
January 18th Today was Martin Luther King day, when Americans celebrate the civil rights movement by going shopping.

I started the day finishing installing stuff on my netbook, so hopefully it's almost ready to be useful again. The weather's been blowing a gale, so there was no chance of doing anything interesting. I spoke to Sara at Stephan's Autohaus, and it looks like the torque converter on the van has given up the ghost again. Bugger. As I couldn't go and get that, I went over to see Kenny Faeth and swapped my non working VSI from the Flightstar for a hopefully working one.

When I got home, I wasted the rest of the day playing World of Warcraft.
January 17th Another grim day, so I played World of Warcraft, getting my death kniggit to level 71. Later, we watched the rest of the Dr Who episodes that I got from Dave, while I made a start on installing Windows 7 on my netbook. It's been playing up, so rather than waste time figuring out what the problem is, I figured I'd just reinstall it.
January 16th It was a foggy start to the day, so I played a little World of Warcraft, then we went to the airfield to pull the VSI out of the Flightstar. While we were there, the weather was better, worse, better then worse, so we decided against flying.

In the evening we went to dinner with Vince and a customer of his, Steve. After that, we watched some of the Dr Who stuff I brought back from San Francisco.
January 15th I was quite tired after thefs long day yesterday, so after work I just played a little World of Warcraft, my death kniggit is now level 71.
January 14th One of my cow-orkers is down from Portland, so I went into the office to meet him. It's funny, when I'm up at 4am, I either can't sleep or we're going hang gliding. When I got in the shower, Tilly got all excited, and was then quite upset to be given a biscuit when I left without her :o)
January 11th At lunch, we took the van over to Stephan's Autohaus so they can look at the ATF leak. Again.
January 10th The cloud at the airfield, didn't crack 200', so I didn't bother going. I wasted the day in World of Warcraft, but got my death kniggit to level 70. In the evening, we went to meet Vince for teriyaki, remembered again that it was Sunday and the teriyaki place was shut, and had pizza instead.
January 9th Another cloudy day - the cloud never got above 400' according to the AWOS at the airfield, so I stayed in and played World of Warcraft. I made a start on my taxes - OK, I installed the software and typed in my name and address, but when the paperwork starts trickling in, I'll be ready.
January 7th Deleting the keyboard and mouse, then rebooting fixed the KVM switch on my laptop, but I still don't understand why this stopped work - after all, it has no drivers or anything. Meh.

I played some World of Warcraft, getting my death kniggit to level 69, still in Outland. It's funny killing elites solo.
January 6th I managed to get my keyboard working by deleting it, and the mouse, and rebooting the machine. Now the KVM switch doesn't work for my laptop, so I'll try the same trick there. Jeez, who'd have a computer?
January 5th Today's Windows Update screwed up my wireless keyboard. No, scratch that, it screwed up the KVM switch that my keyboard plugs into. Stupid Microsoft.
January 4th I had a customer with a big server problem at work, so while I waited for information from him all evening, I played World of Warcraft, finally getting my death kniggit qualified as an armoursmith, and hitting level 68 in the process. Woo hoo.
January 3rd It was too bloody gray to fly again, so I wasted the day playing World of Warcraft. I still want to get my death kniggit sorted out as an armoursmith, so I ran around farming mithril ore. I then decided I could farm thorium a lot quicker, sell that and buy mithril on the auction house, so an hour or so later, I'd filled my bags.

In the evening, Vic and I got in the hot tub for the first time in absolutely ages.
January 2nd It was another gray and miserable day, so I went to the airfield to tinker with the Flightstar. Vince was there to do an annual on Mike's crash repaired Rans Coyote. I got the new tach fitted, then stepped out into bright sunshine and a bunch of planes in the circuit. After we gave up trying to understand how to wire the intercom in, I decided to go and fly. I hadn't planned for that, so after 3 circuits I gave up and came in as I was cold. I've figured out my landing problem - I tend to automatically hold it off like I did on the Rans rather than just land the thing. I'm sure I'll get better with practice.

When Mike's plane was all signed off, he took it for a few circuits while we all watched to see if his welding would hold up - it did.

Vince and I had an early dinner, then he went home to nurse his cold, and I played World of Warcraft for a while (death kniggit to level 67) before bed.
January 1st Merry New Year!

We just wasted the day playing computer games as the weather was crappy, and Tilly didn't sleep well because of the fireworks and noises outside last night.

I got my death kniggit to level 66. I should try and play some other toons, as the Death Knight is almost too easy at times - I've done a couple of group quests solo.