Stranger in a strange land

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February

February 27th It was bloody cold in the morning, so I started the day playing World of Warcraft, getting my druid up to level 85. Yay. As I didn't feel much like doing anything, I kept on playing and got my warlock into Hyjal and up to level 81.

For grins, I took the YSR for a ride around the block. It needed a little air in the tyres, and could do with a little less slack in the throttle cable - I'll look at that later.
February 26th I started the (cold, windy) day playing World of Warcraft, and took my druid into Twilight Highlands, as I've never got particularly far into that zone.

I went into the garage and made up a license plate mount for the YSR, so it's pretty much ready to go now. I might go and find some nice dome headed screws to mount the bottom half of the fairing.

We hacked one of the trees in the front garden to try and thin it out, and to stop it interfering with the other tree out there, then went over to see the house that Gwen's buying. It's a bit of a fixer, in that somebody bought it to fix it up, and did a piss poor job of it, but she'll be living there for a while, so she has the time to get things worked out.

I spent the afternoon playing more Warcraft, as the wind didn't get any better, seeing as it was from the North.
February 25th We took Gwen out for dinner for her birthday. It's a matter of discussion as to who's idea this was, as Gwen claims to have decided we should go out in the morning, but Vic posted an invitation for her on the Facebook. I'm staying out of it.
February 23rd Vince finally called - he'd put his phone on charge and forgot about it. We went out to dinner to catch up, as we've not seen him for a few weeks.
February 22nd I went to the DMV to try and sort out the YSR. Basically I got to pay the registration fee, including the penalty for being late (don't get me started) and picked up a refund form, which I got home, filled in and posted. I really doubt they're going to understand what's gone on here, but at least it's all over bar the shouting. Now I just have to make a bracket to hold the license plate to the bike, as the Japanese bracket isn't wide enough.
February 21st Today was President's Day, when Americans celebrate George Washington's birthday by going shopping. As the weather wasn't conducive to flying (lots of little clouds suggests it'll be bumpy), I stayed in and played World of Warcraft, getting my druid to level 84. I had to leave Uldum unfinished, as there's a quest that's bugged, meaning that I can't do about 1/3 of the quests there. I ended up parking in Stormwind for the week - I'll probably resubscribe at the weekend.
February 20th The family Kelly came to visit, and they brought their dog Casey to meet Tilly. We met at the Bear dog park so the dogs could totally ignore each other, then Sam and I walked the dogs home while everybody else went in the motorised transport. After a while at home, we went out to lunch, leaving Tilly at home. Of course, Dave got paged, so we ended up going home while the womenfolk went to Petroglyph, which was the plan. Sort of. We sat around and played World of Warcraft worked and supervised the dogs until everybody got back and it was time to go home. Tilly did very well for her first time having another dog in the house. She's favouring her front left paw a little, so we think she's worn it out again at the park. She'll sleep well tonight :o)
February 19th Well, the day started out windy, and turned out rainy, so I pretty much stayed in and played World of Warcraft, getting my druid to level 83 and (just) into Uldum. My current subscription card runs out in 4 days, so I have to choose whether to use the other card I've bought, or to wait until we get back from the UK. I think I'll just start the new card up, as it's like a month until we get back from the UK :o)
February 18th So, the Surewest guy came out, and found that the wiring can't support 10Mb/s. They've upgraded that to biwired, and put in a new DSL modem that includes Wi-Fi. I'm using that despite it only being 802.11g, as it saves me from having another box powered up. He looked at my setup and figured that I know what I'm doing with networks, so he left me the password for the router. That's good, because otherwise I would have wanted to keep my old one going. It doesn't look like the new one supports static address DHCP or port forwarding, but I'll take a look at that at some point in the future. 9Mb/s is close enough that I'll call it good.
February 17th After work we went and met Don and Lori for dinner... I haven't seen them in something like 5 years (Don thinks it's closer 7, but I'm not so sure), and Vic had never met them. A good time was had by all. I think :o)
February 16th I got the license plate for the YSR, but the registration (that was issued on 2/10/11) expired on 2/8/11. I called the DMV, but it seems that I'll have to go in there to try and sort out this FUBAR - the best I can hope for is to get refunded (in about 6 months) for the registration I've paid, and then pay again for the 2012 sticker. For pity's sake... I did at one point think "screw it", and I wouldn't bother, but because the YSR's registered now, this year's registration is already considered late, so I'll be accruing penalties. So, I have to go in to the office and sort this out. The first appointment they could offer was March 8th, by which time it'll be a month late. I can't even just send them the money again, as I've already sent them the registration forms for 2011.

At Surewest's request, I replaced the phone cord (seriously) for the DSL modem, and the speed still hasn't come up, so it looks like they'll have to send somebody over to look at it. Heh, I bet they wish they'd let me downgrade now :o)
February 15th I called Surewest, my ISP, to say if I'm not getting 10Mb/s, I'm not going to pay for it. They said I could drop back to 6Mb/s, but that it would cost the same amount, as I'm on some discount plan. "Fine", I said, "you can fix it". We had the usual "your 150Mb/s wireless network is the problem", but I eventually got them to test the service from their end, and sure enough there's a problem.

I sat down after work and finished my taxes - I've filed the Federal return electronically, but the state one costs $20 to e-file, so I've printed it and it'll get posted. I hate being asked to pay people to make their job easier.

As I'm due a refund (I was suffering from intaxication), we then booked flights to the UK for a holiday. We'll be there between March 15th and 23rd, so if you want to meet up...

February 14th Vic cooked a turkey, and Jen and Gwen came over to eat it, and catch up.
February 13th After all the fun of yesterday, my arm was still aching, so I spent most of the day playing World of Warcraft, getting my druid to level 81 and then 82... there's a lot more in Hyjal than I remember doing with my warrior, so I must have missed a linking quest somewhere.

Taylor came over and washed the Jeep - she's owed me a car wash for about 6 years :o)

I rode the DRZ over to Target to get some new #2 Wilson tennis balls for Tilly. Poor little love ran out of tennis balls a few days ago. It wasn't too awfully loud, so I'm not going to worry about the quiet core for the moment.
February 12th Busy day... as usual, I started the day playing World of Warcraft and got my druid to Hyjal. Meh, druids are hard to play when they're underpowered.

I got the exhaust fitted to the DRZ, but couldn't get the quiet core to fit properly. It seems to be acceptably loud in the garage, so I'm going to test ride it to see. I looked at (but not necessarily fixed) the 2 stroke oil leak on the YSR. I also bodged up a bracket for the catalytic converter on the van to try and stop the resonance at around 3,000 rpm in 2nd gear, but it doesn't seem to have done anything. Still, it won't hurt.

We cut down, and chopped up, about a third of one of the trees in the back garden that's scheduled for death.

In the afternoon we went to the airfield and added 2 bolts to the instrument panel in the Flightstar, then took it out for 8 circuits. It was starting to get a little busy, and my arm was aching, so we called it a day, but still, it was good to fly.
February 11th I got my replacement Mastercard, but interestingly there was no sort of verification / activation process - I was concerned that it would get seized the first time I went to use it, but it seems to work.
February 10th After work I went out into the garage and got the exhaust off the DRZ. The heat shield had a crossthreaded screw... good job, Suzuki :o(
It looks like the new one'll fit fine, I just have some fiddling I'd like to do first.

In the evening, I managed to get into World of Warcraft and get my warrior up to level 85. 2 down, 3 to go :o)
February 9th I went and met a guy who's selling an exhaust for a DRZ. Ended up buying it, as it's lighter and better looking than the stock one :o)

I spent a little time in World of Warcraft, and got my warrior to Twilight Highlands.
February 6th I got a few things I needed for the Flightstar and batteries for the smoke alarm. I spent a little time in World of Warcraft, but the day was pretty much wasted.
February 5th We spent the day doing chores around the house. Tilly managed to find a racoon on the other side of the fence, and barked at it until it went away - it looks to be injured, so Vic called animal control, but they say there's not a lot to be done, other than warn the neighbours that it's there.

I'm not sure how, but I've managed to hurt my back to the point that it hurts to breathe deeply. I must be getting old.
February 3rd One of the smoke alarms started beeping, meaning it needs a new battery. It's rarely one of the ones I can easily get to with a step ladder, and once again it's the one in the kitchen - about 12' up. I did my usual mountaineering job of climbing onto the counter to the fridge to the ledge, then crawled along to the alarm itself. It's easier than moving the table and getting the ladder in, don't judge me. Anyway, I pulled the battery, then couldn't get the new one I'd taken with me to fit, as the new battery had swollen, suggesting it's fu buggered. Vic grabbed another battery and tossed it up to me, and I put that in. The alarm started beeping again before I'd backed up to get onto the fridge, so I went back and took it out. I got down, then remembered a couple of batteries in the garage, and grabbed one of those, clambered up and put it in. It started beeping again about 30 minutes later, so I just clambered up and took the alarm down. I'll get some new batteries at some point. The alarms take the 9V batteries that only get used in the alarms, so I never have many spares.
February 1st I spent part of the day being chased by Mastercard - as there are all manner of scams out there, I elected to call them on the number on the back of the card rather than let them call me. Seems my card has been compromised, and there were a bunch of fraudulent charges from around midnight. They've been cancelled, and I called the Chili's we ate at last night to suggest that there might be a problem. Other than that, I haven't used the card since I was in San Francisco. Bummer.