Vroom vroom!

The trusty ol' Civic seems to be falling apart piece by piece. Last Saturday it was a flat tire. Today it was the muffler, which broke like a twig this morning just as I was pulling into the plant parking lot. My car had been noisier than normal these past couple days, and I was gonna ask someone else to listen to see if it sounded serious before I took it in for a check-up. But when I heard that loud *pop*, I knew it was over. It started making the same noises it made 2 years ago when the piping system fell off in the middle of the road. That was fun, if your idea of fun is being stranded in a bad part of town at 11pm at night with nothing but an icescraper and a roll of toilet paper to defend yourself.

At lunchtime I took it over to PepBoys, who then referred me to Monroe Muffler at BJ's. Today I realized how inexperienced I am at talking/negotiating with mechanics. I just don't know the language. Luckily my boss Gary was with me, and he can get along great with just about anyone. So he did most of the talking. I'm such a dweeb. Anyway, I needed a new muffler, a new gasket, and a spring bolt kit. I decided to get an oil change too, because it was past due, and since my air filter looked like a chimney, they replaced that too. The total bill came to $278, which is apparently very reasonable, but how would I know? I can afford it, but the timing is a little unfortunate what with my big move coming up, which will be expensive no matter how much I save by borrowing my parent's furniture. The corporate reimbursement probably won't kick in until April (if I'm lucky) so my bank account might look a little skinny in the coming months...barring no more car trouble.

"24" was good tonight, as it has been all season. It's clear from next week's previews that Behrooz gets it, which is OK with me because the actor who plays him is awful. It's the grounded acting of folks like Kiefer Sutherland that keeps the show from coming off as completely absurd. I'm disappointed that the plot involves nuclear power plants, because all the research I've done suggests that it would be nearly impossible for terrorists to cause a meltdown or any significant amount of radiation leakage. Not a single person got sick or died from the Three Mile Island incident, yet it's described as this huge disaster that proved how unsafe nuclear power was. The nuclear industry still hasn't recovered from the negative press/ public opinion that resulted from that, and shows like "24" don't help. I'm telling you, nuclear power is the safest, cheapest way to reduced our dependence on oil. But I'm biased. For godsakes, I work at a plant that makes reactor coolant pumps.... (I had written some more work-related stuff here, but I removed it for fear of losing my job).


Uh oh, Drudge is trying desperately to concoct a controversy out of some comments Chris Rock made about the Oscars. Nice try Drudge, but Rock is a comic, and he was just kidding around. Stick to posting unflattering pictures of Hillary Clinton. I like those.