Revenge of the Mac, Attack of the Mud
All of my mac devices must have a secret microchip in them that tells when new products are released and triggers a system failure. My mini still won’t start up and I’ve done every sort of system repair and restore on the bitch, it’s less than a year old, so it’s time to send it back to Apple, or to take it to the Apple store. I’d much rather send it back as that’s so much more convenient than going in and fighting the buying crowds. In addition to the mini, my iPod is joining in solidarity, I guess. The poor beastie won’t hold a charge overnight anymore if not plugged in. And with the mini down, I don’t connect it regularly anymore. I suppose I could try connecting it to the PC, but that would be a lot more work as I’m not even sure the firewire will be seen (3rd Gen iPod) and I haven’t updated my library on the PC to the mac-formatted external. I will say that the program MacDrive from Mediafour is freaking amazing. After installing it, my external is seen and browsed on the PC quite seamlessly, but all the files comprising the “Library” with ratings and playcounts are on the local drive on the mini, so I haven’t bothered to consolidate them yet, preferring to use WinAmp or the TiVo to listen to mp3s. iTunes ran my mac mini into the ground as far as performance goes, that I’m not eager to use it again anytime soon except to rip cds.
In other happenings, I hate new construction in my neighborhood. For all of the social culture reasons, naturally, but now for a new reason too. MUD. My new shoes and the bottom of my just cleaned slacks are flecked with mud. Why? The new apartment building is having to dig and dig and dig into the ground, which trails out all over the sidewalk and street (which now serves as our “temporary” sidewalk) and between their water and the rain, it’s a nice constant path of mud which is tossed up and all over everything just from walking, and when it’s cold outside, people walk fast. I’ve tried crossing the street and that helps a bit, but the mud trail goes right up to the metro station. A minor whine in the grand scheme of things, but still a pain in the ass spot treating dried mud on my slacks at the office.
The weekend was pretty quiet for the most part. I got through a lot more on the TiVo, did the hands and knees cleaning job on the kitchen and bathroom.. I have to schedule an “Unused Kitchen Gadget Toss Day” sometime soon. Mostly I have a lot of extra utensils, long spoons and the like that I acquired through gifts and moves that never come out of my drawers. I’m pretty sure I have a garlic press that makes no sense to keep, two mini-choppers, stuff like that. My clothes closet could use the same treatment, but I think I need a friend to come over and do that, someone with no emotional attachment to the garments that can objectively say “You’ll look cute in this, keep it,” or “Why oh why are you holding onto this tired old thing?”
I also have to suck up my pride and throw out the jeans and pants that no longer fit. I plan to shrink myself this year, but keeping around items of non-fitting clothes is no kind of motivation for me at all. The scale this morning said 188.8 lbs (I need to cling to that decimal point) and it needs to go DOWN from this moment on, thankyewverramuch. In that spirit, I’ve unfortunately been sucking down more Healthy Choice/Lean Cuisine meals and getting rid of junk food from the cabinet. This may have an impact on my desire to do more cooking and baking this year. The cheesecake project is on hold for the time being as I need to rethink the idea, and most certainly use a smaller pan! Considering I so rarely see my friends aside from certain people, there really isn’t anyone to shove the baked goods onto.
And yet again, I need to find a bike trainer as I’m sure I’m driving Jenifer crazy saying I need to get one. Though now space to keep it might be a concern, so it may have to go further down on the list.
