My car is in the shop today to get its air conditioner repaired and the brake pads and rotors replaced. It’s supposed to be done by five this afternoon; digits are crossing.

I’ve started the packing process today. All of my “winter” clothes that I have here in Birmingham have been stowed away. I’ve kept everything else out so far, mainly because it should all fit nicely into the two suitcases, clothes basket, and wicker basket I still have here. I haven’t gone through all of the papers I’ve accumulated since I’ve been here, but at least my junk piles have been consolidated. 🙂

I realize that the previous entry held absolutely no interest for what I would consider my site’s “core” audience: family and friends. After making the bookmarklets, though, I reasoned that other web designers might be interested in them as well, and it was simplest to just add an entry in the blog. My thanks to Mr. Zeldman for spreading the word; the result was the most traffic in one day in my site’s history. But then, one would expect that from a site that measures daily hits in the tens of thousands. 🙂

That being said, life does indeed go on. I have one week left in Birmingham before the big move, and I’m getting excited about it. I have a decent amount of packing to do here, but that’s something that can wait for next week.

I now know how to drive a stick shift.

At the request of a friend of my grandparents’, I took a little trip down to Florida to pick up a car for her. Never mind the fact that I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift at the time. Oh, no. My mouth made a promise that my left foot couldn’t cash. At least not yet.

After a little bit of practice, I went down there and got the car and drove it all the way back up here. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that I stalled out a few times, especially starting up hills, but I made it back in one piece. And that’s the important thing.

It was actually kind of fun to drive it. I could get used to it. But I’d want a lot more practice before I could really feel proficient at it.

Ricky took the day off today, so I went over to his and Tammy’s apartment today. We ate at Zoe’s Kitchen, a Greek place in Birmingham. I ate there a couple of times when I was working at Stonebridge. It was as good as I remembered. If you ever happen to be near the Galleria, give it a shot. And the pasta salad is the best I’ve ever had.

Afterwards, there was the requisite playing of Playstation. Many foes were vanquished, etc., etc.

Ricky and Tammy had a date tonight (all together now…awwwww…), so I came on back home. It was probably a good thing. I was going on about an hour and a half of sleep. So I basically came home and collapsed for a couple of hours. Then I got up to find that my grandparents had cooked steak. I rewarmed it in the microwave (which I know is a travesty of sorts, but I only used medium-low heat, so it didn’t reach nuked status) . Mm-wah. I ate well today.

Last night, I went with Ricky and Tammy to the Birmingham Steeldogs game. It was a good enough game, and it actually went into overtime. We lost, but oh well. At least the overtime period somewhat subsidized the $3.25 20-ounce Diet Coke I bought at the game.

Afterward, we all went over to Ricky’s parents’ house, where I got to see Dave and Cammie Eanes, Ricky’s brother and sister-in-law, for the first time since Ricky and Tammy’s wedding. I got to see Jacob again (he’s over a year old now), and their chocolate Lab, Mocha (I’m so jealous; that’s exactly the type of dog that I want one day). We all talked a lot, and played a little impromptu Smush. Good times.

Today, my grandparents returned from a two-week trip west with a couple of friends of theirs. They put about 6500 miles on their friends’ car, going all the way out to California, up the coast to Washington, and then back east again. Once again, something that I want to do one day.

One month until the big move!

Tonight, Ricky, Tammy and I went to Johnny Ray’s. I hadn’t had barbecue for a few weeks, so I was in a BBQ mood. It was as good as I’d hoped. Johnny Ray’s has just about the best onion rings in the world, I’d have to say.

Now, I’m hoping that I can fall asleep quickly enough to let me get a decent amount of sleep before the soccer game at 6 tomorrow morning.

Yesterday I did one of the dumber things I’ve done in quite a while. Unwittingly, I deleted my entire bookmarks file, including links to articles that I have no earthly idea of the actual address of. So for a couple of hours yesterday, I was engrossed in reconstructing my entire set of bookmarks.

That’s right, kids…I’ll be teaching computer science one day!

Saturday, I went over to Ricky and Tammy’s place. Bobby had come up from Orlando, so I got to see him too. We ended up grilling out, and it turned out great, save the mosquitoes, and the “bug repellent” that Tammy gave me to put on. I got to grill for the first time in at least a couple of years, and the burgers I did turned out pretty good. So did the sausages Ricky did. He intended to cook eight pieces, but nearly had nine after a mishap with the knife.

Afterward, the four of us ended up going to O. Henry’s, a coffee house in Homewood. Some friends of the other three were there. I had met a couple of them before at Ricky and Tammy’s wedding. We worked on a crossword puzzle, and if my memory serves correctly, got everything except a couple of letters. I also earned a nickname from people I may never see again – “slewed” – from the crossword clue “turned on a pivot”. It fit in with all the other clues that we had, and hey, at least it was right…

Yesterday, I didn’t feel very good. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was 80 degrees inside the house, and the air conditioner never wanted to come on. I spent the majority of the day with two fans blowing on me.

I finally got over my writer’s block, and have the first three or so chapters of my “great American novel” (yeah, right) completed. Well, the first incarnation of it, anyway, as I think that they need to be fleshed out some more. I’m not crazy about unecessary exposition, but at the same time I don’t want to leave any part of the story untold. It’s more of a fine line than I had thought it would be. I do like the way that the story’s progressing thus far, and the research that I’ve done for it has proven interesting, to say the least. More to come.