All hail the Illinois State Patrol!

So, there I was, trundling down I-57 on my way to Charleston for an SCA get-together. No passengers luckily, even though I offered rides to any who asked. Whn suddenly, the car starts making a horrendous rumbling noise. I quickly sort through my mental list of "things that need to get fixed when I have an actual income" and can't come up with anything that fits the bill. I decide to pull off onto the shoulder, where I discover that my right rear tire is flat. Very flat. Dammit.

Well, fine. There goes my day of fun in southern Illinois. Being a capable woman of the 90s (what? Okay, woman of the two thousands. No, doesn't sound good.), I get out the spare tire and proceed to switch good for bad. I've got all the lug nuts loosened and see a state patrol car pull off the road, going the other direction. Since I am naturally a guilty person, I go through my mental list of "why the police should pull me over." Of course, I'm already pulled over, so that is kinda moot. The nice officer actually drives across the median and stops over on my side of the road and proceeds to take off his tie (hubba!) , explaining that he is on his way to a funeral, but that he'll help me change the tire (aw!).

We switch the flat for the donut spare, get it all screwed on, and then discover (to our mutual dismay) that the spare has something sticking out of it. He pulls it out, then hastily shoves it back in when all the air starts hissing out. God DAMN it. Now I have a flat and a....flat! Sonofabitch. Seems that some sort of plastic furniture leg slide pin-doohickey must have fallen off something while I was moving to my new place and got lodged in the spare.

He calls a tow truck for me (even though I have my cell phone along) and apologizes that he needs to get to the funeral, being that he is in the honor guard and all. I reassure him that I'll be fine. Then, a second patrol car pulls up! So they swap out motorist-watching duties. So me and the new officer have a nice chat about living in small towns versus large towns and how nice the weather is and such, punctuated by slapping the bugs that are enjoying a nice snack off us.

The tow truck comes, and the officer puts out road flares for us (aw!) before he leaves. We get the car all hooked up and proceed on our merry way to the Wal-mart in Savoy, which is where the nice officers recommend me taking the car, since pretty much everything else is closed on Sunday.

Now, I won't bore you with the interminable wait at Wal-mart, where I found out that the tire needed to be replaced, but that they didn't have the tires in question in stock, or with the phone-tag I played getting more information on new tires, but I will say that the State Patrol did a wonderful job of keepign me sane and entertained while I waited for everything to play out on the the side of the ride. Thanks guys!

Appetite

So, I get home after a day of shopping, tired and stressed out and I'm all like "Ooo, what am I hungry for? I know, I want some coffee." So I make myself coffee, using milk instead of my nummy soy creamer, 'cause all I've got is vanilla and I really prefer plain, and I need to use of the milk that is two days past it's date (see previous blog). So I drink the coffee and now I'm all like, "Ooo, now what? I know, I'll have a chocolate (they go with coffee) and some chips. Oh, but chips don't go with coffee." So I finish the coffee, then I have some chips. Now it is 7:30 and I'm thinking of more substantial things. Now I'm going, "Hmm? What's for dinner?" So now I go through the fridge, and the freezer, and try to figure out some kind of more nutritious meal than chips and coffee. I decide to thaw a steak for tomorrow (bought them yesterday from a guy who came to my door and probably got ripped off, but I'm a sucker, so oh well) and continue the search. Find the last two pieces of Chicken Alfredo pizza from Papa John's (I don't recommend it, too dry) and heat them up, along with the remaining garlic dipping sauce (read: garlic powder and oil goop) and some spaghetti sauce because I really wanted red sauce on my pizza instead of what they call "alfredo." I finish the pizza (eh) and watch some more tv. A commercial for Quaker Brand oatmeal comes on, singing its praises for lowering cholesterol. Now I'm hungry for oatmeal (it happens). Then I find out that not only are there no packets of instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal (one of my favorite comfort foods) there is no plain oatmeal. I find some funky hot cereal mix and cook it up. Now I'm eating cooked cereal with brown sugar, butter, and a touch of the aforementioned vanilla soy creamer, because I used up all the milk in my coffee.

And I wonder why I gained over 100 pounds while I was married.

Fridge

So I wake up bright and early (and very, very cold) this morning to the sound of squirrels dropping walnuts on my car's windshield. Ah, fall!

Go to make myself some breakfast and find out that something has died in the refrigerator overnight. Bleah. Avoid the fridge for a few hours, then decide that I need to go excavating. I pull out the chicken breasts that have been in the bottom of the fridge for probably too long and try to decide if they are still safe to eat. Even after working for the health department I am still sometimes too adventurous for my own good. I pull them out and there is some sort of fluid everywhere. Ick. I pull out the offending meat, the bacon that was sitting on top, and the leftover remains of the chicken tagine from Radio Maria's, which my sister had deemed "too spicy" and left for me to finish. I then discover that the chicken has not sprung a leak, but that the freezer has decided to defrost itself and there is now at least a half-gallon of stale, stinky water at the bottom of the fridge (it's an old unit). Real fun to clean up, let me tell you.

So now the kitchen is a mess, I need to disinfect the fridge, and I am out the money spent on the chicken breasts (boneless, skinless, expensive), which have been sitting in contaminated water for the gods know how long. I tossed out a few other items that had likely gone bad, fried up the spinach fritters that were past their due date, ate a few, then tossed out the remainder, which I had decided were too iffy.

Now, to make up for it all, I am making myself Negimaki (thinly sliced beef rolled around green onions and sauteed, served in a slightly sweet sauce) because the ones I got last week from a local Japanese restaurant *suuucked* (sorry Shea). Much better now.

Misha

Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief, the books fit. Barely. Now I want more bookshelves just so I can display my pretties.

Cats are fun. My male cat (Misha) "helps" me feed the fish each morning. I yell, " time to feed the fish!" and he races out of wherever he was hiding and flies across the room to sit next to the aquarium. He then waits, not-so-patiently for me to finish spreading food granules on the surface of the water, so he can get a kitty-treat. Usually he sits down, opens his little mouth just like bird and I plop one in. Sometimes I drop it in too far and he gags it back out before he chokes. Hey, he apparently likes this little routine, so don't get mad at me! Otherwise, he keeps his mouth closed and I balance the treat on his nose. He looks at it cross-eyed for a bit, then lets it fall off, with a look on his face like "what am I, a dog?" and waits for me to pick it up off the floor or nudge it closer to him. Yes, I'm a sucker.

Books!

I have bookshelves! All hail the bookshelves! I finally know where all my books are!

Now I just have to fit them all in. May need to buy another one. Sigh.