It has been a while since a general update of things.

Netflix
Despite realizing that there is no way I’ll watch enough movies in a month to warrant this, I dove in. I have a two week trial, so what do I have to lose? I’ve already rated like 400 movies, created a queue of 100, and have attempted to watch one online, but that didn’t work out since they don’t have a player for the Mac yet. Solution? Run a VM of Windows, but that’s messy just to watch a movie. The plus to all this is I may be forced to watch a bunch of movies I’ve been wanting to see… wait, is that a plus?

House
It’s still coming together. I recently tossed in a new shower head, hung some things in the garage, and called the conrtactor who built our basement a million and a half times to fix a broken toilet (min sewer line was clogged and they never installed the toilet properly), sump pump (basement smells like sewage if we close the window), shower (they didn’t caulk it well, water got in to the wall, the wall is falling apart), and fix our a/c (has never worked). After a month, maybe five guys visiting, and a dozen calls, only the toilet is fixed. The landlord told us to call this guy for any repairs, but it is getting a bit out of hand so Mr. Landlord might be receiving a call and I might threaten to not pay full rent.

Biking
I’ve now been biking to work for a month and a half now! My gas consumption is way down, my health thanking me, and it really is so much less of a hassle than driving. I can hit a store or two on my way home without dealing with parking, traffic lights, etc. I had my first “crash” yesterday, though. I was taking the long way to work, went down a paved hill a bit too fast, couldn’t brake, went off in to a ditch, but stayed up. As I slowly pedaled (I’m talking 1/2mph) back to the trail, I lost balance, couldn’t clip out, and fell in to a rock. Bent my chain, but luckily had packed my leatherman the night before… Bent it back as well as I could, hit the bike store on the way home, installed the new chain at home, and I’m back on the road. $30 mistake… blah.

Cars
I recently purchased a ’95 Integra that has a few bits I’m going to trade with similar, but not as good bits from the Civic. Namely, the transmission. The Integra has a top-of-the-line one and the Civic has the one that should be in the Integra. It’s ugly, but mechanically a great car. I shouldn’t have any problem selling the car for as much or more than I paid for it once I’m done pulling everything I want.

Upcoming
This weekend is my annual canoe trip down the Rappahanock. We didn’t go last year as the water level didn’t work out, but it looks like it’ll be more than enough this time around, which isn’t ideal, but it’ll allow us out there.

Next week we’ll be attending REM and Modest Mouse at Merriweather, and running a 5k close to home.

The following week is a 4-mile race and a trip to Baltimore.

I’ll close out the month with my 12-hour bike race down in Quantico.

I’ve also decided to take Japanese 101 at NOVA here in Arlington. It is somewhat related so I might be able to use my education budget, but no big deal if I can’t.

Sayonara!