In an attempt at a witty subject line for an email, I set out on a quest to find the name for an irrational fear of ninjas. But alas, the Internet has failed me today. I could find no references other than "ninja-phobia" (which is just silly) or "fear of ninjas" (which would not be witty).
During my search, I did come across astraphobia, which made me laugh. I have a friend I like to give a hard time about that one, and my computers no longer suffer from it, but that's another story….
This year, I'd like to say thank you to my friends and my family. Without you, I wouldn't make it through most days.
So that I don't end this on a serious note, I wanted everyone to enjoy soem Pumpkin Pi this Thanksgiving.
You take some salmon, cream cheese and jalapeños, then wrap that in rice and seaweed. Fry the whole thing, then top it with spicy mayo, green onions and sesame seeds.
Cost: $8.25
Worth every penny.
If you can't tell yet, I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner last night at Okura Sushi & Grill. The baby gecko was not mine, unfortunately. I only got a piece of it. I'd already ordered a spicy scallop roll before I'd heard about it. It was good too, just not as good as the gecko. The steak was delicious as well.
The Sake was pretty good too; good enough to make us order more of it.
After looking at the picture of the gecko for awhile, the name of the roll is starting to make more sense. After it's fried and topped, it comes close to those colors.
I was poking around trying to find some spell checking API information and came across a blog entry that summed up a thought I had yesterday pretty well.
From The Wayward Weblog
Of course, the best feature of hosting your own game, is the reload option. I don't think we could play without it. Approaching the next door. What's beyond it? Better save the game here. Whoops, an ambush? Reload.
I wish life had a reload. I really do. Every time you encounter someone new there is a new chance to do something or say something stupid. If you could reload you could perfect the moment. You could keep trying until you finally did something just right, or found something incredibly clever to say. It would almost be like editing reality, like with a word processor with spell check. That would be a great product to sell, Reality Checker 1.0. Well, better not buy the first version; 3.0 then, that'd do it.
After a week worth of frustration, the ol' car is up and running again. After two failed attempts, we got the new fuel filter on. The hose we put on there kept kinking up, so we had to put in a connector with a 90 degree angle in it. My coat needs to go through the washer. It still smells like gasoline from getting sprayed by the pressure I'd forgetten to release before removing our first failed attempt.
After that fiasco, the engine was still not getting fuel, so we checked the fuel rail and the injectors. The result was inconclusive, so we decided to replace the fuel injectors. No one had 4 of them in stock, and we didn't have time to round them up and work on it on Monday, so we ordered them online (for about half that price). They came in yesterday.
My Dad installed them while I was still at work. Although, by the time he was done installing them, he was so frustrated that he left it up to me to finish getting everything back together.
I replaced three of the tires on Monday, but by the time I got home with the front tires, I was too tired and lazy to finish putting them on, so I'd just propped them on so no one would steal them. I got them on last night and finish getting engine together. Then I had to head to the car wash to get the layers of dirt of the windows so I could drive. Didn't take long and the car looks much nicer for the effort.
I was worried about my ability to drive the car, since it had been over a year and a half since I'd driven with a manual transmission. It's just like riding a bike, only easier. I only killed it twice, and one of those time was due to the incline in my driveway when I was first leaving.
Now, I just need an oil change and to get the muffler mounted properly. The only change is coming after work today, and the muffler will be fixed soon. I discovered, while changed the fuel filter, that some of the bumber will have to be cut out to allow for the muffler to go where it needs to, but that shouldn't be too much trouble.
The battery on the car has been charged. The spark plugs have been replaced. The air filter and fluid levels have been checked. Fresh gas, with gas treatment, has been added. It still won't start, unless you spray starter fluid into the air intake. Even then, it only runs until the starter fluid burns off a moment later.
The plan for last night was to change the fuel filter on my car. It needed to be changed anyway, but we were trying to find why the engine isn't getting any fuel as well. The old filter was not connected with a quick disconnect fitting as advertised. Three hours later, we still have the fuel filter attached to the fitting.
The fitting had a plastic clip inside, which has now been broken off. It also has four metal clips that hold the fuel filter in place. They don't want to let it go. After about 2 1/2 hours, we decided to try cutting the pipe on the fuel filter to get to the fitting more easily. In the end, it's now easier to see what we're doing, but has made no difference in getting it out of the fitting.
On the bright side, we did prove that the fuel pump works just fine. The old filter seems to not be completely clogged, so this may not help with starting the engine in the long run. The next step is to take the fuel line off the engine to prove it's getting fuel up there. Otherwise, it's probably the fuel injectors.
Me: Are we there yet?
Him: Um.. We are far beyond the horizon
Him: Perhaps we were there a long time ago, and everyone else was too dense to realize it.
Me: Could be.
Him: Yes, this is probably so.
That's an excerpt from a conversation I had in September 2004 with someone. I saved that part of it, but I can't for the life of me remember for sure who it was with. It pops into my head every now and then. Today is one of those days. But it's been a day full of odd thoughts anyway.
I blame it on the fact that I was woken up at 2:00 am by a phone call. Granted, I didn't realize I'd been asleep until about half way through the conversation. By that time, I didn't have the heart to say, "I'm going to go back to sleep now," especially after having said, "No. I was awake."
I'd only been asleep for about 30 minutes, so it made a good nap. That's probably why I ended up staying up till about 4:00. Then while I slept, I had an odd dream that I won't recount here. Usually, my dreams will have to do with something that happened that day, or something I'd been thinking about that day. This one seemed to come from left field somewhere. No idea what brought it on.
But on the bright side, I made it to work on time this morning. Although, I didn't actually wake up and start getting dressed until about a minute before my ride got there to pick me up. Now, I'm almost through my second large cup of sugar with coffee. It's making me hyper and manic, and a bit long-winded.
By request, here is Questions You Should Always Ask About an Event in Italian.
Ci sono determinate domande che dovreste fare sempre riguardo ad un evento state andando assistere a. Qui è la mia lista. (questo è stato preso ieri da una conversazione reale.)
- Quando è?
- Dove è?
- Come lungo esso durano?
- Ha costato i soldi È ci un codice del vestito?
- Devo portare i pesci?
- Devo cucinare i pesci in primo luogo?
- Deve essere cotto o fritto?
- Se fritto, che genere di olio dovrei usare? Verdura? Arachide? Canola?
Note: I used BabelFish for the translation. I don't actually speak Italian.
