And here, rearing its ugly head, is that LJ meme where you take the first sentence from the first entry of each month and pretend it's something meaningful. I dislike hard-boiled eggs.

Enero: First entry of the new year, and I've changed the style of my LJ again.
Febrero: I don't get heartburn.
Marzo: I am currently browsing teh intarweb with German Earthtrout.
Abril: ...and, after taking mom's computer apart, I can officially say I'm not allergic to the stuff.
Mayo: Or: "The chickens are comin' home to roost, Bobby Boucher."
Junio: Yet one more reason to love winter.
Julio: So, yuuhidokka says I must list seven songs I've been listening to a lot, or the zebra gets it.
Agosto: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America
Septiembre: We've been having intermittent trouble with our DSL for, what, a few weeks now?
Octubre: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca.
Noviembre: Seems like it rains every time I vote.
Diciembre: For some, it's schedules and PDAs.

I've written a lot less about food this year, probably because I've fallen out of the habit of going to Stites and picking up oddities. I should get back into the habit, those were always fun to write up. Also, less about wireless networking -- and the shiny new D-Link router seems to be rocksteady (Bebop unavailable for comment), so hopefully that's a subject I'm done with for a while. May Linksys fall on its face with its hands in its pockets.

Aside from a few events here at year's end (the car debacle and going out with Pattie), this year I really seemed to be in a holding pattern. I realize the whole "may you live in interesting times" thing is more of a left-handed curse, but really, I was boring this year.

For being a lifelong gamer, I don't write about games much either. I really should resubscribe to EGM. Even when I wasn't in the market for a game it was always a blast to read, and since I let it lapse a few years ago -- well, more like several now -- I've gotten further out of the gaming loop. (I honestly think my only game purchase this year was Gran Turismo 4.) Sure, I realize all the same information is available online for free, but not in one place and not as well-done. Or at least, that was the case several years ago. I should probably grab an issue first (at newsstand price, eww) just to make sure it hasn't gone down the crapper.

It's my birthday in 7 minutes. Yay 29!

So, apparently Pattie wants to see me in boxers. She came up with an interesting reason that may or may not be way off base, but really, I just think the tighty whiteys don't do it for her. (Neither does her underwear, at least when I'm wearing it, but we've already gone over that.)

But, hey, underwear are cheap enough -- found a 4-pack for $6.99 at Value City. And I figured that since I wear a 2X in briefs, I'd also wear a 2X in boxers.

There are very few things in life about which I have been this wrong.

I suppose it's mostly a matter of briefs being stretchy and boxers being much more inelastic, but these things don't even pull up over my thighs. I'm assuming -- nay, I'm *praying* -- that opened underwear cannot be returned, so I now have a short-term fitness goal: to be able to get into a pair of 2X boxers.

For a while there, I was exercising a few times a week, which became once a week, which became once every few weeks, which became, well, never. So, hopefully this will get me back on track.

And now for something completely different -- the long-promised car update.

When we last left off, the big red beast had supposedly died, since fixing the breaks was to be more than the value of the car. The junkyard was going to give us $100 for it, but we had no idea what we were gonna do after that.

So, a few days later, mom picks me up at work, and along the way asks me what I thought of The Color Purple. I said it was a good book, but I hadn't seen the movie. I get the classic WTF look and then she says "No, for a car." Turns out someone just put out a purple 1996 Plymouth Neon for $600 -- which they dropped to $500 without us even asking (good thing too, because we were excited enough we didn't think to ask). And instead of junking the red beast, Jerry at work bought it as a fixer-upper, so at least someone's gonna get some more use out of it.

So, the big red beast is no more.

My dad's '87 Chevy Cavalier CS, which I've driven as long as I've been driving, finally gets to rust in peace. Apparently I'd been gradually damaging the rotors -- gradually enough that I never noticed it -- and now I've gone completely through them. Christy told me years ago she didn't like the brakes on my car, that you had to push on them too much, but I was used to it, I didn't notice a difference.

Sorry Midas, but the car ain't worth the $950 it'd take to fix it.

The immediate thing that sucks is that I don't have much saved up, I'd been paying down my debts, never dreaming something like this would happen. Which, of course, is always when it happens. Prolly wind up getting a junker and hoping it runs a while.

Long-term, what's gonna suck even after the finances are straightened out is that, well, I won't be driving my car, or my dad's car. I've never wanted anything different (within any reasonable price range), and I've never driven another car that I really liked. Not the least reason of which was that all the other cars seemed to have really touchy brakes. Ha. Has a lot of memories for me, too.

My sister, bless her heart, said that as long as it's okay with the insurance company I can drive her car until I get one. Won't be taking it to Celina, obviously, I'm not gonna run up the miles on someone else's car, but at least it'll get me back-and-forth to work.

Dammit, I'm gonna miss that car.