Shark's teeth & red rings

Let me start by saying memorial day weekend was awesome. Regardless of my neck being stiff the whole time and my 360 taking a shit it really was the most fun I've had in a few weeks. Relaxing, doing a little photo-trip to the beach, playing games and having a party was, well -- more weekends should be this good.

At the beach Jess and I dug for sharks teeth. There was a downed tree laying across the sand. It's bare, broken branches serving as sort of a sieve, separating sand from shell and tooth as the tide came in. It stretched out into the Bay for a bit and Jess said it resembled a boardwalk of broken limbs. She climbed all over it, searching for teeth. I mainly stuck to my own small corner of sand with my t-shirt on and my towel around my neck.

It's kind of peaceful out there at Chesapeake Beach. Quaint in a way.

Before we left, a man came up to us with a very large tooth in his hand. His body was tanned and he was super excited that he found such a large specimen. (Mah sharksteeth! Let me show you them!) He told us he was down a ways from us and he found this thing just washing around in the tide. As he went for it, a barge almost collapsed on him. His sunglasses were covered in sand as proof. He'd been coming here for 10 years and this was the first time he'd ever found something of this size. On his tanned back there were large dark spots like the kind you'd see in a Gorbachev caricature. His hands were hard and calloused. He was excited the way I'm sure archaeologists get excited. We entertained him for about 5 minutes until he moved on down the beach, showing his tooth to some other family.

When Jess and I got home we counted our teeth and decided we wanted to watch a movie. We would brave Blockbuster (bloodsucker) and rent The Fountain. It was good. Not the best, but good. There is a lot more meat in there I'm sure. It might take a few more viewings to get all the gristle out of it.

We also rented Pirates of the Caribbean for the Xbox 360. This is the game that killed my box. It probably wasn't so much the game as it was the fact that we didn't have the AC on and it was like 94 degrees in the apartment. Regardless, I have now earned my Red Rings. Microsoft is in the process of sending me out a prepaid RMA box and I should be back and gaming in a few weeks. No biggie really, I mean, it's not like it's the only 360 in the house.

We had a party on Sunday with a good turn out. I hope everyone had fun. 360 Guitar Hero 2 was cool and the fact that everyone was playing under my tag was even funner. Nothing like throwing a party and achievement-farming at the same time! Beer was had. Burgers, dogs and dirt-cake were consumed. And the whole thing wrapped up before midnight. That's how we old people roll!

Monday Jess and I just relaxed. I finished God of War 2 and picked up Odin Sphere which is freaking beautiful! A Sopranos marathon was running on A&E-HD and I think I watched 6 episodes before I noticed it was past bed-time.

Like I said, it was a great weekend, even if my neck was stiff the whole time.

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Another one down.

Just paid off another bill today. Gone.

So, that leaves two credit cards and a student loan. I'm pretty proud of myself right now. Gonna have some more money coming in that doesn't have to go directly back out. In two months I'll be in Japan and will hopefully have enough money to enjoy myself. After that, I can start saving and contributing to my retirement fund.

It's gonna be kind of a celebratory vacation.

I'm right on track to have the next bill paid off by early next year. Then it will be one credit card and a student loan. The concept of which seems so foreign to me that I might as well have just typed that in another language. One in which I am not fluent.

I've been in debt since I was in high school. I got a credit card and a job and I went a little crazy, as I'm sure a lot of people do. I'm sure there are Christmas presents for Kelly-Number-One in there that I am still paying for.

I can't wait to be done with it all. To finally cut the tether of my financial past. It's almost like being born all over again.

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I'm your Check Engine Light.

I'm on now.


Get pissed!

Edit: Kinda fixed it myself. *crosses fingers* Looked up how to pull the trouble codes online then went and put it into action. It's really not that hard. Then, compared code to code-database online. Trouble code 67 or P0420. Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold. Something to do with the catalytic converter. Directions said first step should be to reset the check engine light and see if it comes back on. It's been a week or so now and it's still off, so, maybe it was a false positive. Maybe my gas-cap wasn't seated properly or some nonsense.

Whatever. Fuck cars.

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