wombat_socho

Well, I saw almost everybody I wanted to see, probably ate more than I should have (daily breakfasts at Dunkin probably didn't help) and spent more than I should have. So I'm pretty much broke until the travel reimbursement for last Monday's lab visit shows up. I did get a surprise deposit from H&R Block on Friday, so I guess I did make bonus after all. Weehu. The only things that went wrong on the trip were booking an extra day at the Strat (they refunded me the resort fee, bless them, because they got it right back with an upgrade yesterday), booking the Red Roof Inn near Fort Meade instead of a Days Inn, which meant I had to dicker with the housekeepers for the refrigerator because the front desk guy was some kind of West African whose English was no muy bueno. Also I forgot my jacket and neck pillow in the Jeep when I dropped it off at Dulles. Also also (this is actually funny) I left my phone and blood sugar meter in the men's room at Safeway before I had dinner with Mark, and when I went back there the phone had been turned in but not the meter. Weird! So I went to Walmart and now I have *three* emergency backup meters. 

The Jeep was a Grand Cherokee, and good God, it was enormous. I felt like I was driving a deuce-and-a-half, though the fuel consumption was better. I think. Considering the alternative was a Tesla or Spark, I think I made out okay. 

On the way back, I didn't have to hang around Dulles all afternoon waiting for my flight; Southwest was kind enough to rebook me on an earlier flight to Denver and a largely empty flight from Denver to Vegas. So I got into Vegas and picked up the Kia from long-term parking, grabbed some burgers and egg rolls at Jack in The Box, and after checking into the Strat I ate dinner, took ibuprofen and crashed for about ten hours. My back felt better in the morning, and cinching up the shoulder straps on the backpack helped a lot. Stopped at the bank downtown to deposit cash, Dunkin on Lake Mead for breakfast, Maverik ditto for fuel & fluids & Bad Things, and finally Sonic on the other end of Lake Mead for more fluids and some non-sugary munchies. Only had to stop at Indian Springs and Goldfield, though I did flip the Frog portal at the Test Site and claimed a couple of portals at the Goldfield rest stop. Made it home in time for baseball but alas, Minnesota was not online and the software reset to tomorrow at 1700. Bah. 

I had ordered a USB-C hub for the Surface, which I picked up after getting the Jeep from Avis, and it helped make the Surface an excellent little blogging machine. I also ordered Dave Butler's Politically Incorrect Guide to SF, which caused me to circumnavigate DC Saturday night via the BW Parkway, 295, 395, US-29, 66 and 495 since it arrived too late on Friday for me to grab it en route to College Park and an extended conversation with Doug over tacos. 

Thus a drunken female passenger opined some years ago regarding the New Year, and I have to agree. Much like birthdays, NYE is an arbitrary point in the year when people think everything's going to change, when we all know it won't. 

But enough pessimism. I do intend to make some changes going forward, not huge ones, but changes nonetheless, and we shall see how those work out. One of those is to do more writing on the Substack; I have a lot of non-fiction stuff I want to write about that doesn't really fit at The Other McCain, and I hope it'll get a little more exposure on the Substack than it would on Dreamwidth. I am thinking about picking up another Toaster this year and using it for more off-road Ingressing, and at the same time visiting friends and family in New England & Minnesota. Maybe not all of that this year, but we shall see how the cash flow works out.

Of course, I'm going to make continuing efforts to chip away at the weight, be better about fressing, and pay closer attention to my cash flow. I think I've done well this year in avoiding any overdrafts, and I hope to continue that into the new year.

We only had a couple of members who couldn't make it this year, along with Caitlin, who I didn't give enough lead time to raise the money for her airfare. The heat was hot, but people mostly seemed happy with the relaxed programming and the facilities in general. (We're still going to look at the Golden Nugget.) The Plaza seemed happy with us, too, seeing as how they expressed interest in having us back and were willing to take a post-dated check for the last third of the function space rental. Just about everyone committed to proselytizing for the convention

Alice and Dan Lang brought massive quantities of snacks and fluids, so much so that Dan earned himself a comped sponsorship for next year and a staff job: he'll be S-4 with additional duty as AV guy. Needless to say, we had to pack a lot of it out; I wound up taking home all the water enhancers I bought at Family Dollar (nobody else used them), half a case of Diet Coke, and most of a half gallon of heavy cream. Speaking of food, despite us committing to feed Brad in the contract, he sneakily managed to pay for all his own meals and T-shirt. Gonna reimburse him anyway. That'll show him. 

Preregistrations for SoS3 along with shirt & button sales raised a little over $600, $500 of which went into the convention account at NSB; the rest went into the gas tank at the Maverik off Lake Mead Drive. It was miserably hot, as it had been all weekend, and I didn't go in to get fluids; I did pick up some Hate Chikuns and Diet Dr. Pepper at the CFA over on Centennial by the Sam's Club, but that was it. The only stop I made on the way home was in Beatty, where diarrhea assailed me again (as it had at NSB, where one of the bankers kindly let me use their men's room to excrete (more) and clean up as best I could. 

When I got home, I grabbed the remaining donuts from Pinkbox (large, more expensive, and more wildly varied than Dunkin) and the cream and went upstairs, where I removed my filthy clothes, cleaned up, and napped fitfully for a couple of hours before making a futile run to Raley's where I intended to pick up some tea, some bread, and some Gatorade Zero, but it was in vain because I stupidly forgot my wallet. I tired to schlep the suitcase, backpack, and sodas up to the apartment, but I was struggling, and fortunately one of my neighbors helped with the suitcase. 

Damages for the weekend: left the cooler block behind at the Strat in the room fridge's freezer; lost the S-Pen to my phone on the way back, and sustained heavy damage to the bumper when a truck in the NSB parking lot proved to be closer than I thought. They weren't damaged, but I'm surprised the bumper stayed on all the way to Tonopah. I guess I'll check with Cal-Nevada about beating it back into place and get that done at the beginning of August. I did not lose my hat or blender bottle, though I thought I might have. 

Going to have to wait until tomorrow to do the writeup for the website, since all my notes are with the badges, lanyards, unused program books, etc. in the car. 

Somewhere along the line from Nashville to McCarran, I managed to lose my hat. Not having the patience to deal with Uber, I took a taxi to the Stratosphere, checked in, and paused only to check my blood sugar before going downstairs to Chi for some kung pao chicken noodles and some fried dumplings, which were good even if I did have to pay casino prices for them. 

When I woke up Tuesday morning, I went back to bed for another hour before rising, jamming everything into the suitcase & backpack, and summoning an Uber to head for Pep Boys, where they'd done a lot of work on the Kia ($900 worth) but forgot to change out the wipers. Welp. 
From there it was up to the Dunkin' on E. Lake Mead and then the Maverik on Tropical to top off, acquire more fluids, doughnuts, and pork bundles, and head out of town with a brief stop at the NSB on Aliante to get some cash. 

After that, it was the usual long and boring drive home, with only one stop at Indian Springs for fluids and snacks. Got home around 1600, lugged my bags upstairs, and saw to my sorrow that the heat/AC hadn't been fixed in my absence. Managed to  crank out one blog entry before running out of oomph and retiring to bed. 

I've spent a couple of days trying to reach the accounting department at the VA with no luck so far. On the other hand, there's someone doing cleaning in town, and they'll be over tomorrow to see the extent of the job they're taking on. Speaking of the VA, I have to go down the mountain for podiatry 

The draft in Pete's league has continued. Got Rick Reichardt in the 8th round, Vicente Romo in the 9th, Eddie Fisher in the 10th, Ed Farmer in the 11th, John Lowenstein in the 12th, and Frank Howard in the 13th. I think I have four more picks left until I hit the 32-man roster limit. 

Ended April with the weight still somewhere over 400, but at least the BP and BG are (mostly) good. Took the first hit  of the recently acquired Ozempic this morning and we'll see how much impact that has. 

Ordered a new 7-day pill case, water enhancers, and Volume 8 of La Vie Electronique over the weekend. Will go out tomorrow to the bank and deposit a bunch of checks to the Friends of Fission-chan account, eat some Mexican, and do a minimal amount of grocery shopping, mostly tea and some broccoli, I think. Also, there's a letter from a  VA office in Wisconsin waiting for me, so I guess I better tend to that. On a related financial topic, I moved a kilobuck from NSB to PenFed, where it might generate a bit of interest before I start depleting it for Balticon and hanging out with friends. I also converted a bunch of Maverik points into an e-card, which I'll pick up next time I'm in Vegas, which is to say later in the month on my way to Balticon. Am tempted to look into getting the Kia's AC fixed while I'm in Vegas; if nothing else, it would save me a couple hundred bucks in parking fees and allow me a cool ride home after my VA appointment at the beginning of June. 

May have found a suitable home for Son of Silvercon in Henderson at the Best Western Plus on Boulder Highway. The downside is that we'll have to push the date back to mid-October, but I'm okay with that and more importantly, so are our guests. 

Starting to think my play style in Civ doesn't work so well with the Celts and that I need to be more aggressive. 

Weight went down, BG was normal, and BP improved a little bit. Sort of. 

So after a quick breakfast of flax muffin and coffee, I attacked the to-do list and got some of it done; found out the windshield is going to set me back $425, and fixing the A/C upwards of $400. That's just labor and shop supplies; I'll have to get the parts myself. So I guess I'll be staying home a lot this month and next month to save money for those things. 

I bagged up some garbage, ran the dishwasher (that wasn't on the list but it needed doing) and that was about as far as I got. I'll make the calls regarding a hotel for Son of Silvercon tomorrow, throw out some of these garbage bags, maybe pick up some fluids & flour and stuff. 

James Caan is dead; as I remarked to Martin, it's weird that I don't remember him from The Godfather (not even sure I saw it) but rather from Rollerball and Thief. 

Weight went back up to 388, BG was close to normal, and BP was good, as I expected it would be after moving the meter to the bedroom and taking the reading while prone. 

Had a cup of coffee and some yogurt before going over to the Stage Stop for breakfast and a certain black Sportage, only to find it had been sold last month. I suppose it's just as well - the mileage would have been worse than the Forte, and God knows what other mechanical issues might have cropped up. So I'll be rejecting the offer from Driveway.com and having a little work done on the Forte while I'm in DC, if Pep Boys on Sahara is okay with me leaving it in their parking lot while I'm out of town. Or maybe I'll just leave it in the ramp at the Stratosphere. 

Called USAA and updated the insurance; switching to liability with roadside assistance will save me about $50 a month, so having the Forte paid off will give me an extra $320/month to get by on. I think I'll wait to file unemployment after I get back from the Non-Balticon Excursion, if I do it at all...I have a lot of CE to do and all the coursework to keep my certification, though I suppose I could just drive up to Reno and take the exam.

Made a loaf of Irish cake in the robot. It turned out weirdly colored but tasted okay; maybe I should have soaked the raisins a little longer? Anyway, it tastes fine, and I'll be sure to finish it off before I head down the road on Tuesday next week.

Noticed while flipping through Twitter (or maybe it was Instapundit, I don't remember) that the interest on I-bonds is 9.62% right now, which is a hell of a lot better than the yield on savings accounts, whether they're at CCCU, PFCU, or (LOL) NSB. So I think I may sink some of that extra $320/month into some I-bonds. Of course, they'll be worthless of the economy collapses, but if that happens I'll have bigger problems than unpaid interest on bonds. 

Weight was back down into the 380s, BG was nominal, and the BP looked a tad better.

Cold and windy with occasional snow flurries today, but I didn't go out to the post office since I have more stuff coming tomorrow and might as well deal with it then. I did run out to Raley's after my nap for more tea, burger buns, cheese, fruit bowls, and soup. Had one of the fruit bowls as dinner before pitching into the blogging. 

Speaking of soup, that's what I did for lunch - beef ramen with TVP, peas, & carrots, with a couple of cheese brats on the side.  

I guess getting my student loans discharged wasn't enough to push my credit score up to the point where Capital One wants to issue me a better card. I wish they'd stop sending me the damn offers if they're not going to qualify me. 

Starting to hear back from friends about the Non-Balticon Excursion. 

Tomorrow I'll touch base with driveway.com, see what they want to pay me for the Forte.  

So after an exhausting drive from Tonopah to Reno, I checked into the Sands Regency and did dinner at Mel's Diner, which was lavishly adorned with memorabilia from American Graffiti At this point I have to take a brief detour an explain that I completely missed this connection. The movie came out in 1973, when I was in junior high school, and I had less than no interest in it. Not only that, the whole wave of nostalgia for the late 50s and early 60s left me cold; I didn't care for the whole "greaser" culture fad, and the Beach Boys were almost as annoying as the Beatles. (My mom was really into surf music a la Dick Dale and the Ventures, but I didn't catch on to that until years later.) We will not even speak of the monumentally annoying Happy Days.

At any rate, connections to annoying movies notwithstanding, Mel's is a damn fine diner. Good food, reasonable prices, and fine service. They make an excellent club sandwich with freshly sliced turkey breast, ham and bacon, and as I told the waitress, it was nice to find someplace that didn't substitute roast beef for the bacon in the club sandwich. I plan to hit the place again on the rebound from the EHC. I would have done breakfast there on Wednesday, but they didn't open until 0600, my flight was at 0700, and I didn't realize the hotel was so close to the airport. In fact, nothing in Reno was open at 0500, so I wound up grabbing a bottle of water, some protein bars, and a bag of cashews for breakfast and emergency rations.

Speaking of which, I picked up a couple of fellow attendees at the airport Thursday, made the death march to the Hertz/Dollar desk out in the parking garage, and got a Buick Contour. This is about the size of my old Kia Sportage, although it has slightly less cargo space, and is burdened with all manner of electronic geegaws that it took me most of the drive to Clarksville to figure out. It has a keyless lock and ignition system, which are annoying, but otherwise seems nice. I'm not planning on driving much; I passed on today's range trip because I didn't bring Masha, and I already went to Walmart to get a replacement glucose meter, since I appear to have left mine in Reno.

I may be doing a couple of panels, but we'll see how that goes. The con technically started with a heroic fiction panel at noon, and that was good, more of a discussion than a "We're the experts and we're going to lecture you" panel. Opening ceremonies are at 5, and I'll have to work hard to not blow a bunch of money on books and sharp objects in the dealer's room.