Land of the Freak

T-minus two days until vacation. I've been working feverishly to get all my work done before Friday, so I won't have to finish anything while we're down in NJ. I've been down that road before, and it ain't fun.

So I'm leaving for work Monday morning and I notice that the right rear tire on the Maxima is a little low. I swing by the Hess station because the air is free there, but the stupid machine is out of order. No big deal; I decided to fill it up on the way home. Of course, I get out of work at 5 and the damn tire is flat. A veteran of countless tire changes, I spent about 20 minutes jacking the car up and unscrewing the nuts on the tire, but I couldn't pull the tire off. It had rusted onto the wheel. A guy who works at one of the other businesses in our building came out to help me, but he couldn't get the tire off, either. Finally another guy who works for our building's landlord came out with a big mallet and gave it a couple of good whacks and off came the tire. I put the donut on and drove home. Tuesday morning, I went to a nearby garage to drop off the car to have the tire repaired or replaced, but the mechanic couldn't find a leak. He inflated the tire, I put it back on, and off I went to work.

Deb and I went out to dinner last night to celebrate our 8th anniversary (which was actually last Monday). It was a good time, although the old couple next to us were so loud it was hard to have a conversation.

Tonight, Hannah is away at her very first sleepover at a friend's house. Lily didn't react to this well at first, but she's dealing better now. I just put her to bed, so we'll see how often she comes down to visit.

Counting down the hours:

• Proclaimed as the top choice as John McCain's VP, Louisiana governor (and fellow brown dude) Bobby Jindal says he won't take the job if asked. Interesting. He says he wants to stick with the job he has, which is cool. Although it's interesting that despite his relative lack of experience (he's 37), a lot of conservatives are touting him as a viable VP candidate. Apparently, he's more conservative than McCain.
• This is unbelievable: This moron in Rhode Island was arrested after crashing his car into an electronic billboard and blew a .491 on the Breathalyzer! Considering the legal limit is .08, experts say the guy is lucky to be alive. One expert estimated that the guy would have had to have 24 drinks over six hours to hit that level. If you're in the vicinity of a .5 blood-alcohol count, you're either unconscious or near death. Something tells me he'll be out doing it again in the near future.
• This is one of the funniest blogs I've read in some time: Cake Wrecks. It features professionally decorated cakes that have been messed up in some way. Hilarious stuff.