March 31st

After a miserable night with thunder and lightning and rain, Vic wanted waffles for breakfast, so we went out and got waffles.  And some nice new 8mm washers.  And a new flourescent light fixture for the garage.

After breakfast, I got Vic to help me tidy up the wiring on the DRZ, and buttoned that up, then we changed out one of the light fixtures in the garage.  Basically the light's been flickering for a while, so I tried some new bulbs, and it still flickers.  The new fixture has solved that, so it looks like the ballast's failed.  I'll look at that when the mood takes me.

I taped the smallest GPS I have on to the DRZ, and went for a test ride over to see Vince and check he's still alive.  He's still alive, he's just been hanging around at the airfield.  The GPS doesn't work for crap, as it didn't get a fix until I was at the airfield, and it then dropped out pretty much as soon as I hit 50mph on the way home, so I'm assuming the speedo's roughly correct.  I'll fix it later if it bothers me.

March 30th

I started the day playing a little Warcraft, then went out in the garage to look at putting a new dash on the DRZ.  Basically the DRZ has a digital dash that has a clock, trip meters and a speedo.  And that's it.  I have a Tinytach on there, but that's... sub optimal.  I took everything to pieces, and got all the wiring done for the new dash, then couldn't figure out how the mount I'd bought was going to fit, so I threw them an email and went to Lincoln to go flying.

After reinstalling the trim tab, I did a couple of circuits, but it was pretty bumpy so I gave in and landed.  After I'd put everything away, I wandered up to see what Jack was doing, and there was a parachute coming down to the North of the airport.  After chatting with Jack and Lance for a bit, I stopped in at the parachute school to see what was going on - the parachute was a cut away, so I told them roughly where I'd seen it, and left them to it.  If it hadn't been approaching sundown, I'd have offered to take somebody up to look for it, but, you know, meh.

When I got home, I found that A&L had mailed me back about the dash mount - basically you need washers under it with the fat bars, and I have the fat bars.  I dug out some washers and mocked it up, and it all looked OK.  Yay.

March 29th

We had our first barbecue of the year, and Jen came.  We haven't been able to find Vince for ages, so he didn't come over.  Screw that guy.

March 24th

Another day wasted playing around with Tilly and the computer.  Oh well.

March 23rd

I didn't feel up to flying, so I spent the day doing little things that needed doing, like posting off the cruise control box to be tested / replaced, and even posting off my taxes.  Yay.

March 22nd

I spent the day trying to catch up on stuff - I've printed out my taxes, for a start, as there shouldn't be any more changes to _last_year_'s tax code from here on out.

I got the oil changed in the Jeep.  It's taken ~5 months to do the last ~3,000 miles, so it'll probably be out of warranty next time it needs changing, so I can start putting synthetic oil in and doing the changes at ~10,000 miles.

March 21st

I hopped on a 747 (do they still fly those?) back to San Francisco.  As it was still using the old shared TV set, I didn't get to watch a movie, so I read and slept a bit.  After a connection, I got home to Sacramento and Vic picked me up.  Tilly was quite happy to see me, and then went and got her ball.

March 20th

I got most of my stuff stuffed into a bag, and in the evening went to dinner at what used to be the Lucan Arms - they can call it whatever they like, but it'll be the Lucan Arms to me.

March 19th

Emma came and picked me up again, and we went up to London to meet Jason and Fiona for dinner.  While we were waiting for Fiona to arrive (she was standing outside the whole time, in a cellphone dead zone), we got to walk past a TARDIS and a Dalek to see the new news room from the gallery.  It's very fussy looking, and there are TV screens hiding things like the lift doors.

After dinner, we went into a little pub where Jason's bag got stolen :o(

March 18th

We went into Staines and met Steve and Poke for pizza.  Again... Poke had decided she wanted the free salad that you get with your meal at Pizza Hut.

March 16th

I met Steve, Poke and Paul at the Red Lion for a few beers.  The pub was as quiet as it always seems to be, so we got to sit and babble away at each other until closing time.

March 15th

I went over to see Jason and his monstrous new cat - it's a Savannah, meaning it's big and pretty demanding.  We went and got pizza when my allergies started to get too much for me.

March 14th

My cousin had driven from Belgium to see us, so I got to meet her 3 kids for the first time.  She headed back to her mother's after a few hours, as she had an early ferry to catch in the morning.

In the evening, I went out with Russ and Phil who I used to work with at HP, and their other halves.  They haven't got any better :o)

March 13th

After spending part of the day sorting out crap I'd left in the loft, Emma picked me up for dinner, and we went to the Three Horseshoes.  The food there is excellent now, and it's had a thorough makeover.  It was really busy in there - don't these people have jobs to go to tomorrow?

March 12th

Mum and Dad picked me up at Heathrow, and we just spent the day chilling out.  We wandered up the road to the chippy for dinner :o)

March 11th

I hopped a flight to Houston, and from there flew to Heathrow.  I got to watch several movies - "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" (stupid), "Skyfall" (pretty good), "Looper" (excellent) and "Red Dawn" (terrible).  I started watching "Cloud Atlas", but lost interest after about 20 minutes.  Damn you TV, you robbed me of my attention span.

March 10th

I spent the day tidying up things and stuff, and packing for my trip to the UK.  Oh, and playing a little Warcraft, of course.

March 9th

I've been playing with SPF, DKIM and DMARC to try and stop receiving spam that's supposedly from me. I documented it here, in case I forget what I've done.

I took the masking tape off my Wallace and Gromit model, only to find that the paint had seeped under it in quite a few places.  I think I'll probably touch those up with a brush, rather than spend the rest of my life masking and spraying.  Bah.

I then went out onto the roof and cut at the trees.  When Vic got home, she joined me, and we got the green waste bin filled up, and added a bunch to a neighbour's bin.  We entertain the neighbourhood trying not to fall off the roof, so it seems like the least they can do to help us.

March 3rd

We spent the day dodging light rain showers and in the evening went to Scott's birthday ice cream party.  I figure it's the first time we've seen each other for about a year.

March 2nd

After brunch, I set about taking the cruise control box off the van so it can be sent back under warranty - whenever the selling company deigns to issue me an RMA number.  At the moment it's taking them 2 days to respond to a message, and the last response was that they couldn't find me by their order number, I need to find their invoice number, which wasn't on any email they sent me, it's on the packing slip.  I'm expecting a response to the invoice number by the middle of the week :o(

After that, Vic took the van to get some hay (hey hey) for the guinea pigs, and I hacked lumps off the trees.  When she got home, we continued hacking lumps off the trees until my elbow started to ache after me banging it on the ladder I was using.  I'm clumsy, don't judge me.

In the evening, I played some Warcraft and got my druid up to level 90, and all kitted up and ready to play in the big leagues.

March 1st

A new month, so here's the power figures.

Power generated

Power billed