So Far So Good
The Focus cost $224ish to get back. It seems that the fluid change and computer reset might have done the trick. However, I suspect that Alison is driving around her mom's Camry today, as it had the baby seat in it and it was blocking in the Focus. I only drove the Focus about 7 miles on the way back from the dealer, but it behaved correctly.

Lunch Issues
I ate the last of my Skippy Superchunk that Alison had bought me. She got it in a big jar, but since I just eat it straight with a plastic fork for lunch here at work, bigger jars make for harder eating as the amount of PB in there gets less.

At around 12:30, my brain threw it's little arms up into the air and said, "I've had it. I need real food." So I headed out, in to the heat of the day, to hunt and gather.

Rather than my normal dropping the top of the Miata immediately, the inside of the car was so hot that I cranked the AC. I rarely run the AC in the car, and it makes it feel like I have an extra 400 lbs attached to the car. After getting $20 out of the ATM, I dropped the top. That car is just too small and I'm just too tall to do any kind of drive through interactions. Too much ducking down so I can see out the window.

I briefly thought about going to McD's. But thought that would totally suck, so I headed to Taco Bell. Taco Bell was muy crowded. I didn't want to get into the distended drive through line, so I parked and went inside. And the line there was really long, so, I bit the bullet and just went to Publix, where I know I can buy Skippy Superchunk.

No, I didn't eat more plain PB for lunch. But I did buy some more to last me the week and possibly next week. Publix has sushi. They didn't have the eel rolls that I like, so I got some "spicy" tuna rolls.

Rant: I am sick of all this "spicy" crap. None of it's spicy at all. You know it might be spicy if they call it "spicy hot" which is also a lie, as it's not hot at all, but at least it's spicy. The only hot potato chips I've ever had were the TGI Friday's brand Habanero Potato Skins (like, bought at Wal-Mart) and they had some good heat, but the flavor behind it was not impressive. Well, I better get back to what I was saying. I'm just not much of a ranter, you know.

So, I got the sushi, some canned coffee for here at work, two things of Skippy Superchunk, and a 12 pack of diet coke. The coffee I got was Folgers Darkity Dark roast. If I could afford it, I'd get some of that Havana Blend coffee that I get for at home for here at work. Actually, if I could afford that on a regular basis, I think I'd go work somewhere else. Well, no, there is that pension I'm working on. Pensions rock. And unlike most people who get pensions, I don't have to be shot at during my line of work.

Well, there are problems with everything, and I didn't actually get two jars of Skippy Superchunk, I accidentally got a Creamy one. And I didn't get a normal 12 pack of Diet Coke, I accidentally got caffeine free. Oh, well.

NASA Contact Keepin' It Real
My NASA Contact, aka Publius, wrote the following to me:

I started a second one, a first order ODE, which at first seemed to be a straightforward change of variable problem. But when I solved the integral using the table of integrals, I ended up with an inverse hyperbolic cotangent, which is undefined at zero, although my initial condition was y(0) = 0. I eventually gave up. This morning I worked out the integral by hand and came up with a nasty expression involving natural logarithms and absolute value signs galore. It's odd for Dr. Ferengi* to give a problem with such an ugly answer, so I keep wondering if I've done something wrong.

*The name of the good doctor was changed slightly to protect the, probably not innocent, but let's be nice. Coincidentally, back when I was working on my degree in rhetorical theory, the spell check would always suggest Dr. Crap for Dr. Kray's name. Good spell check. Blogger's just suggested Krouse, which isn't funny at all.
- posted by Nick Postagulous @ 2:55 PM