The weekend, that is. Woodworking, Tops Gear, and Skyrim, again. This not-in-school thing is pretty fun! I’ll try to post some pix of furniture progress tomorrow-ish.

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Our condolences to the family and friends of Sergeant Chambers:

• Sgt. David J. Chambers, 25, of Hampton, Va., died Jan. 16, in Panjwai District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he encountered an enemy improvised explosive device while on dismounted patrol.

If I’d been driving around a local equivalent of the Tops Gear (UK) track this weekend, all my laps would have been on the board as either D(amp) or W(et). Fog, drizzle, rain, drizzle, fog – and that was just today. And today was still a busy day.

I was at work by 0715, to do a bit of patching (which could be done remotely), and some BIOS configuration on one of the machines I was patching (which couldn’t). That, on top of 6 hours at work yesterday: racking up the comp time, eh?

I was back home by ten minutes of nine, having finished what I wanted to do there today. Then, off to the shopping while Marcia went to church. Once back, I cleaned up the basement shop a bit, roasted some coffee, and cut my hair. The next step, had it been a nicer day, was to wash the car. But that didn’t happen because plans changed.

Marcia got home, changed out of her Sunday best, and hopped in her car to head out to Annapolis for some kind of quilting thing … and her car just make a single click. Dash lights flashing, computer reset, and … nothing. I got the multi-meter on the terminals and had her try to start it again. The voltage dropped like a stone. Bad battery, of course, which I had confirmed at the Sears Auto Center in Bowie (quick, friendly, efficient folks had that tested and me out the door with a new battery for her in about 7 minutes). Got that installed in Marcia’s Solara, too late for her to head out to Annapolis.

Down in the woodshop, I found that I was out of the dimensional hard maple that I’m using for face frames. So, no work down there today. The balance of the day went to Top Gear and Skyrim. Oh, yeah, and I made a gallon or so of turkey chili with tomato sauce reserved from the summer. Huzzah!

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Our condolences to the family, friends, and unit of Sergeant Wittman.

• Sgt. Aaron X. Wittman, 28, of Chester, Virginia, died Jan. 10, in Khogyani District, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by small arms fire while on mounted patrol.

This weekend: A bit of woodworking, a bit of Top Gear UK, but mostly Skyrim. I utterly forgot about an event on Saturday afternoon that I’d like to have attended, but something in my brain has decided that since I’m done with school, I don’t have to remember shit for a while. Sigh.

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OMFSM. For the first time in years, possibly since I’ve started taking note, there are no reported US casualties on the DoD site since I last posted. Surely not the end of such things, but I’m very grateful to be able to NOT offer condolences, at least for this one week. To be clear, had I not been a day late last weekend, it would have been one and one for the last two weeks.

Last night, I was looking online for new microwaves. Our over-the-range microwave stopped making food hot last night. It still makes light, and provides a clock that flashes when the power goes out, but no more bubbly food.

I’ve got a query into Linda Rose on the subject, and we’ll see what the recommendation is.

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Our condolences to the families, friends, and units of these fallen warriors:

• Sgt. Enrique Mondragon, 23, of The Colony, Texas, died Dec. 24, in Baraki Barak, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by small arms fire while on dismounted patrol.
• Pfc. Markie T. Sims, 20, of Citra, Florida, died Dec. 29 in Panjwal, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.