I’m feeling a little feisty today. A cross between restless and irritated with a hint of hyperactivity. One of those moods where you need to fidget and can’t focus. Big surprise there.

The weekend: I fixed my toilet Friday… rented a couple of movies Saturday (nothing to write home about)… played some Prince of Persia on Sunday… hung out with my parents on Monday… that’s about it.

Listening to the iPod this morning on the way to the eye doctor I started thinking about all the different songs that have meaning in my life. Listening to the different stuff on the iPod I can tell you where I was in my life when a given song came out or a particular event that happened when that song was playing. It’s almost better than a journal; it’s like reliving the past in the present.

I happened to hear a cut by Pop Will Eat Itself and it reminded me of high school. Mom got on sort of a “wholesome” kick and decided that PWEI was “devil music” (yes, the words “devil music” were actually used to describe it) so she confiscated all of my PWEI tapes and CDs. At the time, it seemed that use of the word “fuck” in music pretty much qualified it immediately as “devil music.”

We had a discussion - nay, a heated argument - about what constitutes “devil music” that went something like this:

Mom: The music you’re listening to is devil music! Trav: What makes it devil music? Mom: Every generation has its own new music, designed to push boundaries. This is no different. It’s made to corrupt your mind. It’s trash! Trav: So every generation has devil music. Mom: Yeah. Trav: And the new music in each generation is usually it. Mom: Yeah. Trav: And the new music in your generation was The Beatles. Mom: So? Trav: So by your logic, The Beatles is also devil music. Mom: Go to your room!

Yeah, I thought it was crap, too. I mean, if you don’t like the language, I guess that’s one thing, but don’t accuse me of listening to devil music unless you have a strong case. Anyway, my PWEI CDs got confiscated, which was an extraordinary inconvenience because at the time they had gone out of print. In particular, the Cure For Sanity disc was hard to find, and that was problematic because that was my favorite CD of the time. (For the record, she was also pissed off about my Nine Inch Nails CD, but I don’t recall her taking that one.)

Anyway, it took me a couple of weeks to scour the downtown Portland area and find a small dance record store who happened to have the last copy of Cure For Sanity. I still have that CD to this day and it’s still one of my favorites. (Mom’s probably going to be pissed when she reads this one, but this was like 13 years ago, and I’m a little older now, so I’m sure she’ll cope. I’m also still a NIN fan, but I think Pretty Hate Machine was the best album Reznor’s put out to date.)

Ah, memories. I’m sure you all have those music memories. Maybe one of these days I’ll put out a few more of them on the site, so they might not be forever lost.

I have learned far more about toilets than in the past 24 hours than any programmer should ever know.

I went to the Toiletology 101 site to see how to determine which part in the toilet is leaking and how to fix it. I figured out that it’s the flush valve, usually the fault of the flapper/tank-ball thing.

I investigated the existing flapper and didn’t see anything wrong with it, but I was sure it was just making a bad seal or something, so I went to the store and picked up a new one.

Installed the new one, tested again. The leak is still there, but a lot slower now (about half a centimeter of water drains from the tank every hour; before it was doing that in about 15 minutes). I think I’m on the right track, but I think the seal still isn’t the greatest.

I went this morning to Home Depot and picked up a Flusher Fixer Kit. That fixes the seal that the flapper connects to, which I think is also part of the problem. I drained the tank and dried it out this morning in anticipation of that project tonight.

If that doesn’t fix it, then it’s the gasket beneath the flush valve, which means I need to take the tank off the back of the toilet. At that point, I’m going to have to debate with myself whether it might be an idea to actually call a plumber. After reading the box on the replacement flush valve products at Home Depot, it sounds easy enough, but there are reasons that professional plumbers exist. If it was so easy everyone could do it, we wouldn’t need them, would we?

Oh, and a follow-up on my dishwasher issues: After removing the rubber band and the broken glass from the mechanism in the bottom of the dishwasher, it seems to work slightly better. It actually washes all the soap out now (where before it left soap everywhere) and the dishes look reasonably clean. That said, it’s still not as good as the dishwasher we had in the apartment, so while I may have staved off the need to buy a new dishwasher, the idea that we need an upgrade has not left my head. According to Greg, a dishwasher is one of those things that you go “all-out” on. Get the top of the line. I couldn’t agree more.

Turns out I don’t have a head cold, I have hay fever unlike anything I’ve had in a long time. Jenn’s got the same thing. She went to her doctor for a cold treatment and got told it was allergies. My allergy shot clinic confirmed that a lot of folks have gotten hit in the last week. I have since upped my antihistamine dosage.

I got a new cable box today. This will be the third one we’ve had since we moved in. The first one had crackly sound, this last one decided it would turn itself off and reset itself every time you change the channel. The one I got today seems to work OK; let’s hope it stays that way.

While waiting for the cable guy, I decided to test the toilet in the downstairs bathroom for leaking (I can hear it run very slightly every so often). I dropped some food coloring in the tank and, sure enough, found it in the bowl very shortly after. Guess I’ve gotta look at that when I get home. It’s always something.

I updated my RSS feed to be 2.0 compliant, so those of you making use of such things, you should now see fields like pubDate, guid, etc., for more accurate tracking of my stuff.

Around last Thursday, my right eye started giving me trouble. I figured it was just eyestrain from having been working too much and staring at the computer screen. Over the weekend it seemed to get better (I didn’t do any work), and Monday I was feeling pretty good (albeit bloodshot).

Monday night I didn’t get more than two hours of sleep because the pain was so intense. I held a cold washcloth on my eye most of the night and loaded up on ibuprofen. I had had enough; it was time to go to the eye doctor.

I was born with Duane’s Syndrome (crossed eyes) and had that corrected when I was really young (they cut muscles in the back of your eyes to straighten them out). Having this eye pain made me a little worried, thinking it had something to do with that (just what I needed; torn muscles in the back of my eye).

Turns out I have a moderate case of iritis, which is akin to arthritis in your eyeball. Apparently they don’t know what causes it; anyone is entitled to a surprise case of it once, but if it happens again then you need to find out if you have some other systemic issue that might be linked to it. Here’s hoping this is a one-shot deal.

I got my eye dilated (and it’s still sort of dilated) yesterday and also got some prednisone eye drops. You’d never believe how affected you are when you have eye trouble - I went home after my doctor’s appointment and could barely walk around. I ended up sleeping most of the day away (and still slept all night), and watching a little TV (it’s easy to make out what’s on TV because details generally don’t matter… I couldn’t read to save my life, though).

So today I’m happy to say I’m pain-free, back in effect, and taking my eye drops once every two hours. I did successfully pick up Jenn’s head cold in my weakened state, though, so I’m pain-free but mega-congested. It never rains but it pours.