This is week 22 of The Life of Riley, a weekly post detailing my activities since I ended a thirteen year career as a corporate drone. These posts are usually long, personal, and geared more for my own memory than the reader’s entertainment.

Sunday (Day 147): Library

Went to the library to pick up a bunch of home remodeling books. I also found out that the limit for borrowing CDs is 15. I was surprised at the selection available and borrowed 10.

Monday (Day 148): Failed Plans

I converted all my old beard shaving pages from Perl to PHP, which wasn’t all that difficult considering the similarity between the languages. What was a little difficult was passing variables to the Wordpress pages.

I was supposed to do some PC support for my parents, but they were too busy. I also heard that there might be issues with the PC that I tried to fix over the weekend, so I offered to take a look at it, but got denied.

At the end of the day, #1GF! found some problems with our purchase and sale agreement that I really should’ve found. Unfortunately, I was working on Perl and PHP and just trusted that the document would be the same as the last version we had read. I felt pretty bad about not being thorough.

Got a call at 2pm from Mitsubishi that my car was ready to be picked up. The dealer closes at 5, so it was interesting that they thought that I’d be able to arrange for a ride to make the hour drive across the city, considering I don’t have a car. Maybe they thought I bought a hot spare.

Tuesday (Day 149): Lawyers and Dealers

Got calls from the lawyer and the car dealer. The lawyer told me how to fix my issue. The car dealer told me that when I picked up my car, my suspension issues wouldn’t actually be fixed. Don’t buy a new Mitsubishi. Their idea of customer service will make you insane. Do use a lawyer in real estate transactions because they will help you keep your sanity.

Wednesday (Day 150): Drives and Beards

Drove to Cambridge to get my Dad a gift, and came home empty handed because they didn’t seem to have the drive that I was looking for. I paid $20 to ship overnight, and I still got a cheaper and better drive than any of the local stores carried. Made sausages, peppers, and onions for dinner because I had a car and could drive to the market to buy ingredients. After that, I spent the rest of the day building my beard page.

Thursday (Day 151): Ex Co-workers and Beards

Dropped off some papers to the mortgage company and ran over to BestBuy to pick up the other half of my Dad’s present. While I was in the parking lot, I called a former co-worker who had just ended his time with my old company. He hadn’t been working for about two weeks, but he was too busy to meet me for lunch. I asked him what in the hell an unemployed person had to do that he couldn’t eat lunch, and that seemed to get him into gear. I wandered around BestBuy looking at racks full of bands that I had never heard of, and eventually found myself in front of Guitar Hero III, which looked pretty cool. Unfortunately, I don’t really play video games anymore, so I shrugged and left without making a purchase beyond what I needed for my Dad.

After meeting for my friend for lunch, I headed home to build my Finetune Friday Battle of the Sexes playlist, which was harder than I thought. There are a lot of macho songs out there, but picking ones that weren’t focussed on bringing down women made it difficult. And that’s pretty sad.

Friday (Day 152): House Work and Birthdays

Got up, cleaned the bathroom, and made a bunch of phone calls regarding the house. Rebalanced my “Best of” List at the top of the right sidebar and tried to figure out my posts for the following week. I was somehow a week ahead this week and completely blew my lead. Closed the day out with a birthday dinner for my Dad at the Abington Ale House. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who likes to get a free meal on his birthday.

Saturday (Day 153): Lazy Bad Weather Day

Finished watching the second season of Weeds, went to the library to look up more home design books, and went to dinner at 3 PM at our favorite Mexican place. Got sandblasted by the Nor’Easter that was pulling through town on it’s way to Canada. Turned on the heat for the first time this year.

What I learned

• Sometimes paying $20 overnight shipping will get you better and cheaper stuff than picking stuff up in department stores.
• I learned how to pass variables to WordPress pages.
• I have lost my desire for electronics and video games, and I’m losing my interest in keeping up with music.
• Some women just blindly hate facial hair.
• While researching some beard facts, I found out that November is known as “Movember” in Australia. During Movember, Australian men grow mustaches to raise money for male health issues. I thought it was just another lie of the internet until I saw that Darren Rowse of Problogger is taking part this year. You can sponsor him or view his progress at the link above.

Posted in Leisure