Whoever 24.18.184.192 is, my website is not a stalker's tool. Suspicious searches are not welcome. Thanks.

And for once, I don't have a single comment spam to clean off. I've been hit with less frequency lately as well. Whenever I get around to upgrading to MT 3.x, I'll be moving the comment script too, so hopefully that'll further discourage some nasty spammy habits. =p

Anyways, some of you probably knew that today was the day I was to appear in court for the speeding ticket I received back in September. The day started out with two bad signs; today's calendar page contains a negative (black bg, white lines) image of Yomiko with a rather scared expression on her face. And one of the first songs to play in the car after heading out to the courthouse? angela's "The end of the world".

Not to mention it was biting cold in the morning and I managed to forget my checkbook despite making several mental notes not to forget it.

After finding out which courtroom I was in (and making use of the restroom), I sat down and waited for the trial to start. The trial didn't start on time at 9am, but instead we ended up waiting until around 9:15 when the judge finally walked in and began throwing out sentences.

I didn't see his face, but I was pretty sure the officer that wrote the ticket was sitting a few aisles ahead, even though I could only see the back of his head. Turns out I was right. He was there for at least 10 people, all pulled over for almost identical reasons. It also turns out that he wrote the other tickets the same way mine was: actually in range of a 2 point speeding violation, but cut down to a 1 point violation on the ticket.

Naturally, the judge didn't believe in cutting down things further when it was already cut down as such. And there were so many people there that were pulled over at the exact same place I was pulled over at, for the exact same reason, that he didn't even bother listening to explanations by the time it was my turn. He just handed out the sentence right after I pleaded and the officer stated the actual speed (which I swear was a reflex action by then). >.>

So, I ended up having to pay the same $65 fine, plus $23 in court costs, plus at least $4 in ATM costs (since using a credit card would have incurred at least $8 in surcharges). And I still ended up with 1 more point on my license, and just when I was about to have some or all of the points from the accident two years ago expire. Sigh.

So, after that disappointing court visit, I made my way back out to the parking lot to just barely make the one hour parking rate ($3, at 58 minutes in). I then spent the next several hours getting some much-needed work on the car done. First, I went to Costco to get a free tire rotation, and spent the 1h 40m it took to get done wandering around inside the warehouse. I bought some food too, and for once ended up getting more than I could comfortably eat, and I only spent $5.02. (It would have taken me $10 anywhere else to fill me up.) I was going to buy stuff too, but I found out at the register that they only accept American Express. Argh.

After the tire rotation was done, I headed over to a Merchant's Tire and Auto Center to get my oil changed. Spent another 40m waiting for that to get done, but at least I had a good view of the work being performed. Changing oil is definitely much easier when you have a lift.

After finally getting home around 1:40pm (taking some time to try and clean all the shop grease off the steering wheel >.>), I pretty much went off to take in the last three DVDs of Last Exile, to finally finish watching the series. Lots of cute moments. :3

Aside from last weekend, not much else of note has happened. I'll write about last weekend later (though it was mostly Chris, Alison, and I watching the first four DVDs of RoD the TV in his basement).