Breaking Bad

This break week has not gotten off to a good start.

On Sunday, my clothes dryer's motor died, leaving me with a full load of wet clothes. Fortunately, I had no plans to go out of the house that day, so I could hang them around the house to dry. They were dry, but a little stiff, the next morning.

Much of Monday was taken up with a very important but long and somewhat tedious meeting. In between times, I decided to scrap and replace the forms I'd created for my library database; I'd run into a situation where I was kludging to deal with earlier choices, which is never a good sign. When I got home, I started working on the new forms; almost as soon as I tried something, I got the dreaded "MS Access has run into a problem and is shutting down" message. I was unable to get it to do anything from that point on, so I dropped back to a backup of the database - and discovered that the database was corrupted. (When you tell a recordset to MoveFirst, check the ID, and get a response of 1487, something is definitely wrong!) So I have to start all over from scratch, dumping about two week's worth of (admittedly sporadic) data entry.

Today or tomorrow, I need to run over to Sears Hardware to buy a new dryer. I really need to have it delivered this week; otherwise, I'll have to go to Kohl's and pick up some more clothes. It's supposed to snow today.... I also have to clean up the mess on top of and around the dryer - just miscellaneous crap that I've never gotten around to tossing/recycling/cleaning/etc.

Today I plan to make a batch of chicken pilaf (postponed from Sunday, and then from Monday). Here's hoping the Trickster has moved on to bother someone else.

Oh Where, Oh Where Can He Be?

On a lighter note, last night, after an unsatisfying bout with Access, I left the computer room and went into the living room to read. Gracie was under my desk. A few moments after I settled down, she came racing out of the computer room to look for me. She ran all the way to the dining room, paused, looked around, and raced back to the computer room. Not finding me there, she scurried back to the dining room. Nope, not there....

It took her something like three full laps before she realized where I had gone. I just sat there quietly and watched.

Hm. Maybe I've gotten into a rut.

The Nose Doesn't Know

A few minutes ago, I caught a whiff of skunk-smell, and heard the dogs barking furiously. Gracie, as is her wont, was doing so from inside, but Buster was out in the yard. I called him in, and he came quickly enough. He showed no signs of distress, but he smells... of something. Not skunk, but something a little acrid and smoky to my nose. (Not that my nose is that reliable, as I believe I've mentioned before.) The smell is only detectable at very close range, but it's fairly strong at that range - and Buster's preferred spot at bedtime puts his coat directly under my nose.

I think it's bath time. I hope drastic measures won't be necessary.