I am sitting at the dealership, and they're poking away at my car right now. The problem they thought that was leading to my cooling fan not coming on turned out to be not the issue, but luckily they had the part needed to replace what really was the issue. The good news is that they have wifi, so I've been able to entertain myself while waiting... and my dad works here, so they've been extra nice to me. My dad took me out to lunch also.

There is still something else wrong with the car, but the joy of having a Kia is that the car's laid out kinda poorly under the hood and is especially hard to work with unless you have tiny tiny hands, or you pull the whole damn thing apart. Either way, not fun. I have been told they should be almost done though, so hopefully I'll be on my way soon.

I did pull a stupid this morning though... luckily my mom was able to help me out. In my rush to make it out the door, because I woke up later than I should have for the time my dad recommended I get here, I forgot to grab the original parts they thought needed replacing... and they didn't have those on hand here. Luckily my mom brought the parts out to me, so they were able to still do the work. I just have to pick her up some nice beer in return. Certainly not a bad deal, it saves me from having to come back a second time... and considering how long it took me to make it in to start with, it would have been even longer before I made it back.

In other news, I have switched my network manager on my laptop, and the new one works worlds better than the old one. The old one used the KDE wallet application to store the passwords, which delayed connection every time I logged in. I'm using Wicd now, and it saves the passwords in itself, so it'll automagically connect upon login. I'm up and running faster now. I'm also hoping that this will resolve some of the connection issues at my friend's house, as he uses some weirdo router for his network, and all his windows machines work fine... so he implies it's linux that's the issue.

Talk about stupid... I'd unplugged my USB hub so it wouldn't distract drwho4's son when he was trying to sleep, including the USB cable from it to my computer... and then managed to forget to plug it back in even though I got the power plugged in again, as well as all the other cables. It only took me a week to realize that was what the problem is.

This stupidity only is the cherry on top for the main event of the weekend though. I managed to lose the only key fob for my car alarm. That's what I get for not bothering to go find myself a backup when I only got one with the car when purchased. Woohoo. Cost me $100 to get the alarm yanked, and if I want my keyless entry back, I'm going to have to pay someone more money to put something new in. Blah.

In better news, I got an adorable penguin mug with a lid. He came with hot chocolate mix, which will get mixed into egg nog at some point for uber creamy and tasty hot chocolate. ^_^

So, this morning has gone a little better than forecast. My mom called me first off to wish me a happy birthday, since she wasn't sure if I was going to disappear for the day or not. When I went upstairs, her boyfriend had bought me a new Bluetooth headset as a present, a Voyager 521, which is presently charging so I can pair it with my phone. Then I came back downstairs to find I had new email, a contest I'd done at work when the AVG vendor had come in resulted in my winning a $100 American Express gift card. I just tossed back the email with my mailing address so I can receive that, and mentioned that they'd helped cheer me up on my birthday. So things are looking a little better now, even though I still have to figure out what the sitch is with Chiana.

Happy Birthday to me. Plenty of presents already, and I suspect there are more to come. I really don't want any presents if what I've had so far is any indication of what the bulk of them will be.

Work's been pure chaos. Today we had one of my coworkers call out sick, leaving us short staffed. This time of year, that's pretty much along the lines of murdering the rest of us scheduled, especially with how leanly staffed we've been running in our store lately. Don't get me started on the lean staffing, but at least we were able to get one of the other people in today to come back for a couple hours close to close and just help us clean up. Also, my pay check is going to be a little happier with me the next pay cycle, as I've already got an hour's worth of overtime in because of this. It doesn't change that I'm not paid anywhere near enough, especially not for what I have to do.

There's still the looming "Djedo and I want to take you out to lunch, also, you forgot out birthdays!" *guilt*guilt*guilt* crap to deal with my grandmother on. I kind feel bad about missing Djedo's birthday, but Baba drives me absolutely batty, and I'm not sure how to tell Djedo I'm sorry for not calling him on his birthday without starting more drama with the woman who I'd rather just have nothing to do with anymore.

My mother insists she's family and I just need to deal with it, as she did when she was still married to my father, but there are a couple things wrong with this coming from her. She has very little to do with her own family, and she volunteered to be a part of my dad's family by getting married to him. I didn't volunteer for it, I was born into it and the alternative of not being born? I wouldn't have known the difference had that occurred, so whatever. Family is who you make it, and I don't consider her part of my family, even if she's contributed genetic material to the creation of me indirectly by giving birth to my father.

Then there's the crowning topper on the cake here, so far (though I reserve the right to reassign the title should something worse come along), is Chiana is now a very very unhappy little car. On the way home a couple of lights came on in the dash. A little i and a little p in circles above "BRAKE", and the little battery symbol. These lit up while the car was in motion and otherwise seeming like she was happy with me. The squeaky belt that'd been an issue for a while was surprisingly quiet despite the low temperature on account of fog, which is usually when she's the noisiest. Then when I was getting off the freeway, she made a very very unsettling noise on the offramp as I was applying the break. It sounded like something large and heavy was resettling behind my dash. I pulled into a safe parking lot near the offramp, and turned her off, turned her back on and listened. I had no idea what else to do, but as she did come back on again, I decided to head home slowly and carefully. Whenever I held the break while waiting at a light or whatever, she made noises I didn't like.

She did get me home, and when I finally stopped, I popped the hood and took a look with the maglite I'd started carrying in the car regularly. There was some sort of fluid leaking all over the place, and a bunch of steam coming out from the engine compartment. Not knowing much of anything about my car, I couldn't tell you what it could be, but something is leaking now. At least the belt seems to have stopped squeaking for a while. However, I doubt it'd be very good to drive her around like this, so I'm going to have to take her in to get looked at. What a lovely way to spend my birthday. Where I'd been wanting to run away to somewhere nice and away from people, it's possible I'm going to be spending money I don't have to get my car fixed. Fuck.

Also, I need to make time to go look and see what horrid mess AT&T has dumped upon my father and left him floundering because I'd set him up with a good web browser (Firefox) and mail client (Thunderbird) and they can't be troubled to support these. I also need to see if my dorktastic brother has gotten his silly Wii online now that there is wifi available to him. Meh.

So my car arrived safe and sound today. I cleaned her windows, drove her around the block, and put on the important bits of flair (babyland sticker on the back window and Invader Zim license plate frame). I've also decided she's going to be named Chiana.

She does not have an owner's manual, I'll see if I can find one via Google or Kia's website. She does come with a remote so I can lock and unlock her without having to stick a key in her. That'll make getting in when it's wet easier, and getting out in a hurry for work or other deadlines, nicer. I should probably see which battery she takes in her remote, so I know which one I'm buying when it's time to replace. Also, I don't have mini phillips head screw drivers, so I'll have to see if the mother's boyfriend has some I can borrow, or I'll have to get myself a set.

I am pondering buying a miliage log book for her. We have some at work, so I'll check them out while I'm there today.

Does Chiana seem like a good name for my "new" car, a silver 2000 Kia Sephia?

Please comment with any alternative suggestions, or reply to other suggestions providing arguments for or against. Wikipedia and other links will be welcomed if you're not sure if I'm aware of the source the name has been pulled.