Quick evening overview, 'cause I'm really tired

Around 6:30, I rode to Manassas, ran into my mom on the way into their street (on her way out to the store), dad wasn't home. Went in to visit the new kitten, Puck, who is tiny and adorable beyond belief, and already looks healthier/cleaner than the pictures taken a few days ago that I linked to. (Of course, I took two of my own, which is one fewer than enough to finish the roll in my camera.) Dad got home around 7, having attended an unexpected memorial service for a deceased co-worker that started at 5. By that time, I'd put the kitten away--she stays in a large two-level cage in the basement when no one's home, for the time being--and discovered we didn't have the necessary socket to remove the bell housing from my truck's transmission.

So, dad and I went across the street to Darryl's, who almost always has the right tool for any job, and chatted about his sons' newest two go-karts--one electric, one retro-car-style, and eventually--half an hour later?--got the socket and went home.

By 10:something, we'd removed the bell housing, reseated a few of the studs that should've stayed threaded into the transmission--but due to design-good-for-manufacture-not-really-good-for-maintenance, they didn't, replaced the clutch slave cylinder with the new one, replaced the bell housing, jacked the transmission back into place, replaced a couple of its bolts, replaced and reconnected the starter motor, relpaced the transmission mount, replaced the transmission support beam, cleaned up and called it a night.

Inside, dinner awaited, as did the kitten--contentedly sitting on the scratcing pad on the table by the couch, and then on my lap for dinner, and then on mom's chest for a while, and then back on me for the next several hours. I watched a bit of news, a bit of King of the Hill, and a bit of the inside of my eyelids, before getting up around 0245, putting the kitten away, deciding that going home would work better logistically for getting to work in the morning than sleeping a few hours and going home early enough to get home/shower/get to work, and went home.

Now sleep for about 3 hours, then work, for which I shall be tired.

50 entries behind in the last 9 hours, not catching up until lunch and after work.

Work today, Truck.

Today we got a bit of a tour from one of the head guys--more tips and advice on international travel in the conference room, a stop by the warehouse, and a stop by welding. The welding shop is pretty cool--assorted fun equipment (like a door that will withstand 60 minutes of door-breaking onslaught, a grill that was a class project a while back, and The Disintegrator for rapid desctruction of classified documents), and a room where we construct full-on cinderblock/concrete walls and doorways to work with, then tear them down when finished. Later, we worked at making perfect electrical cabling, to the exacting standards of the instructor, and then saw a bit of one of the alarm control systems.

In more interesting news, it's been fabulously gorgeous outside all day today, and shortly I'm off to Manassas to work on, and possibly finish the work on, my truck. :) Also, I caught up on the 115ish entries accumulated since lunchtime. :P