Bike work, dnner, kitten, Cold Case & Blessings, miscellaneous

This afternoon, I went to my parents' to a) drop off Steph's not-quite-a-month-overdue birthday present, b) drop off a maple box covered in doors and locks that I got from Heather for the kids, and primarily c) work on my bike. After chatting with both parents and reading a bit from the hilarious Zen Judaism, I got to work on the bike, with a bit of assistance from my dad. Disconnected all necessary parts to replace the drive sprockets and chain, and discovered that the new front sprocket has 16 teeth where the old one had 17. Now, this would work--I'd just have a bit more torque and a bit lower top speed--but I'm not sure which it should have. I know that when I placed the order with Coleman I said "1981", and the same at the counter buying the chain, and that they both rang up "1982"--and I don't know if I got the wrong parts, or if '81 and '82 used the same parts, or which is correct. So, I replaced the rear sprocket, cut off the old chain--rather than remove the swingarm, which proved much less possible than it should have--and threaded the new chain in, linked it shut, and left the front sprocket off until I call Coleman. (During this work, my dad produced some bottles of Becks Dark--he found that the good beer is the same price at Food Lion as the crap beer at 7-Eleven, and he passes the FL first on his way home from work. :D)

Update: According to this page, the new gears are correct (16/45, front/rear), but the chain should be a 530-104, not a 530H-110. Do I know exactly what that means? No, but I think the second number is number of links.

Then, as I was still around for dinner, I partook. The spaghetti was made from buckwheat, which we've had before, and decided is just kind of weird--however, it's much lower in carbs than regular, meaning my mom can have it with no worries.

Then, I watched TV with my parents, and with the World's Best Kitten curled up on me and purring. Seriously, I adore that cat, and she really, really makes me want one of my own at home, but as long as I'm living with Nathan and a dog and a dog door, no can do. *pout* We watched Cold Case, which I hadn't seen before, but quite liked--very good acting and story, excellent editing. Might become a regular Sunday 8pm activity, if I remember. :) Then my mom and I watched the made-for CBS Blessings--or rather, she watched 9-10 and taped 10-11, while I watched the whole thing--and I liked that as well. Very good acting, touching story, no good info on IMDb.

On the way back home, I stopped by WalMart for a toothbrush--I left my electric one at Esther's, I'll get it back in a couple weeks unless I fetch it earlier--and felt sort of like a target in sandals, shorts, and the leather coat I'd left at my parents' house. :P I then got gas at a terribly slow pump, reset my trip meter until it actually started moving, and went on my way.

Shauna provided the music below. :D

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The other day at Springfield Mall, I saw a t-shirt that read:
Top 10 Reasons to Procrastinate:
1.

I was very amused.

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Fred Phelps shows us all, once again, what an utterly abhorrent fucktard he is.

An eclectic set of links, to be sure

By way of sebatical, we have How to Run a Crappy Blog, from the ink-stained banana: it's teaching the monkey to stop typing that's hard...

From fuzzyamy, incited by Salon.com, a discussion of relationship Dealmakers and Dealbreakers

From motorcycles: When you can't trust your own eyes or what you think is in other people's hearts, life is sometimes just too wonderful for words.

From the Guardian via atheist, though not itself religious in content: Male Contraceptive '100% Effective'

From jazzfish:

Science Jokes: Pranks and Accidents. (Very long, in that it has many small stories, but very entertaining.)

PopSci: The Worst Jobs in Science. "We're grateful that someone out there is doing these jobs. Even more grateful that it isn't us."

From reabhecc most recently, and even though I've never seen Dr. Who, I can appreciate this: Not only is Dr. Who coming back to TV, but Eddie Izzard might be starring!