Good things

1. My poor, 19-year-old car needed its CV joints replaced and finally got new ones on Monday. (The wheels made a POP!POP!POP! noise every time I turned and only got worse the longer I pretended I couldn't hear it happening.) The car also got an oil change, new front tires (one of those fun, surprise! the wheels are coming off! repairs), and fresh wiper blades. I essentially feel like I'm driving a new Camry because it's so quiet. My newold car came with a pre-cluttered backseat (sponsored, apparently, by Diet Coke), which I found quite thoughtful of the dealership.

2. King V and Queen S are doing well and headed for their six-week-snowbird vacation in Mexico in a little over a month. I get to housesit (although I haven't entirely worked out how that's going to work since I'm not subletting my apartment or hiring a petsitter). They have cable, TiVo, a slammin' kitchen, a king-size bed, and a stocked beer fridge. Who's going on vacation again?

3. Mack Daddy Smooth comes home in 20 days. CAN I get an amen-uh?!

4. Today was payday, which enabled me to begin repaying the Bank of Mom and Dad (a kind and forgiving financial institution) for financing the CV joint repair. I'd just paid for the tires and oil change and was a little tapped (read: I was a one broke motherfucker). Hmm. I wonder if I could get #UnoBroMoFo to start trending on Twitter. Would certainly be better than anything Kardashian.

5. Kata is great and nuts, as usual. I got nominated to be on the party planning committee. Coincidentally, we have our holiday party tomorrow night, complete with door prizes and alcohol. I say kill two birds with one stone and give out beer as a reward. Could really boost morale. I know a recent rough day gave me a better understanding of the three-martini lunch of yore.

6. Earlier, I was craving something sweet and was sad (in a very first-world-problem kind of way) that I didn't have any candy. Then I remembered I had a peppermint, but that seemed kind of lame when I would've preferred a bag of a couple Starburst. So I got sad again. But then... I remembered I had leftover birthday cake and all was right with the world again. A videotape of my reaction would probably do quite well on YouTube.

7. Speaking of YouTube...

I can't WAIT to see the new Muppet movie.

8. I fucking love the Internet. Something I was listening to earlier made me think of an amazing singer I had heard perform with James Taylor about a thousand years ago. I couldn't think of his name and very literally Googled "the black guy who sings with James Taylor." Just a bit to my surprise, I had my answer about 10 seconds later: Arnold McCuller. (His stuff is all OVER Spotify if you're interested.) Here is Taylor's band performing "Shower the People." McCuller has a solo (for which he is understandably quite well-known) that starts at the 3:20 mark. He appears in a fedora at the 1:02 mark. *hatswoon* I tried to the embed the video but YouTube is being a punk or I'm tired and I keep making the same mistake. Maybe a little of both.

Gotta get to bed (1) because it's after midnight and I told myself I was going to bed at 11:00 pm and (2) it's Betty Off Her Crocker's date night. (I wish that information wasn't seared on my memory.) I'd like to get to sleep -- or at least be earplugged -- when she and the Duke of Humpington begin, uh, balancing her checkbook. So far, so good -- they're wearing their cement-heeled shoes and apparently moving boulders. I only get nervous when it gets quiet. Well. Temporarily.