mandolin | "Not having an iPod for a week is not the end of the world."

Left my iPod at Mom's this morning, managed to lock the keys in my trunk again in Towson, but Triple A saved my bacon and I got the cashier's check, so I suppose I'm breaking even. I suppose. :)

Anyway. I hate packing. I don't remember it being so heinous three years ago when I was moving my stuff from Windsor Commons into storage for a few weeks. Then again, that was only a year's accumulation of stuff. This is three years' accumulation of stuff, plus there's the dilemma of what can be packed now and what should not be packed because I don't want to dig it out of boxes in a couple days if I need it (necessities, clothes) or because I'm milking the last month of cable for all it's worth (TV and DVD recorder).

I guess now that it's real, I'm having to fuss over the logistics of living there: namely, where I'm going to sleep. This is a decision I need to make before I actually start sleeping there, much less fully move in.

1) There are two full baths: one in the partly finished basement, and one on the top floor. Since I'm hoping to use the top floor as an apartment to rent out (it's got its own freaking kitchen) eventually, I'll have to go downstairs to shower. Okay. Whatever.

2) The only window A/C unit on the first floor is in the front room, which the owner had set up as her bedroom. Problem is: it has no closets. The back bedroom does, but since it's joined with the back porch, it's not the coolest room in the house. So does the side office, but you have to cut through the kitchen to get there. (No door between the porch and the back bedroom, either. The porch can be sealed off with plastic sheeting in the winter, but in the summer the air circulation's going to be a big deal.) So while I can deal with going downstairs to shower, having to also go through the kitchen and over to the office or the back to get clothes to change into doesn't really appeal to me. And buying a wardrobe when there's already tons of closet space on that floor would be ludicrous.

3) I could always make the side office, with its closets, my bedroom. But there's no A/C unit in there, and I don't know if I could fit one in the side window (the bay window is out). Since it's largely cut off from the rest of the floor (the only way in is through the kitchen), simply moving the main A/C unit in there is not a good idea. It used to be the garage, which is why it's so cut off. I don't know if having two window units on one floor is advisable, though. That front room unit is situated to cool most of the floor where it is.

Oh, yeah, and the list of minor fixes I need to get done:

- Change the locks and install deadbolts on all the doors.
- Fix the exterior grading to avoid basement leaks, which is going to be fun since one side with the inward slope is partly the concrete walkway.
- Replace the drain in the first floor bathroom sink.
- Put a railing on the basement stairs so I don't kill myself trying to get a shower.
- Figure out how to replace the broken window sashes.
- Paint. Well, after I figure out how to sand down the flaking plaster in certain places.

So can you tell why I can't just move everything in right away? :)

I will be glad when I'm mostly moved in. Maybe then I can have a life again.

Anyway, I was actually home to watch JLU for once, so some random thoughts:

I am so tempted to give in and find spoilers now. I've been avoiding them on principle, because I want to be surprised, but this episode seems to be dragging us towards a weird-ass plot twist. It may have a lot to do with the fact that I wasn't really able to catch the Superman animated series when it was on (darn my WB affiliate and their pre-emptions!) and didn't see a lot of the things referred to in this episode. It would have helped to have seen the confrontation that turned Dr. Emil Hamilton to the dark side, so to speak. Not having seen it, I could only conclude that he's digging his own grave. And the Darkseid incident that Lois refers to... well, I rest my case. But back to the weirdness.

First Luthor is cancer-free, and in perfect health on top of that? Hamilton's diagnosis seemed way too perfect to be normal. And his claim that he wasted the money on a fake presidential campaign leads me to believe that he WANTS Armageddon to happen. He's been goading Superman to come after him enough already. Either he's gone off the deep end when I wasn't looking, or there's something else going on. Luthor's agenda has usually tipped towards gaining more power, not towards destroying everything for the hell of it.

More succinctly, when the Question's actually hit the nail on the head with one of his conspiracy connections, you know everything's about to go to hell.

I did want to bitchslap Captain Atom. You know, I can certainly see why Cadmus is so paranoid about the League. Superman jumping the gun with Luthor last week, J'onn's readiness to mind-wipe a guy on the Watchtower who let the "Task Force" in, Superman trying to lobotomize Doomsday again... yeah, the potential is there.

But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize they were torturing the Question in there, and Captain Atom's not even blinking.

I get that they're the military, they consider the Question one of their enemies (even though he currently trusts the League about as much as they do), but when you basically tell a couple of superheroes that they have to leave their friend and significant other there so the people you're working for can torture him some more, well, it shouldn't surprise you when they beat the crap out of you.

So, anyway, there aren't that many episodes left before they finally tell us what's going on and I go, "Huh?" Because whatever the answer is, it will probably make my brain hurt.

I do hope they have the sense NOT to kill off Flash.

*sigh*

I wish I could find my tapes of Justice League episodes. I had "Wild Cards" on tape somewhere, but after packing my VHS tapes I've concluded that it may have been grabbed accidentally when my apartment was robbed.

Anyway, I think it was time for bed an hour ago...