"gotta problem with plumbing (gotta problem with plumbing...}"

I think I have two favorite songs - "Losing Your Memory" by Ryan Star and "Obscurity Knocks" by The Trashcan Sinatras.

Ok.  Well, coffee pot is broken.  The accompanying carafe is cracked and there might be some other (mechanical) problem...looks like me and/or Mom will need to buy a new one...thankfully we got FIVE Complete Savings checks a couple days ago in the mail...(that's $50 for those of you - whoever the heck you are - who aren't in the know...).

After budgeting how much food we'll need, I came to the conclusion that my mom must have been putting her neck out big time.  We've been going - I think - at least $30 over budget on food, maybe $50, although we have some misc. cash in the "household fund", I don't think we have THAT much, probably no more than $20...so that means my mom has been paying at least apprx $20 out of her own pocket to feed me and her (mostly me; she doesn't eat very much...).

So I'm gonna pay for the food in Sept.  I might do that again in October.  At some point hopefully we can split it evenly, or at least arrange it so I'm paying no more than 3/4 (maybe 2/3...I'd hope...) of the excess food budget.  Hopefully that'll happen sooner than later...but anyway...

I signed up to NetFlix for the first time in what feels like AGES on the 3rd of Sept.  By Friday I should have my FIFTH movie from them.  It'd be GREAT if I got a sixth one before the membership renews, but I'm not counting on it...well, maybe I am but I'm trying to be modest about it, idk...

I think it might make more sense to get computer speakers of a higher caliber, or hi-fi headphones rather than a receiver and speakers etc....I mean, how many CDs do I actually own?  Right now I have five, and I plan/hope to get maybe 2 or 3 more...there's some music items I think I might want to buy, but I doubt I'd keep them...most of the music I listen to is "indie" music, which isn't recorded with the kind of concern that "major" label music is.  So I'm not sure my listening gear needs to be so strict...I like how receivers and CD players look.  I don't know what it is, I guess I have fond memories of that kind of stuff...my father had a lot of high end audio gear.  He's been gone since I turned 7, I last saw him in person when I was like 12 or so...but I probably remember a bit more from my pre-K-garden days than most people do...I remember how impressed I was by seeing the CD tray open and hearing the creaking guitar sound of Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" (my dad used to have the soundtrack).  It's been a LONG time since I felt that kind of deep excitement by hearing that sound.  Most of the time I barely notice it, except after the opening scene in GHOSTBUSTERS II, where I think they slightly modified it to have a bit more of a creepiness to it.  I swear, it sounded like a ghost was laughing in a really demonic way when Dana was picking up her baby and that white swoosh that pieced together to form the GB2 no-ghost insignia was appearing...of course, a lot of you (and by "you" I mean everybody in the planet in general, which I guess means "nobody") probably don't know what I'm talking about b/c you just saw it one time in theaters back in 1989 and don't even remember 20 minutes of the movie...which I guess is understandable.  GB2 probably isn't worth the number of viewings I gave it when I was younger and got older...it's got a hold of me though; the feelings it inspired in me have not been duplicated by any other film.  It had a unique combination of good intentions and a surreal kind of 2am-half-awake-why-is-everything-glowing kind of creepiness to it.  I remember being about 6 years old and watching that scene with the Statue Of Liberty walking through the ocean with only the crown sticking above water, and Bill Murray referenced some advertising icon from the time period that was used to sell vegetables (I don't think "The Jolly Green Giant" appears in the ads anymore, does he?) and the water was all lit up by the New York nightlife and New Year's festivities.  MAN life used to be intense!  That scene was especially cool when viewed in the dark.