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WELL, now--it appears that sometime last night the Mu.nu served blowed up real good, and so this morning, there is NO POSSUMBLOG. Luckily, for the few of you who know about this place, well, there's this place. So, GOOD MORNING!

So, what all have I done? Well, the brick seminar was very fun--and I mean "brick" in the sense of a handy-sized, rectangular prism used as a building material and manufactured from fired earthen material, NOT Volvo 240s. Although I did get a cool car tag that has the Brick Industry logo on it that might look right at home on the front of Järn. Anyway, My Friend Jeff and My Friend John were there, so that was fun and we sat together and made impertinent comments to each other. The lecturer was VERY good--he is an mason by trade who went into the marketing end of things, so he had a very good technical knowledge as well as a good way of explaining stuff. Very interesting case studies and all that crap. Then lunch, and afterwards, we were told we would get to build our VERY OWN BRICK WALL!

Er, no thanks. First, I had on my office clothes, and didn't want to change and get all hot and sweaty doing brickwork. For some reason, Jeff neglected to mention this was going to be part of the seminar. Second, I've done masonry work before, and it's absolutely no fun. I applaud masons for their abilities, but there's a reason I don't do that stuff. So, after lunch, John and I bailed out, and Jeff, being a skeerdy-cat, bailed right along with us.

Then, on to work for a little while so I could get my stuff ready for this morning's meeting. And then I mysteriously disappeared again. Why?

JUNKYARD! Even though I had on my office clothes, I had decided to bring along some dirty clothes just in case I got through early. Yes, that means I COULD have changed and done brickwork, but I had much more important brickwork to do.

OFF TO PULL-A-PART, paid my dollar and walked back to the Volvo Ghetto. I had a very specific shopping list in order to speed things along. A) That folding center front armrest I had found before, B) a grab handle for the driver's side, and C) other stuff that caught my eye.

Found the armrest--it was black, and the cover was in bad shape, but I had in the back of my mind that the cover from a rear armrest might do to cover it. (It definitely will NOT, by the way.) Got it unbolted from the console and went on looking for other things. Found a clean grab handle--I'm not certain why the driver's side doesn't have one, but I would rather have one than the little covers. It makes me think I'm missing something.

Of course, I'm still missing something. I neglected to get the plastic bases that the handle screws into, and they are different from the ones that hold the blank caps, meaning that I couldn't get that installed last night. Something for the next trip, eh?

Anyway, got the handle, and then LO, WHAT'S THIS!? A BLUE center armrest! And in much better shape than the black one I was lugging around! So, I got that one. It does have a gouge in the underside corner, but overall it's very nice. I might be able to fix the hole, but it's not that bad. Really, it's not. Well, okay, it is. But still not as bad as the black one, and it DOES match the upholstery color. SO THERE!

And while I was there in the blue interior, HEY! A blue GLOVEBOX! SWEET! The front panel of mine has come unglued, and looks bad, and this one was very nice and intact. SO, out it came.

Next, I walked by several cars trying to find out if I could find a convex passenger mirror. I really prefer that, but none of the 240s in the lot had one. I noticed a 740, though, and it sure LOOKED like that mirror would fit. After some struggle getting it off, I found it does indeed match. Also, if I had only remembered what I had read in the shop manual, they are, in fact, the exact same mirror. Duh. It also helps to read the instructions for how to release the mirror from the backer plate. There is a little ring that you access from the bottom of the housing--with a small screwdriver, you gently move the toothed portion of the ring to the right, and it pops right off. Don't tug and pull, please. I'm very lucky I didn't break it.

I wandered around some more and found various tiny bits of minor junk, but the one (other) item I had forgotten was a plastic battery tray from a newer model. Something for the next trip, eh? (Get the idea there might be another trip?)

Walked out and after paying the princely sum of 16 bucks, I scooted home and changed out the mirror plate, then changed clothes to go pick up the kiddies. Got to Grandmoms's and Reba was already there.

Ooops. Parent-teacher night for Cat's class. I figured there wouldn't be a reason for going, but Reba wanted to go. Which was fine--it would give me an excuse for staying home and playing with the car. So, some supper, she ran on up to the school and to the grocery store, and I played (installed armrest and glovebox--shorting out the lamp in the process and having to change the fuse--and managed after great effort to reinstall the small lamp that had pulled out of the back of the center console panel) and got the kids rotated through the child sanitation station and into their peejays at the same time.

Took shower, wife home, unload groceries, upstairs, debrief on teacher meeting (suprisingly, Catherine is well-behaved--leading me to believe she saves up all of her silly energy during the day for home display), bed.

MEETING THIS MORNING--get there at 7 and there are already people there, which is a bad sign since the meeting doesn't start until 7:30, met, wrote tons of notes, and finished up at 9:40.

AND NOW, I find out that Mu.nu done blowed up. I hope this doesn't bode ill for the rest of the day...