...Because I'm going to have to put up with its stench for quite awhile. We had a retaining wall put in the backyard fairly recently (so that the basement won't get water in it again, as well as making it easier to mow around that area), and to regrow all of the grass and such that was torn out in the process, my parents had spread grass seed spread there, as well as compost. Judging by the scent of the compost, I'm pretty sure most of it is mostly manure - And I'm going to have to deal with that awful smell until it's gone.

(A "Back to the Future: Part II" quote fits perfectly for the title here, eh? =P)

I'm also back to work in Voter's Registration again (including things like filling the metal cases, as well as punching masks - thankfully, this is the last time I'll have to do that!), as I finished up the last of the work I had to get finished on the county's site last Wednesday - I'm still doing work on the site, but only as it comes in, as - like I said earlier - all of the required work is done.

Also, there's some other stuff that I wanted to cover but couldn't as a result of the hard drive crash. Speaking of which, I still haven't got around to doing things like the "freezer" method (I still don't think it'll work, and I'm wary of trying it), but I did try changing the jumper settings on that drive to see if my computer could boot up with both drives connected (it was on "Master" the last time I tried this). I first tried setting the jumpers to "Cable Select", which didn't work, and then "Slave" - the system booted up properly that time, but the "broken" drive still made those noises, and wasn't recognized either.

Anyway, here's what else happened:

First off, I had an issue with performing a mail merge when printing information on watcher's certificates for the election. Doing it that way would be far quicker than typing the information on them by hand. Whenever I tried to print out a range of pages (there's 434, one for each certificate), it didn't work at all, and if I tried printing just page one, it tried printing all of the pages. Importing them into the beta version of OpenOffice 2 (which I kept on hand, just in case) doubled the number of pages - the extra pages were blanks that only showed up in the Print Preview mode.

After doing a little research, I noticed that if, in Word, if I listed the number of the page I wanted to print as "p#s#" (no quotes, with the pound signs representing the page and section numbers, respectively), it worked. I then looked a little closer at the page, and set it to show all non-printing characters...And found the problem - The breaks used to separate the pages were section breaks, not manual page breaks! That explained why OpenOffice had all of those blank pages (they were technically empty, so they didn't show up when going through the document), pages above one didn't print (as there was only one page) and why page one printed all pages (because all of the sections were in that page). Replacing the section breaks with manual page breaks fixed this issue, and I can print them normally again =)

And here's another one: While at home one day, I used up the last CD-R in a spindle I had (the only thing in that spindle was a clear plastic disk on the base of it, to protect the CD-Rs), and, while bored, rubbed the spindle between my hands fairly quickly...And when I did, I noticed it the clear disk rubbing against the base of the spindle makes a sound much like that of a turkey call - I also showed this to my Dad (as he knows what one sounds like) to make sure it really did sound like one. Interesting thing to do with a blank CD spindle, isn't it?

You know that four-letter word I said in front of Dad when I was five? I found out who I heard it from...And it was from someone on my Mom's side of the family - she intentionally tried to get me to say it (when I was four), and I never did - until that day so many years ago, and haven't said it since. What a thing to find out from someone in the family...

I'm also putting dates on some of these things so I can actually remember when they happened =P

I had what I consider an interesting dream (and, to be honest, the fact that I've had a dream is also interesting) on the fourteenth of September. I consider it interesting given what it involved, and the fact I was able to recall more information than I usually do from a dream:

I was at school, but it appeared to be in someone's garage...I saw Jess there (this is the first time I recall seeing someone I know, aside from myself, in a dream, especially her), and she remembered me! I said "Hey, Jess" to her in reply. She wore what appeared to be a blue wool shirt (barely covering her waist, the color of it being dodger blue) and jeans. I also found a card on the ground (I'm not sure if it was from her or not), as well as a piece of paper stating who else I had classes with in this school. I followed Jess to the one classroom, which had no computers. Someone else in the room had something turned on (which then made some kind of noise), and then tried to turn it off. They couldn't find the switch, and so I asked if this person tried flipping that switch (one which was obvious, yet overlooked)...Which worked, and then everyone else started laughing at him - apparently flipping that other switch to fix this problem must've been real obvious to some of them (but everyone probably thought this person knew what they were doing - and that person didn't know).

I'd swear some of these details go back to the first time I saw her - at least in regards to her clothing (except it wasn't a blue wool shirt, but a colored striped one), and the fact that the two rooms I sat with her in (that class in ninth grade, and the cafeteria in tenth) had no computers (not for the students, anyway).

On the twenty-third of that month, I also had to get two cavities filled. They were discovered from a cleaning I had earlier in the month, but rather than detect them the traditional way, they now had a new device that they could touch to a part of a tooth and determine the amount of decay - what they found were two pinhole-sized cavities, one on each tooth, and both needed to be filled. Interesting to note is that they said those were probably there for years, but never found beforehand as they could not find cavities of this size with what they had back then (not to mention the progression of their decay was practically nothing, given my brushing habits). They recently got a sandblasting-type device to get rid of cavities like this without requiring shots, and that's great news for someone like me.

When I went in to have them filled, those two teeth were cleaned with water and air, and then had the decayed spots sandblasted. The only discomfort I felt was exactly what they had described earlier - a gritty feeling in my mouth (which I took care of by rinsing out after each tooth was filled)...As well as a speck of the sand in my eye (which worked its way out pretty quick; I accidentally opened my eyes at one point when I was told to keep them closed).

They were then cleaned again, and had the glue and sealant put in to fill the tooth, followed by exposure to a blue light to harden the sealant. The most discomfort from that was from the cotton piece to keep those teeth from getting stuff on them, as it was pulling moisture from the parts of my mouth they were in (which I took care of by rinsing one more time). After that, I was done - I worried that it would hurt (from sandblasting too deep without having numbed the area beforehand) or I'd need a shot for this (as I was told one would not be necessary, but if something could go wrong...), but it turned out to be exactly like they said - no pain, and quickly done.

I was there for about an hour, but I estimate the procedure itself, excluding the time the dentist took to work on other patients at the same time, took less than 15 minutes, which was really quick in my opinion.

That's all I can think of for now that's of interest to post here.