So yes, an auspicious start to the whole “beginning classes at CMU tomorrow” deal. First I discover that apparently I left the lights on in my car – for an entire week. So yes, I don’t have a volt-meter handy (gasp!), but I’m guessing the battery is much, much less than 12 volts. So much for that RI picnic I was supposed to attend this afternoon. Unluckily, I don’t know anybody well enough to ask for a jump. Luckily, I now live in Pittsburgh were stores are crammed ontop of each other with absolutely no woods, lots, or any sort of green growing fields anywhere. Wait, why is that lucky again? Oh right, that’s good because I have an Advance Auto Car Parts only a half mile or so away. Thank you Google and thank you Pittsburgh. And lo and behold, according to the Advance Auto website, they have a rechargeable jumpstarter for only $40 and it is in stock. Hurrah! Of course, when I arrive I discover that they lied and the jumpstarters were all sold out. OK, so I’ll make do with a plain old car battery charger. Sure it takes 8 hours to charge, but it’ll get the job done. And if I grab another car battery and an inverter, I can make my own UPS in the future. So I buy my battery charger, great. I spend 10 minutes unscrewing things to get my car battery out of the car, but I get it out and myself dirty in the process. Oh well, I get it charging and everything will be good to go tomorrow. However, that’s not the end. I decide to have some spaghetti for supper and get a pot of water to boil and turn my gas stove to “LITE” – and nothing happens. Hmm…the range top is still pretty warm so the pilot light must still be on. How about another burner? Nope. Feel up the stove again and it’s cooler. Drat! I must have extinguished the pilot light. It is times like these that I’m glad I’m good at software because hardware stuff sure doesn’t like me. Now I have to decide, should I try to toaster oven to make some supper or will it break too? Hmmm…difficult decisions ahead…