Another rather busy weekend...

This weekend was quite busy, but but not in the same way as always...

On Friday, my company had it's quarterly party. Lizzie B. and Sarah H. came out for the party. I think they liked it. I guess, from their perspective, it was a little weird. I do know that the entire office thinks that Lizzie is my girlfriend, though, and what a lucky girl she is...

JUST KIDDING, GUYS!!! I'm only kidding!!!

After lunch, we explored the Spy Museum in DC. It was pretty cool. There was a lot of really fascinating stuff.

After leaving the museum, we went to Stations of the Cross, and then came back to the apartment and hung out for a bit.

Over the past couple of days, Ken has been in the process of getting his stuff out of the apartment and into a new house. On Saturday, Alex S. moved in (at least partially), and Richard S. drove Ken's stuff down to him in Front Royal.

About 4PM (or so), I drove back to campus with Michael C. We dropped his stuff off, went to Dane's, where I checked my snail mail. It looks like most of it is starting to not come to that apartment anymore. It's about time...

My starter cylinder arrived last Monday. Figures that it was the day after I could do anything about it. After picking it up, we went to the library and got to work on my car. After fiddling with it for a few minutes, we both saw that the switch had been installed in such a way that I could not get it off. Here's why:

There were two bolts that went through a small clamp around the shaft. These bolts originally had extensions on them which you could apply a wrench to and turn. These extenstions had been snapped off -- a good safety precaution, so people can't just replace your starter to steal your car, but it made it impossible for a guy like me to replace myself.

For the fun of it, I stuck the same screwdriver back into the ignition and fiddled around with it, just to see what would happen. Sure enough, it didn't budge. And just to make sure, I tried my key again...

...and I was practically sent into shock when my key actually worked...

It took a bit more force than normal, but it caught the grooves and turned. After I "broke it out" of it's original state, it became pretty smooth again.

In disbelief, I hooked my battery back up (I unhooked it the last time I worked on my car to save juice), and we tried to fire it up. It turned over slowly. As I realized that I had spent $140-some-odd dollars that I could get returned, I quickly attached my jumper cables between the Acura and the Sentra.

The Sentra started right up.

It was so nice. I let it un for a few minutes, and just to make sure again, I turned the car off, let it sit for a minute, and fired it back up again. It worked beautifully. We parked the car over at Guardian Angel, and we left for town to return the ignition switch.

After returning the part, I remembered that it was the feast of the Annunciation, and that I had been discussing having a small celebration in honor of the feast. Michael and I ordered pizza, rolled out to Martin's and picked up some desert goodness, and on the way to Sarah and Christine's house, picked up the pizza, too.

Later that night, I got a call from Emma. It turns out that it was actually Emily askign where I was going to Mass. I told her that I was going to Old St. Mary's, so she said that she wanted to go.

Bright and early on Sunday, Emily and I drove to Mass. I saw the Very Reverend (do I have the title wrong?) Michael S., back from the seminary with his cassock and biretta. He couldn't wear the biretta, because he was not in his jurisdiction, but he was carrying it with pride.

On the way back, just as we were about to pull onto Shenandoah Shores Road, we saw Ken F. pulling out. I started following him, he recognized me, and slowed waaaaaay down. I called him and asked what he was doing. He said that he was meeting up with a number of people at Jalisco's in town for lunch, so Emily and I joined him. And there was quite the crowd there...

I left Front Royal early to get home, because I was rather tired after so much excitement...