Fixed the water valve in the washer this morning. Pretty straightforward – remove three hoses, and unscrew the unit from the washer body, but getting everything off took a while, ’cause it was on pretty tight. Getting it on took even longer, because the new valve didn’t have its screw holes threaded. So, I had to forcibly use one of the old screws to thread the holes. Gah. The other thing, and pay attention, because this will *undoubtedly* be useful to everyone who reads this blog one day:

KEEP YOUR TOOLBOXES NEAR THE FRONT OF YOUR GARAGE

Because when your garage gets full of weird knicknacks and odds and ends, they’ll all pile up at the front, making reaching the back nigh-impossible. Still, I cleared out a pathway, and made it to the back. Hooray for me. Got the vise grips, the plumber’s wrench, and some screwdrivers, and the whole process took about an hour, and a $26 dollar part. If only I’d had a washer overflow thing, the floor damage would be fine. Definitely have to look into getting one of those.

On a slightly different note, been playing Battle for Middle Earth 2 on the x360, and though the controls aren’t perfect, they’re reasonably good. Better than I’d expected, to be sure. If anyone out there’s got it on the 360, I’d love to get some multiplayer going. Also watched the first three episodes of Battlestar Galactica tonight, which were pretty darned good. Not say, Firefly-good, but they’re setting up much longer plot arcs, I think, and are taking their time in telling them. Where Firefly clearly was trying to “hook” viewers, Galactica seems to be more assured there will be a future, and so the stories are unfolding at a more deliberate pace. It also feels like there are a lot more characters, and they’ve all got disparate goals. Instead of having say, 10ish people focused on a single goal, there’s maybe 10ish people, all with different agendas, purposes, and histories. I’m definitely excited to see more.