Got home from work today and there was another box on my porch. This was my new (used) turntable! Sadly, my old turntable, which was awfully cool when my brother Allen bought it ~1980, started having serious trouble. I eventually took it apart and discovered a [broken piece of plastic](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/broken-turntable.jpg). Dang. I didn’t want to mess with it, I have enough projects going on. So, I found [one on eBay](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5805930634) and bought it. The seller was fast, it was here surprisingly quickly!

I opened it up, the whole thing was wrapped in bubble wrap. It was hard to get through it all, but I did it! But what I found was that the [needle was totally broken off](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/dscf0012.jpg)!! Ugh. I wrote to the seller, and he wrote back *amazingly* quickly and took responsibility and said he’d send me a new needle. Kudos to him. So, I’ll be waiting on that.

Meanwhile, though, still playing with the last shipment, I found a [list of stuff to take bike touring](http://gorp.away.com/gorp/gear/packlst_bik.htm) online, written by the same guy that wrote the book I liked! I put that onto my Palm (using a [nifty little palm app that converts memos to todo lists](http://rickyspears.com/articles/convert_palm_memos_2_todos.html), via a [nifty little basic implementation for PalmOS](http://www.hotpaw.com/rhn/hotpaw/)), and packed up my panniers with just about everything I’ll need for an overnight. It’s a bit heavier that the simple test from Tuesday, I think I’ll still be under 30 pounds, doing pretty well, I think. I then put some directions onto my palm… I’m pretty much all set for that adventure!!

Now I have to convince myself to go to bed. I’ve sure been staying up late this week…

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