I finally benched 225 last night. It was nice to finally have done it, but I wasn't as happy as I usually am about accomplishments. Probably because my brother did it over 10 years ago (he's about 5 years older than me) so, theoretically, I should have been able to do it 5 years ago. Whatever, it's about 40 lbs more than my body weight, so that's an accomplishment.

I called the guy about getting my transmission converted to a 5 speed. I was pleased to find out that the torque converter is automatic only (it's being taken out), since a guy mentioned it could be a source of my transmission problem. He may be able to do it this weekend, if not, next weekend. But, yeah, I'm ready to bite the bullet and just get the transmission fixed. I expect it to solve my problem, I don't see how it could not solve my problem (unless the car just doesn't run after this). This is actually a better option than having the automatic fixed because I've read about a guy getting his automatic rebuilt and replaced and it not fixing the problem I am having. And if I continue to have problems, this course rules out a lot of possibilities.

I'll be missing out on money that I could have used to buy a camcorder, piece of crap car to f around in, an HRM. Hopefully I'll still be able to buy a cheap DVD player for my room and to afford getting a new bottom bracket for my bike.

I think I have about $100 in outstanding checks. Aside from that, I think I'll have about $500 in my account if I were to get this done this weekend. I guess I have a rough 4 weeks ahead of me because when I get paid again in two weeks, about 80% of that check will go towards bills (rent, insanely expensive utilities, phone pmt for 2 months). So, sans past and future bills, I'll have to budget myself to about $150/week. And that's pretty much a whole month of purchasing only gas and food.