It’s my birthday! I’m now 28 years old. And I’m spending the day packing for India I’m currently enjoying life on cloud 9 thanks to several events that have happened or are about to happen in the next day or so, so it’s a very good birthday this year

I got back from my mom’s yesterday afternoon, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it back in time for dinner, because I went to start my car and it didn’t start Mom gave me a jump start and we drove down to the auto parts store to get a new battery. We called ahead of time, and specifically said we needed a battery for a ‘03 civic *hybrid* and we emphasized the hybrid part. They said they had the battery, so we went down, and they didn’t. Turns out my hybrid uses a heavy duty lawn and garden battery, not a full size auto battery. We stopped at a different store on the way home, and they had a regular civic battery. I called the car dealership to check if it was OK to put it in, and they said it was no problem, so I have a new battery now. I had the dealership check everything in that part of the system, and the battery is fine and the old one was probably needing to be replaced anyway at 77k.

On the side, I’ve started taking my anti-malarial medicine, and I *should* take it with food, although I only had slight nausea when I didn’t and it went away as soon as I ate something. I obviously don’t have the stuff that causes funky dreams, but it may just be because I don’t have enough in my system yet. My aunt has said that I have the “good stuff” (Malarone), since it has the least number of side effects. I consider that really good, I heard stories about people being nauseous their entire trips, and that would have sucked. I will now be taking it until a week after I get back. I’ll report back if I get the funky dreams

I was out earlier spraying my clothes with Permethrin and I managed to get quite a bit on my hand, it still stings a bit Those clothes are out in my backyard drying so I can pack them. I am a mosquito magnet, and I’m taking as many precautions as possible to not get malaria. My aunt got it on one trip, and I’d rather not go through what she went through.

Any chance I get, I’m going to be uploading my pictures to http://www.elwing.org/~elwing/india (nothing there yet). I have been told to not expect to have Internet access, but I might get the chance.