[Shotimes] whoa nelly/engine issues

[Hartberger, Jason M. ATAN]

Today when I was going to work, the engine had a really lopey (and jerky)
idle and sounded rough. I'm not sure what it was, but I didn't lose any
torque, so I don't think a cylinder went out, but as I was driving down one
of the roads, the CE light came on for about 10 seconds, then went off
again. I pulled into a 7-11 to get some milk (yum!) and pop the hood... I
couldn't see anything wrong, but jiggled all the coil wires to be sure. I
went on out, and the rough idle disappeared and the car behaved normally.
Any clue as to what this may be?

I have an idler pully that's unfortunately about to go and an exhaust pipe
leak that's robbing me of low-end TQ, but other than that there are no major
issues with the car.

As usual, any insight would be appreciated.

Oh, and from someone who wants to fly fighters, Col. Fourchy, any man with a
distinguished flying cross gets instant mad respect from me. Well, that, and
you (used to be? still are?) being a colonel gets you a snappy salute from
me any day.

me