Sat in front of my computer this morning, freshly showered and dressed with my first cup of coffee of the morning. Ah, bliss. The kids were at school and my wife is humming like Snow White while she picks up around the house from the morning rush to school Niobe, my aloof Bengal who doesn't care to be held chooses today, eight minutes after I put on a freshly dry-cleaned long sleeve black Polo, to jump in my lap and rub her entire body uncharacteristically against me.

What they say about cats is true.

I notice about 30 messages in my inbox. I love waking up to overnight lj comments. Only, these were comments to my Xanga account? I cross-post to Xanga for a handful of people, but I've never had this number of comments before. I wonder if I've been Theologian'd (The Xanga equivalent to the Slashdot Effect) but there's no comment about me, or my site. I Private Message the King of Xanga and explain what I thought had happened. He laughs heartedly and informs me I was FRONT PAGE today. Sure enough, there I was - top spot under "Featured Content." The workstation meme post, Personal Workspaces - A History. I couldn't believe it...more comments than I've ever had on a Xanga post. It was a crazy day.

Go me.

My wife was already asleep as I crawled into bed last night at 2200. I set my alarm, and pulled my glasses off. They came apart in my hand. They were six years old. A two-and a half hour lunch later, I have new glasses. drax0r picked them out. This unexpected expense took all the money my wife was saving for shopping with galinda822 during her visit :( But it could've been much worse. The frames are Nike brand titanium ($297) and the lenses are featherweight polycarbonate ($179) and that's what I was going to have to pay as our vision insurance is generally regarded as the industry's worst. During the eye-examination, however, they could only find me under a new plan tied to my health insurance. That was news to me, and ended up saving me $227.





Last night was a Cub Scouts Den Meeting. My son is part of a "Pack" and several "Packs" make up a "Den" (so they tell me), and though I'm usually bored off my mind, a confluence of events have conspired together to ease the pain of these events. texas_tangent was visiting Anna Fine Wine & Spirits and spied these gorgeous cigar flasks which were part of the Evan Williams Single Barrel Gift-Set. She commented on how she knew just who to give these to, and the proprietor who knows us explained that they couldn't sell those because they had adhesive on them and gave them to her. She presented me with one the following weekend. Yes, one side holds a cigar, and the other, Single Malt Scotch.

My Den Meetings are much more pleasant now.

Thanks, texas_tangent!





And lastly, I've decided the reason I can't get Leopard to install and/or not crash once installed on teh max0r is because the CPU is overclocked. I was going to have a neighbor solder the contacts for me, but wife JUST walked out here with some extremely high-gauge coated ornament wire. I'm going to strip that and shunt the circuit myself. Leopard, here I come!

Though undeserving, I've rec'd checks from some of you totaling $10,000 in support of my efforts on closing on the house on time. Embarrassing, to be sure; as psycho-stalker chick chick pointed out, "Perhaps a little better planning on your part and you wouldn't have been in this situation." Perhaps. Add to this my own pigheadedness of refusing to put less than 20% down despite the fact that I wouldn't incur PMI if I didn't, and really, I just come off as a blithering idiot undeserving of the generosity you on my friends list have shown. We are on schedule for Friday.

Your gifts were unexpected, and overwhelming. Thank you.

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Happy Birthday
galinda822!
And my r/l brother!

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There was a head-on collision on the ring-road which surrounds the plant last week. Careflight was called in and everything. The next day, the Security Guards at the gate amended their greeting with, "Drive safe" as if that would prevent further accidents of the sort. So everyday since, that's become a part of their routine. "Drive safe." Today, I dropped the Tib off at the dealership because the shiftknob top had come loose. I work only a couple of miles from the dealership and didn't feel I needed a ride, nor did I want to wait the estimated 45-minutes. So I walked. As I approach the gate on foot, I whip out my badge. I get the standard greeting, followed by of course...."Drive safe." I nod and thank him, and keep walking.