So there I was, in the locker room of the gym, surrounded by naked guys, and I really wanted to get out of there so I could start exercising (and have the cute girls sneer at me.) But I couldn’t! In the week-and-a-half since I’d last been to the gym, I forgot the combination to my lock. In my mind it was a mish-mash of the last two locks I had. (Both bought recently; I lost the first one.)

Fortunately, after twisting the thing around for a while I figured it out. I had the same problem on the way out. The guy standing next to me laughed and told me that was why he had to use a keyed padlock for his locker.

Oh, and my other fun for the day: since AT&T and TDMA are going the way of the dodo, I went to the AT&T Cingular store to see what deal they had for me. The phones weren’t that much fun and the plans were more expensive than, say, T-Mobile. But they did say that I’d get a new user deal if I explicitly switched from AT&T to Cingular. The worst part is that I’ve been such a “loyal customer” that my $29/mo plan gives me my original 60 minutes + 60 bonus minutes + 100 bonus minutes + 1000 weekend and evening minutes. And my evening starts earlier than others, at 8PM. I LOSE ALL THAT.

Oh, well, that’s progress for you.

Well, I helped my friend update some software on his computers and he wanted to do some horrible network cabling using some cheesy wire. Not nice network cable, but a bundle of six wires that pretended to be a network cable. Of course, it didn’t work at all (no surprises there).

My big drama queen sister headed back home to California today after blaming me for various incongruities in the gifts given to us by our parents. She did leave a big pile of garbage on my desk with the note, “These can be recycled,” so I guess I should be happy she thought of me. HAHAHA

So, after repeated kvetching about the poor gifts I’ve received, my friend Sun reminded me of the Xmas present she gave me last year that arrived closer to my birthday. Breaking all possible copyright laws, I’m posting her quote:

Dude, isn’t your birthday in APRIL? Big whiny baby! And I seem to recall that I got you two cds. Of course, they were supposed to be for Christmas, but because of your execrable taste in music, it took Amazon forever to track ’em down.

And what did I get Sun? Nothing, but I did return her copy of the complete works of Keats and Shelley.

Look at that $5 word! EXECRABLE! This from someone who bought me Rick Astley and Robbie Nevil CDs! Oh, the humanity.

Somehow this computer kept crashing today, taking out my latest post, some email, and probably some stuff in my sister’s site. Every time the computer was rebooted it would seem fine until something related to NFS would lock up the computer. Well, here’s a picture of the crash screen:

Whatever. The biggest problem is probably that the hundreds of knit bloggers who visit my sister’s web site were greeted with nothing but timeouts today.

OK, so yesterday’s post — the one that is now off in la-la-land — was my complaint that I don’t get any presents. I don’t tend to give many presents, either, or so my sister will say. Probably my ex-girlfriend as well, but I didn’t have a job when we were going out and I did pay for dinner, etc. Maybe I’m just cheap.

My sister says it’s because I’m a pain-in-the-ass but she’s the one who steals my parents’ car and stays out all day with her friends, trapping them at home. So I suppose it’s the pain-in-the-ass who gets more gifts.

Anyway, an acquaintance went to Europe, and she got me this:

I think it’s because of the label that says it’s “Extra Suave.”

And my mom reminded me that I didn’t just get underwear, she got me a reflective sash and some cotton gloves!

(I’m not modelling the underwear.)

And my friend went to India for a couple of months and she gave me a picture! And it was even an emailed picture!

Hell, I don’t remember what else I had to say yesterday but I’ve been obsessing about all the coffee and tea stains on my teeth. I could always cut those out of my diet, but then I’d get fired for sleeping at work all the time.

So that’s a gross picture but who cares? All I have are some tissues, new underwear, cotton gloves, and a reflective sash. I’m going to have to count that as my 40th birthday presents and my Xmas presents unless I buy myself something. I should probably save some of the underwear and call it my 41st birthday present since that’s coming up in a few months and I’m not expecting anything else. Well, they got me a cake at work. Almost makes up for how little they pay me.