I continue to make poor choices. I was tired after jury duty, but I headed to Grüner anyway because I figured I deserved a nice hamburger. I got home and had to take a nap and the burger sat like a greasy rock in my stomach when I went to the gym. Was it worth it? I’d say yes.

It’s been a long time since I talked about hamburgers and I’d say Grüner definitely has a good burger. It wasn’t one of my top burgers because the patty was on the thin side and they weren’t able to cook it as rare as I would have liked. It came with homemade sweet pickles and pickled onions, and instead of fries they had just a couple of fried mashed potato disks. They noticed they didn’t have it rare, so they gave me a chocolate torte and coffee. Oh, and the homemade ginger soda was incredibly spicy and tasty. While it wasn’t my favorite burger, I think I will go back.

Oh, if I forgot to mention, Tuesday I had a Pork Schnitzelwich at the Tabor food cart downtown. Delicious!

So, the Grand Jury I’m on is only scheduled from 8-12, but of course it ran over today. That’s still only five hours of work. And it just WORE ME OUT. Actually paying attention for that long, listening to things that actually affect people’s lives. Listening to CRAZY-ASS SHIT that I can’t repeat. Hanging out in places with people I stay away from on most days, both the courthouse and public transportation.

Wow. I think I’m going to award myself with a gourmet cheeseburger (but I always think of this and when do it?)

Jury duty again today and I think this is the fifth time I’ve gone. Only one other time did I make it to a courtroom, and I wasn’t selected to be on the jury. This time they called my name for the Grand Jury and I didn’t have any reason to be disqualified, so now I’m stuck for a whole month! So there you have it, I get to see sausage being made.

I had a heck of a time getting to sleep last night. Maybe it was because I was worried about Jury Duty. Who knows? Insomnia is as hard to figure out as what the heart wants. Mine wants cheeseburgers, so I guess it’s harder to figure out insomnia than what the heart wants.

Since I got a new computer a month or so ago (with a faulty Intel motherboard, btw) I figured it was time to rotate out the oldest machine. Turns out the “oldest” machine is also the one that’s accessible from the intarwebs, so you may have noticed some downtime on my sister’s web site. Nobody really looks at mine. Heh. I’m hoping that it’s all working at the moment.

I had a nice, restful three-day weekend. I even was a bit hung over on Sunday morning which was sort of the plan. The real plan was to sleep in as much as possible (it being a three-day weekend and all) and my adolescent antics got me just the right level of hung over so I got the additional sleep.

After eating the great dinner at Belly, I found a bunch of my dad’s old tiny liquor bottle collection. I probably drank little airline-sized bottles of booze that were older than I am. Some were even half-evaporated away. The worst was the Seagrams assortment that I knew I should avoid but drank anyway. Seagrams is generally sickly sweet and extra trouble the next day.

Today I was able to change a light switch, work on my taxes, and destroy my computer. A productive day in a geeky way. Even made it to the gym where we had a partner workout, and my partner tried to kill me by giving me no rest at all. I think he saw that other pairs of people were doing 17 rounds and that was fine until he saw 23 rounds or something. We did 26. I bet they were really ugly.

I don’t keep up with the Groupons (or the Living Social deals or the Sharing Spree deals I have) so I had no idea that two of my coupons were expiring. Being the communist that I am, I have a hard time using Groupons (or other such coupons) for places I’ve already been, especially if it’s a place I like. I figure I should just use them for places I haven’t been. I made an exception for Belly because I’d never been there for dinner and I thought I could actually use the coupon on a date. Did I mention that I wen to NoHos last night and Belly tonight with my mom?

The food was pretty good at NoHos, and great (as I expected from what got at lunch trips) at Belly. I’d go to both again but they’re quite different. NoHos is Hawaiian food and while I certainly have issues with Hawaiians, I can’t say I don’t Hawaiian food. Most of the things I know are quite greasy (spam musubi?) but also incredibly tasty. It was crowded but reasonable, and reminded me of all the issues I have with our 50th state. Did I mention I was engaged twice and the first time, in college, was to a Wellesley woman from Hawaii? Belly was CROWDED (get reservations or have a seat at the bar which always seemed to have spots within 10-15 minutes) but you could order the full dinner menu at the bar. (You can also order the happy hour menu anytime at the bar.).

I suppose the worst for me is that I actually asked the woman I have a big crush on what she was doing this weekend and I wanted to say, ‘Hey, do you want to go to Belly with me and help me spend my Groupon?” but I diverted our conversation into some minutiae about her job and how it affected me next week. It doesn’t matter that I’ve had this crush for over a year because it isn’t supposed to be reasonable. Is anything regarding actual people supposed to make sense?

My stock sold today, so I’m in the market for a Toyota Prius. Why do I want a Prius? Dumb reasons, obviously:

• backup camera – I saw this in Japan and wanted it right away
• quieter ride
• bluetooth hands-free phone – I call my poor sister every time I drive my mom’s car because I can!
• heated leather seats

All pretty silly, but I spend at least an hour a day in the car so why not be more comfortable. There are a couple of things I don’t like about my Honda Civic Hybrid, but really, I’m happy with it. I’d like leather seats, a different color, and a navigation system if I had my druthers. I figure the Prius will have newer and better safety features and how bad can that be?

So the bad idea today was a very small dietary choice. We went to Salvador Molly’s for lunch and they ordered the “Great Balls of Fire” which are habañero corn fritters. I know they’re hot because my buddy Il ate four out of five (you need to eat five to get your picture on their wall) and decided there was no reason to keep going. And he’s Korean and he can eat hot food. I avoid hot foods nowadays, but there was a half of a fritter on the plate so I decided I’d try it. It wasn’t the hottest thing I’ve ever eaten, but my mouth was immediately in pain. The pain went away after a few minutes, but then I started to sweat. Then I started to sweat a lot. The guys I went with started getting worried about me because I wasn’t looking great, but I knew it would wear off as well. After that I started to feel an odd warmth in my stomach and I’m dreading the final outcome, if you know what I mean. And I broke into a sweat several other times during the day. Very bad idea.

We saw a family come in and they bought two orders (10 fritters). The mom and the 10YO son were smart and were just watching, but the dad ate two and looked AWFUL and the 6YO son had half of one and was laughing about how hot it was. That kid cracked me up.

My day wasn’t that great because I wasn’t in the best of moods for the kinds of questions I was getting. You’re not supposed to answer a question with a question, especially when my question is, “What are you, some kind of moron?” and, “What the hell kind of question is that?” But even worse, a friend emailed me and told me that his sister is in the hospital and not expected to make it out. And sadly, this isn’t the only bad news I’ve heard from friends lately.

Sometimes (more often that I think) I just have to distract myself or find something to cheer myself up. Right now I have Cee Lo Green stuck in my head. I don’t mean to make light of people’s troubles, but I’m just glad that humming obscene songs can help me get through the day.

I was planning on getting drunk tonight, especially after hearing all the smarmy crap my sister and brother-in-law were up to, but I got a reality check today when I saw the message:

Just remember that eating alone on Valentine’s Day is no different than any other day of your life.

I figured there was no reason to be as tired tomorrow morning as I was today so I should get to sleep at a decent time. Turns out, however, that the gym cleared out early and that meant I was on clean up duty and didn’t get home on time.

The biggest thing I did tonight was to order a doormat from L.L.Bean which is probably quite symbolic. Symbolic because we’ve needed a new doormat for years since the old one is full of moss and I had a $10 off coupon that expires tomorrow. Wait, I guess the word I’m looking for isn’t symbolic, it’s practical. Sort of like when I walked out of Costco every other guy was carrying roses and I was carrying a box of instant oatmeal. Practical. Dull. Lifeless. Corpse-like. Good thing zombies are in this year.

Maybe I should start writing down exactly what I want. Nice buns. Raw sensuality. Sharp cheddar cheese. Tomato relish. That’s what I want. A gourmet cheeseburger. I think I know where to find that, and I don’t have to pay match.com to send me pictures of juicy ladies. I can get those for free on the intarwebs.

Yesterday I was on some sort of shopping trip with my brother-in-law where he was getting something-or-another for my sister. Something to do with St. Valentine’s day. My plan is to just go out drinking tomorrow, not go shopping for something for someone who doesn’t exist. Actually, spending imaginary money on imaginary people is cheaper and better for my health than my real plan, so I may end up doing what I’ve been most of the weekend: watching my RAID array rebuild itself unsuccessfully and restarting the rebuild again. Re-rebuilding as it were. Exciting, and it only cost me $500 in hard drives. Fun life, no?

OK, so most of my system administration appears to happen when I’ve been drinking. I got back from the gym today, feeling like I’d been beat up all week, and I still felt hungry after dinner. Two days of drinking my lunch (Muscle Milk) and a salad and bean & cheese burrito weren’t enough. So I went and had a couple of beers. Of course, I was also swapping disks in my NAS. What a mess.

Destroyed my backup and it’s even a school night. Craving a hamburger. Planning on drinking even more on February 14th. Maybe I’ll even combine the two.

Very often on Tuesday evenings I used to be a bit glum and I think it was probably due to being tired from the gym and not having enough grease in my gullet. I’m feeling glum today and I figure it’s the same reason. I’m in a class where I’m supposed to be programming in Windows WITHOUT CURSING and that’s really taking it out of me, plus I don’t have time for a good greasy lunch. And the gym was rough tonight. So the combo is making me want to run right out and get a Big Mac, but I’ve also had some stomach pains lately and a Big Mac wouldn’t help with that. Maybe a burger from Metrovino…

It’s getting close to Oregon’s anniversary, or as it’s more commonly known, THE WORST DAY OF THE YEAR (February 14th.) I wonder what sorts of things I’ll do that night? Perhaps a drink is in order. Just one, maybe. A very, very large one.

I know I had a couple of beers and ate some brisket, but I’m not sure why I had a bizarre dream last night. It really didn’t piece together. I remember kissing some woman on a bus bench, deciding we should start dating, then being in a house in a sunny, hilly neighborhood looking down at the street watching the runners go by like it was some sort of parade. I somehow knew it was our house, and I saw our 2YO daughter (who wasn’t Asian, so now that I think of it BITCH MUST HAVE BEEN CHEATING ON ME) and wondering where my wife was. Her father and his buddy were sitting at the kitchen table, asking me if I’d seen her and when I was going to turn myself in since I’d just at the scene of some crime: though I was just a witness, I was the main suspect.

Really, this probably just means I’m watching too much TV and reading too many mysteries, but it was a pretty entertaining dream.

For some reason I often see the hilly neighborhood in my dreams. It’s not really here, since there aren’t enough trees and it’s not raining. I wonder if it’s somewhere in California. I seem to recall adobe tile roofs, at least in last night’s dream.

And how did I go from meeting a woman to immediately having a house and a 2YO daughter who I knew was mine even though, as I mentioned, SHE WAS WHITE? Perhaps it’s my inner whitey trying to get out.