I noticed that I was having trouble writing a coherent sentence yesterday night and I awoke today feeling like I had a cold. I also noticed that the football game to watch was the one I missed last night between Seattle and Dallas. I suppose that’s just what I get.

So today I spent some time eating Advil and wondering if my cold would get worse. I did, however, make it out to see a video at a friend’s house and this reminds me that one of the friends there was supposed to come up with a New Year’s Resolution for me but so far there’s nothing. Maybe I should resolve to eat at least one piece of fruit every day. That sounds OK.

OK, so my job is pretty darn cushy compared to most, but I do recall a conversation that, paraphrased, went sort of like this:

“Do you think you can do all this by next month?”

No way in hell.

“Great. You’ll be working weekends until it’s finished.”

You can probably guess that most of the stuff isn’t even working yet, and we’re coming up on a deadline at work. I got to stay at work until after 8PM on two consecutive days. The second of those days was today, Saturday. I’m lucky because I’m just running some programs and recording the results. Other people in my group don’t have any results to show.

Yesterday my buddy Greg was working late, too, so we had dinner together after work. Today, not so much fun to be had. For some reason, I’m really tired from this little bit of extra work.

Oh, well, maybe this means we get to keep our jobs. We’ll see.

Yesterday I tried to go to bed early, but I don’t think this one week of trying to change my schedule is working quite yet. And today at the gym I thought I was going to pass out. What was it that one of the club managers said? “Oh, is some woman working in with you? Are you going to put some more weight on there before you use that machine?” Everyone’s a critic.

Yesterday at Megacorp my new manager of 3 days told me I might want to think about looking for another job. Just for comparison, mind you (or so he said.) Today, he’s assigned me to be the “owner” of a project. Mixed messages, I tell you. I’ll just keep doing my job and see how bad I really end up. I wonder if they’ll give me credit for how much weight I can lift.

I did almost nothing on vacation and I had much more fun than being at work because I WASN’T AT WORK. Heh. I don’t know why some people don’t understand that. After getting up at 9:30AM every day for two weeks, it was torture to hear the 6AM alarm clock. And they started in on me early, because the project leads are all leaving for different sections of Megacorp and they want to have their parts of the project complete. I’m probably going to be the only one left in the group just before they lay off everyone in the group.

I had a hard time getting going at the gym today because I was tired, and because there were so many people I hadn’t seen for a while. The start of the year is always a popular time for people to come back to the gym. I’m too chatty, so I had to say hello to everyone. And when I should have been going home I got sucked into watching a boxing match on ESPN. It was an old fight of Muhammed Ali’s and I was pretty sure he was going to win but he took his own sweet time at it. I don’t really like watching boxing, but I get sucked into watching lots of sporting events when I shouldn’t. Ah, well, it kept me from staring at the women, which I know is rude but what else is there to look at while you’re stuck on the cardio machines?

Well, I had two weeks off and I wonder if I completed everything I was meaning to. I screwed up some plumbing, put together a computer I didn’t really need, played a lot of Solitaire, and watched a lot of football. I had several things on my, “to do,” list and I can’t remember what they were, but I did finish them.

I’m not sure what do to about my New Year’s resolutions. I should probably do something that I’ve been meaning to do but haven’t gotten around to, like seeing the Grand Canyon or making it back to Japan, and maybe add some nerdy goals like writing a program that lets me play Bedazzled for free. I haven’t seen the people who usually make my goals for me, and I’m surely not going to listen to the only phone call I’ve gotten all year, which was a recorded message that told me I should do more with my membership at Gold’s gym. I already pay a personal trainer. What more can I do?

Oh, maybe I should take some yoga classes or start running again. Those are resolutions I could have.

Yesterday was incredibly exciting, where I spent all sorts of time gathering computer equipment for recycling. A friend wanted to take it all to freegeek to get rid of it and I had it all ready go to on Thursday. But he postponed until Friday, and then until Saturday, and they weren’t open on Friday. Perfect. So to consolidate some of the crap, I took apart all the computer cases, separated out all the electronic bits from the plastic and the metal, and took the metal in for recycling. The plastic is garbage, and the electronic bits have to be taken to the people who deal with electronic bits.

For some reason this really tired me out and I went to bed at 7PM. I didn’t get up until 8:30AM. While the first bit took some effort (I kept waking up in the evening) the rest wasn’t so bad.

Which leads me into tonight, New Year’s Eve. I did go out to lunch with friends where we had dim sum. Unless you were one of the picky eaters and then you just watched the rest of us eat the dim sum. On the way out of Portland’s Chinatown, I picked up some roast duck. Just like in A Christmas Story, it came with the head attached, but I only ordered half so the guy cut it up for me. He then started talking to me in some language I do not speak.

After dinner I had to start making all my year-end donations, because I forgot to do it last week. My sister asked if I do it for the tax break, or if I do it to be a good person. Honestly, I don’t give enough to be a good person and my selection process is a bit off. Besides, I’m a good tax-and-spend liberal and I don’t believe we pay too much in taxes. I’m kind of a worrier, so instead of thinking about all the horrible things that happen and how I could alleviate the suffering in the world, my selection has a bit more basis in things that I find funny. St. Francis Dining hall, for example, feeds the homeless and really annoys their neighbors because they attract homeless people to the neighborhood. They get a donation from me. I haven’t donated much to environmental causes, but it seems like 1000 Friends of Oregon are always ticking off the developers, so they get a donation from me. I’m pro-choice, of course, so NARAL and Planned Parenthood are on my list.

I suppose there’s nothing really annoying about the American Red Cross, or Doctors Without Borders, or Mercy Corps, or International Rescue Committee, or Oregon Food Bank, or Oregon Heat, or American Friends Service Committee, so it’s not all about annoying people. I did have to call VISA and have them unlock my account because they were afraid someone had stolen my card and started giving donations to all these charities. In total, I don’t think I hit my yearly target of a couple of thousand dollars, but whatever. I’m trying not to be a worrier about it all.

I’m not going to like my VISA bill next month, am I?

Besides playing with my computer and going to the gym, I do mostly nothing. I am on vacation after all, and I don’t have to do much else. Today, however, I did end up going on a quest, of sorts, with Dave the Trainer. I told him about a hot dog stand in the neighborhood, and he was all set for a chili dog or a Coney Island. But the stand was gone, probably on vacation for the holidays. We ended up going all the way from NW 24th and Vaughn to SE 45th and Hawthorne (across town anyway) to a weird little hole-in-the wall that I can’t even remember the name of. My sister had been there, and she’s kind of a food snob. The dogs were quite good.

Really, the only other thing I did was play with my computer. I think I need to get out more.

So, I spent about $800 on computer parts today. I felt bad until I found out my friend Megan spent $500 on a Treo today and then hit herself in the head with it because it was so much heavier than her old cell phone. My expensive computer is awaiting a fancy gamer’s video card and only has a 10YO Matrox card in it right now. In simpler terms:

• 10YO Matrox card = old and busted
• $250 video card = new hotness

It still means I’m able to have fun with my new computer (like I needed ANOTHER computer.) Now I have to figure out how to get rid of the old stuff.

I got a good deal on some computer parts. Actually they were through work, and I thought I’d better buy the parts while I still could, i.e. while I was still employed. I thought they’d take a while to arrive but they arrived today. This means I have to buy the rest of the parts of the computer, or the purchased parts will lie fallow. Actually, doesn’t lie fallow mean that the parts will be turned into fertilizer or something? Or at least regain fertility? Yeah, if the parts sit around then they’ll just be useless to me. In any case, it’s time to upgrade some of the stuff I have, and to see if I can give away the other bits.

I was supposed to be at the gym early today, but Dave the Trainer had to go shopping with his girlfriend. I went to the gym in time to see all of the regulars leaving early. I’m guessing that most people left work early since nothing happens in this last business week of the year. At least my favorite librarian was there. (I doubt that she’s a librarian, but she doesn’t look flashy, so Dave the trainer and I have decided that she’s a librarian. Don’t tell my librarian friends. They want to kick my ass already anyway.)

Looks like I forgot my Xmas present at my sister’s house, a button that said, “Dutch me.” Or something like that. But really, she got me a sweater and MADE TURDUCKEN! It wasn’t as odd as I’d hoped, but was quite tasty. So thanks to Mariko I’m up to 50% of my resolutions. I’m not going to Vegas and I’m not going hiking in the gorge, so I think that’s as good as it’s going to get. (The other resolution that I’ve completed is, “Attend more parties.” I attend most of the ones I’m invited to.)

Yesterday I got my computer back! The mall with the Apple store wasn’t very crowded but the parking lot was a mess. I guess I usually go about 8PM on a weekday so it should have been more crowded than I usually see. And the plumbing store was open but EMPTY. I was the third customer all day and I spent all of $0.30 on some clips.

Last night I was at a Xmas Eve gathering at my friend Kim and Raff’s house. They’re in a new subdivision that isn’t listed in a lot of online map databases, so if you checked the map on their Evite, you’d be five or six miles away from their house. Google maps was working when I first checked, but last night it couldn’t find their house either. In any case, it was fun and I was there until 1:30AM or so. I came back and played with my computer a bit and then tried to sleep in. I finally got up because I had a dream about Megacorp, and being bumped off a flight because a Megacorp VP wanted my seat. Then two guys who used to be my manager and project lead were arguing about what they should tell us about our, “situation.” My old manager was saying, “They work for a large corporation. They should expect things like this.”

Why can’t I just have more dreams about Kate Beckinsale or maybe some of the nicer women at the gym?

I had a leak in a pipe in the basement so I decided to try making a quick repair using Aquapex. It’s a temporary fix, so I figure I could experiment. Fortunately, I didn’t hurt myself too much and the pipes only leak a little (stupid old pipe).

The Aquapex was incredibly easy to work with. The only problems I had were getting the old pipe out and cutting the Aquapex too short because I am not a real plumber. In fact, I cut it too short twice. I’ve done a lot of plumbing around the house and I know why plumbers get paid so much (because they’re worth it) but I’m too stupid to not try to fix things myself. It’s kind of fun and probably costs me more in the long run (don’t ask me how I ended up with seven pipe wrenches.) I suppose the whole buying tools thing also is a way to show off my manliness. SEVEN PIPE WRENCHES LADIES! That’s what I should have had on match.com.

So I thought I ordered some L.L. Bean shirts last night. I wasn’t expecting them for a while and I wasn’t worried because I don’t wear button-down shirts very often except to go to work. But guess what? They arrived tonight! Weird, huh? One of them is a very lame Xmas present for my dad. (Don’t worry, lameness of the gifts mean that everyone already knows what they’re getting except maybe my brother-in-law and I don’t think he reads my blog anyway.) I also got my expensive ebay plumbing tool that I ordered on Monday! Whee!

Well, the plumbing tool just means more work for me. It’s semi-likely that I’ll just flood the basement and have to call a real plumber. I know you’re supposed to let the professionals do their job, but there’s a macho quality of screwing up, I mean, “Doing it yourself.” I just hope none of it involves a hammer, because I always end up hitting my thumb. In any case, I’m going to experiment on a small section of plumbing before I do anything else.

It’s Friday night and I spent all night on the internets using the google, trying to figure out if there’s any credence to the story that PEX releases MTBE into water. So far, I’ve found a couple references that say that some do more than others. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. There are a lot of plumbers who hate PEX, but I’m going to give it a try.