It was a nice day and I actually got out of the house for a reason that wasn’t the gym or work. I went to the bank, the drugstore, the kitchen supply to see if I could justify buying my sister a $999 espresso machine, and a hot dog stand. I also bought Dave the Trainer an Xmas present — a dinner at the Ringside steak restaurant. Well, other than that all I did today was go to the gym and play Solitaire. I even got a call from work asking if I was bored enough to come back yet. HAH. I enjoy the boredom more than work!

I started pricing out the bits and pieces I need to put together my new computer and all I can think is, “Why am I doing this?” I suppose I can speed up my sister’s web site (unnoticeable to everyone but me, I’d guess) and thing I’m doing something special. That just means more old computer junk in the basement, though. We’ll see.

I wish you could get parts for your laptop and fix them yourself. Maybe I can. I’ll see if the fan keeps making that horrible rattling noise.

I accomplished almost nothing today. I left the house to have lunch with my mom, but otherwise I played with my PSP until my thumb joints hurt and played a lot of solitaire. I suppose I bought some stuff online, but that’s about it. I suppose I spent hundreds of dollars online shopping, but only a fraction of that was for Xmas presents. So, no, I guess I was still quite unsuccessful in doing anything besides BEING ON VACATION. I like vacation.

I was unable to do much at the gym today. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s too much sleep.

I was looking around to see if one of my favorite Xmas movies was going to be on TV, and I couldn’t find the 1951 version of Scrooge with Alastair Sim anywhere. I’ve heard you can get it for a pittance, but I bought it on Amazon so I can see it any time I feel like it. (Mainly in late December, mind you.) I was also tempted to buy It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, and Comfort and Joy but I restrained myself. I may have to buy Comfort and Joy (the 1984 Bill Forsyth movie) but it’s only on Region 2 DVDs. Blast that Region encoding nonsense.

I re-joined Greencine so I can start watching more movies. I know I should probably just join the masses and use Netflix instead, but I’m just a little too contrary. We’ll see if I watch any of the movies I get or if I just let them sit around like I used to.

You’d think I could remember the rules of correct ebay-ing, but I can’t. I always think that I’m screwing up and often I am. I usually want SOMEONE ELSE TO WIN so I don’t have to buy the thing I just overbid, but then when they do I wonder why I’m such a loser. Right now I think I have a bid on a $250 plumbing tool that I already bought with, “buy it now.” I hope I don’t end up with two.

On another note, I had to take my computer into the Apple Store because they dented the lid when they fixed it. I always make late 8PM appointments at the Apple Store because it’s easier to get to, but fewer hotties are shopping at the mall at that late hour. I suppose there are fewer hotties at the mall this week since it’s being overrun by kids who are out of school for winter break.

I also had to buy a new wallet as a Xmas present for me from my parents. I’m not sure how long a Coach wallet is supposed to last, but my guess is about 3 years. Being a dude, I don’t want to buy a new wallet more often than once every fifteen years. My old one seemed to wear out a lot quicker than that.

I’m not really sure what I did to annoy my Macintosh, but I used up all the memory in my MacBook Pro and it started swapping. In simple terms it means that whatever is in the computer’s memory that it doesn’t really need is written to the hard drive. When the computer decides it needs the things on the disk, it copies it back. Boy, is MacOS bad at swapping. I just spent 20 minutes waiting for it to stop. Some of the programs I’m using are probably to blame as well, but sheesh, 20 minutes waiting for the computer to start doing something I want it to do rather than just reading and writing the hard drive.

Last night I got home late after a fun but calm holiday party at my friend Zach’s house. So today in the middle of the day I thought I was going to fall over. Come to think of it, I probably should have just fallen over. I hardly remember any of the football games I watched today. I did, however, glue the drawer back together, finishing one of the three tasks I assigned myself for my “vacation” days.

So I just left a party at 2AM. I quit drinking at about midnight (didn’t drink that much anyway) and I think it’s scheduled to go until 8AM. In any case, sound equipment started showing up at 1AM or so to supplement what was already set up in the basement. I saw some signs of illicit drug use and I can’t say it’s anything I haven’t seen in the past.

Weird thing is that I’m more awake now than I was at work today. I had some mulled cider, so I should be sleepier, no? After being at that party I don’t feel like I’m missing anything there. Kind of a weird feeling to have.

Fortunately I have two weeks off to do whatever I want. I think I want to fix a drawer, a lamp, and some plumbing. I should be able to get to that and watch a lot of TV.

In actuality, as a former sysadmin, my language is quite salty. But on other occasions, I use odd language. “Raining like the dickens,” “she was cute with a big caboose,” etc. Well, the caboose comment was a little mean, but it was about the person who drew my blood sample today, and that hurt like the dickens.

My blood pressure is a little high. I figured it would be a little high at the doctor’s office because I had a, “Tyra Banks,” today: Dutch Brothers — coffee, tall, black, and hot. Perhaps a little crazy as well because Dutch Brothers coffee, like Peets coffee, is quite strong and will make you twitch if you’re not used to it.

I checked my blood pressure after getting back from the gym and I’m still hypertensive in my left arm (the one where I was tortured by the cute, probably married, lab tech) but I’m pre-hypertensive in my right arm. I should probably start eating better and probably getting more sleep, but those aren’t too likely to happen (too stubborn).

Oh, and even though we’re having a huge windstorm that even blew a tree into the street across from the gym (when I arrived there were flares and a city truck and a running chainsaw in the street), Dave the Trainer still wanted to torture me. I wonder what my blood pressure would be if I didn’t exercise.

I’m supposed to go to Dave the Trainer’s Christmas Sweater party on Friday, and I may end up sleeping in my sister’s backyard. I wonder what they’d do if they found me passed out back there. Maybe I can show people my injury and get some sympathy. I slipped on a bench and I have this weird rug burn on my arm. No rugs were involved, but I can’t describe it any other way. “Friction injury,” just doesn’t sound right. Maybe I can say I was tortured by having kittens rubbed on my arm. That makes sense, doesn’t it?

Having a bunch of Macs and iPods does not help with personal organization. Trying to keep them all synchronized somewhat is also a big pain in the neck. Lots of hand checking, etc. All so I can keep some music in the car to keep me from going nuts.

I survived the trip to the dentist and sadly that was the high point of my day. I did a bunch of “research” at work which was watching a bunch of videos that some perv at Megacorp downloaded and seeing how hard the computer was working. The answer is: not very hard. I was invited to even more Xmas parties and my sister handed over an “ugly” sweater for the ugly sweater party. It just looks like a grandma sweater and it’s scratchy. I should be able to come up with something better, I hope.

I suppose I feel much better afterwards, so it’s worth it, but I’m supposed to be up for a 7AM dentist appointment. Who the heck scheduled that? Of course I’m up late watching TV, because I can’t sleep right after getting home, and that isn’t going to help how I feel tomorrow.

And now I can’t think of anything except:

1. What happened to bakelite? How come nothing’s made of bakelite any more?
2. What’s the eighth reindeer’s name? I can only think of seven.

It must be bedtime.

I think now I’m supposed to build an ark. What’s a cubit?

It was raining like “the dickens” today. The wind blew so hard that it sucked the doors open in the cafeteria at Megacorp. It was pretty exciting. We had another descriptive meeting today where the big boss showed powerpoint slides of what we’re doing. Lots of clouds and arrows and the words, “customer,” and, “client.” They didn’t answer the two questions I wanted answered: who’s my boss and what are we doing. The big picture never shows the guy with the shovel.

I think I’m supposed to go to two parties this weekend. The first is an “ugly sweater” party and unfortunately the ugliest sweater we had in the house (or at least the most ridiculous) went away with Megan. I wonder what she did with it. I have a multicolored cardigan I used to like. I’m not much for wearing sweaters because they seem to wear out in the elbows and that bothers me.

The dude at the gun store was sick yesterday and two people at the birthday party I went to were sick as well. And the first part of the birthday party was at a video arcade and you know how those kids are just dirty, dirty, dirty. I even got a blister on my finger from shooting at zombies. Oh, and my ex (one of the people who was sick) told me that theres’ a lawsuit against Zicam because it could cause you to LOSE YOUR SENSE OF TASTE AND SMELL. (Or is that smell and taste?) I woke up this morning feeling like I was coming down with a cold and slept in until 10AM. After almost throwing out my Zicam yesterday, I USED IT TODAY! Living on the edge, as it were.

In other news, I think the birthday boy and his wife (who has bronchitis) really liked the megaphone I got them. I bet if she isn’t sick they’ll be using it throughout their house.

(Being almost sick did lead to weird dreams about being in a motel with Kate Beckinsale. Not the married mom, but the fantasy one in my dream world. Not that my dream world amounted to much because I think the most exciting thing we did was peek in the minibar. There was some weird thing at the end where she left but came back with two other women to give me a hug. My dream world is kind of dull, but more exciting than my real world.)

I have a weird accomplishment that isn’t nearly as impressive as Pat Robertson’s claimed leg press of 2000lbs. I did 17 45 lb plates on the leg press machine, and I’m thinking the carriage itself is probably another 45 lbs. That means I did 810 lbs on the leg press. Yeesh.

I went to a birthday party today and I got the birthday boy a couple of gifts from Harbor freight. One was a giant calculator that was about 12″ x 8″. The other was a megaphone. For some reason I think they’re going to get a lot of use of those items in that household.

Oh, and I found out that Zicam can cause you to lose your sense of smell and taste. I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather have a cold than lose my sense of taste. What fun would that be? I suppose you might lose weight, but then what?