The last couple of days I was helping my friend John with his big $400K toy (his yacht). Yesterday I was actually supposed to be helping him but really was just helping him drink. They had a big clean-up day and as soon as I showed up I had a Bloody Mary in my hand. That and a couple of Lemon Drops and I was ready to take a long nap. They had a “row” party that included a cheesy two-person band (really cheesy because of the cheesy keyboard) and I got to watch some fairly churlish but wealthy people get quite inebriated. I should shut my trap so I can get invited back for more free drinks. In any case, none of that helped much with the reassembly of John’s mast.

Today we finally got some wiring done in his mast. Mostly pulling wires back and forth, coating things with noxious waterproofing chemicals, etc. There were other people working on their boats as well. I used to wonder why they don’t pay someone to fix their boats but I realize now that it’s part of their fun.

Well, it’s in the 80’s now in Portland (and in April!) and I’m ready for the 50-degree weather.

So not really fired, but my boss had big problems with The Little River Band, The Doobie Brothers, and Wang Chung. I think his skinny ass was in a heavy metal band at some point. I’m sure he doesn’t like much of what I have. Maybe if I had some Quiet Riot or Warrant or something.

I got the last part of my birthday present to myself. Now I can operate power tools in the dark and listen to the radio.

I stayed up a bit late and was trying to finish spending all my ill-gotten iTunes credits. I don’t think I got everything I needed but think I got close! Here’s what I got:

You’ll notice I had to get two copies of “Breakout” by Swing Out Sister. Turns out I didn’t like the remix as much as I thought I would. Also missing is The Jam. I listened to some preview tracks and decided I wanted to buy a whole album of theirs.

There was a lot missing from iTunes. Klark Kent, Fun Boy Three, Soho (Hippy Chick) and, of course, Aztec Camera. But this was fun.

My sister is feeling better and Megan sounds like she’s out and about after her surgery. So onto the silliness.

My sister reminded me a couple of days ago to steal the kinderegg from my dad and to send her a picture of the toy inside.

I’ve misplaced my digital camera, so I got this picture by sticking the toy on my scanner. The scanner is too big to lose, thank goodness.

The toy is some sort of reflector/girl that fits on a string. Her left arm has a hole in it, and you’re supposed to stick a string through it. Why? I don’t know.

My sister is probably still feeling puny, so she’s not posting. It’s not my fault!

For my birthday, she got me a RadioShark and I just got 15 bars of a chocolate I like from Japan. I haven’t had it regularly since I left Japan in 1991.

I know someone had to be in on this. Thanks to everyone involved!

I haven’t been posting because I’ve feel, well, dizzy since Friday afternoon. I tried a bunch of things to try to fix things, drinking hot water, eating a sugary gelato (Mio Gelato!), and lying down. I hate the thought of having the same problem that my father always complains of. He says he’s sick so often (several times a day) that if he really does get sick we won’t know.

I finally figured out at a strip club that looking to the left, turning to the left, or moving my head to the left made me dizzy. Holding my nose and blowing alleviated the symptoms. I figured it was a sinus problem and it finally seemed to go away today. I wish I could say that going to the strip club was fun in some way, but it was just disconcerting and $5 for a small Coke. I spent most of the time trying to figure out what I had to do to make myself feel dizzy. I was ignoring a naked woman. I must have been sick.

Major Cytogenetic Response.

Out of 20 possible metaphases, they can only find 3. If I remember correctly, I had all the metaphases in December. My doctor thinks that I’ll keep improving and that 3 should go away as well.

My friend Megan went in for an MRI and they think she’s healing well. She’s still pretty worried, but I think she’s feeling a little better.

Also, Qwest had overcharged me $136 on my phone bill and they reversed it without any question.

Tax day wasn’t so bad for me. I hope it was good for everyone else, too.

Funny, huh? I went out with someone with a birthday close to mine. Dunno what that means, really.

And once again I had to work late. Another minor software release, proving that we fix things for the customer. This was a management-created problem. Can’t go much into it, but CEOs are always the biggest problem for sysadmins.

Anyway, so I’m sure I had something really eloquent to say, but I’m reduced to just blithering again since y brain is devoted to staying late at work and, well, just staying late seems to suck the, well, thinkiness out of my head.

AHA! I just found where all the moths were coming from. I hope my buddy John isn’t reading this — he gave me a nice wool sweater that is supposed to be machine washable. But that avoids all the horrid dry cleaning chemicals that KILL MOTHS DEAD. Aw freaking hell. I’m going to check for holes in the morning when I’m rested and feeling good about things.

My buddy Chris is closing down the company he was working for. The product was better than the competition, but they kinda got screwed. Can’t go into details, but there are a bunch of servers for sale. The server room Chris was putting together for years has to be dismantled in weeks.

It’s been almost a week since my friend Megan had her surgery and now she’s a bit worried about how her recovery. Here’s hoping she’s getting better!

This morning started with a system at work going down. I wasn’t so panicked, since I’m not a sysadmin any more, but I was asked to help fix things. I’ve had lots of experience breaking things and some experience fixing the things I broke. That knowledge came in handy today.

Later, we had a minor software release. The real release was last week, and we were finished by 8:30PM. Today, my birthday, I was there until 9:00PM. Hooray!

So there it is. My exciting 40’s begin!

Actually, I should admit that we went to the Portland City Grill for lunch and the fries were heavenly. We had fresh baked cookies for dessert. When I got back to the office, we had chocolate cake from Pearl Bakery, and I was too full to enjoy it!

My last day of being 30-something and I spent it reading books. But I like reading books. I wasn’t about to do much. My back is feeling much better but it’s still a bit sore and I don’t even feel like driving. So, it was either walking around my neighborhood in the heat, or reading a book. I did return a couple of books to the library, but that’s about it.

Heh. Heat. 80°F and I think it’s the end of the world. That’s an Oregonian for you.

I don’t have much to say other than I sat on my can all day, reading mystery novels by Ian Rankin. I did take a nap at one point, only to be woken by a very childish argument between my parents. It’s too silly to repeat, but it has to do with my 87YO (soon to be 88YO) father hoarding his dirty underwear and my mom yelling at him that she just finished the laundry. And then he said he’d wash them himself. Of course, she pointed out that he’d never done laundry in his life and I was laughing at all of the silliness.

Anyway, I did nothing on this beautiful spring day. I can blame my sore back, but really I felt lazy. Why not?