Insignifica

It's Monday!

Picture of the day!

Ice cream with caramel and cashews.

Tax day! Well, for me it is, and I'm quite looking forward to it. As offended as my more money-minded friends are, I regularly get a large return from the state and federal tax boards. The friends would rather I pocket the money and not give the evil government my interest. I'm quite sure I'd spend the cash slowly throughout the year, and do less good with it. Either way, it's time to continue to kick my debt's ass, and maybe do a little something fun.

Busy busy week - gotta get my ducks in order before I start trying to knock them down.

I think I'm canceling my XM radio service, and this makes me a little sad. I really enjoy it, but don't really enjoy the price at all (it's $160/year). I thought I'd be able to use the iPhone as a receiver, but that's turned out to be expensive (and apparently not any good), so I'm switching back to regular radio and the iPod. I think I'll survive.

I still haven't gotten the "new" facebook interface. I'm often last with these things.

Gotta get this week started - have a fantastic day!

Friday!

Picture of the day!

A cute, previously unnoticed (by me) picture of The Girlfriend.

Having a good morning. Light rain (for the moment), and what started as a tough "you only got 5 1/2 hours sleep, dummy" wake-up quickly became a normal morning.

I'm getting fun-addicted to Foursquare, a "let the world know where you are" game/social network deal. It's kinda dumb, but in a fun way. If you use it too, add me.

I rediscovered an old Yahoo login/account I used to use regularly (mikedoss), and I've started signing into it. Wondering how long until someone who had me on their buddy list will say "Wow - that dude hasn't been on in years" and IMs me.

Two days ago I requested comments, and only The Girlfriend obliged. You really should leave one. Really.

I heard there's some sort of "Super Bowl" this weekend. I'd enjoy a super bowl of spaghetti tonight, and some pie for dessert. That'd be tasty.

Anyway, I'm back to work, and you really should go get something done. Or at least plan your evening. Enjoy!

Hello!

Picture of the day!

Katie and the girlfriend at Disneyland.

Late start to the day, and it's been busy, hence the late post. But I'm here now, and that's what counts.

Got bored and made both a Vanilla Cream Cheesecake Pie and Vanilla Cream Cheesecake tartlets (really, they're just two-bite versions of the pie). I'm giving away the tartlets at work, but need to find something to do with the pie.

You know what's awesome? Nachos.

Heard there was going to be a fire drill at work about 20 minutes before it happened, so some friends and I headed out for ice cream before we were trapped. I think that's perfectly acceptable.

I've been having lots of geek/hacker moments lately, and it's awesome. I don't spend nearly enough time with that area of interest. It's always around, though: I only subscribe to two magazines - Make and 2600.

Back to work with me. Enjoy your Thursday!

Happy Hump Day, friends and neighbors!

Picture of the day!

Creepy trees, Point Lobos, 2005.

Got about a mile in this morning, and I'm feeling fine.

I realized today it's been ages since any strangers commented on a blog post. There's gotta be a few people I don't know who read this - who are you? Say hello!

If you're not a stranger, feel free to say hello as well. Comments are fun.

On Fark last night I was reminded of some things about credit cards that I had totally forgotten about. Most notably, it's against Mastercard's terms of service to ask you for ID (ever), charge a fee, or require a minimum payment in order to use a card. Visa allows you to check ID (where allowed by law), but only if the card is unsigned. However, that's only so you can compare the signature they're about to put on their card - if the card is unsigned, Visa merchants aren't supposed to accept it at all. I can think of about a hundred places that are violating right now.

I'm finding it somewhat strange that friends my age have kids who are teens now. And it's not just a few, and not just people who started families early. I ain't old, but I ain't young anymore...

Lots to do, so that's it for today. Do something awesome today!

It's Tuesday!

Picture of the day!

Last year's Mardi Gras King Cake. My best effort to date.

It took me months to realize that my work laptop fits nicely in in the laptop pocket of my backpack, so carrying the laptop in its own carrying case all this time has been silly.

In replacing my DVD shelf after Christmas, I've discovered that at least 1/3 of my DVD collection consists of movies and television shows that start with the word "Star".

You know what'd be good right now? Some soup. Or a cupcake. Yeah, a cupcake.

Speaking of which, walked my 1.4 miles this morning. Wasn't any way a run was happening. I woke up feeling like sleep had kicked me in the head. Lots of people have said this morning that they've had weird dreams or problems sleeping - I blame widespread psychic issues.

That's all I got for today. Enjoy today!

Happy Monday!

Picture of the day!

Jesus Christ! We were on our way to Nevada.

Wow. February. Only two weeks and a day until Mardi Gras? Yikes.

Good weekend, though I'm unsure how anyone manages to take care of children on a full-time basis without a lot of breaks and support. Maybe some people are more geared toward such things, but I find trying to entertain a 3-year-old all weekend to be exhausting.

In a little less than two weeks, I get to speak to a room full of smart people about Atheism for 45 minutes. The task is somewhat daunting.

I decided around 7pm last night to have a large coffee, and it fucked me up big time. Am I just getting too old for the hard drugs like caffeine and alcohol? 31 ain't 21, my friends...

Itchin' to play some live D&D (I play daily online in a post-by-play message board, but playing in person is pretty awesome). Wondering if I have enough DM experience to actually run some stuff for the game I created.

I hope February's treatin' you well, my friends. Have a fantastic day!

Happy Friday!

Picture of the day!

The girlfriend and me, about this time last year.

Tomorrow's my 12th anniversary with my girlfriend - that's crazy. But she's pretty awesome, so we'll stay together.

No exercise this morning 'cause we woke up late, but we did some yoga last night that kicked my ass.

We could probably all use some more onions and garlic in our diets. We'll stink, but it'll be awesome if we all do it.

Visited the Loving Hut, a new vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Orange yesterday. Pan-Asian, with soups, mock-meat dishes, and some American faire. Fantastic food, low prices, and less than 2 miles from my house. Funny story: We asked the owners if they were on Facebook or Twitter, and had no idea how a restaurant would ever use such things. Maybe I spend too much time with social media types, but we let them know how useful it might be. For example, as close as I am to this place, I didn't hear about it until it was written up on our food blog.

Took the Jeopardy! test last night. At least as hard as usual, and I don't think I did very well. Who knows, though - I think that now, but this'll be the time I get the call.

I hope your weekends are awesome, my friends. Enjoy life!

Happy Thursday! Happy Birthday to Joe and Marie!

Picture of the day!

Joe, apparently winning at poker.

Workin' early today 'cause I got meetings and various other things going on. Oddly enough, I'm also staying late to take the Jeopardy! test here at 8pm, 'cause there aren't any likely interruptions by 3-year-olds.

Workin' early meant no workout this morning, but the muscles could use the time off. I'll get in some yoga or something else tonight to change it up a bit.

I feel so professional lately - I have someone coming in today to shadow me in my librarian job, and I have two speaking engagements in February - one for my librarian hat, and one for the atheist hat. It's strange.

It's sunny and windy here in beautiful Socal. I hope it's awesome where ever you are. Seeya!

Wednesday!

Picture of the day!

Moi. New Years 2006/2007

Because I actually have someone else in the office, I've kinda taken to working from home for the first couple hours of my day on Wednesdays. It's nice not to have to rush back from my morning run, and be able to sit and enjoy breakfast.

I like my Apple product as much as anyone, but I'm wondering why so much attention is payed to Apple's press events/release parties. We don't do that for anyone else, at least not in such a fanboy way. It's weird.

A cool, sunny day is in store for us here today in Socal. Perfectly acceptable. I did just notice, however, that the smelly trees outside are starting to flower. That's not acceptable at all.

Bought Weird Al tickets for August today. It's been a few years since I've seen him in concert.

I've felt all day that I'm forgetting something, but forgotten things have a habit of reminding you about themselves, albeit too late. Have a great day!

Oh, hello. Happy Tuesday!

Picture of the day!

Wee little Katie in her walker. About 5 months old.

Once again ran most of my 1.4-mile course this morning. My legs ache, but it's the good kind of "Boy, I sure used my body!" ache.

Breakfast burritos: awesome. Just thought I'd share that.

It's time for a game night. Well, it's almost time for Mardi Gras, but I'm still deciding how I wanna work that. We could do a game night, a "Carnival" style party, a Ragin' Cajun blowout, a masquerade, or just a Southern food night. I have options.

I'm slowly, and quite unexpectedly, doing some cleaning in my house that's needed to be done for a long time. Things like my desk, the surfaces that have collected crap in my bedroom, etc. It's like an early Spring cleaning.

Your task for today: Eat something new. If you don't like it, you don't have to eat it again. If you do, then BOOM, you're expanding your horizons. Easy! Have a great day!