Birthday
(20 February - 1 March 2006)

1 March 2006
-Walking away from the Big Blue House last night was tough, though we had made it look quite nice in the end.  I'm glad that I like the new place & its location as much as I do, or this would be a much more difficult process.
-As might be expected in a blackout day with little/no communication available, I really didn't get anything done today.  Bleh.

28 February 2006
-Migraine:  16 hours, left side, moderate, caused by excessive light.
-Last day of moving out of the Big Blue House.  Fish has already thrown in his towel & Em & I have just a bit to wrap up in the kitchen, back bathroom, & our room.  There could be painting later still, but we'll see.  Of course, once I move this computer out, then there will be no more internet/phone connection till March 2nd.  Which isn't too long given how long I've waited & that that connection will actually be DSL instead of 40 kb/sec dial-up.  I just want everything to be back to some level of normal/reliable.
-He's getting more honest every day, that president.
-I heard, also on CNN but in TV form, that these Winter Olympics got the worst Nielsen ratings of any Winter Olympics.  This makes me very sad, because I not only really enjoyed them myself, but felt that they finally broke away from the standard "all we care about is America" coverage that has plagued so many Olympics, most notably the 2004 Athens games.  Granted, there was still a lot of pro-American bias, but they actually would cover events with no American contenders & do bio-stories on non-Americans.  It would make me very sad if the lack of ratings success prompts a return to pure patriotic chauvinism in 2010, or even the 2008 summer games.  Speaking of which, who wants to go to the Olympics in 2010?  Vancouver's not so far away...

27 February 2006
-Can almost see the light at the end of this tunnel.  Why does it feel like more tunnels await?

26 February 2006
-Hung out at Fish's new place last night with Gris & Anna & noted the interesting trend in one-bedroom places to have the only entrance to the bathroom be via the one bedroom.  I'm glad that Em's & my place isn't like that, though I guess it's not too much of an inconvenience.  It just seems to presume that only one person will ever be in the one bedroom, which is odd.  Anyway, we have all agreed in principle to a project where we come up with our ten favorite short stories of all time & have the others read them.  Very exciting... but you all know how I love lists, favorite writings, & sharing both.
-Re-enter Emily, stage Santa Barbara.  It seems we barely see each other anymore, but it's nice to have her back!
-Sometimes I seethe.

25 February 2006
-I love the Winter Olympics.  At least I've had cable, if not any reliable phone or internet.
-Slowly still moving, slowly still struggling through.  Lots of painting still ahead, & a lot of frustration swirling all around.  This has to be over soon.
-Good news!  Maybe we don't have to paint, at least not yet.  So that's something.

24 February 2006
-Today was actually a pretty good day, with a rare surge of energy... I got lots of silly small things done as well, which is always encouraging, especially if one's able to stay upbeat throughout such tasks.  Plus, I've finally caught up with everything on the internet, despite having a 40k connection that took 236 minutes to download the latest episode of the Mep Report (which you can now hear too, & hopefully it won't take you nearly 4 hours to get).  Ride the wave.
-This seems really interesting.  Though requiring someone to raise a full thousand dollars, presumably by getting friends to pledge, seems a little steep.  I've never been a big believer in those get-friends-to-fund-your-charity things... they always seem a little unfair to one's friends.

23 February 2006
-Updates finally back & visible on the page, after a drought of all sorts of updates, ranging from the Mep Report to Duck & Cover to Questions for God, not to mention this page.  Call it the "February Freeze", which might get its own page at some point (see the June Drought for reference & history).  I have a really awful dial-up connection (40 kb/sec) via SBC after wrangling with them for days on end about them unfairly disconnecting my DSL.  Regardless, it's allowing me to catch up (a little) on my life, so I'll take it for now.
-The rest of this week is still going to be lousy.

22 February 2006
-Migraine:  12 hours, right side, incapacitating, cause unknown.
-I officially give up on SBC/AT&T.  Not that I can switch providers or anything (& what's my alternative... Comcast?... even worse), but I give up on them sorting out things at the Big Blue House.  So apparently I'm going to have to find a way to get through the next week with no internet & an unreliable phone connection.  Tremendous.  How am I going to do the Mep Report tonight?  Or my work?  & Em's leaving tomorrow.  I don't even want to think about all this.
-I do like walking around Berkeley.  The walks are brisk & shorter than they seem & I'm at least feeling great about something, while pretty marginal about everything else.

21 February 2006
-Lots of folks showed up for my birthday dinner & bowling last night, but Stina, Dav, & Zimmy left before the second game of bowling, wherein I set my all-time lifetime high score of 224.  224!  I was on top of the world.  The game included 7 strikes, which also has to be a lifetime high, including 2 turkeys (put your X's together!).  I left the 4th frame open (9-) after an opening turkey... that last pin cost me between 11-31 points, depending on when it would've fallen.  But it was still a stellar game, & as Em put it, it had to be the shoes.  My previous high game was 212.
-Well the joy couldn't last that long... it turns out the internet may never be coming back to Big Blue.  This means that I am functionally useless for the rest of the month, except at moving.  Very depressing.  It doesn't help that my one outlet for recreation is the Winter Olympics, where every third ad is for "The New AT&T", keeping you connected, & such rubbish.  I'm not being kept connected, folks, & it's not my fault!

20 February 2006
26
-What a birthday!  Em surprised me by taking the day off, & got me snazzy bowling shoes for my birthday.  They're teal & black, which is an odd combination that seems to work, & of course entirely devoid of animal products, which is pretty hard to pull off in a bowling shoe.  I guess I'll have to work a little harder on bowling to make sure these shoes pay for themselves, but with places charging $3/rental for shoes these days 'round here, maybe it won't be so hard...
-Plus I got the Kia back for free & it's fine!  Gifts coming in from all directions!



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