Friday Five

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?

Yes, but I hate spending money.



2. What was the last thing you purchased?

I bought a Christmas gift today for my niece and nephews.



3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?

Online, for price. I like comparing the actual cost of something that's basically a commodity.



4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?

Yes, it was based on doing chores.



5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?

Some second rate cup of coffee. Anything in an airport.

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Good News

I woke up and turned on the radio this morning to the news that that Rev. Al Green has recorded his first secular album in years and the bits I heard sound great.



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Emptying the crap vacuum



Why is it that I can recite entire Monty Python routines that I've seen maybe twice?




Yet I can't manage the Java windowing toolkit.




Or the types and keywords.




Lyrics to songs I don't even like.




But not things I have to do every day.




Jerry Seinfeld routines and bits of shows.




Movie quotes.






We were discussing this phenomenon the other night at my Anne and Joe's (Anne's and Joe's? My brother-in-law and sister-in-law)and Joe introduced to me the theory of the Crap Vacuum. That is, the place in one's brain where the useless stuff goes and resides. Some people have large butts or thinning hair; I have a large crap vacuum, a veritable ShopVac for the small-penis set, The equivalent of a Hummer in vacuum. Some people are equipped with the equivalent of a Dustbuster or one of those gizmos you buy to get dust off your keyboard. For me, pop culture trash, no matter how stupid or insignificant, gets written to memory and saved right away to hard drive.



On our trip to Chicago Thursday night, my tiny little Swiss Army Knife turned up in my backpack. I must have just emptied my pockets into it when I got home. I make it a point to put all my pocket change in the front pocket before I head for the airport, along with my keys, thus simplifying my trip through the metal detectors at the airport. But in my haste to get out the door, I inadvertantly put my tiny little Swiss Army knife in the pocket. The security people looked for about 5 minutes and then found it.



"Oh."



I had the choice of checking my backpack or surrendering it or renting a locker to leave the thing in while we were gone or handing it to my co-conspirator outside the gate area, a person who didn't exist. So I surrendered it. It was imprinted with LewerMark, my former employer. One more piece of them is out of my life. Not that I wish them any ill. I chose to stay there for too long. But, it was a toxic environment for me. So long, Chuck.



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What I Really Mean



Two trips halfway across Kansas last week, on behalf of my dog Chester. He was having a knee replacement, actually a TPLO on Tuesday of last week at the KSU vet school. For 10 hours of driving, we saved about $1000. I don't make that much an hour.



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More than a week



I wish I'd do this thing every day. Even as I type this, the fatigue is setting in. Of course, I rose at 5AM, heading off to the store and then to KUMC until 6:30.



Well, duh.







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Friday Five



1. What food do you like that most people hate?

I actually like pate and even Braunschweiger. Grape Nuts, too.



2. What food do you hate that most people love?



I find unscrambled eggs totally repugnant. Thinking of someone dipping into a runny egg yolk simply activates my gag reflex.



3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you?



Robert Redford, although I am a man, in The Horse Whisperer I found horrific. They had to put the soft focus on him to make you unaware he looked like an old catcher's mitt. It's like a living ad for sunscreen. "This could be you!!!"



4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find attractive?



Oddly enough, I think Willie Nelson's appealing.



5. What popular trend baffles you



Most of them, since I don't watch much TV. A few years ago, kids were tucking jeans into their socks. I never figured that one out.

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Safe at Home, so to speak

While I was gone, we had an attempted break-in. The combination of a barking dog and the steel plate under the deadbolt seemed to deter the mother&%^$r. He did destroy the deadbolt so that it couldn't be opened.



So, we're walking the dogs this morning and sitting in front of the apartment buildings owned by absentee slumlords was a crapped out Olds Regency with a large screwdriver/pry bar sitting in the front seat. I called the police. Maybe it's the guy (or gal, to be egalitarian).



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I'm in Denver today and tomorrow after the flight through hell. I got to the airport around 5:30 AM for a 7:10 flight. All was fine except Christina had a flat tire and had to take a later flight.



As we neared Denver, the pilot warned us that we would have to circle for awhile. Denver had more fog than Frontier policies allowed. Next, we found we were being diverted to Pueblo for refueling.



We sat on the ground, in the plane, from 9:30 to 1:30. No food, no get out and walk around, no nothing. Well, a can of cranberry juice, for me and a couple oranges I had in my pack. A normal 2-hour flight ended up with 7 hours stuck in a tube. ARRRRGGHH.



All that I could really think was that it would have been much more horrible when people didn't have cell phones and wireless internet access.



Anyway, the good news is I'm using RedHat to blog this. Woo-Hoo!!!!

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