Just my luck

I'm flying out to visit my family on the east coast today, so what happens? The run of above freezing weather we have had for the last week ends and we get 5-8 inches of snow on the ground! I hope this doesn't hose my flight today.

Life in the upper Midwest

Yeah, I know I live in Minnesota, but I think I am getting worried about the fact that I no longer consider 20 degree weather to be all that cold. When I first moved here, I didn't go outside if it was below 30, but now, I don't even always go looking for my coat until it gets below 15 or so. I'm going native!

Nice to see once in a while...

Its a beautiful thing when you look at the list of tasks you have to do at work and everything on it is marked completed. It's not a sight I get to see all that often and it's pretty damned cool when I do get to see it!

Searching for a theme

I wish I had a theme for this blog. It would make it a bit easier to come up with things to put in here every day. I shall think upon this...

Crises all around me

Just for the record, I think the universe is trying to see how much I can take before it kills me. I have spent the day dealing with my girlfriend's life trying it's damnedest to fall apart while I am trying to get through what promises to be one of the busiest periods I've had since I got this job. Why couldn't some of this crap have occurred two weeks ago while I was sitting in her apartment, instead of now while I am halfway across the country where I can't do a damned thing about it except make comforting sounding noises over the phone?

Visions of Summer

I just wanted to put something up here to remind me that the sun does periodically trinsmit some heat to this particular portion of the Earth. This is from the Minnesota Rennaissance Festival, held every summer in beautiful Shakopee, MN. Nice place to visit. Good sight to see! :-)

Weather weirdness

OK, now this is getting ridiculous. Not only is it cold as hell out there this morning (-6 before the wind chill!!!!) it is actually warmer in northern Minnesota/southern Canada than it is here! WTF!!

I gotta get out of this place!

Snow Driving

I bought a new car this summer and I am extremely happy with that purchase having driven in the Minnesota snow with it. I used to drive a 1995 Dodge Dakota Sport rear wheel drive pickup truck. Let me tell you, while it was a fine car for Florida (where I bought it) it left a lot to be desired for the wilds of the upper midwest. You do not want to be driving a lightweight, rear wheel drive vehicle in the winter up here...

Anyway, my new front wheel drive 2005 Saturn Vue is making me very happy in the snow.

Oh yeah, and Minnesotans do not know how to drive in bad weather, which is something I just do not understand...

I'm back!

I'm back at work after a week in Maryland visiting my girlfriend and her family. I had a surprisingly good time. I say surprisingly because most of the week was spent being decidedly domestic. I got to play in the kitchen a lot and spent a lot of time keeping small children out of trouble. Who know I could deal with this sort of domesticity? :-)

Stupidity alert...

You'd think I would be aware of this by now, but it still amazes me every time I realize how much being sick in some form degrades my ability to think clearly. I have had at least two major (lasting two plus weeks) episodes and countless minor ones to point to in my own experience, but everytime it happens, I still find myself with a dumb, surprised look on my face...

Sleep and sickness

Getting out of bed this morning, while neccessary, was definitely a mistake today. Usually when I get up, I feel a bit better. Not so today. I think I am going to go back to sleep and see how I feel in a few hours.

Strange things to remember...

For some reason, I was thinking about sweaters this morning. Don't know why, but I was. This led me down memory lane to a sweater that an ex-girlfriend's mother (grandmother?) gave to me way back when. It was one of those gaudy christmas themed sweaters that most people ony pull out of the closet for christmas eve or christmas day and then hide for the rest of the year. This one was extra special in that it had little lights sewn into it that lit up the little xmas tree on it. To make it even more silly, she got matching ones for me and my girlfriend. I don't think either of us ever wore them... :-)

Fun things to do in the morning

This morning on my way to work, I happened to be driving by as a guy was having a very bad morning. I stopped to make sure he was OK and waited for the fire department with him. I'll be sending him copies of my pictures later today.

I know this sounds harsh, but my good mood today has been based on the fact that whatever happens to me today, short of the complete destruction of my new car, my day will be going better than his!

DJ Danger Mouse and the state of the music industry

For some reason, I have really been stuck on DJ Danger Mouse's remix of Jay-Z's Black Album. This is one fine piece of work, re-mixing some new sounds (The Black Album) with some of the most classic rock music of all time (The Beatles' White Album). I am not normally a big Jay-Z or Beatles fan, but the combination is incredible.

The irony of this is that DJ Danger mouse was sued for producing it because he did not get the proper permissions. I think this is one of the big reasons that the music industry is taking it on the chin: they are not encouraging musical innovation. Instead, they are working overtime to protect their sources of revenue, even when by letting things slide a bit, they could be bringing in more fans to an artist. I know I am thinking about buying a couple of Jay-Z albums now that I have heard this thing. I won't even get into my opinions of the quality of the artists that they are promoting these days.

I doubt my rantings will impact the attitudes of the record companies, but it would be nice if they could see the stupidity of their actions. They should be encouraging new music and probably trying to lower the price of acquiring music, rather than setting their lawyers on everyone that appears to be possibly taking a dollar or two away from them.

Sick!

I hate life when I'm getting sick. I seem to be coming down with an annoying head cold. Can't wait to spend a day or two hiding under the covers! :-)

Woot!

I got my copy of Civilization 4. Say goodbye to my free time for a while!

Youth on my mind

Today's song is Kim Wilde's "Kids in America". I'm having flashbacks to my younger days and that song sticks out for some reason. Probably be cause I'm now fixating on my birthday! :-)

You say it's you birthday....

OK, it's my birthday today and I'd like to say that I am definitely a bit mixed on my reaction to this fact. First it's good because a fair number of people have remembered and called or emailed me today, which is very cool of them. It's not so good in that I seem to be getting sick and that always annoys the crap out of me. I really wish I felt better about what is a fairly good day overall, but I feel so blah, I just want to go home and crawl into my bed and ignore the world.

The irony of this is that everyone keeps thinking it is because I don't like birthdays. The reality is that I don't care one way or another about my birthday, I'm actually cranky about not feeling so good.

Just looking around

I'm only doing this because I now know two people with Blogger Blogs and I want to comment.