So according to the traffic site, now there are only two lanes open in the morning. We'll have to see how much fun that is today. I know when other people went to work later, they got stuck in traffic, so I hope its not a big deal for me. Blech. They're saying until October 13th, but I hope it doesn't take that long, and the other side didn't.

Umm, I know there was other things to discuss, like annoying blog spam, but I can't think of anything, and I wanted to leave early to attempt to get through the traffic, so I guess that's it. Enjoy your thursday, hopefully with more thursday then wednesday, because otherwise that would be sad.

So the lack of blogging yesterday was due to a lack of technical expertise on my part. As I was shaving, the light in the bathroom went poof. After trudging around in the dark a bit and then finding some bulbs, I replaced it. Of course that didn't work, so then I got all confused, and gave up and went to work. (but had used enough time that I needed to get going)

Anyway, so last night I decided to address the problem, and dug out the proximity voltage sensor and the multi meter. Oddly, the voltage sensor said there was power in the socket, and the multi meter said the bulb wasn't broken. I tried screwing in the bulb again, and it worked. So aparently, the lesson of the moment is that one should actually screw the bulb all the way in, then it works. I'm blaming this all on it being too early and me being tired. That's my story.

So like a week ago, when I was mowing the lawn, the mower just stopped, and I couldn't get it restarted. I gave up, and put it away, since the lawn was pretty much done, and it had only missed a small little spot.

I tried starting it again yesterday, and its all broken, wouldn't even start. After screwing with it for like 20 minutes, I decided that its really, really broken, unless something happened to the gas that it was happily running on, as it may be a few weeks old, and I don't know if there's anything wrong with it, or have any other gas to try. Blah. Guess its back to sears to try to get it fixed/replaced, something.

In other news, besides the lawn, there isn't much happening. I have a dr's appointment on wednesday to discuss my fitness attempts (its from when I went in march or whatever, this is the very long term followup). I hope it goes well, I figure I can do some extra stuff today and tomorrow, because you know, that extra lb I may lose will make a huge difference in the scheme of things.

Oh well. Its a busy monday and I need to get going. The big discussion, bagel vs. cereal for breakfast is about to happen.

Well, so yesterday was day 2 of traffic blah. The plan (as far as I know it, is 10 days of this, not counting weather, but it could be less, as there's a bonus for them to finish early). It only took me an hour to get home, with some creative driving through St. Clair and bad neighborhood. I did find one other white person during that stint. Of course after I got past the backup for construction, there was still the usual slowdowns downtown. Oy!.

Anyway, all this traffic continues the politcal debate, because it seems the more time you spend staring at the back of cars, you get more annoyed and offending bumper stickers. I know I'm not the only person who thinks this, so I wonder if this is a cause of accidents, or bumper sticker vandalism. More research is necessary.

On the subject of traffic, I believe after they finish the 10 days on the way home, there will be 10 days on the way to work. I damn well hope there isn't as much of a problem them, but I really don't have any idea. I could even take the scenic route (on TOWM's favorite 271) because there was an accident there yesterday, that backed it up for 5 miles. Its like the test of which backup is better. Oh well, its Friday, and I got paid, so I can't complain too much.

So as expected, since they decided it would be ok to close down I-90 to two lanes from its normal four, except during rush hour in the direction I don't drive, there was a large and annoying traffic jam. I'm hoping this won't be a problem this morning like it was yesterday afternoon. Assuming it isn't, I have devised a technique to attempt to avoid much of the traffic, and thus not take an extra 30 minutes to get home. I will let everyone know how it works tomorrow, but its mostly going off on sideroads and getting back on a few miles later on 90.

Besides that, it seems to be a not interesting day. I can't think of anything going on, so I should hurry up and get to work.

Oh, and apple cinnamon cheerios make some really nasty stuff in the crumbs at the bottom of the box. I would avoid eating the dust if at all possible.

Well, so that Casio that Pogue mentions seems sorta cool, but I'm very much not a fan of casio. Damn shutter lag. I guess this means I need to do more research. Since the selling of the 7 isn't progressing well, I suppose this isn't a horrible thing to do anyway. The 7 may go on ebay today. Or tomorrow. We'll see.

Umm, yeah, so nothing else too interesting, except for the continuation of the my pickup is bigger then your pickup. Aparently International decided they'd make a pickup for those that are 'image conscious' and have 90K or more to spend. Not a bad idea, since you know, everything else is too small. I am jealous of the range though. At 7 mpg, and having a 75 gallon tank, that's a nice range to avoid filling up each week. And a 500,000 mile engine overhall interval is handy as well.

so I got an engineering notebook yesterday. I'm not sure if its bad luck that it was used by two seperate people from 1998 to 2002 or so, and neither of them put anything in it. I'm hoping its not, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Ok, so no one likes the elph anymore. How complicated. Now I need to figure out what else to get. I'll work on that tonight I suppose.

Well, its not the most exciting day of the year, but it shouldn't be too bad. I keep hoping that the plans for squishing 90 (usually 4 lanes in each direction) further down from the 3 it has been for the past 2 months to 2 lanes isn't going to make my drive to work horribly annoying for the next two weeks. We'll see, but its supposed to happen sometime very soon. If I'm grumpy and late to work, everyone should know why.

For some reason, I stayed up and watched the emmys last night. I don't know if the point of that was to deprive myself of sleep, but in some odd way it seems to have succeeded, though it was entertaining. Sometimes I wonder why I don't just fall asleep when I should. With that logic though, I'd probably want 10 hours of sleep every day, which would be problematic.

Oh right, cameras. I don't want an SLR camera. They're huge. Besides, I think they're best used as a second camera to a small one. Which is what I want. I was thinking of the everyone has one and likes it Elph. Though which one is a different discussion, but mostly a financial one.

Well, so I got another phone call about the car, but no progress yet. Have to see if people start calling back. Oh well, not much else I can do.

Besides that, there's little else going on. I guess its just one of those days. I need to think of interesting things to do this weekend I suppose, but before that, its just another Friday.

No one said anything about which digital camera to buy once I sell the 7. Aparently this is a boring issue?

Actually, for whatever reason, the guy told me he was a mortage broker, so I think he'd be well aware that one can get money for car loans from banks. I'm sure there's something else fishy about the situation so he doesn't want to do that. In any event, he hasn't called back, so I can ignore him I suspect.

Goodies did not include cupcakes. They were the more standard breakfast stuff from the cafeteria. So that was scones, some odd looking danishes, mediocre bagels, coffee, juice and water. I had a scone and coffee and it was good, though as it was a small cup, I suspect I didn't get my usual larger dose of caffeine, which made me tired for the rest of the morning.

So aparently TOWM was busy replacing the entire suspension and rolling bits of his truck for the past 2 months or so. I guess that makes sense as to why you wouldn't update at all. I'm sure if you have other comments you know where to post them.

So I'm making slow progress on selling the car. I had 3 phonecalls yesterday, except the oddest one was one guy who essentially wanted to make payments on the car... He had 1200, but could only spend like $900 of that, and then would pay me the rest at the end of the month. Um, no. Why do people think they can do stupid things like that?

At least on the upside, two other people seem reasonably interested, which is a good sign.

Besides that, its wednesday, so its time to start thinking about what to throw out for garbage day. I'm thinking, but not finding anything especially interesting.

Today is patent training, which is interesting, at least I hope so. Aparently we're getting coffee and goodies. I don't know what goodies are, I'm imagining hand decorated cupcakes, but I suspect more like bagels. Such suspense I guess, but I need to plan how much I eat for breakfast, so its sorta important to know.

Oh well, I'll try and quit slacking on the updating, I know there's been some grumblings about that.

I guess we have what is called a stalled front. I think of it more of a rain forest. It hasn't stopped raining in over 24 hours. I guess I'm glad I got the rain sensing wiper package. I think its actually finally stopping this morning.

In other news, there isn't any. I've been expanding my pants selection at work to include some black pants. This is exciting, since I previously only had gray and tan. You know its a boring Thursday when that is the most exciting thing, but oh well. It seems a few other people are slacking on the updates as well.

I'm pretty this is a result of what is now tropical something or other Frances. But in any event, its raining a huge amount, and now I'll be forced to get wet if I go outside. Blech. It does seem to be dying down at the moment, but I'm sure that will stop in 5 minutes.

I keep getting some random computerized phone call. However with the answering machine, it never seems to pick up. I'm thinking the logic of this should allow forwarding the phone to my cell phone, thus allowing me to answer the call. Of course that's giving in, so it may not be worth it from the ethical standpoint. Blah.

Oh well, I need to go now. But maybe I'll eat more premium chocolate covered raisins. I have no idea what makes them premium besides costing more, maybe they have more chocolate, I didn't try the non-premium but these have an oddly large amount of chocolate and a smallish raisin.

Well, so I woke up approximately on time, which is good. That means I have more time for fun stuff like this. Of course it wasn't the most exciting weekend, so there isn't all that much to discuss.

Saturday was a trip to Erie, to go to wegs, and also some side shopping at old navy. (Benefit of no sales tax in PA on clothes, so that's an 8% savings for the trip). Nothing really great to get, just some work clothes.

Finally cleaned out the 7, and should go and advertise it sometime this week. The plan was to take it to the car wash, but aparently they decided that even though they're open sunday, they'd close for labor day. Stupid logic that was, but I guess I don't get to decide. Will have to get it washed early this week.

So its a 4 day week, which is always good news, but I'm not sure how exciting that will really be. I guess it depends on my schedule, which isn't really interesting this week.

Oh, on the trip to Erie the car passed 1250 miles, so its officially broken in. Most excitingly, I could use cruise on the way back, as it got annoying to not have it. Of course I'm spoiled I guess, as the jetta didn't have cruise for 4 years, but hey, that was a long time ago, so that's irrelevant.

I think the biggest culprit of bad postings is that I keep getting up way too late. If I only have 1 or 2 minutes to say something (like umm, today) it becomes very difficult to say anything coherent. Of course it also makes it difficult to get everything done on time as well. So I probably should stop doing that. Maybe I'll work on it next week.

On the subject of Labor day. The planning is a quick trip to Erie for shopping and other stuff, then nothing else yet. Doesn't really mean something couldn't happen, but that's the plan at the moment.

I keep forgetting to sell the 7. This is annoying. I'm sure the neighbors whose house it is parked in front of find it annoying as well. Ooops. Stupid thursday deadlines for sunday newspaper ads.

Oooh, I made it.

I'll also hit 1,000 miles on the way to work.

And no one has mentioned the Yankees/Indians game from 2 nights ago. How sad.

I don't think the new iMacs look all that bad. Its more of a retro look of huge bezeled flatscreens. When they used to cost way more then $1800 or whatever.

So yeah, with visiting and guests, I haven't had much time for this. Anyway, I was pondering getting a 17" 1.8Ghz new iMac. Thoughts? Seems like a logical replacement for the slowly dying PC....