What a day. Sometimes things end on a good note. I guess you can classify the last day of february as such.

First off, I wake up to a nice workout at the gym followed by a relaxing breakfast over very well behaved dogs. I stop into the new addiction headquarters on the way to work and have a very well made coffee concoction and a banana nut muffin. Mmmm... it gets better.

I make it all the way down beltline without hitting a single red light. That's luck. After a somewhat frustrating client meeting I make my way back to my office to find my new hardrive waiting in my chair. Nice. After plugging it in, I'm up and running on my powerbook copying just under 2000 tunes in about 8 minutes. Rock on.

While ripping, chris walks in with something I've been waiting for since I first got my powerbook -- a brand-spanking new copy of golive 6 for my enjoyment. Sweet! Finally, I can do this crap in OS X and say goodbye to OS 9. Can't say I'm gonna miss it. :)

It's also payday. Money in the bank account waiting to be distributed among the masses. I make a paypal payment for the ipod and then head off to a free lunch at saltgrass. Lauri brian even made a rare appearance.

Back to the office for a very non-stressful workday filled with the momentary pause every 5 minutes or so to load another CD for ripping to the somewhat noisy harddrive. Damn that loud fan!

On the way to denton, I enjoy the drive over yet another shot of fu-fu coffee. I make excuses now. I need the caffeine. Part of that's true at least... nine o'clock class makes for a very long day.

After class I stop off at Jennifer's house to grab the survivor tape she recorded for me and catch up on things. We call our parents and have mom react to this while we're on the phone (make sure you study it for about a minute before looking away...)

Now it's off to bed for an early start in the AM. Thank god it's friday.

I'm ready for spring. I used to fancy myself as much more of a winter person than a sunny weather person, probably because extra pounds of blub hide better under a thick coat. Now things have changed and I prefer the warmth of the sun to the chill of winter winds.

I bring this up because it's record cold outside, still. I was intelligent enough not to bring a jacket with me to class last night and ran a quarter mile to the car to keep from freezing. Wind chill isn't much fun under any circumstance.

Okay, so I bought an ipod. I was suckered in by a good deal and had a hard time not clicking the "buy it now" button. I'm sure people think I'm addicted and need therapy, but I swear I don't. Maybe it's just my collective nature to want "stuff". I like stuff. And shallow as it sounds -- I enjoy "stuff". Granted, I should be doing smarter things with my money, more productive things, but...

Screw it. If I were dead tomorrow, I'd all be gone anyway. And I'd will it for all my friends to enjoy. If I die in the near future, the following material purchases should be distributed among friends accordingly:

Justin: the ti book -- because he NEEDS one.
Jessie: the ipod -- appreciates music as much as me.
Dave: the altima -- four wheels are less likely to make him look like a dweeb.
Jim: the HDTV -- it's the only thing I have that he doesn't
Chris: the pool table -- compliments cigarettes nicely.
Jamie: the boba fett costume -- he's a bigger fan than me.

Everything else goes to the family. Trades not allowed.

Old man winter decided to rear his ugly head once again as it's colder than a witch's tiddie outside. Brrrrrrr! I just looked on weather.com and it reads a 13 degree wind chill with highs in the 30's. Sorry, mutts.

The meeting I missed the funeral for yesterday went well and the client actually agreed to have an open mind about doing things different. The jury's still out on whether that'll stick, but at least it went well and provided a nice break from babyland. Speaking of -- babyland needs to have later meetings. Tuesdays and thursdays are already long enough, but when you have to be in at 8:30, it makes the long nights in denton a little longer. Not that I'm complaining or anything...

I'm still waiting on the firewire drive to come in from california, but I've got a head start on ripping all my cds over the past few days. It's gonna take a while. My powerbook must be wondering what the hell is going on working its dvdrom into overdrive. I also made yet another nice snag on ebay, but for the sake of not catching hell from certain people, I'm just gonna leave it up for a guess... I'm not spilling the beans. I sat down with my finances last night and made some budgets, so I think if I try harder to stick to one, I won't work myself into a hole like before. We'lll see how it goes.

Early morning meetings kinda suck. Did I mention that already?

Any inclinations to get work done inside yesterday were quickly squandered by the blue clear sky and 75 degree weather. I decided to hop in the car with no plans in mind to see where the road would take me. I ended up about 20 miles north of McKinney driving through some podunk town blaring the latest issak effort and soaking up the rays through an open sunroof. It was gorgeous. Today's shaping up to be the same kind of day, but a little more on the windy side.

I've been neglecting the digital camera over the past few months, but I think I'm going to start shooting more photos now that iphoto makes output and organization so easy. The dogs were having a good time yesterday morning, so I captured the fun, then I took it with me and stopped off the beaten path at an abandoned grain mill on highway 5 and snapped some shots. It reminded me of when I took the b&w photography class in college (twice, I might add) and scoured the denton area finding the best stuff to shoot. I usually brought along my cousin Jody who was always good for a drive in the ghia and provided an nice human subject on the occasions the assignment called for one.

My awakened thirst for photography and the growing number of empty frames hanging around the house fueled a stop off the apple store to snag the epson printer I've been debating buying now for a few weeks. I ran a few test prints yesterday and love it.

Finally, last night, jonathan and I headed off to cowtown for a night with our cronies, half who call ft. worth home. After meeting over at mullet's house, we proceed to hop around about 15 different places until we ended up at city streets in sundance square. Last night somebody had been there with the "ugly stick", or more appropriate, the "ugly firehose" which would explain the glutenous homely folk every where you look. It was entertaining hanging with an extremely drunken cone... jason's just a freakin' whip. Fig and I got back around 2:30 where I proceeded to lay my head down until the alarm when off around 9:00.

Here's hoping the americans can show the canucks a thing or two in hockey today. Go USA!

Bad news at the office yesterday. We "temporarily lost" one of our biggest accounts that a lot of creative people have their hands on. Assurance all around that we have nothing to worry about and that all's well, but I have to wonder how the loss of revenue will make itself up. Luckily, I'm tied up on some other pieces of business that occupy my billable time, so... I really hope this doesn't affect us in a bad way.

We also had a little creative team pow wow yesterday about the "state of the union" in the office. Evidently, the motivational guy opened up a lot of thoughts for discussion and the entire creative team did just that for about an hour and a half. I of course, was completely lost as everyone kept framing discussion points around things like "sausages" and "aspirin factory" so I had no idea what the hell they were talking about. Luckily, the cone was able to fill me in on some of it, but it would've been nice to go to that damn speaker just so I could've been more involved in the talk.

The alitima is in good hands. The dealership did the inspection and agreed that the problems needed to be repaired and everything except the fan belt and (obviously) new tires are covered under warranty. Thank god. Of course, the parts have to be ordered and won't be in until maybe early next week, but at least I don't have to pay a thousand bucks out of my own pocket. Looks like I'll be driving around town on balding tires until they come in.

Tonight it's off to fort worth for a night with the boys. I had to back out last time when my dogs decided to maim each other before I left, but tonight I'll be there. I'm the DD so I'll have to cart figliola out to the boonies to meet up with jason and (miracle prevailing) the cone. I'm thinking of bringing a camera along for the ride in case justin has a few too many drinks and starts popin' and lockin' again in public. That'll make for good office humor.

9:30: decision time: Do I drive to starbucks and get some work done or go work out? Must... stay... strong...

No more will I allow my students the luxury of being flexible. After last night's class, I've come to the conclusion I'm not being tough enough and need to crack down on the lack of progress from a lot of students. I really question some times if my skin is tough enough for this teaching gig...

I received the sad news late last night from my dad that my great grandmother passed away after weeks of being sick. She was in her mid 90's and lived a full, complete life. She's been in her words "ready to go home" now for a while, so the news did not come as a shock, but it's still sad. I feel bad for my mom -- she was really close and the irony hit me after we talked about "great grandmomma" yesterday on my way to denton. I know she's taking it hard. Not sure yet about funeral arrangements, but if my family wants me there, I'll go.

The Altima's going into the doctor in about an hour for a check up. Here's hoping it's not automotive cancer. Happy friday.

So it turns out the motivational speaker wasn't as bad as everyone thought and I really shouldn't have missed it. As I got to work yesterday I checked my home voice mail and found a message that would've been nice to get a little earlier. Apparently this meeting was mandatory and the person who told me I should stay at work instead of going called tuesday night and left a message telling me so. I was in denton teaching and I usually don't check voice mail every day at home considering 99% of the calls are telemarketers. So now what? Well, I get the honor of watching the speaker via video tape along with some other company big wigs and people who missed it yesterday. Sweet.

Along with the exceptionally busy day yesterday, I had some other issues going on, too. One being light headed for most of the day and not really feeling too well, the other being the added bonus of finding out my car needs a buttload of work done. My brakes have been squeaking for over a week, so I took it to firestone (where I spent $500 brake repairs last august) and told them to tell me what's wrong and go from there. I went in with the attitude that there's no way in hell my brakes are already shot after only 10K miles. That was only the beginning. The brakes were fine, but everything else on the car needed repairs... from a cracked drivetrain belt, to balding tires, to worn out tie rods, to split axles, the total estimate for repairs was over a thousand bucks. I told 'em "forget it". I'm not playing that game again. Firestone does that crap every time I go in.

So on my way home I called the dealership. Here's a word of advice to car dealerships: if you hang up on a customer, then put them on hold for over 10 minutes twice just to connect them with someone in the service department, there's a pretty good chance said customer won't bother to call your sales department when they're interested in a new car. I know I won't. Anyway, I paid an extra grand for an extended warranty on the Altima to protect myself in case crap like this ever happened. So after holding for eternity, I made an appointment to take the car in to bankston nissan tomorrow and get a second opinion. Hopefully some of the items firestone claimed will be covered under my warranty... for some reason I'm not going to be surprised if they're not.

9:00 meeting this morning means a quick workout and starbucks for the commute. Early meetings can be a pain when it takes 45 minutes to get there "early" and 20 minutes to get there "not so early". I am looking forward to a day in the office with no Jim, though. Just kidding.

I love the new grill. I'd like it even more if I could keep it on my patio like most grill owners, but my destructive-ass dogs won't allow me to. While getting ready for work on monday, they decided to investigate the smell coming from within the iron beast and tipped it over. I heard a loud crash and went outside to find my grill looking like an overturned SUV. Of course, they also destroyed the plastic cover (in a matter of 10 minutes) and bent some stuff, but I was able to fix it back to normal. I decided then and there the grill would find a new home in the garage. Now I'll really look like white trash cooking hot dogs on my driveway. Nice.

Another annoyance with the dogs is Kasha's new inability to sleep in my room for the night without waking me up around 3AM wanting out. It'd be one thing if she actually had to go pee or something, but instead she wants in the garage. Fine. I guess the old couch in there is more comfortable, but that's the last time I try letting them sleep on my bedroom floor during the night. It's happened the last three nights in a row and I'm tired of losing sleep.

Yesterday I bought a really cheap firewire external drive to add on to the 8500 and get my MP3 server up and running at home. At 40GB it's got enough room to hold around 600 cds. Sweet. Of course it will probably take about a month to rip all my cds to MP3 and or organize them in itunes, but that's okay. The remaining items on the nerd list include an epson printer and a cheap mac to run a second webcam. After that, the home set-up is officially complete and I'll slow down the spending for a while. At least, that's my plan...

This morning I'm going in to work to meet some deadlines while the rest of the company is headed off to texas stadium to hear a motivational speaker. That's nice. Honestly, I'd rather get some work done anyway. And maybe it's just me, but I find it rather odd that we spend Sooooo much money on things like "motivational speakers" and "grief counselors" and "targetbucks", yet we still can't swing minimum wage funds for a creative intern. I guess I'm still bitter, but I thought of that yesterday when I spent over an hour searching for an image that I could've had an intern give me a hand with. Let's see... my billable rate= $165 an hour... an intern's billable rate= $8 an hour. You do the math. Blah.

I also found this nice plug for apple rather amusing. Must be nice to be that rich.

What a beautiful weekend...

Yesterday was a day for getting things done. The day started with a good workout and ended with an even better drink. Among the many things, I finally broke down and bought myself a gas grill at target -- I need to start eating better so the expense was worth it. After spending an hour or two turning the wrenches for assembly, I gave it a test run with a piece of chicken last night and it didn't disappoint. Tasty AND healthy.

Friday night Jessie and I had dinner at Texas Land and Cattle Company Steakhouse courtesy of mom and dad skaines. Thanks. She ordered the usual shrimp (her fav) and I ordered the "signature" sirloin. Now, I'm usually not a big steak eater, but this had to be the best hunk of red meat I've had in a long time. They use a unique method where they smoke it for 24 hours and then throw it on the grill right before they serve it. You could literally cut it with a fork. Mmmmmm... fork cut steak.

I've been scouring ebay the last few days trying to find a really cheap low end pci mac to run a second webcam at the house. I wish I could find another deal like jessie's computer, but it really doesn't even need to be that powerful. If I can find one for under $30 it's mine. Until I do, I guess I need to start thinking about where I should point it. I live an exciting existence, don't I?

The Daytona 500 race is on in about four hours from now and I plan on having my ass glued to the couch this afternoon hoping Dale Jr. can pull another miracle win for his dad (he won the busch race yesterday). I'll also be routing for my other favorites -- #24 and #99. I watched the 500 last year and what an awesome race it was with waltrip winning his first race ever, but I didn't think the crash on the final turn meant much. Boy was I wrong. Hopefully this year won't produce a similar result.

Guess I'll start some laundry and feed the biatches. I need to call my parents today and say hi. Haven't talked to dad in over a week. Be sure to check out the newly updated photo albums in the "trips" section. Enjoy the weather while it lasts.

JACKPOT!!!

I woke up this morning to find my bank balance higher than normal. It probably has more to do with the fact that both my tax return and my paycheck were deposited last night than anything, but it's still a nice way to start the day. It's amazing how much weight paying off a few bills can remove from your shoulders. And that's exactly what I plan on doing with my new found funds.

Yesterday was a long day. The more I do the teaching gig, the longer the days seem to last. My students are still forging ahead on their annual reports. There have been some unexpected surprises along with the usual conceptual struggles. A few are really struggling, but they're getting there with a little help from me and the rest of the class. Hopefully this weekend will allow them to play catch up and nail their idea. I've offered my assistance to anyone who needs it and I'll be curious to see who uses it to their advantage. There's a few students on my shit list.

I've been watching a lot of olympics still, especially hockey. Is it just me or has every hockey game been a one-sided blowout? I watched germany get their asses handed to them 8-0 the other night and right now via tape delay the russian womens team are behind 4-0 to the our canuck neighbors up north. It's strange. As if chicks in hockey pads aren't strange enough...

Today it's lots of piddly changes to please our increasing "we demand you do it our way" clientele. Kinda undermines what we do as a creative team and an agency, but I guess as long as we're employed everyone will make the best of the situation. Why? Because we can.

Happy Valentine's Day!
Photos by George!

For thie first time in over a month I went to work today and didn't touch a diaper related product. Baby related, but no poopy diapers and no hearts and swirlys. That was a nice break. Instead, I met with a model maker who's under the gun to fabricate our latest idea for the upcoming mega pitch I mentioned in my earlier posts. It took over a hundred years for the egyptians to build a pyramid; it'll take him just over 36 hours. Of course, our pyramid is only 20" wide and made of plastic, but it never ceases to amaze me the talent in the market place available to pull off last minute projects like this. It's fun.

I laughed to myself as I sketched up the dimensions for the model maker this morning. I couldn't help but think of the funny scene from Spinal Tap where they draw up the scematics for a monolithic "stonehenge" stage prop, but instead of using foot marks (') in the sketch, they inadvertantly draw inch marks ("). Being too stupid to know the diiference, they're suprised when the 18" tall stonehenge is lowered onstage. Classic. Heh-heh... I could just see the model maker building a 20 foot wide, seven layered pyramid and bringing it in demanding: "I just built what you sketched!!!".

The winter olympics are in full swing and having an HDTV makes watching even boring events like "curling" enjoyable. NBC is broadcasting eveything in glorious hi-def and I've enjoyed plopping down on the couch watching the action. Tonight it's hockey while grading papers. Exciting.

Turns out my "no worry" attitude about the financial aid fiasco was the best way to handle it. Saturday afternoon I received another letter, this time letting me know the loan had indeed been deferred as scheduled. I guess that's what happens when two governmental agencies try and go after the same money -- miscommunication. Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm also thoroughly pissed off at jim for ever putting the idea in my head that starbucks is a good place to go and do all the nerdy stuff (like post blogs on my website) that I can do for free at home. I've now become one of the people I used to make fun of -- paying five bucks for banana nut muffins and fu-fu coffee concoctions that do nothing more than make me look more like I used to and decrease my already limited credit card balance. It does make for good people watching, though. And you can't really do that at home.

Speaking of home; I stayed there last night and watched Caddyshack on Encore followed by a late night screening of The Karate Kid on HBO. Two 80's classics that brought back a lot of memories. My sister and I used to own a copy of The Karate Kid on video and we must have watched it a hundred times or so back in the day. And Caddyshack... well, no explanation needed. The "Baby Ruth in the pool" scene is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

I'm currently waiting on Todd to call me and let me know when the hell I'm supposed to pick him up from the airport... How ironic: he just called and told me 11:30. Great. Looks like he's buying lunch. :)

Guess I'll finish this "venti" fu-fu coffee drink and head that direction.

I honestly don't know why I bother to check my mail. Every day I come home from work and pull up to mailbox to see what the postman brought me, but it's never anything I want. Aside from the occasional magazine or letter from grandma, it's usually some dreadful bill or notice I'd rather not end my day on. If I was smart I'd start just checking it once a week and let it all soak in at once. You always owe money to somebody, but when you get something new every day reminding you of that fact, it's a little hard to swallow.

Yesterday was the grand-daddy of shitty news. I got a letter from the state of texas claiming my student loan was now in "default" status and that I owed them $8,000.00 payable in full by March 1st. I don't think so. Granted, I'll admit that I'm not known as the most responsible person when it comes to bills, but there are times when I do make efforts to make sure little inconveniences like this don't happen and this case was no exception. I called those bastards about two weeks ago informing them I had sent in a deferment letter and that when I received my tax return I planned on paying the past due balance on the account to bring my status up to date. The lady on the phone, who was really nice, explained to me that it usually takes a week or two for the forms to process, but that it was not yet declared as in deferment status. I then explained to her my situation (bills from the house, etc.) and that I was calling to confirm that the account was not in danger of defaulting, because that was the LAST thing I wanted to happen. She told me I had nothing to worry about and to call in a few weeks if I had not received a letter confirming the account as deferred. No problem. I hung up confident that all was well and I was glad I called.

Of course when I received a letter yesterday addressed from the state of texas, I assumed this was the notification letter she spoke of. Obviously, that wasn't the case. I'm just hoping when I call them first thing Monday morning they'll help resolve the situation and not give me any legal runaround. Luckily, I did ask the lady on the phone when I called to mark my file with the information I provided her, but who knows if she really did. So now I'm stuck worrying the rest of this beautiful weekend about whether I'm screwed or not... I'm not going to worry about it, even if I should be. From now 'til Monday morning, there ain't much I can do anyway.

Today should be chock full of errands. It's about time I cleaned the Altima. The shiny black paint job has been reduced to a "dull gray" for a little too long now and there's a nice collection of Ozarka bottles in the back seat.

It must suck to be a mime. You don't realize how important your voice is until you lose it for a couple of days. I've been without mine going on the third day now. Last night, my voice started getting better, then I went and made it worse by critiquing annual report thumbnails for three hours. By 9:00 the Kathleen Turner syndrome returned and killed any progress I made in getting it back. Looks like another day of whispering.

Apparently some people at work (Jim, Justin) now think I'm a sheet-wearin' cross burning racist from reading my last post. Okay, so it's not THAT bad, but I still got some "dude, where'd that come from?" remarks. Let me just say this: everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I'm no different. And no... I'm not racist, I simply believe in fairness.

A full day ahead of thumbnails and "list generating" reasons how our department would benefit from an intern. Apparently I haven't pontificated the strong points enough and now it looks like I'll be jumping through even more hoops in my vain attempts. I'm tired of bringing it up. I'm tired of hoop jumping. If $1600 is too much to hire a warm body for three months, then I have some concerns about how we're doing. At this point I hope Libby likes Italia after her interview today and just decides to work there. At least then it'll be a done deal and I won't have to worry about it any more. Oh, well... maybe summer?

Ahhhh. A nice warm couch and flaming gas fireplace is a nice way to cap off a day like today. It's been snowing since about 8 this morning and it hasn't backed off a bit. Luckily the roads weren't frozen throughout the day, but according to the folks on WBAP we can expect a nice freeze overnight to make the morning commute a slippery fanfare.

With the satellite dish coated in ice and snow, I had to dig deep into the DVD collection to provide the evening's entertainment. Looking for something simple, I decided on an old favorite and a movie I haven't watched in quite a while: Grumpier Old Men. Damn Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau were funny. It's almost ironic they passed on within a few months of each other.

Class went well tonight. They've started their annual reports and tonight they had to present the company background in front of the class. It was interesting to watch -- some of them were great communicators, while others you could tell we about to wet their pants. Oh, and something else I thought about tonight as one of my students handed in his paper... If you were a student and you hand in a paper you've had all weekend to do and it's nothing more than some web pages you printed out, don't you think you'd at least think to white-out the time stamp on the bottom of the paper that shows it was printed minutes before class? It's bad enough when you don't follow directions, but proving you didn't touch it until the last minute means one thing: F. Unacceptable.

I heard an interesting, yet somewhat ridiculous debate on talk radio tonight. Apparently, the newest attempt for a handout from Uncle Sam is coming from the loud mouth African-American "civil rights activists" and figure heads who believe the United States government owes the descendants of slaves (i.e.: black people of the United States) retribution money for the hell their ancestors went through. Are you kidding me? These crybabies honestly think that MY tax dollars should go into strangers pockets based on racial classification for something my people did to their people over a hundred years ago. Uh, yeah... that'll be the day. Get over it, people! I'm sick and tired of the bitching and moaning about what "I" deserve and what the government "owes" me. You know what -- if you don't like the freedom you have to prosper and make a living for yourself in this country, then go somewhere else. I'm done with hearing arguments for the support of reverse discrimination. Arg!

Enough ranting. Next step in comfort on an icy cold night: a nice warm bed.

Can you say upset? After defying the odds for a trip to the big game, the Patriots (how unbelievably appropriate this year) did the impossible and beat the "greatest show on turf" aka, the St. Louis Rams on a last second field goal. The 47 yard kick by Adam Vinnetari will no doubt go down as one of the most memorable moments in Super Bowl history. Awesome.

I'd like to say my party will go down as one of the most memorable parties ever, but I won't go that far. It was a good turn out, but again, more people RSVP'd than actually showed up, so I'm left with a plethora of food and drink for the trough. Oh well. I should stop buying extra I guess considering this is the second time it's happened. The party itself was fun with a good mix of people including some of my students who showed up for the free food and beer.

I'm fighting a nasty sore throat right now that hopefully won't get worse. It's not even close to the last throat incident that put me out of commission for almost a week, but I'm not taking any chances -- between the drugs and lozenges I'm hoping something will clear this up.

I'll be posting some of the pics from the party this week. In the mean time, I gotta get some work done.

UPDATE: Check out the time lapse of the Super Bowl Party (4meg Quicktime Movie)

I should have waited one more day on filing my taxes. Turns out I had another $950 in student loan interest I could have deducted from my taxes. I have to call the "professionals" at H&R Block and see whether it's worth the 80 bucks to file an amended return. "Professionals" -- in hindsight, I think a trained monkey could have done the same job they did yesterday. Part of the reason I went to a professional was for some sound advice and maybe find some ways to receive a bigger return from various deductions from job expenses and house costs. I didn't get either one yesterday.

Went to Sam's today with a sick Todd to stock up on party items for tomorrow. I swear, you can eat lunch for free at Sam's. As long as you can afford the membership fees, you'll never go hungry from all the fattening samples served up hot and fresh by smiling senior citizens in that place.

Speaking of smiling senior citizens, Jessie and I decided to do something totally different last night -- go play BINGO!. Yikes. People really get into this colossal waste of time. From the chubby Maw-Maw with her stuffed animal dauber holder, to the camaro-drivin' rednecks, everyone was convinced they were walking away a winner, I guess if you do win it's not such a waste of time, but what are the odds? And for those of you who have never been, you'll be glad to know that bingo has advanced with the times via the electronic bingo card. So long "fun of finding numbers and daubbing" ... Hello "sit here on my fat ass and watch the screen light up". Maybe it's just me, but I think that kinda takes the mindless fun out of it...

In the latest nerd update, my office is finally cleaned out and I plan on spending more time in here getting creative stuff done. I ran some wire channels around the baseboards for the dogcam and piped some audio cables from my 8500 to the living room surround sound. Now I can listed to my itunes and streaming radio throughout the house. Soon I'll add some disk space to the 8500 with a firewire drive and have my entire CD collection served up with a single click. Damn, I love technology.

Enough with the blogging. Back to cleaning the house so my guests will have a nice, clean floor which to spill their drinks and cheese dip.

After finally receiving my W2 yesterday, I decided to go online and file my taxes via hrblock.com last night. I used this service last year and it's rocked the casba. This year was a little different...

First of all, I'm now a home owner. For those of you who've been down this road before, you know it tends to complicate your taxes even more. The good news is you usually get more money back from all the interest you've been paying, the bad news is it's REALLY complicated.

Well, seeing as how I've always thought of myself as pretty smart, I logged on and got started anyway. Everything was going fine until I neared the end of the process and discovered my return to be a measly $647.00. No way. This HAS to be wrong.

Turns out, I had left out a few things on the application and after plugging them back in, I was pleased to see my new estimated return somewhere around $3500.00. That's more like it! But just when I thought all was great in taxland, all hell broke loose.

I'm usually a patient person when it comes to computer programs and interactive doo-dads. So when I finished the application written by a bunch of accountant nerds, it told me I had a few errors that needed to be corrected -- no big deal. I clicked on the links provided, followed the simple instructions and made whatever corrections needed to be made. It would've helped if that actually worked. After two hours of frustration, I gave up.

So here I am -- in H&R Block and I'm waiting for my turn for the next pocket protector to help me sort this mess out. I'm about to be called... (an hour later) Ok. I'm back. My return is quite a bit less than I thought -- $1400.00. Great. Looks like I had it all wrong. Why are taxes so complicated, anyway. Looks like this money's already spent on paying some bills. So much for the vacation in Vail...

Oh well. Today I'm cleaning and doing some much needed stuff around the house. Party is only three days away and I've got a long way to go. Here's hoping this month goes smoother than the last. Cheers.