January 2008 Archives

My wife is on her usual, "Let's watch American Idol" kick again this year. I tried to watch. A few parts were kind of funny and all, but . . . it's just not reaching me this time around. Luckily the kids want to play Habbo. My daughter's laptop has completely and utterly died. It was a slow, miserable death that only Toshiba can deliver. This was a most excellent diversion, however.

My son's desktop has originally been configured with a 15 GB HD booting Ubuntu. I did this because when he had Windows he would download and install stuff without my knowledge. Given that Habbo requires shockwave, only Windows can be used to play the game. So I regularly have to give the kids access to my desktop machine so they can take turns playing. Well, since her machine died, I decided to put a 160 GB HD in my son's machine, install Windows, and give him a lecture about downloading and installing software without my knowledge. He agreed. I was able to escape American Idol while re-configuring my son's computer.

Whoo - hoo!

Now they can both play at the same time. I still have to give up my desktop machine while my daughter plays Habbo, but I always have my laptop.

It snowed last night. The roads are slick and the traffic is backed up.

Tuesday my wife sends me an IM at work, "I think the coffee machine is dead, I think." I remembered that it had been leaking over the weekend, so I IM her back that it probably is and we should start looking for a new one. We both like to have espresso drinks every now and then, so I consider looking at combination machines that will do both coffee and espresso. I find one on Amazon and IM her with the link. However, I remember seeing that JcPenney was having a sale on kitchen stuff. Over Christmas we had purchased a cookware set for roughly half off the regular price of almost $400. It's a nice set and so far it has been great stuff. So I head over to JcPenney's website.

It turns out that the bird we found in our backyard . . . about a year ago . . . really didn't deserve to be named, "Mr. Bird." We've been calling it that for quite some time. But, after Mr. Bird started laying eggs a couple weeks ago . . . well . . . we decided an appropriate name would be Mamabird. Of course the eggs will never hatch, but that doesn't stop her from being awfully protective of the 6 eggs she laid.

Just sitting here, in front of the tv at this very moment and reflecting at the year passed. It definitely could have been much better. I could have made better career decisions and a little good luck might have been nice. But dwelling on the past isn't very Zen is it? Looking forward I would like to do a few things this year better than I have in the past:

1. Remember to take my camera with me more often . . . and take more pictures.
2. Put more of my projects here on my blog.
3. Find peace of mind.

The first two are pretty easy. The last is something a bit more elusive. Perhaps a little luck this year will come my way.