Oh how I've missed you. My sweet, sweet time to postulate and pontificate about the various and sundry things that happen in the course of a day. The time to stop and smell the roses. ...or at least stop and think about the smell of the roses.

Time has been one thing I have not had much of lately. New job, new living quarters, new utility bills (have you seen the price of cable these days?) and all of that jazz.

Pardon me if this seems to be a mental adolescent ejaculation of various topics. Maybe I'll sort it out later but I doubt it.

Cable is expensive. The local company is wanting ~ $60 per month for nothing special. Just cable. No pay channels or anything. Yeah, well DirecTV will hook me up pretty sweet for that kind of jenga. I told the wife we'd go with that but I haven't had time to really hash it out yet so for the time being we have a set of rabbit ears that we move from television to television. It surprises me the differing results we have on the various televisions with it. Odd indeed.

Credit. How is it that I can be approved for a $25,000+ loan for a vehicle but I still have to put a deposit down for electric service. I'm afraid I simply don't understand that.

Other people's kids. We have a kid in the neighborhood who is just a couple years older than our oldest. Mentally they seem to be about the same and physically there's little difference so it's a good pairing. The wife somewhat loathes the new friend. I don't really mind him. He seems ok but she spends quite a bit more time with him than I do. Also, when I don't want him doing something I am quite direct about it. She has her more around the bush sort of way to attack problems and I don't think new kid understands her biting sarcasm yet. Give them time, I say, and they'll be the best of buddies.

Hopefully I will have you back, my precious time. You will be mine -- oh yes, you will be mine.

Order up!

We'll add this to things I don't understand. At a certain McRestaurant I like to order a certain McBreakfast McSandwich. We'll call this McSandwich the Sausage McMuffin with Egg, since that is the name it is given on the menu and it is the same name that is on their nutrition fact sheet. It is not the name it is commonly known by.

I have travelled to many states and ordered this same McSandwich time and time again. I'm pretty sure there is not a state I have been in that the order taker has not become confused by my calling it by its proper name. The reason being is there is one ingredient (Other than lard) that is not in the name of the sandwich. Cheese. The sandwich is a simple English muffin (covered in lard), a sausage patty (pre soaked in lard), an egg patty (cooked in lard), and a slice of american "cheese." Yes, I know it is just congealed lard, but "American cheese" is the accepted term for that item. Since the name of the McSandwich does not include the term "cheese", many people assume you don't want the cheese when you order it properly. I can't count the number of times I have said into a craptastic microphone/speaker "No, I just want the sandwich from the #2 meal but not the meal."

Therefore I have come to the following conclusion:
It matters not what the proper name of something is, one must use the vernacular of the participants in order to obtain the proper results.

In related news, if you want one of these, it is best to say "Sausage egg and cheese McMuffin." I still prefer, and will continue to say "Sausage McMuffin with egg sandwich" because that is the proper name of it. Sometimes I'll get cheese, sometimes I won't. As a side note, when you don't get cheese it doesn't change the price (unlike in their hamburger/cheeseburger world.) No, I don't take them back when they don't have cheese on them. I prefer to have my food spittle free.

There were rats Dad. -- Indiana Jones

I am what most would consider a mouse potato. I don't watch much tv but I do spend a lot of time in front of a computer. The family heckles me about this from time to time but they never seem to be in the heckling mood when they need something done by me for their computers. Funny how it works that way.

I've only ever had one good mouse. It was a microsoft intellimouse 2.0. Its shape fit my hand perfectly. It was heavy and had a nice ball. It lasted until the cows came home and then stuck around until the chickens crowed. But I decided it was time to update to the laser jobbie so I wouldn't have to clean the mouse ball every Monday whether it needed it or not (and it always did need it.)

I figured since I loved my Microsoft intellimouse so much and since it was built like a tank I would purchase another Microsoft mouse and all would be good. The one I chose was called, I think, the Microsoft Blue. Because it is blue. After a couple of years of using this mouse I have two things to report.

1. It is a microsoft mouse.
2. It is not a tank.

The left click button is beat. To. Death. Sometimes it takes multiple hard clicks to get a single click out of it. Other times it will do multiple actions with one click. I dislike this very much. Luckily I purchased another mouse quite some time ago. I'm never one to be at a loss for computer peripherals. It is a logitech cordless mouse that I have been using for my work computer since I hated the dell mouse that came with my computer. Friday being my last day and all I believe I'll be ridding myself of the microsoft blue and never purchasing another.