I Shall Now Soil Myself In Protest. Again.

Well, I was going to greet you with a hearty "Good Thursday To You!", but then recalled it will be Friday by the time you all read this. I can't quite bring myself to say "Good Friday To You!" since it is still technically Thursday for me, and who knows, that might be against the law or something. Besides, 'Good Friday' was last week... I'd hate to have you thinking I am confused when it comes to religious holidays. 

How about this: Good day to you! 

There, now I'm covered regardless of what day it is.

Wait... what if it's night time when you're reading this? That won't work! I'd have to say "Good evening to you..." You'll think I'm signing off, and you'll stop reading! And I've only just begun! And what if saying "good day" makes you think I'm an Aussie? Holy crap, I didn't even think of that! I can't even surf!

How about: Greetings! I hope you are doing well!

That's too corny and overdone. Besides, if the lighting is not all that good where you are right now, you might misread it and think I said I hope you fall down a well. 

OK, I got it: Hi. Please don't fall down a well on your trip down under.

There, the greeting is out of the way, now I can procede...

Rug Shop Day, part two today. It was also "Take Your Family Into Work Day." Which meant I arrived later than I had planned, since getting my family out the door is an ordeal that rivals the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, only without most of the accompanying plagues. We did deal with locusts and 3 days of darkness this morning, but that was it. The good thing about going in later than usual is that the freeway traffic parted before us and we drove in quickly, on dry concrete. 

I got a lot done today, actually. Do I sound surprised? Most of the time my brain is a jumble of thoughts and plans and assorted amusing/embarrassing thoughts... much like an angry bee hive. But sometimes, I can get into the proverbial "zone", and a type of hyper-focus kicks in and I can really move things through. It's exhausting, but it leaves me feeling good. It's nice to be able to point to a handful of accomplishments at the end of the day, instead of a lucky one or two.

Then we had a terrific dinner on the way home - by accident, actually. Wait, I need to cover this briefly. Initially, I was doing the sadly-too-frequent, mildly-annoying "cheapest meal I can find" routine, so we stopped at Jack In The Box off Mercy Rd. They have something there I've never seen before... at the counter, they have what looks like arcade machines, where you can make your order (via a touch screen), swipe your card, and not have to deal with an actual frazzled smacknuts-of-an-employee behind the counter. You type it all in, pay, get your receipt, and wait for the crew of mouth-breathers preparing your food to call your number. 

Well, call me old school, but I knew that with my family, and the amount of customizing they usually do with their orders, we were more likely to get what we wanted if we dealt with a real flesh-and-blood (and-acne) person. Long story short, we stood around like complete morons for about 10 minutes, while the "help" ran around doing other stuff (filling other orders, handling the drive-thru, fondling french fries) and even when we asked twice for help, told us to "uh... hold on a minute". 

Needless to say, we got pissed and left. We ate at a Japanese food place nearby, which was more pricey, but infinitely better than the 'just-this-side-of-offal' we would have received at Jack. Great meal, smooth drive home, some Fallout 3, a movie on Netflix, and now I'm writing this. When I finish here, I'll make a mental plan for tomorrow, read on the couch, and go the heck to sleep!

Wow! What an amazing, exciting life I lead! Staggering! Well, I guess I can't wrestle an alligator or run into a burning building or skydive every day, eh? Come to think of it, I've never done any of those things, regardless of the day...

Funny Picture Time:

Reminded me of Carl. Except, like, he's a dog. Other than that...

Todayve In History: April 17:

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- April 17, 1521: Martin Luther is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. (They thinks he doth protest too much!)

- April 17, 1534: Sir Thomas More was confined in London Tower. (At least he still had wireless internet access. You should read his blog post from that day - he was pissed!)

And in Baseball History, several interesting things happened: 

4/17/1869: The first professional baseball game is played. 

4/17/1934: Fenway Park opens.

4/17/1947: Jackie Robinson gets his first pro basehit.

4/17/1951: Mickey Mantle's first game.

4/17/1964: Shea Stadium opens. 

4/17/1983: Nolan Ryan strikes out his 3,500th batter. 

What? No baseball fans in the house? Buncha uncivilised, uncultured Luddites!

Oh, good job, Dave! Insult all of your readers! Yeah, that's a great way to make sure they keep on reading! What are you, an ignoranus? 

(BTW: An "ignoranus" is someone who's both an idiot and an a-hole.)

Here's my current playlist:

Current Book: The Chronicles of the Black Company, by Greg Cook

Current Game: Fallout 3

Current Music: Jason Mraz

Current Movie: Zero Effect (not bad... squeaked out a "3 out of 5")

Current Window Position: Open. (Bet you can't guess why? :D )

Until tomorrow, remember, I'd back up my hard drive, but I don't know how to shift it into reverese.