Heh, after my entry yesterday, I was going home when someone honked at me... but it was Kevin!

Today was moving day at work finally. My new office is so awesome!

Cable is the end of me. How can I go to sleep when VH1 has such inviting possibilities until, like, 4am?

Nothing like some good insomnia to destroy that refreshed-from-vacation feeling on day one back to work. Urgh.

One of the more amusing moments of the Vegas Vacation was when we were walking down the street and these guys were hanging out of this car ogling some girls. As we walked right past them, I said, "Does that ever work?" which lead to much laughing on the part of my family and a bit of red-facedness and embarrassment on the part of the young men. We noticed that their eagerness was dampened as they crawled around the corner. I've always wanted to ask guys that as they whistle and shout at girls out of cars. By these boys' reponses, I'm guessing the answer to my question is "No." Anyway, boys don't really want the girls that *would* respond to such catcalling -- namely, desperate skanky-ass hos.

Lots of updating once I have slept.

Vegas! So, we drove there Thursday and got in around 3pm. We stayed at the Boardwalk, which is this little Coney Island-themed joint, except it's much better than Coney Island. :-) We wandered around to the various casinos and hotels and had dinner at this little food court. Finally I was exhausted (good ol PMS), so I headed back to the hotel and napped and showered. Then Am and I went out, had some drinks at our hotel bar and enjoyed a Motown group and a Prince cover band that was insanely popular. Then off to the Luxor for more drinking, where I won $125 sitting at the bar playing the slot lazily. This lead to a bucket o' quarters, which was fun to have sitting there. We met this guy from Tennessee who worked at Jack Daniel's and who had never flown before coming to Vegas. He was cool.

After not a lot of sleep, we were out again for more wandering. That night we went to Cirque de Soleil (Mystere at Treasure Island), and then to MGM for casino fun (just slots... I never got up the nerve to play tables, because I hate losing more than $0.25 per bet). Am and I hit NY NY for some Guinness, and then off to sleep for another few hours.

Saturday's drive home was crazy and rainy. Awesome lightning show. Rain smells so much better at home than in Boston, where it's just as dirty as everything else. After another 5 whole hours of sleep, I had to get up and pack up for the flight home. It was a pretty decent flight, with a short hop up to Denver, a quick layover, and a fairly short flight to Logan. I went up to Medford for dinner, and Clark made his famous spaghetti again (delish!), and the Sox beat the Yankees (woot!). And I chastised Matty for thinking he can go home for the next two weekends. :-) Ah well, August is going to be as crazy as the rest of the summer.

Today, however, is the last day of my vacation, as I decided beforehand that I would need a little vacation from my vacation and work should not be in the picture for today. I need to shower and go grocery shopping.

So, next Saturday morning I have GREs, and I knew when I scheduled it that my dear westbound friend would schedule his going-away party the night before. Shore nuff. It's okay, though, there's still time to hang out. Huh, but speaking of GREs, I gotta get some studying done on those this week.

My day started slowly, but then I accomplished grocery shopping (yay food!), fridge cleaning (yech... I don't think it's been cleaned for a bajillion years), and dinner. Now I'm bored and bugging the boy on IM while he's trying to make his own dinner. :-)

Mostly I've done a whole lot of nothing on this vacation. Well, that's not totally true. I have not been to the Frontier, since Paul was wondering. But if I had been, I'd have had a breakfast burrito, of course. Maybe en route to the airport. Anyhoo, Monday I jogged, as mentioned, and then drove up to Tramway and down and around checking out the view of Albuquerque. Tuesday I shopped, obtaining the most amazing things at Savers and being jealous that things are reasonably priced in Albuquerque. More shopping here and there, chilling at the Double Yup, and then off to the nail salon for a full set. They are fab, much more so than my crappy evil nails I was tired of looking at. Today I did nothing but drive around and look at scenery, after phat lunch with my ma.

Tomorrow: Vegas!

Walking makes me think, but driving clears my brain. I bop along to the radio and pay attention to the road and don't think at all. Which is really crucial to relaxation on this vacation.

The crazy thing about actually sleeping in a dark room with no clock is that I get up so late! Oh, and the laziness.

I went out for a jog, and my legs felt just fine but the LUNGS! They burn! Ow ow lack of oxygen!

Home sweet home. It's nice and dry hot oh yeah baby here in ABQ, and tonight we're going to go see the 'Topes at the newly renovated stadium. Kick ass!

Bleargh. Concern.

So, home tomorrow. I am so looking forward to vacation... I think I'm just going to lounge and goof off a whole lot. And then on to Vegas for massive partying... hot patying because I checked the weather this morning, and it was already 90 as of like 5 am there. They've been having temps well over 100. At least Albuquerque is staying at a cool 90.

So I got an email this morning from Verizon saying my DSL will be installed 7/24. Great! Except it should all be cancelled! So they're sending me some sort of crap which I'm going to have to send back. I'm going back to the complaint, er, "Tell us about your customer experience" form.

I actually went for a jog tonight! Woo! And then I reconciled all my accounts in Quicken for about a thousand hours. That's what happens when you let two weeks pass, too many nights of which you spend drinking. :-) I made up plausible stories for all but $10, which I'm sure I frittered away on ice coffees and junk.

Last night was Clark's birthday party! Happy 20th to him! (Where "Happy birthday" does not mean "Shut the fuck up," as it was code for last night). He made a most delightful pasta sauce, full of meat and meat, the best kind, and Courtney had made a fab chocolate cake with green frosting that I thought was pistachio, but it was really just green colored and almond extracted, tricking my brain. We also watched the All-Star game, but I left before the AL rallied back.

Once I had finished my internetting for the evening, however, I did test out my cable on the TV, and shore nuff, cable it makes! This lead to watching Doggy Fizzle Televizzle until way too late. But I've been hearing it's the best show on television, and shore nuff, it is. This will lead to me buying some additional equipment, methinks.

Vacation is nearing! In three days I'll be home. Before then, housecleaning.

INTERNET AT HOOOOOOOOOOOME!

I talked briefly to G and then to Pro last night. Sounds like I missed a party weekend (I'll have to make up my absence on the dance floor for Baby Got Back some other time...). Congrats to Storey and Emily on their weddedness.

Pro was laughing at me for being gushy. Damn me for being all that I've hated, and for liking it so very much.

I just want to mention to you all again that I have internet at home again. It makes me that friggin happy.

The internet was down much of the day here at work. Internet hates me wherever I go! But at least by tomorrow, I will have internet at home, if all goes well.

This weekend was super fly. Friday night I was out in Medford, teaching the kids drinking games and laughing at Clark for unknowingly missing half the Pearl Jam concert. Saturday night was fun at the Cube, with beer pong and poker. That crazy chica Jamie decided to drink A WHOLE LOT OF PARROT BAY, leading to madness. Damn girl, mix in some non-alcohol! But all was well. Slept in ridiculoulsy late yesterday, which was lovely. :-)

Tonight I'm sticking around work late to make some evening phone calls. Par-tay. I have no desire to do this at all. I hate phone calls.

So, I found out today that I'm being promoted to RA II right at a time when they are upping the entire salary structure... so my raise due to my promotion is going to be wicked rawkin'!

Sweet sweet Friday.

Had dinner in Medford last night. Katherine cooked us some wonderful dinner, and I was unsuccessful at getting that purity point from Darryl before he turned 18. :) Just kidding. :-) For some reason, people seemed to be in a really strange mood, which made for lots of laughs, but also some awkward nervous laughs and silences... but it was all fun. I'll be back there tonight for some chillin', which should be fun. :-) :-)

I was thinking yesterday that I live in a bizarro version of my life several years ago. There are odd parallels, but striking opposites, coexisting. It's exactly like the old days, except functional!

Ah, the Vineyard was lovely. I really enjoy it down there. We got in mid-afternoon Tuesday, grabbed some lunch, and then went to the Tisbury Street Fair, which was pretty good, and there ended up being quite a lot of people there. Lick Lyme! Afterwards we chilled in the (very nice) hizzy, and then it was off to sleep. Wednesday we grabbed lunch and then "worked" at the beach... meaning we went to the beach but conveniently didn't bring any Lyme materials to hand out. It was overcast, but nice and breezy and cool in comparison to the mucky hot we'd been having the day before. We spent a couple hours just chilling... I wish the kids could come down to the Vineyard, because the water was much warmer than up north, and we'd have a grand old time playing in the water. But we all just kinda parked out on the beach and napped and read. Then it looked like rain and started a sprinkle, so we high-tailed it for home. Ferry and bus and I was back in town, and I did nothing last night but finish Harry Potter III.

So, I'm amazed how little I remembered of book 3. I mean, it's been 3 years, but still. I remembered more of books 1 and 2 I think because of the movies. Also, the third book is kinda weird... I feel like a lot of what the kids find out is overheard or told to them instead of discovered through lots of detective work, like in the first two. I feel like there was more space devoted to tangents, many of which did come back to play a role in the main storyline, though. I dunno, I feel like I remember the least about 3, and I can't figure out quite why. But now I started 4... man, it's so huge. Such a bear to get through before I can finally read the fifth book.

Argh, trying to get organized. I just want a nap!

I succeeded in making phone calls, woo! Of course, only one person was home out of nine, but at least I tried, and maybe someone will call back.

My raise went through right on time, which is like some kind of record for around here, cuz most people don't even have their review on time. My second raise will happen soon. In moving news, it's now uncertain when we will be moving, because they keep changing the date. It might happen while I'm on vacation.

So, like I said, no internet at home. But I will have it back starting next Tuesday... with RCN. Yes, folks, I have had it with Verizon, and I told them I didn't want any more of their "service." RCN isn't really all that cheap, but I'm so friggin sick of Verizon. That and maybe I can figure out how to steal cable TV with the cable internet installed. :-) So, don't expect weekend updates... I only have internet at work, really... which means I'm not getting any work done at all with three days of catching up to do. :-)

Weekend! So hard to return on Monday after a fabulous three days off. Thursday night Matt came over, we ordered pizza, and then we tried to watch Aqua Teen on my computer, but something is busted, and, lacking the internet, we could not fix it. So, we headed to Medford to watch it there. The girl Matt is subletting from ordered a bed from Ikea, and it had arrived. I dunno if you've ever seen furniture from Ikea before it becomes fully-realized furniture, but it comes in approximately fifty pieces per cubic inch. Since we thought it might be nice to have a bed to sit on to watch the cartoons, we were all, hey, let's put the bed together! Three hours later, it was all set. I have to say, it was pretty entertaining overall, however. Especially deciphering the instructions, and making screw holes where none were drilled. Fab. But then we got to watch some cartoons, and I have to say, Aqua Teen is really funny and weird.

Friday was fun at the Red, White, and Cubed. I got to see tons of the old skool, most of whom hadn't seen me in a while, like, since before the diet, so they were surprised. The kids all looked great, Dworkin stopped smoking (!), Brad still likes little girls, it was nice to see Rosie, and Morgan was in a really good storytelling mood, which was fun. A lot of youngsters were about as well, so it was this crazy generational mix. Madness everywhere. We caught the fireworks over on Summer St (they have a lovely balcony), and then I walked Matty to the bus stop cuz he had to sleep so he could get up and work Saturday (sadness!). Back at the Cube, I was amused and appalled and annoyed all in tandem, which was fun.

Saturday was the beach! I got to wear my new sexy bathing suit and a lot of sunscreen. Jamie definitely wins for best swim suit... Darryl's swim trunks and a sports bra (not Darryl's), covered by the best t-shirt of all time, a long shirt with a picture of a woman's body wearing a teeny beaded bikini so it kinda looked like it was Jamie wearing it. Hi-larious. The sand was scorching and the water was freezing, so we spent a lot of time going back and forth. I liked all the kids there, which made for a great day, nice and relaxing. We returned, met up with kids in the BR, hit Noch's, watched Office Space (I love that movie so much!), and then Jenn and I drove Clark and Matt up to Medford. Then Jenn and I went home, washed off all that sunscreen and sand, and hit Diesel for coffee drinkage. I love having Jenn around to chat too, and I wish she'd move back! (prod prod).

Sunday Jenn took off early, and I got up late morning. I started to read the fifth Harry Potter installment when I realized that it's been three years since I read the whole series, and I really don't remember that much. So, I was required to go buy the other books and start over from the beginning. After a trip to the Monkey (after going to Wordsworth, finding only the fifth book, and wondering, where *do* they keep children's books here anyway?), I went to the Mac quad and chilled in the shade reading until Matt called. He came down to the square, we went shopping so he could buy shorts (Matt to Clark earlier: "So, I need shorts, and instead of doing laundry, I'm just going to go buy some"), and then we grabbed dinner and met Clark up to go see T3. The movie was pretty good, and all three of us really enjoyed it. It fit with the series well, it didn't overdo it with the cgi and special effects like a lot of movies these days, and there were good moments of comedy (to keep our mind off the fear of death, I guess). Arnold was fun, Nick Stahl was scruffy-hot, Claire Danes was pretty cool, and the Terminatrix was skeery! And that crane truck broke shit up good.

Now I'm back to work... and I have accomplished totally zero today, I tell ya. And tomorrow and Wednesday I'll be on the Vineyard, so I won't get any work done here until Thursday! We have a million meetings this afternoon.

All is well. I just don't have internet at home. Sorry for not posting.

Verizon sucks. I can't really get around that. So, I had to order phone service. Man, no wonder people are using cell phones more and more -- land lines are expensive and sucky! I just friggin want it to be on so I can use DSL! I ended up getting the cheapest plan that you even have to pay for local calling, because I seriously doubt I'll ever use the phone, especially since I don't own one! I have nothing to even plug in to the wall. Still costs me $20 a month, thereby completely cancelling the prior discount on my DSL.

I discovered that taking a cab home from Target is not too bad. I might be forced to do the same from MB when I finally go grocery shopping.

So, the apartment was nice and clean when I got home last night... well, almost. They were finishing up. The kitchen is still not to my satisfaction. Lisa left a bunch of crap that I'm sure was the prior roommate's, mostly under the sink. The cabinets are also not to my satisfaction, and they're dirty. I did fix the fridge, however, so now there are two shelves upon which tall things can be put, as opposed to one uselessly tall shelf and two uselessly short shelves. So, cleaning and rearranging is on the kitchen agenda. The bathroom is fab, with a new shower curtain and fluffy bathmat. The living room is sad, but not completely empty, with new lamp, my chair (I need to get its twin somehow), coffee table and two randomly-place end tables. My room is a friggin mess.

And Dude moved in last night into the room with the bed. I figured it'd be pretty mean to make him sleep on an air mattress when there's a perfectly good empty bed in the house. We talked a bit about psychology, and I'll have to grill him more on his work later.

Cartoons tonight!

Okay, roommie threw out the bread because she saw one of those damned little moths in the bag. I guess I didn't really want to eat that. Also, lots of the junk in the closet she thought was mine, cuz it turns out the evil of her previous roommate had not truly left us as she left lots of crap in the hall closets. It's just amazing that she never noticed. So, things were still pretty messy there as of this morning, but I hope by the time I get home it will be pretty. It's so empty!

And my fucken internet doesn't work at home. I suspect L had the landline shut off, and since Verizon is stupid, they really just totally shut it off. I don't want to identify this knowledge to Verizon, cuz I want them to figure it out so I can play dumb and insist that I should not have to pay for phone service, as I never have had to before. I don't want a phone, I just want some fucken internet.

I wonder if Dude is gonna call me to move in today. I need to go buy some stuff, like a shower curtain. L was nice and left me an old one, but I want a shiny new one. And some lamps... I realize now that there are three rooms without any lighting. I have some other crap I'm going to spread around the house to make it look less bare.

Last night we watched Terminator... and I realized I've never actually seen it. Just II.

I have The Ballad of the Sneak stuck in my head. Seriously, this thing is just too wonderful, especially if you've seen The Cheat Theme Song, which has been out a while. And if you get the whole homestar universe as a whole.

I think it's gone unnoticed that I've been here for almost two hours and accomplished zero!

I don't feel that tired today, but I can't make my brain concentrate on anything.

That could be because I'm waiting for about four different phone calls, and I have to pee, but everytime I leave my phones, they ring like I'm king of the world.

Despite lunch and iced coffee, I am still feeling really odd and crappy. Maybe work just makes me sad because it's detracting from the fun I could be having on these wonderful summer days. I think also that there's still a lot of underlying stress about my house... about it getting clean, about needing to buy stuff and not having a car, about needing to work on it and make it pretty and settled and not being able to because of it taking so long for my roommate to move out already. But maybe that will be resolved by tomorrow. It also couldn't hurt if I got some sleep, and if my internet was working at home.

Fuck man, July already!

I did a little project tallying up some stats for hubba (which Matt has forbidden me to publish because a certain high-volume contributor may only be inspired to contribute more), and it turns out that over its history, the top ten have provided half the volume. It also turns out that I was on crack this month, posting more than #2 and #3 combined. Getting a life does not seem to correlate to less posting, at least for me.

Also, there were 261 posts in June 2003 compared to 104 posts in June 2002. So many people are online this summer! The top poster for June 2002 would have been 6th this month.

I've also been the top poster for 7 out of the 18 months of hubba's existence. Which is actually less than I expected! I'm also the top poster of all time, but most of that is because of the first 8 months... this school year I was actually second. Which is good cuz I wasn't friggin in school!

Man, when I get home today, house better be pretty fuckin' empty. My roommate said she'd have to come back tomorrow to clean, but most of the crap better be out. I'm also sore with her because she tossed out my bread (I guess assuming it as old or hers, neither of which makes any sense since it neither looks moldy, nor has she ever bought pumpernickel as far as I can tell) even though there's tons of crap still in the pantry. Most of which is definitely *not* mine. I fear she's going to take half my kitchen stuff with her and leave me a bunch of terrible shit I'll have to toss out.

Ya know, sometimes less is more. Really.

I hardly ever eat at the food court, but today I went over there. And then instead of going out the door I came in, I headed toward the other door to leave, and who should I find but Clark! It looked like vacation was good to him, and now he's back and working down the street, when he's not way up in Medford. :-)