It's a Work Week, All Right!

Boy-oh-boy has it ever been a busy week at work. Yes, it's deadline time again.

I'm reminded of a long, long time ago when Ceej and I were exchanging e-mail regularly, and at one point before a deadline she had she was talking about working to get her bug count down to zero. She finally did it, and signed off a message with:

C "zero bugs" J

Well, that's what my week has been like, and I'm pleased to report that when I left work tonight (after what has to be one of my least auspicious days in living memory as far as having my shit together goes) I can sign off as:

"m zero h bugs r".

Like, for instance, that my vacation plans for May have been approved. Woo-hoo!

I've also been busy during the evening. Tuesday was our penultimate ultimate game (or was that the other way around?), and last night was gaming night at Subrata's (I got smoked at Settlers of Catan). The other two nights I've mostly been spending catching up on watching Sports Night, since John got me a tape of the two episodes I'd missed.

I've also been continuing to prepare for our fantasy baseball draft, which is in about three weeks. I want to be better prepared this year and actually have a strategy! (Last year my strategy ended up being "have no pitching, see all your plans to acquire pitching fail miserably, and finish ninth. Or eleventh. Or something.")

And tonight I spent some time scanning in the first batch of photos I've taken with my spiffy new film camera. You can see some on these pages, including some lively flowers blooming outside my building at Apple, the kitties at their favorite windows (and the flowering trees I can see across the parking lot behind my building), and the kitties munching on some cat grass. They love cat grass.

As a bonus, I also scanned six pictures from my first date with Monique and two from Potlatch; visit those entries via the links to view the photos. And on all these pages you can click on a photo to enlarge it.

(Speaking of Monique, wish her a happy birthday.)

Anyway, I'm really happy with the quality of the photos, and with the flexibility that the zoom gives me. A fine purchase.

The weather here has been bright and sunny and very warm, with temperatures inching towards 80 several days recently. In fact, it's been so warm that people have started to turn on their air conditioners, and as a result California has had several more rolling blackouts. Neither Apple nor my home have been hit yet, but it's a dire portent for this summer.

The drawback to this weather for me is that it means that the turf has dried out and is like baked clay when we play ultimate. My shin splints were acting up on Tuesday, and many of us were slipping because we couldn't get purchase on the ground with our cleats. (Presumably a few people wore turf shoes which are better suited for such terrain. I don't own any.) No injuries, fortunately.

Ah, the little travails I have to cope with. Tragic, isn't it?

One thing I don't think I've ever mentioned here is that I'm a huge fan of the band Jethro Tull (but I'm working out, so soon I'll be a smaller fan). I've lately been reading Flying Colours: The Jethro Tull Reference Manual, and as a result I've been listening to lots and lots of Tull. I've got their first five albums in my car, and several others at work, and I'm rediscovering just how great their music is. (Tom's comment on hearing Tull in my car was, "Wow, you're actually listening to some real music." He can't stand jazz music.)

I want to write a whole page about Tull for my Web sometime, but who knows when I'll have the time?

If you're interested in hearing some Tull and never have before, you can't really go wrong with their albums Benefit, Songs from the Wood, or Crest of a Knave. The first is a little more like progressive rock, the second is folk-rock, and the third is straight-ahead guitar-based rock.

I'll close with something that's annoying me lately: For about two weeks, I've had this feeling in the back of my throat. As if a soft piece of food were lodged there. It's annoying, but that's all. It started a couple of weeks ago, hasn't gotten any worse, doesn't hurt, doesn't cause me to choke (even when breathing hard or sleeping), it's just... a feeling. Like mild congestion.

Of course I'm thinking, "I wonder if a tonsillectomy is in my future? I wonder how I find out?" while trying to ignore and it hoping it will just go away. Wondering if I have some low-grade illness (many people at work have gotten sick lately) and just need more sleep to shake it.

Grr. It's always something.