Friday

I'm 48 now. Cloudy out this morning. Bought some switchplate covers at Home Depot. Finished painting the large wall red yesterday. Took three days. Tired of painting. Still need to paint the mantle and replace it on the wall.

Another iMac

Ordered another iMac identical to the other one. Do I need to buy another copy of Windows?? I hope not.

That ought to end the whining about "The PC" as the kids call it. Fuck Windows. Shitty OS. It's a Mac.

What now? Bought some yellow-orange paint and I painted a couple of the walls in the laundry room.

The screen door looks good, the newly-painted formerly-dark threshold looks good. I finished off the patch on the back of the house and that looks good. I spray painted the plastic table from God knows how long ago with some spray paint meant for plastic. Looks pretty good. It was fucked up.

I ought to dump that propane tank somewhere. Or open the valve and let the propane out. Or use the gas up... by running both burners on the stove for a year..? I've had that tank for ten years, I think. Sheesh.

Today is Friday. Thank God. Yeah, as if my schedule is so stressful... Cassidy said "I can't stand the pressure!" this morning and that cracked me up... loads of pressure in second grade, I'm certain...

The second PC ought to make life easier. Less squabbling.

What else? Three more hours until Cassidy arrives home.

I wonder if Flynn is going to mock the yellow color I painted the laundry room? I think that it looks cheerful.

I ought to pull the corned beef out of the freezer. Although I was planning on preparing ribs for Diane and Flynn for lunch tomorrow. Hopefully Diane won't ask for a ride over and back. That really fucks up Saturday. And I fucking HATE that part of town, Mira Mesa. Nearly as filthy as Anaheim. Yuck. Ugly houses, too much traffic, no reason to be there... it's badly planned. I don't want any part of it.

I was going to smoke the ribs... incinerated some ribs the last time I tried that. I still have most of a box of hardwood chips for smoking in the garage somewhere. Fucking up ribs is expensive.

What else? I ought to vacuum Flynn's room. Or address some bills. This has been a bad month for money.

Or maybe trim some of the tomatoes.. or transplant that one tomato that's still growing. Or mow the lawn... always something to do at home. Good to keep busy.

If I don't think "It feels so good to sit down" at the end of the day when I finally sit down, then I haven't been busy enough that day...

Sitting here listening to a Howard Stern replay. I ought to break down the tomato planters. Try that again next year, maybe.

Waiting for a quote on cutting a drain between War and Cor's house and here. That will be a big improvement. That side of the house has been wet since we moved here. So that will be a big deal.

I'd also like to get the rest of the windows double-glazed. The bedroom windows, two bathroom windows, the kitchen flowerbox thing, the sliding glass doors, the window in the small bathroom, the window in Flynn's room... The window in the garage? Yes, eventually.

In time, if possible, I'd like to get a doorway into the garage from the house. And to add a big bathroom for Cassidy's use. And to make Flynn's room a big larger. And to build a real fireplace and chimney and not a metal box with a metal tube. Some massive fireplace made of real bricks that would absorb heat while a fire burns.

That new iMac is expensive, but it will be nice to have my own computer to myself for a change...

Mr. Castro, when he was out looking at the walkway between War and Cor's house and here, mentioned that the palm tree which had planted itself outside of the small bathroom window would grow to be forty or sixty feet... yipes. Too tall for that space, too tall for the house...

What else is new? Cassidy spilled something on this keyboard and the "a" key sticks. Drives me nuts. I ordered a replacement keyboard with the new computer. And a new Kensington Pilot mouse, which is exactly what the other iMac has. I also ordered another 512Mb SIMM so both computers will have a GIG of memory... shit! Imagine that!!!

The iMacs are 1.83 and have a gig of RAM apiece... this iMac has 768Mb of RAM and runs at 1GHz...

I'd like to replace the squishy gel pad I rest my wrists on while I type. The dogs and then Cassidy have wrecked it.

Change the fish water this weekend. Moved all the larger, aggressive fish to the small tank. Where they promptly killed off six of their number. Moved two small fish back to the large tank last night.

I'd moved all but one of the larger or aggressive fish. Couldn't catch one brass tetra. Asshole fish. I was glad to see those fish kill one another. I want small and peaceful fish.

Sigh. Time to clean the floor again!??!!??! Where does this dust come from?!

I'd like to replace the kid's television sets with a pair of $250 Sony televisions. Those televisions were each $99 or less and have crappy pictures.

I'd also like to replace three of the exterior cameras. I have only the one in the eaves at the front of the house which looks at our parking spot.

Ho hum. Gotta water everything. And attack the final patch of crabgrass. Dangerous Africanized crabgrass...

What next? Go pack up the HDTV receiver which I can apparently keep. Stash that in the garage. There's a small hill of clutter in the garage which I don't seem to be able to get rid of...

Time to go do something useful...