Hagioscope

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

And they're off

So here's my new blog. Unlike Band Name of the Day, this is simply a diary. I got tired of being all writerly all the time and trying to entertain people. The 'Scope is just here to entertain me, and others are welcome to kibbutz and comment if they please.

BND archives are still available for browsing at the old familiar address, http://jugglernaut.blogspot.com. There's also a permanent link in the right-hand nav bar on this page.

What have I been up to lately since I haven't been naming imaginary bands? A lot of the usual and a bit of the un-.

First of all, my house was burgled on Monday. One more reason Mondays suck. My old crappy laptop was stolen, along with 2 credit cards, a leather shoulder bag, and a tin box partially filled with quarters. All the obvious stuff — new iBook, TV, stereo, etc. — was left alone. Makes me think the thief deliberately took things he/she thought I wouldn't notice missing for a while.

I also think my not-so-hidden spare key, which I kept in the garge, helped Dr. Evil get in. Dammit anyhow.

So I spent much of today getting locks replaced, cards canceled, account numbers changed, reports filed, etc. I'm feeling somewhat better now, but you'd better believe I begged my neighbor Jayne to sleep over here last night. She did, bless her.

Here's a special shout-out to my close personal friend Officer Tim of the local police, who found my second credit card in the possession of a woman he arrested today. He recognized my distinctive surname on the card and called me straight away. I ought to bake him a cake.

More on that as things develop. In other news:

Work has been good. I've been getting a variety of tasks to do and positive feedback when I do them, which is all I require at this point. My team and the others near it are going to be playing musical chairs soon, and it's rumored that I could end up next to a window for the first time in my professional life. That would be cool, but I know better than to count chickens before the seating chart has gone through all the necessary layers of review and revision.

P.S. I have a 2-mile, 5-minute commute and you don't. NYAH. Okay, Mom might, but I can't think of anyone else who does.

Play has also been good, although my ego continues to take a beating over my impatience issues. In many areas of life, I've learned to take a "whatever, dude" attitude toward things I can't control. Traffic, for instance. But there's this one particular thing that continues to get my goat. It crops up again and again. It's something over which I have zero control, so I should just let it go, but I can't. Which is probably why it keeps cropping up. If I can learn this lesson, I will consider myself practically a Zen master.

Cats are fine. Last week's trip to the vet resulted in a prescription for low-calorie food for Sprite, and no snacks. That's been a tough adjustment, but I'm trying very hard to limit her intake. I don't want her to end up with obesity-related health problems. Warren Peace remains the needy, neurotic king of all he surveys.

Got together with friends a few times recently. That's what qualifies as unusual, as I rarely see my Soup Group cronies these days. Now that we no longer work together, arranging a social outing is akin to scheduling a shuttle launch. But I miss these people and want to stay in touch, so I hound them until they join me for cocktails one and two at a time. Or we chat on the phone instead, or I get off my butt and deliver some long-overdue e-mail.

That's it. Back to watching my current video obsession, Lost.