Bleh. It’s been a hectic past couple of weeks.

I guess I should be happy that today wasn’t too bad of a day. I got quite a bit accomplished, including doing some testing on a new laptop we got in for possible deployment to the users (the Wyse X90, which I’ll probably go on about in another post). As it stands, though, my day’s been busier due to the fact that our level one tech support person was let go last week. We’ll get another one eventually, but for now I’ve got my hands full keeping up with my old workload and the added workload that would normally be handled by someone else. Ah, well.

At least this past Saturday was fun. I ended up making my way over to Dave’s house around lunchtime, and from there we made our way over to a Pei Wei less than a mile or two away for lunch. Once done there, we made our way to Katy Mills Mall; Dave wanted to buy a few records from Past & Presents. That was fine by me, as I had never been to Katy Mills. After he did his shopping (and I took a tech support call from Dad), we wandered around the mall for a bit. I admit I went into the Games Workshop store, to see if they had Talisman in stock. Turned out they didn’t… ah, well. After we left Katy Mills, we headed back to Dave’s apartment, where we watched Batman Begins (which Dave had never seen before). Louie arrived shortly after the movie ended, and he also got to meet Dave’s new cat, “Nature Boy”. (Louie had the same reaction to Nature Boy that I did: “WOOOOOO!” :-) ) We all ended up going to Outback for dinner, after which we got some coffee at Starbucks. Now, the plan was to go to a bowling alley and do the “Extreme Bowling” deal from 11-2 AM. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the waiting list was ridiculously long, so we headed back to Dave’s apartment and watched soccer. Before I left, though, Dave got me my belated second Christmas gift, which had been on backorder. He originally got me The Last House on the Left; this one was Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD. Thanks, Dave!

Sunday was uneventful for the most part, other than putting the servers here back on their battery backup after a glitch last week caused the UPS to go slightly off-kilter. I also got another CD off iTunes: Huey Lewis & the News’s greatest hits. :-) With this CD and the self-titled Information Society I got recently, I seem to be on an 80s kick. Otherwise, yesterday was a quiet day of relaxation.

So, what does this week bring for me? Well, later this week I’m going up to Oklahoma City overnight. I’ve already started making arrangements to meet my friends Jeff and Malinda (who I haven’t seen since shortly after their wedding) for dinner while up there, which should be fun. Also, on Saturday, Sean’s rescheduled birthday dinner is happening, which should be entertaining. Otherwise… well, we’ll just see what happens. :-)

I happened to wander across this on YouTube and Fark. I’m mostly reposting it for Louie’s and Dave’s benefit, as we’ve discussed a reference to it in Family Guy before. Truly, this is one of the great moments in television history. :-)

.. but ignore me or treat me with disrespect, and you can forget it.

Right now I’m sitting in a Friday’s off 290. I hadn’t planned on eating here; I had actually planned on eating at Chili’s. However, after I arrived, a host said he would get a table ready. Then a hostess walked up, and sat three groups that had arrived AFTER me. I think she gave one of them my table.

Then she got to me and said, “It’ll be just a few minutes.”

At that point I said, “Why don’t I go elsewhere, then, as I was here before those people you just sat down?”

She gave a bit of a half-hearted apology, saying she didn’t know. I just turned and left.

I don’t like to think of myself as harsh or impatient, but that irritated me beyond belief. At least right now I’m eating somewhere where I was seated immediately and treated well by the waitress. :-) So, for those keeping score, it’s Friday’s 1, Chili’s 0.

I was downstairs earlier tonight having dinner with Dad (Mom wasn’t feeling up to eating), and Dad had the TV on showing Wheel of Fortune. Now, granted, I realize that Wheel of Fortune contestants are frequently not braintrusts. (Those make their way onto Jeopardy!.) However, I happened to witness a display of utter stupidity the likes of which I had not seen in ages.

The category was “FOOD AND DRINK”. The answer was blindingly obvious very early on, especially before this woman wasted money buying all of the vowels. The end result was the following: “-ERMAN CHOCOLATE CA-E”.

She asked for an F.

While I winced at the gaffe, she used a free spin she had picked up, and spun again. This time, she did ask for a G, and got it. She then asked to solve the puzzle. I figured at that point that it was a slipup due to nerves or something.

She then said, “… German chocolate cape?”

I damn near choked on my drink. So much for it being a one-time slipup. Fortunately, the next contestant solved it immediately.

I don’t know. I realize it’s bad form to mock others for their stupidity, but Jesus… that took the bloody cake. And people wonder why I have little to no faith in humanity…

I woke up this morning at around 9 AM or so. I had a headache, my body ached, and overall I felt like death warmed over.

No, Merrie’s New Years party wasn’t that wild of a night. Well, it COULD have been, but I have no knowledge either way. I’ve got a pretty nasty flu bug right now.

I knew I was coming down with it on Sunday night; as much as I wanted to spend yesterday resting and recuperating, I knew it was not to be. We had just migrated our new acquisition’s main location onto our network, and I had to be there for any firefighting and get some additional printers set up where they could be printed to from our network. It didn’t help that Jesse was out due to his grandmother dying over the weekend. Fortunately, I had some Theraflu during the day, which made the afternoon somewhat bearable. I knew I wouldn’t be able to go to the party, though, so I emailed her and explained the situation. She replied back saying she understood and thanking me on everyone’s behalf for not infecting them. :-) I ended up leaving right at 5 PM.

As soon as I got home, though, that was it. I got extremely cold and tired, so I took some NyQuil and went straight to bed at around 7-8 PM. I didn’t sleep too well, though. At midnight, I was semi-woken up by Misty calling my cell phone; she wanted to wish me a happy New Year and was concerned about how I was holding up. After talking to her for a few, I went downstairs, where Dad was sitting watching TV with Chase and Star. Both dogs were scared due to the fireworks, but had taken a sedative earlier in the evening to calm them down. The poor things were lethargic and Star couldn’t even stay on her feet. After about 40 minutes of that, I went back upstairs, called Misty, and went straight to bed.

As for what I have planned for today, I’m just planning on sitting, relaxing, beating this bug. I have to go back to work tomorrow morning, so I need to relax and beat this as best I can. I’ve already taken some Advil and Theraflu, so hopefully I should be okay. Still… I’m hoping this isn’t an indication of how 2008 is going to go.

Anyway, happy New Year everyone. I hope yours is going better than mine is at this point.