And that’s all I’m saying. :)

If you’re nice I’ll have a picture… probably not for tomorrow. Tomorrow you get a picture of where we were.

Yeah, because by the time you see it, that state will be so tiny in our rear view mirror, I’m serious!!

If you can read this, I’m either dead or I’m having too much fun in… hey, I never did reveal where I’m headed, did I?

By now we should have arrived and we’ll spend the day today doing nothing. That is, unless we’re dead, in which case we’ll also be doing nothing. But a different nothing. Yeah, I would think so.

Anyway, tomorrow is the reason why we’re here. Should I tell what that is? Nah.

Hey, wait a minute. If I’m just going to replace this post, why do I keep typing and typing and typing? Last I knew I’m not getting paid by the word! :)

I mean, seriously, am I???

P.S. ::pinching myself:: Nope, I’m not dead. And I’m not even dreaming! Though I think I had a dream that involved Angel’s myspace profile. Some dreams I remember and some dreams just float off into space.

We arrived yesterday afternoon at our destination. This is just a visit for a couple days. The real purpose of this trip will be revealed tomorrow. Tomorrow? Yes, that’s right, tomorrow.

Did you see the Oscars? I didn’t. I wasn’t nominated. Again. Bunch of stuck up snobs, the academy.

Hey, you know what’s nice about driving south? Temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s, that’s what!! The forecast high for today (Monday) is 77°. Does that give you any hints? :)

I don’t even know what day it is anymore.

You see, Wifey and I are on this road trip.

Well, by the time you read this we will be.

But as I write this, it’s really Thursday night.

Hmmm, does that mean this is my Sunday post?

I really don’t know. And ya know what?

Yes, that’s right. That’s what!! :)

P.S. All that I wrote on Thursday. Now it’s (checking watch) Saturday night and I’ve figured out how to get all of my audio content onto my GPS (Garmin Nuvi 350)… seems my phone is a terrible playback device, but when Danny (that’s my GPS) is hooked up to the FM transmitter, it works super good. My marriage is saved!

Now… Only five more hours of driving tomorrow and we’ll reach our first destination. We’ll have travelled through thirteen states (if you include D.C.) so should I use that for my TT this week?

And… which hub should I visit? :)

As you read this, Wifey and I are driving, driving, driving — God knows where by this point. Thursday night I was pulling my hair out. You see, Wifey had a list of audio books and, well…

First of all, I never should have used iTunes. Yes, I’m a Mac fan. Love ‘em ever so much. But unless you own an iPod or you’re going to listen to your purchases on your computer… what a pain in the ass!

No, I want to listen to these things in the car, so what do I need to do? I’ve got twenty hour-long audio books, so guess what… I need twenty blank CD’s!

Give or take a dozen or so… because by the time I was done, I had a stack of 14 — yes, fourteen — coasters.

But you know what I think it was? I think I was jiggling my laptop. Yes, my lap was jiggling! Seriously, I noticed finally that if I shifted my laptop in my lap, the burn would fail.

Now as I type this, I’m leaning over a coffee table — nice and sturdy so the rest of the disks… yes, they’ve all finished.

So do I just play them on the car CD player or do I rip them? Yeah, what could possibly go wrong? :/

P.S. Sitting here in the hotel room I can tell you plenty that can go wrong. I did rip the CD’s and like a total f-ing idiot, I left them at home. I’m playing audio books from my phone (no choice about that) and so I might as well play MP3’s that way as well. I’m all about consistency, maybe to some extreme. You know those cassette adapters you use to plugin in your MP3 player and it plays on the car stereo? THEY SUCK. OK, maybe it’s my car stereo that sucks because every five minutes the stereo thinks the “cassette” is at the end and tries to turn it over. So ten seconds of audio are lost every five minutes. I don’t mind so much, but Wifey sighs and so we have to do something. My trusty GPS told me where I could find a Staples off of I-95, so I went and bought an FM adapter, but that only works well if there are clear spots somewhere, anywhere on the dial. Not so useful within a half hour’s drive of NYC. So for close to an hour we spent fiddling with that piece of crap. I swear when I get home I’m going to buy a built-in XM radio for the car that has inputs for MP3 players and whatnot.

and another thing… At least I’m smart enough to save this update in the system clipboard because the WI-FI here at the Holiday Inn Express is sucking bigtime. P.S. See, I shouldn’t have worried; it’s working great now. Hey, there’s another one of those semi-colons! Cool!! :)

People seem to want to know, so why don’t they just ask.

“Uisce, what the heck are you up to?”

And what am I supposed to say?

I’m up to no good. Or the greater good.

Which is it? Wouldn’t you love to know!!

I didn’t have time for WW or TT this week. Long story.

But here’s the thing, I just wanted to put this up in case anybody stops by (hi, mar!)

Let’s keep Thursday alive! We can keep writing lists on Thursdays. I even know where we can sign in every week.

No, not at the WW hub, but one that lives right next door!

OK, gotta get back to work, but let’s do this, let’s keep Thursday alive… why not?!

One little, two little, three little bloggers…

…four little, five little nope, not even five! There are only four active bloggers on my blogroll that are still on Old Blogger.

And “active” they are — I’ll try and keep the updated updated.

The Old Blogger Hall of Fame awaits!

Update: (2/21, 8 a.m.) The Purple Giraffe has fallen… down to three!
Several weeks later: (3/11, 1 p.m.) Happiness is a Good Nap is on new Blogger… only two left!

Yes, there used to be a “testing” post here but I got rid of it. Then again, maybe you can see it. If you can, you can’t see this. If you *can* see this, you’ve arrived at the new server. Yeah, the server I was using it getting a little tight on bandwidth, so I’ve done a little reorganizing.

And how do you like the new look? Of course I’m referring to the “uisce/” that no longer appears at the end of the URL. That always bothered me. It bothered me a lot. So if you’ve got me bookmarked the old way, I’d love it if you’d change it. ‘Cause when you go to the old one it looks really ugly because I never got my template working with pages. What can I say, I just don’t use pages.

I was in a training class this morning. We have a new phone system here at work. Yes, I spent an hour of work time learning how to use a phone system. Thank god I went to the training or I wouldn’t have been able to log into my phone. Yes, log into my phone. Don’t even get me started. I am so angry I don’t even want to use the damn thing. My phone, it’s dead to me. Don’t even call me; I won’t answer.

Yes, that was a semicolon. Get used to it, it’s just the mood I’m in. Damn, a comma splice. I feel so… blah.

OMG I’m behind again on my Blog Fodder questions. Here’s #10 and later in the week I’ll catch up.

If you could go back in time and choose your career, what would it be?

This is so easy, and I think about it all the time. I would love to go to law school.

Now I don’t want to hear any snickering. I know how lots of people feel about lawyers. They’re easy to make fun of, and the lawyer jokes I’ve heard are all pretty funny.

But when I think about what really interests me, it’s the law. I’m a total C-SPAN junkie. I could watch the House and Senate all day long, and sometimes do. I love hearing the Supreme Court Oral Argument recordings they play form time to time.

And it’s not like I want to be a courtroom lawyer or anything. I’d much rather be involved in some kind of legislative/policy kind of thing. I know this a lame way to think about it, but when I look at the characters on L.A. Law and compare them to the characters on The West Wing, I feel like I identity more with the latter. Sam, Josh, Toby — they’re all Lawyers.

And no, I don’t have some kind of Rob Lowe or Bradley Whitford fixation. You don’t see me wanting to be a TV executive like Danny on Studio 60, do you? Hey, is it true Richard Schiff is on that show, too? I got that from TV.com

But I digress. What else is new?

I’d love to go to law school, but (1) I can’t afford it, and (2) there isn’t one close by, and (3) even if there was, it would be a tough thing to fit into my busy schedule. Wifey is supportive of this dream of mine, and that’s nice, but that doesn’t make it any easier to achieve.

It’s something that really feels like a missing piece of my life, though. And every now and then it makes me really sad.

I was asked about a few Presidents this pas Thursday, and after much contemplation, I have chosen my second thirteen. They are in alphabetical order again, much easier than trying to decide whether JFK outranks Reagan or whether Garfield beats Polk.

George Herbert Walker Bush (Senior), 1989-1993 (R)
     — diplomacy first, war as last resort
James Earl Carter, Jr., 1977-1981 (D)
     — peace through diplomacy
Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889, 1893-1897 (D)
     — reform and integrity
Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929 (R)
     — set lasting examples for prosperity
David Eisenhower 1953-1961 (R)
     — steady hand during cold war
Gerald Rudolph Ford, 1974-1977 (R)
     — healed the nation
James Abram Garfield, 1881 (R)
     — assasinated for his integrity
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 1877-1881 (R)
     — reform and integrity
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961-1963 (D)
     — inspirational leader
James Monroe, 1817-1825 (DR)
     — last founding father to be president
James Knox Polk, 1845-1849 (W)
     — expansion, diplomacy, expansion
Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989 (R)
     — inspirational leader
Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953 (D)
     — tough decision ended the war

1 Democratic-Republican, 4 Democrats, 7 Republicans, 1 Whig

How sad that I didn’t have any Chinese food this week. I do, however, have a fortune sitting here on my desk. I don’t know how long it’s been sitting here. OK, little piece of paper, your turn!

No one has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.

Lucky numbers: 12, 16, 19, 21, 38, 47

Learn Chinese: How much — Duo-shao qian 多少

I’m using the dictionary at Chinese-Tools.com again.