rorqual

There I was, driving down 95 this morning, in the pouring rain, doing a quite reasonable 60 in the far left lane. There was a guy in front of me (let's call him...Plaintiff), but in front of him there was nobody. Typically, in the rain, I'd rather be in front of folks than behind them (actually, that's true all the time), so I decide I'm going to pass. There's another guy coming up in the lane to the right (let's call him Defendant), and he's about to pass Plaintiff, so I figure I will follow after.

So, up comes Defendant, and he passes, and I drop over behind Defendant (who is now between Plaintiff and a white van I won't name), and prepare to follow him past Plaintiff. When I do that, I realize that Defendant is throwing a ton of water up behind him, and making it hard to see, so I ease off the gas and drop back a bit more.

And then Defendant's taillights disappear. And then, faster than you could imagine it happening, Defendant spins sideways and t-bones Plaintiff, right in the lane in front of me. Thankfully, there was nobody to my right, and I slip over quick behind the van and blow on by, as Defendant and Plaintiff depart the highway, stage left. Had I stayed behind Plaintiff, I would have hit one or both of them, going about 60 in the rain.

That was my morning. Hope yours was better than mine, or at least better than Plaintiff's!

Don't say I never gave you anything incredibly cute.

So, I've been poking around on teh Internets, trying to see what people could see about me, and I have determined the following things:

1) There's a TV travel presenter with my name, which seems to effectively hide me in the forests of Google. Fortunately, people who know me, know that I am not on TV, nor do I have a wikipedia entry. Not that I don't deserve one. (NOTE: Do not start a wikipedia page on me OMG does that place have no quality control?)

2) There is (or was) a rugby player at Rutgers named Otto "Butters" Weiler. How did *that* happen?

3) There are a lot of terms proximate on the internet, which one might think are nearly unique to one's LJ, but are not.

But the fantastic result is......I am invisible on the Internet! Woo hoo!

All hail obscurity!

In the time it took me to figure out how to mount my thumbdrive on my XO/Ubuntu system, I could have written a five-page paper on the topic of your choice. But, the feeling of accomplishment I now have, as I listen to music off my thumbdrive on these tinny little speakers, is totally worth it.

I wonder....can I plug my iRiver into this thing?

Off to figure out OpenOffice!

Butters is going through some weird phase where he is no longer happy to amuse himself by moving his mousies from one place to another, in between naps. No, he wants to play, to interact, with me, right now, and for about forty minutes at a stretch. I have a number of dangly toys on long poles, and after he has taken each one of them and hidden them under the TV table, I have to get them all and we have to start again. I can't explain it - when did he get so perky? So pushy? But I can't argue - he's so cute and so excited to play. He's also started playing with Portland, a little stuffed weasel that was Sammi's old favorite toy. Watching a real weasel wrestle with a stuffed one is adorable, let me tell you.

And then, with no warning, he is done - he just runs out of the room. Bye Butters!

Wacko.

Other good things this weekend: Netflix, mcfurrin brunch, lovely soup, much TV, sleeping in.

Ferret Steals Microphone Cover.

Falling Moose Nearly Takes Out Trooper.

I'm here to keep you informed!

(also: why are the shirts they sell nowadays so thin? I don't want a shirt I have to wear another shirt under. I want a shirt that I can, if I choose, wear nothing under, and still be street legal. So mysterious.)

Time I was awoken by horrible bang/crash noise: 3.55 am (approx)

Time until I peered out window to see drunk guy peeling away from scene of crash in his crunched-in car: 2 seconds

On a scale of one to ten, certainty that the parked car he was pulling away from was mine: 11

Amount of time it took to get dressed, including finding shoe stolen by ferret: 10 seconds

Number of heartbeats I had in that time: 12983 (approx)

Number of neighbors who had gathered on the street by the time I got outside: 4

On a scale of one to ten, amount of relief I felt when I realized my car was not the one with the trunk caved in to the back axle: 152

Number of times the guy who did own that car said the f-word in one sentence upon discovery: 6

Number of bumpers on my car cracked by the force of the impacted car pushing mine into the car in front of mine: 2

Number of cars actually hit by drunk guy on our stretch of road: 4 (including secondary impacts)

Number of people who laughed when we found drunk guy's licence plate and partial bumper lying in the road by the scene: 8

Number of those people who thought drunk guy probably didn't have insurance anyway: 8

Time it took for cops to arrive to my bad neighborhood to fill out reports: 15 minutes

Projected driveability of my car: 100%

Number of my fingers and toes numbed by cold by end of incident: 20

Percent of awake I am at this point: Total

I have very sad news. My XO is sick.

Apparently, they get something called Sticky Keys, where random keys stick on, and so I have to ship her back for repair. First, I have to call them and get shipping info, but their line is busy, which fills me with more woe. And then I will ship her away and hopefully they will ship her back with all her keys in good order, but who knows how long *that* will take?!?

I am so worried. What if it takes forever? I will miss surfing the internet from the couch. What if she gets lost? Oh, woe!

I woke up with a horrible headache this morning, so I staggered out, moved the car, and called out sick today. Slept until two, and since I had a couple of errands to do, I figured I'd take the XO out for a spin. Here are the good things that happen when you actually leave the house for a change:

1) I found out that the prescriptions I needed, which I *thought* I was going to have to go back to the dr to get refilled, in fact each have one more refill on them. Yay! I love my Dr (he was in National Geographic for the work he does - twice!), but I am lazy about making appointments. Now I can put it off just a little bit more.

2) I achieved a popcorn tin! I have been looking all season, and finally found them, on sale, at the pharmacy. They were like, $1.30 each, but I don't really need more than one. I *want* more than one....but that's another story.

3) I am playing with the XO at Starbucks. I got yet another question, again from a woman (she just turned 40! I got to listen to her and her other mom-friends natter on about their lives as I waited in line (this is the Starbucks by Roland Park Country School, so that may tell you something).) I tell you, this thing is a chick magnet. Also, I am using it in full sunlight, and I can still see the screen fine - it just sort of fades to black and white. Love it! I should start a separate LJ where I just natter on about this thing.

4) Another woman just came up to talk; she actually had bought one for her son (first person I've met out here who also has one). She says she hasn't played with it, and doesn't know if he has - the thing being (and I suspect this may be the case rather broadly), for an average American/Western kid, the XO is pretty lacking, compared to all the things they probably already have access to. I mean, as awesome as I think it is, if you are 10, it may be pretty lame. Poor XO. I hope, if the kid doesn't use it, they give to someone who will.

Holy crap, I am surrounded by moms. Just think, if I had managed to marry someone of the right class, this could be me - all these women are about my age. They are hipster mommies. It's disturbing, and a bit surreal.

Off to tiny-ly surf the web!