Things I Want
An organ file to keep appliance manuals in / ~$15.00
A tripod (or Gorillapod) / ~$40.00

Things I Actually Bought
(Over several days)
Shipping / $4.60
Magazine Subscription payment / $17.00
Birthday lunch for Coworker Joe / $13.35
Bananas / $1.33
Various Fuses to fix Aerogarden / $16.45
Movie + Popcorn, etc. / $34.50 (SONS OF BITCHES)
Cat litter / $26.93
Sundries and Christmas gifts / $162.00
Lunches for the week / $9.45

So, maybe it’s a bad season for this little fiscal experiment of mine. In good news, I am one gift certificate away from being done with Christmas shopping. There remains some crafting to be done, but that ought to be relatively painless. So I think.

Tonight is concert night! :) Powla, Curt and I are off to the Pond to see Diamond Dave and Van Halen, whooOooooo! Beers and Nacho!

The last beer and nachos I will be having for six-ish months. Dude, getting married is stressful, and it’s only like three days in. I’m getting stressed thinking about planning for it.

The parents are ostensibly Catholic. I don’t know about my extended family, but my grandfather certainly is Catholic. Curt’s an atheist, and I’m agnostic. Not only would it be a filthy, stinking lie to have a Catholic ceremony, it’s a lot of trouble and expense. Curt has agreed, if it comes to it, to take the Catholic classes so we can do the Catholic wedding, but I can’t see him handling it well if they prod too deep. Plus, I don’t really want to do it, and I read that people have been FAILED out of Catholic wedding classes.

Really? Way to support happy marriages. We don’t want to be in your stinky-finky Catholic club anyway.

That’s me, being optimistic before-the-fact.

So today was our two year anniversary. We went down to San Diego to the zoo, since we’re members and it seemed like a fun way of spending the day. We get there, and Curt suggests the Sky Safari. We get on – I’m looking around, staring at the ground, enjoying the view, and suddenly Curt says, “Want to get married?”

I sort of blink, and say, “What?”

“Will you marry me?”

I sort of blink, and say, “What – are you serious?”

And he says, “Yeah – I have a ring!”

And HE SO DID.

I’m totally getting married! :)

Shit, it’s 1:00. Guess what I’ve been doing? ;) It’s still in a shambles. I’m not sure how long I’ll like this design – it’s feeling rather tenuous, although I do like the color scheme. Perhaps it will suffice.

I’m sneezing a lot. Sickness is going around. People have been sniffling. This is not good, however, it’s not very often that I succumb to colds and things. My ailments almost always tend to be gastro-intestinal. That basically means they are mostly self-induced, caused by My hand stuffing things in My mouth. * tsk *

Today I wanted to buy:

1. Fuel Injection fluid
2. T-shirt Iron-on stuff (Instant gratification vs. the work and dubious results of screen printing on the cheap)
3. A cute animal crochet pattern from Etsy

I actually bought:

1. A full tank of gas / $32.08
2. A regular Coke for Curt at the movies / $4.50

Curt bought the tickets so I picked up the refreshment. Goddamnit, I hate buying stuff at the movies. Left to my own cheap-ass devices, I would never buy anything. Unfortunately for me, I found one of the people who almost always needs to have popcorn and a soda. * grar *

Alright, more work around here tomorrow.

…the page isn’t supposed to look like this. I’m planning on doing some fudging. Hang tight, man.

Friend Trent was recently sent to Norway by his company. Friend Dodds’ company just upgraded their office to a campus. Meanwhile, here at my work, we armed David with a Raid for Flying Insects so he could go forth and battle the locust-like plague of flies the workers on the roof have knocked loose with their constant hootenanneries.

Life: never so glorious as right now.

Things I Bought
- Low Sodium Soy Sauce (for der office) / $2.69

Part 1

Harold’s eyes, normally downcast, away from all things garish and brightly lit, cast desultory eyes upon the place. He waged a mental battle against its cheery kitsch, its brazenly gauche decor. What kind of people would eat in such a place? And he knew what kind, would know even without looking: the kind of people who threw caution to the wind and filed their own taxes. The kind of people who never itemized. The kind who made charitable donations and never kept the receipts.

Harold dismissed them in his mind, but secretly ached. In his deepest heart, he, too, wanted to be cheery and devil-may-care. The corners of his mouth wilted. What good had it done him to be so proper and clever all these years? What good, when life – the bright and exciting kind, announced in neon! – had passed him by, again and again?

Suddenly deciding to be bold and unexpected, Harold put both his hands on the hard red door of the diner, and gave it a determined push.

The door did not budge. Harold blinked, nonplussed. And then, sheepishly, he beheld the “PULL” sign to the left of the handle, and, looking about to make sure he hadn’t been observed, entered.

How well he still remembered the first, deep whiff of the place! Whatever shortcomings there were in decor was more than made up for by the sweet, warm, succulent smell of waffles that filled Harold’s nostrils when he walked through the door. Like a rabbit testing the air, Harold remembered lifting his head, nose twitching in anticipation. His senses led him straight towards the counter, which was fairly busy, even given the lateness of the hour.

There was a large, scowling man behind the counter, eyeing Harold unpleasantly. He wore a nametag that said My name is Theodore, how can I help you?

“Well? What do you want?”

Taken aback, it took Harold a moment before he found his voice. “I – I would like to see a menu, please.”

A smirk brightened the corners of the Theodore the Goon’s mouth. “Menu? What d’you think this is?”

He moved one hand over his shoulder and jerked a beefy finger towards the wall. “There’s the menu, fella.”

Harold’s eyes moved to where Theodore’d pointed. A large, bright yellow placard posted boasted four items:

1 Waffle
2 Waffles
3 Waffles
Wally’s Wonder Waffle Special Combo Supreme– VIPs ONLY!!!

Harold looked around himself. The people around him were eating, most of them one or two waffles – he couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to eat three. But what was a Wonder Waffle? VIPs Only!!!, huh? Probably some ridiculous birthday promotion, Harold decided. When he looked back to order, Theodore’s back was turned to him.

“Ah – excuse me.”

Theodore turned. “You made up your mind?”

“I’ll have a waffle. The one. Please.”

Theodore smirked at him, eyes moving up and down him, sizing him up. “Yeah,” he said finally. “One’s about your speed.”