The past few days have been good yard days and I've been diligently putting in my time. Yardwork is not my favorite in case you didn't know. I brought home two tomato plants from the farmer's market and I've got the garden plot about 1/2 ready for action. I've been telling myself I wasn't going to work back there today but I can already feel myself thinking I should finish what I started yesterday. My seed collection needs to be cleaned out too. I have all kinds of things that I've never opened or packets with only a few more seeds that I should finish up. A couple years ago I planted Cosmos which take over the backyard in summer -- I've been afraid to plant them again. Everything goes to seed and then to chaos.

This afternoon this man knocked on our door and I'm not sure if he was insulting me or trying to help me. (ESL). He did convey that he thought my lawn needed to be mowed and I think he wanted to mow it himself. He was driving a white minivan which was parked in front of our neighbor's house, door ajar, not quite at the curb as if he'd stopped in a big hurry. I told him my husband was going to do it -- even though I don't think that project is even on the radar at this point -- because I wanted him to think that we keep on top of that sort of thing. I'm not clear if I made arrangements for him to return or if I informed we weren't interested.

Last weekend I watched this movie called The Tao of Steve. I didn't hate it--it had some funny parts -- but the more I thought about it the more problems I thought it had. The protagonist is basically loser guy and gives little indication that he's going to change -- yet we're supposed to root for him to get the girl. If my friend was dating that guy I'd be begging her to reconsider. Last night I was switching channels on the new a million channel cable and found Bring it On which is a stupid cheerleader movie and we ended up watching the whole thing because it was hilarious.

I can't remember where I saw this First Annual Keanu Awards -- pretty funny. And while I'm talking about awards I'd just like to say that this was just about the least satisfying Oscar Ceremony ever -- and it was WAY TOO LONG.

I sold my CRX on Sunday. I wrote up a story about it but somehow it disappeared into the blackblog and I'm not in the mood for resurrecting it at the moment. It found a very good home.

First of all, check out this tug boat getting pulled under a bridge. It's a little slow loading -- but completely worth it.

Yesterday we finally decided to put a second cable box downstairs and AT&T is having a special deal where you can get their super-deluxe-every single channel package at an amazing low price for 6 months and then they brought the second cable box and installed it for free. The AT&T people came over at about 8:20am and at first they didn't even think they could do it without drilling concrete or something like that but eventually they found a way to do it (it took an hour and 1/2) and the finished scenario involves wires strung all over hellandgone but Bob can watch cable in the basement and that's all that really matters.

So what's the first thing we find to watch on the new cable service with everything? A documentary on the Sundance Channel about Linux and open source.

Last night I went to a -- I don't know what you call it -- a product demonstration? It was for the release of Flash MX. Just look at these pages, obviously my webpage-making skills are primitive at best and I'd love to learn more about using all the Macromedia stuff but you know, only so much time and energy and I have some other creative things I spend my time on. There was a time when web technology was vaguely in my grasp, but those days are long gone and I spent much of the demo trying very hard to follow the presentation.

During the demo the guy showed all these new features and tools in this latest version and occasionally you'd hear murmurs through the crowd and once people broke into applause.

I told Bob it was like when he took me to a Phish concert. I could tell when something good was happening, but I didn't really understand what it was.

I wanted to take care of DEQ, tags and sales tax on my car today but it all seems to be in paperwork limbo somewhere and the person I need to talk to won't be in until Monday so yay for me.

Yesterday was the first time I put gas in the new car and I can see the day of the $8 gas tank is over. I've been spoiled for too long.

Today I saw one of those hybrid cars on the road. I don't understand why they have to look so Jetsons. Is it mandatory because of the hybrid? Or is it some marketing gimmick? Because I'd be more into it if they looked like normal sedans. But I don't want to drive a Jetsons car.

Back from Vegas yesterday A fun time was had by all. I even came back with a few bucks in my wallet. I think I should get a prize for that. We're weren't totally camera crazy this trip but I think I can come up with enough to put up a few pages. Stay tuned.

I'm still tired and not in the mood for work. I want to sit around in front of the TV and drink hot chocolate.

argh. What a week. I've been busy at work and completely behind and then my car was blocked in this evening which resulted in a lot of personal drama although the story came out okay. I was able to find the blocked car owner and get the keys and get home only about 45 minutes later than usual. Except I am going to Las Vegas tomorrow and had some stuff to do but ended up deciding to screw it. I'll get cash on my way to work and buy whatever I need or live without it.

I need to pack and we only have two sizes of bags: tiny and huge. I have opted for huge and will take about 400 outfits and every personal hygiene item known to man. While there, I plan to drink lots of refreshing adult beverages, buy fun stuff on credit and have a fabulous time getting into as much trouble as I can find.

Yesterday I worked in the yard for the first time since ... probably October. The whole thing needs a lot of attention. I can't believe how out of shape my gardening muscles are -- I was ready to keel over after about 1 1/2 hours. This morning I can feel my shoulders and back. Today I want to put in another couple of hours in the back -- particularly the garden because I'm going to want to get that going soon. After last year I said I wouldn't plant so many tomatoes, but I keep thinking, what if I get a dud plant that doesn't produce much? I need at least 4 to make sure I have what I want. Last year I accidentally got a cherry tomato -- not something I would choose on purpose. This year I'm going to get my tomatoes at the Farmers Market.

We brought home the new car last night. It's an '01 Toyota Camry in a very pretty blue color that I haven't seen before and I looked at a lot of Camrys. We ended up [long story omitted] going through the Hertz lot at the airport and I can highly recommend this experience.

I've been dicking around looking at cars for over a month now [ads, car lots, friends of friends, etc.] and Thursday morning I called Hertz and Diana said she had a bunch of great Camrys so I drove over that minute, saw the blue one and knew that was the one. The trip to the Credit Union to wrap up the loan was much less painful than I expected. I carried that check around in my purse all day -- went to the spa, got a facial and massage, went to Trader Joe's and picked up food and cheap wine. We ate some dinner and then drove over and got the car. I didn't freak out once.

We have to sell the CRX and I have to admit, I feel bad driving the new car in front of it. I've been driving that car since May 90 when it had 7,000 miles on it. (It has 120K now). It's been very good to me and it seems cruel to park it so that it can see me zoom off in the Camry. (Half of you are groaning right now and half of you know exactly what I'm talking about.) I did a preliminary research project to see what it was worth and was a bit flabbergasted to see people asking $3000 for those cars. Mine is mechanically sound but looks a bit lived in so I wouldn't dream of asking that much. We need to sit down and figure out how we're going to handle it. I did give it a bath today and it's been vacuumed inside and looks pretty spiffy.