Just Another Sunny Day in Paradise

I'm on call this weekend, but I when Lisa called and asked if I was coming in for a massage, i said yes. Did some pre-eBay shopping first (bubble wrap, padded envelopes, that kind of thing), and also went to my local Petco and Pet Club looking for under-gravel filters for my two little fish tanks. And also checked out prices on bigger tanks. At Pet Club I bought the filters (Petco was out) but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed better to just buy a bigger tank, and install an under-gravel filter in it. A lot easier than emptying the 10-gallon and 5-gallon tanks, installing the filters, and re-loading them. Less smelly too.

Went to Saratoga Road near Paseo de Saratoga for Lisa's back-walking treatment, which I love and hate. It usually hurts some, but feels so good afterwards. And it doesn't hurt that she looks like a model - 5'9" tall, slender dancer's figure, China doll face. They play popular Chinese music in the background, and the last time I was there, one singer caught my ear. Lisa said she would copy the CD for me for next time, but she forgot, so I asked her this time to write down the name of the singer. She had forgotten which singer I meant, and asked the other women in the office, who all said it must be something which sounded to me like Li Dung. She wrote down the name in Chinese, and when I got home I compared it to the name of my favorite Chinese singer, Theresa Teng, and it was the same. Wrong singer. The one I had heard was someone modern, Teng passed away a few years ago (she had some hit tunes in 1975 when I was in Thailand).

The massage place is a block from a big Petco, so I went there to see what they had in the way of aquariums, and found a 29-gallon tank and metal stand which looked like the answer. It was a kit which included an external filter, but I bought an under-gravel one anyway, since they seem to work better. Also bought a big bag of gravel.

When I got home I sat outside on the patio with the cats for a while, then went in and planned how I was going to do this.
( boring step by step behind the cut )

Strange but true, the cats were not too curious about the proceedings, they mostly sat out on the patio on the fuzzy mats I'd bought for them a couple of weeks ago. And in one other bit of possibly good news, in the mail was a 10% off coupon for Petco, I'll see if they will apply it to this purchase in retro.

No plans for tomorrow, except maybe list a bunch of video cards and old cell phone on eBay. And put some other spare parts which aren't good eBay fodder into the appropriate box in the closet. Maybe go to Starbuck's with my laptop. Or maybe someplace with free wi-fi like Coffee Society or Red Rock.

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Made plane reservations to go to Seattle for Mother's Day weekend. Will take that Monday off so I can spend all day with Mom. Will bring her ring with me.
 

Weird Dream Channel - Total eclipse of reality

Teenaged Judy Garland and I are at the beach. We're looking for the music. We hear music coming from somewhere down the beach, and we're trying to get to it. We're on the lower level of sand, the music is up on the upper level - all along the beach there is a bluff about 6 feet high, and it's like a plateau, and the music is up on that plateau somewhere.

We can't get to the music because we don't have a way to get up onto the plateau.

Judy goes back and gets a ladder - one of those short work ladders, about 5 feet tall, foldable, and she's carrying it folded, walking a few yards behind me. I find a place where we might be able to get up onto the plateau, and I tell her to bring the ladder. I stand the ladder, folded, up against the bluff and climb up. It's like a maze up there, and I travel for a long time trying to find the music, while Judy is down on the lower level looking for a better access point. I fially get close enough to the music to hear it clearly, but the ceiling is very low there. There is a suspended ceiling with fluorescent lights - like a standard office ceiling - and the place I am now only has enough clearance for me to crawl between the floor of the plateau and the ceiling. Meanwhile Judy has found another place to get up on the plateau, far behind me, and she is trying to find a way for me to get where she is, because where she is there is no ceiling, and she can see where the music is.

She shouts things to me to help me find her, but I just get stuck right under a fluorescent light fixture. It is painfully bright. I hear Ella Fitzgerald moaning "too bright, too bright" and see her parallel to me but far away, putting on a pair of dark glasses. I wish I had my sunglasses. I know why Ella and those jazz people all wear sunglasses now, it's just too bright where they work.

I hear Bonnie Tyler singing, and the dream fades away.

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My alarm clock has gone off - I had set it to play Total eclipse of the Heart from one of Bonnie's CDs, and I also have my lights on a timer set to turn on at the same time and they are too bright, especially for Sunday morning.

SomeDay

It's been a quiet day here in Lake Wobegone. Woke up with that strange dream at 7, went back to bed for a while, then up and out on Many Happy Returns tour. First stop, Fry's, looking for McAfee virus scan/ firewall software - Trend Micro was broken (wouldn't do port forwarding in Putty), Symantec's was also broken (it won't allow Eudora to send/receive email). They had the wireless network edition for $40 less than online (3-license version). I wasn't able to find a folding headset/mike combo for the laptop, or the Microsoft or Logitech keyboard I was looking for, so went to Microcenter. Found the keyboard, but the only good headset was USB for $60. So I picked up a little lapel mike for $7 and will stick with the folding headset I already have.

Next stop was Petco in Paseo - they gave me the 10% off from the coupon I'd forgotten yesterday. Then Pet Club, who refunded me for all the stuff I bought yesterday but didn't need.

Home, installed McAfee and the keyboard & mike. Also installed McAfee on the laptop, and ran the scan on both machines.

Somewhere in there, edit_mf emailed and we made a date for dinner. She came over and picked me up and we went to Sue's Kitchen, which is not the American Diner the name sounds like, but a nice Indian place. Excellent food, and it was great to see Edith again after all these years.

Home again, spent some quality time with the cats. Domino was getting caught on her scratching post, and she allowed me to rescue her and sat quietly as I trimmed her claws. I think that was a first. She usually makes noises which sound like she's being fatally tortured. Pumpkin then sat on my lap for a while and got petted and combed.

Talked to mom & dad, they sound good, and were happy to hear I'm coming up for Mother's Day.

Work tomorrow, back to normal now that class is over.