Today's been a weird one. The bus got cut off (TWICE) on the way to work this morning. Everybody seemed to be just barely awake. Mark woke up today, after a week on vacation, and decided he'd rather spend his time on EBAY and called Irma to quit. The system that does payroll went down, as well as the fossil of a printer that we use to print the end of day reports. Did someone slip in a Friday the 13th and not tell me?

Well, we're starting week two of the "Garland Wars" here at the office. It's Dee and Linda verses Shirley and Theresa. The big debate is whether the garland on the counter in the lobby should be centered or draped over the edge. It gets changed every few hours or so, depending on who walks by. I'd tape the silly thing down but we're not supposed to use tape for things like that (wouldn't be "pristine").

Denny's...
A good place to sit
and eat
...eventually.

Kristy just came through and swiped all my white out and threw it away. She says we're not supposed to use the liquid stuff anymore. Apparently somebody couldn't wait thirty seconds for the stuff to dry and killed a couple of fax machines.

Max went to the vet for a cortazone shot today. While he was there Dean had the bump on his back drained. The vet said to just keep an eye on it and bring him back if it fills up again.

Second Monday in a row! Although I did manage not to rip the back off of my cell phone like I did yesterday. The bus broke down and my connecting bus picked up two wheelchairs; which made me about ten minutes late for work (ok, I was already late and the wheelchairs added maybe 2 minutes). Then the cafeteria was out of cantaloupe and I dribbled coffee on my shirt and yes I would like some cheese with this whine.

Went to Brack for breakfast this morning and got stuck behind some whiney lady complaining about the coffee being too strong and asking when it was made. Minnie just smiled and told her that it was just made and that the starbucks was supposed to be strong. Whiney admitted that when she's at a real starbucks she usually gets the fru fru stuff then went to get a cup of regular (cheap) coffee.

Sitting here waiting for Mark to come in so I can go to lunch. A bunch of us ordered burritos from Freebird's. It's the first time I've eaten there. Everybody just raves about it. I ordered a "regular" steak burrito. It came wrapped in foil and looks like two pound roll of ground beef.

The burrito was pretty good. Still, I wish I could find something more like Alberto's in San Diego.

AT&T Worldnet World News - Polar Bear Attacks U.S. Submarine

The bear stalked the submarine for around a half-hour, said Barnoff. "It wasn't in a rush to do anything. It was on its own schedule," he said.

statesman.com | Olympic park bombing suspect captured

Rudolph, who is now 36, has eluded capture for more than five years and set off massive manhunts through North Carolina mountains. Rudolph is charged with a bombing on July 27, 1996, at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta and two others in early 1997 at an Atlanta abortion clinic and gay nightclub. The Olympic Park blast killed an Albany, Ga., woman. A fourth and final bombing was attributed to Rudolph -- Jan. 29, 1998, outside a Birmingham women's clinic.

Dean and I took Max and went down to Corpus Christi Saturday. It was the first time in a long time that Dean and I have had the same days off. Dean actually suggested the trip a week ago. I agreed, as long as we could find a kennel or someone to watch Max. That was pretty much the end of it until Saturday morning.

As usual Dean waited till the last minute to put everything together. I found a few hotels that accepted pets around 10 in the morning and bookmarked it, but by the time he crawled out of bed most of the ones that had reservations available were booked. We did manage to get a reservation at a Days Inn (which wasn't too bad). Then we rented a car and by 6 we were on the road.

Corpus has changed alot since I left in '91 but some things are still the same. Lots of construction, strip malls. They still haven't finished the causway out to Padre Island. The Hidden Door is still the only gay bar in town. There are a couple of girl bars, but...

All in all though it was a pretty good weekend. Dean and I went to the Hidden Door Saturday night (I drove by it twice). We played a couple of games of darts. Sunday we checked out of the hotel and went to the beach for awhile. Max loved the dunes but hated the water. Then headed back to Austin.

Today was my and Mark's one year anniversary at Healthsouth. It was pretty quiet today. We spent my last 45 minutes listening to some kid singing the Pokemon theme song over and over and over while his grandmother was in therapy. He was still going at it when I left. I was going to call Mark a couple of times just to say "pika pika" but I figured he'd suffered enough.

AT&T Worldnet Service - My AT&T

This is a good time to learn about your environment, what's in it and how to use it.

Today's horoscope for scorpio (I'm on the cusp). Good idea. I think I'll start with the coffee machine and grinder.

The bodies from Victioria left for Houston last night around 8. Seven hearses and a van with a police escort. One of the guys came over to get a soda from our machine (I guess their's is broke). He said the bodies are going bad pretty quick.

AT&T Worldnet Top News - Bodies of 18 Immigrants Found in Truck in Texas

VICTORIA, Texas (Reuters) - The bodies of 18 illegal Mexican immigrants who died from suffocation and heat exhaustion were discovered on Wednesday in a packed tractor trailer abandoned at a rest stop.

They're bringing the bodies and the truck up to Austin to continue the investigation (I work at a hospital next to the coronor's office) and they were still waiting for it to arrive when I left at 9:00pm. Meanwhile, one block west in the park, there was a concert...

Austin360 Movies: 'The Matix: Reloaded' Reviews --- Gissela SantaCruz, Austin360

By Gissela SantaCruz
Austin360 Staff

Posted: May 15, 2003

Today was a good day.

A mighty good day.

Not only because the smothering humidity in Austin had faded and my hair was showcasing its ability to produce the perfect spiral curl -- but more importantly because I was among the fortunate few at a screening for the long-awaited sequel to the original kick-ass Wachowski brother action film, "The Matrix."

At least she will like the movie.

AT&T Worldnet Top News - Explosion on U.S. Warship Near Gulf Injures 11-Navy

'The explosion occurred in a trash receptacle in Marine berthing, piercing a bulkhead and injuring personnel in the adjacent compartment,' the statement said.

The war's only been over 20 minutes and these guys are already bored.

statesman.com | Smoking ban goes to unsure council. If this passes you can add Austin to the list of cities where you have to pay a cover charge to breathe clean air while the smokers are outside breathing smoke on the tourists.

Just got an email from Jason. He's been working down in Corpus for about a year. He just started working with someone else I used to work with when I was stationed in San Diego. Not quite sure how I came up in their conversation (there's three years between my working with them) but it's nice to a part of me (good I hope) stuck with them.

AT&T Worldnet Top News - How Did Worms Survive Columbia Disaster?

The worms were housed in 13 aluminum canisters, which were located just below the mid-deck on Columbia .

Survived my fourth day with Floaters.

YAY! I JUST INHERITED 14 MILLION DOLLARS (again)

From: danede fang
To: barr_danede1@yahoo.com
Subject: Appropriate Response.
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 05:12:04 -0700 (PDT)
TO;McClinton
Dear Sir/Madam;

I am Barrister DR,DANEDE FANG.a Solicitor. I am the Personal Attorney to Mr Fredrick McClinton a national of your country, who used to work with shell development company in Nigeria.On the 21st of April 1999, my client, his wife And their three children were involved in a car accident along Sagbama Express Road. All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost there lives.

Since then I have made several enquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his relatives over the Internet, to locate any member of his family but of no avail, hence I contacted you. I have contacted you to assist in repartrating the money and property left behind by my client before they get confisicated or declared unserviceable by the bank where this huge deposits were lodged.

Particularly, the Bank where the deceased had an account valued at about 14.6 million dollars has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the account confisicated within the next ten official working days. since i have been unsuccesfull in locating the the relatives for over 2 years now I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased since you are from the same country so that the proceeds of this account valued at $14.6 million dollars can be paid to you and then you and me can share the money. 55% to me and 40% to you, while 5% should be for expenses or tax as your government may require, I have all necessary legal documents that can be used to back up any claim we may make.

All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this dealt through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Please get in touch with me by my email to enable us discuss further.

Best regards,

DR,DANEDE FANG.

Thanks, Dr Fang. I'll be in touch.

I totally missed Friends on Thursday. I ended up sleeping after work and was tweaking something later on Dean's computer while it was on.

Went to Eeyore's Birthday Party today with Mark. Neither of us had ever been before and dispite the dust that had mark sneezing his head off (that and the 90 degree heat) we both had a great time.

statesman.com

After being thrown out of a bar, Russell, 33, got involved in a scuffle with Renny, a 3-year-old German shepherd and member of the city's K-9 Corps. Renny and his human partner were dispatched to investigate a disturbance at the bar from which Russell objected to being ejected.
Syracuse police said Russell grabbed the dog by the throat, choked it and bit its neck. William Foster, Renny's police partner, used force to get Russell to release the dog.

CNN.com - A new addition to 'Friends' - Apr. 17, 2003

(Aisha) Tyler, who begins a four-week run on "Friends" starting next Thursday, April 24 (8 p.m. EST), also happens to be among the very few nonwhite love interests -- or faces, for that matter -- to grace the popular NBC comedy.

Woo hooo!!! 8-]

Just because a number is on your caller ID that doesn't mean you have to answer it.

WSJ.com - Hong Kong Reports 9 More Deaths, Pushing SARS Death Toll Past 150

HONG KONG -- The SARS crisis deepened Tuesday as Hong Kong reported nine more fatalities pushing the global death toll past 150, and U.S. experts warned the just-revealed genetic code for the disease doesn't explain how it started or how to stop it.

They've already got it coded?!?

BAD alarm clock... BAD!

Testing...