Somewhere, John Ritter, Johnny Cash and Robert Palmer are up in heaven... with nothing whatsoever to say to each other.

the other day, the girl and i took a walk down clay to try to jiggle cmac enough that he'd want to get moving. we decided to cross the street at some point, so amy marched across with the dog and i paused for a second because a car was coming. the car slowed down and stopped because they saw me standing near the side of the road waiting to cross. Aww, how nice of them! Yeah right. If they hadn't slowed down and stopped i could of been across the street behind them already. Sure it's ""considerate"" to stop and let others go... but really it just makes the process long and uncomfortable. It makes me play that guessing game: ""are they stopping? are they not stopping?""

so, my point is: if you've got the right of way, use it. you're not doing anyone any favors by not taking your turn at the stop sign, slowing to a halt to let someone cross the street, or, especially, stopping short of a driveway to let someone ""out"" when there's only one car behind you.

waiting for you to stop is more annoying than waiting for you to pass.

the first week and a half of the new job is under the belt. looks like i've survived ok.

yesterday we had a small crisis. my last check from my old job was due on monday - they didn't send it out until monday. luckily, i caught them on time and had it overnighted. Tuesday ... no check. Wednesday... no check. This is getting bad. So i call up and find that someone didn't put the right address on the package. so i had to call ups, who said they're holding it hostage in earth city. that's not just a merry jaunt up the road from clayton, that's the epicenter of traffic in the StL metro area.

so i asked amy, sweet amy, to go get my check for me. she drove with the dog up there (about a three hour round trip) and retrieved our sole means of sustenance for the week. she also threatened to kill me for asking her to do that. can't blame her for that.

well, it was a perfect weekend yet we still managed to miss Greentree entirely. i'm satisfied with just hearing some of the announcements that carried over the few blocks to my house.

i woke up at an insanely early hour and headed here to work. unfortunately, nobody has given me a key yet. so i went downstairs to the park like place to eat my breakfast. i tried my first McGriddle. oy, that's my last one to. it's like eating a couple of sponges. my teeth felt all weird after i ate it. no ninja grandma's are going to get me to try that again.

by far, the best breakfast fast food sandwich is the Toaster at Sonic. Thick texas toast sandwiching some real eggs and thin sliced ham. that rocks.

i think the database i'm exporting is just about done, so i'm done too.

eh, it could happen...

We ate at Cracker Barrel tonight and Amy just had to have that fuzzy stuffed squirrel. She's been attempting to interest the dog in it. Ferris (the dog) is nonplussed.

At work i'm continuing my reign of lucky breaks and guesses that just happen to pan out. This coming week i have to reengineer the security and data tracking for the game to more manageable session based approach.

whatever that means.

first post in a couple days here. i have a new job, so i don't get to sit at home and scribble out these sickly sweet nothings with such abandon.

i always plan to write something when i get home... but it's been a busy week.

we went to lamaze class last night. i'm really starting to hate lamaze class. the lady taught for over half an hour on ""the three stages of labor"" then she played a half hour video on... ""the three stages of labor."" this happens every time. she's talk about breast feeding for half an hour and then play a video that covers the exact same material for half an hour. Why not just play the video - then add your comments and ask for questions. keep it movin, woman.

then we all laid on the floor and pretended to listen to her. i don't know why she thinks laying on the floor is so relaxing. it hurts. pregnant women don't just lay on the floor do they? I hope chili mac shows up before too long. Like before next tuesday. enough of that class.

i'm now at work, beating on some code. my office is in downtown clayton (i don't know if there's a ""not downtown"" clayton.) I like this place because it's like working downtown in a big city, without all that big city around.

just hangin out waiting for my rents to arrive. it's baby shower weekend so they're coming down from chicagoland for the weekend. we might head up to the STL Art Fair or something. that's it.

Matt has insisted i push past my procrastinating nature and get those interview questions done. He sent two sets, so I'm answering the easy ones first. So here we are, sorry for the delay:

1. 7 11 takes the slurpee off the market. as this is the worst crime against humanity imagniable, how do you protest?

I would only protest out of solidarity with the Girl. She likes things with way too much ice in them. I, on the other hand, have a vaguely european bent and prefer drinks with no ice. I still like them cold, of course, just without all that mess of ice. So i think Amy, Chili Mac and I would hold hands in front of the nearest 7/11 and sing Tom Waits songs repeatedly.

2. you are hired as a campaign consultant for a college professor in the cali gov race. what issues do the youth of today want to hear about?

The days of generational political segmenting are long over. We live in a ""Sibling Society"" now that has worn thin the distinction between children, youth and elders.

The youth of today would be better defined as the people who don't have property and health insurance and who are facing a mountain of debt and enviromental catastrophe due to the short sighted greed of the wealthy.

I think my consulting duties would be a mix of gonzo revolution and seeking the triumph of the authentic in the marketplace of ideas. The most revolutionary thought you can have in the western world now is ""It doesn't have to be this way."" The idea that the world is not static and the institutions we pile assumptions on are just as invented as tv shows.

3. better job, writing top 10 lists for letterman and opinion columns for the onion with a novel on the side, or physical therapist for dallas cowboy chearleaders and pool boy at playboy mansion and having to pull night shifts at wendy's?

Now that's complicated. I guess the first, even though i think the top 10 list is a dying art form. Writing for the Onion has a certain geek cachet and a novel is the single most difficult and comprehensive form of art left in the world.

As for touching cheerleaders - my tastes in women have always run toward the bookish, geek chic and artsy, so no. Ditto for the mansion, and wendy's? what on earth are you thinking?

4. i'm coming over for dinner, after living in asia and europe for countless months. i say, lance, make me an all american meal, and you being the wonderful friend that you are, do. what is on the menu?

Well, we could probably jump into some Tony Packo's of course, being Toledo expatriates and all. But that's hungarian, now, isn't it. I guess the actual all american meal would be Turkey, Stuffing, Corn, cranberry stuff and processed american cheese food slices. How's that for a native dish. Did you ever have buckeyes? (The peanut butter and chocolate candy)

5. do you think that short people get away with way to much?

Being in love with a short person, i better not be to open here. I don't think they ""get away"" with much, but the do ""get things done for them"" a lot. Like getting the cereal off the top shelf every single day of my life.

I went to a meeting a couple years ago. The point of the meeting was to organize the SF community for the upcoming protests at the democratic convention. After milling about, munching on perfectly terrible vegan snack foods, talking with stoned college students about ""the guvment, maaan."" we gathered around a shrill woman who was there to get us pumped up about screaming at Al Gore. Mnyeh.

Part of her schtick was to have everyone in the room yell out what they wanted to change in america. Simultaneously 100 or so people yelled out 100 or so reasons for going to the protest. Everything from gay rights to prison reform to protecting indigenous field mice was added to the cacophony of voices.

Someone once said, ""If you don't know what you want, you're sure to get it.""

Amy and I went to the stlbloggers social type situation tonight. Amy wasn't feeling well, but she was a good sport and decided to go with me. We met a lot of nice people. I mostly sat in my chair and every once in awhile would shout ""Hi, I'm Lance!"" at the nearest person. There would be quizzical looks, until we figured out what each others blogs were called.

I found my only good question was ""So, what do you do?"" which i hope wasn't crass or invasive. Most of the conversations i had were about california, ironically enough. just about every one is ""from"" california these days. I know I am at least.

Afterwards, we went to walmart and picked up some dog food and a garden hose. It makes sense if you think about it.

By this weekend i'm going to add cookies to save comment information here and maybe add a search functionality. It's slightly possible that i'll add a category hierarchy too. Because i'm so IA.

No, that's not Iowan. Did you know that, according to the almanac, people from Massachusetts refer to themselves as ""Bay Staters?"" People from Ohio refer to themselves as ""Ahyans."" Do you know what people from Utah are called?

Mormons.

Four more years! Four more years!

tuesday night lamaze class involves making a dozen pregnant women find some way to get on the floor and back again in a room full of strangers. yeah, that's a great idea. We didn't learn much there yet. Just flipped thru a workbook while the lady pointed to nonsensical pie charts and contraction diagrams. The anatomy posters were cool though, you can really see where all of Amy's innards went.

right now, i'm waiting on this customer email thing to run thru so i can delete the hundreds of out of office and auto replies that will clutter my inbox. i don't have an out of office or auto reply, because i don't like to get in AutoReply wars with the customers.