New 'top

I am currently blogging from and building the foundation of my new laptop.

Dell hurt my feelings last time (by sneakily denying me a Windows XP CD and not warning me that their Inspirons suffer from a design flaw that will surely and unexpectedly booty-hump them), so I excluded them from my search for a new portable lap-lover.

I ended up getting a new HP from Best-Buy, finding the right mix of features vs. cost. It so far is quite acceptable, and although I do not yet love Windows Vista Home Premium, I am still open to it. Time will tell the tale.

So, I soldier on through the somewhat tedious, yet still enviable, task of setting up a brand-spanking-new machine.

New bells, new whistles. What fun.

Perfect birthday

I had the best birthday ever yesterday.

I got to spend a lot of time with my wife. We had a couple of local friends over, but nothing big or difficult to prepare for.

The weather was picture perfect: it promised to be hot, but in the afternoon a delightful band of clouds rolled between us and the sun, doing things not only to the temperature but to the view that was better than I could have hoped for. When the sun went down, the stars came out and we bullshitted in the front yard.

I've got toys yet left to play with.

The food, the drink, the company, the weather... just incredible. My thanks to all who came, who called and who wished me a good one. Your wishes paid off.