October 31, 2000

One year ago: Read all about my wild adventures in a limo bus.

I'm going for a nature theme with the pictures today. I went outside to get the mail a few days ago, around 5 PM, and the light on the yellow trees was just so pretty that I had to take a picture. Of course, there were tons of phone wires in the way. So I edited them out in Photoshop -- not very well, I might add. But if you don't look very closely, you can't tell, I think. I had to stand in the Mormons' yard to take this picture -- very exciting! I was afraid they would all come out and start yelling me. I wasn't technically in their yard -- I was standing on a retaining wall that separates their property from the sidewalk. Then, some people walked by on the sidewalk and laughed at me because I was wearing my slippers, probably. It was worth it -- I think the pictures turned out well.

So, Jim has taken the PS2 to work every day since we got it. I guess they play games on their lunch break. He didn't take it on Friday, and his boss ICQ'd him the minute he got in and said, "Did you bring it?" So he ended up coming home at lunch and getting it. That cracked me up.

We went out on Saturday and sold a bunch of old games back, and ended up getting 3 new games (usually between $40-$50 each) for $20 total. That was pretty cool. Then, we went to Borders, because my mom bought Jim a gift certificate there for his birthday, and bought a bunch of DVDs. We got Braveheart, This Is Spinal Tap, and Dark City. Then we stopped by Best Buy, and I bought Center Stage, one of the greatest movies of all time. We watched Spinal Tap first, and the commentary is hilarious. It's all the guys from the band, doing the commentary in character. Hilarious. Almost as funny as the movie itself. Then, we watched Braveheart, or at least about the first half of it. We were thinking about going out to the supergush show, but I was so comfy in my pajamas, sitting on the couch, that I asked Jim if he was really dedicated to going. He said he didn't care either way, so we ended up staying in. Yeah, we're losers. But man, those DVDS are purty.

This picture is of the flowers that Jim bought me on Saturday, just because he was thinking of me, I guess. I didn't ask why! I just thanked him. Sunday, we went over to Jim's parents house. Tom made chili and fried up some perch. Mmm, fried fish and chili. Jim showed off his PS2 (yes, he took it over there too) and we played cards. It was a nice Sunday, all around.

So, I got a new job. Well, not an entire new job -- I'm still going to be writing. But in addition to the writing, I'll be teaching a distance learning course for the Rochester Institute of Technology on Human Computer Interaction. They call it something else, but that's essentially what it is. I'm both excited, and scared. Excited because it seems like something I will enjoy, I can do it from home, and it's a discipline in which I am very interested. Scared because I feel like a big, fat phony. What if they ask me a question and I don't know the answer? What if they all go and complain to the dean about my lame teaching techniques? What if they all hate me? What if they don't learn anything? Anyway, it doesn't start until December, so I have a whole month in which to freak out about it. Great.