Why did no one tell me about this? If they’re gonna be on Leno and the Today show, of course they’re popular, and usually I hear about weird online stuff before it gets to Yahoo. Now I want to go buy a pack of Mentos and see what happens with my Coke Blak (which, ironically, I’m starting to dislike).

My birthday is in 6 days and I have no frickin’ idea what I want — nor do I feel like I’m 22. My grandpa, for some reason, just asked me yesterday for my list, and I have all of like 2 things to tell him. Is there anywhere I can go for birthday ideas?

Work tomorrow is gonna suck. We’ve missed our deadline again, and everything pretty much depends on me ’cause I’m the only one editing the layout. You should see my desk … I’m swimming in stacks of 11 x 17 paper. Lois even told me this afternoon that everything had to be done tomorrow, and I’m just like you’ve got to be kidding me. It’s probably not gonna happen since I can only edit so fast … but I’ll try. I also have to not forget to print that thing for Amy and work on Lois’s site over the weekend if I can.

Speaking of which, I should be excited — I have plenty to be excited about — but I’m not and it’s bugging me.

Wow I just wrote a lot of checks. Meh. I hate the end of the month … it always takes weeks for the checks to get where they’re going and clear, and I’m always on the edge of my seat to make sure that I have enough funds in my various places.

And it’s raining. For the 205829th time in the past, oh, 4 days? It sucks. What also sucks is how the rain seems to bring bad news … i.e. Lois’s niece ran away from home on Saturday and they have no idea where she is (she’s 16) … the road I’ve driven hundreds of time with the sharp turns yet never seen an accident on got one today … and the sticky flap of our utilities’ return envelopes decided, with all the moisture in the air, to glue themselves to the unpaid bills — yeah that’s gonna look nice to the companies/in my records The good news? Out of all the problems this house has, the basement doesn’t flood.

Tried Kroger’s self-checkout thingie today … it doesn’t suck as much as Giant’s, but maybe that’s just ’cause it’s a new voice.

Edit: Nevermind, I spoke too soon — the basement and yard flood. Woo hoo.

Happy longest day of the year today! To celebrate, check out this free gum offer from Stride

What the hell I’ve played with this stupid spread for hours now and no matter what I do, I can’t frickin’ get rid of all the widows, orphans, and kerning problems, not to mention lining up the columns. If I fix one thing, something else shows up, and it’s driving me crazy … would it kill Lois to take out/add a sentence? Writing the same thing over and over with each revision is not gonna solve anything. Blah.

I’m also sick of this layout, but I can’t come up with anything decent for the next one. Maybe I’ll find a theme and use that ’til inspiration strikes …

After 4 years, I finally got a new phone! My dad and I both had ancient Nokia phones with Cingular and since Ross will be driving more and going to UVA in the fall, it was the perfect time to upgrade phones and switch to Verizon — I wasn’t even expecting yesterday to be the day, but it was!

Now I have all these features (i.e., camera, tip calculator, calendar, notes, hands-free headset, GPS) that I need to learn and get used to. The volume is also the complete opposite of my old phone: I used to have to press the phone to my ear to hear, now I have to hold it like a quarter-inch away. But, as they say, every rose has its thorn … here’s what I don’t like so far:

• I wish the front LCD would stay on all the time (so I could see the clock, date, etc. without opening it)
• the groups feature only allows like 10 contacts per group (hello, I have more than 10 friends, family, etc.)
• there are no games
• the reception/voice quality is crackly sometimes

Anyone else have this phone?

In the last 24 hours I’ve managed to change servers from JVDS/VAServ/whatever the hell they’re called now to A Small Orange! Some things still need tweaking (i.e., folder permissions), but hopefully by the end of the day I’ll have everything sorted out

Got sunburned at the fair on Saturday ’cause I thought it was gonna be cloudy and cool all day and it wasn’t. My shoulders are the worst, followed by my chest and back. Face is fine ’cause my face lotion has SPF 15 … I even brought my regular sun lotion home, was just stupid and didn’t think I’d need it. Now doing anything with my arms hurts, especially sleeping and getting dressed, and don’t think I’ll make it to the gym for a couple days either Oh yeah, and I can’t use the shoulder strap on my purse, so I have to carry it (kinda like my dad who defeats the purpose of a backpack by never actually putting it on his back lol). The redness hasn’t subsided as far as I can tell, and even though I don’t really like that blue aloe vera sunburn relief gel, I’m thinking I’ll get some anyway — who knows, I might find a brand I like.

Besides the sunburn, the fair itself was pretty cool. First we saw Sister Hazel, who I’d seen at the fair 4 years ago with Brad and Erica. Brian didn’t like them for some reason, but they played all the songs I knew plus some brand new ones, so that was cool. After that we wandered around the booths, watched a martial arts demonstration, won a stuffed clown fish/Nemo from a dart game (where Brian yelled at the staff for a few minutes ’cause it cost $40 to win an extra large prize … they eventually let him have it for $20), went on 4 rides (ferris wheel, “Flying Bobs,” swings, and the “Fire Ball”), saw the petting zoo pack up their animals (aww to the llamas, camel, mini goats, and baby ducks/chickens), wandered around the booths again, ran into Brian’s dad and his friend at the government center, watched the fireworks, and concluded with a concert by Scott Norris (who Brian liked way more than Sister Hazel).

Didn’t do anything on Sunday besides play the Sims 2 (I figured out how to woohoo in bed!) and recover from the fair … today will most likely be the same