omg, almost 2 hours to get to work this morning. I so wanted to just not come, but I call in sick too much. Too bad I didn't think to work from home today.

It all started with the traffic light being out on the beltway. Scratch that, it all started with this monsoon we're in. Then there was the light out on the beltway. Traffic was backed up to West Lake Houston, so I tried an alternate path to work. Instead of Beltway->59->288, I decided to do Beltway->I-10->610-> S. Main to work. Unbeknowst to me there are two places where 610 is under construction along that path and drops down to one lane. OMG slow. So anyway, I eventually got here, and now I have shit to do.

yesterday:
YMBARI... You've ever barbecued Spam on the grill.

today:
YMBARI...(hahahaha! this one was funny when I ripped the page off) The pizza deliveryman won't come to your house without bringing the police with him.

MBARI:

Your most expensive bottle of liquor doesn't have a label.


Hey, they can't all be winners.

So volleyball was a ton of fun last night. I thorougly sucked, but Robyn was there, so the fun of the game made up for me being teh sUX0R. I couldn't hit worth shit; I couldn't dig, move, pass accurately, or any other skills required to play well. I did get a couple of blocks in though. Those were fun.

So there's this nagging issue at work that is starting to piss me off. H.323 is a video conferencing protocol, and all of a sudden it's breaking. It works initially, but after a while the connection gets dropped. We have been one of the pioneering schools in videoconferencing for medical teaching, but this is starting to affect our reputation. I'm busting my ass to fix it, but since I have to wait about 2 hours every time we set up a test, it's very slow going.

Lots of YMBARNI to catch up on:

The receipt for your car's tune-up is more than two pages long.

The liquor store knows you by your first name.

The weekend was both fun and exciting. Friday night I got to be Mr. Romantic. I'd been planning it for a while, but it was fun to implement. I took my wonderful wife on a surprise picnic for our delayed Valentine's day. I picked up food from Pappadeaux's (her favorite restaurant) that afternoon (OMG shrimp enbrochette is expensive, but I can say that because it was for me not her), and packed in our as yet usused picnic basket. That night I changed clothes at Brian's apartment, and came by and picked her up for our date. Unbeknowst to me, Deussen park closes at 6 (I picked her up at 7:45), so my initial plans were somewhat thwarted. Undaunted we took our grub to a little lakeside picnic table on the green belt in Kingwood. Dinner by the lake followed by chocolate fondue and strawberries has now been classified as the most romantic thing I've ever done. WOOHOO!

Some notes for posterity.

1. Melissa came home early from school and messed up my plans a little. I didn't have time to scout Deussen Park for likely spots, and I didn't have time to change into my usual rags before she saw me. I was going to have on shorts and a t-shirt when she initially saw me so that the black slacks and nice shirt had more of an effect, but that's a small matter.
2. Melissa didn't know it was Pappadeaux's until I put the crawfish bisque in front of her. I'd lessened her expectations some by telling her that I really hoped she liked what I brought, so when it dawned on her what I'd gotten she was really excited.
3. MAD props go to melissa! for finding out exactly what Melissa wanted from Pappadeaux's. I knew it was crawfish something-or-other, but melissa! engaged her in a long food conversation to find out for me. She actually made Melissa really crave the stuff too, so that was even better.
4. The strawberries in chocolate fondue was another surprise. Melissa got to use her new fondue pot for the first time.