I doan like it when I'm drinking from a drinking fountain near bathrooms, and hear someone flush, and see the drinking fountain water pressure drop.

What a nice weekend.

Friday night, we headed on over to Baditude's for a "Secret Santa" party. It was a lot of fun. I gave Little Buhr a poker book and some lottery tickets. He seemed to like the book a lot, and ended up winning $65 with the tickets, so he was happy. Sara gave me a gift certificate for EB, which is one of the things I asked for, so it all worked out great. I just need to find some computer games to play! One of the best parts of the night, though, was the surprise appearance of an old friend Isaac from high school. The guy was alway a nut (in a good way), and it didn't seem like much had changed. He currently works in set-design and production in various projects, and regaled us with stories from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and running from bad guys in San Francisco and so forth. It was really neat to see him, and hear his wild stories.

Yesterday, Diana and I did a lot of yardwork. Then that evening, after discussing it the night previously, some peeps came over for a little friendly game of poker. It was a lot of fun, and nice to have a full table. It was me, Diana, Eryn, Heather, the brothers Buhr, Iwan, and special guest star Sara, playing with the boys for the first time. She was all giggles and infected the rest of the table with her enthusiasm. At the end of the night, the big winners were me and Heather, ending up about +$16 each. It was a lot of fun.

Today, Diana and I took some time for just ourselves, which was nice. We went and saw "Big Fish", which I liked. Think "Forrest Gump" meets, um, Tim Burton. We came home and watched the end of the Charger game, and had other plans to do some shopping, but I think those are sliding away. It was nice to spend the day with just ourselves, though, as we've both been really busy the last few weeks.

I got "Settlers of Cataan" for Christmas, and I want to get some peeps together to player it. The game requires either 3 or 4 players, which is sort of a weird number. Too many for just me and Diana, but too few for a traditional big-group games night type of thing.

That's about it. Left on the list of to do's for today: shower, laundry, dishes, shave head. Busy day!

Merry Christmas and whatnot.

I write this from Diana's parents hours after a nice day of rest from my hectic work schedule. Things have been pretty crazy around there, thankfully not really including me, but I've had to put in long hours in case things go bad. Sort of dumb.

Last night, we had Diana's parents over for some early gift opening, and a rousing game of a card game called "Rage". Good fun and good to see everyone.

This morning, we slept thankfully late, enjoying a warm cozy bed while it was really nasty and windy and rainy outside. Then up and opened pressies, and had some Adman Omlettes. I make good omlettes. Who knew?

I got lots of good stuff: Simpsons DVDs (seasons 1-3), some nice clothes, new boxers, some books I really wanted (Kevin Mitnicks "Art of Deception" and some novels). I'm looking forward to diving into all of them. I got lots more stuff that I know I'm forgetting. (Games! Settlers of Cataan and the most recent version of Trivial Pursuit).

Early this afternoon, we arrived here at Diana's parents house, and have been hanging out. We opened even MORE pressies, which was nice. We had an early Christmas dinner, and have just generally been enjoying each others company.

My parents and brother and aunt are in Montana right now. It would have been nice to be able to go, but unfortunately my work has needed every able body to stick around and not take vacations. They swear it's a one-time thing, and they were very apoligetic about it, and I believe 'em. It would be nice to see the fam and do a little snowboarding and watch it snow and so forth. Maybe next year.

So, that's about that. Soon, another family is showing up, and we're going to have rousing good game-playing fun! Huzzah.

Tomorrow night is Baditude's Secret Santa party, which I'm really looking forward to. I love secret santas! :)

ttfn

Woah... looks like my last post was rudely interrupted. Weird.

I've been working too much. More this weekend. Dumb.

I watched something on the Wright Brothers last night, and it was really fascinating. Those guys were pretty darn clever. It really got me wondering, though, if there is room for the common man to make any broad-stroke, humanity-changing discoveries.

My first inclination is "yes". Home computers are only a couple decades old. Hell, even cars and flight are 100 years old. There seems to be a lot of room for discovery in fields like medicine (new drugs, genetics, etc), and computers (new software and gadgets).

But the frontiers of discovery are getting pushed further and further away from the garage, it seems. One can hardly set up a lab in their spare time and study different proteins and so forth (can they?). Advancement using computers seems a little more likely, but again, things are now at such a high level (are they?) that it would be beyond one person. Maybe it's all relative, though. Maybe the Wright brothers said the same thing, back in the day.

What broad expanses of unknownness are left? Deep sea. Space. Medicine. New applications for faster/s

Work.

Work has been slow lately, but it's about to pick up, bigtime. I'm probably going to be here late tonight (missing my two latest shows, "Simple Life" and "Celebrity Poker"). This weekend, I'm probably going to have to work Saturday night (missing part or all of a sweet sweet holiday party) and most of Sunday.

Poo.

By the way...

Just in case there is concern out there (mainly my big brother :) my interest (reading/thinking/watching/analyzing/talking about) poker is WAY disproportional to the amount I actually play. So please don't worry (unless things drastically change) about me in that regard.

Just so it's abundantly clear, here is my unabridged gambling history from the basically the past YEAR (more or less):
4 or 5 poker nights with friends (Diana and I combined: +$77)
2 x indian casio poker tournaments (-$25 total (this was purely an "edutainment" cost))
1 x impromptu poker night at Iwan's ($+26? I think + something...)
1 x workboy poker night (+$10)
1 x Vegas trip (-~$250 (Mostly blackjack and various expenses))
Countless hours of free online poker (free :)

The Vegas trip unfortunately skews the numbers, but that's really anamalous (we hadn't been in a couple years before that). It should really be thrown out as bad data, but I include it for honest completeness.

For the sake of argument, turn all those +'s to -'s, and the dollars still compare pretty favorably to golfing or movie watching or other hobbies. But also note that those are indeed +'s and not -'s. And also please know that Diana and both keep track of our winnings and losings, and aren't about to let things get out of control.

And as Norm recently touched on (in a comment that no longer exists), I don't think poker can be compared with roulette, blackjack, slots and many other forms of gambling. Those games are simply mathematically stacked against you. With practice, poker can be a (long run) winnable game of skill, rather than a mathmematically unwinnable (long run) game of chance. You are playing against other players, and can be "better" or "worse" than they are.

A brief example taken from "Winning Low Limit Hold'Em": Let's say the chances of rain for the next 10 days is 70% on each day. A friend gives me 7:3 odds that it's going to rain, and we do this bet for 10 days.

Each day, he bets $7. I bet $3. 30% of the time, I win $7. %70 he wins $3. After 10 days, I should have won 3 days, or $21. He's won 7 times ($3 each) so $21. We're even.

Now suppose it still rains 70%, but he offers me 8:3 odds. After 10 days, I'll still win 3 times, but he pays me $8 each time, for a total of $24. I still lose 7 times, but only lose $21. I'm up $3!

Now moving to poker: I have an inside straight draw (10, J, Q, K, for instance). I've seen a total of 5 cards (my hole cards and three on the flop), so there are 47 unknown cards left. There are 8 cards that can complete my straight (4 aces and 4 nines). The odds are 39:8, or about 5:1 against making my straight. If the pot is at least 5 (or is it 6?) times bigger than what I'm putting into it, that's a profitable bet in the long run.

(I wish I could say that I was good enough to keep track of all these things during a game! But I'm working on it...)

There are other factors at play, of course (if I make the straight, will it even win?, position, player types, bluffing, tells, etc), but the general point is that, with enough skill and practice, the odds of the game CAN be in your favor. Compare that math to roulette and blackjack and see how you fare. I'll give you 8:3 odds (ha!) you can't find a way to beat the game without cheating.

Anyways, this is all a way overblown defense against a problem that really doesn't exist, but just some comments and thoughts.

[edit: Diana found a bug in my odds on a straight. I had 47:8, but it's actually 39:8 (which adds up to 47)]

So.

Friday night was my company's Holiday party. It wasn't clear if Diana was going to be able to go, and I was too stoked on the idea of going without her, but the lure of mega-prizes might have been too great. In any case, she got work done, and even did some in the car-ride down there, and we were able to go. The party was pretty good. We had a drink, talked to some peeps, had dinner, didn't win any prizes, and turned around and came home as things were heating up.

The dumb thing is that Diana was doing all this work for her class on Saturday morning. On Saturday, her professor never showed up because he'd been in a car crash the night before or something. Bummer.

Saturday was lazy. Diana worked in the morning. I played a great old game called "The Fool's Errand", which is an old out-of-print puzzle game. Basically, you solve lots of little mini-puzzles to get pieces of a larger puzzle and chapters of a story. Once you get all those, you read the story and solve the final puzzle to win the game. Lots of fun. You can learn more about it here. (Download the PC version from the www.the-underdogs.org (which is a great website for old games).

That evening we had dinner together (imagine that!) and watched the Special Feature disc that came with our new "Amadeus" DVD. Really interesting feature, with lots of interesting anecdotes and stuff about the making of the movie.

Sunday, Diana worked again in the morning (she's really busy lately, but that should clear up after this week when she has two weeks off! Huzzah!), and I played in the 11:30am no-limit hold'em tournament on Pokerstars.com. I played until 1pm, and then on and off during the Charger game. Diana came home and needed to use the computer, so I just left myself sitting out (losing blinds and antes), logging in occasionally to see how I was doing. I ended up taking 40th place (out of the 5014 entrants). Not too shabby, and I probably would have done even better if I didn't have to quit.

We then headed over to my parents house for some present opening and dinner before they leave for Montana. We saw pictures from my dad's trip to China, which was interesting. It was good to see them. We got home in time to watch the Survivor finale, which was very satisfactory.

Now, back to work!

Poker Report...

[The following is mostly written by me, for my own benefit, to reinforce lessons learned while they're still fresh in my mind. I post it here only in case others are interested in reading it.]

I went and played some neighborhood poker with work-boys last night. It was a lot of fun, and fun to hang out with some nice people in a non-work setting.

We eventually got around to actually playing poker. We decided to all buy-in for $20, playing $.40/$.80 limit hold'em (blinds of $.20 and $.40). Experience ranged from lots of free-money online play (me and another guy) to people who knew the rules, to people who were totally brand new.

And so we started playing. I won a small pot or two early on, and was satisfied with my play and moderate winnings so far. But it changed pretty quick. An early hand killed me: I had AQo, and the flop comes A-2-8 rainbow. I'm feeling pretty good right about now. Bets and raises and a couple callers. Turn comes another A. I'm loving life. Me and another guy (who's brand new to the game) bet and raise each other some more. Everyone else folds. River comes a blank, and we bet out. I flip over my ace, and he shows me a pocket pair of 2's for the full house. Brutal. I didn't even see it coming.

Another killer: I had 56 in the big blind, and flop comes 559. Bets and raises, etc. Turn comes a 9. Me and another guy bet and raise to the max. River is a blank, and we cap it again. I show a 5. He shows (wait for it) 9. Ugh.

Over the night, my $20 dwindled to about $8. A couple big beats and lots of chasing cards a little too far. Things turned around when I got JTo and raised pre-flop. Got lots of callers. Flop an inside straight draw, kept betting and raising, and made the straight on the river. Big pot. Won the next one, too, and one or two more after that. Look down and see that my $6 has grown to $26. Not bad. Win the last hand of the night, and push my chips up to $30 for a net of +$10. Fair enough.

In retrospect: During the evening, it's frustrating to watch people who don't know what they're doing playing and winning hands with the "any two cards can win" theory. This, in addition to a casual atmosphere of "hanging out", makes it hard to fold hands. It's like: "I want to play and have fun, I don't want to sit there and fold all night! Also, look at what cards are winning!" This is bad. This is no. This fosters bad play. I've read about this. I know it. But it's still surprisingly hard to avoid when it actually comes around. And there's something to be said about playing for the thrill of it, and gambling on hands that are unlikely to win. It's certainly fun, but it's fun and losing. I believe it's possible to have fun and still play solid poker. And if I had my choice between hanging out, having fun, and winning, or having fun, hanging out, and losing, I'll take the former.

Looking back, though, the experience poker players (3 of us) all came out ahead (approx: +10, +10, +32). The inexperienced players either were even or lost (approx: -0, -2, -5, -10, -18, -20). So in spite of the fact that people would win random pots, in the longer run, experience paid off.

Ok, people... listen up.

I'm tired of hearing the following things on the radio:

1) Coldplay. Enough already! Their's was the first song I've ever heard playing on THREE radio stations at the same time.
2) Advertisements where they take a Christmas carol and substitute their own catchy lyrics. DUMB!

If I hear either of these things on my radio again, I'm going to ... change the station!

Feminism.

Recently, I've heard from a variety of sources who show disdain for the word "feminist". I think Diana was talking with one of her students, who said something along the lines of "I believe in equal rights for women and stuff, but I'm not, like, a feminist or anything." I've heard similar stuff other places as well.

Something on the radio reminded me of this and got me thinking on the way to work. My thinking is that back in the day (like, the '70s), the feminist movement was critical to gaining equal rights and pay and respect for women. I believe this is a good thing, and would be proud to call myself a feminist. Feminists were people who followed this belief, going against the status quo that women should all be June Cleavers.

But I think with my generation and downwards, the idea of equal rights for women is already a done deal (for the most part). So much so that it pretty much goes without saying. That said, there seems to be a perception that if you still are calling yourself a feminist, you are some sort of extremist (in a negative sense).

Has the definition or connotation of the word changed? Is being a feminist different now than 20 years ago?

Weekend update!

Busy weekend, so let's not waste anymore time!

Friday evening, I invited a few friends over for a little informal birthday get-together. I didn't want to do a big thing, but thought it would be fun to hang out. A couple peeps came over, and brought a few pressies, which was unexpected and nice. We ate some pizza, smashed up a pinata (thanks Norm and Teri!) and played a rousing game of Apples to Apples. Good fun.

Saturday was my birthday proper. Both Diana and I had to work on Saturday morning, which was kind of a bummer. After work, we headed off to a friends baby shower. I have to admit, when we got the invitation, I wasn't too stoked on the idea of going to 1) a baby shower, and 2) it being on my birthday. That was, of course, just a stupid gut reaction, and the party was a lot of fun. We hung out with the peeps, and the boys split off and played miniature golf while the ladies did some sort of sewing project. It was neat to talk to my boy and hear his thoughts on upcoming fatherhood.

I had to stop by work again after that, in the evening. By the time I got home, we were tired and ready for a good sit. We popped in "Iron Giant" (thanks Eron!) and enjoyed it, and headed to bed by like 9pm, which was nice.

Sunday, I watched the Charger game, and the boys actually won! Diana's parents came over afterwards, and we chatted for a bit, and headed out and bought a li'l Christmas tree, and got it set up and decorated. It's a little tree, but smells nice and looks very colorful and cheery. I like it. In the evening, Diana caught up on schoolwork while I caught up on some much-needed computer-game playing. I'm playing "System Shock 2", which is an older game, but supposed to be a classic. I'm enjoying it.

And now, back to work! Feels like the weekend was waaaay too short.

This Friday is my companies Christmas party. I hope I win something big again! :)

I'm so fun!

Today at work people gave me balloons and a card. It was very nice.

Looking at the balloons, I decided to launch something. I wrote a note as follows:

Hi!

My name is Adam. Today is 12/5/03, and tomorrow is my 29th birthday.
My friends at work got me some balloons, so I thought I'd do one of
these "notes in a bottle" dealy and see what happens. I hope a condor doesn't
eat it and die or something!

If you get this, go ahead and drop me an email at aspragg@yahoo.com!
I'd love to hear from you, and where you found this note.

Best wishes!

Adam

I wrapped it in a $1, and tied a red ribbon around it. I put it in a plastic baggie, and put all that into a little water bottle. I'm going to launch it, and see what happens!

A co-worker laughed and said: "You should be glad you're not totally rich... You'd spend your money doing all sorts of crazy geek stuff!" I took it as a compliment.

My birthday.

My birthday is on Saturday. I turn 29. That's kind of a big one! Last hurrah in the 20's!

I'm getting older. I'm starting to lose hair. I noticed a big black line on my face the other day when driving home, and found that it was the shadow that a big crease in my face made when the sun hit it just right. That didn't used to be there. But it was caused by smiling, so it can't be all bad.

I'm not the type to get depressed on birthdays and feel bad about getting older. I never was a wild partier in my glory days, but I'm more and more comfortable with being an old married guy, not staying out till all hours doing crazy stuff, that kind of thing. I'm perfectly happy and comfortable with where I was, where I am, and where I'm going. Huzzah.

For those who feel the need to get me something (please don't feel the need!) I have a small wishlist on Amazon of stuff that I want. Easy-peasy!

Cards.

My family didn't play cards all that much, and I've never really liked card games all that much (poker aside).

However, Diana taught me a really fun card game that she and/or her Dad made up. It's sort of a non-betting poker variant. The goal is to eventually use 30 cards (two hands of 15 each) to make 4 GOOD poker hands, and 2 BAD poker hands (30 cards total in two 15 card hands to make 6 poker hands, 5 cards/hand). The rules are as follows:

The game is played with two decks, shuffled together. Each player is dealt two hands of 12 cards each. After the hands are dealt, 8 cards are turned face up in a flower pattern, and the deck is placed in the middle.

The non-dealer goes first, starting with her left(I think)-most hand. She then draws two cards, either from the face up ones or from the deck (or one of each). She then discards ONE card, always face up (making room for the new card on the table, if necessary). Her hand has grown by one card.

Play continues clockwise, each player drawing two cards and discarding one, for three full rounds.

At this point, the players hands should have grown to 15 cards each. Each player constructs 4 good poker hands and 2 bad poker hands (no crossing cards over... strictly three poker hands per 15 cards)). High hands are compared, followed by low hands, in a "most likely to win" to "least likely to win" order. 6 points are distributed for each of the 6 comparisons (half points for ties).

At this point, the game is over. Of course, points can be tallied and the game can be continued (first one to 20, for instance).

Additional stuff: You can't look back and forth between your two hands. If I just finished playing my left-most hand, and I put it down and pick up my right most hand (while my opponent is playing), I *can't* view my left-most hand again until I've played my right one. Make sense?

Also: It is good strategy to pass cards from one hand to the next, if possible, by discarding it from one and drawing it to the other. It's easy to pass from your right hand to your left hand, since the turns are in order, but harder to pass from your left hand to your right hand, since the card must survive out on the table while your opponent goes).

Finally, for low hands: Aces are high, and straights count as high, so the best low hand is 2-3-4-5-7 non-suited.

It's really quite a brilliant game, with good elements of luck and strategy. Good hands are quite often high 4-of-a-kinds or straight flushes, while lows hands are frequently the nut low (the lowest possible) or just above that.

If you have a couple decks and are looking for something to do, try it out!

Friday night, Diana and I went out for dinner at a little seafood market near our house, and I had I think the best bowl of clam chowder ever. I've had a LOT of clam chowder in my life, so this is no small claim. I was highly impressed.

Later that night, I got a call from Iwan. The Buhrs were in town, and a little impromptu poker night was being set up! Diana was tutoring in the morning, so while she headed to bed, I went to see the boys.

Poker was a LOT of fun. We (Adam, Iwan, Little Buhr, Gabe, Miami John, Baron) cashed in for $10 playing pot-limit $.20/$.40 hold 'em. I actually ran through my $10 pretty quick, getting out-kickered a couple times, or someone picked up a second pair on the river, or whatever. I bought in for $5 more, and was able to win it all back, and more. Most of that came from one huge hand. I had 5-6 offsuit. I don't remember my position, but I think I was a blind. The bet was raised by Baron for a tiny raise, which I called. Most people were in from the flop. Flop comes 3,4,7 rainbow (three suits). I've flopped a huge hand. I believe I checked from an early position, someone bets, Baron raises, every folds to me, and I raise again (or call), and everyone else folds. Turn comes 8. I bet big, Baron calls. I don't remember the river, but I was feeling pretty good with my straight. I lead off with a big bet (around $4). Baron thinks for a long time. I'm staring into the pot, saying in my head "pleasecallpleasecallpleasecallpleasecall". He mutters about what I might have, including "5-6", but why would I have survived a pre-flop raise with 5-6 (because it was a small raise and I was already partially in, being a blind!) He calls. I show. He mucks (later revealing he had pocket queens). That and a couple smaller pots cashed me out for $24. I then lost a dollar or two on the famous post-poker Little Buhr Blackjack. All in all, it was a really fun time.

Saturday, Diana tutored in the morning. I lolled for a while, and met up with most of the same boys for some flag football. We played a great game, and Baditude took some footage for a video he's going to make. We retired to his place for some Mario Kart Double Dash, and then home. I met up with Diana, and we got ready for dinner. A group of us headed out to a fondue restaurant, which was a lot of fun. The food was pretty good, but sitting around and cooking it yourself and hanging out with friends was great. Dinner was like 3 hours, and since I'm working this morning, it was home for bed.

This morning, I'm at work on support, surfing the web and hoping that nothing goes wrong that I need to worry about. Getting out of warm bed with a sleepy, cuddly wife on Sunday morning is hard. :(

Football has left me about as sore as I've been. I jacuzzi'd yesterday, and might need another does today.

Thanksgiving!

Yesterday, Diana and I got up and started working. We made beans and a salad for our upcoming feast. We also were able to take a li'l walk, which was nice.

Early in the afternoon, we headed over to some family friends of Diana's family, where we met my parents and her parents. The whole group of us had drinks and munchies, then a great traditional Thanksgiving dinner, followed by a rousing game of "Beyond Balderdash". All in all, it was a really nice evening, and we were stuffed and ready for bed by like 8pm. :)

I'm thankful for:
Diana - I feel lucky every day that she is in my life (again). There's simply too much to list her without doing it justice. She is so much fun to be around, smart enough to discuss anything, silly enough to sing duets about literally anything, and easy on the eyes to boot.

Our house - I feel so lucky that we were able to get our house in the location that we did at the bargain that we did. I enjoy it every day.

Our parents - Our parents are almost overwhelmingly loving and supportive and proud of both of us. If every child could have such parents, the world would be a better place.

My friends - I love my friends. As we get older, it seems to be harder and harder to make time for us all to get together, but when we do... LOOK OUT!

My job - I have a great job at a great company, with great people. I get paid to do stuff that I love doing. I'm learning all the time and (albeit indirectly) making a difference in lots of peoples lives.

That's the top of the list, at least. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

---

OH! My car's mileage recently turn over 65536! First person to comment why this number is significant wins Adam Respect Points!

Work is slow today, so more bloggin'!

I'm planning on upgrading our computer. Currently, I'm running a 1.2 Ghz Athlon on an ABIT KT7A-RAID motherboard with 1 gig of (cheap, mismatched) RAM. I also have a Radeon 9700 video card, which I don't think I should have gotten. It has gotten VERY mixed reviews. The proponents say it's the best card ever. But it's really finicky with different motherboards (including my own), and has caused some problems. Our computer, for example, won't show video on a cold boot. We have to turn it on, wait a few seconds, then hit the reset button. Stuff like that scares me.

I was recommended some stuff by a co-worker of my dad's who builds computers on the side. Here's what I'm thinking:

ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard ~$185
Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz 800Mhz FSB CPU ~$220
512 Megs RAM ~$135
Total: ~$540

Not bad to upgrade to basically a dream system. RAM might be doubled to 1 Gig, and CPU could be bumped up if I really got greedy.

Also, I should definitely have enough spare parts to build a second computer, if need be. I'd really like Diana to have her own computer, 'cause I'd hate to do some tweaking and lose her teaching/billing/schooling work.

Work is picking up! Gotta go.

Dumb!

I just read a news story about a guy who, as a kid, slept in the same bed with Michael Jackson. The point of the story was that he said that "nothing weird happened". Not only is it sort of funny that sleeping in a bed with MJ isn't weird enough by itself, but there's sort of an illogical implication.

I mean, I knew a guy in high school who ended up murdering both his parents. But he didn't kill *me*. Does that have any meaning implications? No.

---

I just got invited to a Secret Santa party! I love Secret Santa parties! I'm excited.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Me and the 'rents and the wife and her 'rents are meeting at some OTHER peeps' house for an extravaganza. Should be food-eatin', game-playin' good fun.

There's also rumblings of friends getting together to play football, Mario Kart, watch movies, or do other fun stuff, but it hasn't really been specified yet. The only bummer is that I have to work some this weekend, which kind of sucks. I'm probably not even going to be working, but just hanging around in case something goes wrong. Oh well. That's why I get paid the *big bucks*.

So... A pretty lazy weekend for the Adman. Diana and I went and saw
"Master and Commander" on Saturday night, which was fun. It was a
pretty good movie, in spite of not a lot really happening. It was very
much like a novel, where there was a single overarching plot, and lots
of little things that happen along the way. But worth seeing.

I watched the Chargers lose this weekend. Poor Chargers.

I recently got the jacuzzi cleaned out and warmed up, and that's been
nice in this latest cold spell. It's been really clear and dark out at
nights, and Diana and I saw a couple shooting stars, which was fun.

Not much other news to report. Work is going well. I was assigned a
task which I thought was going to be pretty tough, but I was clever and
found an easy way to do it (to programmers, laziness is a GOOD thing),
so now I'm sort of waiting for my idea to get reviewed. I've already
written the code, so I hope it does! :)