I now have keys to the new place, and have moved a small fraction of my stuff into it (not even close to a carful, as the carpets are still wet from the dry-cleaning). It's much, much nicer than my current place. Booyah. What did I move? Some toiletries, 2 lamps, the picture that traditionally sits on top of my toilet, a wall fan, and some very small tables. I am again reminded how nice the place is.

So, I called Verizon, and the phone and DSL are on their way there, meaning that I don't know how long I'll still be up here. They think there may be a week or so where the phone will be moved without the DSL, meaning no service either place. I'm gonna spend a LOT of time at work for that period :) Of course, it'll also mean no more netdiary entries for that period. Still, I'm subjecting you all to details of my moving toiletries, so I'm sure y'all'll survive.

Of course, I expect one of my computers to die in this move. It always happens. *sigh* I might as well knock on wood: Here's the last uptimes you'll get at this place for each of my currently awake, Pittsburghized computers: holly: 154 days (about 5 months) forrester: 158 days torgo: 264 days (wow) kryten: 102 days

Maybe it's the normal stress of power-cycling that kills them -- that's normally rough on a computer. Still, I laugh at those poor windows users who need to reboot every few days. You can laugh at me because it takes such a geek to get along so well with Linux. Linux is like an Iguana :) Heh. That phrase, according to google, has never before been placed on the web. Well, that's kinda what it means when google can't find something..

Anyhow, while I was on the phone with verizon, I was driving downtown to talk to the electric company (which wants to see me in person, with lots of ID, before they'll change the electric service). I got out of the car, and the keys fell out of my shorts as I got up, and I didn't notice... so I locked my keys in my car. Grrrr. I then notice that my bookbag, which has my lease in it, is in the car, so I can't go talk to the electric company yet. So, I call AAA. In the meantime, I enter a time of day where I'm not allowed to be parked where I am. I wait.. Eventually, police and tow trucks come start towing everyone in sight. Fortunately, one of them comes and opens my car, saving AAA part of their trip, and allowing a very grateful Pat to drive off, free of charge.

Still, it kinda sucks to have wasted the trip -- the electric company was closed by the time I got in. Oh well. Could've been worse. On the way back, I drove around downtown a bit. I'm in the very early stages of building a mental map of the area, which will probably serve me well. I don't really have occasion to leave Universityland (there's a bit of a gap between what I call "true pittsburgh" and "east pittsburgh", east pittsburgh being where UPitt, CMU, are, being composed of squirrel hill, oakland, shadyside, and a few other neighborhoods. You really notice it best driving on Forbes, which in true pittsburgh is a very minor street, but in Universityland(E.Pittsburgh) it's a big street, with the change point being very visible in the surrounding streets too.

Oh, yes, people, especially Americans, are mind-bogglingly stupid. I'm actually tempted to say that people that stupid should just be shot. Along with the bozos who spam. Minimum standards for the gene pool :)

Final note, for now: Matzoh dipped in peanut butter are very tasty. Yum!