Friday,
March 15, 2002

Happy birthday, Michael!

Yes, today is my brother Michael's *pauses to think for a moment, calculates age based on my own, comes up with a number* 31st birthday. And being the admitted slacker that I am, I still have to get his birthday present into the mail, but at least I'm thinking about him on this day of days, which is more than I can say for the other 95% of my life.

Happy birthday, kid -- hope it was a good one. And watch the mail. . .

There seems to be an end in sight

It looks like Jolene will be coming over on Sunday to pick up Pooch and take him to his potential new parents. Which is a goodness -- he's a lovely dog, but I'm absolutely shattered after a week of getting up at 6:30 AM to take him for his walks, then coming home to have him want my attention 100% of the time. I mean, even kids take naps once in a while, but Pooch is always there.

And when he's not actually butting my hand or leaning against me, he's sitting and staring at me. Man, this dog has some abandonment issues.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to this weekend like you would not believe. Even after getting up to walk Pooch, I can at least go back to bed and sleep.

For awhile, anyway. I don't want to miss my first guitar lesson in 22 years, though. Yes, you read that correctly -- I'm taking guitar lessons again, mainly because I don't want to sound like an idiot when Widows and Orphans (the SF/F answer to the Rock Bottom Remaninders) finally gather together at ConJosé and try to jam. This should be interesting.