the world is your acorn

• The video card which 2 summers ago was the savior of my gaming months is now the bane of my existence. Why is it so hard to cleanly remove nvidia driver installations?
• The 3 hole punch here in my office only takes about 8 pieces of paper at a time and requires me to stand up in order to get enough leverage to actually use it.
• The website here at school does not tell me what applications are installed on the computers in each lab. Does that mean I’ll have to trek all over campus to find computers that are useful to me? Some of the labs are also computer classrooms, and available for “walk-ins” only when there’s no class. In other words, I’ll have to walk my ass all the way across campus only to find out I can’t use the computer.
• The other night I dreamt about little wieners wrapped in Pillsbury crescent rolls. I have neither little wieners nor crescent roll dough in my house, but I did have some Pillsbury biscuits and hot dogs. So I tried wrapping hot dog pieces in biscuit dough. It was ok, but just not the same. I think it was mostly the proportions though, since I just shoved the hot dog pieces into the biscuit instead of remolding pieces of the dough.
• Everything Guy is tempting me to go to this conference in Mexico in November. It seems really cool, but it’s that busy time of year for school. Argh.
• Oliver has a doggie date with a miniature poodle and a schnauzer at the dog park this evening. He’s super excited.

I’ve been working all day on an ubuntu installation, which got held up for a long time because of an nvidia video card that I have installed. Argh. Now this same video card is giving me problems in Windows, and I have no idea why. I do know, however, that it is wicked frustrating and although I am thankful for the internet and things like users’ forums, I’d still prefer products that are easier to use. Rar.

I’ve bitched a fair amount the past year about the lack of a Dunkin Donuts here in Nashville. Well, yesterday, on the day before my 28th birthday, my prayers were answered.

Yesterday was the grand opening of an official Dunkin Donuts down in Franklin. It’s the inspirational story of someone who didn’t like something about how things are, and did something about it. Joe Rando moved to Nashville, discovered that there are no Dunkins here, and opened some. Simply brilliant. Mr. Rando, if you are out there, my hat is off to you. And ps, can you open one on West End? Or closer to Sylvan Heights? Just sayin’.

Anyway, my new little buddy who I’ll probably talk about later drove down with me this afternoon to check it out. There are some confusing things on the menu (like pizza - have I been away from Dunkin for so long?), but the basics felt right. When The Little Red Haired Girl came home I let her have the rest of my iced coffee, and it was kinda like watching one of those Herbal Essences ads. So I think we’ll be visiting Cool Springs a bit more often from now on.

The Little Red Haired Girl and I opened my birthday presents from her and my brother this morning before she left for work. They were both overly generous, but the highlight of the haul was most definitely a croquet set! We’ll have some serious all-terrain croquet-ing in our backyard all weekend long. I can’t wait. Good thing I just sprayed the yard with some mosquito barrier, thanks to Busy Mom’s recommendation.

• Today is the first day of classes. I’m excited, but not ready to go back yet.
• Even though today is the first day of classes, I still don’t know when one of the meets.
• Tomorrow is my birthday. I haven’t once invoked “Birthday month” or “Birthday week” priviledges, and now it’s practically over.
• I took a nap in the afternoon yesterday and now I think I’m jetlagged.
• I cleaned out the gutters yesterday morning. It was gross. And I’m short, even with a 6′ ladder.
• I ordered a macbook a couple of days ago. I’m totally excited about it, but it’s not coming until September.
• The Little Red Haired Girl has been humoring me and placing presents that arrive under an orchid in the living room (no, it’s not that big) and calling it “The Birthday Orchid.”

Farecast.com has just added Nashville to its list of cities that it does airfare predictions for. It doesn’t do a ton of destination cities from Nashville yet, but it seems like a pretty neat idea. It looks at the fares for the dates you want to fly for the last few days to see if they’ve been changing at all, and recommends whether you should buy your ticket now or wait. It also does a grid view where you can find the cheapest time of day to fly. Pretty neat.

Before:

After:

Everything Guy and I went down to Vote No On 1 headquarters this afternoon to get involved in volunteering. Randy, whose title I can’t remember, chatted with us for a while about what’s going on and what they’re trying to do. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

I emailed my mom to let her know about the new dog this morning. I was a little nervous that she’d be critical of the decision to get a dog, saying that it’s too much work or too expensive or something. To my surprise, she seemed pleased. Here is what she said:

that is great! can I borrow him? where did you get him from? you need to learn grooming the dog. it is very expensive to have him groomed. does he cost you arm and leg?

Some thoughts:

• What is she going to do with him if she “borrows” him?
• How can she “borrow” him? She lives in Connecticut. I clearly don’t.
• Is “grooming the dog” some sort of line dance?
• The Little Red Haired Girl said that she could borrow him in exchange for her arm and leg.

Oliver!!