Warning: contains adult language and themes.

If you liked that, you should check out their earlier work on π.

When I was 9, there were few things more exciting than the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalog. I bought my microscope and my chemistry set out of that catalog. I wanted to get the electronics set but never did.

• The Buffalo Springfield Box Set
• Peninsula of Lies by Edward Ball
• How To Be Good by Nick Hornby
• Digital Ash in a Digital Urn by Bright Eyes
• Everything! by Tones on Tail
• The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin
• Rust Never Sleeps (DVD) by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
• Lost Dogs by Pearl Jam

Thanks a bunch to Tom & Jan and Tina, Graham & Thomas. As I mentioned earlier Half.com has become my favorite semi-annual ritual.

Bike odometer: 220 miles
Weight lost: 32 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 7.2
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Portrait: The Music of Dan Fogelberg by Dan Fogelberg, DrugMusic, Humpy’s Soul Show, It’s The Jump Off
Recent viewing: Without A Trace, Mystery of the Megavolcano, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Installed memory in Graham’s computer
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, rake, install new hard drive for Thomas, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: Kittens: Pictures taken by a man in Taiwan who rescues street cats before the government collects and “disposes” of them.

I’ve got some pictures from the sleep clinic that I’m sorting through. I’ll have those up some time this week.

Bike odometer: 82 miles
Current reading: The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday
Recent viewing: Brainiac, 2006 World Series of Poker, Monk, FIBA Championships, Emmy Awards
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Finished Zuma, built a bench on our deck, deck maintenance, cleaned up the work bench in the garage, cleaned and lubed bike, paid bills, helped Thomas design a Lego steering mechanism
Imperative To Do: Install network in Graham’s room, labels for my sister’s CDs, pay bills, fix Newton server, kill and pull weeds, design a better steering mechanism
Cool Link: Why not impeachment? by Bill Maher

Thomas didn’t go with us today because he’s been at Cub Scout Camp all week. Tina has missed him greatly and we’re going to pick him up there tomorrow. I suspect that he’s hardly noticed we’re not there.

I may have mentioned a couple of weeks ago about spending the night at the hospital as part of a sleep study. The study confirmed that I have positional sleep apnia which means that I have an abnormal number of apnia episodes when I sleep on my back. I also exhibit apnia symptoms while I am in R.E.M. sleep. During the sleep study, if I would have shown apnia by 2:00 AM, they would have awoken me in order to fit me with a CPAP device. I did not meet the criteria and did not exhibit severe enough apnia until after I went into R.E.M.’s sometime after 2:00 AM. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when I awoke at 5:30 and realized that they had not awoken me. Later, the technician explained my situation and assured me that I would probably still be fitted for a CPAP on another night. Thus, I am scheduled for another study next week and I’m pretty sure it will be to do that very thing. I’ll write more later when I know more.

Bike odometer: 59 miles
Current reading: The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Taking The Long Way by Dixie Chicks, KBOO Bike Show, Humpy’s Soul Show
Recent viewing: Pee Wee’s Playhouse, Nature, Monk, Countdown, The Colbert Report
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Car shopping, recycling, garbage, paid bills, expense report, upgraded my DSL
Imperative To Do: Setup Airport Express, install network in Graham’s room, labels for my sister’s CDs
Cool link: Moving by bike

Well, we wanted to have steaks yesterday, so I was tasked with fixing the grill. I fired it up and soon found the problem: the burner bar was completely rusted through in the middle. The current grate was also quite rusted, so the combined replacement cost of these convinced me that it was time for a new grill. So after dinner we dropped by Lowe’s to see what they had. They saw us coming from a mile away because they had a nice array of pre-assembled grills displayed outside. After I briefly tried to convince the family that the $119 model looked like an excellent replacement for our current grill, we decided that stepping up to the $199 was a better idea.

You can see the details by clicking on the picture, but here’s the main selling points:

• 640 sq. in. cooking area (rated for 28 burgers in their flier)
• Three burners that produce 42,000 BTUs
• Porcelain cooking grates
• Porcelain heat tent
• Stainless steel
• Push-and-turn ignition

We fired her up tonight and cooked the steaks. The push-and-turn ignition is sweet and it heated up pretty quickly. The steaks were fair and cooked a little uneven. I’ll have to learn the cold spots on this grill.

Bike odometer: 6122 miles
Current reading: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, Smoke and Guns by Kirsten Baldock and Fabio Moon
Recent listening: A Prairie Home Companion, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
Recent viewing: Lakers at Suns, Cavaliers at Pistons, Mavericks at Spurs, Nova, Sportscenter, The West Wing
Recent playing: Poker Room
Recently Accomplished: bought a new grill
Imperative To Do: Bike repairs, get watch fixed, truck shopping, bank
Cool link: The Wrongness Singularity