We got home really late, fiddled with our new software, showered, and went to sleep at about 3. I say went to sleep because there was some hanky panky in between, but nobody cares to hear about my sex life. Unfortunately, I wasn�t able to sleep as much as I usually do. My sleep patterns have been a little off lately. I couldn�t get to sleep on Wednesday night and woke too early today. I�m guessing my body is just tired of sleeping so much and is trying to gently tell me so.

I would like to kiss whomever it was that developed Dreamweaver. That program makes life so much easier than Front Page ever has and it has a decent help directory to go along with it. Yes, I ran into some minor snags along the way, but it�s my first day using it and I think I did quite well for myself. What Frontpage won�t tell you how to do, Dreamweaver will and 18,000 times better at that. It even allows you to view both the visual design window and the coding window at the same time. It beats switching back and forth between tabs every 6 seconds.

I was talking to a friend last night and I offered to build him a template. He replied with mild antagonism, saying that I sure am getting into the whole template thing. I told him that it�s not so much a deep interest as it is major boredom, and I figure that as long as I�m bored, I may as well develop a new skill set while I�m at it. Yes, it makes me want to tear my hair out at times, but everything new does at one time or another and at least I�m finally sticking with this one. I usually drop this sort of thing like a biting gerbil as soon as it starts to get frustrating. I just know that the more I learn, the better, and the more time I take to learn, the less time I have to be really bored.

I�m not looking forward to doing laundry at M&G�s this weekend. M&G are going to Chicago in order to take Nigel to the Pug crawl, which means that C, being unemployed, will more than likely be home and hung over. This past Sunday, he and Luke took G�s car to go rent a movie (Oceans Eleven) and as they were walking out the door G had to tell C to clean the vomit off of the driver�s side door handle. That kid drinks way too much. In all the times I got drunk, I never once drove and I never vomited. What the fuck is up with that kid that he borrows someone else�s car, gets drunk, drives it while intoxicated, and then hurls in the second most offensive place (the first being the seat)? I know I rant a lot about this kid, but Jesus, he does more than his fair share of obnoxious things.

We discovered in the print version of The Onion that The White Stripes are going to be playing in Milwaukee on Luke�s birthday. We�re hoping that M will surprise him with tickets for all of us as his birthday gift. That would mean dinner out as well and my seeing Milwaukee for the first time. I�ve lived here for 2 � years, but I�ve not really traveled around much. I�ve never touched Michigan or Minnesota, I�ve only been to Chicago once and it was dark out, and Iowa is also unknown to me. You would think that I would have at least seen Milwaukee, but Luke says it�s a cesspool, so we�ve never been. I�d love to go to the zoo there and he keeps saying that we will eventually go, but I don�t know if that is going to happen, as I really want to be out of here before too long.

I made a wonderful dinner last night of linguini alfredo with chicken, sundried tomatoes, peas, artichoke hearts, and mushrooms. I�m looking forward to the leftovers I get to eat tonight, complete with yummy Pepperidge Farm 5 cheese garlic bread. Luke, being the philistine that he is, took only chicken and peas last night. I just don�t get how he can�t like most vegetables and fruits. I know it�s a product of living in the Midwest and being the child of a veggie hater, but you�d think that he�d want to at least try to eat better. Unfortunately, there�s nothing that I can do about the situation. I�ve expanded his tastes as much as I think I�m going to be able to. He�s a sport about trying new things, but he doesn�t often pick them up as new possible menu items. I mean, you know the boy has problems when all he wants for dinner tonight is white rice with soy sauce.

I am so glad that I took the risk of buying chicken breasts on the bone when we last went shopping. Since we�ve been so poor, we�ve been buying the boneless skinless thighs, but recently those started making me want to retch. Last night, I simply took the breasts off the bone, removed the skin, and cut it into pieces. Plus we only paid twice as much for this as we would have for 1/3 the amount of thighs.