A book and a movie!

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

I can't wait!

Ladies and gentlemen.

I give you ... William Shatner!

Roughly half of my closest friends use some sort of Messenger software, mostly MSN. The guys are more often online, but the girls talk more.

A common theme with the guys, who I often talk with late in the evening, is that they will disappear offline as soon as their significant others say the word, throwing a "bye" and not even giving me a chance to reciprocate before the log off. In other words, my guys treat their girls well.

Come to think of it, that is no coincidence. I have always abhorred men who do not treat their women decently. Only one of my friends used to do that. So one day I knocked him cold. Suffice to say, we wouldn't be considered friends today. I just snap when women get mistreated. That's terribly old-fashioned, I know, but I can't help it. I cut women much more of a slack. I think I can somehow feel what a challenge it can be for women to put up with us guys. "After all, he's just a man", and all that jazz.

Despite all my rhetoric, I guess I'm just an old-fashioned fart after all.

I bought my ticket today.

Leaving on August 15. Not coming back until September 4. And flying alone.

*Sigh*

My daughter and I ended this day by walking around in a park. She would hold onto my thumbs, and I would slowly ease them out of her hands, thus leaving her to walk on her own. She realized that after taking a step or two by herself, and fell onto the grass laughing hysterically.

Then we went for pizza. Broccoli for her, anchovies for me.

Something woke me up in the middle of the night.

No, it wasn't a loud truck. Not the train. Nor a wild party in the neighborhood. Not the smell of something burning. But it was a smell. A foul, pugnant, offensive, overbearing smell.

It was a skunk!

Somewhere in the village, a skunk had sprayed its overbearing liquid. Possibly in defense when fronted with another animal. Or a car.

But as a result, everything smells like a skunk in here now. Including me. Gee, I can just imagine the looks on my fellow biker's faces when I show up for our 50 mile ride this morning. They'll probably leave me in a ditch enroute.

Hello. I will be your skunk for the day.

Man, it's raining!

Rain. Rain. Rain.

Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain.

I am going away again in a month. For almost three weeks. *Sigh* If this pathetic on-line airline ticket website service thing doesn't forget to send me my ticket. Again.

What is the deal with these ticketing websites, anyway? I have been doing most of my banking on the Net for years now. With no problems. What so ever. Never has my money just mysteriously disappeared from my account. Never have I had to call the bank and have someone say to me, in a patronizing voice: "Now are you suuuure sir, that you actually transferred this amount into your account? Couldn't it be that you just accidentally did not transfer it, like, at all?" But time after time, year after year, this is what I get from the airlines. All of them. BA, AA, Air France, KLM, SAS, and the rest of them. All of these clowns. "Sorry sir, I have no record of that transaction. Oh, and by the way, that flight is now full." I mean, is it a requirement that if you land a contract, writing a booking engine for an airline website, that it actually should not work? Ever?

Actually, I am not pissed about this. I learned my lesson a while ago. Now, I buy my tickets way in advance, to allow for all the screw-ups, and lost reservations, and tickets to Detroit (I mean, who would go to Detroit, voluntarily, anyway?), and wrong prices, and middle seats, and all the other stuff that you can possibly fuck up when taking someone's reservation for a simple airfare.

You know what though? I am pissed. But not at the airline. It's this whole going away again thing. Alone. For weeks.

And on top of it all, if I have to go somewhere, this really isn't where I want to fly to!

I have a completely different destination in mind.