The weather folks have been telling us for days to expect freezing rain. Instead, what’s falling right now is good old-fashioned snow… mixed in with freezing rain and occasional bits of hail. Oh, and the wind is blowing with gusts up to 50 mph, just to make things just that wee bit more fun.

Color me unthrilled.

I expect tomorrow to be a very interesting day. Did I mention that we’re supposed to have an off-site department heads meeting tomorrow afternoon? Hmm, what are the odds on that taking place? For that matter, what are the odds we’ll have more than half of the staff show up at all? I wager the odds on my getting to stay home are far slimmer. Yay.

Sweet mother of the gods. How hard is it to blow fifty bucks?

It took me most of an hour at Fred Meyer this evening to figure out how to spend my annual holiday bonus from my ever-so-generous employers. Do I buy the wireless “G” card for the laptop, even though I already have a wireless “B” card that does almost everything I need? Do I buy a webcam, even though I haven’t used a webcam at home since Blogathon? Do I get a game, even though I already have two games I’m juggling what little gaming time I have to fit in? Do I buy a couple of DVDs, even though there’s nothing on the Fred Meyer shelves that remotely appeals to me? (They lack anime, completely.) Do I buy a sound card, even though the only machines that could most benefit from a newer card are equipped with LiveDrive devices that Creative doesn’t provide connectors for on the cards available to choose from?

I finally settled on a no-name DVD burner, even though I already have one in the A/V rig. This gives me the ability to install games on the gaming rig that come on DVD-ROM, as well as the ability to watch DVD movies on the computer that’s equipped with 5.1 speakers and happens to have its screen facing the bed. It cost me another $30 out-of-pocket, but still that’s not too shabby, all things considered.

Man. I didn’t have this much trouble picking out presents for everybody else, so what gives, eh?

This year is my most successful year of holiday shopping yet. Yea verily, I am indeed finished with all of my holiday shopping as of today. I can now lean back and enjoy the next nine days secure in the knowledge that I have no more crowds to brave, bargains to hunt, or expenses to incur. There’s even a good chance that people will actually like what I bought them.

Not too shabby for a scatterbrained procrastinator like yours truly, is it?

(It bears pointing out that the vast bulk of this year’s holiday presents were selected, assembled and wrapped up by one particular very awesome lady. Some gifts required my personal touch, however, and oddly enough I actually came through with some good selections. I’m so proud of me. Heh.)

While getting my haircut this morning, the power along a short stretch of SE Division (including the location of Fresh Hair) went out for fifteen minutes.

Shortly after I arrived at work, water service was shut off for about three hours.

Is there something about my presence today that is detrimental to basic utilities services? If so, I’d love to know what it is so I can prevent another outage…