Little nephew

My sister and brother-in-law just had their second child, Kaden Joseph, yesterday. He weighs 7 lbs 11 oz (or as my mom says, 11.1 oz - are we measuring kids by the milligram now?) and is 20 inches long. Today I went to Target to buy some loot for him and his big sister, Kaleigh (I've been informed that you're supposed to give the other children gifts as well, although I'm pretty sure they made that rule up after I was a kid, because I sure don't remember getting anything). Kaden's gifts were actually pretty easy - he's a boy and he's about a day old, so he's a pretty safe bet. Kaleigh was much harder, and I had to endure going down an aisle with a bunch of really scary animatronic dolls, all taking and crying. They gave me the heebee jeebees. Seriously. I would not say that it was as bad as, say, an MRI machine, but it was pretty close. In fact, I would venture to say that the best torture device for Brien would be an MRI machine crammed with peanut butter and those dolls. Hell, for all I know the MRI might reprogram those dolls into being little killing machines. *shudders*

Insurance

Today I got a letter from State Farm telling me I could save "as much as 40%" on my insurance rates by switching to them. This is the same company that, for over two years, has been suing me and make my life about, oh, let's say 40% less enjoyable, as well as making my insurance rates go up about, oh, let's say 40%. I'm thinking about tracing a particular finger gesture on the letter and sending it back.

Bad MRI!

Well, not only did I fail to get an MRI, but I discovered a horrible side-effect. I mistakenly had my wallet in my back pocket of my shorts when going into the MRI this past time. Needless to say, every card I own has been demagnetized. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Only my trusty library card, with its quaint bar code, survived the devastation.

Lorazepam blues

Well, the total tally so far on geting an MRI:

Claustiphobia: 4
MRI: 0

Same results for Lorazepam:

Claustiphobia: 4
Lorazepam: 0

And of course I couldn't drive home, but they said nothing about walking home, so I did - I forget how many miles. We need shoulders bad.

David Sedaris

One of the funniest writers out there (his sister, Amy Sedaris, is coincidentally also one of them) is touring bookstores for his new book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. For those lucky enough to live in a town with a decent bookstore, there's a good chance he will be in your town (such as Baton Rouge). Here's a link to his calendar:

http://www.barclayagency.com/sedaris_appearances.html

P.S. - For those in Baton Rouge too lazy to click on the link (K), he'll be at the Barnes and Nobels in CitiPlace June 18 starting at 7:00 PM.

Bomb Scare

OK, here's a link to the bomb scare that happened in a Ruston Wal-Mart:

http://www.region10.com/news.php?id=5937

OK, identify the issue here:

a) Ruston has no bomb-squad
b) Ruston police cannot search for the bomb, but they will detonate it if found
c) Wal-Mart employees are asked to look for said bomb
d) They determined after 48 minutes that there was no bomb
e) All of the above

Google News from an alternate reality

http://www.fugue.com/pics/goodnews.html

Please don't click the links on the page, though - they point to real Google news stories and it will only make you cry.

Alltel and Verizon

Now that Verizon is buying out Alltel, I look at the Alltel commercials in a whole new light. I can just see the next one, with very uncomfortable things being done to Chad by his Verizon overlord. Ouch.

Things lost in the Universal Studio Fire

http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=4961

Ouch on number 13!

Shopping for Deals

I always will check out a couple of sites first before buying anything online - you can usually find coupons and, every once in a while, actually find what you are looking for at a really good price. It's not good to do what I do and check them every day, however - you just end up buying awhole bunch of junk. But here they are if you're interested:

• Spoofee - great deal site that has a lot of tech items but also other things as well. They also have a tab to go to coupons for different companies.
• TechBargains - kind of like Spoofee, but a little more focused on tech items.
• Fat Wallet - they have tons of postings, but it takes a little while to find stuff, unlike Spoofee or TechBargains, which is laid out a little better. The best thing about Fat Wallet is the cash back - you create an account and if you use their links, you'll get a percentage of your purchase price back (the percentage varies from store to store).
• If you use Google Desktop, create a tab called Deals - it will automatically grab a bunch of deal sites like Spoofee and TechBargains and put feed boxes for all of them - you can't get easier than that.