Well, Mom and Margaret got off about 09:00. I'm afraid that Mom didn't have a really good time, what with all of the ruckus and confusion and generalized chaos around here...

Karen and I have been tearing up the house looking for an AAA Atlas that we have and can't seem to find. I will keep looking until I find it, I'm afraid, and the only way that I'll find it will be if we go out and buy another one. That's the way things work, y'know...

We want to start planning our Phoenix trip... we're really looking forward to it. Sometime when we're there, I'm going to meet up with a former online journaler, Charles. I'm really looking forward to meeting him.

Speaking of journals, several seem to have died lately, or are in the process. One of them is A.T. Green's journal, another is Cory Glen's, but I might be wrong about Cory, he's showed up on diary-l lately. And Uncle Buck is giving it up, too, dammit. All journals which I've enjoyed and will miss.

Karen and I went out shopping... she's been wanting a wide-mouth toaster for a while, and there was one on sale at Target. We spent about an hour there, then went to my old favorite restaurant, Courtney's. Only it isn't Courtney's any more, it's operated by The Copper Oven, a pie shop. They make the best pies in town....

And the menu hasn't changed much, but the service is much worse. And it is now a non-smoking restaurant. Which means that they will get no more of my business. Even if I didn't smoke, I would not patronize such establishments. There is something that pisses me off about someone saying, "You can come in here and spend your money, but we're not gonna let you smoke here. asshole." The asshole is implied; these people don't have guts enough to say what they really mean... It's like the epitome of self-righteousness, and I do not willingly put up with shit like that. I would have made a small scene and left, but I would've embarrassed Karen, so I just expressed my opinion (this time) with facial expressions at the manager.

We just got a cup of coffee each and split a piece of Coconut Cream pie... then we bought a whole one to take home.

Later...

So we messed around for a while, then decided to go out and eat. We were rewarding ourselves for getting stuff done today... like cleaning the carpet. It seems that Troubles had been shitting behind the sofa....

We went to Applebee's, one of my favorite places. I had gotten a $10.00 certificate for xmas, and it seemed to be a good time to spend it. I ordered the salmon and Karen got one of the Mexican skillet dishes. Pretty soon the waitress comes back, all apologetic, and tells me that there is no more salmon. So, fine, I love their steaks, too, so I ordered that instead. Their steaks don't compare to the North Star's, of course, but they're pretty good in their own right. So, my mouth is all set for steak... and the gal comes out with the salmon! Seems that there was one piece left, anyway... and it was good, too.

Back home, I decide to conquer Access, and everything clicks... Access is conquered. Well, to the extent that I need it to be, anyway. So all I have to do is update the database and run the queries through the internet assistant and then mess with the HTML a little bit and it's ready to go up.

Sometimes I amaze me... yesterday I was frustrated as hell, could not get it to work... and today...bang! There it is.

That's enough for today...