As many of you already know, Richard is my hero and I try to be just like him (except that I think FireFox is a far superior browser, especially when coupled with Thunderbird). Richard has been blogging about audiobooks for several years now and I had never listened to one. I decided to give it a try and I've been listening to The Broker by John Grisham. It's been entertaining, but I'm not sure it's exactly my cup of Pepsi Twist. I'm on the last disc of five. I made my audiobook selection based on the information I skimmed from the RGJ article that Richard linked in his blog. I selected a fictional story read by someone other than the author. The reader uses different voices to help distinguish between characters, but does so without sounding absurd. The biggest problem I have is that I find it very easy to think about other things while listening and then I have to rewind and listen to a part I may have missed because my mind wandered. I get the most out of the audiobook when I'm driving, but I like listening to news and talk radio when I'm driving. All in all, it's enjoyable, but I think I prefer reading to listening. It's easier to go back and reread a part or back up a paragraph or two with a paper book; however, the audiobook is nice because I can listen to it while playing games or doing other things, as long as those things don't cause me to stop listening. I can say I tried something new - I'll probably listen to more in the future.

So tomorrow we do our final walkthrough and Wednesday we get the keys. I'm taking a few days off this week and plan on moving stuff as soon as we get the keys. This week will be full of long days and long nights. But it will be worth it - Emilie and I are very excited.

I bought some Premiere Cordial Cherry Eggs last night. I can't figure out why cordial cherries taste so good, but I suspect it has something to do with the flavor.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank America for finally listening to me. What I thought could be dangerous turned out to be a good thing. After the voting blunder on Tuesday I was afraid that some dark forces were at work in an attempt to skirt the inevitable; however, after all was said and done we were presented with this:

How great is that?

On a lighter note, I have made a decision to move away from Linksys products. This decision came as I tried to setup my network cameras to be accessible from the internet. To make them work it was necessary to use the port forwarding function, which quickly frustrated me. Without a static IP address the router automatically disables port forwarding. DynDNS may not have been a common technology when I purchased the router, yet why kill router functionality because an idea may be out of the scope of your own imagination? The cameras come with access to Viewnetcam.com, which provides DynDNS service for Panasonic cameras. I cannot use this service, though, since port forwarding doesn't work. For some bizarre reason port 80 will forward, but only port 80 as far as I've been able to tell. The answer? It's going to mean a new firewall/router.

This is our last weekend living with my parents. We should have keys for our new house by Wednesday. So, if anyone wants to help move stuff on Saturday (April 2nd) or just come hang out at the new pad while we're moving in, let me know. REMEMBER! That day is General Conference! I will not be held responsible if you decide to come help rather than attend your meetings.

I continue to be enraged by the Terri Schiavo story. It really amazes me that the Democrats have generally supported Terri's "right to die" and Republicans have generally been fighting to keep her alive. Democrats generally support abortion, including partial-birth abortion and Republicans oppose it. On the other hand, Democrats oppose capital punishment while Republicans are in favor of it. Why is it that Democrats seem to always favor killing the innocent, but fight to protect the most heinous criminals?

This past week has been a fairly depressing one, which makes me not want to blog much. There were huge layoffs in our IT organization at work, Lindsey was voted off and Mikalah stayed(!), the mortgage company that we're dealing with seems to have no idea what they're doing and the Terri Schiavo situation is really bumming me out.

The good news is that we sign papers and do our initial walkthrough of our house tomorrow. If all goes well (which means the mortgage company doesn't get their way), we will move in next week. I'm excited - hopefully everything goes as scheduled.

The Terri Schiavo case is absolutely insane. It bothers me that Harry Reid has not done anything to help save Terri. He hasn't directly opposed the cause, but he has been more of an obstruction than a help. This shouldn't surprise me since he has gone very, very soft on his pro-life position since becoming minority leader. I listened to Reid on Hannity and Colmes and found it interesting that Reid refused to answer the question about whether abortion should be made illegal or not. He said he couldn't answer the question because people have different opinions about what "legal" means. That's a pretty strong stand from someone who claims to be pro-life. I'm just very hopeful that things change and they let Terri live. Court-mandated murder is a scary thought. In a related thought, did you know that a living will can be created by anyone and can be very informal? A signed note on a napkin that states, "I don't want to be kept alive using life support" serves as a completely legal document. It's not even necessary to have a witness. Everyone should have a living will...

Even though things are pretty gloomy these days, I have a lucky feeling this week - Mikalah is going home.

A little bit of wonderful news came up on Drudge this morning. Apparently, Mario dropped from American Idol. This is important for two reasons: First, he was lame and shouldn't have been on as long as he was. Second, Nikko was much better and never should have been booted in the first place. With Mario gone and Nikko back, I still have all my favorites on the show and one more nuisance is gone. If we could only lose the Nanny...

The weekend was an average weekend. Saturday I got some new tires on my truck, which were sorely needed. After I was hit in front of Costco almost two years ago my wheels have been goofy. After the accident they put a new tire on, but the other three tires had already gone through half the tread. As a result, the alignment was always off and it made my truck shaky at speeds over 60 MPH. Additionally, the tread was wearing more quickly since the truck was always off balance. I'm back in business, though. It drives as good as it ever has - certainly much better than it did before getting the new tires.

We went to my sisters house last night to celebrate Justin's birthday, which is actually today. What a party!

I was surprised today to learn that a magpie is not a pie, it is a bird.

9 March 2005 has gone down in history as a very dark day. The fact that the Nanny (WARNING: LINK IS DISTURBING!!) moved forward into the top 12 is appalling. A little piece of my soul has died. That being said, there is still time to repent. Janay got the boot, which means that America is still sitting on the fence regarding this competition. ATTENTION AMERICA! You better get your act together! We all know what happens when people are lukewarm. I'm distraught that you kicked-off Amanda, Celena and Nikko, but if you get rid of the Nanny next week I will forgive you. It has to be next week, though - any week after that is unacceptable!

However, all is not rotten in the state of Nevada! I received some exceptional news from the radio yesterday. I'm so excited that I can hardly type so please excuse me if my typewriting is a little hard to read (I'm literally shaking with excitement!). Michael Savage was removed from XM Radio! It appears that he may be gone from Sirius, as well. He has been replaced with Michael Reagan, who is infinitely more enjoyable to listen to. Yippee!

In more depressing news, Emilie had to go back to work today. Thus marks a sad end to her Oprah vacation.

Emilie is sick. I got a cold and gave it to her, but about a week after I got better I got another cold. Now I gave her another cold. Hopefully this is the end of the getting sick. She stayed home from work because she is sick and wants to watch Oprah.

I realized yesterday that the laces on my shoes had gradually become tighter and tighter. I had to untie my shoes the other night because they were causing my feet to become sore. A thought came to me yesterday when I was getting ready for work: I could loosen my laces! Yes, start at the bottom and loosen them all the way up! It worked very well and my feet have not been able to stop thanking me since.

Our house is quickly nearing completion. The front yard is done - grass, bark and all. The only thing still missing is the carpet (missing from the house, not the front yard). Maybe we forgot to ask for carpet. Hmmm... Anyway, we are scheduled to sign papers and walk through in two weeks. We should close three weeks from today. I'll see if I can get a photo of the completed outside on the way home tonight.

As exciting as the shoe and house stories are, nothing compares to the excitement I have about the Nanny getting booted tonight. She has defamed the state of Nevada; however, what should we expect from someone from clark county (it doesn't even deserve to be capitalized!)? I can't predict who else I think will be leaving tonight since America has disappointed me several times already.

As you all know, this year's American Idol has been particularly troubling. The first year was new, so there really weren't any expectations. The second year was a real cliff-hanger, but good finally triumphed over evil when Reuben beat Clay to a figuratively bloody pulp. The third year was disappointing when the likeable people were voted off and Fantasia won. Fantasia should not have won, but I didn't particularly like any of the finalists, so whatever. This year is scary, though. One of the contestants this year is the equivalent of all the horrible contestants of years past combined! On the show she goes by Mikalah Gordon, but you probably know her better as the Nanny.

If she doesn't get voted off this week I very well may stop watching the show. She is really that bad. Her looks, her personality, her attitude, her voice - everything about her makes me want to poke out my eyes and pour cement into my ears. I have to stop because just talking about her is making me ill. Truly and honestly, physically ill.

That being said, most of the other contestants are good. I would be happy if any of them won; however, the ones I want to see go are (in order of disturbinality) the Nanny, Janay, Mario, Jessica, Clay Trachen (as dubbed by Sir Mike), Be Bi Bo Bice and Constantine aka the Sudden Coat Remover. The latter three can stay a while, but the former four have GOT TO GO!

Other than that I haven't really been paying attention to what's been happening this season.

The big news is that Lisa and Dave brought a new person into the world yesterday. I grabbed a picture off the hospital web page.

They named him "Jason" and his initials are "JAG". With initials like that he's destined for coolness. Congratulations to Lisa and Dave!

To say that I'm a little concerned would be to say that the Pope is a little Catholic or that Pepsi Twist is a little delicious. I decided to crack open an 8 oz. can of Van Camp's Pork and Beans for lunch today. I dumped the contents of the can into a microwaveable dish and heated them up. I returned to my desk and proceeded to eat when I suddenly had a stark realization. I never removed the Queen Bean! I dug through the dish and couldn't find it. Did I eat it? Was the product shipped sans Queen Bean? I don't know. I don't think it hurts you to eat the Queen Bean, but I have two worries: 1) It's disgusting and 2) what if the Queen Bean leads some sort of revolt in my stomach by organizing the forces of a bunch of half-digested, zombie beans? One shudders to think...

On a lighter note, I have a job interview this afternoon. I told my boss yesterday that I woud be interviewing with another company and he seemed cool with it. He's probably throwing a little celebration at the thought of getting rid of me. Funnier yet, I told him about the interview during my five year work anniversary party that they threw for me yesterday. I got an etched glass picture frame. Snap!