(no subject)

First, a bit of fun courtesy of my sister...

An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament: Dear Vincent, I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days. Love, Papa A few days later he received a letter from his son: Dear Pop, Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried. Love, Vinnie At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son: Dear Pop, Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances. Love you, Vinnie

So, let's see what else is new, eh? nightambre and her hubby invited me along to the movies last week, treating me (and I do mean treat) to Iron Man... which was every bit as awesome as the Hulk. I keep reading reviews that trash both of them, but I know where my loyalties are. I'm going to try and wait patiently for a full roster Avengers film, 'try' being the operative word.

My hoped-for mainline workstation remains a lifeless hunk of parts. It seems as though the processor I was building it around is toasted; I've got a line on a replacement and hope to have it tomorrow... and then the fun of trying to remove and then reinstall the monstrous heatsink/fan assembly. The damned thing could break bones if you dropped it on a foot. No, that's not an exageration. Provided the new proc breathes life into the beast, I've got a stack of hard drives to install in it, the problem being that the entire mess is being installed into one of my 'broken' cases. This particular one has a faceplate that's cracked badly at the bottom, a non-working power switch and a side panel that'll never go back on. Definitely not a beauty pageant winner, but I'll be happy if the SOB works. I've rigged a switch that'll get duct taped to the side of the case - that much I know works. And so it goes.

Sleep issues still plague me; there's a laundry list of worries that refuse to let go, most of which are family issues that I really can't go into. The bottom line is that I'm so damned tired I don't think I could even play an MMO right now. Getting FrankenPuter up and operational would help, but there'll still be nightmares aplenty.

Work is at least being mostly reasonable. My boss is currently on a much-needed vacation, so my schedule's being wonky as hell trying to keep the office covered. At least the remainder of this week is set; next week is still changing daily. Here's to hoping things sort out without screaming matches.

Many hugs out to my folks here on LJ, and some of you dearly need 'em. I'm going to go pass out now.