I just had to delete 119 spam comments for a blackjack site. It’s time to invest in upgrading to the new version of Movable Type, which will give me greater control over who can post comments and who can’t.

After work yesterday, I spent most of the day struggling with reviving Maria’s old laptop (I need something, since my computer has died). Installing the network card required access to the CD drive and the floppy drive at the same time, but it has swappable drives, and you can only have one in at a time. I ended up with a corrupted installation that I couldn’t uninstall, and it corrupted all of Microsoft Networking as well. I eventually straightened it all out, but it took hours. Time to buy a Mac.

The grass I’ve been diligently trying to grow in my front yard got washed out in the “1,000 year” rain storm we had Monday.

When I got on the plane to RI, I had to “surrender” my cool Leatherman mini-pocketknife to airport security (I completely forgot I had it on me). It was a gift from Jay when I was best man at his wedding.

Sunday night I flew back by myself, as Maria and Kai are staying in Newport for the week. I ended up being stuck in the airport for hours, as the car battery was dead (the lights weren’t on or anything – I think it’s just reached the end of its lifespan). No one was willing to engage with a single white male trolling the airport parking garage late at night, looking for a “jump.” So I went to the Information desk for help and was given the number for Parking Assistance. I had no change for the pay phone, and all the shops were closed, so I bought a $20 phone card from a vending machine (at $.50/minute – apparently airport phone cards are priced just like airport food). I called only to find the number was disconnected. I went back to the Information desk and this time got the right number, and help arrived…eventually.

Today I mail out my broken hard drive. The rep I spoke with told me the data will either be unrecoverable, or it will be recoverable at a price between $400 – $1800. Basically, ouch, or ouch.

My new answering machine has suddenly decided that from now on it will hang up on callers after 5 seconds.

And I have a painful sunburn, but at least that’s something I can blame myself for.