March, 2003

• I know, I know.  I haven't updated this page in months.  I don't really have an excuse... Well, OK, I've got tons of excuses (laziness, busy-ness, being more interested in my blog page, the fact that one I've skipped one month, it's far too easy to just keep going with the trend) , but none of them are particularly good excuses.  Anyway, a lot of stuff has happened since November, so let's see...
• To begin with, I did, indeed, spend a week at my sister's place in Oregon over Christmas.  Overall, the visit went really well.  It's nice to spend Christmas with family, and it was really great to get to see my little nephew again.  He's 22 months now, and in the interval since the last time I'd seen him, he'd changed into a walking, talking, irresistably cute little human being.  I'm going to have to make it up there more often, if he's going to keep changing that much between visits.
• Now for the bad news...  We've recently found out that my stepfather has cancer, and he's been deteriorating pretty rapidly.  Both he and my mom appear to be doing as well as can possibly be expected, but, well, it isn't good.  I'm going to be going out there for a couple of weeks at the beginning of April to help take care of him while my grandmother (who has been staying with them for a while) is back East taking care of some business.  Wish us all well.
• There has also been good news and bad news for me on the work front.  The good news is that we are now on a much better work schedule.  The bad news, primarily, is that we're now very short-handed, and it looks like we're going to stay very short-handed, because the Observatory won't hire someone new to replace the last person who left.  The result is that we've now got three people doing a job originally intended for five.  Mostly we're able to manage OK, but a few weeks ago we had a big screw-up that put us far behind schedule, and we all had to work a couple 60-hour weeks in order to catch up.  Scheduling vacation and dealing with people who have to take off for sickness or emergencies (e.g. me having to go to California for a while to help take care of Charlie) is turning out to be a real pain in the ass.  I guess it could be a lot worse, but still I don't think anybody's particularly happy.  I know I'm not...

November, 2002

• The trip to New Jersey went very well!  I had a great time at the convention, and a nice relaxing time visiting my relatives, and, yes, the cheesesteak-eating went according to plan!
• As I write this, it's early on Thanksgiving Day, and more relatives are on the way!  I missed my uncle when I was in NJ, because he was in Albuquerque!  He's in the Air National Guard, and has been sent to Kirtland AFB for a few weeks of special training so he can get promoted.  I figured it would be nice to get together while he's in my neck of the woods, and Mom wanted to see him, too, so the plan is that Mom and her husband, Charlie, are going to drive out here, stop in Albuquerque and pick him up, and descend upon me for Thanksgiving.  (Though we're probably going to do the actual turkey-cooking tomorrow, since it's likely to be late by the time they get here.)
• And next month, I'm heading up to Oregon to visit my sister for a week over Christmas.  I'm just being such a family gal lately!
  

October, 2002

• Well, I believe I've got the holes in the roof patched up.  My next project is going to be to coat the whole thing with waterproof coating, but it may be a while before I can get that done, since it needs to be done when the weather is dry and warm.
• I'm all set to head off on vacation back to New Jersey in a week or so.  I'll be attending a tiny science fiction convention in Newark, where hopefully I should get to meet some people I've corresponded with on the internet, and then I'm  heading down to South Jersey to visit relatives, including my Dad.  And to eat cheesesteaks.  I'm really looking forward to the cheesesteaks!
  

September, 2002

• I know, I know, I managed to skip August entirely.  These days, I seem to do most of my nattering on about what's new in my life on my blog page, and I tend to forget that this page even exists.  I suppose I really ought to keep updating it...  Maybe.  Is there anybody who looks at this page but doesn't read the blog?  Would anybody actually care if I just stopped updating this page?  Feel free to let me know if you actually have an opinion.  
• I'm still having problems with my front yard flooding and with my roof leaking.  The good news is, I think I should be able to fix the roof myself (at least, to stop it from leaking any more), but I'm having trouble finding the time to do it.  All I need is a couple of days when it's not raining, and my front yard isn't too muddy to plant a ladder in, and I'm awake during the day, and I can get my hands on a tall enough ladder.  That doesn't sound like it should be too difficult, does it?
• I just got a new computer!  And, man, it is so much faster than the old one...  Now all I need is to ditch this ol' dial-up connection for something faster, and I'll be livin' large on the internet, baby!
• They've gone and cancelled Farscape, and I am really pissed off about it.  Anybody who knows me (as opposed, I suppose, to any random strangers who happened to have surfed in here by accident for because they're actually interested in reading about my life for some unfathomable reason) has probably already heard me ranting and raving about this at length, though, so I'll refrain from repeating myself again here.
  

July, 2002

• Well, that comment last month about desperately wanting rain seems rather ironic now...  You probably already know about this, if you're one of the people who usually reads this page, but a couple of weeks ago we had a major storm that left the trailer park I live in flooded.  And, lucky me, I think my front yard was the worst hit.  For days, I had to wade through water halfway up my calves to get from my front door to my car.  Eventually they had to get the fire department in to pump it out!  Fortunately, there doesn't appear to have been any serious damage, but it left a nasty, stinking, mucky mess in my front yard.  To top it off, just as the mud was finally starting to dry out, it rained again!  I'm not quite back to square one -- it's still possible to walk across the yard without getting your feet submerged -- but there are huge puddles of standing water in front of my house again.  On the upside, the trailer park's population of little kids seem really excited about our new tadpole breeding grounds.  On the downside, I think we're all considerably less than excited about our new mosquito breeding grounds.  Oh, and, to top it all off, I've discovered that, if you throw enough water at it at once, my roof leaks.  Rather badly.  Anybody want us to send this spare rain your way?

June, 2002

• Not a whole lot to report at the moment, actually...  It's shaping up to be a very long, very hot, very dry summer here.  Every so often the storm clouds will gather, but it seldom ever does any more than spit.  Which is why half the Southwest is on fire,of course.  We've had a smoky haze hanging over us here for the past week or so from fires in Arizona about 200 miles away.  Anybody got any spare rain they want to send our way?

May, 2002

• My nephew, Aaron, celebrated his first birthday earlier this month!  Wow, does the time fly fast or what?  Next thing you know, he'll be wanting to borrow the car keys!  I'm hoping to have some more pictures of Aaron up here somewhere in the near future; it's just a question of finding the time to do it.  Stay tuned!
• If  you've been reading my blog (glutton for punishment that you must be!), you've probably already read all about this, but I took a nice little road trip at the beginning of the month, visting White Sands National Monument and the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo.  I particularly recommend checking out White Sands if you ever get a chance!
• And the science-fiction fan in me (which makes up probably about 99% of my personality!) has definitely been enjoying herself.  I did get out to see Star Wars Episode II, and while it wasn't any better than I expected it to be, I was glad to catch it on the big screen, anyway.  The effects are incredibly impressive.  And right now, the Sci-Fi Channel is running an all-day marathon of Farscape, which I'm busy taping so I can watch the whole thing with a poor, deprived friend who doesn't have cable, but who I managed to get hooked on the show, anwyay.  Sounds like an ideal way to spend a weekend to me!
• Oh, and I found out that Rush is going to be playing in Albuquerque in August!  I am so hyped about this, 'cause I didn't think I was likely to ever get the chance to see them performing live...

• I'm taking a few days off this week, just to spend some time relaxing and doing... well, whatever I feel like doing!  Which is absolutely wonderful.  I never have been able to understand people who retire and then complain that they're bored.  I think I'd give a great deal to be able to live like this all the time, and there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that I'd find plenty of ways to keep myself entertained.  Yeah, that's me.  Age 30 and ready to retire.  Where is that darned Ed McMahon with my million-dollar check?
• Good thoughts go out to my dad, who recently had to have surgery on his sinuses, with lots of attendant unpleasantness.  Hang in there, Dad!  Hopefully it'll do you some good in the long run!

March, 2002

• Well, spring has definitely sprung here in New Mexico!  As I write this it is an absolutely gorgeous day outside.  (So why I'm sitting here in front of my computer, I don't know.)  Spring usually lasts about two weeks here, before the weather becomes Too Damned Hot, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.  Though I could do without the wind...
• The thing I'm most excited about at the moment is that we're finally getting new epsiodes of Farscape soon...  Which is either an indication of just how uneventful my life is at the moment, or of just how obsessive a TV science fiction fan I am.  I'll leave it up to you to judge.
• I do, however, at least have something resembling a social life.  I'm going up to Albuquerque on Easter (aka "tomorrow,"as I write this) to visit some friends.  I actually have invitations to Easter dinner two different places, but I don't think my stomach's quite that big any more, even if the timing works. :)

February, 2002

• Well, not a whole lot to report this time out, either, I guess.  Things have been pretty hectic at work, since my supervisor had a heart attack (taking everybody by surprise, not least of all him!).  He's fine, fortunately, but needless to say he was out of the office for a while... which meant, among other things, that I ended up having to do a lot of the stuff he usually takes care of.  Like I said, hectic...

• As I mentioned last time, I spent Christmas at Mom's place in California, and, as advertised, their new house is indeed very nice!  And I spent pretty much the entire time stuffing my face and sitting around watching satellite TV, which is definitely my idea of a vacation. :)
• Other than that, not a whole lot's been going on lately...  On the work front, I got to take a trip out to the VLBA's radio telescope at Pie Town again a few weeks ago.  This is the third time I've been out there, but I always enjoy it.  Crawling around on the dish is fun!  I've also been learning a little bit about what happens to the astronomical data after we're done with it.  The process of data reduction and image production is interesting, but complicated.  I think I'll be sticking to running the correlator for a while yet!

December, 2001

• Well, gee, lately I seem to feel really busy all the time, but when I actually look back and try to figure out what it is I've been busy doing, I find that I honestly have no idea!  I think over the last couple of months I've mainly been busy finding myself yet another Favorite TV Show to obsess over (Farscape : catch it in repeats Mon-Thurs. on the Sci-Fi Channel !).  Well, that and sleeping a lot, which somehow seems to come naturally to me in the winter.  Like a bear.
• I'll be spending Christmas this year at my Mom's place in California.  This'll be my first chance to see their new house since they moved earlier this year, so I'm really looking forward to that.  I'm not particularly looking forward to dealing with airport security, mind you, but, hey, at least I'm doing my bit to support the US airline industry, right?
• And on that note, I'd like to wish a happy holiday season to all and sundry!  See you in 2002!

November, 2001

• Actually, when I said last month that there wasn't a whole lot new to report, I realize that I forgot to mention the latest round of Automotive Woes.  Not that this particular incident was all that big of a deal.  Nor, for once, was it my fault, as I wasn't even in the car!  But somebody backed into my poor vehicle in the parking lot and left a big ol' dent on the left rear fender.  (Well, I say "somebody," but I know who it was, as he very properly waited for me to get back to the car to tell me he'd done it.)  Damage was to the tune of about $1000 and several days to fix, but the insurance company covered it all, and even gave me a rental while mine was in the shop.  (Appropriately enough, it was from Enterprise rent-a-car, who were great to deal with...  But the rental experience left me with the firm determination that I am never going to buy a Metro.  Man, I thought the engine in the Neon was a come-down after the truck...)
• I hope everybody had a happy Thanksgiving!  I spent mine with my old high school friend, Brett, and his family, who I hadn't seen since last Christmas.

October, 2001

• Not a whole lot new to report this month, I suppose...  The joys of home ownership have been continuing to be, well, less than joyful.  Most recent household headaches have included an exploding kitchen faucet and a non-functional furnace, but everything does seem to be in working shape now (knock on wood).

September, 2001

• Somehow, in view of the larger events that have happened this month, the details of what's been happening in my own life suddenly seem terribly trivial...  Enough so that I'm actually finding it difficult to motivate myself into doing an update.  Still, our lives do go on, and I, for one, am very much in favor of the idea of keeping up an effort at normality.  So...
• I suppose the main thing is that things are changing a little bit at work.  My supervisor has moved on to a different position, and one of the other correlator operators has taken over the supervisory postion...  Meaning we've had to hire a new operator, who should be starting the beginning of October.  This might possibly mean that my work schedule will be changing again in the not-too-distant future.  If so, hopefully it'll be a change for the better, but we can only wait and see.
• On a totally trivial level, this month marked the premiere of the new Star Trek series, Enterprise .  I must say, after Voyager my expectations for this show were extremely low, so it's probably no surprise -- nor is it saying a great deal -- that I liked it rather better than I'd expected to.  It does seem to have a fair amount of potential, but it could also wind up being yet another major disappointment.  Once again, I suppose that only time will tell.

August, 2001

• Yes, I know, there wasn't an update for July.  There's a good reason for that, actually, which is that I sat down to do the update on the evening of the 31st, only to discover that either I or my ISP was having some computer problems.  Whatever it was, it seems to be OK now, but, well, now it's August.  Deal with it. :)
• The major event for me in July, of course, was a two-week trip out to the Pacific Northwest.  I got to visit my sister and her husband in Oregon, and to finally meet my little nephew Aaron .  (I may have more pictures of him up here soon, so stay tuned!)  I also managed a trip up to Vancouver, British Columbia (my first visit to Canada!) to pay a return visit to my old internet pal Peter Chattaway .  (We stopped in Tacoma, Washington, too, to meet another mutual internet-acquaintance, so my collection of "people I know from the 'net that I've now met in real life" continues to grow.)  We did quite a bit of driving around the countryside in both Oregon and B.C., and I'm pleased to report that the region is quite as beautiful as advertised.  Vancouver, in particular, strikes me as a lovely city.  Oh, and I also finally got to visit my own personal Mecca: Powell's City of Books in Portland !  To round it all out, I also got to spend some time with my Dad and his wife, Janice, who were able to time their own visit out to see the baby to overlap with mine.  Quite a trip!
• So, what's going on with the whole trailer thing, you might wonder?  Well, I'm still getting myself settled in, but one by one the boxes are slowly being unpacked.  Hey, when have I had the time?  Anyway, I now at last have the final necessary major appliance I was lacking, as Mom came out shortly after I got back from Oregon and helped me buy a refrigerator.  (Yes, up until then, I'd been using a tiny dorm-sized fridge.  And, yes, it was annoying...)

• Ye gods, but the last month has been eventful!  And the most important event, of course, deserves a paragraph all by itself.  So:
• IT'S A BOY!  Yes, folks, my one and only nephew, Aaron Thomas Arndt made his appearance May 2nd, 2001 at a healthy six pounds, one ounce and 19" length.  This was actually about three weeks before we expected him...  My sister nearly scared us all to death when she was suddenly taken ill and had to be rushed to the emergency room for a Caesarian, but mother and baby are now doing just fine.  You can see a picture of him here .  Ain't he a cutie-pie?
• In other news...  After many trials and tribulations, I am finally beginning to get settled into my new place.  (I'd regale you with the tragicomic Saga of the Water Heater here, but I think I've already inflicted that one on most of you.  If you haven't heard about it, well, be grateful for small favors.  Really.  The upshot of it is that I was without hot water for three weeks, but it all seems to be sorted out now, mercifully.)  I've still got a lot of unpacked boxes and things sitting around, but I figure, hey, I'll get to those when I get to them...  In the meantime "I'm not completely moved in" seems like a good excuse for a messy house, right?
• I also just got back from yet another trip to Las Vegas (why do I seem to keep ending up back in that place?) for the wedding of my friends Kim and Seth.  Congratulations, guys!  (Alas, congratulations are not due to me, because I didn't win anything, despite actually spending some time playing the slots this time out.  Ah, well.  We can't all be lucky...)

May, 2001

• Yes, yes, I know, I missed April...  But, in my defense, life's gotten pretty hectic pretty suddenly....  The main reason being that this month I am moving!  This was a very sudden decision...  See, while Mom was out here visiting, she happened to mention (as she so often does) that I really ought to get a place of my own, instead of paying rent every month and ending up with nothing to show for it.  Which she was quite right about, of course, but I'd never really gotten around to doing anything about it.  Well, Mom suddenly got the bright idea that, hey, she could buy a trailer, and I could pay her back for it at less than I'm spending in rent now, and at the end, I'd own the thing.  Which seemed like a good idea to me.  So, next thing you know, two days later, I've got a new trailer!  (Well, OK, a rather old trailer, in fact, but definitely new to me!)  Thing is, that means getting it moved into the trailer park and hooked up and getting the utilities turned on, and getting packed up, and buying furniture, and getting everything cleaned...  Man, I hate moving...

• Well, March, it seems has not been a terribly eventful month...  Although it somehow still feels as if I've had far too much I want to do and far too little time to do it in, I find that I don't have anything of particular interest to report here.  Looks like the next few months are going to be pretty busy, though.  To begin with, my mother and stepfather are coming out for a visit at the beginning of April...  Hmm, come to think of it, I should go clean the house before they get here...

• Believe it or not, I am now (about to be) a professionally published photographer!  Yes, the art director for the Northern New England version of AAA 's club magazine saw the photo of Omey Island on my Trip to Ireland page and asked if he could buy it for an upcoming edition of the magazine!  Pretty cool for a vacation snapshot that took thirty seconds to take with my cheap little camera (which, I might mention, was quite literally being held together with duct tape at the time).  Just blows my mind that the only piece of "creative work" I've ever sold to a professional market is a photograph, since I'm so not good at the visual arts...
• By the way, I have just been told that my future niece-or-nephew, is, in fact, a future nephew!  My sister and her husband already have the name picked out: Aaron Thomas Arndt.  Looking forward to meeting you, little guy!  I'll be making the trip out to visit visit them after the baby is born, some time this summer...

• Well, here we are, officially in the 21st century (no matter how you count it)!  Pretty cool to think we've lived to see it, huh?  Although I'm still wondering where my atomic-powered car and my robot housekeeper are...  Ah, well, at least we've got the internet!
• There's not a whole lot of news to report here at the beginning of the millennium, though.  I'm working on getting over the lingering traces of a rather nasty bug of some sort.  Oh, and there was the snowstorm last weekend...  Probably the largest single snowstorm we've had since I've been here, in fact.  But even so most of it has melted away by now.  I do like that about New Mexico: when it snows here, at least it doesn't hang around after its worn out its welcome...

• I hope everyone's [insert winter holiday of your choice] was happy and wonderful!  Me, I spent Christmas in Albuquerque with my friend Brett and his family.  (Brett and I went to high school together in New Jersey, and, by coincidence, he and his parents moved out to New Mexico at the same time I came out here to go to college.  So he and I have actually kept in touch, unlike, well, me and pretty much everybody else I went to high school with...)  Anyway, that was nice (and featured a truly wonderful Christmas dinner!).  I suppose I could have done without having to drive home in a snowstorm, though.   (Who says a white Christmas is a good thing?)
• And, so, we come at last to the end of the year 2000...  It's been a good year for me, and for my family, and I hope it's been good to you, too, whoever you may be!  And here's wishing you an even better 2001!

• Well, I went to California over Thanksgiving to visit my mother (and my grandmother, who happened to be staying with her), and, boy, did it turn out to be an interesting trip!  My mother stopped at a casino on the way to pick me up at the Las Vegas aiport, intending to get a cup of coffee and play the slot machines for a few mintues, and ended up winning... well, a lot of money!  I've decided to take full credit as a good-luck charm.  Anyway, that rather livened up Thanksgiving.  Which also, of course, featured the traditional wonderful turkey meal.  And, needless to say,  I ate way too much...

• Here's an incredible piece of news: I am about to become an aunt!   Yes, that's right, my sister and her husband are currently expecing their first child.  (Which, right now, according to my sister, is "an inch and a quarter long."  From such humble beginnings do we all arise...)  I'm really very excited about this, although there's a part of me that has great difficulty accepting the fact that my baby sister is actually old enough to reproduce (never mind the fact that she's less than three years younger than I am).  Many, many good wishes to the prospective parents!  And, of course, this gives me even more incentive to go out and visit them next year, as I'd already planned to do, anyway.

• Wow.  For as busy as it seems like I've been so far this month, I find that I have nothing terribly interesting to report...  The main thing, I suppose, is that I just bought myself some plane tickets to go out and visit my mother over Thanksgiving.  She tempted me with thoughts of my grandmother's home cooking, and how could I say no?
• Actually, here's something nifty...  It appears that my modest little book review page (which, to a large extent,  I only put up originally because I needed some content for this website) is reaping unexpected divedends for me.  Namely, I just recently had a publisher (Harcourt) e-mail me and ask me if I'd like some free books (the idea being that they send books out to reviewer-types and hope it generates them a little publicity).  Well, yeah, right, as if I'd turn down free books!  So they sent me The Telling by Urusula LeGuin, Soulsaver by James Stevens-Arce, and The Eternal Footman by James Morrow.  I haven't gotten around to reading them yet (and knowing my backlog, it may be a while -- particularly for that last one, which is the third book in a trilogy of which I have yet to read the first two volumes), but, hey, maybe you'll see some reviews from me on those soon.  'Til then, at least I've provided good old Harcourt with at least this little smidge of publicity...

• Let's see, what have I been doing this month...  Well, I suppose the biggest (or at least, the most fun) thing was the Sting concert.  This was at Albuquerque's new Mesa del Sol amphitheater, which turned out to be a pretty nice venue.   We were in the lawn area, actually, which I can report is really quite pleasant.  The concert itself was cool, although poor Sting was nearly upstaged by his opening act: ludicrously young and amazingly talented blues-rocker Jonny Lang .  I'd never even heard of this kid before, but I can tell you, I was deeply impressed.  Will be buying  his CDs soon!

• Well, the summer fun continued this month, as I used up yet more of my considerable accumulated vacation time...  The highlight of which was a visit from my friend Peter Chattaway from Vancouver.  I'd known Peter for ages in a long-distance kind of way (mostly over the internet), but we'd never actually met in person, so that was an interesting experience!  We did a lot of driving around (including a short jaunt to Mexico just to be able to say we'd crossed the border -- can you believe I'd lived in New Mexico for 10 years and never made that particular trip?).  We also took in a couple of movies, so I can now say that I've been to the movies with a professional film critic!  (For the record, my own critical opinions: X-Men good, ScaryMovie bad.)

• I just got back from a short vacation in Las Vegas ...  It's interesting: the first time I visited Vegas, I said "Well, it's someplace that I'm definitely glad I saw once, but I don't think I'll ever particularly want to come back."  And yet, somehow, I seem to keep ending up there on a regular basis!  This time, my friend Jeannine (the same one who "dragged" me  to Ireland ) talked me into it.  I'm glad I went, because it turned out to be a pretty fun trip.  We wandered around various casinos (which have been springing  up like mushrooms; half the casinos on the Strip, it seems, weren't there the last time I visited).  We also hooked up with my mother and stepfather for a meal and a tour of Hoover Dam .  But I think we spent more time than anywhere else at the Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek: The Experience , which was extremely cool, and which I can easily recommend to my fellow Trek fans.
• My automotive-problems saga continues (sort of): I just got a note in the mail from Geico saying they were canceling my insurance due to those two accidents I had.  (Though they did offer me their alternative Car Insurance for Bad Drivers for a wince-inducingly large amount of money.)  Now, I was impressed with Geico's customer service after my accident, but as it turns out, they probably did me a favor by kicking me out, as a few minutes online landed me with a policy (with Progressive ) at $100 a month less than I'd already been paying!  So, gracias , Geico!  I probably would never have gotten off my butt and gone to look for cheaper insurance otherwise!

Well, as is doubtless obvious to anyone who's realized that this page isn't in the location it used to be, I have, indeed, found myself a new internet provider.  As it happens, there are, in fact, two ISP's here. SDC is a tiny company, but they didn't put me on a three-month-plus waiting list!  It's really quite a relief to have 'net access at home.  I'm not sure how I lived without it all this time!  And for anyone who hasn't recieved the word yet: I'll still get e-mail sent to my NRAO address, but it's probably better if you send personal e-mail to me at ragan@sdc.org instead.
• Of course, I've been putting the new computer to good use, doing things much more useful than surfing the internet.  Yes, that's right, I've been playing games.  Word of warning: don't buy The Sims .  It's disgustingly addictive, and you'll never get anything else done.  Trust me, I know.

• I just bought a new computer: a  Gateway Astro .  It's a pretty cheap computer (as computers go), and it's obviously designed for dummies, since being easy to set up is apparently one of its selling points.  But, hey, cheap works for me (I don't want to do a whole lot but word processing and net surfing, anyway, so I don't need anything incredibly sophisticated), and when it comes to computer hardware, I'll admit to being a dummy.  But it seems like a pretty nice little machine, all in all.  It's going to take some getting used to, though.  I haven't used anything later than Windows 3.1 before, really, and I've done very little with that, so learning to deal with Windows 98 should be an interesting experience.  And I had hoped to get set up with an internet account at home, but that's probably going to take a while, alas.  There's really only one main local ISP here, and they're not taking any new subscribers until they get some new phone lines installed... which, they say, could take two or three months.  Sigh.  I just love living in Socorro.

• Well, I'll be starting on my new work schedule the beginning of next month.  As it turns out, in a way my hours are going to be somewhat more regular, as I'll at least have the same days off every week.  However, those days are going to be during the week, which means that I will be working weekends (either on a day/evening shift or a night shift) as a regular thing.  I don't actually mind this too much -- in fact, I volunteered for it, as it gives me Fridays off to play Torg -- but it does mean that if any of you reading this are ever likely to want me to do something with you on a weekend, you're going to have to give me lots of notice, so that I can sign up for vacation time, or make arrangements  to shuffle my hours around.
• The new car is doing fine, and thanks to everyone who's asked after it!  Although considering what gas prices are like these days, I almost can't afford to drive it...

• My first issue as Central Mailer of Phoenix came and went last month...  The job is turning out to be fun and satisfying to a certain extent, and a pain in the neck to a certain extent, but it has definitely been a learning experience!
• Things have been shaken up pretty badly here at work, as budget cuts led the Observatory to lay off one of the other correlator operators...  Which means we now have four people to do the work that used to be done by five.  Joy.  Expect my already bizarre work hours to be getting even weirder in the near future, guys.
• Other than that, I can't think of too much else that I've been doing lately... Watching too much Blake's 7 , mostly.

• Well, you can all finally stop asking me if I've bought a car yet, because at long last, the answer is YES!  After three months spent on foot (good for the shape of my calves, bad for my bunion -- but that's more than you wanted to know), I finally have wheels again!  I went out and bought myself a 1999 Dodge Neon.  A very neat little car, if I do say so, although after the truck it's going to take a certain amount of getting used to.  But I'm very happy with it.  And, believe it or not, I actually have pictures !

• Well, the insurance company totaled my truck (not surprising, really), but the amount they gave me for it was enough to pay off the bank and still leave me with a pretty sizeable sum left over: enough for a good down payment on a new car (or another comparable used truck), or possibly even to buy a halfway-decent used car outright.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make up my mind as to which of these options I prefer, and I haven't really been out to do any car shopping yet.  The weather's getting cold enough now, though, that not having a car is really starting to suck, so I'll probably have to stop procrastinating soon!
• My mother's coming to visit me over Christmas, along with my stepfather and my grandmother.  I'm really looking forward to that (even though they can only stay a few days).  Grandmom, especially, I don't get to see often, so I'm really glad she could make it.  This does mean that I feel like I actually need to put up a tree this year (I know, I'm such a humbug!), but I'm waiting until Christmas Eve to give the cats less time to knock it down.
• And on that subject, I'd like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and all the best for the year 2000!  I'm not interested in the Y2K bug, or the debate about when the new millennium starts, I just like the fact that "2000" sounds so... science fictional.

• Well, for anyone who hasn't yet heard, the bad news is that I wrecked my truck. :(  I was driving up to Albuquerque (with two other people, yet), and...  Well, what happened is this: I got kind of distracted looking at the car behind me and trying to figure out whether it was going to change lanes or not, and started to drift off the road towards the median.  When one of my passengers warned me about this, I quickly turned the wheel back to the right -- and overcompensated.  We started fishtailing as I tried to regain control of the truck, although, amazingly enough, we didn't hit anybody.  At that point, I intended just to tap the brakes very lightly to try and slow us down a bit so I could regain control, but I guess I sort of panicked, because my foot acted with a mind of its own, came down way more heavily than I meant to, and...  Well, after that it gets a bit confused in my mind, to be honest, but apparently what happened is that we rolled -- twice! -- and came to rest right-side-up on the dirt median.  I wasn't even hurt at all, beyond a few bruises and some very minor neck pain.  The two guys in the truck with me were bumped and battered a lot more than I was, but not seriously injured, thank goodness!  (Frankly, the hospital experience was worse than the crash -- at least that was over with in a few seconds! -- but I'd just as soon not dwell on it.  Suffice it to say that it's a good idea not to crash anywhere near Socorro General if you can help it.)  The truck was totaled, alas, but the insurance company has been really good to deal with, and is going to give me more than enough to pay off the bank.  (I still had nearly three years of payments to go.  Sigh.)  Anyway, mostly I'm just really, really glad that things weren't any worse, because there are a million ways they could have been.  And there's almost something kind of cool about being able to say "I rolled my truck.  Twice.  At 75 mph.  And I walked away!"  But I really did like that truck.  And the fact that I just sunk $900 into it a few months ago kind of hurts.  Oh, well.  This does mean that now I'm going to have to go shopping for another vehicle, an experience I'd been hoping not to have to repeat for a few years.  At the moment, I'm still unsure whether to get another truck, or to go with a car instead.
• What with one thing and another, I still haven't got the page on my Ireland trip done.  I am still working on it, I promise!

• Yes, I'm back from Ireland!  The trip was really cool, and I very much enjoyed both the interesting historical sights of Dublin and the beautiful scenery of County Galway.  I know everyone's interested in details, and I'm hoping to have a disgustingly detailed travelog up here sometime in the next couple of weeks (or whenever I get around to finishing it).  Hopefully there'll be pictures, too, if I can find someone to scan them in for me.  Stay tuned!
• Both cats were in excellent, healthy condition when I got back, for which many thanks are in order to my next-door neighbor, Kathy!  And I'd swear Nova got bigger while I was gone...  This week I need to take them both in for their shots...  And here they've only just forgiven me for leaving them alone so long!

• Yes, yes, I know.  There was no update to this page for August.  What can I say?  Somehow the month just sort of slipped by me.  To compensate, there's a lot new in my life to report this month...
• The obvious thing, of course, is that the Ireland trip is now coming up on me hard and fast!  In fact, I'll be airborne in less than a week as I write this!  Oddly enough, now that it's looming in the immediate future, it almost seems kind of hard to believe we're actually going...  I am very excited about it, though!  Right now, I'm just hoping that there's nothing hideously important that I'm about to forget to pack...
• On the downside of things, I just found out that the trip is going to mean that I'll miss "Weird Al" Yankovic's appearance in Albuquerque in October.  There aren't that many things, really, that I would have been willing to miss that particular show for, but the Ireland trip is most emphatically one of them!  Ah, well.  Just goes to show that every silver lining has a cloud.  Or something like that.
• But the Ireland trip isn't the only major piece of news this month!  (See, I said there was a lot!)  Quite without intending to, I somehow ended up getting another cat.  My next-door neighbor found this scrawny little kitten in my front yard... and, well, naturally I ended up keeping him.  Cats just sort of happen that way.  Anyway, he's certainly no longer scrawny, and he sure is a cute little guy!  I've named him "Nova": in large part simply because he's new, in small part as some sort of strained astronomical metaphor about him "bursting unexpectedly into my life," but also after a Blake's 7 character who got killed off in the second epsisode and, to my mind, was never properly memorialized.  Happiness was extremely displeased at first, but seems to have gotten more-or-less used to him now, although they do tend to engage in rather vigorous wrestling matches several times a day.
• And, just to cap it all off, I suppose I ought to mention that I've been suckered into taking the job of Central Mailer for Phoenix next year...  Unlike my cushy Presidential post this year, the CM position involves actual work, and a position of repsonsibility -- two things I generally try to avoid!  But since nobody else was willing to do it...  (Actually, that sounds way too unenthusiastic.  I am expecting it to be kind of fun.  Silly me.)

• We have plane tickets for Dublin!!

• In the grand tradition of automobile problems happening at the most inopportune possible time, it turns out my truck needs some major repair work done, including replacing the rotors on the front brakes.  This is rather depressing, as it means less cash for the Ireland trip, but at least they just recently raised my credit card limit again...
• On a happier note, this past month has been a pretty eventful one for us science fiction fans!  Besides the long-awaited premier of the new Star Wars movie , we also had the series finale of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 .   Personally, I had somewhat mixed feelings about both...  But I'm looking forward to the the next Star Wars installment, and I'm already missing DS9...  I think the movie project I'm most excited about these days, though, is the upcoming film version of Lord of the Rings .

• Well, the walking tour of Ireland is definitely a go for October!  I've also got my passport, finally.  Now all we need is those plane tickets!
• Meanwhile, I ended up taking a small vacation this month when my sister and brother-in-law came to visit me from Oregon for a week.  We did a lot of driving around New Mexico, visiting (among other places) Carlsbad Caverns and Bandelier National Monument .  I had a lot of fun, and it was wonderful to spend some time with them.  After the Ireland trip, my next vacation is going to have to be spent in paying them a return visit!

• The Ireland trip's hit a small snag: the tour we were planning to take in August was cancelled because there weren't enough people signed up.  Right now, it looks like we're going to be going with our second-choice tour in October, but I've been having trouble getting in touch with the person in charge (or, to be more accurate, we've been having trouble getting in touch with each other), so things are still a bit up in the air.  Tour or no tour, we are going...
• My thoughts and good wishes go out to my father who's just come through an operation to have his gall bladder removed.  Hang in there, Dad!

• Plans for the Ireland trip are continuing...  We've made reservations for the walking tour .  The next step is to arrange for our accomodations in Dublin (since we're doing this on the cheap, we're probably going to be staying in a hostel ) and getting our plane tickets.  Other issues that still need to be dealt with: getting a good pair of hiking shoes (I found a pair on sale cheap that felt great in the store but proved to be a tad too small when I actually took them on a trial walk), and figuring out just how I'm going to manage to take my hiking stick on the plane.

• Well, plans for that trip to Ireland I mentioned a whole year ago are finally coming together.  We're going to be taking a walking tour of the Irish countryside, probably in August, as well as spending a few days in Dublin .  Right now, I'm working on getting my passport , which I should be able to do as soon as I get my birth certificate from my mother.
• Other than that, I haven't been doing a whole lot of interest.  I've been taking a few short hikes now and then -- gotta get in shape for all that walking around Ireland!  I've started playing in a Star Wars RPG .  And I've been slowly working on setting up the computer my dad thoughtfully sent along to me when he got his new one.  (Thanks again, Dad!)

• Once again, I hope everybody's holiday season was pleasant.  Mine was: I spent Christmas with an old friend I hadn't seen in years, and New Year's with my mother, stepfather, sister and brother-in-law in California.  And many thanks to Mom for the CD player, Dad for the cool photo, and Kathy for the Avengers videos!
• As of this month, it's official: I am the new president of Phoenix APA .  Hey, it's a dirty figurehead position, but somebody's gotta do it!

• Hey, you know me: the big event in my life this month was the premiere of the new Star Trek movie, Star Trek: Insurrection !  I'll have to see it a few more times before I can decide where to put it in my own personal ranking of the movies...  I enjoyed it, but, well, it was still an odd-numbered Star Trek movie.
• I had a very nice Thanksgiving: a great Thanksgiving dinner hosted by a generous co-worker of mine, followed by a pleasant hike the next day to help work off the calories.  Now I'm looking forward to visiting my mother over New Year's...
• And, speaking of which, I'd like to wish all of my loyal readers (that's what, two of you?) a very happy holiday season and all good things in the year 1999!

• Well, to tell you the truth, I guess not a lot of interesting stuff has happened over the past month.  I started playing in an Amber game.  I made plans to visit my mother over New Year's.  I got the oil changed in my truck.  I got a haircut.  I read a lot of books .  All-in-all, not a bad month, even if it does sound kind of boring...

• The New Jersey trip went very well.  It was nice to get back to my old stomping grounds, and I got to see a lot of people and places I hadn't seen in years.  It was especially cool to see some of my cousins, many of whom went and grew into adults on me since I'd seen them last... although that did actually make me feel kind of old!
• I still had some vacation time left after I got back from NJ, and I used it to make a short camping trip with a couple of co-workers near Mt. Withington in the Cibola National Forest .  It got rather uncomfortably cold at night, but otherwise it was a great trip: beautiful clear skies for stargazing, and the aspen on the mountains starting to turn that amazingly vivid yellow color...  It'd been over a year since I last did any camping, and it was very, very nice to get out in the wilderness again, even if only for a short while.

• The new truck is performing very well, and I'm still quite happy with it.  I just had it inspected for the insurance company, which is the last little bit of paperwork that needed to be done on it.  Haven't taken it out off-roading yet, but I expect I'll get to that eventually.  It's already proved very useful for hauling stuff around... and it's amazing how much more pleasant those long drives up and down I-25 are in a vehicle with air conditioning and a tape deck.
• The end of this month, I'm finally (after several years) taking a trip back to my original home state of New Jersey to visit relatives, most notably my grandmother and my father.  Thanks for the plane tickets, Dad!  I'm really looking forward to it!

• Well, the loaner car that died  on me last month has returned to its home in Farmington, where it will either get the medical care it needs or end up on the junkpile.  I wish it well.  Meanwhile, after walking everywhere for a month, I finally bought me that truck!  Yes, I am now the proud owner of a 1993 Dodge Dakota pickup!  (Or rather, I will be the owner in four years when I've paid off the bank, but why quibble?)  It's a bit more truck that I'd told myself I was going to buy, really: 4-wheel drive, club cab, V-8 engine...  But I'm really happy with it.  Yup, I'm a real New Mexican now!

• Well, two days after I wrote the June entry I got a call from the insurance company.  The guy decided to settle for the $10,000 I was covered for.  Whew!  So that's all over and done with, and worked out OK for me.  Which is especially good, because...
• The loaner car I've been driving died on the way to Albuquerque the last weekend in June.  As I write this, it's still stranded up there (I got a ride back with some incredibly good-hearted friends) and may or may not ever be able to make the trip back.  Ayy!  It's definitely time for me to buy that truck I've been planning on.
• On a non-automotive note, this month marks my 27th birthday!  And I'm already starting to get grey hairs.  Sigh...

• Well, I still haven't heard anything from the insurance company.  They told me it might take a while...  Oh, well.  If I don't hear from them in a few weeks, I'll probably give them a call, but for now I'm attempting to believe that no news is good news...
• My story won in Phoenix's Flash Fiction Contest !  I'd like to thank all the little people...

• As of last month, the local cable company has finally provided us with the Sci-Fi Channel . Geek that I am, I'm extremely happy about that.  Now I can watch all those great shows I'd been missing: Alien Nation , Forever Knight , Mystery Science Theater 3000 ...
• On a far less pleasant note... Apparently the car accident I had back in September is coming back to haunt me. The insurance company told me in November that they'd settled the claim and everything was OK, and I'd thought that was the end of the matter.  Now, six months later, apparently the guy I hit is claiming that he's got more damage that wasn't covered in the first settlement.  The really bad news?  He wants more than I'm covered for, which means I could be liable for $1000-$2000.  Yipes! The insurance company says they're going to try and talk them down or something, but this may mean that the money I'd saved up to replace my own vehicle may be disappearing down the drain. Wish me luck, and stay tuned for the next chapter in this exciting saga..

• Well, I put it off as long as I could, but I finally got my taxes done. And I had to pay on my federal taxes again this year.  I'd really like to know exactly what the government's doing with all my money...
• I've just heard from my dad and his wife that they're now on line with internet and WWW access. Wow. My father's on the web! Who said parents were uncool? So... Hi, Dad! Hi, Janice! [Virtual wave] Welcome to cyberspace! If you do get a homepage set up, let me know, and I'll put a link to it on my links page .

• This month marks the first wedding anniversary of my sister Kathy and her husband Gary. Congratulations, guys! It's nice to know there are still those out there willing and able to take the matrimonial plunge!
• It looks like the Ireland trip (mentioned below) is going to be postponed until sometime next year, due to financial reasons. But we're still determined to get there sooner or later, so stay tuned...
• It's been pointed out to me that some of the images on these web pages haven't been loading properly for people who use Internet Explorer. I think I've fixed that problem now, but if anyone is still having problems with this, please let me know .

• I am adjusting reasonably well to my once-again-single status (aka the "unhappy circumstances" mentioned below) and to my new place. Once I get some decent blinds on that east-facing window in the bedroom (a must for when I'm working the night shift), I should be all settled in, more or less.
• I just had my kitten, Happiness, spayed. Little Happiness was understandably unhappy for a while, but at least I know she won't be contributing to the disturbingly large population of unwanted cats here... And I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage everybody with pets to have them spayed or neutered, too.
• A friend and I (Hi, Jeannine!) are thinking of taking a trip to Ireland later this year. We're still very much in the planning stages, and I'm not at all sure I'm going to have the money for it, but nevertheless any travel tips anybody out there might have will be gratefully received.

• Due to a rather unhappy set of circumstances in my personal life, I am in the process of moving. Friends who don't have them yet can e-mail me for my new phone number and snail-mail address, but should be prepared to listen to me bitch about the "unhappy circumstances."

• My Thanksgiving trip to California went quite well. Many thanks are due to my Mom and her husband Charlie for their much-appreciated early Christmas present to me: an official Swiss Army Knife . Now I can live out all my MacGyver-ish fantasies!
• I'd like to wish everybody a happy holiday season, and all the best in 1998!

• Earlier this month, I got to see Jethro Tull on the last day of their US tour. Jethro Tull is one of my top three favorite bands, and believe me, they are awesome live!
• Over Thanksgiving, I'm heading off to Barstow, CA to visit my Mom. My sister, brother-in-law and grandmother will be there, too, so in addition to Thanksgiving, we're also having a family Christmas in November.
• This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Phoenix APA. Phoenix is an organization for amateur writers and artists to showcase and receive comments on their work, and for fans of science fiction, comics and movies to interact with people of similar interests. If that sounds attractive to you, be sure to check out the Phoenix Web Page : we're always looking for new members!