Somebody who can tolerate you

2003-10-24 - 11:10 p.m.

Quite a few good things happened today. And one of them was not the great turn out of people who actually took my quiz. Go take it. And then scroll down and take the "difficult" one. Seriously, it would make me happy. Unless, of course, you've already taken it and then you've already made me happy, so thanks!

OK, back to the good things that happened today. Good thing number one: I finally got mail from Washington. I received the application for authorization to test. So I'll fill this out, send it back, then they'll send me the authorization to test. I'll sign up for the test, I'll take it, I'll pass it, I'll get my license, I'll apply for a job, I'll get it, I'll move, I'll live happily ever after. I've got it all planned out.

Good thing number two: I found some computer files I had been missing! When my computer went kablooie in August, the first thing I rescued was, of course, my most important files. After my computer was fixed, I put all my files back on my computer except my most important files, which I couldn't find! I've been working hard not to stress over it. And today I found them! Apparently I'd e-mailed them to myself. My hotmail account is getting full so I arranged all the messages I have in it in order of how big they are and the message from me containing my important files popped to the top. Yay!

And the whole day just went pretty well. Except this:

Do you see that smirk? I swear that lawnmower must get such a kick out of frustrating me. I tried and tried to get it started. Finally, it started up and stayed started! Hallelujah! I started to mow the lawn. We went about eight feet, that lawnmower and I, before it quit. So I went and got my camera and took pictures to relieve the mounting tension between us. You can see the eight-foot trail of freshly mown lawn there in the picture. Ergh. When will fall really and truly get here so I can quit mowing the lawn?

Since today is Friday, my mom came home early from work. We went to Chipotle again for lunch and split another burrito. We got a different kind this time and it was still good. Afterwards we went to Sam's Club. I got a new Gary Allan CD and a new pair of black work pants. My mom wanted to stop by the pharmacy section to get some more glucosamine/chondroitin pills. She takes them because they help with her joint pain. When we got to the section with those pills, they had many different brands with many different combinations of those two drugs in them, but many also had MSM in them. I was unfamiliar with MSM. I didn't recommend it to my mom because I didn't know anything about it. So I encouraged my mom to ask the pharmacist there at the store about it. Much to my surprise, my mom actually asked. Unfortunately, the pharmacist there was an idiot. My mom showed her a bottle of something that contained glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM and asked, "What does MSM do?" The pharmacist told her, "It's good for joint pain." Duh, thanks. Mom asked, "How does it work?" The pharmacist answered helpfully, "It's a good ingredient. It's good for joint pain." It was quite obvious she didn't know a thing about it. I asked her, "Has it actually been proven to work?" "Oh yes," She said. We thanked her and walked away, telling each other what an idiot she was once we were out of earshot. Mom bought a kind without the MSM. When I got home, I looked it up. MSM has not been proven to help with joint pain in humans.

Tonight, after my dad got home, we went out to dinner at Red Lobster. I decided to be different and I ordered the tilapia. Boy was that a mistake. It was ok, but just about everything else I've ever ordered there was much, much better. In fact, the fish and chips my mom cooked for dinner last night was much, much better. My mom's a good cook, but still. Ah well.

Here are a few more pictures that I took in my backyard as my lawnmower cat-called. Hey, lawnmower, you can resist all you want, but in the end, I always win. And in the end, you're going on the trash heap. You hear?