Happy birthday to me!

I'm 32 years old.

My laptop is broken and we can't afford to replace any parts. (So you'll be seeing less of me online, unless I can figure out what's wrong and find a free replacement part somewhere.) Oh well, we got it for free anyway. I just hate being the only person in the house who has to ask someone else for permission to use their computer instead of just using my own.

I'm selling my new digital camera and the lenses, tripod, etc. that go with it. It's the best way to reduce debt and provide for GRE classes, college-visiting road trip, application fees, etc. Jodi says she'll use her savings for moving expenses. I got an unexpected check in the mail, which helps. I'm still selling the camera, and I still need to sell the iPod nano, too. eBay fees are annoying, but I'm not sure I know of a better way to get the best value for this stuff.

Oh well, at least I look hot in my black dress shirt and the jeans I bought a month ago. Never hurts to know people are staring at my butt. ;)

I'm kinda sad about the financial situation we got ourselves into, but we're dealing with it. It was just a bad idea to be living like a dual-income, upper-middle-class family. We aren't.

And despite all that, I'm actually fairly happy today. Go figure.

Oh, if you're a Babylon 5 fan, you might enjoy The End of the World, Babylon 5 Style, which I wrote yesterday.

P.S.: this shirt is cool

Printed to the right of the chopsticks: Translation: I can't use chopsticks. Because of this, MY FACE BURNS WITH SHAME!!... can I please have a fork?

A pretty good night

Free dinner at Trang Viet Cuisine.

Watched a Babylon 5 episode ("Sic Transit Vir") with Jodi, who rarely has any interest in it, but put up with it for my birthday -- and Amanda, who is watching the whole series with me (we're on S5E02 next, which I think has the Declaration of Principles).

Will watch an episode of Buffy (S2E01, whatever that turns out to be) soon.

A bit of drama, but that's how LJ is sometimes. I might should have put my birthday stuff into a different post. Ah well. I know y'all wish only the best for us, and I love you for it.

For the record, Jodi is quite capable of handling graduate work; she's taken many graduate seminars and been graded as a graduate student (and earned good grades even by grad-student standards), and the organizer of the PIKSI all-expenses-paid trip told her that her references are glowing. And we do regularly discuss the job prospects available in this area that don't involve four hours a day waiting for hourly bus routes to connect. But she's gung-ho on GRE prep, to which the thousands of filed index cards for vocabulary study will attest. And that's going to not only get her into graduate school, but get her fully funded somewhere. She's not as dumb as I look. ;)

I didn't like the idea of selling the camera. At first, I downright hated the idea. But it gradually dawned on me that it was the single most powerful thing I can do to move in the right direction, and now I think it's a darned good idea. A bit humbling, but wise. When I have enough free time, I'll write some more crossword puzzles or sell some articles, and I'll use the proceeds to get a decent digital with some sort of optical zoom. I really don't need pro-am gear, I just 'shiny' it.

The road trip is still on; Dad's paying for gasoline and we're gonna use CouchSurfing.com to find places to sleep. (If you know someone in Nashville, St. Louis, DeKalb, Milwaukee, Kalamazoo, Oxford OH, Cleveland, Kent OH, Boston, Blacksburg VA, or Atlanta who would like some polite houseguests who plan to bring a gift like some key lime juice or other Floridiana, let me know!) So it's basically just food for an expense, and we were planning to eat some of that anyway. (Though not necessarily the likes of R. Thomas, Giordano's, or equivalent legendary foodstuffs of the cities we're visiting. For that matter, if you know a must-eat food along the way, speak up! We're already planning to have some frozen custard, too.)

And by the way, we DO have air conditioning in the car; it was my dad's graduation present to Jodi and his birthday present to me, and a very generous present at that. So it's all good.

We should really have some sort of get-together so people can hear more about our lives than I have time to post. Who's interested?