Connie came up and went shopping with Jamie yesterday.  As a special treat we all, including Clinton, went to Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles on Sunset for dinner.  I've been there once before, but I'm not sure I mentioned it.  If you ever come to visit us in LA, remind us to go to Roscoe's.  There might be better locations than the one on Sunset, so if you know about other locations, let me know.

I don't remember if I ever mentioned the fact that I got a parking ticket here in LA back in November of last year.  Parking was suspended on our block for a week or so, and I parked a couple blocks away in a spot that seemed perfectly legitimate.  Even after getting the ticket, I had to do some investigating to find a sign that might even apply to where I parked.  So, I contested.  I sent in a letter explaining that if I had wanted to park illegally, I would have just parked right in front of my house, instead of several blocks away.  I also drew a little map to scale of the signs and markings on the street where I got the ticket.  About a month after I contested, I got a letter that said that they were reviewing the case.  This week, I got a letter stating that my ticket had been dismissed!  Very exciting, as I continue to maintain a perfect parking record here in LA!

I haven't been real motivated to blog.  Sorry.  I'm not sick anymore, which is good.  I have picked up working out again regularly, and my abs hate me for it.  Just one more workout, and I'll surpass Don's two week prediction.  A celebrity sighting that I forgot to mention happened last week.  Clinton and I were making some transactions at our local Bank of America, and who did we see at the teller window but Emilio Estevez!  To Clinton, he sounded exactly like Jason Jenkins.  I'm not sure what the best part was about his exchange with the teller.  I'll tell you the top two, and you can vote for you favorite.

A)  Teller: “I haven't seen you in anything lately.”

B)  Emilio: “Is a roll of quarters ten dollars?”

I imagine Emilio doing his laundry at the local laundromat.  Anywho, I'll try to be a better blogger.

A lot of stuff is happening with Jamie's work these days.  She's going to be leaving Quiksilver at the end of April.  I'm not sure if she will ever blog again, so I'll be filling you in if she doesn't.

As I've mentioned, I'm sick.  It's some kind of head cold thing that makes me achy.  The question I have for you is should I work out while I'm sick, or should I save my energy for recuperating?

OK, I spent some time working out what my dream home computer system would look like.  What I haven't decided is the order in which I should buy all of this stuff.  I need to replace my desktop at some point, as it's basically home made, and it's slowly falling out of date, not to mention that the CD-ROM drive just stopped working.  So, the dream involves a new desktop with a minimum 3.0 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM, 100 GB internal hard drive, and two firewire ports (one for a camera, and one for a 200 GB external hard drive).  That would be attached to a KVM switch that would be attached to my wireless keyboard and mouse (which I've already got) and my new 23” widescreen flat panel monitor (by new, I am dreaming here).  Why a KVM switch?  Because I also want to get a laptop that I can take with me when I go places like the Siebers and still need to work.  The laptop doesn't need much in the way of power, as I'll mostly remote desktop into my machine.  The things that matter would be a DVD-ROM drive for portable entertainment, a fairly large screen, and wireless networking.  Along with this laptop, I would get a docking station that would also be attached to the KVM switch, so that if I wanted to I could work directly on my laptop at home, but using my regular keyboard and huge monitor.  I'm not sure how often I would need to do this, but it would be nice to have, I suppose.  So, now all that is left really is the video portion of the system.  That would include a Panasonic DVX100 camera, which would be plugged into that firewire port I mentioned above.  I also want to be able to playback media from my computer to my television, so something akin to the Sony RoomLink would come in handy.  And of course, I'd love to display that stuff on an awesome new television screen, so how about a 50” XBR Plasma WEGA HD Flat Panel?  I know it's hard to believe that I've ever been in debt.

So, B-dub and Jan came into town last week, which was mucho fun-o.  We did a ton of stuff, including going down to the beach in San Diego where the Dudley's had their group from UBC.  We hung and relaxed at the Sieber residence for a couple days, where Jeff and Sieber extended family joined us for Dr. Pepper tacos.  Then we had a fun-filled day in LA, seeing the sights, eating good food at Rubio's with Clinton and some of his Baylor friends, going to see a movie at the ArcLight (Eternal Sunshine, which I loved, but the girls hated) where Mike and Robin Hogan joined us, eating good food again at Vert, then capping off the day with the Crowders at Trader Vic's.  Now, sadly, Jamie's sick, and I'm doing my best to fight it off, but I seem to be losing.

I'm proud to announce that I have successfully worked out the last three days.  I'm getting the swing of the elliptical machine, and I'm liking it.  I'm definitely sore.  The real test now is will I get back to it next week after B-dub and Jan leave?

It's a little bit blurry, because I was taking the pic on the sly.  I was at In-N-Out tonight, and in comes Dominic Monaghan (Merry from Lord of the Rings), and yes I did have to look his name up.  He was unaccompanied, and I was quite surprised to see that no one approached him.  Wish the pic was better quality.

In case you missed it, Baylor was spotlighted tonight on Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor.  O'Reilly had on two guests from Baylor, one the founder of Baylor Freedom, a gay-rights type organization, and the other a student who was stripped of his scholarship after he came out of the closet.  That's right, just the two of them.  Not a single straight Baylor student.  O'Reilly also accused Dr. Sloan of intimidating Baylor students who wanted to talk about the issue of same-sex marriage.  If you hadn't heard about his, here's some links to check out.

The original editorial that sparked it all:
http://www.baylorlariat.com/archive.cfm?file=http://www.baylorlariat.com/archives/2004/20040227/022704a.html

Response from Dr. Sloan:
http://www.baylorlariat.com/archive.cfm?file=http://www.baylorlariat.com/archives/2004/20040302/030204i.html

Response from the Baylor Student Publications Board:
http://www.baylorlariat.com/archive.cfm?file=http://www.baylorlariat.com/archives/2004/20040302/030204j.html

After the show, I sent O'Reilly this email:

I haven't heard it yet, but I'm sure it won't be long before someone blames the recent tragic attack in Spain on America.  They won't accuse of us of actually being involved in the attack, but they will find us to blame because of our arrogance and wealth.