Monday, December 18, 2000 - 11:45 p.m.

Monday, December 18, 2000 - 11:45 p.m.

I'm not sure if I did any better. Last night we went to the party even though I didn't
want to and I had a lot of fudge and other not so good foods. And then we were forced to go look at Christmas lights even though I didn't want to. At one point I flicked my lights off and on at someone and they stayed on. I had to pull to the side of the road and turn the car off before the lights would reset. Well, the trouble got worse. Near the end, the "check engine" light came on. We ended up having to drive from Torrance back to Glendale using only surface streets because the car wouldn't leave second gear.

So we did 30-35 milesan hour the whole way. Not fun. I took the car in today and found out a $17 sensor had failed. They repaired it and I had the car back and it was under warranty so it didn't end up costing anything.

Our big boss Kevin (Senior VP, New Media) hosted a buffet for us this morning. It was
pretty cheap and the food wasn't that good. Lori and I both got sick and we think it was because of the eggs. I ended up not really eating anything else for the rest of the day. I asked Lori to bring home Panda Express, which she says is pretty healthy.

Work was pretty boring. Not much at all happened today. The stock price went down $10
today, even though the FTC approved the merger on Thursday and the Dow went up today. I
don't understand stocks. I wish I did, I want to make some money. I hope to have more
time (when?). I ended up watching 90 minutes of TV I had just watched last night.

I just got back from walking an hour. I figure this was between 3 and 4 miles. That's
gotta be worth something. The question is, how much? And will I be able to consistently exercise to where it does my body any good?

So, I have all this stuff to catch up. I think tonight I'll do some easy things. I think I'll talk about Carol. Carol is my cat. She was probably born on or around April 15, 1997. I bought her not too long after. When the vet examined her, he said she shouldn't have been sold so soon after birth. Carol is -- of course -- named after the Carol you read about many years back in the last set of journals. I know it's a weird name for a cat, but I honestly couldn't come up with a good name so I decided I would honor my memories of Carol. Carol is hard to describe. She is all white underneath, so when she lays on her back she looks like a totally different cat. Her face is part white and part dark. She is a short-haired cat who is dark on top, mostly black with a kind of peanut-butter-slash-tan-type color mixed in. Her markings make her kind of look abyssinian, except that they are long-haired cats. Her tail is almost striped, but in the dark colors.

She ripped up the carpet in my first apartment because I kept her in the big walk-in closet at night when I slept because I was scared that I would roll over onto her when she was little and then later on because she wanted to run around at night keeping me awake. I was kind of mean to her but she's forgiven me. She sleeps a lot. Every morning she follows me into the bathroom and sits on the floor while I take a shower.

When I get out of the shower she talks to me. Otherwise she isn't a very loud cat. I've taught her to sit and now I don't always even need to say it, if she wants something, she'll sit. She's very nervous around other people and if kept in a room where there are other people, she will sit at my feet. She also plays fetch. She will bring milk rings for us to throw, but she wants us to work, too -- she doesn't bring them back to you, she brings them back partway, so that you have to get up as well. And if you ignore her, she will pick it up and drop it repeatedly onto some surface that will make noise until you go and get it from her and throw it. She's really cool.

I was going to talk about my cars, too, but I think I've written enough. I have so many things to catch up. Lori, UltimateTV, Warner Bros., Blockbuster, Kevin, Allison, Bria, Barbara, Amy, Pacific Lutheran University, California, and the list goes on. Over time I will try to get everything caught up.