I found out I get to go to Athens in November for a conference after all. I hear it's a cool place. I don't like bars, but hopefully there's other stuff to check out. And not only is Athens supposed to be vegetarian friendly, but I was able to request a veg diet on the conference registration form. They give free breakfasts and lunches sometimes. Now we have to find a motel, since all the hotels were booked. They got several motels to agree to room conference goers at the state rate, and we are exempt the state room tax.

We went with Howard Johnson, and the four of us that are going made our reservations. We'll head out from work the day before the conference starts (a Wednesday), and come back that Friday. It'll be a nice little break, I hope. I've found quite a few vegetarian or veg-friendly restaurants there. I know Rick will have no problem joining me at those places, but I don't want to force everyone to eat where I can eat. I'm sure we can work it out, as well as who's driving and picking someone up, etc.

So far, Pancake is still my favorite song on Tori's new CD, Scarlet's Walk. That may change in a week, or today once I listen to the other half of the CD. (She does have Jon Evans on there providing the funky bass lines. That's one way to win me over.) I had downloaded the 6 sample songs that were sent to reviewers and radio stations. I'm pissed, though, because there's a DVD included. I had assumed for 4 years that my CD drive was DVD, too. It's not. Once I found that out, I sent an email to my brother asking for a DVD player for chirstmas. He had asked what Jeff and I wanted. I had only been able to tell him of different gift certificates, but nothing specific. And I saw a Sony for $129 in a sales paper. Jeff's Crutchfield catalog has JVC, Sony, and a few others for $129, also.

I think next year I'm going to get a new computer and high speed internet access. It's getting to where I'll wait until I'm at work to open certain attachments or look at certain websites. And I figure 4 years is a long time to have a computer these days. Hell, we've had new PCs at work twice in my 4 years working there. And unless Gateway has cut out the noise their hard drives make, they'll not get my repeat business. At first it was funny, but now it's on my nerves.

It's going to be an involved prospect. I'll have to transfer all my MP3s and other files onto the new PC. I may look into a KVM connection so I can bring home a work PC and keep work totally separate. I'll have to make a decision on the ISP I want - and either DSL or cable. I'll have to look into whether I want a software or hardware firewall (probably hardware). And which operating system? I hear of problems with Windows XP and ME. The guru at work says Windows 2000 has been pretty good for his FIVE PCs at home. Sheesh.

OK. Thats something I can't obsess about now. Now I must obsess about what gifts to get everyone. I know one thing, I'm not spending as much this year as I have in years past.

We had a quite few trick-or-treaters, but less than last year. And of course there were teenagers carrying pillowcases who were not dressed up. Jeff handled all but a few of the groups, since I was on leash duty. After holding a squirming and flailing Filo in my arms while the first group was at the door, we put him on a leash. He was convinced whoever was at the door wanted to play with him.

One of the teenager groups came up. Jeff said, "and what are you supposed to be?" He said "myself" or something like that. I couldn't see them, so I asked (loudly) if he was carrying a pillowcase. Jeff said "yep" and they all laughed. Another group came up, including one Hispanic boy. He said he was an immigrant and started talking with a thick accent. At first I thought about yelling out, "La migra!" I later cracked myself up when I told Jeff he should have asked him to cut our grass. (NOTE: That is not a slur or a reflection on my views. I figured if the boy wanted to be a smart ass, I could, too. I'm always up for that.)

We have a lot of candy left. Jeff was giving 3 or 4 pieces, and we bought the good stuff. So, no one can complain. Screw them if they did. I have a bad habit of giving handfulls, so we'd have very little left had I been handing it out. Now, we have all this candy. I know we'll just eat it. Don't get me wrong, I love candy. But I don't want to encourage my sweet tooth by having pounds of candy laying around.