Change of Plans

Things have altered somewhat over the past month and half since I last posted -- not necessarily bad things; it's one of those situations in which the good and bad come in pretty equal measures, and the bottom line looks like it might turn out better than I would have expected. And everyone likes lists, so:

1. Remember that house we were going to buy? We're not going to buy it. The builder and the associated mortgage company we were going through turned out to be supremely unreliable and inept enough to assume the problems we were having as we got closer and closer to the closing date weren't going to be the last problems we were going to have with them.

2. We've been in very close contact with my mom back on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and will probably be paying her a visit next month.

3. Meanwhile, not blowing a ton of cash on a house means we have more left over for things like a badly-needed computer and cable modem. Probably the main reason I haven't been posting much of late is that I've been subscribing to NetZero dial-up. No, wait, that's accelerated dial-up -- I wasn't supposed to be able to tell the difference between that and broadband. It turned out to be the internet equivalent of the Chinese postal system. One of the most satisfying things I've done all week was to call NetZero and cancel my subscription. The new Dell's on its way. Expect more posts when it gets here.

4. The job at ACS is coming along just fine -- I'm still (and shall remain for a while longer) the new guy, but I've got some writing credits under my belt, some small projects I'm in charge of, some newbies to boss around every now and then. Life's a piece of cake, archaeologically. Wow, how's that for a contrast from a couple of years ago...

5. I freaking loved New Orleans. I spent New Years of '97 there, walked Carter around the French Quarter, had my first mufaletta... Yet another of the many, many instances in which I ask myself, "What if Gore had won..." In this specific case, I'd wage the answer would be, "Fewer people would have died." That might actually be the answer to to every instance.

That's it for now -- I've got to take a shower and step out for a while -- Phoenix is still largely an unexplored country, although I do know where all the good brew pubs are... E-mail me to request a special Director's Cut edition of this post!