The Bear says that I should avoid eating bees and wasps and drink a lot of fluids. Thanks, Bear. Sorry you got caught in a trap and had to miss my party.

The microwave in the office kitchen is on its last legs. I was reheating my leftover birthday dinner (yum) and I noticed that the microwave kept shutting off abruptly. I gave it a good smack, but that didn't seem to help. (Then again, hitting appliances probably isn't an adequate repair method.) It took me ten minutes to cook my food. It should have taken about four and a half, but I had to keep restarting the microwave. I wonder if the microwave's performance is somehow related to the amount of dried-up stinky food residue on its inside. Someone's cleaned it in the last couple of days.

From Cardhouse: a handy little program called Ad Muncher. Of course, it's not much use to me because it's Windows-only, and I'm a Mac user. But anything that gets rid of those annoying pop-up ads is cool with me.

Also from Quiddity, this has been making the rounds over email--my mom got it last week, and she sent it to me. I laughed, which is unusual, because everyone knows that jokes/web pages forwarded a gazillion times generally aren't all that funny.

There's an older man who works in my office who reminds me of one of the people I actually liked from my old job. Even his voice sounds the same. It's weird, because I turn around expecting to see my former co-worker, only it's not my former co-worker.

I'm wearing my brand-new Diesel Sweeties t-shirt today. I got the one that says "I'm a rocker. I rock out." Rad.

I'm anxiously awaiting the results of this week's Am I Cool or Not? over at Freaky Trigger. I know that a bunch of people think that's my picture over there this week. It's not. While there are some resemblances (the brown eyes, the shortish red hair, the pale skin), her nose is a lot flatter than mine, and our mouths (and eyebrows) are totally different. Besides, there's no way I could get my hair to look that neat.

Oh, and my throat's still sore. I am officially sick.

I'm ready to make an official declaration: I think I'm sick. My eyes hurt, I have a little bit of a headache, and my throat is growing increasingly sore. The headache might be caused by one of my co-workers spraying some sort of perfume/air freshener--there's been two distinct stenches o' air freshener in the past couple of hours. The first one reminded me of Lysol, which reminded me of the guy I dated who used to use Lysol as deodorant. I shit you not. Indeed, it was as gross as it sounds. I'd say the guy was a hippie, but that's an insult to hippies everywhere. Let's just say that he had a hippie grooming aesthetic. He needed to be reminded that basic hygiene was important, and that certain tasks (i.e., showering, brushing teeth, washing hair, washing clothes) needed to be performed regularly. The second stench was one of those overwhelmingly flowery scents. This stench was probably caused by one of two things: someone wearing too much cheap perfume, or someone applying too much cheap perfume. Stench One was offensive by association, and Stench Two was offensive on basic principle.

Juno will be playing the Courtyard Cafe in my soon-to-be adopted hometown of Champaign a week after I move in. Rock. I wonder if Jackie had anything to do with that? Then, on September 5 and 6, the Great Cover-Up. Steely Dan?

Speaking of Champaign, I went down there last Friday to register for classes, and I was dismayed to find out that everything I had planned to take was full. Upon further investigation, I realized that everything I could potentially take was full. The few classes that are still open have prerequisites. I sent a frantic "whatever shall I do?" e-mail to my advisor last night. I'm sure I'll be able to get the classes that I need somehow, but I am now aware of the need to register as early as possible.

The high point of the weekend was probably my birthday party. The turnout was great (thanks Tim, Matty, Burki, Andy, Colleen, Quinn, Saul [and friends], Jason, Ann, Liza, Joey, Colin, and Sarah for being there) and the bowling was kickass. I didn't do as badly as usual--even bowled a couple of strikes. Post-bowling, a bunch of us went over to the Marigold Bowl for karaoke. It wasn't as happening as it used to be--it was mostly some frat boy-types singing country songs (as in Garth Brooks country, not Johnny Cash country) and a guy trying too hard to be Elvis. Yeah, I sang. Fortunately, unlike Liza's karaoke party, mine wasn't captured on videotape. They announced my birthday over the PA at Rock 'n Bowl, and then they played Steely Dan. It ruled.

Colin gave me a wizard's cap for my birthday. I wore it for the rest of the evening.

Tim and I managed to trap ourselves on my parents' front balcony on 4th of July. You see, the sliding glass door often gets caught on the blinds and refuses to open. We went out on the balcony to get a better view of the fireworks, and since the air conditioner was on, I shut the door behind us. Bad idea. The sliding glass door got stuck on the blinds, and we had to do epic battle to get it back open. Nobody was home, so we couldn't just pound on the window to get someone's attention. Tim's patience eventually triumphed over my "maybe if we pull it hard enough, we'll bend the blinds" attitude and we got back inside. Which was good, because the neighbor kids were shooting bottle rockets like crazy, and they weren't exactly paying attention to such things as trajectory. (No, I wouldn't say they were shooting bottle rockets at us, because they aren't those kind of kids. But the randomness of the bottle-rocket shooting was getting a little bit worrisome. After seeing my redneck ex-neighbors blow up their brand-new [i.e., not on blocks in the yard] convertible seven or eight years ago, I'm all too aware of the potential destruction a bottle rocket can cause.)

I think I'm getting sick. My throat's sore. I've had a sore throat off and on for a week, but this is the worst it's been. I'm glad that it waited until after my birthday to get worse, though--being sick on my birthday would have been a real pisser.

I should be uploading the first letter this afternoon when I get home from work. I wrote it late last night, but I had already shut the computer off for the night, so I didn't get around to scanning it. Note to self: must buy stamps today. I've been keeping the recipients list fairly up-to-date--I'm already well into the month of September. Don't hesitate if you want a letter.