The promo for the 11 o'clock news was "Booze and stripper poles lead to real trouble." I think they hooked me.

Ugh, I haven't packed at all and I leave tomorrow morning at 10:30 to go home for the funeral. Put in a ten-hour day today trying to get everything set for me to leave for two weeks.

I am so sorry, Dana.

Ginger, we have Vonage and we are pretty happy with them.

The booze, including moonshine, and stripper pole were in a house that police have accused of being an illegal nightclub. The owner claims it's an ordinary residence and the 300 beers and other liquor was for his own use and the stripper pole was for his daughter's exercise. He refused comment about the moonshine.

Thanks, Nora. It seems like Vonage might be a way out of my dispute with AT&T, which made the number I'd had for 15 years the "second" number when I added a line and now says that if I drop back to one line, I have to keep the number they have as the "first" number, even though it was their mistake in setting it up that way. Apparently that change has to be made by maintenance, and they'll charge me a service call. I believe this is insane, but I'm tired of arguing.

Hey, Summer Glau is on Chuck.

Ginger, we use Skype for our "landline". It's only about $25.00 a year, I think, and a rather expensive phone, and it works even when the computer is off (as does Vonage without the expensive phone). We had Vonage before they improved and weren't happy with it, but we weren't happy paying the big bucks. Skype isn't any better than Vonage was before it improved (sometimes staticky, cellphone like connection), but since it's so cheap, I don't mind as much. I know people who also have Magic Jack and like it, which is pretty much the same thing, and also extremely cheap.

Oh FFS. The dog appears to be on a hunger strike.

When I went up north last weekend I had to stop at a random local store to buy chow so ended up getting one of those kinds with all the shapes and colors and shit. Ran out of that on Saturday and now she will not touch her regular chow. Last night I tried to break the impasse by mixing in a handful of the cat's chow, but judging from the amount of detritus all around her bowl, she's managed to sort it all out.

I seem to have caught sara's disease, just dumped a large coffee in my car. At least avoided myself.

So sleepy I was going cross-eyed driving into work. Not good! Come on, Coffee, do your thing!

My van driver was sleeping until right before we left. That did not inspire confidence.