Me in ME: Day 11

I have the best family. Today I received a care package from my parents and little brother. They sent me a couple of cards, some Special K treats (made with Special K cereal, crunchy peanut butter, and corn syrup), a VeggieTales coloring book, Winnie the Pooh crayons, a Pez despenser with Mater from the movie Cars on top, a 3D brain teaser puzzle, a Sudoku book, a bug launcher (that launches little plastic bugs), and a plane launcher with some little foam plane. They aren't extravagant gifts, but nice little reminders of love, and they arrived appropriately today. This message goes out to them: thank you for the gifts, and I love y'all.

On to my daily recap, my old friends Ice and Gravity tried to tag-team me again today. The snow and rain yesterday combined with the sub-freezing temperatures last night created a lot of ice for today. I almost fell just walking to the parking lot here at the hotel, but it was closer to a semi-controlled kneel. At work, the parking lot could have been mistakened for a skating rink as it was pretty much one solid sheet of ice. But the sun shined brightly and unobscured today, which turned the skating rink into a small lake. Oddly enough, the parking lot had been plowed, except for the first two rows of cars, and the storm drains were located under the second row of cars. Unable to get plowed, the drains remained clogged with the slush from yesterday, preventing the lake that had formed today from draining.

After a long 12-hour work day from 6:00am to 6:00pm, I spent the evening having some leftover pizza from last night, playing with my new toys, and watching a little TV (and writing the blog entry, of course). Today I think I decided what I'm going to do with some of the extra money that I'm earning from all of this overtime that I'm working. After having a company laptop for the last 11 day, I've discovered some of the benefits and conveniences of an ultra-portable computer, but it would be nice to have one that didn't have all of the security restraints that a computer for a government contractor carries with it. Not wanting to get anything too fancy, too large, or too high-powered, I've found a nice 14.1" laptop on Best Buy's website that a little larger than a sheet of paper and an inch and a half thick and costs less than $500. I just hope that it's still on sale when I get back to Waco.

On a random note: the guys I'm working with like to listen to rock music when they're driving to and from work. Having heard some of them in Guitar Hero and Rock Band, I'm getting a little itchy to play the drums some more on Rock Band.