At 4AM I decided to risk giving Yan Yan a call, but didn't get an answer. Disappointed, I went to bed, but was nicely surprised at around 5AM when she snuck into bed. Definitely was a nice surprise.

I did pay for staying up too late today by being semi-functional at work. Fortunately for me things were pretty slow today. Unfortunately for me, there was very little revenue trickling in. And another thing. . . the powers-that-be in Best Buy Worldwide Corporate Headquarters decided that no employee is allowed to carry a cell phone while on the clock. Which is a completely bullshit policy that only thick-headed pig-dump eating dumbasses would think up, and I'm not the only one who thinks so.

I can understand their concern of unscrupulous employees wasting company time by chatting on the cell phone, but that's why there's such a thing called responsible cell phone use, also known as cell phone etiquette. Bit by bit. . . the disadvantages of working there are slowly outweighing the advantages of working there. The sooner I can find a egress, the better. . .

Spent Friday helping out in Freeport, doing alot of maintenance work father couldn't do in his current condition, as well as general upkeep on the Quincy units stationed there. Later that evening, evil twin, Yan Yan, and I ventured out to the Main Event (quasi Dave & Buster's like place) and tried out their laser tag place. Now, a word about laser tag in Plano, TX. Ever since Laser Storm closed down back in '96, there have been no good laser tag places (except for Q-Zar, but they forgot to pay their rent in '99, and were evicted). The arena at Main Event came close to be being good (multi-level is always a good thing), but unfortunately the entire map felt cramped. The equipment was decent (because it was new), but the fog/mist distributor was laying it on a bit too thick. Both Travis and I think it deserves another review before make a final decision. In his case, he needs to be on a team with more single cute girls.

Today I got a haircut done at home before prepping for departure at Freeport. The trip home was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that this time around it was not the car that was goading me to go faster. . . it was a really cute passenger who pouted that I wasn't pushing the car harder. Man. . . talk about living vicariously through other people. . .

On the other hand, I managed to squeeze a hell of a lot better milage than I normally would if I drove slower. I averaged about 22MPG when going 70MPH, but easily broke 23MPG+ when going ~80MPH. Go figure. . .

Spent some time discussing future options with Rus lately, and it seems that Project Outer Haven might be resurrected sometime soon. As far as we can tell its do-able. . . we just have to be sure that there is a market before we commit. Interesting times. . .

Ironically, as I departed in a dejected mood, I saw her car stuck in traffic at a stoplight. And thus a sojourn ensued from DE's parking lot to her apartment, with me tailing her and she being completely oblivious to the fact. A nice game of cat and mouse (in rush hour traffic, no less) later, she was laughing hysterically in my arms as we recounted each of our version of what happened to the other (yeah, she finally spotted me shortly before we got to her place). . . it was fun.

Dinner consisted of one point five pounds of extra moist brisket from Rudy's (haven't been there in ages. . .). . . which one point one pounds of it were consumed along with some potatoe salad and three quarter links of sausage. Good stuff. . . Rudy's. . .

With that much food, we had to walk it off, so we stopped by Nordstrom's Grand Opening at Barton Creek and peered cautiously at the lastest fashions and their price tags. . .

All in all, it was a fun evening. . . unfortunately she had to work tonight, and I have to get up early in the morning for some special operations training with the county sheriff. . . maybe we will do some more celebrating after my training is over. . .

But ever since I decided to tackle this SQL database, it seems as a part of my brain that I didn't realize was missing began to be active again. . . even after a ridiculous day at work. I stayed two hours past my original quitting time today because stuff needed to be done and nobody else was getting it done. While it kills my personal time, at least our understrength tech bench won't be under as much pressure from customers wondering why their computer is taking so long to be repaired. Granted, if they actually watched what they were doing on the web and stopped clicking those pop-up windows that says they won one million dollars (USD), they wouldn't be having problems in the first place. . . but maybe that's expecting too much. . .

Friday after work I headed down to Mark Kimbrough's newly finished lake house with Yan Yan to party with the DE gang. . . it was good seeing most of them again. We snagged a good deal of lake-dipping time. . . plus several rousing rounds of ping pong (my first time playing, no less). Good stuff, that. . .

Saturday morning was crappy, since I had to get up at an ungodly hour for a uneventful morning meeting (which everyone assumed that breakfast would be present, but it wasn't. . .), and then working for the next eight hours with no end of customers in sight. After I got off from work, I decided to spend some time with Yan Yan since she seemed to be upset about something at the end of Friday night. Instead found myself drafted to be the handyman and install the pulley system for their custom built drapes. Oh well. . . at least got to know her roommates better (to avoid awkward silences in the future) and had a nice long chat with Yan Yan about what's to come in the future. All's well that ends well. . .

The last two days at work were relatively easy, even when dealing with the two new supervisors (one for the tech bench, one for computer sales). . . both seem to be pretty competent and professional, so we'll see how things shape out in the coming weeks. Both of them promise significant results by the end of the month, so its going to be a fun ride. . .

Had lunch with Rus yesterday and we spent the afternoon playing Risk 2210. I was under the assumption that he had played before, but it wasn't until I was thoroughly kicking him off of the world map before I realized that he's played maybe once or twice of the original Risk (not 2210). Ooops on my part. . . but at least he knows what the game is like, and is better prepared for the rematch. . . On the other hand, the rebel troops that were scattered across the map in the two-player game were putting up a good fight. . . both of us took heavy losses when going up against them. . . stupid rebels. . .

On the other hand. . . Yan Yan didn't feel very immersive last night. Apparently she's mad at me now because I took some time to play while she and her roommates worked on their apartment (helped them move on the 31st right after I got off from work, was feeling ill that day but overexerted myself anyways). . . Guess I'll have to spend the rest of the day figuring out what happened there. . .

Nonetheless. . . Welcome, everyone, to the new home of RPM Freelancers Special Operations Division. There have been very little changes made other than the URL change, and that is pretty much going to be permanent from here on out. . .

Life's been busy. . . throwing curveballs at me, that is. And its the best I can do to dodge and shoot back in everyway I can. Its not fun, let me tell you. . .