Where were we?

Lots to get caught up on, as I notice that it’s been almost a week since I’ve blathered about on this here blog-like thing. I’ve been making mental notes for the past several days about things to write about, but now that I’m sitting here staring at the monitor, I either can’t remember them, or I can’t remember why I ever thought they’d be of interest to anyone else. Of course, that’s never stopped me before. And, by gosh, it won’t stop me now.

• I’m blogging via the just-released Firefox 4. Alert readers will recall that I made the switch from Firefox to Chrome a couple of weeks ago, and now I’m rethinking that decision. As is often the case with fierce competitors, Firefox has caught up with Chrome in several key areas, and while I haven’t had a chance to compare their relative speeds, FF4 seems to be much spritelier than its predecessor. Should I switch back? I don’t know. At some point, it seems to me that we decide, “hey, it’s just a browser, and good enough is good enough.” That point may be here, now.
• Debbie’s been in Denver since Sunday. She’s returning tonight on a late flight, so that meant I had yet another dinner on my own. I went back to IHOP and ordered the same thing I got Sunday night after church, the waffle bacon combo: two eggs over medium, four strips of turkey bacon, hash browns, a half waffle with strawberries on the side, warm syrup, and coffee. This is serious comfort food, but the turkey bacon eases the guilt (sort of).I like having breakfast for dinner. I also like going to IHOP at night. The one closest to us is never crowded at dinner (it’s too far from the interstate for that), so it’s relatively quiet. I try to do some people-watching, although when it’s not crowded, you have to do that surreptitiously or folks will think you’re weird, if you know what I mean.
• I was the only person in the restaurant with an iPad, as far as I could tell. I decided to do some random web surfing while I was there, and I had earlier reactivated my data plan with AT&T so I could do that. Have I recently commented on how annoying it is to deal with AT&T? I understand the need for tight security for accessing the data plan account; it prevents unauthorized charges to your credit card if you should be so stupid as to lose your non-password-protected iPad. But if they’re going to change your password, they should at least notify you when it happens, rather than making you attempt to log on multiple times before finally giving up and clicking the dread “forgot password” link, thereby confessing to incompetence that might be justified in other areas but not in this specific instance.
• We acted as dogsitters for a couple of days last week (I was going to say that we dogsat but that looks like a meteorological or astronomical reference), and it was a reminder that puppies and young dogs aren’t for the uncommitted. She’s a cute, well-trained miniature long-haired dachshund, and she was a delight to be around until 3:00 a.m. Saturday when she suddenly decided that the heart-shaped velvet candy box in the bookshelf in our bedroom was a threat of unimaginable magnitude and we needed to be apprised of it in the most vigorous and loudest ways possible. Dachshunds have remarkably piercing barks, you know. Fortunately for all of us, once the offended box was moved to the top shelf, out of sight, we were all free to breathe in relief and go back to sleep.
• In closing, I need to tell you that my return to semi-quasi-pseudo-regular blogging has also brought a return of various and sundry companies wanting to send me free stuff to review. That’s a cool perk of blogging, especially when there’s no other tangible reward for doing it (your rapt attention is really sufficient remuneration, dear reader). So, I’ll be posting a book review, courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers, as well as a review of software that’s designed to turn your typical flat and low-contrast photos into new and improved HDR versions. Stay tuned!

In case you’re wondering, none of what you just read was included in the mental inventory of what I thought I was going to write about. Some might deem this “artistic license,” but in my case, it’s just laziness.