--343 days.

--We're off to Milwaukee...have fun at Chocolate Fest, those of you going. At least we'll all be in the same state! :)

--I now have an i-Pod. I'm pretty psyched about that.

--344 days (Ha! Finally, an even number!)

--I picked up the new Audioslave album the other day and have listened to it over and over for a bit now. I have to say, it's certainly a solid album. But, it's a bit disappointing. I can't completely rock out to it like I could the first album. There's no "Show Me How to Live" caliber song by any stretch of the imagination, and the most disappointing thing about the album is that most of the songs, other than the two songs that I really do like, "Doesn't Remind Me" and "The Curse," are tainted by a Rage-esque, screaming, out of tempo, spastic guitar solo in the middle. The guitar seems out of place and just weird. A few songs on the debut album had this, but it was more in tune and in tempo with the song, typically speaking. In these particular songs, the solos seem like they're just guitar tourette's. Thankfully, Chris Cornell's lyrics and vocals remain as good as ever, which is the main reason I like the music.

--I also saw the Nine Inch Nails album, but did not get it yet. I will pick it up next week, probably. Can't wait for the Foo Fighters' new double album in June.

--I've got a slew of phone calls to make...Luis' birthday is today, and I haven't talked to him in forever. I also have to call Gerard to see, one day in advance, if he can watch Kazak for the weekend. Among all the work I have to do, of course. Fun, fun, fun!

--345 days.

--Lost in softball today, but it's been very different from every other team I've ever played on. We still had fun...at least I did and I know several others did. It was a relatively close game too, but still fun and not a lot of pressure. That's cool.

--The White Sox keep winning. The fan in me loves it. The skeptical Chicago sports fan hates it. Yet, Laz is still putting $20 down on the White Sox to win it all this year (maybe more, I haven't decided ;) ). Hell, it's worthwhile, I guess. Gives me more to root for and get pissed about if things don't work out. :)

--The nice thing about this trip to Milwaukee this weekend is that we'll get a $100 gift certificate for future use at a Marriott hotel. Can you say, "Summer San Fran trip?" I can, and I KNOW Gina can. So we'll see. :) I think if I book that soon enough too, I'll get another gift certificate for THAT stay. Woohoo! Go travel deals! :)

--Aside from that, not much else is new at the moment. Work is busy, busy, busy, but that's good. So yeah...

--347 days (boy, I'm slacking...but still an odd-numbered day).

--We went and bought a nice all-purpose printer this weekend, given that Gina's mom wanted to buy it for her for her birthday (in January), and now she actually could use a good inkjet printer for her job search. I printed out a photo, and it's pretty damned good. Let's hope it prints that way always. :) It's nice to have the ability to just print one photo whenever the hell you want, even though I've been told that financially, after all is said and done, these printers aren't worth it. But I like having the flexibility, and we needed a better printer anyway.

--Work is going to get mighty, mighty busy this month. It's our biggest mag of the year, and it should be relatively nuts. :) Thankfully, I'm taking that mini vacation this weekend...

--Otherwise, not much else is new...since few of you really care about my gardening exploits, I'll just say that I installed and filled my windowboxes on my balcony this weekend as well. Oh joy of joys, right?