As mentioned, the whole time I was in Chicago my laptop battery wouldn’t hold a charge. When I got back to work on Monday I mentioned it to a co-worker, and we decided to toss his laptop battery into my machine. The machine began charging it, so we knew it was a bad battery. I put the bad battery back into my machine, and ordered a new one. At the end of the day I looked at the machine, and it had recharged the battery. What in the world? So now it’s working fine (when I don’t really need it to).

I also discovered that my MP3 player will not recharge the batteries. I’ve been messing with ever since I got back from Chicago and it simply won’t work. I broke down last night and bought a new battery for it on eBay last night. I checked it today and what do you know … it’s charging. I really shouldn’t be allowed to touch electronics — except it’s my job.

Let’s see, other tidbits …

– My cousin Samantha had her baby yesterday, so congrats to her and hers. Baby Bradley was 9lbs, 5oz.

– This morning I got a late start to my walk and instead of walking between 5:30am and 6:30am, I walked around 7am. Before 6:30am, the neighborhood is fairly dark and quiet. After 7am, it’s filled with old people walking dogs and dying to talk to you about the weather. Remind me to get up earlier (or use the treadmill) if I’m going to keep walking in the mornings.

– Speaking of walking, the neighborhood animals have gotten used to me. The normal dogs have quit when I walk by, and cats now join me for a few yard lengths instead of hissing and running away. Even the white trash neighbor’s white trash dog only half-heartedly yaps when I pass by.

– Yesterday I got stuck in traffic behind a lady who was talking on her cell phone and sat stopped at a GREEN lights for about 15 seconds. I finally honked, and you would have thought I had just run over her cat. The lady rolled down her window, waved her fist in the air and screamed at the top of her lungs. I can only imagine what the person she was talking to was thinking. At the next light the lady was still screaming at me and I was just laughing at the whole thing. I guess it was really funny to me because on the right day, that lady could have been me. Anyway I finally leaned over and shouted, “Lady, you need a hug!” My friendly offer was met with a middle finger as she turned, no doubt in a rush to get home and beat her children some more.

– Susan and I ate at Golden Corral yesterday for lunch. It’s amazing how untempted I was by anything bad. Piles of mac ‘n cheese and pasta just don’t really seem worth it at this point. We both had a big plate of salad followed by some pretty decent choices (I had a pile of chicken fajita meat, without the tortillas). We even passed on the rolls. When we left I told Susan that while I felt full, I’m not sure I felt satisfied. I wonder if those two things were ever really meant to be related.