The last couple of days have been -- weird. Last Thursday and Friday, I was forced to attend "TMS" training. I found out that I'm a "creator/innovator". And I guess since everyone on my team knows where they fit on the wheel, now we will like, be able to work in harmony, or something. Judging by my level of sarcasm about this, you can probably infer that I mostly think that it was a load.

Even more interesting, however, is that on Friday morning, my car wouldn't start. It worked just fine the night before, as evidenced by the fact that I drove over to Anjali's for some Bollywood action. But the subsequent morning -- no love. So, I walked to work (about 2.5 miles, it took me about half an hour). After work, I managed to hitch a ride back home with a co-worker. I tried starting it again, but still no dice. Google indicated that it was probably a bad starter. Anecdotally, I thought that I could have a dead battery as well, but I didn't think that was the case, because I still had power, and because I didn't leave the lights on or anything.

Well, I called a tow truck, and they guy tried to give me a jump first before doing the whole tow thing. As it turns out, that was $50 well spent, because that was my problem -- dead battery. So, I managed to scoot on over to Pep Boys in order to get a new battery installed, before having dinner with Kevin, and seeing "Mean Girls" with Kevin and Anjali. Then of course, we played hearts for 2 hours.

And this is only up to Friday. On Saturday, I looked at a lot of apartments. I think I have it narrowed down now, and I should be committal guy tomorrow. Basically, due to the combination of the fact that I am picky, and the fact that I am cheap, I could look at apartments forever. But thankfully, the process cannot go on forever, so I will know where I am living soon.

Afterwards, I drove up to Berkeley in order to have dinner with Stan, and his friend Jean. Afterwards, we were joined by Mike for some Albatross action. I will hand it to Berkeley on this one -- they have one very cool bar.

Today, I hiked to the top of Mission Peak with a bunch of IBM people (my "in" was via Kevin). That being a goodly hike, I was fairly tired afterwards, and just chilled out until it was time to meet Mike and Kevin for dinner. But then, of course, I pulled my "complete bonehead" move for the year, and simultaneously locked myself out of my car and apartment. How? By locking my fucking car keys in the trunk, as I was trying to unload a whole bunch of stuff into there.

Now, I did this right at about 5:45 PM. On a normal day, this wouldn't have been so bad -- I would have just gone to the office, gotten their spare key, gone into my apartment, gotten my spare car key, and ka-blam! Problem solved.

But did it work that way today? Oh hell now. As it turns out, the office closed early -- and by early, I mean that they closed yesterday, and will open again tomorrow. So, I had to page the maintenance guy in order to get the key. I think I'll be paying my apartment $40 tomorrow when I return the spare key.

sigh

I think that I need a keeper. Or at least, a keeper robot.

-Andy.