it’s been a rough week at work this week. it started off pretty crazy with all sorts of technical things going wrong. as the week progressed, things just don’t seem to be getting any better. in fact, if anything, it feels like the weight of the week has been pressing down on me.

i think that i need a break. i need some vacation time. it’s been too long and though i don’t feel like i’m burnt out, i certainly do feel like i need a break from this. what i have been doing to try to get my mind off work is to all sorts of stuff that has been on the back burner for ages.

we got new silverware. i know. it’s only been a year since we moved into the house, but we just finally got a new set of silverware. i haven’t been allowed to get new silverware from ikea to complete the rapidly depleting set i already had because christi wanted nice silverware. and sure, we’re old enough where we can have silverware that costs more than 10 cents a piece, i guess. i can’t find a picture of it online anywhere, though, but they are longer than usual pieces of flatware with a weird curve in the handle.

i STILL haven’t installed our closet system. i bought a prybar the other week so really all i need to do is tear down the old and install the new. i will get around to it, i really will.

but i DID buy an electric string trimmer. i’ve never used one before, but i was looking at our neighbor’s finely manicured lawn and was wondering what it was that was different from my lawn and theirs. and it was the edging. they have their lawn nicely edged. since we have SO MUCH money leftover from lowe’s gift cards, i decided to go splurge and buy a trimmer. it turns out that they aren’t really all that expensive, but they are LOADS of fun to use.

why, hello there, weed. have you met the fury of my string trimmer? let me introduce you two. i also edged the lawn and some of the flowers on the walkway. it does look like i’m going to have to learn how to use this a bit better, as my trimming was a little crooked and curvy, but still, grass grows fast, it’ll be fine.

after eating at the same place a zillion times, today, i tried out a new place for lunch in cupertino. the place is called arya and it is billed as a persian/italian/american food restaurant.

…a what?! that’s what i thought when i first read what kind of restaurant this was. yes, it does feature persian food. yes, it also features italian food. and i guess there is some stuff that’s considered american food too. it’s a WEIRD combo, but the food was actually pretty good and the decor is quite nice. a little pricey for lunch, but still good food and a nice change of pace.

for the very first time in my life, i set a 5-1 in volleyball. usually, there are at least two setters per team on the court. each setter will set for 3 rotations and then they will switch from being a setter to a normal player. when i was first approached to be a setter a few years ago on my monday team, i was terrified because i had never set before. my sets were ugly, it felt like i was slapping the ball instead of setting it.

time went by and i got better. i had a good teacher to start off with, the other setter on my team really helped me learn the fundamentals. i went to a clinic and that really helped correct some of the really bad habits that i had back in the day. i started to play as a setter and gradually started to gain confidence.

but still that experience did not prepare me for subbing last night. i thought that i was a decent setter before, but after looking at the setting in that gym last night, i think i’m a crappy setter. every set was BEAUTIFUL. every set was spot on. it’s crazy. it was then that i realized that i was out of my league. and then on top of that i was the only setter for the team…

it was a fun night, though. a little tough, but fun.

in the latest episode of how i met your mother, it was revealed to ted that barney, his best friend, slept with his ex and current friend robin. ted, furious after hearing the news that his (best) friend barney slept with his ex, screams at him for breaking one of the cardinal bro rules: do not sleep with your bro’s ex. of all of the women on the planet, barney chooses to sleep with his best friend’s ex with whom he’s had a serious relationship with for a year.

that begs the question, does the length of time matter if you want to date one of your friend’s exes? or is it that when your friend dates someone, that person is forever off-limits? i think that how serious the relationship is makes a big difference as well as how long ago the relationship was. if we are talking about any relationships that date back to when you were little kids, i think that there’s more leeway. but i think once you get to high school-ish relationships, it can get more tricky. there are tons of high school sweethearts that end up getting married…or at least seem like it.

but i think the seriousness of the relationship makes a big difference. the more serious the relationship is, the more i think you should definitely back off. but if your friend went out on a couple of dates with the person and it didn’t work out, then i think there’s less of a commitment and it’s fine.

the biggest question to ask is whether or not you think that your friendship is going to be impacted by your actions and what you value more: the friendship or the chance at whatever it is with the other person. i think it’s important to talk to the person, first and foremost, if you are thinking about dating your friend’s ex and get a feel for what they think. i’ve had friends talk to me and ask me how i felt about them dating an ex of mine. generally in the past, i have been ok with it, mostly because i know that my relationship with the ex had ran its course. it turned out that nothing ever came out of it and i don’t know how i would have really felt if they did start dating and started hanging out with our core group of friends.

i would say that i’m on mostly friendly/cordial terms with most of my exes if we bump into each other, but i don’t keep in contact with most of them. sure, there are some who i don’t want to have any contact with and there are some that i wished we’d keep in touch more, but i wonder what it would be like if a friend started dating an ex of mine and they would start to run in the same circles again.

the single greatest feature of firefox is its add-ons. the wealth of third party developers who have added so much to the browsing experience makes firefox not only a web browser, but a wonderful experience and interaction with the web.

safari is most notably marketed as the fastest browser for the mac. and it’s true, safari’s rendering engine is pretty fast. you get to see the page loaded up faster than most browsers on the market. as a mac os x user, it’s hard not to drink from the apple kool-aid. yes, mac os x has a beautiful user interface, but just because software comes from apple doesn’t mean that it is the best of breed. it’s usually the case, but not always.

opera is a pretty speedy browser too, i’ve only used it under windows and it does also seem to have a reasonably speedy experience.

internet explorer is my least favorite browser of the major browsers. the newest IE’s user interface is supposed to make it easier to use, i’d imagine, but i find that it’s harder for me to use than easier. it just feels incomplete.

so firefox may not have the fastest rendering engine or the fastest javascript engine, but what it does have are add-ons. the mix of add-ons that i use completely transform the web experience for me and i have not been able to use a different browser that gives me a similar experience. i’m reluctant to use firefox 3 because it is still in beta, but it looks like some of my favorite features of firefox 2 w/ add-ons might natively be dealt with in the new firefox.

absolute must have add-ons for general firefox use:
adblock plus
adblock filterset.g updater
auto copy
colorful tabs
customizegoogle
del.icio.us bookmarks
fasterfox
foxylicious
linkification
long titles
pdf download
piclens
tab mix plus

additional add-ons for developers:
add n edit cookies
console²
image zoom
live http headers
measureit
show ip
tamper data
user agent switcher
web developer
wmlbrowser

i don’t know why i love this show so much. it’s about a bunch of alaskan crab fishermen and fishing for crab on the bering sea. it seems like it wouldn’t be that exciting, but week after week, season after season i keep tuning in. it’s a great show.

i think part of the drama is just seeing the greenhorns adjust, the struggles that the captains have managing their boats, and the great unknown of the sea. will there be crab? what will it be like? it’s interesting just to see what kind of life these men go through to make a living.

spoiler alert. don’t read if you don’t want to know.

let me just start by saying: NO FREAKING WAY!

clearly america is voting with talent not on the top of the list! i cannot believe that jason AND brooke were safe! i think brooke was as surprised as the rest of us were. that’s great for me because i really like her, but my jaw dropped when i found out that brooke was safe and syesha was safe! that’s ridiculous.

if i had to choose between syesha or carly, though, i definitely would have saved carly. you have to start looking at who can really be an american idol and i don’t think that david archuleta is your man. he is just a little kid with a good voice. give it some time, but he’s no idol. david cook is the man that i have pegged to win it. syesha’s got the look. what will america do next?

at least they are all talented in their own way.

i am going to try to avoid the internet like a thief in hiding today. i haven’t seen the american idol results show yet and i don’t want to know who got kicked off yet. it must have been a little part of me that knows that brooke probably got voted off last night. after forgetting the words at this stage of the competition, there’s really no excuse.

so maybe it was an unconscious desire to not have to deal with her leaving that made me not watch the show last night. i don’t know, but i’m going to go watch the episode soon and i’m not hopeful.

there’s a big volleyball tournament (well, it used to be enormous, but it seems like it is getting smaller and smaller every year) in vegas this weekend. it’s been tradition to go to the volleyball tournament, play some games, and then have some fun while at vegas.

the funny thing is that i thought the tournament was months away and so there’s been a lot of chatter about where to stay and i was just thinking to myself that these people i’m playing with are crazy. it’s months away, we don’t need to worry! it turns out that it is this weekend and until last week, we had no place to stay while we were there!

that just goes to show you that my memory is still bad as ever.

still, i’m looking forward to vegas. i need to go find my throwaway camera. i wonder where i put that thing…i haven’t seen it in months…i hope i didn’t really throw it away.

after getting lunch yesterday i was approached by a young guy probably in his late teens to early 20s. now, mind you, we’re in a parking lot of a restaurant and he’s trolling around and approaches me.

him: hi, do you like to smell good?
me: (freaking out a little that this was the start of a bad pick-up line) …
him: (whipping out a box of something or another) because if you do, wouldn’t you like to smell good with some cologne?
me: (relieved that he isn’t picking up on me) uh, no thanks.
him: how come? you don’t want to smell good?
me: not really.
him: everybody wants to smell good! don’t you want to get with the ladies?
me: i’m married.
him: don’t you want to get with the lady?
me: haha, no thanks.
him: alright, man, have a good one.

i know that back in the day there were door to door salesmen. i’m sure that kids have fundraisers and they sell cookies or chocolates or candy or something, but cologne?? man, what a weird world we live in.