This is Hi-Fi

In an episode of Sex and the City, Charlotte desperately wants to get away from a bad date. So she says, "Let me call my friend and make sure nothing terrible happened." She calls Carrie, and says "Oh my god! Something terrible happened?" Then gets up and leaves. I guess this is the easier version of this functionality:

Cingular Wireless Can Now Help You 'Escape-A-Date'

The latest round of my online dating adventures twists in a slightly different direction. I was working on a candidate for maybe a month or two, where we could never sync up. We played phone and email tag off and on for a bit. I drop her a line asking how her birthday was, and she gives me some details about how it was great. I respond with a note saying, maybe we could get together the next week for drinks or coffee or something.

The next day, I get a phone call inviting me to come out downtown. Sounds promising, right? I head downtown on First Thursday, fighting the mobs and traffic. It's a pain to find parking. It's hot. It's humid. I finally reach my destination and we meet. Her pictures are more or less accurate and she's pretty cute. She's pretty easy to talk to, and we chat for a couple minutes. Then she tells me that she started dating someone a couple weeks ago? WTF? What just happened? Why the hell did you call me? It's one thing to say, "I'm in a relationship, but maybe we can hang out sometime." It's another not to mention it until 10 minutes later.

How could "regular" dating possibly be worse than this?

Well, I made it to California. Thanks to AA, my flight was delayed by about 2 hours, but it's all good. I haven't done much except hang out with my hostess to the mostest and go to work, but more fun should start tonight. I'm meeting up with NS, an old friend from grad school. (To the peanut gallery, I said friend!) I can't believe it's been over 5 years since we've seen each other. I haven't seen too many of the local sights yet, but I'm sure I'll have more to say later.

My first CA power outage! Still had hot water and whatnot and I was at work by 8:30AM, so no real harm. I see my honey tonight. It should be a great day.

Saw the Chicks With Attitude at the Fillmore in SF, last night. Major disappointment. Posted the following on the forums:

So let me preface this post with a little bit of background information.
1) This was the 4th time I saw Liz in concert in 13 months, so I have a pretty good idea of how she should sound in a live venue.
2) I go to concerts all the time
3) I've never been to the Fillmore before, since I live in Austin, TX.

All in all, it wasn't a complete loss as the Cardigans were fantastic, as was Charlotte Martin. However, quite disappointing since I flew in to SF from Texas. I hope they get their act together on the rest of the tour.

This U of M study links movie types with chemical responses in the viewers. Just goes to show that your significant other may have a valid reason for wanting to watch that mushy chick flick or Full Metal Jacket.

It ocurred to me that I've made a lot of touchy-feely friends over the past 2 years or so. And when I say touchy-feely, I mean literally touchy-feely. The kind where you give each other a big hug every time you see each other, put your arm around their shoulder, etc. I have no romantic interest in any one of these people, and I'm 99.99% sure that they have none in me. As an example, my friend's SO spent 20 minutes giving me a back massage the other day to help work some knots out. While I greatly appreciated it, it didn't even occur to me that outsiders might view this as inappropriate. I doubt my friend or her SO thought it was either (I'm pretty sure he would tell me). It makes me wonder if I've lost track of standard acceptable personal boundaries. We're not talking about any kind of PDA or holding hands. I'm talking about totally innocent physical contact. Have I become more touchy-feely than normal? Or am I normal, and other people are less touchy-feely than me?

Maybe I need to try and be more conscious of my conservative friends in the future...

I made it home last night. For reasons that nobody (and I mean nobody) could guess, this turned into the worst vacation ever. More details later...

So the mystery problem with my vacation is that I came home to approximately 25-35 gallons of water that had flooded my kitchen. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what happened, but the likely culprit is a problem with my newly installed RO/DI filter. While I had it all checked out before I left and it had went 2-3 days without leaking, it looks like it wasn't as foolproof as I though. Thankfully, I've got a wet/dry vac and a mop, so it didn't take that long to clean up, but I was really hoping for a less eventful homecoming...

9000 RPM is so wrong, it's right. =)

I had an IM conversation with Mom last night, where I got hassled for still owning my 91 Camry. It's got < 120K miles on it, so it's still in good shape. For a daily driver that gets all the boring daily commute miles, it's still fine. However, it is almost 14 years old, and lacks most modern safety features such as ABS and Airbags.

What should I replace it with? Here are my requirements (in order):
1) Have to be able to afford it - Under $40K (preferably under $25K, but budget isn't solidified)
2) Seats 4 - Doesn't have to be a sedan, but that's preferred
3) Safe - doesn't need to be a tank, but I don't want a Pinto
4) Reliable - gotta be a daily driver that I can count on
5) Style - I'm not driving a minivan or a Yugo
6) Fuel Economy - Gets at least 20MPG, preferably 30MPG (don't like financing the Saudis)
7) Performance - I've already got the fun car, but I don't want something that handles like a shopping cart.

The list is all over the place, but here it is (in alpha order):
Acura TL
Acura TSX
BMW 3-series (unlikely though)
Infiniti G35
Lexus IS300
Lotus Elise
Mazda 6
Subaru WRX (I don't really like the looks and unavailability of leather)
Toyota Pickup Truck?
Volvo S40
Volvo S60 (AWD is too expensive though)

OK, the Lotus isn't really on the list, but one can dream.

Help! Alternative suggestions appreciated!

My mentor back from when I was just a budding audiophile got a new set of wheels, and wanted to swing by to show it off. I also needed his assistance with something on the aquarium project, so who was I to argue? With a quick dinner and 1.5 hours of racquetball, I could have called it a night. However, I was determined to meet my goal.

Around 10PM, I started making some spaghetti. I didn't say I cooked some spaghetti, or boiled some spaghetti. I made some spaghetti. Thanks to the sibling unit, I now own my very own pasta maker (which doubles as a sausage maker for some reason). The pasta was fabulous, and the peasants rejoiced.

P.S. Mmm... Sambuca...

I scored 75% on The Gaydar Test, which is apparently better than 72% of all test takers. Maybe I do have the sixth sense...