my postal karma is out of balance again. i sent a package to a friend for her birthday. just some goofy kid toys - animals that grow in water (no! not that kind. the foam ones in little capsules), sparkly hair things, a tiny keychain version of perfection (perfection on a keychain - how'd they do that?)...a bunch of stuff. it fit into an 9"ish by 12"ish priority mail envelope. when it arrived it was in a plastic bag with a big notice that it was damaged in shipping. she said it looked like a truck ran over it. thankfully, the contents were still intact. i sent two more packages out today - another birthday present and some cads...i hope they make it. with all the postal hoopla (the postal service has no luck - first going postal, now this) i hope my postal karma gets better soon. so everyone send good mail (and good male, for that matter) vibes this way.

my mouse has become geriatric. it's growing gray hairs and it limps feebly across the mousepad. it was time to send it to the mouse nursing home - it's rollerball was malfunctioning and it needed a cane to get around.

so i took a trip to geek heaven - fry's electronics - for a replacement model. i was surprised at how many people, er, men, were there on a weekday afternoon, drooling over computers, home stereo systems and media centers. the home appliance department was eerily empty. none of them were there to buy vacuums, i guess.

ended up with a sleek new model - one that doesn't even move. well, it's not even a mouse, it's a trackball. my dad was developing carpal tunnel, and the doctor advised that he get a trackball. i tried his out last time i was home and liked it. he has only been using a computer on a day to day basis for 15 years...i will likely be using one for many more years than that (unless, of course, they develop another navigation tool. which may be quite likely. but i digress). added to the fact that climbing is murderous on your fingers and wrists (i will likely have arthritis by 30), i decided it would be a good purchase. i like it. and by spinning the ball you can make the cursor move REALLY fast. oh, the things that excite me.

it doesn't sound like these air raids are stopping anytime soon. i only hope we stop them before we turn our middle eastern allies against us. and now (duh!) they say they may never get bin laden. took 'em long enough to figure that out. didn't they look at a topographical map before they started this whole thing? hello? big mountains. tunnels. remote terrain. it's not like they are looking for a man in the middle of a barren desert. aren't we happy for bush's amazing intellect? argh.

i wish i were as eloquent as ron. another sweet story.