new 'pooter review & specs

But first: every so often I have to wear 5" heels to remind myself why I only wear 5" heels every so often.

The new 'pooter is here, and it's everything I'd hoped for. The only real glitch in the various installations was that I have a PS/2 keyboard, and this box has only USB ports, which an $20 widget takes care of. (Good thing the company store isn't open weekends, or I might have bought another keyboard when I biked down there.) The specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.66 GHz
1.33 GHz FSB
4 GB RAM @ 667 MHz
300 GB HD
ATI Radeon 2400 video
32-bit Vista SP1

Finally, a twenty-first century machine in the Abbey office. Its response time makes me weep for joy. I can't believe Nibs hasn't tried it yet, but I think she's in for a much-needed treat.

growing some brain cells in the Wendling

My current employer sure knows how to do a humongous employee picnic: tens of thousands of us bused into North Bend. Amid the gorgeous mountain scenery, m'boy played miniature golf for the first time and a bit of ring-the-alien before the heat got to him.

Speaking of the Wendling, at some point he picked up the strange notion that Native Americans live as they did two or three hundred years ago. (Maybe I picked it up too when I was a kid, but I lost it long enough ago that I don't remember doing so.) So, I took him to the Seafair Powwow to give him a clue or two. We weren't there for long so we didn't get to see any of the fancy dancing, but at least he got to see North America's aboriginal people beating drums, singing, selling stuff in booths, drinking Gatorade, and holding microphone booms.

Yay: ran into PiBs at the powwow. Bah: was en butch, which is only slightly less awkward than being naked sometimes.