I see that you keep calling.

I don't answer my phone if I don't know who you are.

Sometimes I don't answer even if I DO know who you are.

Give up or find some other way to contact me.

Last week I went to Omaha.

Despite what my family and some people at work were thinking, the trip had nothing to do with my ex-wife. Nor were there any job interviews involved.

I went up there just to visit people I hadn't seen in years.

Well, I did have one specific reason for going. I need to keep that one a secret from this public forum.

It was very nice to see some of the people from the old days. I wish I could have seen more of them, but a lot of my old friends are/were in the Air Force and have moved on. Also the old Shanty bar burned down (Sad!) and the regulars from there seem to have all disappeared.

I did get to see a lot of my old roommate Mike and on Thursday I was pleasantly surprised to see Awesome Larry.

On Saturday night I managed to - well never mind.

One thing about this trip that I wasn't too happy about. I couldn't really give anyone much advance warning. I certainly couldn't post anything here about the trip before it happened. I don't know who reads this thing, and there's at least one person in the Omaha area that I absolutely didn't want to see.

I was actually pretty paranoid a couple of times that said person would show up at the hotel or at the bar. This would have certainly made me very unhappy, and may have even caused a nervous breakdown or something. What a pussy I am.

As it turned out the trip was worth it. It was not nearly as rejuvenating as my Seattle trip was last Fall. How could it be? Most of my friends from Omaha are gone. My 8-ball game sucks. The Shanty is gone.

I could list more problems with the trip, but I don't want to make it seem that I didn't enjoy myself.

Omaha is still, as I tell people frequently, The Best-Kept Secret in the United States. Just the right size, all kinds of restaurants, a great zoo, little traffic, blah blah blah.

I hope it doesn't take me another five years to visit there again.

I've been out of town and am behind on several posts.

Maybe I'll catch up, and maybe I won't bother.

This morning I found myself at a very cool brewpub/restaurant in Omaha.

The Upstream Brewery is one I haven't even heard of before. It turns out that they don't sell outside of the Omaha area and they weren't there a decade ago when I lived there.

Anyway, this was a really nice place, and I wish there was something like it in Louisville.

My first beer was their Dundee 90 Shilling Scotch Ale. This was my first scotch ale, and I guess it was a little blander than I expected. I did really like it though. Before I left I talked to one of the brewers who told me that this particular batch was indeed a little bland and the next batch would be more flavorful.

My next beer was their Firehouse ESB. This was another really good beer, and I don't even like ESBs that much generally.

Since it was still before noon and I hadn't even had lunch yet I decided that two semi-strong beers would be enough.

Tjsssj dli kst dif!!

Euvidet kust kness endmi drosta dpo ela fea, elev inmi ibony ficui
ketentic fidn mbe fibidnef obbatok ocl fec refeni.

Tajtu, iti mospod anonrad sum!

Okay, so Amy, who I think may have the best voice on the show, has been eliminated. WTF?

I suppose that those people who would normally be her fans have been split - the quirky fans have gone to Fantasia and the redhead fans have gone to Eraserhead.

For LaToya to also be in the bottom three must be a fluke. She did great last night, and I guess her fans figured she was safe and so they threw their votes somewhere else - maybe to Jennifer.

Tonight was Motown night, so there was some of the best music - and some of the worst.

My rankings for the performers:

Camille: I thought this was her best yet, though her voice was a little to quiet and her "dancing" was very distracting - and not in a good way. (60 points)

JPL: The perfect song for him, and the most I've ever enjoyed him. (65 points)

LaToya: I figured she'd shine tonight and she certainly did. I think she may have been born 40 years too late. The best of the night.(85 points)

Amy: I took 20 points off for that horrible song choice, and another 10 points because that last note sounded like she'd stepped on a cat. Her worst (and only bad) performance. (50 points)

John: Sucks. He moved away from his Dean Martin style and proved once and for all that he just cannot sing. (minus 652 points)

Jennifer: The song "Heat Wave" was killed for all of eternity by Kim Locke last season, and Jennifer did little to revive it. (30 points)

Jasmine: I was rooting for Jasmine, and she delivered. I think the background vocals were too loud in this arrangement since they tended to drown out some of Jasmine's softer vocals. In tonight's top 3. (80 points)

Diana: She sings way beyond her years. Her voice was just not that suited for her song choice. She acts like a robot too. (75 points)

Fantasia: I knew she'd sing this song. It was perfect for her and she sang the hell out of it. She was definitely born 40 years too late. The second-best of the night. (84 points)

George: Good song, bad singer. I don't understand why the judges all wet their underwear when George sings. (55 points)

I really hope that John gets the boot, but I'm afraid that his fans will vote for him in mass because they sense that he did poorly. I fear that Camille's fans may give up on her and she'll be the one to leave.

I found out today that my refinance loan was approved!

The funny thing is; I was quite worried that the appraisal I had to have done would reflect a lower value for my house because of the repairs that were needed. What actually happened is that my home's value went UP 25% in the four years since I bought it.

I'm getting a new mortgage, with the same payments as before, the payments end at the same time as before, and I'm able get some money for some much-needed repairs and redecorations.

I'd guess that I've ordered about a gazillion pizzas over the past twenty years.

My ex-wife worked at a couple of pizza places. I've often been too lazy to cook anything after work. I like pizza. Etc.

Tonight, after all those years and all those pizzas, I experienced a first.

My pizza wasn't cut. There were no slices. There were no sqaures. There was just a big circle.

I called Domino's and suggested to the manager that perhaps they were working just a little too fast.

The pizza ended up being inedible - even after I cut it into slices. The grease and stuff had no escape route because there were no slices. All that grease just soaked into the crust and made it a soggy mess. Yuck.

Every now and then I notice that the counters on some of my pages have become hosed, and I have hit them with a hammer to get them working again.

Perhaps I should start working on a more robust counter script.