Now I just have to wait for the slow, grinding wheels of bureaucracy to send me my passport. Wheee.

I was ahead of the curve this morning. I got to bed by 1:00 AM (Don’t laugh - I could have kept going until 5:00 and still not have finished everything.) I was washed, alert, and ready go. I was even up for exchanging full sentences with Bill before I left. (I’m a not-a-morning-person of the grunting variety).

It was a bloody beautiful early spring morning. I was caffinated, wearing a top that was *not* a sweater, and ready to hit the day running. I didn’t even have to go out early to warm up the car.

I get to the car, pop my key in the lock…. and come back with half a key.

Half. A. Key.

Y’know that sound Doc Brown made in Back to the Future when he saw the power cord was unplugged and hung up on a tree branch? Something sorta like that came out of my mouth. Then the hyperventilating started. I had visions of getting all the locks and the ignition replaced, at great cost. I had visions of trotting down to the used car lot, cashier’s check in hand. I walked back into the apartment holding the two key bits.

Thank god for Bill. He calmed me down, called a locksmith, and cheered me up while he got ready for work. He left for work, I had a coffee and chilled out waiting for the locksmith.

The locksmith showed up, (in jig time) and worked sundry miracles on the key bits and locks, and now I have a brand new functional key, four spares, and everything is working *better* than it did before. And i’m out less than $100. Considering that he had to disassemble one of the doors and pull the lock to make a new key, I was expecting the bill to be higher.

So if you’re in lower Bergen County and need a locksmith? Danny’s Lock Service. That’s the moral of the story. Oh, and always have a spare key.

For the webdev folks in the audience
It’s still in alpha right now, but when this amazing bit of a hack is finished, it’s gonna *rock*.

• No, you cannot get an accurate color proof by looking at an the picture on your screen.
• No, we still don’t do production proofs.
• Yes, you really do need to supply us with a PMS color if you want to match a color exactly.
• No, I cannot send you a PMS swatch book. (Do you have any idea how much they cost?)
• If it takes longer than five minutes for me to explain what a PMS color is, you’ll have to figure it out on your own.
• No, I will not “use my own judgement” and pick a color for you. (Unless you are actually in the showroom and we are *both* looking at the swatch book.)
• I don’t care if you don’t think you need to see a proof - you will still get one and I won’t send your job to the printer until I get it returned to me with a signature.
• No, I will not make a one time exception to the color choice or proof policies. Every time I do that it bites me in the butt.
• I’m sorry our sales staff didn’t explain the color, proof, or file requirements to you in enough detail. I’m working on educating them. (it’s a work in progress.)
• Our file requirements are spelled out in detail on the website. They are on the same page you used to upload the files. So, the part that says we don’t accept MS word files AT ALL? Applies to you too.
• Sending me the wrong file three times in a row will, in fact, delay your job getting to press. I do apologize for this. Sending me the correct file the first time will avoid this problem in the future.

I have an urge to come into work with a T-shirt reading “I am a graphics professional. Do not attempt this at home.”

Later on the agenda, digitizing some of my old tapes. I’m starting with the faire music (half the bands no longer even *exist* now) and my much larger than I remember it Clannad collection. When I get truly bored I’ll dive into the filk and showtunes.

I’m not normally into beauty shots of cars, but this? Is quite the pretty. But I still want a hybrid car. Y’know, when I finish paying off my student loans and can actually *afford* a new car.