A recap

A synopsis of what's been going on the past few days in my not-terribly-exciting life:

We had an ice storm in Duluth that encased my car in several centimeters of ice. For what felt like the umpteenth time lately, I had to rely on a co-worker to get me to work. The driver's side of the car was frozen solid. I could get in on the passenger side but couldn't see out of the car at all. In the middle of trying to scrape the ice off the back windshield, my ice scraper snapped in half.
If you've never experienced an ice storm, it's difficult to describe just how bizarre it is. The first time I saw one was in college, and I found myself somewhat bewildered after I slipped and fell on my butt -- while walking on mulch. Everything gets coated in ice -- my car antenna, for example, became a rod of ice; flags became anchors that dragged down the ropes they were on; power cords and trees dip or fall; everything just gets this coating of ice on it. So despite all the major problems that ice storms cause, I've always found them kind of intriguing.
But after spending an hour chipping my car out of its icy shell Friday, I have been cured of this fascination. Thank you, Mother Nature.

Because of the ice, we had a couple of power hiccups at my apartment. I think one of these screwed up my cable modem because I hadn't been able to get online since Thursday. I spent an hour on the phone with my cable company yesterday trying to get it fixed, with the other guy saying things like, "Huh. That's weird" and "Gee, I don't know why it's doing that. I've never seen that before." All things you really want to hear from an IT person. But after trying a bunch of different things, we finally got it up and running. Then, after I hung up, I realized my router was also screwed up.
I finally fixed that this afternoon on my own and have, once again, joined the online world.

I spent most of New Year's Eve at work and got a great deal of enjoyment out of watching our local celebration held at the DECC, which is broadcast live on one of the local news channels. They do this every year -- the anchors dress up like they're going to prom and make inane conversation and harass party-goers into answering questions like, "How long did it take you to get ready tonight?" and "What's the best part of this party?" Last year, I saw one of the TV people interviewing her own family. I feel sorry for them because I don't envy trying to fill air time on live TV, especially at what appears to be the nation's most boring New Year's Eve party, but they do this every year, so you'd think they'd have a better feel for it by now. And nothing can excuse the greatest TV moment of 2004, which happened last night when one of the news guys said to a woman he was interviewing: "It looks like you've been to the buffet tonight." (No, she was not holding food at the time.)

After this must-retch TV, I headed to the McAwesome household to play a too-long game of Trivial Pursuit with a bunch of friends and to play video games until 5 in the morning. A perfect start to the new year.

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions because I figure that the other 364 days of the year are just as good a time to make a new start or resolve to do better, but this year, I'll make a couple that I figure should be pretty easy to keep:
1) Find a new job.
2) Play more video games.

Happy New Year, gang.