I saw Mike off to the airport yesterday, after a nice spot of tea with his sister and a nice lunch at J.D. China. It's sad to see him go again, but it brings a warm spot in my heart to know that he's right where he needs to be right now, even if it's very far from an awful lot of his friends and family. What's really cool, is that Kara and Philip had their baby, so he got to see her before he left.

And of course, congrats to Kara and Philip. Valarie is so super cute.

In other news, if you never saw Garden State, you're a fool. Go rent it. And then listen to the soundtrack. The songs by the Shins are very cool, in particular.

I took Max (Maximilian Constantine the Destroyer), our new cat, in to get fixed today. He's pissed off, but seems to be bearing the loss of his testicles rather well, all things considered. To be honest, I don't think he's noticed it yet.

While Mike was here, we rediscovered Birth of the Federation. It's this old game that's essentially a Masters of Orion II clone in Star Trek drag. It's got it's flaws, but there's something immeasurably cool about conquering the galaxy as the Romulans, or the Klingons. Great fun for geeks.

My vacation is going great. Lots of sleep. Working on my D&D campaign. Going to do some circuit bending tomorrow. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are for my record collection.