Well, let’s take it day-by-day shall we?

Friday
The work day, if one could call it that, went pretty okay and without much fanfare. It was supposed to be a quiet night in and Robin and I just hanging around. However, that quickly changed with Markus, Marisel, and Max (“M-cubed”) called and wanted to go out. At first I was going to stay in all night, and I had convinced myself of that notion until about 01.00 when I decided that I had been good all weekend along and deserved a treat. The treat of partying. And to make it even better…Anders, whom I rarely speak to but would like to see more often, was out with his girlfriend and I wanted to meet them for drinks to. So we all met up at Göta Källere. It was a relatively ok time there, followed by some partying at Berns and then an after-party at Marisel’s place. Got home around 08.00. Not bad, but I was devastated the next day.

Saturday
The general exhaustion and malaise continued, and I was pretty much down for the count for the entire day. I woke up at about 14.30 to make a mad dash to the Systembolaget (the state-owned liquor monopoly) before it’s 15.00 closing. Made it in just before they locked the doors. Did some minor re-stocking of champagne and vodka (btw, if you have seen my 1996 reserve bottles of Bollinger or Veuve Cliquot let me know…the Dom Perignon is nice and safe… :), and Robin made ceasar salad for dinner, and the dressing — which was fantastic — was made by hand. We sat around for a little while and decided to clean the apartment to have a pre-party. We vacuumed and dusted and mopped everywhere. Only to find out that everyone is out of town or unavailable, so we cleaned but no party. Which was good because the flat needed cleaning anyway. Somewhere between lying on the couch and reading up on my CISSP studies, I fell asleep and refused to wake up for more than 5 minutes at a time. Robin decided to meet up with his friends and leave for the clubs without me. I was content to fall asleep. Robin and others called repeatedly, but I still managed to sleep from about 21.00 to 01.45, when Mattias called and I decided that I had to go at least say hi to people I know who were out. So I got ready and Mattias stopped by at 02.40. We had to get to the club by 03.00, because they close the doors as most clubs in Stockholm don’t let anyone enter within 1 hour of closing. Thanks to Speedy Mattias, we made it with 2 minutes to spare. Since I knew the door guards and the club owner, I got free entry. Was inside, saw Robin and Tim, saw some others, got a drink but could only finish ½ of it. Left at about 03.25. Back in bed by 03.59. Nice night out if you ask me 🙂

Sunday
Since I had gotten so much sleep, I decided that I would make Robin a surprise champagne brunch. But I was missing some items from the apartment, so I went to go buy them. When I got back, he was already awake. So much for the surprise, but I still made brunch nonetheless. We had waffles, bacon, sausage, eggs, and toast. Along with champagne of course! It was really nice. Then we sat around for awhile, and then we went to NK to do some shopping. Of course, we run into Steve while at Åhlens. He literally was just off the plane from Atlanta (yay Steve! I like it when Steve is around! :). So we went for some late lunch, came back to my place, and I had a bloody mary. So I am pretty nice and mellow now. Robin is sleeping, Steve is settling in for the week, and we are contemplating going out tonight. It will just be a short night, but we always say that! 🙂

So I am sure that I will have more to write later. But that’s the weekend everyone!

Take care!

//Rodney

Normally, I don’t give a rat’s ass about elections because the decision in November is usually made by now. That’s because polling is usually an amazingly accurate predictor of moods and trends.

But something about this year feels different.

This year it feels like the choices and decision made by the next president will affect us for the next generation. You get the feeling that members of the Supreme Court will retire or hang on based on who wins the White House and the composition of the chabmers of Congress (SC Justices are allowed to be political too you know). This year feels like while we will grow closer to bridging the digital divide, the economic and opportunity divide will widen exponentially between the have’s and the have-nots. I won’t be so drastic as to say tht future of American is at stake. That’s trite. And the system of governance in the US is so amazing complex that it’s hard for one branch of government to bring it down permanently — just inflect lots of damage.

So for that reason, I think it is important that everyone give to the campaign and parties of their choice. Because whatever you believe, this is the presidential election year that will determine whether your interests get served not just on the national level, but on the community and town level as well.

There, that was my non-partisan announcement.

My partisan announcement is that the “middle class” and the lower-class cannot afford another term of Dubbya. It could afford it, but only if congress went to the democrats. We’d rather have both the White House and Congress, but we’ll take the White House as the Gold and the Congress as the Silver prize. I think that this president has been dishonest about so much that it’s hard to trust him. And not about whether or not he had oral sex and lied about it under oath, but about the reasons for sending you family members or friends of family members into harm’s way in Iraq. The President who promised straight talk when he said “weapons of mass destruction” were in Iraq, now says “weapons-of-mass-destruction related activity.” And there are countless others.

You get the feeling that while president wants to move America forward, that he’s not talking about all Americans. He wants to move the Americans who are like him forward. So I ask the question – perhaps foolishly – what about the rest of the Americans?

I look at these candidates and feel that none are truly what this country needs. You get a sense that we needed Reagan in the late 80s and Clinton in the late 90s (I don’t follow party lines and rhetoric thanks, I make up my own mind). But I look at Kerry and really truly feel like he is a better choice to lead America into the future. So I will be voting Kerry. Not off of his 4 months of service in Vietnam, but based on the results of Bush’s four years in office. Time for a change.

Today has been a strange day. I went into the office for the first time in weeks. Well Headquarters anyway. I had not been there in a month, instead opting to work from home where I get more done.

Anyway, I just recently finished one audit project only to be told to get ready for another. It sucks because I have a normal day job that I need to complete as well,but I am not geting the chance to do anything to make positive movement forward.

Life outside of work is going as well as can be expected, but I am disappointed because I have to cancel my vacation to Sardinia next week. And to add insult to injury, I can’t get a time in Robin and my schedule to take a hot air balloon ride.

But in good news, I forsee myself free of credit card debt bythe end of the quarter based on how I have been managing my money. So every cloud must have a siver lining I suppose.

Did I mention how much I love pocketLJ, even if it makes me seem as if I am dyslexic because of the touch-screen keyboard? 🙂

I am writing this from Pizza Hut. It’s terrible. The pizza is sooo good, yet I find myself stuck in a eating loop. They have a really great buffet where for US$10, you get all of the pizza, salad, drinks, and soup you can possibly ear. So of course, since they kept on serving it, I kept on earing it.

Sigh…they don’t make passes at those with fat asses.

Yet…if loving Pizza Hut is wrong, do I want to be right?…

These are the questions that try people’s souls when they are at Pizza Hut with pocket LJ.

So taking advantage of this PocketLJ application, I am writing this on the beach. the people on the beach look so hot and I do not, that I am not changing out of my jeans. I am here eith Msrkus, Max, and one of their friends. We are leaving soon to go to McDonalds.

Anyway, chat with everyone soon and I hope that everyone is having a very nice day!

well I just downloaded PocketLJ so that I could have more reasons to use my Palm 3c.

If it works, that would be cool and you will know it works because you will see this post!

“They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

— President George W. Bush, speaking about terrorists and his administration at a ceremony signing a defense spending bill