Long-overdue updates

• On this: Sorry I didn't get around to posting this update later that night. Somehow, there was another luau Friday, too. Seriously.
• On this: Mike C. just showed up, about two days after I gave him the URL to this blog, with my blue marker (which he deposited in my office) and a theory (which I had to chase him down to get). Mind you, this marker was not spotted in his office, he just swiped it back for me. So far, I think there has been no backlash. Mike's theory: Some folks were "whiteboarding," (Oh, Mike. Whiteboard as a verb? Really?) and needed a marker, and borrowed mine, and never brought it back. They last whiteboarded a month and a half ago, and therefore probably do not really need to own my blue marker. Also, I now have roughly a thousand beautiful colors of dry-erase markers procured for me by one of my big-city friends. They do not have erasers in the cap, but they are nonetheless awesome, and I predict when things slow down around here, they will be involved in a dry-erase mural of some kind.
• On weather: The weather here has been gorgeous and sunny, in the 60s and 70s. It still gets cold overnight, and when I drove by Dublin Lake at 7:40 a.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday, it was still at least somewhat frozen, but I am not swimming in it.
• On this: I have plugged in a mouse repellent that works by vibrating the wiring in my house. So far, it seems to be working. No evidence of death, and no evidence of mice.
• On this: Yesterday, I went to Wal-Mart, Target, Building #19, Sears, and Ocean State Job Lots, plus the web sites of several other businesses, looking for a grill, a set of patio furniture, and a hammock. I found a grill at Ocean State Job Lots that would have been perfect, but that I did not buy because I thought I could do better. Wrong. I found two adequate grills and a perfect set of patio furniture at Wal-Mart, and bought none of them because they were out of stock. I found an adequate hammock at Target and did not buy it because it cost $100, and I am not paying $100 for adequate.
• On this: Hippie Birkenstock Silver Jewelry Guy has been supplanted, or perhaps supplemented, by Hippie Birkenstock Tapestry and Flowy Skirt Gal.