Midweek update

– It arrived a week late, but I just got what I really wanted for Christmas. No, not a Romanian girl. I got the 30 GB iPod Video. It’s plugged into my USB port charging up now (it charges its battery through the USB – there’s an AC adapter but it’s optional), and once it’s done I’ll start loading music in.

– That reminds me… I have a question concerning batteries – cell phone batteries. My cell phone goes through cycles where its battery can’t hold a charge for even an entire day, and I keep having to plug it in. And then it will go through periods where it will go four, five days, sometimes even a week without needing a charge. My usage patterns are about the same during both periods. This has happened with every cell phone I have ever owned, by the way. Can anyone provide an explanation for this?

– And while we’re on the subject of questions… I have another one. Sunday night/Monday morning I woke up in the middle of the night and popped a couple of Advil (actually, the Walgreens equivalent of Advil) to try and prevent the expected hangover the next morning. On the side of the bottle it read, “Best before 03/05.” How can something like Advil have an expiration date? It seemed to work fine for me in 01/06 (prevented the hangover as hoped). Can Advil really go bad? Is there something like a half-life for Advil, where chemical decomposition makes it go bad? I mean, I realize I wouldn’t want to take any that’s WAY old (just as I would want to eat pear jelly from NINE…TEEN…SEVENTY), but a year past its expiration date, is there really anything wrong with it? I know there’s at least one pharmacy student who reads this blog. What’s the deal?

– I had to take the hangover medicine Sunday night because I was hanging out at Big Foot Lodge, drinking some of their 34 oz. beers. While there I met downtown attorney Stephanie Calvert, one of those people I’ve seen around for years but never officially met before. We hung out and talked for a couple of hours, and I promised I’d give her a link on my blog, so there you go. Here’s a memory trick to remember her name – Lord Calvert is what the bums drink, and Stephanie Calvert is the person to go to for aviation, corporate, and criminal law matters.

– Stephanie told me that she had actually seen my site years ago, back when I was a math teacher at the U of M. Said she used my Superstars of the Web page all the time. Superstars of the Web, for those of you who are relatively new to the site, was a list of the best links on the web. I discontinued it about 4 years ago because I simply didn’t have the time to maintain it. Probably the closest thing you’ll find is Marilyn Ryburn’s “Best of the Web,” my mother’s site, which is still updated on a regular basis.

– All right… time to go to the Saucer and watch the Rose Bowl… back later…

– Crap. Texas won. I hate Texas.

– But on a more positive note… I found out I could request a particular waitress for my upcoming plate party… let’s just say that the waitress I asked to work my party is a real “Princess”

– The past two nights, there have been girls in “winter tube tops” at the Saucer. I like this new fashion trend.

– ATTN CARMEL: My plate party would be a great time to model your winter tube top.

– By the way… we will be celebrating tube top month in June again, for the second year in a row here at paulryburn.com/blog. Less than 5 months away! Every post for the month of June will contain a reference to tube tops, no matter how irrelevant to the rest of the post.

– Back to my website… I was noticing that Rachel and the City has a “Make a Donation” button… maybe I need one of those. It’s getting expensive to go online and tell you people that I went out to a bar and got drunk… alcohol ain’t free ya know… you could contribute.

– Seriously though… where the “Make a Donation” button would really work on my site is the Grade Calculator. In April/May and November/December it out-draws this blog in terms of visits, and I get e-mails every semester going, “You saved my life… I had no idea what I needed to get on the final to make a B in this class”… I doubt I’d be able to retire off the proceeds… but it would occasionally buy an extra bottle of champagne at Sunday brunch, I’m sure.

– Attn Joy: Yes I remember the topic you proposed for a future journal article. I have several articles in mind in front of it, but it will eventually come up.

– All right… I had 5 beers at the Saucer… my most hated team in college football won the NCAA championship and my iPod still isn’t charged yet. I’m off to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.