The Tales of Beedle the Bard

It was announced today that JK Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" that she hand wrote five copies of for charity last year are being printed for the general public.  It's coming out on December 4 and Amazon has both a standard edition (here) and a special collectors edition (here).  The collectors edition would make a great Christmas present (hint, hint).

--Paul

Next Time...

Next time, I'll keep my mouth shut. After talking about how oil had come down so much and all yesterday, the market went on a tear and oil closed up over $5 around $126 yesterday. It's already pulled back $1+ this morning, but with the market as volatile as it's been lately, that doesn't mean anything for how it's going to close this afternoon.

On to lighter matters. I hope you've all watched the trailer for the new Harry Potter movie. There's also a shared item on the right that has links to where you can download better quality versions. Book 6 was pretty short compared to the others (especially book 5), but it contains a lot of information, mostly dealing with how Tom Riddle became Voldemort. It has a much faster pace than book 5 and there are several major events, especially at the end of the book. It should be great seeing it on screen. It should be out in November.

For the first time in several weeks, I can't say that Thursday is my Friday. It's kind of disappointing actually. Such is the way things are, I guess. Have a good Thursday and I'll see you tomorrow.

--Paul

Trailer for the new Harry Potter Movie

Looks good! Half-Blood Prince was one of my favorites of the series and contains one of the biggest and most emotional scenes in all of the books. Should be excellent.

--Paul

Ugghhh

I know I gripe about the grass a lot, but this week, it turned into a two-day debacle. I started on it on Monday afternoon after work and I had just about cut everything except for the very back and part of the side yard when it started raining. Now I'm all for rain, but it wouldn't have hurt my feelings for it to have held out long enough for me to at least get the side yard cut. So I ended up having to get out there again yesterday and finish up. At least I won't have to worry about it this weekend.

I pretty much made an unspoken rule when I started blogging that I wouldn't talk about politics or socio-economic issues. I didn't want to get anything started with anyone. We may see a moment in the near future where that rule is broken. One thing I do want to go ahead and mention is the drop in gas prices. They're down to $3.69 here in Andalusia (as of yesterday at Wal-Mart). I really think that $4.00 was the tipping point and that when it got there, people just couldn't handle it anymore. Demand is down, inventories are up and when that kind of thing happens, prices go down. Oil is at $121/barrel this morning. It was $142 less than 3 weeks ago. My only worry is what will happen if gas breaks below $3.00/gallon. I think at that point, enough people will decide that gas has gotten "cheap" again and demand will pick up. I think gas may get back below $3.00 again, but I don't think it will stay there for long. Of course all of this is a mute point if a big enough hurrican comes through the gulf or if Iran finally falls off the side of the cliff and attacks someone or decides to stop exporting oil.

Anyway, end rant. That's why I made the rule. I promise to try and keep things to a minimum in the future. It's going to be hard though as the election gets closer. Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Sorry About That

I want to start by apologizing for the horrible grammar in yesterday's post. When I got home yesterday, DeAnne mentioned that I had a few problems with my post. I read back over it and I'm honestly a little embarrassed by it. I'm going to leave it up though. It just shows how excited I was/still am about the Butch show.

So the Butch show was on Friday night. We got in late and slept fairly late the next morning, so it was decided that we would have a relatively early dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory. It was really fantastic. I've had the chance to eat there on a few of my trips for work and I've never had a bad meal there. They have a huge menu and the portions are enormous and then there's the cheesecake.

So after dinner, my uncle and aunt took us to see the laser show at Stone Mountain. It was pretty cool. I've been before, but it was probably 15 years ago, so I don't remember much about it other than going. DeAnne's never been to Stone Mountain, so it was a new experience for her. The show was good, but it would have been a lot better without the cloud that formed in front of the mountain right before the show started. It cleared up a few times and we were able to see. They also use some fireworks in the show and those were pretty cool.

So that was our weekend in Atlanta. It's been a great summer. After two years in a row of having surgeries, we've done the best we can to make up for lost time this summer and I think it's worked out for us. I know I've enjoyed it. Be sure to check DeAnne's blog for slideshows of this past weekend. Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Wow

I knew that the concert was going to be good, but I never expected what we got. The guy that opened was good, then Butch came out and played for probably an hour on his own. All but 3 songs were new and all the new songs were incredible. The show was originally billed as a "solo, acoustic" show and the two nights in Atlanta were supposed to cap off a month long tour. He had to post-pone the other dates though and since he didn't get to do the rest of the tour, he told us that he didn't have time to put together a proper show. So during a song, "Stateline", his backup band from the last album, the Let's-Go-Out-Tonight's, come out and join him. They played a bunch of songs that pretty much covered Butch's entire career. They reached a point where Butch sat down at the piano and the rest of the band left the stage. Butch starts playing an old Marvelous 3 song, "Cigarette Lighter Love Song". After the first chorus, Jace and Slug, the drummer and bass player from the Marvelous 3 came out and finished out the song with him. The played a couple of more songs and then the LGOT's came back out and finished out the show with a few more songs and a great encore.

DeAnne and I were blown away. What we thought was going to be just Butch turned into that, plus a full-blown show with both the LGOT's and a Marvelous 3 reunion. It was probably the best show I've ever been to and I can't wait to see him again. We've already decided that no matter what, if he's ever close to us, we're going to the show.

The rest of the weekend was good too. We had a really great time, but I'm going to save the other stuff for the rest of the week so I'll have something to talk about. Have a good Monday.

--Paul

I Could Get Used To This

Once again, a Thursday is a Friday for me. I'm taking off tomorrow so that we can go ahead and head up to Atlanta. I'm really excited for the concert. I think DeAnne will be too once we get up there, but right now she's having a hard time leaving the beach behind. She made it home last night about 9:30. It was late, but they stayed on the beach as long as they could before they had to leave.

So I was pretty much on my own again last night. I went to church and watched "10,000 B.C.". I guess the movie was alright, but I wasn't real excited about it or anything. It's not bad, it's just not great either. It'll probably do well on TV one day when TNT gets it and runs it into the ground. I would wait till then to watch it.

That's about all there is. I'll be off tomorrow, so I'll see you all again on Monday with rants and raves about the Butch show. Till then.

--Paul

It's Lonely When You're Alone

I'm up a little earlier than usual this morning. I slept okay, I guess, but it's different without DeAnne here. From all I could tell while talking to her for a minute last night, she's having a great time. I don't know when she'll be back, but she said it'd probably be late. They're planning on hitting the beach again today and then leaving late this afternoon, so there's no telling when she'll finally make it home.

Adrienne had a make-up party or something last night, so Bryan came by and we went and wandered around Wal-Mart for a bit and then went down to check out Bro. Matt's new house. Matt and Becky were actually down there and we spent a good bit of time talking with them about the house. It's really coming along from what I could tell.

I also watched "Vantage Point" last night. It was pretty awesome. It's about a terrorist hit on the President but the story is told from several different "vantage points", through the eyes of different people around the events. Each time you see a different view, you get a little more information about what's going on so that by the end of the movie, you get the whole story and see how everything intertwined. It had a kind of "24" feel to it, so that's probably got a lot to do with why I liked it, but I really thought it was a good movie. It was very intense and it kept you guessing a bit. Definitely one to see.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

Maybe I Did Cover It All

I was skimming back over yesterday's post and for the life of me, I can't remember what else there was that I wanted to talk about. I'll just say again that we had a great time. DeAnne's put up a slide show on her blog, so be sure to check that out.

I'm still reeling from "The Dark Knight". Every time I think about it I'm just blown away all over again. I'm hoping that I'll have a chance to see it again before it leaves the theaters.

DeAnne's leaving this morning to go back to the beach. She's going with her friend Stephanie. She's going to be gone tonight. They're supposed to come back tomorrow, but she couldn't resist going back to the beach, even if it was just for one night. So I'm on my own tonight. We've got a couple of movies from Netflix right now that DeAnne doesn't really care anything about watching so I may try and watch one of those. I've also got to make a decision about the grass. It's not bad, but that's because it hasn't rained since the last time I cut it. If I don't cut it and it rains, it's going to be a jungle, but I hate to cut it and it not rain because I don't want to stress my good grass. I'll just have to see how it goes this afternoon.

Anyway. I guess that's it for today. Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

Back...Again

After stopping by Kinston to pick up Emma, we made it back to Andalusia about 4:00 yesterday afternoon. We unpacked, started some laundry and tried to catch our breath for a minute and by then it was almost 6:00. We decided to go on to church and after it was all said and done, we were in bed at 9:30.

Gulf Shores was excellent. We had a great time. The beach was nice, the weather was great and there was plenty to keep us occupied. We weren't really able to get in the water on Friday due to the jelly fish, but the rest of the weekend, they were fine with only one or two here and there. The area was covered with shells and DeAnne set out to find as many as she could and ended up bringing home a whole one that's the size of your palm. She was really excited to find it and she couldn't have been happier about it. We got a little sun, but not too much. Courtney on the other hand. She got a little too much on Saturday and was feeling it pretty well on Sunday. Hopefully she's better today.

On Friday night we went and watched "The Dark Knight" and I have to say, it was the best movie I've seen all year. It's a shame about Heath Ledger. He was incredible as the Joker. The whole cast was awesome. There really wasn't a weak link in the entire movie. It's long, but it's worth the length to let the story lines play out. It's also scary. Not in a "boo!" way, but in a psychological way. The Joker really plays to the fears of all the other characters and winds up pushing everyone to the edge. It's one of the best Joker stories I've ever seen. Bottom line, go see this movie (if you're over the age of 13).

Saturday we played mini-golf and DeAnne and Edwin raced go-karts at a little amusement park. We had a good time. Edwin won the round of golf, but DeAnne got revenge for us all on the track. Edwin still couldn't believe it yesterday when we left to come home.

I'm running a little late this morning. I had to shave and it's put me behind so I'm going to stop here. There are a few more stories to tell and I'll try to cover everything this week. We'll be gone again on Friday. We're going to Atlanta for the Butch Walker show, so there won't be a blog on Friday, but we'll see what we get to the rest of the week. Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Just Give Me Two Sentences

I'm finished talking about games and E3. After the Guitar Hero 4 announcements yesterday that I emailed in, I haven't really seen anything else. I was also informed that I had "geeked out" a little hard on the blog and needed to move on.

So. It's another one of those "Friday on Thursday" situations for me. We're leaving this afternoon for Gulf Shores. We're really excited about going. I'm taking off at lunch, so we should get there around 3:00. Courtney and Edwin won't be able to get there until later in the evening, so we're going to hit the beach for a little while and check everything out so that when they do arrive, we've got a game plan. I'm pretty sure the plan is going to mostly be "go to the beach, come back and eat, go to the beach" though, but who knows.

Of course, being gone, there won't be a blog tomorrow. That brings up another note. Yesterday during the E3 frenzy I passed the 150 post mark for the blog. I guess that really doesn't mean much, it's just the comic book collector coming out in me, thinking it's something special. Onward to 200!

Have a good weekend.

--Paul

First Galaga Legions Screen Capture

Awesome.

I Had to Email This In

I've added it to my shared items, but I wanted to email in a post.  Activision held their press event last night and one of the big announcements was that Rock Band instruments for the 360 will work with the 360 version of Guitar Hero 4.  This is huge news and has instantly guaranteed that I'll be getting Guitar Hero 4 when it comes out.  Check out this link.

--Paul

E3 Day 2

The E3 conference continued yesterday with Sony and Nintendo holding their press events. You can read the live blogs from Engadget over in my shared items.

I have to say, I really feel like Microsoft had the best showing this year. Nintendo was up first yesterday morning and they really just didn't talk about much that got me excited. The new Wii MotionPlus system looks pretty neat. It's an add on to the Wii Remote that refines the motion-sensing capabilities of the remote so that you have a true 1:1 representation in the game of your arm movements. They also showed off a couple of games that are going to be making use of the balance board that came with Wii Fit. It's nice to see that we're going to be able to get some more use out of the board besides just Wii Fit. Other than that, they talked about a game called Animal Crossing that I'm not interested in at all and Wii Music, which might be fun, but from reading the live blog, I'm not sure. Overall, I was pretty disappointed with Nintendo. They seem to really be focused on the "casual" side of the market. They mentioned that they were working on new Mario and Zelda games, but that was all that was said.

Sony wasn't much better. They really didn't do or say anything that made me want a PS3. The only thing that came close was the announcment of God of War 3, but even that was just a short pre-rendered CGI movie and no realease date. They've added movies and tv shows to the Playstation Store, but the xbox has had this for a year or more now. They also showed a brief clip from a game that they didn't even give the title for that is supposed to have battles with 256 online players. This would be a huge feat and a first for a game console, but without a title or realease date, it may be years before it hits the shelves. The biggest announcment, to me at least, was that they're brining the 80GB version of the PS3 down to $400 and killing all backward-compatability with PS2 titles. I had held on to several PS2 games so that if I ever got a PS3, I would still be able to play them. Looks like I can trade those in on Rock Band 2 now.

So overall, Microsoft clearly had the most exciting, most feature packed press event this year. Activision (makers of Guitar Hero) is supposed to hold a press event themselves sometime. I'm sure they'll mainly be talking about Guitar Hero 4, so it'll be interesting to see what they show to mitigate the hype for Rock Band 2.

Have a good Wednesday.

--Paul

If You Don't Want to Read About Video Games...

...You might as well stop reading now. That's probably about all I'm going to talk about the rest of the week.

The annual E3 video game conference got kicked off yesterday and Microsoft was first up to bat with their press conference. I've shared a few items from my Reader list, so be sure to check those out as they come up. I'm sure there will be more as the week goes on. I was pretty impressed and I'm really excited about some of the new things that they're going to be doing over the next couple of months.

They showed off several new games that are coming out between now and Christmas. Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3 are shooters that are pretty highly anticipated by the gaming world. After the presser, they put the trailers up on the xbox marketplace, so I downloaded a couple of them last night. Both of these games looked incredible.

They're also releasing a ramped up version of Galaga for the Live Arcade. I love the old-school Galaga, so this is probably going to be a must have for me.

Rumors had been floating around for weeks about the new avatars, but I don't remember seeing anything about a complete dashboard redesign. The new avatars are obviously ripped from the same book as Nintendo's Miis, but I'm sure Nintendo understands. The dashboard redesign looks really nice though. It looks very clean and almost a little Apple-ish. I'm sure they took a few cues from the AppleTV.

One new feature that's hopefully going to be big for DeAnne and I, is the partnership with Netflix. Microsoft has joined up with Netflix and they're going to allow you to rent movies by downloading them to your xbox instead of waiting for them to come in the mail. It's just going to be SD to begin with, but I'm hopeful that over the months after launch, they'll begin to have some HD content. If they get to where they're doing HD, that will propbably do away with any chance of me ever wanting a PS3 as the main reason I've been wanting one was for Blu-Ray.

So all in all, I was really excited about the Microsoft press conference. They also talked about Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero 4, but I'm out of time. Sony and Nintendo hold their pressers today, to look for more excitement tomorrow. I may even have to email in another mid-day post if something really cool happens. Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

I Shouldn't Be Doing This...

...But I just saw an announcement come across from Microsoft's E3 press conference that mentioned that songs on the Rock Band 1 disc will be importable into Rock Band 2.  There were also some song names mentioned.  The coolest:  AC/DC "Let There Be Rock".  I'm so excited I might die.  I'll talk more about the MS presser tomorrow morning.

--Paul

Back to Somewhat Normal

MeMaw (my Grandmother) left Saturday to head back to Atlanta. It was good to see her and we had a good time visiting. We're going to be seeing her again in a few weeks when we head up to Atlanta for the Butch Walker show. We're really excited about the concert and it'll be nice to be able to visit with my Uncle and Aunt and cousins also.

Courtney and Edwin stayed with us Saturday night. We stayed up late talking and watching me stink it up on Mario Kart only for them to have to leave bright and early Sunday morning so they could be back in Mobile by 9:00 for church. It was a short visit, but as always, we had a blast with them and it has us looking forward to the beach this weekend even more.

We also watched Definitely, Maybe on Saturday. It was a chick flick, so I didn't care much about it to start with, but then it turned out to be a fairly boring movie, so that just made it worse. Totally skip-able.

This week is the annual E3 game conference. It should be interesting to see what news comes out of it. I expect more details to emerge on Rock Band 2, but other than that I can't imagine what the big 3 (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) could have planned. Hopefully it's something good. I don't know how much my inner geek can take though. I'm already about to explode from wanting one of those new iPhones. I have no need whatsoever for half the stuff that thing does, but the thing is just so incredible, I want one. I could probably settle for a iPod Touch since it's basically just the phone without the phone part but who knows if I'll ever get one.

Anyway, enough geeking out on you. Have a good Monday.

--Paul

The Alarm Clock Worked Today

The alarm clock that I use is a battery powered analog type. It's not the classic looking type with the bell on top, but it functions the same way as those do. Across the top, it has a bar that you push down to activate the snooze. Evidently, on Wednesday, I pressed the snooze button in while I was turning the alarm clock off and the button became stuck in the down position. Thus, my clock was now in a perma-snooze state. Thus, yesterday when it came time for the alarm clock to go off, it didn't. I woke up about 7:15.

After I woke up, I realized that I might as well take my time. I had to go get by blood test done yesterday morning, so I figured I would give them time to get open and get past the first wave of blood tests and then I'd be at work about 8:00 or maybe a little after. Little did I know that they had a new nurse that has just started and was still learning things, which slowed the whole process down. It was after 8:30 when I finally go to work.

Needless to say, it was a bit of a rough morning. After all that though, the rest of the day turned out to be pretty good. Everything at work went pretty well yesterday and then we had an excellent dinner with Bryan and Adrienne last night. All in all, not too shabby.

No real plans for the weekend. Courtney and Edwin are coming into town and we hope to get to spend some time with them (if they don't opt to stay with us *hoping they do*). We're also now less than a week away from our trip to Gulf Shores. I can hardly wait. I hope you all have a good weekend. See you on Monday.

--Paul

No Blog For You

Sorry. The alarm clock didn't go off this morning and I'm late for work. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

--Paul

Throwing My Weight Around

Looks like I'm going to have to get back on the diet. DeAnne's still doing good with it, I however have now gained back up to 183 after hitting a low of 175. Wii Fit is very disappointed with me. I think what hurts me the most is days like yesterday. I had my usual bowl of cereal at home before I left for work. Then Brian showed up with a box of doughnuts, so I had one of those. Then we get to lunch and Tracy has a chocolate pie with him for everyone to have dessert. Then finally, yesterday was the annual PowerSouth ice cream social, so we all went and had a bowl of ice cream. I was so done in by the time I got home yesterday that I ate a smaller than normal portion of dinner and didn't have anything sweet the entire evening. I've also been slacking on Wii Fit. I need to force myself into doing it at least 30 minutes every other day. I guess there's no time like the present to do something, so I guess I'm back on diet now.

I hope you have a hunger-satisfying Wednesday.

--Paul

Stumped

I couldn't come up with a good title this morning. Sorry.

We watched The Spiderwick Chronicles this past weekend and it was very good. I think it's rated G, so it'd be safe for the kids. If it's not rated G, then it only because there's a little fighting with magical creatures who bleed green goo. So even if it's not G, I would still say it would be safe for the kids. It's nice to watch a movie that doesn't have a lot of foul language in it. It seems to especially get to me though when you make almost all the way through the movie and then someone says something foul just one time. Why do they have to do that? They can't find a way to cut one cuss word out of a movie that has thousands of words in it? Why let one go and ruin the whole movie when you could cut it out and make parents feel better about letting their kids watch your movie? Anyway, end rant.

My eye appoinment got canceled yesterday. I got there and I was waiting to be taken back when I saw the doctor walk through the lobby with a nurse. I heard him talking and evidently his daughter was in a car accident and had been taken to the hospital. He said she was alright, but that he was going to see the patients they already had screened and ready to go and to reschduel everyone else. So now I'm going back in two weeks to try again. I don't really mind. I would rather him go and see about his daughter than try and work on me while his mind is on her anyway. I also sincerly hope that she's okay and that everything is alright.

So without the eye appointment, I got home at the same time I always do so I cut the grass. It didn't really need it that bad, but I wanted to go ahead and hit it so that I wouldn't have to be out there for three hours. I also want to hit some of the larger patches of weeds with Round-Up but I wanted to cut the grass first so that I could see the root of the weeds.

Have a good Tuesday.

--Paul

When's the Next Holiday?

So it's back to work this morning. We had a good fourth. We had lunch with DeAnne's family and then had dinner and shot fireworks over at Bryan and Adrienne's. There wasn't much going on the rest of the weekend. My Grandmother (MeMaw to me) is in town and staying with us, so we've been visiting with her.

DeAnne is in Ft. Walton with her Mom. They left yesterday for an overnight trip. They're staying at her step-grandfather's (boy, that's a new one for me) house. He and DeAnne's Grandmother have been going between his house in Ft. Walton and her house in Opp and they're in Opp right now, so he told DeAnne's Mom that they could stay at his place. He's got it up for sale, but I think he needs to keep it and let it be the family vacation home, but that's just me.

I go back to the retina specialist today for a follow-up about my eye. This is the first time he's seen me since the MRI came back negative for a stroke so I'm curious to see what he has to say. He seemed pretty sure last time that that was going to be the cause. I'm sure I'll have to redo all the test we did last time, which is fine. Until we get to a test that involves a needle, I'll be okay. I don't think I can do a needle to the eye though. That's going to have to be my limit.

Have a good Monday.

--Paul

Friday on Thursday Makes Me Happy

Yesterday I talked about one of the main things I dislike about the summer. Well, one of the main things I love about summer is that we get three holidays spread out fairly evenly across the summer months. I think the 4th of July is my favorite, but that could have something to do with the fireworks.

We really don't have anything planned. We'll be in Kinston some, but other than that, we don't have any real plans. Kind of sad, but that's just the way it is, I guess.

Hmm...I'm kind of at a loss for what else to talk about today. I guess we'll just have to see what the long weekend brings and maybe I'll have a decent story for you on Monday. Have a safe and happy 4th and take a moment to remember what the holiday is really about and how blessed we are to live in the country we live in.

--Paul

Summer

There's only one thing I really don't like about summer. You're probably thinking it's the heat. It's not even that. It's having to cut the grass. Drives me crazy. I can't stand it. It's like a form of torture. You drive around in circles for hours without ever really getting anywhere and then when you're done, you wait 7 days or so and then repeat the process. This goes on for the better part of 7 or 8 months. It's horrible. If I were President, I would bring all the enemy combatants in from Guantanamo and then make them mow the lawns of Americans for free. Now that would be cruel and unusual punishment.

Anyway. If you haven't guessed yet, I had to cut the grass yesterday. I thought it was going to rain this past Saturday, so I talked myself out of it. It did rain on Sunday and then on Monday, everything was still so wet that I couldn't cut it. So yesterday it was and I was not happy about it. I was late getting home from work to start with so it was 7:30 before I finished and I didn't even do the weed-eating.

So there's your rant for the day. I hope you have a better Wednesday than the Tuesday I had.

--Paul

Back Online

Yesterday, I had just planned to post the Basal Gang video, and it's a good thing because when I got up we didn't have power. There was a pretty rough storm starting around 4:30 and lasting till 6:00 yesterday morning and it took out the line coming up out street. They got us back on just before I walked out the door to go to work. The storm was pretty wild. It was some of the worst lightning and thunder I've seen and heard in a while.

Anyway, the Basal Gang. Edwin started making these videos of little people made out of basal wood a few years back. DeAnne and I have always enjoyed them, and the last time we were in Mobile for a visit, we were invited to take part in the creation of a Basal Gang video. It's taken him a little time, but Edwin finally finished it this past weekend. Personally, I think it's a masterpiece, but I'm probably a little biased.

If you don't read DeAnne's blog, you should. You should go there now and check out the slide shows that she's built the past couple of days. There's one of Emma and one of Izzy. They're both great, but the music for Izzy's really makes the whole thing work and it's really funny.

As you can tell from the mid-day post yesterday and the edit that followed it, I'm pretty excited about Rock Band 2 being announced. I'm a little surprised that it's coming out so soon. I thought that they would have waited until closer to Christmas to get it out, but then they would be in more direct competition with the new Guitar Hero game that's going to be a full band game like Rock Band. It worries me a little though that they might not have had as much time as they needed to get in any big changes. Hopefully they've really worked on it and not just made a 60 track song pack. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

So that's it for today. Maybe I made up for yesterday by running a little longer today. It'll be a short week this week also. July 4th is Friday, so I'll be taking my usual day off from blogging as I get a day off from work.

--Paul