Vindaloo

I've been freaking out a bit because I've only done a couple pages of fiction writing in the past couple months, and then I go and lose it, not to mention lots of notes for what to write next. It's not a huge deal, really, as I can rewrite it fairly easily and have a pretty good handle on what I want to do next, but it is annoying.

We've been overdue for our annual reviews for a couple weeks now. It's hard on me, just because I'm one of those guys who worries about stuff like that. I think I should do okay, but who knows? I have one of those bosses you can chat with the day before and then the next day (today) she can walk past you like she doesn't want to look at you, like your face is reminding her of something you fucked up that she has on her list to talk to you about, or something. Why am I so insecure?

Some good cat advice and a bit of mild defense of Colonel Tigh from ADD today, which was fun.

Listened to the new Shins and while I don't see them really doing for me what Death Cab does as far as one of my elite bands, it's still a damn fine record. Tonight I also re-downloaded a few really old Rolling Stones songs that didn't come across right the first time, then I downloaded the first two Beatles albums. I have tons of Beatles stuff but never got these on cd--still sound great. Today I also listened to M. Ward, and his cd, Post-War, was really one of the better ones of 2006. Damien Rice's 9 is very good as well. Oh, and I also downloaded Jeff Buckley's expanded Live from Sin-e set. Makes me sad--what a charming, amazingly talented guy. It happens.

Had dinner with my old friend Robert. I let him pick and wasn't surprised he chose Indian. We split Chicken Vindaloo and Lamb Nasiri Kotma, though I may have misremembered that last one. It's kind of like lamb meatballs stuffed with nuts, in an orange-colored creamy sauce. Really good, as was the Vindaloo, but neither were as spicy as we expected.

My son's seventh birthday is in a week-and-a-half, and he really wanted an iPod, so I ordered him a blue nano. Is that too young? I don't really think so. I'm all for encouraging his interest in music or anything creative. An interesting exercise is trying to figure out music a boy his age will like. It's beyond the folky stuff now--he likes to rock. But it has to be a very direct, super-catchy kind of song, with some volume to it and not a lot of weirdness. For example--he likes U Can't Touch This and We're Not Gonna Take It. My four-year-old daughter likes Hollaback Girl and any Kidz Bop. Oh, and they both love the U2/Green Day Saints Come In song. In general, they like U2, at least the faster stuff.

Paid my property taxes today, as well as my mortgage and paid off the Dyson vacuum I got on my Linens 'N Things card in one fell swoop. I don't want any more cards--I don't have any other store cards--but opening the account got me the vacuum for about $100 off, so it was worth it so long as I paid for it quickly. Wasn't expecting that much in property tax, though, so I really need to budget much better now, not go out so much. Speaking of Dyson, I had lunch with Robert's wife, Charlotte, who's a great friend of mine, and Danish, and we talked about double standards. She asked what someone would call a female "playa," and I said she would be a slut, that's just exactly what the double standard is about. But I offered an alternative, hosebag, which led to an odd turn where she said that if the Dyson kept getting more popular, that word would go out of use because the Dyson didn't use bags, and that deteriorated into my saying that it was likely a rap song would refer to a girl as a Dyson because she didn't lose suction.