Until a couple of hours ago, I was in a relatively good mood. The two things happened at once…

First, I started getting bounce messages from a bit of email spam I didn’t send. Seems some asshole in Florida (aren’t they all in Florida?) may have used my primary email address as the return address for a mass mailing. I’m not sure what the implications of that may be. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how bad it is…

When I started looking into that by checking my root account, I also realized I had a notification from my ISP that, within 30 days, my webhosting account will include hosting only (no dialup). And for the same price, yet. Imagine: half the service for the same great price…

Note that this is the same ISP which caused me much grief by migrating my sites to an entirely new (and basically half-assed) platform just a few months back, causing me a great deal of trouble in the process. Note to Verio: you fucking suck and you’re cordially invited to bite my hairy ass…

So now I’m scrambling to clean up double fallout, wondering what will happen with the spam and getting all my sites added to my Pair Networks account. It will actually be a better set-up, once I spend the holidays doing all the work. It will cost more, as I’ll have to have new dialup or DSL, but I’ll be well rid of Verio, destroyer of formerly-great ISPs…

Quick thoughts on Saturday in Stockton with Mom and Mark:

• The Denny’s at Charter Way and I-5 is in fact the Denny’s from hell. And our waitress was bad sitcom material.
• Introducing Mom to a current accessory was amazingly drama-free, which speaks volumes about both of them.
• I rarely find a lot of stuff in Stockton thrift stores, but when I do find something, it’s really fucking cool. Pictures to follow.
• Sucking face in the men’s room was a wonderful thing, but it only served to make my current sexual frustration about ten times worse.
• Wow. Who knew there were Simpsons cereals available?

I think I coughed up most of the remnants of my cold-allergy thing on Saturday morning, but there may be a little more on Sunday morning. Sorry for the vivid image; I’ll try to be more subtle if further updates are required…

Now, having forced Mom to sit through Harry and Tonto (I like it, Dan likes it, and that’s endorsement enough), I’m gonna have a wank and go to sleep. I probably won’t be fantasizing about Art Carney…

Mom’s here and comfortably asleep in the living room. I headed to SFO this afternoon expecting to find a madhouse of people standing in line being frisked and strip-searched. Instead, it was just plain creepy there. No one in line at the ticket counter, no one at the checkpoint, no trouble parking, and we spent about three minutes waiting for her suitcases at baggage claim. It was just plain weird; everyone was saying so…

Spiffy new redesign for Mark, who’s on Mom’s itinerary for Saturday. Later tonight will bring dinner with Dan, Jamie, and hopefully Sarah, maybe at The Dead Fish…

I think I’ll skip introducing her to my cardiologist at tomorrow’s appointment, though; I think there’s enough adventure on her plate for now…