Yesterday Andrea and I had a grand day up at Gatineau Park. We had lunch at the Chelsea Pub before driving out to Pink Lake and walking the trail. There weren't a whole lot of people out, so it was nice and private and pretty. Andrea recalled this story she'd read about how a cougar was discovered in the park, so we kept making jokes about the cougar suddenly (and rather unlikely) appearing. We went to the beach for a swim but the rain started up. After resting for a bit in the car we came back into town and I dropped her off.

I've been trying to rig up my iMac for speech recognition. I can verbally ask it the time, day, stuff like that. Last night I added a script that allows me to get a song to play just by delivering voice commands. It doesn't work perfectly, but it's still pretty nice, and gets me one step closer to what I really wish computers could do.

This morning I took the car back and then went by the rental office to drop off first month's rent and grab the keys to the new place. They didn't have the keys, and told me to come back this afternoon. I ran some errands and got a haircut. I decided to come home to read for a bit before I went out again.

The new Mac is great. I should be able to transfer the rest of my music collection to Lacie over the next little while. I downloaded Photoshop and as soon as the net connection in the apartment is back up to snuff I'll throw on Dreamweaver and Office. I can't wait to investigate how to use some of the onboard software.

Last night I watched a bit of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which I've never seen in full. Andrea's coming over tonight after she gets off work, so I'm going to get this place looking a bit better.

The hangover has passed. Andrea came over last night and we watched Contact. This morning we got up and went to her place for a delicious lunch before her class.

I finally have the iMac I wanted. Last night my brother said he wouldn't have the computer shipped to my place until I sent him a cheque and it cleared in his account. It was kind of a dickhead move on his part, some bullshit ego thing that allows him to exert authority. I wouldn't have minded so much if he hadn't stated it from the beginning. He KNEW I wanted the computer as soon as possible. I kept bugging him about it. But fuck him. I paid the extra $160 and I have it today.

The monitor is huge. It's almost TOO big. I'm looking up at it like the monolith in 2001. I love new toys. We'll see what this baby can do.

It looks like I won't be starting the job until closer to the end of the month, until my security clearance takes effect and the Senate is back in session. I should take the opportunity to get started on some web work I've been intending to do.