There's a certain sense of inadequacy in being a male, standing in Home Depot staring at rows upon rows of junction boxes (or pipe fittings, or any other obtuse piece of hardware), and having no idea how any of these things are chosen, let alone installed. Ask for help? Blasphemy! Am i the only one who thinks some of these things should have a little installation guide tucked inside them? I was in this predicament yesterday afternoon, and after 15 minutes of pondering i settled on a blue plastic one that could hold three outlets (a "three gang", as i've learned). I also picked up some phone connectors, a wire stripping tool, and a hand saw, and headed home. After wiring our dual phone jack later that evening, i set about dismantling the existing junction box that my uncle Bud had installed when building our new kitchen/living room wall. After isolating and switching off the circuit that powered that outlet, i removed all the electrical, cable, and phone wiring and unscrewed the junction box. Turns out Bud used a couple of wood blocks to build up a mount for the junction box. The blocks were screwed into the plywood wall frame. I measured that the deeper new blue junction box would fit if i removed the blocks, figuring i could just screw it into the plywood. So i removed the screws from the blocks, but found that Bud wasn't kidding around ... he'd glued the blocks onto the plywood as well. Those suckers weren't coming off, despite my best efforts. So today i'm heading back to Home Depot to get a shallower junction box, akin to the previous one. I may just gang a single outlet box onto the current double outlet box. See, i'm getting the lingo already. On the up side, all the wiring issues are fairly straightforward.

I had planned on going to the hardware store after getting my hair cut at 1:30pm. This morning i called the salon the verify my appointment, as oddly i hadn't gotten a confirmation call yesterday. Probably because they still had my old cell phone number. Upon talking to the receptionist, i was told that my appointment had been at 9:30am this morning. Doh. Now i've got to wait another two weeks ... shazbot. I ran out of sumotech over the weekend and am once again reduced to combing my long(er) hair in a standard part.

My birthday presents from my parents arrived yesterday. And apparently Pepe was so unimpressed with the delivery man, he peed on one of the boxes while Arlene was signing for them. Silly dog. I got a fancy new black Cuisinart food processor, which will be great for making Rachael Ray's pork and shrimp balls (and other things too, i'm sure). They also bought me a Henckels santoku knife for assorted slicing and chopping. Now just to learn how to use it so i'm not slicing off my fingernails (which, yes, has happened before).

I got a letter from Bob Lewis Volkswagen yesterday claiming that they're looking to fill holes in their used vehicle inventory, and offering to buy my Jetta and give me a deal on a 2005 VW of my choice. I made an appointment to see them this Saturday afternoon, although my best instincts tell me this is a bunch of bulls@$t designed to get me to the dealer. We'll see what they can offer me. V is becoming increasingly interested in getting a new Beetle, while i'd like to upgrade the Jetta to a Passat for the rear legroom ... i'm tired of sliding my chair forward whenever i've got passengers in the back. Since V is the one driving the VW to work these days while i suffer with the increasingly ghetto Tercel, buying the Beetle may make more sense. Then i can buy myself something else (a Honda Accord, perhaps?) later this summer when my bonus comes through. And go all Office Space fax machine on the Tercel. Perhaps i should also get my bike back in working order and try out riding to work. It'd probably take about a half hour each way and would give me a daily chance for much needed exercise.

First lesson learned from my listening statistics interface: my genres are absolute crap. Grouping east bay Spacemen 3/Jesus and Mary Chain wannabes B.R.M.C. in with shoegazing is only slightly less insulting than calling Joy Division "modern rock". Never mind the debate i go through every time i'm facing with calling a band "alternative", "indie pop", "indie rock", or "modern rock". Is labeling each band with their first entry in the Allmusic style list a workable approach?