I knew it would happen sooner or later, but it still cracks me up. I didn't really spend all Saturday listening to Laika, the Lambrettas, Le Tigre, and Led Zeppelin, although you'd guess as much from a casual glance at my listening statistics page. Veronica and i started listening to the new Ladytron record on my iTunes, then we went out to run errands. Little did i know, Veronica had simply turned down the volume on the computer instead of stopping the player. As i had it playing songs in order, it went right through Ladytron and proceeded along the L's, until we returned hours later and while wandering past the computer i noticed the faint sounds of Led Zep's "Kashmir" emanating from it. Ha ha ha ha ha.

No, what really occupied me this weekend was getting the stripes up in our dining room. This alcove was primed by Arlene, Bob, and Veronica way back in July. The first coat of red was applied shortly thereafter, but then as we saw just how many coats it would take to effectively cover the walls, our effort dwindled. Just a few weeks ago Veronica took charge and put the finishing touches on the red. We were instructed to wait two weeks for the paint to dry before applying the masking for the stripes, which gave us the green light this weekend. I spent an hour and a half Saturday night trying to figure out how to most efficiently use my laser level, finally giving up and proceeding with an array of old school levels, pieces of paper, and tape. I finished only one wall that night, but the next morning i got up at 9:30am and, having perfected my technique, plowed through the other three in a scant four hours. Another hour later i'd masked the trim and V was ready to start adding gloss finish.

I then took some time to beautify myself before heading off to Lowe's while V took over in the dining room. We'd been there the day before, buying some supplies for the painting as well as picking up an electric hedge trimmer and a leaf blower/vacuum. Turns out the blower was missing some parts, so i returned it and while there picked up more painting supplies, and then headed to Petco for some doggie supplies (treats, mainly ... one track minds). Returning home, V had put up about 60% of the gloss. It's a subtle effect, and we're going to have to think about what lighting will best bring it out, but i like it. Classy. When i got up this morning, it looked really nice with the sunlight coming in the window.

As implied above, i also played with our new hedge trimmer this weekend, and found that if you accidentally get the extension cord near the blade, it makes all kinds of cool sparks as it shorts and severs the active power cable. Silly me.

I gave FIFA 06 some more time on Sunday night, and had a couple more thoughts. First, success in the game really depends on effectively using the right thumbstick, which controls "gravy" moves like feints, crossover dribbles, etc. In previous versions of FIFA these controls were available, but tended to be more of a source of confusion than anything else and were mostly ignored (completely, in my case). So this year i likewise ignored them, but found breaking down defenses to be incredibly difficult using only standard passes and sprints. When i tried using the right thumbstick on Sunday i immediately had more success in beating defenders one-on-one. There seems to also be some new feature using the right thumbstick that allows you to shield the ball from defenders and thus better maintain possession, but i haven't discovered that yet. The spectacularly slim instruction manual is little help. My other conclusion from the weekend's gaming is that the game plays as if stuck in a tar pit. My attackers seem to be in a drug-induced daze, while my superstar defenders routinely get bamboozled by mediocre opponents. I suspect there are more critical controls of which i'm ignorant, but i do believe that EA has a big problem with tempo.

I woke up Saturday morning to find Chelsea had come from 1-nil down to ring up 5 second-half goals on Bolton. Didier Drogba continues to give a hearty "f@$# you" to all his critics, scoring twice and setting up one of Frank Lampard's goals with a great back heel in the box. Lampard is doing the same to everyone who claimed he's overrated after starting the season in a dip of form. Arsenal meanwhile lost to lowly West Brom, somewhat predictably as it seems that every big name Arse player is nursing an injury at the moment. Manchester United continue to lurk as our closest rival, but for now we've won 27 points out of 27, and are 9 points clear of second place Tottenham. Life is good.

I've now got my name on two preorder lists for the Honda Civic Hybrid 2006, due to come in later this month, as well as on the preorder list for the 2006 Toyota Prius, arriving in November. I'm leaning towards the Civic, but we'll see. The Prius is outselling the Honda hybrid by nearly 4 to 1, but there may be a multitude of reasons for that. One i've heard repeatedly, to which i give some credence, is that hybrid owners want others to know that they're driving a hybrid. The Prius has a funky, futuristic body shape that is instantly recognizable, whereas the Civic hybrid is indistinguishable from the conventional Civic except for the little "hybrid" tag on the rear. I think this is true of hybrid owners, but as for me, i could care less about letting everyone know how eco-conscious i am. As long as i get the gas mileage, i'm happy.

Everyone in my department is in Denver this week for the annual big radiation oncology meeting. One year i'll go to that, but for now i'm staying put as i shot my conference budget on going to Germany. No worries, i'm more than happy to get some peace and quiet here.