I finally received my elegantly engraved iPod (inscribed with my name only, no other clever little saying seemed as if it was something I wanted to see every time I picked up the iPod). It took me a while last night to get my laptop to recognize it – the laptop seems to have problems with any USB device, telling me that some random USB system file is missing when it’s in plain sight (which I tell the laptop in no uncertain terms). Anyway, I now have the iPod connected to my head via the Shure headphones I got for Christmas, which fit my ears as if molded specifically for them. The sound is amazing – I was finally able to hear the intro the Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne, and I can distinctly hear the fireworks in the background of this live recording. Now I just need to figure out how to get it to shuffle through the entire catalog of songs I have loaded. It’s rare that I want to listen to a specific artist or album, I’d rather listen to a random selection of songs. I also *really* wish there was a way to load a CD onto the iPod without going through the intermediary of the laptop. Technology is never quite perfect, is it? And speaking of that, when are we going to have wireless headphones for the iPod? I have a wireless headset for my phone at work, which means it could be accomplished. The iPod would just need to have a transmitter in it that the headphones could receive from. Much as I love these headphones, I’d love them even more if they didn’t physically tether me to the iPod, like an electronic umbilical cord.

Today: snow falling on spruces (well, it’s falling everywhere, not like the rain in the Truman Show that just doused Truman for a few seconds, but it looks especially nice on the spruces in the back yard). I filled up the bird feeder which will only add to the weight problem the squirrels have. It’s too cold to dig a new hole for the feeder to move it further away from the inkberry bushes so that the squirrels actually have to work for their food. A few birds actually show up every once in a while, although the cardinals that make their homes down in the brush at the bottom of the yard don’t seem to venture up here anymore. Nor do the mourning doves, the avian equivalent of Jethro on the Beverly Hillbillies - big and dumb.

Dreams: I was in California visiting with a B or C-grade TV actor. I can picture him, but don’t know his name. He looks somewhat like the guy who plays a supporting role on the TV show with Donal Logue – I think the show is called Grounded for Life. Anyway, this guy drove me to his house and was showing me all the rooms. I was astounded at the number of sofa groupings he had – at least six that I saw including one in the kitchen and one that was outside, which was a fully upholstered set, not patio pieces. I commented about this to a friend of his who was at the house and he said that the actor just liked to have a lot of places to sit. The sofas were all covered in rather 70s-ish brown and orangey rough-textured materials – the stuff that gets dumped at the curb because you can’t even give it away. Could this to be linked to my desire to get the furniture decision for the family room made?