Caitlin wants to buy a turntable. She bought a Janis Joplin album and wants to be able to play it. When I asked her why she would want vinyl rather than CDs, she told me that records are cheaper (the album was $5) and that the scratch and hiss would add a depth to the music that CDs lack. "Everything is too clean," she added, which might just be a comment on more than digital music.

The living room paint color has turned out to be on the mildly radioactive end of the yellow spectrum. Even at night it looks like the lights are on. This will be rectified when it is repainted with the more sedate powder room color, "Potato Chip". Always go with the food, I say.

Books: The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. About why and how small changes can create large effects. Hercules is sleeping with his head on it at the moment. Great examples, including discussions of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, and why two children's shows that are so vastly different from each other both succeeded.

Dreams: I was at a work-related seminar which turned out to be a Survivor/Apprentice combination. We all had to wear Hawaiian shirts and engage in some sort of hideous team building activities. At the end (I have no recollection of the details of the events, only a vague sense that they were distasteful) I walked away up a set of shallow stone steps accompanied by a woman who works for me - I wonder if we were the only two who survived. We were dressed in our regular clothes again and she had her rolling briefcase with her. It was rolling smoothly up the steps which must have become an incline. The next set of "contestants" were gathered around in their aloha attire, having a drink before their ordeal was to begin. I was thinking to myself that they had no idea what was going to happen to them.

Daily chronicles:
1. Worked. Again. More writing-by-committee. Stopped at noon today.

2. Went furniture shopping. Found many more pieces than I can possibly afford. Prioritization has never been one of my strong suits. Neither has money management.

3. Stopped by the mall to pick up a repaired watch. Tried on a diamond necklace that was, thankfully, too small.