Year: 2006

Every Monday morning when I come into work I go to CalvinandHobbes.com, download the Sunday cartoon and print it out. It goes on the cubical wall along with a photo I have taken over the weekend or a picture of the Miata from whenever. Just my little attempt at personalizing my environment.

The comic site always has a banner ad at the top of each comic page displayed and there is always at least one pop-under ad to dismiss when I’m through reading. I’m not sure if this is the first time this particular ad has been there, quite frankly I’ve learned to tune most of them out, but I really like this one:

I think just the act of clicking on the “answer” says an awful lot about your IQ already….

I’m a Levi’s kind of guy. Once I made it to high school and started working part-time to have my own money, I swore I would never wear discount department store jeans again. My first pair of “real” jeans were some button fly 501’s, 32W x 34L.

These were my pants of choice for casual wear for many a year. By my late twenties I was a slightly bigger person than in my teens so my 501’s now came in 34W x 34L.

Somewhere along the line, in my thirties, bigger became better, in style and comfort, so I moved to the loose fit style, the 560 in 34W x 34L. The 560, in varying shades of stone washed was the mainstay pant in my casual wardrobe for the next decade or so.

In my middle 40s I decided that I baggy was more for the younger crowd, so I downsized my leg width by going to the relaxed 550 jean. Unfortunately my waistline had grown, what I could squeeze into a 34 waisted 560 jean had to be inside a 36 waisted 550. I was no longer a square, I had officially become a wide, as my pants size was now 36W x 34L.

A couple of years ago I lost 15 lbs and my 36 waisted pants were a little too baggy, but I was still not small enough to get into 34s. When we went jean shopping, much to my surprise Levi offered a 35W in some styles and I found some in a 505. They didn’t have any 34L though. Using my (now I know, faulty) logic, I bought some 35W x 32L 505 jeans. You see the 34L has always been a touch too long, but my fear of the dreaded “highwater” look has kept me from going with anything shorter. A couple of months was all it took before I actively searched out some 35W x 34L 505’s.

My last pair of faithful 36W x 34L 501’s are getting too worn looking to be seen in polite company, so I am looking for a new pair. My now slightly slimmer waist will still not allow a 34W pant to fit, I tried today, too snug, but the 36W is too loose. The 34L is doable, but a bit shorter would be perfect.

Levi’s just doesn’t make 501’s in a 35W x 33L. I’m an odd man in an even world…

While not terribly loud, it was annoying enough for my wife to wake me up at 2:22AM this morning to go shut off the PC.

Just figuring out how to get to the replacement parts area of the Dell website was a chore and then after drilling down thru the hierarchy to get to the fans I was greeted with a “We’re sorry” page, please call 1-800-357-3355. I was then shuffled off to the Philippines to order the fan. But before I could actually get the woman to order the fan I had to politely refuse, twice, to buy some sort of computer service book especially tailored to my PC. It was also a minor fight to keep them from putting it my Dell Credit line (unused for the last 2-1/2 years after I took advantage of it to buy this very PC) and place it on my regular credit card. Total with shipping – $22.95.

In one of my attempts to find out how to order a fan, I was rummaging through the support forums and learned of a web site that sells Dell spare parts, Centrix International, but unfortunately, both of the fans listed as compatible for my PC were out of stock.