In Other News
A new entry for the list of Things That Zoe Needs To Learn: Tact.

I'm tucking her into bed the other night -- cuddling up close, giggling, whispering in her ear, that sort of thing.

"Yuck, Daddy," she says with a sour face. "Somebody's making gas."

I shrug it off and keep playing with her.

"Oh, yuck, Daddy," she says, leaning away from me. "Your breath is yucky. You're making gas in your mouth."

Oh. Bad breath. Me. Oops, sorry. I try to kiss her goodnight but she turns away.

"No kisses, Daddy. You have gas breath."

My daughter, the diplomat.

Tuesday - May 11, 1999
Back Again, Again

Hi there. I'm back yet again. Yes, I was knocked offline again - really knocked off at the end, to where I couldn't log on at all. Up to that point I was online but muted, gagged, stifled: I could surf but couldn't send. I couldn't upload journal entries, my webcam was down for the count, I couldn't send any email longer than "Hi, how are you"… It was maddening. But as I say, I'm back again. I'm like a cat with nine lives, or a vampire that never dies, or a Phoenix that keeps rising from its own ashes. I'll be opening a storefront shop next week, by the way: Similes R Us. Watch for it. Like a hawk.

My ISP is Flashcom. Take heed and learn from my mistakes: Run, do not walk, away from ever using Flashcom. In a word, they suck. Their tech support department is a collection of feebs who are hard-pressed to operate the phone, let alone give advanced technical information relating to networking via a DSL connection. I finally had to bypass them and go to the people they get their pipe from, Covad, who finally got me up and running again. Now I can surf again, send again, interact again, and most importantly, upload again. Look forward to me uploading more entries in the future.

That's it for tonight. It's late, I'm tired, and I have a cram session ahead of me: I'm teaching an Excel class Thursday morning and I have until then to learn how to use Excel. I also have 17 scripts to read for a contest I'm helping judge, with my notes due in less than two weeks. I read one today and, frankly, I think the Excel cram will be less painful.