Daily Report: Cold Cooled, Plans Planned

A car just drove by playing "Skid Row - 18 and Life" on the stereo. I strongly suspect that the average (non-English speaking / rudimentary-English speaking) Filipino knows more about "my" music than the average teenage American.

The rain is back again; the blue skies were just a tease. Epril made the pithy observation that the rainy season in The Philippines occurs in months that have "ber". Welcome to Janberary, I suppose... I suspect Feberary won't be much better.

In an earlier post, I had commented upon the theory that a panoply of squashed brethren might cause the local ant population to stop their march to my keyboard. I was wrong on 2 fronts: One, the ants were not deterred, although I did gain some petty amusement at watching them go from one mangled dot to the next, having what appeared to be a one-sided conversation ("Are you alright dude?") before getting squashed under my finger. Second, and more importantly, the source of my myrmicine victims was from within the keyboard itself, not without: The ants were only coming out of the keyboard before meeting their digital demise. I've got a qwerty ant farm.

Right... I agree: Life is a bit slow here at the moment. Moving on.

My tax return is on the way. I'm using it this year to open up a pizza restaurant in the larger town of Tagoloan, about halfway between Jasaan and Cagayan De Oro. Instead of a pizza hut, it will be a proper sit-down restaurant in a proper cement building. We'll also try to expand the menu a bit... although it's all very inchoate at the moment, so no details. I do know that I'm going to offer cable TV though: An experiment to see if a glowing boob tube will be enough to increase traffic of not only nonpaying gawkers, but also actual paying customers. The goal is to create a "hot spot" first, and a restaurant second... oh: Wireless internet. Good idea, Jil.

The highlight of my week is yet to come: Warren is coming back from Australia and is bringing dill pickles. (Mike Bird will be back after February first with even more dill pickles.) It's my standing order, and always will win you my perdurable gratitude: Dill pickles. Further, a bottle of Drambuie will earn you the body parts of select family members. Actually, that's another thing I want to try: Making some dill pickles... as soon as I figure out how to get fresh dill weed into the country. Perhaps as seeds?

Oh: A tortilla press too. I asked Bird to find one in the States while he is there. Tacos are next on the list.

Anyway, the Star Trek marathon continues unhindered. I'm about 60 episodes into the 178 of The Next Generation. After that will come Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Months and months and months. (And yes: It is a crutch to help me deal with the loss of my PlayStation 3.)