Yesterday a bunch of us went out to the east side of St. Paul and went snow tubing. Quite fun!
For those of you without this experience, what we do is we get some big truck or tractor tire inner tubes, inflate them up nice and big, find a big snowy hill, climb up and then get on the tube and slide down at great velocity. Yeee-ha! Variations on the theme involve forming snakes (hook on to other tubers in a line and go down), forming stars or circles, trying to hit targets, going for distance/speed, etc. It can get pretty crazy. There is a tow rope that will pull you and your tube up to the top of the hill so you don't have to hike it all the time.
We did this for Lena's birthday about a month ago and this time we went out for Michael's birthday. Jennifer had a bad spill and Chris went flying through the air trying to save her. Very dramatic wipeout. She got a knock on the head, but was OK. We may go again in a week or two just for fun.

I forgot to mention that about a week ago I went and tested (ie: fondled and drooled over) the new PowerBook G4 Titanium. Amazing!
I can't believe this little tiny machine makes my desktop look like a wimp (at least until that G4 upgrade I ordered comes in). The feel of it is wonderful; sleek and light. The screen is stunningly sharp and huge and nice and did I mention HUGE?! And it has this little tiny border around it. Some reviewer said the border is so thin that it feels like your mouse cursor will just fly off the screen and I'd say that would be an accurate description. But it's a nice feeling.
Very responsive machine, too. It just seems that something so small would be slower, but running Final Cut Pro on it is no problem. Could you imagine having the PB G4 and a DV camcorder with Final Cut Pro?? You'd have a portable movie studio that you could haul anywhere. Whoa.
Anyway, I would like one, but not now. I have other things going on and my G4 upgrade is on the way.

Whew. Worked a long one today, but once in a while is OK. Hot job, has to be done, etc, etc. Glad I get overtime pay. I have a bit of a dilemma working OT, though, as several of my co-workers were laid off recently. Doesn't seem right.
There were some sort of forces in play earlier today and I almost didn't go to work at all. I was over on the east side of town and on my way back there was this big accident so I couldn't get back onto the freeway. I drove around until I found a route back. Then once I got back to town there was a big semi truck stalled on the exit ramp and I couldn't exit where I needed to, so I took the next exit. This is a valid route to work but contains many stoplights. Since I was already running late, I thought it best to loop around and get back on the freeway from the opposite direction. Took the wrong fork of the entrance ramp and ended up going back through the tunnel and heading south (I needed to go west). I was very flustered by this point. I decided to just head south and catch the crosstown out to work. I was about 25 minutes late (dang). Hmmmm...
I thought I was gonna write more, but now I can't recall. Too tired. Must go to bed now. G'night.

Ok, so my spider-sense was correct this time. When I arrived at work today I found out that they laid off four people last night and this morning. Shitty. And still there are meetings happening and general bad vibes going around... What a bunch of crap.
[update] make that six people. dang. I don't remember who said it, but it sums things up nicely: "There is no gold watch."

Ever get that wierd feeling like something is about to happen or perhaps even already has happened? I've had that feeling for the last two days at work. Eerie vibe feeling. Yet I don't know why.
Some Possible Vibe Reasons: (1) industry slowdown (2) industry lay-offs (3) odder-than-normal behavior by middle management (4) long mgmt meetings (5) furtive whispering and rapid walking (6) messing with people in stupid ways (7) all mgmt seems to suddenly have copies of "Who Moved My Cheese?" book which deals with change (8) corporate stock doing poorly (9+) several other things...
Of course, this could all be circumstantial and not related to anything, but I am not the only person who has noticed these things. Several co-workers have had their vibe sensors tingling for the past few days as well. It is all speculative and there isn't much else to do besides sit and wait...