The phlebotomist who stuck me at the blood drive took forever drawing crosshairs on my arm, but then he missed. I appreciated that instead of digging around, he called over a senior nurse. She made a quick adjustment. A little twinge, but not too bad.

Apparently I really started to slow down at the end, though. A couple of nurses were scratching their heads and making me twirl the little squeezy ball instead of squeezing it. Maybe not enough water this morning, or maybe low blood pressure. (It was on the low side today even for me.)

Enjoying my traditional post-donation lunch at the Lincoln Street Diner a block away. Chris smoked some pork out back for today's pulled pork sandwich. Good stuff!

I guess my Sony HDTV is about five years old, or maybe six, and there's no reason it couldn't be perfectly adequate for another five or six. At 42 inches and seven feet away, it doesn't much matter that it's not a 1080p TV.

The problem is that the HDMI port (yes, it has just one) has been increasingly flaky. The picture often flickers or cuts out, and while sometimes it settles itself down in a minute, I often have to get up and go unplug and reconnect the HDMI cable to get the picture back solid for a while. (Yes, I've replaced the cable.)

I'm sure replacing the HDMI port in the TV would solve the problem entirely, but even if I could find someone who'd do that, I can't see schlepping this behemoth to a shop. (It's not a flat-panel device that can be lifted by one hand, but a rear-projection LCD TV.)

As a workaround, I'm doing most of my TiVo watching using the component cables, which have no such problem. That has a couple of drawbacks, though, in that the Apple TV and Blu-ray Disc player need the HDMI connection, and with the audio ports going to the TV alongside the component connection, they can't go to the Slingbox. (I use that rarely enough that it shouldn't be a big deal.)

Even if I weren't on an austerity budget until I get a full-time job, I'd feel silly buying a new TV when this one mostly works. One thought I had is that I could switch it with the newer 32-inch Samsung in my bedroom, but that would be noticeably smaller in the living room and the Sony would look ridiculous in the bedroom.

I suppose eventually I'll get a newer TV in the living room that'll slowly pay for itself by using less electricity, but for now, I'll make do with this one.

I upgraded my work desktop machine to Lion last fall, around when it came out, and fairly quickly got used to the fact that Apple reversed the previous scrolling behavior. I admit it was an odd thing for them to do, considering people have been using scroll balls and scroll wheels and the like on Macs for years and years, and having up suddenly become down and left suddenly become right is disorienting, but they made the reasonable assertion that people were getting used to a "direct" correlation between the way their fingers moved and the way the content on-screen moved thanks to the iPhone and iPad, and they were just making the Mac behave the same way.

Well, I finally upgraded my laptop to Lion the other night, and what I adapted to fairly quickly on the mouse scrollball has taken a whole lot of getting used to all over again on the laptop trackpad. Pushing my fingers up to push the content of a web page up is actually fairly straightforward, and I guess I've adapted to that already. What's really driving me nuts is scrolling around photos I'm editing. I guess that's in a different mental pigeonhole than scrolling around web pages, so my brain isn't picking it up.

I know I can turn it off, or switch back to the old behavior, but I'm refraining from doing so. I know I'll adapt eventually, again. In fact, at last June's Worldwide Developer Conference, the Lion developers made a point of calling our attention to the change, and saying that while there's a preference checkbox to restore it to what we were familiar with, they urged us to give it a week or two and promised we'd get the hang of it. It does feel pretty natural, and makes sense in the context of the similarity to the iPad behavior. The big difference is that on the iPhone or iPad, you're pushing directly on the content with your finger, and on the Mac, you're using a displaced control device, whether it's the mouse or the trackpad. Steve Jobs actually spoke once about the idea of a touch-screen Mac interface, and said it's just not natural to reach out to the Mac's screen the way it is to touch a phone or tablet screen.

It's official! I was asked a few days ago if I was interested in a 3/4-time temporary job in Ithaca College's marketing & communications group, I said yes, and as of this afternoon, I've got a job that should actually pay the bills. I start on Tuesday the 29th, right after Memorial Day.

The job will involve bulk e-mail communications to various groups including accepted applicants, statistical analysis of various communications' effectiveness, and helping implement a news and editorial management system. I'll be working with several friends, and some other folks I've come to know online, and it seems (from the outside) like a great group.

My new boss (one of the friends) understands that I'm still looking for a full-time job and might end up needing to leave before my three-month appointment ends, but if I don't leave and it's working out well, she can extend the appointment up to a year.

I'll probably also keep doing some hours at the bed & breakfast, partly to help them out and partly because I've got some financial catching up to do, and probably will for a while. My salary will be way less than I was making at Cornell, so I'll definitely still be looking for a full-time gig with a better salary. Meantime, I've certainly learned over the last seven months to live on less.

Millie, one of my coworkers at the Inn, leads a good life. She didn't always, but since she was adopted about a year and a half ago, after being rescued from an abusive former owner, she gets to relax. She spends most of her day curled up in a doggie bed in front of the fireplace in the dining room.

She's not a svelte doggie; she eats well, and often. In fact, she generally eats canned dog food with cut-up pieces of chicken apple breakfast sausage.

This afternoon, there wasn't any chicken apple sausage ready, so Lynnette put a little ham in her dish instead. She wasn't having it. She picked at it for a couple of hours, but really seemed unhappy. Before I left, I asked Lynnette if I should grab some sausage from the freezer downstairs and cook it up, and she said sure.

Before long, Millie knew what was up, and kept peeking around the kitchen door. When it was cooked, I cooled off one of the pieces under running cold water, chopped it up, and we gave Millie a fresh dish of just what she wanted! She seemed very happy.

Friday was a long day, starting with a couple of hours filling in for the morning DJ at WVBR. I followed the 24-hour marathon of the Rob n' Rege Show, and one bonus was the leftover coffee and donuts. :-) Then, after a few hours at the "day job," baking the night's desserts, I drove up to Rochester for John and Rupal's wedding celebration. They had a small ceremony earlier in the day, in a beautiful city hall atrium, and had pictures running on a laptop slide show during the party. The party itself was in John's sister's ridiculously awesome loft apartment downtown, which made me want to see if there are any old industrial buildings for sale around here that could be turned into loft apartments.

Saturday, I drove to my parents' house for a pre-Mothers-Day gathering, which guest-starred two family friends from France. It was the younger sister of the guy who'd come to visit us, and whose family I'd gone to visit, when we were in high school... and her girlfriend. If you followed that. I arrived in time to join the ladies for a brief guided tour of Dobbs Ferry. Marie-Pierre had been there with her family years ago, as a teenager, so they got to see some spots she remembered. It was my first time in a while swinging by the elementary school, which has had a couple of additions since I last looked. These things happen.

After this morning's breakfast, which featured Cap'n Crunch for Anne, who loves the stuff and wishes she could get it in France, I drove back for this afternoon's wedding! (The original plan was to be at a Mothers Day dinner in NYC.) This one was of Mark and Tammera, whom some of you may have met at my place or around town. Fun family, fun party, and a great setting, at the Thirsty Owl Winery.

I was tired enough last night to fall asleep shortly after midnight, and I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight. I guess it adds up to about thirteen hours of driving in 48 hours. (Wow, that sounds like a lot when I add it up.)

In other news, Alicia Silverstone is astonishingly awesome on "Suburgatory." It's a fun show, and she's a great recent addition.

Current Music: "The Mentalist"

A year ago was my highest recorded cholesterol level, but I must be doing something right. Last week's blood test had my lowest count since 2005, when I went on Lipitor. That's not a sign that I can stop taking Atorvastatin, just an indication that it's doing its job in conjunction with a reasonable diet and moderate amount of exercise.

My blood pressure this morning (130/88) was also as high as I can remember seeing it, but last week's was fine, and it's still nowhere near what George would consider a level to be concerned about. I'm much more commonly around 120/70.

I had over an hour to kill before I needed to be at the Inn at 2, but not quite enough time to bother going home, so I celebrated my good health by swinging by the Lincoln Street Diner. The sandwich special was the "Hot Mess." Salami, turkey, cappicolla, and provolone with pickles and hot pepper relish on marble rye, grilled. Wow.

Yesterday's early morning, after Sunday night's very-late night, was tough. I was in the mood for a nap when I left the Inn around 12:30, but had some errands to do, including giving a friend a lift to pick up kids at school. I was drifting off a little in front of the TV last night, but stayed awake long enough to edit the first half of the Castaways show photos and get them up to Facebook. I was in bed a few minutes after midnight, which is really early for me.

"...don't tell our kids!"

This morning's fruit course at the Inn was freshly sliced honeydew melon with a scoop of homemade lime ice cream. Nearly everyone opted for it. There was also a choice between apricot stuffed french toast and rolled omelet with asparagus, cheese, and pesto. I got to have a slice of the latter after breakfast was done. Actually, the same guest exclaimed that the potato casserole was the best thing she'd ever eaten. Reminds me a bit of Cracker Barrel's hashbrown casserole.

I noticed "Meadow Court Motel" came up on the CallerID when someone called this morning. They asked if we had a room available for two nights. Perhaps they were looking to upgrade. :-)

Getting up super-early to work the occasional breakfast is challenging, but I'm managing. Tomorrow morning, after tonight's grand finale at Castaways, I will probably be a zombie. It will be worth it.

Short form: Because Florida Panthers president and general manager Michael Yormark is a douchenozzle and a bully.

Long form: http://magazine.14850.com/articles/1204-devils-fan-yormark

Yesterday I guess I slept until a reasonable hour, but Friday and today I got up quite early. Friday was really early, as I did my first breakfast shift at the Inn. it's not that they will sometimes tell me I have to be at work and smiling at 7:30am; this was an opportunity to make up for the fact that we were all going to be leaving earlier than usual Friday, all for the hockey banquet.

I ended up not working the afternoon at all, which again meant fewer hours than I'd have liked for the day, but it also let me get a few things done before going to the banquet. Meantime, the breakfast was kind of fun. It brought back some waitering memories, that's for sure! Lynette showed me their written-out instructions for breakfast servers, which include delivering food from the right and retrieving plates from the left. I almost asked why they do it backwards, but I decided to just roll with it.

Friday evening's hockey banquet, followed by the usual festivities at Dunbars, were good! That really is a big huge family, and I'm glad it's a family I'm part of. The tradition at Dunbars of presenting an "endowed bar stool" to parents of graduating senior players who've spent lots of time and money at the bar, whether their kids can go out or not, is a great one, and some of my favorite hockey parents have been honored this way.

Today I got up early to meet Vanessa and Bob and company at the Carriage House Cafe for brunch at the crazy hour of 9am! I picked up her and Lauren en route, and we got there a little after 9, to discover there was already at least an hour wait for a table of six! The theory was that getting there so early would avoid that, but no such luck. The brunch itself, though, was out of this world. You won't be surprised by the Bloody Mary and coffee (as I tweeted, it's a bit of a pattern), but the brunch special was pretty epic! It was a potato rosti (pancake) over kale and cabbage salad, topped with rabbit apple sausage, a rabbit demiglaze, and a poached duck egg. I was kind of thinking the single egg was chintzy, and I wanted a second, but learning after the fact that it was a duck egg, I got over it.

In between was a fun afternoon at the Sheldrake Point Winery barrel tasting event, thanks to Vanessa being a wine club member there. We got to try several 2011 red wines still in the barrels, and several whites that have just been bottled, and there was a plate of interesting food pairings to accompany it.

After the official tasting event, we stopped in the tasting room to try some of the regular lineup. I'd heard that they'd just released their first Meritage (an American trademarked name for a Bordeaux-style blend) in a decade, and was glad to get a chance to taste it. I was very, very impressed. That wine's going to mature beautifully, and honestly, it's really drinkable right now.

I was feeling pretty sleepy last night, after the winery and dinner at the Nines, but I'd promised last night's Pixel DJ I'd get to his show and take some pictures, so I headed back out. Lots of pics, including some I really can't post. :-P Just a brief stop to visit the "Last Exit for the Lost" folks at WVBR on the way home, and I was still going to sleep at about 4. So, it feels later than it is. :-)

Current Music: "NYC 22"