Well, it's Wednesday afternoon, and that means that I'm not at work. It's a beautiful day outside, which I suppose expleins precisely why I'm sitting inside right now. Don't get me wrong - I'm thinking about doing something productive outdoors like clean the interior of my car - I just thought I'd take a little time to indulge you, my reader, with a bit of an update as to what I've been doing in the last several days.

Last Friday night, Dave finally cashed in the boot. Dave's dad had payed for a boot for Dave at Old B a few months back, but Dave had never cashed it in. He was saving it for when Corey got accepted to Madison. Well, Corey didn't get accepted to Madison, while Dave is moving back to Madison later this month, so the time seemed right to finally drop in at Old B and drink the boot. Matt and Ben were next door at Deja Vu, so they stopped on over and assisted in the consumption of the boot. I didn't really have much to drink that night, but there was something about the beer that made me feel like ass the next morning.

Storms rolled through briefly on Saturday. One lightning strike knocked out power at the airport for about 15 seconds, but then it kicked back in. I'm not sure if that was the result of the generators or not. There was no noticable difference, unlike last year when the power went out for several hours due to a lightning strike, and all we had were minimal lights and the Muzak. The party at Trish's in Brillion was that night. Having had to close as usual on a Saturday night, I couldn't get there until late. I picked up Hilari (who wouldn't have gone had I not given her a ride) and drove out there. Michael was the only other person from work who was there when we arrived. I'm told others were there earlier, but left before we arrived. Corey showed up a little later with Dave in tow. We drank, played darts, ate some chips, and shot the shit, but never got drunk enough to act like buffoons. We left that silliness to Kyle's friends and coworkers. We left a little before 2, and I hear the party didn't last long after that. The drive back to Appleton had me stuck behind a Calumet County sheriff's deputy, who was purposely driving slowly to piss me and other drivers off. Where 10 meets up again with 114 and becomes 4 lanes, I pulled into the right lane, and the sheriff's deputy promptly decided to be a dick and drive in my blind spot all the way up until I turned on Oneida. This is incident numero uno of cops being dicks in today's entry.

Okay, so then there's Sunday. Mother's Day. The family got together at my aunt and uncle's house on the southside. I had to leave about 2 to hurry home, change, and get to work. Knowing what I know now, I should have called in sick. Our 5 o'clock arrival from Detroit arrived on time, but the captain wanted to board up and head out early, as storms were moving into the Detroit area. Dispatch had agreed at first, but then changed their minds and put the flight on a ground hold. I stayed around the gate area waiting to see if we'd get an update and could send the plane out. Our 6 o'clock arrival from Minneapolis also came in on time, so we had to put them at a different gate. Seeing that weather was moving to into the Minneapolis area also, I asked the captain if they'd be getting out on time. He made some phone calls and discovered that they were also being put on hold. I ran back-and-forth from one gate to the other seeking out information for three hours straight. Most of the news wasn't good - like when the Minneapolis captain told me that weather had deteriorated there, the airport was evacuated, and flights were diverting all over. Eventually Minneapolis got the okay to board up and leave, but just as they were being sent out, word came in that the Detroit crew was going to time out due to the hold and that flight was being cancelled. Of course, by then it was too late to put anybody on any other flights, so everybody had to be moved to Monday. Word then came in that the overnight from Detroit was cancelled, so we got to work on our nightly duties. When it came time for our Minneapolis overnight to board up, it appeared we still didn't even have a plane, so we made several phone calls - most of which were met with busy signals - before Michael got through and received word that that flight had also been cancelled. With more paperwork to do, I still didn't get out until 12:40.

I needed a drink badly, so I decided to stop down at Jekyll's. Travelling my usual 7-8 mph over the limit down College Avenue, I had a cop in desperate pursuit of a donut fly by me going at least 5 mph faster than I was. I thought little of it when he turned off onto Badger. What threw me was when the same cop darted out of the Tastee Bakery parking lot 3 blocks down and pulled up next to me at an intersection. I looked over at him as he pointed at me, yelled, "Hey!", and signalled for me to roll down my window. This was the conversation:

• Stupid Pig: What's the speed limit around here?!
• Me: Uhhh... 25?
• Stupid Pig: Start driving it! (yelled as he peeled out around the corner toward the cop shop)

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of law enforcement, but this stupid pig, as with the one the day before, drew to mind some serious questions. The first question is: Is it legal for cops to drive around harrassing citizens and attempting to coerce them into breaking the law? I know the cops around here are bored and need something to do (especially since Dunkin' Donuts closed 8 years ago and the new Krispy Kreme hasn't even begun construction yet), but don't we have real crimes to solve? Have they bothered finding Laurie Depies yet? Are they still on a non-quota quota system? On any given day driving around this town, I could easily hand out upwards of 50 moving violations, but the cops in this town are completely invisible before dusk. Even between dusk and dawn, the cops in this town only exist on three streets: College Avenue, Wisconsin Avenue, and Richmond Street. If one is ever interested in perpetrating a crime in Appleton, I suggest avoiding those three streets and you're golden. My other questions is, and if there are any lawyers or members of the law enforcement community out there reading this, perhaps you can answer: What federal, state, or municipal law is the one that gives police the right to break the law. I'm not refering here to laws that give police the ability to turn on their lights and sirens and speed off to the spot of an emergency, because I know about those. No, I want to know precisely where it is stated that police officers can speed all over town. I want to know where it is stated that cops can drive extremely slow just to hold up traffic. I want to know where it is stated that cops can pull up to intersections and never use a directional. I want to know where it is stated that cops can run stop signs and red lights. I want to know where it is stated that cops who don't feel like sitting through a red light at night can simply flip on their lights and cross. I want to know where it says that cops can follow, tailgate, harrass, coerce, intimidate, lie, and do all the other things that they do that blatantly break the law. If one of you can tell me, I will gladly post it here, otherwise I want to know why any citizen of this country should have even one iota of respect of the dispicable trash that tries to pass itself off as our law enforcement community.

Enough about that... it's time to get to Monday. With all of the cancellations and delays, I didn't figure there was any way that I'd actually get on a flight out of here to head down to Memphis, so I was surprised to find that I'd be able to make it on the noon Saab to Minneapolis. Harry and I rode the new tram down to the middle of the C concourse and ate lunch at Fridays. I think the plane down to Memphis must have been only 2/3 full. I had a window seat in exit row of the 757, where I was surrounded by pilots hitching a ride down to Memphis. Seated in the aisle seat in the row in front of me was a girl bearing a remarkable resemblance to Kate Winslet. I'm certain that she caught me several times checking her out as she got up to fetch something from the overhead or to use the restroom. I also noticed as we left the plane that she had a ring on her finger. After checking in at the hotel and tossing our stuff in our rooms, we met up with Jen and Gary in the lobby. The 4 of us took a cab down to Beale Street. We first stopped at Dyer's for dinner. We then moved next door to Wet Willie's, went across the street to Pat O'Brien's, went down the street to Club 152, and came back to Alfred's. About 11:30 we were going to stop for one more at the Hard Rock, but they were closed. We were going to try Pat O'Brien's again, but they were also closed. WTF?! We gave up and decided to just hop a cab back to the hotel. I still couldn't sleep and ended up not going to bed until about 2:30.

Wow, this is getting to be one long entry... and I'm still not done! I got up early (by my standards) to get ready for class. I hopped in the shower, but when I went to get dressed, I realized that I forgotten to bring deodorant along. Fuck. I got dressed and went down to check out of my room. Thankfully, they had deodorant at the front desk, so I went in the lobby restroom and put some on. Whew. When I came back out, Harry was waiting for me in the lobby, so we caught the shuttle to the airport. Having arrived plenty early, we stopped for breakfast at McDonald's, where the carbonation was broken on the soda machine. Eh, I had orange juice instead. Class flew by fairly quickly, and after taking the test, I checked my flights home. The Minneapolis flight looked to be pretty tight, while the Appleton flight was booked solid. Rather than take my chances, I just rebooked myself on a Green Bay flight. The Minneapolis flight was full, but I lucked into one of the last seats - a center seat - between crotchety old man and breast-feeding mother. It wasn't the most comfortable flight, but I made it. About 45 minutes into the flight, the woman seated in front of me screeched and handed something to the man in the aisle seat, telling him to toss it in the aisle. She pleaded for someone to stomp on it. I didn't see smoke, but my first thought was that it was on fire. Breast-feeding mother stomped on it. Turns out there was a scorpion on her book. Neither she, nor anyone around her, knew from where it came. The flight attendant picked up the carcass with some napkins and tossed it in the garbage. Arriving in Minneapolis, I chose to go to the Green Bay gate instead of the Appleton gate. I would late find out that there ended up being 5 seats open on the Appleton flight after all. Anyway, I checked in with the gate agent, and she was nice enough to put me in first class on my first flight in the ARJ. We arrived in Green Bay about 6. I hadn't been there in so long that I had forgotten how much of a dump the Green Bay airport is. Now that I was in Green Bay, I needed to get back to Appleton somehow. I knew I could use a cab voucher, but first I had to find a cab that would take one. I tried a Yellow Cab parked out front first, but he wouldn't take my voucher unless he had it in hand right then. I, of course, wouldn't have one until I got back to Appleton and could fill one out. I then called Astro Taxi, and that dispatcher said he had to check to see if he could accept them. I called home to tell my mom that I'd be home as soon as I could find a cab. I then called back Astro, the dispatcher said he could take a voucher, and he sent a driver out to the airport. The ride back to Appleton seemed to take forever. We arrived at the airport, I wrote him out his voucher, and that was that. I got home and ate dinner with the fam, and then flopped down on the couch exhausted and fell asleep by 8:30.

I guess that brings us up to today. I have just one more topic I want to hit upon: highjackers. No, I don't mean airplanes or cars or boats, I mean computers. I must have downloaded some something back about a month or two ago and now my computer has been taken over. It only really affects my browsing, but it's really annoying. It changes my homepage all the time and it brings up other websites when I use Google. I've tried various different programs to get rid of it, but I have so far been unsuccessful. Any suggestions?

That's enough for me today.