So the news is that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are dating. I heard they have a nickname already - "Tomkat". Spicy.

Work has been very busy. Since I am surrounded by other engineers I try to be constantly vigilant in preventing myself from becoming too nerdy. For example, no matter how convenient it might be, I refuse to use my front shirt pocket to store pens, pencils, highlighters, etc. I'll either just hold them in my hand or put them in my pant pocket. When there is a wall full of Dilbert cartoons at someone's cubicle, I limit myself to reading only one, instead of spending 10 minutes reading all of them. I also tell myself not to laugh too hard at them even if they are very funny and true.

Last week I went to look at townhouses. It was cool to walk into a place and envision where I would put the furniture, where I would watch TV, eat, play poker, etc. However, I was disappointed with the selection and surprised to see how much these places cost. There were a few that I liked, but every one had at least one or two significant drawbacks to it. It was like "this one's perfect, but it only has a one-car garage". Or "this has everything, but the property tax and assessment is way too high". "This one is cheaper, but it's too far from work and I don't like the area". "This one has great location, but it's too old." And so on.

I'm thinking about getting a new phone soon. The T-Mobile Sidekick looks kinda cool. Also a PDA phone or Blackberry might be nice too, but I'm not sure how charges would work for those. Kinda sucks cause if I get a camera phone, I wouldn't be allowed to bring it into the building where I work. But most of the newer nicer ones have cameras. What shall I do...

A couple weeks ago I was watching some NBA highlights on Sportscenter and one of them was a vicious block by Josh Smith on an Allen Iverson breakaway layup. I was like wow, that's gotta be a horrible feeling for AI, the veteran getting embarrassed by a rookie like that. Actually it reminded me of when Iverson was a rookie and in a game he faked Jordan out of his jockstrap with a wicked crossover move. A similar "changing of the guard" feeling about the moment. Not that AI (or MJ back then) is done yet, just a sign that the next generation is close to taking over.

One of my bosses was telling me about how he and his wife have golden retrievers and train them for those dog shows and stuff. Immediately I thought of the old original Triumph episode: "pekingnese, you suck!!". Classic. I asked him if they breed too, and he was like "well, we just got a bitch and we'll find out if she's ready in a few months." Does it make me a crass individual that I almost LOL-ed in his face when he said "bitch" and didn't even flinch? I guess that is really what dog people call females. Who woulda thunk it?

As a "gesture of goodwill", China gave Taiwan some pandas. Sweet, it's nice to know that we can all be BFF again...