Things that I have acquired today

1. Wedding present for Emily: matching Woot Shirts. Normally this kind of thing would make me gag, and I have no idea if she + hubby would actually wear them, but I don't really care because this present amuses me. The Suess-y artwork is also a plus. Besides, I never buy gifts from the registry. Other items I was considering include a bloodied chef's knife and tickets to the Louisville production of A Chorus Line (the Oct run is not on sale yet, wtf).
   



2. Google Voice number: In case you haven't been following this, in an ever onward quest to take over the world, Google is moving into phone and voicemail services. You can get a phone number through Google and link your mobile/cell/office number to this number, then tell your contacts to call the Google Voice number. This thereby frees you to switch numbers as you please, and you could foreseeably use this phone number for the rest of your life. I finally got an invitation to set up a gVoice number, and then faced the quandary of what to choose for my number. Like any good nerd, I started looking for numbers like 314-1592. Unfortunately, all the good variations of pi, e and the golden ratio appeared to be taken. There were also no numbers with the words "crystal," "cyclist" or "foodie." So, then I typed in:
   True, it is a dirty Jersey area code, but this was better than being stuck with something from say, Wyoming or Mississippi.


3. Plane tickets to Tokyo: Singapore Air is doing a special on roundtrip airfare to Tokyo from LAX for $473. Yeah, that's right. Somehow in the last 24 hours after Liz discovered this deal, we managed to convince ourselves that not taking advantage of this sale would be a travesty, and perhaps even a crime. So, we'll be trekking to Tokyo and Kyoto in November. I've already got my "Japanese in 30 Days" phrase book. Fugu, here we come!