It’s almost 5:00 AM and I’m wide awake. This isn’t usually a bad thing because it means I can get into work early. Here is the problem: I’ve been awake since 2:30. and unable to fall back asleep.

I woke up at 2:30 with a fever. About 4:00, I had shaken it but was wide awake by then.

Today is probably going to be a short day at work.

I’m a little disappointed but not surprised. For the American Idol fans who were cheering for Blake, you know how I feel.

No matter what, I still want Ben to fuck me.

The decision of whether to jump ship from Sirius to XM is philosophical, perhaps religious.

The big pro of leaving Sirius for XM would be the ability of have a receiver in my car without additional components. That’s huge.

The cons are the fact that I’ve been with Sirius for two years, know their programming line, and my sister’s receiver is on my account as well. I’d have to replace my unit and both docks.  But if I had one installed permanently in my car, I’d need another unit for home/work. On top of that, buying the XM receiver for my Civic right now is cost prohibitive.

The decision at the moment is to stay put. If, for no other reason, is that the merger of Sirius and XM could leave one type of unit out of date. By having an external unit, I am in a much better position regardless of how they merge/replace technologies. Besides, if I have the unit permanently installed in my car, I can’t go out and replace my unit with a newer one next year.

Having said that, I found the hardware on eBay for about $300.

I got on the scales this weekend and was a bit horrified. I’m at my heaviest weight in a long time. It’s time to do something about that.

I bought my 2007 Honda Civic from Kelly Honda of Lynn, MA. I’ve written before that dealing with them was a great experience.

Today, I had to take my new Civic back to the dealership for service. This was the first time I’ve been back to the dealership since I bought the car. My experience was pretty good.  They have a door that you drive up to for service reception. That’s right, I don’t have walk in and hand someone my keys. I drive my car right into the reception bay. The guy took my name and gave me a number to take to the service advisor. That’s when I met Chris, the service advisor I dealt with. Chris is a very hot man. Anyway, I explained that my car had a little bit of a shake when I hit 70 MPH and it sounded like I had a tire that was unbalanced. I thought it was the right front tired but not entirely sure. He told me to have a seat in the waiting room and he’d let me know when they had some information.

I sat in the waiting room that has a nice TV and a Keurig coffee maker with a nice selection of coffee K-cups. It was a nice way to kill some unproductive time. I had my laptop and wireless EVDO card so I was able to do some work.

Chris came back and said they balanced the two front tires and the balancing machine showed the tires were fine. He asked me to explain the problem in a little more detail and I explained what I was expereincing. He did tell me that the machine only rates tires at 65 MPH and that could explain it, but he wasn’t convinced. He said he’d talk to the mechanic and see what else they could do.

A little later, Chris came back and said my car was ready. He said that they pulled the two rear tires and balanced those. The right rear tire was out of balance. At least I’m not crazy. The cost of today’s repairs, zilch. That’s such a good feeling. I’ve never had my car repaired without it costing a small fortune.

Kelly Honda says they make it easy. Really, they do.

While I was there, I asked what it would cost me to have XM installed. I’d like to be able to control it on the dash without having an extra component mounted in my car. It’s kind of a religious thing. XM and Sirius have similar programming. The question is whether you prefer Martha or Oprah. Eh. I’ve been with Sirius for two years and love it. My only reason for changing would be to eliminate the additional hardware in the car. Honda only offers XM.  If I were going to have XM installed, I should have done it when I bought the car because doing it after market, it’s close to $900.  I’ll keep my Sirius receiver for now.

I’m sitting at the Honda Dealership waiting for my car.  I think it’s just a tire out of balance, and they’re looking at it. When I hit about 70 MPH, the steering wheel starts to vibrate a bit.

It’s weird not worrying about how much car repairs are going to cost. I love having a car that’s still under warranty.

Yesterday while Paul and I were in his car running a few errands, the XM station we were listening to was having a Star Wars Long Geekend to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of Star Wars. I had no problem with this at all, except for one little thing. They led off the advertisements with Live Long and Prosper.

Now any good geek will tell you that Live Long and Prosper is from Star Trek and not Star Wars.

Good god, am I that much of a geek?

I was poking around the internets tonight looking at gay-themed music and came across a link to the Matthew Shepard Foundation.  For those of you who don’t remember, Matthew Shepard was a 21-year old college student who was murdered simply because he was gay.

There is currently legislation in the US Senate called the Matthew Shepard Act. This needs to be passed, and more importantly, the president needs to sign this. If President Bush should veto this legislation, he’s going to see the gay community come out with a force that’s not been seen in a long time, and will certainly hurt the Republicans in 2008.

I can’t believe it’s been almost ten years since Matthew Shepard was murdered.  Our society has become more accepting, but we’re still not there yet.

While I was out walking Reggie tonight, I watched Lufthansa flight LH421 take off over my house. The flight is operated on a Boeing 747-400.

I’ve lived in this part of Boston for over a year now, and still to this day, every time I see a European airline flight come or go, I just giggle.

Reggie and I went out to Beth and Paul’s house for the weekend. Sam and Murphy did the same.

It was a great time, and we did a whole lot of nothing. Well, the boys played their hearts out. We ate. Beth prepared some amazing food.  Her lamb was amazing, and the fillets were incredibly well seasoned and perfectly cooked.

I took some pictures, and I can’t wait to see Paul’s pictures. Mine can be found on my flickr page.

Tomorrow it’s back to work. Above all else, I’m really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

My car has a tire that feels like it’s out of balance. There are only 1500 miles on that car, so I’m going to take her into the dealership on Wednesday morning and see what they can tell me.