As this post gets posted, I’ll be wrapping up my third week of this damned class. Yeah, I know it’s pretty much all I’ve been talking about, but this is the thing that’s been consuming my life for the entire month of August. I haven’t seen my family in two weeks. The recumbent stationary bike in the hotel gym is starting to get grooves for my ass in it’s hard plastic seat…yeah.

…and I was stuck away from home on my birthday. Yeah. Said 44th celebration of the day of my appearance as a unique being in this universe was spent knocking out yet more PowerPoint presentations, studying for the third of four “Celebrations of Knowledge”, eating a salad I packed in my hotel kitchenette the night before for lunch, and thankful for at least being able to share my frustrations with my teammates.

Oh well. I had some local-ish (within fifty miles or so of where I’m sitting) and appealing to long-ago memories beer (see below), a weekend on the horizon (even if it’s kind of a weekend alone), and the knowledge that come Friday afternoon, I’ll be able to count on one hand the number of days I have left in this very special hell.

Yeah, kinda grumpy. See the wall post from yesterday. Anyway, enjoy this view of my birthday beer; LBC‘s Strawberry Wheat. ‘Tis not bad.

Oh, since it’s that time, here’s some music, spun off my own personal laptop’s hard drive this time, full of tunes I haven’t really heard in a while, but still punctuated by friends.

1. “Handy” – “Weird” Al Yankovic
2. “NaNoWriMo (Dance Remix)” – John Anealio
3. “One Brown Mouse” – Jethro Tull
4. “Body Talk” – Ratt
5. “Mislike me not for my complexion” – Valentine Wolfe
6. “There Was A Time” – Guns N’ Roses
7. “Queen of Argyle” – Pandora Celtica
8. “Waiting For A Moment to Call Our Own” – The Badlees
9. “Wait & See (Risuku) – Utada Hikaru
10. “Here For The Party” – The Donnas
11. “Among The Heroes” – SJ Tucker
12. “Free to Decide” – The Cranberries
13. “My Evil Twin” – They Might Be Giants
14. “Take Me Anywhere” – Tegan & Sara