Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Vanessa Turns Five
Today was Vanessa's fifth birthday. Not much in the way of hoopla today, as we are holding off on the celebrations until the weekend, when we are holding a sleepover for a few of her friends. So, just a congratulatory hug on the home front.

I can't help but think it ironic that Erika's mother suggested that we not tell her exactly which day her birthday is, and then Vanessa gets a load of presents from her when she came around for a visit. Nice presents though: in particular, a hand-made patch-work skirt that Vanessa was very proud to show off to me when she got home. So that Annie wouldn't get jealous, Nancy gave her a new winter coat: a pink puffy one with the girl cat from the Aristocats on the front. She too seemed very proud about it and showed it off as well, wearing a big happy grin while walking around the house in it.

It was a busy day for all of them today. This being the start of Chinese New Year, Vanessa's class went around the school dressed up as a dragon -- something that they've been working on all week. Another school activity which shows how much things have changed since my time at public school -- and I can't help thinking that it is a change for the better. While Vanessa was in school Erika took Annie along to the local kids haircutting place for her first-ever professional hair-cut. Despite Erika's claims to not being a sentimentalist in any way, she told me she kept some of the hair cuttings for Annie's scrapbook. ;-)

I Buy a Notebook Computer
I dropped by the local CompuSmart the other day and scanned the low-end notebooks they had for sale. I was surprised to find what I thought was a really good deal: an IBM ThinkPad model R31 with a 40GB hard drive running at 1.13Ghz for $1,299. I've been thinking about buying a replacement notebook for a while, pretty much ever since the Toshiba's screen gave up the ghost, making it effectively a non-portable. Today during my lunchtime at home I ventured downtown and picked it up. Very nice. What I hadn't realized is that it has a built-in wireless connection as well – a feature Erika is bound to like, since she'll be able to use the notebook in the living room sans cables, once I buy a wireless station to connect to my local network switch. It's note as fast as the very latest models, but since I expect primarily to use it for writing purposes, and yet be fast enough to play video files. ;-)