andamu

	[ trivia ] I am older than the Internet! "Well, duh," I would have been inclined to think. But that's only because I thought the Internet was much younger, much more recent. While I know all about DARPA net (well, some at least)
I never paid too much attention to the dates, and I had the impression that the late seventies were the key years. But no, the first experiments into the unconventional networks that brought us the Internet was done in late August of 1969. So yes, I am older than the Internet, but by barely four months.

:: [ meandering ] In some way I will never be the quintessentially American female, for I suffer a major character flaw: I dislike malls. Now, I don't hate shopping, or even window shopping - far from it. Malls just doesn't do anything for me. I think I get to a mall fewer than six times a year. And of those, three are probably around Christmas time. Most of my shopping is done in strip malls or stand-alone stores. I can't understand the sub-culture that has grown up around malls. And I'm not talking about the teenagers who use the mall as a social hang out - that I get. But I don't get the people who get perfectly dressed, coiffed and made up to go to the mall to buy the clothes and make up to allow them to go to the mall perfectly dressed and made up... ::

[ grind ] We get to the mall, park right at the store we need, get inside, find the items in question, get to the cashier, and when I want to pay, I can't find my wallet. I have my check book with me, but obviously no ID.

Luckily Nini has a credit card on my account, so she can push the plastic. I call home, a little worried, and ask mpo to check for my wallet. After some misunderstanding, he starts checking for the right thing in the right places, and can't find it. The only other option is that I left it at work, for I know I used it there on Friday. But I am 25 miles from home (and 26 from work) so we decide to finish up here first, and then check at work once we go home. Nini, in her wisdom, (1) wore new shoes to the mall, and (2) did not pack any plaster. So, having found the second set of items for which we came, we decide to head home. And can't believe that it is almost 7 p.m. when we leave

::

	Obviously I can't drive without my license on me, so I get to wave my camera around in the passenger seat again, especially as we cross the river.
Everything is bathed in that wondrous light when the sun is at an acute angle and most of the sky is covered in heavy almost-black clouds.

::

Fortunately my wallet is at my desk. And the sky is amazing. And we decide to circle the campus counter-clockwise when we leave, and get some astounding sunset views.
So in the end, all in all a successful afternoon, not the least part of it the fact that my precious one now has two brand new, very smart shirts, just in time for our "vacation" down to San Francisco.