The gods always seem to know when I have any extra money, because they love to throw expensive problems my way. However, this latest was not too bad--my monitor finally decided to give up the ghost, so I shelled out about half of what I made working Walmart xmas day on a new one. I drooled mightily over the nifty way-cool thin monitors (I'm not sure what the "real" term for them is, but they're seriously awesome) however, I simply could not find it in my budget to shell out over $300 for one. I really can't complain too much over the death of the monitor, though. It was the one that came with the first Gateway I bought, which means it has to have been over 5 years old. And, it did decide to die when I actually did have the money to replace it without really putting a dent in my budget. Mostly that was just money that I was going to put toward my motorcycle. So perhaps I still have favor with the gods.

My date last night was quite fun and enjoyable. He's incredibly intelligent, well-read, witty, and entertaining. At one point we were discussing books and I mentioned George Orwell's Animal Farm as an example of science fiction that is not usually considered science fiction, and I about fell over when he made reference to a specific scene in the book. I am so unused to being around anyone who is literate! Then the conversation moved on to 1984 and which part of the book we each found the scariest. Stimulating conversation! Joy! And while he is older (I have a sneaking suspicion he's closer to my mother's age than mine) I think I've reached an age where an age difference is not as telling.

Anyway, he took me to a very nice Italian restaurant out in the middle of nowhere, and afterwards we went driving around a bit, went out to the lakefront, and then went to a deliciously seedy dive to go dancing. Only drawback to the dancing was that we were both scanning the crowd the whole time we were dancing to see if there was anyone we'd put in jail in the crowd. (No, he's not a cop. Guess again!)

We're having lunch again tomorrow and I quite suspect we'll be having more dates in the future. Now we're betting on how long it will take for the grapevine to discover that we're seeing each other. I think that by the end of the day on Monday everyone will know.