Jen and I had a fantastic weekend together- after some serious issues were discussed, and we actually got to the point where we looked at splitting up. We went north to the Chadd’s Ford Winery and did some antiquing on Sunday, and then went to the festival on Sunday. I bought one of those handy picnic-wine carrier deals where it holds a cold bottle of wine and two glasses. Very nice- i always wanted one of those. Jen packed a picnic basket and we tasted wine, then bought a bottle and sat on the grass in the shade with each other. We didn’t want to leave.

Renie has all kinds of good news about Charles, her new flame; apparently they are officially an item. I am very happy for her- she sounds ecstatic about it, and with good reason. This is the best news I’ve heard for her in a long time, excepting the house, which goes to settlement on Thursday.

I read today that HP and Compaq are going to “merge” to form an “87 billion-dollar company”. OK. I owned a Compaq workstation- hell, I don’t even remember what it was now, about 3 years ago. I bought it from my employer at that time for $250, which was pretty steep but still a decent deal for what i got. Not six months later, in attempting to do something as simple as drop a larger hard drive in the thing, I fried the BIOS on the board because, and the exact details are now hazy, the BIOS could only be accessed by a special program inserted on a floppy disk. So I gutted it, bought a case and new motherboard, and salvaged the remaining parts. What a piece of junk. HP makes great printers in my opinion, but their computers suck just as bad. Good luck, guys.

Mr. Rogers is packing up the farm. I wasn’t even aware he was still around and doing new shows. All the cracks about a 50 year old guy playing with puppets and talking about the “Land of Make-Believe” aside, the guy had an impact on my life, in a positive way. Take care, Fred, and thanks for the memories. You, Sesame Street and the Electric Company were my daily education outside of the New Jersey Public School System. Which, I’m proud to say, taught me the difference between Your and You’re; (i.e. one is overused by stupid idiots) and their, they’re and there.