Apparently, whoever sets off the Fourth of July fireworks in the big public park near where I live decided that since the Fourth was on a Wednesday this year, they wanted to do the fireworks on a more convenient day.

So they’re doing them right now. They’ve been booming away for about the last 20 minutes. It’s not even the first of July yet. Am I the only one who finds that really, really bizarre?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go peel Chaplin off the ceiling.

I knew Chaplin wasn’t going to react well to me being back at work all day today, after being home with him for the last 2 months.

Puking all over my bed, though…that’s a new one.

Bad kitty. Good thing I was already planning on doing laundry tomorrow.

No, I am not getting an iPhone.

I had a very bad experience with Cingular in college, and even though it’s now AT&T, you still couldn’t pay me to deal with those assholes again, I don’t give a shit if the iPhone turns lead into gold or whatnot.

At least I’m saving myself $600!

When I found fleas on Chaplin, one of the first things I did was order up some Frontline Plus, having gotten assurances from several other pet owners that it will keep fleas off him for good.

I bought it from an “Amazon Marketplace” seller who listed her location as Wisconsin for about $20 cheaper than I’d been able to find it elsewhere online, and waited.

Usually when I order stuff from anywhere in the US, it takes less than a week to get here even with slow-boat service since the mail service in LA is actually pretty efficient.

It still wasn’t here as of Monday night, so I was wondering where the hell it was since my credit card got charged for it last Saturday.

I emailed the merchant, and she said “Oh, I use a drop-shipper, so I’m not sure when it was shipped. It should be there in the next couple of days though.”

I went down to get yesterday’s mail this morning, and I realized why it took so long: The drop-shipper was in Australia.

What’s really funny is the drop-shipper put a receipt in with the Frontline, despite a specific request from the Amazon merchant not to printed right on the receipt. I could see why: It showed the price the person I ordered from paid, which was $18 less than I paid her.

I think next time, I’ll order direct from Australia.

The cast is off! Sadly, I still can’t itch the scar because I’m still gauzed up, but at least the stitches are out (that, by the way, hurt like a motherfucker) and I can wash three weeks worth of crap off my leg.

It’s still pretty goddamn sore, and I can see a gigantic bruise peeking out from under my bandages at the site of the incision.

The good news is that for the most part, it doesn’t hurt when I’m not putting pressure on it, which is a distinct improvement from its pre-surgical state. The doc also said it’s making good progress.

Walking, if you can call it that, is still a fairly slow, painful process because of how badly my leg has atrophied, though it’s quite a bit better than it was when the cast first came off yesterday.

I start back with Physical Therapy on Friday, and then I go 3 nights a week for the next month and a half or so. It’s going to be a colossal inconvenience, but I’m ready. I want this nonsense done with.

I’m not counting any chickens, but it’s looking a lot more promising than it was.

This is why you should not give nerds like me a new computer like the one that showed up on my doorstep two days early today. Because we will do shit like this:

The good news is, by running a benchmark test that compares the same stuff on both computers, the new one is 5x faster (got a score of 107 on the new one vs. 22 on the old).

Now, to finish reinstalling nine tons of software…

A cast itches, there’s no two ways about it. It’s absolutely maddening when it’s in an area I can’t reach, but usually if I ignore it, it goes away pretty quickly.

The one thing that’s making me batshit crazy right now is the place where my stitches are itches. And it won’t stop.

I could reach it to scratch it if I found a long enough item to scratch with, but I’m supposed to get the cast off and the stitches out tomorrow, so I can’t risk a) ripping stitches or b) getting anything infected.

So I have about 13 more hours to sit here, trying to ignore the massive itch on my foot, and hoping this at least goes away long enough for me to get some sleep.

Why is my new computer still bouncing around Shanghai tonight? Why is it not in my hot little bored little hands?

Oh well. At least it’s in FedEx’s hands now. I guess I’ll distract myself by continuing my Shield marathon.

Edit: Yay, now it’s in Anchorage! I’m going to drive myself crazy with this.

I’ve been catching up on the first couple seasons of The Shield, since, thanks to the cheap-ass deals I get at the Fox studio store, I have all 5 seasons available on DVD. I’ve also got the whole 6th sitting on my TiVo, but I hadn’t gotten around to watching the first 3 seasons until now.

I’m also told that it’s a good idea to get a refresher on earlier seasons before watching season 6. For the love of god, tell me no more.

The problem is that the show is so damn good, I keep forgetting to go to bed until the DVD finishes. I’m 2/3 of the way through Season 2, I think at the rate I’m going, I may finish all six seasons by sometime next week.

This cannot possibly be healthy.

I was a real goody two shoes when I was growing up, so I’ve never actually been grounded. Lately, I feel like I’ve been getting a taste of what I missed out on.

It’s been about six weeks since the first cast went on, and I’ve barely left the house. I do still have TV privileges unlike a grounded teenager, but I don’t have much else.

Even when I could sort of walk after the first cast but before the surgery, the longest I’ve been out is for a few hours.

I bought a tank of gas before the first cast. Even picking up and dropping off my mom at LAX, it’s still half full.

I’ve got another week in the cast and then a couple days of trying to decrease the atrophy enough to come back to work.

All I want is to get out of the apartment to do more than wash all my bedding or get the mail.

Why does it feel like it’ll be a fucking eternity before I can do that?