Monday 7:46 am London time.

What the fuck am I doing up at this hour?  Well to be honest I got up at 6.45 to try and win a pair of cowboy boots on eBay.  And I was doing great, up until 15 seconds before the end of the auction when two vicious, and obviously uberexperienced, snipers took me down.  Ah, what the hell.  $220 is a lot of money for cowboy boots that probably won't fit me when they get here, right?  So I made do with another pair at $40.  That eBay shit is genius, isn't it?  Like a cross between an auction and Virtua Fighter 6, or summat.  I currently have about 5 pairs of cowboy boots wending their way towards me from my Chicago drop-point.  What the hell is wrong with me?

Yesterday, on the way back from the gym I stopped at a shop to buy a Sunday paper.  There was this guy and girl in line ahead of me, with one of those enormo-prams filled with a baby.  I say filled with a baby because I never heard it or saw it.  So, the guy is messing around with the cashier, whatever whatever, trying to find the change to buy this can of nutrament power milk protein drink (what is that stuff? this must be discussed) and while he is messin' about he picks up a charity can from the counter - you know the kind you put your spare pennies in for starving babies or cancer or whatever - and he hides this charity can in the one of the folds of the enormo-pram.  I have my ipod blaring so I have no idea what he is saying to the cashier (but I'm sure it wasn't "I am here from the Cancerous Babies Institute to thank you for collecting on behalf of our charity and to claim our pennies".)  Now the crazy thing is I did NOTHING about it.  The guy looked like trouble, the enormo-pram was blocking my path to the door, the cashier looked weak, and... I did NOTHING about it.  How fucked up is that?  Am a I total shit, or what?  Thinking about it later, I blame my semi-depressed state of mind, my concern for Gandalf, all of these things.  I am not my usual feisty self, that is for sure.  But for shame, for shame.  My karma points just took a beating.

On the subject of Gandalf, he is really improving, eating real food, conversing, worrying about people, even reading a bit.  These are all fantastic and wonderful signs that he is regaining his powers.  Now we just have to figure out how to break the spell placed on him by the Dark Side.  Yes, I know, I'm mixing my metaphors, but give me a break.