I enjoyed a busy birthday Friday.

The morning had me opening cards and presents. My first present, however, was Travis sleeping for a 6 and a half-hour stretch. Hurray! I collected many smiles and hugs before heading grudgingly off to work.

At the office, my phone rang off the hook, not with birthday wishes but with customers needing help. I juggled three or four customer issues at the same time, taking 20 minutes for lunch. I did get emailed greetings from family, which was a nice break from my work. I also had a nice chat with my brother Al, who was also celebrating his birthday.

I took my last call at 5:30 and headed home, where Kelly had made us a nice dinner. Afterward, I had a nice, lively chat with my parents. Then after lots of playtime with the kids, Kelly and I went to bed around 10 PM, after which Travis slept another marathon stretch during the night.

I know. Exciting, huh? But its all I really wanted. The best presents I’ll ever get are the smiles and the shrieking of “Daddy!!!” when I walk through the door. Who could ask for anything more?

The crummy weather this weekend got Kelly and me thinking about doing the indoor jobs that need doing. A large number of jobs involve painting rooms, so we headed down to our local hardware store for some paint samples.

Whenever I walk up to that wall of paint samples, my mind goes blank. I just can’t pick out any colors for a project – they all start to look the same! Fortunately, there was a couple behind us who were staring at a newly-installed kiosk. They were painting their house in pixels using Lowe’s Virtual Painter. This tool is the answer to my painting funk. I bought the last CD in the rack for $6.

The software lets you overlay a picture of your existing room with whatever paint you’d like to experiment with. You can then see what your room will look like in the shade you’ve chosen. Nothing makes choosing paint easier than seeing that color in your room with your things in it.

In our last house we wound up painting one room twice because we changed our mind about the color. You can do this instantly using the software. You can click through the rainbow. Very cool.

Its an impressive way to test-drive colors without the work, and a truly practical use for “Photoshop”-type technology. If you’re thinking of doing any painting, get this CD and check out the finished product before you lift a brush.

Now we just need to upgrade to the Pro version, which does the actual painting. I guess that version was sold out.

Former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson passed away today after a long battle with emphysema. He was 79 years old.

Nothing was more American than the Tonight Show, when Johnny use to tuck our country in for the night. You could turn on the TV at night and know that no matter what happened earlier in the day, everything would be all right.

His comedy will live forever in American culture. He was one of my heroes. So long, Johnny.

Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze.
Freezy trees made these trees’ cheese freeze.
That’s what made these three free fleas sneeze.

It’s the birthday of my twin brother, Al. Happy birthday, Al!

I woke up to the sound of a news helicopter hovering over our house. Probably filming whatever messy accident is on Capital Boulevard, one mile away, right now. The sound worked its way into my dream, though.

I feel totally lucky to get home in only 3:15. There was not one single accident in front of me the whole way. If there was, I’d have been pushed back another hour or more.

Before leaving work I weighed my options. Do I take the main roads, which were bound to be in better shape? Or, do I take the backroads, which were surely icier but free of traffic (and thus idiots)? I decided to take my chances with the backroads, putting more faith in my driving abilities than the city’s salting abilities. Turns out it was the right call.

The most unbelievable thing I saw as I sledded through some Raleigh neighborhoods was the people leaving their homes. I stared in disbelief as totally clueless people backed up their icy driveways and into the traffic stalled in front of their homes. Are people really this dumb?

Looking out the window of my home, I see a lot of the cars that usually line my street are not there. Lights in homes that are usually on are not on. I really hope that people made it home last night. Spending the night in school, or with your car in a ditch, would be brutal.

As I drove under the railroad trestle near the intersection of Hillsborough Street and Western Boulevard, I saw something that make me do a double-take. A big yellow Union Pacific locomotive was hauling freight right above me!

It took me a few minutes to conclude I wasn’t dreaming. You don’t expect to see Western railroad locomotives here in the East.

I got back home in one piece tonight, no thanks to our surprise snow and ice. Every single foot of road I traveled was covered in black ice. All of it. I went down hills that should have sent me screaming. I chugged up hills that had SUVs turning around left and right. I watched a lot of brake lights, but I made it. And that’s what counts.

To get here, I took Jones Franklin to Hillsborough to Faircloth to Wade Avenue. Wade moved pretty smoothly until I got to Capital, which was brakelight-city. I doubled back to Peace and then Glenwood, and headed north from there. Then I got on Anderson Drive, which became another parking lot, so I jumped onto a very dangerous White Oak Road to get me to Lassiter Mill. That worked out okay, and I soon found myself at the Six Forks intersection.

Crossing over the Beltline near the mall, I glanced down at the parking lot below me. There were wrecker lights blazing and stopped traffic. I was glad to be above the fray. I was 90 minutes into my adventure, but it was far from over.

I made my way through the North Hills subdivision, which was the scariest stretch by far. Dartmouth is very hilly to begin with, with lousy sightlines. Every hill was solid black ice. As I paused at the top of one hill, the car ahead tucked itself to the side, wanting a front-row seat to my certain doom. With parked cars on either side of me, I gripped the steering wheel, pumped the brakes, and essentially sledded through there with my breath held. Fortunately, I came through just fine.

Dartmouth led me to Hardimont, and then eventually to Pacific Avenue and Old Wake Forest Road, but not before crossing Falls of the Neuse, which was at a total standstill. Traffic was stopped on Old Wake Forest, so I took a moment to check in with Kelly. After twenty minutes of going nowhere, I did a U-turn back to North Market Drive and on back to New Hope Church Road, with the goal of taking Atlantic north.

New Hope and Atlantic had a cop directing traffic, so things went smoothly there. Behind me was an accident in front of Wal-Mart. Folks were wiping out everywhere.

Ah, Atlantic, part of my normal commute. Once on Atlantic, I moved along just long enough to make me believe I was home free. I was wrong, though, and stopped for 20 minutes in one place. Finally, things kicked into gear and I was going a whopping 20 miles per hour by the time I crossed Spring Forest.

Then traffic stopped again. A high slope on Atlantic was covered in ice and cars were taking no chances. I inched along at 2 MPH until reaching the top of the hill. Unlike the other drivers, I waited until the guy in front of me was safely out of the way. Then I eased down the hill with no trouble at all.

Atlantic turned into Litchford. I watched the van in front of me try to stop for the light at Harps Mill. He skidded into the right curb, smacking his front tire pretty hard into the concrete. No real damage to him, but I got even more careful at that point.

Up Litchford and into Durant Trails, my usual shortcut. My usual route on Hiking trail looked too treacherous, so I took a left onto Cub. Cub is a short hill down followed by a long straight hill up. Cars in front of me were turning around and coming back my way, but I had momentum. I chugged right past the SUVs and successfully make it to Durant. Whew!

I was thinking I was home free, but traffic for Capital backed up on Durant, blocking my neighborhood. I called Kelly when I was 100 yards away from the entrance and moving like a snail.

Down another slick hill before making a left turn onto Leslishire. By the time I got to Hobhouse, I was breathing easier again, though you can be damn sure I was extra careful coming up those steps and into the house!

Total time: three hours, fifteen minutes. I can’t complain, though, considering my coworker spent five hours, thirty minutes driving home.

Now its time for dinner, a drink, and hopefully sleep. Tomorrow I work from home!

If you’re leaving work early because you’re worried that the roads will be undriveable, you’ll only join the other idiots leaving work early and making the roads undriveable. Stay off the roads until they have been salted and sanded, m’kay? Otherwise, you’re part of the problem.

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