Keeping consistent with my life thus far, a lot happened this past week. Attended a big charity auction for the local Children's Hospital with lots of big-wigs, it was a nice venue (Quest Center) and interesting environment with so many dressed up and people bidding thousands of dollars on unnecessary items (I know, it's for charity!). Big ice storm hit and so I experimented with it and drove out to see a matinee of No Country For Old Men - another excellent Coen brothers' movie. Drove down to Mount Hope, KS on Sunday night so I could be up early on Monday to get a small hole near my front tooth filled in. My dentist is very impressive (besides the fact that his office is in a town or population 800). Very quick and good at fooling me in to letting him do something painful without having time to react. My tooth looks very nice - good luck figuring out which one it was!

Spent a few days working in Wichita - lots of projects to work on. Took the parents out to see the Digital 3-D showing of Beowulf at the Warren Theatre. Truly amazing show! I HIGHLY recommend this - we had such a blast even though we had the dorky plastic 3-D glasses on.

Tuesday night found out from my neighbors that someone had broken into my house. Left work early on Wed so I could get back and have the police check things out (they wouldn't do anything other than a quick house check while I was away). On the drive up the mall shooting occurred near my home in Omaha. I found out about it from friends texting me before I heard it on the news. I called the police when I got home and an officer spent a few hours working on the report, talking to neighbors and getting the crime lab guy over for taking prints. The latter came over from the mall where he said he had seen "too many dead people today". President Bush spoke earlier in Omaha that day, then the mall shootings, then getting home...

As for my house, the thief broke in through a back door and stole ~$1500 worth of electronics. Mostly xbox hardware, peripherals and games. Yes, it sucks to lose such things, but the bigger thing is a) feeling less secure because of it (I haven't had a full night's sleep yet, very sensitive to any noises) & b) losing all of those saved games from the last 6+ years including my 100+ hours each in DDR and Morrowing/Oblivion. Needless to say I've more sensitive to securing my home and improving it as well. A great thanks goes out to my neighbors for watching my house, calling the police, and boarding up the broken door window as well as taking care of my kittens (of which TB has blackened paws as she apparently stepped in the powder used for fingerprints and is now leaving her mark many other places... argh!).

One of the residents at work told me a story. She asked her technician to get her something at McDonalds last week. The tech came back fairly late and unhappy - said she had horrible experience, bad service and yelled at McDonald's worker. Apparently the guy she worked with was the same one who got fired last week and then went on killing spree in the mall on Wed. Trippie. Also, while I expected this, saw a letter to the local editor stating that this crime was due to growth of secular humanism and turning away from Christianity. This knee-jerk reaction always disgusts me (as it happens after every tragedy).

On a lighter note, the week ended with friends and games. Also watched Labyrinth ('86) and remembered how much fun it was to sing-along and dance to David Bowie in it. Also, here's a line I didn't pay attention to 10+ years ago when I last saw it. Jennifer Connelly says "Sorry Hogwart" to Hoggle, the dwarf. I wonder if JK got the name from this?

So what will next week bring?