And annoyed, of course. Very, very annoyed.

On Friday, I tried to syncronize my pocket pc, but it wouldn't make the connection. This has been happening for quite a while, now-- I'm not even sure how long-- although it seems to be occurring more frequently. It isn't usually a big problem: a reboot usually takes care of it. But this time, when I tried to shut down the computer, ActiveSync hung, so even though I thought I had shut it down on Friday evening, when I went to boot it up Saturday morning, I discovered that it hadn't. Eventually, I got it to shut down and rebooted my laptop. I plopped my PPC into its cradle, and it connected immediately.

As Guest. Which is useless, because it won't sync in guest mode. So I rebooted. Still a guest. I did a soft reset on my PPC and rebooted again. Still a guest. I scoured the internet, downloaded thousands of usenet messages in the ActiveSync support group, which pointed me to more webpages adressing the problem. I learned three things, basically: (1) I am not alone, (2) ActiveSync is a piece of shit program, and (3) Bill Gates should be shot, along with whoever he hired to program it.

Yes, I know it's not sporting to take potshots at Uncle Billy, but I am seriously fed up. Also, I can think of far more creative things to do to Bill and his crew, but I get enough weird googles as it is.

Over the last three days I have upgraded, rebooted, reset, rebooted, uninstalled, rebooted, re-installed, rebooted, uninstalled other things, rebooted, reinstalled, rebooted, rebooted rebooted rebooted. On Saturday, I was forced to leave the office, go into the living room and watch TV for several hours when the urge to defenestrate became overwhelming. Later on, I tried to take a break from the problem and write an entry, but I couldn't ignore it-- two minutes of staring at a blank page and I was back on the internet, looking for something new to try. The same thing happened Sunday, this morning and this afternoon. I am obsessed, I am rebooting in my sleep, I am extremely irritated. Whatever the word for more than frustrated is, I am it.

In other news, my scrubby-on-a-stick fell apart: one moment, I'm happily exfoliating my back; the next, there's ten feet of netting pooled around my feet and I'm gouging my back with the wooden handle. Ouch.

There's a blister on the inside of my index finger, Wisconsin lost, the Packers lost, the Yankees won, and never mind the fact that I really, really would have liked to see a Red Sox-Cubs series. I knew that possibility was too good to be true.

And, to top it off, I've got Tammy stuck in my brain and I can't get it out. If you've ever seen Tammy and the Bachelor (it was the theme song), you may have some idea of just how irritating it is. I've even tried to replace it with Barry Manilow ('At the Copa, Copacabana...'), to no avail.

And with that oh-so-pleasant thought, I'll be off.