Servers will choke on service packs, Microsoft service packs, now and again, the old blue screen of death, particularly servers built by someone else, often at the last minute, in the middle of the night, a woman alone in an empty building, in Oakland, when she would really really rather get out (alive) and go home. Twenty four hours later, fighting to get it started, Asia out of its head because it was holding up a period close, people stoked on gallons of coffee (and who knows what else) bouncing off the walls when I arrived this morning. "Hi, all!" We are spread thin - ho, ho - here in Oakland.

But that's the business. Get used to it. Lunch at another Dim Sum restaurant, nice lunch, good break in the day. A long day. I thought of going home there for a while in the middle of the afternoon feeling punk, you understand, but it cleared up and I'm sitting here in the early evening feeling relatively good (except for the back of the head and the ringing ears). So I'm whining. You know about the whining.

The lens I ordered should arrive tomorrow. I rely on my apartment manager to intercept and sign for packages, which is a good deal for me and she appears happy to do it, but she leaves it, of course, just outside my apartment door. It's safe, I think, sitting there, but I'm not sure I should say that with such confidence. I mean, this is Oakland. Nah. It will have B & H Photo and Video labels all over it. What could be inside worth pilfering? Right. What was I thinking? She's agreed, just now, to hold it in her apartment. A good sign I made the right decision, looking forward to seeing (and using) the lens, to hell with the money.

I, of course, speaking of money, I finished my taxes last night. I'd done everything, filled out everything a month ago, I simply needed to file electronically, so I opened Turbo Tax, noticed there was an update to be downloaded, I'd done this before, so I downloaded the update and watched the program fail. Click on the icon and it had no idea what in the hell I was talking about.

Some time later, using their online chat support - fast, it worked, I recommend it highly - I quickly got an idea of the critical files and did what was needed, but still, most of the evening was spent reinstalling Turbo Tax (three times) before I could file. Not unlike the blue screen MSJ was fighting down the road, but I was fighting on the night of the 13th and not the night of the 15th and no one was breathing down my neck to close the books in Asia, although I got to bed later than I would have liked, more tired than I would have liked, here in Oakland.

You're overdoing this "here in Oakland" bit.

Overdoing? Here? In Oakland?