Is internet ettiquette a bad idea?

I had a little time to read the current issue of Information Week this morning, and made it to the back page. The article there I found to be quite refreshing. The man makes sense. Is there a point to profanity? What is it's purpose? Does it make the meaning of what is being more or less clear?

On Courtesy and other topics...

Last night, Wendy & I went out to dinner after her seminar, and a few things happened that I just have to write about. They just kind of blew me away... So without further ado:

1: We ended up at La Fontana after finding Mistral closed. It's someplace I've wanted to try for quite some time, but not so that I would make a point out of planning a visit. It's a nice little cozy Sicilian restaurant, not cheap, but the food was excellent. As our main course arrived, a young gentleman was shown to the table behind us. I could tell that he had money by the cut of his suit in the small glance that I caught. No matter, dinner was there, and it was fabulous. A cold cut, cheese and pine nut stuffed chicken breast. MMmmmmmmmmmm. A little while later, the gent's lady friend arrives, and after a quick hello, she dashes off to the restroom. When she returns, the room is filled with the scent of her freshly applied perfume. And there went the taste of the food, right out the window. Gone. Destroyed. I couldn't get around the cloying smell of her perfume, and had to take the rest of my dinner home. It even destroyed the flavor of the wine. Now that I think of it, the gent had a nice bottle, and it seemed to have turned also. Not sure if he tasted it before or after she arrived, though, so that may be a coincidence.

2: As we walk back to the car, Wendy points out that someone spit on the hood of my car. WTF??? It's not a magnet for trouble, it's a little dingy at the moment, 16 years old, not showy or anything, so I ask again, WTF???

3: On the way home we head over the West Seattle Bridge. This SUV slowly makes his way just ahead of us, and then cuts in front between me and the car ahead of me. Usually, this wouldn't really be anything I'd notice, except that there wasn't any other traffic, he wasn't moving any fatster than I, and there was so much space behind us he never should have pulled up next to me in the first place. WTF???

Is it just me? Am I being over-sensitive? Am I a magnet for rude obnoxious behavior? I certainly hope not...

!! Communication Update !!

For those of you that know me, you know that I've had an AccessLine SmartNumber since I started working there in 2001. Well, I haven't actually really NEEDED most of the features for quite a while now, so it's time to reduce our outgoing costs... Wendy still needs and uses hers alot, so her number isn't going anywhere.
I am going to keep it active for another month or two while I notify everyone that my number is changing, and will be placing a message at the front that tells whomever calls about the change. What this means is: If you haven't already gotten notification from me that I'm changing numbers, call me. Get the new number. If you want to say Hi, let it ring through (it will forward). Otherwise, the number you have may be terminated.
:)
If you didn't already know my phone number, then you don't need to worry about it.

So, it's really happening.

We have "mutual agreement" and financing on the new townhouse, which means that we had to list our current house as being officially For Sale. We also have an offer on our house. So, before it was all totally locked up, Wendy was able to get our house into the NWMLS (Northwest Multiple Listing Service), and plan for an open house this weekend. Which means, of course, that we are frantically trying to pack up and clear away a great deal of our "stuff"... Also, you can download Wendy's flyer (right/control-click, and select "save as") - Adobe Acrobat required to view.

So far we've packed about (UHaul sizes) 20 small boxes of books, 3 medium boxes of clothing, 3 standard file boxes of files and office supplies, 2 small file boxes of more current files, 1 full recycle bin, and hauled a bunch of stuff to the dump. We've sold a futon, a coffee table, and some knick-nacks, and have some more stuff for sale (list below), and will be having a bunch of stuff in the "Community Garage Sale" - a day when there's a community listing of all the local garage sales next month that we signed up for the list.

Here's a partial list of what we have available:

• 1989 BMW M3, lightly modified
• Extra wheels and tires for BMW E30 M3.
• Birch finish Bookshelves
• Oak Nightstand
• Oak Bookshelves
• Oak Chest of Drawers
• The Worm Factory (SOLD)
• A young Magnolia tree in pot (SOLD)
• Woodchuck Firewood Hauler (Sale Pending)

There's more, but I don't have specifics available right now...

We are going to be getting rid of almost everything, and replacing some stuff as we can after we move. We are going to be installing floor to ceiling book shelves in one of the extra bedrooms, and turning it into a library. That will take care of those 20 boxes of books... :) The basement will have an armoire where we will keep shoes and coats. The other spare bedroom is going to be "The Office" and will have some storage and a desk, while still keeping the main part of the room open. So there are going to be a few things that we will need to get to make iot all work the way we want it.

More later...
Stephen