I’m contemplating a switch from Safari to Firefox, but am hampered by the fact that This Very Site displays crappily therein.  The top banner here is composed of a DIV with a background color of the blue you see at left, and said DIV contains a right-aligned image that fades into the same blue.  The problem is that Firefox for whatever reason refuses to show the background color in a DIV that contains positioned elements.  I’ve searched for a workaround, and tinkered way longer with my CSS than I ought to have, and am officially giving up and asking the Internet for help.  If you’ve got it, and are willing to share, I’d be most appreciative.

And as long as I’m at it:  I’ll confess that I’ve been using Entourage 2004 since it came out, mainly because the IT folks at my institution are heavily invested in our Exchange mail system.  (I know, I know.) Though it’s got some good features (the full integration of mail/calendar/address book is nice, as is the project center, as is the vast improvement in its Palm-syncing capability), I break out in hives every time I contemplate my dependence on such a Microsoft product.  So I’m beginning to consider either reverting to iCal/Mail.app or testing out Thunderbird.  Any thoughts?

Okay, and now I’m really going back to work.

Though what I really need to do, as G Zombie suggests, is lighten up on my blog reading, rather than writing, which has already become pretty desultory as it is, I nonetheless need to focus in on finishing that Powers article in very short order.  If something particularly moves me in the article itself, perhaps I’ll post that.  But barring that, I’ve got to absent myself from the blogosphere for a bit in order to get some less quippy work done.  Back soon, with more of interest, I hope with all my heart.

So here’s the good news:  the utilities transferred easily; everything will be in my name as of tomorrow, no sweat.

But there’s one little complication left to be dealt with:  the phone.  Last time I had a non-college phone, there was no choice whatsoever involved; one went with Verizon, because they were all there was, and while there might have been some illusion of plan-choice, the choices were relatively limited.

Now, as I understand it, the situation is quite different:  regular phone or VoIP?  If regular, Verizon or SBC?  Discrete services or a package?

I need advice—do you have any to give?

Mileage for week:  26

Number of run days:  5

Long run for week:  10

Aches, pains, complaints:  Oh, man.  What doesn’t hurt?  I did my first ten-miler yesterday (admittedly interspersed with short walking breaks), and the run was like a saga of various aches and pains.  For the first couple of miles, my knees were a little sore, but they loosened up as I went on.  From mile 4 to mile 6, the arch of my left foot hurt like hell—and then miraculously stopped.  And so on.  I’m feeling pretty okay today, except for the fact that I was completely and totally unable to sleep until about 2.30 am, and so ended up on the floor around midnight in an effort not to wake up R., who has to get up around 5.  Mostly I was awake because I was freaking out about the fact that I think I was supposed to have transferred the condo utilities into my name sometime last week, but completely failed to think of it during the holiday festivities, until last night around 11 when it suddenly occurred to me, and I couldn’t get it to un-occur to me.  But I was also partially awake because I was just plain uncomfortable, in the kind of low-grade nagging sense that can keep you trying first one side, and then the other, for hours, as though you’re going to hit upon some miraculous new position in which nothing hurts.  Word to the wise, however:  moving to the floor does not help that situation.  R., on the other hand, did get a slightly better night’s sleep than he would have with me jumping around next to him, so I guess there’s some success there.  Anyhow, today’s an off day, and this entire week’s a relatively light one, and my poor aching body is grateful on both counts.

Last New Year’s Eve, I spent some time counting my blessings over a big pot of gumbo and an Angel marathon, and then spent the first day of 2004 recovering from the MLA and articulating my hopes for the new year.  (Well, before watching my beloved Tigers kick some Sooner butt, that is.) Those hopes were general but clear:

To get R. home, and keep him here a while.

To find a publisher, and put the old project to bed.

To find some clarity on the new project.

To make a dent in the growing masses of unread books I’ve accumulated.

Most of all, to find myself, this time next year, in a world substantively more peaceful, and in a country substantively more compassionate, than the one I find myself in today.

I did fairly well on most of those:  R. spent the vast majority of 2004 with me; it’s beginning to look as though that publisher issue is going to resolve in fairly short order (though I will say no more in an effort not to completely jinx the thing); I know where I’m going next.  Alas, though, the last two did not quite work out as I’d hoped—but they give me a good starting place for 2005.

I’m a little too rattled from last night’s festivities (darned R. and his fancy French champagne) to be terribly reflective about my hope for the year ahead, as yet.  Perhaps later this evening, once my head clears.  For the moment, a happy new year and my best wishes to all.