Today was an incredibly busy day for me.

It was bitterly cold and very windy, convincing me to drive myself to work instead of taking my usual eight-block walk.

One of my weirder co-workers gave me a Tamogotchi -- I have no idea what I'll do with it. I hate to just leave it in the box, but if I play with it, the damned electronic animal would eventually die of neglect, and then I'd feel all guilty.

My brother got fired from his job. He's glad to be gone -- he was getting ready to hand in his resignation anyway, but the boss found out he was quitting and beat him to the punch. And of course, the boss won't let him get on his computer to get his old e-mail and graphics files. Employers suck. Universally.

I got e-mail from a girl I knew in high school. She was the class beauty and smart as a whip, so it made me quite giddy.

And the sad news of the day: Charles Schulz is retiring. His last regular "Peanuts" strip will run in early January. I've loved "Peanuts" since I was a little kid, and I've been channeling Charlie Brown since birth. I'll miss that comic strip so damn much...