border guard

On the way up to Canada the line at the border was short, and I suspect the guards were bored. Here is, approximately, how our conversation went with a perky young guard:

Guard: Citizenship?
Dani: I'm Canadian, they're US.
Guard: Where are you going?
Dani: Toronto.
Guard: Why?
Dani: We're going up for my parents' anniversary party. [This is way more info than I would have given, BTW.]
Guard: Do you have reservations somewhere? [This is new...]
Dani: No, we're staying with family.
Guard: What, it's their anniversary and you're staying with them??
Dani: No, with my sister.
Guard: Ok. Bringing a gift?
Dani: No.
Guard: What, you're coming up for their anniversary party and you didn't even bring a gift???
Dani: My sister's taking care of it.
Guard: Ok, you can go.

(no subject)

Hey, another ex-Claritecher! Welcome to jpbl. So, now you have to actually write in your journal and fill us all in on what you've been up to since the move...

disk space

I need more disk space for my home machine. There seem to be three options (one of which I hadn't heard of before last week): add another internal (IDE) drive; add a SCSI drive (I have a card to support a scanner), or add an external drive that plugs into a USB port (this is the one I hadn't heard of before). There's a lot to be said for an external, portable device, and at $179 plus shipping for 20gigs (other sizes available) it seems reasonable to me. (I haven't really kept up with typical prices.) An internal drive would be cheaper, but I'd have to get it in there. I have no experience with SCSI drives; they're more expensive than IDE and I'm not sure what the payoff is. (Seek time?) So I'm thinking of getting one of the USB ones.