Having been tempted by the haunting call of new hardware all day today, I arrived home from work with one resolution: Pay ALL the bills first (at least the ones that have arrived so far), even if I know that there will be enough money to spare. Then, look at the balance in the magical gnucash machine, and decide upon a course of action.

While going through the stack of bills, I was reminded of some vague goals I had lodged in my mind earlier, such as getting completely out of debt by next summer. Wouldn't that be a great feeling? I pondered and debated, pondered and debated. After this consideration, I wrote checks for a fairly healthy sum toward each of the debts I need to pay.

Then, there were a couple more bills that had arrived since yesterday. A couple of them were expected. One was semi-unexpected. Cable Internet. Very reasonable. Less than I was paying for DSL, even after the installation fee. Check. Electric bill. Check. Car insurance? Another invoice after I paid just last month? Doh! Doesn't it suck that the premiums go up for absolutely no reason when you move? They shouldn't be allowed to do that. I'm still just as safe a driver as I was last month. It's highway robbery. Literally. Grrrr.

(Ok, so the difference wasn't really very much, but it's still stupid. Extortion.)

So anyway, with every bill accounted for checks written, I looked things over. Credit card bills still haven't arrived this month, and those balances will need to be zeroed. (There's no way I'm going to pay those interest rates.) That leaves just enough for just a little slack between now and next month.

I exited the Castle Lair, 5 pound stack of envelopes in hand, and found a nearby mailbox. Then I stopped by PC City and bought a memory upgrade for Argo. Argo's RAM capacity will be tripled.

My plan for the short term is to go back to the "Revive Dagobah" project, and maybe try just a little bit harder to get it working with what I currently have. Some people have suggested that I might be able to get Linux to recognize the new hard drive even if the BIOS can't. Assuming that works, it would mean booting from a floppy all the time. Given the (lack of) frequency with which I usually boot my machines, I can live with that.

In a bit, I'll be giving Argo the ram upgrade. After all, if Argo is now going to have to service 2 terminals, it'll need a little extra boost. Heehee.

My vacation is now officially underway. Cheers!