It's been a really happy day!

Today has been a pretty cool day. In fact, it's been so cool that I'm going to post about it in two separate entries. Something extra special just happened --- you can read about that in the next post.

The first thing that's nice today is that my new computer is up and running. It took Mom and me all day yesterday to get everything activated, loaded and uninstalled. It's amazing how much junk comes on computers these days. Fifty-two games that were mostly free trials, video players and downloaders, some wireless receiver "thingy" and tons more that I can't even remember. This is the first time that we've dealt with Windows 7, though, and it's great so far.

This also gave me the opportunity to clean my desk out by taking everything out and dusting. That's always a good thing --- and not one that I do often enough. Here is a picture of my new computer running and in situ. Notice the book standing at the right hand side? That's another of the nice things that happened today.

I've had birthday money for two months now that I just haven't been able to decide how to spend. I wanted something kind of frivolous and extra special. Not something that I would have just gone out and bought eventually anyway or something immemorable a year from now. It's been driving Elizabeth nuts that I haven't spent it, but I finally found the thing that I wanted.

It's a big reference book called Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. It's full of short biographies centering on the careers of actors who appeared in films of the film noir genre, but are not necessarily only famous for that type of role. This appears to be the only bio ever written about Dan Duryea, so I had ordered the book into the library last month some time. I ended up reading a bunch more of it and really enjoyed some of the bios about actors that I don't even enjoy watching . . . usually.

The hardback edition is no longer in print, and the paperback edition is $75.00. I figured on waiting to find a used hardback edition sometime. The going asking price online is over $100.00, but I found an ex-library on Amazon for less. In the end, I got it for $50.00. And since my favorite happens to be Mr. Duryea, I made a dust jacket of my own (the book was issued without one) and printed it yesterday.



The book arrived today, and Elizabeth already put my jacket in the mylar cover and it's in place. The pictures show my book with the jacket that I made. Pretty cool, huh?! I'm really happy.

Now, if you want to see what's made me REALLY happy, just read the next entry!