let's stumble towards success and pack some snacks for little breaks

I'm in CA now. A cute guy was sitting in front of me on the plane and he kept trying to surreptitiously turn around and look at me. I developed a bit of a cold, but I am taking tons of echinacea to try to ward it off. I don't wanna be sick next week. I had a nice chat with Mike, my dad's neighbor. He showed me this dice puzzle. He tosses five dice, then says a number that he somehow derives from the numbers on the dice. It's always either 0 or an even number, and 20 is the highest possible number. The puzzle is to figure out how he gets the number. I didn't figure it out (my dad hasn't either), but when we parted ways, he said, "You came at that problem much more systematically than I had expected, and you asked some very good questions. I underestimated you." That was really cool, to hear that from him, because he is extremely intelligent. I actually have a rather difficult time having conversations with him, because he has such a unique way of thinking. (He also has a lisp, which helps in the difficulty-in-understanding-him department, but that's not my point.) Tomorrow I'm attending my uncle Zain's birthday bash (which should be interesting, if I've ever told any of you anything about my uncle) and then going straight from there to Leo's, where I will see my CA cool people! WOO! Can't wait, devils_reject and cfb4629!!! Megan, don't forget your "villainess" shirt, and Chris, the clubs did survive the plane trip. I love you all! *hugs flist*