I had some unforeseen funds come in last week, so I bought a PS3. I figure this will be my last “me” purchase before everything starts going into the “we’re having three babies” fund.

I bought MLB ‘08 along with the PS3, and it looks and plays great. The loading times are a bit long, but forgivable considering how great the game is.

I haven’t watched a Blu-Ray movie yet, but I just got There Will Be Blood from Netflix today, so Blu-Ray viewing should take place this weekend. I did watch Hotel Rwanda on DVD, and I was impressed by the upscaling. It had more of an impact on the visual quality of the movie than I expected.

Yes, we are 10 weeks pregnant with triplets. I guess it’s kind of early to make a formal announcement, but this type of pregnancy is filled with risk, so we decided it didn’t make a lot of sense to keep it a secret anymore.

I made this Strawberry Shortcake character cake for my niece’s 4th birthday party. This was my first attempt at cake decorating, and I don’t think it turned out half bad.

Most importantly, the cake was delicious.

I have one, but sometimes you can’t share until the time is right.

I’m ready to burst.

Maybe. But only if you’re really nice.

Insufficient fare.

I guess those two words aren’t a clear enough message for you, person trying to gain entry into the subway system.

Let me try to help you out.

Insufficient fare does not mean “if I swipe my card 5 or 6 more times, it might let me in.”

It also does not mean “if I make a really slow swipe and then stare at the card and swipe again it will let me in.”

Perhaps most surprisingly, it doesn’t mean “I should block the turnstile while I fumble through my purse/wallet/briefcase trying to find a metrocard with money on it even though I know I don’t have one.”

What the hell people?  Insufficient fare.  It means you don’t have enough money on your card.  Step aside, go to the machine and re-fill it.

Don’t swipe again, stare at it, rub the magnetic strip, loiter, etc.  None of that will work…unless maybe your fingers are able to encode a magnetic strip.  In that case, I apologize to you.

So there are new subway cars running on the N line. These cars are known as the R-160 and offer a bunch of neat technological features like a totally electronic route map.  The problem is that the crews don’t seem to know how to properly use the features of these new trains.

When trains are behind schedule, they might send an N train express from Astoria Boulevard to Queens Plaza.  When this happens, the conductors have no idea how to modify the route map to reflect the express route of the train.

The first time I experienced this, we got to Queens Plaza and the annoucement was “This is a Manhattan Bound N train, the next stop is Astoria Boulevard.”  People boarding the train had NO idea what was going on.  Was it going to Manhattan?  Was it going back to Astoria?  Realizing that the announcement was due to operator error I just told people that it was going into Manhattan and that it was a problem with the automated announcement.

Today, same situation.  Express train from Astoria Blvd. to Queens Plaza.  First, the conductor turns off the route map.  Then he turns it back on, but it says we are not stopping at Queens Plaza.  Then the route map goes off again.  Then it’s back on again.  Then off.   Then on for good measure.  During the ride from Queens Plaza to Lex/59th, the automated announcements told us that we were stopping at 57th street and 49th street all while under the East River!

Seems like some conductors need a refresher course on these new trains and how to control the route maps when their train is given orders to take a diverging route.

Wow, I must be in a really bad mood. Anyone that knows me knows that I generally love the subway and that I love riding it. I guess I’ve had a few bad days of commuting over the last two weeks that have just rubbed me the wrong way.

So this one is for you jackass at Lexington and 59th street on the R train. Thanks for holding the door open tonight “just in case” one of your friends happened to be coming up the stairs. You weren’t holding it for anyone in particular, just holding it open, looking anxiously down the stairs that lead up from the 4 and 5 train platform.

Surely you and your imaginary friends are the only people that want to get home after work. The rest of us just loiter around the platform for fun and profit.

Hello there lady sitting next to me on the subway.

Thanks for the free Greek lesson you gave me on the ride home from work tonight. It’s great that you are so in love with your culture that you want to share it with the rest of the world by screaming into your cellphone at the highest possible volume. I suppose it doesn’t matter that I was suffering from an awful headache and just wanted some peace and quiet.

“ELLA! είστε δικηγόρος.”

I hope your lawyer friend Dimitra was able to help you understand those “out there” “law words” so you don’t get yourself into some sort of bad contract.

Thank you for also sprinkling in enough English so I was able to figure out what you were talking about.

If I’m lucky, maybe tomorrow I’ll learn about plumbing in Portuguese.

Must you hold the door, morning traveller?

Thank you for delaying my train for 15 minutes on Wednesday morning. You held the door and caused some kind of mechanical failure. Fantastic.

Thanks for being selfish and screwing things up for the rest of us because you couldn’t wait 3 minutes for the next train.