That's right, it was -18°F for my morning commute today. Normally, this wouldn't be news during a North Dakota February. But this is the coldest it's been here in over a year, according to the radio.

Yeah, it's cold. It's that kind of cold that makes my jacket crinkle with every move. It's the kind of cold that makes my fingers go numb instantly upon contact with any metal surface. In a way, it's exhilarating and exciting. We North Dakotans are proud of our cold weather and our inexhaustible ability to tough it out. After all, It's supposed to get this cold for a little while each year, and we love to talk about it when it does.

Other people in sensible, warmer climates think we're crazy. But really, we'll get the last laugh. Sure, it's cold here now (not that we mind it), but just wait a few decades. It will be tropical up here. The Gulf Coast will be wiped out. California will be flooded. And everyone will want to live in Bismarck.

Last night I did my periodic check for "comment spam" on this site. There are worms out there on the 'net that just LOVE to exploit bugs in blog software to post a bazillion links to poker sites or other unsavory locations. Every time I would look at my web site, I would have a dozen new comments, all completely fake and worthless. I assume all of my readers aren't porn or poker peddlers, right? The software I use for this site, b2evolution, does a pretty crappy job of keeping spammers out.

After manually checking every single comment on all 40 or so blog entries (and deleting 90% of them), I was fed up, so I upgraded to the latest version of b2evolution. That was a risky move - I was afraid I would lose all of my blog entries or have to rebuild my custom layout so it would continue to look like the rest of my site. Things seem to have gone well. Maybe that will help stop these comments.

I'm just sick and tired of these people who don't play fair on the 'net. They cost us all a great deal of money in higher costs for Internet access and e-mail. Some of the most complicated software we use at work is just to minimize the amount of crap in your Inbox.

I'm on my way to twenty-eight. I'm not sure how I got this old. I guess it just sort of happens when you're busy riding bike and pushing buttons in a cubicle.

I'm finding that at this time, everybody's starting to settle down. They're getting married, starting careers, etc. And that means my close friends are scattering all across the country or making plans to do so. And that's why this birthday was so special.

My friend, Dawn, decided to invite my buddy Jesse to a birthday supper here in Bismarck. I'm glad she got the ball rolling, because it kind of snowballed from there.

My friend Sommer, from here in Bismarck, showed up for the party. My brother came from Fargo, 200 miles to the east. My good friend Jesse came from Minot, 110 miles to the north. And Mark and Melanie from Halliday, 110 miles to the northwest, also came.

Altogether, seven of us gathered at Space Aliens for dinner. After being forced to eat immense amounts of food and to wear glow-in-the-dark "antennas," I invited everyone over to my place for board games.

Hilarity ensued as we played "Imaginiff" and "Cranium" until early in the morning. I also got some great gifts, including the 4th season of "MacGyver." Obviously, we had to watch at least one episode before the night was over.

And so, I'm older than I was yesterday (as if that weren't always true). But I don't mind, because the party was great. It will be tougher as time goes on for us all to get together.