I woke up at 11:45 to the sound of Hilliard’s tornado siren – something that’s always annoying, but greatly preferred over the potential alternative of waking up to a tornado showering you in broken class and neighborhood refuse. I started to turn on the radio, then thought maybe that was a terrible idea since my bedroom is on the second floor. I unplugged the radio instead, and hurried downstairs to grab my wallet, phone, and keys.

Halfway down the basement steps the siren was ending its cycle but the thunder and lightning would have none of that quitter’s attitude. Fortunately my flashlight was sitting out in the living room from yesterday’s surround sound wiring adventures, and I found room for that in my hands, all the while expecting tree limbs and cattle to come bursting in from all sides. “Why would you turn around for the flashlight?!”, the audience moans. Good thing I don’t live in a big-budget action film.

Short story shorter, there was a sound in the basement I did not ever want to hear: dripping. One of the entry points for what looks like a Brinks wire is also an entry point for water. Doggone it. In the basement CD101 will only come in audibly if I hold the radio, which I realize is probably unacceptable as I’m standing there in a horrendous thunderstorm holding a wired electronic device next to my face. Now that I’m about to go back to bed I can see that the leak downstairs is a result of the north side of the house getting freakin’ steamrolled with rain. This is no consolation.

Man. I thought the worst of the storm was past here 20 minutes ago, but the foundation-rattling thunder just keeps keepin’ on. So much for a good night’s sleep. Is that hail? Delightful.

If you aren’t in the Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog group on Facebook (woe unto ye), you might not have seen the teaser trailer! Get to it at doctorhorrible.net/doctor-horrible-teaser-video/80/. As anticipated, it looks like Joss Whedon continues to be awesome, Nathan Fillion continues to be one of history’s greatest Canadians (how do I say that and make it sound like the compliment it should be?), and Neil Patrick Harris continues to be all kinds of funny.

Have we mentioned the latest rendition of Mario Kart? It’s a reason to own a Wii, and a reason to buy a bunch of little plastic steering wheels like a goober. Far be it from me to complain about graphics, but the graphics turn downright N64-ish in four player split screen… you won’t much mind. You will mind the AI, which Nintendo has again programmed out of the purest hate, and which is another good reason to play games with humans.

And while I’m on the topic of games: Spore. Yes, that superhyped hype machine that Will Wright’s been working on is coming up fast, and the recently released Spore Creature Creator has done something I thought impossible: it made be care about Spore. If the whole huge game is as fun as the creature creator, aeons of the collective time of Earth’s nerd population will be lost to it. Try the Creature Creator free at the EA site I linked above – if you buy the full Creature Creator at Target it comes with a coupon for $5 off Spore itself, which is $5 you’re basically throwing away if you pay the same elsewhere.

Lately I’ve been busy being “grown up” – and the oddest thing is how natural it all seems until I stop and think about it. Coffing’s jet-setting about the cosmopolitan city of St. Louis at an athletic training conference. One of the guys just bought his first new car. One of my sisters is gettin’ hitched. And, the Saturday before last I moved out of the apartment and into a house.

So, if you rely on me as your fount of nerdiness and have grown parched of late as I’ve run off in other directions, a thousand apologies. Somehow I managed to miss for an entire week the announced pricing for the 2009 Dodge Challenger. See, I read somewhere that they would start “under $30,000,” and I knew a 6-cylinder model was part of the mix. This had me assuming that, instead of buying one next fall about fifteen seconds after I pay off the Mazda, I would have to mope about the fact that any Challenger with three pedals and a HEMI was stupidly expensive. From the press release:

The U.S. MSRP for the all-new 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T is $29,995. Featuring the new-generation 5.7-liter HEMI V-8 engine, the Dodge Challenger R/T produces an estimated 370 horsepower (276 kW) and 398 lb.-ft. (540 N•m) of torque when paired with the standard five-speed automatic transmission.

Pricey? Yes, but not as horrible as I expected. Purty? Yes again. Sadly, manual transmission isn’t an option for the $22,000 base model, and it sounds like you’ll have to cough up another $995 for stick-shift on the R/T. Miserable. I’ve always wanted to drive a noisy, beautiful American muscle car before we burn up all our gas or the EPA forbids anything bigger than a golf cart. Don’t make me buy a BMW 128i in 2009, Dodge! Let’s see some financing promotions and racing stripes on the Challenger R/T, or I’ll do it!!