It’s always the right time for Nick and Nora.

I’m writing this post from the comfort of our sofa in the family room ... with my brand new MacBook Pro! It arrived late this afternoon right before Sam started to make dinner. I tried to control my rising hysteria but I think he knew that I wanted to skip the meatballs, rip open the carton and start horsing around IMMEDIATELY.

Setup was easy, thank God. After I figured out how to open the laptop (stop laughing) I connected to our WiFi and even remembered my Blogspot login so I’ll be able to work on the Howdygram as soon as Sam conks out after we eat. (He ALWAYS conks out after we eat!) Tomorrow morning I’ll bring the MacBook into the study so I can set up my email account; that’s where my passwords are.

For entertainment this evening I’ve got a couple of interesting movies lined up — ’Neath Arizona Skies (1934) starring John Wayne and The Towering Inferno (1974) starring Paul Newman, William Holden and O.J. Simpson — plus a pair of nice sugar-free Jell-O cups for dessert. Tonight’s featured flavors are black cherry and lime.

I love my life.

Incidentally, I just realized that I’ll probably have to wait until morning to publish this post because I don’t have the HTML coding handy for the horizontal rule that I always use between paragraphs or the JPG of my digital signature. They’re not exactly deal-breakers, but what the fuck ... I’m a perfectionist.

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I guess my short-term memory isn’t what it used to be, people. I completely forgot that I introduced a new Howdygram feature — Let’s Learn Yiddish — a couple of weeks ago but never kept it going after the first half-dozen vocabulary words. Please accept my apology and here we go. Maybe you could try to memorize a few of these in time for Passover, which gets underway at sundown on March 31.

Our first vocabulary word today is bupkis, which means nada, zilch, nothing. Next, dreykop: a confused guy. Or literally, his head is turned around. And finally, ekvelt: the end of the earth or the middle of nowhere. Please practice using these words in everyday conversation and you’ll be regarded as a highly-skilled (but mostly useless) linguist.

In case you give a crap, I decided to give up on The Towering Inferno. We just got to the scene with screaming people rolling around in flames, and the sight of people in flames — even if they’re a bunch of stunt men who swear on a stack of Bibles that nobody actually got burned — is a little too much visual stimulation for me ... especially when it’s this close to bedtime. I decided to switch to After the Thin Man (1936) starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, because it’s always the right time for Nick and Nora, isn’t it?

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And finally, the Howdygram would like to wish you and yours a very happy National Pi Day. Today’s date is 3.14, the same as the mathematical symbol π. So whether your favorite “pi” is apple, pizza or chicken pot, we hope you’ll find a way to celebrate. Yee-haw!