Last Monday, a co-worker brought in a newspaper article on a quit smoking study that the University of Kansas is doing. They were looking for volunteers to gather data about their smoking habits. I called and volunteered, but didn't hear from them.

I finally did get a call from them Friday afternoon and they asked me some survey questions to see if I qualified for the study. I suppose I did... They called me back Saturday night and asked if I could come in on Sunday to pick up equipment and get started with the study.

I'm carrying around a PDA (palm m505) and a portable Carbon Monoxide detector. Throughout the day, I enter into a program on the PDA when I smoke, and it occasionally quizzes me about my mood, my desire for a cigarette, and a couple other factors. I also occasionally get a breath Carbon Monoxide reading and enter that. After a couple of weeks of gathering data, the program will switch to "schedule" mode, and I'll be told when I can smoke a cigarette. They will then collect data as to how irritable and snappy I get when I'm not allowed to have a cigarette when I want.

It's not really a quit smoking study, just data collection for the Psych department. I'm happy to be doing my part for science, and I'm even getting paid a bit to participate in the study. However, I am still smoking for the duration of the study. I'll probably quit shortly thereafter.

I still am cutting out the drinking, though. I'll still be going out, but will be drinking coffee or coke. A friend told me that if I catch any crap from strangers, bartenders or waitresses, a good trick is to tell them I'm in recovery. I will still probably avoid places where I'd be taking up a waitresses or bartender's time and not spending any significant amount of money. Any suggestions for places in Kansas City to go out and not drink?

I will be heading over to Lawrence this Friday to see either Big Smith or moe. I think the idea is to head to Lawrence, try to get a ticket for moe, then head to Big Smith if moe is sold out. Big Smith will be back in just a month or so, and moe comes through town much less frequently. I've never seen them, but they did just play a bunch of shows with members of Cracker, so they can't be all bad.