I went back to my house and loaded up the car with my supplies. I wouldn't need a whole lot of food, just the basics, and some paper goods for the 'library'. (You read while you are sitting down in your "library", don't you?) I hooked up one of my other laptops to the network (when you are a computer consultant, you tend to have extra computers), and copied all the files I would need for the attack.
I grabbed the spare laptop computer, modem, extra phone cords, a couple of pads of paper and some pencils. I also grabbed my telephone kit: my tool pouch, the 'butt' phone (a small portable phone that hangs from your tool belt, banging you in the butt as you walk), some spare phone wire (four pair) and phone outlet boxes, and some other miscellaneous stuff. I also grabbed a small shovel, and the portable drill and some drill bits.
I loaded it all in the car's trunk, and then looked around to see if there was anything else I needed. I've always found that each project that you work on, whether it's a computer job or just some maintenance around the house, usually requires at least three trips to the hardware store (or home). I could sometimes beat that record, though, if I planned things out a bit better, and then took a minute to run through the task, mentally cataloging all the tools that I might need. This time, it looked like I was ready to go, so I set the alarm on the house, and jumped into the car and headed to the attack house.
I stopped by the local McDonalds on the way there to grab some lunch (three cheeseburgers - hold the pickles, extra large orange drink, no fries, to go). At the attack apartment, I unloaded the car, and sat down on the couch in the living room (it was a furnished apartment: the furnishings could be charitably described as "Early Motel") with my lunch and a pad of paper. While eating my lunch, I doodled on the pad, making some notes about the planned attack.