Monday, January 23, 2006

Why you haven't heard from me in a week...

Here's my schedule over the last week (by town):
Monday (a holiday) - 2 stops in Salem
Tuesday - Boston (all day)
Wednesday - Beverly, Waltham, Burlington, Wakefield
Thursday - 2 stops in Newburyport, 1 in Beverly
Friday - 3 appointments in Beverly, 2 of them at my office
Saturday - sleep in for a while, then head to South Shore with family for Jane's work and a visit to a friend's house
Sunday - errands early, write 2 proposals in afternoon. Oh yeah - David hardly ever naps anymore...
Monday (with some ugly detail) - up at 5 to wake Jane for her AM flight to Newark (business trip). David wakes too, isn't happy about Mommy leaving. Finally get him down to sleep again in bed with me, only to be up at 7 to get day started. Snow causes total change of plans - instead of going to Hanover all day I invert day with Tuesday - meaning stops in Burlington, Lexington, Wakefield, and Boxford. Followed by dinner, trying to get Lil' Dude to sleep (finally succeeding after Mommy calls from hotel and talks to him on the cellphone), and a couple of hours' work on leftover issues from the day.

So the rest of the week is full, too. Fortunately, Jane's only away until tomorrow evening, so that will help. To top all this off, when we came back from the South Shore on Saturday night, we discovered that out high-tech Kenmore front-loading washer crapped out - it won't drain and won't spin properly. No idea why, but repair is coming Wednesday morning. Fortunately, we had cleaned everything the previous day - the only things stuck in there were the bath mats.

Anyhow, next time I'll write about more interesting stuff. I promise!

Sunday, January 15, 2006

As I was saying...

5 turnovers does not a 3-time Super Bowl champion make. And now today brought two more upsets with Indy going down (thanks to the "idiot kicker"), and Chicago out. If things shake out the way they might, we could have the first-ever two-wildcard Super Bowl. Whoa.

The toddler behavior nightmare continued this morning, leading to a period of confinement to his room at one point (our version of a "timeout"). After a while, he calmed down enough to have lunch and a nap - and he was much better after he woke up. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Not looking good...

As I write this, there are 11 minutes left in the 4th quarter, and the Pats trail by 11. The calls just are not going the right way tonight, turnovers have really hurt, and a huge blown pass interference call in the second quarter gave the Broncos a huge break. Last year, Ben Watson catching up to Champ Bailey would have resulted in a touchback. This year, it was ruled out of bounds at the 1, and they scored on the next play. Last year, no way would a punt runback be fumbled.

This year, Troy Brown couldn't hang on to a punt just now and after four turnovers (all leading to Denver scores), it's probably over. Adam Vinatieri even missed a field goal. That never happens in the postseason. It was a nice run, but it looks like the dynasty is, at minimum, in a years' hiatus. 24-6. I'd love to write tomorrow and issue a mea culpa, but now I think it's bedtime...

The only plus to a Super Bowl without the Patriots in it is that I don't have to focus on every play. Not much consolation.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Yes, as usual I am working my @$$ off...

Meanwhile, though, I did spend some time looking into the latest Apple announcements. I lust for both Intel Core Duo-based Macs (iMac and MacBook Pro), with one slight caveat. With my current PowerBook G4, I rely heavily on a CardBus EV/DO card from Verizon Wireless. Along with my Treo, it's how I can actually function on the road. And Apple's moved over to the new ExpressCard/34 form factor (a mobile version of PCI Express, essentially). The two cards are non-compatible, unlike with the PC Card/CardBus transition.

Fortunately, Verizon has said that they expect to be selling an ExpressCard/34-based version of the Sierra Wireless AirCard pretty soon. At which point I'll give the MacBook Pro a serious look. Now, we just need VMware to support the MacIntels as well and Apple could have a serious chance to make Dell their bitch.

One other nice thing out of the announcement - unlike in the original plans for Rosetta (the PPC emulation technology Apple's using in the new Intel Macs), the production version of Rosetta now apparently supports Altivec instructions. Meaning a lot more PPC software will now run effectively on the new Macs. Sweet.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Anticipation

Today is Macworld keynote day - featuring a noon keynote from The Legendary Steve. The entire Macinverse is breathlessly awaiting what new goodies are heading our way - my money is on Intel Core Solo-based iBooks and Minis, and possibly a Core Duo-based PowerBook. I suspect maybe a minor tweak to the flash-based iPods as well, iLife/iWork updates, and the accidentally hinted at iWeb program (whatever that is).

Hopefully, alongside that we'll get the Mac OS 10.4.4 update, because Samba's got some real issues with stability on 10.4.3.

David's home with a fever today - OK because Jane has the day off except for a couple of calls and some paperwork she has to deal with. She may take him to the doctor today if it spikes again.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Awake follow-up

I wasn't trying to say that the touchdown wasn't legit - given the way that both defenses were kinda like Swiss cheese, they probably would have scored on the next play, anyhow.

But if Young had been correctly ruled down, and the Longhorns forced to kick a field goal, we all might be talking about USC's 1-point win right now, not Texas' 3-point win.

During halftime, I watched Bill O'Reilly's appearance on Letterman from Tuesday night. It was beautiful - O'Reilly was in full retreat for most of it, and Letterman was far more involved and passionate than he almost ever is. And he pimp-slapped O'Reilly all up and down the floor of the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Quick college football hits

I only watched two bowl games this year, the Sugar Bowl (featuring my wife's alma mater, the West Virginia Mountaineers) and the just-concluded Rose Bowl. The Sugar Bowl was a heck of a game, not just because the Mountaineers won (they hardly ever win bowl games), but because of the way it started out as a whupping by WVU and then suddenly turned competitive - capped by an incredibly ballsy 4th down call by WVU with a fake punt to ice the game.

The Rose Bowl wasn't quite the same for me. I was rooting for USC, mainly because I liked Pete Carroll when he was coaching here and thought he got a raw deal - most of the blame for the Pats' decline during the post-Parcells era in my mind should go to Bobby Grier, who was a horrible judge of football talent. It's no coincidence that the next program he went to (the Texans) has been awful as well. In my eyes, the game was marred by some horrid officiating calls, especially in the first half (Texas got a gift touchdown on a play where the runner was clearly down before he lateraled). That shouldn't take away at all from Vince Young's amazing performance, but it just wasn't what I hoped for in a game.

But college football is a sport where one spectacular player can really make an impact, way more so than in the pros. Then again, if USC could have gained about 6 more inches on their final 4th down, it would be a non-issue because the clock would have run out. Go figure.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

I'd say it in my own words, but...

Why should I, when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said it so much better in this speech?

"Eighty percent of Republicans are just Democrats who don't know what's going on."