May 5, 2009

Looks like May 5th is shaping up to be an exciting day. Chuck Palahniuk's eleventh novel, Pygmy is slated for release and is already available for preorder on Amazon. I'm surprised that it's coming so quickly as his last novel Snuff was just released this past May. I thought Snuff was a bit weak compared to his other work, so I'm hoping for greatness with this new novel. An exciting day indeed.

The Good Ol' Days

Hey look! It's my 1970 yearbook photo! I haven't seen this picture in years! That would make me what, 56 years-old?

The Most Awesomest Thing Ever (Today)

(Words are so unnecessary.)

Rumors! Rumors! Rumors!

Rumors abound on the web (like here and here and here) about Verizon Wireless and Apple teaming up for an iPhone in 2009, possibly even by MacWorld 2009 (second week of January for those who follow the Gregorian calendar rather than the Applearian calendar). This would be insanely awesome for me as I'm an employee of the former and an unashamed fanboy of the latter. If you're like me, and having trouble waiting for such a collabo (as the kids would call it these days), perhaps I could interest you in some coasters?

My New Favorite Letter to the Editor

I suppose I never really had a favorite letter to the editor, so forgive the title, but for whatever reason, this letter moved me a bit. Maybe it's because of my upcoming fatherhood, or my dad and I talking about baseball every chance we get. For whatever reason here it is:

I am among the countless Dodgers fans who, as a boy, slept with a transistor radio under his pillow, furtively listening to Scully. After I confessed my disobedience years later, my father feigned surprise and then said, "Son, why do you think you never had to change the batteries?"
Steve Ross, Sherman Oaks, Calif.

This was in this week's Sports Illustrated in response to an article about Vin Scully, the long-time radio announcer of the Dodgers. Good stuff.

What Happened to Fall?!?

So fall was here for a week, and now that dreaded summer heat seems to be back. I really need more than a week of fall, I need three months of fall. I did get to enjoy the weather though. Kristen and I took a weekend trip to West Jefferson, NC and rented a cozy log cabin to celebrate our third anniversary. It was the best weekend I've had in a long time. It's always interesting to me how many couples seem to dread spending time alone, but Kristen and I can think of nothing better than a weekend alone, no phone, internet or TV, just each other. The highlights:

Hooded sweatshirts! That's right, it was cool enough to wear a hooded sweatshirt without sweating through it!

Cafe Breves at Bohemia. Kristen and I have spent a weekend in West Jefferson each of the last three years and we have had a Cafe Breve at least once every day that they've been open. (They're closed on Sunday. This always makes me very sad.) I alternated between pumpkin spice and cinnamon spice and they were both awesome. Of course, how could a beverage with half and half as its base not be awesome?

Organic veggies! Our cabin shared land with an organic farm. Friday night we enjoyed steak and salad consisting of heirloom tomatos and arugula that we picked ourselves that day. Delish!

Speaking of food, Kristen made cheese blintzes with blueberries one morning, and homemade chocolate waffles the next. No one does breakfast like she does.

We did dinner in Blowing Rock on Saturday and it was awesome. I had cornmeal dusted trout with a fresh tomato garlic aioli and Kristen had spinach and mushroom ravioli. We also started out with calamari. My mouth is watering at the moment.

We also drove down lots of dirt roads, breathed in copious amounts of fresh mountain air, enjoyed the hot tub, completed crossword puzzles, took naps for no reason, and just enjoyed the company of each other. I can't wait to go back in only 51 weeks!

Cha Cha

Has anyone heard of Cha Cha? Sounds like a cool idea. Call them or send them a text message (to 242242) and ask them anything. They will text you the answer and the source within minutes for free! They have a network of 25,000 "guides" who work whenever they want and are paid between $0.10 and $0.20 per answer. They only use pre-approved websites to find the answers. Pretty neat idea, right? So I decided to test them with a question no one would know off the top of their head (except probably my dad) but could find pretty easily. Here's what went down:
Q. What is Mike Mussina's career win total and career ERA?
A. Mike Mussina career average ERA is 163. Chacha on.

Only took about 2 minutes to get my response which is nice and speedy. The problem is that my-two part question only had a one-part answer, and that one-part answer was wrong. Mike Mussina has 263 wins and a career ERA of 3.69. What makes this worse is that you are also sent a link with the source of the information (in my case, baseball-reference.com, a perfect choice.) I was able to find the correct information on this page, why wasn't my guide?
Chacha=FAIL!