Thursday night we went to Bahama Breeze where I made a dining choice I would soon regret. Shrimp Linguini. Tasted fine, as did my Ultimate Pina Coloda. After dinner we gambled a bit at Treasure Island and the Wynn, then went to Tryst - a new nightclub. I wasn't feeling great, so I headed for the hotel about 1am. Shortly after I got there, all Hell broke loose with my body. For the next 12 hours, I vomited every 30 minutes like clockwork. I had my wife call Kaiser to speak with an advice nurse, and after 2 HOURS! on hold she diagnosed viral food poisoning. Let me tell you, food poisoning sucks. The guys brought me water and pedialite, but the pedialite tasted awful. They came back again with a couple of gallons of Gatorade (drank both immediately), some soda to settle things and a six pack of water. I haven't left my hotel room since late Thursday night, but I hope to get out today. I'm not sure I can handle walking the CES floor yet, but I would like to try.

I am selling my Netgear MP101 on Craigslist for $50 OBO if anyone is interested. The unit works fine, we just never use it. We will be using the proceeds to help pay for a new Sirius radio and subscription. We have been weighing the choice between XM (cheaper hardware and subscription for us) and Sirius (better programming - news, classical, rock, techno, etc). We haven't really chosen Sirius over XM yet, but we are leaning that way.

This week looks to be fun and relaxing, playing tourist in DC, going to a few shows, bowling, movies, and generally hanging out. Crucial handed out generous bonuses this year along with $100 Best Buy cards which I used to buy a DVD burner for the computer. I have spent the last few days producing wedding and motorcycle DVDs. Awesome. So, if I don't see you this week, and you normally expect to see me, have a Happy New Year and we'll get together in 2006.

Post Christmas Holiday, we have tourist trips into DC planned, including the American History and the Zoo which we haven't been to in a few years. My brother is bringing the entire family up from Mississippi to see what snow actually looks like. Two of the kids will be staying with Uncle Mike where I get to teach them how to handle my motorcycles, shoot my guns and pick up women. It should be a fun filled evening.

Rhonda's Christmas gift surprise was ruined when we both bought tickets for events on the same night - New Year's Eve. Rhonda picked up excellent Capitals tickets in section 100 of the MCI center for a 1:30pm game. Fortunately she was able to move the date of the game without a big hassle. I went to a ticket reseller for Kennedy Center Wicked tickets. Those were hyper-expensive and completely sold out for months. So, that is what we are doing for New Year's EVE. New Year's Day my sister will be recovering from having everyone over the night before; with a brunch and a 3:00pm Caps game. Hockey is back y'all. Time for some blood on ice.

Made it back in time for Rhonda's GMU Christmas party in Clifton, VA. An annual tradition. We had a great meal and a lot of fun. Rhonda is very appreciated in her work, and I received nothing but accolades for hanging on to her. I have my eye on a few professors, especially one particular Russian astro-physicist that may be making the moves on her. I think we are safe for now.

Today we hear about this. Dodged a bullet there.

In other news, Sony has decided that it is a good idea to install root kits on your computer when you play their music CDs. Yet another reason to completely abandon the legitimate entertainment industry's products. Eventually they will have us back to the early 80s when all of my music came from tapes of friends' records and tapes. Buy one, copy a dozen. If they want my money, they'll quit f**ing around and start pricing music sensibly, embrace the mp3 format, and stop infecting our PCs with root kits. To Sony's credit, they have now bowed to public outrage and offered to exchange the titles at their cost. Not good enough. Don't pull this crap in the first place. Have some corporate responsibility.

Made it safely to Detroit today. I don't really enjoy getting up at 5am to make a flight, but a coworker put it in perspective. He gets up at 2:30am to beat traffic and make is 1.5 hour commute. Someday we will have reliable transporter systems making life more enjoyable all around. Of course it just means we can be called into the office at 10pm without management blinking an eye :-)

Adel Benna tried to put himself in the shoes of his shy 17-year-old brother, Ziad, and two teenage friends who scaled a wall and leapt into the cables of a power substation last Thursday evening -- willing to face electrocution rather than the French police officers they were trying to evade in this impoverished Paris suburb. "Young people don't just throw themselves into an electrical current," Benna said Tuesday, his voice trembling in anger. "They looked behind them and saw something that made them so terrified, so desperate, they did it out of absolute fear. I hate the police. They are responsible for my brother's death."

Is that right Benna? Have you ever thought that thousands of volts killed your brother when he jumped before looking? Perhaps not evading the authorities would be a better course of action next time. As a friend recently told me, the main difference between a civilian and a law enforcement officer is that the LEO can use force to make you comply with what he tells you to do. Be that voice, hands, pepper spray, baton or gun. Don't run from police if you haven't done anything wrong; and don't expect to be coddled if you do run.

The street fighting less than an hour's subway ride from the heart of Paris has underscored France's failed efforts to stem the growing unrest within a largely Muslim immigrant population that feels disenfranchised and is beset by high unemployment and crime.

I know, I know, its a peaceful religion with just a few outsiders causing trouble. You can only push that cart so far.

The rest of the night we played Crash Bandicoot. Enjoy the video.

As for me, I am headed up to NYC for a couple of days for work. Nothing exciting. Not always fun, but always interesting.

The electrican came through for us and wrapped up the shed Saturday afternoon. We now have power and lights out there; important for the upcoming time change and winter nights. Amazing how long it can take to run power to an outbuilding, and how useful it can be once it is there! We celebrated at dinner with Joseph and his wife Candace of Paradise Studios in Sterling, VA. A good time was had by all ;-)

Meanwhile, all of the deadbeats are rushing around filing for bankruptsy before a new law makes it harder to do so. Go ahead America, charge up debt you can't pay off, then shrug it off in court and start over again. Only a handful of you deserve protection, the rest should be tossed in the overflowing jails. Then you could march in protest and start a riot in Detroit. Personal responsibility ("I didn't do it!") continues to lose ground on a daily basis. If nothing is your fault, whose fault is it? Admit failure, learn from mistakes and move on.

My electrical installer is about halfway done and getting a bit flakey. His work is sound, but he showed up two hours late to work last week, and didn't show at all Saturday, blowing my whole day waiting for him. He apparently doesn't have a phone in his new place yet, which is a bad sign, but since I still owe him $500, he is sure to show up sooner or later. Hopefully sooner, so I can put my shed and basement back in order. Sunday night we checked out The Flying Karamazov Brothers at George Mason. We were disappointed. I've seen similar juggling on street corners, and the corner guys have better diction. It was hard to understand much of what they were saying. What we did understand, wasn't all that funny. Perhaps early 30s suburbanites aren't their target audience. I was disturbed by the Iraq and war for oil jokes, they didn't fit the show, and are untrue to say the least. If Iraq was a war for oil, shouldn't we be pumping it by now? Wouldn't gas prices fall? These guys should probably stick to what they know best, but I'm not sure what that might be. We left at intermission. YMMV.

Geisha is having some trouble with her hips or legs. Not sure what the problem is, just tenderness around the hind quarters. Some whimpering and crying in the bed at night, but she seems fine walking and running in the morning. She has had two major leg surgeries which healed quickly. Hopefully it isn't related.

I am ready for the weekend to be here. I need to get over this cold. Sunday the electrician is installing power to our shed, and replacing the entire panel in the basement as an upgrade. $$$. I ordered a bunch of accessories for the SV, but I assume they won't be here in time for a weekend grease monkey fest. I'll mow the lawn, help clean the house, and maybe we can find something fun to do. Oh yeah, Denise is having a party at 4pm Saturday, so we do have something fun to do. Perhaps I can get Rhonda to ride the SV over with me. WooHoo.

Brad and family are doing well in Mississippi. Power is back on which means AC and airing out the wet house. Contractors have taken over in the area, with plenty of work to be found. Hopefully everything gets back to normal for the quickly.

Where does the blame fall? First, if you were able to get out of the city and did not, then blame yourself. This was a mandatory evacuation for a Class 5 hurricane. For those that couldn't afford to flee the city or had no transportation, I blame the mayor of New Orleans. Why not send the school buses out to collect people? Why not have some sort of plan in place before the inevitable? Next I blame the governor of LA for not requesting Federal assistance immediately. That is required before the feds can step in. Next I blame the FEMA leadership for not taking control of the situation faster, and having better options for shelter than commandeering luxury liners to house refugees. I hope that when the next 9-11 comes, FEMA is better prepared for housing and feeding a city population. Lastly, I blame Bush for not taking FEMA by the ear earlier. [soapbox]For God's sake, we have Mexican Army troops arriving on US soil for the first time since the 1880s to help with the disaster. I thank them for their help, but find it hard to believe that we don't have the resources to take care of our own. We do have a war on, but let's bring the National Guard troops home to do the job they signed up for.[/soapbox]

One attention whore [Fonda] has cancelled her anti-war bus tour in favor of another attention whore [Sheehan]. How classy. There will always be another attention whore [Penn] to fill in the gaps.

While on the topic of dogs, there is a tragic situation in the Katrina affected areas of the South, with thousands of pets dead or left to die in flood ravaged areas. The humane society is a great place to donate. They are doing everything they can to help the animals and to get them back together with their owners once things settle down. If animals aren't your thing, at least donate to the Red Cross. They will have months of operations to fund and can use every thin dime.

Also on the subject of dogs - how many of you have gone to a breeder for a purebred animal because you just couldn't head down to the local pound to find a companion? I would like to see everyone that gives a dog away or buys one from a puppy mill serve a day of duty in their local animal shelter, preferably helping to euthanize one of the 18,888,930 animals put to sleep in shelters across the US since Halloween of 2001. Please spay and neuter your pets. 571 pets are put to sleep every hour. 10 per minute. Insane.

When I was a puppy I entertained you with my antics and made you laugh. You called me your child and despite a number of chewed shoes and a couple of murdered throw pillows, I became your best friend. Whenever I was "bad," you'd shake your finger at me and ask "How could you?" - but then you'd relent and roll me over for a bellyrub. My housetraining took a little longer than expected, because you were terribly busy, but we worked on that together. I remember those nights of nuzzling you in bed, listening to your confidences and secret dreams, and I believed that life could not be any more perfect. We went for long walks and runs in the park, car rides, stops for ice cream (I only got the cone because "ice cream is bad for dogs," you said), and I took long naps in the sun waiting for you to come home at the end of the day. Gradually, you began spending more time at work and on your career, and more time searching for a human mate. I waited for you patiently, comforted you through heartbreaks and disappointments, never chided you about bad decisions, and romped with glee at your homecomings, and when you fell in love. She, now your wife, is not a "dog person" - still I welcomed her into our home, tried to show her affection, and obeyed her. I was happy because you were happy. Then the human babies came along and I shared your excitement. I was fascinated by their pinkness, how they smelled, and I wanted to mother them, too. Only she and you worried that I might hurt them, and I spent most of my time banished to another room, or to a dog crate. Oh, how I wanted to love them, but I became a "prisoner of love." As they began to grow, I became their friend. They clung to my fur and pulled themselves up on wobbly legs, poked fingers in my eyes, investigated my ears and gave me kisses on my nose. I loved everything about them, especially their touch - because your touch was now so infrequent - and I would have defended them with my life if need be. I would sneak into their beds and listen to their worries and secret dreams. Together we waited for the sound of your car in the driveway. There had been a time, when others asked you if you had a dog, that you produced a photo of me from your wallet and told them stories about me. These past few years, you just answered "yes" and changed the subject. I had gone from being your dog to "just a dog," and you resented every expenditure on my behalf. Now you have a new career opportunity in another city and you and they will be moving to an apartment that does not allow pets. You've made the right decision for your "family," but there was a time when I was your only family. I was excited about the car ride until we arrived at the animal shelter. It smelled of dogs and cats, of fear, of hopelessness. You filled out the paperwork and said "I know you will find a good home for her." They shrugged and gave you a pained look. They understand the realities facing a middle-aged dog or cat, even one with "papers." You had to pry your son's fingers loose from my collar as he screamed "No, Daddy! Please don't let them take my dog!" And I worried for him and what lessons you had just taught him about friendship and loyalty, about love and responsibility, and about respect for all life. You gave me a goodbye pat on the head, avoided my eyes, and politely refused to take my collar and leash with you. You had a deadline to meet and now I have one, too. After you left, the two nice ladies said you probably knew about your upcoming move months ago and made no attempt to find me another good home. They shook their heads and asked "How could you?" They are as attentive to us here in the shelter as their busy schedules allow. They feed us, of course, but I lost my appetite days ago. At first, whenever anyone passed my pen, I rushed to the front, hoping it was you - that you had changed your mind - that this was all a bad dream...or I hoped it would at least be someone who cared, anyone who might save me. When I realized I could not compete with the frolicking for attention of happy puppies, oblivious to their own fate, I retreated to a far corner and waited. I heard her footsteps as she came for me at the end of the day and I padded along the aisle after her to a separate room. A blissfully quiet room. She placed me on the table, rubbed my ears and told me not to worry. My heart pounded in anticipation of what was to come, but there was also a sense of relief. The prisoner of love had run out of days. As is my nature, I was more concerned about her. The burden which she bears weighs heavily on her and I know that, the same way I knew your every mood. She gently placed a tourniquet around my foreleg as a tear ran down her cheek. I licked her hand in the same way I used to comfort you so many years ago. She expertly slid the hypodermic needle into my vein. As I felt the sting and the cool liquid coursing through my body, I lay down sleepily, looked into her kind eyes and murmured "How could you?" Perhaps because she understood my dogspeak, she said "I'm so sorry." She hugged me and hurriedly explained it was her job to make sure I went to a better place, where I wouldn't be ignored or abused or abandoned, or have to fend for myself - a place of love and light so very different from this earthly place. With my last bit of energy, I tried to convey to her with a thump of my tail that my "How could you?" was not meant for her. It was you, My Beloved Master, I was thinking of. I will think of you and wait for you forever. May everyone in your life continue to show you so much loyalty. - Jim Willis 2001

Picked up a new weed eater Saturday. The old Homelite one wouldn't start and I had a neighborhood kid cutting the weeds for me. The new one makes the job 10 times easier. An Echo with gator blades and a long straight shaft. Easier on the back, even though it is a few pounds heavier. I spent about 7 hours in the yard Sunday after sleeping in until 1pm. My system clock is still screwed up from all the East-West coast time changes. Saturday night I stayed up until 4:30am, coincidentally the same time I came in Thursday night. Rum Jungle was rockin' at Mandalay Bay, so I guess the loss of sleep was worth it.

The Fall Gauley is coming. Maybe I really will drown this year. Probably not.

I am headed to Vegas next week, then possibly Massachusetts for 3 days, out West somewhere for a week, then God Knows Where. Hopefully it cools off soon. Yesterday in a drive back from Charlottesville, VA, the Accord started dumping large quantities of water on our feet for no apparent reason. A clogged drainage tube seems to be to blame. Not reason enough to sell the #3 car and buy something new. Yet.

Ready for the big party on Monday. Headed to pick up beer and drinks at lunch today, then I'm off for the long weekend. Happy 4th!

Looks like some low life thieves broke into Nats players cars while they were on the road. What exactly is security doing at RFK? It isn't in a very good neighborhood. Not a place you would walk around at 2am normally. I originally thought RFK was fine, why build a new stadium. But it has been 10 years since I was there, and it is a dump. Overcrowded hallways, dangerous stairs, little parking, etc. But the game was great and the fans are true.

Today we are off to the wine festival in Old Town Manassas. $20 gets you 8 wineries with tasting, snacks, crafts and music. I think. Rhonda planned this whole thing, I'm just an active participant.

We hiked the Smokies for a bit on Saturday. A very short section of the AT, a little over a mile up and down. It was a great day for it. 80 in Pigeon Forge, 76 in Gatlinburg and 67 on the trail. Coming home Sunday, we completely screwed up and forgot to check out of the hotel when we left. It wouldn't matter much in a modern hotel with plastic keycards, but this place has stamped brass keys and probably would have charged us for every day until they got them back. So, we drove an hour back. We planned to be home by 6:30 or so last night, and got in just before 10pm. I could use a vacation.

Have I mentioned Donnie Darko yet? Rhonda and I wantched it for the first time last weekend. I really enjoyed it. So much so that I added the Director's Cut to Netflix for this weekend. Unfortunately, it would seem that my postman is stealing my movies as they go out, since Donnie Darko is still in Limbo after a week in the system. I'm hoping the director's cut can clear up a few things for me. It will probably just make the whole story murkier. Check it out if you haven't already.

Yard Sale Saturday 8am to 1pm. Be there or be square.

This weekend we are heading in to the city to see the Emersson String Quartet at the Natural History museum. Sunday - if the weather holds - dad and I are going fishing. Time to break out the canoe and hit the nearest decent lake (Brittle) and enjoy the weather. And a few beers.

At work I am a man without a home. The space I am sitting in was just changed and I have to get out. I'm trying to move next door which is completely empty, yet somewhat dark and lonely.

Congrats to my aunt Sharon's nephew Kenny Chesney on his marriage to Renee Zellweger this weekend. Any time you want to fly us all down to the islands for the weekend, we are available ;-). I know Sharon and Phil are thrilled to death as they love Kenny very much.

Traffic had me completely frustrated when I got home last night. My commute is only about 12 miles, and theoretically should take 20 minutes. But Rt. 28 is so completely f*&#ed up that is took an hour 15 in dead stopped traffic to make it home. That is completely miserable on a bike, with left hand cramps from clutching. Fortunately it wasn't 95 and 90% humidity, but it will be soon enough. I used to LOVE my commute through Clifton to Reston. It backed up for 5 minutes in the morning in Clifton, but otherwise it was 45 minutes of great motorcycle back roads. At night it backed up for 15 minutes in Clifton, but once again, it was workable. This commute has no usable alternate routes that would take less than an extra 45 minutes to use. I would love to kick the Fairfax County planner that used lights at the 28/66 interchange, as well as approving the dozens of lights along the corridor. Eliminate the extra lights on 28 and use more access roads like the smart communities do. I have people in my office coming in from Maryland that make it in less than an hour!

Sunday was spent in the yard, and I have to say it looks pretty good. Mother's Day plans include an afternoon BBQ with all of the families (hopefully) attending. Say no to the rain gods.

In business news, offshoring is getting bad reviews in a recent study. 70% of respondents had major headaches with outsourcing, while 44% didn't see any significant cost savings. Not to mention the negative imagery of moving our US service jobs overseas. If we give up manufacturing and outsource services, there isn't much left guys.

We caught Fever Pitch this afternoon at Potomac Mills. It was a cute date movie, nothing memorable. Picked up a bunch of perennials for planting tomorrow. Hope the last of the frost is over, we have a garden to grow!

Tomorrow (today really) I am cutting over Wheat to their new co-lo rack space. Hopefully it goes smoothly. Wednesday I get to till the muddy garden (it has been raining since Friday!) and start planting Spring crops. I am looking forward to it. Thursday, I have a follow up interview with a security firm in Chantilly. Since they are probably reading this, I won't say anything more than that.

Now of course, I am typing away near midnight. I have a couple of interviews planned this week, and my brother Brad is driving the Fam up from Mississippi for the week. He is a pediatric cardiologist in Ocean Springs, MS with four boys. I hope to take them riding when their parents aren't looking. Someone has to teach them to cuss and drink. Actually, I don't really drink much. Compared to some friends, I hardly drink at all. One friend gave up 7 and 7s for lent. Really.

This server will move to its new home on 3-10 at 2pm. I'll pull the plug around 1pm and hopefully it will be back by 2:30pm. Can't afford to miss an email, neither can my email hosting clients.

Come next week, this server will be moved from 209.120.170.19 to 69.64.173.60 at iLand Internet in McLean. I think I am all set with DNS and configuration modifications. My fear is that the big job offers will roll in during the hour I am out of service. I only hope their mail servers retry!

I have a random fact for you Mr. Gorman. Your name is about to be eternally linked by search engines to something very, very bad.

My MaMaw (grandmother for you Yankees) is in the hospital with chest pains. She was picked up by an ambulance at a restaurant Friday night. We went to visit her today, and she looks better than she sounded. Hopefully she can get out of there soon. After the hospital, we headed to the new local Wegman's grocery store which had a backup on to the local highway, and police directing traffic. I can not believe the residents of Fairfax are so starved for a quality grocery store that they would wait in line just to park. We headed to the older Wegmans near the airport which was only marginally less busy. Hosting a dinner party Tuesday, and we needed a quality store for our fish and cheese. Sometimes Giant and Shoppers just doesn't cut it.

I have a line on a few hosting companies. The first one is in at $150 per month. I'm hoping to get this other one down to $100 per month. I need co-lo rack space for this little Dell server. I host 4 sites, 2 commercial and very low bandwidth, plus their email. I'm trying to add two more commercial clients from the soon-to-die Wheat network. If I do that, I can charge them $50 each and actually profit. Most likely though I will charge them $25 each and break even. All I want is my continued free space for personal web and email. I want it on my box which is basically on auto-pilot with an uptime around 40 weeks. Linux rocks.

Netflix is pissing me off a bit lately. Several of the movies I want to see are in 'Very Long Wait' state now and they don't seem to be getting any less popular. I'm considering a switch to one of the other DVD mailing services if this keeps up.

My giant color Konica 2300 printer showed up on Friday. $299 for a color laser 16ppm at 1200x600. An awesome deal. We have one at work which was $799 new - the only difference being the work version has an LCD readout and built in NIC. The home model is USB or Parallel. This printer is huge. The footprint is like a small copier and it weighs over 60lbs, but the price is right and quality is great. Consumables are a little bit pricey, but most home users shouldn't find that a problem.

Geisha is recovering nicely from her surgery. Rhonda was nice enough to take her to surgery Tuesday, then pick her up and stay home with her yesterday. I slept in the family room with her last night, and am staying home today. Her back right leg had a torn ACL (just like her back left leg had last year). The surgeon goes in and reshapes the bone so that she doesn't need her ACL to walk normally. The scar is pretty gruesome. I'll post some pictures when it gets to oozing.

One inch of snow seemed to shut down all DC area highways and back roads yesterday. I was let go at 4:30pm, and made it home just after 6pm (a 45 minute ride usually). I took it easy even though I drive a 4wd truck. The powder created huge ice slicks that weren't fun to brake on. HOWEVER - you people that come to a dead stop on a steep uphill grade; or go 1 mph down any grade need to be taken out and shot. If you don't know how to drive in snow, don't.