I have to get this damn brace off my leg. Tomorrow should be the day. I can't wait to get back to some exercize. The wife told me this morning my "butt is less round". At least she notices.
I finshed the Count of Monte Christo last night! Thank god! It was a great book. It's available online, but I mostly read the Buss translation from Penguin, which was rather modern.
$182.8 million for 3 runs, or, $60.8 million per run.
$29.2 million for 8 runs, or, $3.65 million per run.
That means that the Yankees spent 17 times more, per run,
than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Maybe they thought it was still spring training.
Oh, also, I had a bit of an 'Interactive Fiction' geek-out over the weekend. Interactive Fiction is the fancy name for the old Infocom games - Zork and its children - and there are fanatics who still develop these things.
There are, in fact, annual contests - and the entries must be playable in about two hours! I played last year's winner last night, which was called Slouching Towards Bedlam. It was very well done, engrossing, a good mix of mystery without too many pointless puzzles. I also appreciate the on-board hint system.
To play the game, you need the code, available from one of the links above, and an intepreter, . I used 'Zoom' for Mac OS X.
Another fantastic weekend with Matt.
Saturday, all day, was TAX DAY. How long did it take? Hours. 6? 8? I thought I was done, but no, there's more to do.
Yesterday we rewarded ourselves by sitting in the sun. We went to University Circle ('The Cultural Capital of Cleveland') and walked around the art museum grounds. We had planned to go to the Botanical Garden - but it costs SEVEN BUCKS. So, we just had a picnic and read instead. I'm still trying to fight through The Count of Monte Christo - only 250 pages left! The Wife was reading All The Names, which is our Book Club Book for Book Club this wednesday.
For Book Club I'm making eggplant lasagna. I hope they like it.
Jay Leno has a new children's book coming out.
Attention Publishers: I'm not going to buy a celebrity children's book. Ever. Not Madonna. Not Jay. Maybe if you find the secret manuscript of Tupac's book, but not anyone else. Just because someone is on TV doesn't mean I want to buy their ghost-written crap at Borders. Give me the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, not this modern retelling of the Family Circus.
Because, really, if the book is 'written' by an established celebrity, what risks are they going to take? What are the chances of there being anything new, thought-provoking, in other words, the slightest bit interesting in their book? The shareholds of Jay Leno Living would revolt!
Being in Ohio, I haven't been paying much attention to the
new 'left' radio network that's getting off the ground at
the end of the month. In Sunday's long Al Franken bio piece
in the NYTIMEs, I read this:
Most of the network's shows are
three hours long; live programming
will run from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.,
with reruns filling in overnight
and on weekends, at least
initially. Each show will mix hard
news, politics and pop culture as
its hosts and writers see fit.
Several programs will consist of a
pair of hosts, like a comedian and
a traditional radio news foil.
Franken's co-host is Katherine
Lanpher from Minnesota Public
Radio. Other hosts include the
comedian Janeane Garofalo, who
will run the evening shift, and
Winstead, who will fill the 9
a.m.-to-noon slot with, as
co-host, the Public Enemy rapper
Chuck D.
Holy smokes. Janeane Garofalo and Chuck D???
We also saw NWP this weekend! The reason was unfortunate, but it was great to feed him soup and talk for a few hours.
Happy Monday!
I'm back at work. The wife is on vacation this week.
We had dinner last night with The Fur'n. Wonderful as usual. She had just returned from Tanzania, where she was Solving Global Health Inequities. And she brought us chocolate clogs from Holland. We'll happily see her as much as possible until Friday when she leaves for Thailand.
We're catsitting. Two cats. I can't remember their names, so I call them Upstairs and Downstairs. They were both sociable on Saturday, when they arrived, but yesterday they spent the day in hiding. Their food disappeared overnight, however. The owners think Downstairs is more skittish, but, in my Mom's words, 'Downstairs has them buffaloed'. Downstairs was much friendlier to us.
So yes, the Mom also was visiting this weekend. She hung pictures for us. We now have a gigantic world map in our bedroom.
Since I didn't give you the update, 2 more weeks (from last Thursday) in the leg brace.
And with that, time for a meeting.
All the sponsors of this bill are Republicans.
There's a suspect now for all the shootings in Columbus. Apparently he drives a Geo Metro. Green.
I've seen a surprising number of Ford Festivas on the highway up here in Great Cleveland since moving here a year ago. Also, a Yugo.
I saw a Yugo in Cambridge, too, before moving. But the Festivas on the highway are a Cleveland thing. They look like go-carts. At least they know better than to be in the left lane.