October 2006


Bet it’s cold, though.

Hazecam image

That’s the claim made by the observatory at the summit of Mt. Washington. And today, at least, I believe them.

Yikes!

Update: It’s getting worse.

Wow

Some months ago I asked a bunch of friends if there was any doubt who would win the World Series, American League or National League. It was unanimous that the American League team would win, as the AL was trouncing the NL in games at that time. Fast forward 3 months and I’m watching the St. Louis Cardinals celebrate a World Series win. Okay, so I was wrong. Detroit literally threw this series away, the pitchers most notably.

But I’m glad to see Tony LaRussa win a series. He deserves it and I’m glad the Cards management stuck with him. 

As an aside, Fox’s coverage was terrible. The announcers were obviously biased. Inexcusable for a supposedly “balanced and fair” network.

Some days I just can’t deal with the highway, especially when it’s raining. So today I had a somewhat solitary ride home. Very relaxing. 🙂

My backroad

At the risk of boring you, I have just one more shuttle pic which I think deserves mention. This was taken as it approached the space station. The links below the image are for wallpaper suitable versions.

Discovery

1024×768 (more or less)

1280×1024

Shot from the WB57 chase plane. Too cool for words.

Shuttle

Shuttle

Who’da thunk it?

Laptop Cat

We’re in Chicago for a few days as Sarah was invited to the Illinois Authors’ Luncheon, which took place on the Navy Pier. The weather was awesome. We hit the Shedd Aquarium afterwards. Pretty fascinating. Check the snake pic below. Not bad pics for a phone camera, although the colors are weird. The tall building is not red and green. It was also nice being able to use the XV as a Bluetooth modem to access the internet on my laptop and avoid paying the hotel $10 for their wireless. 😉 We got pretty decent speeds on the EV-DO network around Chicago.

XV6700
Just got a new XV6700 PDA/Phone from Verizon. Very sweet toy. Lots of bells and whistles, but the thing I like most of all is the “push” email feature. As soon as someone sends an email to my campus Exchange account, it shows up on the phone within a minute or two. For an email junkie like me, this is ambrosia. 🙂

And because my 740iL is in the shop yet again, I’m driving a loaner. Maybe the dealer felt sorry for me or maybe they feel I’ve paid my dues, because they gave me a brand-spanking new 330i for a few days. Last night I made a late run to the store (for kitty litter, of all things) and discovered the joy of adaptive headlights. These headlights turn as you move the steering wheel so they are lighting your path around a bend or corner. There’s a 90 degree turn off the main road and down a side road on my way home that’s particularly hairy because it’s very dark and the side road has very steep drops on both sides. Overshoot the corner and you’ll be calling AAA to tow you out of the field below. With these headlights, the minute you start to turn the wheel, the path around the corner is suddenly illuminated. And as you drive through the turn, the headlights shift back forward. Very trick, indeed. The only thing I don’t like about this car is the color. I can only imagine what folks think when they see me driving a candy apple red BMW at my age. 😉

BMW 330i

The last gadget isn’t really a gadget at all. It’s a website. But Google Earth is still fun to play with. Apparently it has given birth to a whole new hobby of treasure hunting for strange images, such as the KC-135 refueling the Galaxy C-5 in mid-air. Gotta love technology.

Refueling