I'm a homeowner!

The past couple of months have been crazy and I'm too tired to do it any justice, but we've finally closed on the house and now we have keys to the new place.

The one thing I will say... a closet door next to the kitchen has the markings on the thin inside part, where a kid was growing up in the 60's. The days that they'd mark that off were probably pretty special and fun, I wonder if the owners (who had the house before the person that sold it to us) ever think back to those days.

anyway woooooooooooooooo hooooooooooooooo

We have an accepted offer on a house, which is exciting for us. The inspection is Thursday, which should really be the last point where anything bad can come up. Knock on wood. After that I guess it's finalizing our money situation and going through with the P and S, and waiting a month for closing. That's what the internet tells me. It also says we shouldn't buy a car and a big TV as well as take out a big cash loan right before closing. OK!

Anyway it's a pretty exciting time, hopefully it works out for the best.

1. Saturday morning we fly out to Ft Lauderdale. It's like 18 degrees here and like 70 degrees there. Sunday our cruise and honeymoon proper begins and HELL YES do I think waiting so long for the honeymoon was the right idea when I think of that.

2. Lost has been really, really, really good.

3. The second (and most recent) episode of Battlestar Galactica this "season" was really, really, really bad. Without spoiling anything, it's like they ignored most every major reveal from the season opener. Things that used to be huge deals that had the fleet/crew in an uproar for five episodes were the sorts of things retconned out of any need to care, or just dealt with by some grumpy cripple snorting about it for 2 minutes. Aren't there only 8 episodes left, why are we wasting time with this shit?

4. I ate a third of an angry whopper today. It was only grumpy until the Jalepenos found my mouth and then it was indeed angry and I don't know why I bought it. fucking advertising

5. Gonna miss the Super Bowl, don't care. Kurt Warner wins and he cements himself firmly behind Brady and ahead of Manning in terms of QBs of the past 10 years - he has the stats and playoff chops to be considered on par with/ahead of Manning already. But I see this as a 31-13 type of Steelers win. I'll be on the cruise. I guess it's a good thing the Pats aren't in it so I don't have to even think about what I would do.

6. Joe Torre's book sheds some light on the Yankees, but most of it I think we already knew. The sad part is how the Yankees don't want to clean up their act.. instead they just want to put "you can't tell people how awful we are" clause in everyone's contract. Gee maybe if you didn't shit on Torre that way for no reason...

7. I finished Valkyria Chronicles.. very good game. Can't wait for the downloadable content this spring. I'm onto playing MLB The Show 2008, mostly because it represents the league with the Red Sox fresh off a dominating 2007 season. I have made myself as a player and I am a very good shortstop and Julio Lugo is nowhere to be seen.

8. I'm putting together a new PC. This current one is going downhill, and I think I could salvage it but it doesn't even allow for SATA hard drives so it's time to move up to something nice and I would have to worry if it can play Diablo III.

9. Work's been crazy. I'm in charge of too many things. But you know that's probably a good thing in today's market. I just miss last August when I had a bunch of small little problem fixes to work through and no stress.

10. We went to NYC a couple weekends ago to visit a friend, I had a great time there. I had never been there before - we'll have to go back this summer when it's nice out because it was god damn cold when we were there. I guess the event of note was that we saw Equus, and it was a good play.

11. Not a lot of big name movies coming out that I can think of - Watchmen and Potter 6 is all that comes to mind immediately.

12. I wanted to buy something on iTunes but it wants me to upgrade (upgrade ya) and when I click to do so, it just opens a browser to their site to enter in info and download it. What the fuck, why doesn't it just have some auto install mechanic? In happier Apple product news, the iPod Touch and it's wicked sweet battery life has made recent trips and rides in the car and hanging out on the bed watching movies very nice.

13. I have medullary sponge kidneys.

so I've had that fucking "season's greetings in our souls, yummy Fruity Pebbles in our souls!" jingle in my head for like 2 weeks now. I went to youtube in hopes of exorcising the demon by watching it, usually does the trick right? but then I get this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4ejyvkTK4E

I know there's a lot of goofy shit on youtube, so that's fine. But then it's like, I start thinking about a guy actually sitting down to make that. really? yeah sorry this update sucked

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ4XqnkqJ90&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkjZYDwAPys&feature=related

fuck yeah:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubBTsAoVlbI

ho ho ho I'm hu hu hungry

Off to work and then the drive to PA tonight, have a happy Thanksgiving!

Worst original studio GNR album, but a pretty good album.

as someone that has liked McCain (when he wasn't wearing his George Bush costume the past few years) and hated Palin, this has some fun bits:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/167581/page/1

I'm glad Obama won. I'm glad the neo-cons are pissing themselves and I'm glad the true conservatives are doing soul-searching instead of lashing out. I find it funny that John Kerry thinks he's part of the change Obama has been talking about. I hope this change also focuses on bipartisan effort. I love that Clinton and HW Bush run around together now, and it's a shame that Dubya would claim he'd bridge the gap and did everything in his power to widen it.

Hopefully Obama is REALLY up to the task of getting the country working together. I know there are people (on both sides) that absolutely refuse to accept the other side as viable, and it's a real fucking shame, but what this country really needs is true acceptance and not "accept my right/left wing dick you fuckers!"

of course I mean the Celtics taking down Houston, after the loss to Indiana and all the hype surrounding Houston, big game for Boston to lock down and win.

another Red Rings Of Death, this time the website support is awful and won't accept my serial number. that's really annoying, Gears 2 comes out on Friday. damn it all

Sox lost, Garza pitched a bit rough but Mark Kotsay probably broke a record for LOB with 0 RBI in a postseason series. I don't fault him, he's our third string 1B/5th outfielder, somehow starting at 1B. I don't know what Sean Casey did to be in the doghouse all series, I have to guess he was really hurt not to get more than 1 AB there.

Hats off to TB, they were the better team. Hope the Phillies crush them, but TB has so much more pitching that I don't see it happening.

Can't wait for a series of McCarver "no relation to -EVE- Longoria" comments, as well as Jack Buck being disgusted by the Rayhawks. Oh wait no I will be playing Fable II instead

awesome

1. Sox aren't doing too well right now, but that's OK. I mean, we're in the ALCS, and a little winning streak puts us back into the World Series. The offense is so banged up and the pitching isn't as perfect as it could be. I also think Francona is being soundly out-managed for the first time in his playoff career with the Sox.

One new wrinkle to the 2007 run the Sox had... is that it sort of wipes out any worries about people whining about the Wild Card. No one really made a big fuss about it in 2004, but I'm starting to see some pieces written about this Sox ownership/management that start separating accomplishments before and after the Wild Card era. Well, the 2007 run wasn't only really awesome in its own right, it also helps absolve the Sox of only being lucky to win a World Series. Nope, in 2007 they were the best team pretty much start to finish.

I'm not a fan of the Rays but I certainly respect them. They took it to NY and Boston this year, that's for sure. I wish the Sox would be able to give them a better fight in the ALCS, though it's certainly not over. After the LDS, I really felt Philly > TB would be the World Series result.

2. Fable II is less than a week away. Can't wait.

( warning, might be depressing )

Cubs/LA:
I feel a bit bad for Cubs fans. The offense simply didn't show up. It's one thing to lose, it's another to just get wiped out so completely. I really thought they were going to be the NL's team in the series. LA/Philly looks like it'll be a well balanced series. The whole Lowe/Nomar/Manny/Torre thing is a bit odd to watch.

I didn't really like the way the Cubs rolled over and died against Milwaukee to end the season, I don't think it set the right tone to undermanage the 25-man guys.

Philly/Milwaukee:
Some girl was banging thundersticks during the Philly/Milwaukee game and then starts bopping her boyfriend's junk with it. I had to save that minute segment on the DVR. The guy seems so beaten down.

Sox/Angels:
I feel like I was the only person not worried about the series and one of the few to predict the Sox would even win it. I think all the espn experts had the Angels winning the world series. really? I shouldn't speak so soon, as there's still 1 game left for Boston to win and they've won (and lost) 3 straight playoff games quite a few times since '99...

Vlad is trying to wrestle away the "anti-Mr October" award from A Rod. jeeze.

TB/Chicago:
Chicago is outclassed by these other AL teams. A team shouldn't have it's manager be the lead story all the time. Now he's in the heads of his players. TB on the other hand just seems like a squad of young guys happy to play but at the same time they go out there and take care of business. They really do look like they show up to win games.

This week's Indy/Houston game should lead to interesting post-game comments. Peyton spent all of the second half working on his usual "which teammates will I throw under the bus for this loss" routine, but then Sage Rosenfels single-handedly lost the game for Texas. So Peyton could easily use this opportunity to congratulate himself... but he spent all that time working out which guys he wants to insult. Can't wait to read the espn.com articles about this game tomorrow at lunch to find out.

if you had "General Petraeus" in your drinking game, you are seriously FUCKED UP right now

So last week, I caved and bought and iPod Touch. After reading some hands-on reports from people I trust to have reasonable opinions, it seemed like it would be a good purchase. My main concerns were that I've honestly just had to spend way too much money this year, and I already have two iPods that do their jobs.

( TL;DR - My Nano freezes sometimes )

So, the iPod Touch. I get a corporate discount of 17%, and the prices weren't too bad. What I really wanted was essentially a mini-tablet to poke around online while hanging out on the couch, and some other features like all the new apps really appealled to me. I read conflicting reports about the calendar feature, but I can happily say that it works perfect for what I need. My mom gave me an address on the phone while I was at a cookout and I was able to jot it down in the Notes section. The internet browsing is limited and pretty much exactly what I wanted. The Apps so far are OK, but I haven't messed too much with them yet.

It's slick and small and fun to play with. The battery life is really good, I feel like it'll never run out.

I like the music setup a good deal - the shuffle option is right on the Now Playing screen. Previous iPods I've had require you to go back and forth through menus to access it, and honestly sometimes a song comes on and I want to hear that album.. with the Touch it's really, really easy to do that. And honestly that's something I use a lot, as I get fickle with what I'm listening to. The skip "buttons" are way too close to the volume for a touch screen.

The Genius feature is both kind of cool and kind of a letdown. The first time I used it, it seemed to match up stuff fairly unrelated, which was neat but I wanted to listen to similar styles as the first song. After I added more music, it made a couple of good lists. But every time I after that, I make a new list, and without fail Screaming Trees - All I Know and Soundgarden - 4th of July come on every time. Maybe it's just bad coincidence, but I find that simply shuffling all my songs comes up with similar song mixes and I don't hear the same song every time.

The only other real drawback is that I can't find an auto-dim feature. When in the car, I don't want to have to unlock the screen to skip a song, I just want to reach over and press skip. I can prevent the auto-lock, but then the screen is always on and that's not ideal. Not a huge issue but I don't know which way I want to go with it.

So yeah, I really like the iPod Touch, it's totally replaced both of my other iPods.

Man, seeing video and pictures of Gary Sheffield getting his face punched in makes me happy.