We’ll pray all goes well and it helps her health l… Jeff Roberts - Feb 4, 2008 We’ll pray all goes well and it helps her health long term. We’ll pray for maria’s mouth, tho with her father’s mouth (and aforementioned lullabies including “B double-E double-R U N beer run), there’s probably no hope. Thanks to Harold Joey thinks burping is hilarious. :-) Men. Watcha gonna do? ...

More info on that cool, euro Elantra Touring from the auto show: Touring Mini-site Just checking out the specs: - 24mm front & 21 mm rear swaybars - Factory B&M Short throw shifter - 140hp (yeah, it’s a Hyundai Beta engine…) - Stiffer springs & dampers (EURO, BABY!!) Might have to go drive these when they hit the dealers…sounds like a redux of the Protege5 (or the Plymouth Colt Vista for the 21st century)

link After the committee meeting broke up, several expressed doubt that a compromise could be reached this session. Stumbo, for instance, said the horse industry may have asked for too much and doomed any casino proposal. “What you saw today was an industry that cut off its nose to spite its face,” Stumbo said. “I think the bill’s probably dead.” w0000000000000000000t! Maybe this isn’t a fait accompli, afterall!

Made a pilgrimage to the Cincy Auto Show on Saturday: Cincinnati Auto Show 2008 Impressions, briefly: VERY impressed with the offerings from Hyundai. They seem to fill every niche (aside from Hybrid), and the interior materials and fit/finish are great, for a good price. Particularly loving the Elantra Touring, which is a proper hatchback version of the elantra. Eminently practical, getting 30mpg. The rebirth of the car. Interest in Trucks & SUVs was nil…the crowds were all around the cars and some crossovers. “What’s the MPG?” seemed to be the question of the afternoon ...

Ah, when nerds make viral videos (SFW): Link

Cute. Lags a bit near the end but worth hanging ou… Jeff Roberts - Feb 2, 2008 Cute. Lags a bit near the end but worth hanging out to see the last bit.

Maria’s First Birthday Check it out!! My gal’s One!

Ah, yes, the wearing of the cake. Good times! Jeff Roberts - Feb 1, 2008 Ah, yes, the wearing of the cake. Good times!

So, several days ago, I faced that yearly task–picking out the perfect Valentine’s Day card for my wife. I’ve approached this different ways in the past: One year, I eschewed getting her anything, proclaiming V-Day as “the invented holiday that makes no sense”. Results were predictable, in hindsight. After that, I spent several years executing my usual card-search routine: Enter Store. Walk to card aisle Find appropriately topical card. (That is don’t buy “Granny you’re my valentine” if you dating Daisy Fuentes.) ...

It was a perfect one! I love you!! btw, he got m… Whitney - Feb 4, 2008 It was a perfect one! I love you!! btw, he got me two dozen roses too ;) He’s so wonderful!!

One the face of it, you’ll find few movies more different than End of the Spear and Black Snake Moan: One is a tale of Missionary zeal, the other a gritty portrait of depravity and betrayal. Thanks to an accident of Netflix and the sickness that descended upon our family, I got to watch both within a twelve hour span, and the messages of both harmonize – Redemption is available to anyone. ...

Link Brock Yates and some other ex-C&D guys have a new home, and so far, I like it: - More terse and coherent than autoextremist.com - Profane. Gotta love some locker-room profanity when talking about cars. - Not TOO profane. - Simple, easy visuals, good RSS feeds. Are you listening EDMUNDS!? - Did I mention terse? Edmunds.com, particularly Karl Brauer, treat the internet medium as a license to blather….forever… - They review cars people might actually buy and give honest opinions based around the target audience of that car. Is a Ford Ranger awful? Compared to a Lexus, sure. As a small, effective work truck? It’s awesome, and these guys say so. ...

I’ve been thinking alot about version control lately, because we’re undertaking a big move from Clear Case and it’s Unified Change Management (UCM) process to Subversion, which is the source-control equivalent of the Wild Wild West–anything goes, wheee!! Meetings were held, proposals submitted, cost advantages debated, and finally the Big Muckety Muck cowboyed-up and made the call–we’re going to subversion and saving a gagillion dollars. As with many such decisions, this was communicated to the worldwide distributed sites with the utmost care, forethought, and consideration. That’s right–it was 13th out of 15 slides in a Powerpoint deck. Aforementioned plebians reacted with anything from curiosity to outright rebellion. ...

(Written using IE 7, since Firefox 3b2 is still as unstable as a tween headed to a Hannah Montana concert…) I was up until 11 checking-in & building code for our 2/15 deadline, and it seemed like 10 seconds afer I closed my eyes, the weather radio started its DEEDLE-DEEDLE-DEEDLE of a warning: “…has issued a Tornado Warning for…Scott County in Central Kentucky.” Jumped up and checked the radar and, sure enough, God’s own squeege was headed across the state. So, we woke-up the kids (1:15 am…ah, family time!) and huddled in our secure bunker, a.k.a. the 4-foot-wide half-bath in our hallway. ...

So, my esteemed father-in-law had a little birthday surprise of his 60th birthday of his own: A Ford 500! (Not his, obviously…) He picked-up a 1 year old Limited model (leather, the works…) at Crossroads Ford in Indiana. It had only 10k miles on it, and I got to take a test drive yesterday. It’s a very well-executed car, and a great replacement for the Crown Victoria: Tremendous interior room, comfort, and driveability. The car stops, turns, and steers like a Euro sedan; driving it, I kept thinking “Volvo” or “Audi”. I found the suspension tuning particularly impressive–not harsh at all, but very well controlled…bumps caused one well-damped motion. There was no float or wallow; the car went where it was pointed and changed directions better than it ought to given its size. ...

Carriage Ford, honey :) Whitney - Feb 1, 2008 Carriage Ford, honey :)

- Two Years, two Mannings. - Wes Welker deserved MVP. - Give the MVP to the Giants’ D…they kept Brady on his back. - Was Giselle hired by the NFC? If it’s possible, I feel BAD for the Patriots? An unblemished season, and then beaten in an ugly, hard-to-watch game that felt like Muhamed Ali’s Ropeadope, played on a football field. Best commercial: The Bridgestone “Scream”

I missed a lot of them (distracted by Euchre and o… Chris - Feb 0, 2008 I missed a lot of them (distracted by Euchre and other things), but of the ones I saw and remember, I like that one best too. I still liked the silent Pepsi Commercial best, tho this is an easy second. There weren’t any other ones I liked at all really. ...

Wow…I’ve been underwhelmed before, but just…wow. Okay, so let’s review: I had a bout of unaccountable Car lust starting earlier this week. The Astra was the newest Euro kid on the block, all sexy and angular. So, today, I took a detour on my way to work and drove one. Walkaround: The car is handsome and substantial…it really doesn’t look like an economy car, but rather an upscale small hatch, a segment the MINI Cooper created. Doors open and close with an assuring thunk. The hatch is pure euro, complete with parcel shelf and a good-sized storage area with the seats up. The rear window is very small (but we’ll get to that…) ...

Looks like we’re down to Obama -v- Clinton, McCain -v- Romney. There are other players, but it’s apparent that Huckabee can’t play on the coasts, and Super Tuesday should seal that. Probably the best phenomenon of this primary season hasn’t been the campaigns or races themselves, it’s been the “race to decide” among the media. I used to identify this as a Fox News only phenomenon (NEWS DAMNIT!), but it seems to spread to others. Thing is, the networks seek certainty–Who’s the front runner? Who is soon to be out? ...