One more step
With little baby steps, baseball gets closer to coming to DC. One vote down, I think one more to go, officially. I'm still waiting to see the first pitch of the second game before I truly believe it...
Day of Destiny
Today is the day (again) where we find out if the idiotic DC CIty Council will finally approve the financing plan for the new baseball stadium. We can only hope they approve it so we can go to a freakin' game in the city!
Interesting sidebar, listening to the Kojo Nnamdi show last night, he was talking to an author of a book about Michael Jordan's time here in DC. He brought up a good point: that MCI center really didn't generate a lot of successful development nearby, until Michael came along and they started selling a lot of tickets, and MCI became a semi-hip place to be. With over 15000 full season tickets for baseball sold though, it seems like there will be plenty of spillover business for the area. Because the Expos sure don't have any Michael Jordans on their team.
Survivor
I am a New Jersey Turnpike Survivor. We decided to take our chances and headed up to New York for a McGuire Thanksgiving. We're not (that) stupid though, so we decided to drive up on Thursday morning. Dinner was not until 4pm, so we left at 9:30am, thinking that would leave us plenty of time for the normally 4 hour drive. 6 hours later, we arrived 30 minutes before dinner. Luckily, Ellie slept most of the way, and was no worse for wear. It would have been a rough trip if she had been whiny the entire time.
Let me take this time to plug EZ-Pass again. The Turnpike now has high speed toll booths at either end (for us, just after the Delaware Bridge, and at the end of the turnpike before the GW bridge). This means you can drive at the speed limit and not slow down going through the booths. A shocking number of people were still going through the booths though, and I will never figure out why. There is no monthly charge if you get the EZ Pass from Maryland, and you don't have to live there to get it. We could have easily been stuck for an extra half hour to 45 minutes at those toll booths. EZ Pass rules!
Thanksgiving dinner was fun. We sat with Ellie at the "kid's table", which probably drank more than the adults, since cousin Bill brought some lovely honey-pepper-vodka concoction back from his trip to Ukraine. Is it possible for something to be vile yet lovely at the same time? This stuff was...
Friday was a much better drive, very little traffic at all. It still took us about 5 hours, but we stopped to eat at Cracker Barrel along the way and spent some time browsing in the shop (Lisa is a big fan of that place). The Civic hybrid also hit its top mileage so far, 499.6 miles on one tank. I could have hit 500, but I would have felt silly driving in circles around the parking lot.
You can call us the Joneses, because we got all our Christmas decorations up on Saturday and Sunday, and the neighbors were forced to try to keep up. A good weekend, but very tiring. No rest for the wicked either, as I have the 9:15 draw for curling tonight, which means I won't be home and in bed until almost 1am. Ugh.
Gigantous
In addition to the $415k pile of dirt, another house near us was knocked down this summer, and is finally getting close to completion.
This is the neighbor's house, for reference.
The before picture. We especially liked the toilet in the middle of the rubble, which you can't really see. I'm sure the neighbors did too, since the house was stuck in the state for at least a month.
And after. I'm sure the neighbors really love that the new house goes right up to the edge of their property. That's what I call gigantous!
100 again
The Spartans hit 100 points for the third straight game, beating Nicholls State 102-52. Not too shabby, but as I said before, the real test is on Tuesday against Duke, and then next weekend against GWU and Maryland (going to one out of those two games!).
Phone viruses
Courtesy of Need to Know:
"Once installed the ['Skulls' malware] replaces all the icons on the main page with skulls and replaces all the working applications, such as contacts, calendar, notebook etc with non-working versions so the phone becomes almost useless. The only thing the phone can do is *make and take calls*..."
BBC Article on a new cell phone virus
- Nokia users, eh? Are they *never* satisfied?
This officially bites
After trying numerous methods of getting Sudip's domain into my control, which is where it should have been all along, I have reached a dead end.
I first tried to use the ICANN transfer procedure, which I thought pretty clearly stated that non-responses from the registrant would result in a default transfer approval, but apparently not. Maybe if I had picked a less clueless transfer company... The domain has since been "locked", so that gambit is out.
Next I tried GoDaddy's support team. After about three emails of trying to get someone with a clue, I found a guy who pointed me in the right direction, which was to fill out a form asking for domain info change. But about ten minutes ago, I received an email saying I couldn't do that without approval of the bastard who registered the domain "for me." Yeah, you try to contact him. His phone has been disconnected. He doesn't answer emails. If anyone happens to be near 132 Kinder Rd. Columbia, South Carolina 29212 tell Jace Herring I said hi, and kick his ass for me.
The last suggestion from GoDaddy was to use an arbitrator to get it back. Well guess what, WIPO charges a $1500 fee just to hear your case. Maybe Venus Williams can afford that, but I sure can't. I'd rather spend the $7 to register a different name and have the hassle of telling everyone about it.
I'm so pissed. Unless by some miracle this guy resurfaces, he took my money and Sudip's domain with him. Looks like I had better register some variation so that when their servers finally bite the dust, Sudip's page won't go dark...
If anyone knows someone who works for GoDaddy (the registrar) or ThePlanet.com (in Dallas, TX, where the servers are located), let me know, as they may be able to help me out.
First Place!
My New York Knicks are in first place! Of course, that's not saying much, as they are only 5-5.
The Spartans whupped up on another scrub team, Wisconsin-Green Bay, topping 100 points for the second consecutive game. That's the first time in 40 years they have accomplished that feat. One more scrub team on Saturday, and then at Duke on Tuesday.
ID please
Slow news day, the day before Thanksgiving and all. So, here's a semi-interesting story: Britain plans to institute a national ID card. I've thought the idea was interesting for a while, having a single type of ID instead of individual states' driver's licenses. But I really don't think it would do a whole lot to prevent terrorism or illegal immigration. Didn't the hijackers all have valid IDs?
Shopping Alert
Apple is claiming that they will have great deals at their stores (and online, I believe) on 'Black' Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. If you've been thinking about buying that iPod accessory or iTunes gift card (for me 
, that may be a good time to get it!
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