Never Too Early

February 23, 2009 · Posted in Personal · Comment 

So, my birthday is just over a month away. And since I am going to be in Ireland on the big day, I figured you all might want to get a head start on shopping, so the gifts might get here before we leave. Ain't that thoughtful of me? :-)

As usual, I've added everything to my Amazon wishlist, even a few items that Amazon doesn't sell are on there. I would particularly like to draw your attention to the Apple Earphones with Remote & Mic, which would come in handy when used with my iPod Touch for making VOIP calls, even while in Ireland! Taken! Thanks Dad!

I'm sure I will have some additional items soon, but I wanted to make sure the list was out there for anyone who wanted to get an early start.

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Knight Life

February 16, 2009 · Posted in 12 Books · Comment 

Knight Life Knight Life by Peter David
My review
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After a very literary turn with my last book, this was just the book I needed to read. Very quick read, entertaining and funny. I simply had to read the description and I was hooked: King Arthur comes back after being trapped in a cave for centuries, to save the world by... running for Mayor of New York! And somehow, many of the characters from his past (Merlin, Morgan, Modred, etc) all show up to help or hinder him in his campaign. Peter David manages to combine the fantasy and magic of Arthur's world with the absurdity of a 21st century political campaign to hysterical effect. The result is simply awesome.
Next up is The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway.

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What’s New?

February 16, 2009 · Posted in Misc, Personal · 1 Comment 

It's been a while since I really updated on what's been happening.  Well, a lot of changes!

We refinanced recently (4.875% for 30 years).  I'm pretty sure we're done with refinancing now.  Our mortgage rate is actually less than our auto loan rate!

We opened a new checking account.  Our old credit union was getting to be too inconvenient, and they just announced they are closing the service center we used to go to, so we opened a new account at the same credit union our mortgage is with.  Our new account even earns (a miniscule amount of) interest since we have the mortgage too.

We have a new phone company.  Our phone number will remain the same, but while we transition, you may notice the caller ID coming from us has a different number.  Once we decide that we like the new company, we'll port the old number over, and all will be back to normal.  Unless the call quality is horrible though, I think we'll be sticking with these guys.  The company is Callcentric, and they charge $1.95/month for an incoming phone number, plus $1.50/month for 911.  Then all incoming calls are billed $0.015/minute, and outgoing is about $0.02/minute.  Pretty good deal, really.  I can even use my iPod Touch to make calls using Fring from any Wifi hotspot, but that's a geeky detail I won't go into now.

Aside from that, Ellie is seriously reading a LOT, and all on her own.  We're amazed at her progress.

Evan is talking a lot, and more understandably.  There are still some "Evan-isms," which you can only understand once you have the context, but a lot more is becoming a lot clearer.  He is also really into his music class now.  He sings along to most of the songs, and does the rhythm sections.  He, unlike Ellie ever did, will even get up and dance and play and sing at music class, and is the first one to give the teacher a hug at the end of class.  He is dangerously cute too, of course.

I think that's about it.  Oh, and of course, there's the new website which is running on WordPress now.  You can submit comments again!  Hooray!

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At Swim-Two-Birds

February 2, 2009 · Posted in 12 Books · Comment 

At Swim-Two-Birds (John F. Byrne Irish Literature Series) At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien
My review
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It took me a while to get motivated to read this. It wasn't particularly hard to read, or hard to get into, I just had other stuff going on that delayed me. But once I got into it, I really got into it and enjoyed it. The style of writing was a little odd at first, but I fell into the rhythm. Once I picked up the rhythm, I was able to appreciate the absurdity and enjoy the trip. Excellent.
I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. Probably something sitting on my shelf at home.

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