Blog Dump

Hello sports fans, long time no blog, yes I know. It's been a long few weeks, which included:

• What felt like the longest business trip in the history of mankind (11 days total), a symphony of enforced sitting overlaid with boredom interspersed with mild hints of interest and irritation, all of which was conveniently joined midstream by
• A superfun cold whose remnants I am still regularly evicting from my nose. Luckily there was a Target next to my hotel and I could crawl over there and get one of every cold medicine I could find. Zicam tastes like metallic cherryass but I do think it helped me shake off the fun faster. I was feeling mostly human again by the time I came back home, which was also just in time for
• the most disappointing Super Bowl in recent history. Hexy Rexy showed up instead of Sexy Rexy. I said it when he got hired and I'm saying it again now - Ron Turner is not a good offensive coordinator. The Colts controlled the clock masterfully and thanks to the regular 3-and-out Bears offense (or if we were super lucky, interception/fumble-and-out) the defense was worn out by halftime and couldn't have been expected to defend a pork roast from an Orthodox Jew. Aside from the bitter aftertaste of having to hand Peyton Manning his Super Bowl ring, I remain mostly philosophical about this season and am optimistic about next year. Heck, no one saw the Super Bowl coming this year, so Lovie Smith and the gang did pretty all right.
  

Other tidbits and fun facts:

• This business trip also included a mandatory weekend stay to get to know your colleagues better. We had the choice of a day trip to the Livermore wine country (southwest - or wast it southeast? of San Ramon, CA) or a tour of San Francisco. Having been to SF several times I chose the wine country tour which was mostly fun. Real estate development is so rampant in California, that the local governments and folk really have to fight to preserve any land they can for the wineries. Really very surreal to drive by subdivisions of houses that are butt-up next to grapevines. There was a lot of wine tasting and I brought home a nice Pinot Noir from Tenuta Vineyards. (No relation to Judy Tenuta as far as I know)
• There's a possibility I may get to go to Montreal next month for work, if mgmt gives the ok and I can get an expedited passport in time.
• I completed my first experiment in cable knitting (a reversible cable-knit scarf) and it looks pretty good if I do say so. I'm still not wanting to try a sweater though.
• I am so sick of snow.
• Upon my return to the arctic chills of Chicago, my face dried up faster than my ladybits after seeing Kevin Federline's Super Bowl commercial. I need a better moisturizer. And to not see Kevin Federline ever again.