Viva la Vida

I'm not a huge Coldplay fan. If they come on, it's not I'll say, "ugh, Coldplay," and change the station, but I usually don't seek out Coldplay either (although I really like Green Eyes). But then there's Viva la Vida. I can't get this song out of my head. It's been a while since there was a song that I just felt like I had to listen to, but this one keeps coming back to me. (OK, I really like Two Sisters by Fiction Plane, but it didn't have this kind of staying power.) Coldplay has two videos for the song. One is a new, high res video, which is OK, but the other video is a Depeche Mode video tribute and really has so much more character.

Best comment of the Olympics

Jeni has been very dedicated to watching the Olympics. We've had the DVR churning, catching the great stories and amazing triumphant, which is really what the Olympics is all about. But we've also enjoyed some of the commentary from Bob Costas and Jim Lampley as they got punchy with exhaustion, sometimes saying some of the funniest, driest things throughout the last two weeks. Until today, my favorite comment was from Jim Lampley, coming back from commercial break where the Goodyear blimp jumped the hurdles in a graphic across the screen, he said, "that blimp's too cool for school." And that stood for almost a week and a half until today, when Jim Lampley again was reporting, this time on the Cuban Taekwondo player who, after being disqualified in the bronze-medal match, turned and kicked the referee in the head. Jim Lampley went on to explain that he had been banned for life, and said, "Afterall, the first rule of Taekwondo is you don't kick the referee in the head."

Greg, this link's for you

"I Google You" by Neil Gaiman ...

Powder room light

Jeni and I installed a new light fixture in the powder room a few weekends ago. It really was easier than I expected (or about as easy as everyone told me it would be). I have a healthy respect for electricity, and was a little nervous about this project, but it went up without a hitch.

Patient recommendations

I was straightening my desk and came across a bunch of Post-it notes of recommendations from patients. My patients will tell me about books they like, or restaurants I should go to. Here's the latest bunch...

The Harbor House Bed & Breakfast

DeLucca's Italian Grill & Pizzeria

Cecilia's Mexican Restaurant, although if I'm over here, I'll probably go to Taqueria Jalisco Mexican Restaurant.

Steve Berry's The Amber Room and The Romanov Prophecy

A. Lee Martinez's In the Company of Orges

I enjoy a good book, but I think I'd like to start with the B&B.

I really have been working in the yard

Here's proof that Jeni and I have done yard work since moving to our house. These gloves came in a two pack. I put one pair away to save until the other pair wore out. Well, they wore out two weekends ago. We were out pulling weeds like crazy when I blew through the ends of both middle fingers (maybe I was giving the finger to the weeds too much...) Either way, I broke out the other gloves to cut the grass the next day and was just amazed at the difference. Of course I knew the old gloves had worn over two seasons of yard work, but I forgot what a new pair felt like, or looked like. BTW, I don't know how I did yard work without gloves before, either.

Greasemonkey script for Flickr

I finally took the time to install the Greasemonkey script for Flickr that lets me put people's icon beside my replies to their pictures. It's a little tweak, but is really a nice touch. Sadly, I had the time at work today to do this.

(OK, this is one of those posts that I don't expect anyone to even read, I just needed the links so I could install this at home later without hunting down the pages again...)

Six degrees of Neil Gaiman

I really enjoyed the Six degrees of Kevin Bacon game. It was a good source of entertainment back in college when I would be working the front desk of the dorm in the middle of the night. I like it even more now that, after many years, I can now connect myself to Kevin Bacon in about two degrees.

My favorite author is Neil Gaiman. I was a Neil Gaiman fan before it was cool to be a Neil Gaiman fan (and, yes, if you didn't know, it is kinda cool to be a Neil Gaiman fan). So I just realized that I am three degrees of separation from Neil Gaiman, and this is how:

I know Chris, who knows Bela Fleck (of Bela Fleck and the Fleck Tones) and Bela Fleck recorded a song for Neil Gaiman's audio book version of the Graveyard Book.

The Graveyard Book is Neil Gaiman's latest book, which comes out just after my birthday in September (and would make a great late birthday gift, hint, hint) and there's a contest revolving around this new book release. I like free stuff as much as the next guy, so check it out (although I don't know if I'd really use the Stardust-inspired bath bomb).

Totally unaware

All week patients have been coming in talking about Michael Phelps and the gymnastics squads, so I was surprised when one of my co-workers said, "I haven't watched any of the Olympics until last night, and that was because someone else had it on," and another said, "So, are they on every night?" I shouldn't be surprised, but I guess when you live with an Olympics junkie you just figure everyone is to one degree or another.

Happy Anniversary Nikki and Todd

Congratulations Nikki and Todd on 13 years! We've all come a long way in 13 years, but it still feels like yesterday, too. Hopefully you guys can sneak out for an adult dinner away from the kids tonight.

Perseid Meteor Shower

If you're up into the wee hours of the night watching the Olympics (and I know you are), why not stay up just a little longer and check out the Perseid Meteor Shower. I guess you could see as many as 60 meteors an hour. This is as good an excuse as any to stay up late (like you need one)...

Olympics geek

Jeni is genuinely geeked about the Olympics starting tomorrow. There's little she gets as excited about than every two years when the Olympics roll around (she prefers the Summer Games, but she still gets thrilled for the Winter Games, too). Yesterday she was checking the schedule, and I have agree that it stinks the way that NBC has blocked the programming in eight hour blocks. I wish we had a swimming hour, and a gymnastics hour, but I guess it doesn't work that way. So we're trying to clear out the DVR so we can record the middle-of-the-night events. But I suspect Jeni will become an insomniac for the next two weeks.

New Xterra

We had been having a lot of trouble with the VW Passat this past year, and that was so disappointing for us because we really loved that car. It was the smoothest ride and most comfortable car I think I've ever driven. But after replacing the spark plugs and coil, the heater core, the water pump and timing belt, and all four tires, and the air was acting real spotty, and to top things off someone broke in on Wednesday and did no real damage, except for an airbag sensor that was lighting up now ... all in the last 10 months. So Friday, after the tampering with the car, Jeni took it to the mechanic to have the sensor checked and the air looked at. He fixed the sensor, checked the air and told Jeni that it wasn't the A/C, but the computers that were the problem (the VW has four, and they weren't communicating right). So Jeni asked, "You're telling me I should trade my car this weekend?" and he said, simply, "Yes."

So Friday we headed down to the Nissan dealership with every intention of getting either a 2007 used Camry or an Altima. We test drove the Altima, and really liked it, but there was another one on the lot we wanted to look at. So while we were waiting for the salesman to come back with the key, we saw the Xterra and started to look more closely at that instead. We had never really considered an SUV, but the Xterra was just what we needed.

Now, the one we planned on test driving had a handful of features, the middle of the three on the lot, but it was out of gas. So we drove the nicer of the three and loved it. They worked with us to meet the price we were willing to pay, and by dinner time Friday we had a new SUV with a warranty and that will start when we put the key in. Now we don't have to borrow a friend's SUV to go to Home Depot anymore, which we were doing a lot of this year. We even got to use it to haul stuff Saturday helping my boss move some of his fragile items to his new house.


This is our new baby. Big enough for what we need, but not too big either.

(We went from a VW to and Xterra ... so alphabetically, I guess our next car will be a Z.)