Everything fallen apart comes together…

…or just about everything. Lisa got a call from Delta saying they would bring her bag by later tonight. The plumbers are all but finished—just some touch up work in the bathroom they were remodeling. I may get a car this weekend. My DVD-ROM drive has been replaced in my laptop (more on that below). Feeling pretty good, if a little tired.
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Houseblog update: almost done

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the houseblog (which really needs its own category—maybe soon…) The plumber has just about finished work on the second bathroom. The tile is up, all the appliances are in place. The dishwasher stopped working, so the electrician will be out to fix it, but otherwise things are pretty much done.

Our unpacking is going slowly. I almost have all the boxes unpacked that were brought into the house by the first round of movers. We’ll be getting into real terra incognita with the stuff from the Lucadamos. I’m going to have to get the inventory sheets out to figure out where our good china is—and we’ll probably have to wait on most of that until we get a larger hutch. We also need to buy a new spice rack. Oh yeah, and a car. 🙂

But with the plumbers just about done I was able to vacuum the whole first floor last night, and we can start setting up the guest bedroom, rehanging closet doors, etc. It’ll be good fun.

Conservatives: Ashcroft must go

Greg Greene blogs a few articles I missed reporting conservative views on one of the Bush administration’s big embarrassments. From the New York Times:

“Most striking, however, is how some conservatives who were Mr. Ashcroft’s biggest promoters for his cabinet appointment after he lost his re-election to the Senate in 2000 have lost enthusiasm. They cite his anti-terrorist positions as enhancing the kind of government power that they instinctively oppose.”

And Matthew Yglesias goes further:

Ultimately, Ashcroft is George Bush, just as the rest of Bush’s cabinet is. It’s really time for conservatives (who, unlike we liberals, might be able to exercise some influence on the administration) to name names and say that Bush — not Ashcroft, not Powell, not Mineta, not Ridge, not Rove — is doing bad things and ought to stop.

Holy smokes, look at it go

Salon: Dow roars back, up 488 points. Boy, you gotta love the market. Arrest a few executives and look what happens! Now if we could just nail a few more people in a meaningful way. Like a conviction on Enron (not their accounting partners). Or a few real Al Qaeda spooks, not their addled American “followers.” Or maybe a few former executives from Halliburton.

BTW, thanks and a shout to Scott Rosenberg at Salon. Quickly becoming a must-read blog.
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The true value of money

Forwarded from a co-worker:

If you had bought $1000.00 worth of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00. With Enron, you would have $16.50 of the original $1,000.00. With Worldcom, you would have less than $5.00 left.

If you had bought $1,000.00 worth of Budweiser (the beer, not the stock) one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the 10 cent deposit, you would have $214.00.

Based on the above, my current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

Of course, the math is dependent on the beer you choose. If you take Guinness in a can instead of Bud (about $8 for a four-pack), you’d have $50 when you got your deposit back. But it’s still a better outcome than buying any of these stinkers. 🙂

UPDATE: As usual, my fellow bloggers are ahead of the curve. Others who have already told this joke (in different currencies with different beers): Nick at BootBlog, Jake of Jake’s Jive, “Wally Street” in the guestbook of FootballPoets.com… and others, I’m sure.

Time travel may be lonely…

…but John Vanderslice won’t be if you go to his concerts. There’s one in Seattle at the Crocodile Cafe on Saturday. Highly recommended. I’ve only heard one track off his newest, Life and Death of an American Fourtracker, and am looking forward to hearing more. (His last album, Time Travel is Lonely, was amazing–I still can’t get the title track out of my head.)
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George has broadband

Looks like George finally got broadband. I’m jealous of his short cycle… then again, the broadband fairy visited us only about five days after I got there. He writes:

In summary:

Tuesday, July 16: DSL order placed – service center will call to set-up install
Wednesday, July 18: Verizon calls back to schedule install (Availability next day)
Tuesday, July 23: DSL set-up as scheduled
Total: 7 days/5 business days.

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Roller coaster

Holy cow, what’s up with the market? Dow up 200, NASDAQ up 18, S&P 500 up 23… Oh wait, now the Dow is only up 168. It’s clearly going to be one of those days.

Prelinger archive for all

Looks like the Internet Archive has part of the Prelinger archive online. This is really cool. I guess I can stop worrying if I’m no longer able to use the “Ephemeral Films” CD-ROMs that Prelinger put out a few years ago—after all, you can now stream such wonders as “A is for Atom,” “Personal Hygiene” (parts I and II!), and “This is Coffee” as well as tons of old newsreel footage and commercials. Very cool.
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Finally unpacked

After more than two weeks we finally found the box that has the teakettle in it. Life is good. Hot here in Seattle today (meaning more than 85°, so I know I get no sympathy from the East Coast). Lisa’s suitcase still hasn’t been found by Delta.

Back…

Came in late last night, and Lisa’s luggage didn’t make it yet. Hope to have a little more information posted later…

Glass Enclosure

I’m currently in our hotel room on the 29th floor of the Copley Marriott. We’re staying here on Lisa’s points this weekend for Kate’s wedding. I’ve been dialed in all morning, trying and failing to get to my work email via the web. Fortunately the presentation I’m working on is mostly offline in a notebook—a paper one, not a laptop—so it hasn’t stopped me much.

It’s hard to work, though. The view from the windows is amazing:

The view from the southeast facing window in our room at the Copley Marriott, 19 July 2002.