It just dawned on me that my respiratory distress is sympathy sickness for the upcoming Olympic games in polluted Beijing. This week, world-class Olympic athletes and I will be competing in the hacking-and-coughing competition.
Man, I wish I was in that hot, dangerous, overcrowded metropolis breathing shovels-full of that particulate-laden Chinese air right now. Or not.
(Note:Yeah, I know the picture in above link is of Shanghai. Beijing is just as dirty, trust me).
Spent the morning and part of the afternoon replacing the network port in the den with one that accommodates more than one plug. Then I pulled a new coax and network line to it. This should allow my MythTV box to stream network-mounted DVDs without skipping, as the wireless setup always did.
I joined the family (and Roz and her kids) at the pool for an hour of swimming, too.
This cold/sinus thing is driving me nuts, though. Woke up achy and didn’t shake that feeling for a while. Then when I was reading stories to the kids tonight, I could barely get five words in a row out of my mouth before I had to clear my throat.
Argh!! I’m so done with this illness! Tomorrow I may even skip biking to work in favor of the bus in an effort to give my besieged, 39 year old body some relief. Enough already!
It was a fun day. Went to my niece Hadley’s birthday party with the family. Got to visit with my family and friends there, including running into my former Oculan coworker Matt “Jason” Pressley. Found out his kids will be going to Hallie’s school, Conn, as well, so we’ll run into each other far more often now.
After getting back (and jumping all over the inflatable house at the kids’ party), we got prepped to head to the pool but had to leave the pool 30 seconds after getting in when thunder was heard. We spent some time at home spraying down the kids in the front yard but then returned to the pool for the last hour they were open.
Dinner, then tired kids were tucked in. Kelly and I watched Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and laughed through it. It was a dead-on satire of the recent Johnny Cash and Ray Charles biopics.
Tomorrow the kids go to a playdate and I get some time to catch up on some projects. Then we’re likely to be at the pool again in the afternoon.
It sure is great to have the family together again!
Anthrax scientist Bruce Ivans, believed by authorities to be behind the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, was found dead Tuesday from an apparent suicide. He was 62. The papers are all trying to convict him, which is unfortunate since he will never get a trial and a chance to defend himself.
Among the many questions still lurking about the anthrax attacks, this ending raises two more:
Though Ivins is dead and the case will probably be closed, I would still like to see the evidence. Now we may never know.
Update: Glenn Greenwald writes of even more troubling unanswered questions in yesterday’s Salon. particularly about the role ABC News played in spreading false information linking the attacks to Iraq.
ABC’s got some ‘splaining to do.
I’m now on Twitter as @mtdotnet. Don’t know what that means yet, but there it is.
Not long after I posted about the possibility of splitting water molecules with lightning, my pal Chris O’Donnell posts about MIT discovering a way to do this with sunlight.
I’ll put off shopping for solar panels until these babies are on the market!
(h/t COD)
Can one get fat just from the smell wafting from a Krispy Kreme? Every day I pedal by the Krispy Kreme at Peace and Person and feel unexplainably tugged backwards by the tempting smell of fresh doughnuts.
How do the residents of Historic Oakwood defend themselves against this fragrant siren song?
I remember being amused at seeing a Krispy Kreme in the Sydney Airport when I visited Down Under. All the way from Winston-Salem to Australia. Good on ya’, mates!
I know I made fun of Governor Mike Easley’s fist bump with Barack Obama. It looked pathetic, after all.
It turns out the Governor’s bum shoulder was at fault. I’m not one to make light of someone’s injury. My apologies, Governor. I hope you heal quickly.
I’m just beat tonight. Picked up a cold yesterday which kept me awake, as I couldn’t breathe through my nose well enough to wear my mouthpiece when I desperately needed it. If that wasn’t bad enough I was continually dive-bombed by a mosquito until I cranked up the bedroom fan.
Its also not been all that easy juggling work and the kids’ errands while Kelly has been away. Trips like this really make me appreciate her so much more. Add in today’s sweltering, nearly unbearable heat and you get one tired dude.
I’ve got an 8:30 AM meeting tomorrow and I’m hoping I’m conscious for it. Man am I glad a weekend’s coming up.
I found out Tuesday from the excellent New Raleigh blog that the North Carolina State Archives has posted a number of its historical photographs to Flickr. This is without a doubt totally awesome.
For me the juiciest photos are the ones of early Raleigh, most of which are from the Carolina Power and Light Photograph Collection. I’ve always wanted to know where Raleigh’s trolley tracks used to be, and here’s a mess of photos that shows just that.
Kudos to the State Archives for making these historical photographs so easily available!
