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It’s here! My new MacBook Pro! OS X running on a dual-core Intel. Backlit keyboard. 15.4” screen. Friggin’ great.

When Garmin’s G1000 “glass cockpit” instrumentation system came out last year, I sort-of did a “whatever”. At the time, I still owned niner-three-fox, my beloved little 1966 Cessna 150 with basic cockpit instrumentation (and my handheld Garmin 196 which was impressive enough). The G1000 is something on the order of a $60K option on new aircraft, and I figured I’d never fly behind one of those. Hence my blase attitude about how cool they may be.

This weekend, the second annual Boulder International Film Festival hit town, and Brenda & I took full advantage, taking in two feature-length films and watching a program of short films yesterday afternoon. Everything we saw was shown at the fabulous Boulder Theatre, a quirky old joint downtown with a great old marquee, uncomfortable seats, and a full service bar. Boulder does everything differently.

Our dear friend Patty from New Jersey came to visit us this past weekend, direct from Hoboken, NJ, birthplace of Frank Sinatra and baseball, and the place Brenda & I called home for eight years or so. Patty brought a gift, one that took thought and compassion for our current situation, and we appreciated it deeply.

Yeah, so I missed most of the State of the Union, forgetting about the time zone change (yeah, it STILL happens to me). But from the look of things, it was big business as usual so who gives a shit anyway. What’s been fun, in a staggeringly depressing way, is to review the snippets of Karl Rove’s – I mean the President’s – speech, against the cold truth of the facts behind the rhetoric. You can do this not on the major news outlets, because they are all whores who suck. I’m tired of George Snuffalupagus and god knows I don’t need to hear “The Democratic Response”, which is sure to be one more performance of people who still can’t get their shit together, whining ineffectively about this buffoon in office.

Houston, we no longer have a problem. It was the damned channel button.

Well, at long last, I have finally flown around in sunny Colorado. In July of last year, I sold my beloved Cessna 150, knowing full well that the little 100HP plane would not be terribly useful in the high country of Colorado. I also sorta put all aviation on hold, as there was a bit of financial uncertainty involved with moving 2/3 of the way across the country and buying a new house. Besides, I was getting my cycling fix. But ever since arriving in Boulder, I have thought about flying. The local airport is only three miles from my house, and the glider towplanes fly over my office every day. The scenery of Colorado’s front range is breathtaking, and I’ve been thinking about what it must be like to view it from the air.

Denver CO (Jeffco) [KBJC] hourly observation on the 14th at 7:45am MST (1445Z) wind calm, visibility 80 miles, 15,000 feet scattered, 25,000 feet broken, temperature 6°C (43°F), dewpoint -12°C (10°F), altimeter 29.97.

The other day, I was gushing on this site about my newfound access to a dual processor linux machine. But now, after yesterday’s announcement at Macworld, I have ordered one of the new Apple laptops, which will sport a dual core Intel cpu. Come February (hopefully), I’ll have a personal computer that’s about eight times faster than my current one, at a cost about $300 cheaper than the last Powerbook I bought four years ago. Unbelievable.

This year for Christmas, Brenda got her standard Christmas present from her Grandmother: an Applebee’s gift certificate. Back in New Jersey, we’d hit Applebee’s once every couple weeks, since there was one down the road from us, and it was the lesser of several evils. Living in Middlesex County, NJ, we were within miles of basically all the chain restaurants in the universe, including TGI Friday’s, a place where on one particularly sad summer afternoon Brenda was lamenting the lack of healthy menu choices and the waiter said “if you were looking for healthy, you shouldn’t have come here”.

I swear, I’m not losing interest in the blog thing. I dunno, I guess I have less to complain about.

It’s sad, but this excites me:

A moment of silence please, for Bil. It’s a year today.

What a day! After some snow on Tuesday, and horrendously cold air Wednesday & Thursday, things finally warmed up again on Friday. By the weekend a lot of the snow had melted from bike paths, and it was finally time, at long last, for Brenda to get a chance to try out her new bike and join me for a ride through Boulder.

The other day I had another brilliant idea. I’m going to design and build my own bicycle frameset. Yet another hobby. Excellent.

Well, my first major holiday since moving 2,000 miles away from where I spent my last thirty seven has come and gone. Lots of emotions, many visits, and a few observations later, I am on a plane headed back to Denver International, amidst a thrumming chorus of shrieking infants. Let’s discuss.

Today, I emerged from my morning shower to find Emma perfectly centered in this direct sun patch on my bedroom floor. Luckily I had my camera on me, so I could get the shot:

“Ever notice how people who believe in creationism look really un-evolved?”

• Bill Hicks Jesus (no, not that guy, it’s just an expression), what in the hell is going on over there in Kansas? Yesterday, the christian right scored a victory for stupidity, and blind faith over science, when the Kansas Board of Education (oh the irony!) voted in favor of teaching the incredibly ridiculous concept of “Intelligent Design” in schools.

My new project. More later.

Well, my posting frequency is still pretty lame, and I apologize. Let’s see, singlespeed bikes are my new focus, and I’m in parts aquisition mode. I also made a big mistake buying a mountain bike online, since I have no idea what size I really am (I never ride the damned things). As a result, I have a nice Dean titanium mountan bike I’m looking to unload.