Blankbaby

Running on vacation isn’t as much fun as you might think.

We’re spending the week “down the Shore” as they say in Philadelphia, and I’m happy to report that based on people’s behaviors the pandemic is over! Hurrah! Good job, everyone.

Now, I haven’t been in many shops because, as you know, the global pandemic is still raging and I live with two unvaccinated children (I don’t know why they are anti-vaxxers. They keep telling that they are doing their own research and will get vaccinated when they feel like the facts line up. I counter with: 1. You don’t have a computer with which to do research. 2. You can’t read. At this point they usually break something to distract me), however, I have been shocked by the lack of masking in the ones I have ventured into.

I suppose I got spoiled living in a big old blue city (though really, this isn’t political). This does make me appreciate how good Philadelphians, in general, are about masking. I am still baffled by the folks who don’t seem to know that the mask needs to cover your nose, but that’s a different subject entirely.

Whilst here I am continuing to run 4 times a week. As you may know, the pandemic took my already meager supply of interest in exercising and pooped all over it. I bought a bike and signed up with Peloton in hopes that would magically make me want to exercise. It didn’t, though it did show that I like stationary biking even less than I like running.

So, I’ve been running again, and continue to run on vacation. I find, and many other people in a variety of areas concur, that consistency is key. I’m not a great runner, but I am a regular runner.

One of my internal goals has been to always run faster than a 10 minute mile no matter how far I’m running. I’m not sure where I got this idea from; it might stem from high school gym class. You see, I wasn’t a very fit high schooler. I exercised far less than I do now, and I was a very, very poor runner. In fact, over the course of those 4 years of high school I only ran 3 times a year.

How do I know this? Because each year we had to run a timed mile in gym class. If you ran it slower than 15 minutes (I think that was the target, might have been 12), you had to run it again (on another day). In order to “train” for this run we… you guessed it.. ran a little over a mile once earlier in the week of the timed run.

Therefore, I would run about 3 miles a year and always feel bad about myself. Thanks, gym class!

Last night I went for a 4 mile run (I know!) and it wasn’t very good. I know what you’re thinking, “when is a run good?” And I feel you! But this run just plain sucked. The first mile I just barely made it under the 10 minute pace, but the remaining 3 all took more longer than 10 minutes each. Not by a lot, but still!

Given that I’ve been running a lot lately I was a little bummed about this performance until I thought to check the weather. Turns out I was running during an evening with 95% humidity. No wonder it sucked so much, and after learning that I was amazed that I did as well as I did!

I suppose the moral of this story is don’t go on vacation with 2 2 year old toddlers.

I have a voting plan

You don’t need me to tell you that lots of people are interested in what’s going to happen after this election cycle.

Here are couple of things you do need to know about me:

• At one time I considered myself a Republican. I was registered and everything! I was a Rockefeller Republican, socially liberal and fiscally conservative (which today means most Republicans would consider me a socialist).
• When I realized that the Republican Party was only concerned about the budget when a Democrat was President, and only concerned about keeping the government out of certain aspects of life some people’s lives (I.e. gun owning and being a Christian) I switched to being an Independent.
• When Donald Trump became the nominee I switched my party to Democrat so I could vote for Hilary in the Primary (and the general election).

This is all to say that I thought Donald Trump was unfit for office before he won, and the last few years have proven it to me.

I have a plan to vote because I worry about what happens if Trump wins, again.

Over the last week I have been called by 6 different voting groups to ask me if I have a plan for voting. I do, so I say yes, which seems to surprise them. Then they say, ok, well... is there one issue you’re most concerned about? To which I reply: the end of civil society and the impending death of democracy.

That either gets silence or a, “Well, that’s a good issue to be concerned about! Thanks!”

Vote! Even if you plan to vote for Trump (though I am honestly dumbfounded by how any reasonable person could vote for Trump, and not because he’s a Republic but because he is so clearly unfit for the job.

How goes parental leave?

I’ve been on Parental Leave for the last few weeks. The above picture pretty much sums up how it is going.

Oh, and safe sleep people don’t worry - Marisa was there and making sure that nothing happened to the baby while I slept.

Speaking of sleep, here’s another view into how having two babies at home is going:

Thanks to Marisa for letting me sleep in last Friday (it was so nice!).

Take time off!

Somehow, against all the world's better judgement, I have found myself as a manager at work. Now, I don't claim to be a great manager (nor am I one of those people who calls themselves a "leader" and offers up management advice to anyone who will listen) but there is one thing that I pride myself on: encouraging folks to take time off.

Two things made me think of this today:

1. This story on NPR that finds a very slight correlation between people who take time off and people who advance at work. This makes sense to me, since people really do need time off from work to recharge.

2. This post from Matt Haughey, which I shall quote in its entirety:

I just realized I went almost a year without taking vacation and it was the stupidest thing I’ve done in my career.

Thanks to a couple trips this month it turns out I’m only working half of August and I’m feeling way less burnt out than I’ve felt in months. No more “stocking up for a rainy day” as you slowly get ground down by everything.

Take regular time off, people.

I know not everyone has the opportunity to take time off, which makes it even more important that the people who can take time off do, in fact, use their time.

And just for fun, here's a picture of Marisa and I enjoy some time off in Ireland (though I feel like I could use another vacation!):

My 2017 by the numbers

Yesterday I got it into my head to create a list of numbers representing my 2017. The list of numbers is fairly random, but it was fun to compile.

Here we go:

• 5,016,653 steps taken as tracked by two Fibit devices (the One and the Ionic)
• 2,503.4 miles walked/ran
• 4,482 floors of stairs climbs
• 1,452,961 calories expended
• 215 work outs as tracked by my Apple Watch and then the Ionic
• 91 pounds lost (thanks, Weight Watchers!)
• 77 books read
• 32 books by women
• 28,781 pages all told
• 6 pieces of Stickley furniture (none at full retail, and 5 ridiculously cheap!)
• 59 podcasts hosted (spread out over Random Trek, Total Party Kill, and Vulcan Hello)

House Hunters: Us edition

The House Hunt Continues:

We tried to buy a house in West Philadelphia this week. After nearly three years of looking and we finally found a dwelling that we both liked enough to offer vast sums of borrowed money for. But it didn’t work out. Another offer was accepted and the reason given was the terms.

Finding a house is a difficult process, even more so when one person involved doesn't really want a house.

I've lived in apartments my entire life with one exception: 2 years in an off campus house during college.

I'm familiar with apartment living. I like apartment living. I like not being responsible for the vast number of things that could go wrong with an apartment.

And, like many people, I fear the unknown. Homeownership is a big unknown for me, but over the course the last 3 years we've looked at many houses (in fact, the very first house we looked at was the only one we both liked.... until the house we saw last week) and I've come to accept that there are some upsides to homeownership.

Here's to us finding the right place!

Thank you! Could I have some more?

I signed up for the Philadelphia Undy Run several months ago so I could raise some money for colon cancer research in honor of my mom. And I had trouble remembering when the run is taking place (Sept. 9th if you're wondering), so I visited the page and saw the above image. I'm the top fundraiser at the moment! That's so awesome! It also explains why someone from the Colon Cancer Alliance called me the other day and asked if they could help me with anything (I was puzzled, so I said, "No thanks!"). I wanted to thank everyone who has donated already. You rock! And now, I'd like to suggest that if you haven't donated but you can spare some money why not kick in a little bit? I'd love to help move the needle for the run as a whole (they've only raised about 17k out of a goal of 70k).

Donate here and I'll love you forever!

Mom and the Beatles

My mom loved music. She kept the radio tuned to the oldies station my entire childhood, which has lead to me having a taste for Doo-wop and 50's music.

She especially liked the Beatles, which makes sense given when she grew up and the fact that almost everyone likes the Beatles.

When my mom was a teenager the Beatles had arrived in New York for the first time. Mom, being a teenager, snuck out of the house and went to the Plaza Hotel in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Beatles.

Her parents were none the wiser to her city adventure until, that is, her father opened the next morning's Daily News to find the above picture featuring my mom (she's the tallest girl in the picture) behind a pack of girls "bending" the police lines.

Busted!

And thanks to the power of the internet I know this picture was taken on Feb. 12, 1964 by Frank Castoral. You can even order a print of it!

March: Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Did you know that March is colorectal cancer awareness month? I didn't until NPR told me this morning.

My mom had colorectal cancer, and it was no fun (read more about her story). I set up a memorial fund for her, and I would appreciate it if you would consider giving a few dollars to help fewer people have to suffer.

Mom

My mom died today.

As it so often is with parents, it was both surprising and expected. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer 9 months ago, and we all knew what the end result would be. We just didn't know we'd only have 9 months.

Cancer isn't kind, and it really did a number on my mom. Her first round of chemo was easy (as easy as chemo ever is) and we were all hopeful that, against all odds, she would be able to treat her cancer like a chronic illness and live for a few years.

The chemo got rougher. She got very dizzy, and fell. Twice. The first time she walked away with a couple of staples in her head (she wasn't too enamored with the nurse who removed the staples, but that's another story).

The second time she fractured her pelvis (and was certain she had only pulled a muscle in her leg, so I had to sleep over at her place that night and lift her up when she needed to use the bathroom. In the morning, when she still couldn't stand, I made her go to the emergency room. Have I mentioned my mother was stubborn? Good thing I'm not!) and had to spend several weeks in the hospital and then a could more in physical rehab.

Oh, and while she was in rehab she had another round of chemo. Fun!

She did amazingly well, and after all that rehab she was able to walk, though I would have preferred her to use her walker a little more often. Off we went to visit family on Long Island for Thanksgiving. Surely, she could just enjoy this short trip and spend time with her family, right?

Turns out, not only did she have cancer but she had reduced blood flow to her bowels for some reason and needed a risky emergency surgery.

That surgery left her in 2 different hospitals for months, followed by another month in rehab.

Once again, she did a great job and was up and moving (though using the walker this time around).

Throughout all of this she was getting frailer, though in my mind she was still the big in your face person she was during my childhood (and adulthood). It was always shocking when nurses or doctors would say, "Your mother is so sweet!" I love my mom, but I would have never called her sweet (though she was very sweet to the nurses and doctors!).

As my mental image of my mother and reality drifted further apart it dawned on me that she didn't have that long to live.

When we found out that her cancer was at the point at which the treating it would do more harm than good she was adamant about one thing: she didn't want to stay in a hospital or go to a nursing home.

Just last week she opted to do hospice at home, and I do believe that was the right choice for her. She didn't have much energy but she did have her privacy and wasn't kept up by all that "fucking beeping," as she would say, from the medical equipment.

Yesterday, she was very weak and couldn't even stand up. I knew it was serious when she didn't resist the idea of going into the inpatient hospice unit.

We got a call at 9am this morning that she was unresponsive. We headed over to see her, and found that she had died moments before we arrived.

I'm sad, but glad that she doesn't have to keep on suffering through all that cancer brought.

Also, I'm glad she isn't around to yell at me for posting this. She'd totally not approve of this, especially the pictures. Sorry, mom!

Lobster Scott

Meme me?

The Internet is an odd thing. Case in point, the above picture.

My Internet pal, and yours, Grant Robertson tweeted to me:

@blankbaby Are you aware /r/AdviceAnimals is trying to turn you into a meme? http://t.co/qxQmhJrxsm

— Grant Robertson (@grobertson) July 13, 2013

I was not! It seems Reddit user KodyRite came across my picture somewhere on the Internet (it happens), and decided my face could launch a meme called "Downer Dave." The idea being: I congratulate someone on some good news, and then add some sad little sentence at the end.

I was amused (still am, really) and so I tweeted about it and went to bed.

The logical next step happened: Redditors in the comments section assumed this was a sad cry for attention from the person pictured (i.e. me) who must have submitted his own photo to create a meme featuring himself.

There are a couple of problems with this line of thinking:

1. I am not KodyRite (as of a little while ago I am blankbaby on Reddit).


2. Even if I were a frequent Redditor I would never submit a picture of myself to the site. Why? Because I'm a fat geek with a beard, the perfect target for untold numbers of insults from Redditors.

Today I went out to meet a friend and came home to find this in my Inbox:

It seems the first post spawned another post on Reddit in the cringpics titled, "Guy on r/adviceanimals tries to turn himself into a meme called Downer Dave" featuring this picture:

The comments, as one might expect, aren't too kind to the chubby bearded fellow claiming to have had sex with some fictional lady. That being said most people seem to be more upset by the text alignment issues in the picture, which is pretty awful. Had I created this picture I can assure you that the text would have been properly aligned, and the joke would have been funnier.

My reaction to all this? Amused befuddlement. I did create a Reddit account so I could comment and say, "Nope, I didn't post this," knowing full well that it doesn't really matter if the story is true. To channel Steven Colbert: it feels true, and that's good enough.

Also, I look pretty good in that picture, don't ya think?

Why I dread going to the Apple Store by me at Macworld

That's a picture of me 6 years ago (and many pounds heavier… sheesh. I think I'm fat now but I forget how much progress I have made!) at the Suburban Square Apple Store grand opening. How times have changed.

Not only have I lost some weight, and look much more handsome, I also don't like going to the Apple Store any more. The fine folks over at Macworld asked me to explain why, and the result was this: Why I dread going to the Apple Store.

Somehow I don't think this is going to be popular over at Macworld.

Can I call the beyond with Google Voice?

It is Father's Day here in the US, and I wish a happy day to all the dads out there that I know (A side note: the number of fathers in my social circle is increasing at an alarming rate. Clearly, I am old).

I logged into my Gmail account to see Google helpfully remind me that I should call my dad today. I would, the only trouble is that my father is dead.

I know someone at Google thought it would be a good idea to promote the phone call feature of GTalk on Father's Day but I have an inkling I'm not the only Gmail user out there with a dead dad.

Thanks, Google!

See America

I don't know what it is, perhaps because I am getting older, or because I feel more settled... but I've been on a bit of a home furnishings kick.

I haven't ordered these framed posters yet (because Marisa rightly pointed out that I already have lots of art that needs framing) but I'm blogging it to remember them.

Something about this particular style appeals to me. Given my love of Mission and Arts and Crafts stuff, it is clear I was born about 70 or 80 years too late (though, what did people DO at work without computers and the Internet? Seriously, what did they do? Did they mimeograph funny pictures of cats and send them to one another via inter-office mail?).

Wedding/Honeymoon pictures

Marisa and I got married a couple of months ago and I haven't put up any pictures! We took a bunch both at the wedding itself and during our honeymoon. I've collected some of the pics I like best in this post, but if you want to see them all they are on Flickr:

• Wedding Pictures
• Wedding Pictures by Albert Yee
• Airstream and Vanderbilt Mansion
• New York State Capitol tour
• Fort Ticonderoga
• Whiteface Lodge
• Billings Marsh Rockefeller/King Arthur
• Bennington, VT

Here are the ones that I thought I would highlight on the blog:

The Wedding

First, we'll start with the wedding pictures. Most of these were taken by our good friend, and great photographer, Albert Yee (I'll point out which ones weren't!).

This first picture was taken by yours truly. Marisa thought that perhaps she would have enough time to take her own wedding pictures.

While Marisa and I were exchanging vows I thought I saw a random dog walk past. But I knew that no one had brought a dog with them. Turns out the neighbor's dogs stopped by to wish us well (this pic was snapped by David Kirpan).

Ah, the pro pictures begin!

Marisa has a very large family.

I don't. Behind me are my brother and mother. Behind Marisa are her parents and her sister.

Raina played a song before we said our vows.

About to take the plunge.

Different people. Different shoes.

Kissing! In public! Shocking.

My good friend David Kirpan manned my camera during the ceremony and managed to get this picture. Good job, Dave!

Marisa, being Marisa, made all of our wedding cakes herself. Here you see a destroyed flourless chocolate cake (which we made on Fork You once, video and recipe here).

My relatives made the trek out to Philadelphia to attend (ain't they nice!).

My mom, her brother, and her sister.

The Honeymoon

The whole honeymoon plan was founded on visiting Bennington Potters (for Marisa), and so that was our first stop.

Marisa also loves thrift stores, so we had to go here.

All around Bennington they had these painted Moose. This one is the covered bridge moose which features a picture of the bed & breakfast we stayed at painted on its flank (I thought that was pretty cool).

My iPhone (and Blackberry and wireless data card) got no service for most of the trip, which was actually quite nice.

A nice steeple. I just like the way this picture came out.

The first place we stayed at in Vermont was the Inn On Covered Bridge Green, which was just lovely. Norman Rockwell used to own this house... though we didn't actually stay in the house proper. There is a little honeymoon cottage in the back (which used to be called the 'corn crib') that we stayed in. I'm certain that Marisa and I will be back to this place again.

This is what was painted on that moose.

We left Vermont and went to Lake Placid, New York and stayed at the White Face Lodge, which was very nice indeed. They had brownies waiting for us in our room. You can't beat that!

I thought this was a picture of Lake Placid, but I'm pretty sure it is actually Lake Mirror... either way it is pretty.

Since I booked the Honeymoon package we also received some free champagne. It was pretty good.

Of course Marisa bought some jars.

And I demanded we visit some historical sites! This is Fort Ticonderoga.

Us being cute.

A cannon.

The Kings Garden which is right next to the Fort. We actually happened to visit when some sort of farmers' market was going on so we managed to buy some vegetables.

We also hit the Billings Farm & Museum which is neat (and I only heard about it because I was listening in on someone else's conversation at the Vermont Country Store).

This was outside of some tourist trap that we ventured into (and where we bought some rare Cabot cheeses that aren't available in these parts).

The Egg in Albany, NY. Since we were driving through Albany I thought it would be fun to take the Capitol Building tour.

The Library in the New York State Capitol.

A string of lights on our Airstream trailer.

We stayed in an airstream (the one pictured above) at Kate's Lazy Meadow, which is surrounded by beauty. Marisa and I were both glad we only booked one night, however, since the trailer was tiny!

I thought this was a cool picture.

And there we are being cute again!

I got married!

I don't think I mentioned this on the blog before, but two week ago I got married to Marisa (who knew?).

Marisa thoughtfully posted our vows, if you want to check them out.

Yes, I wore a Hawaiian shirt at the wedding. Marisa has some pictures here and I have some here (thanks for taking most of the pictures with my camera, David!). We'll be posting some more shortly.

Some of 2008 in pictures

I give you 2008 in pictures (an idea I have totally stolen from Jacqui and Clint).

January 2008

I drank a Mexican Pepsi (Love it!)

I went to Macworld 2008 and saw MacBook Airs on a string.

February 2008

I turned 31.

My TV (and me) moved into Marisa's apartment.

May 2008

Becky and Eric got married (and not much happened in March or April).

We retreated to a lovely cabin in the woods, with neighbors across the river who really liked classic rock.

July 2008

I visited my Mom and we went to Mount Vernon.

August 2008

I got a Kodak Zi6 (which I like more than my Flip Mino HD, no matter what certain tech pundits will have you believe).

September 2008

I had my first article published in a real, live magazine.

Off to Las Vegas for VMworld (and it'll probably be my last VMworld ever!).

Marisa and I went to Hoover Dam whilst in Las Vegas.

And then we got all fancy and spent the weekend at the Ritz Carlton at Lake Las Vegas (it was really quite nice, and it has turned Marisa into a hotel snob).

November 2008

I got a Flip Mino HD and made a silly movie with it.

I saw my book in print for the first time (and it looked awesome).

My mom visited for Thanksgiving, met some of Marisa's family, and met with Marisa in her role as my girlfriend for the first time.

We went to City Hall and looked cute.

December 2008

I got engaged to Marisa.

Spent Christmas with my mom and bro, as is McNulty tradition (and no one fought!).

Farewell, Wharton. Hello, Comcast.

I'm coming up on my 6 year anniversary as a Wharton employee (and a Philadelphian to boot), and what better way to celebrate than by quitting?

That's right, today was my last day as a staff member of Wharton Computing where I have learned many things, met lots of great people, and realized that I'm not really interested in following the traditional IT career path of slowly moving further and further from actual technology.

As I was realizing this an exciting opportunity arose. I got an email from Frank (a man I trust) asking me if he could pass along my name to some Comcast folks. It seems they were in the market for someone to run their corporate blog, and Frank thought I would be a good fit. I wasn't looking for a job, but I am never opposed to entertaining options. I gave Frank the go ahead and he sent along my contact info to Comcast. Soon thereafter I was called in for a round of interviews.

I honestly didn't think they would be interested in me given my decidedly non-corporate persona (and Internet presence), but they asked me in for another round of interviews (always a good sign). The second round of interviews found me meeting with a number of people working in the Communications department. After a few hours the interviews were over, and I was impressed with the level of passion and realism that the Comcast folks had about their company. Plus I didn't think I came off as too much of an idiot, which I find to be helpful in such situations.

Soon I heard back from Comcast that they were interested in having me join their team (after I passed a routine drug test, which was the first time I had ever taken a drug test... but that's a post for another day). I had a major career choice to make (though if you read the title of this post you already know what I decided. Stupid spoilers). I've been working in the University setting for nearly a decade (gosh, I feel old) and I've never worked for a company as large as Comcast so I was a little nervous about potential culture shock.

On the other hand, Comcast wanted to pay me to manage the day to day aspects of their corporate blog which is pretty darned close to my dream job. How could I say no?

Tomorrow is my first day as a Senior Manager of Digital Media (that'll look impressive on a business card) at Comcast. I'm excited, terrified, and befuddled all at once (which I take to mean I made the right decision).

I don't generally post much about my work here on Blankbaby, and I imagine that trend won't change too radically. I will post a link to the corporate blog once it launches, and I'll be posting pictures and things from the gigantic Comcast Building (in which my office will be located) from time to time (just as I did from Wharton).

Thanks to everyone I worked with at Wharton. Wharton really was a great experience in my life, and I would recommend working there to anyone.

Speaking of which, if you're interested in my old job go to Penn's Job Site and search for Reference number 081226054. You'll be working with a good group of people on some pretty cool projects.

Here's to the future (is anyone else scared?).

Engagement ring(s) on Marisa's hand

Engagement ring(s) on hand
Originally uploaded by Marusula.

Marisa wasn't surprised when I popped the question because she designed the engagement ring, and set the schedule for when the question should happen (before she went home for Christmas this Sunday).

Not too much wiggle room there, but we're both still pleased as punch.

A big thanks to my friend Nicole who helped us with the rings.

Thanksgiving a success

Ah, Thanksgiving is winding down in the best way possible: sitting on the couch next to Marisa watching the latest episode of Dexter (who, I bet, can carve a mean turkey).

I took the week off, as I usually do, in order to entertain my mother in Philadelphia. Every year for the last few years Mom has spent Thanksgiving in Philly. For the last three years (here are some pics from 2006 and 2005, it seems like 2007 was the Thanksgiving Flickr forgot) I've ordered dinner from DiBruno's and it was fantastic. I was prepared to do the same thing this year, but Marisa would have none of it. She whipped up a fantastic Thanksgiving feast from scratch and it was very good.

All in all, 2008's Thanksgiving was one for the ages.

Check out some pictures I took (of the day after Thanksgiving) here. Marisa also wrote about Thanksgiving, so why not read her post? Hmm?

Out of consumer debt

I've had several milestones in my life:

• Graduating from college
• Taking my first job in IT (which really has had a very significant impact on my life)
• Moving to Philadelphia
• Blogging professionally for the first time

Today marks another milestone: I no longer have any credit card debt. Ok, so that's not REALLY true. I still have a balance on my Amazon credit card but that's by design. Everything I buy from Amazon goes on that Amazon card because I get double reward points for each Amazon purchase. Once I get enough points Amazon sends me a $25 gift certificate in the mail, so I would be a fool not to use the card. The key, though, is that I pay off the balance in its entirety at the end of each month.

Where do I get off saying that I no longer have any credit card debt when I clearly have some? Because I finally paid off the last of the balance on my Citibank card. What's so important about that? For some reason Citibank gave me a ridiculous deal a few years ago: a very, very low interest rate on balance transfers and a very high credit limit. I took advantage of this to combine all my credit card debt (spread over 3 cards) onto one, so I only had one bill to pay since I'm a lazy man. The clear benefit being that over time I wouldn't be paying as much in interest on my debt but the greater benefit, which was entirely unexpected to me, was seeing that big old number in the balance column. That made me really want to get rid of the debt once and for all, and that I did today.

It feels great.

The only question is, what do I spend all my money on now? I hear Citigroup stock is a real bargain nowadays.

Holy crap, I wrote a book

Scott McNulty watchers (and you know you're one of them) might have been wondering, 'What the heck has Scott been up to?' I haven't been blogging here, I haven't really been posting much to MacUser, I haven't been posting new episodes of Fork You... what have I been doing?

It turns out that I've been writing a book (I'm as shocked as you are). That's right, on December 12 (or there abouts) you'll be able to walk into any of a number of fine bookstores and pickup a copy of 'Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read' by yours truly (I'm told that some Barnes and Noble stores will have a special display with my books. Cool, huh?).

This book is the perfect stocking stuffer for anyone, no matter whether they are interested in WordPress or not (they will surely be interested in my witty and sparkling prose) and if you buy a copy via this link I even get a little kickback from Amazon (double score!).

I'll post more about how I came to write this book in due course, but I just wanted to share the fact that I have written a book that will soon be published and in bookstores everywhere (by a real publisher, no less). Ain't that cool?

Airs Appliances in Philadelphia: good people, better prices

I'm generally of the opinion that you can almost always find things cheaper on the internet than you can in a brick and mortar store, and forget about finding good deals at small local places. This goes double for large appliances.

Airs Appliances in Philadelphia (1119 Chestnut Street for those of you in the area) has proven me wrong. Not only did we get a great deal, we got great service as well. If you're looking to buy an appliance in the Philly area you are doing yourself a disservice by not stopping by and chatting with the good folks at Air.

Why was I in Airs?

Marisa and I have been talking about getting a new refrigerator for a little bit. It would seem the success of the washer/dry combo unit has emboldened Marisa's zeal for gussying up the kitchen (which I approve of, mind you).

Our current refrigerator irks me to no end. I think it is pretty ugly, and since Marisa is a world class foodie it is often packed to the gills with all sorts of food. That's not a bad thing, but I can never find anything! And with all that hippy food in there there is hardly any room for 'Scott approved' foodstuffs (mostly Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, and yes I am well aware of the dangers of diet soda). We were both in favor of getting a new fridge.

The world of refrigerators is a wild and varied place. There are awesome professional fridges, very cool retro fridges (which are super tiny), and many more in-between. The space that we have to work with is pretty narrow, in fridge terms. It would seem that manufacturers are making fridges that are about 35 inches wide, which works well for most people. We have a space that, at most, can take a fridge 33 inches wide. We thought we would be stuck with some bottom of the barrel fridge, but we were wrong.

Helen at Airs steered us towards the LG LFC20760, which has everything we wanted:

• French doors
• Freezer on the bottom
• Comes in plain white (the floor model was stainless steel, but you can't put magnets on a stainless steel refrigerator, which is about 50% of the purpose of a fridge, if you ask me).

We were in fridge heaven!

We had no plans to actually buy a fridge while we were in Airs' lovely Center City showroom, mind you. We just wanted to get our hands on some fridges before we ordered one from the web. However, the price ($1139.95) was better than anything we saw on the internet for the same class of refrigerator and it even included delivery (which none of the places on the web did). Marisa looked at me and said, "Are we going to buy a refrigerator today?" I said, "It sure looks like it!" And so we did.

It'll be delivered on the 18th, and Marisa can't wait. My only question is: what do we buy next?

Wedding in a barn?

Marisa and I headed to Lancaster County in the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside to celebrate the marriage of our two friends Becky and Eric (they met via a combination of a blog post and a Google search. Blogging makes things better!).

The wedding itself was lots of fun, as one might expect from a wedding in a barn. I was worried about what the appropriate attire is for a barn wedding, so I just wore my fancy dress shirt and some nice khakis. It seemed to work.

The highlight of the evening, since the happy couple had actually married themselves with a self uniting marriage license earlier in the day, was the pig race. Seeing 4 cute little pigs run around a track is lots of fun, and I recommend it to everyone.

Check out all my pictures from the happy event here. You might notice that Becky and Eric are in very few of the photos. My only explanation is that whenever I hang out with Becky she tells me not to take her picture, so she has conditioned me not to snap her pic (though this one of Marisa and Becky is very nice indeed. Becky looked great in her blue dress, and Marisa is always pretty).