One of the joys of moving to a new location for me is discovering the local programming on the new NPR station. The local station here is KUT, and one of the shows I’ve been enjoying in the mornings is Eklektikos. In spite of sounding like he has a bowl of milk and quaaludes for breakfast, looking downright cadaverous, and needing a hard consonant or two in his last name, John Aielli puts on a consistently interesting show for the music-lover. You can tune in to KUT here.

Our Home Automation system is driven by XTension, the fantastic Applescript-based system by Sand Hill Engineering. Here are a few Plugins for XTension that I’ve written.

• NUD Announce: Announces aloud appointments from Now Up-To-Date using Apple’s Text-To-Speech software.
• Talking Clock: Uses Text-To-Speech to speak the time aloud.

I married well. Yesterday, I came home for dinner, and my lovely bride planted a big, steaming bowl of Pho in front of me. For those not familiar with it, Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup which is delicious by itself, but comes with an assortment of herbs, sprouts, and sauces that makes it the erector set of the food world. Best of all, it turns out there’s a good Pho place only blocks from our new home. I like San Marcos more and more!

I’m a tremendous fan of Mexican, Tex-Mex, and Southwestern cuisines. Yesterday, one of my friends introduced me to Chuy’s at lunch, which had excellent food, including a kind of salsa I hadn’t ever had before. It’s pretty much salsa verde, the classic tomatillo/cilantro/garlic/serrano concoction, but with sour cream mixed in as well. Great on enchiladas. I’ll have to try making this one next time I go on a salsa-manufacturing binge.

The trailer for Peter Jackson’s Upcoming The Lord of the Rings movie is now available. Holy schmacky, does this ever look good. I want to go buy another DVD player so that, just in case mine breaks, I won’t be left without the ability to watch these movies whenever I want. Of course, they have to actually get to theaters first.

Thanks to the thousands (ok, 2) who wrote in with suggestions for the name of a paddle. Jason Myre came up with a stunningly good suggestion: “Thor’s hammer is named Mjöllnir.” Of course, we don’t know how to pronounce it, but gosh darn it, it’s got an umlaut! Mark Morgon also chimed in: “As a bit off the beaten track, the original King Arthur stories didn’t associate him with any particular sword, although some mention a sword named Calibornous. Or, alternatively, New Caliborne to update the name.” Tough decisions…

The Table Tennis competition is pretty fierce at my job. I’m considering investing in a paddle, and want to name it after a historic sword. So far I’ve come up with Arthur’s Excalibur, Roland’s Durandal, Beowulf’s Hrunting, Gawain’s Galantyne, and Siegfried’s Griel. If anyone has opinions or suggestions, let me know.

I’ve thrown up a few of the MP3s my friend Robert and I recorded a while back. Visit “Brother/Not Brother” to give them a listen.

Want to see our new digs? Check out “Postcards from San Marcos”. Don’t miss the panoramic shot from the parking garage at my workplace!

I feel like in the midst of all this moving stress that my world has narrowed to work and family, with little time for anything else. Thank heaven for NPR. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some reading and park-going with the kids in this weekend, though there’s a dandelion-filled yard yet to be conquered.