This was my first foray into the world of Rowling’s ubiquitous little wizard. In this volume, Harry Potter works through another term at wizard’s school, dealing along the way with being stalked by a killer who is not what he seems, striving for an intramural sports championship, sneaking off the grounds, etc. The story is generally quite enjoyable, though I was struck repeatedly by what a complete weenie Potter himself seemed to be, simply submitting to his circumstances through much of the book. In fact, I found myself at times sympathizing with one of the professors who was Potter’s constant critic, as Potter often acted a selfish, unthinking boy I wouldn’t want my kids spending much time with. However, the twists of the plot and the humor make it a good journey, in spite of the occassionally annoying company one must keep along the way.

Well, we’re headed up to Denton tonight for the 3 Quests. Quest the First: Pick up eldest daughter from the airport. Quest the Second: Move remaining furniture to San Marcos. Quest the Third: Drive go-karts really fast at children’s birthday party. More from the road if I have a chance, and don’t crash my go-kart.

This weekend, Abigail charged up to me in the living room and said “Daddy, make me fly!” I obligingly hoisted her into the air. She grinned, and said “Again!” I did it again, and was greeted by the sickening triple-crack of the ceiling fan, which was going full tilt, hitting her little head. We rushed her into the bathroom amid her screams to wash her head of the blood that was seeping out and put a washcloth on the wound to staunch the flow. After about 15 minutes, she had calmed down some, and the bleeding had stopped. We called up Mom McMains, our family pediatrician, and told her what had happened. She told us what symptoms of shock and concussion to watch for, but thought that Abby would probably be just fine. And, mercifully, after another hour or two, she was up wrestling with her little brother again, and happy as a little ambulant clam. I’m grateful our misadventure wasn’t any more serious, but it certainly gave me a scare. Later that evening, Kathy knocked Liam down and gave him a bit of a black eye, but I think it was just to make me feel better. (Joking!)

This weekend ended up being a very busy one for us. To begin with, Kathy got
strep throat, and felt pretty miserable through most of Saturday. The gig
that evening went very well, though by the end of it I had blisters on my
blisters. Then we got an offer on our house, made a counter-offer, and
should have a contract in-hand today! This is a great relief, as we’ve been
in rough financial straits for the last few months as we’ve been paying two
mortgages. Finally, my bass guitar, which had been missing for a bit, turned
up at the church in Denton where I used to play, and I’ll be getting it back
this weekend.

Steve Johnson is heading up a gig at The Coffee Pot on the north side of the square in San Marcos this Saturday starting about 7:00pm. I’ll be playing, as will several of our musician friends from Denton who are coming down to be a part of the festivities. Y’all come! It should be fun, and if you get bored just listening, you can watch me switch among tambourine, bodhran, several pennywhistles, ‘cello, guitar, and shaker. And there may be a hammered dulcimer in my future…

My friend Paul Morley asked what I, as a long-time Mac advocate, thought about Apple’s announcements of yesterday. There’s much to touch on, so I’ll be brief except where something particularly piques my interest. New iMacs: Well, what are you going to do here, anyway? Faster; new colors. I do like that they’ve got an iMovie-capable machine under $1,000 now, and am amused that the new iMac SE does look like those guys who drove AT-ATs in The Empire Strikes Back, but otherwise — yawn. New Keyboard & Mouse: Both are long overdue, but look like a solid addition to Apple’s hardware lineup. New Monitors: I’m always glad for more LCD options. The one remaining CRT is visually pretty cool, though, looking like something out of a less-dystopian version of Brazil. Amusing for old-school Apple fans is the “revolutionary” all-in-one cable, a feature originally appearing on the Quadra AV series machines. New G4s: The announcement that the two higher-end G4s would have dual processors is great. They’re of limited use until OS X comes out since OS 9 has very limited multiprocessor support, but when that happens, this will be the first machine that’s really induced hardware envy in me since I got a G3. The Cube: I don’t get it. It looks like a paper shredder. (A very handsome paper shredder, but still…) It costs more than an equivalent G4 minitower, and is less expandable. I couldn’t imagine who the target market for these little rascals is, but apparently there is one. I do like the idea of a fanless, really quiet, very powerful machine though. But for expandability, I’ll put up with a bit of extra white noise. Microsoft Games: My favorite part. Microsoft will be bringing most of their games to the Mac. I’ll get to play Age of Empires II and Halo. What’s not to like?

Caleb Carr’s The Alienist chronicles a
fictional murder investigation in New York City at the end of the 19th century.
The quarry: a serial killer who has a penchant for the gruesome dispatch and
mulilation of homosexual prostitutes. The hunters: a covert special team
assembled by Theodore Roosevelt including a reporter, one of the first women to enter police service, two police detectives, and most pivitolly, a psychologist. The story is huge in scope, starting with the assembly of the team and then following
their adventures and reasoning as they assemble a profile of the killer. The
violence is quite graphic at some points and may put off the more sensitive
reader, but if you’ve the stomach for it, this is a marvelously engaging
book.

My friend, former co-worker, and future ping-pong adversary Jim Roepcke has a lively discussion of Napster going on his site. He was kind enough to post my comments on his weblog, which is well worth a visit anyway. Go forth and enjoy his design skills.

As some of you know, one of my great vices in life is the consumption of enormous quantities of iced tea. I’ll typically go through 2 quarts to a gallon per day. When I got home yesterday, I was delighted to see a nearly-full pitcher on the counter which my wife had prepared earlier. I poured a glass, took a swig, and was immediately impressed by the fact that this tea tasted like beer! I called Kathy over for a second opinion, and after sniffing and tasting, could neither deny nor explain it, since she had just raided our old teabag collection and thrown lots of unidentified tea bags in to make that batch. Wierd stuff. (I had cranberry juice instead.)

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, my web-obsessive friends. My employer has decided that we should all be working 50 hour weeks, and I’m sullen. I’m also trying to get ready for a coffee shop gig on the 22nd, see the wife and kids from time to time, and explore alternatives to selling the Denton house. Add that to the fact that my iBook is visiting Apple to have its trackpad button massaged, and the flash card on my camera got corrupted and causes the camera to freeze up whenever its inserted, and I’m in dire straits for web posting.