Hmm. *That* game didn't go well.

Ah...college football!

This afternoon found me at the Greene Turtle to watch the big Iowa-Iowa State game. It should have been a great game. Iowa was ranked in the Top 10, Iowa State predicted to win its Big XII division. And, I suppose if you're an Iowa State fan, it was a great game.

No luck for Hawkeye fans, though. It was an ugly 23-3 loss to the Cyclones. Iowa turned the ball over 5 times and could not get the offense going. At all.

Still, it was good to spend the afternoon with -- as Shelly calls them -- my "Iowa buddies." And, it was good to watch Iowa again, even in a loss.

Money Back

After posting about our unexpected road trip, I should note that we asked Northwest for a refund of half of each of our tickets, based on their Contract of Carriage (Section 240, Page 109; and Section 260, Page 123).

Today, a letter arrived, indicating that there should be a credit on our next Discover bill.

Sure, they were cheap tickets to begin with (something like $168 each, round trip), but that's still 168 bucks, back in our pockets.

Superstar Sammy

Lisa sent along some great photos of Sam a couple days ago, including this shot. She says, also, that while talking about church, Sam was saying God bless mom and dad and Uncle Greg.

No God bless Aunt Shell? Maybe he's trying to say I need it more than she does!

Updated September 7. Heard from Lisa yesterday, who had the following to say: sam did say god bless aunt shell - it was just a few minutes later - you were the one who popped in his head

We're not *entirely* from the Stone Age

It's possible we're not complete luddites after all.

Although we're still without a DVD player, we're now running a wireless computer network around the house.

Brad and I seem to be in a technologic arms race these days. He bought an iPod, I bought an iPod. I bought a new laptop, he bought a new laptop. So when he set up a wireleless network, what choice did I have?

A trip to Best Buy and 20 bucks later, a brand new router now resides in Shelly's office (she has the non-wireless computer, though her work laptop should be able to tap right in to "TanakaNet"), and I've been surfing all over the house. Including the dinner table and the back porch.

Which means I no longer have an excuse for taking so long to post updates, now that I can get online anywhere.

Eulogy for an Old Friend

It's always hard to say goodbye to an old friend.

It's that time with my Macintosh PowerBook G4, which has served me well since January 2002, making it ancient in computer terms. It's produced countless newspapers, conference programs, advertisements, flyers and press releases. It's kept me entertained with iTunes, cranking out "Hit Radio G-R-E-G" while producing the great volume of work we've created together. It's even done some gaming, though we both found its paltry 500 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM challenged by the latest version of SimCity.

In its later years, the PowerBook has been limping towards the finish line. The finish is coming off in several places. The CD drive is wobbly, to put it mildly. And, yes, that's a binder clip keeping the screen together.

In just a few days, a shiny new PowerBook will arrive with the FedEx man, shipped straight from China to my desk. It will have a faster processor, a brighter screen, more memory and a back-lit keyboard. It will be a pleasure to use. The old PowerBook will be put on reserve status, but will always be ready to step in in a pinch. I'll miss you, Old Friend.