Well, maybe not quite like nothing, but it does rather amaze me that it was 20 years ago today that the Berlin Wall came down.

Let me state up front that I generally think quite highly of United Parcel Service. They bring a lot of stuff to our front door and they almost always do it right. Hence I provide the following tracking record of a 2-Day Air shipment I received today (a day late) strictly for your amusement and not as an attempt to disparage UPS.

Yes, Dallas to Denver by way of Indianapolis, IN and Billings, MT. O-kay.

The official total accumulated snowfall figure for the storm was 22.3 inches. That’s a lot of snow, particularly if it falls within 24 hours or so. I’ve posted more photos here on my flickr site (same place as before).

Lots of it, too. It started snowing late last night and hasn’t really stopped since then. The schools are closed, DIA is in “emergency operation mode”, and I’m very glad that I don’t have to drive anywhere this evening.

There are more photos of the snow on my flickr site here.

I got up about 90 minutes later than usual this morning and have felt like I’ve been out of sync ever since. I intended to write a longer post than this but I’m going to settle for something quick.

My head is fine, all things considered. It stopped hurting by Saturday morning and I don’t really notice the sutures except when I do something that makes my scalp tighten, like yawning. (I don’t think that I knew previously that yawning makes my scalp tighten.) I have a sneaking suspicion that they might start itching soon. read more

[WARNING: This blog entry contains graphic (but hopefully entertaining) descriptions and photos of injuries, blood, sutures, and carpet cleaner. Don’t read it if you’re feeling squeamish. It’s also lengthy and self-indulgent. Don’t read it if you’re feeling impatient. The bottom line is that I’m fine.]

I got up early this morning because I was mad at the kittens. They’d woken me up and my lower back felt out of whack because Edwin had been pressing himself against my hip. This wasn’t the first such incident but for some reason it pushed me across some sort of internal threshold of patience or tolerance. read more

Yesterday was Hack the Juniper Day. It’s become an unscheduled but annual event here. Gotta keep those nasty evergreens in line.

I’m still bummed that life in the 21st century doesn’t (yet) include a moon base, flying cars, food pills, and shiny jumpsuits, but at least we have a self-balancing, powered unicyle, thanks to Honda:

(Found on a Pink Tentacle posting about the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, which has photos of some pretty neat cars also.)

According to CNNMoney.com, Software Developer is #12 on the list of the Top 50 Jobs in America. Skipping past the boring stuff about money and opportunity, the Quality of life ratings give a “B” in each of Personal satisfaction, Job security, Future growth, and Low stress[sic–capitalization and lack thereof is theirs, not mine]. I bet that Personal satisfaction rating is higher among Software Developers such as myself who commute by walking down a flight of stairs and who get to work in old jeans and t-shirts while listening to their personal music collection and burning expensive Japanese incense. read more

There’s a new batch of photos of our cats on my flickr site here. Somehow Widge didn’t show up in any of them. She’s getting old–she spends most of her time sleeping–but she slaps the youngsters around quite energetically when they make a nuisance of themselves.