It's a boy!

Mother, father and baby are all doing fine. Well, maybe a little jet lagged, but nothing a few days of rest won't cure.

The scam continues

Turns out someone's been using my debit card to purchase items on the internet (including the Magic Jack) and something at a store in Pennsylvania (the card information was keyed in there). The bank put a block on the card, which I discovered when attempting to purchase refill pages for my planner. (I love my Franklin planner!) Anyway, not much damage done to our accounts -- under $50 of stuff was fraudulently purchased. Kudos to Wells Fargo for figuring out something funny was going on.

So, was this related to the calls I got today, where someone was signing me up for stuff? I wouldn't think the timing was a coincidence.

Now I just need to survive a week or so without a debit card, while they send me a new one.

I'm getting scammed!

I've been getting a bunch of calls here at work today from a variety of companies. Seems like someone has gotten a hold of my name, home address & work phone number, and is signing me up for a bunch of stuff (so far, security systems, satellite TV, investment funds). The only thing that doesn't match my info is the email address. That one ain't mine.

Has anyone heard of anything like that, and if so, what's the point of doing it? Other than to annoy me. :)

A lovely day

I chaperoned a field trip for Ashlie's German class today. We saw The Diary of Anne Frank at the Park Square Theatre in St Paul. After that, we had lunch at the Glockenspiel. I got to spend some time with Ashlie, everybody was well behaved, we saw a really good performance of a moving play and had a great lunch with a fabulous dessert! All in all, a wonderful day.

Greatest album cover ever

Without a doubt, it's Rock and Roll Over. Or at least that's my take on the subject.

Inside the sausage factory

Based on a conversation at work, I just got done re-reading Jamie Zawinski's article on webcasting legally. It's one of those situations where I think I might just be happier not knowing the details, because knowing how it works just makes me mad, and there ain't a whole lot I can do about it. Here's a teaser:

Someone said to me, "how do they [the RIAA] expect the little guys to survive?'' I replied, "No Mister Bond, I expect you to die.'' They're trying to legislate webcasting out of existence, because it stands in the way of their progress toward a completely pay-per-view economy. Remember: these are the kind of people who once tried to outlaw the VCR. (That was MPAA, not RIAA, but they're the same snake with different scales.)

Emergency home repair

Started off this weekend on the right foot -- the 8' wire shelf in Ashlie's closet that you hang clothes underneath came off the wall. The previous owners of this home cut some corners when it came to installing this shelf. Including not anchoring it to any studs. I thought that was a nice touch. So had to make a run to Menards to pick up a bunch of anchors and supports, some of which only come in "contractor quantities". Needless to say, I've got leftovers, which ought to come in handy.

Actually, they probably will -- I checked around, and found some other wire shelves that aren't mounted properly. One of which has all my old compact discs on it. I've got about five hundred of them. So that's a ticking time bomb, waiting to come crashing down...

Rest in peace Carl Pohlad

Carl Pohlad died today at the age of 93. While it's true that the Twins have always been a bit on the stingy side, and when MLB wanted to reduce the number of teams, he was ready to throw the Twins to the wolves, his team still provided me the highlight of my sports-watching life: attending games six and seven of the 1991 World Series. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for anyone associated with that series -- Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Bob Casey, Jack Morris, even Charlie Liebrandt. And even the curmudgeonly owner. I've always respected the fact that he seems to have let baseball people run the operations, as long as it was within the financial parameters he set. Sure, I'd like to see the Twins spend a little more in the free agent market, but when it's all said and done, at least I can look back on '91 and smile.