But, I really liked Hitch

But, but, I really liked Hitch.

Elephant Bar

Lyndon was in town again this evening on his way back from his San Diego vacation. We met up for dinner, first trying to go to Cyclo which it turns out is closed on Sundays and Mondays, and so instead going to Elephant Bar at the Chandler mall. Dining there with Lyndon is an altogether different experience from dining there with Mike Zackrison. Fun in a different way. It was good to see Lyndon looking well and he's convinced me San Diego is a place I'm going to have to visit again sometime.

A Saturday Well Spent

Today I had a brie and turkey sandwich lunch at the Desert Botanical Gardens and again took some time to walk through the Childhood Dreams sculptures, explored the Hall of Flame fire museum, called relatives, bought too many books at Changing Hands, visited my favorite canine Brady and took him for a long run, borrowed a friend's cable television to catch the end of a Psych episode and all of a Burn Notice, and met up with friends to see Stardust.

A truly excellent day.

However, no day is perfect. Today I confirmed that grabbing onto a cactus, while the natural and reflexive thing to do, is not a good way to break one's fall. (No, this didn't happen at the DBG, so you need send no garden police after me.)

Hall of Flame reminded me of home, it having so many Wisconsin artifacts and roots.



Stardust Trailer

Only you can prevent Developer Abuse

On Being Agile

With videos like this, how could you not like agile development?

Buffalo Wild Wings with Lyndon

Lyndon hosted an after-work gathering at Buffalo Wild Wings featuring a parade of ex-Uniconers. It was a good time and it was good to hear everyone's doing well.

Salubrious Canine

Katie was generous enough to let me borrow Brady this evening for a run. We had a good time. Brady's a pretty good listener.

On ability to admit having erred

Inability to admit error is a disturbing trait in public officials.

Mehrens said Judge Edward Burke dismissed [charges of theft and mishandling of public money] because the Maricopa County Sherrif's Office failed to disclose key pieces of information regarding the investigation.

Yet Sherrif Joe Arpaio said "We didn't botch anything."

(Both as quoted in today's East Valley Tribune.)

Something's wrong with this picture. Failing to disclose information such that a judge feels the need to throw out charges, that doesn't count as botching?

Steaks R Us for lunch

Steaks R Us for lunch today with Dan. Tasty.

Day one of the resident technical wizard being on vacation at work. I'm surviving.

Chase's Diner

Treated myself to breakfast at Chase's Diner this morning. French toast, bacon, and orange juice. It was okay.

Bourne Ultimatum

I saw Bourne Ultimatum today. It was a guilty pleasure, given its excesses of violence.

I'm a popcorn addict.

Informed Consent and Boar Tusks

An oral surgeon who temporarily implanted fake boar tusks in his
assistant's mouth as a practical joke while she was under general
anesthesia and got sued for it was awarded $750K profit beyond his out
of court settlement with this assistant, in a Washington state supreme
court decision against his insurance company.

(Summarized and paraphrased from an MSNBC story). There's an underlying Associated Press snippet all the newspapers seemed to have, since this showed up in my own Arizona Republic and the Houston Chronicle.

???

Why isn't installing extraneous hardware into a patient and taking
embarrassing photos while she's under anesthesia a gross violation of
medical ethics? What legitimate diagnostic, curative, or palliative
purpose did that element of the procedure have? If none, then it introduced unnecessary distraction, risk, and time under
anesthesia, yes?

Why isn't this dentist having his license revoked by a medical ethics
board? Why isn't he facing criminal assault charges?

And why does it make any sense for everyone else's insurance premiums
to be higher so that society can reward this misbehavior?

It seems like this court is ignoring years of relatively hard-earned
progress in legal understanding of patients' rights, of professional
ethics, and of the limitations and context of consent, to return to an
old-boys-club chauvinistic ha ha harassment is just a big joke approach.

Seems to me insurance ought to cover honest mistakes, not deliberate
misbehavior. Premiums would be lower if it didn't cover this
nonsense.

Apparently a healthy majority of respondents to this unscientific, informal poll would agree.


PS: A law-school-educated friend of mine points out that the Associated Press article may not have fully reflected the nuances of the underlying holding, which apparently was more about duty to defend than actual liability to insure against the damages, and hinged on whether it is conceivable that the matter under dispute fell under the scope of the insurance.

I still think this is ridiculous, just in a more nuanced way.

Flew back to MKE today

Flew back to Milwaukee today with my parents on Midwest. Nice to be able to fly with them, simplified the logistics a bit. Also, I like flying through Milwaukee and the Midwest airline cookies.

Beautiful day. The gardens at home are beautiful and my Vince Lombardi 5K spruce is looking healthy and has grown taller than me. I am glad I visited my hometown.

Went to the Verizon store to get a new cell phone for my dad. His new LG 8300 seems to work much better than the old phone. Was a rough patch there where Sunrocket bought the farm and neither of my parents' mobile phones were working all that well, leaving them largely phoneless.

Sister's Wedding

Attended sister's wedding today in Baltimore at the Rusty Scupper. She seems happy. Flowers were beautiful, lovely cake as well. Unlimited coca-cola was a treat, since largely I forgo soda these days. Very glad to to meet up with family, especially so soon after my week in northern Michigan.

National Aquarium Museum

Visited the National Aquarium Museum in Baltimore today. It was tremendous fun and my grandfather even joined in for a bit. Reminded me of visiting the aquarium in Boston.

American Visionary Art Museum

I visited the American Visionary Art Museum today in Baltimore. Some of it didn't seem to me to be art, but much of it did. I especially enjoyed the "Trojan Hippo" piece.

I was supposed to go to Camden Yards to see the Orioles-Red Socks game this evening, but I was exhausted and slept instead while the crowd went to the game.

Michael during layover

My college friend Michael had a longish layover this evening at PHX, so I picked him up at the airport and we went to dinner and hung out on the ASU Tempe Mill Ave scene before I deposited him back just-in-time to the airport. Made me feel old -- I don't quite pass for college age kid anymore, though neglecting to have my ID on me still kept me out of the Big Bang piano bar.

Maybe it's just me, but maybe the signage around getting to the airport could be improved a whole lot.

Insomnia

Somehow, I couldn't sleep a wink last night. Made for a relatively miserable traditional-hours work day. I managed to sleep 6pm to midnight or so, though, which felt great, and after working a couple hours, plan to get another nap in before facing tomorrow, and ideally feeling much more human.

Chompies for brunch

I had the strawberry stuffed French toast today at Chompie's. It was pretty tasty, but I think next time I'll seek to eat something more nutritive. Taking a bag of day-old bagels to work tomorrow.

Went to Costco to buy water and stamps.

This evening I got to visit the St. Bernard and borrow him for a run in the park. We had a blast.

Flash game

A friend sent me a link to this Flash game in which I'm able to get a high score of 6.

Phone with an old friend

Spent quite a while on the phone with an old friend this evening. It was fun to catch up.