Whocoodanode

Apparently, the FBI did know and warned about mortgage fraud in 2004. Why didn't we see the people involved in these crimes prosecuted? You better believe if I held up a 7-11 for $500, I'd be in jail. But if I rip off a mortgage lender for $500,000, I get away with it? I call BS on that.

Goldie

I'm happy to have a new car but I'm also happy to have an old one. Goldie, a 1999 Subaru Legacy Wagon, has been with us since Seattle and has never let us down. Since she only has about 95k on the clock, I'm hoping she will be with us for a while.

XenMotion

Last week, I upgraded our servers to XenServer 5.5 and migrated most of our virtual machines to a single shared NFS disk to create a pool of servers. One of the features I was interested in being able to use XenMotion to move servers around on our physical systems. It is super easy and works as advertised. It's pretty cool to move a live server with absolutely no downtime.

I'm happy with XenServer. It's free, works well and has a lot of nice features. The only drawback I can see compared to VMWare ESXi or Hyper-V is that there are not as many pre-built appliances for it. Since I don't use appliances, it doesn't really matter to me, but might be something to consider.

Taxes

Finished the Federal and Virginia tax returns yesterday. The good news: we are getting a few bucks back. The bad news: our 2009 income was way down from 2008 (my bonus is paid in January the following year so 2007 was good, 2008 not so much). The other good news: the energy efficiency tax credits make a big difference (we put in a tankless hot water heater last year) and we get $1300 on the TDI in 2010.

2010 Jetta SportWagen TDI

I drove up to Alexandria, VA to purchase a 2010 Jetta SportWagen TDI. It's too early to give a comprehensive review of the car, but I'm impressed so far in the 200 miles I've driven in it.

The Jetta has excellent road manners and felt very stable and smooth on the highway. In traffic, it drives a bit different that the cars I'm used to. The TDI has a lot of torque which means you can use a very light touch when starting from a stop. It's not a sports car, but if you hit the accelerator, it moves briskly (with maybe a touch of turbo lag). The DSG transmission is very nice and anticipates the next shift very well (up and down). If you punch it, the tranny is ready to go. If you drive casually, it responds with smoothly spaced shifts.

The interior is quieter than I would have thought and if you have the windows up, you hardly hear the engine at highway speeds. At idle, it sounds different than a gasoline car but no louder than most.

The interior is fairly spartan and simply laid out. It has a mix of automatic and power features (e.g. seat recline is power, but other axes are manual). If you like a lot of gadgets and interior bling, this is not your car. There is a fairly large radio display in the center of the dash. Definitely big enough for a navigation screen (an option I did not purchase). I haven't had a chance to try out some of the more advanced features (Bluetooth integration, media cards, iPod dock).

Best of all, the mileage lives up to the hype. Driving reasonably in a mix of city (DC traffic) and highway (I-66 to I-81 to Roanoke), it got 40 MPG. I've read online that the mileage improves as the engine breaks in, but if we get 35-40 MPG in our mix of driving, that will be more than double what we get in the Silver Surfer.

More to follow after we start to put some miles on it.

Society

My wife had a funny comment the other day - "Comb your hair! We live in a society!" As a work-at-home guy, I don't typically do a lot to my hair in the morning and it is usually quite a mess but I didn't realize it was antisocial.

Past

I ran across some old journals in the attic today. My life used to be a lot different 18 years ago. I was just getting back from Spring break in Florida. My priorities: girls, beer, studying.

Bubbles

Still think the US has the best health care system in the world?

Chilly

Good practice last night. A windy early spring day with a bit of rain falling. Just enough to wake you up but no so much that you get wet. Almost perfect lacrosse weather (another few degrees would have been nice).

We split 'em up into two teams. There weren't any complaints and we only have to shuffle one kid that I know about. So, that's good.

Tomorrow, we need to find a goalie (or two) and start working on some game situations: clears and fast breaks. We'll worry about the settled offense later. For now, it is run and gun time!

TV Time Out

According to this piece on SlateV, you can do an el cheapo ad campaign and actually get a few eyeballs on your cable TV advertising for $1300. I'm not sure what you would do with the crowd watching Glen Beck reruns at 3:00AM, but it's fun that you could actually do it.

Done

It didn't take long for my NCAA hoops bracket to collapse into disaster. I was riding high on Saturday morning (still in first) only to end the weekend in the middle of the pack. It would have helped a bit if Maryland and Pittsburgh had won, but not to be.

Next bracket: NCAA lacrosse tourney. UVA all the way!

Growing

Despite all of the hype about the NCAA basketball tourney (and it has been very interesting this year), lacrosse is the sport that is making waves. It's nice to see the MSM writing articles about lacrosse. You wouldn't have seen this 10 years ago.

Boys Will Be

Yesterday morning, I took Jack and a friend over to their lacrosse practice. We got them all armored up and sent them out there. Sophie and I took a bucket of balls and did some shooting over on the next field and I'd occasionally take a look over to see what was going on over there.

Mayhem. I thought it was tough to have a big group (30+) of elementary aged girls out there, but a similar sized group of slightly younger boys (U9) seems to degenerate into some kind of all vs. all melee. It took all the efforts of 4 grown men to keep a semblance of organization.

The kids have a great time and I'm grateful to the coaches for keeping the herd in line. Plus, I could see signs of hope on the next field over where the U11 boys were practicing. That looked more like lacrosse and less like WWE.

Bracket

Somehow, despite my selection of a Georgetown vs. Oklahoma State sweet 16 game, I'm still at least tied for first in my NCAA bracket pools today. The Cornell over Temple and ODU over ND calls are really helping me.

Echolocation

While walking the dog last night around 8 PM, I saw the first true sign of spring. Not the first robin (they were out there digging around in the snow this year) or the first flower, but the first bat. I'm glad they survived the winter. I love bats.

Ruby

This past December, I bought a new Specialized Roubaix Triple. Now that I've put some miles on it , I feel that I can write a proper review.

I can put it simply: I love this bike! The frame is very forgiving but light and stiff enough for climbing. Many of the roads I ride on around here are a little beat up and have plenty of imperfections. This frame and fork absorb most of the shock and keep it out of your hands, arms and back. Perfect for those of us on the wrong side of 30 (or 40 as the case may be).

Initially, I thought the geometry and laid back demeanor would mean that it would handle like a '76 El Dorado but I've been pleasantly surprised. It's no racing bike, but handles responsively enough for us mere mortals. I feel very comfortable at speed on tight turns.

The most pleasant surprise is how well it climbs. The frame is very stiff laterally and I feel like I can climb all day. Part of that is the triple chain ring. I had to be convinced by the guy at the shop to get a triple instead of a double (a macho thing) and I'm really glad I did. I don't use it often, but there is almost a psychological advantage to knowing that you could get in a lower gear if you needed to. Plus, when you do need it (Camilla St. on the way up Mill Mt.), it saves your legs. I'll gladly take the few extra grams for a lot more gear range.

On the downside, I don't like the stock wheels (Mavic CXP22 rims with Specialized hubs). They are heavy and feel unresponsive. As soon as I can justify it, I'll spring for a new set. Also, I'm not quite as fond of the Shimano STI shifting action as I was really used to Campy Ergopower, but I've been getting used to it. So far the other stock components (seat, handlebars, stem, etc.) are fine and I'm OK with having purchased the low-end model (the next step up was about 30% more).

I'm glad I have Ruby to replace my 1994 Trek 2200 and I'm looking forward to many more miles in the saddle.

This is the kind of weather forecast I like to see!

After this winter, we deserve this kind of weather for the next three months!

Second Day

Good second day of practice yesterday. It was warm and sunny in the afternoon (see dog at left), but clouded up for practice. Still very nice though.

The girls are incredibly competitive. They love the 1-on-1 ground ball competition drills and do a nice job with it. The throwing and catching needs to get better overall (wall ball!) but there is some progress there as well. PlaySportsTV has some simple throwing and catching video instruction. Good stuff.

The 3-on-3 had some issues, but they got better with it each time through. A couple of covers and they need to master the stop on the whistle thing, but the effort was good and there was very little hacking (no checking in our league). The level of physical fitness varies pretty widely, but everyone is trying on the wind sprints at the end.

I can't wait until practice next week!

Lacrosse Season!

We had our first RVLLA practice of the year on Monday. It was cold and windy, but a perfect day to be out there (any day would have been perfect . It's a big group this year with many returning players and new faces.

I'm working with a new coach, CP, this year as Susan has moved on to the middle school team. She will be missed (although she isn't too far away). CP and I both brought practice plans with us on the first day. We are, quite literally, on the same page. It should be a whole lot of fun.

Our second practice is today and the lacrosse gods have smiled upon us and given us a beautiful sunny day to pay homage to them (or at least not offend).