happy new year. a- and i escaped to brooklyn for dinner and drinks with some friends. we had two of the strangest cab rides both there and back. today is lazy as its grey and rainy.

a new year, a new look. it was time to give the blog an updated look. blogger has released new functionality, and to take advantage, i had to upgrade my template. so i just took the opportunity to update the feel a bit.

a belated merry christmas. i know all my fans have been wondering where i've been. or i assume so, no one has mentioned my obvious lack of posts in the last month. but i'll just assume that it's b/c everyone has been as busy as me.

since i skipped right over thanksgiving, i should mention that my parents came out that weekend. it was good to see them and the first time they've been out to visit me in nyc together. the friday after thanksgiving the four of us had dinner at le tableau. we had the place to ourselves. dinner was really great, as was the wine.

and not to disappoint, we all went out to sing sing karaoke bar for some after dinner entertainment. unfortunately the next day i was left incapacitated with joint hangover and flu-ish symptoms which lingered on for the rest of the week.

skipping ahead about a month...i "successfully" completed most of my christmas shopping on or ahead of schedule this year. the notable exception was a near last minute gift idea for a-. we'll be returning that anyway for something similar, but it's the thought that counts, right?

part of my gift which was a hit (and not returned), was another great dinner at town. (with a supremely delicious wine). and the same night i got part of my gift early when we went to see "the vertical hour". two years in manhattan and i finally see my first big ticket play. thanks to the hordes of tourists and cranky nypd cops, we ended up running to the theatre, walking in during the first act. at least they didnt make us wait until intermission.

and as one last parting note, as this is starting to sound like a novella of extravagent dining experiences, i got several camera related gifts. so hopefully youll see more and better quality pictures on flickr soon.

have a happy new year.

synchronized driving. wow.

US Air seeks to merge with Delta. my favorite quote: "They’re taking two poorly performing airlines, especially from a passengers’ point of view, and putting them together," said Michael J. Grossman, a lawyer from Lexington, Ky., and a Delta frequent flier. "What you’re left with is the lowest common denominator."

a little rumsfeld humour by way of scott.

playoffs. woohoo, we just barely slid into the last spot for the volleyball playoffs. so we get to play at least one more game!

hmmm, perhaps a compact tripod such as this is money better spent.

camera stuff. so, i want to get into my digital photography a bit more. and, since christmas is fast approaching, i figure it'll provide some good gift ideas. one thing i'm in need of is a tripod. i found the gorillapod which seems like a compact and versatile, although perhaps not the most professional-style, tripod.

if anyone has any recommendations on tripods, bags, lenses (for a canon body) please email or post a comment here. a guy at work recommended the canon F4/L 70-200mm lens--although i'm temped by the same lens with the image stabalizer. unfortunately it doubles the price. i'm also looking at the sigma 105mm macro lens which also came recommended.

new job. for those of you who haven't heard from me (or my parents) yet. tomorrow is my last day with accenture and i start with "the bank" on monday.

and then there were pictures.

happy birthday william. will notched his first full year this weekend and i went out to celebrate with dave and shelly. as is typical for first birthdays, he enjoyed smashing up the cake more than eating it (and he didnt seem to like the icing much). he also had more interest in the gift wrapping paper and boxes than the gifts themselves. all in all i think he had a good weekend with all the people and attention. pictures to follow.

IE. so, i spent the last 4 or so work days debugging an issue that occurred in only 4 people's browsers. we never found the root cause, but were able to narrow it down to the particular browsers on the particular boxes. microsoft has once again caused me much anguish by not supporting widely accepted standards. grrrr.

i think i had my first visitor from mexico yesterday. woohoo!

rented a car and drove out to pennsylvania--or PA as we like to refer to it--for a friend's wedding.

drink more, earn more. (thanks to richesh)

i went down to the WTC on the 11th. there were a ton of people around, even when i got there around 8.30pm. i took some pictures and uploaded them to flickr.

and one more for those of you bored at work...
the latest green innovations. i'd just like to note that the head of technology for tesla motors was on my galapagos trip a few months back. glad to see he's getting some international press.

this appears to be the world's most complete source for all things related to shoelaces.

in a way, perhaps not as surprising as it first seems. all the same, a lot of people will miss him.