(I pretended today was Sunday. It sure felt like one.)

Number of sections consumed: 4 (out of 10)

Hours spent: 2.5

NYT Magazine opened (Y/N): N

Articles worthy of passing along:

• Chinese Are Left to Ask Why Schools Crumbled - About all the schools that fell, while neighboring buildings remained standing.
• Rendering Justice, With One Eye on Re-election - Short story on the peculiar American habit of electing judges, with a focus on a particularly underhanded campaign in Wisconsin.
• A Conflict’s Buffer Zone: Rocks, and Inches - A border standoff between the small African countries of Eritrea and Djibouti has soldiers from both sides sitting inches away from each other.
• Senate Race in Minnesota Shows Power of Bloggers
• Opinion: Misreading the Arab Media - Why the U.S. government should be working to engage the Arab media.

As is probably quite obvious, I haven’t really been in the mood for writing as of late. To be fair, the mix is roughly 40% apathy, 60% preoccupation.

Lisa’s first Mother’s Day was spent in Madison. Not an optimal time for her to visit, but between MinneBar on the 10th, a weird work event for me on the 12th, and a bunch of time for her working online the following week, it was clear we wouldn’t be able to see each other much until this weekend anyway. As such, we decided to defer Mother’s Day to some undefined future date, and just let the weekend pass.

I made the most of my open Sunday. Instead of relaxing–which probably been the best thing for me to do considering I don’t get much down time these days–I painted our bedroom and engaged in a marathon 16-hour spring cleaning session. When done, the air conditioners were in, the office was walkable for the first time in months, my closet had regained its organizational logic.

This weekend was a bit more laid back. Aside from the graduation party in St. Paul, it was mostly made up of playing with the baby, hitting some rummage sales in Richfield (an endeavor alternately bargain-filled and scary), and, of course, more cleaning.

~ ~ ~

Also, I went for my first legitimate walk in months this evening. Up next weekend: Get the bikes out.

Number of sections consumed: 2 (out of 9)

Hours spent: 1.5 (busy day today)

NYT Magazine opened (Y/N): N

Articles worthy of passing along:

• Turkish Schools Offer Pakistan a Gentler Vision of Islam
• Dressed for a Meeting, Ready for Mayhem - The intricacies of wearing a suit to conceal guns, radios and other fun items.
• Frank Rich: The All-White Elephant in the Room - How Democrats, and Obama in particular, get ripped on for the actions of their preachers, while Republicans get a free pass even though their preachers rate just as high on the wacko factor.

I guess the main thing I have to say about the weekend is this: When you spill over six ounces of lemonade on your $2800 laptop, your plans can change rather dramatically.

After a few bluescreens and other unpleasantness, my ThinkPad is more or less running again. Despite a rather thorough cleaning, some of the keys have a weird click to them now, and my LAN connection appears to be toast. More ominously, though, the computer no longer will wake up after I put it in sleep mode. Instead, it requires a reboot.

I see laptop repair expenses in my future. In retrospect, I’m kind of wishing I’d spent the money for the accidental damage protection.

Number of sections consumed: 3 (out of 9)

Hours spent: 3.5

NYT Magazine opened (Y/N): N

Articles worthy of passing along:

• In Zimbabwe Jail: A Reporter’s Ordeal - I’ll take stories you’ll unlikely see “citizen journalist” bloggers writing for $1000, Alex.
• Saddled With Legacy of Dioxin, Town Considers an Odd Ally: The Mushroom
• Seeking Employment for Ex-Cons in Newark - Newark tries to bring convicts back into society, and runs into a number of challenges in doing so.

In theory, I finally have a working phone. My number is still being ported from Verizon, but in the next 24 hours I should finally be able to, you know, call people and stuff.

While we obviously haven’t had a chance to try out Sprint’s service yet, I’m kind of appalled by how much Lisa and I will be saving by making the switch. Despite increasing our overall minute, text and data allowances, we’ll be saving almost $900 a year because of the change. I’m kind of kicking myself for not doing this sooner.

~ ~ ~

In related news, we’re renting a garage. No more covering myself with grease trying to drag the bike up the stairs.

If I don’t have a working phone by the end of the week, I may go postal.

After such a long period not writing, I’m finding it difficult to get back into it again. That’s unfortunate, as there’s been a lot to write about. Mathias in particular has been going through a lot of changes as of late: He’s standing with assistance, is showing signs of (finally) getting ready to crawl, and has become quite proficient at feeding himself. His mom and I have gotten some (supposedly) expert feedback that we may be going too easy on him in trying to get him to sleep through the night, but we both run into philosophical issues in that area. After all, each of us gets up once or twice a night to get a drink of water or visit the bathroom… Is it unreasonable for our child to want to do the same?

Ah, the complicated trials of parenthood. If we spend all this time trying to figure out how to best handle his sleeping habits, I can’t wait to see what we do as we encounter other issues that are more complicated.

Beyond that, Lisa and I went on a date Saturday night. It was fun, if a bit expensive for our cash-constrained household. We didn’t do much: We started with a tasty but overpriced dinner at Duplex, following that with an hour or so wandering around Uptown and desert at Cafe Latte. None of those things would’ve been unusual 15 months ago, but now they’re rare moments to be enjoyed and savored.

~ ~ ~

No news on my grades yet. Then there’s that immunization hold on my account… Had I started school two years earlier, it wouldn’t be a problem, but because of some apparent discarding of records, I may have to get a whole mess of shots before I can take another class. It would’ve been nice if this became clear a bit earlier in the year so I could have more time to respond to it, but I guess that’s how the U runs things.

Huh.  I have nothing to do for work tonight, and nothing to do for school, either.

Oh, there’s laundry to do.  Okay.

I don’t really have time for this tonight, but I kind of have to rant.

While it wasn’t unexpected, I’m still kind of annoyed–well, ticked, really–about the Northwest/Delta merger, both for rational and irrational reasons. While the Atlanta and Detroit hubs are likely safe from any service cuts, there’s definitely a potential for service reductions at MSP. While it’s unlikely MSP will lose its hub status, a reduction in overall flights, especially direct flights, seems likely regardless of whatever PR is currently being spewed from either company. It wouldn’t be surprising for us to see a cut in international flights as well, with more emphasis being put in the Detroit and Atlanta hubs for those kinds of services.

The fact that we can fly direct pretty much anywhere in the United States is one of the great privileges of living in the Twin Cities, and without that we’re one step closer to being the proverbial cold Omaha. (Or St. Louis after the TWA/AA merger, for that matter.) And, really, if NWA has to merge with someone, couldn’t they go with an airline that at least knows a little about customer service? Continental, perhaps? Nooo, we have to get stuck with Detla.

I’m still a bit ticked about my last Delta experience, which included disabled airplanes, parts being flown to the Twin Cities from Atlanta, a late arrival for a connection in Cincinnati, zero help from staff in finding alternate flights, a connection from hell at Hartsfield and a skanky, stick-floored Delta-booked hotel room in Tennessee. Delta fucked over my trip in enough ways that I decided to take a ten-year break from them, about five of which are still remaining, but it looks like I may soon have no choice.

That said, I can’t by any means say that my history with Northwest has been pleasant. Decrepit planes, poor customer service, comparatively high prices… I don’t think I’ve had a single NWA trip in the past decade that didn’t have some element of stupidity attached to it. We all know Northwest is one disheveled mess of an airline, but you know what? It’s our mess of an airline, that weird, slightly psychotic member of our Minnesota family we still care about even though it hasn’t been nice to us in a long, long time. Northwest has been here since the 1920s, and now we’re faced with the prospect of our “hometown airline” being based in… Atlanta.

Since I seem to be in the “irrational reason” category now, so you know what else? Delta’s airplanes are ugly. UGLY. Seriously, NO WHITE AIRPLANES. Yes, NWA discarded one of aviation’s greatest logos with the newest design, but overall the look of their planes still kicks Delta’s Wonderbread ass.

So, in whole, less service, more transfers, and uglier airplanes. Lose, lose, lose.