In local news...

You may have heard me refer to myself as "the world's luckiest guy", tongue-in-cheek, but this you will not believe.  I'm checking in for my flight to Europe, and they ask for my passport# and expiration date.  And I notice my passport expires on 4/11/2010, *one day* after I get back.  How headless is that? 

I really am amazingly fortunate; you may recall about a month ago I was hit by a car while cycling ("bam"), and survived with nary a scratch.  I must tell you that was a formative experience.  I can't really recommend it - you might not be as lucky as I am - but it has changed me.  The realization that my life could end poof! just like that causes me to take maximum advantage of each moment.  It has been a great month.

iPad review units have shipped, the embargo has been lifted, and the industry pundits are having a field day reviewing their spiffy new toys.  Among them Walt Mossberg (WSJ), David Pogue (NY Times), and Andy Ihnatko (Chicago Sun).  They all seem rather blown away.  Walt Mossberg: “After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop.”  Yippee what a time to be alive :) 

Yes of course I preordered an iPad, what do you think this is?  Yes of course it has shipped, and is arriving this Saturday April 3.  And yes of course I will be in Belgium riding in the Tour of Flanders on that day, 3,000 miles from my new iPad.  Phooey.  I have redirected it to colleagues so they can play with it in my absence (!)  By the time I get back I'm sure the whole iPad thing will have blown over.  Not.

Among my recent doings, I have acquired an elliptical trainer from my daughter Nicole.  Trucked it home, set it up, and this morning happily spent 30 minutes working up a sweat while my two little Shih-Tzus looked on in amazement.  A great way to start the day.  I am happy. 

in ∑ (100% pure naval gazing)  You may have noticed that I have two kinds of posts, those about one subject, like March Fool and Bam, and those with a compendium of smaller subjects, like this one, with internal permalinks for each item.  I'm going to start designating compendia with a ∑ summation character in the title.  Probably not even worthy of mention, but there you go. 

And I'm off... next post should be from Ghent in Flanders...