Hopstretch

John Hiatt -- Bring The Family

San Diego.

My friendly local Ayre dealer says they're getting one in any day now and would be happy to lend it to me for a week to try out at home. So, woot!

Got home, yay! Thanks for all the positive waves. Highlight of the morning was my daughter telling the chief resident he was a "very pretty doctor" during rounds, causing some pronounced sniggering from the rear ranks. Diagnosis highly noncomittal, maybe mycoplasma pneumonia maybe something viral. Main thing is she's getting better. Think I'll have to purchase some Scotch in celebration.

Just make your ice with tonic water. Damn I could use a drink right about now.

Four identical pairs of LLBean chinos. Forward to middle age!

Still at the hospital. These beds suck. Thank God for the iPhone.

Thanks guys. She's handling it all well, has already set herself up as Princess of the Paeds ward, but her oxygenation is still not improving with treatment. My own uninformed concern is that she may have a shunt -- there were some concerns about her heart structure in utero, but they thankfully never came to anything after she was born. She was thoroughly checked out at Childrens' back then, but I wonder if her growth since might have made a very minor problem more apparent and I think I'm going to start bleating about getting her down there again.

Spent the entire day in the ER with my daughter, who appeared perfectly happy and contented the whole time despite having an oxygen saturation stubbornly below 90%. Many nebulizers and a half-bucket of steroids later, the wife arrived on emergency recall from Montreal to man the oxygen blower for the overnight shift. Also learned that the nearest hospital to us sucks balls, which I guess would be valuable information in a direr emergency.

A topical article that may interest you.

She does have some convincing arguments.

I'm in for the July show! Please let me know when you hear about tickets going on sale.

The Alan Parsons Project -- The Turn Of A Friendly Card

Good news, Uncle Sam owes us $13K. Bad news, only because of far larger capital losses we were forced to realize. Worse news, the effective rate on the largest component of our income is slated to jump by 20% next year.

I guess I'll have to start actually listening to you.

And you were keeping that to yourself?

After looking around a bit and trying a few things, I have found that XLD does what I want pretty much flawlessly. Recommended.

The Who -- Who's next MCA Ultimate MasterDisc

The The -- Infected

Husker Du -- Zen Arcade

I hope you put on fresh undies if you're planning to throw them!

The Cure -- Galore: The Singles 1987-1997

Did come across this head-to-head of the Bryston against the Benchmark over on the AVGuide forums. They preferred the DAC1 over USB, and the Bryston over optical.

I'm going to try and score one off the 'Gon to try. As much as I like the Duet, I'm interested to taste some other digital flavors.

Fixed.