Catching Up

So here's some of the news that's fit to print since my last blog post, in no particular order of importance.

I've been sick for most of the last week and am finally on the road to recovery. Head cold that morphed into a chest cold. The usual winter thing. Hopefully the first and last time I'm sick this year. I've burned six days of PTO trying to get over it.

In December, Zvents was acquired by StubHub (an eBay company). So now I'm a Stubber. I can't say I like the nickname too much (conjures up visions of a trauma ward filled with multiple amputees) but I sure like the company. StubHub is based in San Francisco and we'll be moving our offices up there by mid-year.

Also in December I met my new girlfriend, Valerie. We hit it off immediately and now are inseparable (at least on weekends, since she lives on the other side of the Bay). Being sick has not helped. Valerie is French, smart, petite, beautiful, and fierce. I'm crazy about her. I'm looking forward to relearning French and then traveling over there with her. Nothing beats having a native Parisian with you to be treated well when you visit La France. So I presume. She doesn't speak German so I'll translate for her when we visit that country.

I went to Nevada, Arizona and Southern California during my latest driving trip. Saw my old buddy Max for the first time in several years. We had a great time catching up. And I got to see the desert again. I love Northern Arizona, and Tucson and environs are nice, but I don't think I'll need to drive across southern Arizona again. Blech. Nor do I feel any grand compulsion to drive past Salton Sea again. Still, it was a good reminder of just how bloody LONG California is.

Okay, the bed is beckoning and I am still wiped out from my cold. I wanted to post something about Apple's new textbook initiative but that will have to wait until I'm feeling better.