All Caught Up for the Year

Sure, it's easy to do when the year is only twleve days old, but I've managed to complete all the unfinished posts of 2009. So that my work doesn't go for naught, here's what's new on the blog as of now:

• Congress got a raise at the beginning of the year; do they really deserve one?


• Scholar Charles Murray thinks that a college degree is unnecessary for many jobs nowadays.


• Weekend randomness, including the final steps in putting my Halloween night traffic ticket behind me.


• And finally, a really cool hostel in Sweden that's made out of a decommissioned 747 jumbo jet.

I'll try to do better with posting this week; I felt bad about announcing that I was under the weather and then not posting for a couple of days, because I didn't want people to think I was getting worse or anything (the laryngitis is slowly going away, and thanks to those who inquired about my condition). It's taken a while to get back into the swing of things this semester, but hopefully my blogging time will settle in as we go along.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to my protege, bandmate and li'l bro, Aaron, who's in New York for the big day this year. He rang in the day with a trip to Birdland to see the Dave Holland Octet--think the Quintet (Potter, Eubanks, et al.) plus Gary Smulyan, Antonio Hart and Alex Sipiagin. (Yes, I'm jealous, but I guess he's making up for the time two years ago when I was up there on his birthday, seeing awesome concerts every night at IAJE, while he was stuck at home.)

...and one more: I almost forgot (how could I?)--today is also the first "cariversary" of Kevmobile 2.0. It's been a great first year, having seen the inside of a mechanic's for nothing more than oil changes and tire rotations, and the gas-sipping has been most welcome. Here's to many more great years...