I am the ghost of groovymother.com. Woooooo!

Beautiful day at the ballpark

*sigh*

Yelp in “Actually doing something innovative” Shocker!

The new Yelp iPhone app has snuck in a nifty "Augmented Reality" view. This shot is taken from out of the window at Slide.

Atop the Green Monster

Watching the Yanks take batting practice.

I Voted

The true symbol of democracy in America -- The smug satisfaction of getting to wear the elusive "I Voted" sticker.

It was the only reason I bothered voting, to be honest.

(t-shirt)

All filled out

The seven sides(!) of the ballot, filled out and ready to be deposited in the ballot box.

This sample ballot shows how much crap I had to vote on after making my presidential selection.

What two-party system?

My first vote as an American

The basement of City Hall

There were about 40 people in front of me waiting to cast early ballots.

Polling Place

San Francisco City Hall

Phishy

One problem with OAuth and similar authentication systems -- When the browser is embedded in the application (as in this case with AirMe, but I also saw it in Exposure) with no URL visible, you have no idea if you're giving your username and password to Yahoo, or to some phisher.

Rain Delay

The game gets halted for 90 minutes. Thankfully, the tarp came off and the Sox won 6-4.

Full House that Ruth built

Sold-out Sox/Yankees match at Yankee Stadium. Joy & I wanted to visit here at least once before the Yanks move next door to... Yankee Stadium

Torch protest

The "Free Tibet" and "Free Darfur" groups were protesting the torch, but a visibly larger group of Chinese supporters were protesting the protesters.

And in the end, the torch didn't come anywhere near us!

Chumby

My Chumby, powered-up, and making my life approximately 65% better by displaying a live feed from the San Diego Zoo Pandacam.

I believe it can perform other tasks too, but who cares? PANDAS!

Bacon guards his squeakyball

Don't you dare try and steal it from him, or he'll viciously roll his eyes, yawn and ignore you.

A toddler’s drawing of me

On the flight back from San Diego, a mother and her daughter sat next to me. I feared a 6-hour chunk of screaming wean, but the kid was surprisingly quiet, watching her Barney DVDs and reading her Curious George books.

This is a picture she drew of me. (Actually, the mother drew the head and body, and the girl added the glasses, beard and baseball cap) A pretty decent likeness!

View from the 40th Floor

Shot from the bar at the top of the Hyatt. San Diego really has the most dull featureless skyline!

Talking House

A house near us has just gone up for sale, and apparently there's an AM transmitter so you can hear all about it without having to ring the doorbell.

Of course, the bad man in me wants to try to broadcast "Metal Machine Music" on that frequency at a higher power.

They're currently asking about $50k more than the Zillow Zestimate. Curious to see how this plays out with regards to Zillow's estimates.

last.fm Player on TiVo HME

Someone's knocked out a last.fm player for the TiVo HME platform. Works pretty well too. If you've got a Series 2 TiVo hooked up to your home network, follow the instructions at apps.tv to give it a try.

Is nothing sacred?

The (rather poorly-received) movie version of trippy 70's on-before-the-BBC-evening-news French animation, The Magic Roundabout, has been re-dubbed for America.

Some of the (mostly piss-poor ex- or current-SNL) vocal talents are horrendous. Whoopi Goldberg as Emintrude? Jimmy motherfuckin' Fallon as Dylan?!?

(Jim Broadbent vs William H Macy as Brian, on the other hand, is too close to call)

But worst of all is the bastardisation of Dougal's name for the movie's title. Clearly America is a little *too* hooked-on-phonics.

I ♥ Carnegie Deli

A pound or two of turkey, pastrami, swiss cheese, coleslaw and russian dressing, on pumpernickel. A wee snack.

Pixar Zoetrope

A three-dimensional zoetrope at the 20 Years of Pixar Animation exhibition at MOMA. The turntable spins and a strobe starts, creating the illusion of motion.

Soup

Andy Warhol's 32 paintings of every available variety of Campbell's soup.

My OpenPGP smartcard

Now I can pretend to be Jack Bauer with my GPG encryption keys stored on a smartcard. If you encrypt something to 0xC84C962B, you can be certain that it will be seen by my eyes only. Unless a rather bad man has managed to subtly convinced me to give up my PIN, using little more that the art of persuasion, and a length of rubber hose.

I'm not entirely sure what the legalities are of my importing this card into the US, but for now it's nestled snugly in my wallet between my Green Card and my ACLU membership card.

This correspondence is forwarded from a Massachusetts Correctional Institution

A letter arrived yesterday for a former resident of our house, from someone in prison. I'm tempted to open it up just to make sure it doesn't say either "I'm coming to get you" or "I'm coming to stay when I get out", but I think returning-to-sender is in order.

Bacon’s a huge Ted Williams fan

Basset Hound socks

A gift to me from Joy. Because christmas just wouldn't be christmas without a jaw-droppingly ugly pair of bad-taste socks.

NO LIMOS

Odd juxtaposition -- The McDonalds on Boylston St in Boston has this sign at the entrance to its parking lot. They clearly get a classier kind of burger-eater than most drive-thrus.

If music is important in your life, sooner or later you will own a [RhymesWithNose] system

Spotted this slogan on a truck while waiting for a train to pass. What a gloriously arrogant statement. I, of course, love it!

ShrinkwrappedGarbage

As I go through my CD collection, merrily re-ripping, I occasionally come across a CD such as this, purchased in 2001, but still in its shrinkwrap.

As I recall, I had downloaded MP3s of the album prior to release, but still went out and bought the CD in order to assuage my conscience (and because it was only $12 from the good folks at Newbury Comics).

Music Science = Sexy

Purchased from Questionable Content, this is the official uniform of the [RhymesWithNose] "Applied Research" team.

I try to make everyone’s day a little more surreal.

Just starting to work my way through the fabulous The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, and loving every second of it.

Patience

Seven games left in the season, the Sox and Yankees tied for first, and we're stuck in a rain-delay.

Update: Arse. Game got postponed to lunchtime tomorrow.

Randombaconshot

Needed to test something, so here's a shot of Bacon in repose.

‘Not a significant source of iron’

I picked up a couple of bottles of Irn Bru today for the first time in ages. I would never have thought to describe it as a 'carbonated citrus fruit drink'. I'd go with 'sugar, caffeine and orange colouring that *stains*'

Updated to add: Aha! Upon closer inspection, this is the label Barr use specifically for the US market (the FDA nutrition panel should have given that away). That explains the bizarre disclaimers for my adopted crazy-ass-litigious homeland.

My new plates

Come the end of the month, these will be attached to my car. It just takes a $40 donation to the Jimmy Fund, every two years, to get Sox plates.

David Ortiz is a pussy

His salsa only comes in Medium? Wimp!

BBC America’s coverage of the terrorist attacks in London

... has been discontinued to bring you the scheduled interview with Jennifer Connelly about her new movie.

I have not the words.

Crappy phonecam fireworks shot

Segway ‘Walking Tour’

Spotted practically following us around San Francisco. We particularly appreciated that riding around on Segways didn't make you look enough of a dork, so they fitted you out with reflective yellow jackets and helmets. Seeing them glide across the landscape was like a slowed-down Benny Hill chase, but without the buxom lasses or Yakkity Sax.

Palace of Fine Arts

They don't build 'em like this anymore.

San Francisco at dusk

The Rock

Upon seeing this, my colleagues asked for my Sean Connery impression. It'sh every Shcotshman's birthright to do a pish-poor Shean Connery impreshion. Yesh, indeed.

Some bridge or other

Round the corner, fudge is made

The Ghiradelli factory sign, San Francisco. Not an Oompa-Loompa in sight.

The Lord Rod Almighty

My credentials for MacWorld Boston. This is what happens when they let you specify any job title.

Basset on the move

There's nothing quite so awesome as bassethoundears flapping in the breeze.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

My original paperback copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, bought for me when I was five.

Two flavors: Cheddar & More Cheddar

Following this, look forward to my 31 flavours Ice Cream store featuring "Vanilla", "More Vanilla", "Yet More Vanilla", "Very Vanilla", "None More Vanilla", "Suspiciously Vanilla-y" and "Bugger me backwards with a broomhandle... It's Vanilla!"

Olde Fashioned Compact Disc Emporium

Sweet’n’Low and Mustard in one convenient tray

At the Golden Apple diner, Lincoln & Southport, Chicago. Choose wisely.

CIF

The Showcase stage at the Chicago Theatre Building.

XM in the armrest

On board the Airtran plane, you can listen to XM Radio. Really quite a nifty idea -- *Much* better than the usual dreck you get on inflight "entertainment"

iPod vending machine

Atlanta Airport.

Planning my weekend

Off to Chicago tomorrow for the Chicago Improv Fest. Busy trying to work out what shows I want to see.

Professor Bacon

Because we are bad owners.

MLB on XM

Rather nattily, the display on my XM radio shows the Sox score, so I can keep track of the game while driving, whilst listening to music on my iPod.

Boston’s leading Jesus-crazy

As much a Boston landmark as the Citgo sign, this evangelical half-wit is a regular sight whenever there's a sporting event or concert. He's our version of London's Winner or Sinner bloke.

That banner is new

Jim’s Big Ego play Bose

De-skunking Bacon 3

Thereby answering the question "If we decided to slit Bacon's throat, what would it look like?"

De-skunking Bacon 2

He is *not* happy with us right now.

De-skunking Bacon 1

Joy focused on cleaning him, while I unhelpfully stood around with my cellphone snapping photos.

Tomato Juice

Bacon barked at a skunk in the back garden tonight, and got sprayed. Not pleasant. A Google search pointed us in the direction of either hydrogen peroxide or tomato juice. This is what the corner store had in stock.

SoxTix

Hurrah hurrah! Our Red Sox tickets for this season arrived today. Roll on April 14th!

Citizens Bank’s new logo

Looks somewhat familiar, reminding me of my student days when the RBoS made my penniless days miserable. I wish Bank of Scotland or Clydesdale owned a local bank. I'd join in a flash!

New Toy

I treated myself to a new iPod, as I await our tax refund. This replaces the 20Gb 2nd gen one I bought in August 2002. I expect this one to be full within 9 months too.

Sunset on The Mountain

Lemon Jelly sticker

"This is our new album. It's not like our old album"

Stair navigation avec balloon

Bacon attempts to climb the stairs whilst gripping between his teeth a balloon larger than his stumpy little legs. Lots of fun to watch.

Bacon at his most puppyish

Mr. Dogg manicly rushing around chasing a big balloon, which has already become his new favourite toy. Until it bursts, which it is bound to do in about 5 minutes, the way he's attacking it.

Zach Dirt

Our nephew, Zach, in his stylish mullet wig.

Unique But Morally Dubious

The oldest T-shirt in my "collection", it was purchased from the short-lived Deadpan Magazine in 1994. Hrmm... Flickr has "Rotate" but no "Flip" control.

Tivo HME in Action

Playing the fab "Same Game" on my telly, courtesy of the TiVo HME demo.

Kinder ‘Internet Surprise’

Even chocolate eggs are internet-enabled these days. Go to www.magic-kinder.com, enter the "secret code", and get online-prizes.

$2,408 of damage

Unsuccessful braking yesterday morning, due to sheet ice on a bridge, has left me with a buggered-up hood, bumper and headlight. So this year, I've been a wash for my insurance company.

Car-cicles

My bumper's gained stalactites.

My first folding-chair parking-space-holder

A great Boston tradition. Let's see if my space and/or the chair are still there when I get home.

Reverse Clock

Another gift from my mum -- A clock which is confusing-as-all-hell to look at frontwards, but works rather splendidly on the back of our bathroom door.

Monster Munch

Another treat unleashed from my mum's suitcase: 28 bags of Monster Munch (22 of which are Pickled Onion flavour. Hurrah!)

Super Noodles

A treat from the UK, thanks to my mum -- 20 packets (in various flavours) of Bachelor's Super Noodles.

My T-Shirt Collection

That entire shelf is made up of my T-shirts -- The ones that I couldn't bear to part with. And Joy wonders why I need to buy more from Threadless!

Yeah, it’s a lazy dog-dangling afternoon…

Magnetic Insult Poetry

An Xmas gift from Mrs B

Linux on TV

I finally got around to hacking my Linux laptop to enable the SVideo out. Hurrah! Now I can watch UKNova downloads on TV! (The screenshot you see is MythTV compiling)

£1 = $7.26?

That's quite the exchange rate on these Cadbury's Fudges in Harvard Square.

Car Talk Plaza

My dentist's office is in the same building as Click & Clack.

Brrr… it’s a bit nippy out.

The bottle of water I left in my car last night has entered the solid state.

Joy’s New Purse

A super-classy gift from our super-classy chum, Kara.

Pies With Bling

The menu for a local pizzaplace. Can we get anchovies on one half, and bling on the other?

Testing the new cellphone

...whilst continuing the Bacon-humiliation.

Caffeinated convenience

Hurrah for Stop & Shop, who have now added cupholders to their trolleys.

Our First Christmas Tree

Wheaties Box

Breakfast of (World Series) Champions

Blackspot Sneaker

My Blackspot Sneakers arrived today. Hurrah!

Getting my electoral fix

One Commercial Break in a Swing State 4

Four political ads in a row

One Commercial Break in a Swing State 3

Four political ads in a row

One Commercial Break in a Swing State 2

Four political ads in a row

One Commercial Break in a Swing State 1

Four political ads in a row

Hooters: Delightfully shameless

I wish more of the receipts I submitted with expense reports had lovehearts drawn around the total.

And, regardless of what you think of the sexual poiltics of Hooters, the wings are fcuking delicious.

The glamour of St. Louis

My hotel is conveniently located right next door to the "Missouri St Louis Sewer Division."

Stop & Shop gets Sox fever

These signs were dotted around the new Somerville Stop & Shop, along with "Mrs Schillng Shops Here" ones.

Ugly shirt

A gloriously tacky shirt, given to me by my good lady wife to honour my birthday. Game 3 tonight -- GO SOX!

Donkey Konga

I, a 27-year-old fat bloke, spent a good half-hour tonight in Circuit City, shamelessly bopping and clapping along with Donkey Konga. It's bluddy ACE.

One window fewer

100% less radio too. Bah!

(They had no idea what my GPS unit was, though, so that remained)

Wally is my co-pilot

Go Sox

Spelled out in fairy lights on a balcony on Comm Ave. OK, it's not as impressive as The Pru, but I have a shitty cameraphone.

Still Alive

Ortiz scores a homer

it’s a mite cold at Fenway tonight

Millar scores

They’ve called in the army

Apparently, the security team, Boston Police, and State Police weren't enough

Joy and Wally

The missus and the Green Monster

Passport Control

If they're going to insist on taking photos of every non-merkin to enter the US, then I'm gonna take a photo of them!

Mum and Ali enjoy a rocket ride

“Le Week-end”

Closed on Sundays.

wine as it *should* be served

Obligatory Eiffel Tower shot

The AZERTY Keyboard

My nemesis as I attempt to send emails. You have to press Shift to type numbers??

Layover in Iceland

22-0

My t-shirt for tonight's Red Sox/Yankees game.

MIT Geek Humour

If you don't know what IHTFP means, Google away!

Joy, at the Tragically Hip concert

I caught me a Doozer!