It's been a busy week, we're gearing up for a new printer and major release in the fall. In conjunction with that, a very knowledgeable dev is retiring, so there's been lots of new feature meetings hoping to drain his brain before he goes.

My wife deposited her first check, and it cleared. I was able to pay our home equity payment online, instead of having to hazard the icy weather, clear out my HSA and pay in cash. She doesn't really like her job, but the money helps. Then again, she doesn't really want to work a job, I certainly sympathize. She is looking for something more in line with her interests.

One evening we walked a few blocks with the dog, and found the site of the neighborhood community garden. I was spoiled by our first house, it was a double lot on a corner, and the empty part was in the corner, it got lots of sun, and I had a big garden that was great for tomatoes. My little plot behind our house doesn't get near enough sunlight, so we're going to rent a plot. Plus, it will be social and all that. It's probably a small step from community garden to community organizer.

In other vegetative news, the city planted our replacement tree. It isn't the Linden we were thinking about, but rather a Ginkgo Biloba. Apparently the females produce fruit that smells like vomit when it rots, something to look forward to.

In book reviews, Beevor's The Fall of Berlin 1945 was good, if depressing. It's hard to feel sympathy for the Berliners, though they weren't as fervent Nazi's as the Bavarians. They got paid back in spades for what the Nazis did to Russia (the Poles got it worse), even after the Commies realized it was making their post WWII occupation plans more difficult.

Now Beevor may have lots of awards and such, but his scholarship appears lacking. He called Berlin the pyre of Europe's extreme right, he must not be aware of Jonah Goldberg's recent scholarship saying Nazism came from liberalism. Look at their title, "Socialist", "Workers" party, yeap liberals.

In other book reviews, I finished Martin's The Armageddon Rag last night (he also writes the Game of Thrones series). It was odd, it's set in the early 80's, a reformed counter culture journalist gets involved in the reunion of a huge (bigger than Zep) band that shattered when the lead singer was assassinated on stage. It's full of nostalgia for the 60's, the journalist feels like an old sell out (and I'm probably ten years older than he is) and ends up with a deux ex machine type college reunion. It starts like a mystery, but ends up as a horror story. It was hard to put down, but my time in the 60's was spent watching Sesame Street, not Froggy the Gremlin, so it didn't fully resonate with me.

Wednesday night I go to the Y and shamed some girly man high school or middle school boys (and I didn't get assaulted). I was doing 10 on the Ab machine, they were doing 4. I was doing 112 on the row, they were doing 60. Then again, I haven't improved much in years, but only working out once or twice a week makes it hard to improve. My abs are still sore, maybe my machismo was too much.

My oldest and her bff complained about their student teaher on the way to their paramilitary training last night. They understood "Leading up to WWII", then their student teacher came in, they didn't understand anything, and now it's his last day and the war is over.

Good thing they have me. Until I can talk them into a game of ViTP or Third Reich, I have if WWII was fought on Facebook.

Speaking of student teachers and Facebook, he was complaining that since Facebook was started for college students, it should remain for college students. I'm going to bet he didn't get any degrees at Harvard, and soon enough, he won't be a college teacher. Maybe FB should have remained just for Harvard students.

Both my girls have a lot of student teachers. I don't remember many, though my elementary school was way south of Buffalo, with no teachers college nearby.

Our state refund came yesterday, I already deposited it, so now I can start rebuilding my savings and paying down my CC debt.

On tap for the weekend, keg filling, maybe beer brewing, hopefully cycle starting, and some gardening. Steak, too.