iQuit

THE iPAD RELEASED this weekend and more than 300,000 lemmings were up until all hours Easter morning, loading more than 1 milliom apps onto their new toys. That following a Good Friday evening when thousands who did not pre-order the latest techno-marvel in the "i" series, stood in line outside Apple stores nationwide, hoping to be among the first to own pied piper Steve Jobs' the latest creation . The real marvel though is, at a $499 retial price with a 51 per cent gross margin mark-up, that slides approx 75mil in black ink into the hands of Apple shareholders, in one day. Trying to remember the last thing Microsoft did that was exciting or innovative, am thinking it may be time to call my buddy, stock wiz extrordinaire and former AVHS compadre Jeff Oster, and slide the MSFT into AAPL...

iBULLDOGS...Tonight's finale between #1 seed Duke (Boooo!) and underdog Butler (Yeah!) will either be a disappointing blowout or one of the great sport stories of the new millenium. This was an amazing Tournament with top seeds falling like Republicans who fought the Health Insurance Reform bill. The only thing I'd change about this year's Tourney (other than CAL's early exit) would be that the NCAA move the start-date back so the Tournament can end in March. Not a big deal, but it's like the Super Bowl being played in February or The World Series in November, it's just not right...

iDO...Yours truly got played BIG TIME on April Fool's Day, soon to be re-named MY DAY. First my neice (or is it second cousin - once removed, I can never remember that stuff) Ashley Davison suckered me in, posting ever so subtley on her FB page, that, and I quote, "Can't believe we're getting MARRIED!!! I didn't think I could forgive him until he asked me to marry him!!!!!!! =)", then about an hour later, changed her status from "In a relationship" to "engaged'. I bow in deference to your youthful wit and hereby surrender...

iDON'T...Not to be outdone, former Princess turned SLS, Renee LeVeira Flores, daughter of AVHS '78 grads and highschool sweethearts Rob and Michelle, merely changed her status from "Engaged" to "Single" and left it there, for noodniks like moi to flip a nutty over. Nee tells me that several of her other FB friends called or wrote with concern, two actually offering to pay for counseling services to help bring the two back together. The kicker here was the big wedding shower was held the day before, so it was fresh on the minds of those who know. Touche', Miss Thang! My only response to both of you is to beware. For as the old axiom goes...sometime, someplace, when you least expect it.....BANG! I always repay a debt, including interest...

iWISH...I had never been such an idiot. These are the words that will most likely be rambling around inside the head of PGA pro and philanderer-par-excellance (if there can be such a thing, and pardon the pun) Tiger Woods, who jumps back into real life this week at Augusta, where on Thursday he will play his first competitive round in 144 days. Wise call on Eldrick's part, getting back inside the ropes here. This Tournament is run with such a tight fist and tix are so hard to come by (perhaps the toughest ducat in all of sports) it's unlikely much of a fuss about the former World's #1 player's sex scandal will seen or heard. Here's hoping for a great Tournament...

iLL BELIEVE IT when I don't see it. In a hastily called press conference yesterday, the Rolling Stones announced they will be touring in 2010, perhaps the and their largest concert tour ever. Hard to believe following their last go around which took more than two years and shattered attendance and gross rev records that would have had Bill salivating (and still figuring out ways to do it better). Because the band annouced plans to play virtually nothing from 64-72 (through "Exile...") on this go around, and that the show will include tributes to each of their former band mates, including a one-off song per show with former bassist Bill Wyman joining them onstage, word is that this will be the last hurrah for the Glimmer Twins. If Vegas lays odds, I'll lay 100 smackers that says no way. I can not imagine Keith agreeing to hang it up ever and if this were the Grand Finale, you can bet your bottom dollar Mick would have built up a much more grand presentation, including at least a 6-9 month build up to increase interest (and revenue). Plus, can yo imagine them walking off a stage for the last time withOUT having played Satisfaction? Just wouldn't be cricket, wha?...

iAM GRATEFUL...Yesterday was Easter. And while many get lost in the buffett brunches and egg hunts and chocolate indulgances (guilty on that last bugger!) that surround the day, I AM grateful for what the true meaning of the day signifies. That Our Heavenly Father sent down His only begotten Son, so that our unwise choices and unlearned lessons might be forgiven; that we may repent from our sometimes foolish and hurtful actions, that we too might rise again and be returned to His presence. A greater gift we could not receive and though perhaps undeserved, one we shall continue to strive to be worthy of.

Spring Cleaning 2.0

WE BEGAN A BLOG on Spring Cleaning back on the ninth, but somehow got sidetracked. With the unusually warm weather were experiencing (and thanks to Exxon/Mobil), and some outdoor space to temporarily move "stuff", today The Lounge cleans house of excess baggage, useless trinkets and assorted "ordures" form the land of the never-again-needed.

THE NO CAR GARAGE: As lamented earlier, more than seventy cardboard boxes remain setlled into that area of our home designed for automotive cover. From Fisher Price toys lovingly put through their paces by youthful trolls a decade ago to hurricane lamps I couldn't dump on eBay to three-wide car seats that have no car, our garage makes your community Goodwill store look like a well stocked Neiman~Marcus. Among the first items to go will be bikes; none of them in working condition, mind you. However, if you're in SE Idaho and need a bike part; frame, wheel, handlebars, chain, or sprocket, chances are you'll find it tossed, without thought, throughout this erfuge for rubbish. Then, with some floor space cleared, we'll go after the boxes. If you don't hear from me in three days, send in the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne, will ya? Anything to get Chris a little closer to home...

OFFICE WITHIN AN OFFICE: When Caits moved out, Caroline took her room and Liney's room then became my office. Was a good little office too, until it began doubling as a storage area for event supplies. And painting supplies. And ornament supplies. And out of season clothing. And old computers. And old financial records. And...wouldn't this all look wonderful in the garage?

TECHNO SHUFFLE: With the advent of the MP3 and the external hard drive, I am thinking I can free up a lot of space in my office by transferring all my cd's (studio recordings and boots I've collected over the past 30 years) to digital format. So be looking for info here here in a few days about how you can pick up some wonderful, rare, and otherwise impossible to find pop, rock, hard rock, folk, blues, jazz, and country shows recorded during the last 50 years. A true-blue triple play this; You get some amazing live musical peformances, I get to move through my office without having to navigate an obstacle course, and together we'll all raise some much needed funds for the local students and classrooms here in I.F. that there just isn't enough of. Uh, classrooms and money that is. We always have plenty of students...

MRS GUMP WAS RIGHT: Stupid is as stupid does. A couple of years ago, I heard the tale about how my mother-in-law used to roll newspaper into logs, soak them in water, and when they dried out, would serve as long-lasting logs for the fireplace. At the time we had three paper routes eminating from our home so it seemed like a natural. 100 or so tightly wrapped, bound and soaked paper logs were soon neatly stacked alongside our house awaiting the coming winter, only to realize as large as we'd made them and tightly as they were wrapped, they wouldn't burn more than a few of the outside pages. So I am thinking this Saturday, the homeade logs will find their way to a nearby recycle bin and Huck will need to find something else to chew and spew forth over my slowly greening backyard. "Rits about rime, Raggy! Arf!"...

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER: Lots of talk about the Kindle, the iPad and other technologically superior replacements for the endless number of books that fill the shelves throughout our home. To borrow from the late and formerly great Charleton Heston..."From my cold, dead, hands!" I am all for efficient development and progress, but with the all-too-rapid life-style advancements of the past 20 years, books are one of our last connections to a civilized and elegant society. Call me a Norman Rockwellesque neo-realist if you must, but there are still few things I enjoy more, when I have the opportunity, than sitting in my great-grandmother's 100 year old birch-wood rocker with a large cup of cocoa on the hearth, and by the light of a well-stoked fire, burning an evening immersed in a well-penned novel. I apologize to those of you who recently ran out and bought the latest, over-priced version of "faster, sleeker, but not necessarily better", but the excitement of young Jim Hawkins eavesdropping from inside an apple barrel or the plaintive thoughts of Tom Joad as he meanders along a lonely country road just can't be fully appreciated from an LED screen, while you're sitting on your chrome-plated Crate & Barrel bar stool, waiting for your turn at Wii Bowling. What's next...reading our grandkids Winnie the Pooh via video conference? Here's hoping that out there in one of those boxes, somewhere, is the old Royal typewriter my grandfather had refurbished for me when I took up journalism in high school. I can't think of anything I'd rather recover from the carboard depths. I think Mr. Caen, who a week from Friday would have been 94, would doff his chappeau to it as well.

So...what's on YOUR mind?