We just finished moving, and have already taken advantage of the front porch and being within walking distance of the grocery store. Next on the list is walking to The Foundry (and stumbling home). We are still off of West 39th Street in Volker, but now much closer to Westport.

Hiring movers was the best decision ever.  We had them move the big stuff, but really wish we had just let them move everything.

The dog has taken to the new place really well, but is still working on sniffing every nook and cranny at least seven times.

The new place is a classic Kansas City Shirtwaist, a local variation of the traditional American Foursquare.  It is excellent condition for being 98 years old, but there is still a lengthy list of projects to be done before its hundredth birthday.

Anyone else see the irony of such a catastrophic Wall Street meltdown at the hands of a political party that is supposedly experts on the economy and business? Slate has an excellent analysis of historic data that shows how the American economy does much better with Democratic presidents, despite the urban legend that Republicans are better with finances.  Going all the way back to 1959, the data shows that under Democrats, unemployment is lower, inflation is lower, GDP is higher, defense spending is higher, overall Federal spending is lower, and the deficit and debt are lower.  All of this for only slightly higher taxes than under Republican presidents.

The 17 year-old daughter of Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin is knocked up out of wedlock.  Yet another moralistic, Republican hipocrite. How about some real sex ed and some condoms? At the very least, stop preaching about “family values” when own family can’t even live up your impossibly high ideal.

This list from DailyKos inspired some local versions…

Sarah Palin is your new Kemper Arena.

Sarah Palin is your new Wendell Anschutz.

Sarah Palin is your new Noland Road.

Sarah Palin is your new Braniff Airlines.

Sarah Palin is your new Rodney D. Young.

Sarah Palin is your new Carl Peterson.

Sarah Palin is your new Katheryn Shields.

Sarah Palin is your new Ruskin Heights.

Sarah Palin is your new Vanguard Airlines.

Sarah Palin is your new Charlie Wheeler.

Sarah Palin is your new Segway.
Sarah Palin is your New New Coke.
Sarah Palin is your new FoxTrax.
Sarah Palin is your new Edsel.
Sarah Palin is your new Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football.
Sarah Palin is your new Nü Metal.
Sarah Palin is your new Betamax.

The whole list is at DailyKos.

After a few weeks playing with iPhone apps for the new 2.0 software, here are some of my favorites and/or the ones I find most useful…

Tuner, $5.99
This is an awesome Shoutcast client that provides access to hundreds of online music stations, plus any broadcast station with an MP3 stream.  I use it most for Soma.FM’s excellent stations and to stream local NPR affiliate KCUR-FM.

WeatherBug, free
The best weather client I have found so far.  It has two things that are essential in the Midwest, yet lacking in the built-in weather app: radar and heat index/wind chill.

Twinkle, free
This is my favorite Twitter client so far. Twitterific gets all the attention, but I find Twinkle’s leaner layout and feature set to be more to my taste.

AOL Radio, free
Another good source of online music.  The channels are programmed by professionals and include several broadcast stations owned by CBS Radio.

Facebook, free
This one is well done and works well.  I find myself using it more than the standard Facebook web site. The photo upload functionality is especially nifty.

Last week the missus and I headed to the northwest for vacation.  We hit Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, Canada, with some great Amtrak Cascades train rides in between.  Thanks to Gretchen for hosting us in Portland and to Dave and Jen for putting us up in their sailboat in Seattle.  And thanks to Ryan for an awesome bike tour of Portland.  I think I am still grinning from that day.  We did lots of sightseeing, visited lots of brewpubs, and had a great time.

More photos…

Anyone else see the interestingness of the world’s most famous dry drunk using an alcohol metaphor?  It would be ironic if he was smart enough to understand irony.

“Wall Street got drunk” says Bush about the mortgage meltdown.

At least he didn’t make a cocaine reference.

Snapped this morning during breakfast at Chubby’s.

Testing out the new WordPress client for the iPhone, http://iPhone.wordpress.org

Apparently the hours wasted in watching home staging and makeover shows failed learn us anything, since we only have six days to sell our house before we lose the contract on the new one.