Well, we've had Lily home one night and I don't want to jinx things, but last night was great. Deb got up to feed her at 12:30 and I got up at 5:30 to feed her. Not bad. I remember getting little to no sleep last time around with Hannah. Things could change quickly, so I'm not getting too excited about this. But it's great to have her and Deb home with us. Hannah's dealing fairly well. She thinks Lily is cute, but definitely gets jealous when Mom or Dad spends what she considers too much time with Lily. She doesn't seem to blame Lily, which is good. So far.

I had to admit I was rather shocked when I heard the Boston Herald was hiring former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle, who left his longtime Globe job in 1998 after it came out that he fabricated some of his columns and ripped off some others from other writers. It wasn't so much that he got another job--he's been writing a column for the NY Daily News and doing a talk show on Boston radio for a while now--but that the Herald would hire him after its gleeful coverage of his downfall six years ago. For the Herald to announce his hiring without so much of a mention of his past transgressions seemed rather odd. Check out Dan Kennedy's Media Log in the Boston Phoenix for some good coverage of this and other media issues. I haven't worked for a newspaper in almost nine years, but I still love reading about all this stuff.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: George Carlin's the man. Always a keen dissecter of BS, Carlin has a great take on the bogus outrage over Janet Jackson, Howard Stern, et al. There's new legislation in the House that would raise indecency fines from $11,000 to $500,000. Change the channel, folks. Sheesh.

I've been digging the new Von Bondies album, Pawn Shoppe Heart, as well as the Shins' latest, Chutes Too Narrow. I also picked up the Mars Volta's debut CD because I was a fan of At the Drive-In, but I haven't gotten into it yet. Very prog-rockesque, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the 12-minute song times and pretentious song titles ("take the veil cerpin taxt" and "inertiatic esp" are but two examples) are a bit of a turnoff. Still, I need to listen to it a little more.

It was nice to see my Indian homiez easing up tensions with neighboring Pakistan enough to stage a cricket tournament instead of their usual round of nuclear brinksmanship. I still don't really get cricket, although I do have a cricket bat as a souvenir of my last trip to India 24 years ago; I have a ton of relatives over there, including my grandmother and tons of uncles, aunts, and cousins, but the logistics (cost, vacation time, etc.) just don't work right now. My parents would take us out of school in January for six weeks to go over because weather-wise, it was the best time of year to go, but I can't do that now. One of these days we'll figure something out.

Some British rock mag is reporting that Kurt Cobain wanted to leave Nirvana and join his wife's band Hole. Apparently he said it in an interview just before his death. That totally would have been like John and Yoko all over again. Still, the Plastic Ono Band stuff John Lennon did after he left the Beatles was pretty great, as opposed to McCartney's Wings output, which was okay but definitely missed the acidic counterbalance of Lennon. As for Kurdt and Courtney, there were rumors that Cobain wrote much of Hole's Live Through This, which was released a week after he blew his brains out in '94.

Okay, time to get some sleep while everyone's actually sleeping.

Hey. Lily's three days old and she's just getting cuter, if that's possible. She's definitely got a different personality from Hannah, who was quite noisy right from the get-go. Lily's a lot mellower, either snoozing or just gazing at you with those dark eyes. So far, she seems to have the opposite of Hannah's personality. It will be interesting to watch these two develop, especially once Lily starts really forming a personality. After all, she's only three days old.

She and Deb are still at the hospital until the end of the week, so things are pretty quiet around here. I went back to work today and took Hannah to daycare, and then we went to visit Deb and Lily in the evening for a few hours until Hannah started bouncing off the walls. After putting Hannah to bed, I got Sandy from next door to come over while I went to visit the hospital again for a few more hours.

So it's not fair to describe Lily without also showing her off in digital image form, so I slapped together an Internet home page with some photos (as m'dawg Mike Powell would say) using the Comcastian bandwidth at my disposal. Check it out here. Remember, it's a work in progress and I basically did it in about 20 minutes, so ease up on the web design criticism, aiight? The photos in the gallery are freakin' large, so be forewarned.

The NHL trade deadline came and went yesterday, and the Leafs managed to make their team of graybeards even older by adding 41-year-old Ron Francis and 37-year-old Calle Johansson. Unfortunately, they didn't address their needs for a decent backup for Eddie Belfour or a physical d-man, but they still are a formidable contender if they can stay healthy. Judging by the sick bay this year, that's a big if.

The Todd Bertuzzi cheap shot on Colorado's Steve Moore is quickly becoming this year's Marty McSorley incident. Of course, this is much, much worse. Bertuzzi sucker-punched Moore, who gave Bertuzzi's teammate Markus Naslund a concussion last month, and then jumped on Moore, breaking his neck. Looks like Moore will recover, but at the very least Bertuzzi needs to be suspended for the rest of the season and playoffs. Possibly longer. The NHL hands down its decision Thursday. Bertuzzi's one of the best players in the league, which makes this different than the usual thuggery perpetrated by rank-and-file goons. It also makes this the perfect time for the NHL to show it has some spine and really punish this guy, despite the devastating impact it will have on Vancouver's playoff hopes.

Later.

Well, it's official. I will be outnumbered in my own home by women for at least the next 21 years. Today at 8:58 a.m., Deb and I welcomed Lily Rachel into the world. She's 7 pounds, 1 ounce, and 20 inches long. And she's cute, according to big sis Hannah. Nothing else matters.

Yo ho ho. Another week come and gone. Just watched "The School of Rock" on DVD. Verily, a fine flick. As Troy McLure would say, "It's the role Jack Black was born to play, baby." No rocket science, just a fun movie. And it's about rock.

So it's Kerry vs. Bush for prez this fall. Let the mudslinging begin. Well, it's already begun, but now it's gonna get muddier and slingier.

This is the world leader with the coolest name ever.

Martha Stewart was found guilty today in her insider trading trial. Normally, I would find this amusing because she's a pompous pain in the arse, but the fact is this kind of stuff happens every day without consequence. She really is being persecuted because of who she is; the government hopes to make an example of her. Just like the Winona Ryder shoplifting case.

McDonalds is doing away with supersized meals. Maybe they're hoping people will just order twice as much stuff to make up for it. Oh wait, they're all about healthy eating now. Right.

Lots of big trades in the NHL. The Leafs got Brian Leetch from the Rangers, the Bruins got Sergei Gonchar from the Caps. Trade deadline is Tuesday, so there may be more to come.

Don't click on this link if you've got a weak stomach. Suffice it to say, I'm never eating in a restaurant again. Well, at least not in that restaurant, anyway.

Yep. So the Oscars came and went and the Lord of the Rings squashed the competition with 11 trophies. Still haven't seen the third installment, but I will. Seems as though the Academy made up for snubbing LOTR the first two times around. I was disappointed that Bill Murray didn't win Best Actor, but he seemed like a longshot, anyway. At least Sean Penn's a good actor. I also need to see "Mystic River," which looks pretty good even with the bad Bahstahn accents. Honestly, they should just stop trying to do the accent because if you get it wrong, it sounds awful. Besides, it's not like everybody talks like that around here. Just 75% or so.

Warning: hockey talk. The NHL trade deadline is coming up next Tuesday and there could be some big deals swung by the usual suspects: Colorado, New Jersey, Toronto. Detroit already landed the league's leading scorer, Robert Lang, to a pretty good offense. The rumors have been fierce that the Leafs will get Sergei Gonchar from Washington, but I'm hoping the latest rumor about them landing Chris Pronger from St. Louis happens. That would just be sick, and it would finally make Toronto a Cup contender.

The teams with big bucks seem to be going for it, since it's not looking good that there will be a season next year because the league's collective bargaining agreement is up after this season ends. Unlike the last work stoppage in '94, which cost half a season as the league was riding an unprecedented wave of popularity after the Rangers won the Cup, this time the NHL is a hurting puppy. Former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt was commissioned by the owners to do a financial analysis of the NHL and his report was shocking: the owners lost $273 million last year. Of course, the players' union says the report is bogus as they fight to prevent a salary cap. Whatever. The NHL will lose a good chunk of its dwindling fan base and possibly a few franchises if there's a prolonged work stoppage. For its part, the NHL launched a new web site to update fans on the exciting CBA rhetoric. The league should be doing all it can to avoid a lockout, which would be catastrophic at best.

For you music nerdz out there, one of my favorite things to do with my iPod is listen to it in shuffle mode. To give you a sampling of the 1,750 songs I've got on the sucka, here's a list of 20 consecutive songs I heard this afternoon at work:

1. Since You've Been Gone--James Brown
2. Come as You Are--Nirvana
3. July Jones--The New Pornographers
4. Black Jack--The Hives
5. Man's Best Friend (live)--The Pursuit of Happiness
6. Flying Lesson (Hot Chicken #1)--Yo La Tengo
7. Vague Space--Stephen Malkmus
8. Footsteps (live)--Pearl Jam
9. Dumbells--Mission of Burma
10. Happy Sarong--The Pattern
11. Born Into a Mess_The International Noise Conspiracy
12. The Air Near My Fingers--The White Stripes
13. Holiday--Papas Fritas
14. Still--Heatmiser
15. This Hip Hop--Summer Hymns
16. New Orleans is Sinking--The Tragically Hip
17. Femme Fatale--Bea Arthur's Revenge
18. The Same Boy You've Always Known--The White Stripes
19. Thanks for the Night--The Damned
20. European Son--Velvet Underground

All right, that's enough typing for one night.

Hola, nerditos. Today was a pretty nice day. Temps were pushing 50. Got out for a 10-mile run and was wishing I wore shorts. And I even got to play a little hockey with Hannah in the driveway for the second time ever. The last time was in January. She hasn't quite mastered the right way to hold the stick (I got her a set of plastic sticks and nets for Christmas) or shoot, but she likes running around chasing the hockey ball.

The Oscars are tomorrow night. I'm rooting for Bill Murray and "Lost in Translation," although they'll probably be overshadowed by "Lord of the Rings." We shall see. In the meantime, you've gotta love the Razzies.

Lots of stuff in the news about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, including some rumors he had already been captured. You've gotta believe that John Kerry is hoping it doesn't happen any time soon, although Bushie didn't get much of a long-term boost from capturing Saddam Hussein. Of course, Hussein didn't attack us on our own soil like Bin Laden did.

This is one of the stranger stories you'll ever hear. The managers of four Wendy's restaurants in Massachusetts were called by an anonymous person claiming to be a cop, who told them one of their employees was stealing from customers and needed to be strip-searched. I guess it doesn't say much for the quality of Wendy's managers that all four actually did as they were told, forcing specific employees to strip head to toe. One female manager allegedly went a little too far in searching her male employee. How stupid are these people?

Why doesn't Michael Jackson just lay low until his trial is over? Does he really expect nobody to bother him when he shops at the Wal-Mart in a ski mask? And why am I asking so many questions?

Figured I'd throw in my two cents on the Howard Stern/Clear Channel controversy: In a word, hypocritical. Before the Janet Jackson boob flash, Clear Channel had no problem with anything Stern did because he made them loads of money. Now that they're on the hot seat at a Congressional hearing, all of a sudden he's a menace to society. Clear Channel, the Congressional nitwits behind the hearings, and the FCC are all a bunch of pompous buffoons who are wasting valuable carbon.

The mini iPod is selling like hotcakes. Doesn't make sense to me, since for $50 more, you can get 11 gigs more of storage. But I guess people like their iPods in purty colors now. As for my iPod, I've got about 1730 songs loaded. The thing rocks.

Later.

Hey there, ho there. Just checking in real quicklike.

This kinda freaked me out when I read it. It seems to come out of nowhere, so I hope it's wrong by a few millennia.

The steroids-in-baseball controversy continues to swirl. Surprisingly, both Bonds and Giambi say they welcome testing. Giambi turned plenty of heads when he showed up yesterday looking like a shadow of his former self. He says he's only four pounds lighter and he's just lost body fat, but the dood looks downright skeletal.

As always, my dawg OJ is the freshmaker, much like Mentos. His blogimazogg recommended this fine music-themed blog, of which I too offer my hearty endorsement. This hearty endorsement was brought to you by the fine folks at Encore frozen foods. For you and more, it's Encore. But don't let that wimpy guy from "Spin City" who does the Encore commercials come to dinner. He'll eat you out of house and home.

Another weekend has come and gone. This was a busy one, as we had Deb's brother Matt and his family staying with us. We had fun, as always, because it's great to see Hannah playing with her cousin Danny and also it was nice to see little Timmy, who's only a few months old but is incredibly expressive. But man, can it get loud when Danny and Hannah start tearing around the place. I can only imagine the din when Timmy and little Baby Kumar 2 get to be a few years old.

As we approach T minus 14 days until the baby arrives (and of course, it could always happen sooner), we've begun getting stuff ready like the list of who to call and stuff for Deb to bring to the hospital, since she'll be there for five days after she has the baby. It's definitely getting close.

A little sore today. I spent an hour splashing around the pool at the Y with Hannah and Deb and then went for a 15-mile run with my running buddies Matt and Rick. Matt just scored himself a number for the Boston Marathon, so he's getting ready. It's weird not to be running it this year after doing it the last two, but we've obviously got enough stuff to worry about.

After 11 years of running my coed softball team, I finally turned the reins over this week. I'll still help out with a lot of the stuff, but I got tired of being the guy that everything depended on. I just want to play.

We had a couple of road trips to Toronto last summer and found on the second one that a portable DVD is key to keeping Hannah happy. Unfortunately, this guy went a little too far keeping himself happy. A few times, I've found myself noticing DVD screens in other vehicles and trying to figure out what movie they're watching. That can be dangerous if you end up getting into the movie. Fortunately, it wasn't anything like the guy in that article was watching.

I'm not an "American Idol" fan because there's only so much overwrought mangling of Mariah Carey songs I can take, but I have enjoyed watching the show's first few weeks when they trot out all the really bad singers. This dood is awesome, and more power to him if he can actually become popular.

Later.

Werd up. We just got through a long, cold weekend where I spent much of my time indoors, and I still didn't blogify. My bad. So I got together with the whole WebNozian crew on Friday night at the Cambridge Common; some of the guys from the Daily Grind email group I'm in were also there. It was a good time, once I finally found a parking spot on Mass. Ave. I don't know how people deal with that on a regular basis. What a pain in the arse. Anyway, I enjoyed a couple of good porters and some meat loaf and had a blast.

The Yankees traded for A-Rod. Gee, what a shock. Too bad they have to actually play the games.

If you're a music fan, here's a list bound to annoy and stupefy.

Conan O'Brien did his show up in Toronto last week. I taped the four shows (because they're on way past my bedtime) and have seen 2.5 of them. Some funny, funny stuff. Unfortunately, a lot of Canuck politicos are condemning a bit where Triumph the Insult Comic Dog went to the Quebec Winter Carnival and basically insulted everybody. Those folks need to lighten the hell up. I was born in Canada and I thought it was hilarious.

So I've got 1303 songs, or 4.6 gigs, loaded on my iPod. It rules.

Later, my peoples.

Greetings. As the weekend winds down and the annual crapfest known as the Grammys prepares to unfurl itself, thought I'd check in. I just watched the NHL All-Star Game, making me one of the hundreds nationwide who did so, but dammit, it was a good game. The East beat the West 6-4, and they actually played some defense.

Yesterday, Deb and I went to see "Miracle," the retelling of the US Olympic hockey team's gold medal run in 1980 and damn if it wasn't a really good movie. It had the potential to be really hokey and patriotic, but Kurt Russell did a fine job as Herb Brooks and the actors who played the hockey team were actually hockey players, so they didn't have to do embarrassing cutaways all the time like so many other movies. The guy who played Jim Craig is an actor who's been on shows like Friends and I heard they used a double for his game scenes, which makes sense since Craig was such a huge reason for the team's success. But even though everybody knew how it ended, "Miracle" succeeded in showing how a determined loner of a coach turned a bunch of ragtag college players into giantkillers. We got our tickets a few hours ahead of time and came back 15 minutes before showtime, and there were so many people there we had to sit right in the front of the theater. It was worth it.

So I ended up successfully setting up my iPod on my work computer. I downloaded a software program called Ephpod and was able to start loading songs on the iPod; apparently the version of Windows 2000 I have at work doesn't have the proper software pack (whatever that is) to support iTunes. I might be able to get it from our IT doods, so I'll have to check with them. But for now, I've got close to 5 of the 10 gigs filled because I had previously backed up a lot of MP3s on CD. Now I'll pick and choose certain CDs to rip. I've been playing the iPod on shuffle and getting quite a good mix of stuff, including every so often the musical stylings of Bea Arthur's Revenge, featuring yours truly on lead "vocals."

Okey dokie, I'm outta here.

Salutos, my friends. Normally at this time, I'd be off playing hockey, but we're having this nasty rainstorm that could easily freeze over in a second and I didn't want to be traversing Route 128 when it happened. So's I stayed home trying to hook up my new 10GB iPod. Unfortunately, I've got Windows 98SE, and even though there are ways to get it to work, those ways aren't working for me. So I'm going to install it on my work computer and load it up with the digital music there; I'm not planning to download stuff there, just transfer files from CDs and such.

The Pats won the Super Bowl in a pretty damn exciting game. Tom Brady proved himself once again to be one of the greats in the game today, leading them down the field every time they needed points in the second half. Unfortunately, the hypocrites at the FCC and CBS are making a big deal out of the Janet Jackson peep show; I'm not going to say too much about it because it's already been overblown by every media outlet out there, other than to say: Who freakin' cares? It was a boob, not even a naked boob. If you had your kids watching the halftime show expecting good wholesome entertainment when you knew Nelly would be out there singing "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes," then you're a friggin' idiot, anyway. Yeah, I'm talking to you, FCC Chairman Mike "Thanksdad" Powell, you simpering tool. All you've done since you've taken over is make the world safer for media conglomerates. Taking a stand on this is pretty asinine.

Besides, nobody's really talking about this flabby-assed clown.

The Pats held their victory parade today in Boston and 1.5 million people showed up. And they got to see Bob Kraft dance again. Lucky them. Hey, he's done a hell of a job with the team. If you won two Super Bowls in three years, you can dance any way you like.

So the Montreal trip was fun. The drive up was quick (if you call 5.5 hours quick) and the hockey game was a blast. The Bell Centre was huge (21,270 capacity) and vibrant, even though there were plenty of Bruins fans there to see the 1-0 victory. The Habs totally dominated play, but B's goalie Andrew Raycroft stood on his head. We hit the bars after that, and let's just say this about that: I'm not planning to drink again for quite some time. Sunday was not fun. We got home by 4 and I still felt pretty lousy, but fortunately I felt better by the time the Supa Bowl started.

Aiight, time to log off.