(Important?) updates for a Friday afternoon

A consolidated post of several updates that have come about today that will save you (and your RSS feed) from a post explosion:

1. Two weeks and counting before the Little Miss arrives. She arrives two weeks from today. Those careful readers out there will be saying: wait, last week didn’t you say it was four weeks and counting? And you would be right to question this math discrepancy. At our doctor appointment this morning we learned that the c-section will be performed about a week earlier, on August 19 instead of August 25. It means everything moves up by a week and I have four less days at work to cram before I go on leave for a month. But it also means we’ll get to see the Little Miss sooner and that’s pretty exciting. I’m getting a lot of questions from friends about our overall readiness and I will probably do a separate post on that. Officially, my leave will be from August 19 – September 18.
2. I’m testing out a trial subscription to the New York Times on my iPad. I read the “paper” this morning while at the waiting room at the doctor’s office and it wasn’t bad, but it was not entirely what I expected. The trial lasts four weeks and after that I’ll decide whether or not to keep it. If I manage to read it each morning, I’ll probably keep it. If not, I won’t. Remember that I also have Time magazine on the iPad each week now, as well. I’ll tell you one thing, the Times was depressing this morning.
3. I purposely ordered a Diet Coke for the first time ever. I gave up caffeine once, for seven years, and fell off the wagon. I’m not likely to give it up again. But I could do without the calories. That is also fodder for another post. The Diet Coke was a absolutely disgusting, but I drank it. That’s how desperate I am. I’m hoping that, like beer, it is an acquired taste. I will continue to believe this for the time being.
4. I am working on the next two Wayward Time Traveler pieces. The next one, which will come out Tuesday, is apropos of some upcoming events in the science fiction world. But I’m working on two because I normally write these things every other Thursday and two weeks from yesterday my mind will probably be elsewhere. I’m trying to be proactive here. Truth is, I should probably try to write the next three columns since having a newborn infant in the house may not be entirely conducive to writing.
5. With two weeks before the Little Miss arrives, I am racing to finish A Storm of Swords. I’ve been reading the book on and off this past week and am now more than a quarter of the way through it. I’d like to finish it up before the Little Miss arrives, but I’m fighting an uphill battle. I’ve also got reading for Vacation in the Golden Age episodes 21 and 22 to finish up. And there’s this novelette that I’ve been making good progress on, too. So we’ll see what actually happens. That said, I continue to enjoy the book and when I find 15 or 20 minutes of time to fill and pick it up, I find that I don’t want to put it down.
6. How about those Yankees? Seven wins in a row, and a 4-game sweep of Chicago. Tied for first and we play the Red Sox this weekend. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: what about A-Rod and this whole gambling thing? Well, clearly he’s not making good decisions.  But the fact is the Yanks have been winning without him so I’m not overly concerned. And speaking of the Yankees, my brother-in-law has worked on an ad campaign for MasterCard in New York City. Throughout the City, you can “check in” to seats from the stadium for a chance to win tickets to a game. If you are a Yankees fan in New York (and why wouldn’t you be?), go check it out.
7. The RSS feed for this blog was broken, but now it is fixed. Thanks to a savvy commenter for making the discovery. Turns out that when I made an update to make the site more compatible with Readability, I broke the RSS feed. But the feed is now fixed and I apologize to anyone who ran into problems because of it. I should know better than making changes like that without testing. After all, I am a software developer by day.