Telling it like it is

Another 30-40cm overnight - I guess the lake effect hit us last night because the south end of the valley hardly got any. The ski resorts, on the other hand, got hammered.

Holy Hell. This is the most snow we've seen in a single day all winter. The snow blower got some well-needed exercise this evening. I reckon we had between 15-20cm of light, fluffy powder snow in the drive. Sweet.

Winter has come back! Arctic air and snow have moved in again. Which means fresh snow in the resorts. Which means good skiing again.

The 78 year old lawyor Dick Cheney shot in the face on his hunting trip has just had a heart attack and been rushed back into the ICU this morning. Apparently the "light peppering" was enough to puncture his heart. (Frankly "shot in the face" does not constitute "light peppering" in my book) So given the very real possibility that this guy will die, if there is any justice left in the world, Cheney will be tried for manslaughter. Although I'm not holding my breath on that one.

The dust has settled and as far as we can tell, the buyout isn't a dream - it's actually true! Rockwell Collins have bought the buildings and everything. Basically they wanted "in" to the simulation market and bought us as the way of doing it. So we're not competing with any internal division they already have. Which is A Good Thing. I'm in the simulation division so I now work for Rockwell Collins. The benefits are huge. Here's a quick rundown on what we know so far. RCI have bought building 600 in with the deal. E&S still own 770 and the power substation. The deal was $71.5M. $20m of that goes to the pensions. $18m goes to bonds. $3M went to buying the Spitz planetarium business, which leaves leaves $30.5m. (Spitz are on their knees and have been surviving on fixing old gear for the last two years). E&S have basically ditched simulation - their founding and core business, and are "going it alone" with the laser projector and planetariu...

I read an article on the c|net blogs today about zillow.com - supposedly a new homebuyer's website which can be used to calculate all manner of things to do with the value of your home. Well it's either a great scam or needs some serious attention. I zillowed our house and it pinged up a home value of $2,677,525. That's right - $2.6million. Shit - I'm rich! Of course zillow.com is a spoof site - if you believe this site, most of Utah is nearly billionaire territory. Some of the property on the benches is going for $1.36billion. Check out their published average house price for utah! ( click this link to see for yourself ): Most of the "features" just take you to a generic error page, the mapping doesn't work very well, most of the links are broken - the typical indicators of a joke site. And it's not even April 1st yet either. I think they shot their load a couple of months early :-)

See for yourself

Tecnica Vento 10 ski boots. The other boots felt great in the store but after three ski runs this morning, I found a pressure point on the inside of my right ankle. And it got worse from there to the point where I was concentrating so much on the pain in my ankle that I could bearly walk let alone ski. Back to REI to exercise their 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and 45 minutes later, out I come with this snazzy red pair with some custom insoles to match. Sunday next week will tell whether these are the right boots or not.