Today had just about everything you could ask for in Hallie-dom. And Travis had a pretty good day, too!

It was fun having time to spend with the kids and have them so obviously appreciative of it. Travis was full of smiles in spite of his waking up early. And Hallie was her usual fun-loving self.
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This has already made the rounds at Metafilter. Two Colorado girls, in a senseless act of generosity, made cookies one night and delivered them to their neighbors.

Neighbor Wanita Young, apparently shocked that anyone would do anything kind for her, had an anxiety attack and sued the girls for $900.

The girls showed “very poor judgment,” Young said. “I just hope the girls learned a lesson.”

They sure did. They learned what a giant doodyhead you really are.

On the bright side, the girls are now famous. They’ve also collected donations far exceeding their $900 fine.

Its a miracle that no one was killed in the plane crash in Teterboro, New Jersey. Its not often that a jet crashes on takeoff, full of fuel, and doesn’t end up a smoking hulk.

I hope those critically injured pull through. They have quite a story to tell.

I found this on Metafilter, and couldn’t stop reading it. Its a piece by Eliot Weinberger called What I Heard About Iraq. It is a long, long list of what has been said about Iraq, and none of it is pretty.

Reading it overwhelms me with pity for the Iraqi people, whose suffering didn’t end with Saddam’s rule. As a man in a Baghdad market said, “Saddam Hussein’s greatest crime is that he brought the American army to Iraq.”

Apple’s Ipod is apparently wildly popular at Microsoft, which drives the management there crazy.

Hey, a good product speaks for itself. I bet Microsoft wishes it had one.

I’m still slammed at work and now don’t feel like writing much when I come home. I’m hoping I will work through things – since I really miss writing – but things are likely to get worse before they get better.

On the brighter side, Dave Barry‘s retirement from writing a column didn’t stop him from blogging. Go visit him for a laugh.

I’ve been way too busy the past few days. No time for blogging.

If I get caught up I’ll fill y’all in on happenings.

I’m glad this has gotten attention from Boing Boing. Intuit, makers of Quickbooks, Quicken, Turbotax and other generally-useful financial software, has decided to pull the plug on online services from older product editions.

I just renewed payroll service for my Quickbooks 2002. Intuit has decided to kill it after April. My paid-for service will vanish. In essence, I have thrown my money away by buying Intuit products and services.

It’s tax time. Go buy H&R Block’s Tax Cut instead of Turbotax. At least H&R still cares about its customers.

Below is my feedback to their website. You might want to add your own comments.

Your sunset policy is the nail in the coffin for my ever buying an Intuit product again. Because of your stupidity, my Quickbooks 2002 will no longer do payroll.

Why does it seem that every chance Intuit has had to make an ass of itself, it has succeeded with flying colors? First it was the spyware issue, now its sunsetting.

I could understand if it was an issue of the burden of supporting a non-revenue service. But I am *PAYING* for subscription services. I believe you owe me a refund for the portion of the payroll service ***I PURCHASED*** which Intuit has arbitrarily decided not to deliver.

I will buy H&R Block products from now on, and will encourage anyone within earshot to do the same.

Once in your corporate lifetime, you listened to customers. I’m genuinely sad you have driven me away.