So Long 2006!

• Ah, the last hours of 2006 are unfolding quickly before me. What to do , what to do. It's my 1st New Year's Eve in San Francisco, and the options are plentiful. There's a party to attend, a Bollywood event, and a San Jose Dutch Family's New Year Celebration. Not to mention the countless parties and dinners I could fork over $100 bucks for.
  
• I thought this would be a good year for low key, as it seems I've already got a few vacations planned in the coming months (Dublin, Paris, and a week at Whistler to name a few). So the plan is to check out my favorite neigborhood bars with my boyfriend. The Palace Hotel right around the corner has a beautiful bar I want to visit, and the St. Regis has normal bar hours tonight so we'll hit that too.
  
• Any resolutions out there? I need to come up with some besides to go to Hawaii. However, some good advice was just passed on to me from Nora in Ireland, as it's now the stoke of midnight in downtown Dublin:

2007...life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, grab life by the balls and never regret anything that made you smile.

Cheers to 2007!

Yours truly and Maria in NYC

Presently Surprised!

- It's Christmas Day here in the 'Cuse. It's a warmish, green Christmas at that, and for a change the Canadian relatives have come to visit us this year. Santa was good this year, piling on the work attire presents and treats.
- The rents got a brand new Canon SD600 from Andy and myself. I think they were very suprised and thought the kids would never be generous enough to supply such a present. However we surprised them and brought them into the digital age. We'll see how the remedial training goes...
- I made out pretty well too. The big gift I got was a japanese model rice cooker from my brother Andy. As Andy says, "it will change your life." It even came with a separate gift of ...rice. Apparently we have rice 101 scheduled for tomorrow. This is a welcome change from last year. If not present wise, at the very least more emotionally acceptable. Last year, Andy and I decided not to give gifts to each other, in the spirit of saving our holiday budgets for the other family members. In reality, both of us were simply too cheap to give gifts, and we were both amusingly surprised how easily we both agreed to that.
Rice Cooker: here

Dec 12 - Atlas buys Accipiter

• Today Atlas announced its buyout of Accipiter for $30.3 M cash http://www.atlassolutions.com/news/releases/20061211
• This is not a surprise for Atlas, a buy side force to be reckoned with. However, how easy will it be to standardize counting across these systems, merge the two companies employee base, and continue to specialize offers across their client base will certainly pose challenges. I don't see it happening quickly or easily.
  

Dec 1

• Today is my one year anniversary as a San Franciscan! I'm very excited to still be loving it.
• The annual LA car show was this week. Lots of interesting write-ups in my favorite magazine, the Wall Street Journal. Do they really think a space-age boxy Honda will outsell other mini-vans? Soccermoms, to the moon!
• I realize I've been a bit of a delinquent lately on the blog. I will try to step it up.