I'm a little sad today.

My LONG-time friend, Anna (aka Dorkis), lost her father on Saturday morning.

Anna and I attended the same schools from the second grade and through undergrad. It's a unique thing because we coincidentally crossed city lines a few times over to go to our elementary and high schools -- St. Vincent's and Stadium, respectively -- and we chose the same college -- Western. Of course, you tend to think alike by the end of high school, so perhaps the college choice isn't that surprising.

Since graduating from Western, Anna has committed her life to her faith and now works at the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis. (We can see at this point how Anna is a MUCH better Catholic than I am.)

Anna wrote a beautiful, simple note about her father's passing and I encourage you to read it on her blog. Feel free to leave a comment there or drop her a line on Facebook even if you don't know her. I'm sure she'd appreciate the support.

dealer that will

I'm posting from my new, old Macbook Pro!

Now, you may be wondering one of two things:

1. "Why do you say 'new, old Macbook Pro,' Paolo?"

Good question. I actually bought the last model of the Macbook Pro brand new. It's like the 2009 cars just hit the lot, so I took the price break to buy a 2008 model. To avoid any confusion in the future, I'll just call this Macbook Pro the "Gray Lady" because she's older, wiser and gray. It's also a nod to the NY Times, of course.

2. "Why are you dressed like a gangster in your bedroom?"

That, too, is a good question. I am visually trying to depict just how thuggish this computer really is. I mean, it's like Ice Cube-N.W.A. thuggish. The computer can say the N-word if it wants to. Also, sometimes I just like to dress like a gangster, especially when listening to 2Pac and riding through the Central District, or when I'm procrastinating to do homework. The latter is the case tonight.

In the interest of maintaining my GPA, I'll stop here and close by saying that after a lot of years of mostly crappy experiences, especially through the 1990s, Apple's finally got a good product line-up across the board, and that's reflected in today's Apple earnings announcement.

Picture me rollin' with the Gray Lady.

I just became friends with one of my distant cousins (?), Nicola, on Facebook. Through him I found a ton of Mottola's!!!

Antonia, Dalila, Alberto, Gino, Alessandro, Alessio, Angelo, Ann, Christian, Christopher, Elisa, Enrico, Fabio, Federica, Floriano, Francesca, Francesco, Gabriela, Gabriele, Gianluca, Giorgio, Giovanni, Giulia, Ivano, Jaclyn, Joe, Joey, Jordan, Joseph, Judy, Luca, Luciano, Lucio, Marcela, Maria, Marie, Mike, Paride, Pasquale, Pierluigi, Pietro, Robert, Sara, Sean, Stephanie, Tommy, Vince...

My peoples!

This weekend, Amanda and I went to the pumpkin patches.

After a stop at one lame pumpkin patch, we found ourselves at Remlinger Farms out in Carnation, which had a great setup that included a train, hayride, corn maze and, of course, plenty of pumpkins on the vine.


You can find the pumpkin patch slide show here. (If the slide show images look distorted, click "Options" in the upper-right corner and uncheck "Embiggen small things to fill screen.")

Per DeVeau's request, I don't know what's more confusing, a Sims-Eyman hug...

Or how much council member Dow Constantine looks like Jeff Adamo...

Or how much Adamo (left) looks like Lindsey Beard's boyfriend, Jesse (right)...

Who in turn looks like Dow Constantine. As compensation for the awkward Sims-Eyman hug I demand the city mandate that Adamo take the name Dow Constantine.