L'shana Tova

Today marks the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish Ne lw Year. I wanted to mark the occasion by wishing all of my friends - Jewish and non-Jewish alike - peace, prosperity, happiness and health in this coming New Year.

Posted via email from Howard Solomon

Energizer Bunny

My daughter has inherited my curse: she has insane, crazy, boundless energy. This is my problem too and the reason why I do all these crazy endurance races. Since I was a little boy, I had boundless energy, and she too appears to suffer from this malady. To wit: she's in a Fall swimming program and is back to swimming three to four days a week. Most 7 years olds would be wiped out from this effort, coupled with school, but I get home from work and this kid is just bouncing off the walls. So, I take her (and her bike) out with me on my nightly runs. I run, she bikes. I have to say, it's great fun. She rides alongside with me, pedaling away, and we chat about her day as the sun sets and with Mount Tam in the background. Great father-daughter bonding and I am certain these are the memories from her youth that neither of us will ever forget.

Announcing: The Third Annual Solomon Run For Thyroid Cancer

What do you all say? This seems to have been a pretty big hit in the past. I love getting all the stories and posting the photos.

So I'm thinking: let's do it again. Here's the drill - it's simply, really. I pick a date - right now I am looking at the weekend of October 11th and 12th and all that's asked of you is that you do some sort of physical activitiy (swim, bike, run, walk, hike - I don't care).

This year, though I am hoping that perhaps we can do something special. The last few weeks I have been reading the blog of a friend of a good friend of mine from Chicago. Sadly, one of his good friends from college died on Tuesday night from colon cancer. His name was Tony and he was younger than 40 and left behind a wife and two very young children. There's an existing fund that I will find out more about, but I believe it's intended to help offset their costs and help his kids. I will post a link to the site tomorrow if by show of hands, there is enough interest. Regardless, I will be making a contribution on behalf of myself and this blog.

So -- what say ye? Let's hear it in the comments.

RIP, Patrick Swayze

Well, we all expected this to occur, obviously, but it still sucks all the same; cancer gets another good guy. Rest in peace, Patrick Swayze. What a shame; 57 is far too young.

On a quasi-related note, Crazymama reminded me today via Facebook that September is national Thyroid Cancer Awareness month. Make sure to check your neck next tie you are at the Dr's. It only takes a few moments as is absolutely painless. ANd if you have any questions relating to hit "symptoms" (to the extent there are any) please feel free to hit me, Crazymama or Gail.

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Back from Vegas (and flew direct to Chicago) with the Wife. We had a lovely time and it was nice to be child-less, if even for a mere 48 hours. Reminds me of what life will be like -- one day. One day in the very far off future.

We had a great time and mostly did a whole heck of a lot of nothing. Sat poolside in the 103 degree heat (no joke), ate well and well, gambled. Nothing too interesting on that front; I broke even, pretty much to the dollar (due in part to the Wife keeping an eye on me like a freaking hawk).

Anyway, Vegas is always a good and interesting time. But 48 hours is about all I can handle.

Sin City

I am taking the Wife to Sin City (read: Vegas) for approximately 72 hours for our 13th wedding anniversary. While Vegas certainly isn't the most relaxing place in the world, we are going kid-less and because of that, I cannot complain. The World's best mother-in-law - and I mean that sincerely - came to town to keep an eye on them for a few days. For that I will forever be grateful. Words can't express how much she comes up big for us time and again. You rule, Nana.

Anyway, I'll be sure to live blog some of the action live from the Mandalay Bay Pool, which if you haven't been, is one of the more entertaining places on this planet.

More tomorrow.

Today's Apple Announcement

Super tired tonight so here's the post I wrote for Techdork.com. Would have written the same for this site if the new one hadn't existed.
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Attendees from today's Apple event are probably still in their seats, but I wanted to quickly offer up my thoughts while still processing all the "news".

The easy response would be "disappointed" and "let down" -- that seems to be the typical kneejerk Apple fanboy response these days.

But I'm not disappointed at all. In fact, I'm pretty stoked. Why? Because short of the Tablet being announced, which we all realized was a long shot, there wasn't anything I was really going to buy today. I already have iPhones (that's right, plural) and iPods out the wazoo (at last count eight in our household). So really, even the 8 gig Nano with video recorder - more on that in a second -- which was a bit of a surprise, wasn't going to compel me to run to the Apple Store.

So why am I stoked? Because I get two totally cool new features in iTunes 9.0 and iPhone 3.1. And I get them for free. And I get them today. I suspected 9.0 was going to be announced and available today but 3.1 was a bonus -- and for that alone I am very happy. It's too early for me to comment on both of these in detail, but stay tuned. I am sure I'll have detailed thoughts in the coming days.

In regards to the product announcements, a few thoughts:

-- the souped up Nano with video recording was a surprise. But it's pretty weird -- I can't quite get my head around it. And why would they only announce this in the 8 gig version, not the 16? You need more room to store video. And what's the real practicality for this product? As my friend Dave texted me during the announcement (because that is what tech dorks do), it's a move to keep Nano relevant and in the game. And so, I think it's an experiment of sorts on Apple's part. We will see how that goes. I do know this; today marks the beginning of the end for the Flip; theres no question about it.

-- why no camera in the Touch? This is really surprising. I suspect it came down to either a sourcing issue (not enought cameras to be found) or they didn't want to risk cannibalizing iPhones. Either way, it's a bit of a head scratcher.

So, that's it. It goes without saying that the most exciting aspect of today was seeing Steve Jobs back on stage. As a fellow cancer survivor myself I have particular empathy for what he has gone through and beyond being among the greatest marketers ever, he's also one tough hombre.

Go Blue

I haven't written about Michigan football for an eternity because, frankly, there hasn't been much to write about. But I have to say, the Boys in Blue looked *really* good on Saturday. Really, really good - for the first half at least.

The thing that impressed me the most is that we were FAST. I realize we were only playing Western Michigan (respect, Bronco's) but for the first half of that game we looked like freaking Florida out there. I think that we saw the true dawning of the RichRod era; last year doesn't really count because he didn't really have any guys and the guys he did have weren't really molded to play his style of football. That being said, it was only the first game of the year, it was against a MAC opponent (respect, MAC) and we are still very, very young and led by freshman quarterback(s). But I liked what I saw. And I can't wait to see how we do against Notre Dame. And for all you still reading this post, I'm on record saying that I have and continue to believe in RichRod.

Go Blue.