Team A'Hearn

Juggling has long been something that I’ve used to relax as well as to entertain others. I taught myself throughout elementary and middle school, quickly learning how to manipulate clubs, rings, torches, kittens – anything that I could easily toss into the air. You never really forget once you learn, but the tricks certainly lose their polish; and I’ve been way out of practice lately. Well, the theme of the week is renewed interest. I have started agonizing over some great new tricks and methods for my repertoire and have renewed my membership to the International Jugglers’ Association. I’m a pretty weird guy, I know.

I must be a thirteen year old girl, because not only have I been religiously tuning in to American Idol this season, I’ve totally got the McPheever. To the max. I can’t wait to see what Tivo “suggests” to me now.

Noel and I caught Luka Bloom at Wolf Trap last night for some contemporary Irish folk guitar. (Excitement!) It was actually a really good show! A newcomer named Sabrina Dinan opened with a short but impressive song set. I’m regretting not picking up her CD at the venue because it simply doesn’t appear to exist [to purchase] online. I’ll track it down somehow. Bloom’s set was a nonstop, full two hours, with plenty of energy and some great tunes. They’ve started a seven-week U.S. tour together; if you’re into it, check them out.

I have been using Microsoft Money recently because of a growing need to better manage our finances. It seems that since I’m in charge of the cash for the house, I often accidentally leave Steph in the dark about what’s available and whether or not it’s okay to steal a twenty from my wallet. I’ve really been missing out – MS Money is very, very impressive. The tracking, reporting, and forecasting is exactly what we were looking for. And setup was fairly painless, especially since we were already somewhat managing our accounts online. A free, fully-functional, 90-day trial of the Deluxe edition is available for download; buy, then simply upgrade the software. I’m still working on getting our mortgage information accurately entered, but who understands that nonsense anyway. Really.