I saw the craziest thing in the grocery store today.  There were iPod and Motorola Razr vending machines!  Some of you that live in bigger cities may have seen these a lot sooner than I did, but I was shocked to go to my local grocery store in Salt Lake City and see huge vending machines with credit card swiping panels with LCD screens.  The machines are called Zoom Shops and they have all kinds of gadgets (headphones, cell phones, iPOD nanos and shuffles).  What a great idea!  What’s worse than going to one of those Sprint or Cingular stores and waiting around for some sales person to push a 2 year contract on you. 

But I can forsee some problems. . .what if your $200 item gets stuck and is dangling by a curly metal thread?  What if you accidentally hit the wrong button and instead of the silver iPod nano, you get the hot pink?  Hopefully there are safeguards against the usual vending machine problems. 

Overall, I love this kind of convenience.  Now, when I go pick up my weekly milk and bread, I can pick up a Motorola PEBL on my way out.  No sales people, no lines, no hassle.  Just swipe, retrieve, and go. 

If any of you have used one of these things to buy some or the other gizmo, let me know. . and tell me how it works and how well you think it works!

Check out Peter Beinart’s take (free registration required) on the important contributions Joe Biden can make to the field of presidential candidates. 

Finally, an article that discusses withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq without ignoring our responsibility to the country and region we’ve destabilized. . . .

If you’ve lived under a rock for the last week, maybe you don’t know that Barack Obama has officially thrown his hat into the ring for the 2008 presidential election.  Visit the campaign website to find out more about this electrifying senator from Illinois.  Slate.com is convinced he’s the Messiah.  If you aren’t convinced after reading more about him, hearing him speak will surely do the trick.  He’s a marvelous orator. 

See the full text of his announcement speech here.

Well, we made it back from our Superbowl trip on Monday night.  And even though the Bears lost, it was quite an experience. 

First of all, the weather in South Florida was amazing.  It was a bit cloudy, about 65 degrees, and not too humid.  This was a nice break from the cold Salt Lake weather and was a very nice break for our friend John who came from the -7 degree weather in Chicago.  Each day, I went for a jog in the neighborhood of John’s Fort Myers house.  . palm trees, golf courses, cool breeze, thick clean air.  It was gorgeous. 

John’s place was about 150 miles from Miami, where all the festivities were taking place.  On Saturday, the day before the game, we drove to Miami Beach to pick up our superbowl tickets.  For those of you who don’t know (because I didn’t. . ), this is what a superbowl ticket looks like:

South Beach was a zoo on Saturday.  There was literally no place to park.  We had to drop Arvind off and circle while he went and got the tickets.  While we waited for Arvind, we were pulled over near a car that was decked out with Bears gear.  It said Woodfield Nissan on it so it was a very long way from home (click on the picture to get a better look):

Arvind had paid for 4 seats together and the ticket broker was only able to get 2 and 2 so he gave some money back.  We figured it was no problem because one set of seats were slightly better than the others and we were sure we could trade the people next to the worse seats so we could sit together.  With the extra money, Arvind bought some Johnny Walker Blue Label for our post-game celebration.  Where he got it from it was about $240 a bottle.  Here is a little blurb about JWB:

The Rarest Blend

Johnnie Walker® Blue Label ™ is our rarest blend. This isn’t a whisky for beginners. It’s challenging and an acquired taste, but like the finest rewards in life is worth it.

Created from the rarest and most expensive whiskies in the world, Blue Label™ has the authentic character and flavour of a traditional nineteenth century blend, just like those that John Walker and his son Alexander developed for their most valued customers.

Blue Label™ is made from a few exceptional whiskies with powerful flavours. Each bottle is precious to us and is individually numbered. Each contains a rare taste and gives an intense experience.

Blue Label™ is the ultimate luxury Scotch Whisky and supplies of Blue Label™ are limited by the rarity and expense of the whiskies used in the blend.

At the heart of Blue Label™ is Royal Lochnagar™a rare malt distilled near Balmoral, the Queen’s holiday home. Around 15 other mature and precious whiskies are added to balance Blue Label™ perfectly – ‘a blend that cannot be beat’ (Alexander Walker, 1888).

So anyway, after a long drive back and forth to South Beach to pick up the tickets (Scott and I had taken the red-eye to Florida and pretty much got straight in the car to go to Miami so we were traveling going on 20 hours by that point), we went to a Chicago grill restaurant for dinner.  We got the attention of all of the hostesses, waiters and bartenders when all of us walked in with our Bears jerseys.  We got some deep dish pizza to stay in the Chicago spirit and after a couple of hours, we were rejuvenated.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up some supplies for our trip back to Miami on Sunday. 

The big day was almost here. . . .

So I was on the Sports Illustrated website looking to fuel my superbowl fire when I saw a little piece on celebrity superbowl picks.  Curious to see if they’re as poorly informed about sports as they are about politics, I went through the pictures.  To my total dismay, Gale Sayers, the hall of fame Chicago Bears running back, picked the Colts!  He has the score at Colts 35, Bears 28.  Traitor!  His comment was this:

“Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks around so the Bears will have to score some points. I think Peyton will put up some points and if he does, we are in trouble. I just don’t think we can put up as many points as he can. But I’m not betting with my heart. I hope the Bears win but I just can’t see us beating Peyton Manning.”

At least he’s still hoping for a Bears win. 

Punxsutawny Phil didn’t see his shadow this morning.  This means an early spring rather than six more weeks of winter.  The last time Phil forcasted spring was in 1999.  Hopefully the prediction holds true because it has been a truly nasty last few weeks here in Salt Lake. 

We have a weather phenomenon here in Salt Lake known as “the inversion.”  About.com describes it as well as I’ve ever heard:

“The inversion, aka a temperature inversion is typically at its worst in January and February, when the air is cold, there is snow on the ground, and the wind is still.

It happens when a high-pressure system hovers over the Wasatch Mountains and compresses cold air down upon the valley where pollutants from automobile fumes and fireplaces are being produced. Fog, which forms from ice crystals in the cold air becomes smog when combined with these pollutants, and takes on a brownish hue. Often the amount of pollutants in the air exceeds the EPA’s health standard.

On windless days, and with the valley nearly surrounded by mountains, this mixture is more dense than the warmer air layer above it and thus cannot escape. So what we get is a cold layer of smog under a warmer layer of air.

Throughout the day, the smog crystals fall out of the air, clinging to objects and producing hoarfrost. At times it appears to be snowing. But unlike real snow, this stuff leaves a residue.

Having snow on the ground can make things worse, because the whiteness reflects heat back up into the sky, instead of absorbing it and warming the ground.

A good snowstorm or strong wind is what is needed to restore the balance. “

Below is an image of what the inversion looks like in the valley.

Pretty nasty stuff.   We finally got relief from this inversion earlier in the week and I feel a lot better now that my allergies aren’t going haywire. . .but it’s still cold here.

Luckily I’m headed to sunny Florida tonight for the Superbowl!!!!  The high in Miami tomorrow is 78 degrees and I’m sure the people down there could care less what the groundhog saw.