Nico wants to move to Iowa.

I am certain there are worse places to live than Iowa, though I cannot think of any at the moment. Why would anyone want to move to Iowa? For the caucuses, man.

This description (from wikipedia) sounds frighteningly like a Rainbow event.

The process used by the Democrats is more complicated than the Republican Party caucus process. Each precinct divides its delegate seats among the candidates in proportion to caucus goers' votes.

Participants indicate their support for a particular candidate by standing in a designated area of the caucus site (forming a "preference group"). An area may also be designated for undecided participants. Then, for roughly 30 minutes, participants try to convince their neighbors to support their candidates. Each preference group might informally deputize a few members to recruit supporters from the other groups and, in particular, from among those undecided. Undecided participants might visit each preference group to ask its members about their candidate.

After 30 minutes, the electioneering is temporarily halted and the supporters for each candidate are counted. At this point, the caucus officials determine which candidates are "viable". Depending on the number of county delegates to be elected, the "viability threshold" can be anywhere from 15% to 25% of attendees. For a candidate to receive any delegates from a particular precinct, he or she must have the support of at least the percentage of participants required by the viability threshold. Once viability is determined, participants have roughly another 30 minutes to "realign": the supporters of inviable candidates may find a viable candidate to support, join together with supporters of another inviable candidate to secure a delegate for one of the two, or choose to abstain. This "realignment" is a crucial distinction of caucuses in that (unlike a primary) being a voter's "second candidate of choice" can help a candidate.

When the voting is closed, a final head count is conducted, and each precinct apportions delegates to the county convention. These numbers are reported to the state party, which counts the total number of delegates for each candidate and reports the results to the media. Most of the participants go home, leaving a few to finish the business of the caucus: each preference group elects its delegates, and then the groups reconvene to elect local party officers and discuss the platform.

The delegates chosen by the precinct then go to a later caucus, the county convention, to choose delegates to the district convention and state convention. Most of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention are selected at the district convention, with the remaining ones selected at the state convention. Delegates to each level of convention are initially bound to support their chosen candidate but can later switch in a process very similar to what goes on at the precinct level; however, as major shifts in delegate support are rare, the media declares the candidate with the most delegates on the precinct caucus night the winner, and relatively little attention is paid to the later caucuses.

Wine Country Christmas

(The pictures do not adequately capture how cold it was.)

I would like to start off by pointing out that I was going to Healdsburg before it was popular. Here's a photo I snapped from the bike (stopped) on a road we were riding on somewhere just outside of Healdsburg.

It was not quite Chianti scenic, but not bad for the weekend budget (and for winter).

So we're riding along, in 39 degree weather (have I ever mentioned that I'm not much for cold weather cycling gear), and we pass by Lambert Bridge Winery. The billows of smoke emanating from the chimney were enough to draw me in.

$10 to taste their non-reserve (and rather mediocre) wines. They pour in Riedel stems; I was impressed only until we went to Ridge and dinner, where we also drank from Riedels.

A few Napa highlights:

1) Hagafen Cellars: The guys pouring wine in the tasting room were not that interested in talking to me about the Koshering process...most likely because there were two couples who looked far more Jewish than Nicole and me (and my Kaiser friend Nam). As far as I know, Hagafen is the only winery in the Valley open on Christmas.

2) Winston Hill Cabernet at Frank Family Vineyards: There are not too many places in Napa that will let you taste a $125 bottle of wine without charging you (unless you are somebody important...or at least with somebody important). They do have to be in the mood to pour the expensive stuff for you.

3) Vino Bello Resort: Part of the Meritage Resort...I guess it's a timeshare, but nobody tried to sell us anything while we were there. Pretty close to staying in a vineyard, without being in an old creeky house. Here's the view from our room:


This one is back in Sonoma. I shall title it: "Michael and Nephew".

Winter Storm 2008

If you have ever lived anywhere with real weather, you probably wonder how a little rain can make so much news in Sunny California.

Rain began pelting parts of Southern California early today as a fierce winter storm from the Pacific Northwest moved in ahead of schedule, triggering fears that recent wildfires may have left the region susceptible to flash flooding.

With a forecast like that, I felt confident telling my boss I would run the Irvine half marathon with him...just as long as it was not raining. Sadly, there was no rain on Saturday morning, and before I was fully awake, I found myself running a half marathon. For anyone who has been considering running a half marathon: If you are not in shape, a half marathon is not a whole lot easier than running a whole marathon.

I slowed the boss down a little, but we still turned in pretty respectable times.


Next up: Los Angeles (eh?), or the District of Colombia. Do I dare try two in the same month?

Better Than Crack

Nico will likely tell me that nobody uses crack anymore, and I should come up with a better title for this post. However, "Better Than Meth" just does not have the same ring to it...also, I have this suspicion that freebasing is still popular, but that it is just too expensive for the kids in her 'hood.

Back to the point, my Chrismukkah present to myself:

We stayed at several hotels in Italy that had these "one-touch" cappuccino machines. This one (made by Delonghi for Nespresso) will make espresso, espresso lungo, cappuccino, or latte with almost no effort. I'll post a full review at a later date. So far, I everything it has made me has been excellent, though the cappuccino comes out a little cold for my (American) taste.

(As an aside, I had to go to pharmacy school to figure out what freebasing actually meant. Later, when I get my customery withdrawal headache, I am going to freebase some naproxen. Shoot, freebase naproxen is prescription only.)

The One With the Dancing Turkey

Alternate title was: "I told you not to stop the sleigh"

Nico made these Cornish game hens this year instead of turkey. So I get to thinking, what could be better than filming a Cornish game hen for my very first stop motion animation movie? You know, in the spirit of other holiday films such as A Pack of Gifts, Now. Unfortunately, if my digital camera is capable of shooting stop motion animation, I would have to read the manual to figure it out. Fortunately, I have the next best thing...if you are reading this at work, why not turn the volume up really loud?

In other Thanksgiving news, both of my parents made it over to join us for Cornish game hens. Here's my father (I believe making his first Takealotofdrugs appearance) at the Newport Back Bay.

I shot this picture on time delay (with a 6 inch tall tripod stationed on our fondue pot).

And finally, my dancing Cornish game hen right before I ate him. I know, I have become more of a failed vegetarian (rather than the struggling vegetarian that I tell people I am), but it is impossible to get Nicole to make a Tofurkey.

Tate, I cannot afford your usual and customary fee, but if you help me come up with a name for our new computer system, I will split the $250 prize with you. I would like a name that says: "This pharmacy computer system was not designed in 1981".

Win $$$ in our
"Name the Project" Contest
Announcing the RxExpress Replacement Project
Submit your ideas at the link below
The time has come! RxExpress ~ the software used today to support Mail Service Operations, Customer Service, Order and Inventory Management and Accounts Receivable for multiple mail service locations ~ is being replaced with a state-of-the-art system that will enhance users' day to day capabilities and be instrumental in supporting the rapid growth we expect to see in the future.

This project ensures Prescription Solutions is ready for our next level of growth within the PBM and Mail Service Operations and will give many of you who currently use RxExpress a more powerful tool to more easily perform your job functions.

All approvals for the launch have been secured and it's a "GO." But there is still one missing piece.

This crucial project doesn't have a name, and we need your help! Based on what we have told you about the new software enrichment, please send us your idea(s). Use your imagination to create a descriptive name and if your idea is chosen, you could win up to $250.

To submit your idea for a name, simply click on the link below to enter the naming contest. (If you create an acronym, please remember to spell it out.) In the subject line, please be sure to write "Name the Project". (Email submissions that do not include the words Name the Project will not be entered in the contest.) The contest will end November 30th.

Novartis may be running my very favorite marketing campaign ever.

Foul Taste Is Part of the Cure

When drug makers come out with new cough medicines, they typically tout characteristics such as extra strength or improved flavor. But when Novartis starts marketing a Canadian cough mixture in the U.S. today, it will focus on a different feature that it hopes will help the product stand out from the crowd: the medicine's foul taste.

Made from camphor, pine needle oil, menthol and Canadian fir balsam gum, Buckley's Cough Mixture has been available since 1919 in Canada, where it has become what Novartis calls the country's "best-selling and worst-tasting" cough medicine. It doesn't contain sugar or alcohol, which other ...

Hey, is anybody interested in buying the world's most uncomfortable couch? You will be much more productive if you are not sitting around all day...also, your bed will feel more comfortable (by comparison, at least).

I am the greatest pharmacist in the world.

Some of you did not believe it when I told you that I am one of America's top pharmacists. So now I have come back with proof:




Yes that's right, I correctly ascertained that 90 tablets of Nifediac CC is too much Nifediac CC to take in a single day. I did not even need the pharmacy computer system to alert me. That is how great I am.

And now, please excuse me. I must return to saving lives.

This just in:

All links pointing to dead blogs have been removed. For the purposes of this discussion, "dead" is defined as "no posts in the last 30 days". Sidearms, you were given a pass, as I am not sure what the computer situation is like in Baghdad (or wherever you are).

The rest of you: if you want your link back (and all the traffic that said link generates for you), feel free to make your case here.

Impossible Dream...

I have this hotmail account (if you are really smart, you might be able to guess my email address), that became so overrun with spam (6 or 7 years ago), that I stopped using it. I get somewhere around 30 or 40 pieces of spam per day that are not blocked by hotmail's spam filter. I have no idea how much ends up in my junk folder...probably a couple hundred emails a day.

Anyway, I am starting an aggressive "unsubscribe" program. I shall attempt to unsubscribe from every junk sender that makes it into my inbox for the rest of November. I'll let you know if the account is usable again sometime in December.