Oh Happy Day

Yes, Virginia, there is a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro.

As those of you who know me well, it has been a painful year for me. When I moved back into the world of ad serving last Fall nearly full time, I needed a PC laptop to access our adserving system (’twas not Mac-friendly).

I have been waiting with baited breath for the first major revision to the Intel MacBook Pros that came out almost eight months ago. That has led me to travel with not one, but two laptops for most of the past year. Oh, my aching back! All that changes next week when my new MacBookPro arrives.

This morning, I was oh so excited to see a notice on TUAW.com that the Mac store had it’s old-skool ‘We’ll be back soon’ message that typically precedes a new product being posted. Lo and behold, shortly after arriving at work I visited Apple.com to see the beautiful news you see in the image above. Fully capable of running Windows via BootCamp or Parallels, this will replace both of my existing laptops. First to retire will be my ancient (4 year old) Titanium Powerbook G4 running at 1Ghz. I’ve been using that laptop for over a year with no functioning ethernet access and miserable battery life, and can’t wait to get my hands on this new machine. Also heading for the backup bin will be the sorely underpowered IBM Thinkpad Tablet I have as well – it’s better in concept than reality. The Core2 version of the MacBook Pro will run at 2.33Ghz, includes 3GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. My back thanks you, Apple.

Cousins from Carolina


The last time we saw cousin Sharon and her husband Shalom we were already pregnant with Sam, but didn’t even know it yet. So while visiting Atlanta this weekend for a clothing show, they had to swing by and meet Sammy. Sharon was a big hit with the little guy, as you can see by the photo above and in this photo gallery (all the photos are here). We miss these guys a lot and the visit was far too short. We’ll have to make sure the next visit comes much more quickly than the last!

Mitzvah Madness

Our synagogue, Shearith Israel, held what they called ‘Mitzvah Madness’ today, an event which called on the entire congregation’s family and friends to give something back to the community. Activities included fixing up the synagogue’s women’s shelter, creating art for local hospitals, and ‘Goodies for Good Guys,’ delivering cookies to several area firehouses. With the bonus promise of letting the kids explore the fire engines and station, we opted for the cookie delivery detail. And let me tell you, Sam had a blast. Trains may just have been replaced by fire engines in Sam’s fascination hierarchy. After presenting the cookies, the fire fighters gave the kids the full experience: touring the building, sitting in the driver seat on one of the engines (plus blowing the air horn) and even guiding a hose as they sprayed a huge arc of water. Click here for the full gallery.

Eating my Way Through NYC

So this post is more about food than anything else, but let me highlight the beautiful little dumpling morsels seen above, caught through a window of a joint in Koreatown. As far as work goes, I spent most of last week at meetings in the city, punctuated by a couple of fun dinners with coworkers and friends. First up on Tuesday and Wednesday were a couple of Internet Advertising Bureau events. I spoke on a panel discussing ‘New Mediums, New Challenges – How Ad Operations is Being Redefined.’ Former coworker Mike Stoeckel (now of Fox Interactive) was the moderator, and Tim Messier from Weather.com, Jared Iwata from Microsoft and I had an energetic discussion on podcasting, vodcasting, mobile, video syndication, AJAX and the general implications of Web 2.0 technologies on existing counting, ops and reporting methodologies. Wednesday featured more IAB meetings, including a joint publisher-agency ad ops summit at the NYC ‘Googleplex’ which only opened recently – with quite the cafeteria, let me tell you! Thursday and Friday was a return to all things Turner as we kicked off several major ad technology projects that will keep my team busy through January. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the awesome dinners I had while in NY. First at a great Argentinian steakhouse on 9th Ave with my fellow AdOps council members, then a great selection of gourmet pizzas featuring lobster and bacon on one and a white clam topping on another delivered to my old coworker and friend Hart’s place in Chelsea. And finally, a fun outing with coworkers Lauren Gardner and Beth Kuenzi to Koreatown for some hardwood charcoal goodness. That evening was topped off by cheescake (multiples for some of us) at a 100+ year-old bakery in the East Village. Yummy. Photos are here for your salivating enjoyment.

Photos, musings and miscellany – New and Improved!