Over the years, I've made a whole-hearted effort to avoid paper as much as manageably possible. 95% of all postal mail to our address is for my wife, with the exception of Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Newsweek and Business 2.0 magazines, and all bills I can move online I do. For the most part, any mail that comes to the house with my name on it is junk, to be ignored. But this last month, I realized I hadn't moved exactly everything over, and as a result, we've been on the shady side of the law for about six weeks. Oops.

In late June, my wife said she needed to register her car, but upon readying to do so, she said her car insurance had expired. As we are jointly registered on one account, that of course meant that mine too would have been past due.

Scrambling through the condo, I found the reminder from our insurance agency, from May, stating the expiry was upcoming if we didn't pay immediately. As of May 23rd, it turned out we were driving uninsured, a big no-no, for obvious reasons.

Calling the 1-800 line to pay via credit card also failed, as we were just over 30 days late, and I would have to go through a broker to reestablish our insurance. This later led to calling the agency during work hours, getting more than 20 pages in PDF to add dozens of signatures, and faxes to and from our insurance carrier just to get our status back in good graces. And, even after all this, plus paying a small penalty for turning our insurance back on, I don't yet have new insurance cards for my wife or me, so if anything were to happen between now and when they arrive, it will require a little bit of explanation.

While there's clearly egg on my face for the oversight and ignorance of standard billing, I'm a bit annoyed that there was no other warning of my impending illegality. I pay all my credit cards online, the phone bill and even old world tech like our gas and electricity from PG&E is paid online, and I receive a monthly e-mail from them, instead of snail mail, reminding me gently to log in and pay up.

Had I received a single e-mail, I would have logged in, posted my credit card data, and we'd be good to go. Instead, I'm an outlaw, and menace to society. As a side benefit, my wife is ticked off and can't figure out how she married such a dolt. The good news there is nobody else can figure it out either, so she's in good company.

Cross-posted to Athletics Nation...

Oh the All-Star Break. A great time to relax and bask in the wonder of baseball... most years. But this year, as the A's slumped into the break like an underage wannabe frat boy with a fake ID returning to the dorms after his first bender, the shine has seemingly come off this team. As the team fades in the standings, home fans were treated to a 4-error night by Marco Scutaro, a 2/3 of an inning start by Joe Kennedy, bases loaded double plays and way too much Crosby and Kendall, just in the last week. It's no wonder Joe Blanton wants to pound everything in sight. Don't you?


Click to See Larger Comic

All Comics | Submit an Idea for ANtics

Kent Newsome, full-time uber-blogger and part-time viral link tagger, has asked me to contribute to his ambitious project to rebuild his RSS feeds list. While there's no doubt he and I read a lot of the same feeds, especially from very prominent bloggers, I'll provide him five I think are rising stars in the blogosphere - the future A-listers, if you will.

1) ParisLemon (MG Seigler)

URL: http://www.parislemon.com/

Summary: Apple and Web geek with a healthy dose of sports fanaticism thrown in. Given my own focus on tech, Web and sports, I find many of his comments are in line with my own, but from a different angle.

2) WinExtra (Steven Hodson)

URL: http://winextra.com/

Summary: Thoughtful discussion of the blogosphere, technology and trends. We recently had a blog-led conversation on whether blogs were about conversations or are simply an extension of old media to new.

3) Cuddletech (Ben Rockwood)

URL:http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/

Summary: An unapologetic Solaris and storage geek who loves to show you his thoughts of what works, from the command line. Questioning authority and wearing his heart on his sleeve.

4) Ken Jennings (Ken Jennings)

URL: http://www.ken-jennings.com/blog/

Summary: You may have first met Ken on Jeopardy, but since his unceremonious bouncing from the show with more than $1 million in his pocket (after taxes), he leads a happy life on his blog, talking about trivia, religion and technology. Good guy, good blog.

5. YuviSense (Yuvi Panda)

URL: http://blog.yuvisense.net/

Summary: This 16-year-old Indian student loves Microsoft and blog analysis. Amazingly technology astute and analytical for his age. Wants to join Redmond as soon as possible, and barring late-teen rebellion, should make it.

Dinner at Ruth's Chris steakhouse is an undertaking, one that requires planning, pace and time. Tonight, in celebration of a friend's birthday, my wife and I headed to San Francisco to pad our waistlines and empty our wallets. Both were accomplished.

Ruth's Chris aims not to skimp on quality, atmosphere or portions. A typical meal consists of a 24 ounce steak for more than $40, plenty of side dishes, salad, bread and all the soda, water or wine you can drink, depending on preference. And if you miss dessert, that's a mistake. While grabbing cheesecake or ice cream can set you back another $10, it's absolutely essential.

I first visited a Ruth's Chris in Manhattan, and while I expected the West Coast restaurant to be lower in stature, tonight's dinner was just as filling. I'm sure I'll be avoiding the scales for at least a week, and I just might go easier on the ballpark food the next time we are in Oakland. Maybe.

For the five of us, even without alcohol, our bill, following dinner, sides, and dessert, came to almost $450. The tip added $100 more. But when it comes to a good steak, you shouldn't compromise. Expect to eat well, have a great time, don't be rushed, and enjoy the experience. I expect we just might be back on some near future occasion, ready to focus on the food.