I ordered my Apple TV on January 9th, hours after Steve Jobs said it would be available on the Apple Store. Everything pointed to a February ship date and early March arrival, but delays hit, which have been well documented. Now, MacRumors is claiming Apple TV will ship on Tuesday, March 20th, but it's still a "Rumor" and not "News".

If that Rumor moves into the News category, that's great, because we're still waiting a few months in, and keep running into times I'd love to have an Apple TV handy, to watch my shows and films on the big screen instead of my laptop's little one.

That's the idea behind my most recent contribution to The Apple Blog, titled I Want My Apple TV. Per agreement with them, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided a link. Enjoy.

To read the headlines, you would think Phoenix had erupted in a big ball of flame and the residents had been scorched to their deaths. In a double-decker front page masthead, The Drudge Report railed: "WINTER RECORD SMASHED: 99 DEGREES IN PHOENIX..." as for the fifth consecutive day, the city broke heat records, topping 94 Sunday, after peaking at 99 both Friday and Saturday. But we're loving it. The balmy heat, even at midnight, where it's 75 degrees en route to a likely low of 65 or so, reminds us of the two trips we've taken to Hawaii, first for our honeymoon, and in an second trip the following year. And to make things better, today the A's finally won a game with us in attendance.

Both Friday and Saturday saw the A's make us roll our eyes with their incompetence. The team's starting pitchers, Joe Blanton and Joe Kennedy, gave up 4 and 5 runs respectively in the first inning, before retiring a batter. The A's of course went on to lose both contests, by scores of 8-5 Friday night and, even worse, 11-4 Saturday, when the team never even had a chance. So on Sunday, with Dan Haren taking the mound, we were more hopeful for a better outcome, but strongly considered delaying our showing up to the ballpark until the 2nd inning, as maybe we were the cause. But Haren avoided our curse, shutting down the LA Angels of Anaheim for four innings, and seeing the A's to an early 2-0 lead.

Yet the Angels came back and took the lead, holding a 5-3 margin going into the final frame. It looked like the A's were going to go 0-3 for us, but it was not meant to be. The A's came back to within 5-4, with two runners on and one out in the ninth. As we crossed our fingers, and hoped against disaster, Richie Robnett smacked a 2-run single allowing the tying and winning runs to cross the plate as fans cheered, players jumped up and down in the heat, and we headed home happy. Now, with a 1-2 record under our belt, we will see the A's for a fourth and final time tomorrow at 1:05 before heading home.

Even with the four games, we've done more than see just baseball in our stay in Phoenix. On Saturday, we carried off an unlikely pairing as my wife and I first had dinner at Hooters and then drove to the Mesa LDS temple to see the sights (arguably at both locations). The Mesa temple grounds were well cared for and the temple was beautifully lit. Tonight, we headed back to Tempe near the Arizona State campus and filled up at PF Changs and Coldstone Creamery. Unlike Saturday, which featured St. Patrick's Day revelers drowning in green beer, with some handcuffed by local police, the Sunday scene was much more serene.

It's a quick mini-vacation, but much anticipated. It will be tough to get back to the grind on Tuesday.

I had hinted at it a few times earlier, but Kristine and I took Friday and Monday off from work for a mini-vacation, giving us four full days in the Arizona sunshine to see the Oakland A's take on four different teams in four days at home. Despite yesterday's airport issues, we made it in with plenty of time to catch yesterday's game. While the weather was outstanding, in the 80s throughout, the A's play left much to be desired, as they fell behind 4-0 in the first inning to the hometown Arizona Diamondbacks, and never recovered, eventually going down by an 8-5 margin.

Today, we'll see them try to even up their record with us in attendance as they take on the Milwaukee Brewers at 1:00 p.m. The temperature is already in the high 80s, going to the mid to high 90s, so we'll try not to get too baked.

Switching gears... in an interesting mini-case study of how blogs can achieve direct access to corporations, where e-mail and telephone calls have traditionally failed, check out the comment left on my US Airways post from yesterday. One man associated with the airline pulled overtime to explain why he thought our flight was delayed, and why he thinks I was premature in criticizing the airline. (Read his Comment) Of course, that doesn't take into account the issues we had on Christmas Eve, where a lot of my frustrations originated.

Hopefully our return trip will be easier... but until then, we intend to have fun, cheer on the green and gold on this very green holiday!

The line between bloggers and journalists is blurring. While a blog's goals can be wide-reaching, from personal updates to breaking news, offering opinions, or collecting interesting items, former Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry is moving to strengthen bloggers' ability to get the information to make news, by further expanding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Yet, it looks like some haven't graduated to the understanding of blogs' pervasiveness, even as the practice reaches a decade old. Steve Rubel of MicroPersuasion notes one particularly glaring example...

MicroPersuasion: Fired Without Cause for Blogging
MyDD: Kerry Sponsors Senate Bill Giving Bloggers FOIA Powers
Robert Scoble: Microsoft Tells MVPs “we’re in it to win” — Really?

We're so far enjoying our time in Phoenix, Arizona. It was a mere 98 degrees when we landed, and we saw the A's lose their ballgame 8-5. We'll be back at it again tomorrow, hoping the outcome changes.

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