By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Loyette is 1 1/2 years old today. :)

By David K.

The Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling in the hotly contested Senate race between Democrat and comedian Al Franken and his Republican opponent Norm Coleman.

Their ruling rejected claims by the challenger that inconsistent election practices and flawed decisions by lower courts had cost him the election.

“Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled [under Minnesota law] to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota,” the court wrote.

Franken would give Democrats in the Senate a potential 60-seat, filibuster-proof super majority.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Of course, a “filibuster-proof” majority doesn’t necessarily mean as much as is popularly supposed, given that the Senate is made up of 100 mini-presidents (in their own minds, anyway) who generally cannot be “whipped” into towing the party line to the same extent that’s possible with House members. The difference between 59 senators and 60 senators is not nearly as significant as, say, the difference between or 49 and 50 (if you’ve got the vice president) or 50 and 51 (if you don’t), when the speakership, chairmanships, and basic control of the chamber’s procedures are at stake.

Nevertheless, Franken’s now-declared victory — which has been an inevitability for some months; it’s pretty clearly been a matter of how and when, not if, he’d be seated — will give the Democrats one additional reliable vote on cap-and-trade, health care, and various other key initiatives. His vote isn’t magical, but it is important.

Anyway, Nate Silver has an analysis of what comes next. The big questions are: 1) Will ex-Senator Coleman now concede? 2) If he doesn’t, will Governor Pawlenty nevertheless certify Senator-elect Franken as the winner? 3) If he doesn’t, will the Senate Democrats try to seat Franken anyway? And 4) If the Dems try that, will it work?

UPDATE 2 BY DAVID K:  Coleman has conceded.

By Brendan Loy

The polls are closed for the second Loy Baby Pool, and we’ve got a total of 70 contestants. After the jump, a look at everyone’s predictions for when the baby will be born — and the range of birth dates & times in which each contestant would win.

Continue reading »

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Reading an article about the financial markets from August 2007 is very amusing.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Megan Fox’s boobs bouncing in slow motion as she runs away from multiple explosions caused by evil alien robots: pure cinematic genius.

By David K.

It continues to be a difficult time to be a celebrity.  Pitchman Billy Mays, famous for his OxiClean and OrangeGlo commercials, as well as the co-star of the Discovery Channel show Pitchmen, was found dead at his Tampa area home today.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Has @persiankiwi been arrested? http://tinyurl.com/lkttyz #iranelection

By Brendan Loy

Continuing on the theme of things I didn’t get a chance to blog about when they happened, because I didn’t have a blog at the time: here’s a time-lapse video from April 29, the day we moved into our new house. It shows our moving day from beginning to end, starting at our old condo in South Denver, then ending at our new house in North Denver. Here it is; commentary follows.

The first thing you see is me leaving the condo in the morning. Then Becky, her mom, and of course Loyette (and briefly Becky’s dad and brother) mill about for a while. Loyette merrily climbs all over the boxes. :) Around 33 seconds in, our Amazing Moves guys show up, and stuff starts — poof! — disappearing.

Pretty soon everybody’s outta there, and over to the new house; the scene switches at the 57-second mark. (I was at work this whole time, but had cameras set up in both places.) You see the movers arriving and stuff appearing, and frenetic activity and humans and cats move this way and that. Then for about 10 seconds starting around the 1:26 mark, there’s a lull, as Becky & the fam go out (I think for lunch). I love this part, because if you watch carefully, you’ll notice something odd: the cats completely disappear too! Having spent the morning flitting to and fro while there were people around, they retreat (presumably) upstairs when everybody leaves. :)

Then everybody comes back. Eventually I arrive — having left for work from one home, and returned at the end of the day to another — we have dinner, the in-laws leave, we put Loyette to bed (though not without a struggle, as you see when she appears back downstairs after briefly disappearing; getting used to the new house took some time). Finally Becky and then I go to bed, the lights go off, and our moving day is over. Kind of a fun time lapse.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Why TV has been MJ all the time: cable ratings thru roof. CNN up 973% at one point, MSNBC 330%, Fox 243% (RT @nytimeskristof, @HowardKurtz)

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

With Loyette at open air market, where a local band called The Panic is playing. PANIC!!!!!

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Overheard at Starbucks: Barista assures customer that a vanilla bean frappucino has “only” 300 calories. Customer is amused.

By B. Minich

When we last left Brendan and his so called “web-log,” it was November of 2008, and we were in the midst of the college and pro football seasons. I was in the middle of lamenting (well, to my friends, not here) that my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers looked OK, but there was no way they would make a deep playoff run with that offensive line. At that point, I had put Penn State having a better chance of winning the NCAA title (which I had at slim) than the Steelers winning the Super Bowl.

Then they went and won it.

Also, my beloved Pittsburgh Penguins had all sorts of mood swings since losing to the Red Wings about a year ago. Basically, they went from “dude, looking good” to “how bad is it when we can’t make the freakin’ NHL playoffs?” to “STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!!” The Penguins had more people at their victory parade than the Steelers did – and to outdraw the Steelers in the Steel City is an accomplishment, no matter how much better the weather is.

Anyway, I don’t want to rub my sports victories in anybody’s face (just remind me of the woeful Pirates, and what happened to Penn State on January 1st if I try to do that!). I bring this up to ask a question:

What is the BEST year your sports teams have ever had? My answer is obvious – 2008-9. Its never been better for a Pittsburgh sports fan born after 1979. I remember the thread we had where we lamented our worst sports losses – so how about the opposite? What was your favorite team’s best win? What was the best year your favorite sports teams have ever had?

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Officially in the clear, no further danger from alleged tornado. (I think the suspect cell was always well east of us anyway.)

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

http://twitpic.com/8i2y9 – In the basement, waiting out the tornado warning.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Tornado warning! http://tinyurl.com/kpclnh Sirens blaring! Don’t think we’re in any actual danger, but sheltering in basement just in case.