I have now moved into the District of Columbia, having survived a slew of medical nastiness, one blown tire in a thunderstorm on Northern Parkway in Baltimore, the adventure of finding an open pharmacist to fill prescriptions for steroids and antibiotics at 3 AM in Langley Park, driving a cargo van in miserable weather, etc. I am out sick from the job today; my chest hurts when I breathe but at least now I can take full breaths. Getting one full night's sleep helped a lot.

Comcast will be installing internet service to my apartment tomorrow and thereafter I will be in a much better position to blog routinely.

A brief update. My internet access is limited so this will have to be short. I will be signing a lease at Fort Totten Station in northeast DC on Friday for a Saturday move-in. After internet access starts at that apartment, I will resume more regular posting.

The past seven days of my life have been oriented around the impending family adjustments and my residential relocation to the District of Columbia. Finding an apartment has been a serious pain in the neck. Happily, problem solved.

A little snark for your snark needs.

I sit now in Chevy Chase, DC, the tony urban side of the suburban-urban trans-Western Avenue liberal sprawl that gives Brian Griffiths intermittent explosive diarrhea. I sit in the basement Politics and Prose, a minor cathedral to tony, tasteful liberal wealth and somewhat well-deserved intellectual smugness. Howard Zinn was to speak today here, but cancelled due to some family issue. But alas, good Brian, I am drinking a carbohydrate-laden plain Italian soda - a shot of flavored corn syrup, a snowball without the snow or the ball, not a latte (which are overrated and taste the way that Ari Fleischer speaks: no matter how hard you steel yourself for the disappointment, you still manage to be disappointed.)

Been in deep, deep divorce and separation mode. Wife and kids moving out in 10 days, I will follow into DC thereafter. Plus big day job duties. Sale of home 21 days away. Yeah.

Next stop: Cleveland Park (or Malcolm X Park, or Glover Park?)

Careful readers may have noticed a drop in production here at Crablaw of late, with substantial reliance on YouTube materials. So-called real life has been taking a bit of a toll on my time, energy and creativity. I don't feel comfortable discussing the purely personal side of the divorce reality of my life - this is a blog and being my lawyer, counselor or Father Confessor is not what you signed up for - but the non-personal, publicly available goods are more or less as follows.

Welcome to the March 9, 2008 edition of the Carnival of Maryland. A warm welcome to all referred visitors from BlogCarnival.com!!

Our first-among-equals "Ecumenical Pillagearch" Attila is first up, though let it be noted than in matters scatological and flatulent, he clearly has no equal. Pillage Idiot presents Taking the Green Line, not the 7 Train, to Flushing posted at Pillage Idiot, saying, "There's nothing that says "GUY" quite like a synchronized flush of the toilets at a new baseball stadium. Why didn't they invite me?" Attila, please never get civilized. It would break my heart if you ever started walking upright, or discovered fire or the wheel.

1) I am pleased to be hosting the next Carnival of Maryland here on March 9th. Please use the friendly widget to forward your posts. While this is a liberal blog on net, I specifically encourage conservative bloggers in Maryland - in or outside of the Maryland Bloggers Alliance - to forward your best recent work. Of course, I would be very grateful to receive submissions from explicitly non-political Maryland bloggers, i.e. from local bloggers who might actually have lives.

I just got an iPhone, and am happy with my purchase. Had been eyeing it for a number of months, maybe over a year. It replaces a bulky camera (which I did not own and would have bought), BlackBerry (which I own and will sell in recoupment) and iPod (which I also own and will sell.) A picture of my little fellow Noah (2, almost 3) is above. The monthly fees are actually better than what I had for a less extensive contract now expired with Verizon and Sunday and the service has been great. The email service looks great on the phone and is approximately as efficient as that of the BlackBerry, and the internet service is great.

I may be going to Eschacon, blogger Atrios' blogger get-together in Philadelphia at the end of March, but have not decided. Philly is close enough that renting a hotel room seems a bit of a waste of money; I would probably go up and back same-day, maybe even by bus to save automobile wear-and-tear (and to kick in some nostalgia from my Princeton days when I was too cheap and broke to pay Amtrak fares up and down the NE Corridor.) Am not committing yet due to cash flow and other more personal issues.

I would consider carpooling it if there are other Maryland/DC bloggers doing likewise.

1) Please note the new layout which will remain available permanently and will temporarily be the "default" layout for non-registered users, pending reader comments (for which comments, thank you in advance.) I like it but am not in love with it. Please note that if you are or become a registered user, you may select other "themes" per your preference so if you like the old gray and black one, it is not lost and gone forever like Clementine.

I had hoped to liveblog the waterfall of information coming back from the 24 states holding primary elections or related events today. But Super Tuesday will have to take second priority to some personal matters. I may live blog some of the late results but probably will not get back before midnight; some results will be coming in at that point from the West Coast but tonight's activities involve (responsible, restrained consumption with food of) beer with a difficult-to-reach colleague and friend in DC. Hence I will probably be quite tired and beyond liveblogging. If I have the energy and I do some liveblogging, you know where to find me....

Due to a proliferation of comments bearing only commercial, not philosophic, value, anonymous comments are suspended temporarily. When the wave of V!a9r4 ads passes, we will resume anonymous commenting.

UPDATE (1/18): I have allowed anonymous commenting subject to approval queue, to keep comments intellectual rather than commercial and ph4rmac3utIc4L. Registered users should be able to comment at will.