Living Large at Casa Guarino

So the Guarinos have treated themselves pretty well lately, and, right about now, it feels nice.

Thanks to a sweet offer, we dumped the hard lines and got wifi, allowing me to sit in my overstuffed chair, in the flannel, blogging with my feet on the ottoman. Nice indeed.

The bigger reason for my joy is that Heidi is just a great wife. See, we decided last year to change the nature of our wedding anniversaries a bit - opting to change the gift for him and gift for her stuff to a gift for us. We figured birthdays, xmas, Mother's/Father's Day gave us enough alone gifts - we wanted treats we could both enjoy.

Last year, for anniversary four, we bought a big ole bed. No comments, please. This year, Heidi somehow let me talk her into a 37-inch HD for our fifth anniversary (by the way, it's noted that you didn't send a card, I'm keeping a list).

But, oh the glory of it. Now I sit, on said chair, with said ottoman, blogging on the wifi, watching the Sox/Yanks in HD beauty from The Stadium. I don't even really care that the Sox are losing.

My question is this - what have they been doing wrong all these years with the TVs? I mean, HD just takes things to a level that I, for one, couldn't quite imagine before. Just how cheap and poorly made were those old screens and tubes? The answer is obvious, but still a bit troubling considering how much we all sank into TVs, VCRs, DVDs, etc.

But the past is where it belongs. My future involves some ice cream and the DVR'd two-hour finale of "24" we still haven't watched as soon as the wife finishes up a phone call. Time to ditch the computer. Wifi doesn't come with ice cream cleanup yet.

Yet.

Good times, good times.

Early Ouchies Hurt Too

All this talk about the early, early presidential campaign has clearly gotten to John McCain.

He must be laughing at the pundits who say the mere fact that the campaign started a year too early meant it would be a bit more tempered, a bit more sedate through these 'tween months leading up to the fireworks late this year in advance of the January primary fiesta. Today, McCain put the hard in hard-chargin'.

This courtesy of ABC's "The Note," now providing an early look at tomorrow's news with a "Sneak Peek" feature.

In a phone conference with conservative bloggers, McCain all but unloaded on former Gov. Mitt Romney. No, strike that, he unloaded. The topic, of all things, immigration ... that long-predicted third rail of the 08 cycle. McCain was asked about Romney's new ads criticizing the immigration reform bill McCain is championing in the Senate, ABC reported.

"Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes," McCain said of Romney’s position on immigration. "Maybe he can get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard."

Wowchie, that's an ouchie.

Will early ouchies hurt? Yes, yes they will. I think the problem with conventional wisdom on this stuff right now is that people - not all of them, but the ones who vote in primaries - are paying attention. And this kind of critique does a great job not just of cutely reminding folks that Romney is a phoney hunter and that Romney had illegal immigrants mowing his lawn but it does a phenominal job of reinforcing the growing national consensus that Romney is completely full of crap.

So, for those of us who love a little bare-knuckled politics with their heaping portions of policy, I say bring it on.