Obama likely to pick Gary Locke as Commerce Secretary.

Third times a charm, right? First he picked Gov. Bill Richardson for the job but due to this little thing where a grand jury is investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts in his state he had to withdraw. We thought the pick was done when Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, was picked but he backed out a week after accepting the position. Gregg cited "irresolvable conflicts" with the policies of the Democratic president. So now we find ourselves with former Washington Governor Gary Locke, a Democrat, who was the nation's first Chinese-American governor when he served two terms in the Washington statehouse from 1997 to 2005.

For those of you wondering what the Commerce Secretary is in charge of, here it is: "Commerce secretary is typically not one of the more high-profile jobs in any administration. As head of the department, the secretary oversees agencies responsible for the once-a-decade census, for oceans policy and for many aspects of international trade, among other things." Quite a mix.

Oh and President Obama is still in search of a health and human services secretary since Tom Daschle had to withdraw due to tax problems.

I'm just wondering if there are any politicians who haven't been linked to any scandals...Locke was briefly linked to the scandal over foreign contributions to President Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign.

This past Saturday, I went on the last ride I'll do before heading to New Zealand. It was a beautiful day in which I stayed dry but also got to take off quite a few layers such as arm warmers, knee warmers, shoe covers... I don't remember the last ride I did where I was not only warm but dry. Also tried out the aero helmet that I'll be using during Ironman. My buddy Xavier is lending me his.

Can you relate?

Tour De California

Love the Tom Daschle-Christian Bale mashup on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Check out 4:02 into the show. http://bit.ly/yqPkQ

Calvin and Hobbes were foretelling the future 15 years ago.

I'm sure many of you have heard of the job opening for the "Greatest Job in the World" It is a position to be a professional tourist on one of Australia's islands for 6 months or so. I have a friend applying for the position and think it would be awesome if you clicked on this link and gave her a rating of 5 stars. Here is also the video from youtube but to vote you need to click on this link.

Johnnys got a new look. A month until Ironman New Zealand and I'm much more aerodynamic. The faux hawk was fairly aero but shaved head is just a tad smoother. No more having to worry about product.

Gmail Offline

I noticed today in my settings menu under "Labs" that the Gmail Offline option is available to me. I'm really excited about this as I originally downloaded Thunderbird on my Mac just for this reason. I don't always have internet and now it won't be as big a deal as I always have emails to catch up on and reply to. Look forward to using Gmail Offline.