Back from a weekend in DC where I played my first rounds of golf this year with Ken, who was kind enough to put me up. I took the Washington Deluxe bus down, on Eleanor's recommendation, in lieu of the Chinatown buses. $35 round trip, reasonably clean coach buses and on-time performance. Can't complain, though I was riding during off-peak days. Riding buses from town to town, I always feel like the Bill Bixby Bruce Banner, or John Rambo from First Blood.

Beautiful weather all weekend. Spring is here, though my golf game is not. My highlight was hitting a 310 yard drive, aided by a slight downhill slope and a really dry fairway. We played Tom Doak's Beachtree Golf Course and Worthington Manor, the 2004 U.S. Open Qualifying Course. Both are good deals. Beachtree is links style on the front nine, and through the woods on the back nine. The fairways were wide open, greens in perfect condition. The front nine is tough. Worthington Manor is a challenging course. Very few fairways are flat. The entire course undulates, including the greens, and the pin placements were nasty. I can see why they use that as a U.S. Open Qualifying Course.

I also had a free afternoon to stroll around the Mall and see the sights. It's been a long time since I toured the monuments, and apparently this is a prime time to do so with the cherry blossoms in bloom. I must have walked nearly six or seven miles that day, across bridges, through museums, around reservoirs and fountains, up and down escalators and hills. I'll try and post a few pics from my visit when I've finished unpacking.

Until then, a quick tour of the world, URL style...

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger elected the 265th pope

He was, from what I'd read, the prohibitive favorite. The election process is steeped in tradition and ritual. The longest election (conclave, to use official terminology) lasted two years, nine months and two days and elected Gregory X.

Gregory, not surprisingly, wrote new rules to speed things up. If no one was elected within three days, he decreed, rations were to be cut to one meal a day. After five more days, the cardinals would be restricted to bread and water.

Good for Gregory for cutting through the red tape.

Apple announces Final Cut Studio, including Final Cut Pro 5, Soundtrack Pro, Motion 2, and DVD Studio Pro 4

Time for me to start eating ramen again for a month.

Prose Before Hos

Word.

Hallelujah, Maria Sharapova turns 18 today

Men everywhere no longer have to feel guilty about their thoughts. Oh, what am I saying, of course they should.

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith tickets are already on sale, though if you're reading this you may already be out of luck for the midnight first screenings

Buy tix from Movietickets.com or Fandango. Watch the new TV ads, which contain lots of Jedi on Jedi action. Battle of the Heroes, the first track from the John Williams soundtrack, is available at iTunes.

Zabasearch is creepy

Punch in a first and last name and a state of residence and find address, phone number, and birth month/year for a whole lot of people. Of course, if you really wanted this type of info, you could obtain it (probably the same way private investigators and Zaba did, through public records), but the ease of type-and-click seems like a stalker's dream.