BEANTOWN, VEGAS AND PARTS UNKNOWN

So I've had a busy couple of weeks. Two weeks ago I was in Boston for Claire's wedding. The Red Sox weren't playing, but I did get to go on a tour of Fenway, which is actually pretty cool. Sat on top of the Green Monster. Got to sit in the press box. (BLIND ITEM: Which Red Sox beat reporter has a Yankees logo drawn on top of his nametag?) Saw Bunker Hill, the Old North Church and walked the "Freedom Trail." Ate some seafood at the Barking Crab. Got to hang out with some college friends. Oh yeah ... and the wedding. All and all a stellar trip. Anyway, you can check out a slideshow of photos from the weekend if you'd like.

Then last weekend I was in Vegas for Sal's bachelor party. You can also check out a slideshow from that trip here ... however there is a certain lag in the photographic timeline from late Saturday night to around 2pm-ish on Sunday. I'm having my staff investigate why there were no photos taken during that period. Some reports suggest there was a bottle of Bombay Sapphire involved, but I think it would be inappropriate for me to comment on an ongoing investigation at this time.

I can, however, report that Sal and I spent Saturday afternoon at the Bellagio Spa. That place rocks. What with the slippers and the robes and the massages and the steam showers and the balconies overlooking the pool and such. On Sunday, Matt, Kevin, T-Ball and I ensconced ourselves in a poolside cabana at the Bellagio. Those cabanas also rock. To quote Ferris, if you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. They're so choice.

MEANWHILE: I don't know if you happened to see the New York Post's front page last week, but for the Zarqawi story their headline was "GOTCHA!" with a picture of Zarqawi's corpse. Oh, and then there was a cartoon speech bubble coming out of his mouth that said "Warm up the virgins." You heard me.

But I had a brief moment of fame on the Internets a couple days ago as a post I left on Newsdesigner was the No. 2 search result for "warm up the virgins" on Google. Awesome. (Sadly, it's since dropped to No. 5.)

IN OTHER NEWS: Bill Gates said he will soon step down from day-to-day operations at Microsoft so he can focus on his charity work. A Seattle Times story quoted him as saying, "with great wealth comes great responsibility." Not gonna lie: I think somebody was watching a little too much Spiderman on his XBox last week ...