Like the journeymen of old, I have packed up my tools and traveled far from home to practice my craft. Unlike the journeymen of old, I can go home every weekend.

So, I have a new cube, a new team, and a room at the nearby Extended Stay America. As I get settled, I'll write more on a few subjects familiar to the thousands of other software developers who find themselves in similar circumstances:

• Work/Life balance when your life is there, you're here, and you bill by the hour (i.e., the importance of finding a good brewpub);
• Why East Bumble pays better than Chicago or New York;
• Agile software development on two cups of coffee a day; and
• How to feel peaceful at O'Hare first thing Monday morning.

At this precise moment, however, I need to obtain a Brita pitcher and a clock with a radio (do I really want to have to futz with streaming audio just to hear Morning Edition?) from the local Target. Then, I'm off to find a brewpub.

I'm in Nashua, N.H. starting a new project tomorrow, so I'm too pooped to write about anything interesting today.

Anne reports that Heather (below), from Saturday's adoption event, is still available, though her brothers Harrison and McCartney have new homes.

We went to the PAWS adoption event in Winnetka yesterday, and came this close to stealing the puppies. McCartney would have been one of them:

The best governor we've got claims he didn't know the Daily Show interview was a spoof when he sat down:

"It was going to be an interview on contraceptives...that's all I knew about it," Blagojevich, laughingly [sic], told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a story for Thursday's editions. "I had no idea I was going to be asked if I was 'the gay governor.'"

Interviewer Jason Jones pretended to stumble over Blagojevich's name before calling him "Gov. Smith." He later asked if Blagojevich was "the gay governor."

The Daily Show segment aired earlier this month.

In unrelated news, former Chicago Alderman Edwin Eisendrath is running in next month's Democratic primary against Gov. Smith.

Molly Ivins, on congressional reform:

Tom DeLay gets indicted, and all the Republicans can think of is a $20 gift ban. Forget the people talking about "lobby reform." The lobby does not need to be reformed, the Congress needs to be reformed. This is about congressional corruption, and it is not limited to the surface stuff like taking free meals, hotels and trips. This is about corruption that bites deep into the process of making laws in the public interest. The root of the rot is money (surprise!), and the only way to get control of the money is through public campaign financing.

You don't ask the local wolf pack to reform sheep-herding.

Josh Marshall poses this astute question:

Isn't offshoring port management and security sort of like offshoring the shore?