Today marks the official close of the New York State Golden Snowball competition, where Syracuse, Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, and Binghamton vie to see who got the most snow during the past season. As usual, Syracuse takes home the trophy with 149.6 inches (nearly four feet ahead of second place Rochester). Not that we’re necessarily done with snow for the year, of course.

President Obama gets a crack at appointing a Supreme Court Justice, with word that David Souter will be stepping down at the end of the current term. I’d much rather see Fat Tony or Clarence the Clown retire first, but those asses will probably outlive me. Still, it’ll be interesting to see who Obama appoints (I’m personally rooting for Angela Davis; she’s not a lawyer, but so what?), and how much of a hassle the Republicans give him. Anybody wanna bet against the filibuster becoming an acceptable practice regarding judicial appointments again?

As part of the new NYS budget, the excise tax on wine is going up by 30 cents a gallon today, meaning a box of Granny’s favorite wine will jump by 40 cents or so. The excise tax on beer will also increase by 3 cents a gallon (as if it wasn’t already too damn expensive).

Back to regular work today, after four days of training. Too bad, I was kind of getting used to going in an hour later and actually taking an hour for lunch. Seems a shame to go in for one day; by the time I water my plants and sort through my e-mail, it’ll be time to go home again.

May Day! Workers Unite!