Mom update: she’s sitting up, walking, and doing everything she’s supposed to be able to do the day after her operation. Things are looking like they are solidly on progress for her recovery.

We had a slight mishap where the toilet backed up late last night and I didn’t manage to clear it until tonight after we got home. Is any simple event more nerve-wracking then clogging a toilet while visiting someone else’s place? It also meant Katie and I both kind of had to hold it for extended periods of time. No worries! We persevered.

I noticed on the subway that while not everyone had an iPod, almost all people that had any sort of electronic music device had an iPod of some sort. How did Apple do that? How did they manage to corner a market which had relatively strong competition with players that did not necessarily have the most features or the cheapest prices? How did they manage to generate enormous waves of positive word-of-mouth, a large youth hipness quotient, and turn the public’s attention to style over power?

It’s incredible that with their Mini line, they’re no longer even simply advertising them as MP3 players that you should buy. They’re advertising them as the second (or third?) iPod that you need, to complete your collection and complement your outdoor activities when you want something smaller than your shiny and slick iPod Touch but something a bit more controllable than your oh-so-tiny iPod Shuffle. Oh, and they come in so many cute colors!

How did Apple control all our minds so effectively? And where can I learn to do that?

We also saw Mike Yin briefly tonight. Although he had tickets to a UCB show, we managed to see his place, eat some floppy pizza, and watch this week’s episode of Lost. It was fun and comfortable, even if the pizza was a bit too floppy for Katie’s liking.

It snowed this morning. We hadn’t seen snow since we left Pittsburgh. It was nice, while it lasted. The sun came out soon after, and melted it.

OK, I really should go to the bathroom now. Delaying any longer may simply be unsafe.