Shoot. Today I am on strike.

This morning I decided to post here an article describing the details of a new result just approved by the CMS collaboration, the observation of a nice signal of phi meson decays. It is a result of which I am quite proud, and although not really a big deal, it is a nice way to start the new year, while we wait for more data from the LHC.

I had just finished writing the 200-lines piece describing the likelihood fit to the mass distribution, when I decided to save the draft with the "publish" box unmarked, to give it a last reading before submitting it. And the crazy web interface logged me off the site instead!

"Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints."

Alfred Hitchcock

Note to self. The list of countries to avoid visiting grows in 2010 with the entry of Ireland, a green country where people speak with a funny accent and drink good spirits. These are not at all reasons to avoid a visit. Instead, I find it sufficient the new law in force since January 1st against blasphemy. The law condemns the publishing or expression of content offensive or insulting religions (not just the Catholic one) with fines up to 25,000 euros.

Rather than writing down my new year's resolution, I find it more constructive to look back at the past year and draw some conclusions on it. I have already done some analysis concerning this blog in a recent post; this one is a more personal view of what happened to me in 2009, and you might well consider it not interesting at all for you -but it is my blog, and it belongs here.

So, let me start with my family. In 2009 neither I, nor my wife or my children, had any major health problem. That is for sure an important thing of which I consider myself quite lucky. Heck, I did not even have to run to the emergency room once! (If you have small kids you know this does happen).