Ridiculous, amusing, inconvenient and even plain worrying things tend to happen in the lead-up to Important Events For Which You Have Planned. Sometimes a certain amount of irony is involved, sometimes it’s Murphy’s law.
I have selected four examples of these sorts of events from today. There were many more, of course, but here are four:
- Pia goes to hospital, thankfully returning this evening. Still in pain, but better.
- The caterers realise they’ve double-booked, and somehow manage to re-book us with their competitor on the day before our (thus far 70 person) event.
- Standards Australia announce their OOXML decision, prompting discussion, phone calls from journalists, etc.
- The batteries in my keyboard and mouse die at exactly the same time. During the Microsoft Technology Summit last year, like Luis, I bought one of the only things worth buying at the Redmond campus employee shop: A Microsoft keyboard (and mouse).
Today, we push pixels. Tomorrow, we move mountains! 
I’m a MS keyboard & mouse loyalist (although I miss the ergonomic w/ integrated USB HUB), I’ve also found that the wireless keyboard & mouse eat batteries less than the Logitechs here, even after accounting for the fact that the keyboards have 4 AA instead of the 2 in the Logitechs.