Wednesday

I'm giving  a nod to a local girl today.  Here's to 2 as Daughter of the Day.  The Winniferous just gets in the picture. 

I've taken to listening to the Modern Country channel on DirecTV (814) in recent weeks when there's been no games on or when the other shows didn't peak my interest.  Such was the situation tonight with the Cardinals' game cancelled.  As I worked my way through the clicker, I hit on one of those music-marketing channels, this one selling Classic Country.  I've been listening to it for the last hour.  John Schneider (Dukes of Hazzard) is the host along with some gal I've never heard of.  She keeps talking about Schneider as a music star?  Since when?

Anyway, one of the featured singers is Barbara Mandrel.  She had a few years in the '80's when she was the hottest thing going, had several No. 1 hits, and her own weekly TV variety show.  (I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool )  She was a fav of mine.  A check of Wikipedia proves that she is a couple years older than me.  Funny how memories of folks we never see, are stuck on the visions of old.  Many of these singers are still alive.  But the CD package is being sold with film clips from the 70's and 80's.  Funny how they can re-master the sound recordings to better-than-original condition.  Not so much so for the actual singers.  Hmmmm.

The pictures that I posted yesterday were obviously from NYC.  The two of the "occupy" crowd give you a sense of the relatively small size of the park in the news.  The trees were from an area in Central Park.  And that's 2's friend Amanda.  The final pic was one I snapped of the tourists getting their own pictures taken with the mounted cops at the corner of Wall and Broad.  Tourists are nuts.

Another day of note here.  The RCL was in the house.  It's always a good day coming home to freshly cleaned living spaces.  (Interestingly, my pal Bill's spouse had her antennae up one day a month or so ago when I was talking to Bill about my RCL, and later inquired if I would share her number.  I did, and now there's another recurring job on the RCL's Bettendorf schedule.  I'm definitely a trend-setter.)

Our local Augie basketballer's are opening the season ranked 2 and 3 in the D3 polls.  Pretty heady stuff.  But they should be good with all the talent coming back from the Elite Eight team of last year.  (Of course, they'll be 0-1 out of the gate as their first game next week is at D1 Valpariso in a Christians versus the Lions match.)  2 and I will be ready for hotdogs in two weeks.

I completed my first Kindle book during my trip East.  The best feature of the device is size and ease of carry.  (Is that two features?)  I can fit it in my murse.  The biggest down-side at this point is the "oops" touches that move the page or send me back to Home.  I'm sure that that is just a usage thing.  I'll definitely be downloading more things for travel times.

And I took a couple of test drives on 3's iPad last weekend.  Not sure if that toy will be in my future.  We go through our hardware upgrade at the office in two weeks and my laptop is also being swapped-out for a newer/sleaker device.  My biggest complaint about my current laptop is that it feels like the equivalent of a bag-phone from the '80's.  So if the new one is a decent improvement, I think I'll save my shekels.  (An iPad would not be a substitute for the laptop.  I'd incur the acquisition cost as well as the additional monthly access fees.  And that just doesn't make any sense for a man on my wine budget.)

All for tonight.  I'm headed over to DSM at oh-dark-hundred for a 0900 meeting.  Make your Thursday a good one.

BCOT