Sunday...UPDATED

Well, Winter has returned to my world.  It started snowing when I was in Gold's this morning and has been coming down here in the TC like a blizzard all day long.  If 2 and I get back to our hotel tonight, I'll be surprised.  I mean, the drifts in 1's little cul du sac are already enough to keep us inside.  Not sure how far South the snow extends.  Nice that our departure wasn't scheduled until tomorrow.

So the Daytona 500 ended, finally, after lots or crashes and restarts with the winner being the youngest driver in the field, with one of the oldest teams.  Many of the favorites got caught up in early accidents, and I switched away from watching most of the last 2/3's of the race.  Caught the final few laps.  Good day for NASCAR.  This new kid can run with the big dogs.  With Daytona out of the way, regular racin' can start next week.

I wasn't the most attentive grandfather yesterday afternoon to 1.01. I had to get my entry in by 1700 to the writing contest that I have entered the last three years.  The prompt was issued on Friday afternoon at 1700 and there was a 24 hour time limit.  (No time to write on Friday night in DSM, but 2 took some notes for me on the morning drive to MSP.)  This year's prompt was, "Probably 40% of his life...gone.  Wasted on a project that could never be duplicated".  I used the interview format from the blog and had Bob Costas talk on his radio show with a former major league second baseman who had written a book about his loss of the ability to make the throw to first base.  We'll see if the judges have any room for sports in their hearts.

Amazon delivered the goods and 4 received the three travel books that I had ordered and direct-shipped to her.  Why would a person buy these things in a store for face price?

As the girls can attest, I'm no Tim McGraw fan.  (Don't Take The Girl could be the worst country song evah!)  But I kind of like his recent single, It Felt Good on My Lips.  Harmless lyrics, and a good beat.  I'm wondering if they reduced the loudness of his voice on the cut, because it almost sounds like they've purposefully tried to ratchet him down a couple notches on this one.  Check it out.

Another song that I have liked recently is the collaboration that brought Alan Jackson on to a song with the Zac Brown Band,  As She's Walking Away.  Kind of like the Five O'Clock Somewhere song he did with Jimmy Buffet a few years back.

More Later.  1.1 has dinner ready for the stranded crew.

UPDATED....

Shockingly, 2 and I made it back to the hotel.  1.1 had done some reconnoitering outside after dinner and had talked to some other folks who reported that the main streets weren't too bad.  He had shoveled the snow from around the Buick, and I was able to get to the street, and then to the arterial to our hotel.  Over a foot of new snow!  Lots of plowing needed over night.

Hope we can get home tomorrow!


BCOT

Thursday

Just a few lines tonight.  The best laid plans got washed away this evening with an unexpected dinner.  After a 5 o'clock tax appointment that hadn't made it to my calendar.  No spin class for you, LT!

60 degrees here today.  70 in Lincoln.  Double suite!  Even if only for a day.  All of the snow except the piles is gone.  And boy, do we have pot holes!

Looking forward to the weekend.  2 and I will do din-din in DM tomorrow night with our good friends, then take off for the TC early on Saturday.  Very curious on the changes in 1.01 since Christmas.  Watch for reports and pics here while we're on the road.  Hope the forecast for iffy weather on Monday stays as rain.

We marked another level on the technology ladder at the office today: a wireless router now allows us to use our laptops in our lower-level conference rooms where my pal Bill and I don't have hard-wired connections to our own network.  I had been able to get to my desktop from my Verizon card on this laptop, but Bill's laptop isn't similarly connected.  Everything is possible these days.  For a fee.

I was in a discussion over dinner about some recent local civil law suits where the attorney's for the plaintiff's have been quoted several times in the papers about how the complaints for damages are "not about the money".  It's about justice.  Right.  Uh, never forget this basic rules of lawyer-speak:  when they say, "It's not about the money."  Always remember, it's about the money!

All for today.  More from I-80 West tomorrow.

BCOT

Wednesday

Another warm day here.  I had a long-sleeved dry-fit over a polo golf shirt, and didn't put on my coat for lunch or an afternoon errand.  I like it. 

One of the items of big news in sports this week has been the issuance of the SI Swimsuit edition.  We still get the magazine at the office, and the cheesecake came in yesterday's mail.  I've lost almost complete interest.  Almost.  Not quite.  (I did reduce her cleavage for this fam-friendly site.)

I've endured all day the mis-match color combination of my black dry-fit and my previously-thought-to-be-black-but-actually-dark-navy polo shirt.  This is a dilemma that I regularly face in the mornings; that is, the telling the difference between black and navy shirts (since most of my golf shirts are either black or navy).  The anomaly today was that the selected polo shirt was specifically purchased as a black shirt last month at Grayhawk.  By me.  And I think that I have worn it a couple of times since then.  As a black shirt.  I am a man of many talents.  Color distinctions not one of them.

The half-price wine night last night at Biaggi's was a good time.  The favorite bottle was a Jordan Cabernet.  Even at half price, it was a little pricey, but it was a nice treat.  Very smooth.  Modest crowd compared to last year when they must have done a little more publicity.  But there had been the long Valentine's weekend.  And I think that they had a "Wine Dinner" on the schedule for one night this week as well (like seven courses?).  Even wine snobs have a limit.

My earlier NASCAR prediction for Sunday's Daytona 500 Dale Earnhardt Lap 3 commemoration and Junior leading the field is hereby withdrawn.  He wrecked his primary car in practice today and he's now in his back-up, starting (by rule) at the rear of the field. I don't think that they'll shuffle him forward for Lap 3.

We are a clan of readers.  The Border's bankruptcy filing today was expected, I guess, but it's a pretty sobering reality check for bricks-and-mortar providers of goods that may be destined for the Internet.  I mean, I still enjoy meandering through the Border's stores, but I rarely buy a book there.  My recent excursion on Amazon is a perfect example of the modern consumer.

Blockbuster Video is still trying to operate in bankruptcy.  Again, bricks-and-mortar. 

Lots of comments by the girls on the Valentine's Day posting.  http://www.thehoranies.com/  I've never been a big fan of the day, but I don't absolutely dislike it in the vein that I dislike Halloween.  I'm thinking that most men past a certain age are just trying to avoid trouble on that day.  Some are more successful than others in that quest.

I'm ending my day on a bit of a bummer.  I stopped at the Cook Hospice house on the way home to visit with the family of an all-time Top Ten client who is spending his last few hours there.  Not a young man.  Pancreatic cancer.  Ugh.  I had to open a top-shelf Louis Martini when I got home. 

But a forgotten bonus coming home?  RCL day.  Suite!

Make Thursday a good one.

BCOT

Tuesday

Just a little help to RevKev.  I ran this through my picture manager program.  Never figured out how to run pic's through the Comments sections though.  http://www.camperkev.com/

Cute card. 

Monday

Happy Valentine's Day to the Daughters of the Day!!!  And to The Chosen One!!!

Sunday

Wow! Almost Spring-like here today.  Getting close to 50 degrees out there.  Suite!  I'm almost tempted to fire up the grill this evening.

Before I forget...Happy tax-Valentine's Day to 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1.01!  Your cards are not in the mail.  Maybe later this week.  Or not.

So we are now six weeks into the new year and we are already having "empty" bikes in spin classes.  At yesterday's 9AM class and at this morning's 10AM session, both normally max-attendance times, there were actually several open positions.  I know that that Saturday class had some drop off when they purposefully rescheduled a "Body Works" class for the same time as opposed to the following hour where they had it before Christmas.  And there's a special "marathon" cycling program that started this weekend that is designed to grow to a two-hour class over a six week period.  But bottom line?  I think the "resolution" folks are off the wagon.  Which isn't a bad thing for us "regulars".

I followed up today on an urge that I have almost every Sunday and visited the Camera Corner to chat them up about the equipment in their weekend ad.  I took along my mini-digi and basically asked one of the experienced guys whom I have dealt with previously if there was a substantial upgrade available in the new stuff in my price-range (under $200).  He considered my inquiry for a few minutes as we looked over some of the units that another customer was inspecting, and his honest answer was, "No".  Hmmmm.  That probably means I'll spend more at some later date.  But for now, I'm keeping the powder dry.  Another not-bad result for the day.

This local new car dealers hosted their annual Iowa-Illinois (or is it Illinois-Iowa?) Car Show this weekend in Davenport.  My pal Roy and I have historically made it over there one of the days, but not this year. It's a poor step-child to the shows in Chicago or Detroit, and we just couldn't crank up the requisite enthusiasm.  Besides, we're not exactly green-hybrid-save-the-planet types.  Au contraire.  We probably qualify for the Neanderthal classification.  Bring on that Cadillac CTS with the 600hp Corvette engine!

Yes, NASCAR 2011 did kick off last night with the Bud Shootout.  (I only watched pieces of it, but there's definitely going to be different racing this year, certainly at Daytona and Talladiga, the super-speedways where breaks are rarely used). Then there was pole qualifying today, with Junior and the 24 securing the front row spots.  The rest of the 43 car field will be set by the Gatorade Duel 150's on Thursday.  The 500 is next Sunday.

An additional NASCAR note.  This Daytona 500 is the 10th anniversary of the death of Dale Earnhardt (senior) and the planned tribute is for there to be a "Lap 3 Moment of Silence" over the entire racecourse (except for the roar of the cars, of course).  Understand that Dale Sr. drove the #3 car, and that to this day, many fans will stand during the third lap of any NASCAR race and hold up three fingers.  I was putting it out there even before qualifying that there would be an agreement among the drivers to bring Junior to the head of the field for that third lap, regardless of his starting position.  Trust me, with him on the pole, there will be no racing until lap four.

Here's a little Top Ten List of Cures for the Mid-Winter Blues, all do-able, by all readers:

1.  Set up a calendar or chart to count down to a warm weather event.
2.  Figure out a bar-b-que  for one of these non-frigid weekends.
3.  Buy a box of pop cycles.  (One of my fav's!)
4.  Run/walk outside.  (A lay-up, I know.)
5.  Watch golf rather than basketball.
6.  Write a note or thank-you card to surprise a friend.
7.  Buy some vegetable seeds to start garden plants.  (Chia pet, not so much.)

8.  Read a beach junk-book/magazine, or rent a similar movie.

9.  Sort through and clean off that pile of mail/stuff on the counter.

10.Not sure if one of these is in my future, but try something similar the next time you're out and about.

Busy week ahead for me.  The plan is for 2 and I to head to the TC to check out 1.01 next weekend, so I need to be productive in advance of my departure.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Friday

Glad that the week is winding down.  The stresses of more volume on my "to-do" list makes for less fun at the office.  It is amazing how much it takes to get certain projects "out-the-door".  I know that I'm not the most efficient person around, but I think that it's more than just me.  The challenge of getting from "here to there" with some tasks is just hard-wired to be a slog up-hill.  Whatever.

4 relates that there was a ripple in the force at her station when a viewer or two called in this week to object to the on-air use of the term (word/acronym?) snafu.  I didn't even bother to Wikipedia it, but I suspect that it has either a military or government-service origin: Situation Normal; All F***ed Up.  Interesting.  Usage of the term has been fairly common in my lifetime, among various social strata, without particular unease.  I'd say that for the military or government-service, usage is probably more accurate than not in describing daily activities.

I've actually been more uncertain of propriety in the use of "WTF" in current day communications.  The LSM (sorry, Left Coast) got a little huffy after Palin's needle at the Big O for his Win The Future slogan in the SOTU speech.  In my opinion, that would have been a fine observation at the Washington Press Club roast, but it probably didn't need to make the open wires that following day.

My shoulder is already improving.  I met with a physical therapist this morning and will be doing some stretching exercises over the next few days to get that range of motion back to a more normal setting.  All good news.

I did have a run-in with the PT office administration yesterday after I made the appointment.  They are so bureaucratic and fixated with procedure that I couldn't handle the third call that came to me about the appointment.  I was in the middle of a separate problem here at the office with a couple of Compliance people at my broker/dealer who were obviously not talking to each other , and who both were young and fixated with their own procedures.  And the PT folks kept calling me Paul, which means they hadn't read the chart.  And they were rushed because my appointment was the next morning and they had "all this stuff" they needed from me.  I was not a pleasant patient.

Headed out for Friday wine.  Maybe a little more here later.

I'm guessing Mubarak was holding out for a better retirement package.  That yacht on the Med did it.

BCOT

Wednesday

Watching "The Puffy Shirt/Low Talker" episode from Seinfeld.  Too funny.

This was a good day for LtPC.  I had my appointment with the shoulder guy this morning figuring that I was headed down the road toward MRI analysis, surgery and 5 months of rehab for my right rotator cuff.  The orthopaedic surgeon (a college frat brother of my pal Jake), did a very thorough examination, and concluded with 100% certainty that I had a "frozen" shoulder.  The solution was a cortisone shot, a little physical therapy, and some home exercises.  Wonderful news!  The shot was a great start and I'll get in with the PT guy tomorrow.

That news was slightly tempered by a couple of ripples in the force produced by a hanger-on to my pal Roy.  So many people want to spend his money.  And he's not very good at just saying, "No!"

I have at least three projects that "have to" be done tomorrow.  Ugh.

Six months, almost exactly, to Bilbao.  The math is interesting.  Number of spin classes.  Number of blog entries.  Nights away from home.  Other trips.  What will 1.01 be doing by then.  All good thoughts.

Make Thursday a good one.

BCOT

Tuesday

Back in the Deep Freeze here for a couple of days.  Not sure if we got out of single digits today. 

So the die is cast.  The flight schedule for Spain is set for August.  Hello Bilbao!  I'll let 4 work through the details for further publication.  But we will be spending some time at The Guggenheim Museum.

I can disclose that we're flying out of Moline rather than Chicago like 2 and I did for Italy.  I just concluded from a not-too-narrow marginal cost analysis on the Moline segment that the hassle of the drive to ORD, the associated fees and the net time difference combined to make a local departure an easy choice.

My absence here yesterday was due to me joining my pal Roy's small party at the Bass Street Chop House last night to celebrate his brother's successful angioplasty last week.  (I know, angioplasty and Steak House might be medically incompatible for a heart patient, but it's Roy and John, and conventional wisdom is an afterthought, at best.)  The hit of the night was a Frog's Leap Cabernet.  I'm guessing that it was $100+ at the restaurant. ( And a Grgich Hills cab wasn't bad.)  Love going out with Roy when he's picking the wine and picking up the tab.

A humorous little anecdote: on the Frog's Leap cork, rather than reflecting the name of the winery or a logo, one word in block letters printed on opposite sides of the cork read, "RIBBIT!".

The bartender at Bass Street is the former bartender at Biaggi's, whom Corporate let go when she read an ID wrong in a undercover "sting" and gave a drink to an underage patron.  She did tell me last night that Bass Street is doing "half-price-bottles" on Friday nights this Winter.  It's a good wine list.  I may have to make a visit.

In the same vein, Biaggi's is running their February 15th half-price wine night next week.  Last year, we showed up by chance on February 15th, and the place was packed to the rafters.  We had no clue what was going on.  With advance notice this year, they already have the "Reserved" sign going up on my table at 4:30.  We may be talking "cab" come Tuesday.

Spin in the AM.  Hope everyone has a great Wednesday.

BCOT

Sunday....UPDATED

Had to make a change in the Home Page photo again.  That snow is depressing!  I considered the Coors Light twins in honor of my Big Game (non-Super Bowl) party, but why needlessly poke the sexual harrassment pinata?

The Augie game last night was a bummer, but it just goes to show that you need to bring your game every night.  Way too many empty possessions (15 turnovers), and no solid answer to Carthage's zone defense.  Not too difficult to project that Augie will see that 2-3 zone (or varieties thereof) the rest of the year.  The boys will need to consistently make some three's to make the other teams pay for packing it in in the paint.

The Winniferous and I did fine during her visit.  Probably 8 miles of walk/running over the 23 hours she was here.  But she's way too needy for me.  I'm thinking that 2 may spoil her.

They've been making noise this week from Dallas that the Super Bowl belongs only in warm-weather climates.  That observations begs the question, "What qualifies as a warm-weather climate?"  I'm thinking that Glendale would qualify, but the Phoenix Open has been fighting frost delays all this week at the TPC course in Scottsdale.  Does Orlando make the cut?  Iowa fans froze last year at the Orange Bowl.  I'm guessing that the reports are all being fed by the San Diego Convention Bureau. Maybe New Orleans.

A bit of conversation in recent days at coffee has been the opening of a new shop just down the street from my regular Starbuck's.  Dunn Brothers is a chain (not one I have heard of), and the local franchisee is a client of my pal Bill.  The shop serves some fresh sandwiches in addition to all of the coffee drinks.  I'm sure that they will pull some customers, and they have a drive-thru which some people like.  The owners are good people.  I hope that they make it.

4's post from yesterday mentioned some of our tenetative travel plans for August.  Bilbao, Spain looks like the preferred port-of-entry for our trip.  Pau (pronounced "Po") may be our staging point for our venture into the Pyrenees from the French side of the mountains.  Lourdes will be one of the towns we check out, maybe on bikes.  Airline tickets may be purchased as early as this week.

I'm going ahead and posting this with the idea that I'll add a little more later this evening. 

LATER...

I failed to watch much of the Big Game, or the commercials.  So Green Bay wins.  Does this mean anything to anyone?  Does anyone care?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Next up on the national sports stage will be the progression toward March Madness.  The power conferences are now in the second half of league games, and then you have the conference tournaments, followed by The Big Dance.  Sure, there'll be a few stories on NASCAR, Tiger, and the low rumbles of Spring Training, but in the next couple of weeks, all the talk will move to, 1) Who's on the bubble?, 2) Where will Duke be seeded?, and 3) Which is really the toughest conference?  Pretty sure that I couldn't care less to the answers to those and dozens of other equally inane questions.

Had a friend/client scheduled to tour the pyramids in Egypt next week.  Cruising the Mediterranean.  Now headed to Turkey in the alternative.  All travel is a pain in the butt.  (2 may differ on that point.)  The farther you have to go, the more variables come into play.  Doubt if Richard had an uprising in Cairo on his radar screen when he made the reservations.

OK.  Off to bed.  Busy week ahead.  Lots of balls in the air this time of year.  Good luck to all.  Play some Glad Game when it seems like the lions have all the Christians on the run.

BCOT

Saturday

Just a few lines before I head over to the last regular season home game for Augie tonight.  They have four road games over the next two weeks, and if they win all or most of those games, they should then host the four-team conference tournament that third week.  Funny schedule this year.

2 is in IC tonight for a party with some of the MBA students from the Hong Kong trip.  That means that The Winniferous is the charge of the LtPC and SRH for the evening.  We did our 3.4 mile Turkey Trot training loop this afternoon, which was not bad in 30+ degree temperatures.  All but two homes on the route had the deep snow cleared, but the ice from two weeks ago was still around in lots of stretches.  I think I could see my own footprints captured from those W walks back then.

I was a hero at spin this AM.  Last month on my birthday, one of the gals let the cat out of the bag that it was my birthday, and the instructor made a big deal about, "Where are the treats?"  So I finally delivered today: a 12 ounce Poweraid for each spinner.  It doesn't matter the time, location or occasion: people like freebies.  Good class.

Wow!!! Hawks win at Indiana by a point.  A two-game win streak!  Worlds collide!

OK.  Off to Augie for the game.  Maybe more later.

BCOT

Friday

What a strange week.  Tuscan red seems to be the next move.

Weather remains a story here, but nothing extreme.  The cities are now trying to remove the snow piles from the downtown's, corners of key streets, and cul de sac's that have no place to put the snow.  And the forecast has more snow on the way.

My RCL came through today.  I actually saw her for the first time in 2-3 months.    It's always good to come home to a clean place after she has done her work.

The golf tour is in Phoenix this week.  The course is right across the street from where we normally stay in Scottsdale.  I've attended a couple of conferences over the years at the Fairmont Hotel that is on the property.  Very toney!  But we had better weather last month when we were in town than they are having this week.  They've had to delay play each day due to frost, and they won't be done until Monday.  You can get that in PHX in January.  Heck, they've had snow at that tournament in years past.

Glad to hear that 3 and Herky have booked March Madness.  That weekend will be here before you know it.

More here later.   Off to see Cal and 2 for Friday therapy.

BCOT

Thursday

Sorry for not getting anything posted today.  Busy at the office.  1730 spin after two days off.  Augie game with 2 this evening.  Augie wins by 10 against an inferior team.  Now bedtime for Bonzo.

I'll get an entry up tomorrow.

BCOT

Wednesday...UPDATED

So the weather is the story in our area today.  I changed the home page picture because it just didn't seem right to have that shot of the Arizona golf course given our current landscape.  (These pics from today really don't do justice to the storm.  The air conditioning unit is fully covered to the right of the swing in the pic above.)  Few things are open today, at least this AM.  Still trying to find an open Starbuck's.

It took me a solid hour and a half this morning to snow blow my driveway out to the street.  The drift at the street, admittedly aided by the street plows, was over three feet.  But there was a similar drift in front of my garage.  I actually had to break the drift down with a shovel before I could use the blower.  Probably the biggest single dumping of snow that we've had here for several years.

The small bit of humor out of my work was that I still managed to get stuck backing out of my driveway when I left for coffee.  Everything was so white that I lost perspective and backed into the drift oppisite the mailbox.  Fortunately, it was a single five-minute shovel job and I was then free and onto the street.

My pal Lee in C-town says that the trains are on weekend schedules and he just told his employees to work from home today.  I'm glad the The Fates had not had me scheduled to fly through O'Hare or Midway today.  My guess is that it will take a couple of days for the airports to get caught up with traffic.

BTW, what happened with the groundhog?

I'll add more here later today after the lay-of-the-land is fully disclosed.

For sure...


UPDATE...

Bunkered down now for the evening.  Other than a relatively brief project to shovel the snow pushed across my driveway entrance by the street plows, my morning clearing didn't require any repetition this afternoon.  Suite!  But they have the temperature scheduled to go down to -10 overnight, with lower wind chill, of course. 

Not sure what the scoop is, but the Hawks are up 20+ on Michigan State in IC!  Don't take this the wrong way 4, but this doesn't say much for MSU.  And there are a few empty seats in Carver-Hawkeye.

Actually, the biggest surprise for me for the day was the fact that my regular Starbuck's never opened this morning.  I can understand a late opening, but not at all?  I suppose that getting staff in was a safety issue, but it still surprises me.  (It should also be noted that the Kimberly Hy Vee deli wasn't open either, and the Devil's Glen Hy Vee had no deli service even tonight at supper time.)

I'm guessing that Gold's being closed all day ranks along side the Starbuck's situation.  I'm guessing that they could have staffed to have the place open by at least noon, but with the general advice by authorities being to stay home unless absolutely necessary, the local Gold's management had to say, "Uh, let's not be heros".

Finally, Augie used good judgement and rescheduled tonight's home game to tomorrow night.  I don't think that they had to concern themselves with "have to play" provisions in their television contracts.  Which they don't have.

Hope 3 and Herky don't have trouble with this storm system in NYC tomorrow.  Hang in there, guys.

And everybody this side of the Left Coast, in particular...

BCOT

Tuesday

I just pulled this image off of the Channel 6 website.  I think that all that blue is snow!  Looking out my window here at the office, I'd say that it's still Winter out there!

2 twittered a few minutes ago that they had sent the museum staff home...until Thursday!  We sent people home early too, but didn't make the call about tomorrow yet.  Unless they can't get the plows up my street, I'll be here when the bell rings at the NYSE.  (The Weather Channel forecast map has a big 19" smack over the QCA!)

I just checked the Davenport Gold's website and they are closing for the day at 1700 hours.  And not promising that they'll be open for the oh-dark-hundred classes.  I'm taking the Under on that one.  No spin class for LtPC.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  In this case, I'm headed downtown to visit my pal Cal who's "on call" tonight and is camped out at the Raddison.  Happy Hour it is!

More later from Maplecrest Road.

BCOT

Monday

Got the last two travel books in the mail today.  I remain impressed with how quickly the Amazon book sellers get the goods to the buyers.  I've even begun to read the books a little to get a handle on the territory where we are headed.  I' m using Mother's magnifying glass to read the small print on the maps and tables.  Either my eyes are getting worse, or the font used in these books is beyond small.

This winter storm that they have forecasted for the next couple of days remains the talk of the town.  Flurries this afternoon, and a little freezing rain tonight.  I remain a skeptic on the 8-12" that they have touted by Wednesday night.  That's the same forecast that they've given to KC and C-town! 

I just caught the end of the UConn-Duke women's game (the #'s 2 and 3 teams in the latest polls), and UConn wins by 30!!  Duke had been previously undefeated.  No wonder there's a credibility problem in women's b-ball!

I was at the women's game because I refuse to watch Two and A Half Men.  Is there any difference between the show's lead character and the idiot who plays the role?  Good 'ol Charlie gets a pass because he's entered treatment.  He's just a troubled soul, and he needs our compassion.  Hmmmm.  I wonder what they'd say if he supported a Tea Party candidate?  (That was a rhetorical question!)

Not sure what to make of the unrest in Egypt, and the impact on the global economy.  The US markets sold off on Friday, but then did a shrug today and crawled upward.  US companies have shown decent earnings, there's lots of cash on the balance sheets, and the commercial real estate refinancing problems don't seem quite as desperate as a year ago.  All this while unemployment remains high, new housing is nominal, and the Federal deficit remains a dark cloud over the future.  My advice: buy large caps paying a decent dividend on the next pull-back.

OK, I missed the SOTU speech, but what brilliant minds let "Win The Future" get through the vetting process?  I mean, WTF?  They can't be that naive in the West Wing, can they?  Anyone?  Gibbs?  Bueller?

The oh-dark-hundred spin-Nazi was a sub this morning.  The regular gal, who whipped my a-- yesterday morning, did a call-in-sick routine for today.  This girl, a regular leader for other classes held at the club during the day, was a drill sergeant wannabe and was way over the top for that early class.  I mean, people who show up at 0530 are already motivated.

Then there's my fav instructor, Kandi, who spied me going through the line at the HyVee Chinese kitchen Saturday or Sunday and made a big deal to come over and check out what I was ordering.  Taking the Over that she will use it against me at the Friday class.

Tomorrow brings us February.  Glad to be done with January.  Winter. 

Bundle up.  And...

BCOT

Sunday

I'd like to say that I have spent the last few days contemplating some new idea for the blog.  But mostly, I've been trying to keep my eye on that spot ten feet ahead of my front wheel and to keep pounding the pedals.  Lots of things going on at the office, a couple of big items that have been distractions.  This week will be better.

Morning spin today was a "kick-my-a--" experience.  Not sure why.  Same instructor.  Not a lot of difference in the routines.  But I must have given some extra effort, because I was so beat-up afterwards, that I had to just sit for several minutes to catch my breath.  And I couldn't stop sweating.  Hmmmm.  Full recovery later, but I never made it over to pick up The Winniferous for a tentatively scheduled run this afternoon.

2 has her official Masters Of Business Administration diploma from the University of Iowa.  I think that it was in the mail before she turned in her final paper early last week, and certainly before she made final payment of her last tuition bill.  Whatever. Congratulations, Kiddo.  Now, work on that resume! 

(2 reports that completion of the MBA was recognized at work; department head title, I think.  Public announcement this week.  News will follow here soon.)

And 4 has jumped into the Apple business. http://www.thehoranies.com/  Here's hoping we now have some regular reports from Cornhusker Country.

The route for RAGBRAI 2011 was announced this weekend. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110130/NEWS/101300344/RAGBRAI-riders-will-swarm-through-Iowa-s-middle  The big news on this side of the state is that the ride will end in Davenport.  There's always been a debate among the players as to whether it was a good move to end here because that Saturday is always the Bix 7 running event which usually attracts around 15,000 runners.  But the Davenport Convention and Services Bureau actively lobbied to get the bikers this year.  I'm a skeptic.

I've always felt that the last day of RAGBRAI was a non-event.  People who have been riding all week are ready to be done and just want to go home to a hot shower and their own bed.  There's not a lot of hanging out after they've reached the Mississippi River.  Traffic and congestion?  Yes.  Lots of spending going on?  I don't think so.  The best party is always on Friday night.  I'll be curious how they try to get the ride into town, and then provide parking and exit for the diverse caravan that follows the bikes across the state.  Taking the Over that it will all be underwhelming.

Lots of national attention on the Iowa football program over the last week.  13 players were hospitalized early in the week for a muscle disorder that beset the players after a super-strenuous workout.  They say drugs were not involved, but I'm guessing that some energy supplement will eventually be identified.  The blogs want somebody hung out to dry.  Coach Ferentz has had to deal with several unfavorable things over the last 90 days.  Drugs.  Suspensions.  Transfers.  Now this.  An interesting debate on where the coach is or becomes accountable.

And the Iowa and Iowa State men can't beat anybody in conference.  At least the 'Clones are competitive.

They're talking about another snow storm here Tuesday and Wednesday.  This has been Winter this year.  With no sun.  I could use some sun. 

Spin in the early AM.  So I'm headed to the rack.

BCOT

Thursday

Sounds like the weather on the Right Coast is a bit exciting.  Herky's commute today might have been one for the ages.  (We had a couple of those back in C-town in the Winters of 1978-79 and 1979-80.  Jane Byrne even won an election as mayor when the sitting mayor, Richard J. Daley's successor Michael Bilandic, couldn't get the streets cleared in a major blizzard just before Election Day in February 1979.)

It was a huge win for Augie last night.  Here's the story.  http://www.augustana.edu/x24080.xml  Big crowd.  Great popcorn.  2 and I even stayed to the happy ending.  They were certainly beatable last night, but they found a way to win.  My guess is that a team with some beef inside will be a problem come tournament time.

I have posted this from the office and am now headed home.  If I can't fire up the laptop, this will be all that you get today.  When I shut the laptop down at home last night, I must have double-clicked some protocol that safe-guards access to my Verizon account, and I couldn't get to the Internet.  And I forgot to bring the laptop in today for IT to check out.  This is a variation of a Sometimer's episode.  I'll Twitter if I'm off the grid, so to speak.  3 can add some of her thoughts to her blog for peanut gallery fodder.

In the meantime...

BCOT

Wednesday

As reported earlier on my Twitter feed, we'll do the March Madness weekend in Woodbury this year.  The Hampton there is not much different than the one in West Des Moines.  Plus, 1.01 gets to sleep in her own bed, and 1.1 gets to participate as well.  He would have been a no-show in DSM because of officiating duties.

Those of us in Nebraska and Iowa will be trekking North on the 18th, hopefully arriving in time to at least see some of the afternoon games.  Travel from NYC is now being scheduled.  A true Gathering of the Clan.  Again.  Very cool. 

So I have to admit, I was too busy to catch the SOTU speech last night.  I mean, LBH, there was nothing going to be said that hadn't been spun to the public before.  (Those re-runs of NCIS on USA Network were much more illuminating.)  And the political posturing between the sides today as the pundits tried to generate some enthusiasm was similarly predictable.  Ho-hum.

Sticking with another of my recurrent themes here, there's a ripple in the force at Starbuck's.  Seems like the corporate visionaries see a need to upgrade the logo.  I missed this in the news when it came out after the first of the year.  The new logo will not have the name, just the mermaid.  I don't think that the change is near as egregious as a couple of the others discussed here previously, but speaking as a sufferer of Sometimer's, those marketing eggheads are expecting a lot out of us.

I read in the paper that today is Wayne Gretzky's 50th birthday.  What caught my attention was that they say he still holds 60(!) records in the NHL.  He's been retired over 10 years, and he remains one of the most recognizable names in what now amounts to a fringe sport except in Olympic years (and maybe in the original 6 cities that constituted the pre-expansion league).  The Great One.  #99.  (Didn't his wife get in trouble for betting on the odd bets for a Super Bowl?)

Now headed over to get 2 for the Augie game.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Tuesday

A bit of a bummer of a day.  One of those projects that I mentioned yesterday shows no signs of early, successful resolution.  It's complicated.  Lots of money involved.  Lawyers.  Chicago lawyers.  Banks.  Margin notes.  Hedges.  Contracted consultants.  Ugh!

Then a factoid confirmed from a long ago friendship.  High school girlfriend.  Pancreatic/liver cancer.  Double ugh!

3 has done some recording of her visit from her sister. http://www.thehoranies.com/

I ended up getting the Buick out for my morning trip to Muskie.  I hadn't had it out since I took 2 to C-town three weeks ago.  And the only reason I broke it out today was because I wasn't sure if I might need to transport my client to the meeting, and the Taurus is definitely not rider-friendly, if you know what I mean!  4kdays is back in the garage and may not make it out again until we get rid of the snow (or I head up to the TC to check out 1.01!).

The First Day of The Rest of My Life starts with with 0545 spin in the morning.  I took Monday off to enjoy a morning without The Winniferous, and today was just a lazy day.  Realistically, the first outdoor ride is probably less than 60 days away.  Ya' need to step it up, Bucko!

The second travel book came in today's mail.  This one on "Southwest France". 

I'm a little disturbed that the Super Bowl will lack cheerleaders.  Neither the Steelers nor the Packers employ cheer squads.  I'm wondering if the network will bring in freelancers.  Will there be a free pass given to the Cowboy Cheerleaders since the game is being played on their home field?  I mean where will the cameras scan for boobs as they go to or from commercials?  Seriously, this has been a topic in production meetings already.

Then we have the major donor to the U of Connecticut who wants his $3 million back because the AD just lost his football coach and the program may have plateaued.  Hmmmm.  Is this a modern day version of the boy who owns the ball wanting to take it and go home when he doesn't get his way?  The money in major-college football is staggering.  The Have's and the Have-nots are pretty evident in this segment of the economy as well.

2 and I are scheduled to head over to the Augie-Illinois Wesleyan game tomorrow night.  I'll try to make a short entry before we head out.

Thanks for reading.  Have a good Hump Day.

BCOT

Monday

Glad to have 2 back in the QCA.  Her plane was a little delayed, but she and her bags were in by 2200 local, which is a little past my regular bedtime.  But with no Winniferous potty-breaks to worry about over night, my sleep almost approached normalcy last night.  Not a bad result.

My enthusiasm for The Big Game (can't say Super Bowl, even here on 4000 Days for fear of the NFL or the network losing revenue) is spiraling downward on an historical basis.  Green Bay and Pittsburgh?  Someone should compare rap sheets for the two squads.

I heard one report that whomever is in charge of admissions for the game is also charging $200 for tailgaters not even going into the game.  I'd say that that is pretty bold.  I wonder how close you need to be to Texas Stadium before you literally incur a "carrying charge" for being in on the action? 

The golf season is in full swing, and Tiger and Phil finally tee it up this week in San Diego.  I watched just a little of the tournament last weekend, but without the big names playing, there just wasn't the drama.  The economy may be improving, but The Bob Hope last weekend went without a title sponsor (previously Chrysler), and the ladies tour has seriously contracted for want of sponsorships.

I'm taking the Over on the Federalies nailing Lance on some aspect of doping.  Too many unrelated parties seem to be admitting too many incriminating things to think that he can get through the net.  Personally, I maintain the position that they ought to spend their money elsewhere.  The Selena Roberts' of the world get no medals from me.

NASCAR Speed Weeks start next week.  Rev 'em up!

Thanks to 2 and 3 for actually supplying the last brownie for my woeful status over the weekend.

Sorry for the lack of creativity tonight.  Tough day at the office.  Stress level moving up the scale on some projects.  Maybe better ideas tomorrow.

BCOT

Saturday

It's after 5 PM and it's not dark outside.  I'd say that that is a positive sign of things to come.

Sounds like 1.01 has become even more mobile.  A few steps maybe?  I missed the Over/Under on that one by three weeks.

I am minorly impressed with the results of my travel book ordering process this week on Amazon.  I wanted to get some background stuff on northern Spain, The Pyrenees and southern France for the trek 4 and I are scheduled to make in August.  (I had not been disappointed two years ago when I did the same thing for Italy in advance of the trip that 2 and I made in September 2009.)  I've already received one of the books in the order, notices on shipment of two others, and one cancellation for "out of stock".  I ordered two other books after getting that cancellation notice, so, we should have plenty of resources.

This past week has been as "wintery" a time as I can remember in the last few years.  Global warming, I'm sure.  We've had snow, bitter cold, and freezing rain.  The sidewalks are uniformly hard-pan snow/ice combinations.  This morning, there had been a dusting of snow over night, and with it on top of the ice, even The Winniferous was spinning her tires!  You know that you've been spending too much time walking the dog when the only tracks in the icy-snow all week are your own.

My immediate favorite Cabernet is Napa Cellars 2007.  The 53rd Street Hy Vee had this bottle for $19.99 when I bought my last case, which dropped the price to $18.  Full-bodied with a very smooth after-taste.  My pal Bill had a Napa Cellars Merlot in his last wine-club delivery, and that one had good reviews as well.

One of the more humorous side-bars to my dog-sitting duties this past week has been another example of the "hunter" instincts of The Winniferous.  She tends to "whine" from her sleeping spot on the floor near my bed in the early AM, and I'm not really sure if she needs to go out to do her business, or if she is just ready to get up.  I don't want to test that question, so I get up to let her out.  Which in this cold means getting coat, shoes, cap and gloves on (and leash) to take her to a spot by my drive-way.  And she'll normally do what she's supposed to do.

However, Wednesday or Thursday, at Oh-Dark-Hundred, I do the routine, open the back door to let her out, which spooks a little rabbit in the bushes next to my neighbor's house, and Winnie's hard-drive is fully scrubbed of any thought of personal plumbing!  It was all I could do to keep a hold on the leash.  I told my pal Roy that it was the equivalent of a teen-age boy trying to do statistics after catching a glimpse of a breast!

The W's first move coming out of my back door is now consistently to check those bushes for varmits!  It's in the genetic code.

I'm looking forward to seeing 2 tomorrow.  Hope her last night with 3 in NYC is a good one.  And that travel has few bumps in the road.  Be safe, Kiddo.

BCOT

Thursday

2 gets to be Daughter of the Day for her return to the good 'ol US of A!  She's in The Big Apple with 3 and Herky tonight.  A little sightseeing and society before her return to The Real World on Sunday.  Enjoy the weekend!

Okay.  This is a bit of an extended example of the Sometimer's kicking in.  Not the glasses.  Not the keys.

On the plane coming back from PHX on Sunday, Cal wrote me a check to cover his share of expenses that I had paid for the group.  I folded it and put it in the Robert Ludlum book that I was reading. (Still stuck at about the 1/3 point, and now a little bored.)

I distinctly remember subsequently transferring the check to my murse so that I wouldn't lose it.  I also remember taking my murse to the office on Monday and Tuesday because I keep the digi card-reader in one of those "can't-lose" compartments and I needed to transfer the PHX pics to my laptop to send to the other guys.

Then there were four insurance refund checks in the mail on Tuesday and a couple of other random checks that I had been holding at my desk and that I needed to deposit to my checking account.  So I decided hit the bank on Wednesday to make a collective deposit.

I put the insurance refund checks in the murse as I left the house on Wednesday morning.  I go to the bank at lunch.  I get to the island in the bank lobby, pull out the checks, and no Cal check!  I'm flummoxed.  I go back to the house and page through the Ludlum book.  Nothing but boarding passes!  I recheck every niche of the murse.  Nothing but band-aids and credit card receipts.

I'm stumped.  I get the flashlight and look under my bed thinking that maybe the check fell out of the book when I was reading at night.  And that was after an RCL day!

I pretty well conclude that I'm going to have to tell Cal that he'll need to put a "stop-payment" order on the check and re-write me another one.

When I get "whined" awake by The Winniferous at Oh-Dark_Hundred this morning, and while I'm encouraging her to "go pottie" in the dark and cold of my Perfect Neighbor's yard, it flahes in my mind that I had purposefully set-aside a couple of business checks on a bookcase in my office.  Could Cal's check maybe be there as well?

So long story short, that's where it was, and the deposit has a happy ending.

If something can be lost/misplaced and forgotten, LtPC has it covered.

Yes, I did give The Winniferous a bath tonight.  Not so proud of that distinction.  But is was the only acceptable alternative. If you get my drift.

Hope everyone has a good TGIF.  It's BITTER cold here tonight.  Maybe 10 below.  But milder for the weekend.  SRH is headed up to see 1.01.  Reports with pics required!

BCOT

Wednesday

Glad to see that 3 made it back to The Big Apple. http://www.thehoranies.com/

I've made a conscious decision since the first of the year to limit my work-day Internet news reading.  Ever since the beginnings of the last Presidential election campaign, I have been easily "hooked" into an item of political or social news and could waste a load of time reading different presentations on the same issue.  While such study made me well-informed, it didn't add anything to the over all state of my world.

It may come as a shock to the peanut gallery, but I tend to lean toward the right on most issues.  (Uh, perhaps far right on a few.  Just saying.) I refuse to watch network news and late-night shows, and I'll only grab the NYT in desperation (otherwise stated; "free at the coffee shop").  And as an equal-opportunity Independent, I don't watch FOX News either.

Looking down from the hilltop, two things come across on almost every topic up for civic debate: 1) If one side says, "The sky is blue", the other side immediately counters in the Blogsphere with, "Not when you look at it from this direction!",  (Actually, I wanted that example to be, "I say black, you say white", but I didn't know if that would be interpreted as playing the race card.) and 2) Each side is determined to win the "spin" game with their constituency and the Independents.  Truth is not particularly relevant.  It reminds me of the attorney's in a court case:  winning is the only thing that counts.

I'm bored and tired of the politics and the moralizing.  We've become a bunch of finger-pointers.  It's always somebody else's fault.  Go to work people.  Do your job.  Pay your bills.  You in The Chorus, need to do the same thing.

I feel better.

Now off to the Augie game.  SRH has The W for a couple of hours.

Hello 2?

BCOT

Tuesday PM

The Deep Freeze is headed here.  Below zero later in the week.

I feel like I'm that dog owner from the TV commercials whose pet refuses to eat every option on the menu.  I now have two bags of puppy chow that The Winniferous won't even sniff at.  I tried to trick her at lunch and mixed peanut butter in a bowl of one of the offending entrees, and she barely took a lick.  And she loves peanut butter!

So I picked up some new "top shelf" stuff tonight and she became an addict.  Exact-portion, shrink-wrapped meals that looked good to me too.  This may be a problem for 2 upon her return.  Then again, I think that The W has begun to wonder when that girl whom she lives with is getting back.

Augie has a home game tomorrow night and is going for 16 in a row to start their season.  Their big inside and they bring lots of people.  (The one weak link is back-up point guard.)  They're also home on Saturday, but they end up with lots of road games to close their schedule.  If they stay healthy, they could get deep in the tournament.  With home game for the conference tourney, and a couple of home games in the D III tournament.`

Curious for reports from 3 on the trip South of the border.  Beyond the "couples" massage.

Make Wednesday a good one.

BCOT

Tuesday AM

So this is the golf course down the street from my place at noon on Monday.  A little different view than the Home Page pic from Grayhawk.

Looks like we'll be in The Deep Freeze for the next few days.  I'm thinking that my walks/runs with The Winniferous will be a little shorter.

More here later.

BCOT

Sunday

Those of you following me on Twitter have the gist of my day.  Travel went pretty much as planned.  No particulars hassles getting to Sky Harbor in Phoenix other than finding a gas station at Oh-Dark-Hundred to fill up the rental.  The connection in Denver was on time and our luggage made it to the QCA. What more can you ask for?

Ten Things that I learned this time in Arizona:

1.  Green fees at the better courses are higher this year. Under a C-note was cheap.
2.  $3 Aquafina at the Snack Shacks.  $5 canned beers from the cart girl.  $10 hot dogs.
3.  Hertz #1 Club is pass-the-counter, walk-to-your-car easy.
4.  That GPS gal is really annoying when you know where you're going.
5.  I'm going to do some research on the geology around The Boulders resort in Carefree.  Very interesting.
6.  On a short, busy trip like this one, the Smart phone makes the laptop only marginally useful.
7.  I need a new travel bag for my golf clubs.
8.  Scottsdale remains in my Top Five cities to visit.  In the Winter, Top One.
9.  Never saw any of the sensational airport security that has recently been in the news.
10.With Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, my birthday, and now Scottsdale all done, 2011 officially starts tomorrow for me.

I  am back in charge of The Winniferous, and we need to do a little walk before bed time.  Hope everyone has a good start to the week.  Keep those positive endorphins flowing!  And...

BCOT

Saturday

Here's a group photo at the conclusion of today's round at Grayhawk in Scottsdale.  (Raptor Course where they play a PGA event each Fall).  The good looking guys in the red and black on the right were the winners for the weekend.  We netted $4 each in the main game, and a few other dineros on some side bets.  Cal and Ron just couldn't handle the pressure

This pic is from the tee box on one of the Par 3 holes today.  (Double-click it to expand for a better view.)  While this course doesn't have ocean views, there's some spectacular scenery none the less.  It's especially suite when we think about the weather back home.  This one may spend some time as the home page of 4000 Days.

Dinner tonight was a stay-in steak BBQ at the condo.  We ate so much each of the two previous evenings that going out and dropping a few hundred more dollars had little appeal.  Scottsdale is cheaper than Cabo, but we have managed to challenge reason.  Our steak dinners tonight, inclusive of three bottles of wine, cost less than the tip for each of the other two nights.

The condo that we're staying in is in a gated-community just a mile or two from Grayhawk.  Serious luxury, but a step down from the single-family places along several of the holes at Grayhawk.  Then again, Grayhawk has open spaces on sections of both courses that were supposed to be built-out by now.  The housing economy in the PHX area still has a long way to recover.  If you have a few hundred K to spare, some nice property is available at significant discounts from previous asking-prices.

We head back early in the AM and are scheduled to arrive in Moline shortly after 1300 hours.

My next entry will be from the 563 tomorrow evening.  After my 3.4 with The Winniferous.

BCOT

Friday

Greetings from Scottsdale!

Here's our crew after dinner last night.  For inquiring minds, the two gals are my pal Ron's sisters.  We're staying at a condo neat Grayhawk owned by sister Shirley.  The pic was taken at the clubhouse after a great (and expensive!) dinner.

More golf today.  70+ and sunny.  Shorts weather.  Roy and I are teamed against The Evil Empire (Ron and Cal).

Off to the course.

BCOT

Wednesday

Happy Tax Birthday to 1.01!!!  She's a Star!!!!  And Granddaughter of the Day.  Again!

The report from the QC airport is delay, delay, delay.  I'm now guessing that we'll miss the connection in Denver.  My luck with United has been one-sided, and not good.

My current couch is headed to the basement when it gets replaced.  4 has crappy furniture, I know, but her next  upgrade will be from elsewhere.  Sorry, Kiddo!

SRH now has charge of The Winniferous until Sunday.  2 will be owing us upon her return.

No word from 2 in China.

Hope to add some more here later from Arizona. 

BCOT

Tuesday

Just trying to get the worst of the messes handled before take-off to PHX tomorrow.  My office continues to meet a low standard of appearance.

March Madness.  I see it as either Des Moines again, or another trek to the Twin Cities.  The first weekend games are March 17-20.  4 needs to ask for the 18th off.  If it's DM, I can see the QCA folks coming over for a late lunch on that Friday.  If it's the TC, we'd need to take all of Friday off, and 4 might need to fly in on Friday morning.  Looking for input.  Anyone?  Bueller?

To RevKev, my vision for improvement to my living room is a new couch.

My pal Bill returned Sunday night from his 12-day journey to New Zealand.  Very positive reports.  And it was Summer, down under!  He'll be working on the jet lag this week.

Just did the on-line check-in for the trip tomorrow.  What could go wrong?

Maybe more later.

BCOT

Monday

So I wasn't successful in getting here yesterday.  Let's just say I had a birthday Sometimer's moment.  Just a busy day.

This needs to get done, or a measurable portion of the year will already be gone.  Here's my best shot at 2011 goals:

1.  Col du Tourmalet in August.
2.  Wrigleyville for a Cubs - Cardinals game.
3.  Write at least one short story.  I'd like to say, "book", but I need to lower the target!
4.  Rehab my living room to bring it out of the '70's!
5.  It's no change from before, but do the Trot in under an hour.
6.  Bring my golf handicap to 14.  That means shooting 85 or less, consistently.
7.  Lower my cholesterol to 200.  Say good-bye to chips and fries!
8.  Get to NYC to see 3!
9.  Get my right rotator cuff fixed!
10. Add something to my professional resume.  This one needs more thought.

That's not a bad list.  The real challenge will be Point 3.

The report this AM from China came on my Yahoo email.  Twitter is blocked at 2's current location, as is 4000 Days.  I can understand the blog, but Twitter?  Those 140 characters might bring down the regime!

More here later.  Anyone else walking the plank on 2011 goals?

BCOT

Saturday

Just a few lines to make an appearance here on my birthday.  No excuse for not getting something substantial here today, but it just didn't happen.

Many thanks to all who sent their greetings.  It's been a good day.

The Winniferous and I have been putting in lots of time on our exercise routes.  She's always ready to go.  The cold doesn't seem to bother her.

The Augie game tonight was not pretty.  But a win is a win is a win.

Look for something good here tomorrow.

BCOT

Friday AM

Hello Day 3 with The Winniferous!  Not sure that I'll survive.  I was doing the math last night and whereas I had originally thought that I'd have Winnie for about five days before my trip to Scottsdale next week, and then a couple of days afterwards, the real deal is a week before, and a week after!  Hmmm.  Not quite the program the back of my mind had loaded in the hard-drive.

Here's a hot-off-the-press pic from Hong Kong with 2 and cousin Carrie.  This was via email from Carrie, but 2 must have found an Internet connection as she has posted several entries to Twitter this morning.  Which is early tomorrow morning over there.  I'm sure we'll get more photos in the next few days.

Today was also Day 1 of my only New Year's resolution (made so far):  I'm doing the 0900 spin class every Friday as a "meeting" on my work schedule.  The instructor is my fav, and it gives me the opportunity to have a Friday night for social purposes.  It worked fine today.

I hope Jim Harbaugh goes to the pros.  I find him to be an over-bearing rah-rah whiner when he doesn't get his way.  He's almost (but not quite) as bad as Bielema at Wisconsin. (Hated to see the Big Ten lose in Pasadena, but at least it was Wisconsin.)

I'm posting this from an open-office computer at the office.  Another bug on my desktop.  Hard to get things done in this day and age if your primary computer is off-line.

3 checked in this AM and filed a good report from The Big Apple.  She advises that a new entry will be hitting her blog soon.

Maybe more here later.  Make it a great TGIF.  I am.

BCOT

Thursday

Not really sure what was going on last night that had Blogger unable to get me signed in to the entry section, but otherwise permitted additions to Comments for the non-entry.  I suppose that it could be a bug in the laptop, which is why I am at least getting something started here on my desktop before I head out for the evening.

2 is Asian Daughter of the Day.  She dropped me a brief email at 0700 this morning to let us know that she had made it to her hotel in Hong Kong.  On a running-clock basis, she was traveling for about 27 hours from the time she would have left the hotel where they were staying at near O'Hare.  That's a trip.

My longest trip would have been in the late Summer of 1973 when I left Travis Air Force Base near San Fran and spent a little over 24 hours in cars, airplanes and buses to get to my base in remote Korea.  I read The Winds of War on that trip, cover-to-cover.  Not a bad way to spend the time, as I recall.

I'm heading out to run with The Winniferous.  I'll jump back on here later.

BCOT

Wednesday Evening

Very Early Wednesday

A couple of quick pics from my drop-off of 2 on Tuesday night at her O'Hare area hotel.  With her two traveling companions from the Quad Cities who rode in with us.  And with Lt.PC for the record books.

More sometime later today(!).  No early spin for you, LtPC!

BCOT

Tuesday

Obviously, the disc with reunion photos did arrive in my mail today.  Thanks to Revkev and Uncle Phil for making it happen.  We're all looking forward to our next visit to Tahoe.  My timing will likely be 2012, although others in the fam may try to do something earlier.  How can you not want to go to Tahoe?

I need to head out now and prep the Buick for tonight's excursion to the O'Hare area to deliver 2 and her friends to their hotel.  It's not the trip in that bothers me; it's that immediate turn-around-and-come-home move that I'm not looking forward to.

How about this for a postulate: WASP men are held to a higher standard of political correctness than any other demographic group.  From what I see and read, when in the public eye, a WASP male stands no chance against even the hint of impropriety for deed, comment or omission.  There are examples everyday.  Even when you exclude Brett Fav-ra.

Still curious about a report from the 212.

BCOT

Monday

So I'm getting prepared to take 2 to C-town tomorrow night so that she and her friends can catch their early morning flight on Wednesday.  One of my check-off points was the mini-digi camera that I am loaning to 2 for the trip.  I wanted to give her the extra battery as well as the plug-in charger so that she would be fully prepared to record her trip.  That's when things got interesting.

It took me a half-dozen trips through the house yesterday to even find the camera.  It had been sitting on the kitchen table all weekend, but when it came time to charge the battery, the camera was no where to be seen.  I still think that some gremlin was playing tricks on me because eventually it turned up on the kitchen table.  Of course it did.

Today when I wanted to charge the battery, the charger was AWOL.  I made a special trip back to the office, thinking that I may have left it on my desk last week when I did a precautionary charge in anticipation of the camera's use in the TC for Christmas.  No luck, but I got to thinking on the way back home from the office that I had put the charger in my duffel bag side-pocket for the TC trip.  Sure enough, when I got home and checked the bag, the charger was right there where I had put it.

So 2 has the camera, the fully charged battery, and the charger for the trip.  She doesn't have the back-up battery because I haven't figured out where I put it for safe-keeping.

I am in possession of so many safe-keeping spots, that no place is safe.  Let's review a list of just 10 "perfect" places to store stuff so that it doesn't get lost:

1.  Zippered pockets inside my laptop case.
2.  Zippered pockets inside my "murse".
3.  Zippered pockets inside my coats and jackets.
4.  False top on the Buick's center console.
5.  Velcro'd/zippered pockets in "big" camera case.
6.  Zippered interior pockets of suitcases.
7.  Small drawer in my coffee table.
8.  My desk drawer at the office.
9.  "Clicker" shelf in my entertainment console.
10. Obviously, my duffel bag.

I'm thinking that the consumer products designers have done their job so well, those of us with Sometimer"s are right back where we were years ago when we couldn't decide exactly where to put an item so that it wouldn't get lost.  Now the choices are so plentiful, that an item can absolutely get lost in one of the "safe" places.  We met the enemy, and he was us.

Don't even think about using this idea, Wilson!

Finally, with the Stanford win tonight, where does Harbaugh go?  Michigan?  His brother is a head coach in the NFL...SF?  Can't believe he'll stay in Palo Alto.

Hey 3, what's going on in The Big Apple?

BCOT

Sunday

Happy New Year to all!

Nice weekend here, although nothing overly exciting.  I did get in a couple of good spin class workouts, and did the circuit with The Winniferous twice as well.  Friday was in the high 50's, and then the front came in and we didn't get over 25 the last two days. 

I enjoyed 3's travelogue recounting her 2010 adventures.  She definitely earned the title of Road Daughter of the Year.  Between interviewing, business meetings, and pleasure travel, she hit a lot of zip codes.  It keeps things interesting.

My records for 2010 are posted on my basement wall.  Along with tokens from trips and events for each of the last several years.  I mark a calendar in my downstairs bathroom each day with my workout (if any!) and the travel or other event that occurred that day.  I tack up the ticket from the game, the airline or the hotel or rental car receipt to further document my life.  No specific pattern.  The calendars serve as broad separating devices.  (If you double-click on the pic, you might be able to recognize some of the items for 2010.)

I am most proud of the fam getting together for 5 full-participation FFF's in 2010.  Not many families with adult children in this many area codes are able to pull off that kind of accomplishment more than once or twice a year.  Congrats to the girls for making the commitment.

The Big Ten made quite a statement yesterday.  The state of Michigan has some 'splainin' to do.  Good thing that Iowa and Illinois took care of business earlier in the week.  Does Nebraska's loss credit to the Big Ten?  At least ND showed up.  (Or more aptly put, Miami didn't.  Did you see all those Hurricanes dressed in their balaclava's under their helmets?  To keep warm in temperatures in the mid 30's?)

I'm going to do a Top Ten list tomorrow for my 2011 goals.  I just double-checked, and I didn't put a list on the books here last January.  (I wanted to critique it.)  One of the for-sure goals for 2011 will be the La Tourmalet climb in Spain in August. 

Good luck with the new week.  And with the new year.

BCOT