Sunday

A little excitement at MSG last night with the Knicks and the Nuggets. It's another world.

And a bit of a rough day/evening for Iowa's two major state university's men's b-ball teams in Des Moines yesterday. The Clones have some excuses as they adjust to a new coach and system. The Hawks are just bad. And beaten by the coach who was run out of IC so they could get Alford. People in Palo Alto may want to look into that history.

2 and I did get our run in yesterday and may try to do another one today. It's hard to ignore these 50+ degree days in December for outside activities.

Coffee at the new SB's this AM. The good news is that one of the baristas there today had worked over at the Duck Creek store and had always done a good job taking care of me. She was able to get my extra-hot Americano exactly to my liking. Interestingly, a gal who has been a longtime customer at the Duck Creek store drove up just as I was leaving and we exchanged greetings. There may be a little migration from Duck Creek to the new place as people adjust for location and, maybe, busy-ness. Plus, the new one has a drive through.

Lots of golfers out yesterday. With the Why Pay Less Tour taking off for Cabo in less than three weeks, I should get into some stretching exercises or my production in Mexico will produce nothing but aches and pains.

The extortion for my passport mentioned here last month at least paid off, albeit not without a small bit of irony. I have it in hand. It was delivered to my home address in an Express Mail envelope that looked suspiciously like a special offer for some AARP Insurance or Veteran's Benefits or the like. It sat unopened on my counter in the recycling pile with other papers for a day or two before I opened it, out of curiosity, as I was literally headed for the recycling tub in my garage. Lucky for me. If I had had to get an emergency-issued passport now, the cost would have likely doubled from the inflated price that I paid in November.

My special history with birds continues. I have a cardinal pair that must nest around our office building. The brightly colored male spends a fair amount of time, even now, pecking at my window as it fights off a suspected intruder (his shadow). I have another pair at my house, but that male must not have the same level of belicosity. I'll try to get them on film for later publication. They are very striking (no pun intended).

My 7th Day of Christmas memory goes to just a couple of years back when my photographer friend came to Chucky Cheese and did a roll of great picures for us. Not only did it give us several suitable-for-framing prints, the event led me to my current fool-proof camera. When I was talking to him later that week after looking at all of the nearly perfect pictures, I asked him how he was able to do it. And I got the response that has been my not-so-secret weapon ever since, "Auto-focus!"

Get out and enjoy the day. Maybe a little FFF at my place this evening.

Be careful out there.