The good news is that 4 has finally made a re-appearance on her blog.
I received my TOMRV entry form this week. The ride is scheduled for the weekend of June 9-10. As you may recall, last year's KC wedding conflicted with TOMRV and I didn't even register. But then as things turned out, the weather was sooo bad that Saturday morning in the QC's, lots of cyclists bagged the whole deal. So I didn't feel so left-out. Because it is unlikely that I would have started in rain and wind. I mean, it's not like I get paid to ride.
Anyway, I have ridden just the first 85 miles of Saturday (ending at a bar in Galena) the last 3-4 times I've done the ride, so I will probably plan to do the same thing this year. Early registration ends 3/31/07.
Question of great debate for the day: do Leap Year babies celebrate their birthdays on February 28th or March 1st?
On a similar note, or at least in the same hemisphere of mental gymnastics, my patch to Windows to account for the earlier Day Light Savings Time this year doesn't work. What do you call it when the specifically designed fix to a problem doesn't itself work? My guess is that it is operator error. Me being the operator.
The Hawks' actually begin their NCAA tournament tonight. If they don't beat Penn State in State College this evening, say "Hello" to the NIT.
Craig Wilson's column in USA Today was about people's tendencies to talk about themselves in conversation. He calls it me-ism. We joke at coffee about a couple of acquaintances in particular whose response to that comment might be, "I'm tired about talking about myself all the time. Why don't you talk about me for a while." Wilson's suggestion was that you should ask questions of people to get them going on something other than themselves. He recognizes that some will turn that question into a soliloquy, which is why I will not even open that door to certain people. But I do think that there is an art to get an intelligent conversation going with friends and new acquaintances.
My contractor is still at it in my upstairs bathroom. I think that he is making progress.
My pal Pete's son who is the point guard at Augie, was a unanimous selection to the All-Conference first team announced late yesterday. I know it's D-III. But, he deserves props for excelling at his level. Obviously, the other coaches agree. He was also named earlier this week as one of 10 finalists in a national D-III recognition program for athletics, academics, and community service.
3 and 4 are now looking at the QC Distance Classic in Rock Island in early May for their half marathon. I think that that run is a good choice. But there is a hill in the route that will remind them of Brady Street in the Bix. The finish-line is on the Augustana track.
Enough. Have a good evening.
Be careful out there.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Tuesday
The Dow closed down today by over 400 points from yesterday's close. A downturn of a little over 3%. There may be more on the way tomorrow. Blame it on the Chinese.
The bathroom re-model is well underway. There's not the absolute mess throughout the house that I had when I re-did the main living room, but for someone who likes things to all be in their right places, I'll be glad to have it completed. The bad thing is that the doors for the other rooms may not be in for another week or two, so there will be a longer period of dis-repair than just the bathroom project.
And I had to give my Russian cleaning lady the wave-off today because it would have been counter-productive for her to clean when there would be more mess immediately upon her departure. I really don't like not having my Russian cleaning lady do her thing.
"Wave-off" is a term from my pal Roy's flying lingo. It's used to describe any postponement of any activity.
I figured out this week that Discovery Channel, the corporation, must have decided that, in addition to their election to end sponsorship of the pro cycling team for 2008, they were not going to provide current website support for the team. Go to "Discovery Pro Cycling" and you'll get stories from 2006 and zero information about 2007. The team's official site this year is ThePaceline.com, which is billed as the Lance Armstrong fan site. But that's where you need to go to get team news and stories about the races and the team members.
I see where a girl on American Idol is now another example of Internet expose.
The politicians are all having to recognize that everything that there ever said or did is fair game to their critics. That also extends to their staffers and operatives. Edwards had to can a couple of female bloggers who had colorful resumes with a long list of offensive remarks. What a greasy activity partisan vetting can be. Makes you want to wash your hands after every story.
Vilsack's withdrawal from the Presidential race has drawn considerable commentary about the inequities on the financial side of the competition. I'm not sure how that situation can be solved. Lots of times, in lots of competitions, the guy with the most money wins. Whether it be politics, sports, or romance.
There are people in this area still without power from the Saturday storm.
I slept through Big Monday. I'm headed out now and hope to catch Michigan-Michigan State later this evening.
Be careful out there.
The bathroom re-model is well underway. There's not the absolute mess throughout the house that I had when I re-did the main living room, but for someone who likes things to all be in their right places, I'll be glad to have it completed. The bad thing is that the doors for the other rooms may not be in for another week or two, so there will be a longer period of dis-repair than just the bathroom project.
And I had to give my Russian cleaning lady the wave-off today because it would have been counter-productive for her to clean when there would be more mess immediately upon her departure. I really don't like not having my Russian cleaning lady do her thing.
"Wave-off" is a term from my pal Roy's flying lingo. It's used to describe any postponement of any activity.
I figured out this week that Discovery Channel, the corporation, must have decided that, in addition to their election to end sponsorship of the pro cycling team for 2008, they were not going to provide current website support for the team. Go to "Discovery Pro Cycling" and you'll get stories from 2006 and zero information about 2007. The team's official site this year is ThePaceline.com, which is billed as the Lance Armstrong fan site. But that's where you need to go to get team news and stories about the races and the team members.
I see where a girl on American Idol is now another example of Internet expose.
The politicians are all having to recognize that everything that there ever said or did is fair game to their critics. That also extends to their staffers and operatives. Edwards had to can a couple of female bloggers who had colorful resumes with a long list of offensive remarks. What a greasy activity partisan vetting can be. Makes you want to wash your hands after every story.
Vilsack's withdrawal from the Presidential race has drawn considerable commentary about the inequities on the financial side of the competition. I'm not sure how that situation can be solved. Lots of times, in lots of competitions, the guy with the most money wins. Whether it be politics, sports, or romance.
There are people in this area still without power from the Saturday storm.
I slept through Big Monday. I'm headed out now and hope to catch Michigan-Michigan State later this evening.
Be careful out there.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Monday
Another busy Monday.
Augie gets to host a game Thursday, but if they win, they go to St. Thomas to play the Tommies on Saturday. Unlike last year when their conference had three participants in the tournament, Augie's automatic invitation was the only one given to the conference this year. D-III keeps teams pretty close to home in the early rounds, so if this grid had plenty of other good teams, those at-large bids just aren't going to be there. And in contrast to the D-I event where they have 65 teams (counting the play-in game), here they only asked a total of 59 teams, with four other schools in addition to UST getting first round byes.
So 2 and I have a Thursday night date. The last of the popcorn and 'dogs for the year. Roy may join us.
The contractor started on my bathroom today. I still haven't bought a couple of fixture things, but he's torn up most of the stuff that has to go. I need to make a couple more trips to Lowe's and Home Depot. I hate shopping.
A guy like my pal Roy doesn't shop. He buys. The ultimate hunter.
There are still people in this area without power. That ice and wind combine to snap trees and electric line poles. There was a story in the local paper about families checking into local motels to beat the cold. Many years ago, we would do that to give the girls a mid-Winter day or two in a swimming pool. And it was a big deal to them. Kids can be easily entertained. I remember one of the places offered a room discount equal to the number of degrees below freezing. And we got by with just one room, I think.
Uncle Phil said that they got two feet of snow at Tahoe over the weekend. And that it was still snowing. Which is good for the ski resorts there. They had been hurting with little snow recently. It amazes me that we can go there in the middle of Summer and there will still be snow drifts in the mountain passes.
I'm headed off to Big Monday. Thanks for reading. And thanks to 1 and 2 for writing.
Be careful out there.
Augie gets to host a game Thursday, but if they win, they go to St. Thomas to play the Tommies on Saturday. Unlike last year when their conference had three participants in the tournament, Augie's automatic invitation was the only one given to the conference this year. D-III keeps teams pretty close to home in the early rounds, so if this grid had plenty of other good teams, those at-large bids just aren't going to be there. And in contrast to the D-I event where they have 65 teams (counting the play-in game), here they only asked a total of 59 teams, with four other schools in addition to UST getting first round byes.
So 2 and I have a Thursday night date. The last of the popcorn and 'dogs for the year. Roy may join us.
The contractor started on my bathroom today. I still haven't bought a couple of fixture things, but he's torn up most of the stuff that has to go. I need to make a couple more trips to Lowe's and Home Depot. I hate shopping.
A guy like my pal Roy doesn't shop. He buys. The ultimate hunter.
There are still people in this area without power. That ice and wind combine to snap trees and electric line poles. There was a story in the local paper about families checking into local motels to beat the cold. Many years ago, we would do that to give the girls a mid-Winter day or two in a swimming pool. And it was a big deal to them. Kids can be easily entertained. I remember one of the places offered a room discount equal to the number of degrees below freezing. And we got by with just one room, I think.
Uncle Phil said that they got two feet of snow at Tahoe over the weekend. And that it was still snowing. Which is good for the ski resorts there. They had been hurting with little snow recently. It amazes me that we can go there in the middle of Summer and there will still be snow drifts in the mountain passes.
I'm headed off to Big Monday. Thanks for reading. And thanks to 1 and 2 for writing.
Be careful out there.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Sunday
Well, yesterday was indeed and interesting weather day. We had ice, snow, rain, and wind. There were many power-outages in the area, and most social/athletic events scheduled for Saturday night were cancelled or postponed.
The Augie game was played since the teams were in town. Augie won a hard-fought game by 8 points. Basically, they made their free throws in the last three minutes. It wasn't their best game, but it was good enough to take home the trophy. 2 and I enjoyed the game.
Augie should host the first round this coming weekend. The pairings will be announced tomorrow. It's a 64 team field just like in D-I. St. Thomas should be in it too.
SB's in Duck Creek was not open this AM until 10 or so. I got there late for me, at 8 and there was a sign on the door saying that conditions precluded them from opening. I went to the Village Inn and had breakfast, but stopped by SB's later to give the staff the needle. The manager said that she had no staff that could make it at the regular hour, and store policy prevented her from opening herself.
The Discovery boys had to work hard yesterday to keep Levi in yellow. They had a couple of their guys go down in a crash early, and then a breakaway with some pretty good riders got three minutes or so on the peloton. None of the other teams wanted to help the Disco team chase down the break until late in the race when Disco had pulled it down to a minute or so. Then a couple of teams with sprinters came to the front to help as it had become obvious that the break would be caught and those teams wanted to make sure that each of their top guys had a chance at the stage win. The tour ends today with a circuit race in Santa Barbara that they trace 7 times for a 77 mile stage.
One of my favorite riders for Discovery, George Hincapie, was one of the crashers yesterday. Although he got up and completed the race, x-rays showed a break in his wrist so he won't start today.
The NASCAR boys are also in California today. The 24 won the pole. We'll see who has game for the long haul now that the restrictor plates are on the shelf for a while.
I've had to wear my Land's End coat the last few days. My Columbia is airing out. That night I met my client mid-week was in your classic smoke-filled bar. The next morning, my kitchen, where my coat was hanging on a chair, smelled like the bar. Everything, including the coat, needs to go through the wash.
We get a little bit of the smoke business at Biaggi's. I normally sit at a small table in the bar area, and the bar is the only place in the restauarant where smoking is permitted. Usually, it's just the occassional smoker, although every once in a while some guy will whip out a cigar. Then there are the folks from a back room for a group dinner who have to come out en masse for a smoke break at the bar. And so many young people. Don't you guys ever start smoking.
I'm off to do some biking in front of a game. It's snowing out so it will be another low key day in River City.
Be careful out there.
The Augie game was played since the teams were in town. Augie won a hard-fought game by 8 points. Basically, they made their free throws in the last three minutes. It wasn't their best game, but it was good enough to take home the trophy. 2 and I enjoyed the game.
Augie should host the first round this coming weekend. The pairings will be announced tomorrow. It's a 64 team field just like in D-I. St. Thomas should be in it too.
SB's in Duck Creek was not open this AM until 10 or so. I got there late for me, at 8 and there was a sign on the door saying that conditions precluded them from opening. I went to the Village Inn and had breakfast, but stopped by SB's later to give the staff the needle. The manager said that she had no staff that could make it at the regular hour, and store policy prevented her from opening herself.
The Discovery boys had to work hard yesterday to keep Levi in yellow. They had a couple of their guys go down in a crash early, and then a breakaway with some pretty good riders got three minutes or so on the peloton. None of the other teams wanted to help the Disco team chase down the break until late in the race when Disco had pulled it down to a minute or so. Then a couple of teams with sprinters came to the front to help as it had become obvious that the break would be caught and those teams wanted to make sure that each of their top guys had a chance at the stage win. The tour ends today with a circuit race in Santa Barbara that they trace 7 times for a 77 mile stage.
One of my favorite riders for Discovery, George Hincapie, was one of the crashers yesterday. Although he got up and completed the race, x-rays showed a break in his wrist so he won't start today.
The NASCAR boys are also in California today. The 24 won the pole. We'll see who has game for the long haul now that the restrictor plates are on the shelf for a while.
I've had to wear my Land's End coat the last few days. My Columbia is airing out. That night I met my client mid-week was in your classic smoke-filled bar. The next morning, my kitchen, where my coat was hanging on a chair, smelled like the bar. Everything, including the coat, needs to go through the wash.
We get a little bit of the smoke business at Biaggi's. I normally sit at a small table in the bar area, and the bar is the only place in the restauarant where smoking is permitted. Usually, it's just the occassional smoker, although every once in a while some guy will whip out a cigar. Then there are the folks from a back room for a group dinner who have to come out en masse for a smoke break at the bar. And so many young people. Don't you guys ever start smoking.
I'm off to do some biking in front of a game. It's snowing out so it will be another low key day in River City.
Be careful out there.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Saturday
I started this a couple of times, but now I've kind of lost my timeframe, so this will be brief.
Ice storm here right now. Travel is not advised. 3 is in C-town and I have told her to stay put for the day.
Great game last night. Augie won and plays for the title tonight. 2 and I will be there, weather permitting.
I had planned to do some shopping this afternoon for the new fixtures for the bathroom, but not in this weather. I know what I want. It's just a matter of doing a little price-shopping to make sure that I don't unnecessarily over-pay at one place rather that going down the street to another store.
So I'll add to this tomorrow.
Be careful out there.
Ice storm here right now. Travel is not advised. 3 is in C-town and I have told her to stay put for the day.
Great game last night. Augie won and plays for the title tonight. 2 and I will be there, weather permitting.
I had planned to do some shopping this afternoon for the new fixtures for the bathroom, but not in this weather. I know what I want. It's just a matter of doing a little price-shopping to make sure that I don't unnecessarily over-pay at one place rather that going down the street to another store.
So I'll add to this tomorrow.
Be careful out there.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Friday PM
No blog today.
2 and I are meeting for a glass of vino and then we'll head over to Augie for the game.
Busy here today.
4 needs to give us some new material. We all miss her thoughts.
Be careful out there.
2 and I are meeting for a glass of vino and then we'll head over to Augie for the game.
Busy here today.
4 needs to give us some new material. We all miss her thoughts.
Be careful out there.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Thursday
Not a lot new at this end. The cocktails last night were a little longer than planned.
As fate would have it, Augie gets to play tomorrow night in the semi-finals of the conference tournament that they host, the same team that stole the game last Saturday on the bad call by the ref. The other team will be confident, so Augie needs to come ready to play. 2 and I are going.
3 reports that she gets to go on an organized trip from the Iowa business school for a private meeting with The Oracle of Omaha next month. She needs to give the readers some details.
Since I don't shop that much, I was taken aback somewhat at lunch today when I stopped in at the local card outlet store to pick up some things, and at the check-out, the first question was, "Can I have your phone number, please?" My response was, "No", and there was no follow-up question as she rang up my purchase. I know from the past that this store would ask for your zip code, but I had never had a clerk ask for my phone number on a cash purchase. I'm sure that it is just more marketing efforts.
I suppose that if you give the number in a situation like that, that they can call you even if you are on the Do Not Call register. If this is the case, I wonder if they can sell the list so acquired to others with that Do Not Call exemption carrying over to that purchaser?
The Hawks continue to surprise me. Penn State on the road and Illinois at home are both winnable games, but a split would still mean a successful regular conference season. Even if they get into the NCAA tournament, what are their chances of getting past the second game? On the other hand, they could possibly host a couple of NIT games which 4 could then attend.
If any of you have seen highlights of this week's pro golf event in Arizona, you have a very accurate comparison of the courses that we played last month in Cabo. Hit it in the fareway, or pull out another ball. The desert is not a fun place to chase an errant shot.
My pal Bill reports that he was at least partially successful in his fight with City Hall last night. I'm not sure if it means that the city relented entirely on the zoning request or whether the developer in question simply declined to fight the fight. At least for the time being, he doesn't have to worry about skyscrapers in his back yard.
The mail to IC did leave until today. Sorry.
I see where they have announced the new Dancing With The Stars celebrity(?) participants. Since I have never watched the show (or American Idol, or Survivor, or any reality show), I shouldn't criticize. But what's the appeal? Then again, I did catch most of the 800 left turns on Sunday so we'll just let this one go.
All from here. Have a good evening.
Be careful out there.
As fate would have it, Augie gets to play tomorrow night in the semi-finals of the conference tournament that they host, the same team that stole the game last Saturday on the bad call by the ref. The other team will be confident, so Augie needs to come ready to play. 2 and I are going.
3 reports that she gets to go on an organized trip from the Iowa business school for a private meeting with The Oracle of Omaha next month. She needs to give the readers some details.
Since I don't shop that much, I was taken aback somewhat at lunch today when I stopped in at the local card outlet store to pick up some things, and at the check-out, the first question was, "Can I have your phone number, please?" My response was, "No", and there was no follow-up question as she rang up my purchase. I know from the past that this store would ask for your zip code, but I had never had a clerk ask for my phone number on a cash purchase. I'm sure that it is just more marketing efforts.
I suppose that if you give the number in a situation like that, that they can call you even if you are on the Do Not Call register. If this is the case, I wonder if they can sell the list so acquired to others with that Do Not Call exemption carrying over to that purchaser?
The Hawks continue to surprise me. Penn State on the road and Illinois at home are both winnable games, but a split would still mean a successful regular conference season. Even if they get into the NCAA tournament, what are their chances of getting past the second game? On the other hand, they could possibly host a couple of NIT games which 4 could then attend.
If any of you have seen highlights of this week's pro golf event in Arizona, you have a very accurate comparison of the courses that we played last month in Cabo. Hit it in the fareway, or pull out another ball. The desert is not a fun place to chase an errant shot.
My pal Bill reports that he was at least partially successful in his fight with City Hall last night. I'm not sure if it means that the city relented entirely on the zoning request or whether the developer in question simply declined to fight the fight. At least for the time being, he doesn't have to worry about skyscrapers in his back yard.
The mail to IC did leave until today. Sorry.
I see where they have announced the new Dancing With The Stars celebrity(?) participants. Since I have never watched the show (or American Idol, or Survivor, or any reality show), I shouldn't criticize. But what's the appeal? Then again, I did catch most of the 800 left turns on Sunday so we'll just let this one go.
All from here. Have a good evening.
Be careful out there.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Wednesday
This was another of those days that just got away from me. Busy all day, but not sure what I got done.
Today is the 6th anniversary of Mother's death. Lots of water under the bridge since then.
Today is Ash Wednesday. Yesterday being Fat Tuesday. I've never been one to celebrate Mardi Gras, although I think my high school girlfriend and I attended a formal dance around this time of year that may have been a Mardi Gras theme. There were four social sororities for high school girls in Ottumwa and each one had an annual formal dance, that was usually attended by the girls from all the sororities (and their dates!). Very high brow for a country boy.
Levi continues to lead the race in California. Lance was in attendance today. He still owns part of the Discovery team. The Gubinator was on the podium in Sacramento yesterday making the presentations to the daily winners.
I guess one of the reasons I like cycling is that the cycling crowd is slightly more appealing than, say, the NBA or Super Bowl glitz. While you do have super stars in this week's race, you also have a lot of domestiques on the big teams, and whole teams of unknowns on several US-based squads who are very common guys. Drug use aside.
Looks like it's a go on the bathroom rehab. I've got to go out and get the new stuff (fixtures, vanity, lighting, etc.) so that the carpenter can start next week. He was in the office today to finish some maintenance here and I think he sees my project as a nice little thing to do between bigger jobs.
Glad 3 gives the fam some props. We'd like to see more of her. I think.
My pal Bill is literally fighting City Hall tonight. After they built their very high-end villa last year, the developer proposed a commercial development right out their back door. The city is always anxious for development so as to increase the tax rolls, and the Planning and Zoning staff have recommended that the City Council accept the developer's proposal (which calls for a zoning variance from the current use designation). So Bill and the neighbor's are up in arms at what they perceive as a "bait and switch" move by the agent who sold them their lots (since he also is connected to the developer). It isn't easy getting City Hall off track once they are headed in a direction. We'll see on this one.
I met with a radio guy today who will be doing the spots for me on his early show over the next 3-4 months to market our sponsorship of the Quad Cities Criterium. You can't say a lot in 60 seconds. Try it. I told him that I wanted to use the old Presentations for Dummy's system of first, telling them what you're going to say, second, actually saying it, and third, reviewing for them what you just said. My goal is to get name recognition, and actually explaining what it is that we do in a radio spot will cause a lot of people to change stations.
I'm headed out to have a cocktail with a client. And I suppose watch the Hawks. But we're meeting on the Illinois side so we may watch the Fightin' Illini. And that Chief Illiniwek story is just too much to go past a notation on the blog. Are there any Irish people out there who want to protest the leprechaun?
Be careful out there.
Today is the 6th anniversary of Mother's death. Lots of water under the bridge since then.
Today is Ash Wednesday. Yesterday being Fat Tuesday. I've never been one to celebrate Mardi Gras, although I think my high school girlfriend and I attended a formal dance around this time of year that may have been a Mardi Gras theme. There were four social sororities for high school girls in Ottumwa and each one had an annual formal dance, that was usually attended by the girls from all the sororities (and their dates!). Very high brow for a country boy.
Levi continues to lead the race in California. Lance was in attendance today. He still owns part of the Discovery team. The Gubinator was on the podium in Sacramento yesterday making the presentations to the daily winners.
I guess one of the reasons I like cycling is that the cycling crowd is slightly more appealing than, say, the NBA or Super Bowl glitz. While you do have super stars in this week's race, you also have a lot of domestiques on the big teams, and whole teams of unknowns on several US-based squads who are very common guys. Drug use aside.
Looks like it's a go on the bathroom rehab. I've got to go out and get the new stuff (fixtures, vanity, lighting, etc.) so that the carpenter can start next week. He was in the office today to finish some maintenance here and I think he sees my project as a nice little thing to do between bigger jobs.
Glad 3 gives the fam some props. We'd like to see more of her. I think.
My pal Bill is literally fighting City Hall tonight. After they built their very high-end villa last year, the developer proposed a commercial development right out their back door. The city is always anxious for development so as to increase the tax rolls, and the Planning and Zoning staff have recommended that the City Council accept the developer's proposal (which calls for a zoning variance from the current use designation). So Bill and the neighbor's are up in arms at what they perceive as a "bait and switch" move by the agent who sold them their lots (since he also is connected to the developer). It isn't easy getting City Hall off track once they are headed in a direction. We'll see on this one.
I met with a radio guy today who will be doing the spots for me on his early show over the next 3-4 months to market our sponsorship of the Quad Cities Criterium. You can't say a lot in 60 seconds. Try it. I told him that I wanted to use the old Presentations for Dummy's system of first, telling them what you're going to say, second, actually saying it, and third, reviewing for them what you just said. My goal is to get name recognition, and actually explaining what it is that we do in a radio spot will cause a lot of people to change stations.
I'm headed out to have a cocktail with a client. And I suppose watch the Hawks. But we're meeting on the Illinois side so we may watch the Fightin' Illini. And that Chief Illiniwek story is just too much to go past a notation on the blog. Are there any Irish people out there who want to protest the leprechaun?
Be careful out there.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Tuesday
Another nice day here, but not quite as nice as yesterday. Beats the below zero days by a bunch.
A couple of loose ends from yesterday. The Tour of California officials huddled after yesterday's crash-marred finish in Santa Rosa and decided to give the entire peloton the same finishing time as when they entered the circuits. Thus, Levi Leipheimer got to keep the overall lead even though he actually finished about a minute behind the stage winner. A bit of controversy since, while it is not uncommon to declare the circuits at the end of a road race as a safe zone, that declaration is normally done before the race. The fact that Levi calls Santa Rosa home supports those in the peloton who might think the officials are being a little biased in their ruling.
And K-State couldn't handle KU. I really thought it would be a closer game. So The Oracle is vulnerable.
Which is a convenient segue to the discussion Uncle Phil and I had today about the NCAA tournament. He's getting ready to spool up the annual family contest. All the wannabe's had better start reading the sports pages these next couple of weeks. Selection Sunday is March 11th. Which means that the entries will need to be in no later than 9AM CDT on March 14th. Unless the play-in game is made part of the package, in which case a Wednesday evening deadline will be required. But since Uncle Phil makes the rules, I defer to the Tahoe Talisman.
There is a rumor that 3 is back in the Central Time Zone.
The local sports-talk radio station has flipped some of it's national shows. As much as I hate to say anything nice about any of them, Dan Patrick is a breath of fresh air compared to Jim Rome or Mike & Mike In The Morning. And when Patrick gets going with Kieth Olbermann, they're like Hillary and Barbara Boxer getting together to talk about the GOP. I think I'm headed back to more country music.
But even country music is working mostly to attract younger listeners. I suppose that singers age just like their listeners, so Dolly and Randy and Clint and Vince and all the rest just need to get their own satellite station and pump it on down.
OK. Enough rendering on the Dark Side.
Let's end today with the reality that Spring Training is in full swing and there'll be exhibition games starting next week. And we can then get in the discussions on the intricacies of The Game, which I am sure will capture all of your imaginations!
So have a great evening.
Be careful out there.
A couple of loose ends from yesterday. The Tour of California officials huddled after yesterday's crash-marred finish in Santa Rosa and decided to give the entire peloton the same finishing time as when they entered the circuits. Thus, Levi Leipheimer got to keep the overall lead even though he actually finished about a minute behind the stage winner. A bit of controversy since, while it is not uncommon to declare the circuits at the end of a road race as a safe zone, that declaration is normally done before the race. The fact that Levi calls Santa Rosa home supports those in the peloton who might think the officials are being a little biased in their ruling.
And K-State couldn't handle KU. I really thought it would be a closer game. So The Oracle is vulnerable.
Which is a convenient segue to the discussion Uncle Phil and I had today about the NCAA tournament. He's getting ready to spool up the annual family contest. All the wannabe's had better start reading the sports pages these next couple of weeks. Selection Sunday is March 11th. Which means that the entries will need to be in no later than 9AM CDT on March 14th. Unless the play-in game is made part of the package, in which case a Wednesday evening deadline will be required. But since Uncle Phil makes the rules, I defer to the Tahoe Talisman.
There is a rumor that 3 is back in the Central Time Zone.
The local sports-talk radio station has flipped some of it's national shows. As much as I hate to say anything nice about any of them, Dan Patrick is a breath of fresh air compared to Jim Rome or Mike & Mike In The Morning. And when Patrick gets going with Kieth Olbermann, they're like Hillary and Barbara Boxer getting together to talk about the GOP. I think I'm headed back to more country music.
But even country music is working mostly to attract younger listeners. I suppose that singers age just like their listeners, so Dolly and Randy and Clint and Vince and all the rest just need to get their own satellite station and pump it on down.
OK. Enough rendering on the Dark Side.
Let's end today with the reality that Spring Training is in full swing and there'll be exhibition games starting next week. And we can then get in the discussions on the intricacies of The Game, which I am sure will capture all of your imaginations!
So have a great evening.
Be careful out there.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Monday
Wow! I think it may have been 50 here today. Heat wave!
I learned something about restrictor plate racing yesterday. The cars spend most of the first 3/4 of the race just grinding along. The real racin' doesn't start until the finish line is something other than a distant destination. (At Daytona and Talladega, where they run twice each year, NASCAR has restrictor plates on the carburetors to keep the speeds below 190mph or so. The plates rob oxygen from the engine which thus limits horsepower.) Nobody can really get away from the pack so it doesn't make sense to work the equipment any harder than necessary. As the finish line approaches however, friends are hard to find.
I'm not a fan of Harvick's, but his winning was ok. He made a great move to get to the lead on that last half lap. The 24 never got to the front after starting at the back, and I think they were probably happy with their 10th place finish, all things considered. Lots of other popular drivers finished the race in their haulers.
The bike race in California is in full swing. Discovery's Levi Leipheimer won the prologue up Telegraph Hill yesterday and they have a field sprint going in the first stage today. Lots of top names there this year, including 6 or 8 of Europe's major league teams. Now it looks like Levi had a crash and finished 30 seconds or so behind today's winner in Santa Rosa.
There was an interesting segment on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO this weekend. I don't care for Bryant Gumbel, but he was not the reporter on this story so it was easier to watch. The segment looked at the professional officiating careers of Joe and Jerry Crawford. I was not aware that these two guys were brothers, nor that they were sons of umpire Shag Crawford, a name I remember from listening to games on the radio when I was growing up. Joe Crawford is a highly respected, but pretty thin-skinned NBA referee. Jerry Crawford is a veteran MLB umpire whose main claim to fame is that he was the President of the umpires association when they tried a work stoppage in the 1990's that blew up in their faces.
The dad, Shag, is still alive (but on a portable oxygen feed) and sat in on a part of the interview. He was remembered as the home plate umpire who tackled Juan Marichal when he took the bat to John Roseboro in a game in the mid-'60's. But that's a different story.
KU is at K-State in the second game on Big Monday. I really haven't followed K-State recently, and Huggins can lose his teams late in the season, but if they're healthy, K-State could pull the upset at home.
The DM school board is moving their offices to available space in downtown DM. Let's see, the families live in the neighborhoods, let's make it hard for people to get to the administrative offices so that we can show how much we care. Do school boards have CPE programs where they learn to do things to turn off their constituencies?
OK. Off to the games. Have a pleasant President's Day evening.
Be careful out there.
I learned something about restrictor plate racing yesterday. The cars spend most of the first 3/4 of the race just grinding along. The real racin' doesn't start until the finish line is something other than a distant destination. (At Daytona and Talladega, where they run twice each year, NASCAR has restrictor plates on the carburetors to keep the speeds below 190mph or so. The plates rob oxygen from the engine which thus limits horsepower.) Nobody can really get away from the pack so it doesn't make sense to work the equipment any harder than necessary. As the finish line approaches however, friends are hard to find.
I'm not a fan of Harvick's, but his winning was ok. He made a great move to get to the lead on that last half lap. The 24 never got to the front after starting at the back, and I think they were probably happy with their 10th place finish, all things considered. Lots of other popular drivers finished the race in their haulers.
The bike race in California is in full swing. Discovery's Levi Leipheimer won the prologue up Telegraph Hill yesterday and they have a field sprint going in the first stage today. Lots of top names there this year, including 6 or 8 of Europe's major league teams. Now it looks like Levi had a crash and finished 30 seconds or so behind today's winner in Santa Rosa.
There was an interesting segment on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO this weekend. I don't care for Bryant Gumbel, but he was not the reporter on this story so it was easier to watch. The segment looked at the professional officiating careers of Joe and Jerry Crawford. I was not aware that these two guys were brothers, nor that they were sons of umpire Shag Crawford, a name I remember from listening to games on the radio when I was growing up. Joe Crawford is a highly respected, but pretty thin-skinned NBA referee. Jerry Crawford is a veteran MLB umpire whose main claim to fame is that he was the President of the umpires association when they tried a work stoppage in the 1990's that blew up in their faces.
The dad, Shag, is still alive (but on a portable oxygen feed) and sat in on a part of the interview. He was remembered as the home plate umpire who tackled Juan Marichal when he took the bat to John Roseboro in a game in the mid-'60's. But that's a different story.
KU is at K-State in the second game on Big Monday. I really haven't followed K-State recently, and Huggins can lose his teams late in the season, but if they're healthy, K-State could pull the upset at home.
The DM school board is moving their offices to available space in downtown DM. Let's see, the families live in the neighborhoods, let's make it hard for people to get to the administrative offices so that we can show how much we care. Do school boards have CPE programs where they learn to do things to turn off their constituencies?
OK. Off to the games. Have a pleasant President's Day evening.
Be careful out there.
Monday
Wow! I think it may have been 50 here today. Heat wave!
I learned something about restrictor plate racing yesterday. The cars spend most of the first 3/4 of the race just grinding along. The real racin' doesn't start until the finish line is something other than a distant destination. (At Daytona and Talladega, where they run twice each year, NASCAR has restrictor plates on the carburetors to keep the speeds below 190mph or so. The plates rob oxygen from the engine which thus limits horsepower.) Nobody can really get away from the pack so it doesn't make sense to work the equipment any harder than necessary. As the finish line approaches however, friends are hard to find.
I'm not a fan of Harvick's, but his winning was ok. He made a great move to get to the lead on that last half lap. The 24 never got to the front after starting at the back, and I think they were probably happy with their 10th place finish, all things considered. Lots of other popular drivers finished the race in their haulers.
The bike race in California is in full swing. Discovery's Levi Leipheimer won the prologue up Telegraph Hill yesterday and they have a field sprint going in the first stage today. Lots of top names there this year, including 6 or 8 of Europe's major league teams. Now it looks like Levi had a crash and finished 30 seconds or so behind today's winner in Santa Rosa.
There was an interesting segment on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO this weekend. I don't care for Bryant Gumbel, but he was not the reporter on this story so it was easier to watch. The segment looked at the professional officiating careers of Joe and Jerry Crawford. I was not aware that these two guys were brothers, nor that they were sons of umpire Shag Crawford, a name I remember from listening to games on the radio when I was growing up. Joe Crawford is a highly respected, but pretty thin-skinned NBA referee. Jerry Crawford is a veteran MLB umpire whose main claim to fame is that he was the President of the umpires association when they tried a work stoppage in the 1990's that blew up in their faces.
The dad, Shag, is still alive (but on a portable oxygen feed) and sat in on a part of the interview. He was remembered as the home plate umpire who tackled Juan Marichal when he took the bat to John Roseboro in a game in the mid-'60's. But that's a different story.
KU is at K-State in the second game on Big Monday. I really haven't followed K-State recently, and Huggins can lose his teams late in the season, but if they're healthy, K-State could pull the upset at home.
The DM school board is moving their offices to available space in downtown DM. Let's see, the families live in the neighborhoods, let's make it hard for people to get to the administrative offices so that we can show how much we care. Do school boards have CPE programs where they learn to do things to turn off their constituencies?
OK. Off to the games. Have a pleasant President's Day evening.
Be careful out there.
I learned something about restrictor plate racing yesterday. The cars spend most of the first 3/4 of the race just grinding along. The real racin' doesn't start until the finish line is something other than a distant destination. (At Daytona and Talladega, where they run twice each year, NASCAR has restrictor plates on the carburetors to keep the speeds below 190mph or so. The plates rob oxygen from the engine which thus limits horsepower.) Nobody can really get away from the pack so it doesn't make sense to work the equipment any harder than necessary. As the finish line approaches however, friends are hard to find.
I'm not a fan of Harvick's, but his winning was ok. He made a great move to get to the lead on that last half lap. The 24 never got to the front after starting at the back, and I think they were probably happy with their 10th place finish, all things considered. Lots of other popular drivers finished the race in their haulers.
The bike race in California is in full swing. Discovery's Levi Leipheimer won the prologue up Telegraph Hill yesterday and they have a field sprint going in the first stage today. Lots of top names there this year, including 6 or 8 of Europe's major league teams. Now it looks like Levi had a crash and finished 30 seconds or so behind today's winner in Santa Rosa.
There was an interesting segment on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO this weekend. I don't care for Bryant Gumbel, but he was not the reporter on this story so it was easier to watch. The segment looked at the professional officiating careers of Joe and Jerry Crawford. I was not aware that these two guys were brothers, nor that they were sons of umpire Shag Crawford, a name I remember from listening to games on the radio when I was growing up. Joe Crawford is a highly respected, but pretty thin-skinned NBA referee. Jerry Crawford is a veteran MLB umpire whose main claim to fame is that he was the President of the umpires association when they tried a work stoppage in the 1990's that blew up in their faces.
The dad, Shag, is still alive (but on a portable oxygen feed) and sat in on a part of the interview. He was remembered as the home plate umpire who tackled Juan Marichal when he took the bat to John Roseboro in a game in the mid-'60's. But that's a different story.
KU is at K-State in the second game on Big Monday. I really haven't followed K-State recently, and Huggins can lose his teams late in the season, but if they're healthy, K-State could pull the upset at home.
The DM school board is moving their offices to available space in downtown DM. Let's see, the families live in the neighborhoods, let's make it hard for people to get to the administrative offices so that we can show how much we care. Do school boards have CPE programs where they learn to do things to turn off their constituencies?
OK. Off to the games. Have a pleasant President's Day evening.
Be careful out there.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Sunday
The Augie game last night was one of those games that your team probably didn't deserve to win, but certainly didn't deserve to lose the way that they lost. After a furious rally in the last four minutes to come back from 17 down, the ref bailed out the other team's best player with an absurd call 20-odd feet from the basket with no time on the clock. I can't remember a worse call in a game that I attended.
Actually, when I was in like 7th grade there was a very controversial call in a huge tournament game between Ottumwa High, the public school in town, and Walsh High, the small Catholic school that our family attended. There was only a single class for the tournament back then. I think if you polled Ottumwa natives now in their 60's about a high school basketball memory, they would almost all remember that game. (The schools did not play regular season games against one another for various reasons.) A Walsh basket at the end of regulation was disallowed and OHS went on to win in OT. A man at the scoring table ( a local sports writer who later on did good by me throughout my career) stood and waved vigorously to the referees to inform them that the horn had sounded prior to the basket. Regardless of his generally fair treatment of Walsh athletics in the future, he was never allowed to forget his actions that night.
But I digress.
After the Augie game, 2 and I stopped at Johnny's Steak House in Moline for a glass of wine. Johnny's is a nice place, but there are certainly several other places in town of equal or better repute. The first round was a decent dry cab, but at $11 a glass! We asked for other less-expensive alternatives for a second round, and the gal bartender acted like we were the unwashed. And when she brought that second round in glasses still dripping with water from the wash rack, I took exception. Since I would never let my friends at Biaggi's get away with that level of service, I called her on it, saying that a place charging $11 a glass doesn't serve wine in glasses so obviously not properly prepared. She didn't take the criticism well.
I don't consider myself a wine snob, but if you're serving wine by the glass at $11 a pop, your place is a wine snob place. So don't give me glasses like I'm at the local All You Can Eat Buffet.
There were pictures in this AM's Sunday paper's Life section of three kids from one family who got married last year. Two girls and a boy. The dad probably had his retirement delayed a few years after that experience.
David Broder's column today was an interesting observation on the various choices of location for the candidacy announcements of the numerous Presidential hopefuls. Many, if not most, have chosen places (or in the case of Hillary, mediums) more connected to their aspirations rather than to their roots. Vilsack and Obama are the exceptions.
On the same page as Broder was a somewhat more personal rendering by Patrick Buchanan on his memories of Hank Bauer, a noted Yankee baseball player from the 40's and 50's. Daddy was a big Yankee fan, as were lots of people from Middle America in those times. I don't particularly care for Buchanan, but his recollections from his youth of the Yankees and their great players makes you wonder what today's youth will have to savor when they look back to their growing-up years. The salary cap? Janet Jackson? Barry Bonds? The half-pipe?
I've decided to do a little remodeling of my up-stairs bathroom. It's not like I use it all that much, but my guests do and I'd like a little better presentation for them. A handyman from our client list will be doing the work. I need to pick out the new fixtures, etc.
No big plans today. A little on the bike and erg. A lot of Daytona.
Have a great day. Those of you who get to celebrate President's Day tomorrow, enjoy the middle day of your three-day weekend.
Be careful out there.
Actually, when I was in like 7th grade there was a very controversial call in a huge tournament game between Ottumwa High, the public school in town, and Walsh High, the small Catholic school that our family attended. There was only a single class for the tournament back then. I think if you polled Ottumwa natives now in their 60's about a high school basketball memory, they would almost all remember that game. (The schools did not play regular season games against one another for various reasons.) A Walsh basket at the end of regulation was disallowed and OHS went on to win in OT. A man at the scoring table ( a local sports writer who later on did good by me throughout my career) stood and waved vigorously to the referees to inform them that the horn had sounded prior to the basket. Regardless of his generally fair treatment of Walsh athletics in the future, he was never allowed to forget his actions that night.
But I digress.
After the Augie game, 2 and I stopped at Johnny's Steak House in Moline for a glass of wine. Johnny's is a nice place, but there are certainly several other places in town of equal or better repute. The first round was a decent dry cab, but at $11 a glass! We asked for other less-expensive alternatives for a second round, and the gal bartender acted like we were the unwashed. And when she brought that second round in glasses still dripping with water from the wash rack, I took exception. Since I would never let my friends at Biaggi's get away with that level of service, I called her on it, saying that a place charging $11 a glass doesn't serve wine in glasses so obviously not properly prepared. She didn't take the criticism well.
I don't consider myself a wine snob, but if you're serving wine by the glass at $11 a pop, your place is a wine snob place. So don't give me glasses like I'm at the local All You Can Eat Buffet.
There were pictures in this AM's Sunday paper's Life section of three kids from one family who got married last year. Two girls and a boy. The dad probably had his retirement delayed a few years after that experience.
David Broder's column today was an interesting observation on the various choices of location for the candidacy announcements of the numerous Presidential hopefuls. Many, if not most, have chosen places (or in the case of Hillary, mediums) more connected to their aspirations rather than to their roots. Vilsack and Obama are the exceptions.
On the same page as Broder was a somewhat more personal rendering by Patrick Buchanan on his memories of Hank Bauer, a noted Yankee baseball player from the 40's and 50's. Daddy was a big Yankee fan, as were lots of people from Middle America in those times. I don't particularly care for Buchanan, but his recollections from his youth of the Yankees and their great players makes you wonder what today's youth will have to savor when they look back to their growing-up years. The salary cap? Janet Jackson? Barry Bonds? The half-pipe?
I've decided to do a little remodeling of my up-stairs bathroom. It's not like I use it all that much, but my guests do and I'd like a little better presentation for them. A handyman from our client list will be doing the work. I need to pick out the new fixtures, etc.
No big plans today. A little on the bike and erg. A lot of Daytona.
Have a great day. Those of you who get to celebrate President's Day tomorrow, enjoy the middle day of your three-day weekend.
Be careful out there.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Friday PM
Just a few lines before taking off.
Snow flurries outside right now. Below zero this AM. Winter is getting a little old.
I've been wearing my high-top Field & Stream insulated boots for each of the last 35-40 days. I bet I didn't wear them more than three days in a row all last Winter. What does that say about this year's weather? And each day about 4PM I'm ready to take them off for a rest. I feel like I've been doing leg lifts all day!
Just had a little excitement here with Firefox, which I think was unrelated to Blogger. I had gone to another site to get some data and Firefox didn't like my print instructions at that location. It shut all my Internet connections down and I lost those first two paragraphs above. They didn't even go to the "draft" area. I can say that Blogger has been pretty good from a user's perspective.
SI swimsuit issue is out. As though anyone might have been able to escape the full-court press that SI does to promote the issue. It was much better years ago when there was less of the issue and more clothes on the models.
The Thursday NY Times crossword had one of their patented trick puzzles yesterday. In four of the squares, you had to figure out that they wanted the symbols for, period, colon, comma and dash. By using the symbol, but by saying the word, you completed the solution to both the across and down clues for those spaces. A non-puzzler had no chance.
Spell check just informed me that Internet required a capital "I". Didn't know that.
Have a great evening.
Be careful out there.
Snow flurries outside right now. Below zero this AM. Winter is getting a little old.
I've been wearing my high-top Field & Stream insulated boots for each of the last 35-40 days. I bet I didn't wear them more than three days in a row all last Winter. What does that say about this year's weather? And each day about 4PM I'm ready to take them off for a rest. I feel like I've been doing leg lifts all day!
Just had a little excitement here with Firefox, which I think was unrelated to Blogger. I had gone to another site to get some data and Firefox didn't like my print instructions at that location. It shut all my Internet connections down and I lost those first two paragraphs above. They didn't even go to the "draft" area. I can say that Blogger has been pretty good from a user's perspective.
SI swimsuit issue is out. As though anyone might have been able to escape the full-court press that SI does to promote the issue. It was much better years ago when there was less of the issue and more clothes on the models.
The Thursday NY Times crossword had one of their patented trick puzzles yesterday. In four of the squares, you had to figure out that they wanted the symbols for, period, colon, comma and dash. By using the symbol, but by saying the word, you completed the solution to both the across and down clues for those spaces. A non-puzzler had no chance.
Spell check just informed me that Internet required a capital "I". Didn't know that.
Have a great evening.
Be careful out there.
Friday AM
Sorry about that lack of production yesterday. I got pretty busy in the afternoon and had to beat feet to 5:30 cocktails with a friend from the old days in Rock Island. He and I did some partying many years ago, but we hadn't seen much of one another recently, so it was good to catch up with him.
3 and 4 were through town yesterday afternoon. 3 to catch a plane to Atlanta. 4 to do the driving and pick up the repaired Focus. Things went as scheduled, although there was a detour on I-80 at Walcott that had the girls ultimately see a little more of Davenport than was planned.
The Hawks won again last night and are now officially over-achievers for the season in my book. I didn't think that they would win 15 games. Then again, the Big 10 is not exactly a power conference this year.
The 24 car won the second qualifying race yesterday, but was then sent to the back of the field for Sunday because of a post-race inspection problem. NASCAR is a little touchy these days.
Thanks for the nice comments yesterday.
An interesting migration at morning coffee. I was at the new place this AM and two of the semi-regulars from Duck Creek stopped by and joined me. Now, my Pal Roy is out of town, so there is no main attraction at Duck Creek, but it was nice to see the familiar faces.
More later. Have a great day.
Be careful out there.
3 and 4 were through town yesterday afternoon. 3 to catch a plane to Atlanta. 4 to do the driving and pick up the repaired Focus. Things went as scheduled, although there was a detour on I-80 at Walcott that had the girls ultimately see a little more of Davenport than was planned.
The Hawks won again last night and are now officially over-achievers for the season in my book. I didn't think that they would win 15 games. Then again, the Big 10 is not exactly a power conference this year.
The 24 car won the second qualifying race yesterday, but was then sent to the back of the field for Sunday because of a post-race inspection problem. NASCAR is a little touchy these days.
Thanks for the nice comments yesterday.
An interesting migration at morning coffee. I was at the new place this AM and two of the semi-regulars from Duck Creek stopped by and joined me. Now, my Pal Roy is out of town, so there is no main attraction at Duck Creek, but it was nice to see the familiar faces.
More later. Have a great day.
Be careful out there.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Wednesday PM
I'm not sure if I had all that productive of a day. But I'm out of gas, so I guess the day is done regardless.
My pal Bill is headed out tomorrow AM for a long weekend in Napa wine country. I'm not sure if that is a destination of choice for me, but it sounds pretty good right now.
And my pal Roy is on another 10 day golf trip, this time with Muscatine buddies at a place in Florida. Life is hard.
Some pretty serious controversy in NASCAR. Five teams have received stiff penalties for funny business in last Sunday's qualifying runs for this coming Sunday's 500. The story today was that one guy was maybe using jet fuel. They're just good 'ol boys trying to win a race. The Twin 125's are tomorrow with all but the top two spots in play. Actually, it's more complicated than that, but I've already lost most of my audience, so we'll move on to other things.
Valentine's Day was always a special day when the girls were young. I tried to get small gifts or flowers to them, through high school. I suppose most of my efforts were lame by today's standards, but my intentions were good.
I'm sure that way back when, I bought flowers for my high school girl friend, but since I never had any money, I was buying like 2 or 3 roses as opposed to a dozen. My history of under-performance goes back a long time.
We made initial arrangements today for some logo'd polo shirts for the Criterium bike races which my company is sponsoring on Memorial Day. These are promotional things for casual business wear as contrasted to the t-shirts that will be sold to the general public. We had to make a small adjustment to the presentation of our firm's name in the logo due to some limitations in the stitching machine. By placing our name on the left sleeve, we can get the race logo small enough to look good on left breast area of the shirt where logos are normally placed.
This was a concession that I had to make for the best look to these shirts. I have insisted to race organizers that our name must appear in the logo itself in all promotional signs, banners and publications. The goal for my business is to get name recognition for the sponsorship, and I want to make sure that that goal is not lost by the organizers. Their goal is to put on a race, and I will need to keep my interests on the table, or risk attaining something less than the level of recognition that is my goal.
I like the spell-check of the New Blogger. But it doesn't have the context or usage insight that Word or other more sophisticated programs give you. But I can't complain. It helps.
Hope everyone has a good night.
Be careful out there.
My pal Bill is headed out tomorrow AM for a long weekend in Napa wine country. I'm not sure if that is a destination of choice for me, but it sounds pretty good right now.
And my pal Roy is on another 10 day golf trip, this time with Muscatine buddies at a place in Florida. Life is hard.
Some pretty serious controversy in NASCAR. Five teams have received stiff penalties for funny business in last Sunday's qualifying runs for this coming Sunday's 500. The story today was that one guy was maybe using jet fuel. They're just good 'ol boys trying to win a race. The Twin 125's are tomorrow with all but the top two spots in play. Actually, it's more complicated than that, but I've already lost most of my audience, so we'll move on to other things.
Valentine's Day was always a special day when the girls were young. I tried to get small gifts or flowers to them, through high school. I suppose most of my efforts were lame by today's standards, but my intentions were good.
I'm sure that way back when, I bought flowers for my high school girl friend, but since I never had any money, I was buying like 2 or 3 roses as opposed to a dozen. My history of under-performance goes back a long time.
We made initial arrangements today for some logo'd polo shirts for the Criterium bike races which my company is sponsoring on Memorial Day. These are promotional things for casual business wear as contrasted to the t-shirts that will be sold to the general public. We had to make a small adjustment to the presentation of our firm's name in the logo due to some limitations in the stitching machine. By placing our name on the left sleeve, we can get the race logo small enough to look good on left breast area of the shirt where logos are normally placed.
This was a concession that I had to make for the best look to these shirts. I have insisted to race organizers that our name must appear in the logo itself in all promotional signs, banners and publications. The goal for my business is to get name recognition for the sponsorship, and I want to make sure that that goal is not lost by the organizers. Their goal is to put on a race, and I will need to keep my interests on the table, or risk attaining something less than the level of recognition that is my goal.
I like the spell-check of the New Blogger. But it doesn't have the context or usage insight that Word or other more sophisticated programs give you. But I can't complain. It helps.
Hope everyone has a good night.
Be careful out there.
Wednesday
Happy Valentine's Day!
This latest snow and cold has really presented us with a traditional Winter. I did see where the long-range forecast has temps getting to near 40 degrees early next week. By that time, March will be on the radar screen and these harsh conditions will not hang on much longer. Daylight has been visibly extended too. I can almost feel the grass sprouting beneath the snow cover. Right.
A true sign of Spring is that pitchers and catchers are reporting this week for baseball's spring training season.
The estimate on the repair of the IC girls' Focus came in at $130. It could have been less than $100 if I had opted for the non-electric replacement mirror. The other party's estimate for damage to his car was just over $1000. What's wrong with this picture?
More later today.
Be careful out there.
This latest snow and cold has really presented us with a traditional Winter. I did see where the long-range forecast has temps getting to near 40 degrees early next week. By that time, March will be on the radar screen and these harsh conditions will not hang on much longer. Daylight has been visibly extended too. I can almost feel the grass sprouting beneath the snow cover. Right.
A true sign of Spring is that pitchers and catchers are reporting this week for baseball's spring training season.
The estimate on the repair of the IC girls' Focus came in at $130. It could have been less than $100 if I had opted for the non-electric replacement mirror. The other party's estimate for damage to his car was just over $1000. What's wrong with this picture?
More later today.
Be careful out there.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Tuesday
No blog again today.
I had another lengthy meeting late in the afternoon and I have a dinner meeting on the Illinois side in 10 minutes.
Snow here today. 4-6 inches. Real winter.
I will definitely get up early in the morning to add a regular entry.
Be careful out there.
I had another lengthy meeting late in the afternoon and I have a dinner meeting on the Illinois side in 10 minutes.
Snow here today. 4-6 inches. Real winter.
I will definitely get up early in the morning to add a regular entry.
Be careful out there.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Monday
No blog today. I just got off the phone from an hour and a half call which totally consumed my blog time. I'll come in early tomorrow and catch up.
It's Big Monday. And I'm late.
Be careful out there.
It's Big Monday. And I'm late.
Be careful out there.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Sunday
We have some relief from the bitter cold today. It's a little short of mild, but certainly balmy in comparison to most of last week.
2 and I caught the Augie game last night. Another win, but again not all that pretty. Good crowd. There just must not be all that much to do in Rock Island on Saturday night.
The Augie coaches all wore white tennis shoes for the game as part of the national program, Coaches vs. Cancer. The coaches on the visiting team didn't get the memo. This is a deal that has been going on for several years and is usually a visual anomaly. I'm not sure how the effort actually translates to support for cancer research.
My pal Roy and I did the local auto show today. Can't say that I saw anything that I just had to have. Lots of pretty expensive cars.
New Orleans' quarterback Drew Brees was seriously injured in the Pro Bowl in Hawaii last night. An elbow-something in his non-throwing arm. It will not require surgery, but will take several weeks to heal. How long will it be before they either do away with the Pro Bowl or make it a non-contact event? The risk-reward ratio on a full-contact game just doesn't make any sense today. For anybody.
I did a little house work today and I have concluded that I need to do some serious cataloging of personal papers and memorabilia. I have stuff going back to grade school and high school which needs to be inventoried. If I get hit by the proverbial truck, the girls are going to have to sift through a lot of incidentals.
Interestingly, my effort at writing goes back all the way to these dusty boxes. I probably should have taken a more focused approach to writing in college or grad school. Or maybe now.
Did I mention that Discovery Channel has announced that it will be dropping sponsorship of the cycling team for 2008? There has been a cleaning of the house recently at Discovery's corporate offices, and the new head honcho must not be much of a cyclist. With the Landis thing, and other doping stories, (not to mention that Lance is not racing), the change is not all that surprising. Just like NASCAR and professional golf, sponsorships tend to change every few years as companies measure the marginal benefits of continued advertising of the same event. If Basso wins some races this year, and he is not found to have used drugs (now or before), a new sponsor will step up.
In another story of cycling news, there was an announcement last week that there will be a professional stage race in Missouri in September. The Tour of Missouri, starting from Country Club Plaza in KC. I'll be curious how this race evolves. The state is looking for tourism dollars and this kind of thing has possibilities. But there have been other attempts to host high-profile races in the States, and most have had short lives. Eventually, it comes down to money, and my guess is that the state will be willing to underwrite this kind of event just so long before it becomes more self-supporting.
The city has temporarily placed one of those digital "Your speed is" signs on my street to try to slow the cars down. Someone must have complained. I don't notice the traffic or the speeds that much in the winter because my windows are closed. But my street is a convenient short-cut for the high school and for shoppers. And lots of people get pretty lead-footed on the route. My guess is that once they move the sign to another location, speeds on my street will return to their previous higher levels.
Hope everyone has a successful week. Good luck in all that you do.
Be careful out there.
2 and I caught the Augie game last night. Another win, but again not all that pretty. Good crowd. There just must not be all that much to do in Rock Island on Saturday night.
The Augie coaches all wore white tennis shoes for the game as part of the national program, Coaches vs. Cancer. The coaches on the visiting team didn't get the memo. This is a deal that has been going on for several years and is usually a visual anomaly. I'm not sure how the effort actually translates to support for cancer research.
My pal Roy and I did the local auto show today. Can't say that I saw anything that I just had to have. Lots of pretty expensive cars.
New Orleans' quarterback Drew Brees was seriously injured in the Pro Bowl in Hawaii last night. An elbow-something in his non-throwing arm. It will not require surgery, but will take several weeks to heal. How long will it be before they either do away with the Pro Bowl or make it a non-contact event? The risk-reward ratio on a full-contact game just doesn't make any sense today. For anybody.
I did a little house work today and I have concluded that I need to do some serious cataloging of personal papers and memorabilia. I have stuff going back to grade school and high school which needs to be inventoried. If I get hit by the proverbial truck, the girls are going to have to sift through a lot of incidentals.
Interestingly, my effort at writing goes back all the way to these dusty boxes. I probably should have taken a more focused approach to writing in college or grad school. Or maybe now.
Did I mention that Discovery Channel has announced that it will be dropping sponsorship of the cycling team for 2008? There has been a cleaning of the house recently at Discovery's corporate offices, and the new head honcho must not be much of a cyclist. With the Landis thing, and other doping stories, (not to mention that Lance is not racing), the change is not all that surprising. Just like NASCAR and professional golf, sponsorships tend to change every few years as companies measure the marginal benefits of continued advertising of the same event. If Basso wins some races this year, and he is not found to have used drugs (now or before), a new sponsor will step up.
In another story of cycling news, there was an announcement last week that there will be a professional stage race in Missouri in September. The Tour of Missouri, starting from Country Club Plaza in KC. I'll be curious how this race evolves. The state is looking for tourism dollars and this kind of thing has possibilities. But there have been other attempts to host high-profile races in the States, and most have had short lives. Eventually, it comes down to money, and my guess is that the state will be willing to underwrite this kind of event just so long before it becomes more self-supporting.
The city has temporarily placed one of those digital "Your speed is" signs on my street to try to slow the cars down. Someone must have complained. I don't notice the traffic or the speeds that much in the winter because my windows are closed. But my street is a convenient short-cut for the high school and for shoppers. And lots of people get pretty lead-footed on the route. My guess is that once they move the sign to another location, speeds on my street will return to their previous higher levels.
Hope everyone has a successful week. Good luck in all that you do.
Be careful out there.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Saturday
No blog today.
2,3, and 4 were over for lunch at my place. 3 and 4 brought the Focus home and will be taking the Taurus back to IC this evening. A little repair work to be done on the Focus this week.
More tomorrow.
Be careful out there.
2,3, and 4 were over for lunch at my place. 3 and 4 brought the Focus home and will be taking the Taurus back to IC this evening. A little repair work to be done on the Focus this week.
More tomorrow.
Be careful out there.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Friday
I'm going to try to do some Tuscan red tonight. Wine has not tasted that good these last few weeks.
The cold may be moderating. I actually saw some drips from melting snow on a southern facing roof line when I was out for lunch today.
3 had a good little dose of Wall Street humor today. How different segments of the Street may consider the value and opportunities of two milk cows. She needs to send it to the clan.
A columnist in the Life section of today's DM Register did a story on the flu. A couple of paragraphs hit on the mis-guided rituals of shaking hands during church. Sipping from the same chalice is a few notches further north on the not-to-do list.
The nation's top high school senior basketball recruit (he's signed with USC) has been suspended for three games for getting kicked out of a game 10 days ago and then bumping the referee as he protested his expulsion. They changed the rules last year to prevent players from going to the NBA immediately from high school so that they would be better prepared for the league. Sounds to me like this guy is already ready for the NBA.
The PGA is at Pebble Beach this week. In an interesting twist from the norm, the cut is made after three rounds this week rather than the regular rule which is after the second round.
The PGA also announced this week that The International tournament held at Castle Pines in Colorado has been cancelled this year due to lack of sponsorship. That was the only tournament on the tour that used the odd "Modified Stapleford" scoring system. Rather than just counting strokes and the low guy wins, the Stapleford system gives plus numbers to birdies and eagles, and minus numbers to bogies or worse. The highest guy wins.
NASCAR media day. Lots of stories on the wire. The first race, the Bud Shootout, is a non-points race open only to pole winners from any of last year's races and is run under the lights tomorrow night.
Have a great evening.
Be careful out there.
The cold may be moderating. I actually saw some drips from melting snow on a southern facing roof line when I was out for lunch today.
3 had a good little dose of Wall Street humor today. How different segments of the Street may consider the value and opportunities of two milk cows. She needs to send it to the clan.
A columnist in the Life section of today's DM Register did a story on the flu. A couple of paragraphs hit on the mis-guided rituals of shaking hands during church. Sipping from the same chalice is a few notches further north on the not-to-do list.
The nation's top high school senior basketball recruit (he's signed with USC) has been suspended for three games for getting kicked out of a game 10 days ago and then bumping the referee as he protested his expulsion. They changed the rules last year to prevent players from going to the NBA immediately from high school so that they would be better prepared for the league. Sounds to me like this guy is already ready for the NBA.
The PGA is at Pebble Beach this week. In an interesting twist from the norm, the cut is made after three rounds this week rather than the regular rule which is after the second round.
The PGA also announced this week that The International tournament held at Castle Pines in Colorado has been cancelled this year due to lack of sponsorship. That was the only tournament on the tour that used the odd "Modified Stapleford" scoring system. Rather than just counting strokes and the low guy wins, the Stapleford system gives plus numbers to birdies and eagles, and minus numbers to bogies or worse. The highest guy wins.
NASCAR media day. Lots of stories on the wire. The first race, the Bud Shootout, is a non-points race open only to pole winners from any of last year's races and is run under the lights tomorrow night.
Have a great evening.
Be careful out there.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Thursday
What happened to the week?
2 and I had a good time at the Augie game last night. Although Augie won, it wasn't pretty. A couple of their starters had been sick this week and hadn't practiced, and it showed. In the end, my pal Pete's son did a great job leading the home team to victory.
3 had a little excitement this week when a comment she had made right here on 4000 Days last Spring turned up on a random Google search done by an acquaintance of one of her roommates in IC. The acquaintance passed it on to 3's roommate, and there was a resulting ripple in the force of the universe. 3's comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but a biased reader could take it the wrong way. And the roommate was a biased reader.
I guess the lesson is that you don't put on the internet anything that you might be uncomfortable defending at some later date. As 4000 Days has evolved, I have made it a rule to not use last names generally. And the numerical references to the girls is a small concession to a concern for mis-use or mis-interpretation by the wandering eyes of unknown readers.
There are lots of examples of old history coming back to haunt a public figure. Senator Gary Hart of Colorado is the classic example. Vetting has been a sport of choice for muckrakers for centuries. The difference today is that the Man On The Street ( or Woman) can be the target of the search for dirt. Consider the recent examples of the various Miss Somethings with the photo evidence of forgotten evenings from years ago. Or the case of the post-game partying habits of the Iowa State b-ball coach a few years back. The internet now allows the public relatively easy access to vast amounts of information. Blogging has added geometrically to the information base.
The element that has got my attention is the power of the internet search engines. If a simple Google search can recognize a person's name in a little-read blog text, imagine what a hacker who really wanted to find something could do. I know that I regularly use Google for technical/tax/IRS questions, and the results are surprisingly reliable. The information that I can get in that fashion today, for free, is multiple times more useful than data that I used to look up manually in the tax library (which had several subscription fees). (A fully-equipped electronic-media tax library is obviously superior to a system of free search on Google. But for a general practitioner CPA, you can get a long ways to the right answer with the non-subscription stuff on the internet.)
I took the Taurus in for an oil change at the Quick Lube over lunch hour. The up-sell offers included, 1) transmission fluid flush for $109.99, 2) air filter for $13.99, and 3) up-graded oil for better mileage at $20.00 over the "standard" grade. I took the air filter since the one he showed me was fully clogged. (I wonder how many times he's used that same dirty filter on a customer?) Some things never change. Up-selling at the Quick Lube is a Top Five item on that list. (Quick Lube is a generic term. Substitute your auto service center of preference.)
Ford Motor Company has announced that they are bringing back the recently retired Taurus name and sticking it on the under-performing Ford Five Hundred sedan beginning with the 2008 models. If only a name change could solve their problems.
Have a warm and toasty evening.
Be careful out there.
2 and I had a good time at the Augie game last night. Although Augie won, it wasn't pretty. A couple of their starters had been sick this week and hadn't practiced, and it showed. In the end, my pal Pete's son did a great job leading the home team to victory.
3 had a little excitement this week when a comment she had made right here on 4000 Days last Spring turned up on a random Google search done by an acquaintance of one of her roommates in IC. The acquaintance passed it on to 3's roommate, and there was a resulting ripple in the force of the universe. 3's comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but a biased reader could take it the wrong way. And the roommate was a biased reader.
I guess the lesson is that you don't put on the internet anything that you might be uncomfortable defending at some later date. As 4000 Days has evolved, I have made it a rule to not use last names generally. And the numerical references to the girls is a small concession to a concern for mis-use or mis-interpretation by the wandering eyes of unknown readers.
There are lots of examples of old history coming back to haunt a public figure. Senator Gary Hart of Colorado is the classic example. Vetting has been a sport of choice for muckrakers for centuries. The difference today is that the Man On The Street ( or Woman) can be the target of the search for dirt. Consider the recent examples of the various Miss Somethings with the photo evidence of forgotten evenings from years ago. Or the case of the post-game partying habits of the Iowa State b-ball coach a few years back. The internet now allows the public relatively easy access to vast amounts of information. Blogging has added geometrically to the information base.
The element that has got my attention is the power of the internet search engines. If a simple Google search can recognize a person's name in a little-read blog text, imagine what a hacker who really wanted to find something could do. I know that I regularly use Google for technical/tax/IRS questions, and the results are surprisingly reliable. The information that I can get in that fashion today, for free, is multiple times more useful than data that I used to look up manually in the tax library (which had several subscription fees). (A fully-equipped electronic-media tax library is obviously superior to a system of free search on Google. But for a general practitioner CPA, you can get a long ways to the right answer with the non-subscription stuff on the internet.)
I took the Taurus in for an oil change at the Quick Lube over lunch hour. The up-sell offers included, 1) transmission fluid flush for $109.99, 2) air filter for $13.99, and 3) up-graded oil for better mileage at $20.00 over the "standard" grade. I took the air filter since the one he showed me was fully clogged. (I wonder how many times he's used that same dirty filter on a customer?) Some things never change. Up-selling at the Quick Lube is a Top Five item on that list. (Quick Lube is a generic term. Substitute your auto service center of preference.)
Ford Motor Company has announced that they are bringing back the recently retired Taurus name and sticking it on the under-performing Ford Five Hundred sedan beginning with the 2008 models. If only a name change could solve their problems.
Have a warm and toasty evening.
Be careful out there.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Wednesday
Brief tonight. 2 and I are meeting shortly to go to the Augie game.
I experienced an incident coming back to the office this afternoon after a meeting on the Illinois side that is a good lesson in economics. I knew we were out of Coke at the office and I needed a little pick-me-up to finish out the day. So I stop at the Bettendorf equivalent of the Seven-Eleven at the foot of the I-74 bridge. A 20 ounce plastic bottle of Coke in the cooler/case was shown as costing $1.49. Which I thought was outrageous considering a 12 ounce can in a machine usually goes for $0.50. And a 12 pack of 12 ounce cans in the grocery store might be $4 including deposit.
But I needed the pick-me-up and I went into the store knowing that I was going to pay a premium for convenience shopping. So I go to the cashier and she swipes the bottle over the bar code reader and it pops up as $1.69 plus tax! The cashier kind of groused at my suggestion that the reader was wrong, and actually went over to the case to see the displayed price, and, a bit reluctantly, re-rang up my purchase at the lower price. Now, if I was buying gas, a candy bar and a small bag of chips, that extra 20 cents might never have been noticed in the total. Any bets that there was a conscious decision made in the store to display lower unit prices than those actually programmed into the system?
I have some other comments on pricing to consumers in different situations, but I am out of time. I'll add those observations another time.
A gossip colmnist somewhere in California is hinting that Lance and Cheryl are back at it. Anyone notice that her Super Bowl commercial rated dead last?
Duke-UNC tonight too.
Be careful out there.
I experienced an incident coming back to the office this afternoon after a meeting on the Illinois side that is a good lesson in economics. I knew we were out of Coke at the office and I needed a little pick-me-up to finish out the day. So I stop at the Bettendorf equivalent of the Seven-Eleven at the foot of the I-74 bridge. A 20 ounce plastic bottle of Coke in the cooler/case was shown as costing $1.49. Which I thought was outrageous considering a 12 ounce can in a machine usually goes for $0.50. And a 12 pack of 12 ounce cans in the grocery store might be $4 including deposit.
But I needed the pick-me-up and I went into the store knowing that I was going to pay a premium for convenience shopping. So I go to the cashier and she swipes the bottle over the bar code reader and it pops up as $1.69 plus tax! The cashier kind of groused at my suggestion that the reader was wrong, and actually went over to the case to see the displayed price, and, a bit reluctantly, re-rang up my purchase at the lower price. Now, if I was buying gas, a candy bar and a small bag of chips, that extra 20 cents might never have been noticed in the total. Any bets that there was a conscious decision made in the store to display lower unit prices than those actually programmed into the system?
I have some other comments on pricing to consumers in different situations, but I am out of time. I'll add those observations another time.
A gossip colmnist somewhere in California is hinting that Lance and Cheryl are back at it. Anyone notice that her Super Bowl commercial rated dead last?
Duke-UNC tonight too.
Be careful out there.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Tuesday
A little excitement here today with a quick dump of 4-5 inches of snow. I think these last few days qualify as official Winter days.
Here's yet another example of me getting just plain old. My normal winter attire these last few years has been jeans with a sweater over a polo shirt. It's not like I have had an inventory of 30 sweaters, but I have had enough so that it wasn't like I was repeating myself every few days. And I've always had plenty of polo shirts. Even so, I guess one could say that I have set a pretty low standard. With this most recent cold spell, I've taken to wearing a t-shirt under the polo shirt under the sweater. I remember Daddy wearing layers of shirts on the farm. I guess this is more of me becoming him. And I don't worry about how it looks. I mean, it's been cold out there!
In case anybody is worried, I am not dating any astronauts.
Davenport had a water main fail yesterday that affected a wide area including downtown. Lots of inconveniences for residences and businesses. A sidebar story described the problems of frozen water pipes in homes. That certainly brought back memories. We had to take extraordinary measures on the farm with electric heaters to keep the little pump house and the milk house warm enough to keep water flowing to support the Grade A milking operation. I doubt if OSHA would have approved of our system. It's a wonder that we didn't burn the barn down.
It is also my recollection that we had at least one bout of frozen pipes at our Scott Street home in Davenport in the '80's. The brilliant builder of that home had placed one of the pipes to the upstairs bathroom along the front exterior wall. Not that great of a move. But the pipe did not burst and there were no fatal (read expensive) results. That was a cold house. Period.
For the Language Arts students in the crowd, here's a couple of advanced vocabulary words from a national Op-Ed column from today or yesterday discussing the descent to civil war in Iraq. Pogrom is a noun of Russian origin describing an organized persecution and massacre of a minority group. Atavism is a noun of French origin used to describe a reversion to remote ancestral characteristics. I feel like I have a pretty good vocabulary. I had a clue about pogrom. Atavism was completely new to me. Are these writers that good? Or do they have some kind of an automated thesaurus in their computer?
OK. Rivalry Week and Super Tuesday all in one. I'm headed to the bike.
Pretty quiet in the peanut gallery.
Be careful out there.
Here's yet another example of me getting just plain old. My normal winter attire these last few years has been jeans with a sweater over a polo shirt. It's not like I have had an inventory of 30 sweaters, but I have had enough so that it wasn't like I was repeating myself every few days. And I've always had plenty of polo shirts. Even so, I guess one could say that I have set a pretty low standard. With this most recent cold spell, I've taken to wearing a t-shirt under the polo shirt under the sweater. I remember Daddy wearing layers of shirts on the farm. I guess this is more of me becoming him. And I don't worry about how it looks. I mean, it's been cold out there!
In case anybody is worried, I am not dating any astronauts.
Davenport had a water main fail yesterday that affected a wide area including downtown. Lots of inconveniences for residences and businesses. A sidebar story described the problems of frozen water pipes in homes. That certainly brought back memories. We had to take extraordinary measures on the farm with electric heaters to keep the little pump house and the milk house warm enough to keep water flowing to support the Grade A milking operation. I doubt if OSHA would have approved of our system. It's a wonder that we didn't burn the barn down.
It is also my recollection that we had at least one bout of frozen pipes at our Scott Street home in Davenport in the '80's. The brilliant builder of that home had placed one of the pipes to the upstairs bathroom along the front exterior wall. Not that great of a move. But the pipe did not burst and there were no fatal (read expensive) results. That was a cold house. Period.
For the Language Arts students in the crowd, here's a couple of advanced vocabulary words from a national Op-Ed column from today or yesterday discussing the descent to civil war in Iraq. Pogrom is a noun of Russian origin describing an organized persecution and massacre of a minority group. Atavism is a noun of French origin used to describe a reversion to remote ancestral characteristics. I feel like I have a pretty good vocabulary. I had a clue about pogrom. Atavism was completely new to me. Are these writers that good? Or do they have some kind of an automated thesaurus in their computer?
OK. Rivalry Week and Super Tuesday all in one. I'm headed to the bike.
Pretty quiet in the peanut gallery.
Be careful out there.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Monday
Busy day. Monday's usually are.
Still cold here. My pal Bill had a daughter's car not start this AM at a downtown Davenport location. So Bill and my pal Roy and I did our jump-start routine. Using the cables left in the Taurus by 1. (I really kind of owe you for those. They've been used numerous times over the last 18 months.) I remember always having Winter starting problems on the farm. We never had a garage, and the older cars were not all that great at starting in sub-zero, rural Iowa.
The Bears were just awful in the Super Bowl. The game was not as close as the score indicated.
Our Las Vegas readers may have a comment from the local press regarding the over-under bet on the game. The line was set at 48 which meant the 29-17 final score made the under a winner. How do you think the over betters felt when the Colts ran the ball on 4th down at the Bears' 20 with a little less than two minutes left in the game? A chip shot field goal at that time would have made the over guys the winners. Dungy made the right call in not running up the score, but there had to be some very unhappy folks with that decision.
Then there were the nuts who voted on the over-under for the length of Billy Joel's national anthem.
I missed the halftime show as I had to clean-up from my workout. Prince is such a fav of mine.
The commercials that I saw were, as a whole, not much to write home (or to the blog) about.
Jeff Quinney is a young guy on the golf tour who has been close but not able to win in each of the last three weeks. A seemingly humble, nice young man. Yesterday in Scottsdale, he had a two stroke lead with three holes to play, choked, and finished third. Those five foot putts get pretty difficult with a noose around your neck. The dollar impact of finishing third as opposed to first was over $600,000. Ouch!
Speedweeks are underway at Daytona. The Bud Shootout (for last year's various pole winners) is Saturday night. The 500 race is on Sunday the 18th. I know you're excited.
Big Monday. I think it's Rivalry Week. Texas vs. A&M is the second game.
Be careful out there.
Still cold here. My pal Bill had a daughter's car not start this AM at a downtown Davenport location. So Bill and my pal Roy and I did our jump-start routine. Using the cables left in the Taurus by 1. (I really kind of owe you for those. They've been used numerous times over the last 18 months.) I remember always having Winter starting problems on the farm. We never had a garage, and the older cars were not all that great at starting in sub-zero, rural Iowa.
The Bears were just awful in the Super Bowl. The game was not as close as the score indicated.
Our Las Vegas readers may have a comment from the local press regarding the over-under bet on the game. The line was set at 48 which meant the 29-17 final score made the under a winner. How do you think the over betters felt when the Colts ran the ball on 4th down at the Bears' 20 with a little less than two minutes left in the game? A chip shot field goal at that time would have made the over guys the winners. Dungy made the right call in not running up the score, but there had to be some very unhappy folks with that decision.
Then there were the nuts who voted on the over-under for the length of Billy Joel's national anthem.
I missed the halftime show as I had to clean-up from my workout. Prince is such a fav of mine.
The commercials that I saw were, as a whole, not much to write home (or to the blog) about.
Jeff Quinney is a young guy on the golf tour who has been close but not able to win in each of the last three weeks. A seemingly humble, nice young man. Yesterday in Scottsdale, he had a two stroke lead with three holes to play, choked, and finished third. Those five foot putts get pretty difficult with a noose around your neck. The dollar impact of finishing third as opposed to first was over $600,000. Ouch!
Speedweeks are underway at Daytona. The Bud Shootout (for last year's various pole winners) is Saturday night. The 500 race is on Sunday the 18th. I know you're excited.
Big Monday. I think it's Rivalry Week. Texas vs. A&M is the second game.
Be careful out there.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Still in the deep freeze here. The gauge at my house read -6 this morning. They're talking wind chill today as low as -25. Good day to stay inside.
Speaking of cold, I'll try a Top Ten list of coldest memories, not necessarily in order:
1. The top of Arapaho Basin ski mountain, 1979 or thereabouts. I got off the lift and was immediately, and literally, blown over from a gust coming from the other side of the mountain. They closed the lift after our group got to the top.
2. Mid-afternoon on the West side of Cyclone Stadium in Ames. The lower deck, under the overhang. The last home game of any season. I think I can say that that experience lead to my preference to not go into any non-domed stadium after October 1st (unless there is a luxury box involved).
3. Farm chores. Any winter in the '50's or '60's. Especially taking hay by sled across the fields. And chopping pond ice.
4. Central Iowa. January 1982. Sue and I coming back from our Steamboat ski trip. Our car dies a few miles from Aunt Martha's.
5. Wrigley Field. Early April. Under the overhang in the first deck. With the wind blowing in.
6. AAU youth cross country meet at Scott Community College. Chariots Running Club. Late '80's or early '90's. Possible child abuse.
7. One of the first Winter's in the Century Heights house in the early "90's. The snow drifted so bad at the Heatherstone-Century Heights Avenue intersection that we had to shovel just to get to our own driveway. And the wind!
8. Chicago Winters of 1978-79 and 1979-80. Way too much snow.
9. March baseball games at ND. 1971 in particular. We weren't that good my last year. Just the thought of trying to hit a guy throwin' aspirin tablets in a snow shower still stings my hands.
10. Daddy's burial. Ottumwa. January 1994. Graveside services were brief.
Have I done this list before? If I did, I wonder how many on the list are repeats? What does that say about my memory?
Super Bowl Sunday. There was a time when I went to some parties. Now, I just don't have that much interest, and who wants to start Monday with a hangover? There was a discussion on one radio talk show this past week that considered whether the Monday after the Super Bowl should be made a national holiday. And they were serious.
The Hawkeyes played surprisingly well yesterday and beat a decent Indiana team. Granted, it was in IC, but the Hoosiers have a pretty good record and have won some impressive games. And the earlier game between the teams in Bloomington was essentially a blowout (even though Iowa scored a lot of points in the last few minutes to make the score respectable).
A real neat article in the sports section of the local paper today about my pal Pete. The story was entitled, "My Three Sons", or something to that affect. It was a pretty long piece, with pictures, about sons playing b-ball at Augie, Iowa and at Bettendorf HS. And the parents' travel schedules to see most of the games.
Interesting twist to the end of the Dubai golf tournament. They had to deal with a sand storm. Another example of how you don't fool Mother Nature. You may be able to present a lush, green layout with the liberal use of desalinized water, and imported dirt, but the desert is the desert, and you mix convection currents with sand and trade winds, and you get what you get.
I'm wondering about the effects in the fruit section of the grocery store of the freeze in California a couple of weeks ago. There have been plenty of oranges for sale, at something less than hugely inflated prices. Will they be able to keep a supply going from Florida or South America? I try to eat two fruits a day throughout the year. Apples are almost always available, but I don't expect them to be crisp at this time of year. And I really don't like mooshy apples. Grapes become available irregularly. Now is prime time for oranges. So maybe we'll see shortly what the market does to adjust. I think about these things.
I forgot to add in my comment the other day about the Florida storms that there was a sidebar story about the death of a small flock of whooping cranes (18 of them I think). These were cranes bred last year in Wisconsin and then led South by an ultra-light plane to teach the birds a migration path. Interesting what efforts man might go to to preserve nature (after other men have disregarded it for so long). How can some members of a species (homo sapiens) be so dedicated to preserving life, while others seek only money, power or an after-life with a houseful of virgins?
OK. I need to get back on the bike and the erg machine. A quiet afternoon. Inside. Have a great day.
Be careful out there.
Speaking of cold, I'll try a Top Ten list of coldest memories, not necessarily in order:
1. The top of Arapaho Basin ski mountain, 1979 or thereabouts. I got off the lift and was immediately, and literally, blown over from a gust coming from the other side of the mountain. They closed the lift after our group got to the top.
2. Mid-afternoon on the West side of Cyclone Stadium in Ames. The lower deck, under the overhang. The last home game of any season. I think I can say that that experience lead to my preference to not go into any non-domed stadium after October 1st (unless there is a luxury box involved).
3. Farm chores. Any winter in the '50's or '60's. Especially taking hay by sled across the fields. And chopping pond ice.
4. Central Iowa. January 1982. Sue and I coming back from our Steamboat ski trip. Our car dies a few miles from Aunt Martha's.
5. Wrigley Field. Early April. Under the overhang in the first deck. With the wind blowing in.
6. AAU youth cross country meet at Scott Community College. Chariots Running Club. Late '80's or early '90's. Possible child abuse.
7. One of the first Winter's in the Century Heights house in the early "90's. The snow drifted so bad at the Heatherstone-Century Heights Avenue intersection that we had to shovel just to get to our own driveway. And the wind!
8. Chicago Winters of 1978-79 and 1979-80. Way too much snow.
9. March baseball games at ND. 1971 in particular. We weren't that good my last year. Just the thought of trying to hit a guy throwin' aspirin tablets in a snow shower still stings my hands.
10. Daddy's burial. Ottumwa. January 1994. Graveside services were brief.
Have I done this list before? If I did, I wonder how many on the list are repeats? What does that say about my memory?
Super Bowl Sunday. There was a time when I went to some parties. Now, I just don't have that much interest, and who wants to start Monday with a hangover? There was a discussion on one radio talk show this past week that considered whether the Monday after the Super Bowl should be made a national holiday. And they were serious.
The Hawkeyes played surprisingly well yesterday and beat a decent Indiana team. Granted, it was in IC, but the Hoosiers have a pretty good record and have won some impressive games. And the earlier game between the teams in Bloomington was essentially a blowout (even though Iowa scored a lot of points in the last few minutes to make the score respectable).
A real neat article in the sports section of the local paper today about my pal Pete. The story was entitled, "My Three Sons", or something to that affect. It was a pretty long piece, with pictures, about sons playing b-ball at Augie, Iowa and at Bettendorf HS. And the parents' travel schedules to see most of the games.
Interesting twist to the end of the Dubai golf tournament. They had to deal with a sand storm. Another example of how you don't fool Mother Nature. You may be able to present a lush, green layout with the liberal use of desalinized water, and imported dirt, but the desert is the desert, and you mix convection currents with sand and trade winds, and you get what you get.
I'm wondering about the effects in the fruit section of the grocery store of the freeze in California a couple of weeks ago. There have been plenty of oranges for sale, at something less than hugely inflated prices. Will they be able to keep a supply going from Florida or South America? I try to eat two fruits a day throughout the year. Apples are almost always available, but I don't expect them to be crisp at this time of year. And I really don't like mooshy apples. Grapes become available irregularly. Now is prime time for oranges. So maybe we'll see shortly what the market does to adjust. I think about these things.
I forgot to add in my comment the other day about the Florida storms that there was a sidebar story about the death of a small flock of whooping cranes (18 of them I think). These were cranes bred last year in Wisconsin and then led South by an ultra-light plane to teach the birds a migration path. Interesting what efforts man might go to to preserve nature (after other men have disregarded it for so long). How can some members of a species (homo sapiens) be so dedicated to preserving life, while others seek only money, power or an after-life with a houseful of virgins?
OK. I need to get back on the bike and the erg machine. A quiet afternoon. Inside. Have a great day.
Be careful out there.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Saturday
This is Winter. Being outside for any length of time is not wise. Just getting gas requires crawling back into the car while the fuel is pumping.
1's pictures of her half marathon last weekend looked like something other than a walk in the park.
For PV fans last night was a red letter evening. Varsity b-ball boy/girl doubleheader and PV took wins in both games. I don't think either school expects much tournament success this year, and these wins are meaningful for such rivalries.
Central Florida had a killer storm rage through some towns this week with over 20 deaths. Most of the fear there had been for hurricanes, which did not come around much this past year. One of the communities hardest hit was The Villages, which is a popular retirement place that is nationally advertised. They tout "free golf for life" on their courses, including ones with Arnold Palmer and Nancy Lopez as spokespersons.
When you think about it, there really aren't any sections of the USA totally immune to weather issues. Snow, wind, water,heat, cold. We have it all.
All for today. Hope everyone has a safe weekend.
Be careful out there.
1's pictures of her half marathon last weekend looked like something other than a walk in the park.
For PV fans last night was a red letter evening. Varsity b-ball boy/girl doubleheader and PV took wins in both games. I don't think either school expects much tournament success this year, and these wins are meaningful for such rivalries.
Central Florida had a killer storm rage through some towns this week with over 20 deaths. Most of the fear there had been for hurricanes, which did not come around much this past year. One of the communities hardest hit was The Villages, which is a popular retirement place that is nationally advertised. They tout "free golf for life" on their courses, including ones with Arnold Palmer and Nancy Lopez as spokespersons.
When you think about it, there really aren't any sections of the USA totally immune to weather issues. Snow, wind, water,heat, cold. We have it all.
All for today. Hope everyone has a safe weekend.
Be careful out there.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Friday
In the deep freeze here.
Nothing too profound to add today. I'm sure that I'll be more creative tomorrow.
Be careful out there.
Nothing too profound to add today. I'm sure that I'll be more creative tomorrow.
Be careful out there.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Thursday
How 'bout them Hawks? I was stunned to return to the game in the last 6-8 minutes and find them ahead. And even though they gave up most of the lead, UM displayed the lack of heart that all of Amacher's teams have shown in the past. Did you see the ring of empty seats in the upper deck at Crysler Arena? Maybe they have the same love of their team as do the folks in IC.
I will be real happy to get passed the Super Bowl. It is especially bad this year because of "Da Bears". I listen to a lot of Chicago radio on a routine basis. This past couple of weeks has been wall-to-wall Bears on every station. Enough already.
Hey 1! Would you like to give the readers a grammar lesson on the use of passed and past?
Profoundly liberal political columnist Molly Ivins died of breast cancer this week at the age of 62. I never thought much of her ideas or of her irreverence to the President. She seemed to take great pride in her uncompromising criticism of anything George Bush. In many respects, she was a flash point for the deep divisions in our country's mental health. Liberals loved her every word. Conservatives decried her in ugly response to her musings. I sincerely wish that the strident voices on both sides of the abyss would stop yelling and scolding each other, and would work together to find some common ground for the benefit of all.
Nobody deserves to die of breast cancer at age 62.
And exactly what happened to January? Then again, Spring is next month.
My buddy Bill's recently college-graduated daughter left from SF this morning to begin her life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cambodia. For two years. For like $6 grand a year. I know there are the intrinsic benefits of the experience and all that, but it makes me a little nervous. Fourty years ago, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia were our sworn enemies. I think. Good, bad, indifferent or otherwise, I hope my girls stay in the US of A.
Throwdown Thursday.
Be careful out there.
I will be real happy to get passed the Super Bowl. It is especially bad this year because of "Da Bears". I listen to a lot of Chicago radio on a routine basis. This past couple of weeks has been wall-to-wall Bears on every station. Enough already.
Hey 1! Would you like to give the readers a grammar lesson on the use of passed and past?
Profoundly liberal political columnist Molly Ivins died of breast cancer this week at the age of 62. I never thought much of her ideas or of her irreverence to the President. She seemed to take great pride in her uncompromising criticism of anything George Bush. In many respects, she was a flash point for the deep divisions in our country's mental health. Liberals loved her every word. Conservatives decried her in ugly response to her musings. I sincerely wish that the strident voices on both sides of the abyss would stop yelling and scolding each other, and would work together to find some common ground for the benefit of all.
Nobody deserves to die of breast cancer at age 62.
And exactly what happened to January? Then again, Spring is next month.
My buddy Bill's recently college-graduated daughter left from SF this morning to begin her life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cambodia. For two years. For like $6 grand a year. I know there are the intrinsic benefits of the experience and all that, but it makes me a little nervous. Fourty years ago, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia were our sworn enemies. I think. Good, bad, indifferent or otherwise, I hope my girls stay in the US of A.
Throwdown Thursday.
Be careful out there.
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