Sunday

A little bit of excitement at spin class this AM.  I had missed the Friday and Saturday classes so I had not talked to anyone about the weekend's guest instructor who was in town on an unannounced promotional thing with Gold's and Star Trac spin cycles.  Melissa Larson is some kind of a spin-instructor-guru with her own line of books/CD's/videos, clothing and hosted spin camps.  Never heard of her.

She took the spin-Nazi position (I know that title is not politically correct, but it's my blog; get over it) in our 1000 class and proceeded to gas the entire group, especially the resolutioners.  She really didn't do a lot differently than the better instructors at our Gold's, but there wasn't much recovery time between drills, and if you stayed on her pace, it was definitely a Top Ten workout.  For a Left Coast dweller, her music wasn't all that bad either.  Not that I was looking to get on her mailing list.

After class, I went back upstairs and took my normal seat at one of the tables near the gym's entrance so that I could swap out my drenched t-shirt and cool down a little before going outside.  I was chatting up one of the other older guys (like me!) who had been in the class, and we both figured that we had been over-matched by the half way point of class.  As he was leaving and I opened my phone to post to Twitter, Melissa walks up and sits in an adjacent chair at the table to change her shoes. An unexpected conversation ensued:

ML:  Hi! I'm Melissa.  I saw you in my class.  What'd you think?

LTPC:  Not too bad.  That donut that I had with my second grande Americano beforehand probably wasn't my best move.

ML: It looked like you pushed pretty hard.  Do you always sweat that much?

LTPC:  I was just trying to keep up.  They always hand out an extra wiping towel too me when I walk in. So are you here to sell new bikes to the gym?  They could use 'em.  Half the ones down there are junk.

ML:  Actually, I'm in town primarily to promote my products to fitness instructors (I've known Cathy for years), and I was just here this morning for my own workout.   They let me do a little wine and cheese thing here last night in the group room downstairs for a presentation on my stuff., and I volunteered to run a couple of classes in exchange.  It's been fun.  Too hard?

LTPC:  I'll let you know tomorrow.  What about our bikes?

ML:  Well, your's are junk, for sure.  But new ones run around $1250 per bike on orders of 25 or more units. With tax, delivery and a maintenance contract, it'll run $35,000 to replace all of your equipment. That's a lot of money for a smaller place like this one.

LTPC:  Hmmmm.  Whatever.  So how'd you end up as a spin guru?  Were you a competitive cyclist?

ML:  Heck, no!  I got an undergraduate degree in ElemEd from UNLV, couldn't find a job, and was dancing in a lounge act at Caesar's Tahoe, when the Tour of California came through town and I met George Hincapie. We dated for a few months, he introduced me to the cycling crowd, and I made the connection with a sales rep with Star Trac bikes.  It just worked.  The boob job didn't hurt. 

LTPC:  Hmmmm.  Again.  I hadn't noticed.  If you know George, did you ever hang out with Lance?

ML:  Actually, I only met Lance once.  One of those years when he won the Espy for Athlete of the Year in Vegas, George took me to the program as his date and we sat at one of the back tables.  That was when Lance was dating Cheryl Crow.  Lance was very cool and came back and sat with us during intermission.  Cheryl Crow didn't give me the time of day.  (Then again, I had a Dubya pin in my collar.)


LTPC:  Hmmmm.  Again.  Again.  So, where's your home gym?  And do you still regularly lead classes?

ML:  I've been living in Chicago the last couple of years.  Star Trac set up their first, own-label fitness center in the Near North district and they have used me in their marketing plan.  I get good publicity, like a billboard on the Kennedy every few weeks, don't have to do classes if I don't want to, and O"Hare allows me to pretty easily get to other destinations in the country.  My contract is up next Fall and I'm looking at my options.  I wouldn't mind going back to Tahoe if the the numbers would work.

LTPC:  Well, I'm connected at Tahoe myself.  And I did numbers in a former life.  I could be a resource for you.

ML:   Hmmmm.  Sure, LTPC.  Have your people call my people. Uh,  where's the door?

LTPC:  Hey, no problem.  I'll walk out with you.  Thanks for the chat. 

Parts of the above exchange are absolutely true.  Spin class is almost never dull. 

The tool who wears his cycling gloves to spin class was there again this morning.  I mean, the key benefit of gloves is the coverage from road rash when you go down.  Not a lot of that happening in spin.  And the other point of softening your grip is equally bogus.  All of the instructors (Melissa included) harp on you to balance on, not lean on the handle bars. Yeah, tool;  make a statement about your cycling bona fides.  We're all impressed.

Hope everyone has a great week.

BCOT

Saturday

The technology police finally caught up with me on the Florida turnpike missed cash-box incident in January.  On my AmEx bill received this week, there was an $8.25 charge from something called, "platepass.com".  I went to the website and, with the Hertz rental agreement in hand, I was able to actually print out the invoice with applicable dates and charges.  Just in case any one thinks otherwise, there is a camera on you just about all the time. 

Hertz has a deal with several of the toll road states that allows you to blow through the toll stations without the requisite transponder.  (I'm sure that it's on page four of the small print that you sign and agree to, but never read.) The catch is that you pay $2.50 a day, regardless of usage.  In my case, I didn't know about the arrangement, and while I did miss the one toll booth, I paid the fee the other times I came to a toll plaza those three days that I was in Florida.  But the deal must be that if you miss one toll, you're under the Hertz program and the daily fee kicks in.  So I had the $0.75 missed toll, and three daily fees of $2.50 for the $8.25 total on my credit card.

I'm a bit curious on the math for this kind of arrangement as to who makes how much money.  Obviously, the technology allows for the processing of the data between the toll road cameras, Hertz's rental files, and the billing function, but there needs to be a lot of automated transactions if the various players are going to make money on a $7.50 fact-pattern.  This is different from my experience with the red light and speeding camera violations where the individual fines are usually in the $65-75 range.

Then again, I'm not that interested. 

Two weeks until Selection Sunday.  The Commish needs to dust off the rule book.

I'm trying to figure out why the Candian women's hockey team has to apologize to anyone for celebrating their gold medal in an empty arena (excepting for building staff and some obviously TMZ-trained photogs).  I mean, it's not like these girls were dancing on the bar at some club in the wee hours commiting various offenses against social norms.  Move on , people.

More later.  I'm off for a workout.

BCOT

Thursday AM

Just a few lines this morning to feed the information super highway. 

I am so excited about today's bipartisan Health Care Summit at the White House.

The local news here yesterday was that the elderly mother of one of our employees got a little confused and drove her car into the West side of our building.  With feeling!  And actually backed away and tried to line herself up to give it a second shot before figuring out that maybe she was a little too close to the curb.  Significant cosmetic damage.  I don't think anything structural, but it was not just a little ding.  Reminded me of Mother in her last year of driving.  The synapses are just not fully engaged.

Tough day to be a whale trainer at Sea World.  I'm hardly an expert, but I don't think that trainers who work with these different animal acts (lions, tigers, and bears: oh my!) are ever truly out of harm's way.  I mean, humans routinely wander off the reservation.  Why wouldn't an animal who's brain doesn't process Chaucer?

You normally read about this kind of thing in the gossip pages or hear of it on Judge Judy (whomever she is), but I got it first hand from a local, single-lady acquaintance.  She found out over the weekend that her boyfriend of two or three years had put a spyware device on her computer, and he was able to monitor her personal and business email remotely.  What a great path to relationship building.  A bit sadly, she's giving him a pass. (Although, supposedly, the spyware has been removed.  Right.)

More later
.
Now Thursday PM:  Really turned into a very nice day.  Sunny.  30's.  The snow pack even shrank a little bit. My day was a little off due to some bad shrimp in Muscatine last night.  I had gone down to Geneva to meet informally with my pal Cal and his office manager.  We got the informal part of it covered, but not much of the meeting.

Then I had a consultation with a periodontist on a tooth problem.  For $90, he told me he wasn't real sure what to do to resolve it. I'm thinking that there may be an extraction in my future.  Lovely.

Then late in the afternoon I met with a mortgage banker and signed the paperwork to refi the homestead.  The game plan is to complete the payoff on the place around the time 4KDAYS hits it's expiration date.  4.25% ARM, resetting in the fifth year.  By which time, with my extra principal payments, the thing will be gone.  Suite.

Going to try to do spin tomorrow in the AM.  My favorite instructor does one at 9.  I might have a "meeting" out of the office about that time.

BCOT

Tuesday

Just for the record...it looks like FFF is formally a "go" for Des Moines on March 19-21 for the opening weekend of March Madness. 

Scheduled attendees include Peyton Lynne and her mother.  I'm shopping for hotels in West Des Moines.  Tentative arrival of the QC contingent is 6:30 local on Friday night.  By my count, March 20th is Margaret's 102nd birthday.

I've got even less of a clue today on the new Blogger format.

More to follow later.

LATER:  A couple of interesting public reactions/no-reactions to some media events.  ESPN suspended resident fool Tony Kornheiser (also an analyst on Monday Night Football) for some disparaging remarks that he made extemporariously on his radio show earlier this week about the git-up that Hannah Storm was wearing for a SportsCenter show.  (Looking at the outfit, I'd say Kornheiser got it right.)  Would there have been a suspension if the roles were reversed?  I think not. Guys can be called about anything, publicly, by almost any woman with a credibility quotient above zero.

                                              .              

Then you have the, at least controversial, portrayal on FOX TV's animated show The Family Guy (which I have still never seen) of a Down's Syndrom character in what was supposed to be a humorous fashion.  The fact that the premise was a left-handed (Freudian non-slip there...sorry), undisguised slap at Sarah Palin  made most of the critics and commentator's applaud the edginess of the writer, albeit a bit cautiously.  I'm wondering where those wags would be if the character was in an Afro-American family from Illinois?  (Well, uh, actually that's a bad question.  Let's face it, the writer would not have made that scenario a Black family from Illinois, because his career would have found a home among the crickets.)

Early spin.  Still hotel hunting for March Madness.

BCOT

Monday

There was a fire at the Adventureland Amusement Park in Des Moines over the weekend. It looks like it was in the buildings near the front of the park that they call "Main Street". I'm thinking that we probably bought some trinkets or t-shirts in one of the shops in these buildings.

I did my own snow-blowing this morning on the 3-4 inches of new snow. My neighbor had been doing my sidewalk and driveway most of the Winter, so I decided to pay back the favor today. He's still way ahead.

My pal Pete got caught in the snow last night flying in from Denver. They finally caught a flight to Cedar Rapids, rented a car, and got home around 4 bells this AM. Yuck! Love that travel stuff. Glad for the comfort of my couch.

March Madness. Des Moines. March 19-21. Be there.

(Have no clue what Blogger is doing with my pics. I need to go back and see what I changed in my Preferences. Tomorrow.)

BCOT

Sunday - Open Thread

0920: Did SB's early and went through all of the papers. Not a lot of exciting news. A couple of errands, and now headed to 1000 spin at Gold's.

I'm experimenting with this open-thread concept, as I anticipate adding to this entry at least a couple of times later today.

My pal Cal and I have a tentative date for a second SB's run after my spin class and the case that he is doing at the hospital. There's the possibility of a second spin class with him this afternoon.

The open thread technique is used by lots of bloggers who are following current events, usually politics or sports. I'm guessing that there are many such writers at the Olympics. Think of it as Twitter on steroids. Actually, I think some sporting leagues try to limit live blogging. There was a case during the NCAA tourney a few years ago where the NCAA shut down some guys trying to report the games in progress. My guess is that those guys were trying to run their blogs on some kind of a pay system. The NCAA doesn't want anybody but themselves earning $$$'s on the tournament.

I think that certain teams, if not the league, limits players from Twittering during games.

Speaking of March Madness, Direct TV is now advertising their "full-coverage" special for an additional $49.99. No thanks. Remember from last year that you still just get the CBS feed, and that's no bargain with all of their commercials and blather.

Off to spin. More later.

LATER 1130: Spin was a beech. I looked over at the clock when it said 1020 and knew at that time that I was going to die. Full class. And the regulars have learned to get there early to reserve their preferred bikes. By 0948 when I rolled in, water bottles and towels were already on all but a few of the 30 bikes in the room. That's the result of people knowing that they want to maybe spin by certain friends or companions, and the realization that some of the bikes are not that well-tuned.

Later Still 1230: My pal Cal just came by for a second pass-through at SB's. That guy just works too hard. He was up most of the night doing surgery after having had a full day of it yesterday. He and my pal Pete each have big "motors" that keep them fully-engaged in their professions. Cal needs to slow down and play more golf.

They're still saying 6-9 nine more inches of snow this evening and over night. Looking forward to that.

More later.

Last Update: The snow came in, but it really doesn't look that bad. Yet. Actually watched the Olympics for a little while this evening. Just can't get into it. Since I don't skate or ski, the competitions just don't quite have the appeal. Then again, I've never been a big fan of the Summer Olympics either. Anything that get the ooh's and aah's of the Today Show cast sends me the other way.

Have a great week.


BCOT

Saturday

Today is the one year anniversary of my car accident last year. Lots of water under the bridge since that morning.

I've been a little surprised at the number of miles that I have put on the new Buick since replacing this one. I'm over 15K and it's been less than a year. And the Taurus eats up a lot of in-town miles. But when you add in two or three round trips to the TC and another couple to Lincoln (at 800 or so a pop), and the mileage adds up. Chicago, Stl and KC all were visited as well.

Today is also the anniversary of the writing contest that I entered last year (and finished third in my category). This year's contest was today as well, and I made an effort, but I have low expectations on this result. The prompt was difficult ("...and I was the one who never had a broken bone"), I was a little under-motivated, and I had to do the Word work all myself. But I did something, which was not the easy bailout move that I could have chosen.

Was there a firm choice last night on March Madness on the Twitter chatter? If 1 will come down to DM, I'm saying that that is the logical choice.

My comment on the Tiger Woods appearance is, "Uh, Tiger, you're not that interesting to me." Why would TMZ or any rag want to follow his kids to pre-school anyway? To see if Elin is wearing underwear? Let's move on, people. Tiger is a fallen idol. He doesn't deserve the air time. Stick with Paris or Brit.

I had originally planned to do a quick trip out to Scottsdale tomorrow with a return on Wednesday. A late Winter respite. But the moon and the stars have not lined-up well, and I'm forfeiting the non-refundable ticket to save the hotel, car and out-of-pocket funds (maybe for March Madness?). Snow is supposed to come in tomorrow anyway. I'll take advantage of these days to catch up at the office and get in plenty of spin classes.

I've had two minor bureaucratic victories in the last week or two with the parking police. I fought off a $20 expired plates citation in Muscatine by forwarding them a copy of the renewal form that said penalties don't apply until March 2nd (30 days after the expiration month). But the big victory came on a $100 handicapped zone violation in downtown Davenport. My argument there was the fact that the city had bagged all of the downtown meters, green ones where it was OK, red where not. With the snow piled up, the only handicapped sign (which I never saw) was at the 10 foot mark on a pole above the regular meter, which had a green bag on it. My eloquent appeal, with no anger or profanity, was approved. I mean get a blue bag if you want to play that game, for crying out loud. Life is good.

Here's a little shout out to 2 for recognition as Daughter of the Day. She's had a tough week on the job and deserves a little pat on the back. We had a nice meal and good wine at Geneva last night. You 'da girl, Kiddo.

This is enough for tonight. I may do an entry from SB's in the AM before 10 o'clock spin.

BCOT

Thursday

Congrats to RevKev and family on the new addition. The clan just got as little younger!

BCOT

Wednesday

A little post now since I am headed over to Augie tonight with 2 to see the game with Illinois Wesleyan. The home team has had a tough year, and tonight's game will be no exception. There's no true "star" on the team and they have struggled with achieving an identity.

Regarding Uncle Phil's inquiry on my Big Monday prediction, "No", I bet only occasionally with friends, and rarely more than a five-spot. My pal Wally and I used to have three bets (at five-a-pop) each week during football season; we each picked a college football game and gave the other guy the team not picked. And then we would alternate the Monday Night pro game, again giving the other guy the team not picked. At the end of the year, we'd settle up, and rarely, if ever, did it get to $25 total owed either way.

Ash Wednesday. Is there anyone in the clan doing ashes? It used to be a big deal in our family. I can't remember the last time I went to an Ash Wednesday service.

.
4 asked me when I was in Lincoln over the weekend if I was "giving up" anything for Lent. And I had no response. I'm thinking that the deadline for making such a commitment was actually last night at midnight, but 1700 CDT today works given where we're at in time. (We can always extend the coverage period to the Monday after Easter for fulfilling the abstinence period.)

To assure compliance with a commitment, I think that I can give up white wine. No chardonnay or pinot grigio for LtPC for forty days.

Lindsey Vonn won an Olympic Gold Medal this afternoon. She has more events to do, but the SI jinx may not be working here. Good for her. I wonder what the economic benefit to her will be of her success? My guess is that we're talking millions.

CNBC is the channel I have tuned to in my office during the day (usually on mute because of the dribble). As an NBC family member, CNBC is home to the curling competition in Vancouver. So at 1600 local, rather than business news analysis, we get two hours of curling. Not saying that it isn't interesting to a point, but you really need to be in the mood to watch it for longer than say, a few minutes. It's the equivalent of saloon shuffle-board on ice.

My pal Doug in Des Moines offered up that Cairn terriers got their name from the task that they were bred to perform, that is, protecting cairns from rodents who would weaken the structures. I, of course, did not know what a cairn was, and had to be so informed. A cairn is a marker or monument (often a conical pile of stones) meant to signify a burial site, path or summit. So now you know too. Pictured too is the most famous of the clan's cairn's.

I still have trouble with Blogger on the spacing when I add pictures. The system wants to triple-space every paragraph each time I place a pic in the text. Very annoying.

All for today. Have a great evening.

BCOT

Monday

Here's a little recognition to the Four Heads for my salute to President's Day. With the markets and the banks closed today, the phones stay a little more quiet than a normal Monday.

Also did a trip over to Annawan, Illinois (40 minutes East of here) this morning for the funeral of my pal Cal's dad who passed away (of old age!) on Friday. His visitation yesterday drew several hundred, and it was a good-sized crowd at the church today. He must have been a good guy.
.

Going to visitations and funerals is a bit of Daddy's legacy. I'll always remember his frequent attendance at these events from my days on the farm. If there was a possibility that he knew the decedent, Daddy went to the rosary (for the Catholics) or the visitation (for everyone else). Not such a bad habit to inherit. Families remember who comes to Mom and Dad's funerals.

.

Is Daytona still going on? I mean how long does it take to patch a pothole? The best quip I heard from a driver in the first delay was, "Put an orange cone in front of it. We'll drive around it!" (I'm betting that in the early days of NASCAR that exactly what they did.) My picks were busts. The winner might have been a dark horse pick as he won the Summer race there last year. Whatever.

.

My return trip from Lincoln ultimately worked out OK, but it was pretty dicey winter driving conditions between Omaha and Des Moines. It was great to get the furniture transfer completed, and fun to be with 4 (especially the Macaroni Grille din-din), but it was also really good to be done with the driving. Winnie did fine except for a small accident at my pal Doug's house at lunch. She's now back in 2's responsibility zone. For a live-alone bachelor, dog-sitting works best in hours rather than days...:)

.

I also heard the weekly Top 40 Country Countdown at least three times on the trip. Kind of interesting how songs go up the charts, and then slide down the charts as the weeks go by. Like attendance at the movies. We humans are fickle sorts. We really like something. Until we get a little bored and something that we like better comes along. And the old gets kicked out the side door. Or at least gets relegated to good memories.

.

Big Monday. KU @ A&M. Trap game. KU giving 7. Take A&M. KU should win, but they definitely won't cover.

.

I'm sure that the peanut gallery can appreciate that I just couldn't pass up on this Hi & Lois cartoon board in today's comics. Actually, a little surprising entry for the comic pages that are generally leftward-leaning.

On that note, I'll sign off for the evening. Make it a good one in your world.

.

BCOT

Sunday AM

Hey to all from Cornhusker Country.

This is just a short entry to maintain a little flow here on the blog while on the road. The Winniferous was ready to get up by 0600, so we're bonding here on the new couches for a while before we wake up 4, do our Starbuck's run, and then head back East.

So here is my communal Valentine's greeting to my numbered progeny. It's not a vase of flowers or a balloon bouquet, but the thought is there. I don't think I do checks on Valentine's Day. Sorry.

And I'm a day late in giving recognition to 1.01 who celebrated her one month birthday yesterday. For that milestone (or is it a milepebble?), here's to 1.01 as a belated distinction of Granddaughter of The Day. This pic is a couple of weeks old, so I"ll try to get a more current one in the next day or two.

I see on Google News this morning that Nate Robinson won the NBA slam dunk contest last night during the All-Star weekend in Dallas. For the third time. Not that I necessarily care, but, uh, who is Nate Robinson?

It is Daytona today. (BTW, I did win the Under bet on Danica yesterday. She got collected in a multi-car crash in lap 58 of the 120 lap race.) My bet today, which is little better than a lottery ticket, is Kasey Kane or Brad Keselowski.

Maybe more here later.

BCOT

Friday AM

Just a short update this morning.

It looks like we have 2 and SRH heading to the TC this afternoon to greet 1.01 on her first Valentine's Day. LtPC and Winnie are going West to take furniture to 4. Lots of seat time for all. A small by-product: the oh-dark-hundred departure time tomorrow translates to no Biaggi's tonight. Pluses and minuses on that one.

My latest "lost keys" episode was this AM in my recycling bin. Along with a couple of empties, I tossed my keys into the half-full tub, then made the mistake of trying to pick them up with a gloved hand. Naturally, all that did was fumble them and allow them to trickle through the assortment of plastic, glass and tins all the way to the bottom of the container. So I had to lay four foot tall container on it's side, and pull all of the stuff out to get to the keys. At least I knew they were there.

Received valentines from Beantown, Lincoln and TC this week. Very suite.

UPDATE: I did receive my first free drink card from Starbuck's in yesterday's mail.

More tonight with the Winniferous.

BCOT

Wednesday

No blog tonight.

2 and I are headed over to an Augie game for the first time since before Christmas. And I'm going to sneak into a spin class at 1730 before I meet 2.

CNBC had Erin Burnett set up in front of The Alamo for her mid-day show today. I know that the rodeo is in town, but I think they have some high-tech thing going on as well. Whatever. They had Erin wearing one of the least-flattering props that I have ever seen a national anchor don: a 10 gallon hat that made her look like a clown. Cramer couldn't stop laughing. Wow. I hope they had plenty of muscle in the wings to protect her. The areas around The Alamo and away from The River Walk are a little sketchy.

The latest women athletes to take heat for exploiting their bods are Danica Patrick (auto racing)and Lindsay Vonn (skiing). There were some blogging criticisms of Vonn's SI cover being too sexy. And she was in her ski suit. They may have been the same people who felt that Scott Brown was too chummy with his bikini-clad daughters. Not sure who has the moral high ground here. Tiger? Girls wear bikinis. If wearing them in front of a camera gets them a few endorsement deals, go for it.

OK. Maybe a report later after the game.

BCOT

Tuesday

More snow for us. I'm guessing 5-7 inches over the last couple of days. Enough for me to re-schedule a trip to Des Moines tomorrow to either Friday or another day later this month. My friend/client Dr. Doug has tickets to the Drake - UNI game tomorrow night, but I don't need to spend 6-8 hours on iffy roads to see what should be a blow-out.
.
It looks like I'm booked into Lincoln on Saturday to deliver some hand-me-down furniture to 4. One of her Iowa roomies now living in DM is getting some hand-me-down stuff from her parents, so 4 gets the tertiary pass-downs. Hey, when you have lawn chairs as your primary living room items, it's no time to be choosey. With LtPC as the delivery boy. Life is good.
.
So just in case you've been under a rock today and missed it, here's the cover shot of this year's SI swimsuit edition. I mean, they put out separate display cases even at the grocery store for the issue. Which has no sports reporting at all. Not that I am objecting. CNBC has a special on it during prime time tonight, and they've been shamelessly plugging it all day, including an in-studio interview with the model during the lunch program. (Maria Bartoromo nearly choked when she had to read a final promo at the end of her show.) Even CNBC has bought into a basic of Marketing 101; Sex Sells.
.
Next in line for over-exposure are (is?) the Vancouver Olympics which open this weekend. Is that a Sasquatch in the decal? I admit to having to consult Google maps to locate Vancouver. (Sorry, Seattle clan members. I am not smarter than a 5th grader when it comes to Canadian geography.) Al Gore must be a little bit happy; they've been hauling in snow for the skiing venue. I wonder how many personal-interest stories NBC will run on athletes who trudged 10 miles one way each day so that they could get to a skating rink to practice? Not sure which of the network interviewers I'll like least. Can't wait for the ice-dancing to begin. Whatever.
.
Here's an item that has me very curious. The Taurus' gas gauge doesn't work. Hasn't since I bought it for 1 several years ago. So you have to monitor gas consumption by the trip odometer that you have to reset at each fill-up. I basically fill-up whenever I get to the 150 mile mark (and yes, I have run out of gas by forgetting to keep my eye on the mileage gauge). Usually, that means I put in around 8 gallons, given the in-town travel and the inefficiency of the older car.
.
I had to stop for gas today and did so at a station that I rarely use toward central Davenport. I was under the 150 mile mark, but the pump registered over 11 gallons!. So I either, 1) didn't reset the trip odometer last time, 2) didn't actually fill the tank last time, 3)have a new issue with my car's gas mileage, or 4)the engineering on that pump has wandered off the reservation. (No offense to our Native American readers intended.)
.
The most likely solution is 2 above, as I recall having had some problems recently with a pump that wanted to auto-shutoff after three gallons. It's not likely 1 or 3, and I would hope to think that the state regulators would be testing flow rates to prevent 4 from happening. But 4 was my first guess.
.
That was really a long story. And not that interesting. Sorry.
.
All for tonight.
.
BCOT

Monday

Glad the Super Bowl is over. I was probably more of a Manning fan than New Orleans, but in the end, I really didn't care that much who won. Mostly, I was just tired of seeing and hearing nothing but Super Bowl stuff in the media for the last two weeks. Now, with the Pro Bowl already done too, we can kiss the NFL good-bye for a few weeks.

BTW, Revkev, I'm probably a no-show for the ride around the lake. I did that a few years ago and, while I was glad to say that I had done the circuit, I came away with little interest for a repeat performance. The South Shore half of the ride isn't much fun, and the traffic on the four-lane from Stateline all the way to the cut off toward Incline is like riding on the Interstate.

Big Monday bummer: Holly Rowe, not Erin, in Austin. (Observation: Bill Self will have a modified comb-over in less than five years.)

I had a client in on Friday who runs a Hallmark shop and he was saying that Valentine's Day being on a Sunday is bad for business. I'm still digesting that factoid. I mean, you're either going to get a card or not, and you're going to buy that nick-nack as a gift for your Valentine. Or not. Not sure that I understand the psychology of the weekend holiday difference.

The Davenport Gold's recently converted a room in the lower level to a cardio theater. They've got 20-25 treadmill/stepper/bike machines facing a theater-size screen, and they're showing video-released movies. I went in Sunday afternoon to do some treadmill work (since I was closed out of the morning spin class), and I decided to give the new room a try.

The movie being shown was some Renee Zellweger chic-flick. The sound was about three clicks too loud, and the room was at least as dark as a theater. I felt my way to an open treadmill and tried to get started. The bad news was that I couldn't read any of the dials on the panel and just kept hitting a few touch pads trying to keep a steady (read slow) speed. Whenever the movie had a brighter scene, I tried to use the light to read the panel. No luck. I tried to shine my Indiglo light from my Ironman with similarly fruitless results. Inside of 15 minutes, I gave up and went upstairs to the regular cardio area and watched golf. Is there a flashlight in the house?

The over-under on Danica Patrick still being on the track at the end of the Nationwide race at Daytona on Saturday? The race is 120 laps long. If the betting line is 80 laps, take the under.

It's supposed to snow several inches in the next 24 hours. So far, not bad.

Have a great Tuesday.

BCOT

Saturday Afternoon

Is there a more suspenseful sporting event to watch than than individual qualifying for a NASCAR race? Daytona 500 qualifying today on FOX. Budweiser Shootout tonight. Twin 125's on Thursday. The Great American Race on Valentine's Day. Hello 2010!

And just so that you know, the peloton opens the European season tomorrow (sometime tonight, our time) in the Tour of Qatar with a team time trial in the desert.

And for the traditionalists, pitchers and catchers are due to report in less than two weeks. Now that is a true sign of Spring.

I'm sitting on my couch with Winnie catching all the Saturday TV sports action. 2 is picking up a friend at ORD and I'm the designated sitter. We're doing a three mile run a little later.

An item of news from the office came across my email yesterday about a money manager firm that I have used in the past. Turns out that the owner of the firm bit on an elaborate tax shelter scheme beginning in the mid '90's, was investigated by the IRS, found wanting (to the tune of eight figures of tax and penalties), and recently lost the battle in Tax Court. He's now resigned from his company, I'm sure in hopes of saving it, and has had to come public with the details. The case report is 75 pages long and has him well-filet'd.

I did some clean-up work for some clients of a tax attorney in Phoenix in the '80's. They had bought into an off-shore scam that supposedly allowed income from a US operation to be laundered through a foreign corporation or trust, and escape US taxation. This new case is not a lot different. Kind of funny/odd when otherwise bright and successful people allow themselves to be taken in by scheisters selling something that seems too good to be true. If it smells bad, looks like too good of a result, and has more twists than a python, chances are the best advice is to not walk, but run, the other way.

A random factoid from the golf telecast: the PGA event this week, The Northern Trust Open from Riviera CC in the LA area, has hired former NBA great (and the league's logo-boy), Jerry West, as it's Executive Director. Interesting. He's got history there with the Lakers as a player and in the front office. But his last NBA job was in Memphis, and his home is West Virginia. But he brings credibility into the room and his involvement will be good for the tournament. Now, if he can just re-hab Tiger, get him to play there, and keep him inside the ropes. No small task there.

Had to get on the Illinois I-Pass website this morning to change the license plate for the Buick's Illinois toll road electronic signal. If the Italians can track me down seven time zones away, I'm guessing that Illinois would eventually catch on to the inconsistency. Technology is an amazing thing.

OK. It's a little late, but here's my Top Ten Goals for 2010; not necessarily in order of importance:

1. Tahoe. I'm not yet committed on riding Mt. Rose.
2. 15-25% growth in business gross income. Not easy, but doable.
3. 53 minutes in the Turkey Trot.
4. Read more. Let's say 25 books.
5. Chicago or St. Louis for a FFF baseball weekend.
6. College World Series in Omaha for a weekend.
7. Write a short story. 25-30 pages.
8. Modified two days of TOMRV. With last year's friends.
9. Additional upgrades at my house.
10. Improve core strength with consistent exercise.

So I need to hit the road with Winnie for my run. Maybe more here later.

BCOT

Friday AM

Just a few lines this morning. We have a little snow coming down right now. Just enough to slicken-up the roads.

Tough day in the markets yesterday. Lots of concerns about sovereign debt in Greece, Spain and Portugal. Toyota gas pedals. US deficits. A possible China growth bubble? All I can say is, "Buckle up, Buttercup."

I did not previously comment here on the results from Ground Hog Day. Six more weeks of Winter would seem to be a safe bet this year. But really, how did Ground Hog Day get started? If Hallmark Cards didn't come up with it on it's own, I'm betting that the agency who has advised Hallmark on the various days to celebrate (i.e., Left-Handers' Day, Peruvian Incan Day, and who can forget, Barbershop Quartets' Day?) was in Punxsutawney one day and we now have Bill Murray in his most memorable role. Whatever.

So I figured out how to post pictures to Walgreen's Photos. Turns out that I've had an account there for a long time, but my original enrollment was before my digital camera ownership days. Pretty easy to transfer pics to the site, so look for more use of it in the future.

Check out the new plates for the Buick!!! I had received the notice that they were "in" a couple of weeks ago, but hadn't taken the time to pick them up until today. When I was in Muscatine yesterday, the local cops gave me a ticket for expired plates, even though the offense is not even their juristiction (maybe), and the penalty date doesn't start until March 1st. Whatever. It was a good reminder to get current, so I did. Suite.

Low key weekend in store for me. More entries here fo' sure.

BCOT

Tuesday

I know that this is not an exact repeat of a question here previously, but the concept is the same; "What happened to January?" With February being a short month by definition, one could make the case that the first quarter of the year is all but gone. I will most certainly be on my bike outdoors next month.
.
The trip home Sunday from the TC was uneventful. But long. By rendevouxing with 4 in Mason City, 4 actually had the longer solo drive. Neither of us had done an adequate analysis on projected driving times, and I wanted to take advantage of the angle-route through Waterloo. The result: her drive from Lincoln to DM and then North was an hour longer than mine. She says that her next trip to the TC will be by air. She's probably right.
.
My latest issue with my "smart" phone is that my appointments come up on my Outlook calendar three hours later than actually scheduled. Now, the time on the face of the phone is correctly CST. And the appointments appear correctly on my desk-top Outlook calendar function. So somewhere in the phone Settings page, I've got a wrong time zone for the calendar page. And of course, it's not on the Calendar or Time menu pages. (I wonder if there's a bug in the sync function?) Whatever. Love the flexibility of the HTC.
.
The new Home Page photo here was taken from my Buick at 78mph on Sunday afternoon. Looking Northeast along Highway 27 in central Iowa. I thought that the desert scene was a little off point given the cold and snow.
.
I'm always amazed at the Super Bowl hype among the sports media the week before the game. Mike & Mike on ESPN2 have been broadcasting their morning show from Miami all week, and have Hall of Famer after Hall of Famer sitting with them giving their takes on the game. It gets a little old. Today, they were talking about the special bets that Vegas is offering, such as the number of TV shots of Archie Manning and Kim Kardashian. Heavy topics.
.
The Big O got in trouble this week for again dissing Vegas in a speech by referring to what you don't do in times of economic challenges. As in "drop some cash in Vegas." Does that mean Vegas is only relevant in good times? The wags can debate that one.
.
So this was supposed to be published last night, but I had it in draft form when I left the office, and just never got back to it at home after my treadmill work at Gold's. Sorry.
.
Early spin this morning. Almost a turn-away crowd. Those New Year's Resolutioner's are hangin' tough.
.
Have a great day.
.
BCOT

Monday

More to follow...