Wednesday...UPDATED...UPDATE 2nd

CJ's stay at the top of the blog ends after a week.  He will definitely return!  The new pic is a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge taken that weekend in late October that I visited 3 in The Big Apple.

4 never received her due last week with all of the news in Woodbury.  So here she is as a belated Daughter of the Day.  Her quarter-century birthday.  This shot is a repeat of the one I posted from France on the August day that we rode the Tourmalet.  You 'da girl, Kiddo!

Busy couple of days here at the shop.  Lots of year end planning to address.  Still no snow.

More later.

LATER...A follow-up comment on the golf simulator experience.  This was something that I am not likely to repeat.  While it might be billed as golf, it's really not a lot different than other video games.  Sure, you swing your own clubs like you are on the course, but it becomes apparent pretty early on that, if you want to pay attention to your score, you need to accommodate the whims of the computer program.  So really, we're talking about a hybrid video game.

The computer keeps track of everybody's ball and you rotate shots just like on the course.  I went there thinking that we would be doing something for an hour or so, like on the practice range.  But we didn't get through eight holes in two hours, and I had lost interest way before that.  And they didn't serve wine.

This is not a pic of us at the place on Monday, but it's very similar to the Bettendorf set-up.  They have 5-6 of these booths that border an open area with a couple of pool tables and other games.  There's a pretty good-sized bar at one side of the room.   I think they get live bands in for weekends, and the young folks may gather for apres' ski-like mingling.  Not sure if the Summer will be the "in" season.  And I didn't see a patio for that kind of Summer socializing.

After having the W around my place for several days, I've caught myself yesterday and today entering my house and expecting to see her.  And handling my schedule with her walks included.  If there's such a thing as Pavlov's Dogs, there must also be The Winniferous' Masters.

Again, more later.

UPDATE II...I had to stop over at the bank by Northpark Mall during my lunch hour, and I gave into my curiosity to check out the sale at Joseph A. Bank, the men's retailer that advertises heavily on CNBC in the early AM.  They're always offering "Buy One, Get One Free", or even, "Buy One, Get Two Free" every once in a while.  I figured that I might find some nice, fitted cotton dress shirts to balance out my wardrobe of dri-fit everything.

They did have some cheaper standard cut dress shirts on the sale tables, but the more desirable, fitted ones that I had interest in were all $88 or so.  Sure, it was "Buy one, Get One Free", but that still calculated out to $45 per shirt, which wasn't much of a deal in my calculus.  If you charge a high enough price for one, that give-away of the second one isn't much of a give-away after all.  Shocking.

This week is vapor.  BBQ and wine on Maplecrest tomorrow night.  Be there.
BCOT

Tuesday

forStill trying to find "normal" at this end.  The weekend was a great success.  1 has a lot of pictures up on her Walgreen's account.  I need to work on mine before putting them anywhere.  Here's a couple just to get the process in motion.

More later.

BCOT

Thursday

This is the shot that 1 had on her Twitter account this AM.

1 and 1.02 are scheduled to head home today.  More pics should be available at that time.

Busy day here today.  Lots to do before tomorrow morning's departure.

Coming Home!!!!

BCOT

Wednesday

Welcome to the world, 1.02!!!!!

Arrival time approximately 2130hrs December 20, 2011.

7.1 lbs...I think 1.1 said 28+ inches.  More details and pics as they become available.

UPDATE:   Via text from 1, the length was 20.5.  I'm taking the fall on this one.  I'm sure 1.1 gave me the correct info originally, and that I didn't get it properly registered.

The early reports from 2 seem to suggest that 1.01 has welcomed her new brother with open arms.  I wonder how long that will last?  I'm guessing that that last brownie won't be given up freely!

More later.

BCOT

Sunday...UPDATED

I've put my new flag pole up as the Home Page pic for a couple of days to recognize Old Glory's new spot on Maplecrest.  Thanks go to my Perfect Neighbor Jim for basically doing all the work.

The Winniferous and I have made it through another weekend together.  We've kind of figured a rhythm to living together for these short periods.  She knows that she gets 2-3 "hunts" per day...and lots of treats/snacks.  But when I'm out of the house, she's still a kitchen-only puppy.  Best adjective for her?  Needy!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that I have been victimized by a minor burglary in the Buick.  The car charger to my new iPhone, and the midi-digi camera have both vanished.  The charger just never leaves the Buick, and it's not the kind of thing that just falls out of the car or between the seats.  The camera is stored in my murse, which I had in the car most of the week.  To "lose" both items at the same time is too unusual to be a coincidence.  I'm giving it a couple more days for the items to turn up, before calling it theft.  Bummer.

As reported on Twitter, Margret is now in the garage on Century Heights Avenue.  It was a nice enough day, and I hadn't had her out for a month or more, so I did a little ride in the country to "blow out her pipes" before putting her in hibernation.  Her next appearance in the elements will likely be close to April 1st in 2012.

It's another pleasant day here.  Mid 40's at least.  Lots of golfers on the courses near me.  I'm actually going to fire up my lawn mower and collect the leaves this afternoon.  Running a lawn mower in mid-December seems a little unusual.  Global warming, for sure, Al.

The local paper had major coverage on the reactions to the Stephen Bloom article today.  http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/in-defense-of-skuzzy-iowa/article_11d46296-2866-11e1-84d7-0019bb2963f4.htmlAs could be expected, there was near-universal disdain for the slant that Bloom gave to virtually every segment of Iowa culture.  Makes you wonder if The Atlantic was just looking for readership.  My guess is that the editors figured that a nice hit-piece on the state could get a visceral reaction and plenty of splash in the extended media, in a news cycle that now has the Iowa caucuses at front and center stage.  Bloom just comes off as a high-brow academic.

If you didn't notice, bowl-season started yesterday.  Hmmm.  Sorry I missed those crucial games.

I hope to get back on here later after my yard work and the next hunt with The W. 

UPDATE...Really not much to add here.  I enjoyed The W's visit, but I was glad for her to return to Highland Avenue.  I ache as though I was still in Turkey Trot training.  She should sleep well for 2 tonight. 

Sounds like the trip to C-town was a success.  I'll be anxious to hear details from the Continent as well.

I don't know the Commenter from IC.  There must be a search program out there that just looks for words or phrases and this guy was spending some time looking around on the Bloom article.  Maybe the engine picked up the link to the local paper that I included above.  Interesting.

My friend Pete is Pal of the Day.  He played Santa earlier this week and delivered a case of top-shelf Louis Martini Cabernet Savignon for all of us to share.  Suite.  You 'da man, friend.

Hope the peanut Gallery has a good week.

BCOT

Friday AM

Glad to see the end of the week.  It feels like I've been busy all week, but I'm pretty sure that I haven't got much done.  And now we have another computer problem this AM.  I'm guessing that this one is hardware related as it is unusual for us to have a LAN problem, but still have Internet access.

I attended the visitation last night of a modestly distant relative; a first cousin of Grandpa H.  The deceased was a priest at St. Ambrose, and was the last man standing of that generation of cousins on Daddy's side of the family.  Father William Dawson.  Questions on the related branches of the family tree should be directed to Tahoe Phil.

Lots of moving parts to the fam this weekend.  3 and Herky head to London later today, and 2 and 4 join @srh4 for a girls shopping weekend in C-town.  The Winniferous and I will be holding down the fort in the QCA.

4's addition to the Comments section on Wednesday is a direct link to the controversial essay in The Atlantic magazine by a professor (Stephen Bloom) at the University of Iowa.  The essay goes on for several pages detailing this guy's "honest" appraisal of Iowa's backwardness, small mindedness, and numerous other "ness's", and generally concluding that Iowa is a place where losers to go to die.  All this coming from a Left Coast transplant.  Maybe he should go back home.

So I'm not much of a Tim McGraw fan.  But he has a couple of songs that have always resonated with me, the one currently in mind: Live like you were dyin'.  Another close friend from another lifetime passed away this week at age 62 from pancreatic cancer.  Tahoe Phil makes the comment that he's in the 1/2 of 1% on the survival rate.   We are all so lucky.

I'm headed out to my normal Friday AM "meeting" at Gold's.  Hope everyone has a good TGIF.

BCOT

Wednesday

I should be able to add an entry today during the course of this last CPE seminar that I have on my schedule for the year.  This one is a satellite program held at the iWireless Center in Moline.  I've attended this same annual Tax Update program each of the last few years.  Smaller group this year.  Maybe the folks have a better handle on their CPE hours for 2011.

There has definitely been a change in the delivery of CPE in recent years.  There's lots of in-office webinars that you can catch at your desk, and some of these vendors will do an on-line or satellite deal for small offices where an entire staff can be present.  It saves the firm a lot of time and money, and probably gets the same learning benefits.  Hello U of PHX.

The computer kerfuffle at the office is approaching a conclusion.  We're having a debriefing with the IT vendor next week.  That should be interesting.

My friend Lee in C-town was licking his wounds Sunday night from the latest Tebow comeback.  'Da Bears were extremely complicit in the Denver win, but the Tebow legend continues to grow.  One commentator (I think accurately) referred to this phenomenon as a "mania".  And mania's tend to run their course and eventually go down.  But I find the success that Tebow has enjoyed these last few weeks a bit refreshing.  And I really like the fact that this success is flying in the face of those so-called NFL experts that declared, flat out, that Tebow couldn't make it in the league.

My spot on the iPhone Learning Curve is below ground-level.  I have signed up for iTunes in order to have access to the apps for the phone (even the Free ones).  The on-screen keyboard is going to take some time to get used to.

Really impressed that Time magazine has selected The Protester as their Person of The Year.  I think that it is fitting that the uni-sex individual on the cover has a covered face.  In the under-developed countries of the world, I guess that the cloth-covered face look is somewhat normal, although for us Westerner's, that look gets routinely associated with terrorism.  In the USA, the covered face has historically been used by outlaws.  Occupy outlaws are just exercising there right of Free Speech.  Hmmm.

More here after lunch.

BCOT

Sunday

Sorry for not getting on here the last few days.  Life kind of got in the way.

The saga on computers at my office remains an open exercise.  The laptop is now serviceable, but I'm still just getting up-to-speed on the new machine and the updated software.  Turns out that the computer came equipped with an additional SEM card that was an AT&T add-on.  The Verizon air card couldn't get past the SEM card for some reason.  The IT installer finally noticed the extra piece of hardware, pulled it, and wow!  The laptop worked.

The desktop is still messed-up.  Our contractor has absolutely failed on this project.  I was livid on Friday.  Inconvenience has moved to unacceptability.  To be continued.

2's dinner at the Figge on Thursday night was a success.  She served as hostess for the short program following the meal...and did a nice job dealing with an uncooperative sound system.  Let's make her Daughter of the Day in recognition of this effort.  Way to go, Kiddo!

The Geneva Christmas party last night was a lot of fun.  Good friends.  Good dinner.  Top-shelf wine.  That bottle of Jordan Cab may have been the hit of the evening.

It looks like we are close to a final agreement on the house for the #7282012 events.  Tahoe Phil made an on-site inspection this weekend and I have contacted the owner about inking the deal.  Not far from Phi and Jan's, good space-age, and reasonable pricing.  Our check-in will be Sunday, the 22nd.

Anybody catch the replay of the brawl at the end of the Cincy-Xavier basketball game last night?  A number of those players should be kicked off their teams, and maybe even out of their schools.  Nothing short of thuggery.  And then the Xavier players actually go to post-game pressers and justify the physicality/retribution due to Cincy's lack of "respect" for the Xavier team.  Just like in the 'hood.

So Pujols took the money and went to LA.  It was a choice.  Take less money in StL and embellish his icon status in the best baseball town in the country.  Or follow the money and become A-Rod in LA.  I have no problem with him following the money.  And I have no problem with the Cards' not trying to match silly money for an aging star.  Maybe Albert figured that he'd always be second to Stan the Man, so why not take the money?  It's bid'ness.  (A hard-and-fast rule that has application in sports, business, politics and social-climbing:  When they say it's not about the money, always remember, it's about the money!)

2's flat tire yesterday morning brought into play a tool that I have never used for changing tires: the 4"x4"x4' club.  After finally unscrewing the lug nuts (they were on so tight I couldn't figure out which way was off!), the tire was still held fast to the axle.  I tried pulling, yanking and kicking with no success.  We actually went back inside the coffee shop to warm up and to review the owner's manual again to see if there was a "trick" that was unique to the Focus.  Terry O'C gave his input too.  (Uh, Terry...you were worthless!)

I finally went over to the trash bin at the next-door construction site and found the 4x4x4 and began to seriously whale away at the tire.  It finally popped free.  We got the donut mounted, stopped and aired-up the donut and the other front tire and took the car over to a tire shop on Brady.  Surprisingly, the fix was cheap enough for 2 to afford, and she's back fully mobile today.

A small visual factoid:  I was wearing the Dale Earnhardt NASCAR gawdy-printed black leather jacket while performing this tire-change service.  It was not a quality pit stop on the clock.

Now headed over to Gold's to sweat out some vino.

BCOT

Wednesday

This is another of the "days in history".  Pearl Harbor.  According to FDR, "A day that will live in infamy".  Before my time.  But etched in my brain from American History class.

The IT folks have made progress on the conversion here at the office.  But they still have several open points.  Suffice it to say, they severely under-engineered this project.  I'm moving on for sanity's sake.

I'm declaring the Christmas shopping season in full gear.  The traffic is now at the high volume that makes ingress and egress to/from any retail/commercial area problematic.  Actually, the flow is usually moving so slowly that people will let you in line without you being hardly aggressive at all because they know they can't get anyplace very fast anyway.

Today is RCL day.  Always a good day to get home.

I posted this on Twitter at lunch.  Roy and I ate at a local Irish bar (Kelly's on 53rd Street) as we do usually once every couple weeks or so.  It's bar food, but we know the owner and we usually get well-treated by the waitresses.  Anyway, they have a digital sign over the bar that counts down the days until St. Patrick's Day.  (Actually, the clock reads down to the hour, minute and second.)    And that sign read an even "100" today.  A hundred days seems like a long time, but to think that St. Paddy's Day will be less than 100 days away as of tomorrow, makes Spring seem maybe not that far away, eh?

Busy day for me tomorrow.  Cedar Rapids for another CPE day.  And Susan's Figge dinner tomorrow night.  Lots of moving parts.

I'm going to head over for an evening spin class.  I may try to hop back on here later, IF they have my air card installed.  Hmmm.  Taking the Under on that one.

BCOT

Tuesday

This entry is coming your way via the laptop and the Dunn Bros wifi hotspot.  The good news is that the laptop does work.  The bad news is that the Verizon air-card is still not installed.  And the desktop is still a work in progress.  I'm now past the point of irritation.  Well, maybe not.

I am very close to committing to a house for the #7282012 events with an arrival of Sunday the 22nd and a departure of Saturday the 28th.  Tahoe Phil needs to complete an on-site inspection before I send in the deposit, but the location is good...on the Mountain Golf Course in Incline...and the space in the home looks like it can handle the crew.  I want to get the reservation done so that we can take this one off the list of open items.

The new Dell doesn't have one of those nuisance balls in the middle of the keyboard...which is good.  But I still hit keys that send the cursor all over the place while I input.  And since I have to look at the keyboard as I type, I'll be three words or more into a sentence before I realize that I've shifted to the middle of a completed paragraph above my input point.  Inefficiency can be my middle name.

This is our first "wintery" day of the season.  Snow flurries most of the day.  Had to brush off the Beater after early coffee.  No accumulation, but it sure looks like Winter outside.  Get used to it, eh?

Augie has a game tonight that I may try to get to.  They did get beat in StL over the weekend, so the #1 rating is gone.  But if they stay healthy, they should have a great year.

It looks like the new party song in the country bars is "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Kieth.  I never knew that those plastic beer cups at parties were "Solo" cups.  (He sang the song at the end of the country awards show on the tube last night.  Country cool...he comes out to receive a big award chewing a wad of gum.  And proceeds to sing while still chewing.  Very classy.

I may try to slide back on here later.

BCOT

Monday...UPDATED

This computer thing is beginning to wear a little thin.  No entry here yesterday largely because I had no Internet access from my house.  And the IT guy has taken control of both my laptop and my desktop this AM.  Inconvenient may not fully describe my assessment of the situation.

There was a fairly notably recurrence of my Sometimer's problem on Saturday night.  I had elected to wear some non-jeans, dress slacks to Geneva for dinner.  I figured that the club would have been fine with jeans, but I didn't want to be the only guy in the place in denim.  Anyway, the dark slacks required my black dress shoes, which I store in my bedroom closet.  Opening the closet, I find not only the shoes that I'm looking for, but also a new casual pair that I had totally forgotten about...and three long-sleeved dri-fits...all that must have made it there last Spring.  No recollection whatsoever.  Hmmm.

I had actually purchased a new pair of daily-wear shoes last month (20% off at Kohl's, Revkev!), as I had still been wearing the well-worn pair that those in the closet was obviously bought to replace months earlier.  The synapses obviously had lost contact.

The Home Page of my B of A accounts still shows a balance due of $200 on my mortgage, but now gives me a, "Can not process your request" message when I ask for account details.  Not sure if that's good or bad.

Interestingly, as I am now on another computer in the office (not my own), the B of A website makes me go through an additional level of security to access my accounts.  All you cyber shoppers out there,  Beware!  The online retailers will be following your electronic tracks forever!

With the Hawks going to Mesa, the 'Clones to NYC, and the Irish to Florida, we've got teams border-to-border.  I hope the weather in The Big Apple cooperates.  Of all the lower-tier bowls, ISU's spot looks like one of the best.  Weather being the down-side.

Maybe more here later.

NOW LATER....The computer guy finally had some success today getting a few things done.  My desktop is up and running with the new equipment, and my office email seems to be working.  I'll wait until tomorrow before declaring the change-over a full success.  He still has some small programming to do to coordinate some of the operational things.

The word on the laptop is not quite as good.  He's saying that Dell has to ship him a replacement air-card as the one built-in is defective.  Hmmm.  It took them this long to figure that out?  Whatever.

One of the by-products of the computer project has been the complete clearing of the top of my desk.  It had to be done to give the IT guy space to work.  Plus, there's about a million confidentiality rules in both the CPA and securities businesses that say, "Don't leave client material out for prying eyes!"   I actually like the look.  The question becomes, how long can I make it last?  I get so much junk mail, and I have so much stuff that takes multiple look-at's to get done, that the pile-building is continuous.  But I'm going to take another stab at the goal of clearing it off each day.  Wise betters will take the Under on this one.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Saturday

Well, my computer situation hasn't improved much.  My desktop tower still hasn't been exchanged for the new unit, but that hasn't stopped the updated Windows package now on the server from screwing-up my office email.  We spent most of Friday afternoon trying to isolate the bugs, but I still have a recurring error when more than a couple of inbound messages get in the cue.

And the laptop?  Well, I'm basically without a laptop for the weekend.  The IT folks had another breakdown in communication, and when the tech handed me the "new" laptop late yesterday afternoon, he was completely in the dark when I asked about the Verizon "anywhere" card that needed transfer/activation.  I was a bit miffed.  I left while he was trying to call Verizon to determine the protocol.  When I came in today, no Verizon capability on the laptop.  Suite.  And the laptop couldn't even pick up the wireless network in the office.  No Starbuck's for you this weekend, LtPC!

My pal Bill has a new granddaughter, born early yesterday.  By C-section.  Sounds like mother and daughter are just fine.  Congrats, buddy.

I reported this on Twitter last night.  I have purchased my last couple of cases of wine at the Hy Vee store on 53rd Street.  Like most places, they have a 10% discount automatically applied to case purchases.  But at each of these last two times, my mental calculations had suggested that I might have only been getting 5% off on the purchase.  I took both receipt tapes in last night to show the manager, and he was really flummoxed.

Turns out that the computer wasn't recognizing an Italian red (that had two or three bottles in each of these cases), as wine, I guess.  Because the computer was giving me 5% on like 10 bottles.  Pretty odd.  But it goes to show ya', the computer ain't always correct.

(I had actually gone in to the store to pick up a bottle of Jack London to take over to a party, and when the manager was really struggling with the math, I told him that the Jack London would be pretty close to even-ing things up.  Especially since, when I bought that last case, he had only one bottle of the Jack London available.  And I had had him actually physically check his back-room inventory for more of it.  So a really good manager should really have given me the 10% discount on the single bottle last night.  Which absolutely would have made it a pennies-difference deal.  He didn't bite, and I had to pay a couple of bucks for the bottle.)

So I need to get going to Gold's.  Given my lack of computer access, I won't be back on here until tomorrow.

Make it a safe Saturday night. 

BCOT

Friday

The Over bet on the computer conversion didn't pay.  As a matter of fact, the conversion hardly got off the ground.  There had been a mis-communication within the IT vendor and the installer guy had the preliminary set-up on my new machine wrong.  So I was basically off my desktop for the day, and then when he initiated the change in the afternoon he also kicked me off of my email-to-phone service.  Not-so-suite.

One of the by-products of the computer kerfuffle was that my business-meeting-guy had left a message on my desk-top that he was going to be a no-show for dinner.  Which I didn't find out about until my second glass of wine.  Welcome to our new technology.

Bank of America managed to frost my cookies yesterday.  I had called two weeks ago to arrange an early pay-off on a mortgage loan, and the service agent at that time apparently dropped the ball.  The end of the month payment then didn't get fully allocated to principal (the system automatically sent $200 to the tax/insurance escrow), so when I checked to confirm the pay-off, there was still a $200 balance due.

So I called the Customer Service number.  After fighting my way through the voice-mail system, I railed on the new service agent about the problem.  She confirmed that there was a record of my call on the 16th, but no action was indicated.  To complete the loan pay-off with the excess in the escrow account would require a letter of direction...and further delay.  And there was a $30 closing fee and a $7 recording fee...And I went ballistic!

Long story short; those fees disappeared, and I had a same-day transfer payment made from my checking account for the new exact amount of the pay-off.  (The bloated escrow would then just be paid to me.)  The great news?  Wells Fargo charged me $14.95 for a same-day transfer!  Better news?  The mortgage account still has a $200 principal balance today after the payment!  I love this country!

The Business Ethics seminar in IC yesterday was a crock.  All of my professional designations now require different minimums of annual CPE in ethics as part of the total CPE requirements.  The licensing organizations are all Madoff-sensitive.  Whatever.  The guy doing this program was a CPA from Wisconsin who had a sports background, and he used way too many examples of poor ethical conduct from various college and pro sports.  Like ethical lapses are rare in college football, eh?

The program was at the former Highlander Inn on the East side of IC.  It's a Clarion Inn now.  The Highlander was at one time THE hotel in IC.  I'm thinking that one of the last times I was there was the night that nephew/cousin Matt stayed there with the U of A basketball team when they were in town for a game with the Hawks.  Prior to that, I think I may have stayed there a few times in the late "70's when I was on campus to help with AA & Co recruiting.  There may have been some Beefeater gin involved.

Hope everyone has a good TGIF.

BCOT

Wednesday

Is there an echo in here?  What happened to November?

Big day in the market today.  Don't look for a long, sustained up-turn.  Europe is still murky.  Holiday sales will lose steam as the discounting goes deeper.  (Kevkev, don't even think about buying anything at Kolh's without a 30%-Off-Everything coupon!)  The Washington DC fighting will have another kerfuffle, and once the Dow approaches 12,500, the shorts will exert their influence and the selling will pick up speed again.  There's simply not an over-abundance of buyers out there.

The Four Letter channel (ESPN) is kicking off a week of fund-raising for the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research tonight.  It's a worthy cause.  They ran the 1993 ESPY Awards speech again tonight, simultaneously on all of their channels at 1900 hours CST.  Here's a link to the video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuoVM9nm42E

I'm thinking that 4 has become a bit of a Dunn's coffee regular as I ran into her there this morning for the second straight day without any pre-arrangements.  And not at my normal mid-morning time.  At least today I was quick enough on the draw to notice her before she had bought her coffee.  Yesterday, she had already paid and was just hangin' there by the delivery stand before either of us picked up on one another.  Definitely a nice surprise.

Dan and Denise get this year's award for the first Christmas card received on Maplecrest.  Thank you much-ly. 

My pal Bill was at a tax seminar the first two days of this week, and his big take-away was that we needed to establish a secure portal system for access to returns for any electronic delivery.  Big penalties apply if the IRS catches you sending taxpayer documents on the Internet without proper security.  Basically, the IRS is regulating the preparers to become an extension of their own bureaucratic system.  Let's definitely not make things easy on anybody.  And we'll need to raise our fees to cover the additional IT costs.

For what its worth, I get it.  I blame the attorneys.  Cue the joke:  What do you call 1500 jailed lawyers?  A good start.  Bah-da-bing!

Congrats to 2, 3 and Revkev on their workout challenge. 

The Augustana basketball team is rated #1 in D-III this week.  They won a tough game last night against local rival St. Ambrose at the SAU gym before a full house.  Their rating status will likely get a strong challenge this weekend when they go down to StL for a 4-team tourney.  Wash-U is always competitive.  Regardless, Augie could have a legit shot at the national title if they can keep healthy.  They have a 6'8" guy at the three spot who could be the D-III Player of the Year.  He tossed in a little 38 against Ambrose.

My desktop is supposed to be swapped out in the AM.  Over/Under on a smooth transition?  I'm fooling you and taking the Over.  Maybe that's just hope, eh?

Just a reminder, every once in a while, Blogger's spell-check won't work. When that happens, my Rick Perry-esque-ness may come out.  Sorry.  Blame Blogger.

Hope everyone has a good Thursday.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Tuesday

So we're back to the mountains.  If I can come up with a theme in the next few days, I'll go to a more topic-specific Home Page photo.

Our computer switch-over is in process.  The IT vendor has had a guy here almost full-time over the last several work days to load-up the new machines with the designated software.  The idea is to make all of the desk-tops almost identical so that there's not the constant question of which computer has which software.  It's always surprising how many different programs we each end up using on a regular basis.  I think that the server-switch is tonight.

I had been on the side of "Who Cares?" when it came to the NBA strike/lock-out.  That's unfair to the little people who staff the arenas or work in the ancillary businesses that depend on the league operating.  So for the sake of all those employees in the related activities, a shortened season is better than no season.  But just to confirm the obvious, I won't be on line at Ticketmaster for Bulls' tickets.

Not that I was ever a Herman Cain fan, but the guy has hit a bit of a rough patch on the Political Trail recently.  We live in a different time.  Politicians, athletes and entertainers (talk about redundancy!) are all free game and the paparazzi are always there.  Once there's blood in the water, it's a race to Hangman's Tree.

And I've never been a Syracuse fan.  But I wonder if Boeheim can survive?  If you're fully in charge, and there's a felony (or more) perpetrated under your watch, how do you avoid the ax?  While there appears to be no evidence of convenient ignorance on this one, I think Boeheim will fall by organizational protocol. 

Two games for Ndamukong Suh.  But he's appealing to the league for leniency.  Now that's rich!  I'm sure that the player's union is pushing the appeal.  But really.  If this guy has the idea that he's being misunderstood, take the two weeks off and retool your image machine.  Right now, it ain't workin'.

Now headed out to run with 2 and The W.  Maybe more here later.

BCOT

Saturday

The weekend has been a big success.  The great thing about Thanksgiving is that those left-overs keep on giving! 

Here are a couple of pics from the outing today to the John Deere pavillion.

BCOT

Thursday

Under bet pays!!! 

Chip times not yet posted on-line, but I crossed the finish line as the race clock hit 59.30...I should be in the 58's.  What a great way to get to Thanksgiving dinner!

Missing 3 and Herky.

More later

BCOT

Wednesday...UDATE with 1.01 Pics

Here's a few lines for the day before Turkey Day. 

I would be remiss if I didn't wish everyone Happy Tax Thanksgiving!

Here's notice to 3 and Herky who will be celebrating in NYC.  This was a pic from that weekend that I spent with them last month.  This photo makes them Fiance's of the Day.  Enjoy Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

The Trot Challenge is fully subscribed.  Thanks to all those in the Peanut Gallery who elected to participate.  I'm thinking that I can make 62 minutes, but 59:59 may be a road-too-far.  But with a favorable weather forecast, you never know.

The new spin bikes at Gold's have had the curious result of the instructors going to a quantitative approach to leadership in contrast to a more qualitative methodology with the old equipment.  The new bikes each have an electronic read-out device that reflects cadence, mileage and heart-rate among other things.  So the instructors have adopted instructions such as, "Okay.  Get that cadence up to 70-90."  And, "Up the cadence by 5."

Rather than  painting a picture like, "Okay.  You're coming up on three bikers and they don't want you to pass. You need to pull, pull, pull!"  Or, "Just a few more stokes before getting to the top, and then charge down the hill.  Go. Go. Go."

I noticed this change with the first class I had with the new bikes on Friday with my favorite instructor, Kandi.  I've always enjoyed her classes as I have felt like she actually went at it as a coaching assignment, giving thought and energy to her words of encouragement.  When she reverted to cadence counting, I thought that it kept some of her best talents on the sidelines.  And the gal who led last night's class did much the same thing.

Preliminary conclusion:  the bikes are night and day better than the old ones.  (And after two classes, I still haven't figured out the best settings for the adjustable seat/handlebar combinations.)  The instructor's have some learning too. I'll be disappointed if the quantitative method becomes standard.

I don't watch DWTS.  Not even when EA was on the show.  Never heard of this this guy who won last night.  But I would try to learn to dance too if Karina Whatshername was my partner.  Sorry.

Is Urban Meyer going to OSU the worst kept secret in sports?

Off to get ready for company.  Look here to the right on the Twitter feed for a TT report by 1030hrs tomorrow.

Who is this little star?

BCOT

Tuesday

I'm a little surprised that I didn't see any reference to this anniversary in the papers this AM at coffee.  That must mean that the writers and editors are too young to have the November 22nd date etched into their memories.

High school biology class for me.

News about Dancing With The Stars, the failure of the Not-So-Super Committee, and early shopping for Black Friday are today's headlines.  What does that say about our collective consciousness?

More later.

BCOT

Monday

That was a quick weekend! 

Great start on Friday night with a big group for wine at Biaggi's.  2 and 4 stopped by...2 on her way to a foo-foo Festival of Trees event, and 4 on her way to bed (after 24+ hours without any sleep).  And then we closed out the weekend last night with BBQ and modified fff on Maplecrest.

You can really tell that the holiday shopping season has begun by the amount of traffic on Kimberly Road and Elmore Street this time of year.  On a Friday afternoon, the back-ups are impressive.  Left turns out of parking lots on to these roads (with no traffic light help) become pretty much impossible.  I'm thinking that the European system of roundabouts makes our lighted intersection format a failed experiment.  Then again, I remember that the big downtown traffic circles with multiple converging thoroughfares often had lights as well.

Not sure how many weekends that the Clone's, Hawk's and Irish have all won on the gridiron this year.  Huge win in Ames on Friday night, and then important wins on Saturday for the other two, so we can all celebrate a little.  Not that the state of the world was all that much affected by those results.

The early forecast for Turkey Day has a high of 55.  And 57 for Friday.

So I mowed my front yard on Saturday to gather the leaves.  Obviously, on Sunday, you couldn't tell that I had made the effort.  And they aren't even my leaves!  It's a common problem.

I remain unimpressed with the clothing selections of runners and walkers on my normal training routes most evenings.  Almost everyone wears dark stuff with little or no reflective material.  My day-glo orange shell with reflective striping and blinking pin-light is the only bright color that I usually see out there.

My latest term that I've come up with to describe my habits and preferences is "spaceage" (which looks curiously like a NASA word when I spell it out.  Hmmm.)  I use it to describe the personal space I like around my person.  Which is often more than I'm given in a public setting.  Like at Sunday coffee at Dunn's where a group of 8-10 folks regularly come in after I've set up shop, and proceed to take up way too much of my spaceage.

Hope everyone gets through these next three days to celebrate the rest of the week.

BCOT

Friday...UPDATED

Just a few lines to catch up this AM.

3 texted me a pic yesterday morning from her gym that overlooks Wall Street, of the mounted police facing-down the Occupy nuts, and I was literally watching the same scene on CNBC.  Even the mainstream press has begun to tire of the antics.  Of course, they are waiting for the "go" sign from 1600 Pennsylvania before they actually say anything negative about the movement.

NASCAR ends the season this week down in Florida.  It looks like the year's champion will be either Edwards or Stewart, neither of which is a particular favorite of mine.  But I'm glad that it isn't the 48.  They take off most of the next three months, and then start it up again at Daytona in mid-February.  NASCAR had a better year this year viewership-wise, but the price of sponsorship has fallen, and there are lots of cars looking for money.

Can't say that I am all that excited about college basketball yet.  With most of the good teams recruiting players that will only be around for a year or two, the continuity for the average fan is a bit lacking.  For instance, I kind of follow KU, and I couldn't name a player on this year's squad without going to Google.  Once they start the conference season's, after Christmas, I might pay more attention.  Big Monday!

And the NBA?  Does anybody care at this point?  Poll question: Are you more sympathetic with the Occupy protesters or the NBA Players Association?

Another abuse story in college athletics this AM.  Hate to say it, and kind of reluctantly agree with the Catholic haters who continue to channel the priest abuse cover-ups, but it looks like the schools have been doing the same thing with any messes in their houses.

Now headed to my 0900 meeting at Gold's.  More here later.

Have a great TGIF.  I will for sure.

#7282012.  Be there.

UPDATE...Davenport Gold's fully swapped-out their spin bikes.  The old ones were definitely past their useful lives.  But 30 new machines wasn't a cheap date.  I had reached the point last Spring where the poor quality of the bikes was a factor in whether I would even attend a class.

Wind and fire in the news for our relatives in the Reno/Tahoe area. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/11/caughlin-fire-20-homes-destroyed-9500-people-evacuated-in-reno-blaze.html

The new flag pole on Maplecrest should be up for Thanksgiving.  My Perfect Neighbor is in charge.  The hole is dug.  Concrete this weekend.  The flag, pole and hardware are already in our possession.

Clones tonight with Okie State at Jack Trice.  Terrible report today for Cowboy Nation.  Plane crash with the head women's b-ball coach and top recruiting assistant aboard.  No survivors.  Life is too short.

Hawks try to win a game on the road at West Lafayette.  Hmmm.  May want to take the Under on that one.  Domer's entertain a mediocre BC team on Senior Day.  Irish should go to 8-3, with Stanford then to close out the season next week on the Left Coast.

Looking at yard work, a long run and some other errands tomorrow.  We'll see how hard the wind blows.  Shouldn't be too cold.

Ya' all...

BCOT

Wednesday

The last couple of days have disappeared quickly.  That tends to happen when you get placed under some stress, and I had another IRS auditor in town looking at a complicated return.  The complications were really not from the activity reported on the return by the entity, but rather the organizational structure of the group of companies that the one shareholder/taxpayer owned.  I can't even write a simple sentence to describe it.  After a day of preparation and a day of the agent on-site, I'm thinking wine.

And I had to deal with another computer issue that kept me off my desktop most of Monday.  My web-based financial planning software provider did a maintenance upgrade over the weekend, and when I went to sign on on Monday, I got the diagnostic that my local anti-virus software was out of date, so I couldn't access the programs and data.  We tried to upload the current version and couldn't, which meant a call to the IT vendor.  And they dwadled around all afternoon with it.  Okay now, but extremely inconvenient when I was trying to get ready for the audit.  Grrrr.

While Monday was the anniversary of 4000 Days, I was advised this afternoon that today is the 21st anniversary of our firm moving into our building.  Now that does seem like a long time ago.  I remember bringing the girls over to the construction site and having pizza during the build-out stages.  Building the building was not a riskless investment, but it has proven to be one of our best business decisions.  We continue to benefit from the revenue stream created by this asset.  It has financed a lot of education, wedding(s!) and will do so for years into the future.

My pal Roy and I went over to the annual golf clothing/equipment sale that the various clubs put together at a big reception hall up from our office on Kimberly.  Pro shops have some of the most expensive polo shirts that you can find.  Why you would pay $80 for one in July when they will absolutely be dumped at the sale in November for $32 is beyond me.  We each bought a shirt, mine being a long-sleeved black (why not?) dri-fit pullover with a Hawkeye logo on the left front.

I still have a few spots on the Trot Challenge if anyone is interested.

Maybe more here later.

BCOT

Monday

I'll try to get back here later, but no promises as I have a busy day/evening ahead of me.

But the news of the day is that this is the official six-year anniversary for 4000 Days!  I knew that I had started it in the November range, but I didn't have the exact date registered in the cerebral cortex.  It popped up on our Outlook system this morning.  Not an insignificant passage of time.

The good news is that six years gets you well-past the half-way point toward 4000 total days.  The bad news is that I've kind of extended the total by three years or so.  Which means, it's way too early to look too far down the road.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Sunday

You're going to have to give me a little literary space on this one.

So at spin class this morning, I'm pounding along trying to figure out some mental diversion from the monotony of the spin Nazi's rant.  I drifted over to some marginal analyses of age and various activities, envisioning your standard x and y axes and the various curves that might best describe the relationships. 

Actually, it got a little confusing when I was trying to keep straight whether x was the horizontal axis or the vertical axis and which axis worked best for which variable.  I had this idea that I could superimpose on a single graph several different curves that could be viewed from 10,000 feet and some fundamental truth about my life would crystallize.  The idea never got past the foggy stage.

I did though have one thought that stuck.  My life has been and continues to be, in a very satisfying and interesting way, a series of visits to a park bench (or an equivalent spot from which to watch the world go by).  This is one of those things that, when you can identify recurrence over 30 years or so, is pretty good evidence of truth.  Obviously, the start of this thing began at Adventureland, but I think that I have perfected the park bench to an art form.

Let's review the evidence, not necessarily in order of precedence:

1.  Football at Kinnick Stadium:  I'm the guy staying in the parking lot with the Saturday NYT puzzle.
2.  FFF at major city hotel:  I'm the guy in the lobby on the laptop.
3.  Tahoe Phil's boat at Tahoe: Lots of time on the front of the boat reading a book.
4.  Wrigley Field: Why go into the game when we can hang at the Cubby Bear?
5.  Starbuck's Anywhere, USA: Why wouldn't we hang at SB's?
6.  The driveway on Maplecrest:  people come for the wine and conversation.
7.  Table 101 in the bar area at Davenport Biaggi's: Why wouldn't we?

I'm sure that there are other examples, but you can see where I'm headed.  I have skills in this area.  That said, I'm not sure that it adds a lot to the resume.

The Trot is getting closer.  The count now also includes Tahoe Phil and Jan,  may pal Ron and Jane, and RevKev and Erica, as well as cousin Carrie and David.  So we're at 8 of 30.

Hope everyone has a good week.

BCOT

Friday - Veteran's Day Edition

I'm never quite sure what the Blogger rules are sometimes when it comes to putting pic's up for an entry.  It seems to default to a text protocol that has text begin in the middle of the page, and then expand to the margins.  Very odd.

Anyway, I met my pal Bill at the Arsenal for the Veteran's Day ceremony on Arsenal Island.  Smaller than normal crowd this year, I think.  The speaker's included both the Iowa and Illinois Congressmen from either side of the river, and the general in charge of the Island.  The best presentation was by the lady who sang the National Anthem a cappella.

I'm giving props to 4 as Daughter of The Day for her efforts to get to 0900 spin class this AM after her graveyard shift at the station.  The pic is one that appeared here in August to celebrate our climb up the Col de Aspin in southern France.  I think this was the day that she wiped out going down the mountain (as we had parked at the top with the idea of coasting down and then cycling back to the top).  But she sucked it up and made the climb with ease.  Good thing I had that cortisone cream to medicate her roadrash!

A flag on Maplecrest to celebrate the day.  If I could load a youtube of Lee Greenwood's God Bless The USA, I would.

RevKev is #3.

BCOT

Thursday

That little episode of snow showers yesterday morning definitely served notice that Winter is in the offing.  Nothing much stuck and what did was gone by lunch time, but it was clearly Winter weather.  Then again, it's almost mid-November...

My friend Rick who took his two adult kids and another couple or two on a commercially-organized/led bike tour of Napa over Labor Day, has been forwarding to me the solicitations that he has begun to receive from the tour company (Trek Tours) on TdF vacations next Summer.  For around $5K each, you can watch some of the stages, ride the mountains, and generally kill yourself for a week.  I suppose that a glutton for punishment could do more than one of the week-long tours.  Way too much work for the amount of wine I would be looking at.

Interestingly, my desktop has now been displaying Trek Tour ads when I access Google.  If you could put on super-duper-double-techno-xray-vision goggles, grubby little cookies would be all that you could see on my machine.  A tekkie germaphobe wouldn't touch it.  I think all that CSI stuff is real.

Cousin Carrie (and David) are Numbers 1 and 2 on the Turkey Trot Challenge.

The TV was on earlier, tuned to CBS's Person of Interest.  I wasn't paying attention, but when I looked up, the scene being shown was in Washington Square Park in Manhattan.  Web photo from an elevated location.  My midi-digi just of the arch.  3 and I had been there that Sunday of my visit and I was able to identify the location shown on the tube by the distinctive Arch at one end of the park.  And 3 and I had talked about the amount of filming done in the city.  The Big Apple lives up to it's name.  Very cool.

The plan tomorrow is to get to the office a little early, make my regularly scheduled Friday 0900 meeting (Spin at Gold's), get back to the house to shower, and then meet my Vet pal Bill for lunch and the Arsenal program. How does 2 get the day off?

There may be an IC trip in our future for Saturday.  Not likely to get into the game, but Airliner pizza sounds like a good option.

Make it a a good TGIF.

BCOT

Wednesday - Turkey Trot Challenge Edition

So here's the flyer for my personal Turkey Trot fund raiser.  Susan says to send me the checks, but if you will just indicate in the Comments section that you have made a specific contribution to either the ACS or Komen, I'll make the matching contribution accordingly.  I'll give updates in my regular entries here on how the progress to the goal is doing.  Thanks in advance for participating.

More later.

BCOT

Tuesday II

I had planned to head out for another training run this evening, but the rain convinced me otherwise.  Tomorrow is another day.

So the two names dominating the news today, Joe Paterno and Herman Cain, both look to be fighting a tidal wave of substantial negative press.  Mostly on stuff from a decade or more ago.  Did Jo Pa do enough?  Did Herman do too much?  Joe Pa seems to have some support among the student body, judging by the display on his front yard this evening.  But the broader-based community may not be so forgiving.  Not doing more earlier may force him to fall on his sword now as the most powerful statement that he can make on his commitment to the University.  Its not the act.  Its the cover-up.  How many has that oversight caught?

Cain's situation is different in that he has a lower general stature, his sins are less clear, and the vertical media has been seriously digging for dirt for several weeks to discredit his bona fides.  It is a bit interesting to a disinterested observer the fervor with with media vet the backgrounds of certain candidates while giving certain others a pass.  (It also suggests that Mrs. Palin truly has nothing to hide.  References to her by the legacy press and the Left ( pardon the redundancy) now must simply belittle her competence as their efforts to find the damning character evidence under the rocks proved fruitless.)  I didn't ever think that Cain was going to get the nomination, and this just gets that conclusion done a little earlier.

I'll post my Turkey Trot fundraiser flyer here in the morning.  3 did the design for me, but I couldn't figure out how to get it attached just now.  She gave me a PDF file and Blogger wants a JPEG picture.  And I couldn't transfer an image of the PDF file because the instructions on the flyer need a better clarity than I can pull up from a digital pic.  Technology is great if it works.

I guess that I should acknowledge here the passing of Smokin' Joe Frazier.  I have never been much of a boxing fan, and have never been to a live fight.  But it was hard not to notice the Ali - Frazier fights in the early and mid -70's.  I vaguely remember their first match in 1971, getting updates over the radio that night at ND.  Ali had been out of the ring for his war-objector status, and the fight was a huge deal in the sporting world.  If you had a Jeopardy question on who won that first fight, I would have got it wrong.  Frazier won at MSG.  Ali won the 1974 rematch, and their third and final fight, the 1975 "Thrilla in Manila."

I'll update this in the AM with the flyer.

BCOT

Tuesday

Vote early.  Vote Often.  It's the Chicago way!

BCOT

Monday...UPDATE

Glad to see RevKev finally back up on his blog.  I think the modified fff at Incline last weekend included a few nudges his way.  Nothing like peer pressure to break Writer's Block.

The time change means that evening training runs are now done in the dark.  Lots of traffic out there at 1800 hours, so you always need to be looking back over your shoulder at even the least-busy intersections.  People are anxious to get home.  The Winniferous and I managed to avoid things tonight.

This is an UPDATE that allows me to give recognition to Tahoe Phil for his hospitality last weekend at the lake.  The pic is a little dated, but the subjects are all I have to work with! He is Brother of the Day.

The economy in Incline Village is a bit iffy.  Granted, early November is off-season, but there are many "For Lease" signs in the areas that we regularly frequent.  For instance, I noticed yesterday morning on my coffee run that the Subway on Village across from the Raley's entrance was closed.  And most of the spaces in the Starbuck's commercial center remain empty.  With a relatively low number of permanent residents, there's just not that great of a need for stuff (or services) not otherwise available at Raley's.  Controlled development has some disadvantages.

More signs of the oncoming Winter on Mt. Rose and in Incline Village, are the extensions on the roadside poles (to 6 feet or so) to give the snowplow drivers a reference point when the snow begins to accumulate after they clear the roads.  Not sure if that's so much good news for the beach crowd.  It's a long time until Memorial Day!

Pretty sure that heads will role in State College.  Joe Pa may not be able to survive.  This is a situation that could be more damning than a couple of losing seasons.  I mean its not like its a case of innuendo or rumor.  The guy was taken away in cuffs.  Even rabid fans won't put up with responsible officials not doing the right thing with this kind of stuff.

The new computers are physically in our building, but not yet ready for installation.  Our IT vendor is pretty good, but I'm inclined to take the Under when they make the switch later this week.

All for tonight.

BCOT

Sunday

The new Home Page pic was taken this morning (Sunday) from the traditional overlook spot above Incline Village.  Tahoe Phil was driving 3 and myself down to Reno for our flights home and I took one last stab at getting a current photo for the blog.  My effort to capture a good pic on the Sand Harbor route earlier in the morning was less than stellar.  Too cloudy and dark.  This one will have to do for a few days.

Busy weekend at Tahoe.  I'll write more tomorrow.  Here's a couple more pics that will be included in a Walgreen's share-file tomorrow as well:

This is the wedding venue.  This is the view looking at the rear of the building.  And the interior view of the ballroom.

Long day for the travelers.  Here's what it looked like as I went out for the early coffee run.  I wasn't quite mentally prepared for a weekend of "Winter" when I was doing my planning.  Cool, sure.  But I came away with a tangible reminder that we have some snow and cold to get past before we get to enjoy those beach days of July.  But a great weekend to see 3 and all the folks that hung out with us on Cristina Road in Incline.

More tomorrow.

BCOT

Friday

The Home Page pic is not all that of a stretch.  It snowed last night and it looks like there was at least an inch and a half here in Incline Village.  Tahoe Phil had to go back down to Reno last night and he said that it was "white-out" conditions at the top of Mt. Rose on the way home.  Glad I elected to stay in and let him make that trip on his own.

Pretty easy day of travel for me yesterday.  The Southwest flight left a little late, but made up the time in the air, and I got in just a little early.  I got lucky and found an aisle seat on the plane and was able to stash my carry-on without a problem.  Most of the people behind me in line got stuck with middle seats in the Open-seating protocol followed by Southwest.  TP was there for my arrival, and, other than high winds that made landing a little exciting, it was an easy trip.

Looking forward to seeing 3 later today.  She has a ride with RevKev from Sacramento later today.  Wine is waiting. 

More here later.  Have a good TGIF.

BCOT