Fruit of the month

Fruit of the month from Harry & David arrived! It was Riviera Pears. It's a high end pear. Yuki won't touch 'em.

A Bolted Chair

To complete this:

1. Unbolt
2. Sand and finish the pieces
3. Reassemble

Pipe Repair

Several months ago I noticed a wet area in the back yard that never dried up. Odd for a Sacramento summer where there hasn't been any rain since early June. A friend of ours was over with some pipe experience and we attacked it. Just a small leak (1 gallon/hour perhaps) in a joint to sprinklers on top of the hill that we don't use. After a quick trip to Ace Hardware we got the thing fixed and it was really quite easy. 1. Turn off the water main. 2. Cut out the problem portion of the pipe with a hacksaw 3. Replace pipe with new pipe section and appropriate couplings (applying liberal amounts of primer and glue) and wallah. Done. I'm far from a sprinkler/water expert but it was good to get this nagging leak fixed.

Chair goes to the Fair

This is the walnut version, built by R. Tangeman, of an old Frank Lloyd Wright dining chair design.

It took blue at the Craighead County Fair, and brought
a $12.00 cash prize.

Anybody else notice that A-State rolled?

Arkansas St. 66, Florida Intl. 24
Preview - Box Score - Recap Arkansas St.

September 24, 2005
JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) -- Joe Smith grabbed two touchdown passes as Arkansas State opened Sun Belt Conference play Saturday with a 66-24 victory over Florida International, playing its first game as a member of the league.

It was a big day for the Indians (2-2, 1-0 SBC) both offensively and defensively. They scored on their first four possessions and averaged nearly 20 yards a play in the first quarter.

But ASU's Antonio Warren, who rushed for 143 yards on eight carries, suffered a high ankle sprain on the final play of the first half and did not appear in the second half. It was Warren's fourth straight 100-yard rushing game.

Smith caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Nick Noce in the first quarter and a 49-yarder in the second quarter. Noce finished 11-of-13 passing for 194 yards and the two TD throws to Smith.

Shermar Bracey, who filled in for Warren in the second half, finished with 105 yards rushing on nine carries and scored two touchdowns, on runs of 16 and 34 yards.

The Indian defense made five interceptions. Koby McKinnon returned one 85 yards for a touchdown and Tyrell Johnson returned another 92 yards to set up Chris Easley's 3-yard touchdown run.

ASU had a 35-17 halftime lead.

After an interception by James Johnson at midfield ended FIU's first possession, Warren raced off right tackle 50 yards on ASU's first play for a touchdown with 11:48 left in the first quarter.

The Indians made it 14-0 when Oren O'Neal scored from the 1 at the 9-minute mark of the first quarter.

FIU (0-3, 0-1) trimmed the margin to 14-7 when Cory McKinney caught a 28-yard pass from Josh Padrick with 5:01 left in the opening period.

But ASU came back with a 16-yard scoring run by Bracey with 4:19 left in the quarter. The Indians made it 28-7 when Smith grabbed a 9-yard scoring toss from Noce.

Josh Padrick's 1-yard run trimmed the margin to 28-14 early in the second period. But Smith's second touchdown made it 35-14. FIU finished first-half scoring with a 29-yard field goal by Adam Moss.

A 27-yard field goal by Eric Neihouse gave the Indians a 38-17 lead going into the final quarter.

The Indians then added 28 points, scoring on a 5-yard run by Chris Easley, Bracey's second touchdown run, McKinnon's interception return and a 21-yard run by Chris James.

FIU closed out the game with a 16-yard scoring pass to Sanchez Anderson from Tavar Kendrick.

The Mini

One of the highlights of the recent Nebraska trip was getting to see and drive the new Mini. We drove it around the Kearney's only traffic circle (round-a-bout) several times and then went to an empty parking lot to do the tightest doughnuts ever.



Here's a cool snap of Bill, Yuki and I on top of Horsetooth Rock in Fort Collins. The peak in the back is Long's Peak (elevation - 14,255)

Something for Robert

Here is a link to the official "Californians for Nebraska" website. Included on the site is a place to buy t-shirts.

http://www.cal4ne.com/cfnshop.html

Dad's Bacon Chili Cheeseburger

We ate at a bar called Brewskies. Dad wanted to experience a new culinary delight: the bacon chili cheeseburger.


Here dad piles on the chili

It looked good enough (for someone else) to eat!

The Husker Game

We all went to the Nebraska vs. Pittsburgh football game. It was fun and the Huskers won...barely.



Nearby, we noticed an attractive girl who appeared to be drinking a pepsi.

As it turned out it wasn't pepsi...she was using the bottle for chewing tobacco spit.

The Colorado Hike

Robert and I hiked up Horsetooth near Fort Collins Colorado. Yuki hiked along!



Yuki was a tired animal at the top of the mountain.

iPOD Nano Crash Test

Steph and I decided to order two iPOD nano's for our 2 year anniversary. I got black and Steph got white. While we wait for them to show up here's a neat site the conducted a test on what it took to destroy the nano.

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/

Heading to Colorado tomorrow to visit Bill. Should be fun. Will post snaps and details later.

Tiny train toils in tabletop

I saw a coffeetable containing a train for sale in a magazine ad, and decided to do my own.
The table is oak and the train is an n-guage Atlas 2-6-0 Mogul pulling four cars. There are also buildings, people, and cows.


Another recent activity: Memphis Mensa is running a bad fiction contest, in the tradition of the Bulwer-Lytton contest at San Jose State. This is a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels. Edward Bulwer-Lytton famously wrote the sentence beginning, "It was a dark and stormy night..." which has become his legacy. The Mensa contest asks for something along the same line, but with Memphis references. Here is my entry, or at least my first one:

It is January 8, just another bleak winter's day for most people, but for me the day that carries the heavy double shoulder-burden of Elvis' birth in 1935 and Dave Thomas' death sixty-seven years later; my battered Buick station wagon roars through the morning mist out of Bear Bryant's childhood homeland, crossing the black father-of-waters into the looming triangular grip of a strange Egyptian icon crawling up into the gray Tennesse sky like the dark fist in the opening scene of some grotesque Nazi propaganda movie.

The Cali Week-end...

will be somewhat dull after our visitor from Jersey last week-end. We concluded that trip with a trip to Coloma (where John Sutter discovered gold while working on his sawmill) and a trip to Apple Hill (loads of Apple Ranches where you can buy fruit and veggies...but mostly, as you might expect, apples.

Last week I went by a record store and snapped up a bunch of used CDs which were really cheap: Bruce Springsteen - The Rising, Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Madonna - Erotica.

This week-end we'll likely watch Michigan - Notre Dame and work around the house. Nothing too exciting really.

The Weekend!

I'm off call at work which is great because I've been paged a million times this past week. I'm going to Huskers v. Demon Deacons tomorrow. It's a night game and should be a blast! Hopefully the Huskers don't blow it. Considering Wake lost to Vandy last week the Huskers OUGHT to win. If not, we've got trouble in Huskerville.
I got the new Sarah Macglaclin (sp)remix disc and it's pretty good! Good Sarah tunes turned into techno/trance electronica. Nifty.

Things are PEACHY

I got my second box from Harry and David's "Fruit of the Month" club. A Labor Day treat fit for a king!


The box contained only the most select Oregold Peaches!

These things look great!


Yum!

It was a good peach. Next month...pears!

Boon Fly Cafe

We went to Napa today with our friend Kelly who is visiting from New Jersey. Napa is the land of the Boon Fly Cafe', a new restaurant that is part of the Carneros Inn. Didn't make it to the boon fly this time but word on the street is they have a good breakfast.

We went to several wineries on this trip. Started off at the traditional Sebastiani in Sonoma.



As usual, there was some good stuff to be had at Sebastiani. Then it was off to a tour of Frog's Leap in Rutherford/Napa. Frog's Leap is "by appointment" only and we had made one several months ago. Their tour was much better than there wine though it wasn't bad. The Zinfandel was the best (the Cabernet Sauvignon was sold out)



The next and final winery was Pine Ridge on the Silverado Trail. Pine Ridge is always a nice treat. It was release day for their 2002 Cabernet Franc and they were tasting a variety of French cheeses as well. We got to taste a 1985 Andrus Reserve Cabernet Saubignon which was cool.



All in all, a fun day. To top things off we got back in time to see 3 quarters of Georgia Tech's victory over Auburn!!!

Saturday

I'm at the local coffee shop Baristas and there is a picture of Yuki up here. They took it a few months ago and hung it up. Somehow, the place is supporting the new Humane Society that's coming here. Also new in Kearney, Cold Stone is about to open and Ruby Tuesday is being built not far from my house! Bring on the chain restaurants and 4 dollar ice cream! I met my friend Nicole here and we spoke Spanish for over an hour. Good practice. Practica buena!

Draft night / Labor Day / Jerry Lewis Telethon/ Harry Potter

Draft night was last night. All told, I don't think my team is so good but I guess you never know. There are 12 people in my league and I drew selection #10. Bah!


BN
D. McNabb
(Phi - QB)

D. Davis
(Hou - RB)

A. Boldin
(Ari - WR)

D. McAllister
(NO - RB)

D. Bennett
(Ten - WR)

L. Coles
(NYJ - WR)

R. McMichael
(Mia - TE)

W. Dunn
(Atl - RB)

B. Griese
(TB - QB)

T. Calico
(Ten - WR)

M. Faulk
(StL - RB)

D. Staley
(Pit - RB)

D. Northcutt
(Cle - WR)

D. Akers
(Phi - K)

Tampa Bay
(TB - DEF)

Labor day weekend should be nice. I'm on call so I'm not leaving town which will me lots of fun time with Yuki. I'm hoping to see some movies, catch up on some sleep, watch some US Open, and work on editing. Despite the family tradition, I do NOT plan to tune into the Jerry Lewis Telethon.

I got the new "Death Cab For Cutie" release. It's pretty good although I think it's the kind of disc you got to listen to a few times to get into more.

I've finishied Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince! I know who the Half-Blood Prince is. I know who dies in the end. I'm eagerly awaiting book 7 and to find out if there will be more after it. I've now started on Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Looks like it'll be pretty good and the Divinci Code was enjoyable and quick.