59- Now I'ts Just Willie

In the 1950s the New York baseball word always talked about Willie, Mickey and the Duke, referring to the three great center fielders of the New York teams. Willie Mays (Giants), Mickey Mantle (Yankees) and Duke Snider (Dodgers). Well the trio is down to just one with the death of Duke Snider.

The Duke joined Mickey Mantle in that great ballpark in the sky. Mantle passed away fifteen years ago (August 13, 1995). Snider was born September 19, 1926 in Los Angeles, CA with the given name Edwin Donald Snider. He had a career .295 batting average with 407 homers and 1,333 RBIs. He was elected to Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980. He was 85.

Willie Mays, the last of the three great center fielders, is 79 years old and has elected to the Hall in 1979. He is the godfather of the steroid tainted Giants slugger and MLB home run leader Barry Bonds.

The three were immortalized in Terry Cashman's 1981 baseball ballad "(Talkin' Baseball) Willie, Mickey and the Duke".

58- Graupel

We have sunny Sunday skies right now. But it wasn't like that last night. High winds with cold, driving rains roared through San Diego all night long. In total we had hail, graupel and an inch of rain. The weatherman said Graupel... but what's graupel???

From the Wikipedia:

Graupel (also called soft hail or snow pellets; METAR code: GS)^[1] refers to precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake, forming a 2–5 mm ball of rime; the snowflake acts as a nucleus of condensation in this process. The term graupel is the German word for this meteorological phenomenon.^[2] Graupel is sometimes referred to as small hail, although the World Meteorological Organization defines small hail as snow pellets encapsulated by ice, a precipitation halfway between graupel and hail.^[3

57- Aztecs B-Ball Falls to BYU

They had risen to #4 in the NCAA men's basketball polls but they couldn't handle rival Brigham Young (again) and got beats 80-67. SDSU's season record tied them with BYU. Both schools have identical 27-2 records. Both of the Aztec losses were to the Cougars.

This has been a good season for Aztec sports. They did well in football... winning their Bowl game over the Naval Academy and are most certainly going to the NCAA March Madness Tournament barring a total collapse.

Flash: Statistics

I just followed a tab on my page called stats... seems I've had over 1,000 views this month. Hmmmm. Well isn't that something? I only thought there were a few of you out there. I sort of figure that many of those views have been me... when I check to see what post # to put on the blog title. But maybe not.

How about posting something in the comment section. I mean not spam... several of those show up every day or so... but maybe a meaningful comment.

HOW ABOUT THIS: just answer the question What's the weather like where you're at right now. Just post something like... "I'm in Brussells, Belgium and it's 10 Celsius and sunny."

C'mon... you can even do it anonymously... go ahead and click comment!

56- My Top Five...

Classical Songs (according to i-tunes)

1- Lohengrin Act III

2- Fanfare for the Common Man

3- Lestoreadors (from Carmen)

4- King Cotton

5- Pachebel: Canon in D

55- People at Work

You know sometimes you don't fully appreciate the people you work with. I work in two different offices and I continue to be amazed by the skill and professionalism of my co-workers. So often you see poor customer service or bad attitudes when you are out eating dinner, shopping or even driving on the highway (especially during rush hour).

Too often at work you look for the areas to correct someone's behavior or attitude instead of praising it. Tony Robbins said that people do things for one of two reasons to gain pleasure or avoid pain. He noted that studies showed that avoiding pain was a bigger driving force than obtaining pleasure. While I was in the military, the only thing that ever got noticed was when it was being done wrong. It was expected to always be correct- and when it wasn't there was plenty of yelling or cursing until it got done correctly... clearly that was an example of avoiding pain.

I find that praising good behavior, work ethics or good outcomes goes much further than the yelling and screaming method... at least for me when I am working with adults. I believe in that adage: It is easier to catch flies with honey rather than vinegar.

Suffice it to say that I had a good week in the office. Thanks in no small part to our patients and great staff who makes all of it possible.

54- Exercise Continues

We were able to get in a bowflex workout yesterday when G came come from work. It was only 15 minutes and we raced through our circuit training. I told him that I was surprised that we have kept at it for so long. Ever since the New Year began we have been (trying to) working out every other day.

I've lost 10 pounds so far... but I've been in a stall for nearly a week. Maybe a little push this weekend will change that.

53- Friend Arrives

BMOs best friend arrived in town yesterday. His sister just had a baby girl and he came to visit. They were inseparable and like brothers during elementary school and middle school until he moved away to Arkansas. They visit each other yearly.

It's good to see him even if it's only for a few days.

52- Lobster Dinner

Well I guess I am pretty proud of myself so I'll post tomorrow's blog today. I splurged on tonight's dinner. Sprouts had a sale on 5 ounce lobster tails for 4.99 each so I figured what the heck? I bought three of them and cooked them in our "set-it-and-forget-it" Ronco Rotisserie Oven. I sauteed up some yellow squash., zucchini, mushrooms and red peppers then cooked some mac-n-cheese to top off the meal. I almost wish I'd taken a picture!

51- CIF Champs

Wrestling Captain BMO and his team won their division title at the wrestling tournament... they are the best team in the area. He took a fifth place and won a medal.

50- Countdown Continues

The Mayan countdown calendar continues with just 670 days left on their thousands year old timepiece. I'll keep posting periodic updates. Now, most people don't believe don't believe that the world will end on December 21, 2012... but what if it did?

What would you do differently if you absolutely knew and were certain that the world would be ending then? Just one of those situational questions that should stop and make you think..." I've always wanted to do x--- what am I waiting for"?

49- Early to Rise

I was up early this morning. The furnace came on and woke me up at 515 am. I popped out of bed. I guess six hours of sleep was enough. I stayed up and watched "The Pit and the Pendulum" starring Vincent Price. Got out to the store, gassed up the Jeep, shopped for groceries, cleaned the garage and felt an earthquake a few seconds ago.

\\\ later \\\

It was a 5.1 down in Guadalupe Victoria... the same place that the big Easter Sunday earthquake took place last year. IT is about 150 miles from here.

48- Baseball is Numbers

They say that to baseball players numbers are everything. In the movie "For Love of the Game" Kevin Costner's character says, "we keep track of everything." And they do.

These numbers I know:

714 Career homers by Babe Ruth

60 Homers by Babe Ruth in 1927

.367 Ty Cobb's career batting average

61 Homers by Roger Maris in 1961

31 Wins by Denny McLain in 1968

29 Mickey Lolich's uniform number

.406 Ted Williams batting average in 1941

511 Career wins by Cy Young

1976 The year they celebrated baseball's centennial

1984 the last year the Tigers won the World Series

11 Bill Freehan's uniform number

.297 Al Kaline's career average

399 Al Kaline career homers

58 Homers by Hank Grenberg in 1938

.361 Norm Cash's batting average in 1961

47- Rain ?

Well I'll start out by saying that water did fall from the sky. I grew up in the Midwest and when we said we were going to get some rain... it meant big rain, big drops and wet streets. Since we moved to California it has taken on a different meaning. Out here you plan on rain and get advised on the news that "rain is coming". When it does fall- and it usually isn't much-drivers get crazy and traffic slows to a crawl. There are accidents galore.

Many call in to work sick and nearly everyone is late due to "all the rain and traffic". Most times less than 1/4" falls all day long. Yes- it's called drizzle or mist out East.

46- Waiting for the Rain

Yes. We watched the clouds roll in and out the entire day. The crazy Weather guy (Coleman) on KUSI was dancing like crazy predicting the rain. It is now supposed to arrive late tonight. It is supposed to last until Friday morning and then start again on Saturday. The big question is will it really rain at all?

The easiest job in the world is to be a weathercaster in San Diego. All summer long you can say "Fog in the morning, burning off by noon. Sunny at the beaches with a high of 80 degrees." In the winter it isn't too much harder to be right... until they start predicting stuff like rain or frost.

So stay tuned to see if rain is the correct call.

45- Trash Day

I trimmed some bushes last week and we put out two cans full of leaves and branches. We tossed out some old stuff from the garage and my work bench. Some old seeds, bulbs and garden stuff that got too old. Plenty of old boxes and old magazines got the heave ho as well. All in all it was a good clean out and the trash man had lots to haul away.

44- Sunday Morning Walk

I've been able to avoid getting sick so far this weekend. I went for a walk with the dog today. I wore shorts and even though bit was a little chilly it wasn't too bad. I came home and made a bacon and scrambled eggs breakfast, washed the dishes, mopped the kitchen floor, did a blog post and an getting ready to watch the Red Wings play the Bruins on TV.

I took my vitamins and Emergen C and am hoping that staying away from Gary will keep me healthy.

43- Flu Hits Our House

Number one son is wrapped up in his blankets and shivering it out with the flu. He felt it coming on last night and we got some Emergen C into him and made some of grandma's chicken soup today. We're hoping the secret recipe gets him up and around by tomorrow. BMO and I are hoping we don't get it!

Side note: one of our neighbor's came over and wanted to see the bathroom. They're remodeling theirs this summer and wanted to check out the job our guy did.

42- -Supplements

I've talked to colleagues: doctors, nurses, nutritionists and trainers. I've settled on the following supplements that I take daily.

1- Multi vitamin tablet

2- Vitamin D capsule

3- Flaxseed oil capsule

4- 81 mg aspirin tablet

5- thistle tablet for liver health
6- B Complex

I also supplement this with about 15 minutes in the sun, one serving of fruit, one serving of vegetable and 64 ounces of water.

41- Senior Night

Big night for BMO. It was senior night for the wrestling team. Although he has a hurt shoulder and was sitting out the match, he led the team's seniors out for introductions. Because K is deployed to Germany/Afghanistan, I was the only one who could attend and walked out with him to the center of the ring while they announced his accomplishments. It was a pretty nice moment for his senior year.

The team was wrestling Poway High... the eternal CIF champions of wrestling. It wasn't going well for RBHS the score 47-7 when I left.

40- Old Times- Navy Times

Sometimes they don't go together so well. But this time they did.

I came across a photo album from 1998. It was a mini scrapbook put together by one of my dental assistants when I was in the Navy. Oh did it bring back memories. It had photos of a Padres baseball game, everyday life at the clinic, a farewell luncheon... lots of old faces (that are even older today!) and good memories.

39-Shower finally completed

We started our bathroom remodel just before Halloween and for the most part it was done on time. All except for one thing... a towel rack. Well it really wasn't a rack but a towel peg that attached to the glass door. Through lots of holiday activity and a needed re-ordering of parts , it finally arrived last week and was installed yesterday. Does it really make a difference? Yes.

It's a nice place to hang the towel and it's easy to access right from the shower. It's not a place to hang your towel to dry... but it there for when you're dripping wet and need to dry off.

This a pretty mundane blog post... but it gets a little tough to write about the rather boring stuff called my life. Mayb e something interesting will happen to me tomorrow? who knows?

38- Packers Top Steelers

I've never been a Steelers fan... never.

It was with great satisfaction that I cheered on the Packers on Sunday afternoon at Callahan's Pub. It was a fun time. The crowd wasn't too big - but it as chocked full of Pittsburgh boosters. I was there withe my football buddy Dwight. The same guy who has season tickets to the Aztecs.

Good micro brewed beer with hot wings and pizza topped off a 31-25 Packers win. It felt good to back the winning team. My family has roots deep in Ashland, Wisconsin and the Packers are their home team.

(and BTW the halftime show sucked)

37- My Ipod Top Ten

I'll start by saying that when I take my daily walk I listen to podcasts. But I always put 3-4 songs in there to spice it up and break up the podcasts. So they get played daily! With that here are my top ten directly taken from my Ipods "most played" playlist:

1- The Wreck of the Old 97 by Mac Wiseman

2- Ave Maria by Sister Act

3- Only Fools Rush In by UB40

4- If You Want to be Happy by The Hit Crew

5- Applejack by Dolly Parton

6- Cotton Eyed Joe by Ultimate BG

7- High Hopes By Frank Sinatra

8- Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Izzy

9- Mona Lisa by Nat King Cole

10- Leaning on the Everlasting Arms by Valley Peace

36- Today

Well it's a warm and sunny day here in San Diego. I've been re-reading the second draft of my novel "East Bend of the River". I'm trying to catch the the little errors and incongruities on the story line. A car the third chapter changed color and model in the twenty fifth chapter. Those kind of things you only catch in the second draft. Turns out the story is pretty tight, interesting and all-in-all not that bad.

35-Egypt: What do you Want?

I'm not going to get too philosophical but just wanted to ask the question...Just what are the people in Egypt protesting?

Do they not like the fact they have a dictator for President?

Do they want democracy?

Do they want more Western style freedom?

Do they want an Iranian style government run by mullahs?

Do they want a Taliban style government?

Does anyone know what they are protesting and why? Maybe I'm too clueless to understand their reasons or motives... please fill me in!

34- What is it with Groundhog Day?

I've never really understood it. I always thought it just one more reason to have a party in the middle of winter. It always sort of puzzled me that if it's cloudy that means winter is nearly over??? The movie Groundhog Day on the other hand is very funny.

from Wikipedia:

Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2nd in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter-like weather will soon end. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks.^[1]

An early American reference to Groundhog Day can be found in a diary entry,^[8] dated February 5, 1841, of Berks County, Pennsylvania, storekeeper James Morris:

Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans,^[9] the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.

33- Slideshow Expressions

This program I'll give a five star rating. I mentioned it before in an earlier post but it is fun and easy to use and turns out a great result. I'm going to put together a few more photo albums over the next few days. It has been something I've been wanting to do for years now.

32- Here Comes February

It was a tough day for me yesterday. I stayed up too late in Monday night and I needed extra sleep yesterday evening. No coffee was the big problem at work. That and screaming kids... they were crying all over the place.

The most interesting thing (and sad as well) was a little four year old girl. She was crying and whining and didn't want to sit down. I left the room and was going to reschedule her for her last 2 fillings with laughing gas.

Then a funny thing happened my assistant told me we were ready to go. Seems the mom BRIBED her kid with a $20 bill. How a kid who's four years old could put on a show from the time they left their house until getting the $20 jackpot befuddles me. This kid has mom wrapped around her little finger. What will she be like when she's 16 instead of 4???