Going to da Playoffs--- Chargers 52 Donkies 21

Sweet. The Chargers rolled over the hapless Denver Broncos 52-21 and vindicated Ed Hochuli and his fast whistle. It was a happy day for all the fans in Chargerdom. Too bad Jay Cutler didn't think so. Losing so many games in the last seconds was nerve wrecking and painful. So...


New Charger Jersey... $38.00

Case of Michelob Ultra... $10.99

New Charger cap $5.00

Beating the Broncos 52-21 and sending Jay Culter home to cry for the winter.... Priceless.

Stomach Flu Strikes Our House

Well it was a "Green" day after Christmas for me... and I don't mean green like the environment. A green stomach woke me up in the middle of the night and in the words of an old British friend, Bill Mansell, I had a "technicolor yawn".

It made taking K back to the airport a little more interesting. Now daughter has it and BMO will get it soon I am sure. I'm not sure how to properly thank the little kid who gave this to me at work last week.

Christmas Eve

Ho-Ho-Ho. We started a new Christmas Eve tradition. K loaded the fountain with four pounds of Ghiradelli's Chocolate and we used fruit and marshmallows to dip into the cascading candy. Fruit is healthy... right? Talk about sugar overload.

Chargers and Donkies to Play for AFC West Title

After a mostly down season, the San Diego Chargers are rising to the occasion in December and can win a playoff spot and the AFC title with a win over Denver this Sunday Night. They lost close games due to poor coaching, defensive lapses, penalties and of course Ed Hochuli's blown call against the same Broncos early in the season.





So it comes down to "win and you're in" in the last game of the season.

It's OFFICIAL: Lions at 0-15 are Worst Ever.

WCF Sr. congratulates Coach Rod Marinelli on reaching 15 straight losses.

Well a season that began with such high hopes and enthusiasm was indeed record breaking- but in the wrong kind of way. The Detroit Lions- who haven't won a title since 1957- officially became the worst team of all-time in the NFL. They were slaughtered by the New Orleans Saints 42-7 in a game where the score was closer than the on-field play. Phrases like "totally out-played", out-coached and overwhelmed could describe the carnage at Ford Field in Detroit, MI this afternoon.

The Owner, William Clay Ford Sr. (WCF) , spoke before the game and said he was bringing back two of the "mastermind" geniuses of this season, Martin Mayhew (acting GM) and Tom Lewand (VP). Apparently, canning GM Matt Millen earlier in the year was all the firing the ever-loyal, little white yoda could stomach for one season. (anyone else remember Russ Thomas- now there was loyalty).

Below is my version of the "Twelve Step Program" for quitting the Lions (feel free to use any or all suggestions to successfully quit being a Lions fan):

__ Burn Lions jersey and bury ashes in backyard in an unmarked grave
__ Remove "www.detroitlions.com" from IE7 favorites
__ Cancel NFL Network
__ Drink heavily (a six pack is not enough)
__ Take up boxing- put WCF's face on the punching bag
__ Limit checking www.mlive.com to once daily then taper off (never read another Killer Kowalski article)
__ Have wife throw out the daily sports page before you read it
__ Mute SportsCenter whenever Chris Berman talks about Lions
__ Put Rod Marenelli's photo on a dart board
__ Watch playoffs- smile to self- knowing the Lions will never get there
__ Adopt a new NFL team and buy their team jersey
__ Actually enjoy watching the NFL draft this spring and laugh at all the Lions picks

Check it out

I added an "Adsense" link at the bottom of my narrow column on the bottom right. If it looks interesting click it and it wil send some spare change my way. Who would have thought that this blog could make money?

Five Things

Here's a quick look at five things:

1- How about Sports? The lions are trying to be the first team to get to 0-16, the Chargers are trying to stay alive and make the NFL playoffs, the Spartans are playing in a New Year's Day Bowl and BMO is in Las Vegas in a wrestling tourney.

2- How about the economy? The Big three automakers are looking shaky while the US government, who bailed out the banks from their own stupidity, is standing still and watching them go down, gasoline prices are at 2003 levels, stores are closing and people losing their homes.

3. How about my fantasy football team? The Poway Sluggers are palying for the championship this weekend after finishing 8-6 and getting the last playoff spot.

4. How about Microsoft Internet Explorer having a wide open hole to let hackers steal passwords? Thank goodness for Mozilla Firefox. I hate microsoft and all they stand for.

5. How about having your family home for the holidays? Great.

101 in 1001-- Item 37 Learn to cook 7 new dishes

Why I chose this: Variety. I am not a good cook, and the same, few meals that I do cook get pretty boring after awhile.

What I Did: I found seven recipes and got the stuff and cooked them up. I even made homemade sauerkraut! Overall it was a success- so mission accomplished.

101 in 1001-- Item #67 Find a hobby

Why I chose this: Having a hobby that you enjoy can make even the worst day rewarding. Raining outside? no problem...

What I Did: I sat down and tried a few things that are enjoyable and came to this conclusion. I've got several hobbies. I used to thing golf would be a hobby that I would learn to enjoy after retiring from the Navy. I would have more time to do it. Not. Golf, although fun, isn't something I want to do all the time. Here are five of my favorite hobbies:

1- writing.
2- wine making.
3- sports simulation games.
4- gardening.
5- reading.

All fairly sedentary. But all something that can fill rainy day.

Here are three activities I enjoy doing:

1- hiking.
2- biking.
3- golf.

101 in 1001 Items 78 (Message in a Bottle) and 92 (Time Capsule)

Why I Chose This: It's a long time idea to put a message in a bottle and toss it in the ocean. Also people hae been leaving items in time capsules for years (The Tombs of Egyptian Pharoahs)

What I Did: Because I couldn't see adding even more litter to the ocean I took a different approach. I sealed a message and some current news articles in a Miller Genuine Draft beer bottle, sealed it with cork and buried it in the back yard- nuder a grape vine. Who knows what the people who find that in ??? years will think.

101 in 1001-- Item # 26-- Do 250 mini courses

Why I Chose This: I enjoy learning about new things and find myself using google quite a bit. I also listen to lots of interesting podcasts: histrotical, how-to, sports, scientific, religious, etc. I figured I woud try to learn 250 new things...

What I Did: I purposefully looked up, listened to or read about 250 intersting subjects from the history of American Thanksgiving to how a light bulb works to how they landed on the moon. It was an interesting course of study I got to learn about things that interested me and once I figured that I had "had enough of this" I stopped and checked the box.

Go Navy Beat Army !

I'm a NaNoWriMo Winner for 2008

I just won my third National Novel Writing Month. This years novel, East Bend of the River. was completed two days early at 11:28 PST. Wahoo.

My Top 15 Podcasts

You can get interesting information and opinions through websites on the Internet. Thanks again Al Gore. In addition to websites and you-tube videos there is the radio version of the Internet called "Pod casts". They can be listened to from your desktop computer or downloaded to mp3 players like i-pods or Zunes. You can find interesting pod casts on the i-tunes site or another place called Podcast Alley. I'm a big listener to pod casts. Some come out daily, some weekly and others on very irregular schedules.

Here's my personal top fifteen in no particular order:

1- Skeptoid

2- The Enlightened Spartan

3- The Detroit Tigers Podcast

4- Through the Bible

5- 60 Second Science

6- Common Sense

7- Hardcore History

8- Bolt Talk

9- In the Word

10- Motivation to Move

11- Escape Pod

12- Backstory

13- One Minute How-to

14- Astronomy 161

15- Writing Excuses

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Happy 51st Anniversary mom and dad.

Wow... your marriage shows a level of love, honor and commitment that is unheard of in today's society; where five years together is considered by many a major achievment. You've been through the good times and the bad and your relationship has only grown stronger. Hope you have a great day!

We love you mom and dad!

Happy 20th Birthday Erin

Wasn't it only twenty years ago ??? Where does the time fly?

Wicked Clown Prison

Well, we all had fun- even the little kids.

Happy All Hallow's Even (Halloween)

From the Wikipedia:

"Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (Irish pronunciation: [ˈsˠaunʲ]; from the Old Irish samain).[1] The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes[2] regarded as the "Celtic New Year."[3] Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores.

The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.[4][5]

The term Halloween is shortened from All Hallows' Even (both "even" and "eve" are abbreviations of "evening," but "Halloween" gets its "n" from "even") as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day,"[6] which is now also known as All Saints' Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions,[7] until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1.

In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.

Halloween today: It is often celebrated in the morning and afternoon as well. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o'-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is celebrated in several countries of the Western world, most commonly in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, and at times in parts of New Zealand. In Sweden, the All Saints' official holiday takes place on the first Saturday of November. "

A Big Week

What can I say it will be pretty big around here for the rest of this week and the next. Monday thru Thursday its been teeth, teeth and pulling teeth. Tomorrow it's Halloween and BMO and I have planned some great fun for the trick or treaters. We'll be taking some photos and putting them up here.

Then it's November 1 and National Novel Writing Month. November 3rd is Erin's birthday, Nov 4 is election day and then it's more work and an all day CE course on Saturday. Whew... I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Mich St 35 U-M 21

Victory is Sweet

NASH's Disease

I ran into someone who has Nash's Disease... huh? I had never heard of that before. It's also called "non-alcoholic fatty liver disease". What is it? I looked it up in Wikipedia. (I've paraphrased some of the info and included it below):



"NASH (Non-Alcoholic Steato Hepatitis) Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is fatty inflammation of the liver when this is not due to excessive alcohol use. It is related to insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome, and may respond to treatments originally developed for other insulin resistant states (e.g. diabetes mellitus type 2), such as weight loss, metformin and thiazolidinediones. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the most extreme form of NAFLD, which is regarded as a major cause of cirrhosis of the liver of unknown cause.

Treatment:

Trials to optimise treatment of NASH are being conducted (2007), and no treatment has yet emerged as the "gold standard". General recommendations include improving metabolic risk factors and reducing alcohol intake.

Treatment of nutrition and excessive body weight. Diet changes have shown significant histological improvement. Gradual weight loss may improve the process in obese patients; rapid loss may worsen NAFLD. Weight-loss surgery leads to improvement and or resolution of NASH in around 80 % of patients.

Insulin sensitisers (metformin and thiazolidinediones) have shown efficacy in some studies.
Antioxidants and ursodeoxycholic acid, as well as lipid-lowering drugs, have little benefit.

In a study it has been shown that mild alcohol consumption (one glass of wine a day) reduces the risk of NAFLD by half."

Bottom line is more liver transplants in the future.

A surgeon friend of mine said that childhood and adult obesity is a cause of not only NASH but type II diabetes. Sedentary lifestyles, overeating, sugar laced and non-nutritious fatty foods are contributors.

Why is this important? Well today's children are at high risk to type II diabetes and now NASH Disease in their adult futures. How many other health problems will today's sedentary lifestyle be in our kids future? Just something to make you think about whether we are making things better or worse for generations to come with our advanced technological breakthroughs.

Warning Santa Ana Conditions

The winds are coming from the Northeast... dry and hot. It's got all the ingredients for a bad day. Fire crews have already put out one brush fire near Grossmont College.

It's that time of year and this hot, dry desert air is the same as it was last year.

Stay tuned.

It's odd that whenever the wind blows out of the North East it brings bad weather... out west and also in the New England states... the hated nor'easter.

BMO homcoming

BMO's homecoming game at RBHS was on Friday nite (they won) and the dance was on Saturday night.

Here's the legend to the photos:

1- Here is the man before the dance.

2- From the summer in Arkansas with Conner.

3- Trying hard to look coooool.

4- New art work at the Louvre in Paris, France... hahaha.

5- BMO at UCLA with Erin and the bronzed bruin bear.

Sunday @ UCLA

BMO and I went up to Los Angeles, to visit Erin and see her presentation ceremony in the sorority. It was a fun time and we only wish K could have been there. It was a warm, sunny afternoon and we walked around campus afterwards.

Here's the legend to the pictures:

1- Standing in front of the library.

2- Sneaking a peak inside Pauly Pavilion.

3- Erin's sorority sisters at the columns of Royce Hall.

4- BMO and Erin.

5- Erin on the painted drive way.

6- Allie and Erin (presentation).

101 in 1001-- Item # 69-- Fix the Wobbly Banister

Why I Chose This Goal: Since we moved in the banister post has been a little wobbly. It hasn't gotten any worse, but it never got any better. So just like George Bailey's banister in "It's A Wonderful Life" it just sort of nagged at me to fix it.

What I Did: I drilled one hole on each side of the post and anchored a long 3" wood screw into the sub floor and tada... a nice tight banister. Now I am off to the home depot to get some wood filler and stain to complete the task. Everyone was happy when I completed this one.

P.S. BMO put it through the paces and proclaimed "It's a lot sturdier than before". There you go-success!

A billion here and a billion there.

My dad sent me this Internet tidbit:

How big is a billion? it's a one with nine zeros behind it.

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of it's releases.

So... just how big is a billion?

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1976 (by my own calculations of 60sec x 60min x 24hours x 365.25days x 32 years = 1,009,843,200 seconds)
B. A billion minutes ago it was 1308 AD and King Edward II ruled England.
C. A billion hours ago was the year 12,252 BC.
D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
---------------------

I am going to take it on faith that D and E are correct.

Sunday Songs

My top ten for Sunday morning praise songs...

1- How Great Thou Art
2- Jesus Loves Me
3- When the Roll is Called Up Yonder
4- Standing on the Promises
5- Shall We Gather at the River
6- Are You Washed in the Blood
7- I Saw the Light
8- Love Lifted Me
9- In the Sweet By and By
10- Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
Bonus.... Ave Maria

Tomorrow I'm off early to Los Angeles and since I will miss
Sunday services I'll have these on my i-pod for th six hours of travel time.

The Curse... It's over

On October 6th, 2008 the Curse of Bobby Layne on the Detroit Lions finally ended.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081002/OPINION03/810020385

Today the Lions traded WR Roy Williams and actually got the best of the deal.

Perhaps the Detroit Lions will reverse fifty years of pathetic football now.

A (Mostly) Good Day for Football

Who can tell me what makes an MSU Spartan football win even sweeter? A U-M loss!

The stars were lined up for the true Spartan fan like me. First U-M takes it on the chin from an unheralded MAC school, Toledo, 17-10... missing a field goal that would have tied the game in the last seconds.

Then I got to watch (on ESPN2) the Spartans take apart an undefeated Northwestern team 37-20.

Tonight Gary and I went to the San Diego State game versus Air Force. The Aztecs held a 10-7 lead at the half. Things looked good--- but Air Force must have fixed their problems with the wishbone option they were using and figured out how to stop SDSUs passing attack during the halftime intermission. Th game completely reversed in the second half and the Air Force Academy shut out the Aztecs the rest of the way to win going away 35-10.

The only saving grace for the evening was the KGB radio stations 33rd annual fireworks sky show. This year they honored San Diego's military (it was the Fleet week game), firefighters, paramedics and policemen who saved the city from last fall's wildfires. To say it was spectacular wold be an understatement. To say it was the best fireworks show of my life would be the truth. They even shot a man out of a cannon. Doug "The Human Bullet" Smith rocketed 75 feet into the air from a huge cannon into a net suspended at the fifty yard line to open the sky show.

Seven Questions... but no answers

Is it the Economy Stupid or is it the Stupid Economy?

Just what is going on with the Wall Street and World Stock markets?

Is it all those day traders pulling their money out?

All the Retirees pulling their retirement money out of mutual funds?

Or is it a major correction to our "buy it on credit" economic mindset?

Are those buying on credit "chickens coming home to roost"?

How low can the Dow Jones Industrials really go?

101 in 1001-- Item 81-- Wear All My Everyday Clothes in Next 6 Months

Why I Chose This Goal: People have closets full of clothing that they don't wear. They are too big, too small, out of style.... for whatever reason they don't get worn. I sorted through my wardrobe and weeded out clothing that I just wasn't wearing for whatever reason. The Salvation Army and St. Michael's benefited from this early May spring cleaning.

What I Did: I turned all my hangers around and as I wore the clothing I turned them back to normal. Today I wore a long sleeved shirt (the hardest ones for me to wear up to this point. It was the last article of clothing facing the wrong way.

101 in 1001-- Item 47-- See a football game at the Q

Why Chose This Goal: I wanted to have something fun to do with the family... especially Gary and Brandon in the fall.

What I Did: I bought season tickets to the San Diego State University Aztecs Football games. They play all their home games at Qualcomm Stadium. Karen and I were there on Sept 27 when they beat Idaho 45-17. Next game is Saturday Oct 11 versus the Air Force Academy. Gary and I are going.

Five Hours in Rome... a Dozen Pics

In transit from Naples to Rome via train to the airport. I checked my bag at the train station and in what was a cool day was able to spend five hours walking around old Rome. What a blast. Armed with my "Rick Steves Rome" tour book, I navigated my way to several churches, the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona and then back to the train station and on to Leonardo da Vinci Airport.

Here's what i saw:

1- Me on the Piazza Republica square and fountain.
2- Outside Diocletian's Bath- now a church.
3- Altar at Santa Maria della Vittoria.
4- The statue: "The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa"
5- Dome of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.
6- The Trevi Fountain (of three coins in a fountain fame).
7- The Basilica of Santa Maria de Sopra Minerva
8- A street side fruit market that sold very good (and ripe) fruit and cold soda.
9- Roman Centurions outside the Pantheon.
10- The Pantheon and obelisk
11- Closeup of a spitting statue
12- A lesser fountain at the Piazza Navona. The Four Rivers fountain was covered and under renovation. That makes three times I've been to Roma and been shutout of seeing it! Guess I'll need to go back.