Tracking the Tour

TagFest: Tour

Today is the next-to-last stage in the second annual Tour of California. Last year they went right through my town and I didn't even know it! I was disappointed.

This year they again started in San Francisco and again American Levi Leipheimer won the Prologue. He's still in the Yellow Jersey (of tour leader) after winning the individual time trial in Solvang yesterday. Today they're down in Santa Barbara cycling through the hills and canyons. I'm listening to and watching the coverage online. The map shows a satellite image of the course and you can even track certain riders (little colored jerseys) on the map and on the course profile. It's awesome technology even if the audio does keep cutting out.

Right now there's a nine-man breakaway (the red car) ahead of the peloton (the blue car) by 3 minutes. Levi's yellow jersey is in danger so the Discovery team is working hard at the front of the peloton. They have to bring the breakaway back or (my favorite) Stuart O'Grady might be in yellow tonight. I'll update later.

ETA: The long run-in to the finish allowed the peloton to catch up and Levi and the rest of the Discovery boys finished with the pack. Stuey's teammate won the stage so his team, CSC, got some victory out of the day even though he didn't don the yellow. Tomorrow is a flat stage to the finish in Long Beach. We'll see if a breakaway can stay away and break Levi's heart.

BART Book: The Last Kingdom

TagFest: Books

The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell, 2005
first in the Saxon series
Bernard's site

When Uhtred was ten (in 866 AD), the Danes came to Northumbria to stay. His father, a local lord, and brother were killed and he was captured in a battle at York by a Danish chieftain, Ragnar the Fearless. He found his adopted life with the hard-working, fun-loving, priest-free pagan warriors freeing and fitting for his boyish sensibilities, and soon became more a Dane than an Englishman.

But he always held dear his secret dream of re-taking his homeland and becoming lord of Bebbanburg. It was going to be a long road getting back there. After a tragedy left him homeless, he eventually left the Danes and came to the attention of Alfred, king of the West Saxons (or Wessex), the last English kingdom left free of Danish rule. Alfred, pious and sickly, seemed a far cry from Uhtred's previous rulers with the Danes but the Saxon king was tricky and smart, thinking ahead to when he might need a loyal lord in the North. Uhtred found himself an Englishman once again, but far from home.

The great thing about this book is that there are two others that follow and more in the works. I loved the story-telling device of Uhtred reflecting back on his life from the perspective of an old man—foreshadowing things to come but not giving too much away.

There are many, many characters in the book but most are rich and colorful and therefore memorable. At times I wished for a Cast of Characters. The list of placenames (combined with a map!) that Cornwell does provide is very helpful as he uses unfamiliar contemporary names for most towns and places in the story.

If you enjoy historical fiction, you will love this book and I highly recommend it. Cornwell is the author of the Napoleonic-era Sharpe books, some of which were televised starring Sean Bean. You may be familiar with those. I'm thinking about checking them out when I'm done with some of his other books. He's written a lot!

Favorite part: One thing I like about historical fiction is that the author can present a section of history differently than how we learn about it in school. There are more grey areas to be explored. The good guys (Alfred and the English) are not always that good and the bad guys (the Viking Danes) not always that bad. Cornwell succeeds in teaching us that the Danes are just people and by following Uhtred's journey we can feel a part of those people and their culture.

Least favorite part: The tragedy which caused Uhtred to have to leave the Danes. It was just very sad.

Next BART Book: Cursor's Fury, Jim Butcher

Previous BART Book: Break No Bones, Kathy Reichs

Books on the Shelf:
none
Books on Hold:
Lords of the North, Bernard Cornwell
The Pale Horseman, Bernard Cornwell
Wolf Brother, Michelle Paver

Welcome to the Family

Congratulations to JJZZ on the arrival of their new addition: a baby girl!

I know you've been waiting sooo long so it must feel so very very good to finally hold her in your arms. She looks adorable. I love her eyes and the little tuft of hair on her head. I can't wait to see her in person.

Note to Self: Take a Book

TagFest: BART

The BART lines split just south of the station I go to every workday. One line comes my way and I actually live closer to a station on that line but I like not having to wait so long for a train (since twice as many trains flow through my station) so I drive the three miles over the hill.

After 7 or so in the evening, one of the lines stops running and the trains are spaced further apart (up to 20 minutes) so if I'm at work late I only have half the trains as usual and often have to wait longer for them. If I were smart, I'd check the schedule before leaving work.

Tonight I didn't check but it turns out I would've just caught a train had I not been stopped short just as I went through the fare gates. My friend Corrina was heading home from work in the Mission and we just happened to accidentally coordinate our schedules. We chatted for a couple minutes and when I got down to the platform the signs said I had 18 minutes to wait for my train. Ugh. I hate when that happens. At least I had a book.

The Lonely Load

TagFest: At Home

I can imagine you at one time or another have purchased hot dogs and hot dog buns and encountered the traditional mismatch of quantities in each package: 8 dogs, 6 buns. Oh, those two poor dogs, left without buns.

I run into this same conundrum whenever I do laundry. There are two washers and three dryers in my apartment complex's utility room. Now I could understand there being only two dryers. You'd have to wait for each set of two loads to dry before drying the next set—a nice 1:1 ratio.

But why—if you're going to have more dryers than washers—would you get three? Wouldn't it make much more sense to get four? Drying almost always takes twice as long as washing. Why does the fourth load have to sit around getting ever more lonely and wrinkled by the minute?

Shaking in Our Shoes

TagFest: Quakes

I guess I should be happy that I only have four posts tagged in this category. I haven't posted about an earthquake since August which does make me a bit nervous though. It might mean that we're about due for some seismic activity. I'm sure I'll be letting you know if I feel one.

It was pretty funny that two of the four posts are titled the same way: Not the Big One. Can you say sword of Damocles?

Trip Photos Revisited

TagFest: Photos

As I was going through the posts tagged with "photos" I realized that I really didn't post many pics here on Breeze By of my trip to the UK. Here, in honor of TagFest, are few favorites. Click on the pic for a larger size.


I saw this our first day as we were walking from the York train station to our guesthouse. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep or the excitement of finally getting to our first destination but this sign just struck me as about the funniest thing I'd ever seen.


One of the unique experiences we enjoyed was walking on the city walls in both York and Chester. Here I'm following Sal on our guided tour of York. I like this photo because it makes me feel like I'm in motion.


Clifford's Tower is the last remaining structure of the Norman castle in York. I love how the clouds and the hill seem to be radiating out from the center, like a starburst.


As you can see I just barely captured this shot of the welcome sign but it does prove we did indeed go into Scotland. Since we had wheels for the wedding and the days in the Lakes, Sal had the super idea of visiting Hadrian's Wall. It wasn't that much further than what we had originally planned and it gave birth to another super idea of driving all the way up to Gretna Green. That day when we drove from Rawenstall to Gretna to Hadrian's Wall to Keswick was one of my favorite days. We might've gotten lost in Carlisle but even that couldn't diminish the experience.



Sheep were everywhere, of course. The top one is at Housesteads Roman Fort which was built right on Hadrian's Wall and the other is at Castlerigg stone circle in Keswick. I expected that the sheep would be all white and fluffy but many were decorated with bright slashes of color. It wasn't until we got to Keswick that we discovered (by asking at the Tourist Information Centre) that the markings were for distinguishing ownership.


I don't think any of the photos I took of the lakes in the Lake District is not absolutely beautiful. It doesn't speak to my skill as a photographer; the scenery just that gorgeous.


Another sign that caught my fancy and provides excellent advice. This one is found on the side of an inn in Chester.


Before the trip I thought a henge was a circle of stones. I learned while at Avebury that a henge is usually made up of a dirt embankment, a ditch and perhaps a stone circle. This photo shows the dramatic henge in all its three-part glory.


You all know what Stonehenge looks like so I won't bore you with my own photo of it. Here Sal is listening to the oft entertaining audio commentary. I snapped this pic without her knowledge and if it embarrasses you, Sal, I'm not sorry.


I took this shot at the Roman Baths in Bath then realized it was blurry so I took another. As I was flipping through the day's photos that night, culling the worst shots to make room on the card, I accidentally deleted the good one. Or did I? You make the call.


I've said many times that Salisbury Cathedral was my favorite. This reflecting font was one of the many reasons.


My plan was to ride the London Eye near the end of our time there, after I had become more familiar with the layout of the city. It was a good plan. The Eye gets a lot of hype. Believe it. I loved it thoroughly.


I'd read about the Tower of London's St. John's chapel in a guidebook. It's one of the best examples of Norman architecture left in Britain. Isn't it beautiful? I lucked into a personal tour of the chapel since I was the only one who showed up. My guide even took me into the cordoned-off area and I got to see some really old graffiti. Sorry I didn't take a photo of it and I can't remember what it said.


It was our next to last day and I realized I'd taken no photos of the Underground. I surreptitiously snapped this one while we were riding back to our hotel after one of the many evensong services we attended. I like it because it makes me feel like I'm there, jerking side to side along with all the other anonymous passengers.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you enjoyed those photos and haven't yet taken the time to peruse the others, you're invited to do so at my photos website.

A Pack of Pucks

TagFest: Hockey

The trade deadline is coming up on Feb. 27 and already things have been heating up. Yesterday the Western Conference-leading Nashville Predators (it still feels weird saying that) acquired the right-foot-ailing Peter Forsberg from the Eastern Conference bottom dwelling Philadelphia Flyers. His contract is up and the Flyers need bodies so they had to move him. We'll see how much he actually contributes to the Preds' cup run.

Both my teams are well-situated for the home stretch. New Jersey is second in the East and leads the Atlantic by 5 points over a hot Pittsburgh squad who beat them tonight. The Pens have gotten at least one point in each of their last 15 games. Now that's impressive.

The Sharks are in 5th place in the West and are still chasing Anaheim for tops in the Pacific Division, only 3 points out now. However, they're only 6 points ahead of the 8th place team so they can't slow down. Losing tonight to Columbus (14th in the conference) is simply not acceptable. I'm wondering if they'll make any moves before the deadline. They need to score some goals (two consecutive shut-outs!) and having Marleau out with an injury is not helping things.

Loving Words

TagFest: Words

When I discovered the Dictionary program on my computer, I started looking up interesting words I happened upon while reading. Some were words I didn't know; some were ones I was just curious to see how they were defined. Here are some of my favorites:

assiduity: constant or close attention to what one is doing

bugbear: a cause of obsessive fear, irritation, or loathing

effusion: an instance of giving off something such as a liquid, light, or smell (medicine: an escape of fluid into a body cavity)

effulgent: shining brightly; radiant; (of a person or their expression) emanating joy or goodness

encomium: a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly

shambolic: chaotic, disorganized, or mismanaged

and of course

rant: to speak or shout at length in a wild, impassioned way

TV Times Three

Tagfest: TV

February means good TV. Three of my favorite reality shows have started up again: Survivor, American Idol and, beginning again on Sunday with an All-Star edition, The Amazing Race.

We're only a couple episodes into the new Survivor: Fiji and I don't have any clear favorites yet. Maybe Lisi. Her laugh cracks me up. I like the severe inequity of the haves and have-nots when it comes to resources. Can Ragu Ravu pull through with such limits? Did you see them sucking on leaves to get water? I can't imagine they will last very long. At least they have the resourceful and sneaky Yau-man.

Idol has passed through the most painful time for me (all the really bad singers) and should be getting good next week with the start of the studio show which showcases the last 12 guys and last 12 girls on consecutive nights. I definitely have a clear favorite in the guys group (Vote for Chris!) but I'm having trouble mustering any interest in the girls. Where is this season's Katherine McPhee?

The Amazing Race is one of the best shows ever. I'm hoping the all-star edition will be just as fun. The big name couple of Boston Rob and Amber are back as well as the evil Joe and Bill from the first season. Those two teams must be the most conniving ever seen on this show. I'm not sure how I feel about having one of the winning teams back. They've already won the million bucks. Shouldn't another team get a chance?

Am I a Geek?

TagFest: Tech

This tag category is kind of my catch-all for various topics, mostly internet-related. Here are some highlights:
Pandora Rocks: where I start up my own radio station, WKBJ
Say What?: where I get all excited about my brand-new Mac Mini
When Your DVR Lies to You: where I attempt to watch what I want when I want
Gmail Chat Away: where I persuade a recalcitrant friend to try a chat program
Going Off the Map: where we peruse cool places on earth from satellites
Gmail-Jackin': where I started getting some dude's Amazon emails
To see other tech posts, click on the word "tech" in the Tags section in the sidebar on the right.

I'm really enjoying the new Blogger. It takes a blink to publish a post when before I'd be sitting around for a few seconds. Of course, you know I'm loving the tags. The customization of text and elements on the page is much easier (e.g. "7 comments" can be "7 POVs" or even "7 wishes for you"). Comments can be dated now which makes it easier to know when your fellow readers have been visiting (and leaving their own POV). However, you still can't edit your comments. (Why can't they fix that?)

But my favorite thing so far is the navigational tools. If you're at the bottom of a page, you aren't forced to scroll up to the top to keep reading—there are links to newer or older posts right there waiting for you. If you click on the posting-time link ("posted by bjwill at 9:09 AM") and you get to a page with a single post, you can even maneuver from post to post easily with the "Newer Post" and "Older Post" links below the comments.

If you're a Blogger user and have not yet updated. I would highly recommend it.

Cabin Fever Reliever

TagFest: Family

I got an intriguing email recently from my mom with a too-short description of a party my dad is going to be hosting at their home in Michigan. It sounded like fun so I thought I would ask him a few questions about it.

What is the name of your event?

Cabin Fever Reliever Party

What was the genesis of the name? What prompted you to have your event?

With all the snow and ice, lots of people don't get out of their 'cabins' very often, thus we get cabin fever, which leads to depression which leads to you know what. Part of our thinking was having a Mardi Gras-type of party.

When is your event being held?

February 20, 2007 from 11:00 to 1:30. Since most of our guests are older than we are, it's at lunchtime.

Tell us a bit about your guests.

We have invited around 20 folks who either live alone, are widowed, or have some reason they don't get out much, plus a few to help with transportation and with our party.

Tell us about your decorations.

The decorations will be the food. We don't have anything else planned.

Are you planning any party favors?

We will give them the spoon they use for dessert.

Will you be leading any party games?

No. If there is need for some activity, we are prepared for 'scissor craft' to make snowflakes, or some simple paper folding [origami]. And we have air hockey in the basement though only a few might risk the stairs.

What's on the menu? Tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it. Who will be preparing the food?

The menu will contain items that we have liked and enjoyed through the years. Since our six children are no longer nearby to honor with parties, we thought it was time to honor some others. The menu is mostly fix-your-own because it's easy to prepare.

We'll start out with Treasure Chests—stuffing cheese into a slit in half a hot dog, wrapping them with prepared biscuit dough, and topping with ketchup. While they are baking in the oven, we'll make our own appetizers by stacking meat, cheeses, pickles, olives, etc. on toothpicks or on crackers. By the time we finish eating those, the Chests will be out of the oven.
For dessert, we will have Brown Cows—root beer poured over vanilla ice cream in a tall cup. Tapioca pudding with whipped cream topping and 'poor folks apple pie' [applesauce on saltines] will also be available.

It's probably obvious that the menu was chosen by the man of the house. Having everyone in on the preparation will make us feel more like we're all part of the family.

What do you hope is the outcome of your event? What is the possibility of you hosting any other events of this nature?

I'm sure everyone will have fun and enjoy each other. We are all from the same church and already know each other to some degree. Maybe we'll learn something new! If it turns out well, we might hold it again.

Thanks for sharing, Dad, and I hope you and Mom have a great Cabin Fever Reliever!

Seeing the Little White Ball

TagFest: Sports

I'm not a huge golf fan but I will occasionally check out the majors and other interesting tournaments. This weekend is the Pebble Beach Pro-Am which takes place just south of where I live. When I have visitors, I often take them along the 17-Mile-Drive which winds through a couple of the golf courses at Pebble Beach. The scenery is simply spectacular along the ocean.

This particular tournament has suffered from notoriously bad weather since it's scheduled during the rainy season here. It's kinda sad (and a tad ironic) that we were having dry weather until just a few days ago—just in time for the Pro-Am. Everything is gorgeous today though and I was overjoyed to see they're broadcasting it in HD. It really shows off the beauty of the area, and you can actually see the golf ball!

Things People Should and Shouldn't Do

1. People should have their headlights on when it's raining.
2. People who have the right-of-way at a four-way stop shouldn't wait until my car has come to a complete stop before they lazily move out into the intersection.
3. People should go the speed limit unless they have a really good reason not to.
4. People should have their left-turn-signal on while waiting at a red light when I'm turning left across from them.
5. People shouldn't smoke and walk slowly in front of me down a busy sidewalk.
6. People shouldn't abruptly stop walking forcing me to run into them or others.
7. People shouldn't come out of a shop door at full-speed without checking if there is traffic on the sidewalk.
8. People should play their music quietly on BART.
9. People should save their loud, boring phone converations for when I'm not sitting directly in front of them trying to read quietly.
10. People shouldn't walk into the restaurant where I'm eating lunch and loudly harrass the staff with colorful epithets.
11. People should learn more than one song before spending all afternoon singing outside my office window.
12. People should learn not to slam their apartment doors.
13. People should leave me comments about other things people should or shouldn't do.

Dare Me Vociferously

TagFest: DMV

Department of Motor Vehicles Webcam!
Delicious Meat and Vegetables Yummy!
Dancing Men on Vacation Note: not in San Francisco
Dirty Mean Vagabond I'm surprised I got any results with this one.
Drinks Mai-Tais on the Veranda See 2:19 Local Time
Democrat? Might Vote. Obama/Clinton 2008!
Daylight Makes Vitamin The photo cracked me up.

I Like the Rain

TagFest: Weather

After many dry days we're finally getting rain here in the Bay Area. I'm glad it was dripping on me as I left my car yesterday morning because I remembered to tuck my umbrella in my bag. I sure needed it at night. It was raining hard enough in the City to need it just for the walk from my office to the station. Once I arrived in the East Bay it was really coming down. The wind was blowing but not hard enough that I had to choose between fighting it or getting wet. My new Rick Steeves umbrella survived.

I like rainy days a lot. Granted, I live a life inside. (My time out of doors can be counted in the minutes, usually less than 30.) There's something about the sound and the light and the smell that speaks to something inside me. Sunny days get tedious around here, even when there are clouds or fog in the sky.

After checking with my WeatherBug gadget, I see rain is predicted for the next three days. Woo hoo!

Talking Nonsense

TagFest: Rants

Rant: to speak or shout at length in a wild, impassioned way.

The word "rant" is from the Dutch word "ranten" which means "to talk nonsense". I think that's highly appropriate for most rants I make, and have to listen to. It's not the words that are spoken but the fire behind them that is important. You just need to get something off your chest. You might not have the perfect argument backed up with icy facts and stony figures but you have an opinion and someone needs to hear it, dammit! (Ah, there's the shouting.) Powerful gestures from the arms and hands often help.

My obligatory rant for this TagFest post is:

Some people think they can just criticize someone's spelling when they really should be offering their congratulations on an important anniversary in their friend's life. I don't need to hear about where the parentheses should be. I want to hear, "Hey, great job sticking with your stupid blog for a year. I never thought you'd do it."

Oh, sorry, 'geek. Just talking some nonsense.

Creative? Sweet!

TagFest: Work

The last few times I've talked to the prepress guys over at our printshop, they've kidded me about being behind the times. I was the one who converted to InDesign first (from PageMaker and Quark Xpress) and was able to help them out with a few questions they had when they first switched over. Now they think I'm lagging.

It's true. But I work for a non-profit and we can't afford to be buying the latest Adobe software for hundreds of dollars. We have to buy it through another organization that gets discounts for non-profts and they don't always have what we need.

Take Adobe's Creative Suite Premium for example. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Acrobat Pro, etc., all cost loads of cashola: $1199 But I just ordered it for $150! Of course, I've been checking the TechSoup website for months and months and it's always been on back-order. Not today. I'm so excited to finally catch up with the masses.

Anniversary Tag Fest

Welcome to my First Annual Tag Fest!

In celebration of my one-year anniversary and the advent of the use of tags for organizing my posts, I'm planning to take each tag on my list and write a post during February pertaining to that topic. Some posts may be general observations about the tag. Others may have specific relevance to current events in my life.

If you'd like to promote your favorite tag for early inclusion in TagFest, leave me a comment and I'll try to take it into consideration.

Happy Anniversary to Breeze By!

Congrats to myself for one year of blogging! To celebrate, I recently switched to the new (and improved) Blogger format which allows the use of tags, or labels, to better organize my posts.

You may have noticed tags at the end of posts the last few days. I spent a few hours on Sunday applying 23 different tags to the over 300 posts I made in the last year. Some unsurprising results were the high number of TV, books and sports posts but I was a bit shocked to have only a couple family-related entries. I guess I need to start talking more about my fam.

Another change is that instead of showing a list of the most recently posted titles (the Back Burner), my new template only allows me the monthly archives (The Collection, formerly known as Cold Storage). However, it does show how many posts were made during those months. I've definitely been slowing down over the last half year. I sure was a busy little blogger last May (46 posts) and June (51). Not surprisingly, that was right after I got my new camera and my computer at home.

My anniversary celebration will continue all month so get ready to share your POV and post lots of comments.

Weaver to Seattle

My favorite pitcher Jeff Weaver is headed to Seattle though he didn't look too happy at the press conference (ha, ha). I'm pretty happy he's back in the AL West. I might have to go to some more A's game this season. Let's see ... the M's are in town April 25–26, just when I get back to town. What good timing! We'll see if Jeff pitches either of those games. I might have to wait until the first weekend in July. Anyone want to go with?

Sunny California

Most of my family live in cold weather climes. They're getting to experience some fun weather right now so a weather report email thread has developed over the last couple days with (paraphrased) comments like these:

Western Lower Michigan: "The weather is so bad they've called off church. The library was closed and the line at the video store was 20 deep. The snow has drifted two feet up against our sliding glass door."

Minnesota #1: "It's -16º here."

Illinois (outside St. Louis): "It's 20º with 20 mph winds."

Indiana: "It's been below 15º with windchills between -5º and -15º for the last couple days."

Pennsylvania: "Our temps are normal: highs in the single digits. We have about 6–8 inches of snow on the ground."

Northwestern Lower Michigan: "Our low overnight was 0º and it's now 1º. We had our lot snow-plowed four times this last week. It takes me about 20 minutes to clean off the cars."

Western Lower Michigan: "It's 2º here now. The snowblower was only up to doing half the driveway. It's resting now. It was crazy on the road last night. I was stuck in the street but I made it out. I left my cell phone on in the car so they could know how my progress was getting home."

Minnesota #2: "We'll get close to the record of 84 hours below 0º. They're expecting windchills of -30º today."

Minnesota #1: "We made it to -18º this morning."

Western Lower Michigan: "The kids' school just cancelled. Snow is blowing around again."

Pennsylvania: "Wind is howling and blowing snow. School is on a two-hour delay. The TV is listing 95 delays or cancellations."

Minnesota #1: "It was -11º with a windchill of 120 (must be a typo!) when the school bus came on Friday. Windchills were below -30º on Saturday night."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I so so want to reply to all these emails but what would I say? "It's 60º here at 8:00pm with a high of 65º for tomorrow. Guess I won't be needing my jacket." My family would kill me.

Q&A

Today we had our monthly staff meeting. Near the end of each meeting we have check-ins where everyone has the opportunity to share things others might need to know about what they're doing and if they are going to be out of the office. As we went around the circle none of the other adminstrative and finance staff had anything to share and had passed so when it came to me I didn't want us to have a big goose egg on the check-in scoreboard so I said, "Instead of passing, I'm going to open it up for a one minute Q&A." There was a tiny moment of stunned silence then people started to laugh, and ask questions.

Our Executive Director, knowing I had a vacation planned: "Where are you going in April?"
Me: "Oh, I'm just going to visit family in Michigan."

Our Founder: "What book are you currently reading?"
Me, fumbling: "Uh, I haven't started it yet but some historical novel that takes place in the UK by some guy whose name I can't remember." (It's actually The Last Kingdom, a ninth-century adventure by Bernard Cornwell. I didn't want the mention the horrid book I had just finished, Don't Look Down by Jennifer Crusie. And her stuff is usually so much fun.)

My Boss: "How old are you going to be on April 1st?"
Me: "The big 4-0!"
Everyone applauds.
Me: "But that's two months away and there's plenty of time to plan a big party!"

Dinner: Impossible

Have you watched Dinner: Impossible on the Food Network yet? Tonight I caught an episode where the chef had to cook a dinner for 200 on a Maine island in 8 hours with two sous-chefs and a handful of volunteers. He had one tiny kitchen and one barely working oven. Right now there's 2 hours left and he hasn't raised his voice to anyone except to call for progress reports from his guys in the next room. All the food they're making looks really great too. Lobster mac & cheese? Yes, please.

Tax Experiment

Every year my taxes are so easy. I always file the EZ forms online. This year was no different. I filed both federal and state in a matter of an hour or so. Yea!

I usually get a few hundred dollars back mostly because I have my 403b contribution deducted from my paycheck before taxes are taken out while still using the same old withholding status. Last year after doing my taxes I decided to change it to S-02 so less would be withheld each month. I was very curious to see how it would affect my refund. Would I owe the government money this time?

I'm claiming an undeniable success. I owe the feds only $43!

I can't remember if I changed my state withholding to S-02. I don't think so because I'm getting $85 back from the state. So I'm going to get a combined net $42 refund. That might just about pay for my dim sum lunch today.

Dr. Bashir on 24?

As I was watching the four-hour season premiere of 24, I couldn't stop thinking that the possibly former terrorist who Jack saved from being blown to smithereens looked really really really familiar. So tonight I looked up who's playing Assad and it's Alexander Siddig (aka Siddig El Fadil) who was Doctor Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Now that was a great show. Worf. Dax. Kira. The list goes on.

Turns out he's also in Kingdom of Heaven which I had just watched on Saturday. No wonder he seemed so familiar!

Check out his birthname: Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi. I'm not joking. Poor kid.

Movie Report: Kingdom of Heaven

Sal doesn't like pretty boys (like me) but she said she liked Orlando Bloom in Kingdom of Heaven so I put it on my queue and watched it last weekend. I was afraid it would be one of those "brown" movies that I can't watch because everything is sepia-colored as if the audience has to be reminded it's a historical picture. Luckily it wasn't. I thought it was beautifully filmed and acted. I enjoyed it a lot.

Kingdom is the story of Balian, the bastard son of a medieval knight of the crusades. After his wife and son die in England, he follows his father's path to the Holy Lands to serve the Christian king of Jerusalem. Part of me wished I knew more of the history of the setting, but I later read some reviews that said the movie didn't stick very close to actual people and events. So it was probably better for my enjoyment of the story not to know much. Next time I get it I might run the pilgrim audio commentary track to see what the movie producers have to say about the history the movie was set in.

As far as Orlando went, even with big muscles and facial hair, it was impossible for him to not be pretty. Mmmhmm.

A Rainbow of Phlegm

I can't get over how much phlegm (is snot in the phlegm family?) my body is producing. And in such interesting viscosities and colors. But just a continuous, never-ending river of the white/greenish/red-streaked-yellow stuff. Amazing.

I'm fairly certain I'm developing calluses on my nostrils from all the nose-blowing and tissue-wiping activities from the past week. I think I need some salve.

Gmail-Jackin'

Some dude (with my same initials) changed the email address for his Amazon account to my Gmail address. Oops!

I now know what he's been ordering (ink cartridges and an estate planning CD-ROM) and where he lives (Oregon). I graciously forwarded all the emails I've received so far to his old address. We'll see if he emails me back.

ETA: Just heard back from him and he changed it back. He was very pleasant about it too. I could've just made a new friend.

24

All I can say about the new season of 24 is OMGWTF!


For a translation of the above acronym, go to your local UrbanDictionary. Rated R.

Melodrama to the Max

I've been neglecting my NetFlix recently so when I woke up early on Saturday I decided to watch the two movies that have been sitting around here for awhile: Elizabethtown and Billy Elliot. I really enjoyed Billy Elliot though the disc was damaged and I missed a couple really important scenes including the "Dance of Defiance" when Billy kinda comes out to his dad showing him how good he can really dance. Maybe someday I'll get to see it. I saw part of the Dance by watching the special features. That's how I know about it at all.

I thought Elizabethtown was going to be a romantic comedy but it wasn't really funny and it really wasn't that romantic. I liked it but I think my expectations going in ruined it a little for me. Maybe I just liked it cuz it was Ooo, Ooo, Orlando the entire movie. I kinda like him juuust a little bit. Which may explain moving Troy and Kingdom of Heaven to the top of my queue. They were both in my mailbox tonight so I decided to watch Troy. That's where the melodrama comes in, not necessarily in this order.

First there was the heaving, desperate romance of the beautiful Paris and Helen. Then there was the angsty, brotherly confrontation between the beautiful Paris and Hector on the boat leaving Sparta. Then there was the supernatural Achilles taking down a muuch bigger man with a single stroke. Then there was the yummy Odysseus trying to persuade a petulant Achilles to go to war with Troy. Then there was the saccharine reunion of Hector and his wife and son. Oh the longing glances. Oh the manly shoulders. Oh the flowing locks of gold.

Oh, then there was the petulant disregard of kingly orders. Then there was the bloody sacking of Apollo's temple. Then there was them thar fighting words. Then there was the heaving, desperate romance of Achilles and that dark-haired girl. Then there was the brave self-sacrifice then the cowardly self-preservation of the beautiful Paris. Then there was lots and lots and lots of fighting which I fast-forwarded through. (Did you know that even when fast-forwarding, if you have the subtitles on, they still show up? Ducky for me!)

Then there was the great big burning balls of fire!! Oooo! Then there was lots and lots and lots of fighting which I fast-forwarded through. Then there was the stupid bravery of Achilles' cousin and the aching self-doubt of Hector. Oh, the teary, kohl-lined eyes. Oh, the cute rosy baby. Then there was the heaving, desperate call of "Hector!" "Hector!" "Hector!" (not what you're thinking!) and then the fiercest, coolest, fight between men in skirts you ever did see. Then there was the dragging through the sand. Then there was the old man crying. Then there was the satisfying redemption of a soul.

Then there was the wily yummy Odysseus and the big black horse. Then there was the smart, beautiful Paris saying "Burn it" and the foolish old men saying "It's a present. Let's take it into our impenetrably walled city and dance around it!' Then there was lots and lots and lots of fighting which I fast-forwarded through. Then there was heaving, desperate running and running and running and oh just a little more running. Oh, the sad parting words! Oh, the beautiful Paris and his bow! Oh, an arrow through Achilles' Achilles' heel!

Whoo. I'm tired from all that heaving and running and fighting. I think I need some popcorn.

Yuck

I saw vomit on the stairs at the BART station on my way home. I'm not thinking I really need to eat supper tonight. Maybe some popcorn later. Maybe.

I Love Wiki

Wikipedia.org has a random article link that takes you to...you got it, a random article. It's cool like that. So follow along as I click "Random article" repeatedly.

Centennial (miniseries): a TV series from the late '70s based on the Michener novel that takes place in Colorado. I don't remember this show. It was probably a bit too mature for someone my age at that time. It starred lots of famous actors including Richard Chamberlain, Mark Harmon and Andy Griffith.

Happiness (film): a Cannes Film Festival award-winning black comedy from 1998, starring Lara Flynn Boyle, Jon Lovitz and Philip Seymour Hoffman, among others. I have to say I never heard of this film. I bet you have though.

Wisdom (surname): the names listed are Jack, John, John Minor, Norman, Olli, Peter and Robert Wisdom. Oh, man, I'm so tempted to click on the Olli Wisdom link but I will not. I'm on to the next Random Article!

Sensory neuroscience: which studies the behavior of neurons in our sensory systems in order to understand more about how the brain works. Cool.

S/2004 S 11: one of the satellites (moons) of Saturn. It's about 6 kilometers in diameter which doesn't sound very big in the scheme of things. Did you know that moons have an eccentricity as well as an inclination?

Landsbankadeild 2006: the elite football (soccer) league in Iceland in 2006. Included in the article are the top goal scorers. My favorite names from the list are: Tryggvi, Guðmundur, Sævar, and of course the winner, Björgólfur.

Hematon: part of the process of making blood cells. Other fun words in the article are: preadiposcytes, mesenchymal, megakaryocyte and haematopoiesis. Yea for science!

Dimocarpus: a genus of flowering plants in southeast Asia that includes longan fruit. Something else I've never heard of but I bet I'll be seeing longan fruit everywhere from now on.

Annemarie Moser-Pröll: an Alpine skier (downhill, giant slalom, combined) from Austria who won gold in the Lake Placid Olympic Games in 1980. She also got two silvers in Sapporo in 1972 not to mention lots of World Cup titles. She is now a grandmother and runs a café. Sounds like she's had a good life.

Karl-Maria Kerbeny: a 19th-century Hungarian journalist who came up with the word "homosexual" and wrote at least 25 books. He was inspired to argue for gay rights by a friend who was being blackmailed and then comitted suicide. Wow, so much information here. I could spend loads of time following all the links in this article. But onward...

Metaflow Technologies: a microprocessor design company in California. Not well-known to the general public. It was owned at one time by Hyundai.

WHIM (AM): a Florida radio station known as "Christian Heritage Radio" broadcasting since 1998.

Uses of podcasting: a list of reasons why you might want to create a podcast, including being subversive and communicating from space.

--oOo--

Well, that was probably too many pages of stuff. But it sure shows the variety of information on the great resource that is Wikipedia. Go Wiki!

BART Book: Break No Bones

Break No Bones
Kathy Reichs, 2006
ninth in the Temperance Brennan series
Kathy's site

After not really enjoying Cross Bones, the previous book in this series, I was curious to see if things got back on track with the latest Temperance Brennan story, Break No Bones. I was not disappointed. I loved this book. There's a great balance between Tempe's personal struggles in her relationships (estranged husband Pete, boyfriend Ryan, friend Emma) and her investigation into the mysterious forensic evidence found on the bodies of some missing persons in South Carolina. What she discovers is not what anyone expected.

Favorite part: I really liked the development of Pete's character in this book. We've seen him a few other times but we really got to spend some time with him as did Tempe, of course, which led to part of the tension that helped to make this book so good.
Least favorite part: There were a couple times that the story got bogged down in long explanations, especially at the end when the sheriff was reporting back to Tempe and Pete.

Next BART Book: ummm, haven't picked one yet
Previous BART Book: Four to Score, Janet Evanovich

Books on the Shelf:
The Family Tree, Carole Cadwalladr
One Good Knight, Mercedes Lackey
Hard Day's Knight, Katie MacAlister
Sins and Needles, Monica Ferris
Angel's Fall, Nora Roberts
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory
Books on Hold:
Mistral's Kiss, Laurell K. Hamilton

BART Book: Four to Score

Four to Score
Janet Evanovich, 1998
fourth in the Stephanie Plum series
Janet's site

Since I had so much fun re-reading Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone alphabet series, I decided to try the ever-entertaining Stephanie Plum books again. I got as far as the fourth book, Four to Score, and decided to stop. I just wasn't in the mood for the hijinks of Stephanie, Lula, Grandma Mazur and, new in Four, Stephanie's new puzzle-solving, transvestite friend, Sally Sweet. Even an appearance by her evil nemesis, Joyce Barnhardt, couldn't keep my interest. The whole series is hilarious though so the next time I'm ready for some comedic reading, I'll be sure to pick up with High Five.

Favorite part: eveyone in the neighbor thinking Stephanie is preggers
Least favorite part: that someone got scalped. Youch!

Next BART Book: Break No Bones, Kathy Reichs
Previous BART Book: Splintered Icon, Bill Napier

Books on the Shelf:
The Family Tree, Carole Cadwalladr
One Good Knight, Mercedes Lackey
Hard Day's Knight, Katie MacAlister (a trend in the making?)
Sins and Needles, Monica Ferris
Angel's Fall, Nora Roberts
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory
Books on Hold:
Mistral's Kiss, Laurell K. Hamilton

Going Off the Map

One of my Christmas gifts this year (thanks, Sal!) was a book called Off the Map. It's a collection of satellite images and commentary by two Scottish brothers who author GoogleSightseeing.com. The images are of natural formations, oddly-shaped buildings and even a sword-shaped swimming pool. They include coordinates so you can look up the images yourself in Google Earth or on Google Maps.

I was excited to see that my favorite satellite image was their first entry in Off the Map: the Richat Structure in Mauritania. I first saw this image on NASA's Earth As Art website and have used it as the desktop on my work computer for many years.

Earth, Wind or ???

My place just shook with a jolt and I thought maybe it was another quake (there was a 3.5 near here on Saturday), but then I remembered that they've been calling for rain and high winds for the next few days (maybe even a thunderstorm!). I just checked my WeatherBug and it said 22 mph. Wow. And that's from at station about 3 miles away. I live in a little valley that seems to be windier than closer to the bay (where the station is) so who knows how fast the wind is blowing here.

Guess What I Had for Lunch?

If you guessed chicken korma, you would be correct. Paul and went to the Indian place that had korma for $8 and it was pretty good. It wasn't as sweet and coconutty as I had in the UK but neither was it too hot to eat. I might go there again if only to have the roti that I ordered to accompany the korma. I usually get garlic naan but the menu said roti was whole wheat bread cooked in the tandoori oven. So I said what's wrong with that? Nothing! It was delish.

BART Station Face-Off

Now competing for your musical attention...

In one corner, a solo cellist outside the Starbucks is featuring the soothing melody of classical refrains...

While over by the exit to the plaza, a mariachi guitarist sings songs of his people.

Who will win? Or will the cacophony serve only to alienate the transit-riding public?

Thoughts of the Day

I'm still not at 100% and it seems the lingering super-phlegm is interfering with my ability to read comfortably on BART. So on the way home today, instead of reading -- and feeling nauseous -- I just sat there and thought about...

Identity
The new gameshow, Identity, premiered last night. The premise is to match up 12 strangers with 12 identities which may range from sumo wrestler to shark attack victim to professional bull rider to retired English professor. If you match all 12 you get $500k. Some of the strangers have obvious visual clues (a sumo outfit or cowboy hat) which the player can easily match to one of the identities on the list, while others are less obvious but still have visual clues (white-bearded, argyle-sweater-wearing older gentleman, dark-haired woman in a bikini top with a long Hawaii print wrapskirt).

Then the potential matches get harder and it's pretty much just guessing at that point. I found it entertaining for a little while but the easy matches irritated me with their predictability and the hard guesses annoyed me because really there wasn't much intelligence involved with guessing. I won't be watching it again, I don't think.

Korma Revisited
Yesterday while walking to the burrito shop, we walked by one of the four Indian restaurants within a few blocks of my office. I checked out the menu in the window and they have chicken korma for $8. Woo hoo!

The place I went to for lunch last week didn't have korma so I ended up getting chicken tikka kabaab which was too hot even when I told the guy I needed it mild. Paul got the chicken tikka masala and his was milder than mine. Plus the Bollywood music was hellaloud. We checked out the closest place to the office on the way back and they're quite pricy with korma at $13. Paul and I will be going to Little India on Thursday and I will report back on the $8 korma. I hope it's good! There's only one place to go after that.

Loud Music on BART
I like listening to my iPod on BART. The headphones discourage strangers speaking to me and the tunes provides a nice background to whatever I'm reading or thinking about. I don't listen to it very loud; I like being able to hear any announcements that might come over the PA system, you know, in case of emergencies. There aren't any signs banning it or anything but most people know it's not nice to play a boombox or radio out loud on BART.

Unfortunately the guy sitting behind me this morning didn't get that particular memo. I don't like calling attention to myself so I wasn't about to turn around and ask him to turn it down. No one else was brave enough to do it either so we all suffered through his jams the whole way in. It's sad because the more we let people like him get away with being rude, the more he's going to think he can do it. Or he just doesn't care.

The Nerve
Speaking of not respecting social boundaries, my phone rang on Saturday night around 10pm and the second ring was a higher pitched tone meaning the number was known to me. Now all my close relatives live in either in the Eastern or Central time zone and I don't really talk to my friends here on the phone that much so I couldn't think of who it might be. Of course, my first thought was that something bad must've happened somewhere to have someone calling me that late (which would be much later for most people I talk to).

But it wasn't a friend or a family member. No, when I checked my Caller ID the phone number was my office number. Say what??! Just who would be at work on a Saturday at 10pm much less calling me from work on a Saturday at 10pm!! Obviously, someone really really needed my help.

I thought, well, maybe our new IT guy wasn't back from his father's funeral in Oregon yet and something serious had happened to a computer. I could see someone calling me for that. But no, there was no computer emergency. There was no emergency at all.

In fact, as I listened to the never-ending message being left, I couldn't understand why this person would be calling me at all. It turns out she was asking about a situation she had talked with me about on Friday. She had shown me a letter to see if it made sense. It seemed okay to me but I had no experience in the matter so I didn't see how I could help her that much. I just don't know why she thought calling me about it, much less on a weekend, late in the evening, was appropriate. Really, the nerve.

Up & Down Day

This morning...
I was late leaving the house for work...
but then...
I got green lights the whole drive to BART.

At noon...
I saw some drunk guy pissing right on the sidewalk*...
but then...
The steak burrito I had for lunch was delicious.

Tonight...
The BART car was full when I got on after work...
but then...
I got a seat at the next stop.**

*Seriously! We were walking back from picking up our burritos when all of a sudden this guy pulled it right out and starting peeing right into the base of a tree. It was so disgusting. I nearly lost my appetite.

**Another woman and I were about equidistant from the open seat and she made a move towards it at about the same time as I did but she caught my eye and mouthed "Do you want to sit down?" Now I could've been nice and said no, but I had six more stops to go and I wasn't about to stand the whole way if I didn't have to.

BART Detour

Just my luck tonight I got stuck behind a train that had a medical emergency. I was in a full car and people weren't very happy. We had to go three stations north of where our route normally goes, then reverse back through those stations to get back on track (so to speak).

BTW, I really don't think you need to be calling your friends every five minutes to give them an update on which station you're at and bitch and moan about still being stuck on the train. Take a chill pill! It's not like you can do anything about it. Just relax!

Of course, I had my iPod on and my nose in a book. Sure pays being prepared.

I'm cold

I think I have a cold. I'm sneezy and my sinuses are achy and stuffy. I woke up with a sore throat this morning though that's better now. I'm taking some cold medicine and have been drinking tea all morning. I should've bought a teapot as a souvenir in England. I keep having to heat up the water to refill my mug.

Grodie Greenies

This morning as I passed through the BART station on my way to work I heard the familiar refrain of a Christmas carol. I think it was O Come, All Ye Faithful. The odd thing was that it was coming from a solo flute. Not the instrument you would normally think of when considering buskers in BART. A folk guitar with suspect vocals, an oddly voiced Chinese stringed instrument, occasionally a string trio, sure, but a flute? Not usually.

It made me reminisce a bit about the little green books our band director would pass out before the holidays: Christmas carols. We always played some in our December concert for a carol sing-a-long with the audience. We groaned and complained about them. They were not our favorite pieces, that's for sure. Thus our not-so-affectionate name for those books: the Grodie Greenies.

Cowboy Names

Which of the following was not a cowboy name as seen during the bronc competition at the PRCA National Finals in Vegas tonight?

• Cody
• Johnny
• Chad
• Rod
• Billy
• Rusty
• J.J.
• Bobby
• Jesse
• Bryce

Correct answer in the comments.

BART Book: Splintered Icon

Splintered Icon
Bill Napier, 2005
on Amazon

If you're looking for a good historical adventure mystery, look no further than Scottish author Bill Napier's Splintered Icon. Sal was reading it on the trip and I couldn't get her to listen to me cuz she was reading this book at every available moment. I've been enjoying it on my BART rides since I've been back.

The book itself is splintered into two points of view: our hero antiquarian Harry Blake, and the young sea-going writer of the 16th century journal Blake was hired to decode, James Ogilvie. From Oxford to Jamaica, the search for the secret meaning of the journal quickly involves murder, terrorist plots and centuries-old religious politics. Throw in some theories of Elizabeth I's astrologer and spy John Dee and sabotage on the high seas and you have a fast-moving, complex story of curiosity and survival.

Favorite part: bribing the ladies in the records office in Jamaica to stay open late
Least favorite part: when Ogilvie's journal ended -- I wanted to hear more about his life in the New World

Next BART Book: maybe The Devil Wears Prada
Previous BART Book: too long ago to matter

Books on the Shelf:
The Family Tree, Carole Cadwalladr
Books on Hold:
Mistral's Kiss, Laurell K. Hamilton
Virgin Earth, Philippa Gregory

Nail Damage

I never knew how damaging on your fingernails traveling is. I think I broke all but two of my nails on the trip. I just broke another while typing here at work (which made me think of it). I checked with Sal before the trip to see if she was taking her clippers, in which case I wouldn't take mine (to lighten my load). I'm pretty sure I had possession of her clippers more than she did during the trip. Next time I'm just going to clip them all short ahead of time and avoid the hassle!

Photos by Phone

I was just on the phone for a long time with one of my sisters going through all my trip photos. It was really fun. I feel somewhat proud of my photos mostly because I've never been one to take a lot of pictures and I think they turned out really good. Even though I'm proud of them I don't want to force them on people cuz I certainly don't expect anyone to love them as much as I do. It's kinda like when someone shows you a slideshow of their vacation -- you weren't there so why should you care. Going through them with her was, however, a good way of telling other stories that aren't included with the photos.

I've never had a digital camera before and it has really changed the way I've thought about taking pictures. I can experiment more and just take lots of shots of things and see what works and what doesn't. I've learned a lot about my camera but realized about halfway through the trip that I should've taken my manual along. There were some difficult lighting situations where I didn't know what setting would be best. It was also hard to tell from the little screen what the photos would really look like. Some came out even better than they looked; some didn't turn out that great.

Here's one of my favorites: the gardens at Hampton Court Palace.

Korma

I've never thought I liked Indian food thinking it was too hot, though various people have told me I might like this dish or that. I figured while I was in the UK I should give it a shot. India was part of the British Empire for a long time so there are Indian restaurants all over. Sal loves Indian food but is in a similiar boat as me in not being able to handle spicy food. I thought if she would shepherd me through the menu I'd be okay.

Our first night there, in York, we walked by a place but were a bit too early for dinner and went back to our B&B for a meal of cheese, chicken and rye crackers and an early night instead. We tried it the next day after going to evensong at York Minster. Sal told me to get the chicken korma saying it was a very mild dish. We also got garlic nan, a bread I already knew I liked. I immediately liked the korma. It's a creamy yogurt sauce flavored with coconut, tomato, ginger, cinnamon and who knows what else.

I was a bit embarrassed to admit later that I couldn't wait to have it again. I had to wait until Bath but then we ate at Indian restaurants twice there and twice in London. I ordered chicken korma each time and there was only once that it was a little too spicy.

Sal told me that you can get korma sauce in jars at places like Cost Plus World Market so I was excited to try cooking it at home. Well, I happily found it at my Trader Joe's yesterday and made some up today. Unfortunately, it was more similiar to the "a little too spicy" version I had in Bath, even after adding milk. I'm not giving up though and will continue my seach for a mild korma sauce. If you have any brand suggestions, please let me know.

Mail Mistake

Today I went to the post office to collect any mail held for me while I was gone. I checked my mailbox here at home first and it was full of those stupid advertising flyers that seem to always be in my box. I can never get rid of them. It's like they just pop back in after I put them in the recycling bin.

Anyway...the post office had a big stack of mail for me and I was about to go out the door when I decided to sort through it there and leave the junk mail in their recycling bin. It's a good thing I did cuz I saved myself a trip back to the post office. Of the many items in the big stack of mail, only three were for me. I was taking home someone else's mail!

Lagging

I'm so sleepy and it's only 8:00. I really need to stay up at least another hour but the hockey game I'm watching isn't holding my interest. I'm glad I have another whole day to recover proper sleeping and eating patterns before going back to work on Monday.

I spent the last two days organizing my photos and writing captions. I didn't think it would take that long but I wanted the photo selection to tell the story of the trip and I wanted to include some additional information or opinion instead of each caption just saying what was in the photo. I think I was successful.

If you want to see the photos, click on Photos in "Go Here Next" in the sidebar, then click on "UK Trip" at the top of the page. The slideshow setting runs through the photos rather quickly. It's best to pause it and use your right arrow key to control it. If you have any questions about anything we saw or did on our trip, leave me a comment here and I'll try to answer them.

I'm home!

Good news! I made it home last night after 22 hours of travelling from London.

Sal and I cleaned up on the inflight multi-player trivia challenge on the flight to Minneapolis. I think we played over 4 hours. We didn't have a lot of quality competition other than each other and my quick-draw, two-fingered, click-the-first-answer-to-get-highest-possible-points-when-you-don't-know method prevailed. The questions didn't seem biased U.S. or UK -- they asked both baseball and snooker questions in Sports. The grammar was horrendous though. I hate that they're perpetuating bad punctuation skills.

Our trip was amazing. Yes, we got rained on. Yes, we had to sit with our bags in the aisle on commuter trains. Yes, I ate too much bad food. But we also saw amazing skies and sights. We rested our weary bones in comfortable seats on our way to the next destination. And we sampled the flavors of our host country. I even ate Indian food!

I had fun blindly taking pics as we quickly travelled along by car or train. Some turned out, some didn't. This one is a typical countryside scene of sheep in a pasture, by the River Avon between Bath and Salisbury. More will follow as I get things organized.

Trip Tightness

There's a tightness in my chest. I'm going to call it nervous excitement. I have just a bit left to decide upon and pack and I'll be ready to go tomorrow. I'm heading out around 8am. I like to get to the airport early. My flight to Minneapolis is at 12:15pm, where I'll meet up with Sal. I don't think I'll be able to fully relax and be on vacation until I see her at the gate. We then fly to London Gatwick where we'll catch a train to London King's Cross (Platform 9 3/4?) and then another up to York. If we arrive at 2pm on Wednesday afternoon (as per my schedule) I will have been travelling 22 hours. I think I'll need a nap.

Here's our itinerary with links to Google maps:
Nov. 15-16 York
Nov. 17-18 Bacup with Elizabeth's wedding in Rawtenstall and reception at Samlesbury Hall
Nov. 19 Keswick in the Lake District
Nov. 20 Chester
Nov. 21 Cardiff, Wales
Nov. 22-24 Bath with a day trip to Stonehenge and Avebury
Nov. 25-29 London via Salisbury

We probably won't have internet access until we get to London but I doubt I'll be posting until I get home. I'll have lots of photos to organize and willl try to post some over the weekend.

Okay, enough procrastinating. I better get back to my suitcase.

Seriously Stressed

I thought that getting the magazine off to the printshop yesterday would make today and Monday rather stress-free but I was wrong. I feel like crap and wish I could just go home. There were tiny changes to all three files I had sent last night so I had to re-send them all this morning. Then I had to change one file to be able to print onto tabloid paper here. I had a long list of things I need to do before leave I Monday and my boss just added a couple more things. Ugh. I really need to take a break for lunch. My tummy is yelling.

I did stay late last night working on directions for the car part of our trip. I made screen shots of the roundabouts and other intersections, put them together on a couple pages with written directions, printed them out and highlighted our route (stay to the left!). Sal will be driving so I'm the navigator and need to know where we're going. I fear the roundabout though. I hope Sal is more confident.

Words Overheard Today

Today during staff meeting, a new co-worker used three words not normally heard in everyday conversation.

iterative: relating to or involving iteration: the repetition of a process or utterance. • repetition of a mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem

cogent: (of an argument or case) clear, logical, and convincing

salient: most noticeable or important; prominent; conspicuous

It was refreshing.

Highlights of My Day

• Walking down the street behind a very, very pungent street person
• Discovering there's a Starbucks Drive-Thru beside the mall
• Buying feminine products at Target
• Finding some cool gloves for my trip
• Enjoying my new shoes
• Getting an email from Sal saying she hasn't gotten a new vacuum since 1994
• Being surprised by a mouse who was trying to share my desk
• Eating a superb steak burrito for lunch (with lettuce added from my fridge)
• Figuring out I can get a two-day electronic transfer of funds for no fee from my credit union as opposed to waiting for days for a check
• Thinking of ways to spend my over-$3000 36-month CD that matures tomorrow
  

My (WS) Hero

It was just odd to see Jeff Weaver be the hero last night when for so long he's tried so hard and not gotten the best results. I always apologize when I say he's my favorite pitcher saying he's really not that good. I need to start holding my tongue.

One of the reasons I love watching him is his obvious passion for performing well. It also seems to be his downfall when he can't keep it under control and allows it to negatively affect his game. It didn't seem to be a problem last night. I wonder if he'll recognize the improvements he's made with the Cardinals coaching staff and stick around if they want him.

It bothered me that the announcers kept talking about how he hadn't gone longer than six innings for a long time. One of his strengths in his career has been long innings and high pitch counts. In the National League starters often get taken out due more to game situation (need another bat for offense) than to number of pitches or fatigue. Which is one reason I prefer the American League and the DH: in low-scoring pitchers' duels, the manager isn't forced to replace the starting pitcher just to get some runs. I'm not sure I'd want Weaver to go back to the AL though; I do love to see him bat. He's just so gawky and awkward.

I was working late last night and decided to listen to the game on the radio instead of trying to wait to watch it at home. I was just finishing up my project when the game was getting over. It was a nice coincidence. When I got home I discovered that my DVR recording only went 180 minutes so I would've missed the end of the 8th inning and the 9th. I'm glad I listened at work. That would've sucked!

New Shoes

I stopped in at DWS during lunch (my two erswhile companions bailed on me) and perused the athletic shoe sections. Women's trainers are always so girly-looking I almost always buy from the men's collections nowadays. I found a couple possibilities, tried on one pair which felt great, then tried on the other and realized I had picked up the wrong size. I went back to see if they had mine but no luck. I liked the first pair enough to get them though. They're from the adidas outdoor collection and have insulation and antimicrobial moisture-wicking. Supposedly they're also waterproof which should be good for walking in the rain!

If you look at the close-up images you can see the odd closures they have. You just pull on the black ball while holding the other black bit. I like it. The shoelaces are elastic so they give a little when your feet swell up. Just what I need. I might put them on right now.

I got the khaki color and for $15 less than Zappos. Bargain.

UK Trip Update

My inside source in London tells me that it's been raining a lot so I'm even happier to report I received my splurge of a rain coat from TravelSmith this week (thanks, M&D!). It's really long! But it'll keep the rain off, which is the point. It's not too thick so I can wear a couple layers underneath depending on how cold it is and how much exertion I'll be...exerting.

My other big purchase this month was my BritRail pass. I got it from RickSteves.com so I could get a discount on his online store. I wanted the push-button umbrella. Of course I ended up getting some other things as well. Because we're travelling off-peak and we waited to buy our passes until October, we were able to get 25% off a normally $469 pass (that's $352 for you non-math-whizzes).

I also finally recieved my new passport a bit ago. I was getting a teensy bit nervous about it, especially since I couldn't track its progress online like the Passport Control website seemed to think I should. But I have it now and my birth certificate so I can make multiple copies of everything to take with, and leave behind, in case of any emergencies, like a lost passport (god forbid).

Other purchases left on my list are shoes and glasses. I might head over to the mall on Saturday and check out the Sears Optical center. I discovered they're on my new insurance list. Now I just have to find that insurance card Leti gave me...

I sure wish Elizabeth were here to help me with my shoes shopping. One time she accompanied me to DSW and served as my shoe saleswoman by bringing me various pairs to try on. I got to just sit there and relax.

Only three weeks to go and even tho' work is going to be hell between now and then I'm getting excited about finally visiting England. See you soon, Eliz!

The World Series

So I was hoping the Tigers would win any game Jeff Weaver was not pitching and I've received the opposite. I guess that means the Tigers will win tomorrow (Weaves is on the hill) and hold off the trophy presentation for the weekend. I thought for sure Detroit would pull it out tonight but they just couldn't hold a lead. The soggy field and even soggier fielding didn't help.

It was nice to see Aaron Miles have a good game. A friend of mine went to school with his brother (and him, though he's a few years older) so we enjoy following his career.

Game 7

Wow, what a Game 7. Tied 1-1 until the top of the 9th when Molina hit one out. The Mets kept hitless from the 2nd through the 8th but had the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th. Game over on a called strike three from a rookie closer. Man, that is awesome. Gotta love the curve.

So the Cardinals face off with the Tigers in the World Series beginning Saturday in Detroit. I'm going to root for the Tigers except for any games (former Tiger) Jeff Weaver might pitch (of course). I always hope for a long series just to hang on to baseball a little longer. Hockey can wait.

Lucky, Lucky, Lucky

I am a lucky, lucky girl. Last night I went to set up my DVR to record the NLCS Game 5 but it wasn't on the schedule yet so I thought I'd wait and do it in the morning. I forgot. And Jeff Weaver was starting. And I knew I wasn't going to be able to leave work early today. So when I realized this, I resigned myself to missing the game. But it was postponed, due to rain. Yea!!! Lucky, lucky me! Weaves is still scheduled to start in the game tomorrow so I'm setting up a recording right now.

Words I've Looked Up Lately

purgation: the purification or cleansing of someone or something; (in Roman Catholic doctrine) the spiritual cleansing of a soul in purgatory

bespoke: (of goods, esp. clothing) made to order

bromide: a trite and unoriginal idea or remark, typically intended to soothe or placate

oracular: (of an utterance, advice, etc.) hard to interpret; enigmatic

rapprochement: (esp. in international relations) an establishment or resumption of harmonious relations

apposite: apt in the circumstances or in relation to something

shambolic: chaotic, disorganized, or mismanaged

denigrate: criticize unfairly; disparage

Tigers Win the Pennant!

Wow. Could it have been any better in Detroit today? To advance to the World Series on a home run in the bottom of the ninth at home? A different hero every night, it was Mags smacking his second big fly out to left field with two guys on and the game tied up at 3. Ah, there's nothing better than the scrum bouncing at home plate waiting to pummel the hero.

I thought the A's had a chance today, especially after loading them up in the eighth. They just didn't have the bats to compete in this series. And I'm not sure what Macha was doing having Huston Street face so many batters today. Bringing him in in the 7th?

So who will face the Tigers? I'm definitely rooting for the Cardinals. Just so I can maybe see Jeff Weaver pitch again.

Get Your Brooms Ready in Detroit

Sure looks like the Tigers' year, doesn't it? I can hardly believe it. Rogers was awesome, giving up only two hits and walking two. And the bullpen was perfect, setting down their batters in order. We'll see if Detroit can close it out tomorrow.

As far as the A's, I thought Harden did great today considering his lack of work recently and really through the season with his injuries. The A's sure miss having Bobby Crosby and Mark Ellis up the middle on defense and their bats in the line-up. I wonder if Macha is going to start Mark Kiger at second base tomorrow. Here's a guy who made his major league debut today in the 8th inning on defense and could possibly start in an ALCS Game 4 with his team's survival on the line. Talk about pressure.

A's vs. Tigers, Game 2

I'm watching the game delayed by about a half hour. It's the bottom of the 9th. Two outs. Bases loaded. The A's are down by 3. The Big Hurt at the plate. Oakland lost last night so they really need to win tonight and they need to score right now to have any chance to do it.

Strike one. 0-1.
Ball in the dirt. 1-1.
Man, things are getting tense. The crowd has its towels a-waving.

Damn. Fly ball to center. Three outs. Tigers win.

Well, that was a downer. Frank hasn't had a hit in either game in this series. Just an inch and it would've been a grand slam and an A's win. He just missed that pitch. The Tigers' pitching has been really impressive so far. Last night the A's looked completely ineffective, especially when they had guys on base.

Looks like 'geek might have been right when he said the Tigers in 5 and that the A's would be lucky to win that one. It sure would be cool to see Detroit clinch at home. Can you imagine the celebration?

Tigers in 4!

Wow! I can't believe it! The Tigers beat the Yankees today to win the series three games to one and move on to meet the A's in the ALCS. So either the A's or the Tigers will be in the World Series. So exciting!

I didn't think the Tigers could actually subdue the bats of that New York line-up but they did. The pitching was awesome. Bonderman was amazing today and I was so happy that Leyland took him out in the 9th so he could feel the love from the Detroit crowd. And it was so great they could win at home and so decisively. That stadium was rockin' today. I loved how the team went out on the field and sprayed the crowd with bubbly. Especially Kenny Rogers. So funny.

My favorite sign:

Spiderman
Superman
Bonderman

So Oakland vs. Detroit, beginning Tuesday, best of seven. That'll be hard to predict. I'm gonna have to go with the A's in six.