Towih Sighthounds

Wow, the weather

2011-04-28T13:38:00.002-05:00

I'm very thankful that we made it through unscathed after last nights tornado outbreak. Megan woke us up about 12:25 to let us know that we were under a tornado warning. Looked at the weather and the system that went through Sunnyside (a small community about 18 miles away) was headed our way. We hunkered down best we could in the closet and waited out the storm - the storm that fizzled out before it got to us. We got lucky. Folks in Sunnyside didn't. Two people lost their lives and a number of homes and businesses were either damaged or destroyed. Our prayers are with those who were affected by the storms.

It's been a crazy Spring. A few weeks ago, I was woken up by a storm that went through early in the morning. That normally doesn't happen, so I knew it was bad. Once again we made it through with some small branches down, but no damage.

Hopefully you and yours are faring well during this weather.

Is anyone home?

2011-04-06T18:57:00.003-05:00

I pretty much suck at blogging. I need to get back to this.

Last weekend was the American Whippet Club National Specialty Field Trials. This year they had AKC and ASFA coursing on the first weekend. I drove up to Richmond, KY Friday evening with Everett to see how he could do and to help out my good friend Steve who was Field Trial Chair for the weekend. It was a busy weekend with lots to do, but also an opportunity to see some really nice running dogs. Everett ran well in Veterans in the AKC trial, placing third, and placing fourth in Field Champions in the ASFA trial Sunday.

Oh, I didn't mention that Everett turns 9 (NINE!) today. Yeah, at nine years old he's still holding his own against the youngsters. He was recovering from an injury that he suffered earlier this year so he wasn't in great shape, but I thought he performed superbly!

My club, CHASE, is hosting ASFA trials this weekend in Cartersville. We're going to do three days this weekend, and host an awards banquet on Saturday night. Hopefully we'll have a decent turnout, but we're up against a couple of other events. We'll see.

Yeah, um, about that....

2010-01-01T11:38:00.002-05:00

Hello again everyone, and welcome to a new year!!! I'm not going to say 'the start of a new decade' cause that happens *next* January 1.

Anyway, it's time to look back at my goals from last January and see where I am now.

Continue getting fit - I reached my lowest weight since high school earlier this year and it feels great! I started running seriously in June. I had a bit of a setback in August when I tore the meniscus in my right knee and required surgery in October. At the time of my surgery I was up to five miles at an average of a little over 10 minutes/mile. Not speedy, but a decent pace for a fat guy! Now I'm back up to running four miles and I averaged under 10 minutes/mile my last run. I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life and am really enjoying running. My goals this year are to run the Peachtree Road Race in July in less that an hour and run a half marathon at Thanksgiving. I'd also like to get back in the pool and do some cross training.

I still have bad eating habits that need to be worked on. I'm better than I was even last year, but still could stand to eat better.

I didn't get any tattoo work done last year. Sweeney remains unfinished and though I have a ton of ideas rolling around in my noggin, I keep finding other things to do with any excess fundage I collect. Maybe this year! :)

I have not returned to school, but will in the Summer semester. I did take a VMware class that I took a lot away from and plan on doing more classes and getting my VCP later this year.

Yeah, the family pretty much takes care of itself. Loving them comes naturally. The kids are great and my wife is a wonderful, understanding, patient woman. Thank god.

Not sure about smiling, will continue to work on that. The exercise helps there by relieving some of the stress of life.

I have been backing up my data, but I just switched laptops from a MacBook (I hate the damn thing) to a new Dell with Win 7. Win 7 makes backups easy, I just have to do it!

Music collection is cleaned and streamlined. I love the digital format just for the portability!

Ruthanna and I didn't get to do a lot of travelling, but we did take a vacation to my favorite place in Florida, Cocoa Beach. I took the girls down a few days early while Ruthanna finished her classes after which she flew down and joined us. We all had a great time and look forward to getting back down there later this year.

I did not blog more. Blogged much less as a matter of fact. I blame Twitter and Facebook. Those two sites make it way to easy to just throw a quick post up and it shows up on a bunch of folks computers. I love it, but do miss the longer form of blogging. I'm going to try to do better this year.

Pretty good wrap up of what happened this year. Look for more later.

Almost 4 month update

2009-08-30T10:22:00.002-05:00

I'm still here, alive and kicking. Twitter and Facebook have pretty much taken over for blogging for me. You can follow me on Twitter @sithndman or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sithndman .

A lot has been going on here. Kids out of school, the oldest graduated High School, kids back to school and Corey gone to Kennesaw State University. I'm working myself into better condition than I've been in many years, running 15 miles or so per week and still cutting trees on the weekends.

The BMW has been a lot of fun this summer, but is out of commission right now. Seems that a seal has failed in the rear drive which made itself known by soaking the rear brake shoes to the point where they no longer provided any stopping power. I have the parts ordered and they should be here by mid-week, so I'll have the motorcycle back on the road soon!

Haven't run the dogs since the II, but that will start up again soon. We're planning on going to the WRA nats in October and I'm judging in November in California, that's about all we have planned so far.

We're actually going to get a vacation this year. I'm taking the girls down to Cocoa Beach in a couple of weeks (they'll be on Fall break) and Ruthanna will fly down and join us after her Tuesday evening class. Haven't been to the beach since 2007, so I'm jonesing pretty bad and really can't wait.

The inanity of it all

2009-05-07T07:00:00.002-05:00

It really just makes me shake my head. Clayton County School System lost their accreditation a couple of years ago for multiple reasons including school board interference with day to day operation of the schools. Another problem cited was a so-called teachers unions actions. So what shows up on the homepage of the Atlanta rag? A story about how said 'teachers union' are protesting the hire of the new Clayton County School System. All six members. Six. Yeah, I said six. Yes, this makes front page news.

Here's the money shot. A quote by the chairman of the teachers union: "'I don’t like the fact that he’s from California,' said John Trotter, chairman of MACE. 'They don’t know the people. Clayton County likes their home folks.'" Yeah, that's a hell of a reason to oppose the assignment of a new superintendent.

Everett in profile

2009-05-06T08:15:00.003-05:00

Taken with my iPhone.

Good dogs

2009-05-06T07:21:00.002-05:00

We've attended a couple of coursing events over the past month that have really been enjoyable. First was the Whippet National, this year held in Atlanta. Coursing was at Chattahoochee Hills Farm in Fairburn, GA, a huge, beautiful spot with multiple fields suitable for coursing. What a nice treat that turned out to be! Most everyone was in a good mood and had a good time. Dogs didn't do so great with Everett taking an NBQ. Of course, Ev is seven and Lobo will be seven this month making them among the older of the Field Champions. They still hang with the younger dogs pretty well!

This past weekend we travelled to Boswell, OK, a beautiful spot in the middle of nowhere south Oklahoma for the ASFA International Invitational. I love Don and Sally's place! It's something like 40 acres, footing is wonderful and hospitality can't be beat! The bad news for this weekend was the rain that came in Wednesday night and Thursday morning dropping something like 6-8 inches on the grounds. This made for a soppy mess when people pulled in Friday night and Saturday morning for the trial. We all got in and set up well on Saturday, but another 2-4 inches of rain during the day made the entire grounds a quagmire. Most everyone had to get pulled out with Don's tractor. What a mess!

Lobo was entered in FCh and finished just out of the ribbons both days. Lobo really isn't a warm weather dog, but in the Winter he's usually unstoppable! We had Everett entered in Veterans for the first time at this II and he proceeded to win the Veterans stake both Saturday and Sunday. He lost BoB on Saturday pretty obviously to a wonderful dog named Bonzer. On Sunday, the competition came down to Everett and Vidalia, a little bitch owned by Deb and Maurice Bahm. They tied a couple of times again after the FCh was knocked out in the first run. Vidalia ended up taking BoB Sunday over Everett. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but I know that running as well as he did and hanging with a Whippet of Vidalia's caliber is nothing to sneeze at! Additionally, Maurice and Deb are sportsmen, true competitors but gracious in victory and defeat. I'm happy to call them friends and happy that we could share those run-offs.

These were a couple of really nice, relaxing trials. The people I think made the biggest difference as there wasn't the petty BS that we've had to put up with so much in the past locally. The Region 4 people did a great job with the II and made it a friendly, stress-free experience.

Found my clothing "line"!!!

2009-04-24T13:58:00.001-05:00

Go get yours! Now!!! You know you want to.

As long as Blondie doesn't leave...

2009-04-22T16:57:00.001-05:00

This is fine with me. I've seen some stuff that no one should ever see here, as well as some kick ass bands.

Crow...

2009-04-13T13:38:00.002-05:00

I'll have to eat some. Last week, I stated that I didn't think that the US had the cojones to take care of the pirates holding a US citizen hostage on the high seas. President Obama proved me wrong, issuing the go order giving Navy SEALs the ability to neutralize the threat. My highest praise to the US Navy and the SEAL team that took care of the problem!

Today I read that President Obama has relaxed restrictions on Cuba. Not a bad idea if you ask me. Decades of isolation have done nothing to weaken Cuban dictator Fidel Castro so perhaps a change of pace will do Cuba some good.

Yeah, I said that...

Probably not a sign of things to come...

2009-04-08T11:38:00.002-05:00

Remember, this is a private company, not the .gov. When I first saw the story of this hijacking this morning, I figured this would end somehow without any direct intervention from the Federal Government. No details quite yet, but my bet is that the members of the crew kicked some ass and wrestled control of the ship back from the pirates. I don't know if we as a country have the resolve to even stand up to these pettiest of petty criminals.

No snow

2009-04-07T07:43:00.002-05:00

Talk of freezing temperatures and possible snow in April? In Georgia? Huh? Not so much when all is said and done. It's cold, especially after we've been spoiled by a bunch of 70 degree weeks. It's been wet for the past few weeks here as well thankfully. I hear we're out of the drought, but to tell you the truth, I bet it'll be back before long. Better to keep conserving and not fall into the trap that we have unlimited resources. Not traditional "consumptionist" ideology, but I'm a firm believer in resource management.

The AWC Nationals are in Atlanta this week and we had the ASFA coursing last Sunday. Everett and Lobo ran, both finished one point out of the ribbons. Not bad for a couple of hounds who are damn close to being veterans. As a matter of fact, Everett's entered in Veterans for the II in May. Should be fun!

SBF weekend

2009-03-27T07:35:00.002-05:00

As coined by my lovely bride. :) After the roofers got done on Friday, I was able to escape to south Georgia and Laura Walker State Park for a couple of days of guy stuff. Fishing, boating and golfing ensued, interspersed with a couple of adult beverages and some really damn good food! Sunday was a lot of fun when we headed south down near the Okefenokee swamp to shoot sporting clays at Okefenokee Sporting Clays. I haven't had that much fun for so few dollars in quite a long time! Those folks have quite the setup going on down there! If you're in to shooting clays, make this a destination.

The roof, the roof, it's not on fire

2009-03-18T17:56:00.002-05:00

I'm on vacation this week so that we can get some much needed work done to the house. This is something that I just won't tackle myself since it's so time consuming and I just don't trust myself to put a roof on my on home. :) Anyway, the word was that work was to begin on Monday, but since Atlanta had over 3 inches of rain Saturday, Sunday and Monday, they weren't able to begin work until today. Now that work has begun though, it's proceeding at breakneck speed. The interior guys came in this morning and scraped the kitchen ceiling of all the nasty popcorn that was sprayed when that room was constructed. They got done about 1:30 and took off, promising to be back and be done tomorrow. They still have to put a textured (not popcorn and not stiple) ceiling in the kitchen, paint the living room ceiling, paint the master bath ceiling and re-popcorn the garage. The roof guys showed at about three and are still at it. So far, they've stripped about 2/3 of the roof of the old shingles and I think are beginning to lay down the felt underlayment. They promise to be done tomorrow as well. Here's hoping! In the meantime, I'm taking this opportunity to clean and re-organize the garage. It's slow going, but I'll get there eventually. We just have way too much stuff! Anyone need some whippet size wire drop pin crates? How about Verikennals, small whippet sized? Let me know and I can send pictures.

All this is really getting in the way of my fun, let me tell you! :) Me and my buddies have had a camping trip planned for about three months. That trip is supposed to start tomorrow, but if the work around here isn't done, I probably will be joining them a little late. I just don't want to leave and the work not be done yet.

The good news? All this work is being covered by our homeowners insurance! This is the first claim I've ever made on homeowners (hail damage to the roof and subsequent water damage) and I couldn't be happier! Didn't have to squabble with the adjustor or the mortgage company about the cost of getting the funds. It's been quite a pleasant experience.

Well, let's hope that the work is done well and done soon!

Proving the GA Legislature still has it's head up it's ...

2009-03-04T19:11:00.002-05:00

Georgia is one of three, yes three, states where you can only buy packaged alcohol six days a week. Every year a bill is submitted to allow voters to decide whether their municipalities will allow Sunday sale of alcohol and every year that bill gets lots of attention. Attention from the news media, attention from the pulpit and attention from the general public. Seems that public sentiment always leans towards allowing the people to decide, but try to sell that to the legislature. This year is no different.

Bandwagon issues get lots of attention though, and usually sail right through. Take for example octo-mom and her brood. Don't worry about that happening here in Georgia, no sir! The legislature will tell you how many embryos you can implant.

Choice is what it comes down to. Obviously the Georgia legislators think that their constituents are just not intelligent enough to decide what is best for themselves.

Throw the bums out.

Too young

2009-02-27T13:23:00.002-05:00

Pylon guitarist Randy Bewley passed away last week. Pylon is one of the pioneers of the Athens, GA music movement during the late '70's and early '80's, the movement that shaped post-punk, new wave and pop music in the United States. This was the music that shaped my musical tastes from the early '80's on.

Can a host at CNBC keep his job after this???

2009-02-23T13:39:00.002-05:00

h/t to tam

Dog's 10 Commandments

2009-02-22T09:44:00.002-05:00

1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.

3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.

4. Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment, but I have only you.

5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.

6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.

7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak.

9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.

10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.

h/t to xavier

I did say I'd blog more...

2009-02-11T09:20:00.002-05:00

But didn't guarantee the quality of the content.

I've been sick since Sunday, leading to the dearth of posts. I'm trying to find the groove again and hope to be back soon.

"I pledge"...

2009-02-03T10:36:00.003-05:00

I pledge to be an individual. To not follow the Hollywood douchebags who try think celebrity = wisdom. To fight socialism.

This video earns the 'Nope' seal from me today...

This looks like a lot of fun!!!

2009-01-30T10:13:00.001-05:00

Amazing New Water-Powered Jet Pack - Watch more Free Videos

iPhone love

2009-01-29T18:37:00.002-05:00

As I've written here before, I believe the iPhone to be the best cell phone I've ever used. I started out with Nokia phones and kept with simple Nokia phones until I got my iPhone. I loved Nokia, they seemed bulletproof, had great sound and grabbed even the weakest signal. I tried out a Motorola Razr, but was totally disappointed in it's performance. My kids have had numerous brands of phones from Motorola to Samsung and I just haven't seen much quality.

When I got the iPhone, it took a little getting used to. Speeds weren't all that great and the firmware seemed a bit...quirky, I guess would be the best way to put it. One thing that I noticed was with 3G turned off, I got the best signal reception I had ever gotten, even beating the various Nokia models I had used. Notice that I had 3G turned off. Until the first week of January, AT&T's 3G network was non-existant past just a few miles away from downtown. I coped, though, using the EDGE network for data when I wasn't around a wifi connection. According to this article, most of the iPhone's speed issues could be traced to AT&T's network.

BAM, the week after Christmas, I'm messing with the iPhone. Hmm, let me just check out the range of the 3G network. WOW! We're pretty much covered up with 3G around here now! I love the increased speed. The iPhone, while always a thrill to use, became even better and has fulfilled all my expectations now.

Vote

2009-01-26T18:07:00.002-05:00

Please vote on this gun issue question with USA Today. It will only take a few seconds of your time. Then pass the link on to all the folks you know. Hopefully these results will be published later this month. This upcoming year will become critical for gun owners with the Supreme Court accepting the District of Columbia case against the right for individuals to bear arms.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm

Help out a friend to sportsmen

2009-01-23T13:17:00.003-05:00

Go read on Dan's blog about Dutch Salmon's son and their tribulations over the past little while. I don't know Dutch, but know of him quite a bit. He's a renowned author, houndsman and hunter.

Cool technology

2009-01-22T16:22:00.002-05:00

Apple has filed a patent application for what looks like a huge advancement in UI. An ambient sound sensor will detect the presence and level of sound in your environment and automatically adjust the volume of your electronics accordingly.

See MacRumors.com for more information

Is one of Obama's key appointees a PETA radical?

2009-01-21T15:53:00.003-05:00

Cass Sunstein, chosen by President Obama to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, could jeopardize your ability to hunt, eat meat or have pets. According to this article, Sunstein "has a secret aim to push a radical animal-rights agenda in the White House. Sunstein supports outlawing sport hunting, giving animals the legal right to file lawsuits, and using government regulations to phase out meat consumption."

If you're at all concerned, please speak up.

h/t Steve Bodio's Querencia

Martyrs

2009-01-21T10:01:00.004-05:00

Just piss me off. For the majority of the years I've been involved in lure coursing, I've had to suffer a certain fool who likes to stir up all kinds of crap, break rules, generally cause trouble then turns around and plays the victim. I'm over it. I've decided that Dan's gift says it best. So, I'll post it once again.

4000!

2009-01-21T09:56:00.001-05:00

Thanks to the 4000th visitor to this little blog, registered this morning. I'll post more details later.

A gift from my friend...

2009-01-15T14:04:00.003-05:00

Dan, aka Shot on Site, aka dyed in the wool pinko...

Picture was taken while we were both in Hollister, CA this past summer. That finger is what I think... :)

Tam-a-lanche

2009-01-15T13:45:00.003-05:00

See Tuesday 1/13? Many of those visits are thanks to Tam linking to the Obama Test. If you haven't yet, please go read View From The Porch. It's one of my faves.

{edit}LMAO, it's a Tam-a-lanche, not a Ta-a-lanche. I wouldn't even know what that is!

Well, he is an embarrassment to me...

2009-01-12T13:40:00.000-05:00

I'm an embarrassment to Barack!

I only scored 18 on the Obama Test

Update on the hounds

2009-01-09T13:58:00.001-05:00

We haven't had too much to brag about regarding the hounds lately, mostly because we just haven't been running them that much. I got some great news in my email the other day that Lobo has finished his LCM 6! We're extremely proud of the Little Buddy!

Dinner and a Show

2009-01-09T13:55:00.004-05:00

Like the article says,

“If you have $20 in your pocket, do you go somewhere where you can just get food or do you go somewhere you can get entertained as well?"

Hooters, ever the establishment of good taste, is making money in a weak economy. I'm not a huge fan of their wings, but have to admit that I've never had a bad meal, or a bad time at Hooters. Sex sells.

Twitterfeed

2009-01-08T19:22:00.001-05:00

Testing Twitterfeed. Keep your fingers crossed.

I'm digitally worried about our analog country

2009-01-08T15:58:00.004-05:00

I became worried about the direction of our country when Obama was elected. I worry about my right to bear arms. I worry about my taxes. I worry about the deficit. I worry about a lot of things.

Didn't think that I needed to worry about the switch from an analog to digital TV signal, but Obama says I need to. Thought the (dot)gov and TV networks were taking care of that. You can't listen to the radio, watch TV, read a newspaper or news magazine without being warned that sometime in February the OTA TV signal will switch to digital.

To borrow a line from John Stossel, Give me a break.

A worthy bailout?

2009-01-08T11:06:00.002-05:00

Here's a bailout I could probably get "behind"! ROTFLMAO!

Just wondering...

2009-01-07T19:28:00.002-05:00

When fuel prices were rising, and rising rapidly, the price of everything from airline fares to milk rose along with it. I understand the economics behind prices rising as the price of raw materials rises.

What's the deal now that fuel is 1/3 to 1/2 as much as the max? Food prices have not dropped, airline fares and the special little surcharges put on extra baggage are still in place.

Just wondering.

The New Year

2009-01-05T13:10:00.006-05:00

Happy New Year to you all!

Here are some of my goals for this year
Continue getting fit - I dropped about 30 pounds over the past couple of years... And put about 12 of that back on. It's time to finally finish the work I started back in 2007 and lose the last bit of weight I want.

Improve eating habits - goes along with ^. Not really hard to do, just have to ween myself from a little bit of junk food.

Get more ink - Love the tattoos I have already, but I need to finish the one big piece I have (Sweeney needs some background) and I'd like to get started on a sleeve for the other arm.

Take advantage of more educational opportunities - In general, I'm going to get back to working on my IT degree. More specifically, I'm going to work on my VMware certifications.

Love my family - Pretty easy to do! :)

Smile - I find that I'm a little to serious at times. I just want to loosen up a bit and have a good time!

Back up my data - Um, Yeah. I have 99% of the solution, just need to get it wrapped up and implemented. With all my music converted or bought as mp3's and so many of my photos in jpegs, I'm crazy to walk around with them only on my laptop!

Clean up my music collection - I've got a good bit that needs to be gone through and organized.

Travel - Maybe just a little bit. R and I didn't really take a vacation last year together, so it's something I'd like to do. She wants to see the Grand Canyon again and I wouldn't mind either.

Blog more - Easier said than done, but I'm going to try. I promise! I'm really interested in dogs (of course), concealed carry laws and gun control laws in general, technology and politics. Whew!

Twitter more - micro blogging is cool. If you don't, and you enjoy blogging, check it out!

Stay in touch with friends - For sure. I'm lucky that I've kept really, really good friends since childhood. Just the way it is for us. I see a few on a regular basis, but others not so much. Got to do better.

That's it for now. Maybe if I get to 3/4 of what I have here I'll be doing good. I hope everyone has a great 2009!!!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T05:58:00.002-05:00

A few hours late, but there you go. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!

I had a very nice Christmas watching a couple of movies and working on some genealogy before the kids came home from their dad's house. We had our little Christmas and the kids seemed very happy with their minor haul. Later, my mother had us over for Christmas dinner. Days like that are what memories are made of.

A few hundred billion here, a few hundred billion there...

2008-12-24T08:29:00.002-05:00

Congress-critters are now asking questions about where the $700 billion bailout to the banks is being spent. Wonder if they'll get the same response the AP got when they began asking questions .

Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money, said that while some of the money was lent, some was not, and the bank has not given any accounting of exactly how the money is being used.

“We have not disclosed that to the public. We’re declining to,” Kelly said.

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what’s the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

“We’re not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking,” said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Some banks said they simply didn’t know where the money was going.

Umm, assholes. That money came from the public that you're denying answers to. This is actually turning out worse than I thought it would.

Crazy weather!

2008-12-22T07:55:00.003-05:00

So, Saturday was mid 70s. Today we'll be lucky to get out of the 20's. Christmas should be in the mid 60's! Needless to say my wardrobe is getting a pretty good workout.

At least we don't have the snow that some of you folks are having to deal with. You have my sympathies.

There is only one answer...

2008-12-11T12:36:00.003-05:00

The Atlanta Urinal and Constipation is reporting online that the jury deliberating the fate of Brian Nichols is deadlocked on his sentence.

There's only one answer here and it's the death penalty. This criminal has shown time and again that he has no remorse for killing four and leaving one guard with brain damage. This jury needs to stop wasting time and money and get on with what needs to happen.

If money was no object

2008-12-02T13:11:00.003-05:00

I got tagged, thanks to Jen. The subject is six things I would do if money was no object. Here goes.

1) Make sure that me, my wife, kids ,mother, step-father, sister, grandfather, aunts and uncles, cousins and in-laws would never have to work again, no matter what they wanted to do. Not to worry about relations coming out of the woodwork, I know who's who! :) One of my goals would be to always live somewhere warm.

2) I'd start a sighthound training, rehab, boarding, eventing, everything facility.

3) I'd fund research into finding economical alternative energies.

4) Since I love music and I know that most good bands will never be heard, I'd set up a record label and make sure good music is heard.

5) I'd give like a bazillion dollars to mental health and cancer research charities. We don't need to lose people that way anymore.

6) Me and R would hit the road and ride or drive around the USA and see all the things we've always wanted to see. Then we'd head out to the rest of the world!

Now I'll tag Jessi, Dan and Sandra.

2008-11-21T13:01:00.001-05:00

Sort of surprising, seeing that I'm still a bit overweight. But I think I'm in pretty decent condition...
34.5 miles per gallon

Created by The Car Connection

h/t Expert Witness

Pictures of the house

2008-11-13T14:06:00.025-05:00

Back during the summer Andrew, Neil and I spent a day repairing a pretty nasty place in my house. I promised pictures, so here they are.

Starting off, rotted studs and sill.

More of the same. Where the corrugated pipe ends is where the sill should be. The siding in this area was being held together by the paint for the most part.

The corner, another shot of the rot.

Wider view. Not pretty.

Me up on the roof doing a bit of demolition, Neil and Andrew on the ground repairing a floor joist.

We've pretty much gotten the rot ripped out at this point.

Getting ready to sister the wall studs, floor joists have been repaired already.

Me doing more demo.

Neil again, working on the floor joists.

Siding repair is made, just waiting to be painted.

Finished the siding, just have to paint.

More on the BMW

2008-11-10T18:32:00.007-05:00

1978 BMW R80/7 "Airhead" pictures.

So, ignore that I don't have a helmet on. I was just tooling around the driveway a bit the day I got it started. I always wear a helmet when riding (hell, even wear a helmet when riding my bicycle).

The BMW rides GREAT! I'm having a lot of fun with it so far. Haven't gotten to ride a lot, and I am just getting comfortable on it. Got insurance and tag last week as well as my Motorcycle learners permit. I think I'm really going to have fun with this!

Fun stuff

2008-11-10T07:39:00.002-05:00

A lot has been going on. We went out to Cartersville this weekend for the annual CHASE Veteran's day trials. For the first time since 2001, I was not FTS or FTC for a CHASE trial. I had a great time being an exhibitor and a judge!

We only ran the whippets this weekend. Carmela did well on Saturday and placed 3rd after we forfeited a 1-2-3 tie. Everett and Lobo were the only FCh Whippets on Saturday (btw, where the hell are all the Whippets????), Everett placed 1st and Lobo 2nd. We ran Lobo and Everett only on Sunday with an entry of four. Everett took 1st and BOB and Lobo finished 3rd. Great results!

Not only did we run all breed trials both Saturday and Sunday, we ran a Rhodesian Ridgeback Specialty on Saturday after the all breed trial. This was successful with an entry of 14. Even tunning the two trials, we were finished by 2:00 in the afternoon!! Sunday we finished about 1:30!!! Something to be said for having a smaller trial! Congratulations to Woody and Jennifer for doing such a great job!

My friend John is going under the knife tomorrow for a heart valve replacement and triple bypass. We wish him the best!

Karen's stuff finally arrived about a week and a half ago. The moving company that she used is a rip-off. First, they exceeded the estimate by a factor of 6, secondly they arrived five hours late to load the truck, thirdly, taking over a week to get her stuff to her and not giving her a status on where her stuff was (there was a genuine fear that her stuff had "disappeared), finally they broke a lot of her stuff. They dropped the fridge and damaged one door so badly it will have to be replaced (this is a $1700 stainless steel fridge), her toaster oven was crushed, one of her recliners is destroyed, the speedo housing on the bike is broken, and many things are just plain missing. For all her trouble, the moving company is offering her $.60 per pound of damaged goods. The nerve... I hope she is able to sue this company and recover every bit of money she has lost.

More about the bike... I have it now and it is great! Thought I was going to need to get a battery for it, but a long slow charge has brought the battery back to life for now. I got the bike running last week, got it insured and registered and even went and got my motorcycle learners permit! Went for my first ride Friday afternoon and had a blast! Didn't ride very far, really, but it was a lot of fun. Can't wait til the weather warms up!

Finally!

2008-11-07T15:04:00.002-05:00

Brian Nichols is guilty. It took 3 years to get to this point. Maybe now his victims families can have some peace.

Holy.....Something

2008-10-27T17:32:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted. Wow! Yeah, I've been way busy. Weekend in Florida for Neil's wedding (wow, what a good time). I got to spend a lot of time with old friends and new, got to hang out on the beach and swim in the ocean for the first time this year. I love my friends dearly and really value the time we get to spend together, no matter how short.

The following Tuesday, I flew to Newark then was driven to Florida, NY to help our friend K load up and move to the South. Now she's a Damn Yankee, even though things aren't going great right now. Amazingly, her stuff hasn't arrived yet (full semi of furniture and stuff). Gawd, I hope it arrives soon. Anyway, I spent that Wednesday packing a trailer with her stained glass (actually overloading the trailer ) and helping the movers with some of the larger stuff. Thursday at 1:00 we were finally able to hit the road and drag ourselves south. Pulled in to K's house @ 11:30 pm on Friday night. Saturday was spent watching Soccer and helping unload (as well as Sunday). I was a tired pup that weekend.

Last Wednesday, I drove out to Eatonton to our annual computing conference at Rock Eagle. That was a good time, as always, with lots of social events as well as good lecture sessions.

Saturday was the 3rd annual ASFA Greyhound National Specialty in Moreland, GA. We had a pretty good showing with Sweeney taking the Field Champion Stake and Nellie winning out of Singles. There was a very nice entry of 30 Greyhounds at the Specialty this year with dogs from Colorado, California and Texas. Some really nice Greyhounds in the field this year.

Sunday was the Fullerton Cup trial at the same location. We didn't run the Greyhounds but did have Lobo and Everett, our older stalwarts, entered as well as Carmela, entered for the first time. The course was a bit challenging for the dogs as it features a couple of pretty good sprints uphill. The dogs aren't in the best shape they've ever been in thanks to the long summer hiatus, but they did acquit themselves pretty well. Lobo finished 2nd in Field Champion with Everett at 3rd. Carmela, in her first trial and entered in Open, took her first 1st placement! That's exciting for a mostly race-bred little bitch. We're really looking forward to continued coursing and much racing in the future.

So, now things slow down a little. We do have another trial the second weekend of November, but after it's pretty open. We need to decide what we're doing for Thanksgiving and later on in the year, but have a few weeks to take care of that.

Until later,

Yep, recall

2008-10-06T14:00:00.002-05:00

And now the Dow is down some 700 points (3:01 pm Monday October 6th, 2008). That bailout was supposed to do what, exactly?

Recall the bums from Washington. What the hell else is there?

What he said...

2008-10-03T11:37:00.001-05:00

Another opinion on the "bailout". I ~~like~~ LOVE it!!

Investors chill

2008-09-30T14:25:00.002-05:00

I'm not an economist. Hell, I can barely balance my own checkbook. One thing that I do know is that the world isn't going to end. As I said in a previous post, let the free market sort out the winners and losers. Let the companies with poor buisness practices self destruct and be gone forever, but don't saddle us* with the burden of saving their asses.

Yesterday the "Bailout Plan" failed to pass a vote in the House. Thank . Investors did panic yesterday on the news, but it looks like they have regained their composure and have figured out that all this settling out might not be such a bad thing after all. The Dow has so far recovered 4/7ths of the losses from yesterday. That's huge! Good for Wall St. for not digging their heads into the sand and continuing the freakout.

Oh, and if you have some cash on hand... Now's the time to buy stocks. Actually, you might have missed your opportunity by about 8 hours!

*Us - All income tax paying citizens of the United States

Goodbye Capitalism!

2008-09-25T12:51:00.004-05:00

This "bailout" of the mortgage industry is another nail in the coffin for Capitalism in the United States and gives Socialism a big boost! Where does the money come from for this bailout? Well, it's coming from you and me. Oh, but the big G (Government) is going to pay us back you say? Yeah, OK. Um, the Federal Debt (BTW, fittingly, the national debt clock website (http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock) was down when I just checked it - must have melted under the new 1.4 Trillion dollars added from bailouts) stood at this writing at $9,795,500,413,374 (http://zfacts.com/p/461.html). Yeah, you're right. What's another $1,400,000,000,000. To me, that's a lot of zeros.

Consumers made poor choices when they secured loans for their homes. If this is you, I'm sorry, but it's a choice that YOU made. Mortgage companies made poor choices when they wrote loans to people who in the long run had absolutely no business getting those loans. That's their choice and the consequences should not be bailout but should be bankruptcy.

Happy Birthday!!!!

2008-09-22T07:09:00.001-05:00

You know who... ;)

'Bout Time

2008-09-17T17:06:00.003-05:00

One of those things that just makes you say damn, why'd it take so long. He should have been executed by now. Back in March, 2005 Brian Nichols escaped from custody while on trial for rape. During the escape he killed a judge, a court reporter, a deputy and a federal agent who was off duty performing renovations on his house. There's not much doubt about his guilt. Let's get it over with.

3000

2008-09-16T10:28:00.004-05:00

I just noticed that this blog, which admittedly is quite boring compared to the others I read ever day (see the sidebar), hit 3000 visits last week. Thanks to whomever from Texas came from Sandra's blog and later wandered over to Marko's.

Thanks to everyone else who reads this. I average a measly 8 hits per day or so but enjoy occasionally posting thoughts and rants. Thanks for your time.

The Omnivore's Hundred

2008-09-16T03:26:00.008-05:00

This looked like fun. I first saw this at Atomic Nerds but it has origins at Very Good Taste.

(I'm adding links to Wikipedia slowly, so this is still being edited)

Here are the rules:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here linking to your results.
The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese Fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (muscadine and scuppernong)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

9.11

2008-09-11T11:46:00.005-05:00

http://www.daybydaycartoon.com

Morning funny

2008-09-10T07:10:00.004-05:00

Click to enbiggen.

McCain bumper sticker

2008-09-04T08:33:00.001-05:00

First seen here, now available here!! Show your support!

Want to keep up with Gustav?

2008-09-01T16:46:00.001-05:00

Go here: http://gustavbloggers.com/ . First hand accounts of the storm from NOLA.

Tagged!

2008-08-21T07:55:00.006-05:00

I was tagged by Jen for 6 things you may not know about me. Hmmmm, here goes.

1) I don't have much of a memory of my childhood.
Not sure what's up with this, but I just don't have a lot of memories from when I was a kid or a teenager. Every once in a while something will pop into my head, but overall, I have a hard time remembering things that most people have an easy time remembering. Friends and family sometimes ask me, "You remember...." and I just have to shake my head and say no.

2) I'm a Historian (by education).
I love history so finally figured out that I just needed to get a degree in something I really love instead of struggling with something that I really couldn't be happy with. I started in college studying Engineering, changed to business, thought about advertising before finally setting my sights on getting my history degree. I didn't really want to teach after graduating and was already in a pretty good job in the tech sector so I work with computers and networks now.

I loved studying history and am very happy that's what I followed through with. I've gained an ability to look at most any concept critically, trying to consider every approach without making assumptions.

The period in history that I'm most interested in has to be the exploration and settlement of the American Southwest. I'm not sure what drives that interest, but if my wildest dreams were realized, I'd probably be in New Mexico teaching, studying and exploring. While visiting Hollister a couple of weeks ago, we had dinner in San Juan Bautista and I was able to wander around the mission for a little while. I loved seeing the mission church, thinking of all the feet that had worn down the floor tiles, all the events that the timbers have seen. It's an amazing site that just awes me.

3) I can fix most anything.
Maybe not a nuclear reactor, but I'd give it a shot! :)
This started pretty early for me, taking stuff apart just to be able to put it back together. I think the only thing I haven't been able to get back together was an old SLR camera that belonged to my father. I've rebuilt several different engines, from Fords to Chryslers. I've fixed lawnmowers, washing machines, computers, most kitchen appliances, and much more. I have done a lot of repair and remodeling work to our house myself. I'd just rather do it myself than have to pay someone else.

4) I am fascinated by tornadoes.
I don't know, they're just kind of cool. Fascinated and terrified all at the same time when they're close. Awesome power.

5) I was a competitive swimmer from the age of 5 until I turned 18.
I had the potential to swim competitively into college, but lacked the maturity and drive that it took to push myself. I got started swimming at a young age because we had a very nice community pool in the neighborhood where I grew up. From a young age until I turned 16 and started working, I spent every summer day at the pool and in the water. I always did well in DASL summer league swimming, excelling in backstroke. When I was in high school, I only got to swim a couple of years since we didn't have a team every year.

If I had the discipline, I would have tried out for Dynamo swimming, a club in N. Atlanta. They were competitive and had great coaches.

6) I like to cook
Call it survival or whatever, but I love to cook. I really don't get into fancy stuff, but I love home cooking and comfort type food. I especially like to grill (well, what man doesn't) and will try anything from steak to seafood, chicken, pork and vegetables. I want to grill a pizza one day.

Now I'll tag Dan and how about Sandra. Have fun.

Olympics

2008-08-15T21:22:00.001-05:00

Just finished watching Phelps get his 7th gold in amazing fashion. It didn't look like he was going to get it, but he out-touched the silver medalist by 1/100th of a second! He's an amazing swimmer.

Saga of the house

2008-08-08T23:14:00.001-05:00

Sitting here in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport waiting for my connecting flight to San Jose and I find myself with a little bit of time to finally put together a blog post. Yeah, I have been extremely busy this week helping my group finalize networking for our new dorms. Now it is time for a little R&R in California! My good friend Christie Beetz arranged for me to come out and judge for her clubs this weekend. Last year I was fortunate to come out and judge for the same two clubs, and what an experience that was!!

Anyway, I promised a post with pictures of the house. I'll get to that next time and regale you with another story of the continuing adventures of owning a repo house. This time, I want to tell you about what the idiot former owner did to the trees in the yard.

According to my neighbor (as well as all the IRS notices and industry mailings we still get to our address) the previous owner had a business grading and installing drainage for developments. Naturally he owned heavy equipment that he would use in his job. From what I gather, he also enjoyed himself by bringing a backhoe/loader to the house and driving around aimlessly moving dirt. The neighbor (who has been here for a few years longer than me) passed on the story of how he liked to hop on the equipment supplied with a stock of wine miniatures and red plastic cups. His delight was to push dirt around while drinking himself into a stupor, draining bottle after bottle of wine into the little red cups. This wouldn't be much of a problem if the yard didn't have a bunch of trees! Suffice it to say that in his stupors, he'd have problems avoiding the trees that darted here and there throughout the yard. Many still show the scars of his handiwork to this day. Some are beyond help and have died or are dying as we speak. One has developed a nice little rotten spot near the base and has rotted out almost all the way through. This specimen will have to come down later this year since it has developed a crack on the opposite side of the rot that expands and contracts when the wind blows. As our 11 year old said, it looks like the tree is breathing when the wind blows!

One of the other nice side effects of having a drunk as the previous owner is that the dogs periodically find little wine bottles under layers of leaves or half buried in the yard. They'll dig up the bottles and proudly bring them to us when we're out on the deck. Everett has a special love for these bottles and will run around the back yard with the neck in his mouth looking like quite the lush. Of course, you really need to know Everett to understand how absolutely hilarious this is!

Just another amusing chapter in the story of our home. In case you're not familiar, I bought the house back in 2001 out of foreclosure after the previous owner mortgaged the property to the hilt and built his "dream home". After his "dream home" was complete, he and his family picked up and just abandoned our fine home. It's a shame, really, since the house has such great "bones". It's a fine home in a beautiful style (even if it was built in 1979). We think we'll keep it.

Posts

2008-08-04T08:05:00.001-05:00

I've got some rolling around in my head, but just haven't gotten the chance to get them in writing. Look for:

1) Still have to get pictures of the house repairs
2) Let me tell you a story about my trees
3) Health/Weight update
4) I have a trip to Hollister, CA this weekend, I know it'll be blog-fodder-ific!

Busy

2008-08-01T15:21:00.001-05:00

Our University has built the first on campus housing in it's history and we're busy getting the networking all in place for students to start moving in on the 14th. It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks just like this week has. I'll get some content published soon!

Twitter

2008-07-24T13:07:00.002-05:00

I posted the link to Twitter a couple of days ago. Twitter is pretty cool if you get into the whole social networking side of the inter-tubez. I'm probably not going to share my deepest, darkest secrets, but it still is neat to post little blurbs about what is going on. But if no one follows, then what's the fun? So, I have this little add-on for Firefox that signals that someone I'm following posts a Twitter update. I hadn't gotten an update all day and usually a couple come through from EricVon (one of the three Regular Guys). I checked out my Twitter page and all the people I was following and all my followers (what, a couple) were gone. I've had to go back in and add those that I was following.

In other words, if you're using Twitter, check out your settings and make sure your following and followers weren't cleared out.

Interesting - Happy Flu

2008-07-23T16:59:00.001-05:00

From Tam

Lazy, hazy days of summer?

2008-07-22T11:48:00.003-05:00

Actually, a lot has been going on! For one, the past few weeks, I've been working to finish a pretty major repair to the house that Andrew, Neil and I did. Due to a couple of factors, one of my exterior walls pretty much had rotted to nothing. July 4th I decided to do some excavation and see if the damage was more extensive than just siding. Um, yeah, just a little bit! We ended up having to demolish about a four foot wide by 10 foot high section of exterior wall down to the interior sheetrock. We had to replace structure from bottom to top. Luckily the sill plate was still intact on the foundation and the floor joists had not completely rotted away. We were able to sister 2x10's to the existing joists without having to jack up the structure. That was a pretty big "whew" moment there! Next we had to replace the actual sill and sub-floor construction along about a 5 foot section, allowing us to replace three wall studs to a height of about 10 feet. We actually got the insulation and sheathing on in one complete day! All that was left for me to do by myself was to install the siding and replace the trim, caulk and paint. I finished painting the wall and just have the trim to left to paint.

What caused this? You know how they say that water is your house's biggest enemy? Well, they're right. First, the flashing was installed incorrectly on the foyer addition. The flashing along the roof-wall join ended about 2 inches above the gutter. This caused water that flowed down this area to seep between the roof eaves on the front of the house and the foyer wall. Secondly, the idiot who lived in the house before me neglected the shit out of the house. According to my neighbor, he can't remember the previous owner ever cleaning the gutters! I guess you never know what you're going to get when you buy a foreclosure!

I have pictures of the process that I'll post as soon as I get them off the camera.

Also! Take a look at the link underneath my picture over there -> . Occasionally I'll update what I'm doing on Twitter. I think it's a pretty cool little application! Why don't you try it out?

slacker

2008-07-21T19:44:00.001-05:00

I've been quite the blogging slacker for the past week. Work has been keeping me way busy and I've been playing with my iPhone on the little bit of downtime that I've had. I should have a bit more of a post together tomorrow.

iPhone 3G so far...

2008-07-14T09:37:00.001-05:00

I am thrilled! Before I get into what I really like, let me get the bad out of the way really quickly. I only have a couple of gripes about the iPhone 3G, the keyboard and the battery life. Neither are deal breakers by any stretch of the imagination, more inconvenient if anything. The keys are a little close together for us with larger digits!! With more use, I'm getting more and more used to where I need to tap to get each letter. Like I said, not really a big deal. Battery life is inconvenient, but again not a deal breaker. I'll be getting a car charger though, just in case. With heavy data use, especially on the 3G network, the battery tends to drain pretty fast. I think I could pretty easily make it through the day without having to charge the phone, especially after some of the new has worn off it! *G*

Starting off, the iPhone is a phone. Yeah, it does a bunch of other really cool stuff, but if the phone doesn't work, what's the use? Well, the phone works and works well. Reception is as good as I ever got with my Nokia and better than I ever got with the Motorola V3xx.

I love the UI. The Apple UI runs circles around everything else. I find the OS works and works well. No crashes and hardly any slow-downs. The home screen is easy to understand and use, a qwerty keyboard is a breeze to use, and multi-touch rocks! I have used most of the applications and downloaded a few free apps from the App Store and am pleased with how well they work. Maps uses the GPS and WiFi to show a Google map with your location. Use Google to search for anything and pins will drop to show you where to find whatever you're looking for. Tap a pin and you can get directions. Drive and you see your progress on the map. So far, we don't have turn by turn spoken directions, but Tom-Tom is reportedly working on an App already. I have Email set up to work with my Exchange account at work and it's awesome! My favorite App so far has to be Remote. As long as my laptop and my iPhone 3G are on the same wifi network, I can control my iTunes on my laptop from the iPhone. Sounds trivial? I thought so at first as well, but if I combine this with an Airport Extreme, I can broadcast my iTunes to any stereo or other wifi device in the house, controling it all with my iPhone. The possibilities are awesome!

This is a really concise review, but I hope it conveys how truly happy I am with the purchase.

Happy happy joy joy

2008-07-11T15:00:00.001-05:00

Got the iPhone today and have put it through a little bit of its paces. So far, I'm loving it! Unfortunately, Apple's going to take a bit of flack for their server problem during activation, deservedly so if you ask me. But, that aside, the iPhone looks like it'll live up to my expectations. I'll post more of a review after a bit more use.

Neat questionaire

2008-07-08T07:43:00.001-05:00

1. Where is your cell phone? Desk
2. Your significant other? Everything
3. Your hair? Changing
4. Your mother? Denial
5. Your father? Brilliant
6. Your favorite time of day? Any
7. Your dream last night? None
8. Your favorite drink? Beer
9. Your dream goal? Security
10. The room you're in? Office
11. Your ex? Friend
12. Your fear? Loss
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Same
14. What you are not? Patient
15. Your Favorite meal? Steak
16. One of your wish list items? Land
17. The last thing you did? Yawned
18. Where you grew up? Atlanta
19. What are you wearing? Flip-Flops
20. Your TV is? Big
21. Your pets? Dogs
22. Your computer? Rocks
23. Your life? Crazy
24. Your mood? Mellow
25. Missing someone? Nah
26. Your car? Topless
27. Something you're not wearing? Jeans
28. Favorite store? Gadget
29. Your summer? Work
30. Your favorite color? Green
31. When is the last time you laughed? Today
32. When is the last time you cried? Unsure
33. Your health? Better
34. Your children? Good
35. Your future? Unwritten
36. Your beliefs? Steady
37. Young or old? Young
38. Your image? Easy-going
39. Your appearance? All-American
40. Would you live your life over again knowing what you know? Absolutely

Found here

Words that have no place coming out of a 17 year old's mouth

2008-07-02T15:09:00.001-05:00

"Do you want to listen to some good music?"

Bwwaaaaaaahaaaaahaaa

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Across the pond

2008-06-26T12:11:00.000-05:00

Here's the airline I plan on flying across the pond, if ever... Make mine business class, please!

Should the learn economics, or spelling first?

2008-06-25T15:03:00.001-05:00

This story out of Salt Lake City amused me. Then I saw the spelling on the signs... At 7 and 9, you'd think one of them could spell cable or money!

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Slippery slope

2008-06-20T13:09:00.001-05:00

PETA is well known as a ruthless organization with the express goal of removing any human-animal interaction. It scares me that the CEO of Churchill Downs fails to see PETA as they are and actually grant them an audience. To the CEO, remember you saw it here first - If you give in to their seemingly benign "requests", they'll be back next year with even more radical ideas.

Somthing is wrong with this picture

2008-06-19T11:34:00.002-05:00

Don't get me wrong, I love me some scattered, smothered, covered and chunked just as much as the next guy, but for the Waffle House to be named the official restaurant of a road race, that's just silly!

1978 BMW R80/7

2008-06-17T12:57:00.001-05:00

Gently blowing in the breeze...

2008-06-11T10:05:00.001-05:00

Megan's friends retaliated last night.

Mmmmmmm....

2008-06-10T09:12:00.001-05:00

Tasty!!! I've been waiting for the 3G iPhone since the iPhone first came out last year. I knew that the price was way too high and the performance way too low for me to jump to the first generation of iPhone. Jobs & Co. have done the iPhone up right, though, in it's 2.0 version. Sporting 3G speed (actually 3.5G if you check out the specs), GPS, MS Exchange support and 3rd party app support, Apple has raised the bar on smartphones to a level that won't be surpassed in a long, long time.

My only slight disappointment is that the camera on the phone is still 2 megapixels. Apple could have put a slightly higher quality camera in, but probably couldn't have kept the price down in doing so. Oh, the price? You say you won't spend $600 for any phone? How about $199? Yeah, the price will be $199 for the 8 GB model and $299 for the 16 GB. Extremely reasonable for the features the device sports.

I'll be in line on July 11th, count on it! :)

My (short) Mike rememberance

2008-06-07T10:41:00.001-05:00

Today is the memorial service for my good friend Mike. I want to share with you what I wrote to be included in the scrapbook that Ruthanna put together.

Mike.

Mike Lorenzo was a good friend. His passing has helped me to realize to not take for granted the time I have with the people I love. I always figured I’d have forever to sit around and shoot the bull with Mike about dogs, beer, motorcycles, his business, politics and life in general. I’ll miss those conversations.

I got to know Mike and Karen about 10 years ago. I was new to the sport of lure coursing with my adopted Greyhounds and they were the Yankees with the awesome running dogs. I met Karen first at a field trial in south Georgia, she lived up to the reputation as the brassy, loud Yankee that I had heard about. It didn’t take long though for me to realize that she was one of the special people in the sport. I met Mike soon after and realized what a wonderful couple these two were. It turned out that even though they were quite competitive, they were humble when victorious and gracious in defeat. I remember quite vividly the II in Virginia in 1999 when Kookie won from Open but tore a muscle during his final run. We forfeited him to their dog (I think it was Red) who ended up winning the breed. Karen and Mike were ecstatic and were effusive in their praise of us for what we did.

I became friends with Mike over the years as they would make the trip from New York down to Cartersville to go up against the competition we had. I was a relatively new lure operator and learned much from not only Mike’s advice but also just watching how he handled the situations when he was running the lure. We were of a like mind in how to handle the dogs that we were responsible for on the field. I always enjoyed our time after the trials when we could sit around with a beer and remember the runs and what we did right and wrong. I probably took away from that more than I’ll ever realize.

There was an II in Colorado, I believe it was 2003, when Ruthanna and I drove out with Cindy Owens. It was an extremely grueling trip, driving straight through from Atlanta to Colorado Springs in a little more than 24 hours. Luckily I got to spend a lot of time with Mike that weekend. The two of us watched the Best in II runs from the top of the motorhome, critiquing the runs. Once again it was a great opportunity to share and learn.

The next year Ruthanna and I drove to Iowa for the II and stayed with Mike and Karen in the motorhome. That was a great time since we were able to spend a lot of time relaxing and socializing in the evenings.

2005 was the apex for us with Mike and Karen at the II. That’s the year that Sweeney, Mike and Karen’s wedding gift to Ruthanna and I won Best in II. I remember the run like it was yesterday and how amazed I was at the run he put in. Even knowing how Sweeney ran that day, I was floored when it was announced that Sweeney had won Best in International Invitational! We were so lucky to have been able to share that wonderful moment with our friends. Ruthanna and I will be forever indebted to Mike and Karen for that special gift! I don’t think that any of us, Mike, Karen, Ruthanna or I, have ever come down from that high!

Amazingly, though we had been close friends for so many years, we had never had the opportunity to visit each others homes. Finally in 2007, I was asked to judge a trial in Connecticut. On the way up, Ruthanna and I arranged to stop by their home and have dinner before continuing up to the hotel. We had an awesome time and a great dinner with them that evening.

The following weekend we were able to return the hospitality (at least I hope we did) and have Mike and Karen stay with us while she was judging the SEGC trial in Moreland, GA. We all had a great time even though we were quite exhausted! Mike was a godsend that weekend for SEGC as I was judging the IG Nationals close by and was not able to help with the SEGC trial. Mike was Johnny on the spot and did yeoman’s work to keep the trial moving.

That was just the kind of guy that Mike was. He always came to trials prepared to lend a hand or a machine, was always working to be innovative with equipment. He was always willing to take time to teach up and coming lure operators. He always took the time to just hang out and shoot the bull.

Zippy little critter!

2008-06-04T12:12:00.003-05:00

We spent much of Sunday at John Parker's place over in Newnan, GA practicing the dogs on a 200 yd straight. We ran Lobo, Nellie and Carmela a couple of times each (We had forgotten our accouterments for taking care of Sweeney's and Everett's feet so they didn't get to run). Everyone had a great time and we got to see some pretty fast runs. I was really impressed with Carmela the most. She's a speedy thing, running completely like a grown up dog. Actually, she's really never run like a puppy, always running with her head down and reaching well with her front legs. She seems to always be in control of her body. I was also impressed with Nellie's runs. I slipped her so all I could see was her ass as it quickly faded into the distance, but what I could see was something I've recently learned from reading Gazehounds and Coursing by Dutch Salmon. Nellie tracks very well when she runs. It looks like she's running a rail and her feet occupy a width of about 4 inches on the ground beneath her. Very pretty to watch!

I don't think the dogs will be running much for the next few months since it's going to be so hot. I'm really looking forward to the fall racing season so we can get Carmela out and see how she does!!

Speaking of Carmela and racing, I'm going to need to get her box trained. I'd like to build a simple one hole contraption that I can use to get her accustomed to going in and out. I'm thinking of using corrugated plastic board and making something simple. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Wrong observation

2008-05-29T19:31:00.003-05:00

Regarding the iPhone, in an article in the NY Times today:

"Both Mr. Jobs and Randall L. Stephenson, the chief executive of
Apple’s partner AT&T, have promised a new iPhone model this year
that would run on a high-speed wireless data network. AT&T is
building such a network, which uses technology known as 3G and is
intended to support a range of new applications, including mobile
digital video. The company said last week that the network would be
largely finished by the end of June.
But analysts say faster downloads may not be enough to touch off a new wave of consumer interest in the iPhone.
“Subscribers don’t care what the radio interface of their cellular phone is,” Mr. Snyder said."

Emphasis mine.

I know quite a few people, including me, who have been waiting for a 3G version of the iPhone before purchasing one. Duh.

Arrangements for Mike Lorenzo

2008-05-29T12:02:00.002-05:00

Here are the arrangements for the service for Mike:

On June 7, 2008 from 12p to 5p there will be a luncheon and cash bar at the American Legion Post 488:
532 Lakes Rd
Monroe, NY 10950
845-783-3965

http://legionpost488.org/content.php?id=15

I won't be there, but Ruthanna will. We'll be putting together a memorial book of stories and pictures to present to the family. Anyone who might want to contribute can contact Ruthanna at bii2005*at*bellsouth.net.

Instead of flowers, please consider a donation to one of the following (I suggest the Take the Lead Foundation):

(1) A memorial contribution for the I.I. Greyhound Best of Breed
trophy that has been established in honor of Mike and his memory.
Contributions may be made via PayPal (the e-mail address to be used
is MikesTrophyFund@aol.com) or by way of check payable to the
Southeastern Greyhound Club and sent to 364 Country Club Rd., Newnan,
GA 30263.

(2) A contribution to help defray outstanding medical and other
expenses. Checks payable to the Mike Lorenzo Medical Expense Fund may
be sent to 49 Sunrise Ridge, Florida, NY 10921.

(3) A contribution to the Take the Lead Foundation, which helps dog
people with expenses related to life-threatening or terminal
illnesses, and helped Karen and Mike during their time of need.
Contributions may be made on the Foundation's Web site at
http://www.takethelead.org/contribute.htm

On Mike

2008-05-27T08:33:00.002-05:00

I’ve been trying to put words together, but there is much more to Mike than I can ever put in to an email or blog post. Mike was a great friend first of all, an excellent lure operator and knowledgeable mentor. I’m lucky to have known and learned a great deal from Mike.

I miss my friend.

Edit: That's Mike and Nellie, one of the two wonderful Greyhounds that we're blessed to have from Mike and Karen.

Mike Lorenzo

2008-05-23T21:02:00.002-05:00

I know many of you have been following what's been going on with our great friend Mike Lorenzo and his struggle with a brain tumor. About 9:30 this evening Mike passed away peacefully. Karen, Karen's mother, Noreen and Barbara were with him.

I don't have much to say right now. I will post an update when arrangements have been made. Please keep Karen and the family in your prayers.

A bachelor party

2008-05-23T13:56:00.012-05:00

Of sorts, anyway... My friend Neil is getting married in October, so Andrew, Stephen and I decided to do something for him as a kind of bachelor party (really an excuse to get together, drink beer, eat and fish). So last Thursday evening, Andrew and I showed up at Neil's to pick him up (he thought he was going off for the weekend with his fiance). Surprise!!! We loaded up and about 7 hours later pulled in at Stephen's father-in-law's ranch near Bradenton, FL.

We spent Friday there, working on the fence line, fishing and running around the property. Saturday morning we got up and cleaned the place up and headed in to Bradenton. After securing fishing licenses, beer and food, we were off on the water. Stephen has a 23 foot center console that we took out to the bay and fished the flats and mangroves. We spent the rest of the day out on the boat, not catching much but having fun anyway! Sunday we got up pretty early and spent the morning out fishing again, not having much luck this time either. I think we brought home one trout, but again, it really wasn't about catching the fish...

We were able to relax a good bit of Sunday afternoon as the water was a bit choppy for us to get back out. So we hung out, played with Stephen's kids and napped. Instead of grilling out or cooking, we decided to head out to the coast for dinner. I had some really great Grouper at the Rod and Reel Pier out on Anna Maria Island. Everyone was happy with their meals and happy with the day.

Since we were leaving Monday, we got up and hit the water early. Actually, Andrew literally hit the water early. As I was throwing the anchor in so that we could net some bait, I threw the anchor with my right hand and held the rope w/ my left. Imagine my shock as I threw the anchor and the rope didn't go with it!!! Seems the captain (*cough* Stephen *cough*) had not checked the equipment and the clevis had come loose! So here we are, in the middle of Tampa Bay with a loose anchor on the bottom! Luckily, we were really in only about 3 feet of water or so and Neil was able to spot the anchor. In Andrew went, shirt pants and all! He did get the anchor, luckily, $150 saved for Stephen!

We had better luck on Monday morning, catching 6 trout a couple of snook and getting in to some jacks. The rain started moving in on us about 10 am so we decided to head in and get on the road.

I'm lucky with these friends of mine. I've known these guys for at least 27 years. Neil and Andrew live within a couple of miles of each other on the other side of town from me. We get together usually a couple of times a month. We try to see Stephen as often as possible, but with him in Bradenton it usually works out to once or twice a year.

Wilco

2008-05-23T09:56:00.000-05:00

Family

2008-05-22T13:16:00.004-05:00

First, four generations of Birchfields. Left to right: Jerry Linward Birchfield, Todd Linward Birchfield, Guy Linward Birchfield, John Brewster Birchfield. I'm not sure when that was taken, but it would have to be somewhere 1973-1975.

That's my mother and Father, 1964. Ellen Groover Birchfield (now Bledsoe) and Jerry Linward Birchfield.

Thanks to my Aunt, Jackie Houze, for getting me these.

Concealed Carry in Georgia

2008-05-15T06:42:00.002-05:00

Governor Perdue signed HB 89 into law yesterday expanding where citizens can legally carry concealed weapons. According to the AJC (link), "With Perdue's signature, restaurant patrons will be permitted to carry a firearm, but would be barred from drinking while doing so. Violations would be a misdemeanor. Concealed weapons will now be allowed in state — and by extension — local parks. Firearms in purses or under jackets will also be permitted on public transportation."

Also according to the same article, "Union drivers had said they would demand bulletproof shields on MARTA buses if the governor signed the bill." Please. Who are bus drivers (and anyone in the general public, for that matter) more in danger of? Criminals carrying concealed without a permit, with no regard for life or property or properly licensed individuals who go to the trouble of being fingerprinted, submitting to a background investigation and paying a pretty good fee for the privilege to carry concealed?

I'm sure this matter will end up in courts. Hell, I'd bet some Brady type group has already filed suit somewhere in the state. If you're interested in efforts to secure your right to arm yourself, here a good site on the subject:

GeorgiaCarry.org

A few blogs that have good information on concealed carry:
View From the Porch
ColtCCO
The Munchkin Wrangler

Huh?

2008-05-12T10:38:00.002-05:00

Makes no sense to me... I average 3-4 hits per day to this little blog, and that's ok w/ me. I know most of my readers, I'm not trying to persuade, I just like to share a little sometimes. So, imagine my surprise when I see my hits jump to 21 in one day!! What the heck? The only thing I can think of is that maybe I was a 'next site' link or something for the day...

Around the house

2008-05-10T08:24:00.004-05:00

One of our planting islands that surrounds the house. The yard is a bit of a mess in this picture, thanks to the pine logs in the background.

White Rose

Can you identify this? I used to know...

Some more pictures

2008-05-10T07:23:00.006-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. Life is...well, life is busy these days. We're working on a rather large VM proposal right now that will take up a lot of my time if we can pull it off. We're in the planning stage and I'm pushing to get a bunch of hardware ordered before the end of the month. Besides that, the kids and dogs keep us busy busy as always.

We were at Old Mill Farm last weekend for the SEGC Old Mill Stakes. Here are a few pictures.

Carmela practicing

You'd think that at almost 5, Sweeney would quit coming in on his head!!!

Carmela goes for the grab!!

MINE!!!!

Not so quick

2008-05-01T16:45:00.001-05:00

The simplest answer might <b>not</b> be the right answer after all. I cut the grass today and the drive gave up the ghost after just a few minutes. I'm now thinking that the problem might lie in the belt being worn out. We'll see soon... Cross fingers, please! <G>

Over There ---------->

2008-04-29T11:36:00.001-05:00

One blog added and a bunch removed. Check out Sandra's blog; she can tell quite a story!!!

The simplest solution...

2008-04-27T05:08:00.001-05:00

Is usually the correct one. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, so fixing stuff comes pretty naturally. My problem sometimes is that I can over-think things. Take the lawnmower. We have a rear drive Honda walk behind mower that is awesome. Discovered last season that the drive wasn't working very well, but still pulled. This season, the drive hasn't worked at all. The first thing I decided to do was to try to take the cover off the drive box and check the gears and shafts to make sure something wasn't broken. I wanted to do this without removing the entire rear axle assembly, but this proved more difficult than expected thanks to the design of the box. While I was fiddling with the box, I tested the action of the levers to see if the wheels engaged at all. I noticed that if I let the engaging lever on the box slack just a little bit, the wheels would rotate freely and the drive would not pull. Hmmm, maybe if I pull this cable from the operators position a little tighter.... Whoooops! That's it!

Of course! The simplest answer!!!!

Sighthounds, Gazehounds

2008-04-23T13:58:00.001-05:00

Just a little update about what I've been up to. In case you haven't seen it, I started a new email list focusing on the performance sighthound recently. The list is, in fact, called Sighthound Performance, you can follow the link to the group home. If you'd like to join, shoot me an email and I'll be glad to add you. So far there's been some really good discussion on type and function among other things.

This sort of leads me to what I'm reading. Gazehounds & Coursing by Dutch Salmon is an excellent read for anyone interested in performance sighthounds, purebred and otherwise. You can get the book here if you're interested. Thanks to Dan for talking this book up so much over the years.

Nicely said...

2008-04-16T08:17:00.001-05:00

This entry, in a blog I've recently begun reading, says 'Leave me the hell alone' so well... Heh...

Just got back

2008-04-14T17:55:00.001-05:00

From Seattle a few minutes ago. Spent a very enjoyable weekend with my good friend Phil, judging for WWWA on their field in Roy, WA. What a beautiful place! Super people and nice dogs made it a wonderful weekend. I'm pretty tired and jet lagged, but it was worth it. Saw a few really nice runs, one super Ibizan Hound that could have won BIF on Saturday and did win BIF on Sunday. All in all it was a really good time. It was nice to see (and talk to) Jenny, an ex-pat from Mississippi now living in WA. Nice to hear a bit of home in a voice in the PNW! Met a lot of really nice folks and got to renew quite a few good friendships. Thanks again for having me out!