Sunday, December 31, 2006

2006 Resolutions / Wikipedia

Whew, I just completed the last of my 2006 new years resolutions, to edit a Wikipedia article! It took me this long to find something I knew that someone else hadn't already posted.

I was busy entering all the 2007 Formula 1 race sites into Google Earth when I noticed that there weren't any coordinates for the Fuji Speedway in Japan. No fear, Mike to the rescue! See the coordinates in the upper right corner? Yup, that was me!

As insignificant as that was, it gave me quite a thrill!

Hope you all have a happy new year and keep safe.

See ya next year,
MikeD out!

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Friday, December 29, 2006

Pet Peeves

Believe it or not, I have some pet peeves that bother me. Today I thought of two that get on my nerves. My pet peeves for today are the terms '24/7/365' and 'giving 110 percent'.

Lets start out with 24/7/365. Why do we need the 365? If you are 'doing it' 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, doesn't that make the statement that you are going for? What is next, 10 years a decade? 100 decades a millenium? I think these people that added the 365 are just trying to flaunt that they know how many days there are in a year. Big deal! What do they do during the leap year, take a day off? Change it to '24/7/366'?

I would be much more accepting of it if they said '24/7/12'. Why? Because it reminds me of Christmas eve in a funky euro-date way. Lets stick with the 24/7... K.I.S.S.

Now for the all of you giving 110%. You all are sandbaggers! If you are able to crank your effort up to 110%, you have been holding back effort when you said you were giving it 100%. When you said you were giving it 100% you were actually only putting out 91% effort because you could obviously put out more. This is no different than Spinal Tap's 'special' amps that go to eleven. Give me a break. If you are working as hard as you possibly can you are giving it 100% effort.

Think of it like a glass of water. We can argue for ages about half full/half empty but if it is full to the rim, it is 100% full. There is no way to fill a glass to 110%. (we will overlook surface tension for this argument) No if's and's or but's.

Developing...

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Thursday, December 28, 2006

Mikey Bored

Booo! No Office tonight and I'm bored! I sit here sipping my dirty martini with jalapeno stuffed olives (thanks Jeff) wondering what to do.... Lets Blog! (I'm a little blog happy today, huh?)


Here are some shots from Carrie's and my last 'real' vacation to Kauai in September of last year.





I have decided that Kauai is the place for me. The first time we went was in 2001 for our honeymoon. We did alot of driving around and touristy type stuff including a helicopter tour of the island. It was great, I hated leaving.

In 2005 we went just because we could. This time we toned down the touristy stuff a bit and spent more time just hanging out. Never have I been more relaxed. Every day ended with Carrie and I lounging on the lanai with a sneaky tiki watching the clouds head out to sea. Utopia!

Next time (hopefully soon!) I think we will stay at the same place as the previous times and not venture far from it at all. The beach was great, the grounds were great, and there is plenty to do within minutes of the condo. Take a look. Web cam of the beach.

Eventually I am going to try and tie these pictures to Google Earth so you can see where the picture were taken from, and I can remember...

BTW, if you havent downloaded the free version of google earth, do it now. It is one of the coolest things going by far. It is a globe on crack!

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No Fly Zone

I am being buzzed by a fly the size of a marble and it is driving me nuts! The bastard came in from outside and now that he is warm, he is chock full of energy.

Buzz Mike, fly to the opposite end of the office, buzz Mike, repeat.

This has been going on for the last hour or so. If I don't bail the guy soon I may have to go back into the shop, get an acetylene bottle, open it in the office an flame the sucker out!

BTW - Yes, I am at work, but I am writing this as I am reinstalling a program on a computer. It is one of those tedious installs that you have to babysit. It was either blog or doodle. I chose blog.

Success! The fly has left the building! The fly has left the building!


Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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Saturday, December 23, 2006

Christmas Wrapping

Driving home from work Friday I overheard an interesting talk-radio subject. Christmas songs from heaven and hell. People called in with their favorite and least favorite Christmas songs. It inspired me to put out a list of my favorites. So here we go!

  1. Santa Claus is coming to Town, Bruce Springsteen - Clarence has been rehearsing real hard so Santa will bring him a new saxaphone. There is no greater christmas song than this!
  2. Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas, Burl Ives - The way the war on Christmas is going, it's only a matter of time before we have to rename it as the name Christmas is too closely tied to Jesus. I propose Ivesmas. 'nuff said
  3. Christmas Wrapping, The Waitresses - Addictive like crack! I can play this over and over and never get tired of it.
  4. Happy Holiday/Holiday Season, Andy Williams - I love to belt this one out along with Andy while driving.
  5. Christmas Time is Here, Vince Guraldi Trio - I always connected with Charlie Brown, and not just because I have a mellon head.
  6. The Christmas Song, Nat King Cole - I'm going to put on my turtle neck, sweater, sip eggnog and listen to this infront of the duraflame log. Cozy.
  7. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Andy Williams - Andy swings the belt again!
  8. Christmas is Coming, Vince Guraldi Trio - See #5
  9. White Christmas, Bing Crosby - See #6
  10. Christmas in Hollis, Run DMC - Reminds me of where I grew up, the hard streets of Juanita.

And for some of my least favorite Christmas songs...

Little Saint Nick, Beach Boys - Without Brian Wilson we would have never been blessed with this song, Sloop John B, Wilson Phillips and my next least favorite xmas song....

Hey Santa, Carnie and Wendy Wilson - I used to work retail and if I was unlucky this song would play 3 times during my 8 hour shift. Enjoy the Video!

Christmas in the Northwest, Brenda White - To much sap. Retail burnt me out on this one too.

Sippin' in Seattles Latte Land, Duffy Bishop - I'd like this one if she changed the lyrics back to Winter Wonderland, got rid of the annoying espresso machine noises in the background and let Burl Ives sing it.

Please people, let me know some of your favorites! Comments are welcome, don't be shy!

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Friday, December 22, 2006

Mole Huntin'


Hey everybody! Just taking Google's Picasa for a spin... So far so good, found all my photos and makes them easy to share.

Here is the first mole captured in my backyard a few years back. I was happy because I thought that I had solved my mole problem. Wrong!

Check out the 'man hands' as Carrie calls them, on that little beastie. I believe I left him on the porch rail so Carrie could see it. I told her that there was something in the backyard that I wanted her to see... She wasn't too happy!

At least I didn't find a little abandoned bird, herd it in to a bucket and show her while she was showering. That was later... I said "look what I found" and with perfect timing the bird went "CHEEEP!" scaring the daylights out of her. What a good husband I am!
Posted by Picasa

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Saturday, December 16, 2006

Brutal!

Man, my Seahawks are driving me nuts! This is as schizophrenic a team as I can recall. We know they can make things happen. I have no fear when down by a touchdown or less giving Hasselbeck the ball on the 15 with 2 1/2 minutes to play. It is the other 47 1/2 minutes of the game before that that worries me. Spot a team multiple points early, long drives that fizzle out... Ughhh... I fear no team except the Hawks.

Enough of that, it is making my chest hurt. You hear that Elizabeth? I'm coming to join you honey! (Sanford and Son reference for all y'all that don't recall)

Carrie couldn't got to the game because she needed to work (lucky!) so I went with a buddy. We took the bus in as we were both coming from work across the lake. There was a storm coming in and it was raining pretty good when we got to the stadium. We got to a bar and had a few brews. With about a half hour until kickoff we decided to head over to our seats. Oh my God! It was raining as hard as I have ever seen it rain in my life, and I am old now! The street between us and the stadium was three inches deep with water. My ticket held together long enough in the monsoon for the fella to scan it and not much longer. We got to our seats and never sat down the whole game.

I left that game early for the first time in quite awhile. The Seahawks stunk, the weather stunk, and we had to catch a bus to get us back to our cars. We got to where the shuttles were staging and saw a bus tagged S Kirkland (that is our park and ride). It was dark so we went to the bus in front of it... Tagged S Kirkland but dark again. After a few more of the same we saw that the bus at the front of the que was loading. (makes sense) We hopped on and decided to not talk about the game, we talked cars. The bus gets going and we finally get to our destination. Not so fast, we got on the wrong bus. We were at the Eastgate park and ride. 5 miles from where we wanted to be. Luckily the driver was a cool guy, he felt sorry for us and drove us to the S Kirkland P&R. Phew, dodged a giant bullet there. It was either wait 45 minutes in crappy weather for the next bus or call C to drive down and pick us up. Neither option sounded like much fun. Driving home from the park and ride my truck was handling like a truck. All over the road, it felt like the suspension was coming loose. It wasn't, it was the wind...

I got home and the wind was kickin' it old school. Big gusts were pushing the trees around like they were nothing. Our power blinked many times but never went out. As I laid down to go to bed I set my blinking clock to the time and tried to go to sleep. Ten minutes later it was blinking again. Repeat. Eventually around midnight, the power went out for real. At least I could sleep and not worry about a blinking "12:00" in my face. Around 4 the power came back on. We were lucky.

This morning we swung by mom and dads house and it was freezing, you could just about see your breath. Mom looked pathetic. She was wearing every piece of fleece she had and a goofy Tom Petty-esque fleece hat. Bo (the dog) was in her arms with a red Osmond family Christmas sweater on. Sad! We invited them and Carries parents over as our house was warm.

Tonight as I type this, around 48 hours have passed since the storm began. My parents and C's parents and sister have been hanging out at or house as their places are still without power and may be for a few more days. I really feel for all the people that don't have that option around here. Without a furnace, these houses get cold pretty quick.

Keep warm!

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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Greatest Album

Looky here, one day, two posts!

As I was writing that last novel, I was listening to some Nirvana as everybody should once in awhile.

I have decided that their In Utero album is probably the best album EVER! From the clicks of the drumsticks to kick it off on track 1, Serve the servants, to the great All Apologies, this album is perfection.

My favorites on this album (they are all great) are Heart Shaped Box, Milk It, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, Pennyroyal Tea, and All Apologies. The last two are on my GOAT (greatest of all time) play list.

I miss Nirvana.

If you got a better album, let me know on in the comments (please write comments!!!) and I will promptly shoot them down like clay pigeons. :)

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MNF

Howdy pard'ners!

Hi, my name is Mike and I am a procrastinator...

Well since I last blogged, a lot has gone down. Lets start at the beginning. C won out and we put up out Christmas stuff on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I dragged the tree out from under the house, put it together and promptly ran away to the garage to work on the outdoor lights. We bought a pre-lit tree a year or so back which cut the stress down 50% but it is still too much for me! I came in to put the angel on top as C couldn't reach it. Outside I got the lights that outline the lower roof line but quit with that for now. I promptly blew a fuse on the first string when I mistakenly had three strings in a series... I used the watts-volts-amps equation, but fed it bad information. I was a bit low on the wattage of the C9 bulbs from memory and paid the price. I'll finish the display this weekend, decorating the shrubbery.

Monday we had a Monday Night Football game (duh) against the hated Green Bay Packers. I remember at the last home game I was talking to Kevin, the fella that sits next to us and he expressed how he'd love to see a snow game in Seattle. Fat chance I thought, I can't remember the last white Christmas that we had, good luck getting it on a Seahawk game. It snowed hard on Sunday. Dang, I thought. We get a rare MNF game in Seattle and it happens to be on the week that it dumps on Sunday. Rotten luck, snow typically doesn't stick around long around here, especially before December.

On Monday, sure enough, the snow has chilled out and Seattle looks like any other Monday in November. We head down to the game, head in to the J&M, the place where I got food poisoning, (I am a trooper) and tossed back some beverages. it was pretty chilly, but no snow, the sky was clear. Boo.

We head out for the game and pick up a street dog at the very place where Ken Hamlin had his skull broken with a road sign. I had cream cheese and onions on mine. Delicious!

We got to our seats with around twenty minutes until kickoff. The field was completely bare, just like any other Sunday. I noticed a single pathetic excuse for a snowflake and joked, "it's snowing!". We got a good chuckle out of that. Before the row started packing in we decided to put on our rain pants as it was cold, and they would keep us warmer. The teams head back into the locker rooms when boom, it started dumping...

Here are my rankings of football weather starting from least desirable to most desirable...
hot and sunny
cloudy grey day
cool but sunny (jacket needed)
rain
snow

And man did it!

The field was almost completely white by the time the game started except for the big rectangle where they had the big flag for the national anthem. Sweet! It kept snowing the whole first quarter and then let up. A good thing to, as GB looked like they new how to handle things in the white stuff and we didn't. I was pissed. The game was recording on the DVR at home (in beautiful HD), it was snowing and the Hawks looked horrible. I was going to have to go home and erase it. Thank goodness they shook off the icicles and stopped giving the game to GB in the second half. It turned out to be a pleasing win.

We happily skipped back to the car, made the endless trek out of the parking garage, shot up cherry street and hit the express lanes with a smile. The roads were fine, I was flying. I noticed on our new cars navigation screen that there were a few accidents on the freeway around our house and noticed that the regular lanes of I-5 was starting to backup badly even though we were miles from there. I darted off the freeway wondering what the big deal was. I quickly found out.

Off the freeway the roads were horrible. Solid ice an inch thick. We were hung up in traffic almost immediately. We had been driving 10 minutes and were over a third of the way home. The rest of the trip took an hour and a half in an endless ribbon of cars creeping at a walking pace. Aaargh!!! We passed countless parked vehicles. The Metro buses were all parked in the bus stops with lights flashing, one with a smashed mirror. One road had at least 6 lined up, unable to move. As we got closer to home I was able to pull off the main drag onto a road with barely anybody driving on it. What a relief. We still had to get up the hill to our house but with the new RDX's computer controlled all-wheel drive it was a breeze. Many cars didn't make it, and just pulled off to the side, sometimes nicely, many at a 45 degree angle, some backwards and a few in the ditch. I passed one guy in the middle of the road just spinning his tires going nowhere. He had a few people pushing so I kept my momentum and continued on home. Boy was it a relief when we got there.

We flipped on the news and saw that we were the lucky ones. My mothers 7 mile commute home from work took her 3 hours. Many took longer, and many just parked it at a restaurant, hotel or anywhere warm that they could camp out.


It is now time for bed... I still need to fill y'all in on our trip to Denver. Check back soon, don't give up on me!

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Thursday, November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving my loyal readers! (All two of you!, LOL)

Boy am I glad it is Thursday... I didn't think Wednesday would ever end.

My alarm that I have had since I was twelve went off simultaneously with my phones alarm, playing Fox's NFL theme. I 'put my feet on the floor' as Dad used to always say, got up and did my morning business. All pretty typical so far. I got on the road at a good time.

It all started when I pulled up to the Starbucks Drive-Through. My grande almond latte tasted as if it was made of Folgers instant and cardboard. Blech! The time was 6:30 am, the next twelve hours would be much of the same.

At work we have a project that is pouring concrete on the second floor Wednesday and I needed to get the drawings out to our foreman by the end of today if I didn't want work Friday (I didn't). Problem is, I need the drawings from someone else before I can start. Now the anxiety is kicking in. I keep myself busy until I get the drawings around 11. Since I usually take lunch at 11 I decided to get that out of the way so I could pound the drawings out.

I headed over to Whole Foods to pick up the ciopino (fish soup, sublime) that I craved, a mini-loaf of french bread, and a green tea. The place was packed with people getting ready for turkey day. I was in and out without any issues. When I arrived back at the office, everybody was outside. The fire alarm was going off. Great. No worries, there wasn't a fire but you couldn't go in our office as the alarm was bloody loud! I bum rushed our kitchenette and grabbed a spoon and paper towel, turned around and bolted out. Eating lunch in the truck was uneventful, no spills, got to watch big ladder 16 show up and firemen check all the units in full gear (oxygen and all). Finally they shut down the alarm, I was done with lunch, time to get on with it.

What I had to to on these drawings wasn't difficult, it was tedious. Basically, all the pipe we put in a building has to be hung from the ceiling. Before they pour the second floor concrete we drill holes in the metal deck and put inserts through that we can hang the pipe from. Once the concrete is poured, these inserts are securely part of the floor. I have to basically draw (with CAD) each individual insert, just a dot (there are hundreds), and dimension each one so the guys in the field can put them in the correct place. Remember draw by numbers? It is that in reverse.

I forgot to add that today was the day they decided to collect all the leaves around the complex. The blower guy had that thing running full throttle ALL DAY! I elect the drone of a blower as the most annoying noise know to man. As the day went on, my anxiety to finish my project combined with the tedium of doing it and the drone of the blower was winding me into a rage. It took all my strength to keep me from storming out to the guy, ripping the thing off his back and smashing it to bits. Aaargh!

All this is going on when C calls. She asks, "why is there water in the garage where we park?"

I answer, "that is because it has been raining and the cars are wet..."

"uhh, there is a lot of water..."

Crap. Is this really happening today? Sure enough our water heater had given up the fight... Luckily it didn't spray out, it just dribbled. It was fast enough to overflow the pan that I have been meaning to drain to the outside and seep through the wall into the garage. good work by the designers of our house to slope our laundry closet towards the garage or we would be tearing out the carpet today. I hopped in my truck which now stunk of ciopino and garlic. Awesome. C had the water shut off so there was no further damage.

I was now so worked up that my hand was shaking... Not good, Wednesday was beating me.

Anyhoo, to end this long story (at least when typed). With only a bit drama, we went to Lowes, picked up a new heater and parts, removed the old, cut and sweated some pipe, fixed the wiring, filled it up and switched it on. It worked beautifully! I don't know what I would have done if it didn't...

I pulled the truck in the garage and left the windows down to clear the stink.

Since yesterday was a pseudo-Friday we went to Los Margaritas, and I had two of their magnificent ultimate margaritas with dinner. All was well in the world. Before I went to bed I stared at the new water heater installation for a bit. (cue the music) Yeah, the day sucked for the most part but overall it came together at the end and I would consider it a success.

Yay!

Ten things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving....
(in reverse order)

10. My Cottonelle toiletpaper with Aloe
9. My new water heater
8. My couch
7. My Xbox 360
6. My TV
5. My house
4. My health
3. My friends
2. My family

And coming in at #1 by a mile.....

1. My wife - thank God she puts up with me!

[edit] C just complained that I didn't put her on my list.... She thought it was done with #2....

Hope all you have a happy Thanksgiving, wear loose pants!

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Sunday, November 19, 2006

Christmas part 1

Christmas is coming, C's glue gun is getting hot...

I type this surrounded by the wife's card making paraphernalia. Oh how I love this season!

The annual battle as to when the Christmas stuff goes up is about to begin. C would have set it up two weeks ago if the tree didn't need me to drag it out of the crawl space. After quite a few years in the home improvement retail industry, which has had it's Christmas stuff out for over a month, I insist on waiting until we are in the month of December. This year we may have to do it Thanksgiving weekend, and I am not happy.

Anybody used the LED lights on their house? One of these years I'd like to reinvest in these for my house lights. Probably would save me a bundle in energy. Right now I line the lower roof line of our house with white C7 bulbs (or C9's, I can't keep them straight) and put colored mini-bulbs on certain plants in the front. Simple, but it looks like I put some effort in it (I did).



Eventually I'd like to rig some computer control to my lights. Nothing too fancy, just enough to make people smile when they see it. The other goal I have is to make my lights easy to put up and easy to take down. My house lights have been modified, making strings shorter and changing the plug orientation. This year my goal is to streamline my power grid. If you couldn't tell, I do enjoy the decorating, just not before December.

[edit] Hopefully this guy doesn't have any epileptic neighbors, they probably would have a seizure in front of this place

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No good

Crap! Why do I watch sports?! My Sunday is ruined, at least it gets dark at 5 or so now so I can go to bed in a bit.....

Oh well, C'est la vie.

Carpe Xbox.

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Thursday, November 09, 2006

Videogame Junkie...

I've been bad.... In the last 2 weeks I have bought 3 video games.... My name is Mike and I am a video game-aholic.

I am currently playing Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Gears of War, and Call of Duty 3. Three very different evolutions of the first shooter I ever played, Castle Wolfenstein 3d.

Splinter Cell is more of a third person (you see your character) stealth game where stealth is the way to go. In fact on many levels you don't even fire a gun( the horror!).

Call of Duty 3 is a pure FPS game, run and gun. All you see infront of you is the tip of your gun and the Germans. It is based around WW2 and the re-taking of Paris. Very intense action!

Gears of War is basically Doom on crack, steroids, and maybe a bit of caffeine. Probably the most amazing looking game I have seen. Creatures coming at you from all angles. Pretty gory, I actually turned it down because I am not big on that kind thing. Also, not a good game to play right before bed as nightmares would probably follow.

...And by the way, before any of you throw a guilt trip towards me saying, "I wish I had the time to play video games...", realize that this replaces TV time. All I sit and watch regularly is The Office and Lost.

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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

SuperSonics

First game!

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Tuesday, October 31, 2006

I'm Sick

I am getting a little tired of this. Every year, C gets sick before me, sometimes I catch it sometimes I don't. Well, she has been sick the last week or so, and now I have it. Mo*******!!! (Just kidding, no swearwords under there it was just asterisks.)

Anyhow, this sucks... But it has inspired a haiku!

Head in fog, throat itch
nose runs, feet smell, I'm backwards
please pass the kleenex

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Saturday, October 28, 2006

Favorite Movie

Just watched The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissau last night, and I am going to have to rate it as my favorite movie. It has a quirky feel that I enjoy. You will laugh, you will cry, you will say "what the hell?"

The plot....

Steve Zissou, sea-film auteur a la Jacques Cousteau, has reason to be melancholy: his partner has been eaten, perhaps by a mythic jaguar shark, his wife may be taking up with her ex-husband, a young man appears claiming Steve is his father (Steve hates fathers), his most recent films have tanked, he's having trouble raising money for his venture to revenge his partner, and he's attracted to a pregnant reporter who prefers the pretender. At sea, in pursuit of the shark, will he escape pirates and mutiny, forge the bonds of fatherhood, place his arm around his wife, find the monster of the deep, re-establish box office hegemony, and discover a reason to smile?

(I was writing my own summarry but nixxed it when I ran into this very similar, but better one on IMDB.)

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Mole Update

Nothing to say really... I set a trap for the ugly bastard earlier this week but it hasn't been tripped. No activity in the yard that I can see either. Maybe he reads my blog and knows that I will show him no mercy.....

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Monday, October 23, 2006

Mole Huntin'

The bastard is back!

For those of you that don't know the story, I had a mole problem earlier this summer. I went out to mow the lawn and I noticed a bunch of piles of dirt and the ground was a lumpy with tunnels like the gopher made in Caddyshack. Pissed, I ran to the Lowe's down the street and pick me up a mole trap. I set the thing and forgot about it. the next day I hear it trip and run out and see the ground under it still moving. Being the macho fella that I am I grabbed a trowel and went out to put him out of his misery. As I jabbed it, the little thing screamed, "EEEEEEEE!, EEEEEEEEE!". It messed me up. I put a bucket over the trap and let him pass on his own time. That evening I decided I would only kill animals that don't make noises. Fish.

Next morning, I go out to gather him up and the corner of my yard is trashed! Every tunnel is blown open, dirt everywhere, and the lawn looks horrible. On the backside of my retaining wall I find another dead mole, pretty fresh. I don't know if he saw his dead partner, did a load of coke and flipped out ala Scarface, or a raccoon dug it all up and decided that mole tastes bad. I dunno.

Moles are now my sworn enemy! I will hunt them down wherever they are! (as long as it is my yard) There will be no guilt this time!

more to come.....

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Saturday, October 21, 2006

Magic Number Update

Hey Mateys! It has been awhile since I last did the update so here we go....

To win the NFC West, the Hawks magic number is.... 11 (over the Rams)
To win the NFC and get home field throughout, the magic number is... 13 (over the Bears)

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Internet Explorer 7

Just installed Internet Explorer 7 on my home computer named WOPR. Here is a picture of me standing next to it... Why? because I like trying what is new. Best feature so far, especially for my sight challenged friends or those who have their monitors resolution pumped up too high because they can, is that you can zoom whole web pages to see them better. There are many other nice features, but I need to go now. WOPR wants to play a "nice game of chess".

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Thursday, October 19, 2006

Top 5 Pet Peeves

I have pet peeves, here are the top five (for today) If any of these apply to you. Please stop, you aren't hurting me, you are hurting yourself....

People not keeping to the right. This is what inspired me to write this post today. Twice. Why is this so difficult? If you are in the left lane and you aren't passing anyone in the right, get over!!! I don't care if you are going 30 over the limit or 10 under. If you are not passing a car, don't be in the left lane. If you are going the same speed as the right lane and there is room, get over.... It is not your responsibility to regulate traffic speeds!

People merging slow. Your vehicle has a gas pedal, use it. Think about sticking your fingers into a rotating fan. If your finger is moving in a circle at the same speed as the fan, no problem. If you aren't moving you finger and you stick it in, BAM, it hurts. Same with merging.

Overly loud ringers. Your ring tone should be at the same level that you would have a conversation with someone. If you are where you would whisper, your ringer should be off. If you are at a ball game or on a noisy job site where you have to yell , your ringer can be loud. I have no problems with annoying ringer, in fact, I am a proponent of them. (my two favorites and my angry cat ringer and the air horn ringer I made) Just keep the volume under control.

Loud talkers on the phone. Stop... Please.... I don't need to know what you are talking about! Talk at the same level that you would talk to someone that is sitting next to you. Every modern phone that I have seen has a volume control. If the people that you are talking to can't hear you, tell them to turn up the volume.... Stop thinking like you are talking through two tin cans connected by a string. Technology is great, let it do its work!

The previous are all pretty much equally annoying in my mind. There is one more that surpasses all of these for me. Those of you that know me probably can guess what that is....

My biggest pet peeve is.........

People that paint their kids name, team, and/or teammates on car windows. Double the peevedness if you paint the nicknames on there. Gawd! This drives me nuts! Yay, your kid made the all-star team, or the 'ladybugs' are in the playoffs. Whoop-de-do! Why do I need to know? If your kid has some great sporting success, pat 'em on the back, take the team to Far Fars for a banana split, or get them trophies. Always worked for me growing up. I believe this is sellfish. Why? Because growing up, the LAST thing I needed was mom driving around with my name in red white and blue with smiley faces on her car. This would have upped my PAK* exponentially! I prided myself in a low PAK number. Every grade past the 4th, the damage would be double.

I grant a one day pardon for weddings and graduations, only if the owner of the vehicle did not do the writing or ask someone to.

BTW, I think it would be hilarious to do this for a 'beer' league team, but the one day pardon would still be in effect. And, you need to specify somehow that your team is of age.


* PAK is the Probability of an Ass Kicking

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Sunday, October 15, 2006

Mike Tormenting Bo

I blatently ripped this off of my sisters MySpace page. I feel it is OK because she didn't ask me if she could post movies of me in cyberspace! :)

Mike tormenting Bo

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Too bad there isn't any sound, I'm sure there was some thrilling commentary between MJ, dad, and I.

BTW, those are some nice legs on the old man!

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Heart Attack!

Sometimes I hate being a die-hard fan of a team, and today was looking to be one of those days.

Honestly, the Hawks loss to the Bears two weeks ago didn't really bother me too much because after the first quarter, you pretty much knew that It wasn't going to happen. I put on my raincoat and it just rolled off just like the rains that are starting up around here.

After the first half of this football game against the Rams I was going for the rain coat, but the second half was different. By the end of the third, my shirt was off and I was putting on the zinka. By the time Lofa intercepted Bulger, I was in my neon speedo, ready to bask in the glory of a Seahawk win. Then Morris fumbled.... And Holt made that circus catch for a TD to put the Rams up with around 1:45 left on the clock.... Now I was unprotected from the flash flood. I could throw up.

BUT, Matti marches the team down the field and with 4 seconds on the clock they spike the ball on the 30 for a Josh Brown FG. Woohoo!

BUT, there is a flag, and the Rams think it is a mandatory 10 second runoff, meaning the game is over. For the second time in as many minutes I taste vomit again.

BUT, the foul was after the snap, so there is no run-off. Brown comes in to attempt a FG, five yards farther out at 54 yards. The stress is KILLING ME!

THE FIELD GOAL IS GOOD! HAWKS WIN!, HAWKS WIN!!!

Seriously, I cannot take games like this! I need more blowouts, they are much easier on my heart.

Here is what the professional writers have to say...

Regarding what went down in the locker room at half time...

In the locker room before the second half, coach Mike Holmgren had some choice words.

"I unloaded on them," Holmgren said.

"Those words aren't allowed on television," defensive end Bryce
Fisher said. "We'll just keep it PG and say you have to do better."



LOL, his head looked like a tomato during that first half! One PO'd mother!

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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

TV-less

Well, the TV is still out of commission.... Honestly, it is almost like one of those November storms that knocks the power out for awhile. Eerily quiet.....

I have now started book #2 in a week. "The Blindside: Evolution of a Game" by Michael Lewis. Pretty interesting so far. (I'm only in a chapter or two) It is basically the story of Michael Oher, a huge kid that came from a very rough childhood to become a top LT prospect in a very short time. Since he is currently just a Sophomore at Ole Miss, it seems to me like there is still plenty story left to be written.

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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The Nurb

Ahh, Mecca for all who love fast cars....

Here is a video I found over at Jalopnik of some fine pieces of German steel (aluminum) being tested at the 'ring'.




You have BMW M3, Mercedes AMG CLK 63 Black Series, Porsche GT2 and an Audi R8 being put through the paces. All fine pieces of machinery, but what caught my eye/ear most was the Audi R8. That is a great sounding vehicle! And I like the looks too, though the area behind the door might take a little getting used to.

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Monday, October 09, 2006

Just a Thought...

It must have been tough in the years BC, you know, with the years going backwards and all that... Say you were born in 1347 BC and it was now 1322 BC. Would you be "-25" years old? What if you bought a chariot in 5 BC and sold it in 6 AD... Could you claim it was only a year old? Hmmmmm.......

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Avast Me Mateys!

Ah, a little treat for you, the loyal reader of my blog...

A NES emulator that you can play right in your web browser! Go ahead, play Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda, Techmo Bowl or whatever, like you were a wee kid! Great fun!

If you are quite a bit younger than me you are probably amazed that these games were remotely entertaining to us. Actually as a current video game affficianado, I am amazed that these games were entertaining.... I played a little Zelda: Adventure of Link and laughed! I remember picking up this game, a gold cartridge if my memory still works, and being blown away by how high tech it was. Now, my phone that fits in my pocket has betterlooking graphics.... 100x better looking graphics...

All that being said, Super Mario Brothers is timeless! I could get sucked into that game just as easy as I was back in junior high...

FYI, when you load a game, be sure to double click on the display of it to get control. It took me a bit to figure that out.

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Sunday, October 08, 2006

Oh no!

Beings that I haven't read a book for entertainment in quite awhile I decided to pick one up this Thursday. I grabbed "The Book of Fate" by Brad Meltzer. A very entertaining book, in my opinion... It was good enough that I finished it today before dinner. Kinda like my old 'Clancy' days when I would saw through one of his books in a day or so.

We had dinner with the TV on, when "pop!" the screen went black! NOOOOO!!!! Is it mad at me? Did it feel deserted that I paid little attention to it the last few days? We had a good time together this morning watching Alonso all but cinch his second F1 world championship... I guess he was just heart broken that I was paying more attention to paper instead of him. Toshi should know that a simple 'book' could never replace the bond we had.

Now C and I are regulated to huddling around a 12 year old 19" television that has the Spanish subtitles turned on and we can't figure out how to shut them off.... (Apparently the Spanish say "whiskey" instead of "cheese" when posing for pictures) A pretty big jump back from the 62" DLP HDTV that is Toshi.

Feel sorry for me! :)

Oh well, luckily all it is was a projector lamp rupturing and it is easy to fix. I basically have to undo 3 screws, slide the bad unit out, slide the new in and Toshi is as good as new. I should be up and running in time to watch some MNF.

Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight.

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Monday, October 02, 2006

I hate Mondays

Ughhh, I don't know if it was the throttling the Hawks received from the Bears last night or the Diamond Knot Industrial IPA I had while watching, but I am in a fog this morning..... Probably a combination of both.

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Saturday, September 30, 2006

Cars, I love Cars...

I came across the coolest car site while poking around the internet. DPcars.net Here is the summary of his site -


I have long wondered what it would be like to own some of the machines that I keep reading about in magazines. What are they like in daily use, what's it like to take them to their limits? Eventually a time came when I decided to stop wondering and start doing....

This fellow goes through cars faster than I go through shoes.... No joke! He has had everything from a Ford Focus to a Scion xB (the one that looks like a box) to a Lotus Elise (or two), BMW M coupe, and a BMW M5. Takes them all to the track and gives great logs of his expirence. Then he sells them.

That isn't the coolest part. He is building his own track car from the ground up and documenting every step in fascinating detail from designing to building to testing (which he has just started). Yeah, most of you will find the detail he goes into boring (he's an engineer), but I ate it up like a good novel. I couldn't stop reading.

It makes me want to get my RC car out again. I would spend an evening taking the thing apart and putting it back together just because I could. It was almost more fun doing that than driving the thing!

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Magic Number Update

No big changes in the magic number for this week, just one less game to win in each race. 13 for the NFC West, and 14 for the NFC.

Big game against the Bears, very well could be the NFC championship match (I hope).

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Sunday, September 24, 2006

A good week...

Ahhh, what a great football weekend!

The Dawgs pull off their first Pac-10 win in a few years (EDIT: at home, thanks Jeff...) and do it with the second biggest comeback at Husky Stadium. Read about it here... I really think that with a few good bounces that they could make it to a bowl this year. Hell, they have already had a more successful season than last year. I think they are well on their way to sitting at the top of the Pac-10 again.

And then there are my Hawks... Wow, what a game. 21 points in the first quarter and a halftime score of 35-3! Yeah they gave up 27 points in the fourth, but they ended up winning 42-30. No worries whatsoever! I think Deion Branch had a great first game as a Hawk (I keep wanting to call him Cliff, who I just found out is Deions uncle from that link. Isn't the internet great!) I don't if it was because he was excited to be back on the gridiron or if it is the way he always plays, (I don't watch the Pats, I can't stand them) but he seems to have quite a bit of excitement... Jumping up after making a play... woofing... I like him!

The crowd was unbelievable! As I type this a few hours after the game my ears are ringing as bad as after any concert that I have gone to. No sleep for Mike tonight! My throat is a little sore but I should be able to talk tomorrow. I will however go have a hot tea with honey after I am done here.

Boy am I impressed with our D. If the offense can put up 21 points or more a game we will be fine. I think Hamlin is OK after being brained with a sign last October. The O line looked good, not a single sack that I can recall, the interception in the forth when Matty was hit was totally the fault of Morris not taking out his man. (damn Ducks). I didn't even notice that Rob Sims came in for Chris Gray because he sprung his knee... that is a good thing when you are talking O-line.

Note to self... bring sunscreen to games... my face is fried!

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Woo!

35-3 at the half.... Can't expect much more than that!

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FOX

The FOX halftime shox wa being shot in front of the Hawk today... Unfortunatly I didn't have any peanuts to hit Terry with.

Did you see me?

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Magic Number Update

Sorry about the lack of posts lately, I have yet to grow tired of my new videogame.... :)

To win the NFC West, the Seahawks magic number is now 14 with a win over Arizona and a loss by St Louis.

To win the NFC the magic number is 15.

We are off to the game, the Fox pregame is in the north parking lot this morning, but I didn't get up early enough to get down there. I was going to heckle Howie, Terry and Jimmy. Now that I type that don't they sound like you friends in elementary school? Where is Timmy and Joey? LOL, morning humor without caffine! Priceless...

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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Make some NOISE!!!

Hey there faithful blog readers (if there are in fact any!... remember comments are always welcome ;-) )

I got a kick out of this story here today. Someone, a NFL team, has alleged that the noise at the Hawk (Qwest Field) is enhanced with the PA system. The NFL will be monitoring this to make sure that this isn't happening. I have a couple theorys as to who did this.

If it was the Giants, they are fools. Even if true, they have motivated every fan to make even more noise. I hold back on most plays as I have to talk at work on Mondays. Not so this weekend! I will leave it all at the field, the proverbial 110%, running the cords at qualifying RPM's.... If it wasn't them, they are pissed at whoever picked this week to bring it up, which brings me to my next idea as to who did it....

Could it be a divisional foe of the Giants? (Washington, Philly or Dallas) This would be a genius move! None of them come to Seattle this year and they have everything to gain if NY loses. They know Seattle is a tough place to play and they benefit a great deal if the Giants fall to 1-2. Get that crowd riled up! I smell Jerry Jones.....

And last, my biggest conspiracy theory as to where this came from.... The Seahawks themselves! Someone in the organization 'leaked' most likely to a Cardinals front office person that the Hawks supplement the crowd with the PA system... The Cardinals were just here and witnessed how loud it gets, they reported it to the NFL. bingo, this story comes out and if everybody at the stadium makes that much more noise, crushing the Giants with sound!

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Sunday, September 17, 2006

Seahawk Sunday

Ahh, another successful Sunday afternoon at the Hawk (Qwest Field).

After the perfect first quarter the Hawks struggled a bit again on O, but still looked great with the D. There wasn't that feeling of dread that would come over the stadium like a black cloud in that situation in the past. Boy have we missed a defense around here.... Welcome back!

As for the offense, I am a bit disappointed, but not worried. The line is looking human, I am not so sure that the departure of Hutch is the only reason. Shaun needs to run. All to often it seemed like he would not have a hole and just fall over. Maybe if we hung a picture of an endzone off the front of his helmet he would pound it a little more like a horse after the carrot. DJack looked good. His touchdown was sweet. To bad it was at the opposite end of the stadium. In fact all Hawk scores were at the opposite end. Bummer. I was all ready with the camera phone for a good shot at the end of the third when they decided to let the clock run and scored at the south. No such luck!

My favorite part of the game other than the fact that I didn't get sick and they won.... The 'Wave' never got going once. Some buffoons in the upper level tried to start it (the wrong direction) but it didn't catch. Carrie got irritated with me when I yelled "knock it off!" in their direction.

Now if we could just get rid of the silly car race that to many people get a way too excited about. Don't they know it is staged? What a bunch of lemmings! I look away as I feel it rots the brain like the arc in 'Indiana Jones' melted the nazis when they opened it. Leave that stuff for baseball, they need all the enrichment to their gaming experience that they can get...

Same goes for the hide the football under the helmet. Adults yelling "three!!!, three!!, three!!!" just to prove to everyone around them that they were able to follow the ball and then cheering loudly if they were right. Lab rats....

Oh yeah, did anyone catch that tackle by Josh Brown on the rekick? Best tackle by a kicker that I can remember.... He looked like an actual field player! LOL...

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Hawks 1st quarter

Great start to the home season... First drive for a TD, hold the cards to a three and out. Missed FG for them too.

14-0 Hawks

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Magic Number Update

I almost forgot!

To win the NFC West the MN is 16.

To win the NFC, the MN is 16.

Off to the game! GoBigBlue!

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Thursday, September 14, 2006

Cool Cooler Coolest

So, it is Thursday afternoon and the beer that I put in my cooler Saturday is still icy cold... How cool is that? (literally) Looks like I have some work to do...

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Uggh...

I have been listening to Sports Radio KJR this morning and they played "Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates as a bumper and now the song is eating away at my brain...

Private Eyes
They're watching you
Watching your every move...
(and repeat)

Just sharing...

BTW, they got me all hyped for the Hawks home opener. Cortez to the ring of honor. NFC champions banner. Rain. Awesome!!

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Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Kurt Warner with a K

I was scanning the Seahawks Insider blog and saw this post here. Nothing remarkable (I didn't listen to the interview yet), but check out his picture..... No half beard! I don't think that I have seen KW without his perma-3 day facial growth, not that I seek out KW pictures.

I have always said, either grow it or shave it....

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

I know , I know, I haven't posted in awhile... I have been pretty busy lately (yeah right!).

Well, the push to get the deck done was successful. I finished Friday night amid a swarm of craneflys and an anxiety attack at 9pm. I slept good that night! Here is a before and after....




Can you tell which is which?

Next spring and summer I concentrate on landscaping again. Its much more relaxing....

The BBQ on Saturday was great! It was Carries and my first foray into large scale entertaining. We had a good group of family, friends and kids over. Beers were tossed back, flesh was grilled and all seemed to have a good time except for the occasional knife fight... The weather tried to dampen the party but it was to no avail. Too bad summer is over and football has begun or I would have a few more of these. Oh well, there is always next summer, hopefully the deck will still be standing....

The other thing keeping me busy is my new video game, Test Drive Unlimited. Basically they have put the whole island of Oahu with all it's roads and sights for you to explore in expensive exotic cars. That isn't even the coolest part. You run into real people from all over driving at the same time when connected to the internet. It is a thrill to chase someone down and blow buy them, knowing that it is a real person, say in Spain, that was driving the other car. You can challenge people to races, sometimes for pinks, or do individual challenges. I enoy just finding the twisties (there are plenty on Oahu) and just cruising at a high speed, weaving through traffic. It is surprisingly engaging... I even blew off Monday Night Football to race, it is that good.

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Friday, September 08, 2006

Magic Number - Week 1

I will try to do this every week... Unless things get ugly.

For home field advantage the magic number is 17.
For the NFC West divisional title the magic number is 17.

BTW, did you know that the Manning brothers are going to play each other Sunday night? You'd think that NBC would promote something like that a little more.... (eyes rolling) I'm hoping Eli tweeks his elbow in warmups and Tim Hasselbeck starts.

That could be bad if Eli isn't healed by week three because they would then hype the Matt - Tim battle... All they would talk about is Elisabeth. Check the trends.... The only time that Matt (and Tim for some reason) surpassed Elisabeth in Google searches was during the Super Bowl. Matt rules in Seattle 2:1 but loses HUGE in Minneapolis and Cincy. They are Elisabeth fans there!

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Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Methinks

Whole Foods, never been there before. Since they just opened one up in Redmond, within walking distance from my office I thought I'd take check them out today at lunch time.

WOW!!!! This is the greatest smelling grocery store EVER! As I wandered (it is huge) I came across many wonderful scents... A nice fruity smell in the produce department, the fish smelled like fresh ocean, there was a smokey (good smokey!) odor around the meat. Their cheese kiosk was unbelievable (smelled like feet though). The deli was awesome. A flowery scent hung around the middle of the store. Seriously this was the greatest treat my nostrils have expirenced!

The place was a bit spendy, but it looks like you get value. Good thing I am not afraid to BBQ in the winter as there was some good flesh there for the taking. This place makes Larry's Market (RIP) look like a circa 1974 Safeway.

Their sushi looked good to my untrained eye too, I almost picked some up. Surprising after my recent bout with food poisioning. I got to get back on that horse! I will eat seared ahi again! I will just avoid it when it costs $8 at a bar that used to be a brothel. I will stick to beer there....

Speaking of my weekend of hurl, I am now hooked on gatorade. I never craved it before but after downing gallons, I am hooked. There must be crack in there!

...Back at work, I was told by a woman I work with that my bout with food poisioning (the uncontrolled stomach contractions) was what a woman goes through when delivering a baby, so now I know what it is like.... I'll deliver a baby anyday before I go through that again!

With a baby, hopefully you get a night of passion (wink wink) and after 9 months and some convulsions and contractions you are blessed with a healthy baby to love and raise....

My bout with FP, however... I got a grilled ahi sandwich and fries (not bad, or so I thought). I got to boot on a public street in front of strangers who probably thought I was a raging drunk.... I got a good 6 hours or so of convulsions and contractions....

All I was left with was a bucket of bile and a horrible taste in my mouth... No fair!

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Sunday, September 03, 2006

I'm not cruel!

Jay Steller, my bluejay arch-nemisis, was spotted landing on the lid of my highly modified Webber Genisis Silver B with the 3psi propane boost too add 25% to the BTU output at the grill. She'll do 700 degrees in no time flat if I keep the lid down.

He quickly took off (real quickly). Hopefully to never visit my backyard again!

No, he wasn't baited, It was his own fault. Fool!

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Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

I hopped on the scale last night for kicks after eating the biggest meal I dared (bowl chicken noodle, toast) and discovered that I have lost around 10 pounds off my normal (over) weight.... Yeesh, I must have booted a kidney!

Yesterday I attempting to work on the deck, but I was so weak I could only do a little before having to sit for a bit. C was a bit irritated with me, but what can I say, I'm a dog. Like Bo (Moms Boston Terrier) I'll chase a ball 'til I drop... I almost dropped... I did make some appreciable progress though.

This morning, after being awakened by sirens, and a helicopter circling for 45 minutes at 2am. Then an outburst by Jay Stellar for an hour at 6am... I actually feel almost normal. I think I'll run by the 'Buck and pick up my usual (grande almond latte... sublime!) and may try some breakfast that isn't bananas or apple sauce. Let's hope for the best! Arrivederci!

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Friday, September 01, 2006

Uggghhhhhh.....

Since my last post from the Seahawk game things went downhill quickly for me... No worries, I'm fine now.

Basically, I got myself a nice case of food poisoning. During halftime my stomach started to feel not so good, no biggie, but something was up... In the third quarter, when the Hawks came up on a forth-and-3 I decided it was time to go. I was miserable, or what I would have previously considered miserable.

We walked, slowly, back to the truck. I drove it out of the garage, as it was pretty tight, and switched with Carrie after we paid for parking. As we headed up Cherry street, a San Francisco like grade, heading towards the express lanes I realized there would be no place to pull over for miles.... "Pull over Carrie!" She handled it like a champ.

We pulled up against the curb and I unleashed like the Excorcist... My God it was horrible! The worst was seeing people look at me, I'd rather be naked in public than boot. Well after I got that out I didn't feel too bad, on with the trip home!

Around a mile or so to go to home I sensed it coming back again... What the hell??? We pulled into the driveway and I yelled for Carrie to stop! I did it again right there, being sure to miss the lawn (I actually thought about that) and praying that no neighbors were within earshot. I hosed off the walkway and Carrie hosed the driveway so their would be no reminders in the morning. I hoped I was done.

To make this long (and disgusting) story short, from around 10pm and 4am I booted around once every 30-45 minutes... It felt like my abdomin was a damp rag being twisted by giant hands for every last drop of moisture, combined with someone trying to remove my insides with a giant mellon-baller. Horrible!

As of this morning I feel 1000x better, still not even at 60%, but I'll take it! I am on the BRAT diet for a couple days (Carrie was worried enough to call the emergency room, that was their recomondation) Bananas, Rice, Apple sauce and Toast. Mmm, mmm, good! No tuna cassarole for me tonight! Hopefully my tongue will start working soon so I can taste bananas. I'm eating one as I type and it has all the flavor of a tofu stick!

Just a thought, If I could replicate the muscle action of booting without the nasty bits and do it three times a week, I would have abs of steel in no time! Maybe thats how I'll make my millions!

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Thursday, August 31, 2006

Half Time

I know you can't read the offense board, but it says that the raiders have 2 first downs, -3 passing, 13 rushing, for a total of 10 yards of offense. You have to love it! Chants of Raiders suck are met with silence from the Raider goons in the stands... Priceless!

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Here we go! My first hawk game me the season... I am stoked!

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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Great White North

So Carrie and I are eating dinner the other night and Mr. Jay Steller (Cyanocitta stelleri) lands on the finely hand-crafted railing I just installed and runs back in forth across it. What a cool bird I thought to myself, You could see his intelligence just by how he was moving around. He looked like the Glen Plake of the bird world. I almost forgot that I highly disliked the guy.

Almost until he unleashed a barrage of the most unholy demon spawn of a bird call that I have ever witnessed. Aaaack! ack! aaaaaaack! aack, aaaaaack! AAAAAAAAck! AAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!! After about 30 minutes of this he finally gave it a rest. Peace had returned to our backyard. Not for long, once C and my nerves finally settled down, Jay came back with three of his buddies and they each went to a different corner of the yard. They then proceeded to have a 'yell fight' for an hour and a half.

What the hell did I do to deserve this?!? So I happen to have the one backyard with a lot of trees. I was considering taking them down.

I actually missed the times in apartment B107 when I would light the BBQ and the heavyset 6'4 bald guy with goatee, wearing a tank top, cut off sweats, (occasionally a bath towel and no shirt, no joke) and flip flops would say to to me, "Hey partner, what time do you want me to come up?" It got to the point to where I would watch him through the curtain, and when he turn his back, I would run out to flip or bring in the burgers. My meat was inconsistent those summers.

But I digress...

I hate Jay Stellar.

BTW, I looked up Steller's Jay on Wikipedia to find the scientific name (not memorized, sorry) and about fell over backwards when I read this...

You also won't want to feed them around your home for the reason stated above, but also because they are the loudest, most obnoxious creatures in the forest.
They shriek and caw ceaselessly.

LOL!

Here is a reason to dislike Canucks.... (like we need more!)
The Steller's Jay is the provincial bird of British Columbia

Just kidding we love you, Eh? You gave us Rick Moranis!

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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Miscellaneous Ramblings...

What up, home fu schnickens?!? It's the Mike Dizzle!

So I was thinking today, Why doesn't Car and Driver, the greatest all around auto magazine, publish their Road Test Digest online? This is a crime! No worries though, I decided to take action... Yes, your friendly MDizzle decided to start typing in the entire digest. If you don't believe me check right here... I got the first page in and decided to give it a break. I know, I have way to much time on my hands. In a weird way, it was kind of relaxing, I set the itunes on a 5-star palylist and typed away... Maybe I'll finish it in a few days. Feel free to use it to settle your frequent car arguments, but remember, these numbers are not gospel.

Why I love punk ....
Dead Kennedys, MTV - Get off the Air. Spot on. Does MTV even play videos any more? I honestly haven't watched MTV since Jackass stopped airing new episodes.

BTW - Best Dead Kennedy song? Holiday in Cambodia.

edit - the spreadsheet isn't viewable with out an invitation. drop me a email if you would like to view it.

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Monday, August 28, 2006

Parasitic Song of the Morning...

The Beach Boys, "I Get Around".... Uggh. Why is this in my head????

It could be worse, It could have been "Sloop John B" or ...shiver... "Kokomo", the worst song EVER!

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Sunday, August 27, 2006

Deck Update...

Deck update for August the 27th.

No progress on Saturday. No, I wasn't being lazy or playing Madden, Carrie and I went to a retirement lunch for Bill (congratulations) and went to a wedding for one of Carries co-workers (congratulations).

Sunday I killed! All my rails are now up, though I am still waiting for the balusters. Tomorrow I will do a second coat of stain before the rain that is expected for Tuesday shows up. I need to install the three steps off the lower porch and cut and install the 'picture frame' deck boards and the deck is ready to party!

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Friday, August 25, 2006

The Cardinals New Stadium...

Before you accuse me of being a dirtbag, know that my wife was the one to bring this to my attention.......

The Mortons Family (of Hard Rock Cafe and Mortons Steakhouse fame) has offered the Arizona Cardinals $30 million over 10 years to name the stadium after their new chain, Pink Taco Stadium.... Snicker, snicker.... LOL!

Dalton said the team doesn't wanted to be associated with the Pink Taco brand, but wouldn't say exactly why.

Hilarious!

BTW, I checked out the Pink Taco site here (no worries, it is safe) and it looks like a cool place to sip a good tequila. I'll definitely check it out if in the area of one...

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Thursday, August 24, 2006

Madden 2007



I have been playing the new Madden 2007 for three days now and I am impressed and disappointed...

Impressed with the graphics, they are absolutely amazing, almost real. What a difference from the first 'video' football game I ever had, Coleco's Head to Head football, where your player was just a red dash. I was enthralled with this game, I wonder how excited today's ten year old would be to play it today. They even have the voices of the QB's making the calls...

disappointed in my meager skills. I just got done playing the Packers and they smoked me! I didn't check the stats, but the only drive that they didn't score on me was when time ran out on the half. At least I stopped them a few times, forcing them to settle for FG's. I need to stop letting John Madden make the calls for me... He'll say, "This play'll stop 'em for sure" and Ahman Green will bust one for 35... Thanks John! Oh well, I'll keep at it.

I think I'll spend some time in practice mode running certain plays against the different defenses, I need to improve my reads and vision. Yes, it is that intense!

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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Parasitic Song of the Morning

Car Toys "Push the Button" Jingle.... If you haven't heard it, consider yourself blessed.

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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Football is Boring.

Thanks to Jeff for finding this article....



As the Mariners' two-week plunge into mediocrity continues, as some of baseball's best teams arrive in town to pad their stats on a team in full wilt, and as football season promises to steal away attention like a soap opera siren, that anger is getting replaced with another "A" word.


Boy, this is music to my ears! If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not much of a baseball guy. Yes, I got excited for the '95 "Refuse to Lose" Mariners as that was a very new experience, but I quickly got tired of it... By the time 2001 and the 116 wins I was bored with it all. BTW, the "A" word is apathy...

LOL, I love this next bit...



"Fans feel like the guys that have been making decisions are not making good ones. This is bordering on the verge of no interest. When the NFL season starts, (the Mariners) will be all-but-forgotten."

Not to Eric Draluck. At least not entirely. Football is boring, said the devoted, despondent Mariners fan. "I'm always going to watch baseball," he said. "I'm a baseball guy. But I'm disappointed as everyone must be."

Did he get his sports mixed up? I can understand him disliking football (well not really) but calling it boring? That is like a glacier saying an avalanche doesn't have enough action...

Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated said it best here. Some highlights -


Time the baseball was actually in play, including pitches, batted balls, foul balls, pickoff attempts, relays, throws to bases and anything else even Bob Costas might consider actual sporting activity (and I was being generous with the stopwatch): 12 minutes, 22 seconds.


Percentage of time that the ball wasn't in play: 94.

Percentage of time my cerebrum wasn't in play: 94.



Football is boring? REALLY. I doubt you will ever see THIS as a promotion at a football game.




C'mon! Knitting at a game, and he calls football boring?

Can you imagine the ribbing this guy got when he went to work Monday morning? Hopefully he got hit in the head by the foul ball his wife and kid are watching as he blissfully works on his Mariner turquoise rally sweater for September evening games and snaps back to manhood...

Beano Cook said it best when the then commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn gave the returning Iran hostages lifetime passes to major league parks, "Haven't they suffered enough?"

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Monday, August 21, 2006

Monday....

Pretty busy today, writing with one hand while enjoying an 'after school' snack of string cheese and a Diet Coke... Getting ready to crank some Ramones on the Ipod and get high on some paint fumes in the garage.

Good Hawk game last night, nice to see Matty get the O running. D needs to step it up, granted they were up against Peyton Manning and missing some key guys. Trufant needs to wake up... No worries though. I think if this would have been a regular season game it would have been a good battle.

I really want Plackemeier to be teh punter... He has a great nickname... 'Gus the Mule' LOL.

Time to go paint! Adios!

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Saturday, August 19, 2006

Deck Update

After contemplating over a couple of pitchers of Industrial IPA (my favorite at the moment) at the Diamond Knot Brewery in Mulkiteo with some good buddies, I decided to advance the deck BBQ/load test to September 9th.... The only thing that could spoil this is the arrival of the black anodized aluminum balusters that I need to order. If they haven't arrived, the deck would be cool for adults but I would be worried about children.

For you Husky fans I'll have the OU game on the big screen. For my mom and dad who will be celebrating their millionth, plus or minus a few years, anniversary, we will sing a song for you... most likely to the tune of 'Happy Birthday' as it is simple to change the words. If you decide to have a nice dinner elsewhere I will understand. :)

Please save this date! I am 97.432% sure that it will happen. I shall send out invitations the second that I have my precious balusters in hand!

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Deck Update

Poured the concrete to support the lower stairs, got all the rail posts bolted up... Being held up by dad who is hogging his compound miter saw. Once I procure that from him I should have the rails up and lower stairs done lickity split.

Status... Ahead of schedule. Moving the BBQ/load test to no later than mid-October. Pencil it in!

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Mariners Baseball... Refuse to lose!

Refuse as in garbage....

Are they still playing?

Big surprise that I see more Seahawk gear on people around town than Mariners. I predicted this a couple years ago and the Super Bowl appearance cemented it. The Seahawk pheonix would rise from the ashes and reclain the town that is rightly theirs.

Good riddance!

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Friday, August 18, 2006

Laundry

This is why when Carrie and I have kids we will keep them in a cage like zoo animals. LOL!



Good thing the parents didn't have a glass front dryer when I was growing up....

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Darryl Tapp

In a break from thinking about my next move on my deck I read the camp diary of the Seahawks Rookie DE, Darryl Tapp. I was impressed, he sounds like he has a good head on his shoulders. No big surprise, just a typical Ruskell player... big motor, good head.

Lets hope his year goes the way of last years second round pick that wrote a diary and was consider to be picked to early in the draft, Lofa Tatupu.

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Truck Surfing

For y'all that haven't seen this before... a classic!



Watch for the hydrant. LOL! Too bad the video isn't of better quality, I would have loved to see his face the moment he realized that it was going bad.

This guy is lucky, back in 'cave man' times he would have been the first one picked off by a pack of velociraptors...

Buffoon!

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Thursday, August 17, 2006

Found: Mexican Fisherman

Wow, This story makes Gilligans Island sound like a sitcom...

I cannot imagine what it would be like on a small 30 foot boat with nothing to look at but the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean. How did they not go stir crazy? I start ripping out sheetrock by March with our wonderful winters that give Seattle a reputation of rain. (the NFL season gets me to January, sometimes later)

They were found approximately twice as far from Mexico as they were from Australia. They ate raw fish they caught and gulls that they trapped. I'm guessing a middle of the Pacific gull tastes much better than an Elliott Bay flying trash can, which I imagine tastes like chicken with a nice motor oil and old fish reduction.

Imagine their feeling when they were rescued. When they were given their first plate of food.

How about family and friends? A good deal of them had probably come to peace with never seeing them again and BAM!, they are back. What a shock. A good one though...

At least these fellas had each other and a Bible to read so they didn't have to make friends with a volleyball.

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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Treadmill Bike

Check it out! Why walk when you can ride the treadmill bike... LOL!

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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

A Wonderful Idea!

Here is our genius state government at work - 2 Dots 2 Safety.

This was someone's brilliant idea to curb tailgating on a stretch of I-5. They painted giant dots on the freeway 80 feet apart, signifying 1 second of separation at 60 mph. We all know that you should have 2 seconds between you and the car ahead as it gives you plenty of time to avoid plowing into the guy when he slams on his brakes. Common sense.

No big deal until they unveiled Friday the signs that said there was a $101 ticket if you didn't keep the 2 dots between you. Since nobody likes a ticket, people would slow down if they were getting a little close. Here is where the problem started. Car 'B' would slow a little to keep his distance behind car 'A'. Car 'C' would have to slow a little more behind 'B'. Car 'D' would have to go slower yet. Pretty soon a stretch of freeway that typically has decent traffic flow is slowed to a crawl. Now at 10 mph having a 2 dot separation is 12 seconds! People were unsure if the State Patrol would still nail them for being within the 2 dots....

To end this long story, the signs were covered before the weekend was over and traffic moved smoothly again.

Here's more...

Dubbed the "2 Dots 2 Safety" program, the test patches on the pavement will be in place for a year. If the program improves motorists' behavior, the painted dots could pop up around the state on other highways, DOT spokesmen said.


LOL, they are pulling them up after a week!

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Deck update

Just got done staining the deck posts, all twenty of them... I couldn't stop thinking of Mr. Miyagi the whole time I was wielding my brush. Must defeat Cobra Kai!

Tomorrow, I start bolting them on to the deck...

Still on schedule to finish before November. Keep your calendars open!

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Wilcox to Sign

KJR am is saying this morning that the Sonics are going to announce a deal today with Chris Wilcox.

Great news! I like this guy... He adds some much needed Kemp-ish excitement to the team. Hopefully this means the Sonics can continue where they let off last year, putting them back in the playoff picture.

My favorites are still Swifty and Johnny Gasoline (my nickname for Johan Petro, lets spread it around...)

-update- Done deal.

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Monday, August 14, 2006

Seahawks Preseason Musings

I'm not a big fan of the preseason.... Even less when we should have a good team returning. Injuries, like the one that Clinton Portis suffered, scare me. The last thing we need to see is someone rolling over Walter Jones's knee or Hass cracking his wrist on someone's helmet while following through... Devastating enough in a regular season game but maddening in an exhibition game.

You say, "Mike, players get hurt in practice all the time, what are you gonna do, ban practicing too?"

Nah, Obviously you need practice, but they can take precautions to minimize risk (red shirts on QB's, etc...)

I think they should do like college, every game counts. Extend the games that count from 16 to 18, maybe throw in another bye in there. Sure we'd have to wait another week to see football, but instead of seeing the good stuff for two series before the seconds and thirds come in, BAM! they'd be on the gas. How sweet would that be?

Feel free to comment! ;)

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Sunday, August 13, 2006

Top 5...

...Bands that I would be fine with if I could only listen to their work for the rest of my life.

  1. Beastie Boys - You got your hip-hop songs, jazz inrumantals, and hard core punk songs all wrapped up in one package.
  2. The Ramones - Proved that all you need is three chords and a minute and a half, makes me smile every time.
  3. Nirvana - No doubt they would have been an easy #1 given more time.
  4. Pearl Jam - Old standby, easy listening for Mike.
  5. Janes Addiction - Amazing live, Perry Farrell looks pretty good in a ball gown.

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Haiku-a-go-go

almighty Starbucks
sublime tall almond latte
should have had grande

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Saturday, August 12, 2006

Deck Update

My deck is still not finished, the deck warming BBQ/ load test should be scheduled before November rolls around....

I'll keep y'all posted!

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Airplanes are cool!

Spent the day up at the Abbotsford Airshow in BC today and got reminded that F-15E Strike Eagles are loud. VERY LOUD! One did a high speed fly by, ala Maverick in Top Gun. If I had a cup of coffee in hand, it would have ended up in my lap. I was amazed by how much noise such a relative small package could put out! By the time my fingers bolted for my ears it was too late, the ears were ringing.

I am always fascinated to watch these pieces of engineering marvels at work. Even more amazing is to see a plane like the F-15 fly next to its WWII counterpart, the P-51 Mustang. The mighty Mustang is a mouse compared to the fire breathing monster that is the Eagle. It took ~40 years since the dawn of flight to get to the P-51. In the 30 years between then and the first F-15 flight they made a hunred fold advances in performance. There have been many advances in the 30 years since the F-15 first flew, but nothing even as close to as dramatic.

Stopped by the Skagit River Brewery on the way home. Tasty stuff. Their Skullers IPA is firmly planted in my top 5 beers. Too bad this place is a bit of a haul from my palatial estate. There is a train station right next door to it, but since this isn't Europe, it is of no use to me. Boo!

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Friday, August 11, 2006

Piquet vs Senna

Nice! F1 needs to get back to some racing like this... Nelson Piquet can't make the inside line stick on Ayrton Senna so he takes him around the outside with an amazing drift.



To translate, it says something about a Boeing 747 at the end...

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ROCK!

Is there any better song to crank the car stereo and belt the lyrics to than Silverchair's Tomorrow?

You gonna wait too, fat boy
fat boy, wait 'til tomorrow...

I should think not.

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A picture is worth a thousand weapons...

Hmmm, I wonder why we don't see this on the news... Could the news be cooked a bit to sway our opinions? No way!

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If I could dance

I'd want to dance like this...



If you haven't seen this yet, watch it now.... Hilarious!

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It's the most wonderful time...

Last night Carrie and I popped in the Seahawks NFC Champions DVD that I got her for her birthday. Yes, It was for her, she is arguably more in to the Hawks now than me.... That's saying something!

Anyhoo we weren't going to watch the whole thing, the Office was on, so we just watched the NFL Films Game of the Week, NFC Championship. If you are a Hawk fan, buy this DVD just for that. AWESOME! The goosebumps just popped up thinking about it again. If you haven't caught it on the NFL Network, it has Steve Sabol, and all the pomp and circumstance that only NFL Films provides. I found myself clapping many times.

The highlight... When the Hawks had the game, late in the 3rd or 4th, they showed the team lining up in a mob for a kickoff. In slow motion as the they pan across the team, Josh Brown is bent over, setting up the ball as the rest of the team, with huge grins, is doing their dance to Young Jeezy's "And then What"... Boom, boom, clap. Boom, boom, clap. I started crying right there! Probably one of the best pieces of cinematography I have seen!

Only 30 days to go!!!

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Thursday, August 10, 2006

Testing, testing, 1 2 3? Dan Fouts, GP, Sr, and KC say hi! Trying out the posting from the mobile phone... Slow but damn cool!

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White King Salmon

I never knew that white king salmon existed until last night. Carrie and I were at Ray's Boathouse and it was one of the specials along with seared albacore with a yellow curry.

While sipping on a Grey Goose dirty martini (thanks Jeff), a hard-core game of ping pong was being waged in my head.... Should I go with a tried and true veteran, the tuna, or should I take a chance with the newcomer, the white salmon. Tuna, salmon, salmon, tuna, I don't know...

Eventually tuna won out so I don't have anything to tell you about the salmon.

Just kidding, I picked the salmon. It was great! Probably the second best piece of salmon I have had, and I have had a lot! (the best was at Ray's too, Copper River...) I would highly recommend it if you run into it. They arn't kidding when they call it white, it has no coloring other than the grill marks. It was milder than your everyday salmon, but still definitely salmon.

FYI - if you are going to do a Google search for white salmon, throw in a 'king' or you will get everything but what you are looking for....

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Pork Chop Injured

Man, this guy cannot catch a break!

Pork Chop Womack, my favorite Hawk since he played with the giant club on his hand a few years back, pulled a hammy. The good news, he is only out for a week or so. This poor guy seems to get hurt every year, usually knocking him out for quite a duration. Last year he was to anchor the right side of the line, got hurt, Locklear took over and never gave the position up.

Hopefully this'll be the only injury for him and he'll spend the season next to big Walt opening big holes for one Shaun Alexander, NFL MVP and Madden 2007 cover boy.

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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

I almost forgot...

...not really

Happy birthday Carrie!

I had to shave twice in one day for the first time in my life today. Why? Not because I can grow facial hair like a lumberjack, but because I missed a patch this morning. Idiot! I had to go through a whole day at the office with it! I don't think anyone noticed as it was in the shadowed part of my face between my lower lip and chin. If I had a beard this wouldn't be a problem.

Normally I'd let it go until tomorrow but I'm taking Carrie out for a nice (no jeans and t-shirt for me) dinner and it would kill her if I didn't take care of it.

Well its off to dinner for us, hopefully the restaurant will have a sombrero for Carrie to wear and they'll sing and clap for her. If not I'll do it after a martini or two.

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Here we go....

Here it is, my first post...

I hear you asking, "Mike, what the heck are you gonna say on a blog?"

I don't know... I'm kinda flying by night here. Basically I'd like to pour the contents of my brain out on this page. A lot of it may bore you to tears, but hopefully a little bit may be interesting.

Maybe, as a bonus, I'll improve my typing abilities, grammar and spelling. Maybe not...

More to come....

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