Superfun!

Jeremy and I went out with the triathlon club for a training/skills ride on Friday. Triathletes are notoriously bad at road etiquette, handling, dealing with crowded situations, and maintaining bikes (as compared to dedicated cyclists). We addressed the first three during the ride by heading out on the roads in Nashville during the busiest time of day at the beginning of Parent's Weekend at Vanderbilt, spending some time riding around the roads of Centennial Park, practicing track stands, and riding in the grass practicing leaning on and touching other bikes while riding.

Good idea? Sure!!

The good news is that no one crashed or got hit. The better news is that we all had fun. The best news is that we played bike tag in a park at dark in the grass with people milling around. It was 'sharks 'n minnows' style, starting with one it and adding its until one person is left who is not it. You had to physically touch other people on the bike for them to be it.

Bike tag ranks up there with the other fun, silly things that normal (read: smart) people wouldn't do, but I'd do again in a heartbeat (e.g. sledding on Slater at 2 am in -35 degree F. windchill).

I know, I know

You're all sick of me talking about this stupid baseball. I thought I would share that the voting has resulted in #756 being donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame with an asterisk branded on it. The article I read indicated that the BHoF is excited to be receiving it, but is actively not taking a stance on what that asterisk might mean.

"This ball wouldn't be coming to Cooperstown if Marc hadn't bought it from the fan who caught it and then let the fans have their say," Petroskey told The Associated Press. "We're delighted to have the ball. It's a historic piece of baseball history."

Personally, I don't care what they brand it with. I don't care if the record is "tainted". I wouldn't think much about the whole thing except for the following:


1. When time came for the record-breaking HR to be hit, the stadiums had security on hand to handle the situation.
2. Some asinine tax-goof with a big mouth made the guy who caught it think he would owe taxes on it if he kept it.
3. Some guy bought the ball at auction for around three-quarters of a million dollars.
4. That guy was smart enough to know what he had, that it was just a ball, and was willing to make a statement about it.


I would say that I'm done with this topic, but I expect that it will come up again.


I hope Mark Ecko videos the branding process, whatever that might be.

Up for air

This is a post for a week that seems to be trying to swallow me. I'm finishing up a take-home exam that's looking complete-able at the moment, then I get to start on two homeworks that are both due tomorrow (one, I just found out about yesterday--wishful thinking let me put off reality for a bit). The good news is that the rest of the week is less hectic than today and tomorrow.

That being said, I've been trying to find a sound clip from Babe (the talking pig movie). The scene changes had these adorable little mice announcing the "chapters". One is "The Way Things Are." As I am compiling lists of things that need to get done, I keep hearing those voices constantly reminding me that this is the way things are. Then I giggle a little and move on.

Okay. Back to work....

Timing!

It's all about timing. Here's a screen shot of the Chattanoogan web page this morning. It's been changed to the second screen shot now.

I'm going back to work now. Really.

Coincidence?

According to My Yahoo! today is ADHD Awareness Day*. It's also International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Just throwing out those two tidbits of information.
I'd draw a conclusion, but I lost interest.

*When looking for a link for ADHD Awareness Day, I found that 9/20 is the actual date, which might make all this a little more appropriate.

Fencing Freak-out

At fencing tonight, I was in a bout with one of the girls at the club and had the tip of my weapon get stuck between the outer rim and the mesh of her mask. Needless to say, we were both really freaked out and she is going to be getting a new mask really soon. No one was hurt, just freaked out. Below is a picture of the approximate location of where my point got stuck, but it was under the solid rubber black thing. Eep!!!

Followup: #756

It turns out that Matt Murphy auctioned the Barry Bonds home run ball #756. I had posted earlier that I was disappointed, but something about taxes made the guy think he couldn't keep it. Well, as it happens, the ball was auctioned for around $750,000, much higher than originally anticipated and the name of the winner was not immediately released.

To my glee, Mark Ecko, a NY fashion designer and pop culture fan won the auction and has posted a website for the public to decide the fate of the ball. We can vote to donate the ball to the hall of fame, brand it with an asterisk and donate the branded ball to the hall of fame, or launch the ball into space.

Watch Mark's story on the Today show. He's evidently prepared to finance the launch of the ball, if voting goes that way. I'm fascinated. It's a lot of money to make a statement like this, but I'm all for it. Perhaps this is, aside from Mr. Murphy keeping it and playing catch with his grandkids, the best possible outcome.

Go vote. It's your right.

Smells of...

A study shows that people's perception of odors changes with genetic makeup.

Storytime!!!

A couple years ago, I was invited to a fancy-dancy wine dinner to taste some fabulous Bordeaux wines. I was a little self-conscious about the whole thing because these people were ostensibly connoisseurs and would know much more about tasting than I, still in my wine-snob infancy. Sometime during the meal, I noticed how everyone pretty much agreed with anyone that had an opinion. I managed to get my entire table to agree that the nose of one of the wines smelled like "Big League Chew", the old shredded bubble gum that lost its flavor in the first three minutes.

Cheers!

A Reminder...

...to the group that played that silly cooperative PS2 game for three days straight while we lived on Sare Road: y'all were lucky to have survived. Your danger wasn't just your spouses, it was also the extended hours in front of a monitor. Some aren't as lucky. Keep this in mind.

I'll take "Eye of Newt and a Dash of Space Dust" for a thousand, Alex.

NASA's going to send woodland critters into space.

'Nuf said.

Death Ray!!!

It's happened. Pop-pop would be proud.

Seen on Engadget:

Japanese scientists make breakthrough in space-based laser power

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Osaka University have been working together to develop a device which converts sunlight into laser-light with four times the efficiency of previous attempts. According to a report out of Tokyo, the team is working on Space-based solar power systems which can collect sunlight in space and convert it into laser light, which is then transmitted to Earth and used for electricity... or to power a massive Death-Ray. The project works by storing sunlight-based energy in plate made from a sintered powder of metals like chromium and neodymium. When weak laser light is shined onto the plate, the stored energy is transferred to the laser where its strength is amplified by a factor of four. In one test, a 0.5-watt laser was amplified to 180-watts by the plates. Scientists have thus far been able to garner 40-percent of the solar energy produced, and they hope to have a system ready for satellite mounting by the not-too-distant year 20 30. Huzzah!

Sideways

A few years ago, I decided that I was boycotting the movie "Sideways" because it had made Pinot Noir a very, very popular wine and it had become very difficult to find a good pinot because a bunch of people were putting out crap-Pinots to meet popular demand.

If something is popular, it's no longer interesting, right??

Probably so, but. Not too long ago, I (1.) decided to go ahead and watch the movie, (generally underwhelming, but I really like Sandra Oh) and (2.) decided to go back and try a few Pinot Noirs and found some success between Burgundy and nice California wines. It had seriously been five or six years between when I would even consider this as an option.

I came upon this article today about the state of the Pinot Noir and found it enlightening and encouraging. I really like the Pinot for the approachability and ease of drinking and I may go out and find some to try very soon.

My eyes are opened...

...and they're bleeding.

Today, while walking through the hospital, I saw a woman carrying a tote/purse/something made of John Deere fabric (similar fabric pictured below) with I-kid-you-not John Deere green colored fur trim. We're talking about playing dress-up feather boa type trim. I was *this* close to stopping her and seeing if she would let me take a picture, but chickened out. Maybe that'll be my goal for next week--stop at least one person and take a picture of an accessory.

I tried to find a picture of something similar and went to E-bay and discovered that there is a whole category of things devoted to John Deere, Handmade, Women's Handbags. There's even one that is almost similar. Same fur type, just picture green and the fabric above.

Running Men

Walking to class this morning, I saw, in addition to the normal fitness-types running in appropriate running gear, two running men that caught my attention. These are completely separate instances and would have simply been an entertaining part of the day if I had seen only one of them. It became bloggable with two.

First, as I was approaching the short-cut hospital, a man wearing shorts that resembled swim trunks, a t-shirt, and some sort of hiking shoes, carrying one of those flimsy string backpacks was running, seemingly consciously keeping his knees up as he trotted along. There didn't seem to be any urgency or direction to his path, so I can only assume he was out for a morning jog. What do you keep in a backpack like that when you're running? How long can you run with your knees nearly hitting your chest? I might not have noticed him if it wasn't for the running "form". I might not have noticed if it wasn't for the attire. The full picture was a little distracting. Oh, I didn't mention the shoulder-length mullet. But now I have and the picture is complete.

Having only just recovered from that, I get to the other side of the hospital complex and see a guy in a neon yellow t-shirt, work pants, and work shoes, wearing a hard hat running towards a truck. Then I noticed that the back of his shirt said "DEMO CREW". It made me a little nervous. Thought I might/should follow.

Global Warming a Problem?

A convincing argument from The Washington Post.

Don't mess with French wine.

Dessert and Wine

Jeremy and I opened a bottle of '99 Ormes de Pez. I hadn't tried the '99, but this makes (I think) the 5th vintage I've tried of this chateau and I still love it. It has that flavor that makes it so distinctly Ormes de Pez. I don't have a picture of the label because I'm lazy.

I do have a picture of dessert: Frozen chocolate dessert (or something clever like that). It's in the September issue of Real Simple (and unfortunately, the recipe isn't up on their web site yet). The ingredient list is semi-sweet chocolate, marshmallows, milk, and heavy cream (stuffed between the obvious graham crackers). It was super yummy, but has to be frozen--not something for the lunch pail.

I'll admit that it was a little rich. The look on Jeremy's face tells all. He wants so very much to finish that little bite of yummy chocolate goodness, but the bite looks so very big...

In the end, the little bit did get eaten and there were no melting issues to clean up.

100th Post!!

Yea! It's the 100th post! To celebrate, I'm posting some theme-related material, which may actually negate the theme, but that's not really the point.

• I've decided that smoking bans in restaurants and bars just make you all the more sensitive to smoke when you find a bar that allows smoking. We went to the Flying Saucer this evening and got to hear a bit from The Killdares and my eyes are killing me with smoke-related watering and burning.


• A really funny misquote in the lyrics "I like being left alone" by Robbie Fulks:

  I like chocolate pie, clear blue skies, and a glass of coke to roam...

  Insert "Côtes du Rhône" and you'll get the actual quote. I laughed for a while about that.


• Martina Hingis lost at the US Open today. I really want her to win another slam event. She's still in the women's doubles event, but it's not the same.