FF: Lenten Series: Week 3

When: Easter 1979

Where: Mamaw and Papaw's trailer (I think)

Crochet is hip, especially when your mamaw makes a rockin' cape and hat for you for Easter. Not much else to say about that.

A little late for a vent.

It's a little after midnight and I really ought to be heading to bed, but thought that I deserved that giant bowl of ice cream after reading 8 technical summaries today. I only have two more to go and I think I'm going to knock those out before I actually sleep tonight. Otherwise, they will knock me out as I go to sleep tonight. Either way, there's sleep in the not-too-distant future. Yea!

In other news, I ordered some shoes a couple weeks ago, which were promptly delivered (I think I posted and I would linkie here, but it's a boring post and I'm too lazy right now). Unfortunately, they didn't fit. So, I'm exchanging them. It's a painless process, I send them the shoes via a printed UPS label that I stick onto the original packaging and they send me new shoes. Next day air (from the phone call, not the receipt of the original shoes). I was supposed to receive them today. Unfortunately, FedEx (don't know why the shipping company changed) decided that my shoes were much too valuable to leave on my doorstep even though there was no signature required. They tried to deliver at 2:30 this afternoon. Who's home at 2:30??? Do they just pay drivers to attempt to deliver stuff while people aren't home and hope we'll pick it up at the distribution center so they don't have to try any more? It's absurd. Leave the package on the doorstep. People who don't live here can't figure out how to get into the building. People who live here sometimes have problems finding finding their way after a long night out. My package (sent overnight with no signature required) will be just fine sitting on my doorstep for 3 hours until I get home from the office.

That is, if I can figure out how to get into the building.

End rant.

Cleverness in Government

The city of Chattanooga sent the city of Atlanta a truck of water today along with a proclamation. Today is "Give our Georgia Friends a Drink Day." It's well-worth your time to read the article...even if you have to skip to the end to read the proclamation.

J'adore...

...en ewww!
C'est un poisson de gâteau!
Bon appétite!

One food

I've finally decided that if I was stuck eating only one food for the rest of my life, it would be french fries or otherwise fried potatoes. If I had to pick just one kind, Walter's fries from the Trojan Horse in Bloomington.

Friday Flashback: Lenten Theme: Week 2

Mom was kind enough to send along a continuation of the Easter theme. This week, we'll explore the suspicious cleanliness of the dresses.

When: Easter, 1983.

Where: The farm, before the wall-to-wall carpeting was installed.

Last on the Bunny's list: Somehow we all look reasonably happy to be wearing the pretty (itchy) Easter dresses. Jenn looks a little dubious. I asked Mom how she kept us clean. She reminded me that the Easter Bunny did not show up until after church. This way, if we misbehaved during church, one call could stop the bunny from showing. It, thankfully, never came to that.

I should mention that Mom made the lovely purses we're carrying. If I remember correctly, she later made different covers for them as well that weren't white (and could be carried after Labor Day--Thank God!).

So. Very. Sleepy.

I discovered that I was very tired this afternoon. Perhaps it was the smallish salad (with orzo and crab) that I had for lunch that didn't quite sustain me. Perhaps it was the papers I was reading. Perhaps it was the M&M's that should have perked me up, but put me in a sugar coma. Perhaps it was the class that covered in painstaking detail stuff that I've seen before for an hour and a half. I don't think my chin ever actually touched the desk, but only because of the strange sitting configuration of the desks.

I took a brisk walk home after class and tried to work for a while and decided that a nap was the best thing for me. I woke up an hour and a half later. Ugh.

Blacker is the new black

A blacker black has been developed.
Kinda cool.

There's how much sugar in that?

Tastespotting linked to Foodsel today, reminding me of the short discussion of Smarties on Daily Pie after last Halloween.

You can pick the food and it shows you the equivelant number of sugar cubes, sticks of butter, and batteries (calories?). It will also tell you how long you would need to work out for different activities to burn the calories you took in. Kinda interesting but kinda sad. Enjoy!!

Before you freak out with the numbers, the default serving (for M&M's, at least), seems quite large. I think it defaults to 1 cup of the food. I have eaten more than a cup of M&M's in a sitting, but it's not the norm.

Silly

I don't work well without motivation. I've decided to sign up for an olympic distance triathlon (1k swim, 40k bike, 10k run) in April which doesn't give me a lot of time to train. I'm especially concerned about the run. I've got a plan and I'm trying to be reasonable and not overdo things early. I've hooked up with the Vandy Tri Club for support. Today was my first two-a-day with them in a while. I spent about 50 minutes in the pool and got in about 2500 yards. Then, I had a spin session that lasted every darn minute of the 40 minute workout. I thought we were done after that. I was wrong. We still had ab work left. It was a great workout and I think I'll sleep well tonight--if I don't wake up with my legs cramping!

Wine Tasting

When Kristi and Dwayne were in town, we did a tasting of Chateau Paveil de Luze, a Margaux from 2003 and 2005. These were both very good, but didn't have the characteristic Margaux nose or taste. This was surprising but not disappointing.

The 2003 had a full, earthy flavor and a very nice mouth feel and had a lovely, clear light garnet appearance. With a while to open up, it was ready to drink and will be drinkable for a long time to come.

The 2005 was a little sharp and earthy but not as smooth. It was a nearly-clear dark garnet color. It wasn't quite ready, and persisted in remaining "closed", but should be very nice in a few more years. It was better the next day, perhaps because the '03 was gone and I couldn't directly compare.

Truism for the Day:

On NPR's The Splendid Table,

"There is a Midwestern love for big, thick, dense things."
--Jane Stern in reference to the pancakes at the Grove Cafe in Ames, IA

Friday Flashback

When: I have no earthly idea. The wee-one was around for this series of pics so I'm going to guess 1983. It was definitely Easter Sunday. That's the only way I can explain the hat.

Where: The living room at the farm.

The Face: I am accused of making this face even now. It's evidently my I'm-really-tense face. Other interpretations?

In other news: Mamaw and Papaw used to bring us Easter dresses home from Florida. It was a pretty big deal. I honestly don't remember much about it other than it was a big deal and we were forced to wear the hat and little white gloves on this occasion and the dresses (lace) were unbearably itchy. We had to wear the dresses until all the grandparents saw us after church. They seemed to delay their arrival just to torture us.

Exam Week

This was the first round of midterms for the semester. My professors seem to have conspired and put their exams on consecutive days, therefore making me a little crazy. Well, maybe not crazy, but definitely reclusive. So now it's Friday night and I have no responsibilities and a lot of tension to release. There's a bottle of wine open, steak and potatoes for dinner, and bad TV on the internet. What else does the internet have? Shopping--specifically, zappos.com. I bought shoes. Cute, brown Clarks with free delivery.

But wait. There's better news: they've already been shipped. Some person is standing around in a warehouse on Friday night making sure my shoes are in the mail right now. I suppose they're also making sure that I'll order from them in the future, but I'm really more interested in the fact that they were shipped within an hour of my ordering them. I'm doing a little happy dance. I'm just not sure if it's because of the week being over or the shoes. I'll blame the shoes.

Swim Workout

I didn't have a lot of time for a swim workout tonight, but really wanted to do something. I managed 2000 yards in about 45 minutes and a really challenging workout (for me).

• 200 SKPS (800 total yards)
• 4 x 100, descending (1:30, 1:25, 1:20, 1:15)
• 8 x 50, 25 sprint, 30 seconds tread legs-only or 30 water crunches, 25 sprint on 1:30
• 4 x 100, descending (1:30, 1:25, 1:20, 1:15)

Total 2000

I made it through the first descending set, killed myself on the 50s, and missed the last 100 on the last set. I'll get it next time.

WFA WTF?

All the news today seemed to be centered around the congressional baseball/steroid hearings and I got really frustrated at the fact that our lawmakers are spending time investigating something that really doesn't affect the general public and that there was so much media coverage of said hearings. I kept getting a mental image of the big, bad committee asking hard questions during the session, then scurrying around for autographs during breaks.

So, I decided to find out a little about the committee that's running the hearings, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to see how baseball fits with the plan. The charter, from the webpage:

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the main
investigative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. It has
jurisdiction to investigate any federal program and any matter with federal
policy implications.

Okay. This does not help with how baseball fits with the committee, unless baseball is suddenly a federal program. We'll move on to jurisdiction (again FTFW):

The legislative jurisdiction of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform includes the following areas, as set forth in House Rule X, clause 1:
• Federal civil service, including intergovernmental personnel; and the
status of officers and employees of the United States, including their
compensation, classification, and retirement;
• Municipal affairs of the District of Columbia in general (other than
appropriations);
• Federal paperwork reduction;
• Government management and accounting measures generally;
• Holidays and celebrations;
• Overall economy, efficiency, and management of government operations and
activities, including federal procurement;
• National archives;
• Population and demography generally, including the Census;
• Postal service generally, including transportation of the mails;
• Public information and records;
• Relationship of the federal government to the states and municipalities
generally; and
• Reorganizations in the executive branch of the government.

Okay, so I'll stretch things a bit and go with public information and records. It's a stretch, but I'm going to assume that's where they're coming from. However, if we're going to make this argument, I'll say that they need to be talking to individuals from all arenas wherein steroid abuse is an issue. These are probably primarily sports, but definitely not limited to baseball. The talks should be talking about the effects of steroids on the human body (for the use of public information) not the future hall-of-fame eligibility of the individual in question. Let that question go to the MLB governing body.

In the meantime, the 41 members of the committee have (so far) spent two sessions (this go-'round) in this investigation. Even conservative calculations would show astronomical billable hours. From there, we'll go back to the committee's homepage, on the right, under "Key Issues", and point out the "Waste, Fraud, and Abuse" (WFA) link. Yes, friends, this is the group that investigates WFA issues.

It's the very definition of irony.

Not quite a flying car, but close enough to impress me:

It took me a few minutes to figure out what they meant by "disappearing car door", but once I watched the video and had it spelled out for me, I drooled. Watch the whole video, enjoy the narrator's accent, struggle to imagine mainstream car companies adopting this.

The company is located in So. Cal. and the website seems a little slap-dash, but it seems like a viable idea.

Union Rules?

Henna

Having tried since before Christmas to schedule a time with Anu to play with henna, we finally managed to squeeze in about an hour on Saturday while Ladybug was taking her nap. It was a lot of fun and the results are great! The art will last about a week.

Spin Class

Just took my first spin class in years.

Primary accomplishment: I didn't puke.

Food!

It was a big week for food. My tasty, but failed attempt at a king cake last year made me a little dubious this year, but a very easy recipe came about on Tastespotting and there was success and yes, a plastic baby.

I finally had time and an occasion to make a baklava to take in to the starving grad students. The recipe is based on Martha Stewart's baklava recipe but modified to make it more reasonable.

It had to be sampled prior to release.

The weekend visitors inspired pancakes and sausage 'n gravy (made with Alan's pork sausage). The buttermilk biscuit (featuring cake flour) and buttermilk pancake recipes came from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, my current favorite general-purpose cookbook.

We also had good BBQ at Jim 'n Nick's. Kristi and I drooled over the collard greens. One of us, yes, the good auntie, shared with Ladybug.

I've got to get back to the gym this week!

Ladybug Goes to Nashville

Ladybug and her parents visited Jeremy and me in Nashville this weekend. We had great food, great talks, and great fun. We spent most of Ladybug's endless energy at the park with the dragon (Fannie Mae Dees Park). First, we had to get bundled up for the stroller ride:

Then, find the dragon:

Play on and around the dragon:

Help the dragon with some hygene:

And, elsewhere in the fantastic park, learn about climbing (great reach!):

Fun with tunnels (a video I hope):

Later, there was some fort-building--all fine and good until the bears took over:

Update

I'm posting to let people know that my general area of Nashville was unaffected by the storms, but there's a major effort in helping the nearby communities that were devastated. Things are pretty major when a campus-wide e-mail is sent out looking for volunteers for relief and when the storms become common locker room talk.

Storms and other natural drama haven't kept me from posting this week--sheer laziness has. There are several things to report. I'll (hopefully) be posting about these in the next week:

• Found
• Ladybug comes to Nashville
• Henna
• Baklava & King Cake
• Wine -- Margaux...mmm!

In the meantime, I'll thank everyone for kind thoughts and calls on the night of the storms. Keep those who were affected in your thoughts.

Friday Flashback

Because I miss nomadshan's Friday Flashbacks and Mom just sent me this picture, I decided to do one of 'em myself.

When: It has to be 1981 or 1982.

Who (l-r): Amanda, Jessica (I think), Michael, Audra, me

Where: The old Otis Park pool.

Demonstrating either my love for the water or my short attention span: Probably more the latter. I couldn't be bothered to wave at the camera as we were (obviously) being instructed to do. Amanda, fortunately, has the same problem. As I remember it, we spent most summer days at the Otis Park pool, thus my fantastic tan. This is where I failed my first swimming lessons. Ahh...the irony.

Help Kids With Math!

We did this last year, but it's a good thing to do. My favorite middle-school math teacher has called on her friends to help a fellow teacher get responses to a survey that will teach the kiddos about percentages and other math-y things. Go help!!

Take the survey!

For fun, put "pomegranates" as your favorite fruit. Heh heh heh...

Today's List

A short list appropriate for the non-sequitur-ishness:

1. It's exactly the wrong temperature for rain. Any colder and it would be snowing, any warmer and it would nice to have rain. As it is, it's exactly miserable and my walk home was much, much longer than usual.
2. Swimming for an hour straight is boring and makes me hurt the next day. But it's fun to say I did it!
3. It's much easier to edit other people's work than your own.
4. Polyester cording + Earbuds = Little shocks in the ear. Ouch!!!
5. Don't trust any technology websites that don't list patents on their product.
6. Haikus make fantastic technical abstracts.

Not as New, but Really Funny Anyway

This is probably not as new as advertised, but I hadn't seen it when Alex sent it along. She says, " It hurted me cause it was too funny."

Brief synopsis (à la Balderdash): Richard Simmons visits the U.S. set of Whose Line is it Anyway for a quick "Human Props" skit. Hilarity and hyperventilation ensue.

Enjoy!

Memory

I just had a really strong memory while looking at this photo on Lifehacker. It's not related to the gadget, but more to the form-factor of the gadget. It's been a long time, so Mom, if you're reading, help me out. Before Jenn was old enough to talk incessantly, before I went to school (or perhaps when I was in kindergarten), but after AAA started school, I would eat breakfast at a little, white, plastic, fold-down table installed in some cubby in the kitchen before it was remodeled. I think I sat on one of the little brown plastic chairs that we would stand on to reach the counters. I can't visualize where in the kitchen the little table was, but it was small, it had a bit of a texture similar to the texture of the chair, and it seems that I may have been the only one that used it. The strongest memory is sitting at that little table, eating little sausage sandwiches that the Schwann man sold, waiting to go to school. The sandwiches came perched on little white cardboard trays, wrapped in cellophane and went in the microwave until they thawed. You had to poke holes in the plastic. The bread came out pleasantly chewy, but the sausage was also chewy.

This memory, in no way, makes me want to eat prepared food.

Zoo Run Run

Today's mindless adventure lead me to run a 5k race with little or no running training in the last month. Brilliant! The last time I ran was over two weeks ago when I struggled through a two mile treadmill workout. I had signed up for this race before Christmas thinking that I would be able to get some building miles going before the race. Alas, the life of a grad student struck again and there was no building of the miles.

I expected nothing from the race and I hoped to finish either 1.) in less than 9 minute miles or 2.) without walking, depending on how I felt. I nearly didn't use the chip timing because the possibility of resorting to struggling with (2) was in the back of my head. However, I felt good before the race, even though it was sub-freezing, so I kept the timing chip. I was glad I did because I exceeded (1) by 30 seconds, finishing the race at 26:16, an 8:29 pace. It's not a PR, but I'm pleased with the day.

Things I learned:

• I started too far back in the pack. I was blocked by people clogging the runway, which slowed down my first mile. This may also have been a blessing, as I really wanted to be running faster, but may have run out of steam had I been able to run my own pace.
• Picking out people to catch up with seems to be a good motivator for me and I should continue to do this in the future.
• Having a strong sprint at the end means that you could have run faster overall.

Cool Stuff:

• Got to run through the Nashville Zoo, which appears to be a cool place
• Free beer at the end of the race
• I managed to feel a little competitive during the race--seeking out people to pass. This hasn't happened with running for....well....ever.
• My results were better than expected. I'm not exactly seeking to place yet, but there's hope!
• A long-sleeve technical t-shirt replaced the standard cotton tee as the event shirt. Whee!

Observations:

• People were comparing lists of animals they saw on the run. C'mon, it's a race! I, personally, saw no animals.
• Watching people try to grab as much free stuff as they could at the end of the race is a hoot. Power Water was very, very popular.
• My motivation at the end of the race was that I didn't like a girl's outfit in front of me (not flattering).

Resurrection

My views of how to fix electronics has changed. I noted a few posts ago that my microwave died. I was going to do something about it, but more than two weeks later, it is still sitting on my kitchen cabinet, plugged in. This may not be a completely bad thing. When I got back from my trip this week, I discovered that the clock and lights were working again. Magic? I dunno. It seems to be working just fine now. I have no earthly idea what happened.

It was definitely not working and now it does. Odd.

The microwave was picked because it was pretty and all microwaves are the same. After the untimely death, I went and read some reviews of this particular model and found that lots of people were having them die young, but conveniently out of warranty. My research also showed that it's often some capacitor that goes bad. Did the cap have a chance to cycle and refresh itself when I left it sitting? Dunno.

What I have learned: If something's broken, leave it there. It may fix itself. This replaces my old practice of dropping the broken device from an unspecified height. If it works after, great, if not, it definitely won't later.

I wonder how long this resurrection will last.

Word Switch of the Day

While repeatedly reading teleoperation as teleportation in a technical paper is entertaining, it really detracts from the primary focus of the article.

Just so you know.

Wounded-Bird-Truck

I may have previously posted about the Vanderbilt policy (mandate?) that they not physically harm the critters that run or fly around campus. This has lead to stories about squirrels being shipped off by the hundred to lands where students don't hand-feed them on the lawn to flourish or die (we can guess the outcome) or birds of prey being brought on to campus to keep the squirrel population down. The addition of birds of prey doesn't directly kill the squirrels, right?

Anyway, there's a bird problem. Not a bird-of-prey problem, but a bird problem. I documented, but never posted about this late last semester when I was a little more than crazy and posting about multitudes of birds would have just fanned the fire, if you will. So, I feel that, after the events of today, I can safely post the picture I took in the Nov./Dec. time frame. The dots, yeah, they're birds. A whole lot of birds.

From what I learned today, the birds in question are known for spreading all sorts of nasty diseases. The campus beautification team spends a significant amount of time keeping the little buggers a safe distance from the Vandy bubble. Unfortunately for those of us that have hearing left, that means that they blast the sounds of a wounded bird from a truck that drives around campus and setting off fireworks near the trees in which the birds light.

While I was walking to and from the gym, I could alternately hear the wounded-bird-truck(s?) driving about and the firecrackers going off. If I paid close attention, I could see on the horizon, the location of the firecrackers by the puff of birds making their narrow escape from the trees.

It was really absurd.

Found:

• One bowl of soup in my microwave from this last weekend. Heated, then forgotten. Oops.
• One busted microwave (one week after one-year warranty expired). Boo.
• One funny quote: "Bamboo doesn't grow that fast!" --on one of the fencing kids growing an inch in December.
• One tired girl after a 2.5 hour workout

Back to it.

"It" being regular workouts. At least, I hope.

Having discovered last week at Morgan-Monroe that I am terribly out of running shape, I took it easy today. I ran two miles from my apartment in about 17.5 minutes. I felt pretty good the whole way and I was able to comfortably push, knowing it was a short run. My knee didn't bother me (it did last week on both my runs).

When I got home, I did some core work.

Now, I can eat the rest of the chocolate cake that Rachel left in Bloomington! Yea!

To waste your time...

Go take the Sci Fi Sounds Quiz.

I'm terrible. Identifying sounds isn't a strength, but it's an entertaining quiz. I went back and took this, trying to go from memory, but still only scored a 71. I think Jeremy got a 71 without the advantage of multiple choice answers. I would play a clip and he would say something like, "Oh, that's HAL."

I was going to post the little tag from the website, but I couldn't get it to play nicely so you'll have to go and take the quiz and imagine the little tag at the end of this post.

**Imagine Cute Tag Here**

DoneDoneDone!!

With one in-class exam and two take-home exams turned in today, I'm done for the semester. A swim, some fencing, and a dinner at Bosco's later, I'm a little more sane.

Coming up: Holiday non-sequitur-ness and, in the Spring, PhD Prelims. Everyone smile and wait for the craziness.

Will Attempt Mental Math for Beer

Yes, I should be working on my exams. I got sidetracked by this article that implies that chimps can do mental addition as well as college students. I think this lands well within the duh regime. At this point in my college life, I can't put my shoes on correctly, much less mentally add things quickly.

The test (briefly summarized) was to flash two groups of dots on one screen and the adder had to select the sum of the two groups on another screen displaying two choices. It's not clear in the article (and I don't have the time/inclination to figure out) whether the response was a visual or symbolic answer. The success rate was the same for the primates as well as the college students (Duke, if you must know).

Anyway, it's a vaguely interesting and perhaps applicable article. I may need a pet chimp for Christmas.

Now, it's 9:00 pm, my chili's almost done, I have three hours before I turn into a pumpkin and there's an exam to tackle. Back to it.

NotaFire

The maintenance people came today to investigate my <ahem> electrical problem. It seems that the outlet and cord for my central heating unit had progressed into the melting-non-functional stage.

Why didn't the circuit breaker flip??

I dunno. Neither do the maintenance people. It could be that I caught it early enough that there wasn't enough time for it to flip.

Wait. It was your central heat? Wasn't it cold last night?

Yeah. It was cold. However, it's going to be colder tonight and I still have an apartment. It kinda reminded me of being on the farm. Nice and nostalgic--for a night.

So, everything's okay?

Yes. The guys came in and replaced the cord and the wall outlet for the heating unit. I'm snug as a bug, with only minor concerns about the rest of the wiring in the building.

Big Week

Things have been a little hectic since my last post:

• Jeremy and I competed in the Div. I NAC
• I had a particularly bad neighbor on a flight
• I finished and defended my thesis(!!!)
• An odometer birthday was celebrated
• My apartment nearly caught fire
• I'm still working on a take-home exam

Before I get to (really) rest:

• I have to finish this take-home exam and one more (for the same class)
• Christmas shopping
• Two finals
• Drive to Indiana

Good things from today:

• The wetsuit I ordered was delivered
• Yummy Indian food at the research group pitch-in (first ever, I think)
• Thesis was submitted
• The apartment did not actually catch fire**
• The potential fire was not from my cooking
• Progress was made on the above-mentioned exam

**I expect there will be a post about the non-fire tomorrow after resolution with the maintenance people. In the meantime, all is okay. I was lucky I was home.

Chocolate is Seasonal???

Jeremy went to pick up dinner tonight while I worked on the thesis. I had requested a chocolate shake from Arby's. He came back with tea and explained that, according to Arby's, chocolate is a "seasonal" flavor and this is not chocolate season. Jamocha, on the other hand, is not seasonal. This, evidently, is eggnog and orange cream season.

FOUL!!!

Sounds I Dislike:

Lawn equipment.

All lawn equipment that has any sort of motor, engine, etc.
This includes, but is not limited to, leaf blowers, weed eaters, and lawn mowers.

Today, these things sound like styrofoam being ground to bits by other, larger bits of styrofoam.

Sounds of Nature

Ugly, cellophane-wrapped, animatronic deer have taken up residency outside the Vanderbilt Hospital. I have yet to figure out what purpose the cellophane serves other than to compel me make a sympathetic gasping noise every time I pass. Breathe, little guy, breathe!!

Hooray!

Unless something important strikes me as I sleep, the Thanksgiving Thesis project has been successfully completed. There will certainly be revisions, but it's good to turn in to my advisor tomorrow morning for his leisurely browsing.

Doing a little happy dance...

...feeling a little insane.

Phase

I'm in the save-your-work-obsessively phase of the thesis writing. I have all the sections compiled into a single document. The figures and tables are all labeled and listed, there's a table of contents, and a bunch of words to go around the whole thing.

Whatever state the thing's in when I go to sleep tonight is what it will be in when I turn it in. I think.

Yea! Major progress!!

Crunch Time

The Thanksgiving Thesis Project has reached an important milestone. All the chapters are in (very) rough draft form. Now, it's time for the fine-toothed comb to come out and make sure that figures are numbered correctly, references are cited, and the bullshit I'm making up is at least convincing.

Let's see, refine 5 chapters in 30 hours. It's do-able.

What I'm dreading: Combining into one document.

What I'm happy with: A figure that took 2.5 hours to complete that nicely illustrates the process I'm working on.

Outlook: Optimistic, but getting easily distracted with real life (laundry, the need for groceries, the homework due Wednesday, the project due Friday, the exams -- THE EXAMS this week, Christmas shopping, the 15 little administrative things I need to take care of...sigh).

**Update**

Thanksgiving Night: 4 chapters out of 5 in very rough draft form.

Actively avoiding: The last chapter (results section).

Happy with: My data

Outlook: While it will be tight, but I think I'll have something that I'm not completely embarrassed about late Sunday night, ready to be delivered Monday morning. Optimism at its finest.

Thanksgiving Thesis

I am to write my master's thesis over the Thanksgiving holiday. This wouldn't be much of a problem except for my inherently social nature. AAA flew into Nashville on Monday, we drove to IN yesterday. I spent most of the day writing, but took an hour for a massage this afternoon. Today, I refined the outline, identified most of the figures that I want to include, and got rough drafts of two out of five chapters complete. Tomorrow, I hope to get at least one more chapter in draft form and the other two on Friday and spend the weekend cleaning up the whole thing. If all goes well, I'll defend sometime the week of the 3rd. Wish me luck!!

If I manage to get all this done, all I have to do in November is finish a math assignment, a project for another class, and take two exams while putting in corrections in the thesis. No problem, right??

Sesame Street

The first two seasons of Sesame Street are now available on DVD! Yea!!

Rumor has it that there's a warning for parents on the DVDs that these early episodes may not be appropriate for today's children. First, they tell us that the Smurfs was someone's giant hallucination, now, they're taking away Sesame Street.

No wonder we all turned out the way we did...

Green Christmas?

I have no idea how well this works, but Catalog Choice gives you an option to decide which catalogs you want to receive. Sounds great, eh?

Thanks Susan!!

Colossus

While listening to NPR this morning as I was heading to work, I heard in the hourly news summary that a British group has rebuilt Colossus, the computer designed to decipher German codes during WWII.

That's great! It'll be the size of a pocket watch!

No, no. Evidently, a computer museum (in the original location of an original Colossus machine) rebuilt the original design as accurately as possible (starting from a picture).

A computer museum--it's like seeing your childhood lunchbox in an antiques store!

The project took 14 years.

Huh? How long did it take to build the first one?

I dunno. Not 14 years. The difficulty is that all 10 original machines and their plans/specs were disassembled and/or destroyed for security reasons. The rebuilt computer will be pitted against a virtual Colossus running to demonstrate its blinding speed. Codes will be generated and transmitted via radio for this exciting head-to-head competition.

From Germany?

Yes.

Appropriate. Authentic.

Yes. Absolutely. The testing should be underway shortly. There are delays due to that fact that "we are at a bad point in the sunspot cycle."

Interesting article. Worth a read.

Names

I saw this article today and couldn't help but think that there may be some validity to this.

I remember drawing water associated with my lower-case script initials (SEA). Coincidence?

The sign of a long week ahead:

Walking to class this afternoon, I sighed and thought to myself, “At least it’s Friday.”
I then realized that it wasn’t.

It’s going to be a long week.

Additional Proof of the Downfall of Society

Hi, my name is Sarah, I think it would be great fun for everyone if you would let me come into your office when you're not around and do something funny. I could (a.) rearrange your furniture (b.) cover everything with aluminum foil or (c.) fill your desk drawers with Styrofoam peanuts. Would that be okay? Great.

Oh, hey, would you mind chipping in for supplies, everyone's giving $3. It would be great if you would too. Thanks.

Directions

On the way to class after lunch today, I was listening to my book, minding my own business, and as I was crossing a road, a slow moving car drove up (I was waiting on him to go so I could cross) and the driver asked me for directions to Sam's.

No problem. Sam's is nearby, I gave directions and got on my way.

Stop. Wait.

I was listening to my book (headphones, yes) and had sunglasses on.

This isn't the first time this has happened. I get stopped weekly by people asking for random directions, which is fine, but there seems to be no regard for the fact that I'm wearing headphones (and, in one case, talking on the phone, in another case, thoroughly wrapped in conversation).

I'm happy to give directions. Happier that I know where they're talking about. I just think it's strange that I get asked so often and so often when I should appear to be ensconced.

Thoughts?

Run Away...

My imagination got the best of me when I read this article about lobsters escaping from a supermarket. The word choices cracked me up.

1. I pictured them huddling and formulating a plan
2. I also pictured them posting lookouts and, during the escape, the slow ones yelling to the others, "Save yourselves!"
3. The soundtrack of my mind is going nuts with songs that include the phrase "run away" (e.g. "I've got to ..." and "... train, never coming back")

Don't you think it's a little odd that the crates weren't secured appropriately and the front door was "accidentally" left open?

Letters

I received real mail this week. I checked my mailbox as I was on my way to campus and found a card. A real card--just because!! I detoured back to my apartment to open it right then because I couldn't wait. I think about how happy I get when I get a letter, note, anything from a real person that I think I ought to be sending letters to people I know (like real correspondence).

Another inspiration for sending letters is the beautiful and fun stamps that the post office has put out this year. See? Yoda! Yea!

Go buy stamps and send a letter!! Make someone's day.

Inspired by: Sunflower!! Thanks soo much!!!

Joy!

Remember the "Friends" episode where Rachel takes Phoebe running in the park and is completely embarrassed that Phoebe still runs like a kid then in the end finds out that it's just a lot of fun to run like that? I was thinking about that the whole time I was running tonight. I felt better on my feet than I have for a long time. Maybe it's that it's not super hot and humid, maybe it was the music I was listening to, maybe it was the full night's sleep I got last night. I don't know and I don't much care, 'cuz I felt great and pushed for the last mile and felt like Phoebe running through the park. Yea!

Long Live Sport!

Most people who know me know that I'll watch almost any sport. They also know that I think ESPN is about the best thing to happen to television ever--especially back in the day when they primarily covered the "B-list" sports like volleyball and car racing (before NASCAR got popular). Now, with umpteen channels of 'round-the-clock coverage, there's a lot of airtime to fill. With what? Opinions. Lots of people are making a living giving their opinions about sports on television. Fantastic. God bless America! Unfortunately, over time, fact has been lost. Le Anne Schreiber's recent column addresses this issue and is worth a read. Enjoy!

Dinner before the Yum...

We made pecan- and panko-crusted chicken breasts for dinner tonight. Very tasty. I made this about a week ago and really enjoyed the recipe. Tonight we added a side of potatoes. The snap is from last week's meal, but this week's looked remarkably similar.

Yum!

Jeremy is here. I have no ice cream. We wanted something sweet. Do I really need to say anything more?

Yum!

Ask and ye shall...

This will probably become more commonplace with the fabulous-ness of the infoweb, but Minnesota Public Radio has a candidate selector quiz. It has the major issues and the stances of the candidates and you can rate the issues based on how important they are to you. It then pops out an ordered list of candidates. Very cool. I was looking for something like this the other day and Chris pointed me this way. Thanks, Chris!!

Go try it!

I wish WFIU would do something like this for the local elections...

Dedication

If my parents had been as dedicated to the success of my athletic endeavors, who knows where I'd be? Or rather, if I'd have survived.

The Flip Side

After posting about Josh, the jackass CS rep, I decided that it would probably be only fair if I would post about Coral, the very picture of all that is right in the CS world. I had called Coral prior to calling Josh. I needed Coral to help me get bits to some furniture that had been damaged in shipping. The problem was that I had already called the manufacturer and they had promised to send the parts along. I was worried that (1.) too much time had passed and (2.) that they would refuse to help based on the fact that I hadn't inspected the package upon receipt (FedEx had just dropped it at the door).

She said that none of this was a problem, asked me to send pictures of the damaged items (to her personal e-mail address), made sure she had accurate contact information, and even called back later to gather additional information. When I got back to her with the additional information, she knew who I was and remembered the problem. I was so very impressed.

Having had this fantastic experience, I was optimistic and gave Josh a call. Josh obviously didn't work out, but at least I know that there are Corals in the world.

Customer Service

I just got off the phone with a customer service rep. I was calling to ask if there was a replacement part for the battery compartment cover for my MP3 player. The phone call went like this:

Him: This is Josh. How can I help you?

Me (paraphrasing): Hi Josh. I have a MP3 player with a broken battery compartment and I was wondering if I could get a replacement part for that.

Him (direct quote): I don't have any. I never will have any.

(pregnant pause)

Me: I guess I'll just not worry about it then.

Him: Okay. Bye.

dial tone

Childhood Misconception

Walking around campus today, a few of us spotted this (apologies for the crappy resolution...camera phone):



It's green, about the size of a softball, hard, and bumpy.

One of the guys asked, "What's that?" The other responded, "Oh, it's a thing that comes from a tree...I don't know what it's called."

"What do you do with it?"

"Oh, throw them at people."

(insert pause for comic effect)

As he was saying that, I was starting to respond with, "You throw them in creeks and follow them as they float along," because that's what we used to do. I had to bite my tongue because the other response seemed to be more applicable for the current situation (no creek to be seen). Naturally, we looked around for targets, but no one walked by. The squirrels were oddly absent, too.

Here's the weird childhood misconception bit: there's a tree by the creek at Mom & Dad's that drops a bunch of these every year. For some reason, I concluded that this was the type of apple that Eve tricked Adam into eating. They looked like apples, but they didn't seem edible (I somehow got the impression that they were poisonous), and they were ugly, so it all made sense. Having put some thought into this more recently, I am curious about my "logic".

I mentioned this little story to the guys and they gave me the uncomfortable don't-know-what-the-hell-you're-talking-about look, the moment passed, then we took another glance around for a moving target.

Anyone know what this is and what it's about?

P.S. Bonus points for a Wiki link!

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.

Ladybug was right...

...chocolate does make my owwie better.

Sport Walking

I really need someone to defend sport walking as an event in the world track and field championships. The closest I can come is comparing it to the breast stroke in swimming. It can be looked at as a technique event, but it's really a stretch. Sure, I think they walk faster than I can run (or pretty close anyway), but that's not the point. Am I missing something?

First day of class: by the numbers

5 → Classes attended
4 → Minutes to decide that I was not going to take Probability
3 → Items expedited from amazon.com
2 → Professors making not-so-subtle references to illegal substances
1 → Tired girl heading to happy hour (I hope)

Darn!

I just logged in to Blogger and was hoping that the blog-bot had generated something clever for today. It seems that I am, yet again, on my own.

Today's the last day before classes start which means that I spent most of it reading papers that I meant to read last week and entering data that I collected in the last couple weeks into Excel. These activities fried my brain sufficiently that I thought the fencing this evening was a good idea. We had a group lesson that went something like this:

Coach: Parry four and make the person attacking you disengage.
I give it a shot. FAIL.
Coach: Sarah, all you have to do is parry four.
Me: Ok. I know.
I try again. FAIL.
Coach: Do it again. Slowly.

It went on like this, generally painful all around. I decided that an individual lesson wasn't in my best interest tonight. Decided to go swimming for a few minutes to clear my head. Pool closed at 8. I walked down at 8:01.

Sigh.

Now, it's time to find food and enter more data.

Banana-black Bean Empanadas

With the Bevis clan back in B-ton, my exposure to new, interesting food (even when in Nashville) has greatly increased. The banana-black bean empanadas were the main course in a fantastic dinner when I made it home this month and I had a bit of a craving for them tonight. I added a dusting of powdered sugar to the final product for a bit of a twist. Turned out pretty good. Should be tasty for lunch this week, too.

If it weren't so dumb, it'd be funny...

"You see powder connected by arrows and chalk, you never know..."

--New Haven, Conn. mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga

discussing the use of flour to mark a running trail for the Hash House Harriers.

Sportswoman of the Year

Rebecca Ward, a sabre fencer, has been nominated by the Women's Sports Foundation for Sportswoman of the Year. She's up against the likes of Lorena Ochoa and Justine Henin.

Go and support fencing and vote for Rebecca. It requires some information to be provided, but they didn't specify that the information had to be correct.

Thanks.

Dinner in DC

M.L. and I got together for dinner while I was out in DC. We wandered around King Street in Alexandria for a while. I had wanted to try a new Irish pub, but we walked in and there were so many people and it was so noisy that we decided to move on. After walking for a little longer, we happened upon Restaurant Eve, one of my favorite places to indulge and sat in the bar to eat (to get a table, we probably would have had to call two weeks ago). Fortunately, we were immediately seated and ordered our glasses of wine.

The bartender told us about a couple dishes that weren't on the menu including a lobster bisque that was tempting and a hogshead burger that made her face light up. I had no idea what a hogshead burger was and her reaction was so strong that I decided to give it a try. M.L. tried the gnocchi appetizer. What I got was a lovely meat patty that had delicate red meat crusted with a light breading seared to perfection. It was a joy to eat. Very rich and flavorful. Plus, it came with perfect fries.

At the end of the meal, I asked for specifics about the burger. It came from the meat from the skull of a hog. Very, very tasty. Very, very unique.

Weather

My Yahoo! homepage has a weather section that I use to monitor the outdoor conditions at various places such as Bloomington and Nashville (I also have the places I traveled frequently last year, but I haven't changed them because I'm too lazy). These also indicate if there's a severe weather alert. Since I'm a sucker, I usually go and read these regardless of my current location. The unusually hot/dry conditions in the Midwest have produced interesting alerts. Today, Bloomington and Nashville had heat advisory alerts. The difference in the tone is remarkable. Enjoy! Oh, and note the use of first person in the Nashville alert.

In Nashville:
226 AM CDT THU AUG 23 2007
...REWRITING THE RECORD BOOK...YESTERDAYS HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 102 DEGREES SET YET ANOTHER DAILY HIGH RECORD IN NASHVILLE. THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 100 DEGREES BACKIN 1983. NASHVILLE ALSO TIED THE HIGHEST DAILY MINIMUM TEMPERATURE FOR AUGUST 22ND WITH 76 DEGREES...WHICH OCCURRED BACK IN 1936.CROSSVILLE BROKE THE RECORD HIGH FOR AUGUST 22ND WITH 96 DEGREES. THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 95 SET IN 1983. CLARKSVILLE HIT 102 DEGREES. NASHVILLE WILL LIKELY BREAK ANOTHER RECORD TODAY WITH A FORECAST HIGH OF 103 DEGREES. THE RECORD HIGH FOR AUGUST 23RD IS 100 DEGREES SET BACK IN 1983.
THE RECORD HIGH FOR AUGUST 23RD IN COLUMBIA IS 100 DEGREES...LEBANONIS 102 DEGREES...MCMINNVILLE IS 99 DEGREES...MURFREESBORO IS 102DEGREES. NEW RECORDS COULD BE SET IN THESE AREAS TODAY.I'M BEGINNING TO RUN OUT OF RED INK.
THIS MONTH...NASHVILLE HAS BROKEN THREE DAILY HIGH TEMPERATURE RECORDS...AND EITHER BROKEN OR TIED...SIX...HIGHEST DAILY MINIMUM TEMPERATURE RECORDS.YESTERDAY MARKED THE 13TH DAY OF 100 DEGREES OR ABOVE IN NASHVILLE THIS MONTH. THIS IS NEARLY TWICE AS MANY DAYS AS EVER RECORDED INTHE MONTH OF AUGUST. THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 7 DAYS SET BACK IN 1954.
IT IS ALSO THE MOST EVER RECORDED IN ANY MONTH. THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 11 DAYS BACK IN JUNE 1952.NASHVILLE HAS EXPERIENCED 13 DAYS OF TRIPLE DIGIT TEMPERATURES SOFAR THIS SUMMER...THIS IS THE MOST SINCE THE SUMMER OF 1954...WHICH HAD 20 DAYS OF TRIPLE DIGIT HEAT. 1952 HAD 19 DAYS OF TRIPLE DIGITHEAT.CURRENTLY...AUGUST 2007 IN NASHVILLE IS AVERAGING 9.2
ABOVE NORMAL. THIS IS 4.4 DEGREES HOTTER THAN THE HOTTEST AUGUST ON RECORD...WHICH WAS IN 1995. AUGUST 2007 COULD ALSO END UP BEING THE HOTTEST...OF ANY MONTH SINCE RECORD KEEPING BEGAN IN NASHVILLE...NEARLY 137 YEARS AGO.
THERE HAVE BEEN 21 CONSECUTIVE DAYS OF 95 DEGREES AND ABOVE IN NASHVILLE. THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED IN THE WEATHER RECORDS AT NASHVILLE. THE OLD RECORD WAS 19 DAYS BACK IN JUNE 1952. THIS STREAK WILL LIKELY CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT FIVE OR SIX DAYS. YESTERDAY WAS THE 28TH CONSECUTIVE DAY OF 90 DEGREES AND ABOVE IN NASHVILLE. A STRING THAT BEGAN BACK ON JULY 26TH. THIS IS THE MOST SINCE JUNE 1954...AND THE 3RD MOST ON RECORD. THE MOST EVER RECORDED IS 31 DAYS BACK IN JUNE OF 1952 AND AGAIN IN JUNE OF 1954. WE SHOULD BREAK THIS STRING. THE 106 DEGREES ON AUGUST 16TH NOT ONLY BROKE THE RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR THAT DATE...BUT ALSO BROKE THE ALL TIME RECORD HIGH FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST...WHICH HAD BEEN 105 DEGREES SET BACK IN AUGUST 1930. THIS ALSO WAS THE HOTTEST TEMPERATURE IN NASHVILLE IN THE LAST 55 YEARS...ONLY SURPASSED BY THE ALL TIME RECORD HEAT OF 107 DEGREES BACK ON JULY 27TH AND 28TH 1952.

In Bloomington:
349 AM EDT THU AUG 23 2007
...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM EDT /NOON CDT/ THISAFTERNOON TO 8 PM EDT /7 PM CDT/ THIS EVENING...A HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM EDT /NOON CDT/ THISAFTERNOON TO 8 PM EDT /7 PM CDT/ THIS EVENING. THE MERCURY WILL TOP OUT NEAR 100 TODAY...BUT HIGH HUMIDITIES WILL MAKE IT FEEL AS HOT AS 107 DURING THE WARMEST PART OF THE AFTERNOON.A HEAT ADVISORY MEANS THAT A PERIOD OF HOT TEMPERATURES ISEXPECTED. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES AREPOSSIBLE. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS...STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONEDROOM...STAY OUT OF THE SUN...AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES ANDNEIGHBORS.

Enterprise

It's not much in my nature to gush about customer service. I believe that good service should be expected and, well....blah, blah, blah...anyway, I'm going to gush a bit about the Enterprise Rent-a-Car associated with Regan National.

What I got from the time I stepped onto the Enterprise shuttle in DC:

• Good conversation with the shuttle driver
• Four open terminals with smiling CS representatives
• Brief appearance of my smiling, good natured rep in a David Hasselhoff jacket
• A funny Flintstones reference when discussing the car
• General good humor, patience, and a nice atmosphere from all involved

Unfortunately, the car itself is a nearly worthless POS, but it's getting me where I need to go, so I can't complain too much. The service far outweighs the fact that a Dodge Caliber drives like a cardboard box with an unmotivated hamster for a drivetrain. It doesn't keep the people that I dealt with from being pretty cool.

Quote of the day

During a discussion of wine color:

No. Absolutely not. We do not classify wine color by reds worn by football teams, collegiate or professional.

Followup: God is in Your Food

Your chocolate, this time. Better production quality on the video...there's evidently more production funding for chocolate than eggplant.

Joys of travel

Not traveling as much now as I was, this article isn't as useful, but gives me hope for those of us who have spent excessive times on the tarmac. We, as passengers, should organize.

Nearly everyone I know has a nightmare story about air travel. Some involve the plane, some involve the airport, some involve the personnel. It really shouldn't be that way. Where's the passenger's bill of rights? It's a nice thought, but no where on the page does it say what happens if you don't get what's outlined.

God Is in Your Food!

Your eggplant, to be exact.

Must.Watch.Video.

The article is optional, though the video probably doesn't make much sense otherwise.

Morning Run

Another equation:

Exercise - Common Sense = Pain

Having battled a cold for the last couple weeks and not having slept nearly enough, nor having worked out nearly enough, nor having hydrated nearly well enough yesterday, I decided that it would be a good idea to go out and run Pate Hollow Trail. All 6.6 miles of it. It's funny how my body decided that running that far under those particular circumstances wasn't such a good idea. We (my body and I) had long conversations about what the plan was, but the body won out today. I made it around the loop, just not nearly as quickly as I would have liked.

It's a great trail and I really like running there. I finally found a map. Turns out that I was calling it Hardin Ridge rather than Pate Hollow.

Update: Balls

Matt Murphy, the poor sap who caught the record-breaking home-run ball from Barry Bonds' bat, gave an interview to the Today Show and said that he may keep the ball (yea!). However, it seems, according to the article about the interview, that he would owe taxes on it if he did.

Am I to believe that they give tax forms to all people who catch baseballs at games?

I suppose it is a little like winning the lottery, but in the lottery, doesn't everyone who enters have an equal chance of winning?

The Golden Ticket

I don't think much about baseball. Most who know me know that my take on the sport is that it's the best three minutes of action jam-packed into three hours of time found in the world of sport. The only exceptions are going to watch a game at a professional ball park and playing the game yourself. In those two cases, it's fine. Otherwise, absently reading headlines will suffice for me to keep up with the goings on. However, as some of these stories progress, they transcend the world of baseball and the headlines catch the eyes of even the most skeptical headline skimmer.

In the past week, two milestones have been reached. Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th home run and Barry Bonds broke the all-time home run record, hitting his 756th career home run. Good for them. Now comes the news. There are two guys out there who happened to be in the right place at the right time who caught the balls hit by these players on these particular at-bats. Walter Kowalczyk and Matt Murphy perhaps had dreams of catching the milestone hits, but probably knew that the odds were against them. Nevertheless, they caught the balls. Good for them. The thing that fascinates me is the discussion around these prizes and the burden that comes with having such a possession.

If a "normal" home run is caught, the catcher proudly takes it home and re-lives the day with their grandchildren (who will some day yawn and ask what "baseball" is). The individuals on these historic nights have bigger decisions to make. From the first, the procedure is different.

Mr. Kowalczyk:

"used his roughly 250-pound frame to protect his prize from a scrum of crazed fans Saturday.

He was retrieved by stadium security guards who took him to a suite to watch the rest of the game and then drove him home."

Mr. Murphy:

"emerged from a scrum of bloodied and bruised fans in the bleachers with the historic ball, which some memorabilia experts predict could fetch up to one million dollars.

The 22-year-old was hustled out of the outfield section, flanked by a squad of San Francisco policemen."

Ummm. OK.

To me, this sounds like the scenes in "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" where the kids would find the golden tickets and would be accosted by the surrounding people, then have secrets whispered in their ears by "Mr. Slugworth". I'm sure now that these men have made it to the relative safety of their homes, they're being offered the world by people they never imagined would care about such things. I'm sure they have more friends than they ever knew.

While it's noble that the fans on these nights were able to give the TV audience a little more action during the telecast, it's a little frightening that grown people were "scrumming" for the ball. Granted, these men can directly profit from their labors by selling the ball to collectors. They could donate the ball to the Hall of Fame. They could give the ball back to the player. Or, best yet (and most unlikely), they could keep the ball, go out and play catch with their kids and grandkids for years to come, tell the story, show the video of their grand catch, and bask in the glory with family and friends. After all, before that particular ball was hit by that particular player at that particular time in history, it was just another ball.

Shrimp Truck

Okay. I think this is the last Hawaii post. No promises, but I think this is it.

We discovered shrimp trucks. These are little mobile (or formerly mobile) vans, RVs, trucks that have been converted to shrimp-cookin' businesses. Some are hit-and-miss with their cooking, but others are amazing. I think my final count for the week was three different trucks. I took a picture of the last one. Behind it is a shrimp farm. You could (as the sign advertises) get live shrimp to take home or just let them cook it there. It's messy (you usually have to peel your own), but definitely worth it.