A GREAT SEGUE

So Boris Yeltsin died yesterday... in related news, I have been listening to an indie band for a while now called Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin . I would say that anyone who liked the old Weezer sound might like them, but that doesn't totally define them. They are in SF today and somewhere around LA LA Land tomorrow. I wish I could go, but I have to be responsible and work.

Page Updates

In an effort to make my page more entertaining, I am tinkering with some upgrades and changes. I have added a link to some video in the upper right hand corner of my blog. If you click on one of the images, the video will play at the top of my page. I'm going to try it out by featuring some music I am currently listening to. One warning: I am not responsible for the video content featured. The videos are automatically chosen by google from search terms I enter. I check it as best I can, but don't blame me if some weird S & M video accidently hops up there. Anywho, hope some of you enjoy some music I'm listening to lately.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my wife loves The Office. Here's a clip from next weeks episode.

It seems I've come down with a stomach ailment so I'm not sure if we will make it to MCC or not.

MCC

Anyone going to MCC this weekend? I think Julie and I will drive up on Saturday morning.

feel scrambled?

If you're like me, your day was shit. You can only console yourself by finding ways to fit both "your" and you're" into the same sentence. Oh, and by checking out these pictures.

Julie and dogs

Farm Pond Fishing

We had to build a small pond behind our house for irrigation on the farm. We plan to stock it with fish and hope there will be some good fishing out there. In order to give the fish a more acceptable habitat, I designed some structure and put it in. I was hoping to include some pictures, but blogger is being stupid right now. In other news, Julie cut her hair. If anyone comments something like "why didn't you put up a picture of her new hairstyle?" I will explode in a fit of rage. Isn't it funny how technology can make you so angry sometimes. Anyway, she cut off a 10 inch braid to donate to Locks of Love.

Around the World

Sorry about the lack of posts. I have been fishing in Mexico for almost a week. The fishing wasn't very good, and I'm glad to be home. Other than that, I haven't had time for anything other than work, home, pets, wife. Not in that order. Hey, did I just hear that Switzerland invaded Liechtenstein?

Dog Days of February?

Yesterday we got our new puppy! Her name is Daisy, and she is a border collie. We think she is between 6 and 8 weeks old. She came to us from a shepherd with whom the farm does business. I am hoping that she has some herding instincts so that maybe I could learn to work dogs with sheep or even cattle. Daisy and Kota are already getting along pretty well. They both slept in the laundry room last night without any major problems. Daisy is adorably and loves to be cuddled and held by people. Thankfully, Julie had the day off today, and I think she held that puppy almost all day. Daisy has already latched onto her. I was hoping to update my Flick'r account with some pictures, but I seems to be down right now. I guess I will have to post a few here now.

Julie and Daisy on our brand new lawn

Dana, Kota and little Daisy

Kota is still my buddy. I didn't have to drive too much for work today, so he got to spend the whole day with me. That was fun. He is really getting excited about digging in gopher holes, and he falls asleep at my feet every night while Julie and I watch tv.

Update City

As I'm sure you can tell, I've finally switched over. I am actually very happy with the switch because now my mac browser can do all the simple things you all have been able to do for all of eternity. I can change my font, size, color, and many other things. Stay tuned while I blow your mind....

What the ....?

Check this out. winmysoul.com

Woodworking

Ok, so on the farm we are having a bit of a gopher problem. The problem is there are too many of them, and they really mess things up. So we have been trying to get rid of them, with very little success. So I am building these owl houses that will hopefully attract more owls to the area to eat more gophers. I have discovered that I'm not very good at working with wood on anything that needs extreme precision. Granted, I'm not exactly working with professional tools, but I would really like to be able to cut a straight line. It would be great if I cut 6 pieces that fit together in a cube perfectly, with all the edges perfect. No matter how hard I try, I simply can't do it. Needless to say I really admire how hard it is to do what this guy does.

We made it back from our trip. It was a lot of fun. I thought I would include a picture of one of the highlights.

This is actually really cool. Julie got to pet and feed some dolphins. Who can say they've done that?

I Feel Betrayed

Is nothing sacred anymore? The internet is ruining the world. I guess you never really know someone. The other day Julie and I went to Sea World and really enjoyed watching a couple of Beluga whales swim in their enclosure. Now, sure enough, I find out that even they have a sex video! I demand that Sea World take them off exhibit immediately. A family organization like the one that owns Sea World (Anheuser-Busch) cannot be promoting this kind of pollution of our morality. I am outraged!

Playoffs

Charger mania is gripping San Diego. All week there have literally been half a dozen huge Chargers celebrations a various locations throughout the city per day! The game doesn't start until 1:30, and there was already a huge traffic jam to get to the stadium at 7 am this morning. The gates weren't even open yet, but literally thousands of cars were lined up waiting to be allowed in to tailgate.
As for the game, I don't know who will win, but the Chargers clearly have the better team. If you look at it from a matchup perspective, the Chargers win at most positions. It remains to be seen, however, if the Patriots have a game plan to neutralize this disadvantage.
So much has been made of San Diego coach Marty Schottenheimer's playoof record. For those of you who have been in a cave for two weeks, he's got 200 carrer wins (a hall of fame type number), but is only 5-12 in the playoffs with no Super Bowl Wins. Most analysts say this makes him less of a good coach, but I disagree.
Coaches get their teams ready to play on a weekly basis. Great players win playoff games. Schottenheimer has coached some less than great teams into the playoffs, but they simply didn't have the talent to win in the playoffs. Other coaches wouldn't even have gotten some of those teams into the playoffs. To me, this shows that Schottenheimer is a great coach, and I think he has the talent to at least get to the Super Bowl this year.

Woman Dies From Radio Station Contest

Can this story possibly be true? If it is, this may be the most damage a radio station contest has ever done.

If you ever go to San Diego, go to the Bali Hai for dinner. Call and make a reservation for a table by the windows at a time you know will be after dark. Beautiful view. They also are a great value. Julie and I both had drinks, crab cakes, dinners that included soup and salad, a dessert and coffee. I was shocked when I got the bill (in a good way for once). It was the cheapest meal we have had since we left Bakersfield. The food was top-notch, and the service was great too! It was so good, we are honestly considering eating every meal there for the rest of the trip. This place is seriously amazing. It would be worth an expensive dinner for the view alone. Yet the food is also great and totally underpriced for what we have experienced in the city so far. I highly recommend this place.

Also, Julie looked really beautiful tonight, but she always does.

check it out at BaliHairestaurant.com (don't know why blogger won't let me hyperlink right now)

Soccer in America

The big news today is that David Beckham will be coming to MLS and playing for the LA galaxy for a reported $250 million. I don't know how the league can afford it, and I think that it makes some crazy assumptions about how much of the contract will be covered in endorsement money. But I leave all the talk about this to the sports stations; Sportscenter anchors love talking about this just so they can bring up Victoria and show scantily clad pictures of her.
In terms of the international game tapping into the American market, I think there is a much more interesting story. With the news that Clint Dempsey has been approved for a work visa in the UK, EPL team Fulham now has 3 current or former US national team players in their team (I think Brian Mcbride technically retired from the national team after the World Cup). Word has also been out for weeks that Fulham are also pursuing a transfer for US player Oguchi Onyewu who is currently playing in Belgium. The question is, with so much quality talent out there, why so much interest in US talent from Fulham. A likely reason is that they are finding US talent highly undervalued internationally. What they get out of McBride is a steal for what they pay him. Maybe they just are finding that they can get good US players for cheaper than their international equivalents. Then again, the $4 million they paid for the unproven Dempsey certainly seems like more of a gamble than a frugal tactical move. I think its possible that they are hoping to tap into a growing US market for top-tier soccer. There are a handful of cable channels that now regularly broadcast premier league games in the US, and some of the ratings numbers indicate that more people in the US want to watch the EPL than the MLS. Can you blame them? It is possible that Fulham could parlay some of these US national players into a loyal fan following in America. Time will only tell.

Mobile Blogger

Julie and I are visiting San Diego for our anniversary. We just arrived at our hotel and my mobile wireless internet works great. My plan is to blog every night, but I don't know if I will make it. We didn't really do anything today except drive. We packed and left this morning, stopped at the store for a few last minute travel items, and spent some serious time in traffic. We also ate at "Il Fornaio" in Del Mar. I know that this is a chain, so its not like I'm reviewing a local place. The food was good and the view of the sea was beautiful. We had a corner table upstairs in the glass-walled, covered patio. There was a great panoramic view of the sea and coastline. I hate places like Del Mar, though. Everyone is so pretentious. Crazy! Its like a different planet these people live on.