2007
- Landed in NY. Getting ready to deplane.
- Cab ride is horrible. Traffic is a mess. Getting naseous.
- Trying to avoid the pool of water on the floor of this cab.
- Finally at World Financial Center. Need to get some food to relieve nauseous feeling.
- Noting how much New Yorkers love to talk about how they got from one place to another – what trains, streets, taxis, etc.
Green Lake Triathlon
Up and leaving really early for the Green Lake triathlon — Tammy’s first triathlon! Hector, Michelle, and Tammy are all participating. Proud of my Tammy’s triathlete status.
Welcome to Lunkerville
Everyone wanted to catch a really big Northern on the fishing trip. Big is pretty much anything over 30 inches. I grabbed this 35.5" Northern in the Ball Cap on the day I was fishing with Don. The different fishing spots get names over time, hence the Ball Cap.
The biggest fish of the trip was caught by Don, with a length of 46 inches! Wow!
Major Blow for US Cycling
It has long been wondered if US cycling would be able to survive the retirement of Lance Armstrong. Today we got our answer, and unfortunately it isn’t the answer I wanted. The Discovery Pro cycling team announced today that after this season the team will be disbanded (PaceLine release requires registration). The team that has won 8 Tours de France in the last 10 years and countless other races will cease to exist after this years season is over. The team led by perhaps the best director sportif, Johann Bruyneel, is going away. The team that was US Postal, and traces back to the Subaru-Montgomery Sports team, is going away. After shopping around for months since Discovery Channel decided to end it’s sponsorship, the team was unable to find a viable sponsor.
There are two reasons for this. The first is America’s continuing lack of enthusiasm for cycling. The majority of America seems to lack the attention span for Grand Tours and don’t care to dive into the strategy and poetic agony of cycling. The second reason is more insidious. I find it impossible to believe that doping allegations are not part of this. Europe is weathering this storm as well, but the strong history of cycling gives organizations like T-Mobile continuing sponsorship even after significant doping issues. Mind you, Discovery has not had an issue in this arena. But combining the lack of a superstar like Lance that everyone can get behind, and the worry of a doping scandal is too much to overcome it seems.
by Kevin Kallaugher,Economist, July 26, 2007
This is an unfortunate turn of events. In an attempt to see the silver lining, perhaps riders like George Hincapie will be able to move to other teams with more support for his Classics goals. I would expect that Bruyneel will find a new home. Or perhaps something else will rise out of the ashes of the most winning tour organization in the last decade.
Until then, thanks for all the great memories guys.
Got a Message
While I was in Canada fishing I was without any means of communication. The only thing that would have worked was a satellite phone, and while I considered it I figured I was being ridiculous. I did know that the camp had a radio, and I figured that with enough work you could get through via the radio if there was an emergency. I had visions in my head of Radar in MAS*H patching calls through for Hawkeye to talk to his Dad. It all seemed very do-able.
On only the second day of fishing, after we came back in from the afternoon session there was a message. Everyone was pretty confused since it was so unexpected. George, the Native American that ran the camp had left a scrap of paper for us. The message, exactly as it was delivered is below.
Nobody knew what to do with it, until someone figured out whose phone number that was. It was mine! Obviously there is no message there, so I went to find George a bit anxious about what my message was. George spoke very little English. It turned out, that was the whole message. That was all he had for me, my phone number.
Now, imagine yourself in the middle of the wilderness the recipient of an envelope with no letter in it. It drove me nuts, and of course my mind started going crazy. Was something wrong with Mazie? Tammy? Was there an accident? What’s going on? Argh!
We put the radio to work and it turned out that Radar O’Reilly was nowhere near. The radio couldn’t even reach the nearest village without relaying through another person in another camp. All radio communication was in Ojibwe/Cree so I had no idea what was being said. Theoretically they were going to relay a message and try to call my house to find out what the message was. According to caller ID nobody ever called the house. After a day nobody had flown in to get me, so I figured that it must not be an emergency. It was 4 days before we would leave.
I never did get the message until we flew out of camp on the float plane and got to the nearest airport. I immediately called home to find out what was going on. The message was that my Grandpa had been in the hospital and that they did not think he was going to make it. His health was very poor, and cancer was getting him. But he had recuperated a bit and had returned home. Unfortunately, time was against me and my grandpa passed away less than 24 hours after I got home.
Canadian Fishing Trip Recap
A few weeks ago I went on a fishing trip into Canada with my three brother-in-laws and our father-in-law, Don, as well as his brother, Roger, his son and son-in-laws and oldest grandson. The 10 of us adventured up into the wilderness to catch huge Northern Pike and Walleye. Don and Roger have been on these trips a few times before, they make it an annual thing, and thought it would be a good idea to have the extended family go together. It was a really great trip with 5 days of non-stop fishing. Thanks to Don and Roger for making this trip happen!
I caught a ton of fish. I grew up in North Dakota fishing on the shore. To me, fishing always meant getting up way too early, driving too far, sitting on the shore with way too much sun, and not catching any fish. Not exactly the best of times. We fished the Chipai Lake for five days and the only way you got downtime was if you weren’t fishing. If your line was in the water you were probably getting a fish. I didn’t keep really close count, but I know I caught over 10 fish a day. And the smallest of these fish rivaled the biggest of any other fish I had ever caught.
I really enjoyed this trip in part because it was something outside of my normal zone. I’ll admit to being a bit worried about handling these big northerns. I was a bit worried about my boat skills. But everything came together well and we had a really good time. It was fun to get to know my brother-in-laws better, especially the guys on the other side of the family. I have never been in that remote of a location before. We were completely off the grid. There was no cellular service. No phone service at all. Any electricity was provided by a couple of small solar panels and a generator that you could start as needed. The cabin did have a shower, and gas range and refrigerator. But being that far out of communication was new to me. That’s the longest I’ve ever been off of the Internet since college.
Each day had a regular pattern to it. We got up around 6:00 am and were in the boats by 7am. We’d have a big breakfast at 10am, and a big dinner at 5pm. All the boats would be out on the water for three sessions a day: 7-9:30a, 11-4pm and 6-9pm. We rarely saw the night. The sun didn’t go down until around 11 and rose about 4am. We ate walleye every night. That was our only real job, each morning on the first session out each boat was to bring in a couple walleye to eat. They were freshly fileted, battered and fried up. Even after 4 nights of Walleye, it still tasted great.
I have over 800 pictures from the trip, but this collection of about 80 is a nice recap.
At a wedding in Stillwater. Long lost relatives on my side of the family.
First ever batch of cold press is brewing. Just pulled the stopper and letting the cold press filter. Coffee bar is open. 😊
LaserJet Memory Upgrade
I think I’m like most people and never really think about my printer. Last week though I thought about it a lot as I waited forever to have it print some really complicated documents. I decided to take action and ordered some more memory. I just got done slapping a 128MB DIMM in my HP LaserJet 1320. Why? Because you can and it costs so very little. And I expect I’ll have this printer for a good long while. It sure prints faster.
24" iMac
5 months ago I said goodbye to my iMac G5 and sent it on to live happily with my sister. After it departed the MacBook took it’s place and started being permanently anchored to the kitchen desk. I’ve been holding off on replacing the iMac until Apple released the next model of iMac, which they did today. A quick trip to the Apple Store this afternoon and I’ve got the brand new 24" iMac setup in the kitchen office.
The form factor of the new iMac is just great. The aluminum and glass are great. The new keyboard is a “double take” experience – amazingly thin. I just had enough time to set the machine up and get it powered on tonight.
I also picked up iWork ‘08 and iLife ‘08. I’m particularly excited to play with Numbers and the brand new iMovie.
iMovie ‘08 may be the answer to my video problems!
Ridgedale store was a bust. On the way to Southdale.
Apple Store Southdale is expecting a shipment in a couple hours. May have to make a stop.
Just watched “You, Me and Dupree”.
Watching Little Children.
Wondering why I’m sitting here tapping on my iPhone with a MacBook Pro 12 inches away.
Tammy is getting addicted to Frenzic.
Like iTunes before it, have now succumbed to flickr.
Stunned and in awe over this WordPress Flickr Plugin.
Day 2 of Uptown Art Fair done. Success.