Fantasy Football Playoffs

The season started very grim, but two of my four teams pulled out playoff spots. Both had to win their final regular season game (week 13 of the NFL season) to sneak in and both pulled it out.
One of my teams is not very strong but it has some talent that could win a game or two.
My other playoff team is much more powerful. That team is lead by Drew Brees, the #1 fantasy QB this year. I have two solid WRs in TJ Houshmandzadeh and Steve Smith. The injury to Shaun Alexander had me shuffling Jamal Lewis, Maurice Jones-Drew and Dominic Rhodes at RB all year; now that the MVP is back, I should make some noise. One guy predicted me wining in all, I hope this is not a jinx.

Lost Family

I have recently caught up on this heart rendering story of the missing family of four in Oregon. It is hard to believe that someone can still get lost in the snow these days. They had a modern car, cell phones and who knows what else (given that the father was a well-known gadget journalist you think he might have a GPS), yet still got lost along major roads.
One interesting tidbit about the resuce of the mother and children is that the helicopter that spotted them was charted by the family of the missing people. The authorities, who are presumably experts in finding lost people, had all kinds of men and machines out searching, but can't find them.
Hopefully they can find the remaining person soon.

Thanksgiving Week

Had an awesome Thanksgiving week. Took some time off work to burn off some accumulated vacation days. My brother and his family flew in from St. Louis and we all had a great time. Of course we did some Black Friday shopping but didn't find nearly the deals as in the past. It seems that retailers are spreading it out over the year.
Spent one night camping at San Onofre State Beach, San Mateo campground. This is nice campground, but has become a bit pricey.
On Monday, we spent the day at Disneyland. It was a bit wet in the morning, but that just served to keep the crowds to a minimum. There was hardly any lines and even though the park closed at 8:00pm, we got on everything we wanted to. My daughter loved Star Tours but I can only ride it once before getting motion sickness. My son, on the other hand, wanted to ride the Storybookland Canal Boats and Its a Small World. I like the movie additions to Pirates but hated the Christmas version of Haunted Mansion.
Can't wait to visit St. Louis in December.

Rawhide Ranch

Jaya and I spent an awesome weekend at Rawhide Ranch this past weekend. The girls got to learn horse riding, pony showmanship and vaulting. I highly recommend it if your kids like horses.

Funniest ESPN Article Ever

This gem was released from the clutches of "ESPN Insider". Read it while it is still available.
First-annual Atrocious GM Summit

Holy Grail

I have been looking for continous integration (CI) tool for a long time. They all had something wrong with them. CruiseControl, for instance, was too complicated and I couldn't get it work with my build environment. Well I have finally found something that works: Hudson. I am test it on a project at work but everything looks good so far. It is easy to configure and the UI is nice.

Iran Tourist Bounty

Iran is offered a cash bounty to get American tourists to come and visit. I am sure that they have some nice archeological sites to see, but I bet most American's are afraid of ending up list the last tour group.

Open Source Project

I started a new open source project on SourceForge. Check it out at http://sourceforge.net/projects/millicontainer/.

Halloween stinks

Does anyone hate Halloween as much as I do? Here are some reasons for my dislike:
* Standing out in the cold
* Standing out in the dark
* Kids who change their minds about their costumes on an hourly basis
* Having to go to work/school the next day
* Sugered up children

I must be getting old, since those are the reasons I like Halloween as a kid.

Busy Sunday

* Bike ride
* Recaulk bathtub
* Haircuts
* Family day at Lux Art Institute
* Birthday party
* Devine guitar school concert at Cardiff Seaside Market

Most Watched Cable TV Show

According to reports, Monday's NFL game between Chicago and Arizona was the third most watched cable tv show ever. The second most was another football game. Number 1 was a 1993 episode of "Larry King Live." Do you know what the topic of that show was? The only good guess I could come up with was Bill Clinton. The correct answer is the Ross Perot-Al Gore NAFTA debate. I doubt this had to do with the county's concern over NAFTA but had more to do with the clown-like Perot and the moronic Gore fight.

Indian Guides

One week after the first Indian Princess event (my first as tribal chief), I had my first campout with Bengt in the Indian Guides. This event was at Mission Trails, one of my favorite spots. We got there Friday evening and were quickly swarmed by mosquitos. I have been to Mission Trails several times and hadn't any problem with bugs, but we were practically eaten alive. Then the rain soaked our tent and we had to make a midnight move into the car to stay dry. A light rain accompanied us on our morning hike but then stopped for good after lunch. Overall, I was very pleased with Bengt and he had a great time.

Weevil

I capture this weevil in the front yard. I thought it might be one of the weevils wanted for mass destruction. But after close examination, I don't think this one of them. The amazing thing about this bug is that is lived in my speciman container for over 2 weeks without any food or water and is still alive at the time of this entry. Could this be some sort of "superbug"?

Fantasy Football Update

I won 3 out of 4 games last week. Obviously posting here is good luck so will continue.

TS Furby

As a clearance holder, I have heard the Furby spiel but thought it has half-joke, half-true. But apparantly there is a story behind it.

ArtSplash

Spent two days at ArtSplash in Carlsbad this past weekend. The kids' school had a huge tile mosiac they were building. It will be mounted on one of the school walls. They also did some chalk art on one of the squares the school had. Saturday featured the Stomp-like Jr. Crew dance ensemble. We have seen them before and really enjoy their work. Sunday had a performance by the Fern Street Circus. That was very good as well.

Tomcat put down

But someone is still flying them.

Fantasy Football

I now know how the Bucaneers, Panthers, Dolphins, Browns, Titans, Texans, Chiefs, Raiders, Redskins, Packers and Lions feel. I have four fantasy teams and every one is 0 and 2 so far.

Roy Martin Birthday

On Saturday we attended the 60th birthday party of a very good family friend, Roy Martin. Mr. Martin has had a long and distinguished career in aviation from flying F-4's in Vietnam to becoming a top test pilot. Many more, Colonel.

Sophie Gallery