July 2007 - Posts
Link to him. He needs help.
On Wednesday evening I walked down to the Seattle waterfront, in search of some non-finger food. Unfortunately most (all?) of the shops and restaurants in Pike Place Market had already closed for the day.
I eventually found a Tully's coffee shop that was still open. Bought a turkey & cranberry sandwich on wheat, and a Diet Coke. The sandwich was a fabulous change from the finger food I've been eating at each of the evening events all week long.
I had a nice hike back up the hill to my hotel, and afterwards was immediately in need of a sugar fix. Popped into the gift shop and found a my favorite: a PayDay bar. Gigantic, though. 470 calories for the entire bar.
OK. I'll only eat half now... half tomorrow.
Yeah, right.
After slowly savoring the first half I just couldn't stop. At least I quenched my thirst with the rest of my Diet Coke.
Pam and I went to Busch Gardens yesterday. Met up with the kids, with their girlfriend, boyfriend, and his sister.
We hadn't been there in a while, so it was fun going. But, it was outrageously hot, with little-to-no breeze blowing.
Our first stop: the Hospitality House for a free Bud. Ahh, refreshing... but we were still hot.
The kids called us - they were hanging out at the Tidal Wave. And getting soaked.
Now there's an idea!
We stood in line forever, but it was worth it. The ride was slow paced, lazily meandering through the backwoods of Africa. Then up the hill and over the top, to speed down to the bottom and land with a huge splash!
Now we were soaked too. And cool.
Even folks not on the ride had a chance to get soaked:
about to splash...
where'd they go?
Aaahhhhh! Much better!
Now that's refreshing.
This has happened a few times recently.
Sunday while fishing with Joe and Tim. As I was rigging up my fishing pole I had an odd feeling of this has already happened - and I know what's going to happen.
This morning, deja vu again. In the middle of Silverlight training, I knew that one of the others was going to say and what he was going to say.
Spooky. Felt the hairs raise on the back of my neck.
[Edit: the court may not be oriented on a north/south axis, but probably is since most courts are built that way. Keeps the sun out of players' eyes much better than if a court is positioned east/west.) Most of the time it doesn't matter which side of the courts the TV cameras are on. The cloudy skies don't cause a problem with glare. But when the clouds break and the sun shines strong, the camera locations do make a huge difference.
The primary cameras are on the north side of the stadium and face south. So when the sun is out and high in the sky, we're looking at shadows. The ball is a shadow. The players are shadows. And there's a glare on the court.
It's too bad. It should be so easy to put the main camera location on the south end of the stadium.
Ah well. Nobody asked me.
While I was off this week I went on a 4-hour joyride in my little boat.
I started at the boat ramp just south of Hwy 694 in Indian Shores. I cruised up the ICW, checking out the million dollar homes and almost getting stuck on a sandbar in spite of my GPS.
Along the way I saw the most amazing Holiday Inn ever. The boat slips at the waters' edge were full of ritzy large yachts. As I came up to it I figured it was some very expensive, posh resort hotel. Then as I sailed on past, I looked back to see the Holiday Inn sign. Still pretty impressive.
This is a Holiday Inn.....? Believe it or not.
I headed north past the Causeway Blvd bridge in Dunedin then circled back down and out the pass south of Honeymoon Island and into the Gulf.
I made the long run all the way back down to the pass at Madeira Beach on the outside (in the Gulf) and was able to make pretty good time. (Didn't have to slow down for all the "no wake" zones that are rampant in the ICW.)
And I beat a storm that was brewing to the east.
The storm, it is a buildin'...
4 hours. 48 miles of fun. Good times.
Click on the picture below to see a few more photos from the road trip...
Some *** has hijacked my Hotmail account. Damn. Damn. Damn. And I had a strong password, too.
Damn.
I need to copy all the old posts from my DasBlog version into my new Community Server version of my blog.
Anyone know of an easy way to do that?
Wow - where did this guy come from? Pam found him as she was browsing around online. His "Amos Lee" CD had 5 stars by it, there were excellent reviews about it, and after listening to cuts from the album she bought it.
I'm glad she did. Smooth music. Wonderful listening. Along the class of Norah Jones and John Mayer. I'm looking online right now - he has another one out: "Supply and Demand." Just ordered it.
I'm reading Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog. It's a bit of a change of pace - lately I've been reading Stewart Woods books. His Stone Barrington novels are quick, fun reads.
Marley & Me? It's a touching story and very entertaining. Very well written. I don't want it to end.
I never had a pet growing up other than the occasional turtle or parakeet.
After we left Florida just before I entered the first grade I spent the next 20 years in apartments. Not the best atmosphere for a dog.
But once my son and daughter came along Pam and I decided to take the plunge and get a dog. And we've had dogs ever since. Some were loveable, one was completely neurotic (yet loveable), and a couple were just plain stupid.
Gizmo and Ginger have been filling our lives with pleasure and goofiness for a few years now. Dogs are my kind of people.
(Not to say that I don't like cats - we've had a couple of 'em pretty much all the time we've had dogs. Booney thinks he's the master of the house. He's almost dog-like; a very aloof dog-like cat.)
While I've been tweaking the settings (look & feel) on the blog I've been sitting on the couch with the TV on the SciFi channel. There's a Twilight Zone marathon running. Such a simple show, but so good, so effective. The special effects are pretty simple but that leaves more to the imagination.
Will this show up as 7/1/2007?