July 2003 Archives

House o’ Marsh -

As the sun rises, a cool breeze strikes the face of Marcus o’ Marsh. “Ah, what I lovely morning it is,” groans Marcus. “It feels as though trouble is brewing in the western parts of Loda.” For Marcus was right indeed, the possessed riders of Evloda had engaged with the White Golagofs during the night. Marcus had always heard tales and myths of the ancient Evloda riders. But yet, never believed them.

“They are dark, fearless, and hateful creatures.” Marcus had heard from his grandfather, who had passed away many a years ago. “They sleep during the day, run wild at night, ransacking unprotected villages.”

“Why are they not killed, father of knowledge?” said a young Marcus…

“To this day, I still do not know how they roam unchallenged.” said Marcus.

By CARL HULSE, Washington Post

WASHINGTON, July 29 - The Pentagon office that proposed spying electronically on Americans to monitor potential terrorists has quickly abandoned an idea in which anonymous speculators would have bet on forecasting terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups in an online futures market.

This Saturday, or maybe a week from Friday, I'm going to take the motorcycle up into Santa Barbara county for the day, in pursuit of the elusive condition known as fun.

I'm using Jeff Donovan's Rides of Santa Barbara County website - a fantastic collection of maps, photos, and narrative on over forty different rides. Back in the day, I used to do the Solvang Century bike ride every March - 100+ miles of hills from Solvang, through Buellton and Lompoc, past Vandenburg into Santa Maria, across Betteravia and south on Foxen Canyon back to the start at the high school. The roads are great - twisty, well-maintained, lightly travelled, and scenic as heck.

Sharpe and Harper travel to Chile to look for Blas Vivar.

Feeling smug because I got so much laundry done this morning, I decided to ride the 'cycle through the canyons.

Here's a cute article on making ice cream with liquid nitrogen:

ice cream

My nephew Logan and I used to watch Blues Clues all the time when he came to visit...

Do You Know This Man? Need a Clue?

Once he was a kids-TV star. Now Steve Burns wants to rock your world

By Devin Gordon
NEWSWEEK

I grew up a baseball fan. I played Little League and Pony League for six years. A family friend worked for a company that had season tickets, and if they weren't used for company business, she'd get to use them, so I went to maybe 20 games a year at Dodger Stadium from age six to about 12 or 13. I remember my grandmother's uniquely simple yet powerful way of keeping score - few of my childhood memories are better than sitting in the patio at my grandmother's house listening to Vin Scully on the radio while my grandmother kept score. My grandfather would spend half a day each March with a fresh spiral-bound notebook, using his drafting ruler and a batch of fresh pencils to draw in the scorebook layout on 170 pages - he wanted to be ready in case the Dodgers made the Series.

Mostly Waterloo, with Sharpe and Harper as major supporting characters.

Carole went to Universal Studios today with her sister Crystal and our neice Alexis and nephew Logan. I couldn't go - someone has to work - but here's Logan doing the Mini-Hulk thing:

Antipixel | Blog | Philosophies of Life

After spending the afternoon helping with the soccer tournament at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, I woke up early Sunday morning with a headache, runny nose, and assorted sinus symptoms.

Discretion being the better part of valor, I decided to rest most of the day. In between loads of laundry, I watched some Formula One, the British Open golf tournament, and the Nascar race from New Hampshire.

Carole got home from Big Bear around 5:45pm, kinda grumpy. Justin had busted up the nice wooden newspaper crate, and hadn't fixed it. He claimed ignorance, but we all knew. Carole did a nice job putting it back together - probably better than new.

A ship for every other letter in the alphabet.

The Star Wars Alphabet Project

UNC Writing Center Handout | Improving Your Writing Style

UNC Writing Handout | Passive Voice

Their style is not my style, but I did pretty good: Economist.com | Diversions | Style quiz

After Toulouse and Napoleon's exile to Elba, Sharpe and Fredrickson get caught up in a plot by Ducos to steal the Emperor's horde of gold.

Greg Palast's article leads from Tony Blair's "pathetic poodledom" as GWB's lapdog, to the reality behind Bill Gates' African philanthropy, and finishes with a scathing review of GWB's personal military service - in the 'champagne' unit of the Texas Air National Guard.

Set me free, why don't you babe?
get out my life, why don't you babe?
'cause you don't really love me
you just keep me hanging on
Set me free, why don't you babe?
get out my life, why don't you babe?
'cause you don't really need me
but you keep me hanging on
Why do you keep a-comin' around
playing with my heart
why don't you get out of my life
and let me make a brand new start
let me get over you
the way you've gotten over me, yeah
Set me free, why don't you babe?
get out my life, why don't you babe?
'cause you don't really love me
you just keep me hanging on
now you don't really need me
you just keep me hanging on
You say although we broke
you still just wanna be friends
but how can we still be friends
when seeing you only breaks my heart again
and there ain't nothing I can do about it...
Get out, get out of my life
and let me sleep at night
'cause you don't really love me
you just keep me hanging on
You say you still care for me
but your heart and soul needs to be free
now that you've got your freedom
you wanna still hold on to me
you don't want me for yourself
so let me find somebody else
Why don't you be a man about it and set me free
now you don't care a thing about me
you're just using me
get out, get out of my life
and let me sleep at night
'cause you don't really love me
you just keep me hanging on
'Cause you don't really need me
you just keep me hanging on

Diana Ross and the Supremes

"We are what we love, not what loves us" - Donald Kaufman in Adaptation

Publish books for Free

She just looks cool.

Tue July 15, 2003 05:12 PM ET

By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday the federal budget deficit would balloon to a record $455 billion this fiscal year, after absorbing immediate costs from the war in Iraq, and then climb $20 billion higher in 2004, a presidential election year.

Sharpe and Harper lay siege to the coastal fort at Arachon.

Fruit : How to Grow Raspberries or Raspberry

This is on my to-do list now.

Antipixel | Blog | Philosophies of Life

Jason is really a pretty good roller hockey player. He had a game this afternoon out in West Covina, so I rode my 'cycle out to watch him. That's him in the middle, facing the camera on defense.

I won't ride on the freeway without protection, so I put on my big, heavy winter jacket, because it's the only one I own right now. At speed, it's not too bad, but when you slow down or stop for a light, the heat builds up really fast.

When I got there, I went over to the snack bar at the adjacent baseball field to get some water, and found that my nephew Sheehan was playing a game. I chatted for a bit with my sister and dad, then went back to watch Jason play. At the end of the game (a 6-3 loss), I went over to watch more baseball, and Jason joined us after he finished up with his teammates. I heartily agreed with him when he said it was too hot to play hockey.

Jason showed me this one this morning. If you enter 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' into the Google Search field, and hit the "I'm Felling Lucky" button, this page comes up.

Cannot find Weapons of Mass Destruction

Saturday was hot - high 90's, smoggy haze, the whole July deal. After vegging around most of the morning while Carole was on the road to Fresno with my neice Gabriella, I decided to take the V-star out in search of some cooler air.

I left around 1:30, with a deadline to return by 4:00. (Carole had rashly agreed to take care of her friend Terry's kid Garret, but she probably wouldn't be back from Fresno by then.)

Jeremy and Sarah had taken my car to Zuma for the day, so I decided to drive down there. The freeway ride was fun - it had been a while since I'd taken the bike out, and once I hit Fairfax the temperature was noticeably cooler. There were sections of heavy traffic on PCH, so by the time I got to Zuma it was almost 3:00 - no time to track the kids down. I headed back, and decided to do Malibu Canyon up to the 101 for the trip home. The canyon road was too busy to have a lot of fun, but it was still nice. About half-way up the Camarillo grade the temperature seemed to climb 20°. I made the mad dash home - flow of traffic speeds only, since I'm on super-secret probation until I see if the Utah ticket will show up here - and made it home at 4:05ish. Garret's dad was due at 4:00, but didn't get there until 4:20, so I was good.

My neice Gabriella was in town visiting, and stayed with my sister Carol for a couple of nights. My sister and I exchanged e-mails for a couple of days, and finally decided to do a barbeque at her house on Friday. Saturday morning I would drive Gab to Union Station to catch a train back home to Fresno.

The boys took Gabi to the movies Friday afternoon, then went back to Carol's to swim for a while. I was nominated to do the outdoor cooking, and got started about 5:30. I'll admit now that the chicken turned out way too dry. I cooked the chicken first, but then left it on the upper grill to stay warm while I did the burgers and dogs. Experience is a harsh teacher.

While I was cooking, Carole took my dad and Sarah on rides in the 'Vette. That's my dad in the picture at the top.

While we were eating, Justin of all people decided to get the party rolling by going around the table asking each person for a yes/no;black/white;either/or type question, which he then asked everyone to answer. Justin is normally pretty quiet, but once he gets comfortable he can gab with the best of 'em.
Some of the questions were: sock-sock-shoe-shoe, or sock-shoe-sock-shoe? Italian food or Mexican? Hockey or basketball? Phoenix or Detroit? Coke or Pepsi. Sounds dumb, but everyone got into it and it was a lot of fun. Carol invited her 6-year-old (?) neighbor Jake for a hot dog, and he stayed for the Q&A, and came up with a bunch of good questions.

Carole left early to go out with her friend Terry, but before she left she convinced Gabi to let her drive her all the way back to Fresno. The party broke up around 9:30. I had a lot of fun.

Sci Tech News - from ABC News Online 10/07/2003 Marriage may tame genius

Sharpe and Harper return to England to find their regiment's lost recruits.

Welcome to Break Eggs!, a cool recipe site.

Active Work Time: 10 minutes; Total Preparation Time: 40 minutes.

• Heat the broiler.
• Remove the hard core from each tomato, the place the tomatoes in a 13x9-inch metal baking pan. Add water so that the tomatoes are covered half-way.
• Place the pan under the broiler and broil until the skin of the tomatoes is blackened, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the oven, turn the tomatoes over, and repeat, broiling until the tomatoes are blackened on the other side, another 15 to 20 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the oven; reserve the water.
• Place the tomatoes in a blender with the onion, cilantro, cumin, garlic, pepper, and salt and puree until almost smooth, but with bits of charred tomatoes showing.
• If the salsa seems too thick, add a little of the cooking water from the tomatoes and blend again.

3 cups. Each 1/4 cup: 8 calories; 101 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 0 saturated fat; 2 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0.39 gram fiber.

We were ninety minutes out of our last port of call, heading south by south-west through a choppy sea and settling in to our final course for Southampton, with a following wind of Force 3 on the Beaufort scale, when everything started happening.

Last Sunday, Carole went up to Big Bear to return Logan and to spend some time with her folks. She told her mom and dad about our trip to Kentucky, and how we took the northern, I-70 route home through Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado.

Her dad Harvey's family has lived in Loveland, Colorado for many, many years, but he grew up in Kansas. He told Carole a story about some time he spent in Colby, Kansas. In checking my notes and receipts, it turns out we stopped for fuel in Colby on the way home.

One summer, Harvey and his buddies decided that they could get rich by working the loading tractors on the farms near Colby. They worked from sun-up to sun-down, then spent the evenings in the local bowling alley or bars. To save money, they slept in the local park, then started again the next day.

Carole asked if he got rich - he said no, but they had a lot of fun!

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Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

Jupiter-Like Planet Discovered Light Years Away
Thu July 3, 2003 09:06 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Astronomers searching for signs of a Solar System like our own said on Thursday they had found a planet very similar to Jupiter orbiting a star resembling the Sun, 90 light years away.
"This is the closest we have yet got to a real Solar System-like planet and advances our search for systems that are even more like our own," said UK team leader Hugh Jones of Liverpool John Moores University.

The planet was discovered by British, American and Australian astronomers using the 3.9-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales.

With a mass twice that of gas giant Jupiter, the planet circles star HD70642 in the constellation Puppis once every six years.

In relation to its own distance from its star, if it were in the Solar System it would be about half way between Mars and Jupiter.

"The long-term goal of this program is the detection of true analogs to the Solar System," the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council said in a statement.

"This discovery of a Jupiter-like gas giant planet around a nearby star is a step toward this goal.

"The discovery of other such planets and planetary satellites within the next decade will help astronomers assess the Solar System's place in the galaxy and whether planetary systems like our own are common or rare," it added.

A hearty favorite at my house.

In a large sauce pan, combine soup, milk, mayonnaise,
sour cream, season salt, and curry powder. With low
to medium heat, bring to a gentle boil. Add chicken
chunks, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 4 minutes,
stirring frequently.

Meal ideas:

• Pour sauce over 1 pound cooked pasta (shells, penne, farfalle), or 4-5 cups cooked rice; stir well, and let stand for 4 minutes.
• Serve with garlic bread, cornbread, or rolls, with cooked carrots on the side.

Serves 4-6.

Two servings:

Five servings:

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Boil, grill, or bake chicken breast(s).
• Cook rice and broccoli separately.
• Combine cheese and cracker crumbs.
• Grease pan(s).
• In a saucepan, combine soup, milk, sour cream, mayonnaise, season salt and curry powder; at low to medium heat, bring gently to a boil, stirring frequently.
• Break the chicken into chunks, about 1/2 - 1 inch
• Arrange broccoli florets around edge of pan(s). Spoon rice into middle of pan(s). Place chicken chunks on top of rice. Cover rice, chicken, and broccoli with sauce; combination must be saucy to begin with, so don't scrimp on the sauce here. Cover entire mix with cheese/cracker crumb mix.
• Bake for 30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Variation: use crushed Cheese Nips in place of Ritz crackers.

This homemade See's Fudge is remarkably close to the famous Southland brand.

Actual Work and Total Preparation Time: 15 minutes, plus 3 hours chilling.

• Lightly butter an 8-inch-square baking pan and set aside.
• Combine the butter, chocolate and vanilla in a bowl. Set aside.
• Place the sugar, evaporated milk, and marshmallows in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, until the marshmallows have melted and the mixture has thickened a bit, about 6 minutes.
• Pour the hot mixture over the ingredients in the bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until the fudge is thick and dull, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the nuts (if desired).
• Pour into the pan. Refrigerate several hours to firm, then cut into 24 pieces

24 pieces. Each piece: 183 calories; 48 mg sodium; 12 mg cholesterol; 9 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 25 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.93 gram fiber.

Student's Maps Illustrate Concerns About Public Information

By Laura Blumenfeld
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; Page A01

An increasing number of suburban and rural areas face tough choices -- and parents' anger.

GOLETA, Calif. — The Barbie and Winnie the Pooh backpacks are gone from the outdoor coat racks at El Rancho Elementary School, and classroom doors are locked — but not just for summer vacation. El Rancho will not reopen in the fall because the number of students in Goleta schools has been steadily declining.

Lee Ann Womack

Barry Manilow

Sharpe and Harper fight, then get rich, at Vittoria.

My cool, 4-year old nephew Logan has been here since Wednesday night. Carole and I got back from Kentucky on Wednesday afternoon (after a 26-hour straight-through drive from western Kansas). Logan (and his family) came back from Cancun later that night - Carole went to pick them up at LAX around 10:00pm. On the way home, Logan announced that he was going to stay at our house for a couple of days.

This in itself isn't anything unusual. Logan is really adaptable, and he's painless to have around - or I guess as painless as any 4-year old can be. He loves to hang around with the boys, playing Super Mario on the old SNES, or basketball with Justin in the backyard. He'll sit at the kitchen table by himself and draw pictures on a bunch of recycled paper for an hour at a time, then pop out and say something cool. He hung in Jason's room for a while this afternoon listening to Led Zepellin on the CD changer, then came out and growled at me like a siberian tiger.

Anyway, he's in the twilight zone right now - too tired to be normal, not tired enough to go to sleep. He wants to call his dad - but Carole's sleeping, and I don't know the cell phone number.

He'll probably go home tomorrow. I'll miss him.

Here's a picture once he finally gave up the fight and fell asleep.

EARTH is your chinese symbol!


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I had a good time, or as good a time as can reasonably be expected. My main goal was for Carole to have a good time, and I think she did. She told me she "had a very good time."

I told her a couple of times that we were meant for each other, and that she's making a terible mistake. The memories are the hardest part.

Utah, Nevada, and back home.

Photos from the trip Carole and I took to Kentucky in June 2003 for the Corvette 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Leave KC, heading home.