February 2004 Archives

I left Jeremy my car this morning, and went in to work on my motorcycle. The idea was for him to use my car to get some new tires on his car. He now has two flats and one about to go (see this entry for the painful details).

In the past, he's borrowed a barrel jack from his uncle Rick, but I offered to buy him a jack and a lug wrench, to get him on the road to self-sufficiency. I was thinking another barrel jack that he could keep in his trunk, but he had his heart set on a full-size floor jack and jack stands. (He reminded me that his trunk is rarely locked anyway, so he doesn't keep anything of value inside.)

I met him at Sears at lunchtime, and we negotiated. It was fairly one-sided at the end. We wound up getting a package with a 3 ½ ton full-size floor jack with 20" travel and a full-length handle and two 3 ton jack stands, plus a four-point metric lug wrench. The jack set was on sole for $50 off at $99. It's a serious jack, so I can use it on the Cadillac, and having better quality jack stands will keep everyone safer.

Smidge goes in for a check-up this afternoon at 5:00. She had a shot a couple of weeks ago, but is pretty weirded out lately.

Jeremy's car is still unregistered. He's been working on it - slowly but surely - but it needs some work to pass the required smog check. It also goes through front tires at an alarming rate, due to some damage to one of the front tie-rods.

Whenever he goes to school, it's almost 50/50 that he'll get a ticket for having lapsed registration. So, last Thursday and today, he drove up to my work, left me his car, and took my car. There's no chance of getting a ticket at my work.

So, I'm on my way home, on surface streets since the car is patently unsafe at freeway speeds. I get stopped by the Gold Line on Mission St. in So. Pasadena - a long wait for two trains. The ride is noticeably bumpy after I start off, so I pull over to check it out.

Sure enough, the left front tire is flat. I pop the trunk, and of course find that the spare is also flat. (Apparently he'd changed it a few weeks back.) Jeremy's on his way to school again, so I'm left to call AAA for a tow.

While I'm waiting I had a nice chat with Karen, who called me about her computer. (Jeremy was supposed to reload the OS, but I told Justin to do it after Jeremy 'forgot' too often.) The driver arrived in only 20 minutes or so, and did a professional job. Normally you hate the tow truck drive - you're already tweaked because you need a tow, and the driver invariably wants to talk about something you're either not interested in or abhor. But my driver was very pleasant. We talked about his towing station, the procedures they use, driver training, etc.

He scraped up the driveway when he pulled out, but otherwise the towing experience was painless. I'm glad I choose not to own a firearm, though.

I caught the first half of 'The Negotiator' during apheresis this morning. The nice nurse told me I was a good donor - the normal level of 'something' is 200, but I have a 350. It's nice to be wanted.

I didn't sleep well, waking up at 2:45am with an annoying headache, then again at 6:30 with a smaller but still annoying one. I think it was brought on by refereeing in the wind and rain on Saturday; I was pretty tired too.

I met up with Sheehan at Best Buy around 11:30. His mom just bought him a '91 Corolla - the perfect first car, to my mind - and it came with a hole where the radio should have been. I was tagged to help him navigate the selection and sales process. He chose a nice, 200+ watt Aiwa CD/MP3 player, on sale for $129. After taxes and some miscellaneous installation parts, he was out the door for right around $200. After a little testing, he'll decide whether he wants to invest in new speakers. He left his car there, and I drove him home.

My Dad's birthday was Friday, and we met at Carole's house around 4:30 for a birthday dinner of chicken cacciatore, with pasta, salad, and cheesy bread. Good eats. Justin polished off 2/3 of a pound cake, and the rest of had pie and/or ice cream.

I made very little progress on my bedroom repairs, but really needed some low-stress down time, so I don't feel guilty. Well, maybe a little - but I'll get over it.

Substitute Stern John scored on a rebound of a shot by teammate Clinto Morrison deep in injury time to lift Birmingham City to a 2-2 tie against cross-town rivals Aston Villa at Villa Park.

With the clock at 93:32 with 4 minutes of stoppage time announced, defender Darren Purse kicked a "hit-and-hope" ball to the front of the Villa penalty area. Mikael Forsell flicked a header forward, where Clinton Morrison collected the ball, and got off a hard, low shot. The Villa keeper Sorenson barely deflected the shot off to his his right, where an unmarked John buried it oh so carefully. Fantastic.

Here's the call of the last 6 minutes from Ian Crocker:

BluesVilla-2004-feb-22.mp3

I ordered an inexpensive RC airplane from a recommended website this morning. I watched a DIY show on RC airplanes last night, and just got the urge. It should be fun to spend a few lunch hours learning how to fly it down by the Rose Bowl.

Nobel Laureates, National Medal of Science Recipients, and Other Leading Researchers Call for End to Scientific Abuses

Washington, D.C.—Today, more than 60 leading scientists—including Nobel laureates, leading medical experts, former federal agency directors and university chairs and presidents—issued a statement calling for regulatory and legislative action to restore scientific integrity to federal policymaking. According to the scientists, the Bush administration has, among other abuses, suppressed and distorted scientific analysis from federal agencies, and taken actions that have undermined the quality of scientific advisory panels.

Preeminent Scientists Protest Bush Administration's Misuse of Science

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95% of it is junk - another 3% is from mailing lists.

My bedroom has needed painting for a long, long time. With Carole gone, I wanted a more masculine decor, and decided to paint the walls a muted gray, with the ceiling and trim in white; two small wall sections would get a blue-gray to give it some color, with medium blue sheers over the windows.

I started on Saturday, and as always something came up. When we moved into the house in 1985, a small room air conditioner was fitted to the left window on the north. The market was especially wild back then, and all the power sat with the sellers, so the small leak underneath the A/C was forgotten.

I was expecting some problems, but was surprised at the extent of the damage once I started to prep the wall underneath. I wound up cutting out an L-shaped section about 18" x 48", with the ell extending up another 6 inches above the base of the window on the left. I cut out a 3' section of the 2x4 at the base of the window which was thoroughly rotten, and pulled out some fiberglass insulation.

For now, the exposed area is covered with a sheet held up with push pins. There's a damp, musty smell in the room, and I still have to vacuum up the fine dust from the drywall cutting. Next weekend (maybe sooner) I'll patch up the 2x4, put in a new section of drywall, and get it all ready for painting. The following weekend, I'll do the actual painting. There's a lot of trim - baseboards, the upper closet doors, a built-in cupboard with four doors and 6 drawers, and two window sills. Too much work, but it'll be nice when it's done. Then I'll have to pick out some bedding, and move in the armoire from the family room.

Well, it looks like Ken and I have more in common than just washboard abs and rugged good looks...

• I added a link from the Firefox promo page to the main page sidebar only, under the Technorati and blo.gs links.
• The addition of an image anchor in the sidebar required a new style sheet entry to disable the normal border that goes around link images.

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The Bowser's came over on Sunday afternoon to hang with me, the boys, and Logan. When I knew that Logan was staying the weekend, I called Karen to invite any or all of them over for lunch - Jake and Logan have a lot of fun together.

I barbequed carne asada from El Matador, the preferred carneceria of the McConnell men, and everyone over 12 went back for seconds. After a spirited game of horse we had Karen's oatmeal raisin cookies and ice cream for dessert.

On the way back from El Matador I splurged on a 8" Henckel's Pro-S Chef's Knife from Bed, Bath and Beyond. I've never had a really good knife before, and have distressing memories of slicing up carne asada with a dull knife. Quite a revelation - the asada cut like the proverbial butter, and chopping up a bunch of cilantro was fun instead of frustrating. A long-lasting way to invest my referee money.

As the guy at BB&B was walking me to the register with my knife, I mentioned that their 20% coupons didn't apply to Henckels, and he told me they sometimes made exceptions. I'm supposed to bring in my receipt with a coupon for a refund - pretty cool if it actually works out.

I met up with Crystal, Terry, and Logan at Ontario Mills - Logan is spending a couple of days while Crystal and Terry go to San Diego for a short but well-deserved anniversary trip.

We stopped at Rob and Yvette's to drop off some paperwork on Yvette's condo escrow, then hit Ikea to get some cork pot stands for Karen and Crystal. Logan was way cool about shopping - he looked, but never asked for anything, stayed right with me, and generally seemed to have a great time - amazing for Ikea.

After a long but productive week at work, I'm looking forward to the weekend. Logan is due in late Saturday for a couple of days, and the Bowser's will (probably) stop by for carne asada on Sunday afternoon.

I wish I didn't feel so lonely all the time.

Tony changed me from a Girls JV game at Ramona Convent to a Boys Varsity, Arroyo at El Monte. My leg was feeling great, my partner was first rate, and the game was fast, fun, and exciting. I gave out the only yellow to an El Monte mid-fielder, but otherwise the game was aggressive but clean.

El Monte tied it up 2-2 mid way through the second half on a weird play. With two players in offside position, a shot came screaming in from about 25 yards out. One of the offside players stuck his leg out as the ball passed him on its way into the goal. I didn't think the offside player had touched the ball, but couldn't be sure; all the Arroyo defenders were absolutely sure he had. I ran over to my partner for a quick conference, and he told me the offside player had definitely NOT touched the ball. I blew the whistle and pointed to the spot. The Arroyo coach went into a restrained but persistent fit. But, I knew we got it right, and when they went ahead 10 minutes later he calmed down - although he did ask about it after the end of the game.

It had to be. A pound of bacon, eighteen eggs, sour cream, milk, season salt, and some pre-cooked pie shells, plus 20 minutes of prep time and 45 minutes of baking time, and we had the quiche I've been meaning/trying to make for over a week.

Initial reports were favorable; the second pie had a little too much season salt, but it was still good.

William and Shane spent Saturday night. My boys like having them visit - a lot of video games, computer time, and carrom golf. In the morning, I went to the park to referee a couple of U-12 games.

50 Chicken McNuggets fed everyone for lunch (except Jeremy, who was already at work). I dropped off William and Shane at home, then headed to the AMC 30 in Covina for "Perfect Score". Good, but not great.

I made it to Cary's for the start of the second quarter. John had a couple of his friends over, and Cary's dad was there for the game. I spent part of the time helping Sam with some computer problems.