November 2005 Archives

The first game of the new season was a Girls JV between Mayfield Senior and Flintridge Sacred Heart, at Arroyo South in So. Pasadena. I was Senior Referee, with Thomas Chavez as Junior.

FSHA won 1-0, but dominated the game. Mayfield's coach was happy for the moral victory &mdash he mentioned that they had lost this game last year 6-0. I felt good running around, and was only out of position a couple of times when the keeper made longer punts than I had anticipated. All-in-all, a good start to the season. I was glad I'd put in the time walking the hills over the last few weeks.

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to make two upgrades to my Movable Type setup: a better monthly archive list, and an actual Recent Categories listing. Today, I finished both.

Previously, all pages but the main index page used the standard MT monthly archive listing. As the months and years go by, this listing became so long as to be unusable - or at least quite ugly. A few months ago I was reading the Tiny Pineapple weblog, and noticed that the author used a yearly table format. I sent him an e-mail asking how he did it, and he good-naturedly admitted to building and updating it manually.

In my mind I was assuming that a lot of deep MT work would be needed to build it automatically. This morning, I decided to try a different, much simpler method: use the MTPerlScript module to open the archive directory, find the year archives, and print the monthly archive table. It took a few iterations, but it now works quite well, if I say so myself.

I've had a Recent Categories section on my main page sidebar since the last redesign, but the categories listed were hard coded in the template and rarely updated. With my MTPerlScript success with the monthly archive table, I dived in to automate the section, using raw DBI code instead of MT internals. It took a couple of minutes to lock down the SQL, and I needed to "borrow" the dirify function from MT::Util, but now the Recent Categories section is fully automated.

I've been asking Mandy to teach me how to knit for a few weeks, and she's been willing, but our schedules haven't meshed until today. She came over to visit Carole and to have dinner with us, and brought the knitting supplies I needed to start on a scarf &mdash dark grey, with royal blue accents.

The scarf is circular, which is a good way to learn. It uses a circular needle &mdash two needles connected by a clear, flexible line. She showed me how to cast on the first row, then had me practice the basic knitting knot on a separate set of needles. When I went back to my actual piece, the first couple of rows took a while, for two reasons: first, I was just starting, and second, it was quite tight on the needles. After a couple of rows, I got more of the hang of things, and the piece loosened up on the needles.

I finished about 9 or 10 rows before my eyes tired out. At 25 rows, Mandy will come back and show me how to switch colors. Once I'm done, I'll have a nice, warm, handmade scarf to (possibly) wear when I ride during the winter.

Jeremy took Smidge to the vet for her monthly allergy shot on Tuesday, and they said she might be allergic to fleas. Because of the holidays it took a couple of days to figure out how to attack it, but attack it we did.

On Saturday, I called the groomer's at Petco, who said they only do cats on Sundays (too many dogs on Saturdays to scare the kitties), and that proof of rabies vaccination is required. The mobile vet was at the local Petco on Saturday, so I took Gavin there a little before 11:00am for his rabies shot, hoping to turn right around and take Smidge. Unfortunately, they were moving on to a new location at 11:00am. I had too choose between Puente Hills from noon to 2:00pm, or Whittier from 4:30pm to 6:30pm, and chose Puente Hills. The line was very long, and I didn't get out of there until 5:45pm. At Whittier, I bought eight doses of cat Advantage - the Hartz flea treatment we'd been using was obviously not doing the job.

On Sunday, I took Gavin up first, right around 9:00am, then made a quick turn-around and took Smidge up for a bath and a flea dip. Long-haired cats take four hours to dry, and while I was waiting for the call, Carole found Buddy's rabies certificate from Tucson. Jeremy took him up for the same treatment (on his way to Fry's for a 300gb SATA drive, which will hopefully jump start his new computer).

While the pets were at Petco, Carole and I did our best to prep the house for their return - vacuuming everything, washing the bathroom and kitchen throw rugs, removing all the containers we'd been using to keep Smidge off the kitchen sink, etc. When the call came in around 2:00pm, we were almost ready for them.

I went up and got Gavin first, and brought him back home; he got his Advantage right when he came out of the cat carrier. I went right back up to get Smidge, and found that Buddy was ready too, so they both came home together on the second trip. $132 was the grooming tab for the three of them, but if it makes them comfortable it's money well spent. Buddy got his Advantage first thing, but it took both Carole and I to corral Smidge long enough to put her dose on.

The cats both needed lots of combing - more than I would have expected after an expensive groooming session. Gavin tolerated it for quite a while, but finally ran out of patience and nipped me away — rightfully so. Smidge wound up on the back of the back bathroom toilet, and purred nicely while I combed her out.

I watched U-571 this morning. In WWII, an American sub races to reach a disabled German U-boat and capture it's Enigma machine before a German supply sub can arrive to repair it. Good fun, with Matthew McConaughey as the officer thrust by fate into the lead, and Harvey Keitel as the long-suffering chief.

I had a nice Thanksgiving.

It started early, when I went to pick up the pies we were taking to Carol's for early dinner. I stopped by Ralph's to pick up ingredients for enchilladas, my McConnell holiday tradition. I put the beef and chicken on to simmer as soon as I got back home.

It took longer than I planned for the meat to finish, but the enchilladas came together nicely. I just cooked them in a cooling oven for ten minutes, then covered them with foil, to be reheated at the Bowsers later in the evening.

We brought pies, a gravy boat, two ladles, and a meat thermometer to my sister's house. I used my meat thermometer to verify that the turkey was indeed done, and helped out a little with the side dish preparations. I had a nice chat with my Dad about USC football while Carol and Sheehan finished up in the kitchen.

The resulting meal was fantastic. The turkey was just about perfect, and Sheehan did a very credible job with the carving. Justin smashed the potatoes old-school style, with a hand masher, and also baked the biscuits and helped cook the peas and corn. Everything was warm and fresh when we sat down to eat. (Carole believes she ate close to a full pound of turkey...)

A couple of us had small pieces of pie, and we got to say hi to Francine, Gabriella, Becka, and Maggie, who were down visiting Francine's mom for the day. We made a quick stop back home to pick up Carole's purple mashed potatos, the enchilladas, and the birthday gifts, and headed out to Karen's.

We got to the Bowser's around 5:45pm (about 15 minutes late), and were surprised to find only Rick, Ann, Jimmy, and Karen to be there. The other's arrived later - Pat and Harvey didn't get there until 7:15am - but it was all good in the end. Everyone had a good time, but I'm glad I had a great meal earlier in the day, because the food wasn't ideal. Too many people in a small kitchen, all trying to get things heated up &mdash the food was good, but some things weren't hot, and my enchilladas suffered from an early spot in the stove schedule.

I wasn't feeling all that well yesterday, and I easily talked myself out of walking. I felt much better today, and rashly decided to start out with a one-mile run. It turned out a little better than I hoped.

I geeked out with all my gear - CamelBak, iPod, sunglasses and sun hat, and headed up Colorado. At the crest of the hill, I started running &mdash jogging to most people, but running to me &mdash and headed down Ave. 64. From past bike riding experience, I was anticipating the hills with some dread, but from the beginning my wind held out much better than my legs, which I found odd. The climb up to Malcolm was not fun, but I perserved, and made it all the way to La Loma without stopping.

I changed to a walk as I headed west on La Loma, and noticed a lot of soreness in the outside front of my lower legs; the right leg was worse, but both were sore. I slowly walked up La Loma to Glen Holly, trudged up the hill to Cheviotdale, got slightly lost before finding for Cherry Alley, and did the upper Sequoia steps. I seriously considered going up Cherry, but sucked it up and headed up Sequoia. By the first crest, my legs were feeling much better - tired, but not as noticeably sore.

Glenover to Alice, then back to work - tired, but still walking.

I ditched the benefits presentation at work (there's a online version), and headed out around 3:10pm. I wound up doing almost everything there is to do north of La Loma and west of Ave. 64. (minus the south east corner).

Brixton to La Loma, then a loop up Sycamore Glen, around Elmwood, and down Redwood back to La Loma, then immediately up Tamarac. Down Glenullen back to La Loma, up the Sequoia steps, the left on Cherry back to Glenullen. East to Sequoia and back down to the top of the steps, east on Cherry to Juniper, around Glen Holly and Capinero to Anita. Up Anita to Glenullen (again!), then up a short, steep climb to Sequoia. Up Sequoia to Glenover, down Anita to Glenullen (!), down to Malcolm, and back up to Glenover, then back to work. S&T says 3.8 miles, and I felt good during and after. Got back upstairs at 4:45pm.

To be stupid and selfish and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless.

— Gustave Flaubert

Again, I didn't get out until a little after 3:00pm. Brixton to La Loma, then south on Tamarac, around Kaweah, Tamarac, then east on Kaweah to Poppy Peak, west on Pleasant Way (which was), and northwest on Evergreen back to La Loma. I counted - 97 steps up to Sequoia, and my heart was really pumping. I pushed on heartily to the crest, and it was all good on the way back.

I didn't start my walk until 3:00pm, but had a good time. Each day is better and better fitness-wise. Today was longer, with good hills on Sycamore Glen and Capinero, and my first trip south of La Loma for quite a while. Of the three routes from Glenullen to Glenover, Malcolm is the flatest.

The family spent the day cleaning up the garage and the patio - overdue and necessary tasks. I moved my rolling toolbox from the concrete area to the raised are adjacent to the fireplace - which took a couple of hours of extra work, but makes it much easier for Carole to park in the garage (which in turn makes it easier for me to park the FJR behind her car).

Mid-way through the clean-up, I happened to notice a praying mantis on a fence post - very cool. (There's a bigger picture after the jump.)

It also was time to retire Jason's Yurok Village project from grammar school - with his permission, of course. It had lived on top of my toolbox for many, many years.

I felt a little weird at noon, so I had a tuna sandwich and waited until 2:00 to do my walk. I felt good, so I headed to the Sequoia steps - a long set of stairs that go from La Loma up to Cherry and the south end of Sequoia. It makes for an intense workout, but other than some leg soreness before and after, I felt pretty good.

High school refereeing is coming up fast, and I needed to build some fitness after my long layoff due to migraines. To start, I walked the hills south of my office building.

A few years ago, I started walking this area and found I really enjoyed it. There's a lot of different route possibilities that range from 1.6 miles to 2.7 miles, all through beautiful homes with interesting designs and landscaping. The big selling point is the hills - there's lots of them. Most walking will not get your heart pumping, but cranking up and down these hills is definitely a workout. Just the thing to build leg strength and endurance for the upcoming high school soccer season.

Here's my route for today. Almost all of these walks start with a trip down Brixton to La Loma. I wanted something short for my first walk of the season, so I took the shortest way back via Tamarac. There's still plenty of elevation gain and loss, and when I hit the last climb on Sequoia my legs were getting jello-y.

I watched In Good Company this morning. I had picked out Hostage, but while I was in the little room answering questions, one of the other donors must have grabbed it off the top of the movie cabinet where I left it.

My webcam caught a bird flying past my office window, at 8:41 this morning:

The camera face north-northwest so I don't get the best of the sunset pictures, but last night's view was pretty nice:

Jason bought a new suit, for job interviews and all the other times that a modern young man needs to dress up. He looks good.

CNN.com - SUV backover deaths: What can be done? - Nov 4, 2005

NEW YORK (CNN) - One thing many SUV buyers like about their vehicles is the increased visibility. They feel like they can see farther down the road over the roofs of other cars. But that long-distance line of sight comes at a price that can be tragic.

What SUV drivers can't see is what's close behind them and, when backing out of a driveway or parking spot, that could be a person. In many cases, it's a small child.

More than 2,400 children are backed-up over every year in the United States. Of those, about 100 are killed. In most cases, those children are run over by a parent or other relative.