A Growing Problem (not a going problem)

I've recently become very concerned with the quality of automobiles on the road. The problem that I am seeing is very pervasive. It happens on all makes, models, and vintages of vehicles. In general, it is an intermittent problem, but the frequency that I observe this problem is rapidly increasing. My car has not experienced this problem yet, but with this growing problem, I wanted to spread the word, so you can be on the lookout for it.

Put simply, the problem is that turn signals are not working in these vehicles. Every single day I seem to be behind a vehicle that is affected by this problem. Perhaps it is electrical in nature. Has the government been conducting tests with EMPs (electro-magnetic pulses)? Or have solar storms been on the rise? I think if it was either of those, the effects would be much more wide-spread than just affecting turn signals. Whatever the cause, please help spread awareness, and regularly test your turn signals before making turns.

Thank you.

Quick Thoughts 12/3

• We were bowling with some friends last night, and I wound up rolling the highest three game series of my life. 177, 203, and 178 for a 558 series. Not too shabby, especially considering it was that crazy black light bowling, and we were next to some kids who had zero bowling etiquette.
• That reminds me of one of my first 200+ games of my life. I was on a date in high school and we went bowling. She was getting about a 50 and I ended up with 201. I really felt awful.
• Hey the Bears won the NFC North today. Congratulations to "the pride an joy of Illinois."
• That was one ugly game today.
• I'm still supporting Rex Grossman, but he's really making it difficult for me to do so. I really don't know why he keeps trying to force the deep ball. It really is getting to be maddening.
  
• Whoever thought Brian Urlacher was over-rated must have been on crack. I swear he is in on every tackle. It's a pretty safe bet that no other Bears will be wearing #54 in the future.
• It was apparent to me today how good Brad Maynard, the Bears' punter is. The Vikings' punter had a few shanks, but Maynard was a picture of consistency. It's the little things like punting that can really make a difference in a game. Dan, I know you've always appreciated Maynard too.
  
• Iowa gets to play Texas in the Alamo Bowl. That's not going to be pretty Hawkeye fans.
  

Quick Thoughts 12/1

• The Bears play the Vikings this weekend. A co-worker of mine suggested that if the Vikes win, I have to shave, and if the Bears win, he will. I might take him up on that. I'm pretty confident that I'll be keeping my whiskers.
• Yet another reason Legos are so darn cool. Just six, eight stud bricks can be arranged 915,103,765 different ways.
  
• Now for some fun. How nerdy are you? I'm not as bad as I thought.

You Are 36% Nerdy

You're a little nerdy, but no one would ever call you a nerd. You sometimes get into nerdy things, but only after they've become a part of mainstream culture.

How Nerdy Are You?

You can be a recording star!

You know I love karaoke, but never get a chance to do it any more. Well, I just came across this site, Singshot.com, that lets you make your own karaoke recordings and post them to the site. Spend a few minutes there and you might get addicted to it. There are some really, really bad renditions out there, but they are highly entertaining. I'll let you know if I start posting any. I can see Bigshow posting a few songs.

Quick Thoughts 11/19

• No points given up by the Bears today equals bear claws* Monday!
• Today in the children's sermon at church they were learning about Thanksgiving. The question was asked, "What do you like to do on Thanksgiving," to which one elementary school-aged girl replied, "Go to the Doctor Who convention." I think I laughed for three straight minutes.
• This weekend I was able to convert some audio tape recordings to digital format. Here are some recordings from this past summer for your listening enjoyment.
• Men's quartet (Larry Dodge, Kahn Evans, Bob Kanzelman, Jeff Utecht) singing "Climbin' up the Mountain."
• Men's quartet singing "I'll Fly Away."
• Me singing "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." Accompanied by Brian Nass.
• I suppose we're going to be seeing those annoying Lexus commercials again soon where people give their spouses a new Lexus with a huge bow on them for Christmas. Give me a break.
  

* After doing some calling around this afternoon, it seems that bear claws are hard to find. If I'm unable to locate any in town, I'll bring in apple fritters.

Busy morning

Holy cow, it's sloppy outside this morning. There was thunder and lightning to go along with the snow we're getting. It's hard to believe it was 70 degrees on Wednesday! The snow plows haven't made much progress on the roads, and the snow is really piling up. Holly and I went to the hospital this morning for an ultrasound, and after only 30 minutes there was at least two inches of snow on the cars.

Speaking of the ultrasound, we found out that we're having another boy! Everything looked good and he's still measuring for a due date of April 2, which is the same due date that Payton had. So now that we know for sure, we can start concentrating on coming up with a boy's name. Remember on Seinfeld when George wanted to name his baby "Seven?" I've always liked the ring that Seven Evans has, but I wouldn't consider actually naming the baby Seven. I'd love to hear any suggestions you have for names.

Quick Thoughts 11/3

• You may notice that things look a little different on my blog now. I switched to Blogger Beta, which had some nice features such as labels for my posts. So over on the right-hand side of my blog, you'll see a few categories of labels I've given some of my previous posts. Also, there are some handy expand/collapse buttons in my archive section to make navigation easier.
  
• The reason I switched to a blogspot hosted blog now is that I was having lots of problems FTPing to my Charter-hosted blog. I don't know if my blog was getting too large for Charter, but I kept getting FTP transfer timeouts every time I tried to add a new post. For someone who is already lacking motivation to post, I didn't need any more deterrents. After deleting most of the pictures from my Charter account, I realized that my blog still points to them. So a lot of my old posts don't have pictures with them anymore. Other than that, I think I'll be better off now.
• I think the Bears are going to steamroll over the Dolphins this weekend.
  
• People knock the Bears for their weak schedule. Is it really their fault though? A lot of people picked the Dolphins to be in the Super Bowl this year, but as it stands, they only have one win right now. People also thought Arizona would be good. So even the games that were supposed to be against good teams aren't all there. You can't fault the Bears for that. They just need to keep going out there a knocking off these teams in convincing fashion, one at a time. If the Bears weren't an elite team, they wouldn't be dominating the lesser teams like they have been doing all season long.
• Hey, post some comments so I know that traffic is flowing to the new site!
  

Quick Thoughts 10/31

• I’ve moved my blog. Please update your links to www.kahnskorner.blogspot.com.
• Happy Halloween! Don’t eat too much candy tonight.
• Yes, as I eluded to in my last post, we are expecting another child. Currently the baby is due April 10, but at the first ultrasound the baby measured with a due date of April 2. They haven’t officially changed anything, but we’ll be going back next Friday for another ultrasound and find out the baby’s sex. The ironic thing is that Payton’s due date was April 2, so it’s kind of like deja vu.
• We have no idea what we should name the baby, but Payton suggested “Fendooda.” Where he came up with that, I will never know.
• The Bears got right back on track this past week with an easy win over the 49ers. Next up are the Dolphins in Chicago. The Bears should have no problems with the Dolphins, but wouldn’t it be ironic if that was the only game they were to lose this season? I don’t see it happening though. They should win this game, but stand a much greater chance of losing one or two of the upcoming road games against the Giants and Patriots. This is when we find out just how good the Bears really are.
• Boy, that Nintendo Wii sure looks pretty cool. I hear the AARP is endorsing it too.

When all else fails...Post Pictures!

Payton likes playing his “guitar.”

Pumpkins!

Holly got to go to Orlando the other week for a teaching conference. Can you tell that she’s pregnant?

Our friends had an early Halloween party last weekend. That’s Payton as Tigger, but he wasn’t feeling very bouncy for the pictures.

I'm in disbelief

Is it 2001 again?  The Bears had no business winning that game tonight.  I guess sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

Quick Thoughts 10/9

• I think it’s about time to seriously research the NFL Sunday Ticket. The Bears’ game was broadcast in our area yesterday, but when the score was 30–0, they took it off the air and started airing “a more competitive game” instead. I was not happy with that decision.
• I kept my eye on the score of the Bears game after that, and thought for sure I’d be bringing in bear claws today for the shutout. I wish I could have seen how the Bills scored their lone touchdown.
• The Cyclones couldn’t overcome Nebraska or the referees on Saturday night. However, Dan Fouts had one of the funniest quotes I’ve heard during a football game in a long time. He was talking about Todd Blythe and how he was trying to fire the Cyclones up in the second half. Fouts said that Blythe went to all of the Cyclone offensive linemen and told them it was their job to keep the QB, Brett Meyer, erect. I think I laughed for ten minutes after that one. Nice choice of words guys.
• Oh boy, I wouldn’t want to be this guy, or be around this guy today.

Bears/Seahawks Running Blog

One of my on-line must-reads is Bill Simmons’ “The Sports Guy” column on ESPN.com’s Page 2.  He writes about sports, but throws in a lot of witty and humorous pop culture references.  During big games, he’ll often keep a running blog of the event.  So, thanks for the idea Mr. Simmons.  I can only wish that I was as entertaining to read. 

7:21 Kickoff…Let’s get it on!  C’mon Bears show everyone you’re for real.

7:29 Bears punt after a three and out.  I feel like I’ve seen that before.

7:35 Seahawks are driving and end up with a FG.  No bear claws this week.  For such a good defense, the Bears sure do give up a lot of yards.  That’s one thing that still frustrates me.

7:44 Desmond Clark is looking pretty good for a guy with a bad ankle.  It figures that he had his worst game last week when I started him in one of my fantasy leagues.

7:45 Thomas Jones finally breaks off a decent run.  He’s due for a big game.

7:46 Grossman is dropping back way too far when he’s under pressure.  It’s making me nervous as heck.  Most of the time nothing good is going to result from that, but there was this one particular play, (which I witnessed in person) that defied all odds.

7:47 TOUCHDOWN BEARS!!!  Another passing TD no less.

7:58  End of first quarter. The Bears are airing it out again this drive.  I just haven’t gotten used to this aerial assault, and offensive competence yet, but I am definitely loving it. 

8:03 The Bears kick a field goal, and go up 10–3.  On the way to commercial, NBC plays Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4”.  I suppose we’ll also hear “Sweet Home Chicago” before the night is over.  If the game was in Seattle, do you think they’d play “I’m Only Happy when it Rains?”

8:07 and still no mention of Terrell Owens from Al and John.  Can that possibly last the full game?

8:09 Devin Hester fumbles a punt.  I think this kid has a lot of potential, as he’s already returned one punt for a touchdown this season, but 90% of the time he just dances around too much trying to make something happen. 

8:17 Interception Ricky Manning Jr!  At least I’m writing this on my laptop at home…not at a Denny’s.  I feel pretty safe.

8:25 The Bears add three more points on a Robbie “Good as” Gould FG.  13–3 Bears.  I like the way this game is playing out so far.

8:31 Another interception for Ricky Manning Jr.  It was run back for a touchdown, but only because of some illegal blocks.  Still, the Bears take possession of the ball.

8:35 Thomas Jones runs the ball in for a TOUCHDOWN (his first of the year)!  20–3 Bears.

8:49 Seattle kicks a FG to make it 20–6. 

8:51 Halftime.  The Bears’ offense has looked very potent again so far.  Grossman is making good decisions, and looking very sharp.  The defense is giving the Seahawks fits and only giving up a couple of field goals.  I’ll trade touchdowns for field goals any day.

9:09 Thomas Jones breaks off a big run just as Al and John talk about the Bears’ rushing problems.

9:10 Mushin Muhammad makes another catch.  Not that I’m complaining, but what happened to all the big drops that he was having last season?  Most of the guys on offense are the same as last year, but the results are completely different.  I’d hate to say it, but maybe Jerry Angelo knows what he’s doing.

9:16 After being set up by a pass interference call, Thomas Jones pounds it in from the one yard line.  27–6 Bears!  If this continues, I’m sure the Bears still won’t get respect from the national media.  After all, the Seahawks are playing without Shaun Alexander tonight (even though he’s only averaging a little over 62 yards per game this year).

9:24 The game isn’t that close right now, but Al and John are still talking about the game they are at.  Could this have been something they were coached on when they moved to NBC?

9:38 Cedric Benson breaks off a nice run.  Let the running back controversy begin.

9:41 Bombs away!  Grossman hooks up with Berrian for a 40 yard touchdown.  I think we’re going to be seeing a lot of that connection this season.  34–6 Bears.  I still can’t get over how much fun this team is to watch this year.

9:44 Yet another plug for NBC’s new show “Heroes.”  I watched the pilot last week and liked it quite a bit.  It looks like it has some good potential. 

9:56 Chris Collinsworth is interviewed in a split-screen, and I never noticed this before, but he sure blinks a lot.  I think he blinked about a dozen times in ten seconds. 

10:05 Robbie Gould adds another three points via his leg.  37–6 Bears.  He’s still perfect this season.  Let’s see if he can keep that up all season, only to choke at the end of the NFC championship game.  Does that scenario sound familiar Vikings fans?   

10:08 Seneca Wallace has entered the game for the Seahawks.  In case you didn’t follow this link earlier, here it is again.

10:11 Madden criticizes Devin Hester as he almost botches another punt return.  He says “I don’t think I’d want him back there in a close game.”  John, you must not have seen guys returning punts for the Bears last year. 

10:20 I knew we couldn’t go the whole game without talking about Terrell Owens, even though Al and John were reluctant to say anything. 

10:22 Chicago wins 37–6 and improves to 4–0.  Check out these numbers after four games:  Points scored: 116, points allowed: 29.  This team is the real deal folks.   

Quick Thoughts 9/29

• Rex Grossman won the NFC offensive player of the month award for September. The last Bear to win this award was Neal Anderson in 1989! Let’s hope another seventeen years don’t go by before another Bear wins it.
• This link comes courtesy of Brent. Baby toupees! My favorite is “The Donald.”
• Thanks for reading my blog. I cracked the 10,000 hit plateau this week. It’s amazing how many of the hits come from people searching on music lists like the ones I did earlier this year. I might have to come up with some new ones.
• One of these weekends, perhaps this one, I’d like to do a running blog while watching one of the Bears’ games. Sunday’s match-up against the Seahawks seems like an ideal game to do that for. Two undefeated teams, and a prime-time game with Maddenisms. What more could I ask for? Okay, I’m sold.

Bears Win at the Dome

Of the four or five Bears/Vikings games I’ve been to at the Metrodome, yesterday’s was one of the best.  Here are some thoughts I had while at the game yesterday:    

• People complain about baseball being boring to watch, but there certainly is a lot of down-time, and players just standing around during the course of a football game too.  It amazes me that the players are able to maintain their intensity with so many breaks in the action.  Instant replay kills the continuity of the game more than anything, especially when the challenge is for a two yard change. 
• The Metrodome is not an easy place for a visiting team to win, especially when the crowd is into the game. 
• I was really surprised the Bears were able to put any drives together at all after Grossman threw that interception that was run in for a touchdown.  That play whipped the crowd into a frenzy and I totally expected the Bears to fall apart after that.
• The fact that the Bears were able to score ten points after that turning point in the game is what impressed me the most yesterday.  In general, the game was ugly and sloppy, but the Bears put themselves in a position to win. 
• The two Vikings fans right in front of me were the only ones in our section to stand up every time the Bears ran a third down play.  *GRRRR*
• I expect some harassment from the home fans when I wear my Bears jersey, but the guy behind me was just an idiot.  He kept touching my ears and head every time the Vikings made a good play, and just said stupid stuff to me.  The stuff he said was so dumb that even the other Vikings fans didn’t jump in on it or even respond to it.  He was probably about 22 and was with his very drunk, young girlfriend who spent most of the second half passed out next to him.  After the Bears won, he left very quickly and quietly. 
• Two Bears “fans” near me left the game with about three minutes to go.  I suppose they were pretty shocked when they got home and found out the Bears ended up winning. 

Ironic results

This is kind of funny, since I had a big crush on Mariah back in the early and mid 90’s.  Give the link a try and post who shares your taste in music.

Mariah Carey Shares Your Taste in Music

See her whole playlist here (iTunes required)

Which Musician (or Group) Shares Your Taste in Music?

Bears Rout* Lions

It should come as no surprise that I am one happy camper today after the Bears tore apart the Lions in Chicago yesterday.  Watching the Bears explode on offense, with a passing game, just makes me giddy.  The Bears haven’t beaten the best teams in the league, but they are putting up some impressive offensive numbers, which is what they have to do if they want to compete with the other contenders.  Chicago has had a 40+ yard touchdown pass in each of the first two games this season.  These aren’t just ten yard slants that the receiver breaks into a huge gain either.  These are full-fledged bombs that require some accuracy, touch, and skill that has been sorely missed in recent seasons.  To me, this is the biggest thing to be excited about.  The Bears have taken some shots downfield in past seasons, but most of the time, the ball was overthrown, under-thrown, thrown to the wrong spot, or thrown into massive coverage.  The biggest change I’m seeing this year is that the receivers are beating their coverage, and the ball is getting thrown where it needs to be.  It doesn’t matter how bad your competition is; if you aren’t taking advantage of the opportunities you have, you’re not going to win many games.  It looks like opponents will need to worry about more than just the run when the play the Bears now. 

Here are some quick thoughts about the Bears:

• After two games, the Bears have scored 60 points, and given up only 7.
• Rex Grossman’s stat line from yesterday: 20/27 for 289 yards, 4 TDs and 0 INTs.  That equates to a QB rating of 148. 
• This is almost too good to be true.  I hope the Bears have vaccinated themselves against the injury bug this season. 
• I saw a stat that Cade McNown threw four touchdown passes against the Lions in 1999.  That took me by surprise, as I don’t have any positive memories from the McNown days. 
• I’ll be at the Metrodome this Sunday for the Bears/Vikings game.  It’s looking like it’s going to be a great game.
• No shutout…no bear claws, but the offer stands for all games this season.

Fly-over for Iowa/Iowa State Game

Two posts in one day?  I know, that’s unheard of for me, but I also wanted to post this picture that I got from my uncle.  He sent a note saying that my cousin’s husband will be flying the F-16 over Kinnick Stadium at the start of the Iowa/Iowa State game this Saturday.  That’s worth a post, even if he is a Hawkeye fan.

Superfan Kahn's Quick Thoughts 9/15

• This is good for a laugh.  Lions receiver, Roy Williams has essentially guaranteed that the Lions will beat the Bears in Chicago this weekend.  These “guarantees” are getting so common and ridiculous that they are becoming nothing more than a joke anymore.
• CNN-SI’s Peter King says that if Rex Grossman can be an above average QB this season, the Bears have a great chance to be in the Super Bowl.  That’s a pretty big “if” right there.  Week 1 was was great, but we’ll see how he looks against some better teams. 
• The Lions’ defense looked really good last week against the Seahawks.  They totally shut down Shaun Alexander.  Let’s hope the Bears can open up their passing game again on Sunday, or else it might be a rough day for Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. 
• Superfan Kahn’s prediction for the game:  Bears 17, Lions 6.  (At least one of the Bears’ scores will be on defense or special teams.  That’s a safe prediction, right?)
• Remember, BEAR CLAWS on Monday if da Bears shut out the Lions!

 

Quick Thoughts 9/12

• This furniture store offered free furniture if the Bears shut out the Packers. That’s awesome, and even better that the owner followed through with it. To pay my respect to this noble gesture, I will now make a similar proposal. If the Bears shut out the Lions this week, I will bring in bear claw donuts on Monday.
• I’m in three Yahoo! fantasy football leagues. After the first week, I’m now 0–3. That’s not the start I was looking for.
• Our windows are getting fixed tomorrow. They’re just going to add some beefier weather stripping at the bottom. Hopefully that will make a tight seal and I won’t have to worry about any further leakage.
• Yes, the Cyclones play the Hawkeyes on Saturday. The game will be on ESPN at 11AM. Sorry Bigshow, but I’m just not as optimistic as you about the outcome of this game. ISU’s defense has been less than impressive so far, and playing on the road, in a hostile environment just doesn’t bode well for the Cyclones. I just hope the game is close. Unfortunately, I’m going to predict that Iowa will win this one 38–24. Show me up Cyclones.

Bears Blank Pack

26–0 has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?  In case you didn’t know, that was the final score of the Bears/Packers game yesterday, with the Packers sporting the big fat zero.  I would later learn that this was the first time Brett Favre has ever been shut out.  Well done Chicago.  Favre only threw two interceptions, and they occurred after the game was well in hand.  I also want to thank the announcers of the game yesterday for not talking about Brett Favre throughout the whole game.  Everyone already knows that Favre loves football and has fun playing, so we don’t need to go over that again and again. 

The biggest surprise to me was how good Chicago’s offense looked.  They dominated the time of possession, and drove the ball pretty much at will.  Oh and most of the yards came via the air!  Chicago with a passing game?  I sure hope this game wasn’t a fluke.  Grossman really looked good, and only had one poor, Favre-like decision, where he threw the ball into triple coverage in the endzone, resulting in an interception.  I suppose he was feeling invincible from the previous drive’s 49 yard perfect touchdown pass to Benard Berrian.  Just don’t make a habit of throwing into triple coverage Rex, and we’ll all forget that ever happened.  Mushin Muhammad looked great yesterday (lots of big catches instead of big drops), as well as the tight end, Desmond Clark.  The running game didn’t do a whole lot, but I’m not too worried about that right now.  Overall, I was extremely surprised and impressed by the offense. 

I think the Bears finally have a solid punt returner.  Gone are the days of wondering if the punt will be mishandled and turned over.  Devin Hester did a fine job yesterday, returning one for a touchdown.  I think we’ll be hearing his name a lot this year.

Green Bay isn’t as dominant at Lambeau as they once were, but it’s still impressive to walk in there and shut the home team out.  It looks like the Packers will have a real long season if yesterday was any indication.  Next up for the Bears are the Lions at Soldier Field.  I’ll have plenty to say about them later this week.  Bear down!

Quick Thoughts 9/8

• Bears/Packers Sunday.  I’m hoping the Bears will route Green Bay, but the only way that will happen is if Favre throws multiple interceptions, and the Bears’ defense eats him alive.  It should be a good one to watch.  I, for one, am happy Brett Favre didn’t retire yet.  It’s payback time!
• It’s supposed to rain and be in the 60’s for highs all weekend.  Sounds like a good excuse to watch football.
• Traffic is getting pretty bad on South Broadway in Rochester in the mornings and after work.  It’s all due to construction, and funneling down to one lane.  It took me 30 minutes last night to go one block.  I was in the lane that stays open, but traffic was moving a lot better in the other lane which is closed a little further up the road.  So everyone was getting to the merge point, and the people in the open lane let them in.  Meanwhile, the open lane is getting backed up for miles and hardly any progress is made due to the fact everyone is waiting until the last minute to merge.  It drives me nuts.  I don’t see how people in big cities deal with this kind of traffic jam on a regular basis.  Avoid this area at all costs until the construction is completed.
• I picked up the new Audioslave album this week.  Upon my first couple of listens, I’m a bit disappointed.  It lacks the power and awesome riffs of their first two albums.  This one is just kind of “blah” so far, but hopefully it will grow on me in time. 

 

Quick Thoughts 8/31

• Hey Dad, you can probably vote for this guy if you want.  I think he’s in your district.
• Free and legal music downloads?  Yeah, it sounds pretty good until you start reading all the catches.  You have to log into their website at least once a month, deal with the lousy WMA protected format, and you can’t burn the songs to a CD.  I don’t see this idea taking off.
• A window guy comes today to look at why my windows leaked last week.  I hope I don’t have to put up a fight to get them to fix the windows.
• Thank you Peter King.  Of course he also said that the Packers could go 9–7 as a best case scenario.
• Good news for gas prices.  I’ll believe it when I see it, but this article states that prices could be close to $2 a gallon by Thanksgiving. 

Bears Record Poll

Once again, I’m asking you to vote for your predictions on the Bears’ record this season. 

How many games will the Bears win this year?
	0-3
	4-7
	8-11
	12 or more
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Superfan Kahn's First Thoughts of the Season

There is a lot of stuff going on with the Bears right now, and not much of it is good.  Injuries are starting to add up, the defense looks vulnerable, and the offense, well, not much has changed there.  So far there haven’t been any significant season-ending injuries, but just a whole bunch of nagging minor injuries that have the potential to cause problems for the team throughout the season.  Mike Brown has tweaked his achilles tendon, and hasn’t played much.  Thomas Jones hurt his hamstring, and it’s supposed to be better, but he didn’t do much against the Cardinals to indicate that he is 100%.  Cedric Benson hurt his shoulder, and still isn’t playing with contact.  Those are some of the key injuries, but there are plenty of others as well, which have the potential to really be a problem for the Bears. 

Every year Bears fans hope like heck that the offense will improve, and won’t take years off of our lives from having to watch the ineptitude of the unit.  It really doesn’t look like this year is any different so far.  The first team offense has only scored six points (2 FGs) this preseason.  I read all sorts of hype about Rex Grossman, and how good he looks in practice, but I really haven’t been that impressed with what I’ve seen during the games.  I feel sorry for the guy really.  Injuries have put him in a near impossible situation.  Even though this is his fourth season, he has only played half a season’s worth of games.  He’s expected to be a savior, but he’s really still a rookie, experience wise.  As such, he’s going to make some mistakes, but fans aren’t willing to tolerate that.  I don’t agree with the booing he received during the game last week, but there is hope for this offense, and his name is Brian Griese.  I hope Griese never has to play this year, because that will mean Grossman is healthy and doing a decent job running the offense, but the odds are that Griese will get quite a bit of playing time this season based on history.  Griese is light years better than any backup QB the Bears have had in the past decade.  I finally feel good that the Bears have a legitimate insurance plan at the quarterback position.  (At least the Bears didn’t have to call up Jeff George again.)

What’s up with the defense?  I only watched the preseason game against the Chargers the other week, but the one thing that bothered me the most was all the missed and broken tackles.  What should have been no gain, or a loss, resulted in 20+ yards on more than one occasion, and that was with the first team defense on the field!  Last week, rookie QB Matt Leinart looked like Tom Brady against the Bears’ first team defense too.  For something that was supposed to be solid and not a cause of worry, I’m legitimately concerned about the defense right now. 

With all that said, we have to remember that the Bears play in the NFC North.  Watching the Packers last night against the Bengals, I feel a lot better about the Bears’ situation.  It’s a good thing the Bears play the Packers the first week of the season, and not a team like the Seahawks.  The Bears open the season at GB, against Detroit, and at Minnesota.  All of those teams have new coaching staffs, and hopefully won’t be fully clicking yet within their new schemes when the Bears play them.  Having a chance to start 3–0 in the division would be absolutely huge. 

Finally, here are some quick predictions for the Bears’ season:

• The Bears will finish 11–5 this season and once again win the NFC North.
• Brian Griese will end up starting at some point this season.
• The Bears will win at least one playoff game this season.
• Cedric Benson will be exposed as a bust.
• The Bears will sweep the Packers again, and make Brett Favre look bad in the process.  (But hey, he’s still having fun.  He loves to play football you know.)

Big storms last night

It was a crazy night for weather in the Rochester area last night.  We missed all of the big stuff earlier in the day, but at about 8PM, things started to get pretty wild.  We were watching the weather report, and there was a tornado spotted north of town.  They were getting golfball sized hail at the TV station on the north end of town.  Things were getting really dark out, but it looked like we were going to be south of the worst of the storm.  So, we decided to put Payton to bed.  About two minutes later, the rain started coming down in sheets and a west wind started whistling through the house.  We had all the windows closed and locked, but rain started coming in through the bottom of the windows on the west side of the house!  Right below the windows are vents, so the water went right down the vents and the gap around the vents, such that it started leaking from the ceiling in the kitchen and the basement.  I looked out the window at one point, and the wind was so strong that I gathered everyone up and went down the basement.  It looked like there was a hurricane going on outside.  By about 9PM most of the rain had stopped, and we scrambled to clean up all the water and get stuff drying right away.  The wind was intense, but I don’t think our windows should have leaked like that.  The previous owners had them installed in 2003 and 2004, so they are quite new.  I’m going to give the company that installed them a call. 

I was concerned about my apple trees in my back yard because they are loaded with apples and the ground was very soft.  One had blown over at about a 45 degree angle, so I tried to straighten it up the best I could.  It will survive, but I’ll need to give it some good support for a while.  A bunch of flower boxes had blown over on the deck, and even my grill, which was bungied to the deck rail, had blown over.  This must have been some serious wind, but I was thankful that my glass top patio table had remained on the ground.  Actually the weather report said there had been 75 MPH winds, which I don’t doubt.  Last night I also noticed that one of our maple trees had a big limb broken off, and it split down the trunk.  I figured that was wind damage as well, but upon inspection this morning, I believe that tree was struck by lightning! 

Fortunately, we didn’t get much hail, but the storms continued through the night.  Power flickered on and off for a while, and we lost our cable around midnight.  It was down for most of the night.  (I know this because I didn’t sleep very well.)  By morning, I had 3.5 inches of rain.  I bet we actually had more though, because when the wind was howling, I don’t think it was falling into the rain gauge. 

On my way to work this morning I didn’t pass too much damage.  There were lots of new lakes in the construction areas, and Willow Creek Golf Course was littered with downed tree branches, but that was the extent of it on my route.   

Quick Thoughts 8/18

• Da Bears have a nationally televised preseason game on CBS tonight against the Chargers.  I’ll be watching you Rex!
• Why do teams always change their uniforms from year to year now?  The new Vikings jerseys are pretty ugly in my opinion.  I’d be pretty upset if the Bears ever do much to change the look of their classic jerseys. 
• Apparently there is a common misconception in Iowa that muskmelons are melons grown in Muscatine, Iowa.  That certainly didn’t sound right to me, and after doing some very minimal research (thanks Google), I found that the muskmelon name has nothing to do with Muscatine, Iowa.  In fact, all cantaloupes are muskmelons, and they actually originated in Persia, which is not anywhere near Muscatine. 
• I will not be seeing Snakes on a Plane.

Quick Thoughts 8/10

• Softball season ended last night with a resounding THUD.  We played our worst game of the season when we needed to play our best.  The final was 11–1 in six innings.  Our one run came when a guy should have flied out, but the outfielder lost it in the lights.  It ended up bouncing off his forehead, and by the time the other outfielder got to it, our guy had made it home.  It’s pretty sad when we had only twenty batters last night, and that’s within eighteen outs.  Ouch.
• Have you ever heard anything by O.A.R. (Of a Revolution)?  I was recently introduced to their music, and am really into them right now.  They are a “jam band” that started at Ohio State in the late 90’s, and have a Dave Matthews Band, meets 311, meets Bare-naked Ladies sound to them.  I see they are playing in Iowa City and Minneapolis in late October.  Anyone want to go?
• Within another week or two “Superfan Kahn” will start showing up here again.
• See, even the fish get annoyed by jet-skiers.

Playoffs??

Softball season is winding down.  We had a make-up game on Sunday in the extreme heat, and managed to come away with a win.  They were a weaker team, and were only playing with nine guys, but we managed to make it much more interesting than it should have been.  The playoffs started last night.  We ended up with the fifth seed in our thirteen team league, and the top three teams got byes.  So we played the twelfth seed, and played down to their level.  We squeaked out an 11–10 win in eight innings.  There’s no way the game should have been that close, but we always seem to have problems in the playoffs. 

I actually drove in the winning run.  The bases were loaded and we had two outs.  I took the first pitch and it hit the mat for a strike.  In my previous at-bat, I also took the first pitch for a strike and then proceeded to foul the next pitch off for an out.  It had been years since I’d fouled out, and I wanted to make up for that.  So this time I hit it solid between the first and second basemen, allowing the winning run to score.  Unfortunately, I looked like Aramis Ramirez on the way to first (Cubs fans should know what I’m talking about), forgetting that I need to actually make it to first for the winning run to count.  The outfielder threw to first and fortunately, I made it there in time.  Boy that would have been a terrible, bone-headed move on my part if I had got thrown out for lack of hustle.  I would have been pretty mad at myself, and actually I am because that’s not the way I play.  I just got caught up in the moment and took my head out of the game for a minute.  Anyway, I ended up going 3–5 last night at the plate and got my season average back to .500 (25–50). 

Next week we play the fourth seed, who we lost to just last week by a score of 11–12.  The sad thing was that we had that game.  We were up 11–7 going into the bottom of the seventh, but gave up too many runs.  I can’t say we’ve been playing our best ball the past few weeks, and that’s not a good thing during the playoffs.  However, even as the fifth seed, we should be able to win the league.  We had a chance to win every game this year.  We finished 8–4 in the regular season, but the four losses were by a total of ten runs.  Our tendency has been to play to the level of our competition, which we’re going to need to do from here on out, because if we play sloppy, we’re not going to last very long. 

Quick Thoughts 7/26

• Morgan Spurlock’s TV series, 30 Days starts up again tonight on FX.  This season he tackles the issues of immigration, outsourcing, and abortion, among others.  For the season finale, Morgan himself spends thirty days in jail.  It should be interesting.
• Training camp for the Bears opens up tomorrow.  Finally I’ll have something to blog about!
• Yesterday I was reading a blog that mentioned The Great Space Coaster.  Holly had never heard of this show, but it was one that I watched a lot of as a kid.  The theme song often pops into my head, and thanks to youtube, now I can watch the opening and closing credits whenever I want.  I remembered Gary Gnu quite well, and Baxter looks a little freakier than I remember, but I totally forgot about Speed Reader, who looks a lot like Adam Carolla.
• I recently watched both Saw and Saw II, after borrowing them from a friend.  I don’t watch many scary, suspenseful movies like these because Holly refuses to watch them.  While I was watching them, she kept telling me to turn the sound down because she could hear the screaming upstairs.  Anyway, I really liked the first one, and thoroughly enjoyed the twist at the end.  Saw II, on the other hand, I found very irritating.  The characters trapped in the room were just idiots and I was getting mad at them for being so stupid.  The twist at the end of this movie wasn’t as good as the twist in the first movie, but it did salvage the movie enough to make it not a total waste of my time.

 

Quick Thoughts 7/14

• Soon we’ll be vacation bound.  Why is it always so stressful when getting ready to go on vacation? 
• Adding to the stress yesterday was the fact that both of our vehicles experienced the need for unexpected maintenance.  The van had a flat tire that was too far on the side to patch, and required a new tire.  When I left work yesterday my car barely started.  Fortunately, I was able to get it started after shutting everything off in the car.  We put a new battery in, and we’re back in business now.  They say things like this happen in threes.  I can’t wait to find out what the third thing is going to be.
• I received yet another class action settlement notification today.  This one is for BMG music club.  If you’ve been a member anytime after June 1998, you are eligible for the benefit.  The way I figure it, I’m eligible for three CD’s that will total about $10.  Not a bad deal. 

 

Quick Thoughts 7/12

• Will the Cubs fire Dusty Baker?  I, for one, would rather that he is allowed to finish up the season, and then cut ties with him.  It seems inevitable that he won’t be back next year.  He got off to such a great start in Chicago, but things have really gone sour the past couple of years.  It sounds like Greg Maddux will be traded pretty soon too.
• I picked up the new Live album, Songs from Black Mountain, this week.  They have a different, mellower sound on this album that I really like.  Throwing Copper had always been my favorite Live album, but this one is right up there with it.  If you used to like Live, but haven’t heard their newer stuff, or if you never really cared for them in the past, this might be a good album for you to check out.
• Want to go to a major city in the midwest, but don’t want to spend a lot of money?  Check out this article on Megabus.  They offer bus fares as low as $1 from Minneapolis to Chicago.  (But it looks like the normal rate is between $30 and $50 each way.)
• While perusing the Clinton Herald, my old hometown newspaper, I came across this article about the job responsibilities of a Happy Joe’s worker in Clinton.  That sounds exactly like what it was like in my days working there.  It could really get crazy-busy there on weekends in the summer...especially around the 4th of July. 
• We’re heading off for a mini-vacation this weekend at a lake in Willmar, MN.  It should be relaxing, but it’s going to be awfully hot.  They are calling for highs this weekend around 96, and the cabin doesn’t have air conditioning.  Hopefully I can catch some fish, but it might have to be an early morning adventure with temperatures that high.  The lake has quite a few walleye and northern.  I still haven’t caught a northern yet in my life, so hopefully I can accomplish that this weekend.  We’re going with some friends, and they said that you can hear the Sonshine Festival, which is also this weekend in Willmar, from the lake.  Sweet!

Picture Time!

Those are good ribs!

Payton looks a little bit too comfortable on this bike.

That’s better.

Payton & Emma having a picnic at Oxbow Park.

Quick Thoughts 7/6

• I had a great extended 4th of July weekend.  One highlight for me was smoking BBQ ribs, which is an event all by itself.  I tried a new rib recipe, and I think this one is a keeper.  I even made my own BBQ sauce.  They marinated in apple cider for about 12 hours, and then cured with a rub on them for another 4 hours or so, before being ready to go on the grill.  I had the grill set up to smoke with hickory chips.  To get in the right mood, I had blues playing on the radio.  How American is that?  Blues and BBQ on the weekend of the 4th!
• My garden is going strong right now.  We’ve been eating peas, beans and zucchini so far.  I can’t wait for the peppers and tomatoes to be ready for my salsa.
• Bulls on parade!  The Bulls are busy making a lot of roster changes, and they actually have me excited for the team for the first time in a long time.  Even their mascot, Benny the Bull is in the news.  Bad Benny. 
• Hey Bert, unibrow, among other words, is now an official word in the dictionary. 

 

Quick Thoughts 6/28

• Need a good laugh?  Here’s a link to Journey’s “Separate Ways” video.  This is a great song, but the video is one of the lamest ever made.  It’s off the charts on the unintentional comedy scale.  I watched it last night and was practically crying because I was laughing so hard.  In the past, I’d paid the most attention to Steve Perry, but if you watch the rest of the band it makes it so much funnier.  For crying out loud, they are playing “air instruments” in an empty shipyard!  No wonder people make fun of Journey.
• So I guess I’m on a Journey kick.  Last night I was watching an episode of the Family Guy, and the guys started singing “Don’t Stop Believin’” while doing karaoke at the Drunken Clam.  Great scene.
• Speaking of Journey, they are coming to the Target Center with Def Leppard on July 18.  I can’t believe there are still tickets available.

 

Cubs/Twins Recap

Well there really isn’t much good to say about the games I went to Friday and Saturday night.  It can be summed up by saying the Cubs were atrocious.  I do have some thoughts on the games though.

• I kept holding a thread of hope for the Cubs’ season, but that thread is completely cut now.  No matter how good Derek Lee is when he returns, he’s not going to fix all the problems with this team.
• In Saturday’s game, the Cubs had runners on first and second with no outs.  They didn’t end up scoring a single run in that inning, or the rest of the game for that matter.  There’s no way that would have happened to a good team.
• Mark Prior did look better in his start this weekend at least.  Of course, after giving up six runs in the first inning of his first start, anything will look better. 
• At least one third of the people at Metrodome this weekend were Cubs fans.  Too bad the Cubs didn’t give us much to cheer about.  A few times there were some sections starting a “Let’s go Cubbies *clap clap – clapclapclap* cheer, but it didn’t help much.
• You know the game is boring when “the wave” generates more cheers than the game itself.  (It made it around the dome a full two times.)
• I was impressed with Phil Nevin, and I think he was a decent acquisition for the Cubs.  On Friday he was really crushing the ball.  He had a solo HR and hit two other balls to the warning track.  I think they would have been home runs in Wrigley.  On Saturday, he was 3–4, with a trio of base hits. 
• The Twins’ closer, Joe Nathan is pretty cool.  His intro song when he came into the game Saturday night was “Stand Up and Shout” from the movie Rock Star.  That’s a great stadium type anthem, and was probably another one of my favorite moments of the game Saturday.  “Stand up and shoooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut!”

Can this be true?

Yesterday at work we had a pretty heated debate over whether .999~ (repeating) is equal to 1.  I can’t believe that in all of my years of math, I had never heard of this argument before.  Basically, there are a couple “proofs” for this, which seem to make sense to me and verify the legitimacy of this statement.  Somehow though, there is just something about it that doesn’t seem right.  Here’s one proof.

           .999~ = 1

So let’s set x = .999~:

           x = .999~

Multiply both sides by 10:

          10x = 9.999~

Subtract x from both sides:

          10x – x = 9.999~ – x

          9x = 9.999~ – x

Substitute .999~ in for x on the right side, which was our original declaration:

          9x = 9.999~ – .999~

          9x = 9

          x = 1

But we said initially that x was equal to .999~!

I know that I have a lot of good math people that read my blog, so I’d be interested in hearing your opinion on this.  This whole discussion started after someone came across this blog entry on the topic.  There are tons of comments there arguing both sides.  It just seems to me that .999~ will never quite get to 1, but these arguments for it really do make sense to me.  I just still can’t believe that yesterday was the first time I ever heard this.

Quick Thoughts 6/20

• While listening to my “Kahn’s Favorites” playlist this morning, I had a song transition that may never have been heard before in the history of the world.  After Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” the next song that started playing was “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers.  I never know what I’m going to get when listening to that playlist.
• The slumping Cubs come to Minnesota this weekend for a three game series.  I’ll be at the Friday and Saturday games, and riding on a charter bus to both games.  Friday’s probables are Prior/Santana, and Saturday’s are TBA for the Cubs, but a guy named Boof Bonser for the Twins.  I think that’s now my favorite name in pro sports.  Derek Lee is still on the DL, Michael Barrett has started serving his ten game suspension, Wood is still hurt, and Prior just isn’t himself after his first start of the year.  After a couple teasing years of decent baseball, it looks like the old lovable loser Cubs are back. 
• Steer clear of Fiesta Cancun restaurant in Clear Lake, IA.  While the food was good at the time, four of the five of us that ate there ended up with some mild food poisoning.
• The patio set that we bought about two weeks ago at Menards went on pretty major sale this week.  Fortunately, it was less than 14 days, so I was able to get a price adjustment of $140!  The only downside was that they gave me store credit instead of an actual refund.
• It’s Rochesterfest this week.  Time for the annual treasure hunt.

Quick Thoughts 6/16

• I trapped bunny number three for the year this morning.  It wasn’t the one I was after, but rather a small, fairly young one.  Hopefully I’ll get the big one over the weekend.  In the meantime, the fence around the garden is doing its job quite nicely.
• I’m singing this Sunday in a men’s quartet at church.  One is a fun one, “Climbin’ Up the Mountain,” that actually features the bass, which is me.  I have a recording of this on one of the CHS Acappella Choir tapes from high school.  One of the senior quartets sang it my junior year. 
• There’s a black bear roaming around the Rochester area.  It was in southeast Rochester the other night, and now it’s in Zumbrota.  If that’s the same bear, like the DNR believes it is, it has covered quite a bit of area in a couple of days.  Zumbrota is almost 30 miles away!  Don’t be leaving food and garbage outside now.

 

Quick Thoughts 6/14

Yikes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything.  Here’s a dose of “Quick Thoughts” to get you caught up.

• School’s out for summer, so that means Holly is home now during the week.  It also means that there is less traffic on the road during my morning commute.
• We went to see The DaVinci Code last weekend.  It was decent; definitely better than what the critics are saying, but to me it’s kind of like an M. Night Shyamalan movie.  Once you know the plot, it’s just not as powerful.  I’d give the movie a solid B though.
• We had over three inches of rain at our house over the weekend.  Looks like it’s going to be over 90 degrees this coming weekend.  That should make the corn grow.
• After a bye week, we have another softball game tonight.  The bye came at the right time, because I tweaked my hamstring the week before.  Hopefully it’s all healed up now.  We’ll find out tonight.
• Is it football season yet?
• I watched an episode of Mega Disasters last night about the New Madrid fault in Missouri.  I remember hearing in elementary school about the major earthquake that happened here in the early 1800’s, but really I’d totally forgotten about it.  There were three earthquakes of at least magnitude 8.0 in a three month span there.  The shocks from them were felt on the east coast and caused church bells to ring in Boston!  These earthquakes caused geysers of sand to erupt, formed new lakes, and caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for a time.  They think that this fault has a major quake every 300–500 years, and it’s been about 200 years since the last major one.  The cities of Memphis and St. Louis would be hit the hardest, and they said if the same quakes that hit in 1811 and 1812 were to happen today, it would be the worst disaster in the history of the United States.  That’s pretty scary stuff, especially when you consider that most people don’t even know there’s a threat of earthquakes there.

Quick Thoughts 6/5

• It’s hard to believe that I’ve been married seven years today, but it’s true.  Time flies when you’re having fun.
• We spent the weekend back in Iowa, watching the Quad City airshow from the farm, and going to Jason’s second wedding reception.  Here are some pictures from the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick Thoughts 5/31

• I got notified yesterday that I am entitled to some settlement money in a couple of class action settlements.  One was for Sprint, and the other was from Edina Title Company.  It’s not big bucks, but it’s worth my time to send in the paperwork and get a few bucks back.  The notice for Sprint came with the bill, so if you’re a Sprint customer, don’t just throw out the extra material that comes with your statement this month. 
• We switched gears up a little bit and watched Crash last night.  I did enjoy this movie, and the same is true for most of the people I’ve talked to.  I liked how all the characters “crashed” into each other in their lives.  It kind of makes you stop and think about how your actions will affect other people who cross your path in life.  Good movie, and the more time I take to think about it, the more I like it.
• My lawn is already starting to dry out, but I’m not willing to water it yet.  I like having a green lawn, but I’m not willing to constantly water it.  A lot of my neighbors have been watering constantly already.  There really is no point to watering during the heat of the day though, as most of the water evaporates, and I just shake my head when I see that.  I’m going to let it go dormant this summer and try to get the roots to dig deeper.  I think I have a shallow root system right now.  We’ll see what happens and if I’m correct in my thinking. 

I love three day weekends

The switch has been flipped, and summer is officially here, with temps over 90 degrees this weekend.  We had a fun and productive three-day weekend.  I got all my yard work done by noon on Saturday, before it got too terribly hot.  Yesterday I bought and installed a couple of ceiling fans for the upstairs bedrooms.  My arms are going to be pretty sore tomorrow from working above my head so much.  I also put my grill to good use this weekend.  We had brats on Friday, ka-bobs on Saturday, and chicken last night. 

We watched two more movies this weekend, Wedding Crashers, and The 40 Year Old Virgin.  I was actually disappointed with Wedding Crashers.  I expected it to be funnier.  The 40 Year Old Virgin was a lot funnier, and Holly and I both liked that quite a bit.  For some reason, it kind of reminded me of Office Space; probably because a lot of the film centered around the workplace, and the co-workers. 

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any pictures, so here are a couple recent ones of Payton.  We also went fishing this weekend, and with some help from Grandpa, Payton caught himself a little fish.

 

Quick Thoughts 5/25

• Thanks to my buddy Jason, I have a half a dozen DVDs to watch in the next two weeks.  These are all fairly recent movies that I just hadn’t gotten around to seeing yet.  Last night we watched Anchorman, which I rather enjoyed.  It actually surpassed my rather low expectations, and I found myself laughing quite a bit during the movie. 
• For those in Rochester, the cheapest gas in town is at Fleet Farm.  It’s generally two cents cheaper than everywhere else, but if you buy anything in the store, you get a four cent per gallon discount coupon, so really it’s six cents cheaper per gallon.  Also, the coupons have an expiration date on them, but they told me that they would take the expired ones still, so don’t throw the old ones away.  I think people are starting to realize that they have the cheapest gas in town, because it’s always really busy at the pumps.  Most of the time you have to wait for a pump to open up.  Hopefully that will improve after they build and open the new mega Fleet Farm down the road.  Not only is it the cheapest gas in town, but now for me, it’s also the most convenient place to fill up on the way home from work.
• We lost our first softball game of the season last night.  Unable to string any hits together, we only scored three runs over seven innings, and ended up losing 5–3.  It was there for our taking, but we just couldn’t score. 
• I’ve got The Best of Enya playing right now.  It’s been quite a while since I’d listened to this, and I forgot how peaceful and relaxing it is.  I remember we had this CD playing at the hospital while Holly was in labor with Payton.  I guess that makes it more special now too. 

Quick Thoughts 5/24

• This is a pretty crazy week of weather here.  We had frost on the ground Monday morning, which I don’t think a lot of my beans are going to survive, and now I see they are forecasting a high of 91 on Sunday.  Yes, it does get hot in Minnesota.  (When I’ve traveled to other parts of the country, you wouldn’t believe how many people think it’s cold and snowy in Minnesota all year long.)
• After returning home on Sunday from another weekend in the Chicago suburbs, I found that I had caught my second rabbit of the season.  This was a feisty one, and I could tell that it had been eating well.  I think I have the rabbit problem under control…for now. 
• I finished watching Peter Jackson’s King Kong last night.  That movie didn’t need to be three hours.  Some three-hour movies fly by and you lose track of time.  This was not one of them. 
• This is newsworthy?  Looks like they’re going to have chicken for dinner tonight.

Quick Thoughts 5/18

• Another ‘W’ for our softball team last night.  We’re now 4–0, but that’s how we started last year’s 4–8 season as well.  I have a feeling we’ll do much better this year though.
• Yesterday marked my seven year service anniversary with IBM.  I just realized that this morning while looking at the calendar.
• Most of the crops in my garden are up now, but those darn rabbits are chewing on my peas.  I still have the trap out, but I think I’m dealing with the smarter bunnies now.  They forced me to put up a chicken-wire fence last night.  We’ll see how well that works. 
• This is kind of funny.  It reminds me of the time at Iowa State when a kid climbed out the den window on the tenth story of Wilson Hall and sat out on the ledge.  While he was out there, he sobered up enough that he froze up, and was too afraid to get back in.  Crazy kids.
• The CSI season finale is tonight.  I don’t think that William Petersen’s (Gil Grissom’s) contract got renewed for next season, so it will be interesting to see how they get rid of him tonight.  (He was upset about all the CSI spin-offs.)  I suppose that will be a shock for people who haven’t followed the behind-the-scenes headlines, especially when it looks like Brass is the one who is going to die right now.  Whatever happens, I bet they don’t kill Grissom off, just in case they can persuade him to come back.  I don’t see the show lasting long without him.

Pitt-stop

While driving into work today, a commercial came on the radio that gave me something to blog about.  Did you know that you can now get Botox injected into your armpit if you sweat uncontrollably?  As the commercial said, “Do you sweat through your shirt, even in the middle of winter?”  Well, as a matter of fact, yes I do, but Botox would be the last thing I use to treat it.  But then again, I don’t think I have “primary axillary hyperhidrosis.”  If I think about the times I’ve pitted out in the winter, it usually involves shoveling snow, or while in college, I had to walk about a mile from my dorm to the campus, which would always raise my temperature and cause me to pitt out. 

There’s just something about injecting Botox into your body that seems wrong to me.  Botox is short for “Botulinum Toxin Type A.”  Call me crazy, but I always thought toxins were bad, and I also thought botulism was a bad thing too.  I think the risks outweigh the benefits, especially when most of the conditions that are treated with Botox are generally not extremely serious to begin with.  (i.e. removing facial wrinkles.)  I’d much rather be a little embarrassed from having a pitted out shirt, than having poison injected into my body.  Wouldn’t you?

Quick Thoughts 5/9

• Here are some of the most popular myths in science. The Mythbusters have tackled some of them, but I learned a thing or two here that I didn’t know. The chicken living without a head reminds me of the Bigshow chicken video.
• It’s not even June yet, but the Cubs are in the middle of a big swoon, losing seven straight games. I hope Derek Lee is a quick healer…the Cubs are really missing him right now.
• We caught our fist rabbit of the year yesterday. I have to keep them out of the garden. (Don’t worry PETA folks, it’s a catch and relocation program.)
• Who’s going to win Survivor this season? It would be nice to see Terry continue his domination, but I have a feeling Cirie will end up winning it. I’ve watched every season of Survivor, but the funny thing is, after about the first three seasons, I couldn’t tell you who the winner was. They all just blur together after that.
• David Blaine is pretty amazing. He failed to hold his breath for nine minutes, but still lasted over seven. I held mine along with him, but barely made it past one minute. I think his feats would be a lot more impressive if he wasn’t a magician though. Since he is, a lot of people are kind of like, “Is he doing that for real, or is it some sort of illusion?” That’s the way I feel at least, but I’m pretty sure his endurance stunts are the real deal.
• Happy anniversary Mom and Dad! 36 years today.

It's Softball Season Again

Softball season has started again, and we already played our second game of the season last night.  We’re off to a good start, as we’ve won both games, but I have not forgotten what happened last season.  (We won our first four games in convincing fashion, and then proceeded to lose the final eight games of the season.)  Our team got a new sponsor this year, and that means new t-shirts.  The shirts are “dreamsicle” orange with a navy and white Glynner’s logo on the front.  They practically glow in the dark, but I think they the main reason we are winning!

Right now I’m batting .500, but had a legitimate double last night.  I bat left-handed and generally I like to line the ball right up the middle, or right over the second baseman.  Last night I noticed that the outfielders were shifted pretty far to the right for me.  There was a huge hole in the outfield between the third base line and where the left fielder was playing.  I decided I was going to try to exploit that.  The first pitch played perfectly into my plan.  It was an outside pitch, and that made it easy for me to take the opposite way.  It landed about two feet to the right of the foul line, and then tailed to the left, into foul territory, away from the outfielder who was franticly trying to get to it.  By the time he got to the ball, I was already half-way to second base.  That will probably be my offensive highlight for the season, so I’m pretty happy about it right now.

Quick Thoughts 5/2

• Did you watch any of the NFL draft this past weekend?  What I don’t understand is why someone would want to attend the draft in person as a spectator.  It’s painful enough to watch on TV.  I wonder what they have for entertainment between the picks?  I bet they sell a lot of beer though. 
• So last year the Bears had a pretty decent defense, and I sub-par offense.  What do the Bears do with their first five draft picks?  They use them for defensive players, of course.  I think a lot of Bears fans are scratching their heads on that one.  I hope Angelo knows what he’s doing.
• The Bulls have been playing pretty decent basketball against the Heat.  I’ve actually been watching their playoff games…something I haven’t done in years.  The series is tied at two games each, now that Chicago won both games at home.  Game five is tonight in Miami.  Go Bulls!
• It’s official, the old house is sold!
• I’ve got some Audioslave playing right now.  I’d forgotten how much I enjoy their music. 

 

Quick Thoughts 4/26

• Hungry for Happy Joe’s pizza, but don’t have a location where you live?  No problem, now you can have one delivered in the mail.  I am going to have to give this a try sometime.
• CNN just did ran a series on the worst songs of all time.  Be sure to read the related articles as well.  I can agree with some of the choices, (i.e. Hollaback Girl) but I can tell I’m in trouble for actually liking some of the songs that made the list.  I think it’s about time for me to come up with another Kahn’s top 10 music list.  Perhaps, my top 10 least favorite songs.  That will be a tough one.
• I like Nickelback, but this is a real eye-opener.  I guess their songs really do sound the same.  The song roadmap is identical on “How you Remind Me” and “Someday.”  Wow.
• Brett Favre is reportedly coming back for one more losing season.  Perhaps he will set some sort of interception record next year, if the Bears don’t knock him out for the season after the first game. 
• We sign our papers to close on the old house today.  The buyer signs Friday.  Yep, Slider is buying my house. 
• That reminds me of my brief stint as the mascot of the Clinton Lumber Kings.  It lasted only two days because I couldn’t stand the heat.  Those mascot costumes are freaking hot.  At least I can say that I was the very first “Louie the Lumber King!”

Quick Thoughts 4/25

• This is gross, but I can’t stop laughing.  I’m always a sucker for reading the “Strange News” headlines that are from Iowa.
• In a follow-up from an earlier rant about Charter, I checked my account today and saw that they did credit me the errant charge that I complained about before.  However, they still were $0.43 short in the amount they credited me.  I know it’s just $0.43, but it’s the principle of it that bothers me, so I called them back up to get it set straight.  The person I talked to today was even more helpful, because at the end of the conversation, she said she would check to see if there were any current specials that she could set me up with.  Sure enough, I will be getting their current special for the next six months, and saving $30 per month.  That was definitely worth the follow-up call.
• Here’s an interesting article on the Nintendo Revolution.  I don’t know if I’ll be in the market for one of the next generation game consoles or not, but if at some point I do decide to get one, the Revolution is definitely looking like my system of choice.  I’m just not into the action and first-person shooter games so much, and I really prefer the retro and sports games.  Plus, if we let Payton play video games at all, it seems like the Nintendo has the best selection of games for kids.  It will be interesting to see what Nintendo comes out with for a pricing point, and how they implement the retro game downloads.   

Quick Thoughts 4/21

• It’s so hard to be a Cubs fan.  We’re not even out of April, and the Cubs’ best player, Derek Lee is out for almost two months with a broken wrist.  The injury bug bites again!  I guess if there’s an up-side, it’s that it happened so early.  So if the Cubs can keep afloat for a couple months, then they will be at full strength for the stretch run.
• The NBA saved some face, and only has one playoff team with a losing record.  I’m happy to see the Bulls make it to the playoffs and at least they managed a .500 record.  They are the hot team among the lower seeds in the East, winning their last 12 of 14 games.  I look for them to continue their hot streak, and wouldn’t be surprised to see them upset Miami. 
• A new Star Trek movie is planned for a 2008 release.  I guess “The Next Generation” cast is done now too, as this movie will follow the early days of Kirk and Spock.  It seems like they are going the back-story route following the success of a movie like Batman Begins.  That’s kind of a good idea I guess.  It works for me.
• I’ve been listening to the new Shinedown album, Us and Them recently.  Good stuff.
• A couple of my favorite Christian rock bands, Kutless and Hawk Nelson have put new albums out in the past month.  Kutless’ Hearts of the Innocent album is decent, but not their best material in my opinion.  I highly recommend the new Hawk Nelson album, Smile, It’s the End of the World, though.  It’s full of high-energy songs with catchy hooks.  Check it out.

Beware of Charter

Charter Communications has some pretty shady practices from my experience.  Yesterday I was able to chalk one more up.  When I checked my bank balance yesterday morning, I noticed that Charter had withdrawn an unexpected $29.89 from my account.  Unable to understand where this charge was coming from, I called them up to find out.  I was told that this was my transfer fee from when I switched service from our old house to the new house.  There’s just one problem with that…I already paid the cable guy $19.95 for this fee.  I told the customer service representative that was the only fee I was told about, and if they are adding another one on top now, that seems pretty sneaky.  She put me on hold for a few minutes while she “investigated” the situation.  When she came back, she apologized for the extra fee and said I should not have been charged twice for the transfer fee.  One thing that still doesn’t make sense to me is if the transfer fee was $19.95, then why did they withdraw $29.89 from my bank account?

This is the not the first time I have had fees on my cable bill that should not be there.  I think Charter intentionally does this, and if the customer doesn’t notice, then they just made some easy money.  A few years ago I switched to a cable modem and was supposed to get free installation.  Well guess what?  When I received my bill, there was a $50 installation charge on it!    Once again, I had to call Charter and get the erroneous charge removed.  I wonder if the BBB would be interested in this information?  If you’re a Charter customer, watch your bills carefully.

Weekend recap

We’re back from an exciting weekend away from home.  Things got off to a wild start on Thursday night as we tried to dodge severe weather in Iowa.  Fortunately, my mom called me and told me how serious the weather was getting, so I tuned into a local radio station and hung out north of the storms for about 45 minutes to let the worst of it pass.  Iowa City was right on our route, and they got hit pretty hard by some tornados Thursday night.  The warning included a stretch of I-80, and I guess when the warning sounded, three semi trucks stopped on the interstate and blocked it off.  That’s probably a good idea since a lot of people listen to MP3 players and CDs in the car, and never would have known how serious the situation was getting.  There were reports of golfball and softball sized hail with these storms.  I’m glad I didn’t see anything bigger than pea-sized hail though.

Friday was a lot less chaotic.  Before we left for the Chicago area, we took some pictures of Payton feeding the baby lambs on the farm.  He had a blast!

We left Payton at the farm and headed to the Chicago area for Jason’s wedding rehearsal.  The dinner was at Giordano’s pizza place, which I have to say is some of the best pizza I’ve ever had.  No, Mike, Matt, and I didn’t call each other ahead of time, but I guess black shirts and khaki pants were the proper attire.

Saturday was the wedding, and everything went perfectly.  The wedding party got to ride from the church to the reception in a huge Lincoln Navigator limo.  That was a blast.  The dinner was one of the best wedding meals I’d ever had.  It started out with a bowl of French onion soup, then a salad, and a scoop of rose sorbet to cleanse the palate.  The main course included a fillet of beef cooked medium rare, exactly how I like it, a vegetable medley, some asparagus, and garlic mashed potatoes.  It was wonderful.  The cake was sinfully good as well.  Oh yeah, it was an open bar too. 

It’s always great to see my high school buddies.  Here’s a picture of the five of us that made it out for the wedding.  Congratulations Jason!

It's been a while

So, I’ve been catching some flack from Bigshow.  Yesterday he told me there was something wrong with his computer.  He said, “When I go to your blog page and hit "refresh", it still shows your blog from last Wednesday as your latest one.”  Point taken.

We moved into the new house last Saturday, and since then, I’ve really lacked motivation to do much of anything else.  Once I got the TV and computer hooked back up, I was pretty content until I get time on the weekends to organize the garage and basement.  The fun part about moving was driving the truck I rented.  I got a 24’ moving truck form Budget, and it was bigger than anything I’d driven before.  It was a big diesel, and wasn’t far from a semi truck, but fortunately for me, it had automatic transmission.  At first I cut a couple of corners a little short and ran over the curb, but I figured out the proper way to turn pretty quickly.  I would recommend using Budget to rent trucks.  Actually, I’d recommend anyone but U-Haul, as I’ve had more than one bad experience with them in the past.  With U-Haul, just because you reserve a truck, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will have a truck for you the day you need it.  You’ve been warned.

The new neighborhood has been great so far.  We’ve met more people in less than a week than we ever did in our old neighborhood.  People have been very friendly and welcoming, and there are lots of kids around that Payton will be able to play with through the years.  I just think people are a little antsy, as most of my neighbors have already been out mowing their lawns.  The thing is, the lawns are just starting to green up, and nothing has really started growing yet.  I think they are rushing it a bit. 

Here’s a picture of the new house.

We’re heading to Davenport tonight to drop Payton off with my parents, and then Friday we head back to the Chicago area for my friend Jason’s wedding.  In honor of the occasion, I’ve written a haiku for Jason.  Want to hear it?  Ok, here it goes.

Getting hitched you are

That sounds like a Yoda quote

It’s about time man.

That’s it for today.  Next week I’ll post some pictures from the weekend festivities.  Have a good weekend.

Quick Thoughts 4/5

• Payton turned two yesterday and is a big boy now!  I will get some pictures up soon.  He’s excited to get to sleep in a “big boy” bed after we move on Saturday. 
• The moving process has begun.  I have 90% of my garage moved over which was huge, and we have taken a lot of boxes over to the new house already too.  I have a moving truck lined up for Saturday when we will be moving over the big and heavy items. 
• I still keep an eye on the Chicago Bulls, but here’s the problem with the NBA:  the Bulls have a lousy 34–40 record and yet they are only half a game out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.  Teams with losing records don’t deserve to be rewarded with going to the post-season.  The NBA playoffs are a joke, and the Eastern Conference is really atrocious. 
• Jack Johnson…good stuff.  On his new album for the Curious George Soundtrack, there is a song called “The 3 R’s,” you know, reduce, reuse, recycle.  It’s catchy as heck.  I want to play that during our meeting for our annual ISO 14001 training to liven it up a bit.

 

Music at Work

I love listening to music, and I usually have my headphones on most of the day while working.  Last week, I ran across this article about listening to music in the workplace.  As long as people wear headphones, and there isn’t a safety issue involved, I don’t have any problem with people listening to music while working.  The article mentions that sometimes people get annoyed when the person listening to the music starts drumming on the desk or sings along with the music.  I might be guilty of that occasionally, but believe me, when it happens, I’m not even aware I’m doing it.  I would hope that my co-workers would tell me when I’m doing this so I can make sure I put an end to it.  (Sorry Brent.)

On a side note, it annoys me when people refer to all MP3 players as iPods.  Is iPod the next Kleenex or Band-aid?  You know there are people who own something other than the iPod and are quite happy with those alternative products.  The model I have is on a clearance sale right now as the next generation model is developed.  This is an excellent deal, and I’d recommend it to people who aren’t caught up by the iPod image/coolness factor.  You wouldn’t believe how many people I saw with the trademark white earbuds walking around downtown Chicago this weekend.  They were everywhere.

What is your opinion on listening to music at work?  Cast a vote and/or sound off with a comment.

Does it bother you when people listen to music at work?
	Yes, it makes me want to go postal!
	No, it's a great idea.
	Sometimes, it depends on how I'm feeling that day.
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