O' Shenandoah Thanksgiving

It's tough to compete with that beautiful iris, but I thought I'd post some pics of the scene out on the Shenandoah. No trip would be worthwhile without my getting lost, but this time around I managed to do it with a Neverlost navigation system and Kyla both in the car. It's a long story (aren't they all!), but we managed to find the homestead after all.

Thomas was soooo excited when he saw the tractor. He knew what it was and he wanted up on it. He then proceeded to pull every lever very happily until he found the horn, at which point he was really excited. A.J. had to pry him off of it.

Here's Dan trying out the juggling sticks. Keith and Dan have a competition going on with just about everything. I'm not holding out much hope for Keith on this one.

After hearing about the famous Corvette rework, I had to take a picture when I finally got to see it. Speaking purely from a midlife crisis point of view, it was a bit disappointing that it wasn't flesh colored.

A view of the table and some of the remodeling job. You're looking toward the back deck through what used to be a wall! Keith told how one of his first setbacks after knocking out the wall was to realize that the electrical panel for the house was right next to it, and that he had to rerun virtually every circuit in the house.

Here's Keith working on one of the two turkeys, and John working on the ham they brought. He had specially decorated it with pineapples and cherries, a favorite with their two girls.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from California. Garrett and I are suffering through a sunny, warm and beautiful but lonely day. Only an iris to keep us company. Our thoughts are with the east coast gang and especially Gordy.

Gaming Market Analysis from Garrett

All I'm going to say on this Sony PS3 vs. Nintendo Wii madness is that Garrett is home today so that he can pick up his Wii down at GameStop. This is not good news for Sony.

Iris Obsession Continues

As long as you're not remodeling your kitchen and getting ready to host dozens of people on Thursday, what else are you going to do the weekend before Thanksgiving? Put in the latest and long-awaited mail-order batch of Pacific Coast Irises, of course. Here is the Iris Lady making sure her new babies get just the right combination of Dara's secret soil mixture, sunshine, and drainage. Results coming in a few more months.

Metrosexual in Vineland

Dara and I went on a brief road trip for her birthday (which isn't until tomorrow, but who's counting). We drove a few hours north through the wine country -- Napa and St. Helena, and on to Calistoga. In a nice touch, Dara had burned a collection of CD's for us from her vast iTunes-based collection, which we listened to along the way. Aside from wine and water, Calistoga is famous for its hot springs and mud baths.

You can blob around in really thick hot mud, or you can try what we did, which was a few cups of volcanic ash in a bath at about 104 degrees. Once you get the thought of people shoveling up dirt from their back yards near Mt. St. Helens out of your head, you can relax and -- as they say -- let the toxins soak out of you. This was followed by a foot massage and then an all over massage. That was the first real massage I've ever had, and it was great. We might not wait another 50 years to repeat it.

On the way back today, we stopped at the "old faithful" geyser in Calistoga. Supposedly one of only three geysers that erupt pretty much on schedule, it was pretty impressive when we were there. At the same facility, they have a set of Tennessee fainting goats. These goats apparently fall over when scared, due to a genetic disorder. Dara and the kids saw them once while I was not around, so Kyla was anxious to know if I could actually scare them enough to make them faint. No dice.

We also stopped at the site of Jack London's estate in Glen Ellen (of Valley of the Moon fame). After voyaging around in the Snark right after the 1906 earthquake, Jack London and Charmian settled down out in the wine country. They spent a lot of money and time building their dream house, Wolf House, only to have it burn to the ground right as they were ready to move in. He pretty much never recovered, and died shortly thereafter. Here is Dara in front of what would have been a reflecting pool in the middle of the house. I also thought you might like a flavor of what the vineyards look like this time of year, in this case along the trail back from Wolf house.

A great trip!

Re; Election Wrapup

I think that should have been "Can't ignore the elephant out of the room" anyway I was glad to see Webb win despite that rug. I'm sure the whole "vote against the republican" thing had alot to do with it but in my mind his resume was far superior to Allen's. Our list of celebrity callers was way less impressive than Steve's. Topping our list was Newt Gingrich and Laura Bush. My interest in politics has always been sort of luke warm at best [probably just a bad attitude]. Over the last few years I have warmed up to it a little more and taken a more active interest in issues and elections. This time around it was hard to ignore with my home state in the spotlight and the real feeling that your vote counted more now than ever. In MX racing there is a saying, "When the gate drops the bullshit stops" meaning time to stop running your mouth and live up to all you said you were. If you don't at least show up on the podium you are nothing but a bullshitter. In my mind the gate has now dropped in Washington.

Election Wrapup

We really can't ignore the elephant in the room, so to speak, can we? I was, as usual, glued to the TV and the Internet for the election. I'm proud to report that Harris Online was the first unofficial outlet to report to its East Coast correspondent, Kyla, that Webb would take Virginia. I was obsessively watching the Virginia State Board of Elections website, which is great. With 98% of the vote counted, Allen ahead, and the populous and Webb-leaning NoVa suburbs still to come in, I did the mental math and let Kyla know the prediction. I see that the rest of the press caught on today.

I also expect you all would like to know that our roster of robo-callers this time around included Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and other politicians, but also Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford. If it wasn't for political junk calls, nobody would be calling me.

OED in Modern Times

As a book, I was not overly fond of The Professor and the Madman. But, I was fascinated to learn about how the Oxford English Dictionary was actually painstakingly produced.

“A thousand readers are wanted,” Murray announced in his famous 1879 public appeal. “The later 16th-century literature is very fairly done; yet here several books remain to be read. The 17th century, with so many more writers, naturally shows still more unexplored territory.” He considered the territory to be large, but ultimately finite.

It no longer seems finite.

This update in the NYTimes magazine was interesting as well. It seems they are on the letter P now, having started the latest version on M. Just like in the old days, you can contribute. However,

“Please note,” the O.E.D.’s Web site warns solemnly, “it is generally safe to assume that examples found by searching the Web, using search engines such as Google, will have already been considered by O.E.D. editors.”

What, we would have to resort to reading books to contribute?!?!

Watching Paint Dry

As advertised I decided to remodel my kitchen before Thanksgiving, an 11th hour decision I thought I may regret. I started the last weekend in september. The more demolition and rearanging I did the more panic stricken I became. I was having visions of evry contractors nightmare....BLOWN DEADLINE.....Particularly embarasing since it is my house. This is a job I have wanted to do for years and never could quite pull it together for one reason or another, so I knew what I wanted to do and had a good grip on how to do it, I guess I never thought much about putting it on the so called "construction fast track" . Think again. I suppose I'm a little edgy when I'm under self imposed pressure such as this so help from Dan and Kirsti has been limited at best, although they do make a good cheering section and have offered plenty of praise and encouragement. With 3 weekends before T-Day I am closing in on it. I am posting this between coats of floor finish, if things stay on schedule I will have the weekend before thanksgiving to prepare for the crowd. I made a few notable mistakes along the way but for the most part I think it is going to turn out the way I wanted it to, and just in the nick of time. It probably doesn't sound like it but I actualy enjoy the work of fixing up this old house, and the self imposed deadline of T-Day has been great inspiration. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. Dara I wish you and Garrett could make it but it sounds like time is a factor there that can't be overcome.

Mega Ramp, Mega Nuts

The video that accompanies this article about professional skateboarder Bob Burnquist's backyard skateboard ramp is worth a look.

Pilots routinely adjust their flight paths for a closer look, which is as good a way as any to sum up the scale of the Mega Ramp. The wooden structure is longer than a football field, as tall as an eight-story building, with a creek bed running through a 70-foot breach.

Crazy. I know you're too busy on the kitchen remodel to blog, Keith, but you may want to consider something like this for your next project.