Rock and Roll

We had what they call a "moderate earthquake" this evening, epicenter down near Garrett. He was nice enough to IM Kyla that cell phones weren't working, that his house shook, and that everything was okay, so she could call and let us know. Our own little earthquake reporting net. It was quite strong here, freaking out D'Or, and making us start thinking about what was going to be falling over. Nothing did, though.

Dara's New Toy

Dara has been scanning pictures lately. She specifically chose a scanner that would handle negatives properly. Here is one she found in black-and-white (tinted by her here using Photoshop) with Garrett and Jasper when she was a puppy. Obviously the days when Garrett would actually pose for a picture are now a thing of the distant past.

An Unauthorized Cage Release

On my way to the airport today, I stopped at Mom & Dad's where their neighbor, Grace, was in the midst of encountering a very cool bird. Obviously what AJ would call, "An Unauthorized Cage Release." Turns out he is a Rainbow Lory. He was sitting in front of the neighbor’s house on their railing and would whistle back every time we whistled at him. He let me get close enough to touch him, but then he started to fly away. I grabbed him in mid-air and he bit the be-jeezes out of the flap of skin between my pointer finger & thumb (2 hours ago and it still hurts). I didn’t let go and we ended up putting him in a shoe box until the animal rescue people could come.

He’d have been lunch for an osprey if we hadn’t caught him. His wings must have been clipped or he would have flown better.

What a catch!

Local Sudoku Champ

I've seen several brief AP type articles about a Palo Alto guy who won the national Sudoku contest in Philadelphia the other day. However, today's SJMercury had more details.

• He works in a bioengineering lab at Stanford.
• He never brings puzzles to work.
• He uses a special thick-lead mechanical pencil so it won't break and he can avoid the time it takes to click for more lead while working a puzzle.
• He also runs marathons.

And for you fanatics, his winning strategy...

The key is knowing what to spend time noting on the puzzle and what to simply store mentally, he said. "I only write a number down if there are only two places it could go," he said.

Sure, no problem. Easy as running a marathon.

Nothing Says, "Fall," like a Maize Maze

I went for a ride yesterday and in 25.3 miles I passed 3 corn mazes. Only one was a real, cut into the corn to make a maze in the field. The other 2 were pale imitations; hay bails stacked up like a castle made of blocks, which doesn't qualify. The geese are back in droves honking, crops have been taken from the fields, birds are migrating, pumpkins & mums are for sale on every corner, animals are starting to get furry. and the it is finally getting cool in the mornings. This year I made it to the quintessential fall event: Cecil County Farm Museum Apple Butter Festival . It is held one day every year from 10 until 4 and I have managed to miss it each year until yesterday. Making apple butter is a very long arduous process, so by the time I got there 3 big barrel fulls were well under way. The "apple wenches" were in fact not cute girls in swiss miss costumes as Mike had hoped. They were burly guys in tee shirts. We got 2 pints of the still hot liquid gold and topped the trip off with pumpkin cobbler and small basket of winesap apples. Yum! No photos as my battery was dead from the marathon.

The Agony of Keith's Feat & His Baltimore Bling

I went down to see the Baltimore Marathon and watch Keith cross the finish line - he had the Kenyans worried. The day couldn't have been nicer so that was a step up from the Chicago marathon where people were dropping like flies.

This was the 2nd time I have watched a marathon (I'm too lame to run one). Keith's right, it is amazing what a festival of shapes, sizes, and adverts. Keith mentioned a few of his competitors but he was probably too busy to take photos. I got some good shots of Keith's fellow runners and a some not so good shots of Keith. However, if you look in the photo where he's sitting down, you'll see his new Baltimore Bling - the full marathon medallion.

Keith says the juggler jugged the whole way. The lighthouse was about 6' tall and wooden - he also ran the whole way. Apparently, there was a guy skipping rope, but he didn't pass the finish line so he must have skipped his way out of the marathon. It was great fun to watch and a hell of an accomplishment. Way to go Keith! Rumor has it you'll be running as a Budweiser Can next year.

It's All In How You Look At It

Garrett was quite young when we had him tested for color blindness and he failed with flying colors, so to speak. It's inherited through the mother, so I thought it was funny but harsh when Dara sent a birthday card to her father afterwards that included a "P.S., Garrett says thanks for the color blindness." When Garrett was home last weekend, he told a funny story about someone sending him a link to a site selling tee shirts. Those of you who aren't color blind might enjoy the site that I found by Googling. Garrett had to have a friend explain it to him.

Nap and a Half

One of the benefits of furnishing Garrett's place at SJSU was that we had the opportunity to fill up some now-empty space in our living room. We'd been wanting a chair-and-a-half for years. Here I am gearing up to, as the kids say, read through my nipples in my new birthday chair.

Not My Mother's Newsletter

In my ongoing fascination with the havoc the Internet is wreaking on print and other media, I found this snarky article about online gossip rag Gawker to be entertaining reading.

It’s almost part of Gawker’s business plan to ensure that its young writers, by attracting the attention of those they are sniping at, are able to leap into the waiting arms of the mainstream media before they become too expensive to employ.

And referring to one of their writers:

Ten or twenty years ago, Gould would have likely emulated Joan Didion, but she is trying to play the blog game now. She means to win, and to grab some attention for herself in the process.

Made me wonder if David Ensor at Cap Pubs 30 years ago would have been an attention hound blogger today.

The Agony of Victory

Since revealing my secret mission to run in the Baltimore Marathon I am proud to say I completed it yesterday. My only goal was to finish it, which I did in 5 hrs 42 mins. I guess the Kenyans didn't have to worry about my blazing speed, I understand the winner finished in 2hrs 13mins. and collected 18,000 for his effort. Only the finest power walkers and the most elite of the70+ class beat me. I ran the whole 26.2 only slowing down for water, I followed a training guide to get me there, and the longest run in it was 18 miles, so after mile 18 it was all new ground for me. Baltimore was great, every neighborhood had a cheering section some complete with live music others passed out water, fruit, gummybears ect. Even in the rundown slum areas the winos were cheering, one proclaimed only a couple of miles to go at mile 14. I had been pretty nervous about the whole thing for some time but once I got going I felt good. Somewhere around mile 20 I started to ware out badly and feel sore but I managed to overcome it, I guess it was mind over body beyond that and my determination to finish got me the rest of the way. All in all a great experience. Kirst and Dan put up with me for some time as I held my training runs as a priority over a lot of things, they came and cheered me on anyway. It was great to see Missy at the finish line as well and I really appreciate her being there for me. Mom was a great inspiration,knowing all the miles she has logged over the years and knowing she and Dad were following me closely from Fla. Now that its over I am sore all over and only plan to watch football and drink beer today. One notable thing I learned yesterday was, Marathoners come in all shapes and sizes. I always thought everyone would be reasonably slim and have decent posture and form, not so, I ran several miles with a very short nice Hawaiian women who had to tip the scales at 200+. Near the end of the race 2 guys lumbered past me like I was standing still, forget the fact that I practically was, but they both had to weigh 300 each. Everywhere I looked I couldn't help but notice my vision of being in marathon shape couldn't have been more wrong.

Blogoversary

Three years of Harris Online blogging. It's been a great way to keep in touch!

Left Brain, Right Brain

Via one of my favorite blogs, look here to see if you're left-brained or right-brained. It shows I'm right-brained, while Dara is left-brained -- the opposite of what I would have said.

The New Digs

Here it is, Mom & Dad's new house... Just kidding, this schmoey little McMansion on Venetian Bay is being built by one of the Lutgert boys for his new trophy wife. According to Gail Pepper (who somehow knows these things), the new Mrs. Lutgert couldn't possibly live in the hovel that used to stand here. BTW, that's a 38 foot boat across the inlet. It's been very interesting to watch this monstrosity take shape. What a project.

Anyway -

Here they are, the new homeowners, in front of their new building.

Here's the kitchen as you come in the front door (sorry about my lack of photographic skills.)

The living room looking onto the lanai.

Mom & Dad found this place at Tower Point at Arbor Trace. It's lovely and perfect. From the building, to the facilities, to the campus, to their delightful 2 bedroom apt, this was a great find. It light and airy and meets all Mom & Dad's requirements with a few bonuses. They even get their own enclosed garage, complete with remote control.

Arbor Trace is about 6 miles from Ken & Sharon's by back roads, 10 miles from our place, and a whopping 12 miles from Harold's. October 31 is the settlement date & November 1 is the move date. These guys don't mess around. I'm guessing Mom & Dad are down south packing right now.

Squirrel Nutkin's Raiders

I usually think squirrels add to the ambiance of our place until I'm woken up by incessant squawking. And after I complained about the clever raccoons stealing our tomatoes a while back, Dara and I found a squirrel sitting on a fence gnawing away at a tomato. My apologies to the raccoons.

Sounds like the British imported our annoying gray squirrels long ago, and as Americans are often wont to do, they've taken over. Backed into an increasingly small rural area, the beloved red squirrel's fans are taking action.

The situation has now reached a crisis point: there are only an estimated 160,000 red squirrels left in Britain, whereas there are more than 2 million grays. Without human intervention, reds could be gone from England in 10 years.

There are government backed efforts, like Save Our Squirrels (S.O.S.), but the NYTimes article profiled a kind of Minutemen for red squirrels, the Red Squirrel Protection Partnership, that advocates the direct approach. Its leader, Lord Rodesdale,

is enthusiastic and unapologetic about his work and does not use euphemisms the way the S.O.S. organizations do. “What is this ‘method of cranial concussion’?” Redesdale asked Southworth and the two other women who met him in Southworth’s high-ceilinged living room, quoting something he had heard at a red-squirrel preservation conference. “Why not just say ‘hit on the head’? Sounds better.”

Next up: whippoorwills.

Halo 3 vrs Madden 08

Since we have the latest in popular gaming I thought it was interesting that in a small group of 13 year olds [Dan and freinds] Madden is getting more play time than Halo 3. Since it is the 1st M rated game we let him buy I thought the thrill would overpower them...wrong again. I guess there is no greater power than the NFL. With a broken 4 wheeler this weekend x-box will get quite a workout.

Wilma!!!

Anyone who has visited us has had this house pointed out to them as we drive north on highway 280. We have referred to it for years as the igloo house, but it seems it's more popularly known as the Flintstones house.

Recently, the owners painted it a terra cotta color. I'd have to call it orange myself, but I was trying to be nice. Still, it turns out lots of people are not nice. In fact, there is a Facebook group entitled REPAINT THE FLINSTONES HOUSE WHITE!! (Yes, complete with misspelling. Those of you cool enough to have a Facebook account -- not me -- can click on the link and join the group.) At last count, over 4,000 people joined the group to express their collective discontent with the owners' taste in decorating. That may be worse than having your neighbor complain about not mowing your lawn.