06 October 2008
Where are the Big 12 Wraps?
Following That Bastard Ike, I wrote that blogging and some other activities might slow down for a while.
That's been true about blogging (at least Houston blogging, which probably isn't going to ramp back up to normal speed until sometime after the elections), but it's been more true about my football watching -- which has declined considerably. Part of that is because until yesterday, my Dish Network was only locking on one of three satellites, meaning I wasn't getting most sports channels. Part of it is just because I've decided more active pursuits* than sitting behind TV/computer are in order for the fall.
I'm hoping to get in backpacking trips in the Oklahoma Ouachitas over the next two weekends, along with some more family time in Oklahoma. I may take a portable radio to listen to OU-Texas in the woods on Saturday. I may not. *shrug* I am looking much more forward to setting up the hammock for a night of stargazing at the top of a Ouachita mountain than following any football game. So long as the weather cooperates!
Needless to say, I don't foresee any of the Big 12 blog wraps until such time as I actually am watching some of the games again. But maybe I'll get some good outdoors photos to post. :)
* Last night, I ditched NBC's NFL game to walk the dog with Callie -- with my loaded-and-ready-to-go backpack on. I'll do this for the next few nights, since it's hard to simulate the activity in the gym. It should make things easier and leave me less sore during the real thing. It may also make people in the neighborhood wonder about the crazy man wandering about.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/06/08 13:40 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
03 October 2008
Good deal on synthetic oil at AutoZone (Better at Advance!)
I've decided the Rogue is going to get full synthetic oil when it's time for changes (Mobil 1 Extended Performance).
Right now, AutoZone has an excellent package deal on five quarts of Mobil 1 Extended Performance oil and a Mobil 1 oil filter -- $34.99. That''s about $15 off AutoZone's usual (high) price.
Wal-Mart normally sells a five-quart container for around $29, and the Mobil 1 filter (not available at Wal-Marts I have checked) usually goes for around $10, so the AutoZone deal is a pretty good one.
UPDATE: Advance Auto Parts is offering the combo for $29.99 in October. Wow.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/03/08 22:06 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)
29 September 2008
Clarity
How broke is it? (Tom Rants)
The American people overwhelmingly showed in grassroots opposition that they were willing to take the risk of a serious economic downturn rather than engage in a huge government takeover of financial institutions. Plenty of smart, free market experts were more than willing to sell their souls on this deal and plenty of people like myself were ambivalent about it all. But the American people overwhelmingly said «no» to this bizarre reverse socialism.
That's just one particularly good excerpt, but my friend Mr. Hanna offers up so many nuggets of wisdom that you really should just go read the whole post.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/08 22:34 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
A ladder for a job on a roof? Who ever would have guessed!
My Dish Network "tech" came as scheduled today to re-aim our Dish (which was thrown off thanks to That Bastard Ike).
The tech came without a ladder, which isn't much help at a two-story townhouse.
The appt was rescheduled for Saturday, which really isn't a convenient time and shouldn't be necessary anyway (who sends out a tech to aim a dish with no ladder?).
AT&T U-Verse just became available in our neighborhood a few weeks before That Bastard Ike hit. I'm thinking they are going to be providing me a nice IPTV/Internet bundle shortly. Unfortunately, the first install time available that will work for me is late October. Blar!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/29/08 14:39 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
24 September 2008
Sorry, try again
Best Interstate Church: Lakewood Church (Houston Press, 2008 "Best Of" Edition)
What seems to irk people the most is the gazillion dollars Osteen makes by talking and writing about the Good Book and JC.
That can't be it, since he doesn't talk about the Good Book or JC in much detail.
I think people who are irked may simply be jealous that THEY weren't first to figure out how to prosper so nicely from the $elf-help prosperity sessions.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/24/08 23:07 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
20 September 2008
Slowly Getting Back to Normal, Post-Ike
(Above: Grilling and chilling at the townhouse community)
Slightly more than half of Houstonians have power now. We've had it for several days. More stores and restaurants are open. Life is slowly getting back to normal.
It's been a pretty wild week, to say the least. Mostly, it's been full of a lot of good Houstonians helping each other out and making the best of a natural disaster. Take the photo above. We live in a townhouse community that doesn't much lend itself to "community." Everyone has always been friendly enough, but we tend to pull into our garages, close 'em, and go about our business, isolated. With the power off after Ike, we all wandered out and got to know each other. We loaned each other stuff. We helped each other out. One neighbor had a power inverter on his cars, and let people charge phones and such. We emptied thawing freezers and fed each other. I grabbed the photo above during one of our grilling nights -- after our feast, we stayed up carrying on way too late. It was fun. I now have a much better idea of who my neighbors are, and they are some good people.
Of course, there have been instances of bad apples. Like the lady in the townhouse community who screamed at us after that first night. Because she wanted to pull her SUV down the drive, and apparently was miffed we were blocking one of two approaches to her garage (the group was not directly in front of her place, but in front of OUR places, only blocking our own garage access). So she yelled and screamed at multiple neighbors the next day, including Callie (who was trying to make peace, as usual). And she pulled the screaming same act the day after that. And was STILL screaming about it the day after that. Then she apparently headed off to Indiana (as reported by some other neighbors). A few hours after she left, power came back on. There seems to be some justice in that. :)
Anyway, I still don't really understand her anger -- or how her resentment just festered, day after day after day (even after multiple invites to come join us -- which got the response of her threatening to run us over in her SUV "next time"). Maybe something else is going on in her life. Maybe this hurricane just put some people over the edge. Or maybe she just doesn't have very good coping mechanisms and self awareness and lets perceived slights build and build and build until the hatred and anger just come spilling out. Whatever. Someone should get her a copy of this book, although even that doesn't seem to do the trick for all people so consumed with anger.
But, none of us really let it bother us too much after the initial shock. Life is too short to worry over people who would rather scream and yell at you than come share the food you've cooked for the community, and it's much healthier to focus on the good things than the bad. That's true of life in general.
Anyhoo... blogging here and at bH may slow down considerably for a while. Or it may not. I'm not really sure, but the last few days have had me wondering if there aren't much better uses of my time. In the short term for me, there certainly is, as I'm off to Oklahoma for some family stuff tomorrow, and am planning on an October filled more with active pursuits (backpacking, maybe some travel, gym time to make up for missed time this month) and less with the blogging wankerfest.
And I'm planning on a big townhouse grill party for Houston's National Night Out (on Oct. 7). It will be good to hang with some of our new friends, under much improved circumstances. I hope Angry Aggrieved Woman has calmed down some by then, and doesn't try to run anyone over. :)
MORE: Incredible photos here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/20/08 15:22 | Other | Technorati | Comments (9)
08 September 2008
yIKEs!
Above are the various tracking models for Ike.
The good thing is, there seems to be a lot of variability (so no need just yet for Heller Hysterics). The bad thing is, a fair number of the models suggest we're gonna be on the rainy side regardless.
And since I'm considering a Ouachitas backpacking trip this weekend, it's not nice that one model seems determined to swing around kinda that way!
UPDATE (09-09-08): And just like that, all the models have shifted considerably, and Ike seems to be headed well south of Houston.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/08/08 17:01 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
02 September 2008
Here's something from YouTube
We just roadtripped back today/tonight from an extended Labor Day weekend in Oklahoma, so no linkpost from me today. But here's something from YouTube for fun:
So, here's the deal -- this is an Allagash White Ale I was having at the Bear Brewpub in Orono ME. I squeezed a lemon in it (the Maine-ites serve the Allagash with lemon), and apparently got a seed with it. At some point, the seed started doing a diving bell act. Our crew found this very entertaining. This is what can happen when I get together with family. Good times! :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/02/08 21:24 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
28 August 2008
Birthday
Happy Birthday to my dad!
We will grill steaks and watch football this weekend to celebrate. :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/28/08 21:57 | Other | Technorati | Comments (3)
22 August 2008
Break
I'm taking a break for a few days.
I hope everyone has a good weekend!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/22/08 21:35 | Other | Technorati | Comments (5)
10 August 2008
Linkpost: 08/10/08
- Georgia 'pulls out of S Ossetia' (BBC News)
- Raping Georgia (Ralph Peters, NY Post)
- How Georgia fell into its enemies' trap (Edward Lucas, Times)
- A Threat Explodes In Georgia (Anne Applebaum, WaPo)
- War in the Caucasus (WSJ)
- Forgetting the evils of communism (Jonah Goldberg, NRO)
- How to bring innovative ideas to a machine-politics state (David Feith, WSJ)
- America's fastest-dying cities (Joshua Zumbrun, Forbes)
- As Program Moves Poor to Suburbs, Tensions Follow (Solomon Moore, NY Times)
- Reticence of Mainstream Media Becomes Story Itself (Richard Perez-Pena & Bill Carter, NY Times)
- What Is Obama Talking About? (Betsy Newmark, Fox Forum) Can she ask that question, or is it racist?
- McCain and Obama's Senate clashes (David Broder, RCP) So which one is the unifier and which one is the partisan again?
- Sure he's tanking as people find out his views (Brothers Judd)
- Minnesota's vice presidential contender (John Fund, WSJ)
- What Bush Got Right (Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek) It seems a bit early for sweeping assessments.
- Rep. Culberson goes high-tech in House rebellion (Stewart Powell, Houston Chronicle)
- EPA denies Texas' call to cut ethanol requirement (Brett Clanton, Houston Chronicle) Because food as fuel makes so much sense! *eyeroll*
- Hotel for the art crowd (Nancy Sarnoff, Houston Chronicle) Houston is notably lacking in boutique hotels. This could be a cool addition to the city.
- The folly of a trans-fat tax (Christopher Caldwell, FT)
- American Airlines adjusts frequent flyer plan (HBJ) Adjusts or guts? Those are awful changes.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/08 13:27 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
New addition
Several relatives and friends of late either have announced or are expecting new additions to their families.
I don't have any news like that to report, BUT there is an addition of sorts....
I actually thought hard about a small economy sedan of some sort this time, but decided against after considering Houston's ongoing pothole problems (I wonder how my friend Cathy hasn't lost her wonderful Mini in one!), bad-driver problems (I want some metal around me, thanks), and the need to haul gear to the woods from time to time. After lots of research, the Rogue won out among utility/crossovers in terms of the combination of price, features, mileage, likely reliability, etc.
As an aside -- For anyone in the Houston area considering a Nissan vehicle, I highly recommend dealing with Steve Hipshin, the internet sales manager at Tom Peacock Nissan in far north Houston. His price quotes and service blew away the competition, and there was none of the pressure or other distasteful stuff that sometimes finds its way into the process.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/08 08:16 | Other | Technorati | Comments (12)
31 July 2008
Health and fitness update: 07/31/08
The trips to Oklahoma, San Francisco, and London took a bite out of the workout schedule this month -- with only 1,140 minutes of cardio logged (down from 1,560 minutes last month). While I did a bunch of walking in San Francisco and London, I don't really count that as cardio time, and didn't manage to log "real" cardio time in either city.
The diet didn't suffer too badly, although the time in London was too carb heavy (it's London, what are ya gonna do?). I did have lots of fresh veggies from my dad's garden for about half the month, so that helped. And I did manage to drop a few pounds.
August should be better in terms of food and fitness. Fewer trips are planned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/08 22:05 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
27 July 2008
Whirlwind
Well, THAT was a whirlwind...
I mostly avoided jet lag on the work side (thanks to CO BusinessFirst -- those upgrades were a great use of miles), but stayed way too busy on the work portion of the trip to the UK even to know exactly where I was most of the time. About the only "fun" non-work excursion* was a trip to Churchill's Cabinet War Rooms, which I had visited before but my boss had not. That's always a pretty cool trip.
Today, I'm fighting the jet lag a little bit (since I crashed a little earlier than I wanted last night), up about 5:15 am or so on a Sunday. That's not too far off normal workday, though, so tomorrow should be fine.
* Visiting our new Jane's colleagues was a little like being in the candy store, though.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/27/08 07:30 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
19 July 2008
Time for a little break....
The little blog is likely to be quiet for about a week....
I have a long-planned trip to San Francisco coming up, on a ridiculously cheap ($135) fare I booked back in January on Northwest. One leg of the trip has already been upgraded to first (NWA sometimes treats CO elites better than CO!), so this is just an extraordinary bargain considering the current price environment. I love fare sales!
Unfortunately, the people at work decided I needed to be in the UK at roughly the same time. This means a Tuesday San Francisco redeye to be followed by an IAH flight to Heathrow that evening. The company isn't generous enough to spring for BusinessFirst, but I cashed in some miles, and the upgrades have cleared, so that's good.
Still, by the middle of the week, I don't think my body is going to know where it is, or what time it is. But what the hell -- I should at least be able to track down some good Indian food.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/08 00:08 | Other | Technorati | Comments (3)
05 July 2008
Hanging out in the country
Lookee who came out to pose for the camera while we were enjoying a drinky tink (or two) on the back porch of my aunt's place on Lake Keystone today:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/08 23:18 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)
30 June 2008
Checkup time
Today, I finally went in for a much-delayed checkup.
I decided to do the Kelsey-Seybold executive health assessment, which is the usual comprehensive physical (but done in half a day at their main campus). The tests were covered under my insurance, although I was responsible for the program fee (which I paid through with my HSA). It's a good approach.
The results were mostly good.
My blood/chem workup was fine -- no problems with cholesterol, good ratio of good cholesterol/bad cholesterol, normal liver/kidney functions indicated, etc. EKG was fine. Blah blah blah.
For years, I've been borderline hypertensive. With that info, my personal health history, and the results from my stress test, the doc recommended that I start the lowest dosage of ACE inhibitor (blood pressure medication). He thought I *might* be able to put it off if I were to cut caffeine entirely and up my workouts, but we both came to the conclusion that was unlikely (I likey my caffeine, and it's hard to see how I'm going to top the 1,560 minutes of cardio I have logged in the month of June).
Beyond that, the doc encouraged me to keep up my healthy eating/workout routine (and told me he could see my bad-carb/sat fats reduction efforts clearly in the blood workup).
I'm happy enough with all that. Now I just need to keep up the excellent workout routine (seriously, 1,560 minutes of cardio this month!) and the grilling/SouthBeach-Med diet thing.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/08 21:42 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)
21 June 2008
Austin Collins tonight
Austin Collins is playing Goode tonight.
I should really go see my friends who play in his band.
But I'm leaning towards bouzouki at Alexander the Great Greek.
Bouzouki is timeless.
UPDATE: Bouzouki was excellent. George Kitidis is, without doubt, one of the finest musicians in town. The bellydancing was entertaining as well.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/21/08 19:12 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
AFSCME
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/21/08 19:05 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
19 June 2008
Can we lock our pols in the toilet?
Protest at Maoist toilet lock up (BBC News)
Thousands of local government workers in Nepal have gone on strike after a Maoist minister locked up an "errant official" in a toilet.
The official had incurred the minister's wrath for allegedly running an illegal stone mine.
Striking workers said that his incarceration inside a toilet was an "inhumane and objectionable act".
But the minister responded by saying that the official now knows what it is like to live in a "foul environment".
Reports from Nepal say that the Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation, Matrika Yadav, locked up local development officer Dandu Raj Ghimire for one and a half hours on Tuesday inside a toilet room.
I can't help but think that the American political system could benefit from locking up our pols in the toilet room. Given what they produce so much of the time, it would seem an appropriate gesture.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/19/08 13:38 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)
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