Chris Allen's Spectacularly Mediocre Blog

Hanging Rock State Park

2012-01-31T16:48:00.000-05:00

We intend on raising a child that's accustomed to long road trips in the car, so it's important that we do so every once in a while.

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So...Hanging Rock State Park. Never been. We were in the general vicinity a while back (October 2010), and I said, "We'll be back, and actually go there next time". Well, we're back!

Hanging Rock came highly recommended. There's moderate, but relatively short, trail all the way to the top, which we did. (All three of us!) There are also waterfalls in the area, which we didn't have time for. With Marla, one 2½ mile (round trip) hike was enough.

I think this was the longest hike Marla had been on so far. So, we came prepared. We just brought the whole diaper bag with us. And by the time we got to the top of Hanging Rock, it was time to feed her.

That's okay, though, because it was really nice up there. I didn't mind spending some extra time there. (Note: the people in these pictures are just random people. Popular day for a hike!)

Marla behaved wonderfully throughout the whole hike. Even though she looked terrified...

...she did great. It makes us want to do it again sometime! There were other young parents on the hike as well. Our baby carrying device was simple in comparison to what some of these other parents had.

Hanging Rock was actually one of three state parks we considered visiting on Saturday. Raven Rock State Park (south of Raleigh) is another park we haven't been to yet, but will some day. And we'd also like to go back to Pilot Mountain on a day that isn't cloudy and raining.

How many North Carolina State Parks have I been to? The North Carolina State Park web site lists 41 state parks and recreation areas; I've been to 8: Cliffs of the Neuse, Falls Lake, Fort Fisher (I think), Hanging Rock, Jordan Lake, Mount Mitchell, Pilot Mountain, William B. Umstead. I think we need to increase that number.

Road trip notes: the route we took to Hanging Rock (NC-68 to Stokesdale, NC-65 to Walnut Cove) seemed like a route I had never taken before. But my blog archives indicate that we took the same exact route in October 2010, except in the opposite direction. I'm slipping! Usually, I know when I've taken a particular road before. Unacceptable! (The route we took from Hanging Rock, NC-8 south to Winston-Salem, was definitely new.)

Also, no new counties for Marla on Saturday, although she came really really close to Rockingham County.

Curling Recap: 1/27/12

2012-01-30T15:46:00.000-05:00

Career game #164: 2012 Winter League - January 27, 2012

End.......... 12345678S |TTL

----------------------------

Allen........ 110002100 | 05

M. Jackson... 001210011 | 06

Last Sunday in pickup curling, I happened to catch opposing Skip Murray on an off night. Not this week! He made some incredible shots. I made some shots of my own, but not enough, especially early in the game.

First, the ice conditions. The line was really, really tricky, and not always predictable. Seemingly unnoticeable differences in shots would result in your rock taking a completely different path. That meant you could sometimes make your take-outs...but not always, especially early in the game before we figured it out.

In the first two ends, we got early position, and that was the difference. After that, Murray's team started making the shots before we (especially myself) did, and his team pulled out to a 4-2 lead. In the 6th end, I made a draw, Murray missed the take-out, and then I made another draw, to score two. I forget how we scored in the 7th - maybe that was one of the ends in which the other team accidentally promoted us into scoring position. (That happened a couple of times on Friday. Never underestimate the value of rocks in play!)

Now...the 8th end. Important strategy decision! The opponent had the hammer and was down by one; here's the approximate setup before our last rock. (Our team = red)

Even though the lines were predictable, we could use most of the ice, which meant that we had options. I couldn't remember having as many options at such a key juncture of the game as we did with this shot.

If I wasted my shot, I was almost certain Murray would go for the take-out on rock #1, and sit two, for the win. With that in mind, I think we had four reasonable options.
a) Guard rock #1.
b) Draw another rock in the general vicinity of rock #1 to get a guard and/or second scoring rock.
c) Raise rock #2 towards the button.
d) Raise rock #3 towards the button.

All of these options are sort of related, in that if the goal is option a) and you're heavy, you might end up with option b). Or, if the goal is option d) and you're narrow, you might end up with option c). On arena ice, what would happen if you miss is a very important consideration.

I called shot c), for a couple of reasons. One, it was the most predictable line; there was a ridge down the middle of the ice, and I was pretty sure the rock would hold that line. Two, it was hard to place a guard exactly where it needed to be, and the odds of placing my guard effectively under plan a) were slim. And also, in an earlier end, I did play the guard...only for Murray to make the "double tap" anyway. Precise guards weren't proving to be of much use in this game. But most of all, I wanted to prevent Murray from winning the game on his final shot. For that to happen, I needed to be lying two after my shot (which eliminates option A), and not have a double take-out possibility (which eliminates option B). So, I called option c), with option d) as a "Plan B" in case I was wide. Take-outs weren't gimmes given the ice conditions, so leaving it open and hoping he would either miss, or roll the shooter out of scoring position, seemed like a viable option. Or, if I raised rock #2 well enough, it wouldn't matter, because I'd have an untouchable rock on the button.

But, I only kind of made the shot. I raised rock #2 into the rings, and enough for second shot...but NOT enough such that Murray couldn't tie the game with the open take-out. I needed a little more weight. Murray made the take-out, of course, but at least it was only to score one and not two. And that matters because of a new rule that I (as the club's League Coordinator) implemented this season: NHL-style standings! Two points for a win, one point for a shootout loss. So, our team's league record is now 0-0-1. (Oh, right...Murray beat me in the tiebreaker by about an inch. Ugh!)

So...it's annoying when your team plays well, and you lose anyway. And, this was my fourth consecutive loss in league play. But these streaks happen, both good and bad. I'm still confident that I can get the job done, and I think we have a solid team. Our next game is this Friday.

Sports Saturday: 1/28/12

2012-01-28T08:31:00.001-05:00

This would be an appropriate time to talk about the passing of Joe Paterno, but, I don't know what I can really add to what is already out there. And, I admit, while I am obviously saddened, it hasn't affected me as much as it's affected many of my Penn State bretheren. It might be a different story were I still in State College and surrounded by the Penn State culture, but I never met Paterno, nor have any stories about how he "inspired" me or whatnot. For me, he really was just the football coach. For many others, however, he was so much more.

And, that's that.

College basketball - Generally speaking, all of the professional sports teams I follow suck. Thank goodness for Florida State athletics! Obviously, I'm talking about football and men's basketball, but I should also mention that the women's volleyball team made the Final Four this season.

While it's easy to take the football team's success for granted (the 1990s ain't coming back, folks), we're nowhere near that point in basketball. I've never been more excited about Leonard Hamilton and this team. Yeah, I was kind of critical a few weeks ago when I said "they just don't have a clue", but that was before they beat North Carolina and Duke. (And Maryland and Wake Forest, too. I was a little concerned they might drop the ball against Wake this week.)

Part of my beef was that FSU's last second plays for the tie/win almost always fail. But against Duke, Michael Snaer made a buzzer-beating three for the win. Finally, they got one! What was the difference? They didn't have any timeouts left! It came immediately after Duke tied the game with 5 seconds left, and with no interruption in play, so the defense wasn't set, allowing Snaer (considered the team's best scorer) to get open. When FSU calls a timeout in these situations, the defense knows what's coming (Snaer will get the ball, won't pass, and put up a bad shot) and can be prepared. If I were Hamilton, I wouldn't call timeout next time they're in this situation. Just let 'em play. Disclaimer: I am not qualified to be a college basketball head coach.

Florida State does not play this weekend, and neither does Penn State, so it's a good time to broaden my horizons. (By the way, NC State fans: did you really think you were going to beat Carolina this week?)
St. John's at Duke - Sat 12:00p, ESPN
Wake Forest at Clemson - Sat 12:00p, WRAL (ACC Network)
West Virginia at Syracuse - Sat 1:00p, ESPNU
Mississippi State at Florida - Sat 1:30p, MSG (SEC Network)
Virginia Tech at Maryland - Sat 2:30p, WRAL (ACC Network)
Kentucky at LSU - Sat 4:00p, MSG (SEC Network
Bowling Green at Eastern Michigan - Sat 6:00p, STO
Virginia at NC State - Sat 8:00p, ESPN2
Michigan at Ohio State - Sun 1:00p, CBS
Georgia Tech at North Carolina - Sun 6:00p, ESPNU

NHL

Last year, I was super excited about the NHL All-Star game. It was here in Raleigh, and it was the first year in which the players pick the teams themselves, fantasy draft style. This year? Meh.
NHL All-Star Skills Competition Thingy - Sat 7:00p, NBC Sports
NHL All-Star Game - Sun 4:00p, NBC Sports

Auto racing

It's the 24 Hours of Daytona (Sat 3:30p and Sun 9:00a, SPEED)! Yeah, we'll see how bored I am this weekend.

Want To See Pictures of Our Baby?

2012-01-26T15:47:00.000-05:00

Before we had Marla, I think I remember saying something to the effect of, "I'm probably going to be that obnoxious person who is constantly posting pictures of my kid on Facebook." I don't know if that's come to fruition. Pretty sure many of my friends still have us beat. But I think I have all of my male friends beat. After all, most of the baby pictures you see on Facebook are posted by the mom rather than the dad, right? (For the record, Amber does post more pictures of Marla than I do, but I might post more frequently.)

Then, at a restaurant the other night, something occurred to me. Here I am, showing off pictures of Marla to some friends, just like that "obnoxious person" I thought I might become. Yep, it's happened alright. I think a compliment here and there ("oh, she's just so cute!") get to my head, to the point where I insist on showing everyone I know, and never leave the house without at least a few baby pictures stored on my phone. And what can I say? I'm a proud papa.

Well, Marla is pretty cute. But everyone thinks their children are cute. Are some parents just saying that? Or are all children truly "cute" in the eyes of the parents, because they (in theory) sort of look like mom and/or dad? If Marla has similar facial features to Amber, then Marla may remind me of my wife, whether I realize it or not.

By the way, I underestimated how nice it is to have a picture of your kid on your desk at work.

Of course, I know our respective families like seeing these pictures, especially because they only see us every few months. They're missing big chunks of Marla's development. By the way, she's not crawling yet, but can roll over several times in succession, to the point where we can't just plop her down somewhere and expect her to still be there two minutes later.

Marla turns six months old on Saturday. Maybe we'll celebrate by taking her somewhere. Gotta keep her (and ourselves) in "road trip shape"!

Kickball Hiatus

2012-01-24T15:27:00.001-05:00

When Knightdale Parks and Recreation released their sports schedule for the spring, something was missing: co-ed kickball. Apparently, kickball won't be back again until the Fall. It figures, too. We were just starting to actually get good at it, and now they pull the plug on it? And how are we supposed to know that it actually will come back in the Fall, anyway?

Well...this leaves a void in "Gang Green"'s schedule for the next few months. Time to start looking at other options, I guess. For example...

Another kickball league: When it looked like the Knightdale kickball league was going under last year, I tried (well, not really) to nudge us in the direction of a different league, because there are other leagues out there. They may not be any better than the Knightdale league, but just think. A whole new group of opponents who have never seen my pitching or bunting before!

Or, we could go in a completely different direction. Among the options that were mentioned on Twitter among the various "Gang Green" teammates...

Softball: Knightdale still has a co-ed softball league, but that doesn't start until later. And, well, let's face it: I am nowhere near as good at softball as I am at kickball. Unlike kickball, softball requires using your arms, and for me, that's a problem. I can't throw a ball far (to say "I throw like a girl" is an insult to girls everywhere), and I can barely hit the ball out of the infield. And, worse yet, they don't let you bunt! I'm not all that excited about the idea of playing softball, but if that's what it comes down to...

Ultimate: I know a few people who play ultimate. It's popular among people our age (or at least a certain subset of it), and I'm sure it's great exercise. I think I'd be pretty good at it too - I can run well, and as a one-time avid disc golfer, I can throw a frisbee far and accurately. (Throwing a frisbee is a totally different mechanic than throwing a ball, and I am far better at frisbee throwing.) I'd probably enjoy it a lot...provided that I'm on a team with at least a few friends of mine. I'd never just join a random team out of the blue. Problem is, I doubt we could convert the entire team from kickball to ultimate. Is there such a thing as "co-ed ultimate"? I don't know any women who play ultimate.

Ballet: I'm not sure if this was a joke or not, but let's all have an open mind, shall we? I'm all for trying something new. (Except when it comes to food. And a few other things.)

Curling: Seriously, guys. With no kickball, that frees us up to all join the Triangle Curling Club! You know you want to.

Buffalo Wild Wings: Usually, the kickball team heads to Buffalo Wild Wings after each game. Anything preventing us from just going there anyway, game or no game? Nope. I imagine there will be some of this, at a minimum.

I pretty much just go with the flow with this sort of thing, so...you know, whatever.

Curling Recap: 1/20-1/22/12

2012-01-23T15:55:00.002-05:00

The Triangle Curling Club's winter hiatus of sorts is over. Time to get back on the ice! It's been so long, I had completely forgotten that in my last official game, my team lost 11-1.

I'd like to get as many reps in as possible between now and "The Dykes" bonspiel in February, so I played twice this weekend. Both games were pickup games - "preseason", if you will. (The spot in the second game was really Amber's spot, but she declined, so I went instead. Amber will be curling on Sundays once the league starts again, though.) The next round of leagues start this coming weekend.

Career game #162: Pickup - January 20, 2012
(Note: Game was a 3-on-3 game played with six rocks per end, instead of the standard eight.)

End.......... 123456789 |TTL

----------------------------

Allen........ 021202101 | 09

Foulger...... 400000010 | 05

Getting behind early in the game was a serious problem for me last season. Good to know I can still spot the other team a 4-0 lead after the first end! After that, we were pretty much in control, though.

But in all fairness, opposing Skip Andrew only has a few games under his belt at Skip. I've been there, and it takes a while to know what to expect with respect to ice conditions, etc. For instance, the ice did have a slight fall towards the center, but it was possible to get a rock to curl back from the inside out...if the weight was right. Rocks thrown at take-out weight fall and don't curl back, while rocks thrown at draw weight fall and do curl back towards the end. Andrew knew that, but there's still the matter of knowing where to put the broom to compensate for all of that, which...I have to say, that is the single aspect of Skipping that I think I've had the hardest time with, but I am getting better at it.

Since this was just a pickup game, I decided I'd try a "take out" strategy late in the game. On dedicated curling ice, it's standard protocol for a team with a lead to keep everything as open as possible and remove as many opposing rocks as they can. On arena ice, though, chasing take-outs can get you in trouble, so I usually just keep playing normally until at least the last end. But a preseason game offers a perfect opportunity to try a different strategy! Based on the final score, trying to remove every yellow rock I could worked out, but this isn't something I'll make a habit of.

Career game #163: Pickup - January 22, 2012

End.......... 1234567 |TTL

--------------------------

Allen........ 1100102 | 05

Jackson...... 0012010 | 04

The feel of this game was entirely different, because unlike on Friday, both teams had one or more practically brand new curlers. Priority #1: help them along, and make sure they have fun. But when my turn to throw came up in each end...of course, the idea at that point is to win the game. I think I just take these pickup games more seriously than most.

So I get pretty nervous when I have a big shot coming up in a league game, or better yet, a bonspiel. In a pickup game, however...hardly any pressure at all. I made some clutch shots in this game, including two last-rock-of-the-end draws to the button: one against two opposing rocks to score one (I think that was in the 5th), and then the game-winning draw for two in the 7th. (But that game-winning draw wasn't completely pressure-packed, because had I missed, we still would have gone to a shootout.) Taking six weeks off from curling clearly had no effect on my ability to throw draw weight when I needed it. In fact, it might have even helped. From the standpoint of the upcoming bonspiel, maybe I would have been better off not curling this weekend at all! But what fun would that have been?

I'm also drawing (no pun intended) close to 100 career wins. Sunday was my 97th; will my 100th career win come at "The Dykes"?

League play starts this Friday. Yes! Curling is back.

Sports Saturday: 1/21/12

2012-01-21T09:05:00.001-05:00

NFL - One thing I like about the NFL playoffs, as opposed to other playoffs, is that it's not a huge time commitment (at least relative to other sports) to watch the ENTIRE playoffs. 11 games over five weekends? Yeah, I can do that. (Especially with a DVR!) This is one reason why the NFL gets such fantastic TV ratings. You can't possibly watch every playoff game in other sports. (Well, I suppose you could...) Seven-game series are too spread out and take too long to finish. With the NFL, everyone gathers in one place, at one time. That helps it make for great "water cooler" talk, too, because chances are, a lot of other people were watching as well. And...no 9 PM weeknight games! NASCAR and golf are pretty much the only other sports that play at Chris-friendly times. Even the Super Bowl (TM) will be over around 10 PM, which isn't unreasonable. There's no question which sport has the best playoff system.

My primary rooting interest this weekend is that we don't end up with another Patriots/Giants Super Bowl (TM). Not because it wouldn't be a good game, but because I'm a fan of anything that's 1) different and 2) not located between Philadelphia and Boston, inclusive.

AFC Championship: Baltimore at New England - Sun 3:00p, CBS
NFC Championship: NY Giants at San Francisco - Sun 6:30p, FOX

College basketball - Florida State has, at times, looked awful this year. Against North Carolina last Saturday, however, they looked great! FSU can be a dangerous team when they're making their shots. (Yes, you could say that for pretty much any team.)

The best part about beating North Carolina or Duke? Living in the area, I get to listen to the local fallout all week! Locally, North Carolina and Duke are in the news most often not when they win, but when they lose. Truly spoiled fan bases we have here. So losing by 33 (I still can't believe the final score, by the way) to Florida State is unacceptable! Ha! It's been a good week. Let's do it again this week! Florida State at Duke - Sat 4:00p, ESPN

Penn State is clearly going nowhere this season, so I've been watching other Big Ten teams more often instead, such as Michigan State, and resurgent Indiana. Purdue at Michigan State - Sat 12:00p, ESPN; Penn State at Indiana - Sun 12:00p, BTN

NHL - I think it's time to start talking trades. The Carolina Hurricanes traded a couple of minor leaguers this week, but I imagine more changes are on the way between now and the trade deadline, whenever that is. (What, you expect me to know these things? I've never professed to be a hockey expert.) Carolina at NY Islanders - Sat 7:00p, FS Carolinas

By the way, my decision to not renew NHL Center Ice has proven to be a good one. I wouldn't have been able to get my money's worth this year. There are a few teams I would like to get to watch more often (Florida, Winnipeg), but I'll live.

(This weekend's nationally televised games: NYR/BOS - Sat 1:00p, NHLN; SJ/VAN - Sat 4:00p, NHLN; MTL/TOR - Sat 7:00p, NHLN; WSH/PIT - Sun 12:30, NBC)

Marla's Baptism Video

2012-01-19T07:38:00.000-05:00

Here is the promised video of Marla's baptism from last Sunday.

The main reason we had it recorded was for the sake of Amber's side of the family, who weren't able to make the trip down from Toledo. But they'll getting a longer version - the "director's cut", if you will. This is the much shorter "YouTube" version.

Personally, I think it's just as fun to watch everyone else standing there watching (especially the kids).

Enjoy!

Impulse Eating

2012-01-18T17:13:00.000-05:00

Normally, the grocery store routine goes like this. I come back from the store, put everything from my grocery bags in its proper place in the kitchen, and that's that. But what happens when I don't put everything away?

Here is the case of the Target-brand fruit snacks left out on the counter top, in plain sight. Over the last couple of days, I've found myself taking a bag or two every now and then that perhaps I wouldn't eat otherwise. Why? Because I see the box and think, "Hmm, that sounds good. Besides, each individually wrapped bag is only 80 calories!"

This begs the question: how much faster will the fruit snacks get eaten by leaving them out on the counter, as opposed to putting them away and out of sight? I'm thinking, 50% faster. But I can't really perform this experiment on myself, because it only works if the participant is in the dark.

This is how "impulse eating" works. See something yummy, eat it! This is precisely why I make an effort to not have too many snacks in our house at one time, in particular the more fattening/sugary snacks. Sure, riding my bike 40 miles a week helps, but I think not having a large selection of snacks at my house is one of the biggest reasons why I've been able to maintain a pretty low weight over the last few years.

Entertaining

2012-01-17T15:43:00.000-05:00

So...I'm having a really hard time blogging about Marla's baptism. For one, the topic of baptism is something I've talked about before. And, Marla's baptism pretty much went perfectly - no drama, no crying, no nothing. Marla was very well-behaved throughout the whole thing. (Such a wonderful little child, she is.) And, we have a video of the baptism, which we will be publishing eventually (next week?). So, that's that! Instead, let's talk about the "after party".

We had about 15 people, friends and family, over at our house for lunch after the baptism. I'm pretty sure this is the first time there have ever been more than, say, 8 people in our house simultaneously, ever. (Or at least since we bought it three years ago. Speaking of which, we moved into our house exactly three years ago today!) Suffice to say, we don't entertain much. But this was a good a time as any to give it a try.

Alright, I'll come clean here: Amber did the vast majority of the work. That is, the food preparation and cleaning, which is pretty much what it comes down to. And she did an outstanding job.

The tricky part isn't so much the execution, it's the planning. For example, what kinds of food do you serve? How do you make everyone happy? Can you make everyone happy? I'm a fairly picky eater myself, so from experience I know for certain that the answer is "no". But that didn't stop us from trying, of course. We had healthy options (soup and salad) and yummy desserts (courtesy of my Aunt Wendy), which I think went over well. Hopefully both the health-conscious and the people who don't really care as much about that sort of thing were all satisfied with the food selection.

The drink options, we were less confident in. Now...I've noticed something whenever I go to a party or organized something-or-other involving a variety of soda. Usually, the ratio of regular soda to diet soda is something like 3:1. Then, almost always, the diet soda is the first to run out. Why don't these people provide more diet soda? With that in mind, and knowing our family and friends, we had ONLY diet soda available. I don't know whether that was a winning formula or not, though. (By the way, we had Coke Zero and Diet Coke available, in equal quantities, and the Coke Zero ran out first. Coke Zero FTW!)

There were also some details we hadn't thought of in advance. For example, ice. Good thing my brother asked for ice the previous afternoon, because only then did we realize that our ice trays were empty. Not having ice at a lunch party would have been kind of embarrassing.

Aside from the food, it was easy, really. The football game in one room, and Marla in the other room, provided plenty of entertainment for all.

So, for those of you who came to the baptism and/or lunch party on Sunday, thanks a bunch! We really appreciated it. Hopefully we did an okay job as hosts. By the way, suggestions for improvement are appreciated. We won't be offended. This was our first time.

Day Care Holidays

2012-01-16T15:35:00.000-05:00

We had Marla baptized yesterday, and I'll blog about that once we pictures and/or video sorted out.

In the meantime...today is Martin Luther King Jr Day! That means that some of us have the day off, and the rest of us don't. Among those that are working today: Amber and me*. Among those that are not working today: Marla's day care.

(* - Today is technically a holiday for me, but I decided to work today anyway and use a 'floating holiday' some other time.)

As we learned during "chicken pox week", it is very hard to get in 8 hours of real work while simultaneously watching a young child at home. So, Amber and I are each doing the following: four hours working in the office, four hours working at home with Marla. I think that worked out okay. This is something we might have to do again on Presidents Day.

I'm just glad we have flexible employers. How does the rest of the world do it?

License Plate Registration Stickers: 2013 Edition

2012-01-12T15:45:00.000-05:00

The first of the year is always an exciting time to be a license plate geek in North Carolina. It means the debut of a new set of registration stickers!

In North Carolina, the registration stickers are a different color every year, and there is no discernable pattern. And unlike some of these other dumb license plate games that I play, this game is guaranteed to have a swift and timely conclusion. Because eventually, every car will have one of these stickers! (Well, every car that is caught up on its annual safety inspection, at least.)

Starting from the year before I moved to North Carolina, the colors have been as follows:

2005: blue
2006: red
2007: green
2008: blue
2009: purple
2010: green
2011: goldenrod
2012: red

Now it's time to reveal the 2013 color! I saw one speed by last weekend while on a bike ride, but it's not official until I get a close-up picture...

Blue it is! Blue hasn't been used in five years, and it's a standard color, so it's a pretty logical choice.

As for 2014, I think green and purple are both viable candidates. Or, will they do like they did in the "goldenrod" year and break out with something completely unexpected and...shall we say, out of the blue?

School Bus Stops

2012-01-11T15:46:00.002-05:00

When I was a kid, I would watch TV shows in which the school bus picks up the main characters right at their house in the morning, and then drops them off right at their house in the afternoon. I would think, "That's not how it works! The school bus doesn't come by MY house. I have to walk a third of a mile (which when you're little is quite a distance) to a predefined bus stop. No fair!" I figured that for the purposes of a TV show, it was more convenient and/or a better plot device for Otto to stop right at 742 Evergreen Terrace, rather than for Bart and Lisa to have to walk down the street a little ways to meet the bus. School buses don't actually stop by individual houses to pick up individual children, right?

Well...now I'm not so sure. On my after work bike rides around the neighborhood, occasionally I'll encounter a school bus or two. And rather than stop at major centralized intersections like my old elementary school bus 164* used to, where the bus would only stop a handful of times with each stop handling 5 to 15 children, these buses would drive around the neighborhood and stop at individual houses, just like in The Simpsons and in most other TV shows featuring children. Not every kid gets dropped off right at his or her front door (particularly if they live on a dead-end street), but they're all pretty close. Here in Durham, most bus stops only handle one or two children, and that's it.

(I only rode the bus after school, and not every day, but I still remember the number. On a related note, riding the bus is kind of uncool once you reach middle school, and is very uncool once you reach high school.)

Of course, now that I'm an adult, I have a completely different opinion on this. Do we not trust our children to walk even a third of a mile alone anymore? That has to be why buses around here do this, right? Safety? Or does Durham just do it differently (and less efficiently) than Jacksonville? (Does Jacksonville still do things the same way that they used to, even?)

I hope safety isn't the sole reason Durham school buses make all of these extra stops. We live about three-fourths of a mile from the elementary school Marla will likely attend in a few years, and you know, it would be really nice if Marla could walk there on her own.

Speaking of neighborhood safety, somebody found a dead body in our neighborhood lake last month. Yay Parkwood!

Toll Transponder Test

2012-01-10T15:55:00.002-05:00

So, about that toll transponder I installed a few weeks back in anticipation of the opening of North Carolina's first toll road. I suppose it would be a good idea to make sure it works, right?

To find out, I did a "test drive" from I-40 to the first Triangle Parkway exit (Hopson Road) yesterday. Would the posted toll amount (worth 30¢) appear on my online statement, leaving me with a balance of $19.70? Yes indeedy! But it turns out, I didn't actually have to pay that 30 cents to find out if the transponder was working properly, because Amber's trips down the not-tolled-until-August NC-540 showed up on our online statement also, with a toll of $0.00 charged.

Hey, now that I think about it...this kind of gives us a way to stalk each other. Now I can see at exactly what time Amber drives down NC-540 on her way home from work, to the second. Neat! So far on her commute home from work, she's averaging a pass-through time of 16:20:35. This will really come in handy when we have kids who are old enough to drive. We're watching you! Maybe by then, there will be several more toll roads in the area for us to stalk via our NC Quick Pass accounts.

Another reason I wanted to check the online account is to make sure we did NOT get any tolls deducted on the West Virginia Turnpike the previous weekend. My transponder will eventually be E-ZPass compatible, but not yet. I suppose if the transponder did work already, then the electronic signs along the West Virginia Turnpike's toll booths would have told me so on the spot.

As for what the holdup is on E-ZPass compatiblity, according to the News and Observer's "Road Worrier", the remaining issue is this. Other toll-collecting states have a law that guarantees the legal privacy of toll transactions, and E-ZPass (and others) won't do business with North Carolina until an equivalent law is on the books in this state as well. That law might be introduced this Spring, if we're lucky...it all depends on our state legislature. (Great.)

By the way, there wasn't a whole lot of traffic on the Triangle Parkway when I test drove it yesterday. But it was nonzero, at least.

New Phone: 2012 Edition

2012-01-09T16:01:00.000-05:00

In December 2009, I decided it was time to a) switch from AT&T to T-Mobile, and b) enter the smartphone market with one of the cheapest smartphones available through T-Mobile, the T-Mobile G1 (a.k.a. HTC Dream). The G1 served me well, but it's pretty outdated now. The G1 doesn't have enough processing speed and/or memory to handle a lot of the Android apps that are coming out these days. The latest version of TweetCaster (my current Twitter app of choice), for example, takes a long time to load and crashes every five minutes or so on the G1. And Twitter apps are supposed to be simple, right? And, the G1 only has enough internal memory for a few big apps. I had been up against the G1's internal storage limit for quite a while, to the point where I had pretty much given up trying to download new apps.

So, I've been eagerly anticipating the time when I could reset the two-year contract and upgrade at a discount. Well, it's been two years, and it looks like the planned AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile fell through (thanks, FCC!), so it's time to upgrade!

Introducing my new phone: a T-Mobile G2x (also known as the LG Optimus 2X). Other Android options considered and recommeded by fellow T-Mobile customer James were the HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S II; the G2X was by far the cheapest of the three ($100 vs. $200 vs. $230 with a two-year contract). Compared to what I had, this is a massive upgrade. Processing speed was something I had never even thought about when I got the G1, but these things are just miniature computers with phone-calling capabilities, after all. I've been jealous of the ease other people have with their smartphones doing simple tasks that took me several minutes on the G1. Not anymore! It reminds me of when my parents upgraded from a 386 to a Pentium, whenever that was. (1996?)

Also something to get excited about: the camera. I take a decent number of photos with my phone, so this is important. The G1 has a 3.2 megapixel camera, which is fine, except when you're trying to take a picture of a license plate from a distance, for example. And you can forget about taking pictures at night. But the G2x has an 8 megapixel camera, and features like variable light settings, a flash (yay!), and "zoom" (which I'm sure is nothing more than a crop, but still). At what point was that the leading edge of digital camera technology, let alone phone camera technology? Either way, the quality of my picture taking should improve from now on. I tried taking a couple of pictures at a stoplight at night the other day with the G2x to see how they would come out:

I'm not yet sure how a license plate would come out at night, though, which is important on the oft chance that I spot the ABC-1234 license plate at night, for instance.

I'm a big fan of the Android platform, and I had no intentions to switch to something else. What else is there for T-Mobile customers, anyway? Blackberry? Windows Mobile? Please. Even if T-Mobile carried iPhones, I would stick with Android, and not just because I'm already familiar with the operating system.

One thing I did like about the G1 was the pullout keyboard. I guess they don't make phones with these things anymore, do they? Would phone manufacturers rather make their phones as skinny as possible? Instead, I use something called "Swype" to type, in which you trace the path of your intended word on a QWERTY keyboard and Swype tries to guess the word you intended. I think I still prefer the pullout keyboard, but Swype isn't a huge downgrade. I'm already getting the hang of it. It's not so bad. The bigger adjustemnt is not having that LED notification light at the top of the phone. (There is an app called "NoLED" that serves as a substitute, but I tried it and didn't particularly like it.)

So, I like my new phone, a lot, but I knew I would. Now, let's fast-forward to January 2014. Will the G2x be as outdated then as the G1 is now? Hopefully not, but given how quickly smartphone technology is advancing, we'll have to see.

Sports Saturday: 1/7/12

2012-01-07T08:42:00.001-05:00

College football - College football season is basically over, but there is this Penn State head coach business. I think it's official now that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien will get the job. There is a quite a bit of a, let's call it a negative vibe among Penn State fans about this, and I think it's gone a little over the top, so I think I need to provide some reasonable, unemotional, rational discussion.

First off, it's too bad that Penn State has become one of those "elitist" schools where "outsiders" who don't know our "tradition" aren't welcome (at least according to a few high profile former players), and that the head coach of the football team is thought of as so much more than just a football coach. I think being the football coach should only about, you know, coaching the football team. This goes back to the idea that the football team is bigger than the school. It shouldn't be. That's how we got into this mess in the first place, right? Let's not take this so seriously.

That said...it's hard to get excited about the hire, if O'Brien is in fact the next coach. O'Brien was (is?) also a candidate for the Jacksonville Jaguars head coaching position, prompting Florida Times-Union writer Vito Stellino to tweet something to the effect of, "How many Bill Belichick coordinators have to fail as head coaches before teams finally stop hiring them?"

Well, whatever. Hire whoever you want, guys. Given the status of the Penn State football program at the moment, they might as well go with a cheap hire, I suppose.

NFL - First, about the Jacksonville Jaguars: this could be the most interesting offseason to date, now that we have a new owner. Is Shahid Khan going to open up his pockets and grab a big name head coach and/or big name free agents? Even if that doesn't immediately translate into more wins, it might keep this "new buzz" afloat and help sell tickets, and that might be better in the long run. And with a full offseason to work (unlike prior to this season), how much better will Blaine Gabbert be in the 2012 season? Will he have a better receiving core to work with next season? (Let's hope so.)

As for everyone else who's still playing...of this weekend's playoff games, I am probably the only person in the world outside of Cincinnati and Houston who is most interested in the first game of the weekend: Cincinnati at Houston (Sat 4:30p, NBC). Why? Because somebody has to win, right? Houston is pretty much screwed without Matt Schaub, and Cincinnati is only here because they kind of "backed in" to the playoffs. Yet, one of those teams is about to win a playoff game, which the Bengals haven't done since 1990, and the Texans never have. These two teams are the ultimate underdogs in these playoffs. Wouldn't it be great if either of them went on to win the Super Bowl?

Other games, none of which I have anything interesting to say about:
Detroit at New Orleans - Sat 8:00p, NBC
Atlanta at NY Giants - Sun 1:00p, FOX
Pittsburgh at Denver - Sun 4:30p, CBS

College basketball - With the start of conference play, it's time to finally get serious about college basketball.

First, my favorite college basketball website, kenpom.com, put up a paywall for this season, and I chose not to pay. But we can still look at his rankings, I guess.

As a Florida State/Penn State fan, it may not ever get better than it did last season. Both teams made the NCAA Tournament, and one (Florida State) even won a couple of games. But will either make the NCAA Tournament this season? I'm thinking, no. As good as Florida State's defense is, they seem to get worse and worse on offense every year. Sometimes, it looks like they just don't have a clue, especially when they play an Ivy League team. Leonard Hamilton can recruit, and he can get his players to play outstanding defense, but on offense, these guys are completely lost. And it's never more evident than in close or late game situations. I can't tell you how many times I've watched the Seminoles have a chance to win the game on the final possession, and fail. It's kind of discouraging when I'm watching an FSU game and it comes down to the final minute. Well, I guess every team has their weaknesses. Regardless, FSU can still plausibly win 10 games in the ACC. Florida State at Clemson - Sat 4:00p, ESPN2

Penn State: well, I'm just assuming they aren't good enough to make the NCAA Tournament. That's always a reasonable assumption with these guys. But hey, they beat Purdue! Indiana at Penn State - Sun 12:00p, BTN

This site has been my source for complete college basketball television listings this season. I don't know if it's 100% complete, but it's close, at least. Due to frequent stoppages, especially near the end, basketball is the kind of sport I can only watch on DVR, so I usually just choose a few games to DVR and then watch them later. I can get through an entire college basketball game in one hour this way. That's pretty sweet.

NHL

Things haven't improved much for the Carolina Hurricanes over the last few weeks. They're now dead last in the Eastern Conference (as of Friday afternoon). Time to start trading for prospects? Who do they trade, anyway? Dare they consider trading their two highest-paid players (Eric Staal and Cam Ward), both of whom have underperformed this season, and both of whom are signed to potentially franchise-killing long term contracts through the end of the 2015-16 season? Of course they won't, but I think it should at least be discussed. Florida has found success this season by hitting the reset button; maybe it's time the Hurricanes do the same. (Staal is still worst in the league in plus/minus, by the way: -23.) Carolina at Nashville - Sat 8:00p, FS Carolinas

Nationally televised games this weekend, which is pretty good if you're you a Red Wings fan.
Vancouver at Boston - Sat 1:00p, NHL Network
Detroit at Toronto - Sat 7:00p, NHL Network
Detroit at Chicago - Sun 7:30p, NBCSN

Find Your Spot: Redux

2012-01-05T15:51:00.001-05:00

I was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, and I'm proud of it. However...every time I go back there, I feel more and more disconnected from the local culture. It's kind of hard to explain, but I don't feel like I fit in there anymore. And the more time that passes, the more I'll feel that way, and the more I'll feel like an urban North Carolinian (which is totally different than a rural North Carolinian) rather than a Floridian.

So...several years ago, I took an online quiz called Find Your Spot, a quiz that tells you where you would most like to live in the country. But that was a while ago, after only a few months in North Carolina. Going back to the first paragraph, the longer you live in a place, the more you kind of meld into the local culture. So what would happen if I retook the quiz today? How much has 5½ years in North Carolina changed me? (Disclaimer: you have to jump through quite a few hoops at the end in order to get your answers. Opt out!)

The original top 12 from December 2006: #1 Cincinnati, #2 Lynchburg VA, #3 Bloomington IN, #4 Springfield MO, #5 Asheville NC, #6 Carlisle PA, #7 Roanoke VA, #8 Norfolk, #9 Charleston WV, #10 Rochester MN, #11 Topeka KS, #12 Charlotte.

And, now the top 12 from today: #1 Charleston WV, #2 Baltimore, #3 Little Rock, #4 Frederick MD, #5 Norfolk, #6 Hartford CT, #7 Roanoke VA, #8 Lynchburg VA, #9 Salem OR, #10 Medford OR, #11 Albuquerque, #12 Eugene OR. Sure, it's a little different, but given that quite a few cities made the top 12 both times, I think I can conclude that my preferences haven't changed all that much.

Given that North Carolina didn't come up near the top, can we conclude that living in North Carolina for a few years doesn't make you a "North Carolinian" at heart, then? Well, maybe. Here's my takeaway from this. Regardless of where you live, you will - with time - adjust to the local way of life. Move, and you'll re-adjust. Sure, you might be wearing more long pants and fewer shorts, and might have a slightly different taste in food, music, or sports teams. But that's all a matter of convenience, and it's only because it's what you're "used to". What you're "used to" and what you "prefer" are two totally different things, and only one of the two is dependent upon where you live.

Yeah, I suppose my "ideal" location is another degree or two of latitude farther north, where it snows a little more (but not too much), the politics are a little more progressive (but not too progressive), the terrain is a little more rugged, and red maple trees are more plentiful. But North Carolina is close enough, and we're certainly used to it by now, so we're not going anywhere.

New Year's Eve

2012-01-04T16:19:00.001-05:00

As someone who is obsessed with time and with timing things, you'd think I would love New Year's Eve. Sure, it's fun to see my watch change over from 12-31 23:59:59 to 1-01 0:00:00, but I think the days of staying up late enough to see that are over. The thrill and suspense are gone. The sleep we would otherwise be missing is more valuable (especially now).

And, besides, we know what happens at midnight. It's always the same. When you think of it that way, it'd make more sense to stay up late to watch the end of a late sporting event in which I don't know what's going to happen, and I haven't been doing that so much lately, either.

So what do people do on New Year's Eve? They either...
- ...go party! If we were invited to a party or something (especially if it celebrated every stroke of midnight around the world), we'd consider going. But the timing of a New Year's Eve party isn't really convenient for us anymore. Midnight is awfully late. We would probably have to leave around the time Brazil gets to midnight.
- ...stay home and watch one of the networks' New Year's Eve shows. Popular musical acts and celebrity appearances aren't our thing, and that's pretty much what these shows boil down to, so...yeah.

By the way, I made an update to this. Samoa (but not American Samoa) skipped a day and moved to the other side of the International Date Line. Instead of being one of the last places in the world to experience each New Year, Samoa is now one of the first. In fact, they now join the Line Islands of Kiribati as the first places in the world that experience the New Year. Hey, that's cheating!

I think people generally have the idea that staying up until midnight is simply "what everyone does", or at least what all the cool people do, on New Year's Eve. Well...we're not cool, so I can't speak on behalf of them, but I can speak on behalf of the many who were in bed by 10 PM last Saturday night. We don't feel like we missed much.

Statistics Galore: 2011 Year in Review

2012-01-03T15:41:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year! As an obsessive stat-keeper, the end of the year is always a very exciting time. I have TONS of year-ending stats to unload on you. You might want to grab a cup of coffee before you begin.

I think I've mentioned this before, but I keep all of these stats for my own enjoyment, blog or no blog. But even if only one other person gives a crap, if I've got them I might as well publish them, right?

In case you're only interested in a few of these topics, here are some "jump" links:

Nights By County: Final numbers for 2011, which was spent mostly at home...by our standards.
County Visitation: Marla is a county-munching machine!
Car Mileage: How many miles did I put on my car in 2011? Not enough.
Gasoline Statistics: Speaking of car mileage, my car doesn't get the fuel mileage it used to.
Restaurant Serving Times: Nothing new to report here, really.
Bicycling Statistics: It's getting harder to find time to ride, and to bike to work.
North Carolina ZZ/AA License Plates: At last, the game is complete!
More complete stats in "By The Numbers"

Nights By County: Every night since January 1, 2006, I've recorded the county in which I spent the night. This used to be a far more interesting stat when I was back in college, but now, every year, it's basically the same: 320 to 340 nights at home, 5 to 10 in Duval County, FL (Jacksonville), 5 to 10 in Lucas County, OH (Toledo), plus a few more scattered throughout the country depending on where we vacation. This year was no exception, except without a huge one- or two-week road trip. Here are my year-ending totals:

Durham NC - 341
Lucas OH - 6
Duval FL - 5
Howard MD - 4
Monroe NY - 4
Mecklenburg NC - 1
Wake NC - 1
Orangeburg SC - 1
Monroe TN - 1
Nottoway VA - 1

For four years straight, we went on a big long road trip somewhere (Nova Scotia in 2007, Northern Ontario/Manitoba in 2008, US 50 cross-country in 2009, Alaska in 2010). In 2011, we had a kid, so no road trip this year. My only multi-night road trips were to see family, or to go curling. ("The Dykes" was in Monroe County, NY, and for "The Kayser" we stayed in Howard County, MD.)

I overnighted in 10 different counties in 2011, the lowest number since 2006 (also 10). By comparison, in 2010, I overnighted in 24 different counties. I spent 337 nights at home in 2011. (Four of the Durham County nights were spent in Duke Hospital, before and after giving birth to Marla.) That's the most number of nights I've spent in one place in any year since, well, at least 1999.

From 2007 onward, the cumulative totals for Duval and Lucas counties are 42 and 48, respectively. That's an average of 18 nights per year spent visiting our families, an average that will probably go down over the next few years due to the "Marla factor".

Finally, here is Marla's Nights By County for the portion of 2011 that she was alive for:
Durham NC - 146
Lucas OH - 6
Duval FL - 4
Monroe TN - 1

County Visitation: This is something I wished I had kept on an annual basis, like this, but it's kind of too late now. How many new counties did I visit in 2011? I could probably figure it out if I tried, but...nah.

All I know is that thanks to the "scenic route" we took to Toledo last weekend, my lifetime total is now over 1,400 (1,403, or 44.7%). It's getting harder and harder to keep adding counties, of course, so 50% might still be a few years off. Among states that are relatively close to home, I think Tennessee and Kentucky offer the greatest opportunity.

But while it's too late to start tracking my counties visited on an annual basis, it's not too late to do the same for Marla! But rather than track her counties visited based on calendar years, I'm doing to do it based on her age, so that the years will reset on her birthday (July 28) rather than on January 1. "Year 1" still has another 6 months and 25 days to go. And what a "year 1" it will be. Marla has already been to 111 counties in 9 states, including 38 counties in Ohio alone. That's what will happen when you drive to/from Toledo four times (two round trips), and take a different route all four times. We're not trying to take Marla to as many counties as possible, it's just a side effect of being along for the ride while her daddy does the same for himself.

Car Mileage: I feel like I've been driving my car a lot lately, and my odometer is now less than 1,000 miles away from 75,000. Yet, the 15,314 miles I put on my car in 2011 is the 2nd lowest annual total in the last seven years. So despite all those 60-mile round trips to curling and kickball, two round-trips to Toledo, and that drive to Rochester, I still had a fairly pedestrian annual mileage total. We put even fewer miles on Amber's car in 2011, around 13,000 (unofficially).

Why do I sound so disappointed? Because it's a dream of mine to drive a car all the way from nearly 0 miles all the way up to 200,000. With my 2008 Honda Civic, that's not going to happen. We've already decided that before we have a second child (2015 or 2016?), I'm going to get a bigger vehicle. So even though we're going to make an effort to put more miles on my car than Amber's car over the next four years, I doubt we'll be able to get it up to 200,000 before it's time for a new one. We'd like to keep Amber's car longer than that, but we'll also be taking it on fewer road trips over the next few years as a result, so the quest for 200,000 isn't looking good for Amber's car, either.

If you want to run up your car odometer, I can think of two reliable ways to do it, all of which I have experience with. 1) Live at least 20 miles away from your job. A long work commute is the #1 way to run up your car odometer. 2) Date a girl who lives at least 500 miles away, and go see her at least once a month. From the summer of 2006 through the summer of 2007, I lived 20 miles from work, and Amber was still at Penn State, so I would put over 2,000 miles on my car every single month. Some months, I would put over 3,000 miles on my car. Those days are over. Given the price of gas, it's just as well, I suppose. In 2011, November was the only month in which I put more than 2,000 miles on my car.

Gasoline Statistics: I've noticed something with the gas mileage log I keep, and have kept since 2008. My car doesn't get the gas mileage it used to. From June 2008 through February 2011, my car averaged 38.3 miles per gallon. From February 2011 until now, my car has averaged 36.0 miles per gallon.

What's the difference? Do cars just get less efficient as they get older? Are the tires I bought after we returned from Alaska more "grippy" and therefore less efficient? (Yes, I do keep the tires inflated.) It's not just the short work commute and even shorter drive to day care; my road trip mileage is also lower than it used to be. Regardless of the cause, 36.0 miles per gallon is still pretty good, so I don't see any reason to be concerned.

Restaurant Serving Times: Recall that a few months ago, I thought that the company Christmas lunch stood an excellent chance of being the slowest restaurant of 2011. Well, that didn't work out. And, all of the restaurants we visited over the holidays in Jacksonville and Toledo were pretty average. This means Applebee's of Knightdale, NC, held on to claim the "honor" of slowest of 2011 with its time of 29:43 back on March 31. And Ideal Hot Dog of Toledo, OH, finished the year as the fastest of 2011, but I knew that number (3:39, the second-fastest ever) was going to stand up.

Bicycling Statistics: One pleasant side effect of my Bicycling Trip to Alaska is a weekly log of bicycling miles. How did I do in 2011 compared to last year? (The trip isn't done yet, by the way. Yes, I made it to Alaska weeks ago, but the trip ends several hundred miles after the border.)

Average weekly bicycling miles: 35.9 miles/week in 2010, 40.6 miles/week in 2011. Hooray! Progress! I've taken a step back in recent weeks, however. In the last quarter of 2010, I averaged 38.0 miles/week, compared to 34.3 miles/week in the last quarter of 2011. Sure, the "Marla factor" makes for a convenient excuse, but...no excuses! 34.3 miles/week is still a pretty good average, but I can do better. And after the eating binge I went on over the holidays, I need to. (Disclaimer: don't mistake this for a "New Year's Resolution". I don't do those.)

North Carolina ZZ/AA License Plate Game: And, lastly...let's wrap this up, finally. I spotted an AAS- license plate on I-40 yesterday, which means that after 14 months, I have now spotted a North Carolina license plate representing all 21 ZZ-, and all 21 AA-, letter combinations. Really? That took barely over a year? It feels like this game has been going on for, like, three years.

With that, let's move on to my next two license plate quests:
- It's January, and that means it's time for a new color of North Carolina registration stickers! What color are North Carolina's 2013 registration stickers? (Don't tell me. It's more fun if it's a surprise.)
- I might need another license plate game to keep myself occupied. I've already done Florida counties and Ohio counties. How about counties from some other state? Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana are all somewhat nearby states that put counties on their license plates. Any would keep me pretty busy for a while. Indiana might be the most fun because they put a county number AND a county name on their plates. Regardless, it'll be a while on that one...I need a break.

The AA Highway

2012-01-03T15:31:00.001-05:00

I like having Toledo as a frequent road trip destination. Since there is no direct interstate connection between here and there (not yet), there are many different route options available that don't add too much time to the drive. We've already driven pretty much all of the reasonable route variations between here and Jacksonville, but with Toledo, there is still a lot of exploring (and new county-visiting) to be had.

And that takes us to the AA Highway, a two-lane road in Kentucky that more or less forms the hypotenuse of the Cincinnati/Lexington/Huntington triangle.

View Larger Map

I think I just found this road intriguing because it's relatively new (opened in 1995), mostly rural, travels through five previously unvisited counties, and because I think the name is catchy. While it's officially Kentucky Route 9, it's more commonly known as (and signed as) the "AA Highway", so-called because its primary purpose is to connect Alexandria, KY with Ashland, KY. Yeah! AA Highway!

The Wikipedia article says this road is dangerous, due to "speeding...and numerous side road entrances and at-grade intersections". It never felt dangerous to us. I mean, look how wide the shoulders are!

Then again, we were driving this thing at around 9 AM, when there wasn't a whole lot of traffic. I can kind of see how the road is "dangerous", though. The speed limit is 55, but with the wide shoulders and very infrequent traffic lights (a few in Maysville, and that's pretty much it), some people probably try to go 70 or more. That'd be fine if the road were limited access, but...it's not. And while I thought the road was scenic, I can see how one could kind of get lulled to sleep by it. It's hilly, but there are no slow corners. It's built for speed. Maybe that's the problem! (Since the picture caught part of the speedometer, let the record show that I was going 61 mph, not 67.)

Let's talk timing. Let's say you're on I-64 west of Charleston, and you're trying to get to Cincinnati. Is it faster to take I-64 all the way to Lexington and I-75 north from there, or to take the non-interstate AA Highway and cut the corner? I've done both, and I've timed both, so I have the answer: the AA Highway is 12 minutes faster. But the fastest route from Charleston to Cincinnati is probably US-35 to OH-32, rather than the AA, which I haven't done yet.

So, there you go. The AA Highway = win!

Meanwhile...I was kind of discouraged after the drive to Jacksonville, as to the prospect of road tripping with a young child, or in our case, an infant. It's no fun anymore, I said! Well, the drives to and from Toledo were both fun, AA Highway or no AA Highway. (We took one of the faster routes home.) The key is to not be in any kind of a hurry. Enjoy the ride, and don't think about all the things you have to do when you get home until you actually do get back home. If you have to stop for 30 minutes, after having just stopped 15 minutes ago, no big deal. And, all things considered, Marla has been great in the car, on both drives. We have a "road trip baby" in the making.

Still, though, we're tired. I don't think we'll be taking Marla on any more overnight road trips until at least March, which by our standards, is an eternity.

Is Road Tripping Still Fun?

2011-12-28T16:09:00.000-05:00

Even though we had a great time in Jacksonville over the weekend, Amber, Marla, and I were all a little cranky when we got back home from Jacksonville yesterday afternoon. Last Friday's drive to Jacksonville was great, but yesterday's drive back home was nearly the "worst case scenario" when it comes to long drives...

- Holiday traffic. I'm sure Monday was a busy travel day, but Tuesday? I didn't expect traffic to be an issue, but it was enough of an issue for me to say "screw this" and leave I-95 altogether once we got to North Carolina. I-95 traffic was much worse on the Tuesday after Christmas than it was on the Friday before Christmas, and in both directions, too. Then again, maybe this next point is to blame for the traffic...

- Weather. Well, I guess the worst case scenario would have been snow, not rain, but a heavy downpour will still cause its share of accidents. There were multiple accidents yesterday in South Carolina; thankfully, none involved us. We even pulled off and waited for a few minutes, which we almost never do because of rain.

- Marla turns five months old today, which is still a relatively easy road trip age, really. Friday's drive was smooth sailing; "stoppage time" (non-driving time between the start and end of the drive) only totaled 47 minutes, which for a 450-mile drive with a baby, is great! The return trip had 87 minutes of stoppage time, and most of that was a bit, let's say, "frenzied". We had to give Marla a new change of clothes twice mid-drive, for instance. And since the drive took longer than anticipated, we didn't have enough milk ready to go at the end, so we had to listen to a hungry screaming baby for the last 15 minutes of the drive. When you're only 15 minutes from home, you might as well just keep going, right?

So, yesterday's drive was not fun at all, but...let's not get discouraged. Road tripping with a kid or two can still be fun. (Given how much Amber and I enjoy it, it had better be!) The key is being prepared. Here's what we learned yesterday: 1) One backup change of clothes for the day isn't enough, apparently. 2) 'Tis better to have too much milk ready to go than not enough milk. 3) Between Christmas and New Year's, there will always be a lot of traffic on I-95 heading to and from Florida, even on Tuesday. 4) I was kind of in a hurry to get home yesterday, and that was a mistake. Being in a hurry takes all the fun out of a road trip, especially when you have a little one with you.

And that brings us to our next road trip...in two days! On Friday, we drive to Toledo for Christmas Part Deux, and on Monday (New Year's Day), we drive home. Both drives will start at around 4 AM on those days. And, we won't be in a hurry this time, so that maybe we'll enjoy the drive! This might be the last year we do back-to-back, Florida/Ohio road trips on Christmas and New Year's weekends, however.

In part two of this "road trip" post, I bring you random and statistical and "road geek" notes from the weekend.

Marla visited 3 new states and 26 new counties over the weekend, bringing her total to 8 states / 85 counties. That's a lot! How many additional counties she gets this coming weekend will depend on which routes we take to/from Toledo, but I can virtually guarantee she will get more than zero. She may even get a new state or two (Michigan? Kentucky?).

It takes about seven minutes longer to get to my parents' new house in Neptune Beach, than it took to get to my parents' old house in Jacksonville's Arlington neighborhood. (The numbers: from the I-95/SR 9A junction north of town, it was 19 minutes to the old house, on average. From that same junction to the new house, it took 27 minutes on Friday afternoon, and 24 minutes on Tuesday morning when there wasn't as much traffic.)

Road geek notes! There is always something new to check out when I go to Jacksonville, to the point where I'm starting to lose track. Was the I-95/I-10 junction finished last time I was there? I don't remember. The I-95/I-10 junction is the second picture posted here, as pictured from Margaret Street, which used to have a direct exit from I-95 Southbound before the interchange was rebuilt. I was hoping that there would still be at least a trace of evidence that Exit 351C (is that right?) once existed, but nope. Meanwhile, the eastern half of Jacksonville's beltway is still signed as State Road 9A almost everywhere, except (according to James) for a few I-295 signs in a few random places along the roads it intersects with, such as Atlantic Blvd.

Jacksonville (Neptune Beach)

2011-12-22T15:33:00.002-05:00

Way back when I lived in the affluent Raleigh suburb of Cary, for blogging purposes I used to refer to my hometown as "Raleigh (Cary)". The reason is because as far as everyone from out of town was concerned, I lived in Raleigh. But as far as locals were concerned, I lived in Cary. With the "Raleigh (Cary)" designation, I satisfied both the out-of-towners who think of the entire metropolitan area as Raleigh*, and the locals who actually do make the distinction between Wake County's various communities.

(* - There's nothing wrong with that, by the way. That's just the way it is. Regardless of the metropolitan area, we all do it. For instance, when somebody says they're from "Atlanta", the odds that they actually live within the Atlanta city limits - or even within Fulton County - are probably pretty small. But it is kind of annoying with Durham, because I feel like Durham is well known enough to stand on its own. I tell people I'm from Durham, and at some point "Durham" must morph into "Raleigh" in their heads, because later on they'll say, "You're from Raleigh, right?" And I never know how to answer that follow-up question, whether to correct them and say "Durham", or just go along with it.)

The reason I bring this up is because a few months ago, my parents bought a house in Neptune Beach, FL, which is where we'll be staying when we visit from now on. So is it still accurate or appropriate to say "We're going to Jacksonville"? Would it be better to say "We're going to Neptune Beach"? Or, should I revive the old Raleigh (Cary) style and say "We're going to Jacksonville (Neptune Beach)"?

For blogging purposes, my decision is as follows: occasionally, I will slip in a "Jacksonville (Neptune Beach)" reference, but mostly, I'll still say "We're going to Jacksonville". For one, it's not like we're going to stay in Neptune Beach (or the other beaches) the whole time we're there. We will be spending plenty of time in Jacksonville proper, I imagine. But the thing with Neptune Beach is, when Duval County and the City of Jacksonville consolidated, Neptune Beach technically became part of Jacksonville, although it - along with Atlantic Beach and Jacksonville Beach, and Baldwin, too - kept, their own sort-of "city" status in the process. So basically, I can't go wrong by saying "We're going to Jacksonville". It's still accurate, anywhere in Duval County. (Orange Park or Ponte Vedra would be a different story, however.)

Enough semantics! We'll be in Jacksonville (or Neptune Beach or whatever) Friday afternoon through Tuesday morning, including on Christmas Day. There's a lot to get excited about with this trip. Marla hasn't been to Jacksonville (or Neptune Beach or whatever) yet. Shoot, Marla hasn't even been to South Carolina yet. (Three new states for Marla!) We haven't been to Jacksonville in any capacity since January (which has to be the longest span of time I've ever gone without a Jacksonville visit), and we haven't seen my parents' new house yet, either. And, of course, it will be Marla's first Christmas. Lots of firsts coming up this weekend.

So, Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays! Until next time, we'll see you on Twitter.

Toll Transponders

2011-12-20T16:16:00.000-05:00

So, about that new road (the Triangle Parkway) that opened up two weeks ago. Starting January 3rd, it will be a toll road. It will be one of a few toll roads in the country that will be tolled exclusively on an electronic basis, with no toll booths. That means it's time for North Carolina to set up its own brand of on-the-fly "E-Z Pass"-type tolling. Introducing NC Quick Pass!

Amber and I received our toll transponders last week. That means on local toll roads, we'll get the cheaper "NC Quick Pass" toll rate, instead of the higher "Bill By Mail" toll rate. (Cars without transponders will have their license plate snapped, and will get a bill in the mail.) But the reason I got the "hard case" transponder instead of the less-of-an-eyesore, and cheaper, sticker transponder is because, unlike the stickers, my transponder will be compatible with the Northeast's E-Z Pass, Florida's SunPass, Texas's TxTag, and Illinois's I-Pass. No longer will we need to bring six $1 bills with us every time we take the West Virginia Turnpike, because we'll be E-Z Pass people! … Well, eventually. They don't work out-of-state yet (or vice-versa), and I read somewhere that it will be a few more months, potentially not until next summer, before our transponders will work out-of-state. That was kind of a letdown, because I was hoping this would be in place before this season's holiday driving. If North Carolina wasn't instituting its own toll roads, then I would have actually gotten an out-of-state transponder years ago. But instead, I waited patiently all these years in order to get a North Carolina one.

That said, here's a point of contention I have: we were charged $20 each just to get the transponders, and we won't get that money back. Other states give out toll transponders for free. On the other hand, I don't know if all E-Z Pass states offer cheaper rates to those with E-Z Pass than to those who pay with cash. I know some do, but not all...I think. Either way, I guess it could be worse. For example, Colorado's E-470 tollway, which leads to the Denver airport, is one of the most expensive toll roads in the country. After driving a rental car on it one time, my parents received a bill in the mail for $25.

Is having this thing on your windshield a distraction when you're driving? Not really. It's mostly hidden behind the rear view mirror. Not an issue.

So, Amber and I now have $20 in our account balance. I'll drive down the Parkway once next month just to make sure it works. After that...well, we may not need them again until next time we're on the West Virginia Turnpike.

When Indoor Cats Go Outdoors

2011-12-19T17:23:00.000-05:00

Our cat, Rolo, is an indoor cat. She only goes outside when the door is slightly ajar and we're not paying attention. Like last night, for instance. Usually, we go fetch her and bring her back inside immediately. This time, though...

Apparently she was outside all night long, for about 14 hours, and we had no idea until we couldn't find her in the house this morning. Fortunately, we know where she usually goes when she darts outside (under the back porch), so we found her this morning and brought her back inside. That was a relief, because when she wasn't waiting outside our bedroom door waiting to be fed this morning, we figured there were only two possibilities: 1) she was dead; 2) she had gotten outside somehow.

How did we go 14 hours without realizing that Rolo wasn't inside the house? Well, not to make excuses, but when you have a kid, it's much harder to keep track of everything else that's going on.

Normally when Rolo gets a taste of the outdoors, she spends the next two days looking outside, meowing incessantly, asking for more. But after spending all night out there, on the coldest night of the season to date (27°F this morning), I hope she's had her fill. No more sneaking out the door while we're trying to carry our baby inside, you hear?

The Company Christmas Lunch

2011-12-15T16:10:00.004-05:00

See below for an UPDATE following the Christmas Lunch.

Let's talk restaurant serving times!

There are only two weeks left in 2011. Ideal Hot Dog has a virtual stranglehold on "fastest restaurant serving time of 2011" honors. The "honor" of "slowest restaurant serving time of 2011", however, is a different story.

Applebee's of Knightdale, NC, at 29:43, is currently the slowest restaurant of the year. That's a pretty tame number for "slowest of the year", though. There is still plenty of room at the top (or bottom, depending on your perspective) for another slow restaurant or two to sneak in there. Since I started the spreadsheet in 2004, only once (2009) has no restaurant all year long gone over 30 minutes.

Tomorrow, in particular, is a big day, for it is the day of the annual company Christmas lunch. The company Christmas lunch is all you could ask for if you're looking for a slow serving time: 1) a large group (15 to 20 people), and 2) a fancier restaurant than I would normally go to on my own. (By "fancier", I mean "more expensive", of course. Thanks, Lucille!) Here are the restaurant serving times from past company Christmas lunches:

2010 - 36:39 at Pop's (annual rank: 2)
2009 - 29:03 at Tosca (annual rank: 1)
2008 - no Christmas lunch
2007 - 31:21 at Cheesecake Factory (annual rank: 2)
2006 - 19:44 at Kemp's (annual rank: 12)

Throw out the Kemp's time, and you have an annual contender for slowest serving time of the year. This year should be no different, as we head to a "contemporary Mexican" restaurant called Mez for our Christmas lunch. Mez is a huge wild card, and here's why: out of the 265 restaurant serving times in my spreadsheet, exactly ONE is for a Mexican restaurant. That means I have virtually no feel for how fast or slow the Mexican genre is, let alone "contemporary Mexican".

That one, lonely data point can provide some insight, though. I don't know if Mad Mex of State College, PA, is considered "contemporary Mexican" (as opposed to plain old Mexican), but my guess is that Mez and Mad Mex are similar. And, like tomorrow's trip to Mez, the January 18, 2006 trip to Mad Mex was with a large group (party of 15). Mad Mex's time that day nearly six years ago was 31:07, which would be good enough for slowest of 2011. Could one argue that the odds of Mez eclipsing Applebee's as slowest of 2011 are over 50%?

But regardless of the time Mez posts tomorrow afternoon, with holiday family trips to Jacksonville and Toledo coming up, the "slowest time of the year" won't be decided until New Year's Day. That is, unless Mez posts a really slow time tomorrow (45 minutes plus), in which case...congratulations, I guess?

UPDATE: One thing I like about this "restaurant serving times" nonsense is that I never really know what to expect. Mez clocked in at 16 minutes, 47 seconds, much faster than I expected, and the 9th fastest "party of 7+" serving time on record. I attribute it to three factors: 1) We only had 10 people in our party, as opposed to 15 or more. 2) Appetizers are usually standard at the company Christmas lunch, but this time, they gave us our appetizers before we had even ordered our main dish. (This is something I discussed a couple of months ago.) 3) We ordered off the shorter lunch menu rather than the longer, more complicated dinner menu, which has to help, right?

Rolling Over

2011-12-15T16:04:00.001-05:00

Marla can roll over on her own now. Hooray! (That's a link to a Facebook video, but it is publicly viewable even for the non-Facebook types.)

When it comes to baby milestones, I've resisted the urge to look up the average age for milestones such as "able to roll over", "able to crawl", "able to walk", "first word". I don't want to get disappointed or stressed or anything in case Marla is "late" on any of these things. But we have the first roll-over out of the way, so now I can look!

The general consensus is that babies can start rolling from back to belly on their own at 5-6 months. So, Marla (at 4½ months) is ahead of the game there. Yippee! However...one thing we haven't seen Marla do yet is roll over the other way (belly to back). That's interesting because the general consensus there is that babies should be able to go belly-to-back before they can go back-to-belly. I think the issue here is that we aren't giving Marla near enough "tummy time". Sure, we've been giving her some, but not enough for her to learn motor skills in that orientation, apparently.

Forgive me for being overly excited about this. It takes a few months for babies to start doing anything interesting. Maybe now is a good time to finally get around to baby-proofing the house?

Hand Towels

2011-12-14T15:55:00.000-05:00

I'm going to wait a few more days to blog about this, so instead, here's something far more trivial.

In our home bathrooms, and in many home bathrooms everywhere, the hand towel is kept on a rack, like so:

You're done washing your hands, and it's time to try them. Do you: a) take the hand towel completely off the rack and use it to dry your hands, or b) leave the hand towel on the rack as you dry your hands?

Without putting much thought into it, I usually choose option b), mostly out of laziness. But now that I have thought about it, I've consciously been choosing option a). It doesn't seem like it's a more efficient way to dry your hands, but it is.

That is, assuming the towel of choice is sized similarly to the one pictured above. If the only available towel is a larger towel designed to be used after a full-body shower, such as this one...

...then I think it's more efficient to leave it on the rack. These bigger towels obviously take more effort to get off and back on the rack, and they have more surface area, so there is less to be gained by taking it off the rack to dry your hands. Sometimes, the only towel hanging in the bathroom is indeed one of these larger ones.

So, there you go.

The Holy Grails of License Plates

2011-12-12T15:43:00.000-05:00

My ZZ-/AA- North Carolina license plate game still isn't done yet; I have yet to find an AAS- license plate. Apparently, they do exist, so I haven't given up hope yet. In any license plate game, that last one is always hard to find.

But I do have another license plate quest, one that I almost surely will never complete. There are two North Carolina license plates that I consider to be the "Holy Grails" of license plates. One is ZZZ-9999, the very last in alphanumeric order. The other is ABC-1234, which I just think is a neat plate. If these two plates are like their ZZZ and ABC brethren, then they were likely issued about a year ago, so they're out there.

(Why don't I consider the first license plate in alphanumeric order to be a "Holy Grail"? Because according to this, North Carolina started with AAA-1001, rather than AAA-0000 or AAA-0001. So when you see AAA-1001 on the road, it's not obvious that it's "first", and therefore not as awesome. Whereas, ZZZ-9999 is obviously last.)

Of course, finding a specific license plate is like finding a needle in a haystack. You have to be VERY VERY LUCKY to even come close. The odds would suggest that the owners of ZZZ-9999 and ABC-1234 live nowhere near me. Maybe one of them is in, say, New Bern (a city I almost never visit), and the owner is an 80-year-old who never even leaves town, let alone crosses I-95. If that's the case, it's never going to happen.

While my chances of spotting either "Holy Grail" are indeed very slim, based on some recent developments, I think this is worth talking about. I have actually come reasonably close (numerically speaking) to both plates. A few weeks back, while pulling out of the parking lot at the curling rink, I spotted the ABC-1324 plate. So close! (Closer in a dyslexic sense than a numerical sense, of course.) I have seen several other ABC-1XXX plates in the Triangle as well, suggesting that most or all of the ABC-1XXX plates were issued locally. So ABC-1234 has to be around here...somewhere.

ZZZ-9999 is going to be a little more tricky, though. I haven't noticed a pattern with the ZZZ- plates. They're all over the state. They're even in other states as well; once I saw a ZZZ- North Carolina plate on a rental car in Maryland. (One of the other teams at The Kayser in February had one, which is how I knew it was a rental car.) In fact, I had only seen one ZZZ-9XXX plate to date at all. That is, until I went to Charlotte on Saturday. There, I spotted ZZZ-9995, and hurried (safely and without endangering myself or others, of course) to get the best picture I could:

I didn't think I'd ever get this close to ZZZ-9999, so...yeah! And if you squint, it kind of looks like ZZZ-9999, doesn't it? I thought about following this person to his/her parking spot to get a better picture, but decided that would only be worth doing if the plate were the "Holy Grail" itself.

The ZZZ-9995 car proceeded towards a shopping center parking lot, so it's highly probable that the owner is local to the Charlotte area. The way North Carolina license plates are issued, if ZZZ-9995 is based in Charlotte, then ZZZ-9999 is probably in Charlotte too, right? You'd think so. But like I said, ZZZ- plates have been spotted all over the place, so I don't know if this was an isolated find, or if there are many ZZZ-9XXX plates in Charlotte. (I forget where I saw the other ZZZ-9XXX plate, but I think it was in the Triangle.) Regardless, there's really no way for me to know whether there are more ZZZ-9XXXs to be found in Charlotte without going back and driving up and down South Boulevard a bunch of times in order to gather more data. (That's not something I recommend, by the way. There are a lot of things I like about Charlotte, but traffic isn't one of them.)

Even though I think I've figured out where each plate is located, the chances of me finding either ZZZ-9999 or ABC-1234 are still very long. But it is promising that ZZZ-9999 might be in a part of the state I do occasionally visit (as opposed to, say, Hendersonville), and that ABC-1234 could literally be right around the corner. It could happen!

The Triangle Parkway

2011-12-09T15:40:00.000-05:00

You know me. Whenever a new road or highway opens nearby, I have to drive it as soon as possible. Yesterday, part of the Triangle Expressway - which connects I-40 with I-540 in Research Triangle Park - opened up. (Here is a map from NCDOT. The section of the TriEx that opened yesterday is Toll 147 between '1' and '5'; this section is also known as the "Triangle Parkway".) This new freeway practically begins right behind my office building, which meant I felt obligated to take it the day it opened.

In fact, I tried to go there the hour it opened, but I was a little early.

I had read on Twitter that the road was "officially" open. Whoops! I guess the orange barrels and barricades didn't all just magically disappear when the clock struck 10:30. No big deal; I just came back after the end of my work day, at which point I drove the entire 3.4 miles of the Triangle Parkway...twice! Once in each direction.

If I hadn't done it in both directions, then I wouldn't have noticed that the combined Davis Drive/Hopson Road exit (one exit serving two roads) has a different exit number northbound (2) and southbound (3). I guess that makes sense, given that Davis Drive and Hopson Road are about a mile apart...but still. I thought it was interesting.

I also looked for other signage oddities, because that's what I do. I can't help it. For example, the speed limit on the TriEx is 65 mph, but they have yet to remove the now obsolete "Reduced Speed Ahead" sign on southbound Durham Freeway approaching the beginning of the TriEx. Also, as Brian LeBlanc (still the best traffic reporter ever, although he's since moved on) pointed out to me at the Triangle Expressway Trot, according to this sign, the NC 147/540 interchange at the south end of the Triangle Parkway is where NC-540 changes designation from north/south to east/west.

And, one more thing I noticed. There are some hanging and/or unfinished ramps at the NC 147/540 interchange. Why? Well...I don't have a picture, but on my bike rides, I've seen a sign at the intersection of McCrimmon Parkway and Town Hall Drive in Morrisville that says something to the effect of, "Eventually, a ramp will connect this intersection directly with the Triangle Expressway". Anyone know anything about this? It's been a while since I've been down that way, so I'm going to bike there tomorrow morning and see if that sign is still there, or what else I can find. But in the meantime, I found a six-month-old message board discussion regarding the extension to McCrimmon/Town Hall. Based on that discussion, the hanging ramps at 147/540 are indeed for a possible extension to McCrimmon Parkway...BUT, the extension likely won't actually be built any time soon, if ever.

So, this is great and all, but is this road really going to help me? Directly, no. It's a north/south road located east of my house, and therefore, I'll never really have a reason to take it. And since it is a toll road, I'm not likely to take it just "for fun". (Aside from yesterday, of course. Tolls start January 3rd, so yesterday's joy ride was free.) But if the TriEx's existence means less traffic on T.W. Alexander Drive through Research Triangle Park (where my job is) - which, it might - then this road will help me indirectly. Alexander Drive traffic went up when the southern tip of the Durham Freeway closed (to facilitate TriEx construction), so will it go back down again now? We'll see.

Mr. Pig

2011-12-07T15:50:00.000-05:00

Often times, when I talk about the Piggly Wiggly grocery store chain, I can't help but mention their store-brand version of Dr. Pepper: "Mr. Pig". Mr. Pig isn't available in every Piggly Wiggly, and at one time, some (including me) considered its existence a myth. So in 2003 (or thereabouts), when I found the elusive Mr. Pig for the first time at a Piggly Wiggly in the Florida Panhandle, I bought a bottle.

Actually, I bought two bottles. One, I drank - and quite frankly, and it wasn't very good. The other, I kept. Eight years later, I still have that second bottle. It has NEVER been opened. Here it is:

As time has passed, the bottle has shrunk. I guess air can get out, but it can't get in? Regardless, I'm sure this "soda" is now flat as water. If it tasted bad right off the shelf, I can only imagine what it tastes like in its current condition.

And yet...I can't help but be curious. Eight years is a long time to have an unopened bottle of soda sitting on top of your fridge. Is it time?

Maybe it's time I find another bottle of Mr. Pig and start fresh. I'll likely have to go to South Carolina for that, though, as I have never seen Mr. Pig in North Carolina. If there is such a thing as "Diet Mr. Pig" now, then that would be even better!

Random Thoughts on Sports: 12/7/11

2011-12-07T15:46:00.002-05:00

I usually save my sports commentary for Friday or Saturday, but...well, whatever. Let's tackle the last couple of weeks in chronological order, which as a Jacksonville Jaguars / Carolina Hurricanes fan have been very interesting:

Carolina Hurricanes fire head coach Paul Maurice: Hooray! The team is going nowhere, and I was kind of getting tired of seeing Maurice on the bench back there, anyway. Bring in first-time NHL head coach Kirk Muller, who - and this is unusual for GM Jim Rutherford - came from completely outside the organization and as far as I know has never been affiliated with the Hurricanes in any capacity. Rutherford is taking his share of blame, too, but he's not going anywhere...yet. One at a time, people.

But as we're now finding out, fixing the Hurricanes isn't as simple as changing the head coach. As former Jaguars beat writer Vic Ketchman liked to say: "players, not plays". I think that's as true in hockey as it is in any sport. How much difference does the coach make, really?

Jacksonville Jaguars fire head coach Jack Del Rio: I figured this would happen after the season, not during the season. I almost don't see the point in firing him now. The NHL season is still young, and there is time to turn it around. But the NFL season is basically over. Unless they plan on making Mel Tucker the permanent coach (I doubt it), why do this now, and not after the season? So that it would coincide with the change in ownership?

I agree with James that the Jaguars' struggles this season are not Del Rio's fault. But he's been here long enough, and he only made the playoffs twice in nine seasons (including this season), and never won the division. Time for a change.

Jacksonville Jaguars sold to Illinois businessman Shahid Khan: For me, this came out of nowhere.

You can look at this from any number of angles. Predictably, the national media started talking relocation, because the national media hates Jacksonville and loves big cities in non-southern locations like Los Angeles. But let's look at this logically for a minute. Why did soon-to-be former owner Wayne Weaver keep it secret all this time? Make it public that you're trying to sell the team, and all the people who want to buy it and move it elsewhere come out of the woodwork. (As an NHL fan, I know how this usually goes.) Keep it quiet, and you can better secure an owner whose first option is to keep the team at home. And there are other reasons why the team probably isn't moving any time soon, such as the stadium lease.

But here's why I'm excited about this. Everything I've read about Khan indicates that there is no ulterior motive here. He's just an excited football fan with a few hundred million dollars to burn and a dream of owning an NFL team. What's not to like? Everything I've heard about the guy sounds fantastic. And have I mentioned the moustache? The fan base certainly seemed pumped about the Jaguars' soon-to-be owner on Monday night, and that was great to see. I can't wait to see what he brings to the team.

Jacksonville Jaguars lose 38-14 to San Diego on Monday Night Football: In the meantime...yeah, the team still isn't all that good. The one thing the Jaguars have done fairly well this season is play defense, and that's kept them in the game almost every week. But, like, half the Jaguars' defense is injured now, so...that's over. They may not win another game the rest of the way, and that includes Week 17 against the Colts. That Week 17 game will truly be awful, by the way. I can't wait!

Did the Carolina Hurricanes get screwed by NHL divisional realignment?: The solution to the whole "Winnipeg in the Southeast Division" crisis? Start over! The Southeast Division will be disbanded, and the Carolina Hurricanes will now be in a 7-team conference with some of NBC's favorite teams: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, both New Yorks, and New Jersey. The biggest part of this is that playoff spots will be determined by conference standing ONLY, independent of how your record compares to the other 23 teams in the league. (That's the proposal, anyway. This isn't finalized.)

The good news: the Hurricanes are in one of the 7-team conferences (as opposed to the two 8-team conferences), increasing their playoff odds at the start of the season. The bad news: they have to compete with the same big budget, big market teams for playoff spots (and in the playoffs themselves), every single year. It's easy to say that there's no way the Hurricanes will ever compete with the likes of the Penguins/Flyers/Capitals/Rangers/Devils every year, but this sort of thing is cyclic. Before Crosby and Ovechkin came along, Pittsburgh and Washington were terrible. Remember those days? The Flyers and Devils have also had their share of clunker seasons, and the Rangers have never really been that good. Right now it looks tough, but things change. Five years from now, we could be talking about how the Hurricanes are lucky to be in a weak conference, instead of the other way around. And besides, it doesn't really matter what conference the Hurricanes are playing in this year. Speaking of which...

Carolina Hurricanes lose their first four games under new head coach Kirk Muller: Players, not plays.

Curling Recap: 12/2/11

2011-12-06T15:39:00.002-05:00

Career game #161: 2011 Fall League - December 2, 2011

End.......... 1234567 |TTL

--------------------------

Allen........ 0000010 | 01

K. Jackson... 2122103 | 11

Aww, do I have to talk about this?

Yeah, there isn't a whole lot I can take away from this game, so I'll just tip my hat. The other team played an outstanding game, and I was very impressed with their Vice and Second, Patrick and Amy, who simply didn't miss. And this is only their 2nd year of curling, too, so I think they are our club's next great young curlers. I'm encouraging them to attend "The Kayser" before their five-year eligibility runs out. Put them together with fellow 2nd-year curlers Justin and Tabby (who have curled with Amber and me multiple times, including at the most recent "Kayser"), and you have yourselves a very solid Kayser team that would represent our club really well. Maybe in 2013? My 5-and-under eligibility runs out after the Spring, so after that, I'll have to live vicariously through others.

(Speaking of "5-and-under" bonspiels, I'm going back to "The Dykes" in February, in what will be my last 5-and-under bonspiel ever. More on that in the weeks to come.)

Next week is "wacky rules curling", which doesn't count in my stats, so this was the last game of the season and my last official game for seven weeks. Our team finished 3-5 and in 6th place out of 9 teams. I was hoping for at least 4-4. But darn it, our team was fun, and that's more important, even if you can't quantify "fun".

Here is a record of my team's finishes in each of my Triangle Curling Club leagues: (Records shown are team records, independent of whether I curled in every game.)
- Fall 2007: 5-4, 3rd place (out of 8)
- Winter 2008: 7-2, 1st place (out of 9)
- Fall 2008: 3-6, 8th place (out of 10)
- Winter 2009: 5-3, 3rd place (out of 11)
- Spring 2009: 2-3, 5th place (out of 6)
- Fall 2009: 4-4, 6th place (out of 9)
- Winter 2010: 3-1, 2nd place (out of 8)
- Spring 2010: 4-1, 2nd place (out of 8)
- Fall 2010: 7-2, 1st place (out of 8)
- Winter 2011 Friday: 7-2, 1st place (out of 8)
- Winter 2011 Sunday: 5-4, 2nd place (out of 6)
- Fall 2011: 3-5, 6th place (out of 9)

So, my streak of playing in five consecutive League Championship games is over. But I did keep alive my streak of never finishing a league in last place, which might be more important. The League Championship game streak was bound to end eventually; there are too many good curlers in our club.

I do think I have regressed in skill from where I was in April, though. I simply haven't been curling as often. January through April, I curled 27 games; September through December, I'll have only curled 10. Believe me, it makes a difference. (Darn parenting!) But here's the exciting part, for me: how good will I be when I'm 45 years old and have 20 years and 500 games of curling experience under my belt?

Possibly Unnecessary Health Care

2011-12-05T16:12:00.002-05:00

Four months is probably younger than the ideal age for a child to contract chickenpox, if there is such a thing. We're ready to rerun to normalcy. Fortunately, Marla appears to be ready, too! We took her back to day care for the first time today. The rule is that the lesions have to be all "crusted over" (as opposed to be completely gone), which means they're not contagious anymore, which at a day care is kind of important. (Even if that's apparently how we got in this mess in the first place.)

So, now Marla's stronger for it, I suppose. But according to the doctor, they're still going to recommend she get the chickenpox vaccine in another year or so. Ummm...sure, precautionary measures, and so on. But is this a good example of why health care is so expensive these days? Here's a child who has already had chickenpox. Let's give her the chickenpox vaccine anyway! You know, just to be safe.

Another example: Marla had a bruise on her leg a while back, so we took her to the doctor. It was Friday, and the blood test results weren't ready by close of business, so the doctors recommended we take her to the emergency room. Multiple "tests" and about $500 later (Marla hasn't hit her deductible yet), everything turned out to be fine, of course. But was that ER visit really necessary? I don't think it was. But how could we possibly have said no to the doctor's recommendation? This isn't like your car mechanic telling you that you need to flush your transmission, even though you don't. You can always fix your car after the fact, or just buy a new one. It's a heck of a lot easier to say no to a car mechanic than to a doctor. (I do it all the time!)

Here's another personal example of unnecessary health care. My dentist noticed I had a freckle on my lip (which I've had pretty much as long as I can remember), and said, "That's a sensitive area, and you might want to have that looked at. Here, let me recommend a dermatologist." I can't say no, right? So I went to the dermatologist, they tested it, and of course, it was nothing. But that whole procedure wasn't free, you know. I'm still bitter about this. I have to wonder if the dentist and dermatologist have some kind of arrangement going on. "Hey, I'll recommend you to my patients if you recommend me to your patients."

Being a parent in the 21st century, this is a huge concern of mine: doctors recommending tests or procedures that aren't actually necessary, but that they know we can't possibly refuse because 1) we love our daughter, and 2) we don't know any better. How many thousands of dollars are we going to spend over the next 18 years (or more!) on health care that Marla doesn't actually need? Given that Marla's pediatrician and our hospital of choice all part of the same health network, how do we know we can trust our doctor and that there isn't a conflict of interest? I guess what I'm saying is, I have a hard time trusting health care providers.

Who would you trust more to handle your health care: a) private corporations, or b) the government? In general, conservatives choose option a), and liberals choose option b). But I'm a disenchanted moderate, so I choose option c): neither.

Ideal Hot Dog

2011-12-01T16:22:00.000-05:00

The other day, Amber told me a story. One time, at a Toledo restaurant called Ideal Hot Dog, she embarrassed herself by accidentally blowing her straw wrapper across the aisle, which landed in someone else's spaghetti. My response: "There's a restaurant in Toledo called 'Ideal Hot Dog'? Can we go there?" And it was done.

First question: is Ideal Hot Dog eligible for my restaurant serving times competition? Yes, it is! It is a regular sit-down restaurant, in which a waitress comes to your table, takes your order, and brings it to you. Barbecue and breakfast restaurants have long dominated the restaurant serving times competition, but I've long wondered how a "hot dog" restaurant would perform. This was, in fact, my first.

So, what did I have? A hot dog, of course.

Ironically, this is not what I would consider to be an "ideal hot dog". I prefer my hot dogs with no toppings whatsoever other than ketchup. But I figured if I was going to go to "Ideal Hot Dog", I should have the house special chili cheese dog. (Actually, I think the restaurant's trademark menu item is the "Chili Mac". But I wanted a hot dog.) Meanwhile, Amber ordered grilled cheese. It's not like we were trying to make it as easy as possible on them, but that's how it worked out.

How quickly did Ideal Hot Dog bring us our food? From order to food reception: 3 minutes, 39 seconds. That's the second-fastest serving time EVER. Only Stamey's BBQ of Greensboro (a record that may stand forever) was faster. Well done!

The restaurant wasn't busy when we showed up (which contributed to the quick time), but it was filling in pretty well by the time we left. This restaurant must have a good reputation, because it's the kind of small-scale restaurant I'd have thought would have gone out of business a long time ago. I mean, the Toledo economy isn't exactly booming these days. But maybe that's why Ideal Hot Dog does such a good business: the food is super cheap!

Ideal Hot Dog will most likely end up being the fastest restaurant of 2011. A few days later, Bob Evans of Maumee, OH made a run at the slowest mark of the year, but at 26:44 came up about three minutes short of Applebee's of Knightdale. But it did end up being the chain's slowest serving time ever out of the 30 times I've gone there. (Have I seriously gone to Bob Evans 30 times now? Wow.) Chalk the slowness up to the crowd (Bob Evans is much more popular in Ohio than it is in North Carolina), and our party of 7 (although in 2009, the Jacksonville, FL Bob Evans served our party of 7 in 13:48).

Bowling Green Hockey

2011-11-30T16:33:00.000-05:00

Of the sports that I watch (most of them), I think hockey might be Amber's least favorite. But somehow, I was able to convince her to go to a hockey game while were in Toledo for Thanksgiving. Maybe she was just excited to get a night out together; we don't have any family in town, so we better take advantage of the free babysitting while we can!

We actually had two hockey game options on Friday night: we could go see the minor-league (ECHL) Toledo Walleye, or we could go see the Bowling Green State University hockey team take on the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. We chose Bowling Green, because: 1) cheaper tickets; 2) I had never been to a college hockey game before; and 3) Amber used to go to the Bowling Green ice rink a lot to watch her sister figure skate, so it would be a bit nostalgic for her.

NOT a consideration was the quality of the hockey we were going to see. I've watched sports enough to notice a discernable difference between the college game and the pro game. Generally, the pro game is more entertaining to watch than the college game, because all of the players are more skilled, and the games are usually more competitive. (Basketball is an exception, because NBA players are so skilled that teammwork isn't needed like it is in college basketball, which hurts the quality of the game.) Minor league sports play much closer to the major professional level than the collegiate level, so if I wanted to see a better-played game, the correct thing to do would have been to attend the Toledo Walleye game.

Thing is, though, college hockey is hard to find on TV, so I haven't watched enough college hockey to know how different pro and college hockey are. But having now attended a college game in person, I can now tell the difference. The game is nearly as fast, but the passes aren't as crisp, there are far fewer odd-man rushes, and most goals are of the "grind it out" variety (rebounds, deflections, etc) rather than a fancy deke, one-timer, or something that would make the SportsCenter Top Ten. In other words, the pro game is definitely more entertaining to watch.

But there is still plenty to like about college hockey. Find me a professional game at ANY level where you can get ice-level seats for $5. (Full disclosure: $5 isn't the normal price; this was part of a holiday special or something since most of the students were home for Thanksgiving.)

We didn't sit ice-level, of course; I like being farther up.

And, I can only assume that at a college game, you stand a much better chance of catching a wayward puck in the stands than you do at an NHL or minor league game. In fact, look what I got!

The atmosphere at a college sporting event is almost always going to be better than at a pro event. Smaller, more enthusiastic crowds; less annoying piped-in music and advertisements, and in the case of college hockey, almost no fighting! I know that's a major draw for Amber. (Fighting is Amber's least favorite thing about hockey. I'm not a big fan of it either, but I understand why it's there, and I can live with it.) Amber also feels she can relate to the college players a little more than the professional players.

And, how about this: a handshake line after the game. The NHL only does this at the end of a playoff series.

I think Amber's second least favorite thing about hockey is the obnoxious goal horn. I would talk about Bowling Green's goal horn here, or whatever they do after they score. But Bowling Green didn't score a single goal that night, even though they were playing a relatively weak opponent (Alaska-Fairbanks). They even didn't score in the rematch the next night, either. So, I can only assume that there is a goal horn of some kind when Bowling Green scores, followed by the Bowling Green fight song over the PA system. Either way, I feel cheated whenever I go to a hockey game and the home team doesn't score. What gives, BG? Maybe the Alaska players were just happy to be in a warmer climate for a couple of days. Or, maybe this Bowling Green hockey team is just plain lousy. No wonder the tickets are so cheap! They haven't always been this bad, though. They won the 1984 national championship, and they've churned out quite a few NHLers over the years. Hopefully they'll get it turned around soon.

Going into the game, I thought, "There probably won't be that many Alaska fans here. I mean, it's not like they're going to make the trip all the way from Fairbanks, right?" Wrong!

Did these people seriously come all the way from Alaska to Ohio, just for a hockey game? That's insane. Then again, after a week of record low temperatures (which, for Fairbanks, really means something), maybe they jumped at the opportunity to get out of town for a couple of days. If I had to spend the winter in Fairbanks, I might have done the same thing.

Here's something I was curious about before the game. Do college games go to a shootout to break ties like in the NHL? The answer: only in Bowling Green's conference, the CCHA. Every other NCAA Division I conference has ties. And actually, officially, the CCHA scores a shootout game as a "tie". They award three points in the standings for a win, one point for a tie, and one additional point (for a total of two) for a shootout win. I kind of wish the NHL did the standings this way. (My official take on the shootout: from a competition standpoint, I don't like it, but from the standpoint of entertainment and the value to the consumer of having a definitive "winner" and "loser" at a sporting event, I support its existence in the regular season.)

Here is the truly awesome video that plays prior to every Alaska-Fairbanks game. Bowling Green does not have a video board. The ice rink is pretty old school; everything in there looks like it's from the 70s or 80s. The building was recently renovated, but the rink itself was kept in "old school" condition, which I actually like. Who needs a big fancy scoreboard, anyway?

One more thing. Located in the same building as the hockey rink is...the curling club!

As I understand it, the Bowling Green Curling Club used to have dedicated curling ice, but now it's basically an arena club. The curling ice was being used as a free skate on Friday, which was sad to see from my perspective. But I know how that goes.

While the level of play is lower, there is a lot to like about college hockey. I wish one of the Triangle universities had an NCAA Division I ice hockey team. How about it, Duke?

Chickenpox

2011-11-29T16:45:00.000-05:00

A while back, a sign was posted at Marla's day care alluding to the fact that one of the other infants recently had the chickenpox. Two weeks later...ta da!

Marla turned four months old yesterday, so she's getting this at a much younger age than many, and several months before we would have been able to vaccinate her. She started showing the first rashes on Saturday, and was handling it pretty well until it became more of a full-blown thing yesterday. Hey, at least it wasn't full-blown when we were on the road!

Personally, I had chickenpox when I was 3 years old (I think), and don't remember much about it. But based on how Marla's acted the last couple of days, it's pretty miserable. Hopefully by the end of the week, she'll be done with it and return to her smiley old self, and promptly resume her quest to roll over on her own. (She's getting there. It's pretty cute to watch.)

Well, I guess it's good to get it out of the way, right? It was going to happen eventually, probably, although it is making for a rather unpleasant week so far. Fortunately, both of our employers are very accommodating, because obviously, we have to keep her at home until the chickenpox is gone. Unless we want to get a bunch of other babies sick, too, which...we don't.

Travelogue: Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T17:59:00.000-05:00

We're back from our weekend excursion to Toledo, and we are exhausted. With young children, I think we can forget about the idea of coming back from a vacation "refreshed". We did have a good time, though, and did enjoy showing off Marla to the Loucks side of the family.

I was going to cover the entire trip today, but that was before I wrote several paragraphs about just the road trip portion. Whoops! The rest of the stuff will have to wait.

The road trip portion: We won't be going on as many road trips now that we have a kid, of course. So in my quest to increase my counties visited count and such, I talked Amber into adding 30-60 minutes in each direction this weekend. On the northbound drive, we took OH-60 and some other roads through Southeast Ohio so that I could visit four new counties:

View Larger Map

Then, on the southbound drive, we took I-90 into Cleveland so that I could drive the northernmost 17 miles of I-77. This was the only portion of I-77 I hadn't driven before, so this makes I-77 the 8th interstate I've driven from end-to-end (10, 16, 68, 84 [east], 88 [east], 97, 99).

View Larger Map

This actually proved to be kind of tricky. There is no direct ramp from I-90 eastbound to I-77 southbound. So to officially "start" I-77 at the north end, I had to exit into downtown Cleveland and take one of several ramps that lead directly from downtown (near the Indians ballpark for those who know the city) directly onto the beginning of I-77. Normally this wouldn't have been a big deal, except that all those onramps were closed for construction! I eventually found my way onto I-90 westbound, east of the intersection, and took the I-90 West --> I-77 South ramp.

There will be more side trips on our drives to and from Toledo. But we've already done this sort of thing between here and Jacksonville and have already taken care of most of the scenic routes between here and there, sadly.

Of course, while we were at it, Marla visited all kinds of new counties. She's up to 59 counties in 5 states! Not bad for a four-month old. I don't think she'll get to 100 before the end of the year as I remember predicting, but she'll be above 80.

And finally...the traffic. Well, we left Durham at 4 AM Wednesday morning, and we left Toledo at 1 AM Sunday morning, so except for the roads leading north out of Columbus on Wednesday, we avoided traffic issues of any kind this Thanksgiving weekend. Yay! On the way back on Sunday, though, I was thinking that I would have rather slept in and gotten stuck in traffic, than left at 1 AM and had a free-flowing drive all the way home. But then after we got home, I kept an eye on Google Maps traffic just to see what it would have been like had we left Toledo at 4 AM instead of 1 AM, and...yikes. Apparently there was an accident on I-77 near Hillsville, VA, causing a massive traffic jam that surely we would have been stuck in had we left three hours later than we did. That stretch is already the most congested part of the drive, so having an accident there is pretty much the worst case scenario. Leaving at 1 AM was definitely the right thing to do, then.

It's That Time Again

2011-11-22T16:35:00.001-05:00

Fun fact! The last time I did NOT travel anywhere on Thanksgiving weekend was in...1999. The streak continues this year, along with our family visitation system that has worked out pretty well since it was implemented in 2007: one family gets Thanksgiving and New Year's, the other family gets Christmas, and it alternates every year. This year, Toledo gets Thanksgiving and New Year's, and Jacksonville gets Christmas.

Last time we drove to Toledo for Thanksgiving, we left home at 1 AM Wednesday morning, and that worked out pretty well. This year, we're going to do that in both directions. We're leaving Durham between 3 and 4 AM on Wednesday morning, and then starting the drive home at around 1 AM Sunday. All in the name of timing it so that we'll be on I-77 in Virginia and West Virginia outside of peak travel hours.

Of course, this time, we'll have a buddy with us! (Wow, she's grown a lot in the last three weeks.) Basically, Marla will dictate when we leave in the morning. She wakes up once or twice in the middle of the night anyway, and when she does, that'll be a perfect time for us to hit the road, I think. In theory. Or, if she doesn't wake up, we'll have to wake her up and put her in the car seat. Otherwise, we wouldn't get to our destination before sunset (preferable when you have an infant riding with you as we learned on our Cherohala Skyway trip). And we'll be far more likely to experience traffic, and I know Marla wouldn't like that. Traffic jams are bad enough without having a crying baby in the back seat.

The drive will probably be a bit of an adventure, but that's what we're all about! If it goes well, we might even take some side trips in Ohio in order to either visit some new counties (still plenty of gray to work with here), or perhaps finally clinch I-77 from start to finish (I'm only missing the northernmost 17 miles in Cleveland).

We haven't been to Toledo since last Christmas, so it'll be nice. I'm sure Amber's side of the family is looking forward to seeing nearly four-month-old Marla. (And to seeing us too, I suppose.)

The Triangle Expressway Trot

2011-11-21T16:33:00.000-05:00

I'm not a runner. As far as I'm concerned, bicycling > running. But if I were a runner, I definitely would have participated in yesterday's Triangle Expressway Trot. Amber was running in it, though, as were a few of our friends, so it was a good opportunity to come to one of Amber's races (for once) and show my support.

What's so special about the TriEx Trot? It's a race along the yet-to-be-opened Triangle Expressway, which will become North Carolina's first toll road in another month or two. Exercise and roadgeeking, together at last! I mean, how often do you get to hang out on a major freeway? Will there ever be another opportunity for me to get a picture of Marla and her stroller in the middle of a road like this?

This was actually the first running race of any kind that I can remember going to. Here's how it works from the perspective of a spectator: 1) You watch everyone go. 2) For the next 15 minutes, you're bored. (The Marla picture was taken during those 15 minutes.) 3) At the 15 minute mark, you start looking for the winner to make his (or her) way back. 4) For the next 30 minutes after that, you start looking for people you know to finish, trying to get a picture of each of them at the finish line.

So, here's the winner:

Yes, I got the timer in the picture by design. But from that point on, there were people were standing between me and the timer, so I wasn't able to get the timer in anyone else's picture.

And, actually, I wasn't able to capture everyone I know on camera at the finish line. I was usually too late. I also tried to give everyone I know a high-five after the finish line, but you see, here's the thing with that. Running a 5K is hard, and when you're finished, you're exhausted, and you're not exactly interested in high-fiving any of the spectators, or even looking at the spectators. See why I don't run? I never feel like that when I'm done with a bike ride.

Well, anyway, I was able to get a picture of Amber at the finish line, and right under the arch, too:

This was Amber's first 5K since before she was even pregnant. She did great! She ran the whole thing. The only other people I was able to get pictures of at the finish line were Maggie and Adam, who are somewhere in these two pics:

What is it like to run on an expressway? According to the runners, it was hot (race time temperature 73°F, dew point 55°F, with the sun out) and spacious. And with the wide, straight freeway, you could see the finish line from very far away, which was kind of a tease.

One more picture: the official mascots of the Triangle Expressway Trot.

Maybe I'll have to take my bike out on the TriEx before it opens, if that's possible and legal.

Curling Recap: 11/18/11

2011-11-21T16:32:00.000-05:00

Career game #160: 2011 Fall League - November 18, 2011

End.......... 12345678 |TTL

---------------------------

Allen........ 00212200 | 07

Chick........ 32000022 | 09

So...in last week's recap, I went on and on about what we could do to avoid giving up a big lead early in the game. So what do we do this week? We go down 5-0 in the first two ends, again. Ugh! Then, we came back (again), and then lost it at the end (again). Didn't I learn anything from the previous game?
Well, I thought I did...but the ice conditions were challenging early on. The ice started out VERY slow, much more so than normal. And as evidenced by our weekly slow start, the slow ice conditions of the first two ends do not benefit our team's style. And while I said last week that take-outs in the first end might be a reasonable strategy because they're not as weight dependent, take-outs were simply impossible in the first end. I gave my first shot a HUGE push, one that would be classified as "crazy insane take-out weight" later on in the game, and it didn't even make it to the house. I also have zero confidence in the line early in the game. If there are guards in front, I kind of just shrug my shoulders and say "let's throw it and hope we either miss the guards or hit one of our guards on the nose, because I have no idea what the ice is going to do yet". Well, we'll try again next time, and hopefully we won't give up 5 points in the first two ends again.

Once the rocks cooled down and the ice sped up, we were able to get our weight dialed in, resulting in some extremely well-played middle ends. All of us were making our shots, and there was more than one occasion where the other team had absolutely no option on their final shot.

And we were about to head into the final end with a three-point lead, until opposing Skip Brian made this shot: (our team = red)

This might have been another one of those situations where the other team had no option on their final shot, but they did have one option: a long "raise take-out". Hit their #2 into our #1 and stick for a game-tying two points. Hey, it happens. Some of these guys are really good.

But perhaps the biggest strategy failure on my part is in the final end, more so than the early ends. This is the 2nd week in a row in which we needed to score in the final end, and did not. Last week, we did not have last rock; this week, we did. My general strategy was to keep everything as open as possible; the center line was very dependable and take-out friendly, so I was planning on having a wide open take-out for the win on my final shot. But in order to do that, I basically had to call a take-out on every shot. I think I called for a draw one time, and that allowed them to get a second rock in the house. And eventually, that led to this setup, prior to my last shot of the game:

So much for the open take-out for one. If I hit rock #1 on the nose, #2 scores, and vice versa. Or maybe rock #2 was well-guarded. I don't remember. Regardless, my ONLY play was the straight draw, out turn (right-to-left curl), to the left of #3 and the right of #1. I thought I had the weight perfect, but my shot didn't curl soon enough and nicked the #3 guard. Game over.

This stinks, because I feel like we wasted a very solid effort. This was the most frustrating loss of the season, for sure. Oh well - one more chance in a couple of weeks to try and finish the season at 4-4.

Sports Saturday: 11/19/11

2011-11-19T07:45:00.003-05:00

NHL

(Note: This was written prior to Friday night's Carolina Hurricanes v. Buffalo Sabres game.)

The Carolina Hurricanes have had better weeks. As of Friday afternoon, they have lost six out of their last seven games (all in regulation), and...well, they just stink. Fire the players! Fire the GM! Fire the coach!

Let me talk about the last of those. Head coach Paul Maurice is once again on the "proverbial hot seat". You can count me among the many Hurricanes fans who are tired of Maurice's coaching and would like him gone as soon as possible. Maurice is not the only problem, but he's clearly not the solution.

This brings up an interesting dilemma that can apply to pretty much any sports team, college or pro. Let's say your favorite team has had the same coach for a while now (note: three years is considered "a while" in pro sports), and, well, you're pretty much sick of him. The team is going nowhere, you're tired of his coaching habits, and, well, you just want someone new and fresh. And unless your favorite team is among the snobby "one championship every five years is NOT GOOD ENOUGH" types (Nebraska football, the Boston Red Sox, etc), then the only way the coach is going to be fired is if the team starts playing badly. Like, really, really badly.

The Hurricanes aren't one of those teams, so it's going to take a long, sustained losing streak - kind of like the one the team is in now - to convince GM Jim Rutherford that the time is right to fire the head coach. Shoot, even if the Hurricanes finish 10th in the Eastern Conference this year, that will probably be good enough to keep Maurice around for another year. Hey, can't really fault the organization for aiming low. I do it all the time! But still...back to the original question. Should those of us who want Maurice to be fired ASAP actually root for the Hurricanes to lose their next few games as the means to an end?

My take: NO. We sports fans tend to get a little too pre-occupied with the "future". Let's lose a bunch of this games this season so that we can get a new head coach / get a higher draft pick! But we don't really know how the future is going to pan out. What about the present? Sure, I'm tired of seeing Paul Maurice's face behind the Hurricanes' bench. But the best case scenario in the short term is, of course, for the Hurricanes to go on a long winning streak starting RIGHT NOW and make the playoffs, all with Paul Maurice as coach. Besides, there is no guarantee that another coach will do any better. He could even do worse. So, root for your team to win their next game, regardless of the circumstances. Ultimately, that's what you want to see, right? But at least in this case, there is a silver lining should the Hurricanes keep losing.

This is normally where I would list the Hurricanes' next TV game, but there are no Hurricanes games on local TV this weekend. Instead, we only get the following NHL Network games: Sat 4:00p - DET/LA; Sat 7:00p - NYR/MTL.

NFL

I touched on this last week and in some prior weeks, but I will be really annoyed if the Indianapolis Colts turn their one and only putrid season in a decade into the #1 draft pick in next year's draft, and get their next franchise quarterback as a result. On the other hand, I'm tired of the Colts, and I've enjoyed watching them suck this year. And getting back to what I just talked about, I should train myself as a sports fan to be more interested in the present than the future. And in the present, the Colts suck. Lose them all, I say! Ha! Besides, Andrew Luck could end up being a bust anyway, and that scenario would be even better from a Jaguars fan's perspective.

As for the Jaguars...I imagine there is a portion of the fanbase - just like with the Carolina Hurricanes - that are tired of their head coach, want him to be fired, and thus wouldn't mind it so much if the Jaguars lose the rest of their games and get head coach Jack Del Rio fired. I know it would annoy the heck out of a lot of people if the Jaguars finish 8-8 allowing Del Rio to keep his job, but that wouldn't bother me. Either way, in the short term...go Jaguars! Jacksonville at Cleveland: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 707

Both Detroit and Buffalo are, predictably, fading down the stretch. Was it too good to be true? Both teams have weak opponents this week, so we'll know. There is no bigger test for a struggling team than when they play a perceived doormat. Carolina at Detroit - Sun 1:00p, WRAZ 50; Buffalo at Miami - Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 706

(Other locally broadcast games: CIN/BAL - Sun 1:00p, WRAL 5; SD/CHI - Sun 4:15p, WRAL 5; PHI/NYG - Sun 8:20p, NBC)

College football

The takeaway point from my rant last week should be this: let's not take college football so seriously. Among things we should take seriously: child rape. Among things we should not take seriously: whether or not your favorite college football team wins or loses. Last week, I started an effort to detatch myself emotionally from the outcome of college football games. This week, I hope to continue that trend. I've gotten a lot better at this over the years. We should all do the same. There would be less corruption in college football if the fanbase wasn't go so bat-s#!@ crazy about it. Sports should be entertainment, not an obsession. (Note: having a child is a great way to reinforce that point.)

Still...I don't think I can bring myself to watch the Penn State/Ohio State game this week. But I will watch Florida State, which hasn't had a scandal of any kind in, like, at least a year, right? This is actually a big game for Virginia, who "controls its own destiny" in whatever division of the ACC they're in. Virginia at Florida State - Sat 7:30p, ESPN2

South Florida is getting totally screwed by all of this conference realignment business. And as much of conference realignment is based on money and "television markets" rather than on-the-field performance, I have to wonder if South Florida would have gotten, say, an ACC invite had they managed to win a Big East title or two over the years. ... Actually, I know the answer to that. Of course not! The ACC already has two Florida teams. USF wouldn't expand their "geographic footprint" at all! Duh. Hey, maybe USF could join the Mountain West. Miami (FL) at South Florida - Sat 3:30p, ESPNU

Auto racing

So, I clicked "publish post" and totally forgot to mention the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship battle. (It's been a tough week.) Carl Edwards v. Tony Stewart. Don't really feel like giving any kind of analysis here, so I'll just close with this: go Carl! NASCAR Sprint Cup at Homestead (season finale) - Sun 3:00p, ESPN

Jack in the Box

2011-11-17T16:42:00.001-05:00

Back when I would regularly drive between State College and Jacksonville, I had a minor obsession with "Jack in the Box" fast food restaurants. Jack in the Box is primarily a west coast chain, but for some reason, they have a few restaurants in the Charlotte area. So, often times, I would make it a point to stop at one on my way through Charlotte. Eventually my "Jack in the Box" obsession became a "Bojangles'" obsession, but I made sure to revisit an "old friend" last time I was in the area.

I think Jack in the Box generally elicits the following response among most people: "Jack in the Box? Ewwww! I'm going to go throw up now." Is that because of the restaurant's E. coli outbreak of 1993, in which four children died? Maybe. I don't think Jack in the Box is so gross. I mean, it's fast food. What do you expect?

The best thing Jack in the Box has going for it is variety. Burgers? Obviously. Chicken strips? Yep. Tacos? Sure. Curly fries? You betcha. Breakfast sandwiches served all day? Hey, why not? I mean, this place has just about everything.

Are any of its menu items really that good? No...obviously, a chicken-dedicated restaurant will make better chicken than Jack in the Box. But their stuff is passable, and it's reasonably priced. And I'm sure this is all very unhealthy. But again...this is fast food. What do you expect? Why does Jack in the Box have such a bad reputation, anyway? I think it's undeserved. Maybe the chain actually has a good reputation out west, where people are actually familiar with the product.

I also think Jack in the Box has the best commercials out there among fast food restaurants. But we don't get them here because we do not live in a Jack in the Box market. They're basically just a "vacation novelty", for me. As in, "Hey, I just saw a commercial for Jack in the Box. I must be on vacation! Hooray!"

There's no real point to this, by the way. I just wanted to help refute the reputation that Jack in the Box is garbage. If such a reputation actually exists.

The Motherly Instinct

2011-11-15T17:14:00.001-05:00

This blog post would be very appropriate on or around Mother's Day. But I've always thought that recognizing the importance of parents (Mother's Day / Father's Day) or love (Valentine's Day) only on those "special occasions", and only because you feel obligated to, really isn't all that thoughtful. How about we pay tribute to mothers on a random Tuesday in November?

Ever since we had our daughter, I've noticed something. The vast majority of the people who give our daughter "oh how cute!" attention, are women. The majority of the baby pictures I see on Facebook are posted by women. All of the employees at our day care are women. Why is this?

There are exceptions, but I think most women are hardwired to like babies. I call this the "motherly instinct", and I've noticed it more now than ever. Women are drawn to babies. It's like they have a "baby radar" or something. And once they have had one, they need a fix. Older women, especially, can't get enough when it comes to babies. But it applies to younger women, too. Many women our age who are married without children - and this certainly applied to Amber back before she was pregnant - see a baby and think, "I want one!" And thank goodness for the "motherly instinct", too, because otherwise the human race would be doomed. Sure, some men want kids, but not as badly as the women want kids. If reproduction were entirely up to the men, we wouldn't have near as many babies.

This isn't to say that men aren't capable of being good parents, and that a motherless household is "no place for children". Male domestic partners, for example, have every right to raise a child of their own. (I just wanted to make that clear.) It just doesn't come as naturally for us men. Parenting takes a little more thought on our end because we don't have the "motherly instinct". Thankfully, in the internet age, anybody can do just about anything these days.

But the "motherly instinct" is both a blessing and a curse. Ask the parents of a six-month old. Who is getting less sleep, the mom or the dad? Who is more stressed out, the mom or the dad? Chances are, it's the mom on both counts, especially in today's era of families with two working parents. The fathers can help out all we want, but regardless, the mother will always be thinking about the child. The "motherly instinct" can be quite a burden on a young mother, as I've seen first hand. I encourage Amber to go running without Marla every once in a while, just like I go bicycling; but sometimes it's hard for her to "detach", even for a little bit. (Or, more accurately, she's usually rather sneak in a nap.)

So, we should be very grateful for our mothers and wives. They have a gift. Oh, and there's that whole pregnancy and childbirth thing, too.

Curling Recap: 11/11/11

2011-11-14T16:07:00.002-05:00

End.......... 1234567 |TTL

--------------------------

Scheck....... 2302206 | 15

Allen........ 0020050 | 07

This wasn't the case last season, but this season, my biggest weakness as Skip has clearly been the start. My team has been outscored 13-5 in the first two ends this season; from the 3rd end on, we're about even (32 for, 31 against). Maybe this week's game, in which we trailed 5-0 after just two ends, is a good case study. So...how do we keep this from happening next time?

The first two ends are unique because we haven't figured out the ice conditions yet, and the ice is much slower in the first two ends than it is in the rest of the game. Maybe we're "too light" for our own good in the first two ends? Maybe I'm too afraid to call "taps" or take-outs early in the game because I haven't figured out the ice yet? Could be. Maybe I should call for more "back line" or "hack" weight shots early in the game; that way, if we're light, then we'll simply draw into the house. In theory. This applies to my shots as well, because I'm almost always light in the first two ends..

Starting off well was especially important in this game because we were playing against a good team. Opposing Skip Dan is one of the top Skips in the club, and he can usually pull out his final draw to the button when he needs to. And he generally calls a quiet game...except when he has a big lead, apparently. When we got a rock in the house, out it went! That is certainly what happened in the 7th end, when we absolutely had to score. (If we didn't have to score, my strategy would have been different, and I'd like to think that we could have held them to, say, two.) But in the 6th end, we were able to get lots of rocks in the house, their last take-out attempt missed everything, and we scored five. But that was the exception to the rule. I've gotten away from throwing guards once we get "early position" in the house, and I need to get back to that. I know I've played pretty well as Skip over the last two years, but this is the kind of game that makes me really think about what I'm doing out there. Maybe I should get go back and see how I called the strategy last season, when my team won the championship. If only I wrote up a detailed description of every curling game I ever played...

On the other hand, this other team is the first place team, having outscored the opposition 67-39. Maybe the fact that I'm even discussing strategy after this game, as opposed to shrugging my shoulders and saying "Well, they just played better than we did", means that I've come a long way. And even though we're a long shot to win the league championship at this point, we're still 3-3, and I'll take that. After all, it is kind of awkward when the League Coordinator (that's me) wins the league championship.

Sports Saturday: 11/12/11

2011-11-12T09:43:00.002-05:00

College football

There are approximately 10 million opinion pieces floating around on the internet right now regarding the Jerry Sandusky child molestation charges, the Penn State football program, the university itself, and of course, Joe Paterno. But I'm not going to get into all that, though, because that's all been beaten to death by people who are better at writing than I am. Instead...well, as someone who has followed college football closely for well over a decade now, I've reached my breaking point. I was already getting there when the season began, but now, I've had enough. Basically, it comes down to this: college football has gotten WAY too big. This idea that a university's football program, the money that comes with it, and the people that are associated with it, are somehow so important that it makes it worth repeatedly violating NCAA rules, or - worse - covering up child rape for a whole decade...well, it makes me wonder. How can I even watch college football, knowing what goes on behind the scenes?

I had already kind of resigned myself to the fact that all of the successful teams in college football are breaking NCAA rules in one way or the other. When it's just a matter of secret "under the table" payments or benefits to players, I can live with that. Can't really fault individual programs for trying to gain a competitive edge when the only penalty is "vacated wins". I mean, what is that? And college football is hardly the only sport with occasional widespread rule-breaking. Rampant cheating goes in cycles; eventually, the governing body (in this case the NCAA) will catch up and get everyone in line (e.g. MLB with steroids). I can also live with the NCAA pretending that college football is an amateur competition, when really, it's not. (Except in that the players don't get paid, of course. At least not officially.) College football is big business, now more so than ever. It's almost as big as the NFL is these days. Conference realignment was cool and interesting at first, but now it's just getting annoying, and when you have Boise State joining the "Big East", it only reinforces the whole "big business" aspect of the sport. And the BCS has always been crap, since the day it was born. But I've lived with all of college football's flaws for years, because 1) I have pride in my two alma maters, both of which have good college football teams, and 2) because football is entertaining to watch.

But now...yikes. Penn State was supposed to be one of the "good schools" that didn't live on the fringes of the NCAA rulebook and/or moral compass. So much for that, eh? And for what? To protect the football program? Regardless of whether the football program or the university administration are to blame, the way I see it, this is directly tied to football. Let's say Jerry Sandusky was a trusted, tenured university professor with zero impact on the football program. Do his child raping habits still get swept under the rug? Maybe, but probably not. God forbid we let this affect our storied football team! And it's not as if things like this happen outside the football department, right? Or do we just not hear about those? Is the will to win in college football so important that some people in positions of influence are even willing to overlook this? If so, then that is very, very sad.

So, I guess the point I'm trying to get across is this. I've had it with college football, and I am no longer emotionally invested in it. Sure, it would be nice if Florida State beat rival Miami (FL) today (Sat 3:30p, ABC), but the winner of that game will probably wind up vacating the win at some point anyway, so who cares?

As for Nebraska at Penn State - Sat 12:00p, ESPN: yeah, whatever. I'm kind of ashamed to be a college football fan at this point. But I am NOT ashamed to be a Penn State alumnus. I met a lot of great people at Penn State University, all of which uphold the highest moral standard, and none of which are affiliated with the football program.

College basketball

While still profitable, college basketball isn't quite the corrupt beast that college football is. And, they actually have a playoff at the end of the season! I don't think I'm even close to the breaking point with college basketball yet, so it's still more than watchable. Which is good, because part of the reason I didn't renew NHL Center Ice for 2011-12 was because I planned on watching more college basketball instead.

But aside from Friday's "aircraft carrier" game between North Carolina and Michigan State, I don't really see anything on the calendar that is all that appealing to me this weekend. So...we'll wait another week for this.

NFL

I am looking forward to this Sunday's Jaguars/Colts game way more than I should. Either the Jaguars win (which is always good to see), or the Colts win and decrease their odds in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. It's win-win! But for the record, "Jaguars win" is a more preferable outcome. In fact, if they lose this game, I think they might as well fire Jack Del Rio now. Jacksonville at Indianapolis - Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 708

Other games of interest:
Tennessee at Carolina - Sun 1:00p, WRAL 5: Watching the Panthers, sometimes I forget that they have the same miserable record as the Jaguars. I guess good offense + bad defense looks more impressive than good defense + horrible offense.
Buffalo at Dallas - Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 704: Is the Bills' season going up in smoke?
Detroit at Chicago - Sun 4:15p, DirecTV 711: With the Lions actually playing well, football on Thanksgiving won't be so bad this year.
New England at NY Jets - Sun 8:20p, NBC: Hey, look, the Jets are on national television again! Barf. And next week, not only are the Jets in the NFL Network Thursday night game, but it's against Tim Tebow! Barf.

(Other locally televised games: NO/ATL - Sun 1:00p, WRAZ 50; NYG/SF - Sun 4:15p, WRAZ 50)

NHL

Time for my half-assed Carolina Hurricanes analysis of the week! Thank goodness for Jeff Skinner and Cam Ward (the latter of whom I think is a little underappreciated - do Hurricanes fans take him for granted?), because I think the Hurricanes would be a hopeless bottom feeder without them. Eric Staal has been a colossal overpaid disappointment so far this season. How the heck do you accumulate a plus/minus rating of -16 by the first week of November??? Well...still plenty of time to work this out, I guess. Pittsburgh at Carolina - Sat 7:00p, Fox Sports Carolinas

I'm very disappointed that NHL Network has opted to stop airing "Hockey Night in Canada" and instead air more of the American teams that Versus already shows plenty of as it is. Is this to spite me for opting out of Center Ice for this season? New Jersey at Washington - Sat 7:00p, NHL Network

Finally, there is Wednesday night's Philadelphia/Tampa Bay game, in which the Flyers' response to the Lightning's "neutral zone trap" defensive scheme was to stand there and do nothing. Who looks worse here - the Lightning for playing boring defense, or the Flyers for not advancing the puck? My take: the Flyers look worse. Both teams were within the rules, but I don't see how doing what the Flyers did actually helped them win the game. (The Flyers ended up losing.) Obviously, the NHL will need to do something about it if this becomes a chronic thing.

Auto racing

Yep...I can't help myself but talk about the points system again. Carl Edwards has zero wins in the Chase; Tony Stewart has four. But who's leading the points? Edwards is! And it's not like Stewart's non-win finishes have been terrible, either (7th, 8th, 15th, 25th). Even if Edwards wins the Cup with no wins (and only one on the entire season), I don't expect any retalitatory point system changes like we saw after Matt Kenseth won the Cup in uninspiring fashion in 2003. Fact is, if you're going to heavily stagger the points system at the top (which I have always been in favor of) and reward winning more than you penalize a bad finish, then you're leaving the door open for somebody to dominate and get a big points lead. I don't see anything wrong with that, but NASCAR seems insistent that EVERY championship battle come down to the final race. And that's why the point system is how it is. NASCAR Sprint Cup at Phoenix - Sun 3:00p, ESPN

Television Update: 11/10/11

2011-11-10T16:44:00.002-05:00

Let's talk television! I like to keep our DVR in a perpetual state of being between 65% and 75% full, so I added two new (as in, new to us) shows to the "Always Record" lineup. One has been around for years now, and the other is brand new.

The Amazing Race: This CBS reality show has been around for, what, a decade now? It features teams "racing" around the world, and as someone who likes traveling and who will watch the occasional game show (and that's basically what this is), this seems like something I would enjoy. I don't know why it's taken me so long to give it a try.

Verdict: PASS. "The Amazing Race" features plenty of the "OMG CONFLICTS!!!" nonsense that plagues reality television, but not so much of it that it makes the show unwatchable. So, I can live with it. But the tasks or whatever they have to do are interesting, the places they go are likely places I'll never go myself (Indonesia and Malawi aren't real high on my list), and it's educational, too, when you see how the contestants travel from one place to another. I don't know, really, but I'm intrigued. What's going to happen next? New episodes don't stay on the DVR for long.

Other thoughts on this show, since I have taken a liking to it. Who's going to win? Hard to say, because one mistake can I also have to wonder: are the "elimination legs" pre-determined? Or do they wait until they find out who will finish last before they decide whether to eliminate the last place team that day? Obviously, I hope it's the former, but there's really no way for us to know, is there?

I'm not particularly fond of the host, Phil Keoghan, for two reasons. One, I think he's kind of a jerk. "Oh, you guys have been eliminated, so sorry...just kidding! This is a non-elimination leg!" Seriously? Also, what kind of accent is he trying to pull off here? Keoghan is from New Zealand, and it sounds like he is trying to sound American, but sometimes, his native accent slips through. I'd rather he just speak in his "native tongue", personally.

Also...this is a minor inconvenience, but because "The Amazing Race" airs on Sunday evenings, I have to record a two hour block (8 to 10) in case CBS is airing an NFL game at 4:00 PM that day, in which case, "The Amazing Race" will almost certainly start late.

Up All Night: This is a brand new NBC sitcom centered around two first-time parents. Hey, I know a couple of first-time parents!

Verdict: FAIL. Unfortunately, the whole "parenthood" thing seems to be more of a side plot than the main focus of the show. The show spends way too much time focusing on Reagan's (that's the mom) career as a television show producer and not enough time focusing on the things that young parents go through, which is the whole reason we started watching the show in the first place! Ugh.

It wouldn't be so bad if Reagan had, you know, a normal job. But for some reason they decided to give her a glitzy job producing a daytime talk show with some Oprah-wannabe. It wouldn't be so bad if the Oprah-wannabe ("Ava") wasn't the most annoying character on the show, but this aspect of the show completely ruins it for me. Instead of being a show about young parents that both mom and dad can enjoy, instead it's a show about a working mom with a glamorous job that is basically targeted towards women. Why couldn't they have just given her, I don't know, a regular job at a local bank or something? You know, something us normal folk who don't live in New York or Los Angeles can relate to? It's occasionally funny when they distance themselves from Ava, but still: off the DVR it goes.

But in order to end on a positive note: NBC's "Parks and Recreation" has become one of my favorite sitcoms. It has surpassed "The Office" as the network's best show, in my opinion.

Energy Drinks, and Other Drugs

2011-11-09T15:36:00.001-05:00

I don't want to be one of those people who is "addicted" to coffee and has to drink one every single morning in order to get a "caffeine fix". That's true with other drugs as well. I avoid them unless absolutely necessary. That way, when I actually do need them, they are effective.

So...Saturday. I was working on five non-productive hours of sleep, I was coming down with a cold, and the sun was going down as I was driving back from Charleston. I was pretty beat, and my personal safety was at stake, so I think this instance qualified as "absolutely necessary". I then purchased and consumed my first ever energy drink. (I won't say which brand, because energy drinks are advertised enough as it is.)

Was the drink effective? Well, I was most alert in the two hours following the drink, so it had to have helped. But there are other contributing variables: I was also driving with the windows down and the music up, along a route other than the boring interstate. And, I had a Reese's Fast Break, which gave me some more sugar and calories. (Even though I haven't talked about them in a while, the Reese's Fast Break is still the best candy bar out there, for my money.) Can't really say whether the energy drink alone is responsible for my increased awareness.

Energy drinks seem to be very popular these days. Why? I think it's marketing. Energy drinks are typically promoted by "action sports stars", who are among the coolest people out there, right? Or, maybe it's just because people like drugs. Either way, it can't be the taste, right? My energy drink of choice didn't taste particularly great, which was good in a way, because it helped regulate my consumption of it.

While I keep my stimulant consumption to an absolute minimum, I haven't been so disciplined when it comes to cold and headache remedies. I'm still working on this cold - the worst cold I've had in years - and as a result, I've taken generic NyQuil each of the last four nights. And last night, it was NOT effective. It appears I've gained a tolerance to Kroger-brand nighttime cold medicine, or something. And after just four doses! (Well, four and a half, actually.) What gives?

Well, I guess that's better than being addicted to it. I'm not addicted to headache medicine (generic Excedrin) by any means, but I think I end up having to take one dose every week or two, usually after a long bike ride. But hey, the stuff works...and a few doses a month really isn't that much compared to what some people take, I'm sure.

Roadgeekery

2011-11-08T16:07:00.000-05:00

One day when I was in high school, my brother asked me to go to the intersection of Beach Boulevard and Third Street in Jacksonville Beach, FL (not far from the high school), and take some pictures of road signs. Why? Because that intersection serves as the eastern end of U.S. Route 90, and there's a website that is looking for pictures of the end of every U.S. Route in the country. I think my reaction was something to the effect of, "This is a really dumb hobby of yours, but I'll do it." (Two of the pictures I took that day are still posted on that very website, by the way.)

Now, here I am 11 years later, taking a picture at the end of US 176 in Goose Creek, SC. Not for the same website - that site has long acquired all of the U.S. Route endpoints in the country, and has since moved on to historical endpoints - but for my own enjoyment.

And, from later that day, here is a picture of a sign for I-526 Business Spur in Charleston. The significance is that there are only a few three-digit interstate business spurs in the entire country. (So I was told. I'm having trouble finding a complete list.) Again, this is only for my own enjoyment.

When did this "dumb hobby" become something I embraced? Well, the general frame of mind of your average high school student - when "fitting in" is of utmost importance - is that quirky hobbies are, well, dumb. Then once you go to college, and eventually grad school, you start hanging out less with the general population and more with people who are just as quirky as you are. And if you're lucky, you find a woman (or man) who loves your quirky hobbies that you've always been afraid to embrace because they were "dumb". And now, here we are.

So...why? Hard to say, but some people out there - let's call them "road geeks" or "roadgeeks" (still not sure if it's one word or two) - share interests in the following:
- Maps. In the end, it all comes back to maps. What a better way to visualize where things are and where roads go! I like maps, you know.
- Roads (obviously). Where do roads start and end? Why are roads numbered the way they are? What is it like to follow a single road from point A to point B? How about when point B is 3,000 miles away?
- Road signs. Each state does highway signs and route markers a little bit differently. I think it's fun to go from state to state and notice the subtle differences. For example, the "exit tab" on North Carolina highway signs is flush to the right of the main sign (unless it's a left exit), but on South Carolina highway signs, it's slightly offset to the left. And if you can find a really old road sign, such as a colored U.S. route shield in Florida...you win!
- Road construction and design. Of the four, this is the topic I'm least interested in, but some brands of roadgeeks are more into the civil engineering side of things. Overpass design, different types of intersections, you name it.
Corollaries of these main interests are visiting as many counties as possible, "clinching" interstate highways, and so on.

Get a bunch of roadgeeks together (as happened over the weekend in Charleston), and what happens? Well, you go check out the latest construction projects (this wasn't here last time!!), look for old road signs (this sign is 30 years old!!) or remnants of old roads (this used to be US 17!!), trade maps (trade you my 1995 Oklahoma map for a 1979 Montana map! This one still has US 10 labeled on it all the way to Missoula!! Although there wasn't any map exchanging on Saturday), and so on. Good times.

God bless the internet. Now, it's easier than ever to embrace your subculture and find others who share your quirky interests! At least, once you get out of high school, it is.

Curling Recap: 11/4/11

2011-11-07T16:06:00.002-05:00

Career game #158: 2011 Fall League - November 4, 2011

End.......... 12345678 |TTL

---------------------------

Allen........ 01112101 | 07

Witcraft..... 20000030 | 05

The level of play has gone up from week to week throughout the season, and that continued this week. No such trouble getting rocks into the house this week! Not by any means.

So...let's talk ice conditions. This being infamous Sheet 1, there was a bit of a fall towards the center of the rink, which meant a couple of things. 1) It was very hard to put a guard exactly where you wanted it, which meant that there was usually a draw available for the Skips. Not necessarily an easy draw, but a draw nevertheless. 2) The line was very sensitive to sweeping. In the even ends, the only way to get a rock to stay on the center line was to NOT sweep. Sweep, and the rock immediately fell victim to the fall, and your shot was doomed. It was much more finicky than normal. I must have figured that out first, because we scored in all of the even ends. Or...actually, I think we just got lucky. Unlike last week, there was some luck involved in this week's victory.

I'm only going to talk about the last two ends specifically here. In the 7th end, we had a four-point lead. I'm pretty sure I've gone on record in the past as saying that a four-point lead in the next-to-last end is TOO EARLY to be "playing the scoreboard". But I think I did do a little scoreboard-playing in this game, playing (and ultimately failing) to not give up the big end. And I wonder why so many of my games are so close! (Four of our team's five games this season have ended 7-5, with the other game being 6-5.) ... Actually, you know what, I don't think scoreboard watching was the problem. Opposing Skip Nick just made a really good double take-out of sorts for three that I didn't even think was possible. I would try to diagram it, but considering that I didn't see it coming, I can't really replicate the circumstances. Any second-guessing of my decision making in that end is purely in hindsight.

As for the 8th end...so, one of my "pet peeves" when watching sports on television is when bad sports commentators (especially in football) talk about "momentum". One announcer will say, "Oh, Team X has all the momentum now!"...and then Team X will immediately throw an interception or something. But what about all that "momentum" they had? If Matt Millen were providing color commentary for Friday's curling game, surely he would say that Team Witcraft had "all the momentum" heading into the 8th end. Yes, some sports teams do tend to tense up when the other team mounts a comeback, but that's not "momentum". In our case, we might have tensed up a little, because at one point in the 8th end, the other team was sitting FIVE. But our Vice Cliff made the shot that saved the game, putting a rock inside the four-foot that couldn't be touched, and ended up being the winning rock.

I'm glad I didn't have to make a shot myself there, but...on the other hand, I think my draw weight was as good in this game as it's ever been. This was the first game I can remember as Skip where I had more confidence in the final-shot draw than the final-shot take-out. Confidence in your draw weight is absolutely critical when it comes to being a good Skip. Not just in your own shots, but in your teammates' shots. If I notice during a game that one of my teammates is consistently heavy with his/her shots, then I try to give him/her a take-out instead of a draw to give him/her a better chance of success, even if the draw is more strategically sound at the time. Not this week: we were all over the draws on Friday night. As a Skip, that's really nice to have. Take-outs are fun, but draws are ultimately how you win.

But the real test will be if we can carry that into next week's game against the top team in the league. See how I avoided saying "momentum" there?

Sports Saturday: 11/5/11

2011-11-04T15:42:00.002-04:00

This just in: when you have your first child, your priorities and your lifestyle change. No longer do I have as much time to sit on the couch and watch sports, nor do I really want to as much, either. This means these "Sports Saturday" posts I insist on writing are only going to get more and more ignorant with time. Hooray!

NFL - But the NFL is perhaps the only sport that has not been affected. Many Sundays, I'm sitting at home anyway. And, besides, I gotta get my money's worth out of NFL Sunday Ticket. This Sunday might be an exception, though, because Jacksonville is on bye. I think I'll use this opportunity to go on a Sunday afternoon bike ride.

Speaking of the Jaguars...I think last time, I said something to the effect of, "Hey, there's still a chance they could win the AFC South!" Well...I think they pretty much had to beat Houston last Sunday for that to remain viable. So, not gonna happen. Hope Jack Del Rio enjoys his last eight games as the Jaguars' head coach.

Not only are the Jaguars on bye, but so are the Panthers, Lions, and Christian Ponder's Vikings, all of which are teams I would otherwise be interested in watching. So I think this is a good week to take a break from the NFL. Except for the game that gives me the strongest rooting interest: NY Jets at Buffalo - Sun 1:00p, WRAL 5. (A close second: New Orleans at Tampa Bay.)

College football - This is the second of three consecutive Saturdays in which I'll be away from home most or all of the day. (Which is why I'm posting this on Friday.) So, I haven't been watching a whole lot of college football. Let me just touch on a couple of things, though...

Florida State (defeated Boston College 38-7 on Thursday): I know the competition has been pretty weak the last four weeks, but I can't help wonder what "might have been" had E.J. Manuel and others been 100% healthy for the Clemson and Wake Forest games. I think that will be the story of the season, especially if they close the season out by beating Miami (FL) and Florida (which they better!).

Penn State (bye week): This team is really tough to watch, but they get results! So far. The last three games are their toughest in-conference, so even though they have a whopping 2½-game lead in whatever division of the Big Ten they're in...we'll see. But at least there's reason for excitement.

LSU at Alabama - Sat 8:00p, CBS: I really hope these two teams aren't given a rematch in the BCS Championship game, because that would be stupid. ... Actually, you know what? I don't care what the BCS does anymore. Not like I'm going to stay up and watch the BCS Championship anyway. This game, however, I might.

MLB - Speaking of "staying up late and watching sports"...I'm a week late on this, but daughter or no daughter, dramatic finish or no dramatic finish, I'm having a hard time coming up with a scenario in which I would have stayed awake all the way until the end of World Series Game 6. I don't know how you people do it.

NHL - Hockey has, perhaps, taken the biggest hit post-Marla in terms of the amount of time I spend watching it. Until the playoffs start, I imagine that Carolina Hurricanes games will make up 90% of my total hockey watching. (I think it's been around 50% in past seasons.) So, the Hurricanes are going to be pretty much all I talk about in the NHL from now until April.

Nothing really intelligent to say on the Hurricanes front this week. But I do want to point out one thing: I know it's early, but the Hurricanes are currently 8th in the Eastern Conference. Here we go again! Washington at Carolina - Fri 7:00p, Fox Sports Carolinas

Oh, right, that reminds me. That whole DirecTV/FOX carriage dispute? Resolved with no interruption in service. As most cable/satellite carriage disputes are.

Auto racing - Three races left in the NASCAR season, and it looks like Jimmie Johnson won't win the championship this year. Instead, we have Carl Edwards 1st and Tony Stewart 2nd. Given the point system's harsh penalty for one bad finish (as Matt Kenseth experienced last Sunday), how aggressive will these guys be on Sunday? If both of them play it conservative in order to avoid the "bad finish", then NASCAR really needs to think about adjusting the point system. But they won't, of course. NASCAR Sprint Cup at Texas - Sun 3:00p, ESPN

Formula One: I only watched the first half of last weekend's Indian Grand Prix (I'm assuming Sebastian Vettel won?), but holy crap, the air quality looked awful. Amber was there (Delhi-ish) a couple of years ago and didn't remember it being that bad. As an EPA contractor, perhaps I should be happy that our air quality is something we likely will not be outsourcing to India.

McRib

2011-11-03T16:52:00.000-04:00

This country is funny sometimes. Take, for instance, the McRib. Every once in a while, McDonald's will bring their rib-shaped (but not made of actual rib meat), barbecue sauce-laden pork sandwich out of retirement for a few weeks. And in the process, people go nuts! "OMG! MCRIB IS BACK!!!" Perhaps you are aware of the impressive cult following that the McRib pork sandwich has.

I've never had a McRib before, so I made it a mission as part of last weekend's road trip: don't return home without having my first ever McRib.

My verdict: it was okay. Not bad, but not better than you would get from a local barbecue restaurant. And perhaps that gets to the root of why the McRib is only available on a "limited time" basis.

People don't go to fast food restaurants to eat pork. They come to eat, for the most part, beef and chicken. Beef and chicken are easy to mass-produce in a way that the general public will approve, because not too much customization goes into it. Pork, on the other hand...well, for one thing, pork is not as popular a meat as beef and chicken. But on top of that, pork is cooked differently everywhere you go. Different sauces, different pig parts, different cooking methods, you name it. And everyone is very particular about that. I don't think it's possible to mass-produce a pork sandwich that will be well accepted all across the country. That is, unless you turn it into a novelty item by only selling it for a few weeks at a time, and market it very well in the process, as McDonald's has done.

As fast food goes, a McRib really isn't that unhealthy. But the reputation among food elitists is that the McRib is basically processed garbage. But they say the same thing about hot dogs, I'm sure, and I like hot dogs, so...meh.

But the fact remains, the McRib is just your average pork sandwich with barbecue sauce, and local barbecue restaurants everywhere (Eastern North Carolina excluded) do pork better. Good pork is all about the personal touch. I don't think the McRib frenzy has anything to do with the quality of the sandwich itself. I think it's just a plea for mainstream fast food to embrace "The Other White Meat" more than they do. But is that really what we want? Wouldn't we rather leave premier pork preparation up to the local joints? I know I would.

The Tail of the Dragon

2011-11-02T15:35:00.002-04:00

I think I first saw a reference to a stretch of mountainous road called "The Tail of the Dragon" (or "The Dragon" for short) on a t-shirt. I then investigated, and decided that as a "road enthusiast", that I had to go there at some point.

View Larger Map

The official claim is that the road has 318 curves in 11 miles. I thought that was crazy, but after having driven it twice last Sunday (once in each direction), I am now a firm believer in that number. It's hard to objectively judge how curvy this road is compared to others that I've driven, but it's up there, for sure.

This road has quite a reputation, and is a major attraction for fast cars and motorcycles alike. If you want to test the limits of your car (from a braking and cornering standpoint as opposed to pure speed), this is where you do it. Because of that, there is quite an interesting culture surrounding this road.

Wait, is that race fuel on sale, for $7.99 a gallon? Well, there is a bag over the pump, so not really...but they must have sold it at some point. Or maybe the pump has never been operational, and they just put the "race fuel" pump here purely for looks.

It's impossible to translate to you through one or two pictures how insane this road is. It just keeps going, hairpin turn after hairpin turn for almost a half hour with no break! I was exhausted afterwards. Sadly, I did not time myself (having an infant in the back seat can be a bit of a distraction at times), but I probably averaged 25 mph over the course of the "Dragon". I could have gone faster if I really "went for it", but I maintained what I thought was a "responsible but not lazy" speed.

The speed limit is only 30 mph; that sounds slow, but rarely did "responsible but not lazy" take me over 35. As for everyone else...yeah, most of the others were pushing the limits of their respective vehicles. Suffice to say, most of the other cars and motorcycles drove at a faster pace than I did. There are no passing zones on the "Dragon", but there are a LOT of pullouts, and it is generally understood that when there is someone on your butt, that you use the next available pullout. Fortunately, the vast majority of "Dragon" drivers adhered to this unwritten policy. A couple of people pulled out for me, but I generally had to pull out myself once every few minutes. (Is there an inadvertent sexual metaphor in there somewhere?)

Here's something I thought was neat, and helpful! There is surprisingly little official signage along the road warning drivers of dangerous curves and whatnot, and visibility is low at times due to all of the trees and hills. So to help us out, people have written messages on the road (e.g. "SLO") that warn drivers about that sort of thing, so that they don't, you know, kill themselves. Being in the mountains, you can't always see around the next curve, so you don't always know in advance whether that next right-hander is a gentle 25-mph turn, or a tight 10-mph hairpin. People have died on this road. (That's kind of a fun map, by the way. It looks like the average is two or three deaths per year.) There are also arrows on the road pointing to each of the pullouts, which is extremely helpful, because otherwise they would often come up too fast to react. Among the most interesting road-painted messages was an arrow pointing to something called the "BOOB ZONE", whatever that is. (I'm afraid to Google that one myself.)

You know how theme parks will take your picture on a roller coaster and then try to sell them to you after the ride? Well, given that this road is sort of a roller coaster, I suppose it's only appropriate that there are people taking your picture here, too! There wasn't just one photographer, either; there were THREE. They photograph your car going down the "Dragon", and then you can view and/or buy them from their website at your earliest convenience. For example, here's us! We certainly do not plan on buying any of them, but these photographers must be reasonably successful, or else there wouldn't be THREE of them.

As for the scenery...this road is not as scenic as the Cherohala Skyway. It is mostly forested, which during Fall Foliage season, is great! But we did get one nice view out of it:

I like curvy roads and all, but the "Dragon" was actually a little much. By the time we were done, I couldn't wait to get back on the freeway. This isn't the first curvy road that's done that to me, but it doesn't happen often. But we had to do it. And, heck, we may do it again sometime.

Cherohala Skyway Trip Recap

2011-11-01T17:01:00.000-04:00

Road trip recap time! Let's tackle last weekend's drive to the mountains point-by-point:

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most-visited national park in the country, by far. More than TWICE as many visitors come here as come to the 2nd-most-visited park, Grand Canyon (source). But how crowded would it be on a cold October day? Probably not "summer crowded", but still crowded. We are not the only ones who like Fall foliage. It was manageable, but it was chaos at this scene along the main through road, which everyone wanted to get a picture of (including us).

I'd say that peak foliage was at about 2,000 feet. Leaves were brown between 2,000 and 4,000 feet, and completely gone above 4,000 feet.

Then, above 6,000 feet, you get snow! Here was the scene up on Clingmans Dome:

I've been to Clingmans Dome three or four times. Every time, there has been no visibility whatsoever at the top. I guess they call them the Smokies for a reason, eh?

Clingmans Dome is the highest point in Tennessee, but only this week did I discover via Google Maps/Earth that the top of the mountain, and the observation deck, are actually on the North Carolina side of the border:

View Larger Map

Not only is the top of the mountain in North Carolina, but nearly the entire walkway that takes you there is in North Carolina, too. So is the actual "highest point in Tennessee" along the brief section of walkway that veers across the state line? If not, then I suppose I've never technically clinched the Tennessee highpoint. How close do you have to be to "clinch" a highpoint, anyway? How does it work when a state's highpoint is on the slope of a mountain that peaks in another state? (Mount Frissell, which peaks in Massachusetts but whose southern slope comprises Connecticut's highpoint, is a better example.) Well, regardless, I'm counting the Tennessee highpoint - not only for me, but for Marla, too. (We took Marla as far as the base of the observation tower, but we did not take her up the tower itself.)

My take on Great Smoky Mountains National Park is that, sure, it's beautiful. But there are a lot of beautiful areas around here which are nowhere near as crowded as Great Smoky Mountains. Go here, and then go check out some of the other beautiful parts of the region that aren't packed with tourists. For example:

Cherohala Skyway

Sunday morning is my favorite time to drive. It's the weekend, and there is never any traffic because everyone is either at church or sleeping. (Same goes for riding my bike, too.)

The Tennessee side (lower elevation) was at peak foliage, but the North Carolina side (higher elevation) was well past peak. Can't get everything all at once! The transition is kind of neat, though. It was even more dramatic in Great Smoky Mountains, when we went from peak foliage to snow within in a matter of minutes.

Not only is there the drive itself, but there are also several signed and marked trails along the Skyway, although we did not do any of them due to time and baby constraints. (We did do a short hike in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, just to the east; more on that later.) And in stark contrast to the nearby National Park, there is NOBODY here! The Skyway gets my absolute highest recommendation. I would love to come back in early to mid-October.

The other scenic road we took, the "Tail of the Dragon" (US-129 between North Carolina and Tennessee), will get its own blog post. It was that crazy.

Tellico Plains, Tennessee

Tellico Plains is at the western end of the Cherohala Skyway, and thus made for a logical overnight stay. Given that this was Marla's first overnight road trip, we opted for a bigger lodge-type room, as opposed to the standard Comfort Inn types of rooms we normally stay in.

If the employees of our lodge, Hardee's, Subway, and Dollar General are any indication, the folks who live in Tellico Plains are very friendly, and their accents are just adorable. But it also looks like kind of a poor town, based on our inadvertent drive through the residential area. Another reason to drive and hike the Skyway instead of Great Smoky Mountains: Tellico Plains needs your money a heck of a lot more than Cherokee and Gatlinburg do.

(Side comment: the only time I ever go to Dollar General is when I'm on vacation, usually when I'm in a small town like Tellico Plains and there is nowhere else to go. Cave City, KY and Valentine, NE come to mind. Also: does Dollar General ever have more than one employee in the store at any given time?)

Road tripping and hiking with Marla

The main purpose of the trip was to get a road trip with Marla under our belt before we drove to Toledo for Thanksgiving. Any fun we had along the way was purely a bonus.

So, yeah, things are more complicated when you have a three-month old. Hiking is doable, but it's a hassle to get the baby carrier set up (and to get Marla dressed for the weather), so we only did one hike each day. The Clingmans Dome walk went well, but the Joyce Kilmer Forest hike was cut short of what we initially planned, for a couple of reasons: 1) Marla got fussy after a while, and 2) the trail wasn't exactly flat. (But the website I went to said "easy"!) Amber and I are veterans of moderately strenuous hikes, so it's one thing if it's just us. If one of us slips a little bit, no big deal. But if you're carrying a baby, you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO FALL, EVEN A LITTLE. The takeaway from this is that, yes, you can hike with an infant, but choose your hikes wisely.

Babies like to sleep in the car. But what if you're in the car all day? Surely, the baby isn't going to sleep the whole time, right? Nope. But that's why one of us sits in the back seat, to keep her entertained. Marla couldn't sleep on those crazy mountain roads, either. So by the time we were done with the "Dragon", she was a wee bit tired and cranky. She slept great once we got back on the freeways, though.

In the process, we've also worked out a good system of bottle feeding on the road. This will come in handy during our holiday drives.

Marla was most cranky after 6 PM, which means that as long as there are kids with us, we're implementing the following general rule. We will keep until our kids are at least teenagers: no more than 10 hours of driving per day. That's about the length of the drive to Toledo, so that'll be the benchmark from now on. Any more than that, and the kids - regardless of their age - will start to get a bit cranky.

And, yeah, the parents might get cranky, too. These sorts of ventures are supposed to be "vacation", so we don't want to wear ourselves out in the process. Amber and I can do 15 hour days when it's just us, but when there's a kid involved, 10 hours in one day is enough. Carrying a baby around with you on the road is a lot of work. Even 10 hours might be too much when our second child is three months old, and our first child is old enough to complain. But the theory is that by then, road tripping with children will be old hat.

Finally, for statistics from the trip, consult By the Numbers sometime before the weekend. Yay numbers!

Curling Recap: 10/28/11

2011-10-31T15:54:00.001-04:00

I like to do these things in chronological order sometimes, so before I talk about the road trip, let's talk Friday Night Curling!

Career game #157: 2011 Fall League - October 28, 2011

End.......... 12345678S |TTL

----------------------------

Allen........ 001100031 | 06

M. Jackson... 010012100 | 05

The game started with a rare (in arena curling) blank end, because, well, none of us could get it in the house. Opposing Skip Chris J. (subbing for the usual Skip) had last rock in the first end and chose to throw it away, rather than try to score one with hammer. Yes, that is standard curling strategy...but that move is rarely seen on arena ice, where last rock is less of an advantage, and teams almost always take the points. But if I remember correctly, given all the junk that was out in front of the house, I think he was just as likely to bump one of our rocks into the house as he was one of his own. I probably would have done the same thing, especially in the 1st end. We made up for it in the 2nd end, though, when both teams had plenty of rocks in the house.

This was an incredibly well-played game. Unlike in a lot of arena club games, I don't remember any "lucky shots". Everything was earned. And that's why there were only two multi-point ends. In the 6th end, the other team had two open rocks that we could get to...except for the perfectly placed guards they kept putting in the way and blocking both of their rocks. And that's your two points.

Now...the 8th end. This is where it all came together. Our team's first four shots put us in position; at that point, we had one rock in the house and some other rocks in play (on both sides) that we could work with. Then, our last four shots of the game were absolutely perfect. Here's the APPROXIMATE setup prior to my first of two rocks: (our team = red. The key rocks are 1, 2, 3, and 4; the others, I really don't know where they were)

We're sitting two, the other team had a rock in there that we couldn't touch, and we needed three to tie. (Note: the ice had a right-to-left swing going in this direction, so we could only get rocks to curl in that direction.) Two options with my first shot: Try to get a third rock in the house right now, or guard the wide-open port to the button (to the right of rock #3) and then try a raise for three with my last shot. I chose the second option, and left a rock just at the top of the house, perfectly guarding our shot rock. If I remember correctly, opposing Skip Chris then left a rock inside of the two front-right guards (don't remember if his call was "get in the house" or "guard my final shot"), which meant that rock #3 (which was still wide open) was a better raise opportunity than my previous rock. Which...that wasn't the first raise I had attempted in that game, but it was the first one I actually made. Good timing! #3 went right to the button, too, for good measure. We then won the tiebreaking shootout afterwards. Come from behind win!

They say that the two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey; I think the three-point lead is the most dangerous lead in curling. Just enough to give you a false sense of security, but not enough to really be safe. I've been on both sides of it. Actually, a four-point lead can also be dangerous.

All four of our games this season have been decided by two points or less: 7-5 loss, 7-5 win, 7-5 loss, 6-5 win. And last season, my team's first three games were all one-point games as well. Just call us "Team Excitement"!

Cherohala Skyway / "Tail of the Dragon": Unnecessary Preview #2

2011-10-28T07:01:00.000-04:00

I guess I've already previewed this weekend's road trip to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, but I left out a few things, and it only seems right to have my last blog post before a road trip be about the road trip itself.

So...I originally said that the trip would either be this weekend or next weekend. The plan was, we'd do this weekend unless it looked like it would be rainy all weekend, in which case we'd postpone it until the following weekend. This weekend it is! We're leaving Saturday morning and returning Sunday evening. The drive may start out wet Saturday morning, but by the time we get to, let's say Hickory, we should be in the clear. It'll be cold, too: highs in the 50s, and lows around freezing. We're going to be bringing lots and lots of blankets for Marla.

I'll try to post pretty pictures / updates on Twitter throughout the trip, provided we have cell phone reception. Some of the roads we'll be on, I'm not so sure. I originally posted a map with the two primary targets (Cherohala Skyway and the "Tail of the Dragon"); now, here's a map of what could be our full route.

View Larger Map

The first stop of interest will be Clingmans Dome at the heart of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Marla's first state highpoint! I'm pretty sure Clingmans Dome was my first, too. How much additional time we spend in Great Smoky Mountains will depend on time. And we have no idea, this being our first real road trip with a kid. I tried to work a lot of extra time into the schedule, to the point where we don't really have anything else planned the rest of Saturday, aside from driving from there to our hotel in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. We're saving the main attractions, Cherohala Skyway and the "Tail of the Dragon", for Sunday morning. Sunday morning is the best time to go for a drive, I think. Maybe we'll get lucky and beat all of the motorcycles! It should be a gorgeous morning, too. Although, we are going to be driving directly into the sun along the Cherohala. Oh well.

Let's talk stats! Marla is, obviously, going to get a lot of new counties out of this trip, given that she's only been to 10 so far and has yet to even go as far west as Greensboro. I'm counting at least 15, and up to 17 new counties for Marla, plus her third state (Tennessee). But I'm going to get some new counties, too! I've already visited every North Carolina county, but I'm missing quite a few in eastern Tennessee. I'll get Blount and Monroe counties at a minimum, and if we make a couple of short side trips, I'll get Loudon and McMinn counties, too.

(In case my aunt and uncle who live in Loudon County are reading this: our schedule was too tight to go far enough west to visit for more than, say, 10 minutes. It also would have been a little too far from home to make that the overnight stop on this trip. We'll be back in the area, I promise you.)

Tennessee is a state that I feel I have done far too little exploring. Kentucky, too. There is lots of potential here for future trips, and I planned the trip so that we would spend a decent amount of time in Tennessee, as opposed to North Carolina. Nothing against North Carolina, but...I like other states, too. But we will experience parts of North Carolina that I've never experienced before, such as Graham County, NC, which is where the Cherohala Skyway and "Dragon" begin or end (depending on your perspective). Sure, Graham County is colored in on my county map, but I've only spent about 30 seconds total in Graham County, EVER. I've frequented the area between Asheville and Great Smoky Mountains bunches of times, as well as the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge side of the National Park. But I rarely do I go west of, say, Bryson City.

We've been looking forward to this one for a long time. Are you ready, Marla?

Crossdressing

2011-10-27T14:37:00.002-04:00

Monday is Halloween. We're going to put Marla in a chicken suit. It will be awesome. As for me...well, we'll get to that.

So...two Halloweens ago, I donned a Little Red Riding Hood dress and took to the streets of Chapel Hill on Halloween night. It was fun. Interesting, too.

Fact is, that actually wasn't my first attempt with crossdressing. Or the last. I think it's fun. If you're a man and you're married to a woman who is roughly the same size as you (and who is fairly open-minded), you're going to have some fun with that, right? No shame here. I mean, it's just clothes. Who cares?

But most men won't admit to having such a curiosity, or to trying on their wife's clothes, and especially wondering what one would look like fully "made up" as a woman. Crossdressing, and gender-bending in general, is a pretty taboo thing, and I think that's too bad. I can't speak from the woman's perspective, but from the man's perspective, men are taught to be manly men, and God forbid we cross that boundary. You see this in society nearly every day, whether it's the controversy over the "boy with pink toenails" J. Crew ad, or the "That's not the least manly thing you've done today" beer commercials (which I am not a fan of, for the record). Since when were boys not allowed to have painted toenails? And since when was it a bad thing for a man to cry before his wife/girlfriend leaves town? Women actually like a sensitive man, you know. Why are guys such jerks? Because of the pressure society puts on them to be "manly". It's not like this everywhere in the world, though. For instance, Russian male ballet dancers are national heroes. But if a little American boy wants to do ballet, well, he's a "sissy". You don't want to do ballet, son. Ballet is for girls. Why can't you participate in a MANLY activity, like FOOTBALL!!!! I don't know if crossdressing is as taboo in Europe as it is here, but it's definitely taboo here. I think there's also a Bible verse which says that crossdressing is an "abomination", or something like that.

On Halloween, all that goes out the window. It is the only day of the year in which you can crossdress in public and not be judged for it. (Or, at least, not near as much.) Wear a dress to the mall on October 31st, and it's, "Hey, nice costume!" And it doesn't really matter how much effort you put into it, either. You don't even have to shave! Anything goes on Halloween. But wear a dress any other day, and...well, that's "weird", right? Strangers may or may not judge you (depending on how convincing you are), your friends will definitely judge you, and God forbid your parents ever find out!!!

Perhaps the same could be said for any Halloween costume...or, perhaps not. Consider the following two hypothetical scenarios, both of which take place in the middle of April:

1) I show up to a social function dressed as a pirate. People look at me weird, ask what the pirate costume is about. I say, "I just felt like dressing like a pirate today. We've all had those days, right?" People say, "Ha. Okay...whatever", maybe have a good laugh, and move on. Depending on what kind of social function this is, not that big a deal, really. People's perceptions of me have not been adversely affected.

2) I show up to a social function dressed as a woman. People look at me weird, ask what the women's clothing is about. I say, "I just felt like dressing like a woman today. We've all had those days, right?" People are shocked and don't know what to say at this point. Some people are very offended by the idea. Depending on what kind of social function this is, I may risk losing friends over it, or being asked to leave altogether. People's perceptions of me have been adversely affected.

Well...there's always Halloween. In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm considering wearing a dress on Monday. I mean, it's just clothes. Who cares?

The New New Falls of Neuse Road Bridge

2011-10-26T16:46:00.002-04:00

Being a "road enthusiast", I get excited whenever a new road opens. I haven't been doing this as much lately, but if it's local, I usually try to drive the road at the first available opportunity. And when the new road benefits me directly, bonus!

A new bridge opened in North Raleigh on October 15th, and I drove it en route to curling on October 21st. Google Maps doesn't recognize it yet, but trust me, it's there. You can now go directly from Point B to Point C along what I think is called "New Falls of Neuse Road", as opposed to the old "Falls of Neuse Road", which now takes a left turn just before the bridge before continuing northward.

View Larger Map

The curling rink is near point D on the map in the town of Wake Forest. When going to curling, I normally come from I-540, near point A. Used to be, we had to route options when heading from Eastbound I-540 to Wake Forest. Capital Blvd was for sure the fastest route, but it's often busy and isn't particularly fun to drive. As an alternative, you could have taken (old) Falls of Neuse Road bridge over the Neuse River, and then taken Wakefield Pines Drive from (old) Falls of Neuse to New Falls of Neuse. This route is a bit indirect, and therefore, slower. But now that you can go straight from point B to point C, that begs the question: is New Falls of Neuse Road now a faster route to Wake Forest than Capital Blvd?

Having taking it to the rink twice and from the rink once last weekend, I can definitely say that it's less annoying; there is far less traffic than Capital Blvd. As for whether it's faster than Capital Blvd...it's close. Very, very close. By a stroke of luck, a fellow curler passed me on I-540 a few miles before the Falls of Neuse Road exit the other day. I took New Falls of Neuse to the curling rink, and he took (I assume) Capital. In theory, if New Falls of Neuse were faster, I would have still made it to the curling rink before my fellow curler, despite his passing and pulling away from me on I-540, right? Well, I didn't get there first, but he was still just getting out of his car in the parking lot when I pulled in. It must have been close.

Stopwatch numbers also tell me that this new route might be a little bit slower overall, but not by much. So, here are my preliminary conclusions. At best, New Falls of Neuse is equal in time to Capital. At worst, New Falls of Neuse is a viable alternative route when Capital is busy. Even though New Falls of Neuse is much more direct than Capital Blvd, the reasons Capital is still just as fast, if not faster, are a higher speed limit (55 instead of 40/45), more beneficial traffic light timing, and a free-flowing exit ramp from eastbound I-540 to northbound Capital.

And the construction project isn't done yet. Part of the original Falls of Neuse Road south of the new bridge is still two lanes. They're working to widen it, but it won't be done for a while - not until Spring 2013. But once it's four lanes all the way from I-540 to Wake Forest, that may be enough to push New Falls of Neuse Road over the top! At least until the secret gets out and everybody starts taking New Falls of Neuse Road to Wake Forest. Which, I suppose I'm not helping, am I?

Foursquare

2011-10-25T16:11:00.001-04:00

So, I've given in to temptation and created a Foursquare account.

For the uninitiated: Foursquare is a social networking website / smartphone app, in which users "check in" at various establishments across town when they go there, and compete to earn "points" and "badges" and "mayorships" or some such thing. I see three uses for it: 1) you can follow your friends around (if they want to be followed), 2) it's sort of a game, and 3) sometimes you're alerted to "special deals" at certain places through Foursquare that otherwise you wouldn't know about. (For example: "Don't forget your free orange juice sample at the Florida Welcome Center!" Or something like that.)

It also annoys the hell out of people that don't do Foursquare. For instance, I've never been big on the whole "Let's post all of my Foursquare check-ins to Twitter!" thing, but I suppose I feel the same way about Foursquare check-ins as I do general "this is what I'm doing right now" tweets. When doing ordinary things, such as going to work or the grocery store, it's not particularly interesting. When on vacation, it is interesting. And I suppose having a Foursquare check-in go straight to Twitter is easier than, and achieves the same result as, going onto Twitter separately and saying "We made it to [destination]". That said, it will be my rule to keep Foursquare and Twitter separate.

Why start Foursquare? Well, why not? Maybe I'll like it. If not, then oh well - nothing is lost. I'm going to have to get used to "checking in", though. As someone who generally likes things to be as efficient as possible, the "checking in" process takes longer than I would like it to. So far, I've only checked in three places in four days: the Bojangles' in Mebane (part of a Saturday evening family drive), the curling rink, and the bar adjacent to the curling rink. (I thought the Bojangles' in Mebane made for a perfectly random debut check in.)

Since then, I've also gone to work, the grocery store, and of course, home...and this is where it gets tricky. I've long felt that publishing to the world that "I'm at work" or "I'm at home" is not only overkill, but...I'm just a little uneasy about that in general. I guess I just like to maintain a healthy level of privacy, and publishing "I'm at work" or "I'm at home" seems like a little much, for me. But I don't think the usual internet sharing rules apply to Foursquare. The general population doesn't care that I'm at Kroger or CVS, but the people on Foursquare might actually care. I mean, that is precisely what Foursquare is for, right? Otherwise, why be on Foursquare in the first place? I guess what I'm saying is, I'm still undecided exactly how much of my real-time location I'm going to be sharing here.

It seems to me that to properly enjoy Foursquare, you have to really get into it, and you have to have a lot of friends who do it, too. I think I have the second part of that down, but the first part...we'll see. This deal may or may not be worth the effort. But I'll try to have some fun with it over the next few weeks, starting with this weekend's trip to the mountains, and see what I get out of it.

Curling Recap: 10/21/11

2011-10-24T16:10:00.002-04:00

(Disclaimer: Things are kind of crazy at the moment, now that we're both back to work and taking Marla to day care. So until things settle down a little, I make no promises regarding blog quality or quantity.)

The Triangle Curling Club Fall League took two Fridays off before returning last weekend. Last week was a bye week for my team, so I played on Team Scheck instead:

Career game #156: 2011 Fall League - October 21, 2011

End.......... 1234567 |TTL

--------------------------

Wright....... 0001001 | 02

Scheck....... 3220110 | 09

I've been playing Skip in the league, but since I was only a substitute in this instance, I played Second. This was my first time playing Second since the last game of the 2010 Carolina Classic, over 14 months ago. Playing Second differs from the positions I've been playing over the last year-plus (Vice and Skip) in that...

You sweep six rocks in every end. (Vices sweep four; Skips sweep none.) I hadn't even played Vice in four months, so this was the first time I had been a sweeper in any capacity since June. And as a result, my arms are kind of out of "sweeping shape". If only there was a way to call the strategy and sweep.

On most of our club teams, I think the Second is the best person to be in charge of judging the weight. He/she is sweeping six rocks per end, and is usually (but not always) more experienced than the Lead, so I think calling the weight of each shot is the Second's primary responsibility. I know people who are better, but I'm pretty good at judging the weight.

And, your shots are waaaaaay easier than the Vice's or Skip's shots. When you're a Skip on non-take-out friendly arena ice, there is usually a lot of clutter by the time your turn comes up, and you're left with some very difficult options. But when you're the Second, you have a lot of options, and you don't have to worry about strategy either, so I played well. I made more shots than usual. And the Second gets enough shot variety to keep things interesting, as opposed to the Lead who throws the same shots most of the time. I think Lead is boring. Some people really like Lead, but it's not for me.

Of course, being the Second means you don't really have much to do with the strategy, but that was fine. Being our first week of Marla day care, I was quite alright with having a game where I didn't have to think too much.

So...the game. Skip Dan (whom Amber and I have won the league championship with before) generally calls a quiet game, but he seems to always know the right time to call a take-out. We were very successful with the take-outs that we did attempt, and that made all the difference. I didn't think the ice was particularly take-out friendly, either, so I don't know how we did it. Like I said, I wasn't really paying that much attention to the strategy.

Sports Saturday: 10/21/11

2011-10-22T08:29:00.000-04:00

Auto racing - This first part is, of course, going to be about Dan Wheldon, the IndyCar driver who was killed in a crash last Sunday.

I've been a racing fan for, let's call it, 17 years. (1994 is about when I really started paying attention.) So I've seen a lot of drivers get killed, tragically, in all kinds of motorsports. But this one was different, in that I think the circumstances could have, and should have, been avoided.

In general, racing is dangerous, and "these things happen". Using perhaps the most well-known driver death as an example (in the United States, anyway - Ayrton Senna is more well-known in other parts of the world), Dale Earnhardt's crash in the 2001 Daytona 500 looked surprisingly ordinary for a fatal accident. It was easy for me to chalk it up to "a racing accident" and "bad luck" that he hit the wall at the angle he did. (Thankfully, those in charge did not simply see it as "bad luck" and successfully and substantially improved driver safety over the next decade.)

Then, there's the Dan Wheldon accident. Yes, this is the beauty of hindsight, but I think the circumstances of the crash were unnecessarily dangerous: 34 cars running in one large pack, 3-wide, at over 225 mph (or whatever it was) with no room for error. I think I said earlier in the season when IndyCar started doing double-file restarts that they were trying to be too much like NASCAR. Problem is, IndyCar is not NASCAR, where everybody has a roll cage and slight contact doesn't always result in a big crash, even at high speed. Unless they can figure out a way to separate these large packs of cars, IndyCars should never again race on high-banked 1.5 mile ovals like Las Vegas and Texas.

I wasn't watching the race, but I did watch the last hour or so of coverage, including the live announcement and the subsequent 5-lap silent tribute. It was an absolutely heart-wrenching hour of television that I may never forget. And that's another thing that separates this from other sports tragedies. Even in racing, these things usually aren't carried live on television. (Many fatal racing accidents occur in practice.) Thank goodness there isn't live video of the Lokomotiv plane crash, for instance. Maybe this is a reason September 11th is such a vivid memory for so many: these things are much harder to stomach with live video.

But life must go on, and NASCAR is racing at perhaps its most dangerous track this weekend. Perfect timing, eh? I wonder if this race will be a little tamer than the typical Talladega race. (Ha. No chance.) NASCAR Sprint Cup at Talladega: Sun 2:00p, ESPN

NFL

This is turning into a tough season for the Jacksonville Jaguars. But thanks to the much improved defense (Paul Posluszny, baby!), I still think they have the potential to win just about any game they play. Blaine Gabbert is improving, although he still throws more incompletions than completions. And in a weak AFC South where the best team is only 3-2, I suppose it's still possible they could win the division. Unlikely, but not impossible. (Sports Club Stats gives them a 10.6% chance.) Jack Del Rio will perhaps, once again, do just enough to keep his job. That's how it seems it's gone the last few years, anyway. If the Jaguars finish 7-9 after starting 1-5 (unlikely, but not impossible), does Del Rio still get the axe? (For the record, I hope so.) Baltimore at Jacksonville: Mon 8:30p, ESPN

The Jaguars don't play until Monday, so what will I watch on Sunday instead? I would normally watch Buffalo, but they're off this week (of course). Instead, I'll probably choose between these three games:
Houston at Tennessee: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 706 - The battle for the AFC South division lead!
Washington at Carolina: Sun 1:00p, WRAZ 50 - The Panthers still stink, but Cam Newton is fun to watch.
Seattle at Cleveland: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 710 - Amber is likely to hang out in the room a little longer if I put the Browns on. (She doesn't care enough to watch the game from start to finish, but if she's in the room anyway, it might grab her attention...briefly.)

There is one early game I will definitely NOT be watching. I'm really getting tired of the overhyped Jets. Booooo! San Diego at NY Jets: Sun 1:00p, WRAL 5

There is one new starting quarterback I'm very interested in seeing this Sunday. Not the Raiders' new starting quarterback (Carson Palmer), and certainly not the Broncos' new starting quarterback (whom shall remain nameless). I'm talking about Christian Ponder. Skol, Vikings! Green Bay at Minnesota: Sun 4:15p, WRAZ 50

Finally...I really hope the Indianapolis Colts do NOT end up with the worst record in the league. I have waited over a decade for Peyton Manning to go away. The last thing I want is for another highly touted quarterback (Andrew Luck) to step in immediately after Manning leaves. I don't care who ends up drafting Luck...just as long as it's not the Colts. Anyone but the Colts! Surely, you are going to win some games this season, right? Indianapolis at New Orleans: Sun 8:20p, NBC

NHL

The Carolina Hurricanes (as of Friday afternoon, before the St. Louis) game are doing great. Three straight wins, including two over the defending Cup champions! I think the free agents that the Hurricanes brought in this offseason are actually helping the team, as opposed to in 2009-10 when they brought in a bunch of old guys.

I especially like defenseman Bryan Allen, who they traded for last season. The trade: Allen to the Hurricanes, Sergei Samsonov to the Panthers. (I'll tell you, the Panthers make the DUMBEST trades.) I do not own any Hurricanes jerseys, but I am seriously considering buying a Bryan Allen #5 jersey. It's a "jersey foul" to put your own name on a jersey, but not if someone who has the same last name as you is actually on the team! (Perhaps I should also get a Russell Allen #50 Jaguars jersey while I can, if such a thing exists.)

Carolina plays the Winnipeg Jets tonight. I really really want to like Winnipeg, but I watched their home opener a couple of weeks ago, and I was really turned off by all of the subtle Atlanta-bashing that the CBC announcers were doing. I've been to Winnipeg and I like the city, but...I don't know. The Atlanta deal hits a little too close to home to really be able to embrace the Jets. Carolina at Winnipeg: 7:00p, Fox Sports Carolinas

Finally...I learned this week that DirecTV and FOX are in a contract dispute that could result in DirecTV dropping (among other channels) Fox Sports Carolinas on November 1st, which would mean no more Hurricanes games. (No more Formula One on SPEED, either.) This would be far worse than losing Versus for a few months, but there is a lot more at stake here than there was with the Versus deal, which increases the chances of an 11:59 PM agreement, or at least a resolution within a week or two after the fact. In theory. And if not, maybe I can talk the customer service reps into giving me NHL Center Ice for free so that I can at least watch the other 29 teams.

(NHL Network games: Sat 4:00p - MIN/VAN; Sat 7:00p - DET/WSH.)

College football (In case you haven't figured it out by now, I did not adhere to the usual 30 minute limit.)

The thing I don't like about preseason polls is that even if Florida State runs the table, beats Miami (FL) and Florida, and finishes 9-3, the season will still be viewed as a disappointment because of the preseason expectations. And that's dumb. Still a lot of football to be played. Maryland at Florida State: Sat 3:30p, ABC

Weak schedule, sure, Penn State is 6-1, which is awesome. They're just like the Jaguars (bad offense, good defense), except they're actually winning their games. Penn State at Northwestern: Sat 7:00p, BTN

Elsewhere...
North Carolina at Clemson - Sat 12:00p, ESPN: When will Clemson lose their first game? Will they lose? Sure, they beat FSU, but I hope they run the table.
Cincinnati at South Florida - Sat 12:00p, MASN: USF is 4-0 out of conference and 0-2 in conference. They do this every year. Despite all the success they have had out-of-conference, they have never finished better than 4-3 in the Big East. They're like the opposite of Wake Forest, as I will explain now...
Wake Forest at Duke - Sat 12:30p, ACC Network (WRAL): I don't like Wake Forest. Why? Because every year (well, not every year), Wake Forest loses to a bad team or two in non-conference (see Syracuse this year), and then makes the ACC look bad by beating its better teams. They never made the ACC look worse than when they won the conference, and then lost in the Orange Bowl in unspectacular fashion to...who was it? Iowa? Louisville? Whatever. (Side note: despite living in North Carolina, I know exactly ZERO people who attended Wake Forest.)
Auburn at LSU - Sat 3:30p, CBS: I think I said this last year, but the SEC is too top-heavy for its own good this year. When do Alabama and LSU play? (In two weeks.)
Wisconsin at Michigan State - Sat 8:00p, ESPN: Wisconsin and Clemson may not make the BCS Championship game even if they go undefeated, which - just like the BCS itself - stinks.

Cherohala Skyway / "Tail of the Dragon": Preview

2011-10-19T16:35:00.002-04:00

I don't have anything else to blog about today, so let's talk about a road trip we're currently planning for either the last weekend of October or the first weekend of November, depending on the weather.

So far, we've taken our nearly three-month-old daughter as far north as Danville, and as far east as Johnston County (map). But that's nothing; I mean, Danville is only an hour away. In a couple of weeks, we're taking Marla on her first real road trip.

The basic idea can be summed up in three bullet points:
- This trip will have about 400 miles of driving, each way. We're going to Toledo for Thanksgiving, and that would be a pretty big leap if we had only taken her as far as the Virginia state line prior to then. 400 miles is still big step up from Danville, but that's how we roll.
- We're going to spend one night in a hotel, which will be a first for Marla, the first of many. Gotta start somewhere.
- Fall foliage!!! I think I get more excited about Fall every year.

There are two roads deep in the Appalachians of western North Carolina that have been on my "road bucket list" for quite a while, and will allow us meet our Marla "road trip test" objectives at the same time. One is the Cherohala Skyway; the other is commonly known as the "Tail of the Dragon".

View Larger Map

The "Tail" boasts 318 curves in an 11-mile stretch. I'm a little skeptical about that number, but I'm not going to ruin the scenery for myself by counting the turns. The nearby Cherohala Skyway, which cost $100 million to build, is supposed to be simply incredible. So, yeah...that's where we're taking Marla. Hope she likes lots of sharp curves!

Along the way, we're also planning on:
- Going on a couple of short hikes using the "baby backpack" (or whatever it's called) where you basically strap the baby to your chest. Hey, we've seen other people go hiking with these things.
- Stopping at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Depending on how we're doing on time, Marla might get her first state highpoint out of this (Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee).
- Staying overnight in Tellico Plains, TN, located near the western end of the Cherohala skyway. I'm really excited about the place we're staying, too.

We haven't gone on an overnight road trip in FIVE MONTHS, which is unheard of for us. We can't wait! Road trips are more difficult when you have a little one (or two) with you, but my hope is that they're not so much more difficult that we won't really want to do them so much anymore after this. But knowing Amber and me, I doubt that will be a problem. I'm already having visions of the three of us going on a week-long road trip next summer sometime. I mean, what else am I going to do with my three weeks vacation?

Kickball Season 4: Season-Ending Report

2011-10-18T16:30:00.000-04:00

Last night, my fourth season of Knightdale co-ed kickball came to an end with losses (7-3 and 3-2) to each of the two league finalists. But given the double elimination playoff format (a first for this league), everyone except for the league champion ends their season with a loss, so I am not ending the season in disappointment. This was the best season of kickball yet, both from a competitive standpoint and from a fun standpoint.

Two weeks ago I talked at length at how and why our team has improved competitively over the last two years, let's delve into the stats. I played in 10 games this season, which is comparable to the number of games I've played in the previous three seasons (11, 10, 9).

(Green = career high; Red = career low)

Season batting: 25 H in 34 AB (.735), 0 RBI, 11 R, 2 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 0 BB, 0 K. We typically had between 12 and 15 players per game, which is more than we've ever had; of course, that's going to mean fewer plate appearances. But our lineup might have been planned out better than ever before, which means the lead-off hitter (me) is going to score more runs at the expense of RBIs.

That "slump" I was in a few weeks ago? I closed out the season by going 9-for-10 with 5 runs scored in the playoffs, so...slump over.

Season pitching: 10 starts, 5-5 record, 2.30 ERA (22 ER in 86.0 IP), 16 K, 2 BB (2 IBB). (For ERA, green actually means "career low", because low is better.) The 2.30 ERA is by far my best yet (previous: 6.51 last season), which - as I say pretty much every time I talk kickball - has far more to do with solid defense than anything I do on the mound. Our defense has never been better. But I think my pitching is getting better, too...

Team results: 5-6 record (I missed one game), 3rd out of 5 teams in the regular season, 3rd out of 5 teams in the playoffs. We also finished 3rd last season, but that was in a four-team league instead of a five-team league, so this was our best result.

This kind of takes me back to playing organized basketball as a kid. From 5th through 7th grade, I played in an organized youth basketball league through the local YMCA. Each year, I was on a different team, and each year, we sucked. I went 2-6, 2-6, and 1-7 in my three seasons of youth basketball, as we continually got our butts beat by the teams that stuck together year after year after year. And that's the key to succeeding in a league like this: stick with it and keep the team together for multiple years, and eventually, you'll start contending. In fact, there are scenarios in which we could have potentially won the league title. We split the season series against the 2nd place team (two wins each), and we played the 1st place team to a 1-0 loss in the regular season. They'll still beat us 90 to 95% of the time, but at least we're not like "let's just try to keep the mercy rule out of play" like we were in Season 1.

I had originally planned on only playing "part time" this season in order to spend more time at home with Amber and Marla. That meant no more than one night of kickball in any given week. But thanks to some extremely well-timed rain-outs, we only had one multi-night week all season. So, I only ended up missing one game. Yeah! Now that's a kickball schedule I can go along with. Having two, and sometimes three games in one week, usually results in kickball fatigue. That didn't happen this season.

Sure, it's fun to get my competitive juices flowing, and it's great that we're playing well. But the main reason I play kickball is to hang out with friends. I'm going to miss that. When does next season start?*

(* - That's a rhetorical question. I know when next season is.)

Day Care Day One

2011-10-17T17:12:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've talked Marla or posted pictures because things have been status quo, more or less. Well, first, here's a picture...

But the "status quo" of the last few weeks is over this week. Amber has been off from work for the last 12 weeks, but today is her last day of maternity leave, and she returns to work tomorrow. That also means it's time to start taking Marla to day care, and in fact, today was her first day. (Well, Amber too her on Friday for a preliminary visit, but today is Marla's first day of real day care.)

Why take Marla to day care the day before Amber goes back to work, instead of the day of? Well, we're paying for this week anyway, and we're treating today as a "trial run" without the added pressure of going back to work for the first time. And, this way, Amber will be able to get a nap in.

(Speaking of "the pressure of work", studies have shown that stressed-out mothers are more likely to have girls than boys, possibly because high levels of a stress hormone called cortisol make it harder for a male embryo to grow in the womb and be born, as opposed to a female embryo. It does seem like we know a lot more baby girls than we do baby boys, and we personally know a couple of working mothers who miscarried with boys, so...hmm.)

Amber has been dreading this day for quite some time. She's been taking care of her for over 11 weeks now, so the idea of giving your baby to someone else for 40 hours a week can be tough, but she handled it pretty well today.

It's not as hard for me, because I've been working for the last 7 weeks or so anyway. The way I see it, more than anything else, today is progress. We've made it through the first 2½ months, and the next step is for both of us to return to work, for Marla to go to day care, and for our savings account to stop growing. (Day care isn't cheap.) I'll feel the same way when Marla goes off to college; that too will be progress.

That's not to say I'm constantly looking forward to the next milestone, and that's it. I make an effort to savor every moment with Marla along the way. (Well, most of the moments.) But I do like my milestones, you know. Over the first couple of months, there really aren't that many "big moments", as in, "Wow, she's doing that for the first time!" Everything is very subtle at this point. She can support her head pretty well, which wasn't always the case. She is now somewhat more interactive than she was a few weeks ago. She cries less, which is always good. And, of course, she's growing: 12.5 pounds as of last Friday. (That's in the 67th percentile! I told you she was getting a little tubby.) But she can't roll over or crawl yet. I don't know when those milestones usually happen, and in fact, I don't want to know until after it happens. If Marla is three weeks late with something, I don't want it to be like, "Well geez, it took you long enough, miss 14th percentile."

It might take us a while to settle into the two-working-parents routine, but we'll get there. And that too will be "progress".

The Last Wedding Live-Tweet Ever?

2011-10-14T15:59:00.002-04:00

First, here's a quick summary of what I would write about were I to do a "Sports Saturday" post this weekend:
- The local CBS affiliate, WRAL, is planning to air Jaguars-Steelers on Sunday. Why not Bills-Giants? Are the Steelers really that much of a draw?
- Florida State football has once again proven the worthlessness of preseason polls. See why I was so "yeah, well, whatever" before the season?
- Penn State might be the ugliest 5-1 team in college football history.
- Carolina Hurricanes: let's wait another month or two before we jump to conclusions.

In the meantime...it's another wedding weekend, as Adam and Maggie tie the knot in downtown Raleigh on Saturday evening. The plan is to once again live-tweet it (unless I'm asked not to), at least to some extent. Adam and Maggie are both heavy users of Twitter, so it's only appropriate that tweet the wedding and subsequent reception, right?

Good news if you're tired of hearing me talk about weddings: after this, we don't have any more weddings lined up. This might be it for a while, and I'm talking, years, maybe. Nobody in the family is getting married anytime soon (that I know of). We don't have any friends who are engaged or otherwise "close" to getting married (that I know of). And given that weddings are the kind of thing that usually have a long lead-up (emphasis on "usually"), I don't see another one on the horizon. And by the time the next wedding comes up, maybe the whole "live-tweet" thing will have run its course. Or, maybe not. Either way, it's been fun.

We've been to so many weddings over the last few years, I've lost count! For me, that's saying something. (I think Amber and I have been to 8 weddings since we started dating in 2006, not counting our own: four in Pennsylvania, three in North Carolina, and one in West Virginia.) And I've talked about them enough here in the blog, I have retroactively added a new post tag called other weddings. (As opposed to the "wedding/honeymoon" post tag, which only relates to our wedding.) Just in time for me to not go to any more weddings for a while!

Looking back, not every wedding we've been to was blogged about. The West Virginia one, for example, took place two weeks after we got back from our honeymoon. From a blogging perspective, the timing wasn't ideal, because I was still in the midst of talking about honeymoon-related things like the fake geographical center of North America. And, my infatuation with analyzing other people's weddings didn't really start until the first half of 2010. That's kind of unfortunate, considering the West Virginia wedding (featuring Amber's college friends Julianna and Chris) was a Greek Orthodox wedding and perhaps the most unique one of them all. I should have started this sooner.

The drive to Beckley did make it into the Car Mileage Log, however, which means that the exact date of that particular wedding has been documented. So, that's something. ... Actually, come to think of it, I blogged about that particular milestone. Why? Because not only did my car reach 19,000 miles while in a tunnel, but it did so in a tunnel that happens to cross a state line, making it not so obvious in which state the milestone took place. So I didn't blog about the wedding itself, but I did blog about my car odometer. That doesn't seem right.

Okay, back to the topic at hand. As for this particular wedding: I think it will certainly be the largest wedding we've ever been to. Will there be enough cake for everybody? There will also be at least one "special guest" at the wedding, apparently...but I won't spoil the surprise.

NC Quick Pass

2011-10-12T15:48:00.003-04:00

North Carolina gets its very first toll road in a few months when the Triangle Expressway opens. I'm going to skip over the political discussion that goes along with making a few miles But before I talk about the transponders that will go along with them and are now available...

I may or may not have gone through this before (I don't feel like looking), but my political take on toll roads is this. It does not seem fair for some roads (I-540 in northern Wake County) to be untolled while other roads (the new NC-540 in western Wake County) are tolled. In my ideal world, every limited-access freeway or expensive bridge would be tolled. The toll amounts would be far less than the current rates on toll roads, which we could get away with because we're now tolling every freeway everywhere. Of course, taking something that's free (even though it isn't really - we're paying for this already with tax dollars) and making it not free is unpopular politically and can't really be implemented at this point. Raising taxes to cover the costs of new roads is also currently taboo. (I still think that federal gas taxes should be much higher than they are.) So when it comes to building new roads that we can't afford to build, we are left with two choices. 1) Build the road as a toll road. 2) Don't build the road. Because these are the only two choices, I suppose building a few miles of tolled expressway amongst hundreds of miles of free exprewssway can be justified.

These new toll roads will be tolled electronically only, which means that you'll either get a bill in the mail, or you'll need to buy a transponder to put on your windshield. As someone who frequently travels out of state (although not as much this year), I've actually been looking forward to buying such a transponder for quite a while. No more paying with cash along the West Virginia Turnpike or all of those pesky toll roads and bridges in the Northeast, because I'll have an E-Z Pass compatible transponder. Yeah! I've considered buying an E-Z Pass from another state, but have held out knowing that I would eventually be able to get one directly from North Carolina. Well, that day has arrived.

North Carolina's new "NC Quick Pass" will be E-Z Pass compatible (as well as with Florida's Sun Pass, and probably others)...eventually. From here: "North Carolina is working with other toll agencies (E-ZPass, SunPass, etc.) to allow NC Quick Pass to be accepted for payment of tolls on other states' toll roads and out-of-state transponders to work in North Carolina. Currently, NC Quick Pass will ONLY work for payment of tolls in North Carolina." Given how long they have had to plan this, I think these things should be compatible with E-Z Pass from DAY ONE. No excuses. Also of note is that you can get a sticker transponder for $5 or a hard case transponder for $20; only the hard case transponders will be compatible with E-Z Pass. Which, I think that's more a function of the fact that E-Z Pass is based on older technology, than any fault of North Carolina's. But still...why isn't this ready from the beginning?

I was looking forward to using the E-Z Pass lane on our way to Toledo for Thanksgiving, but it sounds like we'll have to wait for that. And I don't plan on taking the new Triangle Expressway all that much, because given where we live, the new road will not benefit us. I'm still going to get my transponder sooner rather than later, though.

Wells Fargo

2011-10-11T15:56:00.001-04:00

This just in: there have been a few bank mergers in this country over the last few decades. Pretty soon, we'll all be Bank of America customers, whether we like it or not. (Just like we'll all be AT&T customers.)

I've been a customer of Wachovia since I moved here. They do not charge me any monthly fees, and they are convenient, so I am reasonably satisfied with their banking services, even though they are one of those big, evil, major banks. (Although I am not 100% satisfied with their home mortgage division.) But starting this weekend, thanks to a recent acquisition, I will now be a customer of Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is an even bigger bank. But are they more evil?

(It's hard to make out, but that's a picture of a crane installing a makeshift "Wachovia" sign over a more permanent "Wells Fargo" sign, which will become visible starting this weekend.)

Well, we'll see. They sent me detailed information on how the switch would affect our accounts, and as far as I can tell, we will still enjoy free checking and everything else. So, I see no reason to switch...yet. But the tipping point might be the debit card $5 monthly fees that Bank of America plans on implementing, and even Wells Fargo is implementing in select locations. If Wells Fargo starts charging me a new monthly fee, even if it's only a few dollars a month, I will switch to a credit union.

Now...about credit unions. I don't know much about them, but if I understand it correctly, then credit unions are just like banks, only better! If that's the case, then why isn't everyone with a credit union? Is there something bad about credit unions that I don't know about? Why does anyone bank with Bank of America, anyway?

Well, that's obvious: advertising. Do big banks advertise? Yes. (Maybe a little.) Do big banks sign agreements with universities around the country, encouraging college students to bank with them? Yes, they do. When students graduate from college, do they then gravitate towards the big banks out of familiarity, and because they don't know any better? You bet. Did I just sum up why I ended up with a big bank? Why, yes, I did.

Familiarity is the key word here. Big banks have a pretty tight grip on most everything, and would like us to believe that big banks are all that's out there. This generally works pretty well. Credit unions don't advertise, because why should they? Advertising costs money, and besides: the goal of a credit union isn't to turn a profit or grow its membership, it's to serve its existing membership. They're quite content lurking in the shadows. Meanwhile, not only do big banks advertise excessively (sometimes without us even realizing it), but like other large corporations, they are somewhat effective in lobbying lawmakers into bank-friendly legislation.

So, anyway...it's probably only a matter of time before I switch to a credit union, most likely this one. But the ball is in your court, Wells Fargo. Are you going to give me a reason to switch or not?

Best Available Seat

2011-10-10T15:26:00.000-04:00

When you to go to a live sporting event, you have a choice. Where do you want to sit?

Or, let's ask this another way. Generally speaking, the more you pay for a ticket, the better the seat. So what section of the stadium or arena gives you the best value for your ticket? Sure, it would be nice to sit 10 rows up at the 50 yard line, but would you really enjoy the game twice as much from those seats as you would sitting in a half-price seat, 50 rows up on the goal line? This is the conversation I always have with myself before buying sports tickets. (Which, to be fair, isn't that often these days.)

This question depends on the sport, of course, so I'm going to go through each sport one-by-one: hockey, football, basketball, baseball, auto racing. (I've never attended a soccer game beyond high school level, so I don't know anything about that.)

Hockey

I've attended, let's say, 15 to 20 hockey games in my life, and I've sat all over the arena. And my favorite place to sit is where I sat at Friday's Carolina Hurricanes game: top level, center ice.

Why? Because you can see the whole game. I've sat at ice level a couple of times, one time sitting right behind the glass at a minor league game. Sure, it's cool to see the players up close, but for the most part, I hated it. When you go to a hockey game and sit at one end or the other, it always seems like all of the goals are then scored on the opposite side of the ice. The thrill of seeing the puck go in the net is the highlight of a hockey game, and when you're top and center, you see it wherever it happens. You can see everything else, too - hockey is one of the few sports where you get a better perspective of the game in person than you can on television, as long as you sit in the right place. A hockey game in person is a totally different experience than a hockey game in television, much more so than with other sports.

In some sports, the downside of sitting "way up there" is that you're so far away from the action, you don't feel like you're actually rhere. That's definitely an issue in outdoor stadiums; see "Baseball". But not so with hockey; in a 18,000-seat arena, even the upper bowl isn't that far away from the action.

Even though top and center seats are cheaper than, say, lower bowl "end zone" seats, I'd much rather sit top and center, even if the prices were the same. Middle and center would work, too, but those seats are very expensive; top and center is a much better value.

Football

I've attended more football games than I have any other sport. I had Jacksonville Jaguars season tickets growing up (my parents still do), and we've sat both in the "cheapest seats available" (which are now covered up), and end-zone ish, about two-thirds up from the bottom. Which seats are the better value?

Well, the cheapest seats available are the better value. I think the best value seats are, just like with hockey, top and center. End zone seats aren't bad, though. If the prices were the same, I'd probably take end zone seats over "cheapest seats available". Being closer to the action is more beneficial in football than in hockey because there isn't a large sheet of glass and/or a large net between you and the action. End zone seats don't detract as much from "watching the game", except as far as being able to tell whether Team X got the first down or not.

But in terms of BEST value, I'm going to go with the "200 level", corner of the end zone - for example, Section 230. I like those seats better than the 200s directly behind the goalposts because of the afore-mentioned "first down" issue. (My parents currently sit a couple sections over from that, I think in 227, the "family section".)

Basketball

With basketball, I don't think the perspective is that much better on the sidelines, compared to being behind the basket. It doesn't matter where you sit; the closer you are, the better.

But which seats offer the best value? I don't know...I've never actually had a choice. The only basketball games I've ever gone to were as a college student. At Florida State, the seats were free. At Penn State, the seats were $5/game, and it was general admission. I don't know how the price structure works at basketball games because I've never had to look, but I think I would take the cheapest available lower bowl seats. Atmosphere is important in a college basketball game, and you don't get that as much in the upper bowl.

I've never been to an NBA game, and I don't really like the NBA anyway, so for that, the best value seats are definitely "cheapest available", no matter where they are. (Unless they are "obstructed view" seats.) I don't ever see myself paying for an NBA ticket, though, so whatever.

Baseball

I've attended several minor league games and major league games, and I have a different answer for minors versus majors.

Major leagues: the best ticket value is in the upper bowl behind home plate. This gives you a great view of all pitches and hits, and tickets are usually pretty cheap. Lower bowl seats, anywhere from 3rd base to home plate to 1st base, obviously give you a better view. But in most major league ballparks, the extra price isn't worth it. I've also sat in the upper bowl near the foul poles at major league games, and those seats were terrible. When you're that far away from the game action, it's almost as if you're not even at the game. Why even go?

Minor leagues: There is no upper bowl at a minor league park, of course, so the question isn't how far away you sit, but where. I think anything from 3rd base to 1st base is fine. Even the seats directly behind home plate are fairly inexpensive at a minor league baseball game, so why not? At a Durham Bulls game, if I remember correctly, tickets are $10 directly behind home plate, and $8 between 1st and 3rd base. (I think.) I've never gotten the $10 tickets, so I don't know if they're worth the extra $2. They must not be, or else I would have gotten them at least once by now, don't you think?

NASCAR

NASCAR is the only sport (if it can be considered one) that I know of where the most expensive seats are farther up. Seats 30 rows up are more expensive than seats in row 1, anywhere around the track. Why? Because if you sit in row 1, you can't see anything. Apparently, the people who go to NASCAR races are actually interested in watching the race. What a concept!

That said, it's hard to generalize where the "best value seats" are with NASCAR. Every track is different and gives you different sight lines, so I can only speak from my personal experience at Charlotte and Martinsville. In general, I think the best value seats are the cheapest upper level seats that give you a view of the last bit of pit road, wherever that may be.

As for other motorsports like IndyCar and Formula One that race on road courses...I don't know, but I don't think I would get my money's worth about only seeing the cars race by every 90 seconds throughout the day. A ticket to a road course race would be a tough sell for me, regardless of the series or the price. I'd almost rather sit in the front row at a hockey game. Almost.

Bicycling Trip to Alaska: 45.7 Miles to Alaska

2011-10-08T08:15:00.001-04:00

My fictional Bicycling Trip to Alaska, in which I translate my bicycling distance into a fictional road trip to Alaska, turns two years old today. But that's not the biggest news of the day. As of this morning, I am 45.7 miles away from the Alaska state line. And, not coincidentally, I have a 45.9-mile bike ride planned for today. Yes, I'm going for it. All of it.

View Larger Map

This has been two years in the making, but I thought this would take me even longer at first. A lot longer. So, I'm proud of my would-be accomplishment. The Bicycling Trip to Alaska has been a huge success. My weekly distance averages have steadily gone up throughout the trip.

This isn't the end of the Bicycling Trip to Alaska, though. While I'm only going to make it as far as the border today, the ride will take me to the tip of the Homer Spit, which is another 633.8 miles away. I should get there in about four months at my current pace, at which point I will magically teleport myself to the east coast of Australia and start another fictional ride, this time across the Australian continent.

It's been hard to find time lately to go on long rides. And even when I did find time last Saturday, I ended up with a flat tire, forcing me to stop the ride after only 20 of my planned 40 miles. (That was the first time I had gotten a flat tire in the middle of a ride in all of my miles of bicycling, so no big deal, really.) So, as much as I'd like to reach Alaska exactly two years to the day after starting the trip, there is no guarantee that I'll get to Alaska today. The weather will not be a factor, though, because today will be a fantastic day to ride.

I will be live-tweeting today's ride. To Alaska we go!

Sports Saturday: 10/8/11

2011-10-07T15:06:00.002-04:00

Saturday could be a groundbreaking day in the statistical life of Chris Allen, so let's get the 30-minute Sports Saturday special out of the way this afternoon, shall we?

NHL

We interrupt the usual football discussion for this special announcement. Hockey is back!

Let's begin with a bit of a flashback. The year is 2005. The NHL has just emerged from a season-cancelling lockout with a hard salary cap, allowing traditionally lower-budget teams such as the Carolina Hurricanes to compete for the Stanley Cup. Alas, in the first year after the lockout, the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup. But now, league revenues are now high enough such that not every team can spend up to the salary cap. Carolina, certainly, is a team that is not spending up to the cap, and as a result, the Hurricanes only have one playoff appearance in five seasons since winning the Cup. It's much harder for a team like Carolina to compete with the I-95 corridor now than it was fresh out of the lockout, when the cap was low and nearly every team was maxed out.

So how can the Hurricanes win a second Stanley Cup? I see two paths to Cup Glory for a low-budget team:
- Suck for a couple of years and draft a game-changing player or two, such as Sidney Crosby or Steven Stamkos. Then, hurry up and win the Cup before they demand big contracts! Jeff Skinner was a nice find, but it's going to take another one of those, I think.
- Even a low-budget team will make the playoffs once in a while. Get something like the 7 seed every few years, and hope you get lucky in those years, because anything can happen in the playoffs. Make a trade or two at the trade deadline if you're feeling really ambitious.

Such is life when your team is $12 million under the salary cap and is forced to rely on AHL-caliber players to fill out the 4th line. But hey, at least they aren't the Panthers. And I'm still as excited as ever to be going to tonight's Hurricanes season opener against Tampa Bay, which will be my first season-opening NHL game. Tampa Bay at Carolina: Fri 7:00p, Fox Sports Carolinas

As for every other night this season, after four years subscribing to NHL Center Ice and watching lots and lots of hockey, I'm dropping my subscription this year. The main reason is the new Versus/NBC TV deal, in which all playoff games will now be nationally televised. Even though we get a two-week free preview, I'm only going to list non-Center-Ice games on my list of games, in order to get in the habit of only having limited viewing options each week.

Other locally televised games (non-Center-Ice): NYR/ANA (Sat 1:00p, VS), CAR/WSH (Sat 7:00p, FS Car), TB/BOS (Sat 7:00p, NHLN), MTL/WPG (Sun 5:00p, NHLN)

NFL

Last week's Jacksonville Jaguars game went about the way I expected it to. The defense kept them in the game, but the offense never got it going. I expect this pattern to continue, although I do recognize that Blaine Gabbert will get better as the season progresses. Cincinnati at Jacksonville: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 707

After a last-second loss to the Bengals (of all teams), this week will give us a good idea of whether Bills' dream season will continue...or if they'll sputter back to 7-9. Philadelphia at Buffalo: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 709

Has the "OMG Cam Newton is so awesome" euphoria worn off? Seems like the Panthers are coming back to reality. Just like the Jaguars, they are only 1-3. New Orleans at Carolina: Sun 1:00p, WRAZ 50

Six teams are on bye this week, which means I might go find something else to do during the late games. Tampa Bay at San Francisco: Sun 4:00p, DirecTV 712

Other locally televised games: TEN/PIT (Sun 1:00p, WRAL 5), NYJ/NE (Sun 4:15p, WRAL 5), GB/ATL (Sun 8:20p, NBC)

College football

Every week, I go through the same routine with college football. First I say, "You know, I think I'm going to more or less take the weekend off from college football, except for the Florida State and Penn State games." Then I look at the schedule and think, "You know, there's a lot of potential here."

FSU had better be careful here. This isn't last year's Wake Forest. Trap game! Florida State at Wake Forest: Sat 12:30p, ACC Network (WRAL locally)

Meanwhile, Penn State is making the Jacksonville Jaguars look like an offensive juggernaut. I can't remember the last time I was this "blah" about the Nittany Lions. Iowa at Penn State: Sat 3:30p, ESPN (ABC regional)

If Clemson is as good as I think they are, and as good as their wins over Florida State and Virginia Tech suggested, then they will win this game by 30. Boston College at Clemson: Sat 3:00p, Fox Sports South

I'll admit, having to play Alabama and LSU back-to-back is pretty brutal. Florida at LSU: Sat 3:30p, CBS

Still waiting for Utah's first win in the Pac-12. (I think. I'd look it up, but I'm up against my 30-minute limit.) Arizona State at Utah: Sat 3:30p, FSN

Remember when these teams were good? I kind of miss that. Georgia at Tennessee: Sat 7:00p, ESPN2

Wisconsin is the must-watch Big Ten team of the year, all thanks to Russell Wilson. I was wrong - the Wilson hype is warranted! But they're off this week, unfortunately. Ohio State at Nebraska: Sat 8:00p, ABC

Auto racing

NASCAR and Formula One in action Sunday, but I'm going in a completely different direction this week. Australia's top racing series is something called V8 Supercars, and their biggest race of the year is being broadcast live in the United States for the first time ever (according to a SPEED advertisement) this Saturday night. I've never watched V8 Supercars before, so I'm going to check it out. I'm assuming it will not be in high definition, but that's okay. V8 Supercars Bathurst 1000: Sat 7:00p, SPEED

Breaking Bad

2011-10-06T15:55:00.001-04:00

Television dramas are pretty formulaic. Most scripted dramas involve one of the following:
1) A crime was, or will be, committed. Who is guilty, and can they be brought to justice?
2) Mr. Ill has a serious medical situation. Better call Dr. Fix-em-up!
3) Mr. Lawyer is, like, super awesome. Watch him work this court case!

CBS currently has 13 hour-long dramas in its primetime schedule, and by my count, only one of them falls outside the above categories. There is obviously a big market for the above three genres - why else would there be so many of them? - but I typically stay away from those types of shows, because going through the same basic routine every single week just isn't that interesting to me.

Thank goodness for cable! Cable networks can afford to cater towards a niche audience rather than the broad appeal that the above genres offer. This brings me to the AMC drama "Breaking Bad".

Note: if you've never seen the show, don't worry. I know some people are catching up with older seasons on Netflix, but other than my Dad, I don't know who else is actively watching the current season as the episodes come or will watch this Sunday's season finale. So, there will be NO SPOILERS in this post. Except that the main character, Walt, and his sidekick, Jesse, are not dead yet, which should be obvious anyway.

"Breaking Bad" has a fairly unique, although contrived (only because it has to be for the show to work), premise. High school chemistry teacher is told he has terminal cancer, can't afford to pay for his treatment, wants to support his family, and is generally frustrated with never being able to "cash in" on his genius. His solution? Cook methamphetamine! (Duh.) But while the business of large scale methamphetamine production is extremely profitable, it's also dangerous, not to mention illegal...and that's what makes this a viable television show.

The show is incredibly well done. Few television shows are as acted, directed, produced, and scripted as well as "Breaking Bad". They have earned every award they have won. And best of all, they have never resorted to supernatural or otherwise ridiculous storylines.(Contrived, sure, but not ridiculous. The Mexican drug war, which is a central storyline in the series, is real. In general, I think the show is very realistic, given the premise.) I think it is the best drama on television right now. In fact, I think the show might be a little too good.

How can a show be too good? While Amber acknowledges the high production value of the show, she doesn't watch it with me anymore. She says it's "too tense". Amber also tends to not like shows as much where the main characters aren't particularly likeable. Every character on the show has some serious flaws. But that's something I really like about the show: it's "human". The character development, all the way down to the supporting characters, is terrific. Walt, the teacher-turned-meth-cook, started out the series as an obvious protagonist, but now, I'm not so sure. Unlike, say, Jack Bauer, Walt does not always do the "right thing" or make the correct logical decision. "Cool under pressure" does not describe Walt in the least. On the other hand, Walt's actions make perfect sense in his head, and many of us would probably make the same choices under the same circumstances...but I'd like to think that many of us wouldn't have put ourselves in his situation to begin with, either. Should we be rooting for him at this point or not?

The last couple of seasons have been a little less light-hearted and a little more edge-of-your-seat, which has turned Amber away for the most part. Lately, "Breaking Bad" has been edge-of-your-seat ALL THE TIME. But given the premise, I think it has to be at this point. That's how it's supposed to work, right? The longer you stay in the methamphetamine business, and the higher up the food chain you go, the more complicated things get. Nothing is easy anymore. When I first started watching, I wondered, "How long can they keep this up? Walt's lifestyle is not sustainable." Well, they recently announced that next season will be the last of the series, and that will give us a total of 62 episodes, start to finish. I think that's a good number. I can't wait to see how it ends.

Urinals

2011-10-05T16:00:00.000-04:00

The bathroom is normally a very inquisitive place, so a thought occurred to me when I was in there the other day. Many public men's restrooms have urinals in addition to standard toilets, where if you only have to go "number one" instead of "number two", you don't even have to sit down. That makes them rather convenient. They save time, and they save water. And although I won't get into the details, there is also less potential for a mess with a urinal.

But I'm pretty sure I have never seen a stand-up urinal in somebody's house. And why not? Can you go to Lowe's and Home Depot and buy one for you to install in your house? Is that even a thing? How hard is it to install a urinal in your house, and why hasn't anyone I know ever done it?

There might be some issue related to plumbing that I don't know about, given that urinals drain out the back while traditional toilets drain out the bottom, and that's how houses are designed when they are built. But I think the main reason people don't install a supplementary urinal in their house is because, well, where would you put it? Most bathrooms in private homes are kind of small, and you still need the traditional toilet in there either way. And I don't think a urinal really meshes all that well with the stereotypical image of a "pleasant home bathroom". Maybe some of the really big houses that are out there do in fact have a urinal. I mean, if your house has five bathrooms, why not?

If child #1 ended up being a boy, then maybe I'd do a little more research here...but, nah.

When to Serve an Appetizer

2011-10-05T07:14:00.002-04:00

Let's talk restaurant serving times!

A few months back, I talked about the impact that ordering an appetizer has on restaurant serving speed. The theory is that if you order an appetizer, two things happen. They start preparing your appetizer before they start preparing your main dish, and they wait until you have finished the appetizer before they bring out the main dish.

But there are a lot of variables here. Specifically: exactly when do they take your order for, and then serve, the appetizer? Do they...
1) ...take your appetizer and main dish orders at the same time, which is also when I start my timer. The appetizer comes after a few minutes, and then the main dish comes later.
2) ...take your appetizer order first - say, along with your drink order - and then come back a few minutes later, while the appetizer is still being prepared, to get your main dish order (which is when my timer starts)? This method allows them to get you the appetizer sooner than under option #1...in theory, of course.

We don't order appetizers very often, but I think it's usually split evenly between #1 (all food ordered at once) and #2 (appetizers ordered separately). But wait! There's more! They could also...
3) ...take your appetizer order first, and then wait until AFTER you've already received the appetizer before they take your main dish order.

On Sunday, Tyler's Tap Room (downtown Durham) took option #3. We were already eating our soft pretzels before they had even taken our main dish order. I don't think I've ever seen a restaurant use option #3 before.

From a statistical standpoint, my question is this. Based on the theory that appetizers delay the serving of the main dish: is that still the case when the appetizer is already out of the kitchen and on our respective plates before we order the main dish? In this situation, it's almost like we didn't even have the appetizer, and it shouldn't affect the time as a result, since we already have the appetizer by the time my stopwatch starts. This is why there is an asterisk in the "Appetizer" column of my serving times spreadsheet next to Tyler's Tap Room.

I don't ever expect to acquire enough data to be able to prove that options #1/#2 are slower than option #3 (with respect to the main dish timing only, order to reception), and that option #3 is statistically equal to ordering no appetizer at all. But it would be interesting to know.

Kickball Season 4: Mid-Season Report

2011-10-04T16:17:00.000-04:00

This isn't really "mid-season" from the standpoint that we're halfway through my fourth season of co-ed kickball. In fact, we only have one game left in the regular season (which I am sitting out tomorrow night). But I suppose anything between now and the end of the season is still "mid-season".

So, anyway...how's our team doing this year? How about, the best we've ever done? Right now our record is 4-3, which is already more non-forfeit wins than we've ever had, at least since I joined the team. The biggest difference is discliplined and solid defense. Through seven games, we have only given up nine runs the entire season. Compare that to my first season, when we averaged over nine runs allowed per nine innings, and were "mercy ruled" more than once. Needless to say, we've come a long way. (I'll talk about my pitching later.)

As for the offense...well, let's talk about my bunting, which is still the only way I can consistently reach base. And now I present to you, my first-ever kickball diagram:

This is how a typical defense will set up when I'm at the plate. The 3rd baseman will stand as close to home plate as the rules allow, directly behind that line along the 3rd base line. (Side note: the quarter-circle in front of home plate is the "bunt line"; if a ball comes to rest before it reaches the bunt line, and stays fair, it is an out.) The best place to bunt is down the 3rd base line in order to make the throw to 1st as long as possible. So, the 3rd baseman's job is to get a running start, pick the ball up quickly, and either throw it to the 1st baseman before I get there, or peg me from behind if that's easier. Other teams are getting better at this, so I've struggled in my last two games, only going 2-for-7 following a 14-for-17 start to the season. I knew this would happen eventually, so it's time to adjust.

Other people's tactics are not as memorable, so normally, the 3rd baseman will stand a bit farther back. But when I'm at bat, they know what's coming, so the 3rd baseman stands right on that line. That leaves a rather gaping hole in the defense if I can get the ball over the 3rd baseman's head. I've hit that hole a couple of times, but it's hard: you have to keep it fair, but not so fair that the shortstop can catch it, and not too far so that the left fielder (who is required to stand in the grass) can catch it, either. I tried this a few times last night and failed; instead, I was able to reach base twice by kicking it hard enough down the third base line such that the 3rd baseman wasn't able to react quickly enough to field it. That's the downside of standing so close to home plate: if the kick comes right at you, with speed, you may not be able to react. But my usually effective bunting

Another way pitchers have gotten me out in the past is to pitch to the right side of the strike zone, which more often than not results in a kick towards the pitcher or down the first base line, which is an easier throw-out. That's something I've been getting better at, taking a right-side pitch down the 3rd base line. But I also learned from that and started incorporating that into my pitching. Let's say we have runners on 1st and 2nd, and a fast runner at the plate. By pitching to the 3rd base side, we're more likely to get a kick down the 3rd base line, allowing us to get the force out at 3rd. Or, let's say we have a runner on 2nd with two outs, and we have a slow runner at the plate. Then, I pitch to the 1st base side of the strike zone in order to give us an easy play at 1st for the third out. Every season, I try to add something new to my pitching arsenal, and this tactic has definitely helped when combined with pitching to the kicker's opposite foot, and my general late-breaking and deceptive pitches. I might be overthinking this whole pitching thing, but this has been our best defensive season by far, and I broke my personal single-season strikeout record last night (16 Ks; previous record was 15), including one strikeout with the bases loaded and two outs that I'm really proud of, so you can't argue with the numbers. (Regarding the strikeouts: I also think the umpiring has been more forgiving than usual with respect to the strike zone. They're giving me the corner every time! But to be fair, it goes both ways.)

Oh, I haven't mentioned this yet. When I first started playing kickball, I vowed that I would never take this sport so seriously that I would feel the need to by cleats. Well, I have failed myself, because I went out and bought some. I bought cleats for safety than anything else after having slipped and fallen more than once, and they were only $20, so I didn't beat myself up too much over it. But let me tell you, they help, a lot. Given how much I rely on speed, both on offense and defense, how did I ever get by without them?

Even though I'm making our team sound, like, totally super awesome and stuff, we are still quite beatable. When the league's defending champions have their full lineup, they are very difficult to score against, because there are no holes in the defense. And, every team we've played has played much better in the second game, compared to the first time we played them. So even though our team is as good as it's ever been, now that our opponents have figured out how to play defense, the runs have not come easy as of late. (Stat: after scoring 5 runs in my first 10 at-bats this season, I now have scored only 1 run in my last 17 at-bats. And that run was as manufactured as they come: lead off hit, bunt hit to set up 1st/2nd, sacrifice to move us to 2nd/3rd, sacrifice fly to score me from 3rd.) I picked up my 100th career hit a few games ago; how long will it take me before I get my 200th hit? It depends on how many new teams we get each season, I suppose.

Curling Recap: 9/30/11

2011-10-03T16:15:00.000-04:00

Career game #155: 2011 Fall League - September 30, 2011

End.......... 12345678 |TTL

---------------------------

Schoolman.... 01131001 | 07

Allen........ 10000220 | 05

What's my excuse this week? I have several, actually.

I think the game can be best personified by this setup, prior to my final shot of the 5th end: (our team = red)

Opposing skip Brian's last rock was rock #2, and you could not have placed it better. That left us with one option: the only way we could score a point here was to remove both yellow rocks with one shot. A nose hit on either rock would have still given the other team one point, because the untouched yellow rock would still have been closer. The double was not impossible here, but on our ice, it's certainly a low percentage shot. Perhaps I should be happy that I was at least able to hit one of the yellow rocks and at least hold them to one, as opposed to missing everything and giving them two.

Where were all the red rocks in that end, anyway? They're all gone! I forget what happened in this end, specifically, but the other team made two double take-outs during the course of the game. That's four points down the drain right there. Tough to compete with that. They were pinpoint accurate in the first five ends, and the ice conditions were good enough to reward that.

Usually when we win, we'll make a "killer" shot or two during the game that the other team can't do much with: a draw behind a well-placed guard, a perfect raise to the button, or a perfect single or double take-out. We never really had a shot like that in this game. The precision wasn't quite there. In the 4th end, I had an open draw against four yellow rocks on my last shot, and was a little too heavy, resulting in a steal of three. In the 8th end, we had the would-be game-tying rock in the house, but we could never get it guarded. We were close to pulling off the "killer" shot on a lot of occasions throughout the game, but could never quite get there. And I don't think I called the best game, either. I was too aggressive with take-outs and didn't call enough quiet shots early in the game, and what cost us in the 4th end. We needed more rocks in play.

I fall into this trap sometimes when I'm playing against a team that is calling, and making, a lot of take-outs. I see take-outs being made, and I decide to start calling a bunch of take-outs myself, because I have visions of making the same shots that they're making. This often ends up costing us. When you're playing a take-out-proficient team, the correct strategy is not to try to beat them at their own game, but to start with guards and then put as many rocks in play as possible. Once I remembered this, I went with a more quiet strategy in the 6th and 7th ends, and that's how we got back in the game.

Random statistical curiosity: all three of my Fall League games so far have ended in a 7-5 score.

And with that, it's time for a mid-season break. (Mid-season? Already? Well, sort of.) The Friday League takes the next two weeks off and then returns on October 21st, which also happens to be my team's bye week. So unless somebody needs a spare, I might not curl again until October 28th. That's kind of sad, really.

Sports Saturday: 10/1/11

2011-10-01T08:27:00.002-04:00

We're on the clock! Once again, I'm only giving myself 30 minutes and counting to write this.

MLB

Wednesday was the last day of the regular season, and it was shaping up to be an exciting day, with two teams tied for the Wild Card spot in both leagues (Atlanta/St. Louis in the NL, Boston/Tampa Bay in the AL). I devoted my sports evening to watching the games. Then, with Tampa down 7-0 and Atlanta and St. Louis somewhat comfortably ahead, and a complete lack of interest in seeing Boston win, I went to bed. And, of course, I missed one of the most dramatic days in regular season baseball ever, with the Rays coming from behind to win, and the Red Sox and Braves coming from ahead to lose.

Oh, that would have been fun to watch. Problem is, most of this happened around well after 11 PM. And this is one reason why I can't really get into baseball. The games take too long, and most of the exciting stuff - especially in the later rounds of playoffs - happens well past my bedtime. I don't have the patience to sit through hours of boredom waiting for that amazing payoff in the end, which is what Wednesday night was for many. Exciting moments are made even more exciting when they're against the backdrop of what is usually a rather boring sport. As a fan of Formula One, I know this. Holy crap, a pass for the lead on the last lap! Best race EVER!!!! Except that this kind of thing happens in other sports on a regular basis.

Really, more than anything, I just feel kind of left out. It's been far too long since a team I cared about even got close to making the playoffs, and for me, that has always been the key to enjoying baseball: I have to care. If you care who wins, it's tense; if you don't care who wins, it's boring. When are the Washington Nationals going to make a playoff run, hmm?

As for the teams that are left, I'd like to get behind the Tampa Bay Rays if I could...but I make no promises that I'm actually going to get around to watching any of their games. Rays at Rangers, Game 2: Sat 7:00p, TNT

NFL

It was especially fun to watch when it was pouring rain, and the last-second first half touchdown was exciting. (Is anyone better than Jacksonville at scoring touchdowns with no time left?) But other than that...I think last week's Jaguars v. Panthers game showed that it's pretty hopeless for the Jags. They are 32nd in the NFL in passing offense, which these days is the most important stat. (Here's a stat I like: the Jaguars have 380 passing yards total through three games; Tom Brady has thrown for more than that in every GAME so far.) It's too bad, because they have a running game, and they have a decent defense. But they aren't good enough to carry their terrible passing game, so I think the season is hopeless. The decision to cut David Garrard before the start of the season has never looked worse than it does now. Although to be fair, it's not like the Jaguars are loaded at wide receiver, either. Chances are, even with Garrard, Jacksonville would still be 1-2. And crazy as it may sound, I think they have a chance - a small chance - of winning this Sunday. Why? Well, why not? New Orleans at Jacksonville: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 711

As for Carolina: Cam Newton played only slightly better last Sunday than he did in the preseason, which is why I said he wasn't ready at the time. See? I'm not completely clueless here. Carolina at Chicago: Sun 1:00p, WRAZ 50

How about those 3-0 Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions? Both teams are must-watch from here on out. Unfortunately, just like the Jaguars, pretty much all of their games are 1:00 games. Side note: CBS has assigned Andrew Catalon to do the play-by-play for the Buffalo at Cincinnati game. You may remember Catalon from NBC's Olympic curling coverage in Vancouver. Yay curling! Buffalo at Cincinnati: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 704; Detroit at Dallas: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 707

(Other local TV games: PIT/HOU, Sun 1:00p, WRAL 5. DEN/GB, Sun 4:15p, WRAL 5. NYJ/BAL, Sun 8:20p, NBC.)
(Other games: Sun 1:00p - TEN/CLE, WSH/STL, MIN/KC, SF/PHI. Sun 4:00p - ATL/SEA, NYG/ARI, MIA/SD, NE/OAK.)

(College football is farther down. I saved it for last this week.)

Auto racing

On the NASCAR front, I liked this article which talks about (among other things) the balance racing leagues must find between "parity" and "innovation". Allow teams to innovate in secret too much, and you get Formula One, which has zero parity and in which Sebastian Vettel wins practically every race. Allow teams to innovate too little, and you get NASCAR (and perhaps IndyCar as well), in which all the cars pretty much run the same speed, and teams must resort to strategy in order to gain an edge. Most recently, this has meant that NASCAR teams are relying heavily on fuel mileage and pit strategy in order to win races, as you can gain far more track position that way than you can by, you know, having a faster car. There has to be a happy medium somewhere, don't you think?

I think the Atlanta race was the most entertaining NASCAR race in recent memory (since the summer). Why? Because the track was loose and the tires wore out quickly, and that combination makes for some great racing. The other NASCAR tracks, and tire supplier Goodyear, should have taken note of that. Create a tire that drops off quickly (but not to the point of wearing all the way down the cords or blowing out), and/or make the track rough so that it wears the tires quickly, and you'll have yourselves a great race, as opposed to the fuel mileage derbies we've been having. I personally don't mind a strategy race, but much of the NASCAR fan base thinks the fuel mileage game is getting old. NASCAR Sprint Cup at Dover: Sun 2:00p, ESPN

College football

Five more minutes! Starting with Clemson/Florida State from last week: as I suspected, it looks like FSU is indeed back to the "status quo" of the last few years. I think 8-4 is a reasonable expectation from here on out. Meanwhile, if Clemson wins today, I think the sky is the limit for them. They really impressed me last week; Clemson won that game more than Florida State lost it. I'm not saying they'll go undefeated; there are too many decent ACC teams for that. But Clemson can definitely compete for the ACC title. Clemson at Virginia Tech: Sat 6:00p, ESPN2

I'm glad Penn State is done with their MAC portion of the schedule. Time for some real football. Although Indiana can easily be mistaken for a MAC team at times. Penn State at Indiana, Sat 12:00p, ESPNU

Welcome to the Big Ten, Nebraska! As your welcoming gift, we're going to make you play your first conference game at Camp Randall Stadium. Oh, and did we mention that it would be at night? Have fun! Nebraska at Wisconsin: Sat 8:00p, ABC.

At last: Florida's first ranked opponent of the season. Alabama at Florida: Sat 8:00p, CBS

Other games I'm semi-interested in:
Georgia Tech at NC State: Sat 3:30p, ABC (Regional)
Michigan State at Ohio State: Sat 3:30p, ESPN (Regional ABC)
Washington at Utah: Sat 7:00p, FSN
North Carolina at East Carolina: Sat 8:00p, CBS Sports

Official State Highway Maps

2011-09-29T16:05:00.000-04:00

One of the rooms in our house has been designated "the Map Room". The walls of the Map Room are literally covered in maps. It's pretty awesome. Who needs wallpaper when you have a bunch of official state (and in some cases, province) highway maps?

Soon thereafter, I decided to bring the concept to my office at work, but only on a limited basis. Then a few weeks ago, I upgraded to a bigger office at work, an office which happens to have much more available wall space. It was then that I decided to go "all out" once again and completely cover all of the walls of my new office with maps, as opposed to just one wall. I then sent away for several more official state (and in some cases, province) highway maps. A couple of weeks later, three of my four office walls are covered in maps. Yeah!

The first wall looks a lot like the wall in my previous office, except rearranged a little.

But the second and third walls each have a new set of recently acquired maps:

The fourth wall is still blank, but I am also still expecting 12 more state maps in the mail. That may or may not be enough to fill the fourth wall.

Where do I get these maps? Some (including many on the second wall) are historical maps I got from friends. (The Indiana map, for example, is from 1968, and I think the Florida map is from the 1970s.) Others, I got from the state department of transportation (or department of tourism) for free by going to their website and filling out a form. For example, here is where you can get a free printed copy of the official North Carolina state highway map. Interstate Welcome Centers also will usually have free state maps available for pickup, although you obviously have to actually go to the state to get it in that case.

Sure, I could go to AAA and get a bunch of AAA maps. That's what we do for actual vacations, but for wallpapering purposes, the official state DOT maps are much better. AAA maps all look the same: same colors, same fonts, and so forth. But every state makes their own maps a little differently, and this makes for a much more interesting and colorful Map Room.

But as society trends away from printed maps and towards electronic maps, and as states across the country penny-pinch in an effort to balance their budgets, are state-issued official highway maps an endangered species? Hopefully not, but at least one state - Washington - no longer prints copies of its state map, citing both budgetary reasons and the availability of online maps. Sure, I can download their official state map in .pdf format, but what's the point? It's not like I have access to a printer that can turn the .pdf into a full-size state map. And it's not the same without all of the folds, either. As a result, Washington will not be represented on my office walls. (Boooooo Washington! Boycott!)

A few other states won't be represented on my office walls, either. Illinois is one of a few states that make printed maps, but don't give you the option of getting one through the mail; instead, you have to go to a state Welcome Center or DOT office to get it. Nevada has a free state highway map, but they also have a minimum order of $8 if ordering online, apparently. Other states like Rhode Island offer free "travel guides", but it isn't clear whether an official map is included. Unless I am certain a map will be included, I feel kind of guilty ordering a visitor's guide for a state that we don't actually plan on visiting any time soon. As for Hawai'i, I don't know if they've ever even had an official state highway map. Hawai'i is one of two states not represented in either "Map Room". Alaska is the other, but I'm hoping that will change soon, because I sent away for an official Alaska map last week.

(Side note: Vermont sent me the full visitor's guide along with the map. Included with the packet was a letter basically saying, "We know you've heard about the damage Tropical Storm Irene did to the state of Vermont. But don't let that stop you from visiting - we're open for business! Just allow for a little extra travel time as we work to fix the roads.)

Then, there are states like Tennessee, which used to put the entire state on one side of the map (see here), but now puts the western half on one side, and the eastern half on the reverse side. That seems like a more practical way to print the map, especially for a wide state like Tennessee. But it's really inconvenient for my purposes. I should have ordered two. And I feel guilty going back and requesting another map after the fact. Hey, I guess half a map is better than no map, eh, Washington?

For some reason, Louisiana and Massachusetts sent me two maps anyway, even though I ordered one. Actually, I should have ordered at least two maps from each state regardless. Not just for instances like Tennessee where they split up the state front-and-back. (That's pretty rare, but I've also had this problem with California and Illinois in the past. Ontario also does it, with Southern on one side and Northern on the reverse, but I give them a pass.) But if official state highway maps are in fact an endangered species, then I better stock up now, before it's too late.

When to Use a Sick Day

2011-09-28T13:29:00.002-04:00

(Disclaimer: Possible content overlap between this post and one I wrote on April 26, 2007.)

I took a sick day today because I started feeling the onset of a cold last night, which continued this morning. But now, a few hours later, I actually feel pretty good. Should I have taken the sick day in the first place?

Well, let's analyze. Lots of factors at play here. Let's start with what I think is the #1 reason to use a sick day, at least from the company's perspective:

You don't want to get the rest of the office sick, do you? Of course not, especially considering that one of my co-workers is seven months pregnant. But the thing is, studies have shown that one is capable of passing the common cold on to others for a full TWO WEEKS (source). Needless to say, I'm not going to take two weeks off from work for a common cold. And, I may have already gotten the rest of the office sick when I was there yesterday. Staying away from work when you're contagious simply isn't practical. But I think taking one sick day in the middle of common cold, when symptoms are at their worst (as they were this morning) and the cold is most contagious, is reasonable. Maybe two sick days if the cold is bad enough, which this one isn't.

How much sick leave does your company give you? I get 10 days a year, it rolls over from year-to-year with no upper limit, and I can't cash it out when I leave. This policy allows me to carry a rather large balance of sick leave, and it encourages rather liberal use of sick leave, which I think is sort of the idea. If you're sick, stay away. Contrast that to the company where Amber works: five days a year, no rollover. If that was my company's policy, then I probably would have gone to work today. (Unless it was December and I had at least two days of sick leave left for the year.)

Any looming deadlines at the office? Not today. I guess if it came down to it, going back to reason #1, I could work from home if I absolutely had to get something out the door today. But most of the time, an unplanned day off won't create too much of a problem with respect to the work.

How sick are you, really? Well...tough question to answer. I'm not exactly bedridden here. I can get up and do stuff, and I could have at least had a somewhat productive day at work had I gone in. But going back to the top two reasons, company policy encourages us to stay home on a day such as today. Regardless, I'll feel better tomorrow by staying home and resting today than I would had I gone to work. In theory.

Speaking of which...I can't say I feel "pretty good" anymore like I did when I started typing this, so I should probably get away from the computer and get back to bed.

New Area Codes

2011-09-27T15:56:00.001-04:00

Starting next year, the Raleigh area (a.k.a. the Triangle) will join many other metropolitan areas in that it will be served by two overlaid area codes. The existing 919 area code will remain intact, and will be overlaid by a new area code, 984. We're big time now! You know you've made it as a metropolitan area when you need two area codes.

Or so I thought, until I started looking around. When an area code runs out of phone numbers, you can do one of two things. Option #1 is to split the area code into two, forcing an area code change on half of your constituents, but keeping "one region, one area code" and seven-digit dialing. Option #2 is to overlay a second area code on the entire area, which keeps all existing numbers the same, but eliminates seven-digit dialing. Option #1 (splits) was favored for quite some time, but option #2 (overlays) seems to be the most popular form of area code expansion these days. For example, when West Virginia needed a new area code (the state's second) a few years ago, rather than split the existing 304, they decided to overlay the entire state with their new area code. Manitoba decided to do the same thing, and their second area code - 431, to be implemented next year - will be a province-wide overlay of the existing 204. I guess having two area codes no longer means you're in a big city, because even West Virginia and Manitoba are using overlays. (HOV lanes are still an indicator of big city status, however.)

Why the change from splits to overlays? Because ten digit dialing isn't really a big deal anymore, not with cell phones. Most phone calls do not involve me typing numbers into my phone, and when I do dial numbers, I've been in the habit of dialing 10 digits for years now anyway. Seven-digit dialing is a thing of the past, folks...but that has already been the case with the younger generation, I think. Still, though, I would prefer that new area codes come from a split rather than an overlay. The primary reason is because I like area codes as regional identifiers. One region, one area code. Given that about half of Manitoba's population lives in Winnipeg, why not give Winnipeg one area code and the rest of the province the other area code?

Area codes are useful in that they allow me to determine where a phone call is coming from if I don't recognize the number. They also help give me some information about somebody. Let's say I have a friend, and his/her cell phone number starts has a non-local area code. Well, that lets me know where this person used to live! I think that's neat. It's quite common for people to have non-local cell phone numbers these days, since people tend to hang onto their cell phone numbers even after they relocate. In fact, my cell phone number is still area code 904 (Jacksonville), and Amber's cell phone number is still area code 814 (State College). Having a 904 cell phone number is sort of a badge of pride for me, which is one reason why I've never switched to a 919 number. Jacksonville pride, baby! (The main reason I've never changed it is so that I wouldn't have to tell everyone that my phone number changed.)

Speaking of which...I suppose the whole "pride" thing is an argument for overlays. People carry some sort of pride with their home area code. (For example: "I'm from The 919, yo!") So what if we split the area code up? Then all those people who were "919 representing" are now "984 representing", and that doesn't sound as hip, I guess. At least this way, everyone who was in "The 919" to begin with, still is. But overlaying a single metropolitan area is one thing; those are hard to split into two area codes. I don't like the idea of overlaying an entire state with a second area code. And I'm not from West Virginia, but I don't think you would lose much "pride" by putting Wheeling and Beckley in separate area codes. I demand as much specificity as possible in my area codes!

Other fun facts about area code splits and overlays:
- California has 30 area codes. If I counted correctly, 20 of the 30 are non-overlaid: one region, one area code.
- The following states still only have one area code covering the entire state: Alaska (sort of - see below), Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming. (District of Columbia, too.)
- West Virginia is the only state with a two-area-code overlay covering the entire state. Every other state with two area codes employs a split. (Saskatchewan also has a two-area-code, province-wide overlay, and Manitoba will starting next year.)
- Alaska is entirely served by area code 907...except for the Southeast Alaska town of Hyder, which shares British Columbia's area code 250.
- In Canada, the three northern territories (Yukon, NW Territories, Nunavut) share a single area code: 867, which not coincidentally, spells "TOP" on your phone.

Speaking of spelling out words with phone numbers...if I were to switch my phone number to a local number, the best time to do it would be immediately after the new area code is implemented, right? All of the fun 919 numbers are already taken, of course. But with 984 we're starting fresh, so in theory, I could get any phone number I want - say, 984-222-2222. Or, I could spell out any word I want, such as 984-CURLING, or maybe 984-BOOGERS. Wouldn't that be fun?

Curling Recap: 9/23/11

2011-09-26T12:01:00.000-04:00

Career game #154: 2011 Fall League - September 23, 2011

End.......... 12345678 |TTL

---------------------------

Allen........ 03020110 | 07

Scott........ 10201001 | 05

Before each new Triangle Curling Club league season, my biggest fear is that I will go 0-8. I don't really fear finishing last; I've never finished in last place in a league, but it will happen eventually, and that's okay. But I still think I'm trying to prove my worth as a Skip, and going winless would be a pretty big step back in that regard, to the point where it might be a while before I get another opportunity. Well, two games in, we've got our first win of the Fall League. Hooray!

The ice conditions of the night dictated that you could only reliably use the outer half of the sheet. Throw something on the inner half, and it will fall away from the center line and not really end up in a useful place. So, the thing to do was to take control of "the line" as early in the end as possible, which we did an excellent job of throughout the game. Controlling the center four feet of the sheet - or, in our case, the line you have to take to get there - is paramount to any good curling strategy. Ironically, that's something I learned from opposing skip Keith during a strategy session he taught a few months back. (Keith has been doing this a long time.)

Here is basically how "the line" played: (not to scale)

There was a subtle ridge down the middle of the ice, which a rock would "bounce" away from as it approached from the outside. So you had to take that into account when you are, for example, trying to take out that red rock there. Since the red rock is far from the ridge, you want to have the rock bounce off the ridge as late down the ice as possible, or else you'll miss the rock to the inside. I can't always figure out the ice (the previous week I struggled with that), but last Friday, I thought I had the ice conditions nailed pretty well.

Those who curl on dedicated ice may be thinking, "That sounds ABSOULTELY RIDICULOUS". It is, if you're used to good curling ice. But arena ice is all I've ever known (outside of away bonspiels), and I think that may actually give me an advantage over curlers who have decades of experience curling on dedicated ice. When the ice does crazy things, I just go with the flow and try to use it to my advantage.

How do I use it to my advantage? By throwing take-outs when necessary along the predictable line, and then guarding the heck out of the predictable line and forcing the other team into throwing difficult shots along the less-worn paths. My best shot of the game was a take-out for three points at the end of the 2nd end (along the predictable line), and I called a few crazy heavy take-outs later in the game for the rest of my team along that line, some of which worked out great for us. Later in the game, once we had the lead, we got defensive and guarded plenty, to the point where opposing skip Keith didn't have too many options when it came to be his turn. (That was important, because on any given day, Keith is going to out-curl me hands down.) Of course, it's easy to make a strategy sound good, but most strategies will pan out when everyone on your team plays as well as we did on Friday, top to bottom.

There are nine teams in this league, and right now we're in a six-way tie for 2nd at 1-1. (Full standings and schedule here.) Excitement!

Sports Saturday: 9/24/11

2011-09-24T09:52:00.001-04:00

Once again, I'm putting myself on a clock: I am not allowed to spend more than 30 minutes writing this week's Sports Saturday post. That includes the amount of time I spend looking up the weekend's TV schedules, which is actually what I spend most of my time doing with these.

NFL

Doesn't look like the Jaguars' whole Luke McCown experiment worked out. He was flat-out awful in last week's game against the Jets. But I still think he should be the starter this Sunday. After David Garrard was cut, I think the Jaguars had two options: 1) Declare rookie Blaine Gabbert the starter from the beginning. 2) Declare Luke McCown the starter and stick with him for at least the first few games. Why start the guy only to bench him in favor of Gabbert after ONE awful game, as the Jaguars have done? Especially if he is supposedly "better than David Garrard"? That said, I am looking forward to seeing how Gabbert does this Sunday. Side note: I'm already second-guessing my NFL Sunday Ticket purchase for this year. This is the third straight week in which I would have seen the Jaguars without purchasing Sunday Ticket (free preview in Week 1 + local broadcasts the last two weeks). Jacksonville at Carolina: Sun 1:00p, WRAL 5

As for the rest of the league...I'm most interested in seeing how the Buffalo Bills do this weekend. Their last game against Oakland was the game of the weekend, and now the Bills are 2-0 and play the Patriots at home. New England at Buffalo: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 706

Houston has to be the favorite in the AFC South at this point, right? Houston at New Orleans: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 705

Another "usually crappy team that's doing pretty well so far": Detroit. When all else fails, these are usually the types of teams I pull for. Detroit at Minnesota: Sun 1:00p, DirecTV 710

(Other locally broadcast games: 1:00p FOX - NYG/PHI. 4:15p FOX - GB/CHI. 8:20p NBC - PIT/IND.)
(Other games: 1:00p - SF/CIN, MIA/CLE, DET/MIN, DEN/TEN. 4:00p - NYJ/OAK, BAL/STL, KC/SD, ATL/TB, ARI/SEA.)

[current time spent: 11:30]

College football

Let's start with the ACC, and Florida State. The Seminoles were not able to beat perceived #1 Oklahoma last weekend, but the excitement is back, is it not? Win or lose, it was fun to see FSU back on the "big stage". That said, today's game against Clemson is bigger than the Oklahoma game. If they truly are "back" (I still have my doubts, especially considering the Seminoles' injury troubles), then they should beat Clemson, right. Lose, and all this "hype" was for nothing, I think. I never bought into the hype, though, and I'm not surprised that Clemson is actually the favorite here. If they win, great! If not, then we're back to the FSU 21st century status quo, which isn't a completely bad place to be, honestly. Florida State at Clemson: Sat 3:30p, ESPN

Speaking of the 21st century status quo, Penn State seems to be back in the "maybe hopefully we'll win enough games to be bowl eligible" mode that they were in a few years ago. (Full disclosure: I was not able to catch the Temple game. I only read about it.) And that means today's game is probably the only guaranteed win they have left. Eastern Michigan at Penn State: Sat 12:00p, ESPN2

I missed Temple last week, so how about this week? Temple at Maryland: Sat 12:30p, WRAL (ACC Network)

I've pretty much ignored Florida so far, in part because I'm choosing to relish in the relative anonymity that the Gators are experiencing in the post-Urban Meyer days. I don't mind them so much when they're "just another team". Florida at Kentucky: Sat 7:00p, ESPN

ABC has been able to land a pretty solid game most weeks. How much of a role do the TV networks play when scheduling these non-conference games? And, are preseason rankings of teams who have such games early in the season inflated (consciously or not) to make the game seem more important? I always wonder about that. LSU at West Virginia: Sat 8:00p, ABC

Other games I'm mildly interested in:

North Carolina at Georgia Tech, Sat 12:00p, ESPN: You know me and my mid-level ACC matchups. Although if last week is any indication, maybe Georgia Tech is a contender.
North Dakota State at Minnesota, Sat 7:00p, BTN: Minnesota seems to have more trouble beating FCS/I-AA teams than any other big conference team. (Well, except Duke.)
Nebraska at Wyoming, Sat 7:30p, Versus: The football programs of these two schools are so distant from each other, it didn't register at first that these two states actually share a border.
Missouri at Oklahoma, Sat 8:00p, FX: FOX better be paying Gus Johnson a lot of money. So far, it seems like he committed career suicide by giving up the NFL and March Madness just so he could call the Big 12/Pac-12 blowout of the week on FX.

Uh oh...I'm up to 28 minutes. No time to talk conference realignment. (In short: just what the ACC needs, more northern teams that nobody down here cares about!) Better finish this up quick...

Auto racing

Will NASCAR actually get to race on Sunday this week? Maybe. NASCAR Sprint Cup at New Hampshire: Sun 2:00p, ESPN

So, we were at church last week, and one of the hymns sounded very, very familiar. "Hey, this melody sounds familiar. Somebody's national anthem goes by this same tune, but I can't figure out which one." Turns out it was the German national anthem, which I have heard many times this year, thanks to Sebastian Vettel (German) winning pretty much every Formula One race this year. Formula One Singapore Grand Prix: Sun 8:00a, SPEED

Beer: The Return

2011-09-22T15:47:00.001-04:00

Recall that back in May, I gave up beer, completely and effective immediately, citing immediate headaches whenever I had a drink or two. (I don't mean headaches the morning after; I mean immediate headaches.) Well, four months later, it's time for a new policy! I think a compromise can be found, so my self-imposed complete beer ban is history. This new policy, which has actually been in effect for a couple of weeks now, has worked out okay so far.

Introducing my new policy on beer (and other alcoholic drinks, although over 95% of the alcohol I consume is in the form of beer):
- In "open bar" situations, such as wedding receptions, in which all alcohol is pre-paid: have at it.
- Curling: When I lose, I may accept a free drink if I wish. (Curling tradition dictates that the winning team buys the losing team a round of drinks.) When I win, no beer.

Basically, these first two rules amount to this: If I don't have to pay for the drink myself, I can drink. Otherwise, nope. But there is more to it than that...

- At home: No drinking at home, period. Even if someone else brings beer to my house at no charge to me.
- In other social situations: Decide on a case-by-case basis. Most social situations will dictate "no beer", but I will make exceptions when my "social status" seems to depend greatly on it. (Recall that the reason I started drinking beer in the first place was part of an effort to be more socially acceptable. Because, you know, all the kids are doing it!) I don't expect to activate this clause too often, if ever, but I figured I'd write it into the rules. Rules which are totally arbitrary and non-binding, of course.

I think this is a good compromise. My body can handle some beer, but only in moderation; it must be regulated.

Home Alone with Marla

2011-09-21T16:25:00.000-04:00

On Sunday evenings this Fall (curling season), and starting last weekend, our nearly 8-week-old daughter Marla will spend four to five hours at home alone with me. Amber spends 8 to 9 hours alone with Marla every weekday while I'm at work, but I don't have as much practice being the "solo parent" myself. Can I handle it without "incident"?

Well, I think I did just fine on Sunday. Marla is currently at the stage where she rarely naps for more than 30 minutes at a time during the day, and if you put her down in a chair or swing or something like that, she'll start crying within a matter of minutes. So, you more or less have to hold her to some extent the whole time, and always keep the pacifier handy. That will change eventually, but for the last several weeks, she's been rather high maintenance...but not so high maintenance that I can't watch football in the meantime. Amber doesn't have this problem, but I get bored when it's just me and Marla, so I have to put something on the television, or something. Once Marla actually starts doing stuff, then things will change.

Obviously, when Amber's away, the only feeding option is bottle feeding. I'm perfectly capable, but Amber has a better grasp of reading the "hunger cues" than I do. I always think she's hungry. (Which might actually be accurate.) And I've been doing diaper changes a lot along the way as well, so that's not a big deal, either. (Speaking of which, we've given up on the idea of cloth diapers.)
No part of baby care is big a deal, really. But several hours of baby care with no break can be kind of exhausting. I have a ton of respect for what Amber does on a day-to-day basis at home.

This week, I get "home alone with Marla" time both Saturday and Sunday, during which I expect at least one "challenge". I mean, mayhem is supposed to erupt when the baby is left alone with Dad, right?

In other baby news: Marla now weighs over 10 pounds. And that was as of last week, so she might even be close to 11 by now. (We'll get an official number one week from today during her two-month appointment.) Perhaps not coincidentally, I am also gaining weight. This study concluded that new fathers gain an average of 14 pounds during pregnancy; I was able to avoid that, but maybe now it's catching up to me. (And when I say "gaining weight", I mean maybe five pounds. Not a big deal, but as they say, it's easier to keep it off than to take it off. So now is the time to start paying more attention to it.)

Marla is still stuck on five counties visited, but we plan to take her to at least one new county sometime this weekend. And if we're feeling ambitious, we might even give Marla a new state! Virginia isn't that far away, you know. (Danville is a real possibility for this weekend's Marla road trip. That trip would give Marla four new counties.)

Finally...here's the token baby picture of the week:

We had our first real taste of fall last weekend, with lows in the 50s and highs in the 60s. This was the first time Marla had experienced temperatures like this, and I'm not sure she liked it so much. She'll learn to appreciate cold weather eventually...but in the meantime, given how cold we like to keep the house in the winter, I think we're going to need lots and lots of blankets.