Here is a site collecting funny pictures of dogs....

Beer bottle broken over one man's head leads to retaliation with a metal car jack. Four men arrested. Best baby shower ever!

Beautiful pictures of Enceladus up close. (That is one of Saturn's moons FYI)

Interesting thing happened yesterday. This space got scanned a couple times by government agencies in Virginia. Seems they picked up on the caption for one of the pictures at the bottom of this page which includes the word 'Bomb'. Hopefully, I won't get a visit from the nice men in black suits over a picture of eggplant, but it might be exciting.

Last Thursday was the final regular night for the Fall bocce league. We started the night in 5th place, so we already knew we would be in the playoffs, but if everything went well we could move up in placement. Well, as luck would have it we were facing the last place team on our night and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place teams were playing each other and everything went VERY WELL, INDEED. We won our three games 12-0, 12-1, and 12-1. Combined with the outcomes of those other games we moved into third place. Last night was our first round playoff game and we faced off with the third place finisher from Friday nights. Evenly matched games can take a long time and we were trading single points and were tied at 6-6 before we got a surge in game one and closed it out 12-8. The second game started off badly as Andy and I surrendered 3 points and after a failed short game experiment we found ourselves down 8-2. I think we were all starting to think we would need a game three, but all of us have been pretty dialed in the last few weeks. So we focused a little more and came back to 10-9 in their favor. After seeing Andy and I struggle with the short game from our end, the players on the other end of the court decided to challenge Rob and Brian the same way. Big mistake. They got three points for a 12-10 win and could have easily picked up the fourth point if it had been necessary. There is something very satisfying about doing well, especially as a team, and we do work well as a team. And it also is good to So, Sunday morning at 9am I'll be in St. Helena for round two. Hopefully it will be a long day of bocce and we do well. Bocce is one of the many things I will definitely miss while on my travels and I'm glad I have been able to participate over the last three years. It has been really fun. Anyone reading this should see if there is a league near where you live and try it out. I really recommend it.

If you enjoy beautiful cinematography and otherworldly landscapes, check out "House of Sand", a Brazillian film set in a desert in that country. I WANT WANT WANT to go see that place for myself. REALLY WANT. I may get that chance within the next two years!!

Life is busy, busy, busy....

Last weekend TrueMusicMedia provided sound for the Luau and Grand Finale concert for the 1st Annual Wine Country Ukulele Festival. This was an incredibly fun thing to be involved with. I had no idea of the versatility and creativity gifted uke players could bring and they overwhelmed me with their skill. Truly fun to watch all four of the artists perform at the finale. Thanks to NIMBUS Arts for going out on a limb to host this type of event.



Sunday was my brother's wedding which I thought went very well(although I did hear some complaints last night from my brother and sister-in-law). Apparently, I must have been at a different wedding than they were. Anyway that was a nice wedding and the annoyances of all the little tasks that landed in my lap the day of are all but forgotten at this point.

All of the above was complicated by the Deer Park fire that consumed 300 acres and a house and created all kinds of traffic havoc throughout the weekend. That only one house burned is a testament to the FireWise practices here in Napa County and the hard work of the many firefighters involved in containing this one. Two of my friends were passing by at the time the fire initially started and saw the truck pulled over at the side of the road and the fire already roaring up the hillside.

Last night in Berkeley I picked up what looks like an interesting bit of anime called Cat Soup. It is described as 'Hello Kitty on Acid' and that was enough to catch my attention, but in looking at the IMBD info on it, I think I may have stumbled on more than just a visual gem. Looking forward to repeated viewings to tease out the symbolism.

An interesting time lapse photography link I found today.

I've been driving a car with a TAPE DECK in it lately and as humorous as that must be to anyone reading this it has actually given me a chance to listen to a bunch of tapes, I haven't heard in years. Rediscovering great music almost every day. In particular I have been listening to a group called RedRedGroovy, somewhat dated music, but just as fun as I remember it. Plus one of the first goa/psy compilations I ever got that really hooked me on the style, Concept in Dance Digital Alchemy, put together by ManWithNoName. That contains one of my all time favorite tracks 'Sugar Rush' by the ManWithNoName genius himself.

"We loved life so much that we imagined ourselves immortal. Overwhelming the powers that be with the force of our passion for science. Or maybe we were just f$#*ed in the head." from Flatliners as sampled by ManWithNoName in his track 'The Far Side'.

"Madam Speaker, this is a huge cowpatty with a piece of marshmallow stuck in the middle of it. I'm not going to eat that cowpatty." Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga. on the Financial Bailout plan.

Rep. Broun may not want to eat the cowpie, but every tax paying American is now going to get a mouthful. Just close your eyes and enjoy as best you can! There are still analysts who believe there is a lot more marshmallow than we think and it won't taste nearly as bad as it could. Time will tell.

I wasn't able to able to see either of the debates, so I tracked down the transcripts: Here is the transcript of the first presidential debate.

Here is the Vice Presidential Debate transcript.

Part of why I missed the VP debate was the much higher priority bocce match I was in Thursday night. Our best player has been gone the past three weeks and our record over that period showed. He was back and we were able to turn in a good performance against a talented team. Taking two of the three games put us in the playoffs for sure and next week we play against the last place team so we may move up one more position in the standings if we take care of business. One of the players on the team we played against on Thursday is a friend of mine and it happened to be her birthday. Couldn't give her a break during the games, but I did go with her and a couple others over to the opening night of A/K/A on Main St. in Saint Helena. They were not serving food that night, but the menu looks good and the prices very good for the offerings. Since Lisa and Julie were both in the mood for food, we went down the block to Cook and ate. I had had pizza during bocce, so I was not that hungry, but I did have a beet salad that was very good. Other friends joined us towards the end of the meal, and when they headed to Anna's for some karaoke, I headed home. No singing for me and besides I have plenty to do at home to get it back under control.

Little did I know that when I got home, my brother would be there with the directive that my room downstairs had to be completely vacated right then to allow the carpet cleaners to do their job first thing Friday morning. That pissed me off, because I had moved about half of my stuff already and was doing it a specific order so there wasn't a lot of double work, but this threw that plan out the window. I got the last of my things moved by 3 am and my new room was so overloaded I slept in the hall on the floor. Had a foul mood at work on Friday thinking about all the extra work I was going to have to do so my brother would not be inconvenienced. Anyway, I got home and started cleaning up and it went much faster than I thought. I could use my bed again and after working on it Saturday night and most of Sunday it is in a condition that I can live with. We also got my dad's office two thirds emptied and that will create a lot of new space. He had so many manuals and notebooks from the 60's and 70's, it is amazing. I don't think even he had gone back to look at them probably ever. They just took up space on a book shelf. We had one of his friends from Bechtel come by and see if any of the manuals were usable if we wanted to donate them, but he said there was very little worth keeping.

As for the house itself, the stucco work is done, the woodwork is nearing completion, the painting crew will be here tomorrow to continue where they can, and we had a team adding gravel and regrading the driveway. Thank you God! We had been so far behind with everything, but the necessary things are being accomplished and I know the stress will be diminishing here in short order (at least for me).

Good news everyone!

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis

Unfortunately, the above quote is coming truer and truer as the days go by. The truly sad aspect of this is that people seem unaware and unconcerned that the principles that have made this country great have been severely eroded and we may not ever get them back.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

I consider myself religious and conservative, but I do NOT believe either of those things give me any right to force others into my view points. My brother has a sign on the back of his truck, which says "Keep Church and State Separate" and it is something I wholeheartedly agree with. The religious right is far scarier to me than the extremists on the liberal side.

Here are some links I found particularly informative recently, first on where the presidential candidates stand on a number of issues, then an overview of the subprime/investment debacle that will get worse before it gets better.

Link #1

Link #2

While this outlook on the world may seem grim, I do hold tight to my belief that God does have an ultimate plan for the universe and IT IS GOOD. And with that, I'll leave you with two of last weeks panels from "Garfield Without Garfield":

Keeping my head above water

Our house looks like a bomb (more like several bombs) went off inside. The necessary task of sorting through all my dad's paperwork, accumulated through 67 tremendously productive and efficient years, has provided us with the impetus to clean house in more ways than one. It is a very bittersweet undertaking: I keep finding 'gems', cards from people telling him how much they appreciated him/things we had given to him as little kids that he kept/letters to my mom, and also mountains of data from his 35 years with Bechtel, that only he would even have any interest in. So the vast majority is going away and it is somewhat hard to make the distinction between throwing out his old things and throwing away his memory. It feels so illogical to even write that, but I keep catching myself with that in mind. With my brother's upcoming wedding added to the mix, it is a wonder we are not more frazzled. Surprisingly, things are moving along quite well.

I have moved half of my things to my new room, which will be easier to close off while on my extended travels and also affords my brother's soon-to-be-new family the entire lower level of the house. We are also moving forward with some much needed repair work to the exterior of the house - long overdue painting and stucco repair.

I took some time to do a few other things this weekend. I was asked to do some projections/visuals for a benefit for the St. Helena Teen Center. There were five bands (mostly/all? local) playing at the Tucker Farm center, including Tear It Down, Sam Vega, and 33. I haven't done visuals in a while and it was fun. I enjoyed the music, although it was getting too loud for me by the time TID was finishing. Our location for projecting was great and the screen well positioned. I appreciated the positive comments I had while running stuff like Appleseed/Rivers&Tides/The Great Dictator/skating videos/Fragile Machine/others. Sunday I ran a load of recyclable paper to CloverFlat, listened to the final Giants game of the year (and Lincecum's bid for the Cy Young for which he has to be a strong contender and I hope he wins), picked up the pottery I bought last weekend at Nikki and Will's OPEN STUDIO (I'll post pictures), and hung out with good people at an Oktoberfest celebration in St. Helena. The weather was perfect to be sitting around outside and it was fun to spend time with new acquaintances/former and current coworkers/bocce teammates. I will miss many of those people when I'm on my trip.

And, just because I like unusual things, here is a picture of the woman with the longest legs and the shortest man from the Guinness people....

You will buy a seat, BUT YOU WILL ONLY USE THE EDGE! I like the sound of that phrase, but unfortunately this is not the post that it really applies to. For the people that had been checking this blog, most of you know why I stopped. I've missed it and will begin again here shortly. For those that don't know, my father died. It was not expected and has taken some time to deal with (obviously, I'm not done dealing with it, but there were more important things than posting here). The only constant in life is change, so we have to learn to deal with things as they come. More soon.....