Final out ... cough cough CHOKE!!!

Last night I played softball for the first time in year. We were beating the other team by 3 runs when two of our players had to leave. So we played with 9 guys from then on. By the bottom of the 7th we were down by 2. We managed to get the first two runners on 1st and 2nd. A sac fly later and the runners are on 2nd and 3rd. The next guy flew out and advanced the runners. So we're down 1 with a guy on 3rd, two down and I'm up. I let a perfect pitch go by for a strike so I had to swing at anything close. The next pitch was high but I didn't want to chance striking out so I hit it and skied it to short. Kind of a bummer to make the final out with the tying run on 3rd. Although, I have an excuse... It's tough to hit with two hands around your throat.

B-Day pic at DQ

This is old but Dan finally sent this pic...

I miss the DQ big time out here so we drove the 20 or so miles to the closest DQ during lunch. We got there only to find out they had little seating. Two tables total and one table was occupied by a lady reading a book. So we rounded up some tables and ate outside. Good times.

Unplanned Trip to MN

I had to take an unplanned trip to MN when Jens Grandpa took a turn for the worse. Jens grandpa had 10 kids and most of them would bring there families every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now that her grandpa passed away they don't think they'll be getting together now that his big house is going to be sold. The same thing happened to my family when my grandma passed away and now I don't ever see my aunts and uncles and their families. Kind of a bummer cuz it's fun to hang out with families.

Latent Print Examiner

I have a buddy, Scott, that works for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) as a Latent Print Examiner (fancy name for an finger print specialist). I got an email from him today saying he helped crack a murder case in MN. Read it here. Kind of makes what I do feel a little less cool. But then again I couldn't have passed all the chemsitry had to take in college so it's all good. Having a buddy work for the BCA is cool, there's always soemthing new to talk about when we hang out. Instead of watching CSI we get to hear about the real deal.

One weekend Scott went out with us to the bars while he was on call. Since he was on call he was our DD. Around midnight he gets a page the reads "Murder scene Willmar", what are the friggen odds of that. The one night we go out while he's on call and there's crime scene in my home town. Crazy stuff... But to top it off while he was racing to drop us off and head down to the BCA he get's pulled over. He show's the cop the pager, with 5 drunks in the exploder the cop doesn't believe him so he heads back to his car to verify it and comes back laughing saying he's never heard that excuse before and lets him off.

Madden '08

Madden '08 comes out today. I'm not sure if I want it or not. I'm quite satisfied playing Techmo Super Bowl. The simple game play is great. Madden has become so complicated that I can't pick three solid plays that work most of the time. Instead one has to be an understudy in offensive and defensive strategy. Bring back the good ol days, when I played offense and Scott play defense.

Happy B-Day to me

Today I turn 33. Unbelievable. Time is flying by. I got a wake up call from Jen and Hayley wishing me a Happy B-Day. Hayley said "Happy Birthday" really good, it was awesome. So what to do on a Monday B-Day, what else, head on down to the DQ in Mountain View and have a Sunday Cone Blizzard for lunch. After work a few of us are getting together to grill, drink a few beers, and at least I'll have a cigar. Good times.

Happy B-Day Dad

Hope you had a great B-Day.

iPod on Ubuntu *#$@#@

The last few days I've been fighting to try and get my iPod to work on Linux. There's a bunch of different software packages that I've tried to no avail. So far Amarok seems to recognize iPod and **Syncs** the best. After I synced new versions of podcasts to the iPod I check the iPod to see if they are there and I get nothing. Then I plug the iPod back in and the podcasts are supposedly on the device. I'm not sure if I should be upset at Ubuntu or Apple. Ubuntu is kind of a pain in the arse. There are tons of forums and stuff but trying to find the information pertaining to the issues I'm having kind of suck. Before you know it 4 hours have passed, and it's midnight, trying to troubleshoot an issue. I'm thinking I'd just rather have an OS that works then dealing with this crap. Maybe if I was in college where I had no problem staying up all hours into the night tinkering with computers it wouldn't be so bad.

A new iMac or PC???

So with my computer on the fritz, we're considering purchasing a new one. I see the new iMacs came out today. So the temptation is there to make a switch. But that $1400+ price tag is tough to swallow. There's a computer at Fry's that runs just over $700 that's pretty fast and loaded with Ram. hmm. What to do...

Awesome

My B-day is coming up, I think I'm going to pass on the Wii and ask for this. If you're a hunter you'll love this.

Weekend wrap: Ubuntu

After a computer hard-drive crash I spend the weekend trying to get the computer up and running. I have two hard-drives so most of my important data is backed up on the second HD. But it's been a little while since my last backup so I wanted to get into the main HD that crashed. I left my windows CD's in MN and I didn't want to spend money on it so I got my work laptop and downloaded Ubuntu.

After downloading Ubuntu and burning it to a CD I hassled with it for a while to get it to load on a partition that didn't have anything of importance on it. Ubuntu works great on hardware that's not out of the ordinary, however, I have a wireless USB stick that I use for networking so I don't have a 25 ft long cable running across the living room. This USB stick cost me 1/2 my Sunday trying to get to work. (My computer almost ended up like the fax machine from Office Space) And now that I got it working I'm afraid to shut down my PC for fear of it freezing up after startup.

So know I get to experience Linux for a while until I get my Windows CD's. So far it's pretty cool, the only software I need that it doesn't have is iTunes which really sucks. If Linux had better driver support for hardware I'd say it's ready for the mainstream desktop market.

Volleyball

I joined a volleyball league this summer. It's the first time I've played since high school. The team that asked me to play said I had to play with the Bump, Set, Spike mentality and no just hitting the ball over. I've never played like that. I've always just tried to hit the ball back to the other side. It's a four man team so we play with the diamond format, 1 up, 2 middle, 1 back. It's taken a few weeks to get used to it but last week we played really well even though we lost both our matches. I think by the time the playoffs start we'll be rocken.

So know that I've been playing volleyball I'm thinking of getting a net and what so we can play at home. However, if I get one will it just sit in the closest and end up being another useless purchase? Maybe I should just apply that money towards the purchase of a Wii. My B-Day is coming up and a Wii sounds like a pretty good present. Now if I could only find them in stock somewhere.

Bye Bye Franchise

KG was traded yesterday to the Celtics. Although the T-Wolves were going to suck with or without him it sad to see him go. It's the end of an era in MN basketball. Jen and I used to have season tickets to the T-Wolves and it was a blast going to the games and now and then we'd see my sister there and we'd team as two of the loudest fans at the Target Center. The T-Wolves weren't the best team in the NBA but they were pretty competitive. KG was always the guy that kept the team in the game and although he has the reputation of not being to win games at the end, he always kept it close. It's sad to see KG go but he's got a much better chance to win a title in Boston.