ABC's

Turkey Day recap

The Thanksgiving break was awesome. Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite dinner of the year. A couple days before Thanksgiving Jen told me that she got an email that said we weren't having turkey this year from my sister. Man was I bummed for a few days. Later on Jen reread her email and it said "not to bring buns cuz my sister was making popovers" not that we're having popovers instead of turkey. Whew, crises avoided. One perk of being married is getting two Thanksgiving dinners. Thanksgiving has been dedicated to my family since it's the only day my family gets together. Since Jens family is more flexible we normally have dinner there on Sunday. This year we had it on Friday so I was a little stuff from the day before but it didn't stop me. What can I say, I love turkey.

So after having a great Thanksgiving I left my wife and Hayley back in MN so she could hang out with the family. I'll be heading back on the 14th. We probably won't make it back to MN until my rotation is done here with her being prego and all. Now what to do with all this free time. What else.. Game!!! and a little mountain biking this weekend. I was looking at getting a helmet cam. It would be cool to take some video of the trails here.

Audible Books

Walking through the book section of Target last weekend I spotted a book that sparked my interest. "Where Have All the Leaders Gone" by Lee Iacocca. I was tempted to buy it but I figured I'd never have time to read it. Back in college we studied what Lee Iacooca did with Chrysler so I've always been intrigued by him and I think he's a great leader. Later on after we got home I started thinking about the book again and I went on Amazon to see what the price was, but I talked myself out of it again. Then I remembered the Audible Book option, since I listen to my iPod all day at work this is a great option for me, so I searched iTunes and found it. So instead of listening to podcasts for a few days I've been listening to this book. So far it's been a pretty good book, (or narration). When it's finished maybe I'll review it just to get some notes from it.

Weekend Recap - C&C Tiberium Wars

Every other Friday Jen attends Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) meeting, that includes daycare, which gives me about 3 hours of free time. Normally I get up and get Hayley ready and then go back to bed. This time I stayed up and played Tiberium Wars, the next installment of Command and Conquer. I installed it and had it ready to go Thursday night so I wouldn't run into any issues come Friday. The three hours that Jen was at MOPS flew by and it felt like I just started playing when Jen got home. The game is great and I can't wait to try some online play.

Friday night we went to a good by grill out at Michelle's. Michelle's apartment is our connection to downtown San Fran so it's going to suck not having her around. The rest of the weekend we didn't do much. We pretty much sat around the apartment and took Hayley to some parks. I did get to watch the Vikes since they were playing Oakland. Man both those teams suck, 4 turnovers and the Vikes still win.

Softball

Softball wrapped up last week as we got blown out of the playoffs. The game started out pretty rough with a 5-4-3 double play. That pretty much set the tone as we couldn't hit or play defense. We gave up 8 runs in the bottom of the first and we never made it a game the rest of the way. We took third in the regular season and this team is the only team we got 10 run'd. We actually almost beat the first place team so going into the game I though we'd be more competitive since most of our team was gone the first time. But it was a fun season and we did pretty good considering we threw a team together that's never played together.

Macworld

Last year I wanted to go to Macworld but I didn't really have a clue where it was or the process of getting tickets and what not. It would be awesome to see Steve Jobs in person giving his keynote. Since I'm extending out here I'll be here for another Macworld so I started checking into. Pricing starts from $25 for a exhibits only pass, on up to $1695 for a Platinum pass. In order to see the keynote you need at least a User Conference Pass at $229. However, with the User Conference pass the keynote is first come first serve. I've seen video of the mad dash to get seats and I'm not sure it's worth the $200+ to gamble on attending the keynote. Maybe I can win some tickets on the radio or something or with all the hype pretty much gone from the iPhone buildup, maybe nobody is interested in going this year.

Hopes Dashed

Sunday started out great, I got up, had breakfast, had a few cups vanilla cappuccino creamer with a dab of coffee and we headed to local sports bar to watch the Vikings/Packers match up. All week I was excited cuz Bolinger was starting and every time he plays we seemed to move the ball. I figured the Vikings had a great shot to win this game behind Peterson. We got to the bar and just before the game started we found out that the game wasn't on since it was being televised locally. (ahh so a sports bar doesn't have local channels??? Way to go) So then we scrambled to a co-workers house to watch it on his 60" inch projector. I should have seen this as an omen and not watched the game.

Just when I thought the Vikings might be turning corner they go and get shutout. Worse yet, they get shutout by the Packers. This team is hopeless. I was so mad yesterday that I was going to create a new web site entitled www.FireChildress.com, but unfortunately someone has the address reserved. Who knows if a web site will actually show up or if someone reserved the domain name in order to make money. It sucks being a Vikings fan when they have a one of the worst front offices in sports history. From their owner to the GM to the coaches, this team is full of hapless morons.

Jennie-O Funnies

Twins Update

Jen had an ultrasound yesterday and everything is looking great. We also found out we're having boys so it looks like the in-laws will have a couple extra farm hands.

Jericho

Jen and I finished watching season one of Jericho last night. I heard that it was a good show on the radio but I never got into it last year when it was on TV. When the show was cancelled and the online community got together and successfully petitioned CBS to keep the show going, it sparked my interest. A few weeks ago, season one was released on DVD so we rented the it

The show is about the survival of the town of Jericho after a nuclear terrorist attack on 20 or so large cities in the US. This is one of the better shows I've seen and I can't wait for season two. Had the show been cancelled, it would've sucked not knowing what happened after the big cliffhanger. I was reading some of the fan posts and it was in the same time slot as American Idol so that's likely the reason for the bad ratings. Many viewers watched Idol live and TiVo'd Jericho, which brings up the point of how to handle ratings in the era of DVR and the Internet. Season two is going to be an abbreviated season of around 7 episodes, hopefully the show gains a large following so the network makes a season three.