The Madness is upon us

This is one of the best times of the year. My personal favorite Thursday - Sunday long weekend, pseudo holiday. Historically, I should be thawing my bones by a roaring fireplace in the mountains somewhere, easing the pain of muscles used of the first time in 11 months, drinking spirits with friends and loved ones, and of course, examining up to three 8 1/2 x 11 quarter folded photocopies that have been in & out of my pocket a dozen times since the beginning of the week of St. Patty's Day. There is definitely something special about enjoying this time of year in a cozy chalet or cabin at the foot of a snowy mountain. Engulfed by an oversized armchair in damp clothes that are slowly crusting over from a blistering fire with a beer/cocktail in one hand, and a bag of chips in the other while a gentle mix of the aroma of pine, cedar, smoke & fresh mountain air circulates about. Sounds like heaven... if such a thing exists. Unfortunately, we all can't be that lucky, and setting the bar that high is tough to live up to year after year. Regardless, annually, I'll make a point of taking off work the 1st Thursday and/or Friday of the NCAA basketball tournament to fully enjoy the spectacle of college basketball in it's finest hour, home alone on my sofa if those are the cards that are dealt. Exhilarating basketball games from 9 am to 9 pm, 4 doses of 4 games simultaneously, 16 games/day for 2 days, and another 16 games on the weekend... unbelievable baby! It's a minor travesty that CBS's coverage of the tournament is interrupted in the afternoon to air Oprah to appease... appease who exactly? Housewives, that are missing there normally scheduled soaps that are mindlessly absorbed between loads of laundry? Thank you TiVo & ReplayTV for DVR. I'll start the madness at least an hour in progress, and with a break for lunch (Board & Brew maybe?), FF through an onslaught of commercials and Oprah too, if I'm lucky and my timing is precise. Who will I pull for? It's a long 2 1/2 week roller-coaster that can derail a loyal fan hopes at any moment. My loyalties this year are firmly in place, and my $$ is actually in line with my heart (probably a bad idea, & why hedge funds make too much money). If the Devils can pull off a somewhat improbable run and cement Coach K into NCAA basketball immortality, Life will be sweet... and a round of beers on me.

Addendum: I didn't make it to Board and Brew... too lazy. Also, I previously thanked Tivo. I want to thank NCAA.com as well. Break in coverage? what break in coverage when you can stream ANY game all day. Sweet!

My god... time flies, I'm back?!

Yes, I can see it's been well over a year since posting last. A lot has changed in that time. A new job, my dad's fight with cancer, a kitchen remodel, my mother's ankle surgery, my daughter's latest obsessions with star wars and E.T. ... and wasting time watching television. Dexter is the best show on T.V. and is most definitely not a waste of time. I was dismissive of this series for a long time despite critical acclaim. Can a show about a serial killer be good T.V.? YES!!! I inexplicably felt an urge to post, because this is what I'm passionate about at the moment. I do wonder what it says about me, liking this show so fanatically... I don't care, because it is so good.

I was surfing the web a bit and came across my buddy Dave's blog. Seeing he was relatively current with posts stoked my competitive juices... what spurred this post, in part. In reflection of his post Irony?, I have to say that I save a similar urge to write about my life and opinions of life as I see it. I'd like to think it's because I like to write and is therapeutic. I do & it is. It shouldn't matter if anyone will read any of this... It shouldn't, but it does. I'd like the validation. I think I'm back? This doesn't seem too laborious... for now. There are plenty of issues to vent about. After a somewhat crazy 12 months, things are settling down, and right now, i feel I can commit to this (new macbook pro facilitating this greatly... sofa posting is key). At this moment, Life is sweet.

We are the Champions, my friend... (Take 2)

Against all odds, coming into our league tourney as the #3 seed, we emerged victorious! It wasn't quite the upset that occured in Season 1. Yes we were the #3 seed again, taking on our nemesis LPL, the #1 seed. During the regular season we won our first meeting, and lost in overtime in the rematch. With both squads at full strength, on paper they should have a slight edge, BUT.... "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion!" (Rudy Tomjanovich). Wise words. The game started auspiciously. We were playing well, but the basketball gods were not smiling upon us. Lay-ups were rimming out, rebounds were just out of reach, loose balls were.... well, staying loose, and by half time, after a last second bank shot 3 pointer by our rival, we were down 9 pts. Their star player, #7, was torching us. Of their 30 1 half pts, he had probably drained around 22 of them. It was tough to stay positive. It seemed as though LPL had our number this season, and we were going to have to settle for the silver medal... which is nothing! We came out firing in the 2nd half. We went back to man to man defense, after finishing the 1st half in zone. their lead had quickly ballooned to 13 pts., but after a couple of turn overs leading to transition lay-ups, and a pinballesque, contested 3 pointer by yours truly, we had trimmed the margin to 5 pts. They were visibly frustrated. We were locking down their all-star, and because the roll players hadn't got involved offensively in the 1st half, they fell into a sinkhole. They couldn't score, and we were getting good shots in the paint, & getting to the free throw line racking up fouls which allowed us to get into the bonus, early in the second half. We wore them out, and with about 2 minutes to go, after a pivotal hustle play by our point guard Krish, sacrificing his body to tip a loose ball to our Pau Gasol clone Jadon (really a SF, not a center) who dove to the floor himself to tip the ball to our young stud Joe for an easy lay-up, we had padded our lead to 8 points. Of course, we had a late game scare. With our seemingly insurmountable lead in place, and LPL needing desperation 3's to open a door that was virtually slammed shut, a phantom foul was called on a 3 point shot by who else... their stud, #7. In the ensuing moment of disbelief, the reaction by our defender spawned a Technical foul, and #7 went to the line for 5 free throws, potentially cutting our lead to 3 with about a minute to go. Unbelievable, right? The dude goes 1 for 5, and we hold on to Win the 4th championship in 5 seasons with the currently constructed "Just one at lucy's" squad. My 2nd JCC Championship, now 2 for 2. I was slightly bummed that the JCC rolled out identical trophy jersey's from the prior season. I guess I'll have to live with twin baby blues (pictured above). The customary brews were enjoyed at Trophy's in La Jolla, again swapping the season's war stories amidst the glow of a really good victory. Life can be sweet!

Addendum: I was blown away to discover that the team, Just one at Lucy's, was born nearly 26 years ago by a group of lawyers one of which, Mike K., is still on the current evolution of the roster. amazing!

The Update

Things are good in SD. The Family is great. Aisley is 3 1/2 and getting bigger every day it seems. It's been a good summer. Busy. A couple of trips to SF & Vegas. Aisley is turning into a fish. Lots of swimming this year. There is a new link to a web album with more recent photos this year. With things in perspective, Life IS sweet.

The Solarez Incident

It all started about 2 weeks ago. My longboard got wrecked... severely, and I had to take it in to Moura's Board Repair. They do great work, & are highly regarded. In the meantime, I used one of my other boards. Specifically, my 8'0" Pato, Pseudo-shortboard. I had picked this one up off of Craigslist a couple of month's ago for 2 bills. A great board. I really love it, but when I bought it, there were a few breaches in its armor that I knew would need professional attention sooner than later. Sure enough, I took it out last Friday and had a great session on it. Only problem is, that when I got out of the water, the board seem a bit more squishy than when I had got into the water. Big problem. I seriously felt lucky to get out of the water with it in one piece... 2 boards down. My third option, at this point, is Ted's old Ellington shortboard. I had scooped it up from him during my search for the perfect shortboard for another 2 bills, but unbeknownst to me, had a significant breach of its own... A gapping ding in the tail bead, straight to the foam, but it's really the only flaw it has. Otherwise, it's virtually in mint condition. Another job for Moura? and I'm almost out of boards. (I do have a 4th, but that's another story, and it's the least ridable of the quartet). After some chats with my neighbor Scott, an avid surfer himself, he convinced me that in this instance for board 3, Solarez could do the job. With $85 in the hole for the LB repair, and looking at at least another bill (or 2) to rehab my new love, The Pato, an $11 tube of Solarez was looking pretty attractive. Yes I was hesitant, but I did my research, and wasn't going to screw this DIY adventure up! I hit the Solarez webite tutorial. I even went to Youtube (I love Youtube btw, you can find anything for visual learners like myself), and watched a six minute video... and with all that, "The Solarez Incident" begins...

Day 1 (Monday at lunch): with all the advice in hand, I thoroughly examined the tail breach, prodding & poking, and assessed whether I was going to really be able to pull this off without F-ing it up. That evening, an Ace hardware run is made to purchase sand paper 50/200 grit.

Day 2 (Tuesday at lunch): Nerves are taking over. It is unclear whether I should walk down this road and not be able to turn back, my lunch time evaporates into an hour of standing and staring. Maybe tomorrow I'll have the cajones.

Day 3 (Wednesday at lunch): It's go time. I bite the bullet, and with trepidation and a razor blade in hand, I begin some sanding, afterwards making incisions around the wound. I'm surprised. This is pretty easy. The 50 grit works quite well, turning the glass resin into dust (goggles and a face mask would be handy, even with limited sanding)... an amazing amount of dust. After the dust settled, the wound was clean, I thought so anyway. It really looked pretty good. the cracked resin had been sanded away with the foam openly exposed. A little Goo-gone to anesthetize the area, and the prep is complete. Now all in, I made the trip to the local surf shop to buy the Solarez. This was going to have to work. With confidence that tomorrow was the day, I opened up to Crystal, and revealed my lunch goings earlier in the week, and my plan for a successful DIY repair the following day. She says, "Just don't get that Sh*t everywhere and make a mess."... an omen for sure, but I didn't see it.

Day 4 (Thursday at lunch): On the drive from TSRI to my mom's place, I attempt to re-visualize the Youtube lesson, as well as any other applicable skills I had downloaded in the last 3-4 days. I was going to work quickly, not letting doubt set in for a second, if it arose. If something went wrong... I'd fix it. Simple. In the garage, with all my supplies laid out on the work bench, I begin to "knead" the tube of Solarez (as per the YT video...right?). The tube felt warm. It had been in my car all morning, and it was a pretty sunny day from the get go at the coast. I should have been leery. There just didn't seem to be enough resistance from the tube. Something wasn'.....dooohhh! SH***T! And I'm not wearing gloves!

The Fire drill: The tube just opened right up at the bottom. A huge glob of resin flew out. Most went right by me and on to the garage floor. Some on the work bench. Some on my hand, both hands! (how do you get this crap off skin?!) I sort of began to panic a bit. This stuff cures hard in the sun in ~ 3 min. Is that all the time I have to get this stuff off me... and it stinks to high heaven. I holding my breath intermittently, I run inside, past our housekeeper who was there finishing up. "Oh... uhh, hi Josepha... you good? uhh... gotta run, take care." Soap and water just doesn't get it done. Keep in mind, I didn't have a ton of this stuff on me. Just little spews here and there, mainly on one hand. But... I'm hairy. My arms are hairy, trust me when I say... It was a mess. This stuff isn't coming off (how nasty is this stuff?). To the computer, Solarez.com, contact info, call #. No answer, right to Vmail, of course. Any other #'s? emergency hotline? It's like the only other #. F it, call. The guy answers. He almost seems confused, super laid back. "Is this the # for Solarez?" The guy says back, "Uhh... Oh yeah, I work with the stuff." I proceed to inquire how might one remove a small amount from one's skin, trying not to reveal my hand completely. Acetone works, ie. nail polish remover,... ok, makes sense. I'm sure mom has some upstairs. "But oh, by the way, acetone can disolve the stuff into your pores, if your not careful.... or. You can stick the affected areas in the sun for,... 30-54 secs., and partially cure the resin, then peal it off. But don't cure it completely, or you might take some skin with that resin... haha hehe. Wonderful. Plan B it was, the partial cure & peal. It sorta worked.

I'm now sweating like a F-ing pig. Agitated, with only 30 mins. left of my lunch. Unbelievable. The DIY was supposed to be a quick surgical strike, say 15 min... now I'm going to be late getting back to work for sure... but I'll be damned if I'm not gonna finish this thing, especially now.

The Repair: Using my Vespa as board horse, I laid the ellington on the seat, balanced, and laid a SH*Tload of newspaper under the potential drip zone. Ahh... I'm learning. I put on some larex gloves... key, and were needed. FYI for the next repair. I cordoned off the resin zone with masking tape, and with a putty knife, scooped some solarez out of the back! of the tube, and proceeded to fill & cover the wound I had so meticulously prepared the day before. It's going well. Not to hard to work with the solarez. The tricky part, laying a piece of saran wrap over the affected area. If your piece is too big, it sort of flops everywhere, and if you get any rogue rez on your fingers, the saran wrap becomes even harder to work with. Really though, you just sort of flatten it out by pulling at the edges, removing wrinkes, and smooth out bubbles if any... there were a couple. Take the board outside the garage in the sun, and literally 3 mins. later... resins hard. peel off the saran, easy. Don't remove the masking tape just yet, for sanding. The tail is a bit tricky, and a glob of resin had settled towards the bottom, but the masking tape stopped it and kept the integrity of the flat bottom of the board. A razor easily removed the unsightly glob, and the 50 grit sanded the excess right down to the tape. After removing the masking tape, the fine grit sanding sponge that comes with the solarez worked like a charm for polishing up the repaired area.

DONE! Wow! After all that hoopla, the stuff worked like a charm. I did use the whole lunch hour, and my shirt would have gave you the impression that I had just finished a 5 setter against Nadal. But,... there's a silver lining.

Bonus: I took the Vespa to go back to the origin of purchase, and successfully exchanged the bunk tube with a new one... and, aired out my wet shirt on the Vespa in the process. Life can be sweet! (especially when your boss is out of town and a 1hr 30min lunch goes unnoticed)

We are the Champions, my friend...

A quick recap. I was approached by some friends to play league ball. I was apprehensive at first, only because the last time I played any basketball had been close to a year ago. Recently, I have been playing tennis consistently, in an attempt to stay in shape. FYI, tennis shape doesn't carry over what so ever to basketball shape. I'll admit, my play was ugly the first several weeks. My cardio conditioning was absolutely dreadful, and saying that the physical skills basketball requires were rusty, would be kind. Mentally, the basketball IQ was still there. It's funny how your brain never forgets how you used to perform, while your body has the short term memory of... say, Bob Marley. Amazingly, all it takes is a few months of inactivity of sports specific skills, to reset your ability in that arena to an astonishing ZERO. Patience is required, not all hope is lost, the skills do come back... for the most part.

We had a solid team. balanced. Every teammate could fill a role you would need for success in hoops. After the cardio came back (~week 5-ish), there were some growing pains in learning to play with new teammates. Some weeks, we were missing a player or 2, and had to adjust, which wasn't always easy. In a six team league, we finished the regular season 3rd. Playing each team twice, the 2 top teams beat us both times, and we finished 6-4. All 6 teams make the playoffs. Top 2 with a bye, 3 v. 6 & 4 v. 5 etc. With the goal of getting 3 wins for the title, we summarily dispatched the Defeated (0-10) 6th seed in round 1. Our next foe was the 2 seed, who in the regular season beat us twice with buzzer beaters. We won, but the victory was bittersweet. There star player, a 6'8" Mehmet Okur wanna be, jumped ship & took a job back east the week before... it made a difference. We were feeling a bit empty sneaking into the finals, beating one of our 2 nemeses at less than full strength. To win it all though, we were to face a NY Giants v. NE Pats situation, and have to defeat the 11-0, 1 seed. This team had destroyed us by ~ 30 pts. in our first meeting, when we were at far less than full strength. In our 2nd encounter, we were still short a critical player in our rotation, but fared much better. We were able to hold there star player (6'4" , 220 Deron Williams prototype) in check. And... we now felt we had a recipe for success, if there was to be a 3rd match up in "The Finals". Our date with destiny materialized, and this time, our gun was fully loaded. We had no excuses to fall back on. We got off to a quick start, matching them point for point, while keeping their D-Will stud quiet. I'll take a bow for hitting several big shots early, keeping the margin close and team confidence high. A miracle bank 3 pointer at the half buzzer by our 5 man, put us up 5 pts. I think they were stunned, and their frustration level was approaching a red line. They came out of the 2nd half gates quickly, and managed to tie the game, but our defensive intensity was stifling. Our lead quickly grew to 10 pts. and held them off for most of the second half. Some shaky freethrow shooting late (I'll bow here too), let them creep back in and get a sniff of a possible OT, but like Shaq says (not this year), we made the one's we needed to and held on for the victory. And victory was sweet. We kept with team tradition and had a beer at Trophy's after the game, trading a few war stories. I'm glad I got the chance to revive the sleeping baller in me, and look forward to keeping the train rolling into the next season.

Walking the walk...

And not a minute too soon. $4.19? Really? No joke. About 3 weeks ago, with the pressure of rising gas prices, and smelling the impending doom of my aging Ford Explorer, I bit the bullet and bought a Hybrid. I went with the Ford Escape. I have nothing against the Japanese, or the Germans, but I am somewhat pleased that I was able to get what I wanted and still support American manufacturing, which these days is increasingly hard to do. Take a look at the "made in" for the next 10 things you buy (other than food). 8 will be made in China & 2 will be from Mexico. Depressing, especially when things economically, seem to be headed in the wrong direction. Save the political & social deterioration of America for another post.

Back to the car. I discovered that Crystal and I qualified for the Hybrid car tax credit based on our income, which for the Escape H, is $3000. That basically sealed the deal for me. I built my car online, got a competitive price, and literally the next day went and traded my 14 mpg bucket of bolts for my new metallic ice blue beauty. I spared no expense, and loaded this pony up with all the trimmings: leather, moon roof, 6CD-SIRIUS satrad, because after all, happiness is all about the little things. I'm getting about 28 mpg... and loving it. I do have mixed emotions about the purchase. I probably didn't need a "new" car just yet, & if I wanted to be more sound economically, I should have looked harder at used vehicles. In a time where Americans as a whole should probably be more responsible with their money, I sort of hate buying into the Republican economic stimulus philosophy of consumer spending . I does feel pretty good though. I will be using our government stimulus check to pay down the new car debt... That's admirable, right? Save your $$, but if you have to, Go GREEN! Enjoy the pics.



As a side note: Get involved in activism, even if it is just taking a stand against something in your daily life. Shit has to change, and it won't unless we start revolting against corporate control. It's hard to break out of routines, but I'm trying, and it really isn't that hard.

Suggestion: Don't buy disposable plastic water bottles. Don't do it, & pass it on to someone else. You'll be fine. Just buy a reusable bottle (BPA free) that you can refill. Surfrider quotes estimates that only 20% of them get recycled... which leaves 80%, either floating somewhere in the ocean, or NOT bio-degrading in a land fill.

Addendum: Jae Lee is responsible for discovering the 411 on the Hybrid tax credit, which was critical to the purchase of this car. Thanks Jae!

A Jaw Dropper, and...

Again, a sad story of how everything good comes under fire. Those of us who seek to enjoy life in the precious moments available, with the option of doing so while enjoying our favorite spirits, are being attacked without representation. Come April 1st, 2008, Torrey Pines State Beach is going dry (No joke, & no April fools... hah, that date is kinda ironic). Why? Because of the animals that live in both Mission & Pacific Beaches, and the debauchery that takes place at the local beaches there on a regular basis. San Diego officials, in fear that this behavior may spread north to the quieter communities in North County, primarily comprised of families and business professionals, are initiating a year long trial, banning alcohol at TPSB. I'm sort of speechless, and don't really know what to say. Playing the devil's advocate for a minute, I somewhat understand the ban in the 2 communities of MB & PB, earlier referenced. In my opinion, as an alternative to beach drinking, there are plenty of beach front bars & restaurants to get your drink on, for those who wish to go that route, without potentially disturbing those who wish to enjoy natures gift soberly. At Torrey Pines however, it just doesn't make sense. I DO plan to voice my opposition, when I have uncovered the best way to do so, and will be happy to forward that info on after doing so. I could go into so much detail, pointing out the glaring differences between the already banned beaches and TPSB, & why this pending ban is a ridiculous overreaction to of all things... Bloggers? But I won't, Read for yourself.

And now... the JAW Dropper. My dad and I were
chatting at lunch last week. He was watching the History Channel and was made aware that an average Boeing 747 carries a mind boggling 50,000 gallons of fuel. Its range on that amount of fuel is approximately 6000 miles which is roughly the equivalent of a 12 hour trans-atlantic flight from Houston, TX. to Paris, France. After doing some quick math with rounded #'s, let's put this into perspective. Say the average car has a 20 gallon tank, and say that car fills up on average, 1 tank/week = 50 tanks/year. In 1 year, that average car will use ~ 1,000 gallons of gas. So... 1 transatlantic flight traveling a distance of 6000 miles in 12 hours, using 50,000 gallons of gas, could fuel the average car for... 50 YEARS!!! ONE FLIGHT. Think about how many of these planes fly every day. To add some more "fuel" to the fire, The smaller Boeing 737 as a fuel capacity roughly 10X less than its big brother the 747. So say one 737 flight at maximum distance = 5 years of gas for the average car. Since 1967, over 5,000 737's have been delivered and currently, it is estimated that there are as many as 1,250 airborne at any given moment. On average, a 737 departs or lands somewhere every five seconds. Obviously, all 1250 planes aren't exhausting there fuel on a given flight, but that size jet my make several flights in a day that may exhaust all of its fuel, so... Without considering the 747's use of fuel, if 1250 737's exhaust there fuel supply/day, that would fuel ~ 6250 average cars for 1 year. In case you were unaware, there are roughly 250 million cars in the U.S. (maybe even more).

More math: 250 M cars x avg car gas/yr (1000 gal.) = 250 B gal/yr
250 B total car gal/yr / 50 K gal/747 flt = 5 M flights = 13,500 747 flights/day
1250 737 tanks/day x 5000 gal = 6.25 M gal/day = 2.25 B 737 gal/yr

Math is funny,... and #'s don't lie. Initially, I was headed down a path that might reveal the apparent gluttony of airline travel, but in reality, the shear volume of cars in this country and the volume of gas that is consumed IS what is truly mind boggling. Even if you subtract the 2 B gallons, that my estimate of 737 travel consumes from 250 B, 747 sized planes would still need to log nearly 5 Million flights to catch up to annual car consumption. F! Wow!

I'm buying a hybrid.