Michigan Lost

What else is new? I have to hope (ugh) that Ohio State gets a BCS at-large bid so that Michigan can play in the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day. If not, they play in the Alamo Bowl on 12/28, breaking a long string on New Year's Day bowl appearances.

I contacted a lot of people about the TV status of the Michigan-Ohio State game. I sent a note to several members of the Phoenix Michigan Alumni Club. I got two responses, one (the president) said that it didn't matter since they would show it at some bar where the alumni club gathered. The other one said that he was sure it would be on TV and not to worry. They were both pretty condescending. I also contacted the president of the local Ohio State alumni club. His reaction was that it was an outrage and that he would try to do something about it. He also got back to me later with an update. I am not sure where I am going with this but it is not to a place that I would have predicted.

I'm in Chicago

Schaumburg, actually. It's snowing.

Channel 15 is not going to show the Michigan/Ohio State game this weekend. There is an unverified claim that ESPN will be showing it, although the listings currently say otherwise.

Learned a few things

I couldn't figure out how to:

• have a title for the post
• enable the coments, backlinks stuff

Gonna find out right now if this works.

Just found out that somebody actually reads this stuff once in a while.

The internet problem hasn't come back.

Here is the lamp that we ordered.

Oh, and my internet problem may or may not be resolved. Had no issues for a couple of weeks and then it went south for about a day. This happened like a day after I cut the UPC off the box that the modem came in and mailed it in for the rebate. I connected the modem directly to one PC rather than to the router and it started working. Went that way for about a week (was out of town actually but Susan used it) and then switched back to the router when I got back and it hasn't failed since. Maybe the latest was some unrelated issue that would have been resolved by simply restarting the modem and router.

Just checking in...

I started a diet on Sunday and have lost 4.5 pounds so far. This, of course, is the easy part.

We had a disaster where the rack of wine and martini glasses that hung over the bar in the family room dislodged from the ceiling, destroying all of the glasses and damaging the counter. We found a company that repairs Corian and they did a beautiful job of removing all of the cuts and scratches for $350. Have not replaced the glasses yet and Susan does not want to try another rack.

Mike started taking classes at the University of Phoenix. He plans to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Business Management(!).

I was pleased with the way the MLB Division Series came out. 3 of my 4 desired finishes happened with only the Houston/Atlanta matchup going the wrong way. Unfortunately I am 0 for 2 for the Championship Series, having favored the Angels and Cardinals. Definitely rooting for the White Sox in the World Series.

Talk about your field of dreams.

So tonight was the last night that a game was played at Bank One Ballpark. BOB is done. Tomorrow they will announce a new name, probably Chase Field. They stretched it out a little, beat the Dodgers in the bottom of the 12th on a 3 run walk off home run by Alex Cintrón.

Something else that is hopefully coming to an end is the ad campaign by Checker Auto in which they continuously congratulate themselves for contributing car seats to poor families with the first run scored at each Diamondbacks home game. The TV (and probably radio too) announcer mentions this each time it happens and they run an ad where Luis González gushes about how wonderful this is with his triplets running around. Think about it for a minute. Assuming (incorrectly) that the Diamondbacks score a run in each home game, that is 81 car seats. The most expensive car seat on Checker's website retails for just under $100. Assuming a markup of 50% that costs Checker $50. So Checker's wonderfully compassionate contribution is worth a little more than $4000 for the entire year. González, who appears to be so impressed with this, makes roughly $18,000 each time he steps to the plate.

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I have the internet connection problem from hell. I have had Cox's internet service since the @home days. About a month and a half ago it started going away on me. My connection would stop working sporadically. It is a bigger deal than it used to be because I have started working at home a couple of days a week. I finally got a Cox service guy out to the house. He couldn't find anything wrong. (Of course it was working then.) The only thing he could come up with was the fact that I had split off a line for my TV. Years ago, Cox put in a dedicated line to the cable modem. A year or two later I moved my desk to the opposite side of the room so I needed to add a connector and another cable. Some time after that I replaced the connector with a splitter and added a tv to the picture. None of that impacted my internet connection. But this moron tells me that they are gong to have to put in another line because that is the only thing that they can think of that might be wrong. And they are going to charge me $75 because I messed with the cable. So I figure that it would be worth $75 if it solved the problem. I call them up to schedule the work and it takes like two weeks to get an appointment. The person on the phone asks me if I had eliminated the router as a possible culprit. So I replace my router--wanted 802.11g anyway. No improvement. The guy comes to the house and suns a new wire. As he drives away the problem recurs. I call the dispatcher and they send him back. He replaces the line from the house that goes under the street. He replaces the connector thingamajig in the box across the street. He tells me that if this does not work the only thing left is the modem. As he drives away the problem recurs. I bought a new modem. Although it seems to have improved, I have seen two brief interruptions since Friday. I have 30 days in which to return the modem. The only thing left is AT&T DSL (cheaper than Qwest). Slower but hopefully more reliable.

I listened to dubyuh last night speaking from Jackson Square in New Orleans. Rarely have I heard more detestable utterances from this creep. He did not have one word of remorse or apology for the tragedy caused by the incompetence of his administration, either in ignoring the problems of the levees before the storm or failing to get help to the victims afterwards. He used the opportunity to try and sell me his religious views. He bragged on what a good job he thought he was doing. Mike said in his blog something about shock and awe, that he was shocked and awed that Bush had appeared to accept some blame in a previous speech. I heard neither shock nor awe, just Karl and Rove.

KTAR

"Detour" Dan needs a lesson in geography. Anything not in the East Valley is on the west side according to him. The 51 is a west side freeway. Even the 202 between Tempe and downtown is on the west side. Totally clueless.

"Have you still not refinanced your mortgage because you spent..." I never let this jerk get any farther than that.

I sure don't miss Preston Westmoreland. I liked Gaydos better than Heidi Foglesong. Paul Calvisi needs to lose the cutesy sound effects.

Just changed the template.

Thoughts about the Arizona Republic:

• The online poll at the bottom of the Valley section is sometimes interesting. They ask a question and provide the results of yesterday's poll
• The online poll at the bottom of the Sports section is a waste of space and an insult to the readers. They ask a question and direct you to their web page to find out the results, i.e. all it is is an ad for their web page
• "The Heat Index" on page 2 of the Sports section is just plain awful. It is supposed to be funny but rarely is. It is always mean spirited, though. It's a name-dropping gossip column with a bad attitude.
• I could not care less about the daily status of negotiations with some spoiled (soon to be) rich kid that the Diamondbacks drafted. Actually there is one thing that I do care less about, and that is the identity of the kid's agent, whose name is repeated in each article
• Bill Goodykoontz is a terrible TV critic. He has like 3 things to say and he repeats them over and over again. He should go back to sports.
• It is insulting that they are running Calvin and Hobbes reruns to help promote some book that is coming out. They bumped Peanuts to the classified section immediately when it went into reruns. Just what makes Calvin and Hobbes so important? Side note: neither Susan nor I have ever once read "Rose is Rose" which is the strip that replaced Peanuts

Just getting the hang of this, assumed that an URL would automatically be active. Wrong. Mike's blog is here.

John's last day of work is tomorrow, Monday he leaves for Austria. Mixed feelings. He drives me crazy but I am going to miss him. We are going to drive to Arcosanti on Saturday while Susan does something for work.

Working at home tomorrow.

Jesse Jackson is an idiot. "Refugee" is exactly what the "evacuees" are. It is not a racist term. There have been plenty of things to complain about, and racism does exist in the whole New Orleans disaster, but the usage of the term refugee is not something to complain about.