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Thoughts on just about everything from rock-n-roll, sports, kids, to geek speak -- by John Bullock About John Subscribe to this blog  |
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February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 September 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 |
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Monday, October 25, 2004 |
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Rubes | |
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Friday, October 22, 2004 |
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Top 10 | |
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From David Letterman... Top Ten Secrets To The Boston Red Sox Comeback presented by Curt Schilling 10. Unlike the first three games, we didn't leave early to beat the traffic. 9. We put flu virus in Jeter's gatorade. 8. Let's just say Pete Rose made some phone calls for us. 7. We asked Pokey Reese to be a little less pokey. 6. It's not like we haven't won a big game before--it's just been 86 years. 5. Honestly, I think we were tired of hearing about the Patriots. 4. The messages of encouragement Martha sent on prison napkins. 3. We pretended the baseball was Letterman's head. 2. What'd you expect--we have a guy who looks like Jesus! 1. We got Babe Ruth's ghost a hooker and now everything's cool. |
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Thursday, October 21, 2004 |
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Hung Over | |
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This article pretty much sums up my ALCS hangover. Go NL!!! | |
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Thursday, October 14, 2004 |
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Moab - Part II | |
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Apparently Moab has changed significantly in the past four years. Both Steve and Bill, my Moab travel companions, had been to Moab at least one time apiece. Not only has it grown in size, they have add more bike shops, restaurants, galleries, etc., but the attitudes have changed. I guess there used to be only one bar in town. And in order to drink there, you had to have a member sponsor you. Once you were able to drink, you could only have one drink per person on the table and you could not order another until your current one was empty. This was very different this time. We went to Eddie McStiff's for dinner on Saturday night. We were able to order a pitcher of beer with no sponsor. We had a late dinner because we hit the hot tub after riding. So after dinner, we walked back to the hotel, the town isn't that big yet, and crashed early. We got up and moving fairly early Sunday AM. After breakfast we were having a difficult time choosing a trail to ride. Bill wanting something longer and more technical, Steve leaning the opposite direction, and me just wanting to ride. We finally all agreed upon the Top of the World trail. You can do varying lengths but we ended up starting about 5.5 miles from the top of the trail. The ride is a constant climb all the way up. It was fairly technical with the amount of rocks and ledges and add in the climbing factor and you got the recipe for a bunch of fun. It definitely felt like it was taking forever to get up there. The weather was a bit cooler Sunday. There were some clouds and it threatened to rain on us as well. We got a few drops and some cooler temps but that was it. When we finally made it to the top, my jaw must have hit the ground. Words cannot do justice to the views from the Top of the World trail (very appropriately named!!!). The few people that were up there (we barely saw anyone on this ride) were laughing at me because of my reactions to the views. I just could not believe what I was seeing. I would have ridden 5x the distance if I knew the views would be so fantastic. We were all concerned about the descent knowing how technical it was coming up. We started slow but realized that it was much easier going down than up so started letting it fly. I have to think back quite a ways to find such a fun technical downhill. I don't know the exact times, but I think it took us around 2 hours to get to the top but less than 30 minutes to get back down.  Trail market (to prove I was there!)  Views from the trail taken on the way to top.  The storm clouds coming over the top of mountain we were climbing.  A sampling of the Top of the World trail.   A couple of views from the Top of the World. |
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Tuesday, October 12, 2004 |
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The Fries | |
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Alex had has first basketball practice today. No surprise to his mother or me, but he loved it! His coach was one of the t-ball coaches for another team so we were already a little familiar with him. Alex told me that he practiced shooting and dribbling with one hand. At the start of practice, they asked the kids who their favorite basketball team was. Alex said it was Michael Jordan, who is a player, not a team. However, another one of the kids said his favorite was The Fries. None of the adults or other kids knew who the Fries were. The kid then corrected himself and said his favorite was the Nuggets, not the Fries. I wonder how the Nuggets would feel about changing their name to the Denver Fries and change their team colors to french fry yellow and McDonald's red? | |
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Moab (AKA Mecca) | |
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I finally made it to Moab to go mountain biking last weekend. A coworker, Steve, was going out with another friend and made the mistake of inviting me along. As an early birthday gift, Suzanne was more than happy to let me go. I informed Steve that both bosses, work and home, gave me the green light. We left about 2:00 Friday afternoon and drove straight through to Moab. Although we drove straight through, my Mom and Dad will be pleased to hear that we did go the scenic route. We got off I-70 at Cisco, got on highway 28 and drove along the Colorado River through the canyon. It was a little before sunset so it was perfect timing. I think the trip would have been a success if that was the only thing I saw and did. The views and scenery through the canyon was absolutely breathtaking. A must for anyone going to the area. Our original plans before starting the trip were to ride Porcupine Rim on Saturday and then Slickrock on Sunday. These are probably the two most famous trails out there. However, Steve slept on his neck wrong a couple of days before leaving, plus the fact that he and I were not in tip top riding shape (me because I had not been on the bike in a month, and him because he had not ridden all summer except the last couple of weeks), so we were not sure we were up for a 34 mile ride. So we split up on Saturday. Bill, Steve's friend that went with us, decided he was going to do Porcupine Rim while Steve and I headed for Slickrock after dropping him off. I was very nervous about these rides. Everything you read and hear is how hard these trails are. The Moab literature and trails maps all rate Slickrock a four on a scale from one to four, four being the hardest. It was ranked technically harder than some of my usual rides that I think are hard around home. For example, I think a couple of the harder ones I ride are ranked a 7 and 7.3 out of 10 while Slickrock is a 7.5 and a 9.0 for the aerobic requirement. It didn't take me long to figure out that with good tires, which I have, your bike sticks to the Navajo Sandstone very well. You can actually do things that you would not be able to do normally because you have such excellent control. However, if you make a mistake, you become a "human eraser" as Steve put it. Thankfully, neither one of us had any problems. I don't think we saw a single cloud the entire day and there is absolutely no shade riding the Slickrock trail. I think the high was supposed to be 81 that day and it definitely got warm! I finished drinking my 100 oz. Camelbak right when we got back to the car after our ride. My water bottle with sports drink that I had was done just a couple minutes after our return as well. I can see why they advise you start at 6:00 AM during the warmer months. A couple of other observations. When the sandstone does eventually wear down it becomes an extremely find sand. Biking and sand do not go well together. The few spots I had to get off my bike were generally the few patches of sand that we hit. One thing that really surprised me was the number of different trail users. I knew there would be plenty of mountain bikers, but I was not prepared from the number of motorcyclists and 4x4'ers. The 4x4'ers had to stay on different trails, for everyone's safety, but you could see them wherever you went. The motorcycles could go on the same trails but everyone looked out for one another so it was a non-issue. October is a very popular time for people to go to Moab because of the weather. It was definitely packed everywhere we went the entire weekend. Another thing that was new to me were the trail markers. As the trail is 99% on the sandstone, it is really hard to post signs and the trail does not get worn down like it does in normal dirt. As they couldn't post signs and there wasn't a clear trail to follow, they paint the rocks. Generally it is just a dashed white line, like on a road, that directs you which way to go. In the few spots were there were forks or such, they were just paint the directions on the rock that would normally go on the sign.  Sign posted at the entrance to the Slickrock parking lot (to prove I was there).  Steve riding the trail (notice the white spots marking the trail.  Slickrock looking out towards the La Salle moutain range.  View #1 from the Slickrock trail looking down on the Colorado River.  View #2 from the Slickrock trail looking down on the Colorado River. I will post more about Saturday night and Sunday over the next couple of days so stay tuned! |
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Monday, October 11, 2004 |
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John in Moab | |
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I finally made it to Moab (details later)!
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Wednesday, October 06, 2004 |
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San Diego - Day 6 (Friday) | |
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Friday was a pretty slow day compared to the rest of the week. We decided to go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We started off taking the train around the park. It is definitely the best way to try to see all the animals. Suzanne and I really enjoyed this. Lindsay seemed to tolerate it and Alex was just down right bored. Grandma thinks he would have enjoyed it more if he saw some animals fornicating like I did on my first trip. No such luck though. After the train ride we did walk around quite a bit of the park. We did get to see one of the tigers very close. Another thing that the kids and I enjoyed was the Elephant show. Not only was it fun, but it provided some relief from the heat in the form of fans and misters. We parked right under some. Lindsay cried when the show was over because she didn't want it to end. The final highlight of the park was feeding the giraffes. For a couple of bucks you got 2 giraffe cookies to give to the giraffes. We let the kids do it and then the guide gave Suzanne one as well. Definitely not your normal every day experience. Unfortunately, I was too busy watching them to get photos of the feeding. The giraffe that the kids and Suzanne fed. That night for dinner we went to Ruby's Diner for dinner. We mostly went there as the kids wanted to go to the Corvette Diner again but Mommy and Daddy wanted something different. It turns out we would have been better off if we did do the Corvette Diner again. The service stank the the food was marginal. I guess that's what you get when you eat in a restaurant located in the mall. Live and learn. We returned back, packed and went to bed early as we had to get up about 4:00 AM to catch our flight the next morning. |
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San Diego - Day 5 (Thursday) | |
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Thursday was the cheapest day and gave all of us some much needed rest. We slept in in the AM and then started off by heading to the Mission Valley Beach Park. We chose this beach as Suzanne read that it was very family friendly, shells were supposedly abundant, and crowds minimal. The crowds were very minimal and for the most part it was family firendly. We headed to the water right away and were greeted by a host of jelly fish on the shore and in the water. So much for swimming in the ocean. The water was very warm and we did wade in at times. The beach was located at an inlet or cove which I think kept the water warm and the waves non-existant. We did find quite a few sea shells as well. Nothing worth keeping though. We never did find any sand dollars we were expecting, however. We walked quite a ways on the beach. After the kids got bored we headed back to our original location. As there were no crowds and we could see forever on the beach, we gave the kids the green light to run as fast and far as they wanted. This was a great idea becasuse all week we had been telling them to stay close and walk their feet. Once we got back, we let the kids play on the playground. One of the many jellyfish at Mission Valley Beach Park. After the beach we headed across the bridge to Coronado. We started at the market but found out that it was a giant tourist trap so did not spend much time there. I did get some nice photos of downtown San Diego from across the way though. We headed to the Coronado Brewing Co. and had a good lunch. We then headed (by accident) to the Coronado Beach. Wow! Talk about a big beach with lots of sand. The water wasn't as warm as earlier but not cold by any stretch of the imagination. The tide was coming in so we got some nice waves. We all decided to get our feet wet which meant the kids both got soaking wet. Alex called it the beach that knocked you back or chased you (because of the waves). We headed back to the car but of course both of the kids fell in the sand so were wet and sand covered.  The view of downtown San Diego from Coronado. We headed back to hotel to get out of our wet and sandy clothes and went swimming for a short while at the hotel. After swimming, we decided to go eat at a restaurant downtown. However, the rest of San Diego were also heading downtown to watch the Padres game so we were not able to find any parking. Instead we went back to Sea Port Village and ended up eating at Buster's. After dinner I went back to Crazy Shirts (stopped in the first day) and bought the shirt that I had seen there. We also picked up a new Christmas ornament like we do on every vacation. We then stopped for cookies and headed back to the car. |
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Tuesday, October 05, 2004 |
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Toy Envy | |
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Here is a new toy that I saw worthy of envy. Of course, I would not pick a Raiders server. | |
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