Why the Mahjong Face?

In case you were looking for yet another way to while away the hours, I present to you Mahjong Solitaire.

He's a Champ in My Book.

Even if you're from Florida, 96 degrees is HOT.
In 2005, Andy was one of the very few Floridians to "buckle", by finishing this race in less than 24 hours. He didn't buckle this year, and when the "official" times are listed, you won't see his name, because you got to finish in less than 30 hours. This journey was epic, though. Andy has struggled more in his running this year than, I think, in any year since he started ultra events. He didn't quit, he just ran out of time. It looks like Andy was the very last person to cross the line.

AndyMan Update.

My Amazing Brother just finished running 100 miles. He fell a little short of the the 30 hour mark for an "official" finish, but finish, he did, in 30 hours and 37 minutes.He got to the last checkpoint three minutes behind the last runner to make it under 30 hours. The other guy made it with 4 minutes to spare. The heat was 90 plus degrees and lots of people dropped (included ultra legends Dean Karnazes and Scott Jurek). Of the 500 people registered, fewer than half finished the race. No belt buckle for Andy this time, but, hey, he did something Dean Karnazes didn't do this time: he finished the race. Congratulations, my Brother. I'm proud of you.

93.5 Miles, gone as of 45 minutes ago. 6.7 miles to go by 11:00 a.m. PDT (that's 2:00 p.m. EDT). It's gonna be close.

AndyMan Update.

This is where he is now.
This is the topography where he is now.The Western States tracker is sporadic, but it looks like A-Man has covered 78 miles in the CA mountains and is just on pace to finish within the 30 hour cutoff time.

Runnin' Down a Dream.

My brother, the Amazing AndyMan (the less beefy half of the photo at left. Not sure who the other dude is, but he was at Western States four years ago with Andy), is running in the Great Western States Endurance Event beginning this morning. It is a Hundred Mile jaunt up in the mountains in California. He's number 311, and you can track his progress Here. His blogsite is: http://intheslam.blogspot.com/ (it's also posted on the left side of this blog).

R.I.P., KoP, Farrah.

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett were omnipresent in my youth. I didn't have the Farrah poster, but I think my buddy Russ did. I wasn't a fan of Michael, the person, but I was a big fan of Michael, the Entertainer. My daughter says I got her to eat meatloaf by telling her that it was Michael Jackson's favorite food. For all I know, it was. Whatever. She ate the meatloaf. "Beat It" was probably my fav MJ song. What were yours?

Listen to the Pope.

My mom's mom, Gina (God rest her soul), gave her grandchildren a few nuggets of advice through the years: "Don't discuss sex, politics or religion in polite company", "You are the master of the unspoken word; the spoken word is the master of you". Obviously, I have frequently disregarded her advice, but not all of it. She also told us not to judge people too harshly for their indiscretions. See frequently cited
Alexander Pope: “Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” There are others that might should've listened to the Pope, too.

Ramblin' Man.

Um, has anybody seen our Governor? In the unlikely event you haven't heard about Mark Sanford's disappearing act, you can read it here. Well, at least he's interesting.



Turns out it was a woman. Who knew?

Secret Squirrel.

I've got a bird feeder. It's stocked with medium-quality bird feed. The food seems to be disappearing at a decent rate. I was wondering why I've got no birds.
Stupid squirrels.

Father's Day Fallout.

Had the whole crew over yesterday. Oldest made brunch- eggs Benedict with crabcakes instead of Canadian bacon. Yum! The Lads had swept and mopped Saturday night. Caroline actually helped me work on the treehouse. Couldn't get anyone to go to Church with me, but it was still a very good day. 'Course, there be dishes.

Happy Father's Day mini-smackdown.

In the last smackdown, the early favorite, Jane's Addiction, edged out his mellower competitor, Ben Harper, who apparently got caught stealing kisses. Today, a mini-smackdown in honor of Father's Day. Who's your daddy?

Clif Huxtable.


Atticus Finch.


Peter Griffin.


Homer Simpson.

The Bitter End.

From the Wikipedia entry on Armadillos: "Armadillos... make common roadkill due to their habit of jumping to about fender height when startled (such as by an oncoming car)". That'd do it.

Blue Plate Special

I just traded out my expiring license plate, at left, for a sporty new one. In South Carolina, we got lots to choose from, about a hundred. Governor Sanford vetoed the General Assembly's addition of three more plates to the list, but his veto was over-ridden (the new plate names were pretty innocuous. Things like "Our Farms, Our Future", so the political wrangling might have had more to do with the fine-print than the plate names). I took the standard issue plate, mostly because I'm cheap, but for a few dollars more, I could've had a tribute to my favorite SC college (or Auburn or Georgia Tech. Go figure) or to the Civil War submarine, The Hunley, that sank in SC waters. Or I could have a "Choose Life" or "In God We Trust" plate. What? Religious plates not your cup of tea? You could choose the Secular Humanist's offering "In Reason We Trust" (that's just got to be a ticket magnet). Don't wanna think that hard? Any of the NASCAR commemorative plates might be your scene. Dale, Jr. might not be winning any races lately, but he's doing just fine in license plate sales.

Kill Bill, David Carradine, and the Meaning of Life.

Like a lot of Americans, I've been reading accounts of the death of actor David Carradine. Like a lot of trailing-edge Baby Boomers, I watched him in Kung Fu. Like a lot of Quentin Tarantino fans, I watched him in Kill Bill. The details of his death, and the conclusions to be drawn from the details, are apparently still evolving, but he clearly he died alone and far from home. He died like his television character lived. He died like lots of folks live. Here's to you, David.

For the rest of us, here's the last five or six minutes of Kill Bill, Vol. 2. If you haven't seen the movie, and intend to see it, you probably ought not to watch this clip just yet (and, you ought see it. Cool soundtrack, cool action, and cool visuals- just what you'd expect from Quentin Tarantino- in what turns out to be a relationship movie. Who knew?):

Rock Brand.

Tyler has had a couple of his buddies over at the house for about two weeks now. Every day and night except one. I may well try to claim a tax deduction for Trenton. I love 'em, but they are like locusts, eating everything in sight. World of Warcraft and the video game Rock Band keep them entertained for hours, HOURS, at a stretch. Rock Band is kinda cool. Karaoke and air-guitar (and air-drums) combined to lots of classic rock tunes. The game scores you on how well you keep the beat or hit the notes to Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" or Bad Company's "Shooting Star". What it does not do, is grade your ability to actually sing the words. You can get a perfect score grunting, mumbling and humming no words at all. Since the score is the thing, that is exactly what the boys (the "vocalists" anyway) do. Fortunately, other than the occasional "Weee!", they seldom raise their voices over Joan's or Paul Roger's prerecorded voices. Which is nice.

Stealing Smackdown: The Poll

Roger Miller and the Pretenders narrowly beat the Boss in the last Smackdown. The last Smackdown was not a huge ratings success. Oldest child suggests that you guys are tired of Smackdowns. We'll see what happens with this one. The choices this time are: Jane's Addiction, Dr. Berniece Johnson, Ben Harper and the Dead Kennedys. Vote in the upper left-hand corner. Vote for more than one, if you want. Vote more than once if you can (though you may need a second computer to do it).

Stealing Smackdown: Two

Star suggested Jane's Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing" (Col has also referred to it not long back). It's got to be the early favorite:



John recommended Dr. Berniece Johnson's religious thievery, "Steal Away to Jesus". It good, soulful, stuff (you can tell be the earnest white guy's expression):



Dead Kennedy's- Stealing People's Mail at least has the benefit of being very short:



Ben Harper's Stealing Kisses:




"Rob and Steal" by Paul Wine Jones was an unexpected cool bluesy find:



Jimmy Buffett's Great Filling Station Holdup cost him two good years (In SC, it'd cost him at least ten):




Lonely Island's "The Heist" is a funny faux-rap video with an, er, unexpected ending. The stick figures somehow add to the charm:



That probably more than we need. I might need some help picking out the four or five best.

Graduation, Too.

My only little girl graduated from Beaufort High School last night. It's not always been easy, but she got there, and I am proud of her.

Stealing Smackdown.

The Boro is in the midst of a mayoral election. Long-time county councilman versus relative newcomer. The former has the creditials, but can be rather abrasive. He's been whining that those mean old people have been stealing his signs, "and they're seven dollars each". Cry me a river, Bill. I'll probably vote for him anyway, and his complaints bring to mind a decent idea for a smackdown: a stealing smackdown. I addressed Stealing before, and included Uriah Heap's song in that post. I also dig this commercial:



Bet y'all can come up with some good "stealing" songs.

Socks and Violence.

I was hunting socks on Saturday. No, not the former First Cat; I was looking for some socks in which to run. I stopped into one of the Boro's two sports equipment stores, and saw some Dri-Fit socks. I usually like my socks a little thicker than these, but they promised to keep my feet dry by wicking away all that nasty sweat. As a bonus, they're supposed to keep blisters at bay. I've not run enough to worry much about blisters of late, but, hey, an anti-blister feature has got to be a good thing, right?

The Round O Rowdies were depleted at the 7 a.m. Sunday start: it was just me, Kevin and Michael. Michael's serious. He was going to do 20. Kevin wants to do 10. I'm looking at between 5 and 8 miles. I put my pedometer-equipped i-Pod in my pocket (earbuds out. Don't want to be rude), and start my jaunt. I'm not feelin' it. Nope. I got to the turn 2.5 miles out from the start, and decided that five'd be plenty. I turned around; ran a little; jogged a little; walked a little. I got back a little less than an hour after I started; hardly a break-neck pace. My feet are awash in sweat, and, for the first time in months, I've got a blister. Stupid socks.

Get Grillin'.

My oldest first noticed this unfortunate juxtaposition of billboards in the Boro. "Your child is our specialty" and "Get Grillin'". What is this guy? An ogre?

Baby Got Back, Redux.

Still got court, which means I'm still seeing lots of butts.




Sir Mix-a-Lot knows what I'm talkin' about.

Happy Birthday, Caroline!

Today's my goofy daughter's birthday. No idea where she gets the silliness. No idea.

Pleas, please help me.

The Boro is in the midst of another term of criminal court. A couple of scheduled trials, including one of mine, ended with guilty pleas. There is a litany of questions the judge has to ask before sentencing to determine whether the Defendant understands the process and is making an informed and voluntary decision to plead guilty: Are you under the influence of drugs or alcohol? Are you completely satisfied with the services of your lawyer? Has he done everything you've asked him to do? Do you understand that you have a right to a trial by jury where the State would have to prove you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? ...and on and on for ten or fifteen minutes. It is necessary, but becomes tedious when you've heard it hundreds and hundreds of times. Private attorneys can do their thing, then bolt; Public Defenders have to be in court. When I'm not representing a Defendant who's pleading guilty, I'm looking at their backside. I see a lot of backsides. The upside of the backsides is that I have something to doodle, anyway.

Birds.

I saw many marvelous sights on Sunday. There are miracles all over the place, even at Denny's in Point South. Check out the baby birdies. Photo credits to Cathy/a.k.a. Sunny.