Not your grain, Not our grain ... migraine

Post title stolen from former ESPN Sportscenter anchor Craig Kilborn -- original quote was was "He's not Your Vidas, He's not My Vidas ... he's Arvydas", referring to former Lithuanian NBA player Arvydas Sabonis, played for Portland Trailblazers)

Got a real whopper of a migraine yesterday after lunch. Ironic, because I had already scheduled an appointment for yesterday afternoon to go in to my family doctor to get refills of my migraine-solving medicine (combo of Vicodin and Phenargan, an anti-nausea medicine). Went home and was in bed starting at 4pm until this morning. Still feeling some lingering effects, but will hopefully be 100% over all stomach viruses, migraines, and anything else by tomorrow.

Musical Friday

A couple of light-hearted videos for a Friday afternoon:
1) Josh Groban singing a medley of TV theme show songs, including Southpark by Primus (he does a pretty good Cartman...)



2) "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" rip off of the Gilbert and Sullivan "Major-General's Song" from the Pirates of Penzance (link here for info on the original (Russian subtitled are certainly a bonus in video!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major-General's_Song




"We hope that you don't mind that our producer was caught doing blow" -- awesome...

The Andromeda Strain?

OK, well it's not quite that bad, but this stupid stomach virus that got my kids last week got Natasha and me this week. Quite a long incubation period it had -- my kids were sick last Tuesday morning (9/16), and my wife didn't get sick until Sunday morning (9/21), 5 days later. I just got an email from my friend Darren that said his wife was sick again -- and I thought his family had ALREADY had the virus go around! Does that mean you can get the same virus twice in a row? Or is this another version?

Well, last Friday was pretty cool anyway. I took off from work and played at Plum Creek, mostly playing alone and playing multiple balls, hitting some practice shots, etc. I did join up with a pair of guys for a few holes, one of whom really impressed me with his game. He said he was an armed forces recruiter (didn't say which branch) named George, and this guy hit the ball farther than anyone I've ever played with. It was amazing. He hit some drives that went over 300 yards in flight, and almost 350 yards total. He almost reached the green in two shots on a 650-yard par 5! On another hole, he hit a 4-iron probably 230-240. He played with these forged blade irons that are totally unforgiving unless you hit them right on the center. Pretty cool to watch someone hit shots like that -- now I know what someone watching Tiger Woods must feel like!

I took off from church Sunday to just relax and get some errands done, but that's when my wife got sick and so I ended up watching the kids so she could stay in bed. I was hoping I would get off scot-free, but it was not to be. I was in bed all day Tuesday and went to work yesterday even though I probably could have stayed in bed that day too. Thought I was totally better this morning but have been feeling dizzy all day -- have one of these big meetings with the VPs later this afternoon -- need to hold it together for then.

Castle Hill to re-open as Corazon

One of my all-time favorite restaurants in Austin was Castle Hill Cafe, on W. 5th street. I had several memorable meals there, including my first date with my wife, Natasha. I was very disappointed to hear that it was closing a few months ago. I read the following update on the Statesman's web site about a new restaurant opening there by the same owner:

After 18 years as Castle Hill Cafe, it took only eight weeks to turn the old house on West Fifth Street into Corazón.

Owner Cathe Dailey, who has been living in Mexico for much of the past five years, created a new menu from some of the best interior Mexican and Southwestern dishes served at Castle Hill over the years and oversaw a makeover of the space, including new bathrooms, tile, paint and even new lighting, chairs and tables. With the help of developer Perry Lorenz, waiter-turned-general-manager David Showacre and executive chef Mike Taddeo, Corazón had a soft opening about two weeks ago and is building speed.

Dailey says 75 percent of the menu is set, including carnitas, an al pastor plate, coloradito mole, interior Mexican salad, tortilla soup and shrimp enchiladas.

Also open is a full bar. "That's a big change," Dailey says. "In this town, margarita is queen." 1101 W. Fifth St. 476-0728. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

Could not agree more with Cathe Dailey's statement about margarita is queen ... God Save the Queen!

I'll do it MYSELF!

Other than exercising, another source of my observations that sometimes support my conservative principles is in my children. For example, my daughter likes to eat yogurt for breakfast. So, one morning recently, I got out the yogurt and a spoon for her, thinking this would be a good thing.

Wrong. She got upset, and took the spoon and yogurt from me. She opened the drawer and put the spoon back in, then stomped over to the fridge and put the yogurt back in. Then she got the yogurt and spoon out herself and sat down and ate. I was left just shaking my head, and I had another good story to tell my wife and friends.

Anyway, point is that in my children I observe that basic human nature is to want to do something yourself rather than have it done for you. Well, at least until my daughter wants me to do something for her.

I suppose another possibility is simply that my daughter is a rather selfish, albeit beautiful, little drama queen princess that just wants what she wants and will punish those who do not provide it quickly enough!

Life imitates bench press

I often take some personal life lessons / analogies from my regular workout routine. One of the really nice benefits of my company is that we have a very nice gym on site that I can go down and use at lunch. Most days, I'll either lift weights or go outside for a 4-5 mile run (Because being inside on a treadmill is very boring, I only use it for my run if the weather outside is just horrible).

For example, when I'm on a run, there are sections that go up fairly steep hills, often with the wind against me at the same time. But those sections are followed by downhill sections that are much easier (though somehow, I never seem to really get much a good tailwind!). There are some days when I run when it's 95F with 50-60% humidity, and others when it's 78 with a nice cool breeze. This teaches me that difficult sections of my "run" through this life are temporary and to push through it to look for the downhill and/or downwind sections.

I also get some of my political positions from my observations of exercise and physical principles. For example, no one else can exercise for me. Muscle and fitness cannot be taken from me and given to someone else who didn't work out as hard as I did. Thus, I feel it should be the same with my money when it comes to the government redistributing wealth.

It's much more satisfying and fulfilling to me to be able, through my hard work, to lift a weight I could not lift before than simply to have someone else lift it for me. This is essentially a conservative principle. When I see direct observations and confirmations of conservative principles in one area of my life, it seems to me that they're likely correct in another.

Let them fail!

I really have a problem with the government continuing to bail out companies (large banks, insurance companies, airlines, car companies, etc.) that have made poor management decisions and underestimated risk in their investments. Part of true capitalism is letting the market work and letting those companies that did run their businesses well succeed (and not try to steal their "windfall" profits), and let those that do not perform well fail. Letting poor performing companies fail prevents more capital from chasing continuing bad investments.

Further, the government providing the bailouts is essentially nationalizing these companies, making our country and our economy more and more socialistic. Umm, wrong direction, folks.

What a difference a day makes, Plimpton

Monday night / Tuesday morning I thought that my life would end (or wished it would), but today is MUUUCH better. My daughter Lauren stopped throwing up yesterday, and though my son Daniel threw up yesterday morning also, he only threw up once and felt fairly good most of the day. It's a nice day outside today, and not nearly as busy / crisis-mode at work today as it has been the last few days. I got Natasha some flowers on the way home last night, and made a nice margarita with Don Julio reposado (which I'll definitely buy again ... "Yumm-o", to quote Rachel Ray). Wait, straight men should probably not quote Rachel Ray.

I just finished a pretty good book by George Plimpton, called "The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair". Link here: http://www.amazon.com/Man-Flying-Lawn-Chair-Observations/dp/0812973720/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221661623&sr=8-1 It's a compilation of several short stories / vignettes written by George and published posthumously by Sarah Plimpton, George's widow. I hadn't been familiar with George's writing before, but I like it really well. His writing can be very funny and deep without having to be long.

It's supposed to be very nice weather all week. It's been a VERY hot summer, and we had our first break in the heat two days ago (thanks to Hurricane Ike). Let's see, what could I possibly do on Friday -- think ... think...

Photo of me, my uncle Bill Day, and his son Billy at Texas A&M Traditions Course in College Station, TX earlier this summer

Wow, Eagles / Cowboys game last night, stomach bug

These days having a busy job and two young kids, I almost never stay up late to watch all the way to the end of a regular season Monday night NFL game. But I'm glad I did (well, sort of -- read on...) for this week 2 Cowboys / Eagles game. The first half was a circus, the 2nd-highest scoring first half in MNF history. Rookie wide receiver Desean Jackson for the Eagles pulled a Leon Lett-level gaffe and dropped the ball on the 1-yard line! Well, I suppose it wasn't as bad as the Lett play since the Eagles got the ball on the 1 and scored on the next play. See here for the play:



I actually felt the Eagles should have won that game with the way their O-line, McNabb, Westbrook, and the receivers were playing. But it all changed on that fumble between McNabb and Westbrook. Unusual mistake for those guys. Other than that mistake, though, McNabb looks really good this season.

My 3-yr-old daughter got a stomach bug and started throwing up around 2am and the rest of the night. That's when I was wishing I'd gone to bed about 9pm instead of 1130. I think my son has it this morning ... ugh. Things kind of stink today for my wife and kids at home. I think I'll get some flowers for her on the way home (or maybe a new bottle of tequila).

He went for TWO? And Pats don't go for it on 4th?

Wow, very interesting end to that Denver / San Diego game. While Denver should never have gotten the chance to score that touchdown to make it 38-37 due to the botched fumble call, you have to give credit to coach Mike Shanahan going for the win and getting it with the 2 point conversion to win 39-38. I exclaimed excitedly to my wife, "I have never seen any team go for 2 in that situation!!" I think she really felt my enthusiasm and promptly looked back down at her book.

In other news from NFL week 2, I saw the Patriots do something against the Jets that they would never have done last season. They punted on 4th and like 1/2-yard at midfield. I wonder if that's because they had their backup QB in. They still won the game, but I think they would have gone for that if Brady was in. Wonder if Easterbrook will pick up on that in his TMQ column tomorrow...

Dear Mr. Obama

Nice work on this ad featuring a disabled war vet speaking out about the Iraq war being a "mistake".

Talk about a no-brainer for casting

Apparently Saturday Night Live will ask Tina Fey to come back to play some Sarah Palin skits. That's about the most obvious casting choice ever...

I jinxed the rain for Austin -- sorry.

Uhh, or maybe my elbow wasn't a good predictor. Ike took a much more northward turn, and Austin will now be lucky to even get an inch of rain -- it may not rain at all. As Bob Eucker would say, "JUUUST a bit outside!"

Umm .. looks like rain

Man, my elbow's been hurtin' this weekend -- feels like rain ... my elbow's never been wrong before! Yep, book it ... it's gonna rain this weekend.

Or, maybe it's this:

TMQ is back!

That's ESPN's column by Gregg Easterbrook, Tuesday Morning Quarterback, one of my favorite columns on the web. This week, he pounds on coaches for being chicken and not going for 4th downs and punting (or going for FGs) even when they're in situations where it makes the most sense. He also will point out excellent plays by linemen that often escape notice by most folks. This week, for example, he pointed out an excellent block thrown by a Chicago Bears lineman on a 50-yard TD run. Link here for this week's column: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/080909

When he goes off into political topics he tends to be too liberal for my tastes, but it's still thought-provoking. He'll occasionally also throw in really funny and insightful reviews on movies or science fiction topics. See really good point about "Iron Man" in his column this week.

No substitute for Cointreau

OK, in an effort to try and keep my budget for excellent drinks somewhat under control, I have often attempted to try other orange-flavored liqueurs to substitute for Cointreau, which is pretty much the most-expensive one. I think I have given up.

When I first started making margaritas, I tried Grand Marnier, but I think it's too heavy / sweet / syrupy for margaritas. GM is good straight, but seems to overpower the tequila in a rita or other mixed drink. I have since tried Bouchant, Gran Gala, Patron orange liqueur, and Paula's Texas Orange.

Of the substitutes, I think the locally-made Paula's is probably the best. In fact, it's been a long time since I have had that and may try it again. But every time I make it with Cointreau, it's just perfect and I remember why I always go back to it.

Green chile Hornitos, Don Julio Reposado

So I tried my two-chile-infused-Hornitos margarita last night, and it was perfect. Quite spicy, but not downright painful. I may even try infusing a more expensive silver tequila now that I've proven that I like it on the less-expensive Hornitos.

As a side note, I think Hornitos is probably the best tequila value. If you're using British currency, you could say that it's the best "pound-for-pound" tequila out there!

On another tequila note, I sometimes try new tequilas when my local Twin Liquors has a good special, and I really liked one I got last week. It's the Don Julio reposado. I have previously had their silver and their anejo. The anejo is an excellent snifter / sipping tequila, and the silver is pretty good (but not my favorite for margaritas -- I prefer Patron, Herradura, and Gran Centenario). But the reposado seems to be a perfect blend of the silver and the anejo -- excellent both for ritas and for sipping. Good juice!

A beautiful thing

Here's my recent green-chile-infusing experiment in progress, doubling the amount of chile from first time I tried it (it was a little mild with one, so I added two). Will taste tonight ...

McCain / Palin Support New Mexico Green Chile!

At our local Chuy's restaurants in Austin, they're having a green chile festival celebrating the Hatch, NM, green chiles. My wife and I have been eating there several times the last couple of weeks, and we bought lots of chile to freeze and have for the next few months. I have a new bottle of Hornitos in my pantry now steeping with not one, but two green chiles for margaritas. See previous blog entry ( http://20thhole.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-mexico-hatch-green-chili-season.html ) for recipe.

As part of Chuy's green chile promotion, they have t-shirts that promote supporting the "Green Chile Party '08", complete with a humorous "platform" consisting of a list of bullet points basically telling you to eat lots of chile.

I was thinking of their humorous linking of chile and politics when I saw the below photo of McCain / Palin buying salsa from El Pinto, a pretty well-known restaurant in Albuquerque, NM. Just more confirmation I'm supporting the right candidates! 8^)

Caption from AP reads, "Sunday: John McCain picks up his change after purchasing jars of salsa at El Pinto restaurant in Albequerque, N.M., for himself and his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. (AP Photo)"

Playing with the big boys (and big ladies)

In my job last week and this week, I got thrown into kind of a crisis issue on a product that I do not normally support. The guy tapped to lead this team led the team for a couple of days, but ended up going on vacation for 1-1/2 weeks, so I had to cover for him right as the issue really blew up. But fortunately, I ended up doing a pretty good job (in my ever-so-humble opinion) and not totally making an idiot of myself. My 1st and 2nd line bosses (our overall org at Freescale has 7 levels -- CEO Rich Beyer is my 6th-level boss) want me to keep leading this team even though the guy originally chosen to lead it is back today from vacation.

As part of this team's leadership, there are several ongoing meetings that I've been leading in the VP of Final Manufacturing's office (my 4th line manager, a lady who's a corporate officer). The latest summary / status email I sent out was the "highest level" email I had ever sent out in my almost 12 years of work here -- had like 4-5 3rd-level managers on it, 4-5 4th level VPs copied on it, and even one Executive VP level lady (a 5th-level manager / direct report to CEO).

I made sure to do a spell check on it (and on the names of the bigwigs) before sending it out!

Conference this weekend

We have a pretty big church conference this weekend, featuring a guester speaker named Jerame Nelson (pronounced "Jeremy"), and a guest worship leader Catherine Mullins. I hadn't been familiar with her until recently when we saw her leading at some services for Todd Bentley in Lakeland, Florida. Here's a clip of her leading a pretty cool worship song that we'll likely do this weekend ... hopefully if I sing a tenor harmony I won't be as flat as the guy on this video!



Our pastor said Sunday (yesterday) that he thinks this might be the best conference we've ever had -- no pressure or anything! I suppose I'd better try to eliminate the # of wrong notes I play ... would be a shame to hear pastor say, "Yeah, well we thought it was going to be a great conference, until our keyboard player played THAT!"

Doing Eagles and U2 songs in church

We're not exactly real stuck-up on doing pious songs in our worship band at church. In fact, we have a habit of doing non-Christian (or maybe somewhat vaguely Christian) songs -- sometimes we change the lyrics, other times not!

Here's a list of some of the songs we've done over the years:

• U2, Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking for (we keep the verses exactly the same, change just the line from Chorus to "In Jesus, I've found what I'm looking for"). We add the special chorus from "Rattle and Hum" where we do "He will lift you up higher and higher / he'll be your shelter from the storm".
• Tom Petty, Free Fallin'. Chris Harvey, a very funny visiting Australian minister, made up a bunch of verses to this real-time during a sermon -- chorus kept the same as original.
• Eagles, Hotel California. You mean the song that's supposedly a reference to Anton Levay (sp?) and the Church of Satan? Yep. That was another Chris Harvey special where he made up verses on the fly with Christian lyrics. We've also covered the original version a couple of times when our band has played events that weren't at church.
• Eagles, Desperado. We don't sing the actual song, but I often play the chord progression on piano for the song when I'm playing background music when someone is ministering and wants soft music backing.
• Stevie Ray Vaughan, The House is a Rockin'. We made up our own original Christian verses for this, but kept the chorus the same.
• U2, Forty. No change to original song.
• U2, Where the Streets Have No Name. We've used the intro chords as the intro to another song (Chris Tomlin's "Not to Us"), and we plan to do the actual song pretty soon with no change to lyrics.
• U2, All I want is you. No change to original lyrics.
• Beatles, All You Need is Love. Just did the chorus on that one.
• Beatles, The Word. Not sure what portions were done -- I wasn't there for that one (Darren's deal!)
• The Troggs, Wild Thing.
• Steppenwolf, Born to be Wild.
• The Cure, Love Song (Whenever I'm alone with you -- you make me feel like I am whole again...)
• U2, MLK (from Unforgettable Fire, Darren did this one without me there)
• Coldplay, Yellow (another one Darren did w/o me there)

We have not yet worked in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody -- yet.

Great Rush transcript on Palin's speech

A great Rush Limbaugh article here (it's really a transcript of a portion of his radio show) about Palin's speech and some of my conservative ideals ... a caller also mentions the cute moment where Palin's daughter was fixing her little brother's hair:

On second thought

Well, let me clarify that point about the libs being screwed. They're screwed if McCain doesn't screw it up and start hammering on cap-and-trade for the gore-bull warming issue, or start alienating his conservative base in some other way. I'd feel more certain in my "they're screwed" position if we took the reciprocal of the current ticket.

Screw VP -- Palin for President!

OK -- Finally. This is what happens when you excite your conservative base (which according to the bi-partisan Battleground poll is about 57%-60% of the country who self-identify as very conservative or somewhat conservative -- a result that has remained consistent the last several years). I hadn't heard too much about Sarah Palin before, but I'm definitely excited by her. I hadn't been too enthused by McCain before, but this really helped. They seem to be peaking at the right time.

Both she and Guiliani actually talked about issues and finally hammered Obama on ISSUES where conservatives feel he's weak. I have a bit of a beef with McCain in that he's somewhat refused to hammer on some issues like I think he should.

I still think they should switch places on the ticket. My wife made an excellent comment this morning about how if she does become VP, she'll give our daughter an excellent role model to look up to in politics.

Pretty cute moment during the speech when the camera cut to her daughter (maybe 6-7 yrs old?) holding their little baby Trig (that can't be short for Trigonometry, can it?) -- she was licking her hand then smoothing down his hair...

Oh, and libs? You're screwed.