I wonder

I wonder just exactly how much more crap I can put up with before I actually, literally, go insane?

I hate Mondays.

Yesterday was disapointing.

Yesterday, despite perfect weather and a great time at the game, the final score was disappointing.

Today was full of fixing things. First there was some light plane maintenance. Then sharpening of lawnmower blades, raking and burning of many leaves, installation of recently sharpened lawnmower blades, bird removal, and finally some more yard work.
Too bad I could not fix yesterdays score... even with all the help I had today.

At half were up.

Facing South

At the game.

Go Blue

At the game!

Droid Fever: The "gPhone" is loose, and Motorola is back baby! (maybe)

Well today’s the day that Droid Dropped, and I have to tell you there was a certain buzz in the air.

Last night I had myself half convinced that I was going to the local Verizion store and even and an “inside man” ready to set one aside in case of a sell out.

For a variety of reasons, it did not happen.

I am off contract and itching to by a new toy, so what is the hold up? What stopped my from buying the “gPhone”?

1) I have been burnt before, hello iPhone price break. Even though I did not get in on the initial fleecing, The Girl paid more for my first gen then the new 3GS now is.

2) There are bound to be glitches. Lets face it… its NEW, let others work out the problems.

3) Money! Ok so 199.00 is almost reasonable, but $299 with 100 rebate gift card not so much. Some e-tailers are offering instant rebates but let’s face it with out instant gratification this does not work for me.

4) The camera Sucks? It may be a firmware away from rocking but this is now a generation of savvy “super phone” buyers. I want a rocking experience out of the box. Camera is one of my top reasons for getting this phone, but if all its getting is “Meh.. its ok” count me out.

5) We are not the naïve super phone buyer of yore, Apple has made us all grow up in one way or another. We want and awesome phone, not a phone with awesome potential.

So I wait.

I wait for the dust to settle. I wait for my techno lust to be slaked with the inevitable word that this is not the device it could "grow up" to be.

I wait, again, for my super gadget.

*sigh*

MGOBLUE: Michigan vs. Purdue

Around Ann Arbor people are already getting excited about tomorrows match up between the Boilermakers and the Wolverines, and you can see the Yellow Purdue flags fly as we welcome our fellow Big Ten Team back to the big house.

Coming off a losing streak,Michigan will be fired up to make up for last years loss and put a lid on thier bowl

eligibility before moving onto Wisconsin and Ohio State. There will be no cold weather excuses, as San Diego native Tate Forcier tends to get nervous when it gets cold out, the weather will be nice, sunny, and reasonably warm. We need to be sharp, and NOT TURN OVER THE BALL.

Purdue is not a push over, Just ask Ohio State. If they can get the run going they will have a good chance. If they can see blood, they will go for it. It does not help that Michigan has proven lately if you get them in bind, they start making mistakes.

I like our chances, at The Big House, with something to prove... I see us walking away winners tomorrow.

My prediction: Michigan by 10 or more.

GOBLUE

Bringing Sexy Back.

For a while now, I have this thing where I forget to zip my zipper.

It drives the girl crazy.

I am not sure what the deal is really, honestly, it just is something, I guess, where my mind does not think is that important, especially around the house. Honestly I often wonder if she knows how lucky it is I even have pants on. Usually I make a smart ass comment once she points it out, and that REALLY HELPS.

For example:

The girl: Your zipper is down again….

Me: Oops

The Girl: You’re so LAZY you can’t even be bothered to zip your zipper?

Me: I’m not being lazy… I consider it ADVERTIZING.

The Girl: What are you advertising? That your to lazy to zip up your zipper?

Me: Hey, someone’s got to bring sexy back!

So I find it ironic that today my zipper is broken, not completely but the little handle thing is missing making it difficult to go up, or down at all. Its to bad really because these are a nice pair of pants and after spilling motor oil on a pair recently, I am getting to the point where I am going to have to go shopping and that is whole new set of problems.

A dew dappled leaf

Sits on the grass this morning in our front lawn, the water dropplets looked interesting to me so i took a quick shot. Click to enlarge this one.

Short Daze

Darkness falls early now, and daylight savings is only making it worse. Its bad enough that that the dog is determined that lunch now starts at 11, but it makes it hard to get anything done after work as well.

I am glad today is over, it was unsettling and never fit right like an ill-fitting suit jacket. I never felt comfortable in it.

Cool Gear: Canon S90

This might be the camera I have been waiting for.

I know that I have said this before and again before and I am likely going to change my mind again but the new Canon s90 seems to be the perfect point-shoot with some of the dslr muscle that I have been waiting for.

I could bore you with the details so you can read about it *here*.

How My "fix it" mentality works:

Halloween Might Be Over

But the full moon (Almost full anyway) peaks between the trees as Tanner and I take a sunset walk, bringing spooky back for another night anyway.

Shop update: Double File Cabint Project- update

A difficult but crucial step was accomplished as the double file cabinet was glued and set it is pretty much in its final form, just upside down.

Strong winds came through

Strong winds came through and took every every leaf with color and placed them on the floor. Tanner and I were tracking a huge Red Tailed Hawk through the woods but it kept flying just out of picture range every time we would get close. It was a game of patience and tolerance and he ended up being less tolerant of our presence then I had hoped. He is somewhere in this picture, you can click to enlarge but he is still hard to pick out sitting in the trees.

MGOBLUE: Michigan vs. Illinois

After last weeks lackluster performance at home we again take to show on the road. This time to Campaign to face Illinois on a windy Halloween day contest. With last weeks defeat fresh in our minds, and lasts years loss 45-20 loss to the fighting Illini this could be a season saving win with three tough opponents left of the schedule.
Michigan has yet to win on the road, so a win away from the familiar comforts and crowd support of the Big house could quite the critics and show that this program is indeed moving ahead.
Or
This could be a loss and start a slow slide into a bad ending to the season that once held so much promise.

Here and now, at week nine, this game and its significance comes into stunning clarity. This game is important for the team, important for the fans, and maybe most important for this programs future.

With the painful loss of David Molk, we will have to be extra sharp on our executions, and maybe most of all work on not turning over the ball that was, in my opinion, what really kept us out of last weeks contest.

I like out chances in this game, and remain ever hopeful the boys will make us proud today.

GOBLUE

Friday Night Dinner: Argiero's an unknown Ann Arbor Gem

Tonight we were going to dinner at Cottage Inn, but on this devils night, the diag was mobbed and there was a line out the door so we passed it up for less congested, slightly off the beaten path place to eat: Argiero's.

I don't understand why, but this place seems to be overlooked by the general unwashed masses and the food is hard to beat. On a Friday night we were seated right away, and the sparse patronage was more of a mood enhancer than an aggravation and the Ravioli special and Pesto on Penne were AWESOME.

I have been eating here for years and I have always felt like it has been my little secret. So I am letting everyone know, try it. You wont be disapointed.

The other reason Detroit gets a bad rap:

Yesterday, ex-mayor Kuame Kilpatrick was in town testifying, trying to lower his restitution payments to to city of Detroit. That alone, my friends takes ALOT of balls. But check out this testimony (courtesy of clickondetroit.com):

Judge Groner asks questions:
Where he lives,
Who lives there,
Do you have a mortgage or lease?
Kwame says it’s a rental home, and he is not party to it.

Judge: Who is paying rent?

Kilpatrick: Um. I assume my wife is handling the rent.

Judge: Why do you assume that?

Kilpatrick: Because I’m not.

Judge: Never discussed it with her?

Kilpatrick: No.

Judge: Do you know how much the rent is?

Kilpatrick: No.

Judge: Do you have a lease agreement?
Kilpatrick: I don’t have a lease agreement.

Judge: Have you seen the lease agreement?

Kilpatrick: No.

Judge: Do you know how long you’re staying there?
Kilpatrick No.

Judge: Are you fully moved in or live out of a suitcase?
Kilpatrick: I’m fully moved in.

Judge: You don’t forsee living there in the forseeable future?
Objection by Michael Schwartz: says questions are irrelevant. Objection noted, overruled.
Schwartz: What is the plan? Objection. Overruled.

Kilpatrick: After the year I put my family through, I’m just trying to stay with them as long as I possibly can.

Judge: Do you work for anyone else besides Compuware/Covisint?

Judge: How much have they paid you this year unless you don’t know?

Objection… overruled.

Kilpatrick: My salary is $10,000 per month.

Judge: Has your wife worked over the past year?
Kilpatrick: I don’t know.

Judge: You paused, is there a reason?

Objection and overruled.

Kilpatrick: This case brought out some personal issues, I’m blessed to be with my wife so now that I am out of that
“that dungeon” I don’t know.

Judge: Is your wife working?

Kilpatrick: No, not for a company.

Judge: Does she have a source of income?
Kilpatrick: No… I don’t know.

WTF!

So you are telling me, you have know idea your you living arrangements for the masion you live in are met? Or if you wife works? Are you an idiot, or do you just think the court is? The lies go on and on and are so thick he should be slapped with a contempt of court fine just for saying that crap in open court! He goes on to say that he forgot to disclose a $240,000 cash loan to the court due to an "accounting error" and that he has no idea basically how any of his household is run, from home payments to child care to what his wife is doing has done where they will be staying and more on and on and on.

I say the City should call the note due, based on the fact the he is obviously not being honest with the court and the people of Detroit and the State of Michigan. Call the note, and if he cant pay the $800,000+ he still owes the city and if he cant pay, put him in jail.

A better list:

I was already using an excel sheet for my daily call list and I realized I was tired of all my sticky notes all over the place. I did not have a to-do list that was worth a shit, That when I realized:

If I took my to do list, say on a separate tab, used Excel's auto graph function it would auto-magicaly turn my list into a circular graph that kept the lowest items on the list near the top, so to speak. I could assign different values say on a scale of 1-100 say to visualize what was more important and viola! A better list.

I could float it over my call list and better yet, if I change something on the list, it changes the chart...

For me this works, keeping say the top ten things to do at my finger tips in a nice visual format in a way that my two second attention span can appreciate.

Sure you could use an online memory helper like Dont Forget the milk but honestly, for a quick ad-hoc on the run down and dirty memory helper... this simple idea is proving to be valuable.

Why Detroit gets a bad rap…

True story:

Not only did one of my insured’s car get stolen in front of his house in Detroit (surprise) but once it was recovered and fixed, it was stolen again. In less than a month. Where? Right in front of his house again. Not only that but after the first time, he had put a new fancy alarm system in it… On top of the factory alarm that they had once defeated.

He woke to see it being *pushed* away as the alarm was going off because they could not get it started.

Again it was recovered, and is currently getting fixed again.

Hold on, here is the best part:

While his car was being fixed he called me today to tell me that, while waiting for his new car to be returned, his rental car had its tires and rims stolen and was sitting on the ground. Where? In front of his fricken house.

This is the reason rates are SO HIGH in some areas and why Detroit gets a bad rap.