Future Poltergeist

Posting will be light until it's all fixed.

Need to post something this weekend... This July's relentlessly hot weather was awful. The last few days have been cool and cloudy. And I've loved it. I'm sure we'll have Indian summer in a few weeks and it'll be lovely too. I'm hoping for a mild fall. Taking advantage of the cool weekend, I made some soup today. Some Cheddar-Potato mix. Add cubed ham. And a can of peas. Very yummy. The FP Gal thinks this is apple crisp weather. I'm not going to argue against that. As I write this, the White Sox are 1 1/2 games out of a playoff spot with three weeks to play. One of the guys at work asked me if this was driving me crazy. It really isn't. I think I'm still coasting on the elation of last year. Not that I don't want them to win it all again but I'm not really worried. My boys are world champs for another six weeks minimum. (Ok, now the football stuff.) Did you know that Payton and Eli Manning are brothers? No, they really are. W...

shot in NYC on 9/11, entitled Crystal Morning .

while the FP Gal turns up the TV while watching Pee-Wee's Playhouse, "I'm having trouble hearing the cow."

Let me share something you can see. (Sorry Rachel!)

Happy Birthday, bro! I know you're busy today being in the Navy . Er, in the Navy . You know shooting stuff . At least your time there has let you see some beautiful places. Like here . And here . And of course, here . And now you're on the road to Rhode Island (with a bonus song). Which apparently is famous . Um, be careful out there. With football starting , you'll be able to watch more Viking games this year. This will probably help set the table. And another good memory . And speaking of good memories, come on down ... And this is just strange , but I think you'll like it.

Just a heads up for those who care to play Survival Football, go here . The group ID is 15143 and the password is 'mendota'. You'll be asked to pick one team each week. If your team wins, you continue. If they lose, you're out. You're only allowed to pick a team once during the season. Also, still time to sign up for Pick 'Em. Group ID is 5098 and the password is 'ozzieboy'. The season starts this Thursday . Good luck!

Interesting little piece in the London Times today with Michael Caine criticizing today's films. FILMS made today pale against cinema classics of the past because they are so lacking in dialogue, character and plot, Sir Michael Caine told The Times yesterday. Part of me wants to nod my head in agreement. There are some truly dreadful movies out there. 'Snakes on a Plane' was made because of how bad it looked to be. But that's only half the story. Huge numbers of movies are made today. And they're made for all kinds of people. Dozens of artsy and intellectual movies are made every year. Apparently Caine made these remarks after looking at the top ten movies in the US today. Movie studios release movies in a predictable cycle every year. Fall is for thrillers. Winter is for serious Oscar-bait type movies. The first few months of the year is kind of a dumping ground for movies the studios don't have faith in. And summer is for action, adventure and co...

About a month ago, the FP Gal and I went to the Powderhorn Art Festival. We found an artist there that we both enjoyed. Steve Tomashek creates minature animals. What caught our eye was his very creative pictures. The zebras is one of the best.

Ok, so let me talk about the team that's nearest and dearest to my football heart, the Vikings. Their season hinges on one person, Brad Johnson. More to the point it hinges on his health. The Offense - Brad looks perfectly suited for the west coast offense. He's smart and accurate and doesn't rely on the deep ball. He's good at finding the open receiver for a small gain. The wideouts on this club have some talent but no real star power. The ball will be spread around quite a bit. The running game should be good. The preseason didn't really show that, but the Vikes faced three good run defenses in Pit, Bal and Dal. The O-line should be very good. Hopefully, that means very few knockdowns and sacks for Brad. The Defense - The Vikes look like they could have a dominant D-line this year. Both DE's, James and Udeze, look like they may have finally developed into the players they were projected to be. The DT's, Kevin and Pat Williams, look like forces ...

Ok, so we're almost to the football season. Is anyone else wishing that this was opening weekend? With all of the preseason games behind us, I want to put some thoughts down on the upcoming Viking season. One of the charms of the NFL is how quickly a given team can radically improve or decline. A last place team can win the division the next year. A Superbowl team can fall apart and miss the playoffs. And it's very hard to tell which way a team will go. As part of my Survivor league efforts I try to determine the worst five or six teams each season. From my notes, here were the consenus worst teams starting last season with their final record (listed from worst expectation to best): San Fran 4-12 Cleveland 6-10 Miami 9-7 Chicago 11-5 Tampa 11-5 Tennessee 4-12 That's two divisional winners and another winning record. As I said, very hard to do. Injuries are the biggest factor of course. Right below that is the inability to predict just how personel will come toge...

This movie is simple to review. If you like Woody Allen you'll like it. If you don't, you won't like it. Simple, no? This movie centers on a woman named Hannah (Mia Farrow) and her two sisters, Lee (Barbara Hershey) and Holly (Diane Wiest). The movie is told chapter style with different chapters focusing on different characters. It opens with Hannah's husband, Elliot (Michael Caine) lusting after Lee. This forms the central part of the story. Another part of the story centers on Hannah's ex-husband played by Woody Allen. He's a nervous hypochondriac who has a near brush with bad news. This causes an existential crisis in his life. He starts exploring other religions in an effort to comfort himself about the afterlife. All in a witty manner. Allen's movies always make me want to move to New York. They show the city as a cosmopolitan dream. His taste in jazz music is also quite nice. But his characters always leave me cold. They seem to be actor...

A couple of months ago there was confusion as to wether or not Jodi is engaged. Today, I found out that she is and it's a pretty good match. I've done some work with him and he's top row quality. Mazeltov and many happy licensures!

Took the day off and went to the fair today. Highlights? Learned that a male duck is a 'drake'. Always thought it was a mallard. Who knew? BTW, I'm always surpised by the number of ducks there. Are there that many duck farmers in Minnesota? Is there that much of a market for duck eggs? Or roast duck? Same question about geese. The new birthing barn looks like a huge hit. Something from my ruralish upbringing enjoys watching city folk look at farm animals. It's fun to see people stretch their horizons. Every year the fair features a sculpture made from debris pulled out of the Mississippi. This year it was a dragonfly. Quite impressive, and yes I don't like them either. This year's piece looked notably smaller than previous year's. I don't know if that's a good sign or just a more modest effort from the sculptor. Tried out the 'it' food at the fair this year. Hotdish on a stick. Yum! Looks like a lumpy corndog. They take coo...

A couple months back I mentioned a poll regarding the greatest American novel . Since then I've read a few of them and am planning on tackling the rest over the next few years. Here's the list: Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin James, Portrait of a Lady Cather, My Antonia Wharton, The Age of Innocence Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury Warren, All the King's Men Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March Ellison, Invisible Man Chandler, The Long Goodbye Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 Updike, Rabbit, Run Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor Heller, Catch-22 Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird Nabokov, Pale Fire Roth, The Great American Novel Melville, Moby-Dick Twain, Huckleberry Finn And I want to add a couple of others. Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath Mailer, Of a Fire on the Moon Which makes 23. Any other suggestions? And is anyone else interested in joining in? I can give a few weeks heads up about which book ...

Boy, this blog really goes dark on the weeknd, doesn't it? No good reason why, since I'm home most of the time. The FP Gal's wedding jobs keep her busy (and she's usually got my car) so I get the place to myself. Watched a good deal of baseball the past few days. As I write this, the Twins are 1/2 game up on the White Sox for the wildcard spot. My prediction as of late August: White Sox wrap up a postseason spot before they come to the dome to close out the season. The Twins are facing injury after injury to the pitching staff and I don't think they can keep up the winning. It's that simple. Thought my personal preference curse had struck again today as I couldn't find the best chips known to man, Old Dutch Garlic & Parmesian Kettle Chips. I've killed an ice cream, a pizza and soft drink already. Just started eating blueberries lately. Sell any shares you have in blueberry futures. I've searched for years for a good book on Simon Bolivar...

This was the winning costume here, a very creative one. He dressed as a wine bottle. There were other winners too. I guess the judges had something different in mind than the dragon.

Ok, so I don't know if I won or not. But I'll tell you what it was anyway. It's a Chinese Dragon! (Better pictures to follow.)

Tomorrow will be an interesting day at work. We have a rep from a (non-local) major airline coming in with an intriguing contest. In an effort to highlight their destination route they are offering two international business class tickets to whomever wears the best international costume. Fun, huh? We've had trouble figuring out what to put together. Last night I was too tired to go out and get stuff. I was leaning towards running out and getting a plaid skirt and playing the Scotsman. So I emailed the FP Gal today and told her that we would certainly go out tonight and find something. Two tickets ! She emailed back telling me that she had some ideas. Which was a lie. Or at least a half-truth. She had been working on something all day. Something pretty good. Something unexpected. I feel good about our chances. What is it? I'll tell you tomorrow if we win.