Thanksgiving 2008

A sharp dressed man showed up, looking good in that sweater vest and barefooted, I think he started on that sippy-cup pretty early Thursday morning.

We had family, in-laws and out-laws here for Thursday's dinner. Didn't hear any complaints about the food, we had accommodations for everyone, and there were no fistfights or stabbings.............inside the house anyway.

Terri (who also celebrated her birthday on this day) was able to breathe a big sigh of relief that everyone had plenty to eat, liked her house addition, decorating and furniture, and had a good time. She has three more weeks until retirement, but who is counting................everyone!!!) ?

And here's a look at some of the crowd that day; the end of the video is for you K-girl, thanks again.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone; off to OH Monday through Friday; might post some snow video when I get back.

November 21, 2008

Still up all night due to the lingering effects of another West Coast jet lag; I thought I would proceed with another post right on top of the last one. Don't look for many more for a while....unless I go fishing this weekend or get creative at the Thanksgiving party.

On Saturday I went to Carlsbad CA for a few days to participate in the annual AHRI meeting at the LaCosta resort; pretty nice digs for an old eastern NC boy; although I did have to go a few days without BBQ. Mr Sulu at Hertz tried to get me to upgrade to a Hummer, Corvette or a Shelby Mustang; I told him I was having dinner with the owner of our company Monday night, didn't think that would look quite right. By mistake he gave me a Mustang at the same price as the mid-size I reserved. Not a bad ride, very attractive, little light on HP but better than the Chrysler POS I'm used to getting.

Sunday morning we had our board of directors meeting, after which I went to ride and found this gourmet restaurant. Can you say ANIMAL STYLE? They make good burgers here; but I apologize to my So-Cal buds, I prefer Jack in the Box, sorry.

On Monday evening I was invited to the Powers residence in Laguna Beach; I arrived at 4:00 in time to watch a magnificent sunset. The Powers were gracious hosts; I saw the military memorabilia and had Swedish meatballs! Good times.

The colors were much prettier than my little camera was able to reproduce.

After the sun set the shape of Catalina Island could be seen on the horizon. A visit there is one of the things on my list before I check out of here. I've flown over it but never been.

Here is some video I captured during the sunset.

Tuesday afternoon I went to ride in the Mustang. I went east, kinda hard to go west there, and went up into the hills and did a little exploring. Saw an area which had burned, just a small place,but there were lots of fire trucks on the scene. In this video I am trying to run down an exotic sports car of some sort, it was either a Ferrari or a GMC pickup, I forget which. Didn't think about the music until after wards, hope you like ELO.

I like driving in Southern California! As long as there are no jams, people are moving. I was told on the back roads like you can flash your lights repeatedly at anyone who holds you up, and if you keep doing it they will eventually pull over and let you through. Often they will salute you with an expression that lets you know they think you are the number one driver in the state! Hey slow drivers, I think you're number one too!

Later I went to the beaches beginning at San Juan Capistrano (boy those polysyllabic words are hard to swallow, get it....swallow.............San Juan Capistrano.......OK I digress) and headed South. I stopped at several surf spots I've read or heard about; probably the best lineup I saw was at San Onofre. I think I could surf these waves; as long as you have to trim the board and then get up (on my feeble knees that takes a while); I could make this work. Lot of difference in these waves and what we see on the east coast; this guy has a good long ride

Bought a t-shirt at Hobie Alter's, stopped several places and ended up at La Jolla around sunset. Jay took a picture of Terri and me there many many years ago; I found the bluff but couldn't find the old picture. I'll post it if I can find it.

Around San Clemente I saw a carrier offshore; helicopters were running back and forth carrying cargo containers suspended by cable for quick release. All in all a fun afternoon, and then back to NC Wednesday morning.

November 20

28 is Fred Lorenzen, 11 is Ned Jarrett. Tiny Lund won the race in an upset; he drove the #21 Woods Brothers car after Marvin Panch was burned while practicing in a Ford/Maserati for the sports car race. Lund ran to the burning car and pulled Panch out; Panch recommended Lund for the ride. Lund was later killed at Talladega in a wreck with J.D. McDuffie. Rumor had it that Lund took the webbing out of his helmet because his head was so big.

And this is what a batter faced when batting against Sandy Koufax. What made the picture unique was he only hit 2 homers in his career, and this was one of them. He pitched left and batted right; what kind of imbecile does that? Oh never mind......that's right.................... the Old Paratrooper tried that trick if I remember correctly.
Anyway, Koufax pitched in 397 games, won 165, saved 9 (believe it or not, he and Drysdale used to also pitch relief during their prime years in the early 60's), struck out 2396 in 2324 innings. He was a great all around athlete, but only hit 2 dingers in his 12 years in the majors.

CA pictures and videos coming up soon.

Life Magazine November 19, 08

Saw in USA Today that Life/Google made a library of pictures available online; only had a couple of minutes before heading to the airport but thought I would post a couple.
Can you name these drivers?

Not really that hard if you're an old NASCAR fan; where was the race? What year, and who won? Just got a little harder didn't it?
Now here is a unique picture, can you tell why?
Heading to the San Diego airport in a sec; I'll post some videos and pictures when I get the chance.

November 14, 2008 Minnesota

Went to MN this week to work with Mr Curt Mondale; a second generation manufacturers representative with a new method of doing business. Here he walks into a conference room.....

............and sits down and takes over!

It was a lot of fun working with Curt, Bryan and Herb. They are one of our better agencies. It was a little icy and some sleet Tuesday morning, and lots of rock'm sock'm activity on the Interstate. I was glad to get into a hotel that night. I left my coat in Curt's car and wasn't up to sprinting to the Mall of America Wednesday night.
Speaking of cars, Curt drives a Prius. I was impressed by the roominess and efficiency. The video below gauges performance as the vehicle shifts between gasoline engine and electric motor. In the past reps were accustomed to the biggest and the best in vehicles; I believe Curt is our first "green" rep .

Off to San Diego in the morning; I'll try to take some good shots out there.

November 9, 2009

First of all, a dinner shot from Tuesday night; our guest of honor was the flounder we caught Sunday afternoon. I fixed Merry Old Sole, a Franc White dish from many many years ago. If you're asking yourself who Franc White is......well I feel sorry for you. This is four pieces of flounder with shrimp, crabmeat, and cheese sandwiched in between. Franc's recipe calls for Hollandaise but I didn't feel like making any so I used a mayo/dijon/wasabi combo. Didn't get any complaints from the eating crew.

We went to Martha Simpson's wedding Saturday night in Chapel Hill. The Fishin Optishin was our chauffeur and we really enjoyed ourselves, and being away by ourselves for a welcomed break. The wedding was held in a garden at the Carolina Inn, the reception was in the Old Well Room. I was glad the statutes of limitation had expired and I was able to come back into this fine old hotel. Martha was beautiful and we enjoyed the wedding, reception, and seeing a lot of old friends from Sanford.

Then it was down to Sanford on Sunday to see our family. First stop was the house they plan to buy. It's nice and will be a good home for the three of them.

We enjoyed spending some time with the best little grandson in the whole wide world. We haven't been able to see much of him the past few months; he's grown a lot and is talking a lot more these days. Hope to be able to see them more over the holidays.
And last of all, video of Cooper

Off to MN this week, CA Saturday; will post when I can

Washington NC 11/07/08

The last game of the year sneaked up on us; we travelled to Little Washington Friday night for Jackson's last game. We got behind 34-0 in the first half, played well in the second but lost 41-14

Jackson's first punt was a good one; from inside the 50, pinned the PamPack inside the 5. He had a shadow each time he punted, and I don't like seeing him slap a helmet, but the other guy followed him each time.

His second punt was blocked, the special teams coach said he thought Jackson was a little slow getting it off.

That's it for this year, no basketball so we don't know what we'll be doing all winter. We hope Jackson will work hard on his studies and finish out his Eagle project before Christmas.

Halloween 2008

West hosted New Bern Friday night. We left a bowl of candy on the front porch and a note saying we were not home, but "help yourself." When we returned the bowl was empty.....wonder how long that took?
The game was ugly from the beginning. The West defense obviously didn't realize it was a home game and went to New Bern. The offense did fairly well; Jackson only had 2 punts for a 16 yard average.....yes 16 yards. Here is the first one

This one was blocked; it was the first time this year that the receiving team has blocked a punt cleanly.

We're proud of Jackson, he made some good decisions this weekend, not the least of which was to not kick the guy who tackled the West player on the blocked kick. Watch closely and you'll see Jackson charging down the field wanting to hit somebody; fortunately he didn't, there were enough cheap shots taken during the game; even the Morehead City newspaper chided the West team for late hits and punches.
Bobby and I caught lots of fish this weekend; the weather was pretty and the fish cooperated, but we had to work for them both days. On Saturday we caught some VA mullet, blues, and grey trout. Sunday we went offshore and after a slow morning found a good trout bite at AR 315. We also kept some pretty hogfish, blues, and a nice flounder which I believe was my first or second keeper this year. Our marine diet continues through this week................