Weekend Update - December 23rd - Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas
On the behalf of the Balancing Checkbooks Team, we want to wish you and your family and friends a very Merry Christmas.
For those of you who are wondering who are on the Balancing Checkbooks Team, I have the answer for that question. Obviously, I’m on the team and so is the Number 1 Reliever Doug. We can’t exclude Vivian because, as Doug says, “You can never have too many hot chicks around.” Doug does not like to have his photo displayed publicly.
Of course, we have to include The Princess who urged me to keep going with the blog after the operation. Good advice is often hard to find.
Programming Note
Since it is the holiday season, I am going to be taking a few days off between now and January 7th. If you come to the blog and there is nothing new, wait until the New Year. I am going to try to go back to posting four or five times a week.
Visitors
We had another big visitors’ week. We had a total of 222 visitors, domestic and international for the week. This month has a great chance at being the best month ever for visitor traffic.
Epic.
Our international visitor count for the week is off. I didn’t keep track of international visitors during the week. Today, I could only back as far as Friday. I wasn’t able to track 122 visitors, some of whom are likely to be international visitors.
We had visitors from Germany [2], Italy, India [2], Canada [16], Iran, Japan [4], Thailand, Ireland [2], Netherlands [2], Mexico, Philippines, Vietnam, Czech Republic, Poland, Texas [4], Finland, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Guatemala, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Russia, Malaysia, Hungary, and Hong Kong.
I must have picked up a following from Iran although I have no idea why.
We had one visitor who stayed around the blog for just over eleven minutes.
For those of you who are interested, the top three exit pages for the week featured Aiko Tanaka, Sunisa Kim, and Eiko Koike. This does not surprise me.
I do appreciate all of you who took time out of your busy days to visit the blog.
Lunch with Amy
Amy and I had planned to have lunch this week. But, it was not too happen. Between my schedule of teaching and exercising and Amy’s job of managing a boutique and working as a server at Fleming’s Newport Beach, we simply ran out of available time and days.
We did have two long phone conversations which is unusual for us. We usually exchange text messages. Amy is like most people who send text messages; she uses one letter words like “r” and avoids capitalization and punctuation and grammar. I don’t. This also explains why it takes me longer to send a text message than just about anyone else.
We tentatively have planned to get together for lunch in January after Amy returns from her Christmas vacation to Venezuela. That should be easier for us to schedule a slow lunch so we can catch up with each other.
Nina the Server
It looks like Nina is no longer working at El Gringo. I think she was over committed with things to do and multiple jobs. I will miss Nina and I would wish her well if I knew how to reach her.
But, I am over Nina now. My only regret was not taking a photo of Nina for the blog.
Nina has been replaced by Merit as in merit badges as the Thursday evening server. Merit is taller than Nina. She wears her hair shorter than Nina. Their personalities are close and I enjoy having Merit as a server.
We will have to see how long Merit lasts as a server at El Gringo.
Utah Football
I watched part of the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl when I was having my usual Thursday dinner at El Gringo. The United States Naval Academy played the University of Utah. It was a good game because our Utes won, 35-32.
It was almost a home game for the Naval Academy since San Diego is such a Navy town. It is the home of the largest Navy base on the West Coast. Then, when you add in the Marines from the Recruit Depot, there is a huge fan base.
The score does not reflect the game or maybe it reflects the stupidity of the Utah head coach. The head coach is so enamored with gadget and trick plays; he runs them all of the time, even when they are unnecessary. The Utah offensive line outweighed the Navy defensive line by sixty pounds – twenty seven kilogram and was three inches – eight centimeters.
With this physical advantage, the best strategy is to use the larger offensive line to grind out a rushing attack. A rushing attack will consume vast amounts of time and it will keep the other team off of the field; this would be important since Navy was a high scoring team. Running the ball is not very exciting or glamorous. It is an effective way to win the ball game which is the most important thing at the end of the game.
But, our less than brilliant and incredibly lucky head coach stuck to his trick plays. As usual, they failed to deliver any significant gains or advance the ball very far.
Oh well, there is always next year and maybe he will come to his senses about his play calling.
Finding Bright Spots
I try to go through life by finding all of the bright spots. It is not the easiest approach to life.
Tuesday was a rainy day in the morning when I drive to school for my class. Rain makes driving more a challenge because many drivers in Southern California have never learned how to drive in bad weather. Four Winters in Salt Lake City taught me how to drive in really bad weather.
Getting back to finding a bright spot in the rain on Tuesday.
The rain meant there were low clouds, blocking out the sun and making the drive easier for me. The sun was back on Thursday and Saturday so I drove to class with the bright sun in my eyes.
Life has a way of balancing things out in the end.
I took this photo this morning just as the sun was rising. You can see how cloudless the sky is. It was like that on Thursday and Saturday. I tried to take a photo when the sun just came up but it was just too bright.
Doug
Doug and I went to the last of his beef restaurants yesterday for lunch. As some of you may recall, Doug is cutting out his consumption of red meat. He wants to eat a healthier life style.
We went to Albertacos and ordered two Number 8 combinations and a medium drink [refillable]. A Number 8 is two soft carne asada tacos, rice, beans, and cheese. It was the usual epic meal for us; we both savored the food. Albertacos is great for food and not so much for atmosphere.
After lunch, we went back to his mother’s house. Doug shared with some of his Mexican Coca Cola or as he calls it, Mexicola. The Coca Coal from Mexico is different from what we can buy in the States because the Mexican cola is made with real sugar and tastes sweeter with a slightly bitter taste. I enjoyed the cola but I am not certain if I want to switch over to the imported brand.
Doug purchased a case of the Mexican cola. It comes in bottles so you can tell that it is not the usual Coke.
I should point out that there are exceptions to the “no beef rule” for Doug. Morton’s and, by way of extension, Fleming’s Newport Beach are exempt from the ban. This explains why we will go to a Morton’s for the traditional Douguary Dinner in February. Doug and I have not settled on a venue yet but he is in favor of a Los Angeles County venue. We can do that I think.
Sharon Tay
I caught Sharon Tay as the lead news reader on the local television new program on Saturday. I got an overdose of Sharon if that is possible. Her new program was on for a total of ninety minutes with a thirty minute break.
Sharon wore a black dress that looked very nice and semi-professional. I doubt that a news reader in Salt Lake City would dress with as much flair as she did last night.
Oh well, this is one of the benefits of living in Southern California.
I will have to check and see if she is the lead news reader tonight.
That was what happened to me in the last few days. I hope you had a great weekend and I want to wish you, again, a very Merry Christmas.
Be well and stay happy.
On the behalf of the Balancing Checkbooks Team, we want to wish you and your family and friends a very Merry Christmas.
For those of you who are wondering who are on the Balancing Checkbooks Team, I have the answer for that question. Obviously, I’m on the team and so is the Number 1 Reliever Doug. We can’t exclude Vivian because, as Doug says, “You can never have too many hot chicks around.” Doug does not like to have his photo displayed publicly.Of course, we have to include The Princess who urged me to keep going with the blog after the operation. Good advice is often hard to find.
Programming Note
Since it is the holiday season, I am going to be taking a few days off between now and January 7th. If you come to the blog and there is nothing new, wait until the New Year. I am going to try to go back to posting four or five times a week.
Visitors
We had another big visitors’ week. We had a total of 222 visitors, domestic and international for the week. This month has a great chance at being the best month ever for visitor traffic.
Epic.
Our international visitor count for the week is off. I didn’t keep track of international visitors during the week. Today, I could only back as far as Friday. I wasn’t able to track 122 visitors, some of whom are likely to be international visitors.
We had visitors from Germany [2], Italy, India [2], Canada [16], Iran, Japan [4], Thailand, Ireland [2], Netherlands [2], Mexico, Philippines, Vietnam, Czech Republic, Poland, Texas [4], Finland, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Guatemala, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Russia, Malaysia, Hungary, and Hong Kong.
I must have picked up a following from Iran although I have no idea why.
We had one visitor who stayed around the blog for just over eleven minutes.
For those of you who are interested, the top three exit pages for the week featured Aiko Tanaka, Sunisa Kim, and Eiko Koike. This does not surprise me.
I do appreciate all of you who took time out of your busy days to visit the blog.
Lunch with Amy
Amy and I had planned to have lunch this week. But, it was not too happen. Between my schedule of teaching and exercising and Amy’s job of managing a boutique and working as a server at Fleming’s Newport Beach, we simply ran out of available time and days.
We did have two long phone conversations which is unusual for us. We usually exchange text messages. Amy is like most people who send text messages; she uses one letter words like “r” and avoids capitalization and punctuation and grammar. I don’t. This also explains why it takes me longer to send a text message than just about anyone else.
We tentatively have planned to get together for lunch in January after Amy returns from her Christmas vacation to Venezuela. That should be easier for us to schedule a slow lunch so we can catch up with each other.
Nina the Server
It looks like Nina is no longer working at El Gringo. I think she was over committed with things to do and multiple jobs. I will miss Nina and I would wish her well if I knew how to reach her.
But, I am over Nina now. My only regret was not taking a photo of Nina for the blog.
Nina has been replaced by Merit as in merit badges as the Thursday evening server. Merit is taller than Nina. She wears her hair shorter than Nina. Their personalities are close and I enjoy having Merit as a server.
We will have to see how long Merit lasts as a server at El Gringo.
Utah Football
I watched part of the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl when I was having my usual Thursday dinner at El Gringo. The United States Naval Academy played the University of Utah. It was a good game because our Utes won, 35-32.
It was almost a home game for the Naval Academy since San Diego is such a Navy town. It is the home of the largest Navy base on the West Coast. Then, when you add in the Marines from the Recruit Depot, there is a huge fan base.
The score does not reflect the game or maybe it reflects the stupidity of the Utah head coach. The head coach is so enamored with gadget and trick plays; he runs them all of the time, even when they are unnecessary. The Utah offensive line outweighed the Navy defensive line by sixty pounds – twenty seven kilogram and was three inches – eight centimeters.
With this physical advantage, the best strategy is to use the larger offensive line to grind out a rushing attack. A rushing attack will consume vast amounts of time and it will keep the other team off of the field; this would be important since Navy was a high scoring team. Running the ball is not very exciting or glamorous. It is an effective way to win the ball game which is the most important thing at the end of the game.
But, our less than brilliant and incredibly lucky head coach stuck to his trick plays. As usual, they failed to deliver any significant gains or advance the ball very far.
Oh well, there is always next year and maybe he will come to his senses about his play calling.
Finding Bright Spots
I try to go through life by finding all of the bright spots. It is not the easiest approach to life.
Tuesday was a rainy day in the morning when I drive to school for my class. Rain makes driving more a challenge because many drivers in Southern California have never learned how to drive in bad weather. Four Winters in Salt Lake City taught me how to drive in really bad weather.
Getting back to finding a bright spot in the rain on Tuesday.
The rain meant there were low clouds, blocking out the sun and making the drive easier for me. The sun was back on Thursday and Saturday so I drove to class with the bright sun in my eyes.
Life has a way of balancing things out in the end.
I took this photo this morning just as the sun was rising. You can see how cloudless the sky is. It was like that on Thursday and Saturday. I tried to take a photo when the sun just came up but it was just too bright.
Doug
Doug and I went to the last of his beef restaurants yesterday for lunch. As some of you may recall, Doug is cutting out his consumption of red meat. He wants to eat a healthier life style.
We went to Albertacos and ordered two Number 8 combinations and a medium drink [refillable]. A Number 8 is two soft carne asada tacos, rice, beans, and cheese. It was the usual epic meal for us; we both savored the food. Albertacos is great for food and not so much for atmosphere.
After lunch, we went back to his mother’s house. Doug shared with some of his Mexican Coca Cola or as he calls it, Mexicola. The Coca Coal from Mexico is different from what we can buy in the States because the Mexican cola is made with real sugar and tastes sweeter with a slightly bitter taste. I enjoyed the cola but I am not certain if I want to switch over to the imported brand.
Doug purchased a case of the Mexican cola. It comes in bottles so you can tell that it is not the usual Coke.
I should point out that there are exceptions to the “no beef rule” for Doug. Morton’s and, by way of extension, Fleming’s Newport Beach are exempt from the ban. This explains why we will go to a Morton’s for the traditional Douguary Dinner in February. Doug and I have not settled on a venue yet but he is in favor of a Los Angeles County venue. We can do that I think.
Sharon Tay
I caught Sharon Tay as the lead news reader on the local television new program on Saturday. I got an overdose of Sharon if that is possible. Her new program was on for a total of ninety minutes with a thirty minute break.Sharon wore a black dress that looked very nice and semi-professional. I doubt that a news reader in Salt Lake City would dress with as much flair as she did last night.
Oh well, this is one of the benefits of living in Southern California.
I will have to check and see if she is the lead news reader tonight.
That was what happened to me in the last few days. I hope you had a great weekend and I want to wish you, again, a very Merry Christmas.
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 4:00 PM
2 Comments:
Your utes won the football game because of stupid officials not familiar with NCAA rules (fumbled ball hits pylon=touchback) "The officials acknowledged after the game that they had gotten the call wrong." Washington Post 12/22/07 And if it had been a "home game" for our Midshipman, you would have really seen a crowd of proud Navy fans. It wasn't your coach's call playing that was lacking, it was our team's honor, courage and commitment that almost overcame the odds.
There was a qualified crew of officials at the game. That's an NCAA rule. I believe the crew came from either the PAC 10 or Conference USA.
Life happens and people make mistakes. Sometimes, the mistake leads to a loss of a sporting event. Sometimes, the mistakes leads to the loss of a ship and its crew. That happened to the USS Frank Evans.
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