Odds and Ends for Sunday

Odds and Ends for Sunday
This is one of those blog postings that is short and limited because I have either written about it, as I did yesterday, or I have nothing much to say, as I do today.

I wandered through the Sitemeter.com traffic information on Saturday after I made the blog posting. I noticed that the blog had visitors from the Cayman Islands and Barbados. This was the first time we have had visitors from these two nations.

For some reason, the blog had an unusually high volume of traffic from India over the weekend. I really can’t explain why the blog traffic from India would spike, especially given the tragedy that occurred in Mumbai this past week.

On a much lighter note, my blog did not make the PC World Editors’ Top 11 lamest Blogs listing. I took some notice of the fact that Kim Kardashian’s blog was one of the one selected as well as some other really lame ones. One made the list and it had not had a posting in close to two years and that may have been a excellent decision on the part of the blog author.

All of this got me to wondering what the blog traffic count would be like if I had continued the Woman of the Moment series. Don't ask me why I put that image in the posting because I have no idea why.

I think the traffic would have been higher. However, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find new model photos with the demise of Speed Options.com. I think I would have ended up using more Asian models in the Woman of the Moment series. Of course, I would have enjoyed this since I have a partiality towards Asian women.


On balance, I had a good week last week. I hope you had a good week and weekend as well.


Be well and stay happy.

Burp

Burp
I didn’t put a post up yesterday [Thursday]. I was busy cooking Thanksgiving Day dinner; Doug and his mother came over for dinner.

I didn’t put a post up yesterday [Friday] either. I was feeling poorly all day.

For the record, we had a very nice Thanksgiving Day diner. It was one of our traditional dinners with everyone eating their own special favorites. Doug and his mother had cranberry sauce with their turkey; I did not. I had peas and they did not. Doug and his mother had pumpkin pie with whipped cream; I had mince pie. Doug drank water; his mother and I drank Pinot Noir wine.

Everyone was satisfied.

Perfectomundo.

Then came yesterday for me.

I woke with some really nasty cramps in my lower abdomen. These cramps are transitory in that they come and go and do not last for any length of time. I have had a serious cramping bout only once since my operation last year. I did speak to Dr. Karen about the cramping. She thought it might be a result of the scar tissue from the operation since my area of pain was right where the scar tissue was located.

I had a normal breakfast of Rice Krispies cereal with milk and a sliced banana and a toasted muffin with peanut butter yesterday. So far so good.

Then, I had lunch of a turkey sandwich, obviously, with some stuffing. I was unable to keep the sandwich down and vomited for part of the afternoon. I didn’t do much of anything for the rest of the day.

I slept fitfully last night. I woke up around 8:20AM this morning and felt much better. The cramping went away during the night and my bowels were functioning normally. I think the scar tissue was pressing up on my small intestine and acting like a block so that everything in my digestive system backed up.

I will ask Dr. Karen about the blockage theory on Friday when I see her again. I need some new questions to ask her.

Visitors
We had another great week for visitor traffic, thanks in large part to the Germans. We had 940 visitors this week. The traffic was mostly foreign this week; that was to be expected. We will have a record month for blog visitor traffic.

Teaching
I have three new classes this term so I have three sets of lecture notes to prepare and three sets of lesson plans to create. These are going to be one of my major activities this weekend.


Be well and stay happy.

Short Posting

Short Posting
This will be a short posting today because I spent most of the day cleaning the flat. Cleaning an oven is hardly worth writing about or at least I think it is not worthy of a comment.

Here’s an interesting factoid for you to ponder.

Why would the Iranian Research Organization visit the blog?

And more to the point, why would this organization visit the January 1, 2007 page which is the gateway to the January 2007 archive?

January 2007 was a particularly great month for the Women of the Moment feature. This page also accounts for about 70% of the current visitor traffic.

I went to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf today to see Tihana and, more importantly, to have one of her superb ice blended drinks. The drink went beyond my expectations and was quickly sucked up the plastic straw.

The price of my favorite drink is going up USD$0.50 to pay for the cost of the chocolate sauce that I have added to the drink. I tend to believe the chocolate sauce adds to the overall flavor and my personal enjoyment. Since I only go to the Coffee Bean once a week, when my schedule and Tihana’s schedules coincide, I can afford the price increase.

Tihana was wearing the Coffee Bean holiday tee-shirt today. It is a bright red and I thought it looked particularly stunning on her. Of course, red is my favorite color for a female to wear and it is also one of the colors of our Ute football team.

The Huns seem to have dropped their interest in the blog for now. Their visitor count today was down to the normal levels.

All in all, I had a great day.


Be well and stay happy.

Styling with Molly

Styling with Molly
I went to see Molly the Stylist for a haircut although she continues to refer to the session as a hair styling. One of these days I will learn to accept her verbiage and drop haircut even though I have used haircut all of my life.

Natalie was working at the receptionist desk today when I went in for my styling. Molly was running a little late coming back from her lunch. That gave me time to get caught up with Natalie and her life.

Natalie has a much more exciting life than I do.

But, then, almost everyone, hermits excepted, has a more exciting life then me.

I did learn that Amber the Stylist is now married and seems to be enjoying married life. I am glad that she has found some happiness. I learned some other stuff but most of what I learned is largely irrelevant in the grander scheme of things and life.

I ought to get a new photo of Natalie. This one is almost two years old. Working in a hair salon means you are always changing your hair style if you are a woman.

The Huns Are Coming
The Germans have been visiting the blog in droves, almost hordes the last few days. This activity is reminiscent of the early 2007 German horde that visited the blog. That month’s total visitor count was a little over 700. In the last two days, there have been over 400 German visitors.

At first, I thought this was something that was localized in one area of Germany with a group of males passing along the site location to their male friends. I checked the traffic count last night and found that Germans were visiting the blog from all over Germany. We had visitors from Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Karlsruhe, Munich, Hamburg, and Leipzig.

The most popular pages in the blog were January 1, 2007 and March 1, 2007. These pages are gateway pages that, in turn, will lead the visitor to view the entire month’s postings. January and March of 2007 were particularly good months for the Women of the Moment series.
Fascinating.


Be well and stay happy.

More Utah Football

More Utah Football
I see where our Utes are now ranked sixth in the BCS standings. They should stay in this position since they have no more games to play until January 1st when they play in a major post season football bowl game.

Perfectomundo.

Now, some fans might say that Utah only plays lower ranked teams. They may be right after all.
But, I think they haven’t cleaned their glasses lately.

To achieve a 12 and 0 record for the season, Utah had to beat three teams that were ranked in the Top 25; Brigham Young University and Texas Christian University, both from the Mountain West Conference, and Oregon State University who is likely to be either the Pac 10 champion or co-champion.

Actually, you could add Michigan to the total if you take into consideration the first game of the season when Michigan was nationally ranked. This was, of course, before Michigan self destructed and imploded.

Here is an interesting BCS ranking factoid. The University of Southern California is ranked higher than Oregon State University, the only team to defeat USC so far this season.

Does that make any sense to you?

I think we ought to go back to divining the football gods’ intentions from reading the entrails of a freshly killed goat. It would provide the same degree of logic as the present method.

I logged onto ESPN.com this afternoon to see if they had any bowl pairing predictions. Two of the ESPN experts had Utah playing Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. If that were to come to pass, it would be a major step up for Utah football.

I just wonder how the Utah fans who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints [Mormons] would react to New Orleans with its wilder life style.

Fascinating.

Molly the Stylist
Molly the Stylist called me to remind me of my appointment with her on Tuesday. That was nice of her but I had the appointment on my wall calendar and in my Palm Z22. I was prepared.

Of course.

Molly asked me if I wanted to come an hour earlier since her 1:30 PM appointment cancelled on her. I said sure; that means I can get out to Gloria’s ice cream store an hour earlier.

Life will be good for me on Tuesday.

Teaching
I had to go out to school today.

One of my students sent his work to my school email address instead of sending it to me at my regular email account. While I was at school, I also learned how to download or read my school email from home.

Sweet.

Another student phoned me because I had left two messages for hear saying she was going to fail the course because she had not submitted any work. I took her call while I was at school. She said she had sent the assignments to my school email address. While she may have sent the assignments, they were not in my school email in box.

Why do students lie?

I guess they are lazy and lack any moral backbone. I can take pleasure in the fact that I will not be seeing this student in any of my classes in the coming term.

Gloria’s Ice Cream
Since I was already out in Anaheim, I came home by way of Gloria’s Ice Cream store. Today was as good a day to get my ice cream as tomorrow would be.

Chocolate ice cream is perfect any day of the week and at any time of the day.

Gloria was in the store today. She dished up a very full cup of rich chocolate ice cream that I added chocolate and caramel sauce too.

Perfectomundo.

We talked about school. Gloria didn’t realize that the term had ended. I guess she has been really occupied with getting her ice cream store off of the ground.

I have been doing my part to help her business succeed.

Dr. Karen would be so proud of me.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - November 22nd

University of Utah Football – Go Utes
The big question remaining for out Utes is where do they play next? After Saturday’s blow out of BYU, 48 to 24, at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake, the obvious answer is a nice BCS game. Utah ended the season with a perfect 12 and 0 record. Our Utes will play in their second BCS game and will be the first non-BCS conference school to play in two games.

I phoned the Princess after the game was over. We jointly savored the Ute victory and agreed it was a good day for our Utes.

Life is good to be a Ute fan.

Perfectomundo.

Seventh-ranked Utes tackle defending champions to win conference title
Associated Press via ESPN.com
SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah is BCS bound once again.
Brian Johnson passed for 303 yards and four touchdowns and the eighth-ranked Utes completed a perfect regular season by beating No. 16 BYU 48-24 Saturday, winning the heated state rivalry and taking the undisputed Mountain West Conference title away from the two-time defending champion Cougars (10-2, 6-2).

Utah (12-0, 8-0) forced six turnovers by BYU quarterback Max Hall, including a career-high five interceptions, and went unbeaten in the regular season for the third time in school history. The last Utah team to do it was the BCS Busters of 2004, which was 11-0 before winning the Fiesta Bowl.

The Fiesta is one of the possible bowl destinations for the Utes, who were already No. 7 in the BCS standings and now just have to wait for the announcement Dec. 7.

Utah fans couldn't wait to celebrate and charged the field with 29 seconds left. They were herded off so Johnson could take a knee and run out the clock, then the celebration could really begin. The Utes were swallowed by the sea of red-clad fans who were elated about so many things -- the unbeaten season, the BCS and beating BYU, which hadn't happened for Utah since 2005.

The chant "B-C-S!" rang out through Rice-Eccles Stadium as Johnson received the Mountain West title trophy. Johnson was nearly perfect in his final home game, going 30-for-36 and not turning the ball over once.

Hall's game went just about in the complete opposite direction. Three of his four interceptions led to scores for Utah, as did Hall's fumble at the BYU 31 late in the third quarter.
Hall was 21-for-41 for 205 yards and Austin Collie finished with 10 catches for 104 yards, his 10th straight 100-yard receiving.

The Cougars rallied from down 17-3 to tie it, only to give Utah 10 quick points late in the first half and then self-destruct again after pulling within three points third quarter.

Hall and got the Cougars back within 27-24 on an 11-yard touchdown run with 6:46 left in the third and the Cougars' defense forced a punt to get the ball right back, but it didn't stay with BYU for long. Hall had the ball knocked from his hand when he tried to run as the pocket collapsed around him.

Paul Kruger recovered for Utah at the BYU 31 with 8 seconds left in the quarter and the Utes scored early in the fourth on Johnson's 8-yard touchdown pass to Brent Casteel for a 34-24 lead with 14:31 left in the game.

Hall's troubles snowballed from there.

On the next possession, Kruger dropped back from defensive end into pass coverage and was right in place to pluck Hall's pass out of the air and start heading the other way. Hall tripped up Kruger to keep him from a touchdown, but it was at the 4 and Utah quickly scored on a pass from running back Matt Asiata to Chris Joppru for a 41-24 lead.

Hall threw another interception to Sean Smith, who returned it 38 yards to the BYU 29. Johnson completed the short drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Colt Sampson with 2:48 left in the game.

The Utes were the ones making the mistakes in the first half with two crucial penalties that allowed BYU to tie it after Utah had gone up 17-3.

Kruger was offsides on a play that would have been a sack by Koa Misi, so instead of fourth down with a long field goal attempt BYU had third-and-1 from the 23. Harvey Unga took a pitch around the left end, made one cut inside and ran easily for the touchdown to get the Cougars within 17-10.

Utah had BYU stopped at the 14, but Brice McCain was called for pass interference and the Cougars had first-and-goal from the 2. Unga scored on a direct snap to tie it at 17 with 6:26 left in the half.

Louie Sakoda kicked two field goals for the Utes and Unga finished with 116 rushing yards for BYU.

Weekend Update
This is a small Weekend Update blog posting because I spent most of the weekend completing the final course grades for my classes. I also spent some time phoning a couple of my students to remind them that they would fail a course if they did not submit their assignments to me.

Christmas Letter and Christmas Cards
My Christmas cards arrived a week or so ago. This year has certainly gone by faster than it usually seems to do.

Of course, I did have a lot of drama in my life this year.

I guess that once you send out a Christmas letter you have to continue that practice. That means I need to get started with drafting a new letter for 2008. I think I will have time over the Thanksgiving holiday to write a letter.

Visitors
I have decided to use the weekly visitor traffic count from Sitemeter.com to determine how many visitors that blog received. This week, which ended for Sitemeter’s purposes on Thursday, we had 848 unique visitors. I am guessing that some visitors stopped by the site more than once during the week.

I took a look at the monthly visitor count. This month ought to be the busiest yet for the blog. We may pass 3,000 visitors to the blog and that would be sweet.

I do appreciate all of you who took time out of your schedules to visit the blog.

Final Grades
I should not have to chase the students to have them turn their assignments in to me. I think it creates a false sense of security for them because I know the real world is much less tolerant of employees who fail to perform to the manager’s expectations. I know that I have terminated employees in the past for not being able to perform to the usual company standards or being able to come to work on time. I will probably have to do the same in the future if I return to senor management.

Teaching Schedule
I received the final teaching schedule on Thursday for the next term that starts on December 1st. I will be teaching five courses. This is a full load of classes for me. Three of the classes are new ones for me; two of the classes were ones that I asked to teach.

I am expecting to have two, large, general education classes; one of 30 or more students and one of 20 or more students. The largest student count for any of the other three classes is nine students. I have had at least six or seven classes previously with the students in the three small classes.

My new courses are Marketing and the Internet, Cost Accounting and Budgeting, and Economics and Change. My previously taught courses are Introduction to Project Management and Professional Procedures.

I was at school on Friday to pick up my textbooks for the new courses. I also made copies of the new course syllabi so I could get a start of my new lesson plans over the week long break. We get a week off now and then we get two weeks at Christmas so that is good.

This coming term will mark the start of my third year of teaching at ITT Technical Institute. Time does have a way of swiftly moving on.

Gloria and Her Ice Cream Store
I drove to Gloria’s ice cream store on Friday on my way home from school.

Regrettably, I managed to miss seeing Gloria. Since it was on the warm side on Friday, I imagine that Gloria would have been wearing shorts. Gloria truly does justice to a pair of what Doug calls shorty shorts.

There is always next week. I will be more than half way to Gloria’s ice cream store after I visit Molly the Stylist for a haircut. Late afternoon is a good time for rich chocolate ice cream.

Actually, any time is a good time for rich chocolate ice cream

My Friend Sharon
I phoned my friend Sharon Friday. I thought she had called me as I was driving home from Giuliano’s. My Verizon cell phone went off as I was driving. I don’t have a Bluetooth device for that phone, California has banned all hand cell held phone usage while driving, so I figured it would be Sharon since I promised to call her when she called me in class.

The call was obviously a wrong number since it was a Delaware phone number, based on the area code of the caller.

We talked for about fifty minutes or until my battery was dying and Sharon was almost home and my stomach was rumbling. Most of the call was catching up on what each of us had been doing since we talked last.

I told Sharon about the great time I had in San Diego at the Utah – San Diego State University football game. I also told her about my plans to go visit my Renee the Artist in Ventura over the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

Sharon didn’t mention too much of what she had been doing for fun.

Then, Sharon asked me to explain why it was important to classify Money Market Accounts at her bank as savings accounts. I told that as a saving account, the bank would not have to maintain any transaction reserves which would allow the bank to use the funds for loans or other income generating purposes.

Ahhhh; epiphany time for Sharon.

Since we have both worked together in financial institutions, we got to talking about very troubled savings and loans, one of which is a strong competitor for Sharon’s bank. I hadn’t been watching the news and I hadn’t seen any reports of a bank takeover by the government so we assumed the banks were safe for the week.

We were wrong, both of the banks that we talked about failed on Friday. It was just too early for the local newscasts to have the stories on their 6:00 PM local news programs.

The competitor bank was taken over by a very large national bank so Sharon’s bank will now have a much stronger competitor to face. Her bank does have a competitive advantage of being the only locally owned bank in the market area. That may be persuasive for some people to leave the new, giant bank for her bank.

Sharon asked me if I was teaching any marketing courses this term; she wanted to come be a guest lecturer. I said the only marketing course was Marketing and the Internet. Sharon doesn’t have much background in that area. I told Sharon that I would look at the course syllabus and see if there were some areas that she could speak to my class about.

I looked at the course syllabus and I think I can find some areas where Sharon would be a good speaker. I think she could talk on areas of marketing plans and consumer behavior.

Perfectomundo.


That was my weekend; dull wasn’t it?


Be well and stay happy.

Coffee Bean Ice Blendeds and Other Simple Pleasures of Life

Coffee Bean Ice Blendeds
Coffee Bean Ice Blendeds are one of my favorite pleasures of life. They are simple drinks and very easy to enjoy and become addicted to. I am not addicted in the sense that I have a dependency; I just make certain my Wednesday afternoon schedule is clear so I can go visit my favorite Coffee Bean store.

The only reason that I have to go visit this particular store and that is because Tihana works there. That would be Tihana at the left. I should have put my glasses on when I took the photo to be certain that it was a good one.

Oh well, life happens and there is always next Wednesday. I can ask Tihana for her indulgence and let me retake the photo.

Getting back to Tihana and why she is so central to this simple pleasure.

Tihana, simply put, makes the best ice blendeds. Period. They always come out just the way I like them.

What more could I ask for?

Probably a lot but none as far as the ice blendeds are concerned.

Doug got me interested in Coffee Bean Ice Blendeds when I was going through my primary chemotherapy earlier this year. He said they had lots of calories. Doug went on to say the best ice blendeds were made in South Orange County; living in the South O. C. I would expect that from him.

I quickly became attached to the Mocha Mudslide drink. Unfortunately, it was not available this Summer. One of the few good baristas, besides Tihana of course, suggested a mixed ice blended as a close substitute. It was a very close substitute.

About this time, I experienced a series of dreadful drinks from more than one Coffee Bean store. I was about to give up on Coffee Bean and try Starbucks instead. I figured that I couldn’t be much worse off. I mentioned this to Doug as we were going to visit Dr. Karen the oncologist. Doug suggested that I try Tihana’s store again because he said it was the one that he went to when he was up in the South Bay.

I tried the store on a day when Tihana was making the drinks and the rest is history as more than one movie script has said.

Stuffing the Ballot Box
Stuffing the ballot box is an American political pastime that generally no longer exists.

I got a survey invitation on my Coffee Bean receipt today.

Can anyone guess how well Tihana did in the evaluation?

Yes, that’s correct. Tihana got the highest marks possible. More simple pleasures.

Other Simple Pleasures of Life
I got out of class early today because this is finals weeks. My students just had to take their final exam and hand in a written project.

I left school around 9:30 AM and headed to Gloria’s frozen yogurt and ice cream store. I planned to make it a Dr. Karen day with lots of calories so that I would not lose too much weight. I got to her store a little before 10:00 AM.

I forgot that Gloria has adopted Winter hours and now the store opens at 11:00 AM. As much as I like Gloria and her ice cream, I didn’t plan to wait an hour for her to open up. I will swing past her store tomorrow because I have to be at school earlier for a meeting. I can have my ice cream and be at school early.

Perfectomundo.


Be well and stay happy.

Overflow Monday

My Friend Sharon
My Friend Sharon phoned me on Thursday night when I was in class. It was first phone in that class all term long.

My students called me out for taking the phone call. True, I had taken a phone call but it was only the first call and it was in Week 10. I also asked my students who were calling me out about the call how many times they had taken calls.

That silenced the most eager of the students.

I told Sharon that I would call her back on Friday. I got involved with things on Friday; most notably, spending an inordinate amount of time at the hospital and I wasn’t spending it with Dr. Karen. I finally got around to calling Sharon on Saturday after I got into my room at the Crown Plaza in Mission Valley in San Diego.

Sharon was not available so I left her a message. I will try phoning her again on Monday during the day.

I wonder what was on her mind on Thursday.

Posting Photos to Blogger
I am having much better luck posting photos to Blogger using Internet Explorer 7. Before, I was unable to post with IE and I ended up using Firefox instead. I was able to post all of the images in yesterday’s blog with IE.

If I am able to continue to post using IE, I think I will probably stay with IE 7. I am not that anxious to download and start using IE 8. There is no joy and very little rewards in being a Beta tester. I prefer to download the finished product or what Microsoft says is a finished product.


Be well and stay happy.

Is Los Angeles Burning?

Is Los Angeles Burning?
I think the good answer is probably yes.

We had a nasty fire that broke out on Thursday in Montecito which is about 100 north of Los Angeles on the coast. The fire, driven by high winds, burned over 100 homes through Friday. I have no idea what the total number of destroyed homes is now from this fire.

On Saturday, as I drove to San Diego for the Utah – San Diego State football game, another fire broke out in the Chino Hills area of Southern California. This area is about 50 or 60 miles east of Redondo Beach. I never saw this fire until I drove home today. The smoke plume extended well out over the ocean in the Santa Monica Bay and over my flat as well.


This was the view from the second floor of the parking structure looking east.

Ash was falling on the Pathfinder when I stopped at Giuliano’s to pick up a small salad for my dinner tonight. I was so not happy with this result since I had the Pathfinder washed on Friday. At least, the ash would blow off if I drove fast enough.

I have no idea how big this fire is. I didn’t put on the television because I didn’t want to get sucked into watching the disasters with the usual cast of less than qualified, but pretty, field reporters.

Visitors
We set a record of sorts last week with 1,199 visitors. This is a new record for the blog. Our biggest day was November 11t with over 500 visitors. I do appreciate all of you who came out and visited the blog this past week.

Dr. Karen and Me
I had my every hree weeks visit with Dr. Karen on Friday.


Our visits are becoming shorter these days as we have fewer things to talk about. All of my tests were good and continued to show improvement. I am continuing to get better. Dr. Karen thought my peripheral neuropathy [tingling in my finger and feet] would finally go away in May 2009.s she said it usually takes a year for the Oxaliplatin to dissipate.

This will be a nice birthday gift for me.

We also talked about my choice of an avatar for Dr. Karen. When I explained what I had selected, she wasn’t completely on board with the image. I will bring a copy of the image to my next appointment. I hope she likes it or at least is not too upset.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf & Tihana
Tihana [pronounced Tea-anna; the “h” is silent] is the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf barista who makes the best ice blended drinks ever.

I happened to stumble into the Coffee Bean on Wednesday after my morning class and discovered that Tihana was working then. She said, “Where have you been? I’ve missed seeing you.” Now that I know when she will be working, I will be visiting the Coffee Bean on those days.

Perfectomundo.

Teaching
I picked up my tentative teaching schedule for the next term at school this week. I am scheduled to teach four classes; two old ones that I have taught before and two new ones. This will be the first time in about a year and a half that I have not taught a writing class.

One of the new ones is Cost Accounting and Budgeting. These topics are usually a full quarter length course in and of themselves. When I told My Brother that I was teaching this course, he said that I wasn’t qualified and laughed at the idea.

I ignored My Brother.

On Tuesday, some of my current and former students were asking me if I was teaching a writing class on Tuesday night or on Saturday morning. I said that I wasn’t and I also added that my teaching schedule is subject to change.

I was curious and I spoke with the Associate Dean on Wednesday after my morning class. He said that he hadn’t made any changes yet and that he was working on giving me an additional class. It was not a writing class.

It was nice to know that my students wanted either me or my friend David to teach their writings classes. I said they should talk to their department chair and ask her to do something about having us teach the writing courses.

The students’ comments made me feel good.

On Thursday evening, all but two of my students left at the middle of the session break. The two that stayed were really behind in their homework. Instead of lecturing for an hour and a half, we sat and talked about their homework assignments. I gave them the choice of talking about the assignments instead of writing about them. I told them that they would most likely get better grades by the discussion.

Naturally, they agreed and thought this would be excellent for them.

Esther, one of the students, said that she was apprehensive about taking the State and Local Government course from me because she said that I had a reputation of being a hard instructor. I will admit that I am harder than some instructors because I insist on having all of the assignments completed. I also insist on the students using proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling on their course papers and projects. We are talking about college level work here.

Esther said that she was so happy that she stayed in the course because I was only being a reasonable instructor and not hard. She admitted that she didn’t like to do the work. Esther also admitted that I was a fair grader.

One of the things that Esther and her friend Jessica really enjoyed about my class was that I treated them like adults and not like a high school student. They also enjoyed the opportunities to work in small groups in class and the class discussions and informal debates.

Some days, I really feel great about being a teacher.

Phi Delta Theta Utah Alpha Chapter
I went to San Diego this weekend to meet up with a few of my fraternity brothers and go to the University of Utah – San Diego State University football game. It was an excellent way to spend the weekend. I was able to reconnect with some of my fraternity brothers that I have not seen in over forty years.

Most of the time, we spent catching up with each other live and families. I think we may have also stretched the truth a bit in some of our conversations. This is all part of human nature I guess.


This is a group photo of us, I am the one in the Utah sweatshirt, taken at Qualcomm Stadium after our Utes beat San Diego State 63 to 14. You can read about the game in the following section. We had a lot of time to talk during the game.

I will see some of the Salt Lake based brothers when I go to Salt Lake early next year.

I am highly confident that we will do this again in 2010 when Utah will play San Diego State.

No. 7 Utah crushes San Diego State, remains in position to bust BCS again
Associated Press via ESPN.com

SAN DIEGO -- Their last speed bump out of the way, the No. 7 Utah Utes are heading toward a high-stakes finish to the regular season.

Brian Johnson kept Utah on a BCS-busting course by throwing a career-high five touchdown passes in a 63-14 win over San Diego State on Saturday night.

Utah (11-0, 7-0) clinched at least a share of the Mountain West Conference title. The Utes will try to finish the regular season undefeated when they host No. 17 BYU in their big rivalry game on Saturday.

Fast Facts

• Utah improved to 11-0 for the second time in school history (12-0 in 2004) and moved to 19-1 in its last 20 games dating back to last season.
• Utah outscored San Diego State 28-0 in the fourth quarter, including two interception returns for touchdowns by Deshawn Richard on back-to-back drives.
• The 63 points scored by the Utes are the most since 2004 when they scored 63 against both UNLV and Colorado State.
• The Aztecs lost their 10th game of the season for the first time in school history.
-- ESPN research

"It's big, you know, because so much is on the line," Johnson said. "We've got an opportunity to do something really special and we hope we can take advantage of it."

Utah was the original BCS buster in 2004, becoming the first team from an outsider conference to crash the Bowl Championship Series. Those Utes finished 12-0 after routing Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.

"We've got to be ready to play," Johnson said. "It's a huge game. We've done a good job of being ready and being prepared to play, week-in, week-out."

SDSU (1-10, 0-7) lost 10 games in a season for the first time.

The Utes had 520 yards in total offense and never had to punt.

"This is a tough night," SDSU coach Chuck Long said. "Utah is good but we also made them look good. We did everything possible that you can think of to give them part of the game."

Utah was already up 49-14 when Deshawn Richard had two interception returns for touchdowns in a span of four plays late in the fourth quarter. His first went for 89 yards and his second was for 38 yards. Both passes from redshirt freshman Ryan Lindley were tipped.

"I was just like, 'Not again,'" Richard said. "I was pretty tired still from the first one. When the second one came I was like, 'Here we go again.' "Richard was the third Utah player with two touchdowns.

Johnson threw all five touchdown passes in the first half, giving the Utes a 35-7 lead. He was one off the school record. Utah scored on its first three drives and five of its first six against the outmanned Aztecs. Johnson had 228 of his 283 passing yards in the first half. Overall he was 27-of-38.

Johnson threw touchdown passes of 4 and 5 yards to Freddie Brown, 32 and 3 yards to David Reed and 2 yards to Colt Sampson.

"We felt like we could throw the ball fairly well," Johnson said. "They've given up a ton of yards rushing the football and teams just kind of threw on them when they had to. We wanted to come out and kind of establish our program early. We did that. We kind of got some spread going, ran some option routes and we were able to get into a rhythm with some touchdowns."

Johnson, a senior, has 50 career TD passes, moving him past Alex Smith and Mike McCoy into second place on the school's career list behind Scott Mitchell with 69. He joined Mitchell and McCoy as the only Utah quarterbacks to throw for 7,000 career yards.

"They have a great ability to get the matchups that they like," SDSU linebacker Russell Allen said. "They get their receivers on linebackers. That gives them an advantage."

Brown had 11 catches for a career-high 110 yards.

As if they needed it, the Utes got a gift on the game's first play from scrimmage when SDSU's Tyler Campbell fumbled at the end of an 18-yard run, with Koa Misi recovering at the Utah 47. Johnson hit Sampson with a scoring pass seven plays later.
Utah's Matt Asiata took a direct snap and scored on a 1-yard run early in the fourth quarter. Ray Stowers added a 1-yard TD run on Utah's next drive.

There were a few bright spots for the Aztecs, who have beaten only Idaho this season and are 8-27 in three seasons under Long.

Jose Perez intercepted Johnson at midfield early in the second quarter to set up SDSU's first score, a 31-yard pass from Lindley to Darren Mougey.

On the first drive of the second half, Johnson was stuffed on fourth-and-goal from the SDSU 5-yard line.

The Aztecs then moved 95 yards in 17 plays, with Lindley throwing a 16-yard TD pass to Justin Shaw.

Utah's Louie Sakoda tied the school record with nine PATs.

Sara from SWA
Sara is an attractive middle agish flight attendant from Southwest Airlines [SWA].

Sara invited herself to join me and three of my fraternity brothers as we sat in the hotel bar watching Sports center on ESPN. It was my idea to go to the bar and get caught up on the day’s events.

Sara’s reason for joining us was that she wanted to find out how the game turned out. On the surface, this was a fairly innocuous request. Yes, it was until you looked around the hotel bar and found that half of the people there were wearing Utah red and they had gotten to the bar before us.

So why sit at our table?

There were no other women at the table.

In the course of the fifteen minutes Sara was with us, I learned that she was divorced with two children in college; she lived in Northern California; and was senior enough at Southwest to have a fairly steady and predictable fight – work schedule. Sara’s base was Dallas and some of her regular destinations were San Diego, Oakland, and Houston. Sara was staying at our hotel because it was the normal SWA hotel for flight crew layovers

I thought about asking Sara how a college English instructor would get in contact with her after that evening. Then, I thought some more and decided to sit on the sidelines some more. Her schedule is always going to sketchy and changing every month. I would probably have to see her in Northern California and that would probably mean a full weekend spent on seeing her. Then too, if she was talking to us, Sara was probably also talking to other men in other cities.

This was a definite time to sit on the sidelines and watch the game of life.

My Friend Gloria
Some of the fraternity brothers wanted to know if I was going to stop at Gloria’s ice cream store on my way home. They read the blog.

I said of course.

I pulled into the parking lot and waited around for the store to open. I only had a ten minute wait so I snapped a photo of the store as you can plainly see.

I felt good today so I had two scoops of ice cream. Dr. Karen would be proud of me for sucking down so much rich chocolate ice cream with chocolate and caramel sauce and chocolate sprinkles.

Gloria and I talked briefly while she was busy setting up the store for business, I was the first customer of the day. I told Gloria that I would be back on Wednesday after my morning class. Gloria asked why I was going to be stopping by so soon. I said I wanted some more ice cream.


That was my week and weekend. I hope your weekend was as good as mine.


Be well and stay happy.

Veterans' Day - November 11, 2008

Veterans’ Day – November 11, 2008
This was the ninetieth anniversary of the armistice that resulted in the end of the Great War. Not much has changed in 90 years; young men still die in foreign lands.



The most important thing to remember about Veterans’ Day is that freedom is never free. It never has been free and it never will be free. Freedom is paid for with the sacrifices of young men and women.

Beware of smooth talking politicians and sycophants and other so-called experts who advocate the use of force to solve a political problem that they created. They are fools. They should be the ones in the first rank when the young men and women are marched off to war. They should lead the charge against the enemy’s fortifications; the world will be much better off without them.

I do regret being late with my Veteran’s day blog posting.

If you enjoyed your freedom, be sure to thank a Veteran; he or she was the one who made it possible for you to enjoy yo0ur freedom.


Be well and stay happy.

Where was I?

Where was I?
I suppose that you were wondering what happened to the blog or where I was last week. That’s a perfectly good question.

The computer crashed early last Sunday or late last Saturday. I spent several hours on the phone with technical support from Microsoft, Lenovo, and Verizon of the course of the next few days. They were universally helpful and professional. I think the best of the three was Microsoft from India.

In the end, I had to reload the laptop “C” drive from the factory settings. Normally, this would not have been much of a problem except for the fact my new Maxtor external hard drive that I purchased exclusively for backups did not back up any Word files or any JPEG photo files. It also didn’t back up a lot of other files. Norton 360 backup was not much better.

It looks like I will be dong manual backups for the time being until I figure out a better way to manage things. With almost 450 GB of free space to work with, I will have plenty of time to figure things out. By the time I run out of space on the external hard drive, the cost of a multi-terabit hard drive will be nickels and dimes, relatively speaking.


Be well and stay happy.

Things Got Better For Me Thursday Afternoon

Things Got Better For Me Thursday Afternoon
I went to school after I stopped by my local credit union to put some money in for a change. One of the tellers thought that I looked good in or rather with my moustache. That was nice.

When I got to school, I had an email from the Associate Dean about my tentative teaching schedule for the next term. I had sent him an email on Wednesday that listed some other courses that I would like to teach in addition to the ones I have been teaching all along.

The Associate Dean wanted to know if I would be interested in teaching an introductory course in Project Management. I said yes and said that I had taught the course previously and enjoyed it.

I hope to have my teaching schedule sometime next week.

I had some time to kill at school before class. I phoned the Molly Moon Salon to set up an appointment with Molly for a haircut. Molly will be on vacation for what would be my normal day for a cut. I figured while I was driving out to school that I could go in for a cut a few days earlier than usual.


Perfectomundo.

I spoke with Natalie the Receptionist who cheerfully took my appointment request. I will see Molly around 2:30 PM. This is the latest that I can recall having my haircut at the salon. Fortunately for me, this week will be the between quarter break week. The only other thing that I will be doing that week is cleaning up the flat in preparation for our Thanksgiving Day Dinner.

Natalie said that she thought my moustache looked cute when I saw her for my last haircut. She said that she thought I hadn’t heard her because of the noise in the day spa section of the salon where she spends most of her time.

Natalie was correct. I hadn’t heard her. Hearing her say my moustache looked cute was very nice.

University of Utah Football
The Princess called me last night in the middle of my class. She had been watching the Utah – Texas Christian University football game and wanted to know if I had been watching also because Utah had won on the last play of the game.

I told the Princess that I was in class, teaching. She was very excited and I suppose her dogs were just as excited. The Princess has a couple of Pugs.

One of my students called me for taking a personal phone call in class. I shrugged and said the call was my first in nine weeks. Then, I asked how many times had she gotten up and walked out of the class for a personal phone.

She that was different. I didn’t ask how it was different. I let it go because I was happy our Utes won. I also let the class out early to celebrate although I don’t too many, if any, of my students are Ute fans.

From the Associated Press via ESPN.com.
Johnson TD pass with 48 seconds left lifts Utah past TCU

Fast Facts

• After falling behind 10-0 in the first quarter, Utah regrouped to score 13 unanswered points capped by a Brian Johnson touchdown pass to Freddie Brown with 47 seconds left in the game. Brown caught nine passes for 105 yards to lead the Utes.
• TCU outgained Utah 444-275, but could not capitalize on scoring chances down the stretch.
• TCU kicker Ross Evans made one of three field-goal attempts.
• Utah improved to 5-1 all-time against TCU. Utah remains a perfect 5-0 in school history in games when both teams are ranked.
-- ESPN research

Brian Johnson led No. 10 Utah to a thrilling comeback, marching the Utes 80 yards in the final minutes and completing a 9-yard touchdown pass to Freddie Brown with 48 seconds left in a 13-10 victory over No. 11 TCU on Thursday night.

The Utes remained unbeaten and in contention for a Bowl Championship Series berth despite getting outgained 416 yards to 275. Utah is 10-0 for just the second time in school history, matching the start of the original BCS Busters in 2004.

"We knew it was there for us," said Johnson, who was 7-of-9 for all 80 yards on the winning drive.

It was the second time this season Johnson has saved the Utes (10-0, 6-0 Mountain West) in the final minutes. He led Utah to an 11-point rally in the final 90 seconds of a 31-28 win over Oregon State on Oct. 2.

"I told the guys, 'Stay in it. We're going to have a chance to win it late,'" Johnson said.

The 45,666 fans were the second-largest crowd to see a game at Rice-Eccles Stadium, which was shaking as thousands jumped up and down when Johnson found Brown on a slant pattern for Utah's only touchdown of the game.

Robert Johnson intercepted a pass from Andy Dalton to seal it with five seconds to go and after Johnson took a knee, the Utes were swarmed as the fans rushed the field.

"This was just magical," said defensive end Paul Kruger, who had one of two third-down sacks that knocked the Horned Frogs (9-2, 6-1) out of field-goal range.

TCU missed two field goal attempts in the fourth quarter, either of which would have put the Frogs up by seven.

Ross Evans bounced one kick off the left upright, then with 2:48 left he was wide right on a 35-yard attempt. Utah got the ball back on the 20 and Johnson led the Utes from there.

"We missed two field goals. It was just one of those things," TCU coach Gary Patterson said.

TCU gave Utah 15 yards with a pass interference penalty, but still nearly had the drive stopped as Utah faced a fourth-and-5. Johnson converted it with an 11-yard pass to Brown to the Frogs' 15, then two plays later, Johnson found Brown again for the winning score.

Brown had nine catches for 105 yards.

"It's like he has no pulse. He just stays calm in those situations," Johnson said of Brown.

Aaron Brown ran for 106 yards on 15 carries and Dalton passed for 251 yards, but the Frogs hurt themselves with penalties and untimely breakdowns. TCU was called for 11 penalties, missed the two field goals and allowed four sacks -- two of which cost them possible points.

In the third quarter, Dalton threw a pass to Walter Bryant inside the Utah 5-yard line, but Bryant was ruled out of bounds and the Frogs did not challenge the call. Kruger sacked Dalton on the next play to knock the Frogs out of field-goal range.

"We got together and we said we need to do something special if we want to come out with a victory," Kruger said. "This is an incredible win."

It was a stunning loss considering the way TCU started the game, gaining 202 yards in the first quarter.

Utah fans wore black to match the uniforms the Utes broke out for the showcase game. The fans were loud and rowdy and didn't faze the Frogs one bit in the first quarter as TCU scored the first 10 points.

Evans kicked a 37-yard field goal and Ryan Christian scored on a 3-yard run for TCU.
"I thought the momentum was in our favor and our kids were moving the football," Patterson said.

But the second quarter belonged to the Utes, who held TCU to 6 yards of offense in the period. The Frogs self-destructed with five penalties in the quarter, including three false starts during one possession. Utah sacked Dalton twice in the quarter and Sean Smith returned an interception 37 yards to set up Louie Sakoda's 37-yard field goal at the end of the half that made it 10-6.

"No one panicked. we just hung in there," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "Nothing came easy but the guys toughed it out and they came up with big plays each time we needed them."

Life is good to be a Utah Football Fan.

For the record,the game was not on local television in Los Angeles on any channel thanks to the less than brilliant choices the Mountain West Conference commissioner made with a third or fourth tier regional cable network. The conference has improved coverage in its region but games of national importance like this one are restricted. I think a game between two nationally ranked teams would have drawn better ratings than what was on local television.


Be well and stay happy.

Nag, Nag, Nag

Nag, Nag, Nag
This has been a week of nags for me.

The nagging began with my Monday night class. Several of my students felt that I was losing too much weight. They felt I should be eating for calorie laden foods like left over Halloween candy.

While it is nice to have someone concerned about your health, I wonder if these students were more concerned with their low grades than my health and were shamelessly trying to curry favor with the instructor. It would not be the first time that some of my students were more concerned about their failing grades late in the term. It will also not be the last time something like this happens.

Tuesday was Election Day and everyone seemed more concerned with that. There was no nagging for a change.

My no nagging luck ended on Wednesday after my morning class. The students are more interested in other things. I left school to go visit my friend Gloria at her ice cream and frozen yogurt store. This should have been an excellent time of the day for me.

But, there is always a dark cloud in the sky somewhere.

Gloria has a radio playing in her store, loudly for the most part. I guess this for her younger customers. The radio makes it hard for me to hear what she is saying.

Maybe this is a good thing.

Gloria thought that I had lost some weight since the last time I had stopped by. I had; I mentioned to Gloria that I wanted to lose some more weight over a period of time. Gloria thought I should be maintaining my weight at a minimum and probably gaining a few pounds.

I did my best to gain some weight by having a large scoop of her very rich chocolate ice cream that I topped with chocolate and caramel sauce and chocolate sprinkles.

I did my best eating the ice cream and did not get any on my white dress shirt.

I came home from Gloria’s ice cream store and decided to take a nap I was tired from a late Tuesday night course that was followed by a Wednesday morning course. My nap was interrupted twice by wrong number phone calls.

The Corner Bakery – A Review
I went to the Corner Baker in Redondo Beach on Pacific Coast Highway to pick up a sandwich for my dinner last night. I used to go to the Corner Bakery at the Block of Orange in Orange County when I was taking classes for my Doctor of Business Administration program so I was familiar with the food.

This particular Corner Bakery has been open for a little over a month now. I think I had gone maybe five or six previous times.

I placed my order and waited for the sandwich to be prepared. I also decided to try some of their Big Al’s Chili since I was hungry because I essentially had skipped lunch.

My sandwich was completely wrong when I took it out of the shopping bag when I got home. I checked my receipt and the order that I gave the clerk was the one of the receipt. The kitchen staff apparently cannot read simple English.

I had ordered a turkey sandwich with cheese on bread and ended up with a ham sandwich on pretzel bread. I really have a very strong distaste for pretzel bread. There is nothing I can say about that would make me want to order it again.

Let me qualify that last statement slightly. If I was starving, I mean really starving; I might consider eating pretzel bread.

I thought about going back to the Bakery so they could get my order right. I decided that doing so would take at least forty minutes and I was tired. I picked at the sandwich. I scrapped the ham and condiments on to a couple of slices of sourdough bread that I had in the flat and had that for my dinner.

It was acceptable but only just barely. I threw the pretzel bread out.

Their Big Al’s Chili was still warm when I opened the container.

I should have just dumped that chili when I dumped the bread.

Words cannot describe how vile and horrible and terrible and unappetizing this container of gruel that tried to masquerade as chili was. I would have rather eaten the current version of Army and Marine Corps field rations that this mess.

Chili is supposed to have beans in it. I think I saw one as I dumped the cup sized container down my garbage disposal drain.

Any really good chili is thick. One good test of chili is if you can stick a spoon in it and the spoon will remain upright.

This mess was mostly water; flavorless water at best. If this chili was ever entered in a chili cook off contest, no judge would even taste it. Any judge could see just from looking at it that is was worthless and obviously very bad.

This chili had what we used to call in the Navy as having a hint of beef in it. The duty cow came by for a dip in the hot water and that made it passable as beef chili.

Not for me.

Luckily, there was very little solid food in what was described as chili so my garbage disposal was not on for very long.

This was a horrible way to end my day.

As with any bad event, one can always learn from it. I learned that former President Reagan was so spot on correct when he said, “Trust but verify.” That will be my watch word when I got to the Corner Bakery again; assuming for the moment I want to go there again anytime soon.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Residue

Utah Football
Utah football is alive and well and moving up. Our, that would be me and the Princess, Utes are moving up in the BCS polls after a lack luster performance at New Mexico over the weekend. The Utes are now ranked at Number 8 by the BCS computers which is the ranking that counts. At the rate the Utes are improving, they may pass USC this weekend if they prevail over TCU in Salt Lake City.

The Utes are now 9 – 0 and this almost guarantees them a post season bowl game.

Perfectomundo.

Life is good to be a Ute fan.

Cora Linn & Sharon Tay – Favorite Women of the Moment
I was checking both of their web sites this morning. This is something that I normally do every few weeks. I want to see if they have posted any new photos.

All I received was the dreaded 404 Error message. It seems their web sites are no longer active.

This is a major bummer for their fans like me. Fortunately, I have saved a bunch of their images so I can survive this bleak period.


Cora Linn


Sharon Tay

Dr. Karen the Oncologist
Dr. Karen declined to let me take her photo for the blog. This is understandable and not completely unexpected.

Being resourceful, I found a near perfect solution.

My Internet acquaintance Ziying from Shanghai uses an avatar that I really like. She gave me the link to the Chinese web site so I could download the images. It was taking forever so Ziying sent me two. This is one of the two images. I think this is how Dr. Karen will react when she sees that I have lost some more weight.

Dr. Karen wants to see me gain weight; all oncologists like to see their patients gain weight.


Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - November 2nd

Molly the Stylist and Natalie the Receptionist
I went to see Molly the Stylist on Friday for my regular haircutting. I had thought about bringing my camera and taking a photo of Molly and Natalie. At the last minute, I decided not too since they would probably be dressed up.

I was right. When I got there, Molly was finishing up with Kiley’s hair. She was placing rubber snakes in her hair. Kiley is the esthetician at the salon and I guess she was planning to go as Medusa.

Natalie came as a female Elvis with the white jump suit, big hair wig and dark sun glasses. I had never seen Natalie dress like this in the almost two years that I have been going to the salon.

Molly looked particularly stunning on Friday. She was dressed up as Spiderwoman. Molly was wearing a black tee shirt, short black skirt, high black boots and black fishnet stockings. She was extremely attractive with a semi-permed hair style. She wore a big black spider on her head to complete the overall image.

Getting back to me, Molly said that I have very nice white hair.

At one time in my life having white hair would have been a bad thing. Now, I can accept white hair. It is far better than no hair which is often a common result for cancer patients or going bald with old age.

I am getting used to Molly now and letting her try things with my hair. I now allow her to give me a purple rinse without a second thought. She puts hair spray on my hair and this is something that I have allowed before. I should add that Molly doesn’t put a lot of hair spray on my head.

At the end of the season, I felt good about my hair and sad for Molly. She put a lot of effort into making my hair the best it could be. Molly’s styling efforts lasted until I got outside of the salon. The salon is in Long Beach on the beach, across the street from the sand actually.

I got hit with a strong blast of wind as I stepped out to walk to the Prelude. That was the last of my hair looking nice.

Utah Football
From the Associated Press via ESPN.com.

No. 10 Utes keep BCS bowl hopes intact

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Louie Sakoda kicked two field goals and No. 10 Utah scored its only touchdown off a little trickery to keep its BCS bowl hopes intact with a 13-10 win over New Mexico on Saturday night.

Utah (9-0, 5-0 MWC) struggled on offense as the Utes came into the game averaging a conference best 39 points. The defense made up for it with key stops. The last two stopped Lobo drives at midfield, one on downs with 3:46 left in the game and the other as time ran out.

New Mexico (4-6, 2-4 MWC) gave the heavily favored Utes all they could handle and stayed within upset range late into the game behind a 10-yard touchdown run by Rodney Ferguson and a 38-yard field goal by James Aho.

Sakoda remained perfect on the season making a 43 and 38-yard field goals. He has yet to miss this season (14-for-14) from inside 47 yards.

The Utes got their only touchdown when quarterback Brian Johnson threw a short pass to wide receiver Jereme Brooks, who then lateraled to Brent Casteel to complete the 7-yard scoring play with 3:23 left in the third quarter.

New Mexico came right back with a 9-play, 80-yard drive, with Ferguson and quarterback Brad Gruner taking turns finding holes in Utah's front line. Ferguson scored on the final play of the third quarter after the Lobos caught a break.

Ferguson fumbled at the Utah 10 and Ute cornerback Sean Smith recovered it. But the officials reversed the initial call, ruling the Lobo halfback was down before the ball came loose.

Utah lost a chance to gain some breathing room when Lobo defensive back DeAndre Wright intercepted a Johnson pass in the end zone on the Utes' ensuing drive. Wright got inside position on wide receiver Freddie Brown to kill an impressive Utah drive that started on the Utes' 5-yard and included three plays of 20 yards or more.

Utah is 9-0 for only the second time in school history. The other was the 2004 team that beat Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl and finished 12-0.

New Mexico's defense repeatedly blitzed Johnson and it kept the Utes offense off stride most of the night. Sakoda's 38-yarder as time expired gave Utah a 6-3 lead at halftime, the fewest points the Utes have scored in the first half this season.

Aho's field goal finished off New Mexico's only sustained drive in the first half as the Lobos drove from their 19 to the Utah 21.

Fast Facts

• Utah improved to 9-0 for the second time in school history (went 12-0 in 2004) despite struggling against a New Mexico team that entered the game 4-5.
• The Utes turned the ball over twice but win their 10th straight game dating back to last season. They're now 17-1 in their last 18.
• The loss snapped New Mexico's three-game home win streak.
• Brian Johnson started at QB for the Utes, giving him his 22nd career win as a starter, surpassing Alex Smith for the most in school history.
-- ESPN research

La Mirada Theater
I went to the La Mirada Theater last night and saw the relatively new musical Happy Days. It is based on the television show, Happy Days. This run is the beginning of a national tour that will end up on Broadway at some point.

It helps if you are familiar with the television series so you will understand more of the humor. Although some of the attempts at humor seemed to die, like the jokes about Canadians. I had expected better humor. I guess that I remember the television show and forget about the laugh track that went with the show.

The play is based on a book by Gerry Marshall with words and lyrics by Paul Williams. I forgot who was responsible for the choreography. I could look her name up but I decided that I didn’t want to expend the energy.

Overall, I did not enjoy the performance at all. It lacked the stepped up look and feel of a performance that was headed off to bigger and more important stages. Some of the routines looked a little ragged and under rehearsed.

Maybe I am unfairly comparing the cast to the United States Marine Corps Silent Drill Team, the ones you see in many of the Marine Corps commercials. I couldn’t feel much pride or élan in the way the cast performed on the stage.

The production company manager told the audience the play had been in two small theaters before coming to La Mirada. The production company manager seemed more concerned with his own life and drama in it than the quality of the performance. I think the cast needed more seasoning.

Final full and fair disclosure.

I walked out at intermission so the second act could have been much better than the first act.

I should explain why I walked out. I will walk out on a crummy performance. This performance was weak but not in the crummy category.

I walked out because the sound was too loud and it was hurting my ears. Granted, I sit in the fifth row; but I should not be placed in a situation where I was on the verge of tears from the excessive noise. Perhaps this was the result of a sound technician who did not know what to do or the poor audio design of the theater.

In the end, it didn’t matter what the cause was because the final result was the same. I walked out. Obviously, I cannot recommend the play to anyone.

Visitors
We had another good month for visitors. There were 1,931 visitors to the blog in the month. I expect that next month will be down quite a bit because of the removal of the Aiko Tanaka photos.

The traffic balance has remained about 50% domestic and 50% foreign. I think this may change slightly in the near future.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
I went to the Coffee Bean on Friday after my time with Molly. My favorite barista wasn’t working but her replacement did a creditable job on my mocha ice blended drink.

Last weekend, I made a pot of coffee with the India Elkhill Reserve coffee from Coffee Bean. This was the first time that I have used this blend so I was not satisfied with the results. The coffee tasted weaker than what I would like to drink. I added more ground coffee into the drip and the result was much better for me.

Other Events That Altered or Illuminated My Time
I started to come down with a sinus cold last week. I rummaged around my flat and finally found some out of date Tylenol Sinus medicine. I took a couple of tablets and that seemed to knock the sinus cold out. I could feel the pressure draining away.

Perfectomundo.

I was planning on visiting my friend Gloria’s ice cream and frozen yogurt store this weekend. After thinking about it, I decided that I ought to take a pass for now because of all of the candy I have consumed from Halloween. Her ice cream is too rich and tasty. I don’t need that much more sugar in my system right now.


That was my weekend. I hope your weekend was fun.


Be well and stay happy.