Free Museum Day

Late notice, but tomorrow is national "museum day" where a bunch of museums around the country offer free admission. Not sure if Tom and I will make it out to one as we're helping a friend move during the day, but it's definitely a good excuse to go out and get some culture!

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/articles/about.php

Happy Office Day

Woo Hoo! Season 4 of the Office starts tonight. We are excited. I rarely advocate the watching of television above and beyond whatever amount one may already watch, but if you haven't yet seen the Office you most definitely should check it out. Perhaps in celebration of tonight's new episode, there is (finally) a humorous new entry in Dwight's blog.

A Night at the Shark Tank

Kate was lucky enough to score free tickets to the first home pre-season San Jose Sharks game from work, so we spent a fun Friday exploring downtown San Jose which included Kate playing a pawn-shop concertina, some happy-hour mojitos (aren't we hip?), and sampling Dustin's favorite sushi restaurant in SJ.

After that we headed over to the HP Pavilion arena with the throngs of anxious Sharks fans, ready to get the hockey season underway. The Sharks were playing our rivals to the south, the Anaheim Ducks (they were once the Mighty Ducks, but alas no more - I guess some 15 years after the Disney movie people are wondering why ducks would be mighty, or indigenous to Anaheim). Friday's game featured a lot of power plays for the Sharks, which was fun because our favorite part of a Sharks game precedes each power play for the home team. Fortunately for you, Kate captured me getting in on the action on film.

In the end the Sharks won 3-1, while outshooting the Ducks by a wide margin. Both goalies made some great saves, and there was a lot of offense (probably due to the 23 penalties) and near-misses. One cool thing about the arena is the new HD video monitors that are huge and literally as clear as watching the actual game itself from the stands (pictures of its construction this summer are here). Pretty impressive, and it really improved watching replays, especially for a sport like hockey where it's hard to follow the puck sometimes. Finally, I always get cracked up by the local advertisers - look at center ice. The Sharks' primary sponsors are Seagate, SanDisk, Barracuda Networks, and Best Buy. Ahhhhhh, Silicon Valley.

Tarheel shenanigans

I was very delighted to read this story about Danny Ferry, former Duke basketball goon and current GM of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who was surprised by a great Carolina-themed practical joke while showing off his brand-new office, part of the Cavs' fancy new practice facility.


The story is also reported on a RDU-area radio station's blog, where I particularly liked this quote:

"Obviously, the culprit is thought to be someone with Carolina ties…but it also could have been an individual that took an elbow to the chops during Ferry’s last few years in the league. So, that makes about a half of the NBA a suspect. Revenge is expected to be swift and brutal and from where the humerus meets the ulna."

Like a true petulant Dookie, Ferry responded with "I have no sense of humor when it comes to that." What a grouch.

Way to go, Carolina pranksters!

Happiness Is...

A fresh chicken-pot-pie, a last minute Broncos victory, and my favorite guys snoozing together on the couch...

Home Run

You probably all heard that Barry Bond's 756th home run ball sold for $752,467 recently on e-bay. What you might not have heard is that the new buyer, (fashion designer Marc Ecko) has decided to "democratize" the ball's fate and take votes on his website to determine what he should ultimately do with it. The choices are:

A) Bestow it

Give the ball to Cooperstown. The ball that broke Hank Aaron’s career home run record belongs in the Hall of Fame.

B) Brand it

Burn an asterisk into the ball with a branding iron, adding a permanent footnote to the record. Then, send it to Cooperstown.

C) Banish it

Put the ball on a rocket ship and launch it into orbit, a moon shot for the ages. Out of sight, out of mind.

I thought that was a pretty creative way to deal with the ball and will be curious to see how it turns out. If you want to vote, click here.

The Power of Oprah

A while ago, I posted about Kiva.org, which is a microlending website that promotes interest-free loans to people and businesses in need throughout the world.

Today I logged into Kiva to check my account and browse the new loan requests. I clicked on the "businesses" page and was shocked to see only TWO businesses in need. Last time I had looked, there were hundreds, if not thousands. Anyway, at the top of the page was the following statement:

"Due to a recent surge in support ignited by viewers of the Oprah Winfrey Show and readers of President Clinton's newly released book Giving, there is currently a shortage of businesses in need of loans. The Kiva.org staff and our Field Partners are working overtime to get more businesses on the website. In the meantime, thank you for your patience!"

Pretty Crazy, eh?! I'm glad to see such influential people really making a positive difference in the world.

Time Banking

I love the idea of someday living in a very tight-knit neighborhood community. By this I mean that families would all live and work together, to some extent. I'd love to have a "community daycare" where each family takes a day off work every week to help watch the community kids. I'd like to live somewhere where everyone chips in to garden, or cooks together sometimes, or makes home repairs when needed- you get the picture. I've got some college friends that like the idea, too, but of course the logistics of getting everyone to live and work in the same part of the country is always tough.

At any rate, I read about a neat idea along the same thread called "time banking" today. It basically means that you volunteer your time to help someone with something you're good at, and for each hour you help, you "bank" an hour of help from someone else. All skills are valued the same - so maybe I could help paint a room or cook or grocery shop and could in turn have someone help me fix my car or teach me how to knit. If you volunteer more hours than you need, you can donate banked hours to various charitable foundations, too.

Anyway, I just thought that this was an interesting concept. If you're interested in learning more, check out timebanks.org.

Smoke on the water

Quite literally, actually. Not the Deep Purple song.

The last few days I noticed ashy black crud accumulating in Banjo's water bowl. It took a little while to figure out, but with smoke from 2 wildfires being pumped into the Bay Area by somewhat unusual weather patterns, we're certain that was the cause.

The first (and smaller) fire is just south of San Jose in Henry Coe St. Park, and is likely the cause of the heavier particulates in the air that we are finding in water bowls, etc. Here's a map showing where it is, in relation to some places you may or may not know about.

The other fire is the Moonlight Woodland Fire 200 miles north of us in the mountains, but it's pretty big. Because we have a high pressure system over the Bay Area, the normal eastern flow of air (that keeps the Bay Area's air clean and usually clear) is reversed and the smoke from that fire is getting sucked down the central valley and out over the Bay Area, as you can see in this satellite photo:

The smokey haze in the air is pretty eerie, casting a subtly dark shadow over what would otherwise be a bright sunny day. It did, however, make for quite a spectacular sunrise this morning. I doubt this picture really captures it well, but here's what it looked like from outside our house:

There is an article about the fires here.

Whiiiiiiiiii

After much internal debate, Tom and I decided to get a Wii. We already own a playstation that was purchased on a whim three years ago and basically gathers dust in our cabinet. But we've heard enough good things about the Wii, and really like the kind of games it offers so we decided to spring for it. The Wii is the first gaming system with gyroscopes built into the controller, so you actually hold the controllers and move them around in space to make your players move. It is awesome. Tom is clearly the house champion in wii boxing and wii tennis, while my fortes are golf and Mario games. At any rate, I took this video of Tom and Dustin boxing the other day and thought I would put it up here for the general enjoyment of the public...

Some Summer Fruit Salad Recipes

I got really excited when I saw these in my most recent issue of "Cook's Illustrated". I made the first one for a bbq today and it's very tasty!

Cantaloupe, Plums, and Cherries with Mint and Vanilla
Combine 4 t sugar and 1-2 T minced fresh mint in a large bowl. Add 1/4 t vanilla extract. Let sit 30 seconds.
Gently toss 1/2 medium canaloupe, 2 chopped plums, 8 oz chopped cherries or blueberries with the sugar mixture. Let stand at room temp 15-30 min. Stir in 1-2 T lime juice to taste

Honeydew, Mango, and Raspberries with Lime and Ginger
Combine 4 t sugar, 2 t lime zest, and a pinch of cayenne pepper in a large bowl.
Toss 1/2 medium honeydew, 1 chopped mango, and 1-2 t grated fresh ginger with sugar mixture. Let stand 15-30 min. Gently stir in raspberries and lime juice to taste.

Nectarines, Grapes, and Blueberries with Orange and Cardamom
Combine 4 t sugar, 1 t orange zest, and 1/8 t ground cardamom in a large bowl.
Gently toss 3 chopped nectarines, 9 oz green grapes (halved) and 1 pt blueberries with sugar mixture. Let stand 15-30 min. Stir in lime juice to taste.

Peaches, Blackberries, and Strawberries with Basil and Pepper
Combine 4 t sugar, 2 T minced basil, and 1/2 t ground pepper in a large bowl.
Gently toss 3 m peaches, 1 pt blackberries, and 1 pt quartered strawberries with sugar mixture. Let stand 15-30 min. Stir in lime juice to taste.