Banjo Nichols, CGC, TDI

Banjo officially has the most graduate degrees in the family!

Over the past few months, I've been thinking that Banjo would make a really nice therapy dog. He's amazingly mellow (especially for a two-year-old male), likes to be petted by anyone, and doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body. I think volunteering at a hospice or assisted-living home would be great fun for both of us - good for him to meet new people and see the world, and fun for me to interact with a cross-section of society (elderly people) I don't get to talk to very often.

So today I took the little fellow to a dog show in Pleasanton, where a Mastiff breeder was administering CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and TDI (Therapy Dog International) tests in between her stints in the show ring. I wasn't entirely sure Banjo would pass, since there are actually entire 6-week classes designed to help dogs pass the CGC test, which Banjo hasn't taken. But I had read up on the "elements" which included items like: dog must not startle when medical equipment is used nearby, dog must successfully "leave" a food or treat on the ground, dog must stay, sit, lay, and come, dog must tolerate "rough petting", dog must not react to other dogs, etc. and it sounded like they were all items he could handle. And he did! He kept his cool, even when the judge accidentally whacked him in the face with a pill bottle that she was trying to throw in front of him.

We celebrated by sharing a teriyaki chicken sandwich and snickering at all the pooches who were dolled-up for the dog show. Pictured below are some Salukis and a whole lineup of Bulldogs. They didn't have a "best mutt" category, so Banjo will just have to be happy with his CGC.

Handy Tommenkate

So Tom and I fixed our toilet the other day. It had a slow (loud) leak that drove me up a wall. The landlady had a plumber come out and he tinkered with it a while, eventually replacing the flapper valve, which wasn't leaking at all. Anyway, instead of calling him out again we decided to tackle it ourselves. I took a photo of the part that was leaking to our friendly neighborhood OSH, and seven dollars later had a "universal toilet tank fill valve". Tom and I were a little apprehensive but figured it would be a good skill to learn to prepare ourselves for the rigors of home ownership.

Anyway, it turned out to be easy! Turn off the water, flush, unscrew one hose, screw in a new hose, turn on the water, flush! We both felt quite proud of ourselves and were able to justify extra scoops in the ice-cream sundae that afternoon. What a glamorous life we lead!

"AccuScore" needs some work

I thought this combination of predictions on the ESPN baseball playoffs webpage was kind of amusing:


It looks to me like "AccuScore" needs a little work if it's going to be more in line with the "experts" or the "public." A couple of caveats:

• Voting in that poll probably continued after the Rockies won the first, second, and then third games, so you'd have to be a fool not to vote for the Rockies now.
• It is possible that AccuScore is predicting Arizona to win game 4, but it doesn't really say that anywhere. Also, Colorado is listed as the visiting team, so I assume they mean overall for the series, because Game 4 is in Denver.
• I would assume that all of the "expert" picks were made before the games started, unlike the sportsnation poll.
  

Anyways, it made me laugh. All those fancy graphics and animations only to be made to look pretty dumb when put next to the overwhelming picks of the Rockies to win.

Playoff Predictions - Round 2

Well, I was right on a couple accounts and definitely wrong on a couple of accounts in my division series predictions. I (happily) missed the boat on the Yankees and ARod, although Jeter (0 BB, 3 H, 3 GIDP) and Wang (5.2 IP in 2 starts, 14 H, 3 HR, 19.06 ERA) deserve 10 times whatever criticisms ARod will get from the media.

Boston I got dead on with a sweep over the Angels, but even Beckett's biggest fans wouldn't have expected as historically great of a performance as he gave in Game 1. Beckett retired 19 straight batters in his 4-hit complete game shutout. Also, no walks, no extra-base hits, and 83/108 pitches were strikes. That is utter domination, perhaps not seen since the likes of Don Larsen.

Over in the NL I was way off base on the DBacks, but still don't really see how they keep winning. Drew, Young, and of course Webb all played exceptionally well - Drew and Young seem to be particularly valuable on defense. In this series, I think Ted Lilly and Rich Hill just happened to pitch poorly, while Doug Davis and Livan Hernandez surprised by pitching pretty well - along with the Arizona bullpen. The Cubs' heavy hitters also deserve some blame, with Soriano, Lee, and A-Ram going a combined 6 for 39 (all singles) and 3 walks.

The Rockies walked all over the Phillies in their sweep, continuing their amazing hot streak. I'm not sure if this was more of a case of Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and Chase Utley all slumping at the same time for Philly, or if the Rockies pitching is actually decent. Either way, nobody could have predicted the contributions made by Kaz Matsui or Yorvit Torrealba.

So I'm 2 for 4 in series predictions. Let's see what's in store for round two:

Cleveland vs. Boston
With the way the Sox are clicking now, it's hard to pick against them. Beckett is in top form, Schilling is amped up on post-season adrenaline, and Manny and Papi are healthy and hitting. I think Paul Byrd doesn't get as lucky this time around, but the CC/Beckett and Fausto/Schilling matchups could be great pitching duels. This one is going at least 6 games, but I'll say the Red Sox take it, winning one of the first 2 and then games 3 and 4 easily. Sox prevail, 4-2, but I'll be rooting for the Indians (and the Fausto-Ubaldo matchup) again.


Colorado vs. Arizona
Ummm... I guess I shouldn't dismiss the DBacks again, but it's hard not to. Brandon Webb is the best pitcher in the NL and was on fire in his Game 1 start. He should be able to beat the Rocks twice, but I think Colorado easily takes the games at home against Livan Hernandez and Micah Owings. My guess is that Holliday, Helton, and Hawpe pick things up a little more in this series and put up some crooked numbers on the scoreboard more often. Rockies in 6, or 4-0 against pitchers not named Webb.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

Since this post is already outdated, I'll be brief. the 7th annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival (which you can read about here) was a great weekend of fantastic weather, great (mostly) bluegrass music, lots of people, and amazingly enough it is all free. Saturday we met up with lots of friends over the course of the day and Sunday I went up by myself. Can't wait for next year! Below are some pictures from some of the acts that we saw. If you're curious to see the whole weekend's impressive schedule, there is a pdf here.

Bela Fleck and Keller Williams

The Mother Hips

Red Wine, a string group from Genoa (yes, Italy) who was my surprise favorite act. There are two videos of them performing at the bottom of the post. Really good and excited to be at HSB.

The Red Wine banjo player overwhelmed by demand for their CD after their performance

Hot Buttered Rum, a San Francisco original

As close as I bothered to get for David Grisman/Curly Seckler

Railroad Earth

Del McCoury Band, putting on a fantastic request-filled set to close the weekend

Kate with friends Bailey and Cara

Red Wine playing an acoustic number

And so you will believe me that they are from Italy, Red Wine singing an Italian bluegrass song. Bravo!

Playoff Predictions - Round 1

It's October and playoff baseball is here! Somehow regardless of how disinterested in the MLB season I may have become after 162 games, I always get excited for the playoffs, and I'm very seldom disappointed. I have some great memories of watching Atlanta's crazy NLCS win over the Pirates in 1992, Joe Carter's HR to beat the Phillies in 1993, the Padres great run in 1998, Arizona overcoming BY Kim's implosion to beat the Yankees in Steve's dorm room in 2001, the A's collapse in 2003, and of course the Aaron Boone, Papi, and the bloody sock in 2003 and 2004. Heck, I even vaguely remember crying foul at the 1987 WS when the home team won each game, but the Twins prevailed over my Cardinals in no small part due to the advantage they had being familiar with how to field fly balls in the Metrodome (I wonder if they turned on the air conditioning system for the home half back then, too...).

So without further ado, and definitely without anywhere near as much thought or analysis as Sky puts into his blog, I present my 2007 MLB playoff predictions:

Yankees vs. Indians
Man, I really like the Indians, and will be rooting heartily for them, but I think I have to pick the Stankees in this one. I see ARod having a huge postseason and finally putting to rest all those stories about how he can't handle the playoff pressure. Although, with CC and Fausto on their game, that could be an easy 3 wins for the Indians. I'm concerned about how their offense really struggled the last couple weeks, too. I think the Yankees score too many runs, most of which come after the 5th inning, and take this one 3-1.

Angels vs. Red Sox
I am definitely not as much of a Red Sox fan as I used to be, but I still think they are the best team in the playoffs. They shouldn't have too much trouble dispatching the Angels. Vlad is relegated to DHing, and there are major questions about the Angels pitchers not named Lackey, with Escobar's shoulder issues and Weaver and Santana's general inconsistency. Boston has a huge power advantage, and it'll be interesting to see if playing in Fenway stifles the Angels running game much outside plain SBs. I'll say Boston sweeps, 3-0.

Rockies vs. Phillies
I'm not going out on a limb at all by saying a lot of runs will be scored in this series. Good hitting + bad pitching + 2 of the most hitter-friendly parks out there = an exciting offensive series. I think this one could go either way and it would only be fitting, given the drama that got both of these teams into the playoffs, for it to go 5 games. Rockies take it in 5, with Jamie Moyer getting lit up like a neon Coors sign in game 5.

Diamondacks vs. Cubs
Does Bartman still have season tickets? No? Ok, then it should be safe to pick the Cubbies here. Aside from when Brandon Webb is pitching for the Snakes, I think Chicago is clearly the better team. Webb vs. Zambrano will be a good matchup to watch, and I'll give the first game to the D-Backs and Webb, but after that the Cubs take 3 straight. I mean, Doug Davis, Livan Hernandez, and Micah Owings? Sheesh, that doesn't sound like a winning playoff rotation. Arizona's lineup is equally unimpressive - after looking into this I don't know how they ended up ahead of the Rockies and Padres this season. Cubs, 3-1.

The Pete Rose Mafia

The other night Kate and I were celebrating our 1st anniversary with a dinner outside (but under the heat lamps, yes, we are California wimps) in downtown Mountain View. Afterwards, while walking down the main street in town back to our car, we were approached by a man who sported a vaguely homeless person-like large grey beard, but was clearly more clean shaven and polished than your average hobo, and this is Mountain View we're talking about. So, as this guy walks up to us I'm expecting a cash solicitation but instead the conversation went something like this:

Man: "Hey, do you think Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame?"

Tom: "Well, I guess I'd probably have to say no..."

Man, to Kate: "And how about you?"

Kate: "Uhhh... Sure!"

Man, excited: "Good! He definitely should be sent to the Hall! He has SIXTEEN major league records! He IS baseball history and needs to be in the Hall of Fame! Everyone agrees..."

Man goes on about Pete Rose and his mission to get him into Cooperstown, and explains there is a website where people can vote for one of three options, apparently of what "people" should do on this subject:

1. People should withhold all Rose-related memorabilia from the Hall of Fame until he is inducted
2. No change, i.e. status-quo on his purgatorial state (I guess)
3. Ban Pete forever from the Hall of Fame

In addition to voting he also implored us to not visit Cooperstown on the 14th of every month (ok, no problem) and withhold our own memorabilia from the Hall of Fame until he is enshrined (also shouldn't be an issue). So after a few minutes of mostly one-sided but entertaining conversation about Pete Rose's merits as a fixture of baseball history, we asked what the website was. He gave us the following, making sure to write "Pete Rose" on the card so we wouldn't forget what we were talking about:

What a great business card. We never would have guessed our local Pete Rose advocate was also an author, editor, WebMaster, and, of course singer. Don't forget about his being a world traveler from California. I guess this would qualify as another "only in California" moment.

So if you are curious, the website listed there has plenty of gems in addition to the Pete Rose thing. Ideas for humanity indeed. One thing that particularly cracked me up was that in the span of a 900 word "article" there are references to Pete Rose as

• Charlie Hustle
• Mr. Hits
• Mr. Games Played
• Mr. At Bats
• Mr. Hall of Fame
• Mr. Hustle (twice)
  
• Mr. Switch Hitter
• Mr. Consecutive
• Mr. Winning Games Played
• Mr. Walks (?)
  
• Mr. Five Positions
• Mr. Player of the 70s

Notably absent are any references to Mr. Rose as

• Mr. $10,000 per Game
  
• Mr. Umpire Shove
  
• Mr. Tax Evasion
• Mr. Permanent Ineligibility
  
• Mr. 15 Year Lie
• Mr. Wrestlemania XIV

So, what do you think? Pete Rose, in or out?

Things I don't expect to encounter while hiking

Pretty high up there on the list would have to be a man with a sword attacking another man with a baseball bat.

"Three men set off Sunday to meet a friend along the trail when an argument escalated and one of the hikers started swinging a baseball bat and another pulled out a large sword, investigators said.

"Evidently, he always goes hiking with a sword," [LA Sheriff's Detective] Barker said Monday."

And I thought the bachelor party we saw in Big Sur hiking with the blow-up doll was bizzare...