These are the musings of a diverse dude. We'll discuss sports, politics, family, music, hunting, fishing, and of course, all things that hold the interest of yellow dogs and those that patrol with them.
Hold on to your breakfast. From the StarTribune this morning comes their editorial Letter of the Day:
I'm very excited to attend a baseball game at the new Target Field. Too bad the Twins didn't select an all-fans-friendly hot dog to serve at the stadium ("Wiener winner: Schweigert," March 8). With the exception of the all-beef dog served at portable grills and select concession stands, all of the other new dogs -- including those served by vendors in the stands -- will be a combination of pork and beef. My beef with that is that many people (Jews and Muslims, for example) who do not eat pork for religious reasons will not be able to enjoy the popular Dollar-A-Dog offering and will have to spend time searching for a hot dog they can eat. Count that as one strike against the new stadium.
Letter of the Day? Seriously, LETTER OF THE DAY?
Practicing Muslims can't drink anything from the beer vendor, either. I think we need to close down this bastion of prejudice before we even open the door, and offer reparations (via tax on the rich) to the parties that have been offended.
The Vikings lost back-up running back Chester Taylor in an expected free agency situation. While little could have been done to prevent this, the Taylor loss looms huge for the Purple next year. Given Peterson's propensity to put the ball on the floor, we no longer have a good means to spell him to keep him physically and mentally fresh.
There are some high profile free agents out there in the form of LaDainian Tomlinson and Brian Westbrook, but I'd consider both to be long shots - both have massive issues to resolve in performance, and both likely will command huge attention on the free agent market.
Between the tougher schedule, potential loss of Favre, and now the loss of Taylor, the Vikings could have a really tough time next season.
In the mean time, good for Chester. He's a talented back that deserves a starting spot, and Chicago is a perfect fit. Let's hope he doesn't come back to haunt us too much.
To put it bluntly, Blitz was psycho for bunnies. I'm not sure if she considered them something like hopping cats, or if she just liked them for their own set of circumstances, but she was crazy for rabbits.
Upon first seeing a bunny, she'd immediately freeze, akin to what she'd ultimately do when pointing birds when we were hunting. The rabbit responded similarly, as is their nature. So there'd we sit, dog eyeballing rabbit and vice versa. Ultimately someone would make a move, and then the game would be on. If Blitz happened to be on a lead at the time, it would require all strength one could muster to keep her under control and prevent her from choking on her own collar. If Blitz happened to be free, well that would be another adventure all together. The rabbit would immediately drop its speed into the highest gear possible, with the dog gamely keeping pace. Ultimately both would accelerate outside of view, with the dog eventually coming back empty-handed but happy as could be.
I always felt OK about the chase, as heck, this was a rabbit, right? She's a dog. There's no way she's going to run down and catch a rabbit. The speed differential made it impossible.
Uh, wrong.
Upon waking one morning and letting Blitz out to take care of business, she immediately got on the path of a running rabbit in the back yard. I stood there and watched, thinking this would be another futile bunny-chase, but respecting the effort. It was kind of like rooting for Charlie Brown to finally kick that football.
The two ultimately went out of view, and within seconds Blitz was returning, but this time she was carrying something in her mouth. I stood there, mouth agape, as my dog was coming back to me with a full grown and very alive rabbit in her mouth. I wondered aloud "What the hell am I going to do now?"
In the quiet early morning, the sounds really stood out, and the rabbit was voicing its displeasure about its predicament. At about 15 yards from me the rabbit must have pushed the panic button and decided to bite, as Blitz let out a muffled "yipe." Unfortunately for the rabbit, the "yipe" was immediately followed by a noticeable "crunch."
Hunting dogs are bred and trained to have "soft mouths;" to carry their game lightly back to the handler so that their canine teeth wouldn't tear or otherwise damage the meat of the retrieved game. Even with no training, Blitz always had a soft mouth (to which at least one robin can attest), but clearly the game got changed once the quarry started biting.
Though her life Blitz ran down about a dozen rabbits, and gave full chase to dozens more. She became quite adept at their capture, much to some gardeners' delight, and to horror of the more uninitiated. For example, upon moving to our new house, my wife was meeting the nice neighbor lady for the first time in our back yard whereupon up trotted Blitz with a bunny in her mouth. It made for a memorable first impression.
Blitz's last bad habit during "walkies" was her desire to chase cars. It was not every car; in fact she responded to very few cars. But every once and a while there would be something particular about the car or truck going past her that made her take off after it.
As I always had her on a lead when walking near vehicles, and since a dog that chases cars typically doesn't live to see a ripe, old age, I'd use these episodes to really correct her. I'd shout a massive "NO!" and would pull back on her lead, often pulling her off the ground doing so.
Despite these corrections, there would always be the random vehicle that set her off. I tried to ascertain what the common theme was that set her off - car vs. truck, music vs. quiet, windows down vs. up, etc. but never found a common theme. I felt it likely had something to do with sound, but I could never get a handle on what it ultimately was.
Hence, whenever there was a new situation that resulted in a new sound (e.g. construction equipment, garbage truck, etc.), I would prepare myself by gripping more tightly on the lead lest the yellow dog make a bolt for the offending vehicle.
One particular foggy morning put us to a test. We were out for our morning walk at 4:00 AM in the darkness, and the humidity and stillness of the morning conspired to create an incredibly thick fog.
As Blitz and I turned onto the main street, I heard the sound of a police siren turning on a couple of hundred yards away from us. Soon the lights came into view, and it was obvious that the sheriff would be driving right past us.
With the lights reflecting in the thick fog and the sound of the wailing siren, I said to myself, "This should be interesting," tightened my death-grip on the lead, and kept both eyes on the dog. Blitz came to a stop, ears perked, and immediately slammed her butt on the pavement in the sit position. "That's really odd," I thought. "I wonder if the dog thinks she's getting pulled over?"
With me still tight as a loaded spring and with the cop car 20 yards behind us, Blitz points her nose straight to the heavens a lets out this resounding "AAAAAAWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" that would have made Warren Zevon proud.
Up to this point, she'd never howled. She never did since. But for some reason that cop car, lights, sirens, and fog all conspired to push a button for her inner wolf to come out, and it immediately rendered me laughing uncontrollably.
I often wonder what that sheriff thought, driving at 4:00 in the morning to an emergency call, when suddenly out of the fog come this yellow labrador howling to the moon and her owner doubled over in laughter.
Alice in Chains posted the following on their Facebook page:
The flu bug has infiltrated the Alice In Chains camp and bit down hard. In light of this situation, tonight's show in Charlotte is postponed. AIC would like to sincerely apologize to all of their fans in Charlotte, particularly those that waited in the snow. The show is rescheduled for April 20 at the Uptown Amphitheater at the Music Factory, so if you have tickets, hold on to them. They will be honored.
It took someone from the AIC camp about 30 seconds to crank out this appropriate message.
The boys from Canada could learn something from this.
In the mean time, I have a date with Alice in a couple of weeks, and wish the boys a speedy recovery. And if you haven't already, I suggest you check out their latest effort. The new line up works well, and the tracks are quite tasty. Highly endorsed.
In an effort to save my company $400 in airfare, I coordinated trip to San Jose to fly into LAX, then hop a commuter to the Monterey airport, then make the 1.5 hour drive to San Jose.
As I was exhaustedly sitting in LAX last night as part of my 3 hour layover, I felt that my efforts to save money was a big mistake. As I boarded the baby-plane to Monterey and crammed myself into my seat, I continued to kick myself. And finally, as I dragged my sorry tail off of the tiny plane and steeled myself for a long drive, saving those dollars looked like just abject stupidity.
As I got to the lonesome Hertz counter, you can imagine my amazement that my company had booked me for an economy car. Finally, I had reached my limit. When the friendly agent suggested an upgrade to a Nissan Altima, I was quick to accept the incremental $10 per day it would cost me. “It’s a hybrid,” she explained, and my face must have immediately dropped, as I must have been envisioning trying to get acceleration out of a weak battery. Seeing my demeanor, she quickly grinned and said, “Don’t worry, you’re going to like it.”
I loaded up the GPS to take me up famed California Highway 1, and then through the switches and turns on CA-17.
That hour and a half went by like 5 minutes. I drove the living hell out of that car. I mean, I drove the livinghell out of that car. The Altima not only had massive acceleration, but also a very big top end. What an awesome trip.
Here’s my route. If you zoom in, you can see all the twists:
Sometimes, when it appears we've reached our limit, the best stuff happens...
While we were quite saddened by the demise of The Green Room, we were heartened to hear that the restaurant would soon reopen as "Terra Waconia," and would retain much of the staff and menu favorites that we've come to love.
We stopped in last Friday, and immediately noticed a number of subtle changes in room decor that really added to the ambiance of the place. The room just felt more warm.
We were put off a little that printed menus don't exist - the only accounting for the bill of fare was a chalkboard behind the bar. It was nice to see some old favorites (Brussels sprouts and mussels were just two examples), but were really put off that a seafood dish wasn't available. Hello - it's a Friday night during Lent, and there's a reason why McDonalds is running all of those Fillet-o-Fish ads. Because of this, we actually got our coats back on and headed for the door.
Prior to leaving, my wife stopped by to tell the waitress the reason behind our departure. She immediately sped over and apologized for no letting us know about the sole special, and that got us to remove our coats and sit back down.
My wife started with the fig salad and I did the mussels, and both were wonderful. The sole was indeed special, and the entire evening turned out to be a good one.
While they still appear to have some bugs to work out, it was nice to get back to getting a great meal in Waconia. We will continue our support, and wish them well.
