Sunday, April 30, 2006

2006 Playoffs Game 1b

Jack, Sharon, Larkin and I went to game four of the Sacramento Kings versus San Antonio Spurs first round play-off series. Although not as exciting as Friday night's game, it was very rewarding to see the Kings pull away and win by a score of 102 to 84.

The Kings lead by as much as 26 points in the fourth quarter. Popovich threw in the towel with a little more than six minutes to go and removed Duncan, Parker and Ginobili.

Initially, I thought we were going to be in trouble. Ron Artest got two quick fouls in the first two minutes of game and was replaced by Kevin Martin. Martin picked up the load nicely; he scored 10 points in the first quarter. Bonzi Wells played extremely well. Wells had 25 points and 17 rebounds.

2006 Playoffs Game 1b pic 1

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Arco Arena Thunder

Saturday, April 29, 2006

2006 Baseball Game 4

Jack played in his fourth baseball game of the season. He is playing very well in the field. While he was playing left field, a ball was hit high in the air to left center. He initially misjudged it and ended up leaping at the last second. He caught the ball and landed hard on the ground, but held on to the ball. Between innings, the coach from the other team came over and told him that it was best catch he had ever seen made in Single A. At this level, balls hit to the outfield are rarely caught.

Playing first base, he fielded a grounder to the right side, nonchalantly tagged out the runner to going to first for the third out and continued jogging to the dugout. Jack has a very good feel for what is going on.

I do need to get him to the batting cage. He feels to be regressing a little at the plate.

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First Eucharist Retreat

We spent three hours in the morning at a first Eucharist retreat for Jack.

Friday, April 28, 2006

2006 Playoffs Game 1a

I got a single ticket down low [section 123, row A, seat 18] for game three of the Sacramento Kings versus San Antonio Spurs first round play-off series. Sitting in the car in the parking lot listening to the pre-game show on the radio, I saw Larkin pull up and park nearby. I did not know that he was going to the game; he was there with his friend Pete. The three of us hung out in the parking lot for a bit and then headed for the arena. After I split up from Larkin, I ran into Norma Udell and her son Wesley.

Particularly given the outcome, it was a very enjoyable game. The Kings kept opening up small leads and then the Spurs would claw at the end of each quarter.

Bibby ended up playing 48 minutes, every minute of the game, and you could see that he was getting more than a little gassed at certain points in the game. In contrast, Parker only played 32 minutes.

At the end of the game, I was in the corner at the Kings end of the court. When Bibby poked the ball away and started up court with Martin, they were coming toward me. The last things I vividly remember are the watching Martin's lay-up bounce on the rim, the red light on the basket going off and then the ball dropping through the rim. The Kings won by the score of 94 to 93. The arena erupted at that point.

After the game, I met back up with Larkin and Pete. We sat in the Skyline Lounge upstairs in Arco Arena until they kicked us out.

2006 Playoffs Game 1a pic 3

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2006 Playoffs Game 1a pic 2

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2006 Playoffs Game 1a pic 1

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Moblog 2006 Playoffs Game 1a

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Promotion

DATE:    April 27, 2006


TO: Sutter Health Management Team
Sutter Health Information Technology Leadership


SUBJECT: Promotion of Mark Heringer
I am pleased to announce that Mark Heringer has been promoted to Vice President, Information Technology Operations and Technical Services for Sutter Health.

In recent years, our Sutter Health affiliates have made tremendous strides in embracing technology to better support physicians, nurses and other professionals in their important work; to help exceed the expectations of our patients; and to work toward the highest levels of health care quality, safety and access. In his new leadership role, Mark will further enhance these collaborative efforts by overseeing all IT operations, including the data center, our IT network, helpdesk, desktop and voice systems, and all production support areas. He also will continue to lead the technical services function, which comprises enterprise infrastructure design, engineering and architecture. Mark will continue to report to Debbie Sleigh, Interim Chief Information Officer.

Mark brings more than 25 years experience to his new role, including eight years in IT leadership positions within Sutter Health. Most recently, he served as the Technical Services Director, leading the IT engineering teams. Prior to that, he had responsibility for our support service’s IT voice, NT Servers and network operations teams. During his tenure with our organization, Mark also has provided his considerable skills to our electronic health record efforts; the build-out of our new data center in 2001 and 2002; consolidation of affiliate computer operations to the new center; the insourcing of staff from Siemens to Sutter; implementation of the Kronos attendance system standard used by more than 18,000 employees; and installation of the Lawson system, which delivers paychecks to more than 40,000 Sutter Health and affiliate employees.

A member of a large Northern California farming family with agricultural roots that date back to the 1850s, Mark grew up in the area and attended the University of California, Davis. He also has experience in the farm and banking industries, serving as Chief Information Officer for the AgAmerica Western Farm Credit Banks among numerous other roles.

Please join me in congratulating Mark on this important recognition of his exceptional work for our Sutter Health family.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Wolf Den Meeting #7

Jack and I went to the April meeting of his Cub Scout Wolf Den. The boys built bird houses [Arrow Point Trail Elective 13f].

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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

2006 Baseball Game 3

Jack played in his third game of the 2006 baseball season. He played extremely well in the field. When he was playing first base, he stretched out flat on the ground to catch a throw from Cole and get the runner out at first. At shortstop, he caught a line drive going to his right and continued on to third to catch the runner off the base for an unassisted double play.

Here is a short video taken with a Cannon PowerShot S400 digital ELPH of Jack legging out an infield hit.

Monday, April 24, 2006

My Life 2006

For the moment, I am using this picture from our ski last week trip as the picture for this year. Eventually, it will probably be replaced by a picture from our summer trip.

2006

click on the picture for a larger copy!
Mark Heringer 2006

All of the My Life Photos can be found here.

Artest suspended

Artest has been suspended one game for hitting Ginobili with a forearm. See video of the play that caused Artest to be suspended on ESPN.com.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

To the rental

We spent the lion's share of the day working in the yard at the rental.

On the way home, we stopped at Whole Foods Market, brought some Opah, and grilled it on the barbecue. It was very good and is definitely something that I would buy again or order in a restaurant.

U.S. Gas Prices

A color coded map of gas prices across the United States.

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Saturday, April 22, 2006

To a dinner party

In February, we had the Sanborne's over for dinner. Tonight, they invited us over for dinner. They served a great dinner of cornish game hens. After dinner, all of us, including the boys, played pool in their game room with the Clippers versus Nuggets game in the background. It was almost midnight by the time we got home.

2006 Baseball game 2

Jack played in his second baseball game of the 2006 season. Playing first base, he made two nice plays in the field and got the runner out at first. Playing pitcher, he made a nice stop and a smart throw to Grant at third to get a force-out. In two games, he has been up six times, made solid contact and got on base every time.

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2006 Run Against Pain

As part of some personal goals I have over the next year, I ran the 10k Run Against Pain. I was disappointed in my results. The official results for the race show me finishing in 53:07.7 at an average pace of 8:34. My garmin showed that the course was longer than 10K and had me running a 10k in 51:43 for an average pace of 8:19.

In either case, my pace was under 8:00 through four miles, but I could not maintain my speed over the last two plus miles.

I will be looking for a half marathon to run next.

click on the map for a larger copy!

Here is a Google Earth overlay of the run.

Friday, April 21, 2006

California Historical Landmark #405

Gold Run
California State Historical Landmark #405

See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
See this location on Google Maps

This landmark is located on the northwest corner of I-80 and Magra Road, across the street from post office in Gold Run in Placer County. There are 20 other California State Historical Landmarks in Placer County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 39° 10.471 W 120° 51.461.

You can log your visit to this landmark at waymark.com.


California State Historical Landmark #405

Originally called Mountain Springs, Gold Run was founded in 1854 by O. W. Hollenbeck. It was famed for its hydraulic mines, which from 1865 to 1878 shipped $6,125,000 in gold. Five water ditches passed through the town to serve the mining companies, but they had to cease operations in 1882 when a court decision made hydraulic mining unprofitable.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

2006 Northstar Day 2

We headed to Kings Beach for breakfast at the Log Cabin Cafe. Morgan, Drew and I had breakfast there the first time in December 1992 and we have been back several times since then. While it can be packed on weekends, it was completely empty when we walked in this morning.

After breakfast, we headed back to Northstar. We walked about 20 yards down from the condo to the trail and skied down to the gondola. We put Jack in a 2 1/2 hour lesson for the morning.

Sharon and I took a couple of runs. Unfortunately, the snow was getting wet and heavy much quicker than the previous day. We took an early break and adjourned to the bar to do some planning for our summer trip.

Picking Jack up from his lesson, the instructor raved about how well Jack did. After lunch, we skied with Jack. Given that this was only the fourth day that he had ever been on skis, I was amazed at how well he was doing; he is already starting to parallel. As I have noted in other contexts, Jack is a much better natural athlete than I am.

We finished the day skiing back to the car through the Upper and Lower Mineshaft Trails. We packed up the car and headed home. Skiing with Jack after lunch was worth the cost of the whole trip.

2006 Northstar Day 2 pic 2

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2006 Northday Day 2 pic 1

Northstar Posted by Picasa

Moblog Log Cabin Cafe

Log Cabin Cafe, Kings Beach

Moblog View from The Condo

Northstar Trailside Condo

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

2006 Northstar Day 1

Up early, we headed to Northstar to ski for a couple of days. It turned out that several other groups were also planning to be there. Sharon talked to Judy at Anton's birthday party and Cindy on Easter Sunday and both of them were going to Northstar on Wednesday.

We met Judy, Anton and Kyle in the Village and skied with them for most of the morning. At lunch, we connected with Cindy and several of her friends and visited with them.

We also met back up with Judy and her boys at lunch. After lunch, Jack started racing Anton and skiing much stronger. Jack was doing so well that we ended up moving further up the mountain and skiing some slightly more diffiult trails.

As the day wore on the snow got wetter and heavier. A little after 3:00 p.m. we called it a day and skied back to the truck. We had made a reservation to spend the night in one of the trailside condos at Northstar. We checked into the condo and relaxed.

For dinner, we headed to Incline Village and had dinner with a great view of Lake Tahoe and the snow covered mountains at the Lone Eagle Grill. This is a restaurant that we have eaten at before when we have stayed at the Hyatt. Sharon had buffalo, I had elk and Jack had pizza for dinner.

2006 Northstar Day 1 pic 1

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2006 Northstar Day 1 pic 2

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Moblog At Northstar

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

2006 Baseball Game #1

With the rain finally stopping and the fields starting to dry out over the last two days, Jack's little league season finally got underway. The first two weeks of the season were rained out.

Jack is playing Single A again this year. He hit the ball hard and got on base each of the three times that he was up.

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Gerald Wallace

from ESPN.com - NBA 101: #28. Even expansion teams have studs
Gerald Wallace isn't exactly a household name, but the Charlotte forward had a remarkable season. Wallace became just the third player in league history to average at least two blocks and two steals in a season, joining David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon in that esteemed club, while shooting 53.9 percent and throwing down several highlight-film dunks.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Easter 2006

Sharon invited a number of people for Easter Dinner. The group ended up totaling thirteen, eight adults and five kids, including Cindy and Joe Larkin, John and Deborah Cunningham, Tom and Eric Frame and Kathy, Erin and Eileen Frame. Missing in action were Tim (working on tax returns) and Becky (working on her paralegal certification).

Sharon had a great main course of lamb and a honey-baked ham. Deborah fixed an interesting asparagus dish, Kathy contributed potatoes, Tom brought a salad and the Larkins made an appetizer.

The kids were occupied in the bonus room for long stretches playing board and video games.

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Saturday, April 15, 2006

Easter Vigil

Over the last seven and a half months, I have participated in the RCIA program at our local parish. The process reached a conclusion today. My sponsor and I attended a three plus hour retreat in the morning. The retreat included the Rite of Reconciliation; Jack did his first Rite of Reconciliation in March. After the retreat, there was a rehearsal for the Easter Vigil Mass that lasted over an hour and a half.

I headed back to Church for the Easter Vigil in the early evening. Sharon, Jack, Sharon's brother Tom and his son Eric attended the Mass. As part of the ceremony, about 20 people were baptized and confirmed. Since I was baptized as a baby, I participated in only the confirmation process. The Mass lasted more than two and a half hours and finished up after 10:00 p.m.

Airport offers free Wi-Fi

Sacramento International Airport will have free wireless Internet access beginning today.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Moblog Mikuni Elk Grove

Notes on our first visit to the Wasabi Sushi & Hibachi Grill in Elk Grove are here.

Although there is a growing list of places to eat in Elk Grove where we are not interested in going back, Mikuni's definitely warrants repeat visits. We went there for an early dinner.

Fly to this location (Requires Google Earth)

CA Historical Landmark #666

Camp Union, Sutterville
California State Historical Landmark #666

See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
See this location on Google Maps

This landmark is located at the northeast corner of Sutterville and Land Park Drive, Sacramento, California. There are 57 other California State Historical Landmarks in Sacramento County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 38° 32.259 W 121° 30.222.

You can log your visit to this landmark at waymark.com.

California State Historical Landmark #666
California State Historical Landmark #666

Organized here on October 8, 1861, the 5th Infantry Regiment, California Volunteers was trained by Brevet Brigadier General George W. Bowie for duty against Confederate forces in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. The troops aided the stricken capital in this year of the great flood. Company F (Sacramento Rangers), 2nd Cavalry Regiment, California Volunteers, organized in Sacramento August 29, 1861, later served here. This company furnished a large number of officers for other units of the California Volunteers.

Top 100 Google Videos

Top 100 - Google Video

Thursday, April 13, 2006

30Boxes

Poking around with Google Calendar, I am not particularly impressed. I have been using 30boxes for some time and it is a much stronger tool with a broader set of features. While Google Calendar has integration with Gmail, 30boxes has a cleaner interface, SMS notifications, integration with Flickr and RSS feeds, tagging and a variety of ways to syndicate information about yourself and the calendar. It is too bad Google did not just buy 30boxes like they bought Writely.

Echo Lake Hike KMZ

Here is another Google Earth KMZ file; this shows the hike that Sharon and Janie took from Echo Lake into Desolation Wilderness last summer.

Mt Diablo Hike KMZ

Here is a Google Earth KMZ file for the Cub Scout's Mt. Diablo Hike in March. With the terrain feature selected in Google Earth, you can rotate and tilt the map to get some interesting perspectives on the hike and the views.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Google Calendar Launched

Google Calendar is up and running at:

http://calendar.google.com

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2008 Presidential Primary

From ABC News Political Unit's 2008 Presidential Invisible Primary Ratings, A Look at the Chances Various Republicans and Democrats Have at Winning Their Party's Nomination

  1. No Senator has been elected President of these United States since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

  2. 2008 will mark the first presidential election since 1928 in which neither the sitting president nor vice president is running for the job — creating a wide open contest.

  3. John McCain versus Hillary Clinton?

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

2006 Kings versus Suns

I went to the Sacramento Kings versus Phoenix Suns basketball game with a large group from work. Steve Nash picked up three fouls in the game's first 7:47 and a fourth foul just before halftime. With Nash on the bench for long stretches in the first half, the Kings ran out to a 68 to 51 halftime lead.

The bottom fell out in the third quarter. The Suns outscored the Kings 33 to 16 in the third quarter and tied the game at 84 to 84.

The Suns pulled away in the fourth quarter to win the game by a score of 123 to 110. The Suns made 71 percent of their shots after halftime.

The Kings are now 6 and 7 in games that I have seen in person during the 2005-06 basketball season.

Highlighting how dramatically the Kings roster has changed, Marion is the only player left on either team from the Kings' first-round playoff victory over the Suns in 2001.

Moblog Kings Versus Suns

Sunday, April 09, 2006

2006 Kings versus Rockets

Sharon went to the Sacramento Kings versus Houston Rockets basketball game with a co-worker, Priscilla. The Kings ran out to a 16 to 2 lead at the beginning of the game and lead the rest of the way to win by a score of 86 to 77. Brad Miller lead the Kings with 30 points and 11 rebounds.

The Kings reduced their magic number to clinch a playoff berth to three. They have four games remaining, three of them at home. The Kings have made the playoffs the last seven years.

Phil Mickelson

Running on the treadmill, I watched the last few holes of the Master's Golf Tournament in HD. Since our brush with Phil Mickelson at the 2004 Pebble Beach Pro-am, we always root for him.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

The Great Robot Race

Jack went to a birthday party for Anton at Laser Force. Afterwards, we worked cleaning up the yard and the garage at the rental and then took groceries to Sharon's parents.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about a Nova broadcast of The Great Robot Race on a CNET podcast. DARPA's Grand Challenge featured driverless vehicles competing in a 130 mile race across the Mojave Desert. I had tivo'ed the show and we watched it after dinner.

Friday, April 07, 2006

CA Historical Landmark #241

Robert Livermore
First Settler of Livermore Valley

California State Historical Landmark #241

See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
See this location on Google Maps

This landmark is located in Portola Park near the intersection of Portola Avenue and North Livermore Avenue in Livermore, California. There are 35 other California State Historical Landmarks in Alameda County.

California State Historical Landmark #241California State Historical Landmark #241

Born in England 1799 - died Rancho Las Positas 1858. Arrived in Monterey 1822. Married Josefa Higuera y Fuentes 1830. Settled on Rancho Las Positas 1835. Next to the mission Fathers, he was the first man to engage himself in the culture of grapes, fruit and grain. The Livermore Hacienda was a short distance north of this spot.

Remote Storage DVR

This is an idea with some interesting implications: Cablevision is testing a 'remote storage' DVR. Rather than sitting in your entertainment center at home, your DVR would be in their data center...

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Black Horse Pub & Grill

Tuesday night after Larkin's Farewell Party, I met Sharon and Jack at the Black Horse Pub & Grill in Elk Grove. Sharon was unimpressed with the breadth of the dinner menu and the quality of their hamburgers. I was pleased with the variety of beer on tap.

A number of new places to eat have opened in Elk Grove in the last year. Unfortunately, a lot of them serve uninspired food. The Black Horse is another place that we are not likely to have dinner at again soon; A list that already includes Islands and Paesesanos. The Black Horse's breakfast menu looked interesting and we may have to give that a try in the future.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Berklee College of Music

Morgan has been accepted into Berklee College of Music's twelve-week summer program in Boston.

Sharon took this picture when she and Liz visited Boston last June. She remembers being very impressed by the neighborhood surrounding the College.

Berklee College of Music

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Larkin's Farewell Party

There was a farewell party for Larkin at the Hacienda Del Rio in Folsom. Larkin is leaving Sutter Health to play golf, ski and do some consulting. I first met Joe when I started working for the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank of Sacramento in October of 1980. I skied with him and Cindy for the first time on January 15, 1982 at Sugar Bowl.

Hacienda Del Rio Folsom
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Monday, April 03, 2006

Sunday, April 02, 2006

2006 Kings versus Clippers

Jack and I went to the Sacramento Kings versus the Los Angeles Clippers game. The Kings ran out to a 9 - 0 lead at the beginning of the game and, except for a short lapse midway through the third quarter, held this lead the rest of the game. The Kings won the game by a score of 106 to 96.

It was painful to watch the Kings get outrebounded 54 to 31. Fortunately, the Clippers could not hold on to the ball once they got it. They turned it over 22 times leading to 27 points for the Kings.

The Kings beat the Clippers for the 12th straight time overall and 16th consecutive time at home. The Clippers have not won at Arco Arena since Nov. 7, 1997.

Sacramento has probably the NBA's toughest schedule over its final eight games, starting with back-to-back visits to Dallas and San Antonio this week. They also have a home game against Phoenix and a road game at Denver.

Moblog Kings versus Clippers

Model number 9

My sister Lee Ann posted some portraits of Drew on her weblog.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

20 days of rain

March's 20 days of rain surpassed the previous record of 19 shared by March 1904, 1907 and 1989. This has played havoc with the start of the baseball season. They cancelled the opening day ceremonies and the first week of games.

Nevertheless, we spent most of the day wrapped up in baseball. Team and individual pictures were in the morning followed by a couple of hours of practice in the afternoon.

After dinner, the three of us watched Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.