2004-2005 Kings Season

During the 2004-2005 Sacramento Kings season, the Kings
were 10 and 4 in games which I saw in person, including:

PRESEASON

10/29/2004: Suns-124, Kings-96 - Jack

REGULAR SEASON

11/09/2004: Kings-108, Raptors-92 - Larkin

11/23/2004: Kings-102, Rockets-96 - Sharon with Mary Maloney and Tim

12/03/2004: Kings-113, Pacers-87 - Sharon with Tim

12/07/2004: Kings-109, Bobcats-92 - Larkin

12/23/2004: Heat-109, Kings-107 - Sharon, Jack and Larkin

12/26/2004: Warriors-98, Kings-94 - Sharon, Jack and Tim

01/03/2005: Kings-86, Spurs-81 - Jack

01/11/2005: Kings-109, Nuggets-100 - Larkin

01/25/2005: Kings-113, Nets-93 - Sharon with Tim

02/04/2005: Kings-116, Knicks-115 - Davis Mafia

02/08/2005: Suns-125, Kings-123 - Sharon with Tim

03/08/2005: Kings-85, Grizzlies-82 - Sharon with Liz

03/15/2005: Kings-105, Magic-94 - Jack

03/24/2005: Kings-118, 76ers-109 - Sharon, Randy and Jayne Wong

03/28/2005: Kings-109, Mavs-101 - Larkin and Sherry

04/03/2005: Timberwolves-112, Kings-100 - Sharon with Liz

04/20/2005: Kings-132, Suns-107 - Larkin

PLAYOFFS

04/29/2005: Kings-116, Sonics-104 - Gasper and Hummel

05/01/2005: San Antonio Spurs-105, Sacramento Kings-83 - Sharon, Jack, Muncaster, Larkin and Cindy

2017-2018 Season [5-2]
2016-2107 Season [5-3]
2015-2016 Season [2-2]
2014-2015 Season [1-4]
2013-2014 season [3-2]
2012-2013 Season [1-0]
2011-2012 Season [3-2]
2010-2011 Season [3-6]
2009-2010 Season [4-7]
2008-2009 Season [2-7]
2007-2008 Season [7-7]
2006-2007 Season [5-9]
2005-2006 Season [8-8]
2004-2005 Season [10-4]

CIO/CTO Roundtable

On Thursday evening, I attended a local CIO/CTO Roundtable at Paul Martin's American Grill organized by Dave Sanders. The event was hosted by Abhi Agarwal, CEO of Consummate Technologies.

The guest speaker was Joe Collingwood. He talked about increasing regulations that CIO’s need to be aware of and be prepared to address in the coming years. Topics included: an overview of GDPR and the CCPA; the differences between the two; what to look out for with GDPR; how CCPA is likely to change; consumer rights in terms of policy, process and potential impact on IT; and finally some lessons learned from GDPR.

Menu from The Inn at Little Washington

Mary's Rock Trail Hike

I generated this map of our short hike on the Mary's Rock Trail on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia. We hiked part of the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire and Connecticut last fall.

California Historical Landmark #183

With my job change in the fall of 2016, I haven't been traveling quite as much. Taking advantage of Sharon and Janie being in Wichita, I decided to spend the afternoon tracking down a number of historical markers. I ended up visiting eight markers, including: First Tehama County Courthouse [#183]; Hooker Oak [#313]; Old Suspension Bridge [#314]; Tidwell's Bar [#330]; Last Yahi Indian [#809]; Posted Water Notice Site [#831]; Chico Forestry Station and Nursery [#840.2], and; Mother Orange Tree of Butte County [#1043].

First Tehama County Courthouse
California State Historical Landmark #183
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
See this location on Google Maps
This landmark is located 75 feet east of the intersection of 2nd and D Streets, Tehama, California. There is three other California State Historical Landmarks in Tehama County. The GPS coordinates for this location are 40° 01' 35.0" N 122° 07' 16.9" W.



Tehama County's Board of Supervisors and other county officials first met in rented rooms in the Union Hotel, later called Heider House. The county seat remained here from May 1856 to March 1857, when it was moved to Red Bluff. The Heider House was destroyed by fire in 1908. This property is part of original land grant to Robert Hasty Thomes, 1844.

2018-2019 Kings Season

During the 2018-2019 Sacramento Kings season, the Kings
are 2 and 0 in games which I saw in person, including:

REGULAR SEASON

10/28/2018: Kings-116, Wizards-112 - Sharon

11/09/2017: Kings-121, Timberwolves-110 - Sharon, Larkin and Cindy

2017-2018 Season [5-2]
2016-2107 Season [5-3]
2015-2016 Season [2-2]
2014-2015 Season [1-4]
2013-2014 season [3-2]
2012-2013 Season [1-0]
2011-2012 Season [3-2]
2010-2011 Season [3-6]
2009-2010 Season [4-7]
2008-2009 Season [2-7]
2007-2008 Season [7-7]
2006-2007 Season [5-9]
2005-2006 Season [8-8]
2004-2005 Season [10-4]

Camp Fire

I spent Saturday on a series of conference calls coordinating the relocation of some hardware from the hospital data center in Paradise to Roseville enterprise data center. I spent a long Saturday night at work with team racking, cabling, configuring and restarting a pickup truck load of hardware from Paradise.

Nurses fleeing fast-moving Camp Fire scramble to save patients — and themselves https://t.co/8mGAFXeqhQ

— Mark Heringer (@heringermr) November 12, 2018

2018 Kings versus Timberwolves

Larkin, Cindy, Sharon and I went to the Sacramento Kings versus Minnesota Timberwolves NBA game. We met at Il Fornaio for dinner before the game. I had a risotto dish with beef off the regional menu.

When we got your seats, the Timberwolves were leading by the score of 9 to 1. The Kings went on to miss 11 of their first 14 shots. Playing fast, the Kings turned it around and lead most of the second half by double digits. They almost blew it at the end, but held on to win by the score of 121 to 110.

Willie Cauley-Stein was the leading scorer for the Kings. In 29 minutes, he had 25 points on 11 for 16 from the field, 1 for 1 from three and 2 for 4 from the free throw line. Cauley-Stein had 5 rebounds.

All five of the Kings starters (Fox, Bjelica, Shumpert and Hield) scored 14 points or more. I was confused about the rotation, but Kings coach Dave Joerger may have been trying to get things going after the slow shooting start.

Karl Anthony Towns was the leading scorer for the Timberwolves. He had 39 points on 15 for 27 from the field, 2 for 5 from three and 7 for 7 from the free throw line. Towns had 19 rebounds, including 9 offensive rebounds!?!

I was shocked at how big Jimmy Bulter looks. He is listed at 6' 8" and 232 pounds. I am not sure that I have ever seen him play in person before... [He was traded to the 76ers the next day.]

The four of us were in row B, seats 11, 12, 13 and 14 in section 108. We connected with Snipes and Hunter at halftime.

The Kings now have two wins and no losses in games that I have seen in person during the 2018-2019 season. My goal continues to be to see at last one game a month.

Neighborhood Book Club

Sharon is part of a neighbor book club that meets about every two months. Thursday night, they met at our house to discuss Origin by Dan Brown. Sharon selected the book.

Using Jack's projector, a screen that Debi brought and a web site called Dan Brown Origin Visual Companion, they discussed the book by walking through the places, works of art and symbols that Dan Brown describes in the novel. Other than Sharon, no one else in the group had been to Barcelona.

California State Senate District 6 Results

I voted

Eric Frame for State Senator

Dinner with Liz

Sharon met Liz for dinner at Mikuni on Fair Oaks.

A Star is Born

Late Sunday afternoon, Sharon and I went to see A Star is Born at the Century Arden 14. We are kicking off our annual pilgrimage to see all of the Oscar nominated films. All of the early lists of potential Best Picture nominees that I have seen so far have included this film.

Directed by Bradley Cooper in his directorial debut, it is remake of the 1937 film of the same name. It stars Cooper, Lady Gaga, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, and Sam Elliott. The story follows a hard-drinking musician (Cooper) who discovers and falls in love with a young singer (Gaga).

It marks the fourth remake of the original 1937 film including a 1954 musical, the 1976 rock musical and a 2013 Bollywood romance film. I have never seen he 1976 version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

Sharon loved the movie and gave it a "10." She is a big Bradley Cooper fan. I also enjoyed the film, although not as much as Sharon... I was surprised by the quality of the music and realism of the concert scenes. The performances by Cooper and Lady Gaga are very good. I will be shocked if the movie is not nominated for Best Picture.

CarMax

One of the sales people that we worked with at Niello last weekend mentioned that he sold his truck to CarMax. On Monday, Sharon drove the Lexus RX400h and took it to CarMax at lunch. I met her there. They gave us a quote to buy the car. At that point, we realized that there was still a lien on the car with the DMV. After scrambling over the course of the week to get some updated paperwork from the lender, Sharon found the pink slip that they sent us in 2013.

I took the car back to CarMax early Saturday morning. In a very quick transaction, CarMax gave us a check for three times what the dealer had offered to give us in trade.

I had some mixed emotions. I drove that car for 10 1/2 years and 230,000 miles. As I have said before, it has been the most reliable vehicle I ever owned...

Celebrating Janie's Birthday

Sharon took Janie to dinner for her birthday. They met at Allora.

They split a salad and raviolo [LOBSTER, PANCETTA, WILD MUSHROOM, PUMPKIN, BLOOMSDALE SPINACH]. For entrees, Sharon had black cod [OXTAIL-ONION MARMALADE, POTATO GNOCCHI, PARSNIP, CIPOLLINI, OXTAIL BRODO], while Janie had Niman Ranch pork cheeks [RYE SPATULA, PERSIMMON CHUTNEY, LACINATO KALE].

Throwback Thursday - Virginia Beach - March 1988

Sunday after the Georgetown Family Weekend, Sharon and I had dinner with Barb and Rob Nooter and spent the night. Barb pulled out one of their wedding albums. Hunter, Tomasin and I were groomsmen in their wedding more than thirty years ago.

Halloween 2018

#SAD!: Doonesbury in the Time of Trump

Taking a break from the 1,000 page third volume of the biography of Lyndon Johnson, I read #SAD!: Doonesbury in the Time of Trump by Gary Trudeau in October. As I have said before, when I was working for the farm credit banks in Sacramento in the 1980s, I used to stop every morning and buy a San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle had Doonesbury, while the Sacramento Bee refused to publish it. One of my highlights every morning was reading the comic strip.

Trudeau started using Donald Trump as a character in his comic strip on September 14, 1987. #SAD! is a "sequel" to Yuge!: 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump that was published before the 2016 presidential election.

#SAD! tracks Trump's victory, the transition and POTUS’s First 500 Days. It is organized into four sections: The Gathering Shitstorm; American Carnage; Team of Deplorables, and; Stormy Weather.

While I enjoyed it, this book is not as good as Yuge! Given that Trudeau is only drawing a Sunday comic at this point, there isn't as much content to draw from in the last two years as there was for the first book. As a result, this edition feels thin.

Volvo XC60 T8

Since the Lexus turned 10 years old in June, I have been starting to think more seriously about getting a new car. My requirements included an all-wheel-drive SUV that supported CarPlay. I wanted another hybrid and, if possible, a plug-in hybrid. The list of vehicles that checks all of these boxes is small. I have been focusing over the last two months on the 2019 Volvo XC60 T8.

Saturday morning, Sharon and I went to Niello Volvo and test drove a black Momentum XC60 T8. This is the base model. We were both pretty impressed.

Afterwards, we walked around the lot and looked at a number of other models. In addition to the Onyx Black Momentum, they had one other Ice White Momentum. They had five R-Design models: Bursting Blue; two Crystal White Pearls; Fusion Red, and; Onyx Black. There was a pretty wide variety of different options on the five cars. The R-Design is a step up in trim from the Momentum. They didn't have any Inscriptions in stock; these are the top of the line models.

During my run on Saturday afternoon, I decided to go back and figure out the cost. We headed to the dealer after lunch on Sunday and drove one of the white R-Designs. We spent about an hour running different lease and purchase scenarios. I finally settled on buying the vehicle.

Lexus RX400h Day 3,772

On Friday, the Lexus turned over 230,000 miles. Without a doubt, it has been the most reliable vehicle that I ever owned. Nevertheless, after more than ten and a half years, it is getting worn. Although it still looks pretty good from a distance, it is looking rough around the edges up close.

On Monday, just before we left for the Georgetown Family Weekend, the Lexus wouldn't start. I struggled getting it into the dealer. Although the problem was fairly minor, I have a sense that it is a harbinger of things to come...

Farm Credit Dinner

Saturday night, Sharon and I went to Holly and Van's for a Farm Credit Dinner. In addition to Holly and Van, the group included Larry and Jeana Hultquist, Sue and Mike Olsen, Margaret Heiser and her husband Dave, Susie Connelly, Sharon and I. Sharon worked with all of the women plus Larry in the legal department at the Farm Credit Banks.

Sharon worked for the Farm Credit Banks from 1988 to 2002. I worked for the Farm Credit Banks from 1980 to 1998.

I finished the evening with Mike watching game four of the World Series. Trailing 4 to 0 in the top of the seven, the Boston Red Sox scored 9 runs to win the game by the score of 9 to 6.