sacbee.com -- Technology -- New Sony Walkman to rival Apple's iPod

Larkin sent me a link to a New Sony Walkman to designed to rival Apple's iPod. The NW-HD1 will be the smallest 20-GB player on the market. It is slightly larger than a credit cardm less than half an inch thick.

Kurt and Joy's 20th Wedding Anniversary

Today is Kurt and Joy Snipes' 20th Wedding Anniversary!

I sent them an electronic anniversary card from Blue Mountain and then called and talked to Kurt on the phone at the end of the day. Today is also their son Keith's 15th birthday.

Wednesday night, Morgan, Jack, Sharon and I went to dinner at Romas Pizzeria. When we were in Logan's a couple of weeks ago, the person making a balloon animal for Jack told us that this was the best pizza place in Sacramento. The pizza was excellent!

Running Amok

Morgan got into a confrontation with her mother on Monday night and started walking with nothing more than a cell phone that died just as she got coverage. Before the cell phone died, she had sent me an SMS message to pick her up, but I then I could not get in touch with her to find out where she was. By the time, she sent me a message she had already been walking for almost an hour and a half. Coordinating with Drew, he eventually picked her up after she had been walking for more than two hours. Drew took her to a friend's house where she spent Monday night. I picked up Morgan up in the middle of the day on Tuesday. I talked very briefly to her mother letting her know where Morgan was.

Although I do not agree with Morgan's strategy of hiking away from her mom's house, it is difficult for me not to be somewhat sympathetic. The events surrounding her mother's life over the last nine months are bizarre and have resulted in them moving three times in the last six months.

Cisco Executive Briefing

A large group from Sutter Health spent the day at the Cisco Systems Executive Briefing Center in San Jose. The agenda topics included: Sutter Health's environment and expectations; Cisco Systems' Storage Networking Current State, Direction, and Value for Customers; a Case Study: Cisco Systems' Information Technology; a tour of their data center with a focus on Storage Architecture, a review of management processes and tools; and a design discussion.

I came to two miscellaneous conclusions from the presentations. First, we need to be looking at technology that will allow us to use iSCSI connectors to access the SAN. Second, Sutter needs to incorporate more low end storage like NAS into our storage model.

Lazy Sunday

We had a lazy Sunday. Sharon spent part of the afternoon buying and taking food to her parents.

After helping get Jack to bed, I took off for the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in San Jose. We have another meeting with Cisco in San Jose at 8:00 a.m. on Monday.

By going down on Sunday night, I hoped to avoid the traffic. I surprised to find myself in stop and go traffic going through Tracy and the Altamont Pass at 10:00 p.m. at night!

Hulquist's

We went to a graduation party that Larry and Jeana Hultquist had for their daughters. The oldest graduated from Humboldt State, while the youngest graduated from high school.

Waxy.org: Daily Log: InfocomBot for AOL Instant Messenger

Waxy.org: Daily Log: InfocomBot for AOL Instant Messenger

Public Toilet

A public toilet with one way mirrors in Basel, Switzerland!

BBC NEWS: Art's glass toilet tests courage (include video footage)

Las Vegas SUN: VegasBeat -- Timothy McDarrah: O'Neal may find deal fit for a King

From the Las Vegas Sun, O'Neal may find deal fit for a King.

Another Marathon?

I still have some notion of running another marathon. I have been starting to think about running the California International Marathon in December 2006 and then taking another shoot at the American River 50 in April of 2007.

I had a strong run at lunch today. After a mile plus warm-up, I run successive miles at 8:56, 8:48, 8:38 and 8:20 followed by a mile plus cool-down. Running with Wallen last weekend was good for working on my speed.

Larkin July 1983

Joe Larkin, July 1983

Kings Update

According to today's Sacramento Bee, the Kings have only six players under contract: Chris Webber, Brad Miller, Mike Bibby, Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson and Stojakovic. The Kings are in the process of formulating a qualifying offer for Darius Songilia that will allow them to match any offer he receives. The Kings hope to re-sign unrestricted free agent Vlade Divac, but that it is not a given.

The Sacamento Bee article went on to say that the Kings could have their sights set on guard. In the NBA draft tonight, the Kings drafted two guards: Kevin Martin and Ricky Minard.

Right after the Kings drafted Martin, ESPN was showing film of him and the analysts were comparing him physically to Doug Christie.

Here is a summary on both players from ESPN:

Kevin Martin
SHOOTING GUARD (6-7, 185) WESTRN CAROLINA
SELECTED BY SACRAMENTO, ROUND 1, PICK 26, OVERALL PICK 26

Notes: One of the best scorers in the country both his sophomore and junior seasons. Averaged 22.8 ppg as a sophomore. Ranked second nationally in scoring this season with a 24.8 ppg average.

Upside: An explosive scorer that gets it done from the perimeter and by relentlessly taking the ball to the basket. Averaged nearly 10 free throw attempts per game shooting at an 82 percent clip. Has a long wing span that allows him to defend multiple positions. A very good athlete.

Downside: His thin, rail-like body concerns some scouts. His build reminds some of Detroit's Tayshaun Prince. He takes a lot of three pointers but doesn't shoot them with much accuracy. He shot 33 percent from behind the arc last season; 31 percent the year before. His assist-to-turnover ratio is awful.

Ricky Minard
SHOOTING GUARD (6-4, 198) MOREHEAD ST
SELECTED BY SACRAMENTO, ROUND 2, PICK 19, OVERALL PICK 48

Notes: Led the Ohio Valley Conference in scoring (21.8 ppg), and was fourth in rebounding (7.3 rpg) and assists (5.1 apg). Originally declared for the 2003 NBA draft before withdrawing.

Positives: Great athleticism. Does a little bit of everything. His 5.1 assist average have some scouts wondering if he could be the second coming of Ronald Murray. Has a nice shot from midrange. Creates most of his scoring opportunities off the dribble. Good defender. Tough.

Negatives: Size is an issue. He's turnover prone. A very streaky shooter with questionable NBA three point range.

An ESPN analyst grading the draft gives the Kings a "B-". The analyst actually prefers Minard to Martin.

The Condensed Bill Clinton

The Condensed Bill Clinton - Slate reads it so you don't have to.

Larkin's Birthday

Joe Larkin's Birthday

Sharon took off for San Francisco in the late afternoon. She is staying overnight in the city and attending a seminar on intellectual property rights on Thursday.

The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman

American Express is producing short films starring Jerry Seinfield and Superman. The second webisode titled "Hindsight is 20/20" can be found on the web at The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman.

Funeral Services for Jennifer

I attended the funeral services for the employee who died in an automobile accident last week.

Sharon and her two brothers took her parents out to dinner at Silva's Sheldon Inn for her mother's birthday; her mom will be 83 tomorrow.

The Kings lost swingman Gerald Wallace in the expansion draft. The team has also been informed by guard Anthony Peeler that he will not exercise his contract option and will become a free agent July 1.

Orinda Country Club

I spent the day playing golf in a Sutter Hospice and VNA Charity golf tournament at the Orinda Country Club with John Hummel, Todd Peterson and Debbie Sleigh. We were eight over with nine boggeys, eight pars and one birdie. I putted better than normal (sinking a couple of long putts to help us save par), but could not get my drives going off the tee.

Father's Day 2004

We had a very lazy Father's Day. After working on the house and yard for big parts of the last three weekends (plus lots of weeknights), we did as little as possible. Sharon and Jack got me a new pair of sunglasses for Father's Day.

A precious few you should hold on...

The Wallens took off early Sunday morning to go to his parents in Redding. Having the Wallens stay with us for a couple of days, talking about their upcoming twenty fifth wedding anniversary and going to Connor's wedding made me think of the lyrics to a song:

"Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young."

Photo Album from Connor's Wedding

I put together an on-line photo album from Connor's wedding at:

http://www.heringer.org/connorwedding/index.htm

Brunch and then off to the Wedding

After our morning run, Wallen, Nathan, Jack and I took off to go to the grocery store to pick up a couple more items for brunch. We stopped by the hotel where most of the wedding party was staying. Everyone was recovering from the rehearsal dinner and trying to figure out where Mikey was; he disappeared for over an hour claiming that he was working out in the fitness room.

Eventually winding our way back to the house, we had a brunch for a number of the people going to the wedding. In addition to the four Wallens, Greg Chabrier stopped by with his two youngest, Hunter came by after Loren's basketball game with a brief appearance by Danny, and Drew and Kaylen stopped off on their way back from Irvine.

Wallen, Jack and I ended up running Hunter out to where the groomsmen were getting ready. This turned out to be fortuitous. Geselbracht had gotten his signals crossed and was not where the limo was picking up the groomsmen. Unfortunately, Geselbracht had Mikey's tux! We took Mikey back to the hotel to meet with Geselbracht.

Afterwards, we rushed back to the house with just enough time to get ready to go to the wedding. Leaving Jack with a babysitter, Sharon and I followed by the Wallens took off for the wedding about 3:40 p.m. The wedding was held at the Wheeler's home just off the River Road. It was a very nice wedding and reception. There were a number of people at the wedding that I have not seen in years, including Pete Bradley, Tib Belza, Ray Perez, Paul Salisbury and Steve Wiley. Sharon and I had a great time. We headed up getting home a little after 10:00 p.m.

8:08's

Wallen and I were up and out for another early run. We were about 20 seconds faster through the first three miles, running the third mile in 7:58. I faded a little in the second half and we ended up running 6.4 miles in 52:01 for a an 8:08 pace.

Dinner

Jill, Becky and Nathan flew in on Friday night. Sharon made cornflake chicken, scalloped potatoes and asparagus for dinner.

8:03

Up early, Wallen and I went out for an early run. We covered 6.4 miles in 51:30, an average pace of 8:03! Wallen was talking and laughing the whole time, while most of my responses consisted of grunts. I am sure that I will not be able to walk tomorrow...

Dinner at Moxie's

It is going to be a busy weekend. With Connor's wedding on Saturday, a number of people are coming into town. Wallen flew in Thursday afternoon. He, Sharon and I went out to dinner at Moxie's. The food was excellent.

Apple Macintosh 128k

As part of getting the guest room cleaned out for the Wallens, I came across an original Apple Macintosh 128k. I got this computer in September of 1984 about two and a half months before Drew was born. It is almost twenty years old!





The guest room closet also included an IBM Thinkpad 765 that I used from 1996 through 1998 and an Apple Newton Messagepad 2100. I have started saving some of the documents from both of these machines. The documents include a long letter I wrote in August of 1991 detailing the break-up of my first marriage over the first nine months of that year and trips notes from my trip in April of 1995 to visit the Nooter's in Moscow, our honeymoon trip to Italy in October of 1996 and our first anniversary trip to Grand Cayman in October of 1997.

Financial Plan

Sharon and I met with our financial planner this morning, Adam Andelin, to work on the annual update to our financial plan. This is something that we started in 2002. I have been very pleased with the work that they have done for us. Adam is an associate of David Stone and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a financial planner.

Updates from the Nooter's

Barb Nooter has posted a number of letters describing their experiences living in Tanzania at:

http://nooter.blogspot.com/

She has also posted a number of pictures from their safari, of their house in Dar es Salam and of their day at the goat races! You can find these pictures at:

http://nooter.textamerica.com/

Unsettled day at work

Monday was a difficult day at work; a woman who works for one of the teams that reports to me was killed in an automobile accident. I found out from human resources shortly after I walked in the door and before anyone on any of the teams. I spent most of the morning talking to the managers that report to me and getting them to talk to their individual teams. Donna has largest group of employees, including the team where the woman worked; she spent the most time talking to groups of employees.

Another day working on the house

We spent a long day working on the house, including finishing up the painting, power washing the front entry and working in the yard. I ended the day after 11:00 p.m. getting a new window shade hung in the guest bedroom.

Miscellaneous Links

Jack enjoyed playing Railroad Tycoon this weekend!

Another animated Beatles video!

How AirTunes Works

end of the season party for baseball

With Connor's wedding next weekend and the Wallen staying with us, Sharon and I are making a push to do a few more things around the house. We worked in the morning cleaning up the guest room.

In the afternoon, we went to a party for the end of Jack's baseball season. The kids swam and played in a bouncy house. After a barbecue, the coaches passed out the trophies.


After the party, we spent the rest of the day painting two more walls RED!

Bush/Zombie Reagan 2004

The campaign has begun; check out the Bush/Zombie Reagan 2004
web site!

Make sure that you read the Frequently Asked Questions!

2004 SHSS IT Golf Tournament

Three out of the last four years, Donna and Kevin Gainsley, Sharon and I have played in the SHSS IT Golf Tournament. Last year, Kevin, Donna and I played with Jane Wong. This is the first time I have played golf since Rudy put together the group to play with the CEO last November!

Given how little Donna, Sharon or I have played, we did pretty well. We were +4; +1 on the front nine and +3 on the back nine. Although we failed to get a birdie, I think that this is the best score we have posted in the tournament. Rudy, Lew, Dave and Sam Samms posted a 56, -10.

Jack's last day of kindergarten!

Today was Jack's last day of kindergarten!

Apple - AirPort Express

One of the things that I have looking for over the last year is a device that would let me distribute music within our house using the 802.11 wifi network. When Larkin and I toured the Intel's Information Technology Innovation Center, they had one piece of hardware on display for distributing music using wifi, but I could never find the vendor on the web.

Airport Express

Apple has announced a piece of hardware that comes close to what I think I want. The AirPort Express with AirTunes brings your iTunes music in a PC into wherever you have a stereo or a set of powered speakers. Based on the documentation, you connect your sound system to the audio port on the AirPort Express Base Station using an audio cable and AirTunes lets you play your iTunes music through your powered speakers wirelessly. iTunes automatically detects the connection of your remote speakers, so you just have to select them in the popup list that appears at the bottom of the iTunes window and click play. The Airport Express is not shipping until July; I have one on order.

I am a big fan of iTunes. I have bought about one album a month from iTunes since the windows version was released. More importantly, I have not bought music from any other source during this period.

Monkey Bar

Rudy organized a going away party after work for Dave Hamilton at the Monkey Bar. Dave is leaving Sutter to start his own consulting firm.

10k plus at lunch

I have a 6.4 mile out and back that I will run at lunch when I am at Mather and can create a hole in my schedule. About 2/3's of this course is on an old bike trail that loops around the east end of the Mather airport. Today, I cruised out running about 8:30s for the first four miles and then carried a 7:52 over the fifth mile. This is a pretty good time running by myself; normally, I have to chasing a rabbit like Wallen to have that kind of split!

Exchange mail server down!

Jack played in his sixteenth and final baseball game of the season!



About 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, we lost one of the exchange mail servers that support about 700 people, including the CEO, COO, CFO and CIO. We have a number of distributed exchange servers that support almost 25,000 users.

It is amazing how important e-mail has become as a tool for communicating and documenting. The level of angst that senior management started to exhibit after only a couple of hours without email (sent real time to their blackberries!) is intellectually interesting.

Not only does this team report to me, but I was executive on call for the week. With the system still down Tuesday evening, I ended up heading to the data center about 11 p.m. to run incident command. Working with Microsoft, the team finally got the server up and running a little after 1:00 a.m. By the time, I got back home and in bed it was close to 2:30 a.m. Unfortunately, I had meetings at CPMC in San Francisco. I dragged myself down to the bay area for the meetings and then back to Jack's game, LONG DAY...

Morgan's schedule for her senior year in high school

When school starts in August, Morgan will be a senior at Union Mine High School. Her schedule for next year includes:

jazz band - zero block;

ap literature;

ap statistics;

choir;

drama 1;

theater tech;

dance 1 & 2;

italian 3 - independent study;

intermediate instruments (for practice time); and,

gov & econ - graduation requirement.

The class schedule from her just finished junior year is here!

Mazatlan February 1988

Moving some stuff around in one of the bedrooms, I came across a box of pictures, including these pictures taken in February of 1988 during a trip to Mazatlan.

The fishing on this trip was a very different experience than the recent Cabo trip. Rather than a big, comfortable boat in the middle of the Cortez Sea, we were in little tubs just outside the harbor. While the boat with Connor, Geselbracht and Bachman actually caught a couple of nice fish, the boat with Chabrier, Hunter, Nooter and I caught nothings but eels. We ran our own contest for most eels and biggest eel!

Clicking on the photo will open a larger copy!

More painting

I spent a couple hours after dinner taping and painting. Unbeknownst to me until this weekend, the project also included painting the niche four different colors.

We spent all day working on the inside of the house.

One of the books that I have read over the last month is My Losing Season by Pat Conroy. The story is mostly about Conroy's senior year playing basketball for the Citadel with flashbacks to other parts of his life. The book is very well written. It makes my realize how poorly written some of the other books I have been reading are. I need to stop wasting my time reading books like Tom Clancy's Op Center, Net Force and Power Plays novels!

My reading list from the last twelve years has been updated and is on-line at: http://www.heringer.org/books.htm.

Logan's Roadhouse

Jack played in his fifteenth baseball game of the season. With one game to go, he has definitely made a lot of progress with his hitting and fielding. Like the rest of the team, he is still a little unclear on the situational stuff (i.e. which base to throw to).



We spent the rest of the day making a run to home depot and working on the house. We went out to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. The chain claims that the restaurants are modeled after 1930's and 1940's roadhouses.

I have included a couple of examples in the past of google bombs, including miserable failure, waffles and Jew. Now someone has turned the whole idea into a contest. DarkBlue.com is giving away an Apple Mini iPod and a Sony Flat Screen Monitor to anyone who can take their page to #1 for a non-commercial, nonsensical search term - currently with no search results. In my feeble attempt to help someone win, I am linking to Nigritude Ultramarine.

Still working on the Upstairs Hallway

I spent another hour plus after dinner working on the upstairs hallway. All of the moulding is now in place. I have gotten everything to the point where I can finish the project tomorrow by touching up the paint. With house guests coming in two weeks, Sharon has plans to paint and repaint parts of the house. We will start on these projects tomorrow.

At work, we kicked off the budgeting for 2005 over the last two days. It is hard for me to start thinking about next year already. In the same breath, it is hard for me to believe that it is already June. Morgan finished her junior year in high school a week ago, Jack will complete kindergarten at end of the coming week, and Drew comes back from his first year at college in two weeks.

Generic Names for Soft Drinks by County

Generic Names for Soft Drinks by County

sacbee.com -- Sports -- Questions all around: Q&A with Rick Adelman

Larkin sent me a link to an interview in today's Sacramento Bee that Mark Kreidler did with King's Coach Rick Adelman. It is excellent. There are several quotes from Adelman that ring true to me, including:

And I think we obviously need one more big guy [me too!]. You look at our team, and I think it's pretty obvious that the area we got hurt in was people attacking the basket on us. So I think if we can become more athletic and become more of a factor at deterring people attacking the basket, it's certainly going to enhance our defense.

From my standpoint, I'd certainly like for him [Divac] to come back. I think he's so valuable to this team, on and off the court. He has had a huge impact on this team, and if you didn't have him, not only would you be missing a skilled player, but also the glue - a major part of the glue that held this team together.

you start with Mike Bibby and Doug Christie, and Peja, Webber, Brad (Miller) and Bobby - that's six solid, very solid NBA players who all are proven. That's a heck of a lot more than most teams have...

sacbee.com -- Sports -- Divac isn't ready to quit

There is an article in today's Sacramento Bee titled Divac isn't ready to quit by Marty McNeal. In the article, Divac says:

I'm going to play one more season... At the end of next year, I'll see how I feel. My first choice, like I've always said, is to play with the Kings. I want to retire here if possible. I love the town and the fans.

More Baseball

Jack played in his fourteenth baseball game of the year.

There are some pictures on Drew's web site from his appearance at the Cosmic Cafe on March 28th. Drew has an album of five songs that he worked on over Christmas break. He recorded a couple of more songs during spring break. Once school is out in June, Drew will be pulling together an album of 10 or 12 songs.

Morgan's SAT scores

Morgan got a 720 verbal(!) and a 510 math on her SATs. The SAT test will be changing in less than a year. The perfect score will rise from 1,600 to 2,400. The extra 800 points cover a new, third section designed to evaluate writing prowess adding 45 more minutes to the three-hour exam. The new section includes a a 25-minute timed essay.

I spent most of the day at Glen Cove for the SOMA Meeting; this is the steering committee for Sutter Health's outpatient electronic medical record project.

Multimedia Links

Here are a couple of interesting multimedia links from the web. The first is a flash cartoon video of the Beatles' Come Together. The second is a movie trailer for The Incredibles, a Disney/Pixar animated film coming this fall.

Divac to the Lakers or Clippers?

At the end of Mark Heisler's column titled In the East, There's No Guarantee of Offense in the May 30 edition of the Los Angeles Times, he says that:

"Clubhouse leader Vlade Divac is telling friends he'll be a Laker or a Clipper next season."

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

I have added a RSS feed to the right sidebar of this page of the The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. Everyday, a new page of Da Vinci's notebooks will be shown. There are 1,565 pages. At a page a day it would take a little over four years.

Still working on the hallway

I spent the lion's share of the day working on the project in the upstairs hall. It is not that big a project I am just slow. About half of today's work involved cutting moulding to fit into half a dozen odd corners and then painting it. I probably have about three more hours of work, including all of the touch-ups.

Afternoon at the Bell's

One or twice a month, Sharon will serve as an eucharistic minister for communion during Mass. Today was one of those days. Sharon, Jack and I attended Mass.

Afterwards we stopped and bought some oysters and then headed to the Bell's. We spent the afternoon hanging out in their pool. Jack had a great time running and dunking the basketball while jumping into the pool.

Matt cooked up the oysters as an appetizer and made ribs for dinner. He finished up by making bananas foster for dessert!

Pictures from the Bell's

Joe Maloof - 'The ship's not sinking'

With Connor's wedding coming up in three weeks and the possibility of some house guests, we are making a push to get the house in shape. We spent most of the day working on a project in the upstairs hallway that we started more than six months ago!

After getting Jack to bed, Sharon and I watched Something's Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. Keaton was nominated for a Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film.

It is going to be interesting to see what the Kings do with the team in the off-season. There is an article in today's Sacramento Bee that suggests the changes will not be drastic. Joe Maloof says the pieces are still in place for the team to contend for an NBA title. In the article Joe tells the story of running into John Madden at a bar mitzvah shortly after the Timberwolves knocked the Kings out of the playoffs.

"And he [John Madden] says to us [Joe and Gavin Maloof], 'Lemme tell ya something: You guys are so close. You were four free throws away from going to the Western Conference finals.' He says, 'Be careful. Don't do drastic things. This is still one of the top teams in the NBA.' "

I do not agree; I believe that the Kings need to add a younger, more athletic big player like Zach Randolph.

Drew's UCI Dorm Room

Up early, Drew took me to the Orange County Airport. I flew back to Sacramento on a 7:15 a.m. flight and headed into work. I am very proud of what both Drew and Morgan have accomplished academically and artistically.

Drew's Dorm Room at UCI

UC Irvine

I took a late afternoon flight on Southwest Airlines from Sacramento to Orange County. Drew's girl friend, Kaylen, picked me up as I walked out of the airport.

Drew and I headed over to the bookstore to get some UCI t-shirts for Jack and I. We had dinner at a chinese restaurant across the street from the dorms. Afterwards, we walked around the campus talking and catching up.

I spent the night on the floor of his dorm room.

Jack's thirteenth baseball game of the season!

Jack played this thirteenth baseball game of the year. He had two solid hits; the second hit, an opposite field hit to right, was his hardest and farthest of the year. He played infield one inning and had one unassisted out and threw another kid out at first.

I spent the day in San Francisco for a West Bay CIO Meeting.

Liz and Sharon wandered back from Monterey after lunch.

I have published a photo album from the trip to Cabo at:

http://www.heringer.org/cabo2004/index.htm

Sharon and Liz spent another day in Monterey and Carmel. They shopped, went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, had dinner in Carmel and dessert at the Pebble Beach Country Club.

Liz and Sharon to Monterey

With Liz leaving on Thursday to go back to Holland, Liz and Sharon took off in the late morning for a quick trip to Monterey and Carmel. They stayed at the Del Monte Pines. Depending on which web site you look at this is listed as a one or two star motel... They were trying to economize and to some extent regretted it.

They had dinner at a restaurant on wharf in the Monterey marina.

Heading Home

After three late nights and two early mornings, no one was moving very fast on Sunday morning. Most of us did not until stir after 8:00 a.m. Shortly after we got up, Tomasin and I went to the Marina to get some sandwiches made for the flight back. My efforts to find an ATM machine that would take my card continued to be unsuccessful.

Bachman had an 8:00 a.m. commercial flight back and was up and gone before anyone else was stirring. Geselbracht's flight out was not until Monday afternoon. We had a leisurely breakfast at the Hotel and then finished packing up, including stocking the ice chest with drinks and food for the ride home.

We grabbed a cab back to the San Jose de Cabo Airport. Loading up the plane, we took off a little before 11:00 a.m. We buzzed Cabo San Lucas and started up the Pacific Coast of Baja California. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get to Brown Field in San Diego. This is just over the border from Tijuana.

Everyone, including the pilot, spent most of the trip back reading their books. Greg has a very cool GPS system that was linked to the auto-pilot. He would set the destination into the GPS, fix the altitude and lean back and relax. Tomasin and I lamented that we had forgotten to bring a cribbage board.



We cleared customs, fueled up the plane and took off for Sacramento Executive Airport. This leg was about 2 1/2 hours. Losing an hour from Cabo due to the time change, we landed at Sacramento Executive Airport about 7:10 p.m. Sharon and Jack were waiting for me; they were leaning up against the chain link fence as we taxied to the transit parking area.

Although it was a quick trip, it was a great adventure with a tremendous group of guys that I have known for more than 27 years.

A Striped Marlin!

At 6:00 a.m., someone was pounding on the door to get us up to go fishing! Hunter, Chabrier, Bachman and I walked down to the Marina. Chabrier had arranged for a boat to take us out bluewater fishing. The boat was chartered from Picante Bluewater Sportfishing. We headed out for about an hour to 20 miles out into the Sea of Cortez.

Within the first hour of fishing we hooked a marlin. After it was hooked, the marlin danced across the water and had a couple of spectacular jumps. Then it dove deep. I spent more than 30 minutes fighting the marlin before it was pulled into the boat. It was a 7 foot, 120 pound striped marlin. It was a very cool experience. After a couple of pictures, we released it back into the ocean.



Although we saw three more marlin's sunning themselves, we were not successful at interesting them in the bait or the lures. Additionally, we saw one other marlin that tail walked for almost a hundred yards; this was extremely cool. Chabrier said that the only reason that anyone could figure out about why they do this is because they can... It was a little disappointing that we did not catch anymore fish, but Chabrier pointed out that the last two times he was out they got skunked.

By the time, we walked back to the hotel, it was after 4:00 p.m. I had called Tomasin from the boat on the way in and they were already at The Office. After dropping off our stuff at the hotel, the four of us caught a cab to meet them.

One of the things that I will remember most about this trip is Geselbracht trying to buy up the entire supply of silver bracelets from the vendors on the beach. He ended up with 12 or 15 solid bracelets and almost two dozen linked bracelets. By Saturday night, I was convinced that his picture was posted somewhere. Everywhere we went on the beach, Geselbracht was shadowed by a number of vendors offering him more "almost free" bracelets.

Back to the hotel, we went to a late dinner at Margaritavilla. This restaurant is right on the marina. We sat upstairs with a great view of the surrounding area.

I had problems finding an ATM machine that would take my Wells Fargo card. Although Tomasin's BofA card worked great, I was unsuccessful with my card in half a dozen attempts at different machines. I spent part of this night wandering around and trying different ATM machines.

After dinner, we bar hopped. I was quickly running out of gas. Finally, I gave up and headed back to hotel by myself. Shortly after I left, two pickups loaded with policemen pulled up and went into the bar; the pickups raced pass me as I walked away. The policeman searched everyone and then left. We spent some time the next day trying to figure out what they were looking for and whether or not this would be legal in the United States.

A Day at the Office

Tomasin got me up about 7:15 a.m. for a death march up into a nice neighborhood in the hillside above Cabo San Lucas. The development is called Pedregal. Self described as "the premiere private residential community on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico." The neighborhood is full of large, beautiful homes overlooking the harbor, the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean.

Getting back to the hotel, we joined everyone for breakfast. After the late night, I decided to go back to the room and take a nap, rather than eat.

After breakfast, with Hunter leading, we started towards the beach looking for a place called The Office that they had been before. Hunter dragged us through the marina, along the channel that leads from the marina to open water and eventually to the south end of the main beach.

We started our way up the beach stopping at a couple of spots. Hunter decided to get a temporary henna tattoo of a horse head on his chest. This started a trend; everyone ended up getting different ones over the course of the next couple hours.

Eventually, we meandered up the beach to The Office. Geselbracht and Chabrier were already there and had staked out a table. We ended up sitting there for several hours, having lunch, and occasionally wandering down into the surf.



Tomasin and I took off in the late afternoon and walked about 12 blocks back to the hotel. We watched a large part of the Lakers versus Timberwolves game in the gazebo next to the pool. After the game, We headed back into town and had a late dinner at a place called Lobster Tacos. After dinner, we wandered around looking for an ATM and trying to hook up with the rest of the group by pub crawling through El Squid Roe and a number of other night spots.

Cabo or Bust!

Early Thursday morning, Sharon took me to Sacramento Executive Airport where I met up with Hunter and Connor. The game plan was for four of us to fly to San Jose del Cabo with Chabrier. Greg keeps his plane in Hayward; he flew from there to Santa Rosa to pick up Tomasin and then to Sacramento to pick us up. Chabrier has been flying since 1977, but this is the first time I have had the chance to fly with him. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw his plane. I was expecting a much smaller plane!



We left Sacramento a little after 9:00 a.m. and flew three and a half hours to San Felipe, Mexico. We spent about an hour on the ground going through customs and filling the plane with fuel. From San Felipe, we flew to San Jose del Cabo. I sat in the front with Greg on this leg of the trip. For three hours, we flew over Baja California at 9,500 feet. We might as well been over the dark side of the moon. Flying along the coast of the Sea of Cortez, there was mile after mile of nothing as we looked inland into Baja California. We landed in San Jose del Cabo about 5:00 p.m. mountain time.

Catching a cab from the private air terminal, we got to the hotel before 6 p.m. Geselbracht had reserved three rooms at Mar de Cortez. The Hotel Mar de Cortez was among the first three hotels in Cabo San Lucas when it was a quaint fishing village. It is located about three blocks from the Marina. Geselbracht and Bachman were waiting for us at the hotel when we got there.

We spent a couple of hours hanging out in and around the pool before starting to explore the town. Somehow in the course of the wandering around, I never really got any dinner. It ended up being a late night with a number of us staggering back to the room a little before 1:00 a.m.

Jack played in his eleventh baseball game of the season this evening. The best thing about this was that it kept me from having to watch most of game seven between the Kings and the Wolves.

Barb has posted a series of letters that she has written during their first four plus months to the Nooter Family in Tanzania.

Kings Play-offs 2004

Sacramento Kings



Western Conference
Semi-Finals
Wolves Win 4-3

Game 1: Kings 104, Wolves 98
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
Bibby 33, Cassell 40, lead scoring
Final: Boxscore
Play by Play

Game 2: Wolves 94, Kings 89
Saturday, May 8, 2004
Level series goes west
to Arco on Monday
Final: Boxscore Play by Play

Game 3: Wolves 114, Kings 113
Monday, May 10, 2004
Garnett scores 15 of his 30
in fourth and OT
Final: Boxscore Play by Play

Game 4: Kings 87, Wolves 81
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Webber scores 28, Miller 20
Final: Boxscore Play by Play

Game 5: Wolves 86, Kings 74
Friday, May 14, 2004
Kings shoot 33.3 percent
from the field
Final: Boxscore Play by Play

Game 6: Kings 104, Wolves 87
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Fiery Kings outhustle Wolves
on both ends
Final: Boxscore Play by Play

Game 7: Wolves 83, Kings 80
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
KG: 32 points, 21 boards
Final: Boxscore Play by Play

Western Conference
First Round
Kings beat Mavs
4-1

Game 1: Kings 116, Mavs 105
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Kings Run away in Opener
Final: Boxscore Play by Play

Game 2: Kings 83, Mavs 79
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Last-second defense lifts Sac
Final: Boxscore
Play by Play

Game 3: Mavs 104, Kings 79
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Mavs rookie leads 3 with 20 points
Final: Boxscore
Play by Play

Game 4: Kings 94, Mavs 92
Monday, April 26, 2004
Nash's attempt to tie clangs off
Final: Boxscore
Play by Play

Game 5: Kings 119, Mavs 118
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Bibby hits for 36,
Nowitzki misses at buzzer
Final: Boxscore
Play by Play

I am working with Barb Nooter to help them get set-up with a blog and moblog (probably more technically a photo log) of their experiences in Tanzania. Barb has started to experiment and posted a couple of pictures from their safari in April at the Nooter's in Tanzania.

Here's a copy of one of the first pictures that she posted:

ESPN.com - NBA/PLAYOFFS2004 - Garnett apologizes for 'ready for war' proclamation

Garnett apologizes for 'ready for war' proclamation. Personally, I hope that this is a enough of a distraction to give the Kings a little edge on Wednesday night.

Sharon spent the evening at Janie's

Sharon spent the evening at Janie's looking at pictures from Janie's trip to England.

Kings' Peeler to miss Game 7 for elbowing KG

Anthony Peeler will miss Game 7 for elbowing KG. Initially, when we were at the game, I was not happy with the call. After watching the highlights on ESPNews several times while running on the treadmill, I have to agree that they made the right call and that Peeler deserves the suspension.

I also heard Grant Napear and Mike Lamb say on KHTK tonight that Bobby Jackson will not be playing in game seven.

About the upcoming game seven between the Kings and the Wolves, Garnett said. "Sitting in the house, I'm loadin' up the pump. I'm loadin' up the Uzi. I got a couple M-16s, a couple 9s. I got a couple joints with some silencers on them. I'm just loading clips, a couple grenades. I got a missile launcher with a couple of missiles. I'm ready for war." Given everything going on in the world, I am not sure that this is the right analogy to use...

Shaq and Duncan

Kings win game six!

Sharon, Jack and I went to game six of the Western Conference Semifinals between the Kings and the Timberwolves. It was an early 12:30 p.m. start. Sharon sat in one of suites with Lew Gasper and Rudy Jugoz, while Jack and I sat in our season ticket seats.


Last year, Larkin and I saw the Kings win game six of the semifinal series between the Kings and Dallas. This year, I got a chance to see the Kings beat the Wolves by a score of 104 to 87.

I get very frustrated with the inconsistency of the refereeing the NBA. As a fan, it seems that even within games they will call something a foul one time, but the next time let it go. On Friday, Derrick Martin and Brad Miller were involved in an exchange and both players were ejected from the game. Today, Anthony Peeler and Kevin Garnet were involved in an interchange. Peeler was ejected, while Garnett got a fragrant foul. It is hard for me to understand why if Garnett got a fragrant foul but he was not ejected from the game.

After the game, we dinner at Joe's Crab Shack on Front Street in Old Sacramento. We had a table on the deck overlooking the river and the Tower Bridge.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Jack played in his tenth baseball game of the season in the morning. He had two solid hits and made a nice stop while playing third base.

Sharon spent a large part of the day helping her mom with a garage sale and taking her dad grocery shopping. If you ever want to see Sharon get worked up on a subject, you should ask about her experiences taking her dad shopping.

We went to mass in the evening and then watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone after dinner. Both Sharon and I read the book this year. While I am more often than not disappointed by movie adaptations of books, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was one of the better efforts I have seen. The movie felt remarkably like the books.

Google Copernicus Center is hiring

Google Job Opportunities: Google Copernicus Center is hiring

Art Docent

Sharon spent part of the afternoon as one of the art docents for the kindergarten class. The lesson covered how artists show human feelings in their pictures. Each picture was of a mother and child. The Artists and their works included: Mother and Child by Pablo Picasso, The Cradle [shown below] by Berthe Morisot, and Eleanore and Son by Agnolo Bronzino.



The lesson plan talks about how the expressions on the faces and the body language showed love and caring. Sharon was amazed that the kids picked the third painting as their favorite.

For the art project, each kid drew expressions on four blank faces to show how a person can look happy, sad, angry and surprised. We particularly liked Jack's surprised face!

E-mail from Rob

I got an e-mail from Rob Nooter in Tanzania giving us a quick update and the following picture of Rob and Wes.



Although there are some open questions about how long Rob's assignment is going to last, I still have some fantasies about visiting them and going on safari in Spring of 2005.

LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD?

Even if you don't agree with the politics, here's a link to page titled LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD? with an interesting graphics effect.

Kings Win!

Sharon and I rarely get a chance to go to a Kings game together. She owns her share of the seasons tickets with her brother, while I own a share with Larkin. In fact, I can not remember the last time that the two of us went ot a game alone and sat together. We got a chance to do that tonight and see the Kings win. The Kings beat the Wolves by a score of 87 to 81.

The Kings team that showed up to play tonight is definitely not the team that lost 8 out of the last 12 games, but it is also not the same team that played against Dallas (Weber with 28 points, Miller with 20 points, Bibby with 12 assists, but no points from Bibby and Peja?). I am not sure what to expect from game 5 on Friday!

Which Kings team?

Sharon and I have tickets to the Kings play-off game tonight. The real question is which Kings team is going to show for the game tonight?!? The team that beat the Mavericks four of five and took game one from the Wolves in Minnesota or the the team that played the last six weeks of the season and lost the last two play-off games?

Miscellaneous

Drew spent a couple of days in the hospital last week in Orange County. He has been struggling off and on for a number of years with some symptoms that now appears to be some type of an autoimmune disease.

I spent the day in the bay area. I went to the Mills-Peninsula Hospital in Millbrae for a data center consolidation meeting and then CPMC in San Francisco for a change management meeting.

Sharon used The South Beach Diet Book that she got for Mother's Day to make a Chicken Capri recipe.

Google Blog

Here's a link to a official Google Blog. The May 11 post talks about a notable google bomb.

Kings lose...

Lew Gasper and I went to the third game of the Western Conference Semifinals between the Sacramento Kings and the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Kings roared back from a 12 point deficit with a little more than two minutes to go and tie the game, but lost 114 to 113 in overtime.

Brun sent this link refuting the chart that claimed to show that states that voted for Gore have higher average IQs than states that voted for Bush. The web site actually pulled the chart and issued an apology.

Mother's Day 2004

After Sharon went to the spin class at the club, Jack and I made her breakfast. We finally opened the bottle of Zardetto Spumanti that the Bell's gave us at New Year's! Sharon went to her parents to spend some time with her mother and then spent the afternoon shopping. She wanted to go out for dinner for Mother's day so we met her at Il Fornaio.

For Mother's Day, Sharon got a ficus tree, a miniature rose plant, The South Beach Diet Cookbook, a pot for plants that Jack made during the extended day and a picture and picture frame that Jack made in class.

Kings' Jackson says he'll return vs. Wolves

Kings guard Bobby Jackson told ESPN's Jim Gray on Saturday night that he will return to the roster for Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference semifinals against the Timberwolves, scheduled for next Friday May 14 in Minneapolis.

Las Vegas ruins a good outing by Cats' Ziegler

Jack played in his ninth baseball game of the season in the morning.

Sharon and I spent the afternoon working in the backyard.

Saturday evening, we took Jack to the River Cats game. It was Elk Grove little league night and there was a sellout crowd of 14,611. The place was a zoo. The event included a parade of all the teams around the field before the game. Jack's team had decided to get outfield grass seats and sit together. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the outfield grass was already packed. After a couple of false starts, we ended up finding some of Jack's team and sitting with them. We lasted until about the seventh inning. It is a good thing that we did not try to stick out the game, the River Cats ending up losing in 12 innings.

Mark McLemore played nine innings for the River Cats; he started at shortstop for the Oakland A's last season. He is on a rehabilitation assignment with the River Cats after having knee surgery in March.

Cool Effect

Here is a cool effect: Infinity in your browser [from Brun].

States With Higher IQ Vote Democrat

As a registered Republican, I am not sure what to make of this web site: States With Higher IQ Vote Democrat

After outcry, bases escape 'Spider-Man 2' web

After less than a day, baseball has backed away from key parts of the joint marketing arrangement to promote Spider-Man 2. To me, this sequence of events is just another example of how poorly managed baseball is.

I spent the day in a TAG meeting; this is a meeting of the IT Directors from all of the Sutter affiliates. The agenda included: a system update; an overview of IBEX, the emergency department standard; a couple of substandard presentations by Daou on their ED Process Workflow methodology, desktop standardization and a third subject that I am still not sure what they were selling; an engineering update on wireless standards; and an overview of the Sacramento/Sierra IT Consolidation.

MLB in tangled web of on-field advertising

I am not a huge baseball fan. I did not play little league baseball as a kid so that I don't have the same connection to the sport that many people do. Even though I am not a passionate fan, I am floored by the MLB's plans to promote Spider-Man 2. The following information is from an ESPN.com article titled MLB in tangled web of on-field advertising.

"As part of a marketing alliance between Major League Baseball Properties, Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, webbed logos of the upcoming film Spider-Man 2 will appear on bases and on-deck circles in 15 stadiums of teams playing host to interleague games June 11-13.

Pitching rubbers and home plate will be adorned with Spider-Man 2 branding before games, but will be replaced with standard white plates once the games start.

Baseball will receive about $3.6 million in a deal negotiated by Major League Baseball Properties with Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Inc., a high-ranking baseball executive told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The teams will get a piece of the pie from the promotion. Large-market clubs like the Yankees and the Red Sox reportedly will receive more than $100,000 each through the promotion, according to the Wall Street Journal."

Not all of the teams are crazy about the idea. I just wonder where this is going to lead. MLB baseball has opened a pandora's box and they are going to be bombarded with requests for additional promotions. It will be interesting to see what promotion they decide to do next.

Jack's eighth baseball game of the year.

Wednesday evening, Jack played in his eighth baseball game of the season. At this level, they are playing until some scores six runs in an inning; there are typically very few outs made. Tonight, Jack was playing center field and a high fly ball was hit in his direction. He caught it and the crowd went crazy!

Morgan's Birthday!

Morgan is 17 today!

Kings Win!

In spite of my pessimism, Bibby carried the Kings to a 104 to 98 victory over the Wolves. Sharon and I spent the last couple minutes of the game swearing at Cassel and pounding on the floor of the bonus room. Larkin and I have tickets to game four back in Sacramento on May 12.

Wolves in six games

Almost three weeks ago, I predicted that the Dallas Mavericks would beat the Sacramento Kings in six games in the first round of the Western Conference play-offs. Ultimately, Bibby's play and the lack of size in the Dallas front line were the Mavericks' undoing.

While I think that the Kings can beat the Wolves, I am not optimistic. The nexus of Kevin Garnett's MVP season with Chris Webber's negative impact on the flow of the King's game should give the Wolves the edge in the series. With commissioner David Stern there to present Garnett with his MVP trophy before tonight's game, I expect the Wolves to come out on a huge emotional high at the beginning of the first game.

My prediction for the Western Conference semifinal series is the Wolves in six games.

Trekkie communicator ready to go

Brun sent me a link to a BBC News article titled Trekkie communicator ready to go. He and I were talking about it at one point during Velta's birthday party on Saturday. Sutter actually had a team at a Vocera presentation in the bay area evaluating this product about three weeks ago. Several of our hospitals are very interested in installing the system.

The Vocera Communications Badge is a wearable device that weighs less than two ounces and can easily be clipped to a shirt pocket or worn on a lanyard. The actual size of the device is 4.2" tall x 1.4" wide.

It enables instant two-way voice conversation without the need to remember a phone number or manipulate a handset. It is controlled using natural spoken language. To initiate a conversation with Jim and Mary, for example, the user would simply say, "Conference Jim Anderson and Mary Guscia." In addition, when a live conversation is not necessary, text messages and alerts can be sent to the LCD screen on the back of the badge.

It uses the 802.11b wireless networks that we are installing in most of our locations.

Brunch with Morgan

Jack and I went to Placerville and took Morgan out to breakfast at Sweetie Pies. Morgan's birthday is on Wednesday; she will be seventeen. We got her an iPod for her birthday.

Since last October, Morgan had been working at the Baskin Robbins in Placerville. In late March, the building was heavily damaged by fire. Initially, the business was supposed to be reopened in a few weeks, but now it looks like it is going to be much longer. Morgan had been working some fairly long hours (8 hours on one school day!) and is now relishing her life of leisure.

Afterwards, we stopped by Kim and Brun's house. They were having a birthday party for Velta; she will be one year old on May 6.

Sharon and Liz got back from Santa Cruz in the late afternoon.

The Seattle Times: Fact is, wedding-dress guy's eBay pitch includes some fiction

Here is even more on eBay item 4146756343 - SIZE 12 WEDDING DRESS/GOWN NO RESERVE. The Seattle Times has an article posted Friday evening titled Fact is, wedding-dress guy's eBay pitch includes some fiction.

Saturday morning, Jack played in his seventh baseball game of the season.

Sharon and Liz took off for Santa Cruz to spend the weekend with Laura, while I spent most of the rest of the day working in the front yard. Jack and I had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then watched The Cat in Hat.