CA Historical Landmark #153

Old State Capitol
California State Historical Landmark #153
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This landmark is located on the northwest corner of 1st and G Streets, Benicia, California. There are 13 other California State Historical Landmarks in Solano County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 38° 03.010 W 122° 09.539.

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

 

Erected in 1852, this historic building was ostensibly intended for Benicia City Hall. Offered as the state capitol and promptly accepted, it had that honor from February 4, 1853 to February 25, 1854. Deeded to the state in 1951, it was one of the four locations of the "capitol on wheels".

USBCELL.COM

This looks interesting: usbcell.com. It is a AA battery with a built-in charger that plugs into a USB port.

2006 Management Symposium

I spent the last two days at the annual Management Symposium at the Sacramento Convention Center. The key note speaker was Mike Abrashoff, a former naval officer who spoke about leadership. He was captain of the Guided Missile Destroyer USS Benfold which went from being the worst ship in the Pacific fleet to the best under his leadership. He was an excellent speaker who provided a number of practical tips. I was impressed enough that I ordered his book, It's Your Ship, from Amazon.

Even more on iTV

When I first started reading about the iTV, it seemed to me to make sense to put some kind of a hard disk in the device. Information is starting to leak out that suggests that it will have a hard disk:

Disney's Iger: iTV Has a Small Hard Drive - - CEO Bob Iger revealed that he has seen Apple's upcoming iTV device in action and that it has a hard drive, a feature that many assumed would be missing.

Here are the links to two BusinessWeek articles on iTV.

• Apple's iTV: Bridging the Big Divide


• iTV: Here's Our 2¢

I regularly listen to BusinessWeek's Steve Wildstorm's Technology & You podcast. I think Steve generally has some good insights. His podcasts is one that I have continued to listen to, while trying and abandoning others.

Moblog Management Symposium

Soccer Practice

While Jack went to soccer practice, I ran laps around the park for 7.10 miles. I am planning to run a 1/2 marathon on October 1.

I took a short video for the beginning of practice using the camcorder on my cell phone. At the beginning of the practice, Jack, the coach and I talked about positioning on corner kicks. Jack had a fantastic opportunity to score on a corner kick late in the game on Saturday, but was out of position. The coach surprised me; he had the team spend the last 30 minutes of practice working on the offense and defense alignments for corner kicks.

My Great Grandfather

Joseph Heringer, (My Great Grandfather) was the 2nd of five children born to John and Geertje in Holland. He was born in 1861. Joseph was 7 years old when he sailed for America with his parents.

He helped his dad on the Merritt Island dairy as a young boy and then as a teen on their new ranch in East Sacramento.

Joseph married Martha, who had just emigrated from Holland in 1882, and farmed in East Sacramento until returning to Clarksburg in 1901. He rented farm ground on Merritt Island until 1906 when he bought a farm in the Lisbon district just north of Clarksburg. There he farmed hay, grain, and some row crops until his death in 1912.

The name was Americanized from Heringa to Heringer in the late 1800's.

John Heringa (My Great, Great Grandfather)

Copies of Unfold

Drew and Kaylen stopped by on Friday night on their way to work at a fundraiser for the Sugarloaf Fine Arts Camp. Drew dropped off copies of his new Album, Unfold. As soon as I can get organized, I am going to send off copies of the Larkins, Bells, Nooters and Wallens.

Bend It Like Beckham

We finished the day watching Bend It Like Beckham.

2006 Soccer Season Game 2

Jack's team played its second soccer game of the season. Missing two of its best players and facing a team with two huge kids, I wasn't sure how the day was going to go for his team.

Jack started at forward and had five shots in the first quarter, one off of each upright and two just wide, but no goals. After playing the whole first quarter in their end of the field, one of the huge kids got behind our fullbacks, rumbled down the field and scored.

Jack played midfielder in the second quarter. He scored one goal on two more shots. One of his youngest teammates scored putting his team ahead 2 to 1 at half-time.

Jack was goalie in the third quarter. The ball rarely came across midfield and he had one stop.

With the team shorthanded this week, he played forward again in the fourth quarter. He scored with his right foot early in the quarter putting his team up 4 to 1.

His team won by a final score of 5 to 2. Their record for the season is now 2 wins and 0 losses. Jack had two goals on 9 or 10 shots.

Radio Station Video

While Drew, Dan and Kellen were on the way to Bumbershoot, they stopped in Eugene and played at a couple of places, including a radio station. A 30 minute video of them playing at the radio station is on-line on Google Videos.

La Provence Again!

Sharon was so pleased with the La Provence last Saturday night that she decided to go back again! She and Janie drove out to Roseville and went to dinner there. Sharon had the rack of lamb again...

Cub Scout Recruiting Event

Jack and I went to a recruiting event for his cub scout pack. As I was finishing up the RCIA program last spring, I indicated to the pack leader that I would be willing to help out at the pack level this year.

Moblog Cub Scouts

Tower names 'lead bidder'

Business - Tower names 'lead bidder' - sacbee.com:

Tower Records designated a liquidating firm Wednesday as the 'lead bidder' in its court-supervised bankruptcy sale, a move that could bring the legendary music retailer a step closer to a shutdown.

More on Apple's iTV

From Cnet.com, Apple's iTV: promise and peril

As I told someone who works on iTunes at Apple last October, what I have really wanted to be able to do is move videos from iTunes to Tivo so that I can watch the content on the big screen. The iTV sounds like reasonable alternative. From an engineering standpoint, it would seem like a good idea to put a hard disk in the iTV to give it some of the functionality of a DVR.

The hard disk could be used to buffer the video stream to offset some of the potential wireless network issues. The iTV could initially display a message saying that it will be 20 seconds before the show is available for viewing, while it preloads enough of the program to ensure a high quality experience. You could pause and rewind the program like a Tivo.

California Historical Landmark #743

Jack London
State Historical Park
California State Historical Landmark #743
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This landmark is located in Glen Ellen, California. There are 26 other California State Historical Landmarks in Sonoma County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 38° 21.387 W 122° 32.506

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

This is the 'House of Happy Walls,' built in 1919 by Charmian K. London in memory of her husband, renowned author Jack London. Here are housed many of his works and the collection gathered in their travels throughout the world. In 1960 Charmian's house, the ruins of Jack's 'Wolf House,' and his grave were presented to the State by his nephew, Irving Shepard.

My Great Great Grandfather

John Heringa (My Great Great Grandfather) was born in 1819 in the province of Groningen, Holland. His grandmother and an uncle raised him after both of his parents died by the time he was 9 years old. He was bound to farm work at 12 years and then moved to live with an uncle who ran a dry goods store and manufactured woolen goods.

At 21 years he joined the army and served 9 years after which he joined the police force in the town of Oppenhuezen. He met and married Geertje, a town native, in 1857.

At the age of 49 with 4 children under 9 years old, having saved $1100, John and family started for America. They sailed from Liverpool and landed in Boston thence on to NYC arriving after a voyage of 14 days. Following a three-day lay-over, the family boarded a steamer to Panama, crossed the isthmus on land, then sailed for San Francisco, arriving 7 weeks after departing England. They immediately boarded a paddlewheeler for Sacramento arriving the next day to the welcome of a countryman and friend who sold them a 30-acre ranch for six hundred dollars.

This ranch was located on Merritt Island, just below Clarksburg. They soon invested another three hundred dollars in cows and started a dairy farm. The family lived on Merritt Island for three years and sold the farm due to annual flooding of the Sacramento River. John moved his family to East Sacramento purchasing 160 acres and devoting their efforts to general farming on a ranch located near what is now Mather Air Base.

John Heringa died in 1902 having been predeceased by his wife Geertje 4 years earlier in 1898.

I want my iTV

I want my iTV...

From Engadget, Apple to release iTV video streaming box in 2007 - Engadget:

In an unusual turn of events, Apple has pre-announced a wireless video streaming set-top box to be released in Q1 2007 with the tag line 'you can take content to your computer or iPod, but now... TV.' It features a built-in power supply, USB 2.0, Ethernet, 802.11 'wireless component video', optical audio and HDMI ports, plus regular ol' RCA stereo audio ports.

8th Birthday Photo Album

I posted a photo album from Jack's 8th birthday party on Sunday at:

http://www.heringer.org/jack8/index.html
Photos from previous birthdays at be found at:

7th Birthday Party

6th Birthday Party

5th Birthday Party

4th Birthday Party

1st Birthday Party

Cracked the TV-PC barrier?

Has Apple cracked the TV-PC barrier?

I want an Airport Express that supports streaming video from my PC to the AV receiver in the bonus room...

Jack's 8th Birthday Party

We took Jack and six of his classmates to the Scandia Family Fun Center to celebrate his birthday. The boys played in the arcade, had pizza, climbed a giant slide, ate cake, opened presents, played a round of miniature golf and finished the day soaking each other on the bumper boats. The boys had a great time and at the end of the day Jack said that it was one of his best birthday parties ever.

Moblog At the Party Birthday

Dinner with the Larkin's

Sharon spent the afternoon serving as a wedding coordinator for the church.

We met the Larkin's for dinner at La Provence in Roseville. We ate outside on the terrace; the weather was great. We spent most of the night talking about our trip to France. Sharon brought her laptop and showed them a slideshow of pictures from the trip.

Sharon was very pleased with the meal. She rated the dinner "at least an 8." Sharon had the lamb, while I had salmon.

Moblog Drew and Jack

2006 Soccer Season Game 1

Jack's Soccer team, the Cobra's, played its first soccer game of the season. They won the game by a a score of 7 to 1. Five different kids scored goals. Jack played forward in the first period and scored one goal on one shot. Although he does not have a particularly strong foot, he does an extremely good job with his spacing; he avoids getting bunched up. Jack also does a good job of advancing the ball down the field.

He played goalie in the third quarter and never had the ball get anywhere near him. Essentially, the ball never came across midfield. In the fourth quarter, he played full back.

Drew at Bumbershoot

Dan, Drew, Eric and Kellen playing at Bumbershoot

California Historical Landmark #327-1

Site of the Original Mission Dolores
Chapel and Dolores Lagoon
California State Historical Landmark #327-1
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On June 29, 1776, Father Fancisco Palou, a member of the Anza Expedition, had a brushwood shelter built here on the edge of a now vanished lake, Lago de los Dolores (Lake of the Sorrows), and offered the first mass. The first mission was a log and thatch structure dedicated on October 9, 1776 when the necessary church documents arrived. The present Mission Dolores was dedicated in 1791.

Photos from Jack London Hike

I put together a photo set on Flickr of about 20 pictures from the hike on Sunday in the Jack London State Park.


All of the pictures are geotagged with longitude and latitude. Using Flickr's new mapping features, a map of where the pictures were taken can be created. You can use the controls on the map to zoom in and out and look at a satellite view. Clicking on the red dots on the maps will bring up the thumbnails of pictures taken at that location.

Terrafugia's flying car

Flying-car firm releases simulator, takes deposits

Movie of Terrafugia's flying car

Katie Couric's first night

I had originally intended to tivo Katie Couric's first night on the CBS Evening News, but I forgot. Instead, I watched the show on the web. One of the benefits of switching from DSL to Comcast Cable is that it is actually possible to do something like this. With DSL, the results would have been unwatchable; the video would be constantly stopping and starting. With cable, the video streamed without a hiccup.

Although Katie did fine, I was not impressed overall. It was a fairly standard 30 minute network news show. I prefer to get my news quickly from a number of different web sites, including short videos, rather than being fed a handful of stories that I may or may not be interested in.

I did set-up a tivo season pass for the show. I am interested in seeing her interview with George Bush tomorrow night and the segment by Rush Limbaugh on Thursday.

Finally, it was interesting to note how Katie was made up. The make-up she was wearing was much different than what she wore on the Today show. The eyes and the cheeks were much harsher.

Jack London Hike Maps

Topographical and satellite maps for our hike in Jack London State Park are shown below. The trail to the lake was heavily wooded and garmin would not hold a signal. As a result, a twisting and winding path is shown as a straight line. On the way back from the lake, we took the lower trail along the vineyards. In total, the GPS said that we covered 5.46 miles.

click on the map for a larger copy!

Jack London State Park plus...

Up early, we headed to Jack London State Park near Glen Ellen. We hiked the lower part of the park, exploring the museum at the House of Happy Walls, London's gravesite and the Wolf House. We then headed up to the lake and had lunch in the picnic area near the Bathhouse and the dam. Heading back to the truck, we wandered through the silos, the smokehouse, the pig palace, the winery ruins, the distillery building, the cottage, the stallion barn, the manure pit and the sherry barn. We covered about 5 miles. It was an interesting hike that included sections in the forest and along some vineyards and some views of the Valley of the Moon. I will organize and post some pictures and maps over the next couple of days.

Back at the car, we headed to the Kunde Estate Winery for a little wine tasting. Sharon and I tried to stop at this winery once before. From there, we went to Imagery Estate Winery and art gallery.

The next stop was unusual. We went to the Cornerstone Gardens. The Cornerstone Festival of Gardens is an ever-changing series of walk-through gardens, showcasing new and innovative designs from the world’s finest landscape architects and designers. Jack had a great time exploring the exhibits.

We ended the day having dinner at the Deuce Restaurant in Sonoma. Sharon had quail, while I had lamb shank. The food was fine, but not great. Sharon remarked on the ride home that she is raising her standards; she gave the food a 5 on a scale of 10.

Teotihuacán

We finished the day watching a Digging for the Truth episode about Teotihuacán. Called the City of the Gods, it is home to the world's third largest pyramid. This mysterious city was once a metropolis of 150,000 to 200,000 covering 11 1/2 square miles. It was many times larger and more populous than the biggest Mayan and Aztecan cities ever built.

While Sharon, Jack, Drew and I went to Chichen Itza and Tulum, I had never even heard of Teotihuacán. East of Mexico City, I have added it to my list of places that I would like to see some day!

Working in the backyard

When we purchased the current house, we looked at a lot of different model homes. In the backyard of one of the models, there was a concrete patio design that we both liked. When we had the landscape plan done, we tried to incorporate the idea. Basically, the design was some square sections with groundcover growing in the gaps between the sections.

The idea never worked. The groundcover would not grow, but the weeds would. At one of the fall dinner parties, Matt asked if we ran out of money and did not finish the project.

The landscape plan originally called for irish moss. I replanted the irish moss at least once. During a different dinner party, the Newlin's suggested isotoma. I replant the area between the 10 three foot square sections at least three times in the last couple of years with isotoma. While the isotoma did better than the irish moss, it would not survive the hottest part of the summer. Additionally, some area did not drain well and were too wet, while other areas were too dry.

We have given up on the idea of coverground. I spent the day digging out the gaps, putting down 30 year landscape fabric and filling in the gaps with polished pebbles.

Back in Bronxville again

After spending the summer in Boston at the Berklee College of Music, Morgan is back at Sarah Lawrence College to start her sophomore year. Her classes include:

• a physics lecture called "super fast, super small, super cold";
• a poetry workshop called "the making of a complete lover"; and,
• a lot of music components, including jazz piano lessons, jazz theory, jazz history, ear training, blues ensemble, vocal jazz, music lectures, and maybe classical piano lessons.

California Historical Landmark #746

The Coloma Road-Nimbus Dam
California State Historical Landmark #746
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This landmark is located in the Nimbus Flat Boat Launching Facility, Lake Natoma, Folsom Lake State Recreation Area, California. There are 57 other California State Historical Landmarks in Sacramento County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 38° N 38° 38.057 W 121° 13.019.

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

 
 
Alder Springs, south of this point, marks the old Coloma Road, running between Sutter's Fort and Cul-luh-mah (Coloma). Established in 1847, this road was used by James W. Marshall in January 1848 to bring the first gold from Sutter's Mill to the fort. Later, traveled by thousands to and from the diggings, it became the route of California's first stageline, established in 1849 by James E. Birch.

Jack's 8th Birthday

We celebrated Jack's eighth birthday!

There will be a larger birthday party with his classmates and others in early September.

 
 

Geotagging

In May of 2005, I started using a web site geobloggers.com to map my Flickr photos. Over the course of 2005, I probably mapped over 100 photos. In December of 2005, the site disappearred. The person who had built the site had been hired by Yahoo. Yahoo owns Flickr. In the last couple of days, much of the functionality of the old geobloggers.com site and more has been pretty seamlessly merged into the Flickr site.

In late June 2005, Jack and I visited all of the pony express station sites between Sacramento and South Lake Tahoe, took pictures and logged the GPS locations. I can now generate a map of all these sites and the photos. Clicking on the red dots in the Flickr map brings up thumbnail pictures for each location.

I have several other set of photos that are mapped across Northern California, including our Frogpond Hike and Walk on the Wildside last year.

China ends funeral striptease acts

China ends funeral striptease acts - MSNBC.com

Who killed Tower Records?

Who killed Tower Records?

read more | digg story

2006 Back to School Night

Sharon and I went to Back to School Night at Jack's school. The principal introduced the staff, the parish priests and the president of the school board spoke.

Afterwards, we went to Jack's class and his teacher gave the third grade parents an overview of the coming year. This is going to be a more intense year. For the first time, the kids will be getting letter grades. Instead of teaching the material until the class has learned it, the teacher stressed that they have a set curriculum that they have to cover by the end of the year. The resulting pace is going to be much different. Additionally, as the teacher repeated, the students are now reading to learn, rather than learning to read.

Off to Bumbershoot

Drew, Kellen and Dan are driving north to play at Bumbershoot in Seattle. They played a date Saturday afternoon in Eugene. They will be appearing next at The O Lounge in Seattle on September 1 at 9:00 p.m. They will then be playing at Bumbershoot on September 2, 3 and 4.

Unfold Tray Outside

I previously posted the cover of Drew's new album. Here is the artwork for the outside of the tray:

Dinner at the Cunningham's

We finished the day having dinner at the Cunningham's. We swam in the pool, sat in the hot tub, had a nice dinner and showed them some of the pictures from our trip to France. The boys played together extremely well.

Picture Day Scrimmages

Jack's soccer team played two short scrimmages after the pictures. Each game had two 10 minutes periods.

In the first game, his team won 2 to 0. Jack played fullback for one of the periods. The coach told him to support the attack on offense and he actually had two shots on goal.

His team fell behind at the beginning of the second game, but then scored five straight goals to win 5 to 1. Jack's team has one player with a very strong leg. This player missed the first game, but he scored three quick goals in the first period of the second game. Jack played forward in the second period and scored one or two goals on four shots. Although Jack claims that the second goal was his, it was difficult to tell what happened in the bedlam in front of the goal. Jack had a great pass on long break, but his teammate's shot was just wide of the goal. Jack also headed the ball twice. Unfortunately, the second header was more off his nose than this head!

Soccer Picture Day

An interesting Soccer Season

This is going to be an interesting soccer season. Last year, Jack's team had 9 wins and 1 loss. To this team, the coach has added two more strong players. They now have a nucleus of at least 6 strong players.

Tonight, they scrimmaged the only team that they lost to last year. Jack's team outscored the other team by at least 10 to 1. It would have been worse, but the other team fielded a strong goalie in the fourth quarter who made 7 great stops and only allowed one goal.

Jack played very well. He had some solid defense stops, set-up two of the goals and had two saves as goalie in the fourth quarter. The whole team's spacing was very good. Jack was frustrated that he did not score; he has had a lot of success scoring goals in his first two seasons. It is going to be interesting for him to learn how to be a player on a very strong team, rather than the star on a weak team.

Jack playing Goalie

Pluto loses planet status

Pluto loses status as a planet.

Last week, astronomers at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) meeting in Prague were considering a new way to define the word planet. This would have meant adding three new planets to the Solar System, boosting the current tally of nine to 12..

Instead, the astronomers adopted historic new guidelines that demotes the small, distant world of Pluto to a secondary category, decreasing the number of planets from 9 to 8.

Run 4 Independence pic

On July 4, Sharon, Jack and I ran the Run 4 Independence ([Race Results], [Race Course Maps],[Starting Line Picture]).

Here is a picture of Jack and I taken during the race:

California Historical Landmark #900

Nisipowinan Village Site
California State Historical Landmark #900
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
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This landmark is located in Discovery Park at the archery range, Sacramento, California. There are 57 other California State Historical Landmarks in Sacramento County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 38° 36.302 W 121° 29.984.

You can log your visit to this site at waymarking.com.


This was the location of the most significant Indian village and cemetery of this region. The Nisipowinan, part of the Maidu tribe, had a strong economic and cultural interaction with Capt. John A. Sutter's settlement in the 1840s. The site shows evidence of habitation as early as 1000 b.c.

The Nisipowinan Village Site is known as “Joe’s Mound” after a Portuguese farmer of the area who was called Joe and ethnographically as Pujune. The village was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1971. Artifacts noted at the site include burned bone, freshwater mussel shell, fire-affected rock, and ground stone fragments.

Pujune was the dominant village for the Nisenan on the east side of the Sacramento River from a few miles south of the American to above the mouth of the Feather River. Pujune controlled the mouth of the American River and portions of the Sacramento.

Moblog Soccer Practice

Running during Soccer Practice

While Jack had soccer practice, I ran laps around the park. Since the two vacations in July, I have been struggling with my running. I have labored through a number of runs with times that I am embarrassed to report. I finally felt like I could run today. Over the first four miles, I turned mile splits of 9:12, 8:54, 8:45 and 8:26. I ended up covering the first four miles with an average pace of 8:49. I coasted the last two miles and covered 6.00 miles with an average pace of 9:04.

While not spectacular, it is the second fastest average pace that I have run in the last four months. Combined with the fact that I found out that the cut-off time for the American River 50 is thirteen hours, I have some newfound optimisim that I will be able to accomplish my goals for the next eight months. The next race that I am planning to run is a half marathon during the Sacramento Cowtown Marathon.

Almanor Basin Transit Needs

Workshop keys on Almanor Basin transit - sacbee.com:

The California Department of Transportation will host a public workshop Thursday to discuss current and future transportation needs in Almanor Basin.

Recent local growth has increased traffic, creating congestion that is expected to get worse with additional subdivisions planned for the area.

Tower Records files Chapter 11

Tower Records files Chapter 11 for second time - sacbee.com:

Tower Records has filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in 2 1/2 years. Executives are attempting to sell the business, with final bids due Sept. 22.

First Day of Third Grade

First Day of Kindergarden Picture

First Day of First Grade Picture

First Day of Second Grade Picture

2006 Back to School Ice Cream Social

With school starting tomorrow, Jack and I went to an ice cream social at the his school. He had a chance to find his classroom, meet this teacher, see where his desk will be and connect up with some of his classmates that he has not seen much over the summer. One of Jack's best friends was there and the two of them spent an hour plus dashing back and forth around the school and in and out of the classrooms.

Kevin's going away party

With a couple of different conflicting things on the calendar, we decided to go to Kevin's going away party. Kevin is Sharon's nephew. He will be leaving to go off to college at Gonzaga University on Wednesday.

At Kevin's Going Away Party

2006 California State Fair

After dropping a car at Sharon's brother's house, we spent the evening at the California State Fair. Jack rode a number of rides; we even joined him on a couple.

Sharon and Jack tried their hand at several carnival games. As you might expect, Jack was frustrated that he could not win anything. As I told Sharon at one point, my own personal opinion is that you would get more value and enjoyment in burning your money in a pile on the ground than you do in playing the carnival games, but that is just my personal opinion.

After a late dinner and a few more rides, Sharon was very pleased to find that the sheep were in the livestock barns. We got a chance to show Jack some southdowns like we had when lived at East View. We finished the night riding the monorail around and over the fairgrounds.

Drew, the babysitter, part 2

After spending a couple of days wandering up the California coast to Fort Bragg and the Avenue of the Giants, Drew was back. He spent the day with Jack. Once Jack was able to get him out of bed, the emphasis for the day was Worms Armageddon. We have all really enjoyed how much we have seen Drew over the last three weeks!

Stranger than Fiction

Movie Trailer - STRANGER THAN FICTION

Mikuni's

Sharon and Marlene went to dinner at Mikuni's in Elk Grove.

New planets proposal

Proposal would increase planets from 9 to 12!

Andrew's New Album

Drew has finished up work on his new album.


The new album is called unfold and the songs include: Being Here; Circles; Hold My Hand; Southern California; Stormy Weather; A Thousand Years; Boy on the Beach; I Cannot Remember; Racecar; Morgan the Conquerer [Jack's personal favorite!]; and Blind Trying.

The New Blogger

Blogger, the software that I use to generate this blog, is finally getting a major upgrade: The New Blogger. The upgrade which is in beta includes a couple of features that I have wanted for some time, including the ability to categorize the posts, to date post prior to 1990 and to password protect blogs. The new system can be accessed at http://beta.blogger.com/

I have been thinking for some time about blowing up the format and trying to implement a fresh look. I will probably use the conversion to the new system as an opportunity to change the look and feel of the blog. I have started to experiment with the new publishing software at: http://mrheringer.blogspot.com

Given the number of posts that I have and the complexity of my current template, I expect that it will be some time before they transfer me to the new system.

Crater Lake

What's growing at the bottom of Crater Lake?

read more | digg story

Placerville Show and New CD

Drew sent out this e-mail yesterday:

we got a show coming up this saturday the 19th [August 2006] at the cozmic cafe in good ol' placerville, ca. opening the show will be friends C.H.P. the show should start about 8pm and the door charge is only $5. for those who might want to go but don't know where placerville is - the beautiful town of placerville is nestled in the gold country of the sierra nevada foothills about 30 minutes east of sacramento. the cozmic cafe is a fantastic venue - for directions go to www.thecozmiccafe.com/.

unfortunately the new cd, offically titled "UNFOLD", will probably not be done by this weekend. we are all very excited to get this recording out into the world but we still need a lil time to make it as good as it can possibly be. UNFOLD is a step in a lil different than "& we hope" but it is a natural step for us in the evolution of our creation of music. please keep your eyes open for emails in the next couple weeks regarding ordering the new cd.

for those who can't make the show on saturday - look at my events calendar at myspace.com/andrewheringer and check out the shows coming up. a couple of us will be doing a mini tour/roadtrip going from san luis obipso in southern california - with stops in eugene, oregon and seattle, washington.

thank you all for your continued support and keeping passing the music around to friends!

-andrew

Drew, the babysitter

Back from a show Saturday night at the Marcos Cafe in Lotus, Drew spent Sunday night with us and then stayed with Jack during the day. The two boys basically ran wild. Sharon got a couple of interesting phone calls from them, while they peppered me with IMs over the course of the day.

During dinner, I asked Drew what they did during the day. He said "we played Driver, lots of Driver." This is a video game for the playstation that I bought for Drew seven years ago.

Almanor 2006 Photo Album

A link to a photo album of pictures from this year's trip to Lake Almanor and the Dorado Inn is included below. Last year, I worked at getting pictures of the dads with all their kids. This year, I worked at getting pictures of all of the couples and pictures of each of the kids. I did not get individual pictures of Becky's boyfriend who was only there until Tuesday or Bob's son Adam who showed up late Thursday; Adam does show up in the group pictures of the kids.

Almanor 2006

Aug 5, 2006 - 44 Photos

Harness Races

Saturday night, we went to the harness races at Cal Expo. We had tried to go last year. We ended up staying for five races. I successfully picked a longshot to win in the fourth race and a favorite to win in the fifth race.

Afterwards, we wandered over to the state fair livestock barns. Sharon was hoping that the sheep were there, but there was only goats.

More Almanor 2006 Musing

Since the beginning of time, Tomasin, Wallen, Nooter and I have played cribbage. I have lots of memories of lazy afternoons at Lake Almanor playing cribbage.

Although it does, it should not surprise me that the kids have started to play with a passion over the last few years. Drew and David are probably the most ardent players, but a number of the other kids play too. One of the nights last week after dinner, I found Jack playing three handed cribbage with Robbie and Becky; he is 7 while both Robbie and Becky are 22!

Ark of the Covenant

Eating dinner, we watched an episode of Digging for the Truth that I had tivoed titled Hunt for the Lost Ark. The episode follows the trail of the Ark of the Covenant across the Middle East and Africa to the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum, Ethiopia!?!

Shadow Glen Stables

Jack and Sharon went to Shadow Glen Stables for a morning horse ride along Lake Natoma. I took Morgan there once for a riding lesson a long time ago.

 

Musing about Almanor 2006

Reflecting back on last week, I feel like this was an odd year at Lake Almanor. It was the first time since we started going there in 1988 that Morgan did not go; I missed Morgan. Due to work issues, Sharon ended up being there for less than 24 hours; I missed Sharon.

As a result, it was just Drew, Jack and I. Drew fit in great. There were 11 different kids 17 years or older! Drew has known most of these kids his whole life.

Unfortunately, Jack was the odd man out. With Mikey not showing up until mid-day on Thursday, all of the other kids for most of the week were more than twice his age. As result, Jack turned to me to keep him entertained.

Although I ran more, played more golf and did more work (e-mail and conference calls) this year at Almanor than I have in recent memory, I felt like I did not do as much. This was primarily due to the fact that I only skied one day, while in past years I have skied every day. Additionally, without Sharon there, we did not do a day hike.

In spite of these struggles, the trip remains important because it is an opportunity to maintain friendships that stretch back almost 30 years. I have been lamenting how little I have seen of a number of people over the last year. The trip gave me a great opportunity to reconnect with everyone, particularly the Tomasins and Wallens.

First Day of Soccer Practice

Jack missed the first week of soccer practice while we were at Lake Almanor last week. As a result, today was the start of the season for him. He is in the middle of the picture with the blue #10 French soccer jersey.

Any guesses who wore #10 for France in the world cup?

The making of the new album

In June, I went up to Georgetown and had dinner with Drew while he and his friends were working on his new album. They have put together a long video chronicling the making of the new album. The video includes scenes from the Riverc@ts game and father's day breakfast.

Stick a fork in me

Stick a fork in me, I am done. I have been on the move 23 of the last 29 days, including major parts of the last four weekends. By today, I was ready to be at home in a more or less catatonic state.

We finished up the day watching My Dog Skip on DVD.

The Kids

2006 Almanor Day 8

I spent most of the morning cleaning the cabins, packing up the car and helping people pull their boats out of the lake. After a few group pictures, we headed towards Chico.

Traditionally, a group will stop at the Graduate in Chico for lunch. This year, the Tomasin's, Hunter's and Heringer's all stopped.

Drew called a couple of his friends on the way into town. After lunch, he decided to spend the night in Chico.

Back on the road, Jack and I were home by 3:45 p.m.

The Adults

At Plumas Pines

2006 Almanor Day 7

Larkin got up early and headed back to Greenwood. Sharon had a number of things going on at work and after getting a couple of phone calls decided that she had better head back too. Sharon, Jack and I had breakfast in Chester and then she took off for Sacramento.

After all of the traveling over the last month, my goal for the day was to do as little as possible. I played horseshoes with Jack. Drew and Jack and David and Michael went out on a long run with the waverunners. I spent much of the day sitting on the boat ramp reading my book and catching up with people. Bachman and Geselbracht took off on their motorcycles in the late morning. In the afternoon, all of the kids swam in the lake and played king of the mountain on the float.

Ordering pizza for the kids, all of the adults went out to dinner. The Chabrier's came by and picked up everyone on their patio boat and took us across the lake to Plumas Pines. Plumas Pines had a live band so after dinner we stayed and danced. By the time, we got the patio boat back to the Dorado Inn it was after midnight.

Swimming in the Lake

2006 Almanor Day 6

After a lazy Wednesday, we had a very busy Thursday. Connor left early in the morning. I ran four miles in the morning. Getting a quick breakfast, Drew, Jack and I went with Chris, Danny and Tomasin on his boat. Chris and Danny wakeskated--essentially a wakeboard with no bindings--and Drew wakeboarded. I worked on getting up on the wakeboard; I had never tried a wakeboard before.

Back at the cabins, we rallied everyone to go across the lake for lunch. With the closure of the hamburger hut, we decided to try Carol's. Hunter and I had deli sandwiches there on Sunday.

We invaded Carol's with more than 25 people. Both Larkin and Sharon were driving up to the lake. I was finally able to get a hold of Larkin and reroute him to Carol's to meet us.

We finished up lunch and raced back to the cabin's to meet Sharon. From there, Larkin, Sharon, Jack and I went to Bailey Creek to play golf. Sharon played 9 holes, while Jack, Larkin and I played 13 holes. I was pretty happy with the 53 that I shot on the front nine.

We then raced back to cabins to get ready for dinner. The Chabrier's had invited to their house for dinner. They have a place on the Lake about a mile north of the Dorado Inn. They served a great dinner to about 30 people! We had a wonderful time and ended up getting back to the Dorado Inn at almost 11:00 p.m.

A long day...

Jack at Bailey Creek

2006 Almanor Day 5

Wednesday was a slow, lazy day. With a large part of the group up until almost 2:00 a.m., most of the cabins slept late.

Eventually, I rallied Jack and we got Jill to take us out in the boat. Jack went tubing first. Jill then trashed me in the tube. Drew wandered by with one of Cal's waverunners and took Jack for a ride on the waverunner.

There was lots of horseshoe matches in the afternoon. Bachman was taunting the older kids. The older kids had some success against him winning a couple, but losing a lot.

Before dinner, the older kids--Robbie, Drew, David and Carol--took the Hunter's boat out to tube. Tomasin, Connor, Geselbracht, Bachman, Jack and I went out to watch them. After Drew tubed, they took Jack and he tubed with Drew and Carol.

After we went back in, Hunter's boat would not start was drifting about 1/2 mile from the dock. The kids got our attention and Tomasin, Jill and I went back out in the Wallen's boat to tow them back in.

Hunter made dinner (ribs and hamburgers) for the group. We finished the night playing cards on the picnic tables.

On the waverunner

Jack in the Tube

2006 Almanor Day 4

For years, Tomasin and I have taken a boat out in the morning with some combination of our kids. This has changed over the last two years. He upgraded his boat last year and now it is the boat of choice of all the older kids who are wakeboarding; everyone wants to go out on his boat. Additionally, Tomasin has been getting up earlier and going out with Chris and David. As a result, I have spent a lot more time on the Wallen's and Hunter's boat.

For the third morning in row, I got up and ran four miles. Afterwards, Jack, Drew and I went out on the Wallen's boat with John and Jill. Jack originally was going to try the double skis again, but "changed his mind." I drove the boat while Jill single skied. Drew also took a turn on a single ski.

I have been very tentative about the idea of water skiing this year. I have been struggling with my back and was worried that skiing would make it worse. I gave it a try today, skiing behind Hunter's boat with his Kidder. Although I missed a couple of starts at the beginning, I eventually worked out the bugs and had a great ski.

When we got back to the dock, Drew took Jack out for a long spin on one of the waverunners. Jack and I then went with Tomasin to look for the best place to buy gas on the lake.

When we got back, Jack and I headed to the store. It was my night to make dinner for 22 people. We went into town and did a big shop. My plan for dinner was to make a couple of big salads, some pasta and barbecue some chicken. I spent the rest of the day putting together the salads, getting the chicken ready and then cooking everything. I had a lot of help at the barbecue from Tomasin and Drew. I also made margarita's for everyone before dinner. It took me until almost 10:00 p.m. to get everything cleaned up and get Jack in bed.

A large group including Jill, Becky, Kyle, Carol, Drew, Robbie, Tomasin, Connor and Hunter took the boat to Plumas Pines to play 21 aces. I got Danny and David to babysit Jack and drove around the Lake to meet them.

I lasted until about midnight and then headed back to the cabins. When I got back to the cabins, Bachman and Geselbracht just got there. They had riden motorcycles up the Feather River Canyon. Wallen, Bachman, Geselbracht and I sat and visited until 1:45 a.m. At this point, the group returned from Plumas Pines. I finally crashed a little after 2:00 a.m.

Drew and Robbie