March 2008 Cub Scout Pack Meeting

Jack and I went to the March 2008 meeting of his Cub Scout Pack. The main part of the program was the Arrow of Light ceremony for the Webelos 2's. This is the rite marking the passing of the boys from cub scouts to boy scouts. The pack had four boys moving on to boy scouts.

Afterwards, there was the presentation of a number of awards. Jack got archery and BB gun belt loops and a patch for participating in the pinewood derby. He also got his pinewood derby trophies for finishing 1st in his den and 3rd in the pack.

Finally, there was a Father-Son Cake Bake Competition. The cakes are judged for the best design. We did not place. The winning cake in Jack's den was in a shape of a campfire. Frankly, we had thrown a cake together at the last minute, while some of the other cakes were engineering marvels. Nevertheless, you could donate your cake for everyone to eat at the end of pack meeting. Probably due to the fact that it was a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, our cake was almost completely eaten!

2008 Financial Plan

Sharon and I met for lunch at Danielle's Creperie. Afterwards, we sat down with our financial planner, Adam Andelin, to review the annual update to our financial plan. This is something that we started in 2002. Although I was originally skeptical of the idea, I have been extremely pleased with the results.

AAA Baseball Practice

AAA Baseball Practice, originally uploaded by heringermr.

Song for 1963

As a kid my parents had a pile of record albums that they bought as a series. One of the albums was military songs. I can remember taking this album to school when I was in the second grade. My favorite song on the album was the Marine Crops Hymn.

The song for 1963 is the Marine Crops Hymn.

You can find the work in progress Soundtrack for My Life here!

What is this?

NBA Power Rankings 2007-2008 Week 19

The Kings remained at 17th in Marc Stein's NBA Power Rankings.

It is hard for me to believe that this team has beaten Detroit twice, Utah twice, Lakers, San Antonio, Orlando, Dallas, Houston and New Orleans while losing to the Clippers three times, Minnesota twice, Seattle, Miami and Memphis.

ESPN - NBA Basketball Power Rankings - National Basketball Association - The Kings nearly became the first team all season to lose to Miami twice. Then they did lose in OT on the road to the Clips and at home (gulp) to Minny. So, no, we sure didn't see that road win over the Lakers coming.

California Historical Landmark #596

Site of Home of Newton Booth
California State Historical Landmark #596
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
See this location on Google Maps

This landmark is located at 1015-17 Front Street, Sacramento, California. There are 57 other California State Historical Landmarks in Sacramento County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 38° 34.965 W 121° 30.345.

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

This is the site of the store and home of Newton Booth, Governor of California 1871-1873 and U.S. Senator 1873-1879.

El Retiro San Inigo 2008

Sharon, Janie, Tom and Becky spent the weekend at El Retiro San Inigo, the Jesuit Retreat House of Los Altos. They attended a silent retreat for members of the legal profession; this year's session was titled "Raising the Bar." Sharon has gone to this retreat every year since 1994, except the year after Jack was born.

Training for Sutter's Fort Environmental Living Program

Up early, I checked out of the Hyatt and dragged myself to Sutter's Fort. I spent the morning being trained about the covered wagon for the Sutter's Fort Environmental Living Program. This is a special program that allows California school children to “live” history. The students, along with their teacher and trained parent helpers, spend 24 hours portraying characters of 1840s California and partaking in the various trade activities and entertainment of the era.

Jack's class is going to participate in the program next month and I am going to be one of the trained parent helpers.

Emigrant Wagon at Sutter's Fort

Emigrant Wagon at Sutter's Fort, originally uploaded by heringermr.

2008 Service Awards Banquet

I attended the 2008 SHSS Service Awards Banquet at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Sacramento. With Sharon out of town, I parked Jack for the night with one of his classmates and got a room at the Hyatt. I sat with the Gainsley's and the Sleigh's at dinner. As part of the program, I got up and presented four 20 year service awards [Gasper, Jugoz, Lemire and Payton].

Afterwards, Kevin, Donna, Rudy, Liz, Lew and I adjourned to the bar. By the time I got back to my room, it was almost 1:00 a.m.

Walking from my hotel room to the registration desk at the beginning of the evening, I had the oddest experience. I found myself walking behind a group of people that I have known for more than 25 years and worked with in a previous life. For a moment, I found myself confused about what meeting I was going to!

It turned out that the Sacramento Valley Farm Credit Annual Meeting was in the ballroom next to our awards banquet. Sacramento Valley Farm Credit was a client of Sharon's for a number of years after she left the bank and we had attended the annual meeting on a couple of occasions. I stopped briefly and said hello to Randy Patane and Gary Olsen and their wives. I thought I might try and catch up with them later in the evening, but never got the chance.

View from room at Hyatt in downtown Sacramento

View from room at Hyatt in downtown Sacramento, originally uploaded by heringermr.

Apple TV 2.0

Running on the treadmill, I watched Zoolander on Apple TV. The Apple TV was upgraded in February with a number of new features including support for movie rentals, HD content and the ability to directly download content. The new features work great. The major drawback at this point is the number of movies in the iTunes store.

Second time around: a review of the Apple TV 2.0

Blame the studios for iTunes movie delays

Song for 1964

My parents had some friends Les and Mabel Schneiber who farmed in District 10 North of Marysville. They had three boys who were 8 to 10 years older than I was. I can remember being at their house and the boys were talking excitedly about the Beatles appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show. Later that night, I watched one of the first appearances of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show with them.

The Beatles first live American television appearance was on the The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. The Beatles appeared for three consecutive Sundays in February 1964.

The song for 1964 is Can't Buy Me Love.

You can find the work in progress Soundtrack for My Life here!

What is this?

James Bond Movies

At Thanksgiving in 2006, my brother-in-law had a long list of James Bond questions that he quizzed the group on after dinner. I realized that I had not seen a number of the movies in years, or at all, and have a long term project to watch all of the movies in order that they were released.

11/14/2021 - No Time to Die (2021) - Daniel Craig
11/14/2015 - Spectre (2015) - Daniel Craig
11/11/2012 - Skyfall (2012) - Daniel Craig
04/10/2009 - Quantum of Solace (2008) - Daniel Craig
06/20/2007 - Casino Royale (2006) - Daniel Craig
08/28/2010 - Die Another Day (2002) - Pierce Brosnan
05/28/2010 - The World is not Enough (1999) - Pierce Brosnan
04/03/2010 - Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - Pierce Brosnan
03/20/2010 - GoldenEye (1995) - Pierce Brosnan
03/13/2010 - Licence to Kill (1989) - Timothy Dalton
10/24/2009 - The Living Daylights (1987) - Timothy Dalton
09/06/2009 - A View to a Kill (1985) - Roger Moore
08/15/2009 - Never Say Never Again (1983) - Sean Connery
01/31/2009 - Octopussy (1983) Roger Moore
01/01/2009 - For Your Eyes Only (1981) - Roger Moore
12/19/2008 - Moonraker (1979) - Roger Moore
11/22/2008 - The Spy Who Lived Me (1977) - Roger Moore
08/31/2008 - The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) - Roger Moore
05/24/2008 - Live and Let Die (1973) - Roger Moore
05/17/2008 - Diamonds are Forever (1971) - Sean Connery
02/10/2008 - 04/02/2016 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) - George Lazenby
11/17/2007 - You Only Live Twice (1967) - Sean Connery
08/18/2007 - Thunderball (1965) - Sean Connery
05/14/2007 - Goldfinger (1964) - Sean Connery
03/30/2007 - From Russia with Love (1963) - Sean Connery
02/10/2007 - Dr. No (1962) - Sean Connery

Kansas City

Sharon spent three days in Kansas City, Missouri for work. The highs during the day were in the 30s. On Sunday, she visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Chantel Christie to Release Single

I got a chance to meet Doug Christie and his wife at a dinner in early 2004. Ever since then, I have followed Christie's basketball career and the various other endeavors that he and Jackie have been involved.

I was surprised to learn that their daugther released a single.

Jean Rah Fya Records :: Chantel Christie to Release 'Here We Are Again' Debut Single - Chantel 'Chani' Christie, daughter of NBA power couple, Doug and Jackie Christie, is set to release a single titled 'Here We Are Again' on January 25, 2008.

You can find her music on MySpace at:

http://www.myspace.com/mychani

California Historical Landmark #654

I visited this site during the lunch break when I was on jury duty.

Site of the First Jewish Synagogue
owned by a Congregation on the Pacific Coast
California State Historical Landmark #654
See this location on Yahoo Maps in Flickr
See this location on Google Maps

This landmark is located in the sidewalk on 7th Street between Capitol and L Streets, Sacramento, California. There are 57 other California State Historical Landmarks in Sacramento County. The GPS coordinates for this location are N 38° 34.722 W 121° 29.906.

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

The building that stood on this site was prefabricated in Baltimore and shipped around Cape Horn in 1849. It originally housed the Methodist Episcopal Church, whose trustees sold the edifice on June 4, 1852 to Alexander Myer, Joseph Levison, and Charles Friedman, Officers of the Association of the Children of Israel (B'nai Israel), to serve as the first synagogue on the Pacific Coast, dedicated on September 3, 1852. The congregation followed the orthodox tradition until 1880, when it became an adherent of reform Judaism.

NBA Power Rankings 2007-2008 Week 18

The Sacramento Kings dropped two spots from 15th to 17th out of 30 teams in Marc Stein's weekly NBA Power Rankings.

John Hollinger's NBA Playoff Odds put the Kings chances of making the play-offs at 0.0%!

ESPN - NBA Basketball Power Rankings - National Basketball Association - Nine of the Kings' final 23 games are against fellow Pacific Division residents. We bring this up because Sacto is strangely 0-7 in divisional games, which so far is the difference between a winning and losing record.

I Know You Well Music Video

AAA Padres

With basketball ending last weekend, I took Jack to his first baseball practice for the 2008 season. This will be Jack's sixth season of organized baseball. After playing AA last year, he is moving up to AAA this year.

Jack was drafted by the Padres. The Padres are coached by the same coach and assistant coach as his AA Mariners team last year. At the baseball try-outs last month, we ran into his coach from last year who said that he was planning on trying to draft Jack. There are four kids from last year's team, the two sons of the coaches, Jack and one other boy.

Jack played mostly shortstop last year. This is the point in little league where kids start to focus on one position. When the coach asked all of the boys what level and position they played last year, I did not hear any of the other kids say that they played shortstop.

Sharon and I were both hoping that he would get a chance to shortstop a lot this year. It looks like we are going to get our wish. It appears that the coach drafted Jack specifically to play shortstop. During the first two hour practice, Jack played the entire time at shortstop and handled probably more than 40 balls.