Paige Meets A Family of Deer

Yesterday, I went out for a walk with my camera in Summerville (north of Rochester, on the east side of the Genesee River), to take some pictures of old houses, scenery, and some railroad archaeology.

Summerville (which is part of the town of Irondequoit) has two abandoned railroad bridges over St. Paul Boulevard. The northernmost carried the former New York Central Railroad “Hojack” line west towards the Genesee River. It crossed the river on the now abandoned Charlotte swing bridge. The southernmost bridge carried the Hojack south towards Rochester.

St. Paul Boulevard in Summerville (Irondequoit), NY — the northernmost bridge is closest, the southernmost bridge is in the distance

The right-of-way heading south towards Rochester can be seen in this aerial photo (highlighted by the orange line).

In Summerville, you get a great view of Lake Ontario, and also of the piers at Summerville and Charlotte. A very scenic location!

As I walked north towards the Lake on Washington Avenue, I came to the place where the “Hojack” right of way could be clearly seen. I faced west and took this photo of the railroad right-of-way as it crossed the southernmost of the two abandoned bridges over St. Paul Boulevard. It looks like a trail now.

As I turned to take a photo of the right-of-way in the opposite direction, I came face to face with a family of deer, who were watching me intently.

There were six deer. Two adult females, one adult male, and three young ones. I decided to stand still and see what they did. They approached Washington Avenue, and looked around, following the lead female.

The lead female saw two humans approaching on the sidewalk, and the entire family retreated back along the old railroad right-of-way as the humans passed. I stood as still as possible during this time.

After the humans passed, the deer approached the road, looked around, and then crossed, their hooves making a clattering sound on the pavement, and then headed on down the right-of-way. as many New York Central railroad locomotives had done at this exact spot

Since I am not familiar with the habits of deer, I was surprised at how the adult female led the herd, and that the one adult male stayed in the back. I was also surprised at how single minded the deer were at crossing the street right here — I assume that they do this every morning here. Safe travels, deer!

Trip to Chicago, Summer 2011

My trip to Chicago in June, 2011 was a smashing success! There were so many highlights, I don't even know where to begin. So, let me just describe my trip chronologically, but beware this is long, and there's a lot to cover, including railroads, pro softball, old neighborhoods and a trip to Wrigley Field. I'm exhausted, my feet are sore, and there are over 500 pictures and videos in my camera. (And this post is inspired by the humongously long and extremely well photographed blog posts from my daughter Alyssa’s blog)

Thursday, June 16, 2011

I stopped along the way to Chicago in Elkhart, Indiana, the home of the National New York Central Railroad Museum. Someone asked me on Facebook what was it doing in Indiana, and I replied that Elkhart has always been in Indiana. I think my Facebook friend meant what was the museum doing in Indiana, in which case the answer is that the New York Central Railroad traveled through Indiana, on its way to Chicago and St. Louis. This museum was well worth the $5 admission charge. It has an old Hudson steam locomotive, New York Central 3001, and Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 4882 (an old locomotive powered by electricity in the overhead catenary wires), and a New York Central E8 diesel locomotive, which you could enter and walk around inside. Sadly, these locomotives will probably never run again. There were many old photographs, railroad implements and other rolling stock, and I wished I had more time to study and enjoy it all. But, I had to get to Chicago for a 7:30 appointment ...

The first home game for the National Pro Fastpitch Chicago Bandits was at 7:30pm and I didn't want to miss that! I have been watching softball on the television for a long time; now I was going to see the stars in person. And it was the grand opening of Rosemont Stadium, the first ever stadium built for a women's professional team. By 6:45pm, I had arrived at 27 Jennie Finch Way (that's the address of the stadium), and there was quite a crowd already, with police directing traffic (for a women's softball game!) And what a beautiful stadium it is! A lot of people, including the players, were very impressed.

On the field were 12 Olympians, women I have watched for years, many since their college days. And because the stadium is so cozy, they were probably 50 feet away from where I was sitting. We were treated to a great pitcher's duel. Monica Abbott, one of best pitchers in the world, USA Olympian, the 2007 NCAA Player of the Year, and NCAA career strikeout leader, pitched for Chicago, while Danielle Lawrie, two-time NCAA Player of the Year, and Canadian Olympian, pitched for the USSSA Pride. The game went scoreless into the bottom of the 7th inning, before Buffalonian Caitlin Lever (another Canadian Olympian) singled home the winning run for Chicago. Abbott wound up with a 1-hit shutout. The crowd went home happy.

Monica Abbott

Danielle Lawrie

Friday, June 17, 2011
The plan was to take public transportation (subway and bus) to Wrigley Field, arriving hours before the game between the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees, so I could walk around the historic neighborhood known as Wrigleyville. The guide book that I purchased said the walk around Wrigleyville would be about 2 miles. I have had a lot of foot problems in the past, but I knew I could walk for 2 miles, I have done that many times recently at home. I arrived at Wrigley Field around 10 a.m., and already the area was packed, even though the game didn't begin until 1:20 pm. Nevertheless, I had plenty of time to do my walk.

Wrigley Field

Beautiful old row homes in Wrigleyville

But the guide book was way off! After walking for nearly two hours, I checked the GPS in my cell phone, and discovered I had already walked over 5 miles! Well, on the one hand I was very pleased that I could walk so far, as in the past I would have never been able to do so, but on the other hand, my feet were hurting, and I had to cut the tour short. The good news was that for the next four hours, I had a seat for a Major League Baseball game.

My seat was in the upper deck, in the next to the last row. Unlike my seats for softball, I was hundreds of feet away (and above) the players. It just wasn't the same. Yes, I could see that player was Alex Rodriguez, and that player was Mark Teixiera, and so on, but it just wasn't the same. And Derek Jeter was on the disabled list, I don't think I saw him, and Mariano Rivera was in the bullpen and didn't play in this game, and I don't think I saw him either. The Cubs won 3–1, and the crowd went home happy.

Now Wrigley Field is a great place to watch a baseball game, despite me sitting in the nosebleed seats. What I didn't expect was that on this warm day, I was shivering cold in the upper deck. I guess there's a reason why they call it the Windy City. I tried a real Chicago hot dog, with ketchup (no mustard, I hate the yellow mustard that most places have) and it was delicious. So I got another one. Tube-steak lunch!

I was somewhat concerned about my return trip, as the game ended at rush hour on a Friday afternoon. Nevertheless, there was a fleet of buses waiting at Wrigley, and I took one (even got a seat) to the subway station, and then from there zipped back to O'Hare Airport at about 60mph on the train, all the while watching the traffic sitting bumper-to-bumper going nowhere. The subway runs right down the middle of I-90, so you get a good look at the traffic.

So I arrived back at my hotel near O'Hare with plenty of time to go out to dinner and then get to the second Bandits game. The crowd wasn't as big. We were treated to another exciting game. The Pride scored first, on the stadium's first ever homerun by Pride designated hitter Melissa Roth. The Bandits scored 4 runs in the bottom of the third inning to go ahead 4–1. But the Pride scored three in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game, and then brought in their ace pitcher Cat Osterman, USA Olympian, three time NCAA National Player of the Year, and the NCAA career leader in strikeouts per inning (over 2 per inning!). Osterman is considered by some to be the best pitcher in the world.

Cat Osterman

The big Cat has been my favorite player ever since she was a player at Texas, so I've seen her many times on television for the University of Texas, and for Team USA, but this was the first time I got to see her in person. It was quite a thrill to see her pitch in person, maybe 100 feet away from where I was sitting. Cat's pitches move so much, that batters regularly swing at balls (and look pretty bad doing so), while they watch strikes go by.

In the top of the seventh, USA Olympian Natasha Watley singled, went to second base on a wild pitch, and scored as USA Olympian Jessica Mendoza, one of the best hitters in the world, singled to score Watley. Osterman was on top of her game, pitching the final two innings of the game, striking out 4, and not allowing a hit.

Natasha Watley

Jessica Mendoza

Since the crowd was a little smaller than the previous night, I decided to stay and get autographs. This is one of the great things about the NPF, the players all stay until everyone who wants an autograph gets one. I waited about 20 minutes before getting to the first autograph, and then met and got autographs from all the players. A few looked like they just wanted to get back to the hotel, which I completely understand, but 90% were quite friendly. Lexi Jager, from Western Michigan University was very nice, and I talked to her about the Mid-America Conference, the conference of my alma mater, the University of Buffalo. Caitlin Lever also was very pleasant. USA Olympian Vicky Galindo flashed her famous huge smile as I approached for an autograph. Bandits catcher Rachel Folden told me she had a bad day, but the fans always made her feel better, a very memorable thing to say! Most of the women were very pleased to hear I had been watching them on television for years. Unfortunately for me, Osterman was not very talkative. Monica Abbott, on the other hand, was extremely gracious and posed for this wonderful photo.

Pride catcher Megan Willis, who wears number 5, had gotten into a spat with the home plate umpire, and received a warning about her behavior, wrote something under her autograph. Did she really write "M Willis 5 pissed"??? No, it couldn't be, but I can't read what she did write.

Saturday, June 18, 2011
The day began with a trip to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. As much as I enjoyed the museum in Elkhart, this museum was ten times as large, and I walked around for over 5 hours and still didn't get to see everything. I took a ride on old inter-urban train cars, saw all sorts of old steam engines, and got to walk through passenger cars from 75 years ago. These old passenger cars were remarkable in that the sleeping berths were somewhat like beds in a closet. You had no room on either side of the mattress. In the daytime, the bed folded up and you could sit in the room, next to a sink/toilet. What an amazingly cramped way to travel. Of course, if you were rich and could afford a better room, there were luxury accommodations available where you could actually stretch out and enjoy a little space.

Burlington Northern F-9 Locomotive, the only F-9 remaining in existence

A cramped roomette, with upper level bed folded out. The bottom left leather seat actually lifts up to reveal a toilet.

Although my feet were sore after several days of walking, they weren't as sore as I thought they would be.

I would return to Rosemont for game 3 of the NPF series. Osterman would be the starting pitcher for the Pride, while former Michigan star Nikki Nemitz started for the Bandits. During the pre-game warmup, a crowd gathered around the chain-link fence that creates the bullpen, where Osterman was warming up. They came to watch the best pitcher in the world. And she put on a show in the pregame warmups. Although Osterman usually dominates during the game as well as in warmups, this wasn't her day. In fact, she gave up five runs in three innings, an extreme rarity for her, and the Bandits won 5–1. Abbott came in for relief, and earned the win, her second of the series.

Nikki Nemitz

Sunday, June 19, 2011
The day started with a trip to the historic Pullman district, formerly the town of Pullman. The town was the brainchild of railroad magnate George Pullman, whose last name became synonymous with the luxury passenger rail cars his company produced. Pullman was upset with the squalid conditions that most workers in Chicago had to live in, and so he designed and built a town that would allow his employees to live a better life. The townhouses that the employees lived in had gas lighting and indoor plumbing (a rarity in the 1880s). Pullman also built one of the first indoor shopping malls. This town received an award in 1896 for being the most hygienic town in the world. Over the years, the townhouses and other buildings have fallen into disrepair, but the current citizens of Pullman have banded together to rebuild their town, and most of the buildings have been returned to their former glory. The shops where the workers built Pullman rail cars still exist, but have fallen into such disrepair that they are closed and may never be restored.

Greenstone Church, built by George Pullman for the benefit of his town

Gorgeous row homes in the former town of Pullman, built for Pullman's workers

Remains of the erecting shops, where the Pullman cars were built

After that, I went to the town of Oak Park, to see some more beautiful old homes. Frank Lloyd Wright had his studio and workshop in this town, and designed many different homes in the area.

Frank Lloyd Wright studio and workshop

Moore-Dugal house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1895

I had walked about five miles this day so far. From there, I went back to Rosemont for the last NPF game. Taryne Mowatt started for the Bandits. She had a rough day, getting hit on the shins by two line drives in the first inning (and another just missed that same shin by a foot), and was removed from the game. After the game, she was on crutches. We saw a few home runs in this game, by USA Olympian Andrea Duran of the Pride, and by Bandits Megan Wiggins and Rachel Folden. This was another exciting game, as the Pride took a 3–0 lead in the top of the first, after battering Mowatt, only to see the Bandits take the lead with two runs in each of the first two innings. With the game tied after five innings, Shannon Doepking doubled in Christine Knauer for the Bandits go ahead run in the sixth. Abbott won her third game of the series, truly a stunning series for her.

Conclusion
After all that walking and exciting baseball and softball, I was exhausted. The one thing I planned to do that I didn't get around to was eating at a high-end Chicago steak house. I was too tired, and just didn't want a large heavy dinner. Maybe next time.

My feet are sore, but I walked more than I ever did. I had a great time every day, and still I want to see more of Chicago. I think I'll be going back.

The Day The Music Died

DSC_6821, originally uploaded by esacflatlndr (Jeff Eichen) and used with permission

Listening to the 60s Channel on XMRadio, I have heard a lot of great old music, including several songs from Dion DiMucci. I knew a lot of his songs — “The Wanderer”, “Abraham Martin and John”, “A Teenager In Love” and many others.

Naturally, I wanted to know more about him. I looked up Dion on Wikipedia, and learned, much to my surprise, that Dion could have had a seat on the plane that crashed and killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, the Day The Music Died. Dion didn’t want to spend the $36 for the plane ticket, as it was a whole month’s rent for his family back then.

This led me to read up more about The Day The Music Died. What a tragic story. A young pilot, probably unqualified and unaware that a blizzard was approaching accepted the job of flying these famous musicians. Shortly after takeoff, in blizzard conditions, the plane crashed into a corn field, killing all on board.

Today, near Clear Lake, Iowa, is a monument to these musicians. Buddy Holly's trademark glasses mark the entrance to the monument. Walking half a mile back into the cornfield (with permission of the land owner), there is another monument at the site of the crash.

These three musicians have not been forgotten. Their music is still memorable and still played on the radio, and I'm sure I can still sing along to The Big Bopper's “Chantilly Lace”, more than 50 years after it was recorded.

I want to visit the crash site. 

Joseph Ellicott Complex, SUNY Buffalo

Joseph Ellicott Complex, SUNY Buffalo, originally uploaded by statPaige.

This is my most viewed photograph on Flickr. It has been viewed over 3,000 times!

I used to live here in the Joseph Ellicott Complex when I was in college at the University at Buffalo. It was a pretty neat place to live. Inside the labyrinth of walls were classrooms, libraries, study halls, grocery stores, cafeterias, and of course dormitory rooms.

The complex was designed by internationally renowned architect Davis Brody Bond. There are six residence halls, all connected by a "spine", which is where the non-dormitory rooms were located. Each of the six residence halls was a unique design; even though you knew your way around one of these residence halls, it didn't help you once you entered into a difference residence hall.

Yearly Recap

Wow. I haven't blogged in a whole year. A lot has happened, but the big news is that I need surgery for spinal stenosis. After the surgery I will be out of work for probably 6–8 weeks.

The rest of the year has gone very well for me. I still work at Kodak (yay!), I took very nice trips to Baltimore, MD and Toledo, OH. The trip to Baltimore was to see my daughter Alyssa run in her very first marathon, and my daughter Darcy run in her very first half-marathon. I had never seen a marathon in person, and so I was very impressed with the whole thing, including the sheer number of people. Both Alyssa and Darcy finished the race, which was quite a thrill. Unfortunately, there were so many spectators at the finish line that I couldn't actually see them finish.

How impressive is that? They ran a marathon or half-marathon, something I never did, and they set personal record best times! I know one day, I measured a bike ride at 14 miles, I can't even imagine running that far, much less 26 miles. But they did it!

All year, I have enjoyed my new big-screen TV and GPS unit. I can't imagine how I lived without them. I also received, just a few days ago, my first ever Microwave, and so I'm not sure exactly how its going to affect my life, but I do make oatmeal in it every morning now.

Since I am about ten years from retirement, I had the usual worries about having enough money to live on when I retired. I spoke to several retirement planners, and they gave me some extra piece of mind. I now have an annuity that is guaranteed from the day I retire for the rest of my life. That, plus social security and other investments, ought to be plenty. I'm not going to worry about it any more. It's a good feeling!

Review of Nextar X3-11 GPS Unit

I have never used a GPS before, and this unit is probably lacking some features that higher priced GPS units might have. Nevertheless, I found a lot of useful features in the Nextar X3–11, and enjoyed using it yesterday.

I do a lot of photography ... lately, my interest has been to visit the small towns of Western NY, and photograph the beautiful old buildings, and other scenes as well. In the past, I would print out about a dozen pages of maps from Google Maps, and try to follow those while I was driving or walking. But that limited me to only driving places where I had maps.

With the GPS unit, I didn’t have to print maps, and I was no longer limited to driving where I had maps. I could go anywhere, and the GPS would let me know where I was and where to go. I picked a very tiny town to start at — Ossian, NY. The GPS directed me there flawlessly. Once I was done there, I had a hankering for Dunkin Donuts, and I knew there was one in Dansville. How to get there without a map? I just told the GPS to take me to Dansville. Simple! Then, it took me to Naples, NY, and after that, it directed me home. And as a plus, it took me along roads I wouldn’t have picked myself, and so I got some interesting pictures along the way. And if I wanted to record where I was when I took that great picture of a barn, I just tapped the GPS unit menus a few times, and the location was recorded (town name, road address, latitude and longitude).

This unit has a lot of features, and is relatively easy for me to use. I particularly enjoyed the voice mode, which tells me, for example, to “turn right in 1000 feet onto Main Street”. You can set the unit to direct you to a destination, or to follow an itinerary to a series of destinations. This device also tells you your speed, amount of time or miles to your destination, and estimated time of arrival. I learned that when my car’s speedometer says I am travelling 65mph, I was really going 62mph. I could go faster! Further, this unit also plays MP3s and photographs.

The unit comes with a DC (car) charger, but not an AC (home) charger. Since I didn’t want to leave the unit it the car for a few hours with the keys in the ignition, I couldn’t charge it up. So I called Nextar to see if there was some way I could charge the unit at home, and they offered to send me an AC charger for free!

I have a few minor complaints. The map never identifies bodies of water. It would be nice to know what that lake is. The unit comes with a stylus which you can use to select menu items (so you don't have to use your fat fingers) but there is no place to store the stylus and given its size, there's a good chance it will be lost soon. The unit attaches to the windshield or dashboard, but the adhesive on the dashboard holder wasn’t strong enough to hold the unit, and it kept toppling over (the suction cup attachment to the windshield works fine).

Sincerely, Lou

Lou Gehrig’s Final Letters:

The paper is fragile, the ink faded by time, but the words Lou Gehrig wrote 70 years ago, after being diagnosed with ALS, reveal a man with inner strength and a clear sense of purpose in his determination to find a cure for the disease.

His words are now enclosed in protective plastic sleeves in a blue binder to be preserved for as long as possible. But that doesn't make their impact any less emotional.

Nearly every time collector James Ancel opens the binder and reads the correspondence between Gehrig and his doctor, the reaction is the same: tears.

"It's very hard to get through," Ancel said. "It's hard reading. These are the last words, the last thoughts of an icon. And with each letter, you knew he's getting closer and closer to the end."

Gehrig was a proud, private man. From his final game with the New York Yankees on April 30, 1939, until he died on June 2, 1941, little was known about the everyday battles the "Iron Horse" faced with the disease that eventually took his life -- and, later, his name.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Gehrig's famed "Luckiest Man" speech, Ancel, a sports memorabilia collector, and The Rip Van Winkle Foundation, which oversees the Gehrig estate, have agreed to let ESPN make selected letters public for the first time. The correspondence between Gehrig and Dr. Paul O'Leary provides a rare and exclusive look the documentation of Gehrig's decline.

I couldn't even read the first letter.

Emotional Overload at the Women’s College World Series

This year’s Women’s College World Series has left me emotionally drained. We have seen, in a 48 hour period, a walk-off grand slam, a walk-off bases loaded walk, great diving catches, blazing speed, a record number of home runs, brilliant coaching decisions, poor plays, umpiring controversies, constant smiling from Kristin Schnake, tears and dogpiles. And we saw Jazlyn Lunceford.

After 11 hours of watching yesterday, and 12 hours the day before, I can honestly say I have never seen a series of baseball or softball games like the ones we saw this weekend. I don’t think I have ever seen a walk-off grand-slam, like the one by Florida’s Ali Gardiner, hitless in her last 15 at bats, with two outs and a team down by three, in an elimination game.

I’m quite sure I have never seen a coach take out a four time All-American (or whatever the baseball equivalent is), and send up a freshman pinch-hitter, with the bases-loaded, trailing by two late in an elimination game. But when Alabama freshman Jazlyn Lunceford launched the ball over the left-field fence for what would be the game-winning grand slam, in an elimination game, I realized I would never see a play like that again. I'm quite sure I have never seen a home run hitter, rounding third base, chest-bump the coach the way Lunceford did. It was a pinch-hit for the ages, one that would be remembered years from now when you think about the 2009 WCWS. That would be the most memorable moment of this world series, so I thought. Until Gardiner hit her slam.

Along the way, we saw the National Player of the Year, Washington’s Danielle Lawrie look sharp, then struggle, then with the entire crowd on their feet, give up a walk-off, full-count, bases loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth inning; then come back in the second game of the day and pitch a complete game win, and hit her own grand slam.

We were treated to the constant smiling of Georgia’s Kristin Schnake, making her final appearance in a collegiate game. Not only was the grin on her face still beaming as her team faced elimination, but after the game, and Georgia was eliminated by Washington, Schnake and her teammates continued to beam huge smiles, prompting announcer Jessica Mendoza to comment that you couldn’t tell which team won by looking at their team reactions.

I have been a baseball fan all my life, and yet I find the Women’s College World Series much more entertaining than the Major League Baseball World Series. In the WCWS, you get game after game (sometimes 4 in a day!) of high drama. In every game of the weekend, a team may be eliminated and careers ended. You see constant emotion, positive and negative, and the team celebrations during and after the games are much more intense than anything you will see in a pro baseball game, except perhaps when a team wins the World Series. You see the top pitchers for each team pitch game after game after game, and pitcher’s duels where the starters pitch extra inning complete games. In fact, earlier in the Regionals, both Lawrie and Massachusetts' Brandice Balschmiter pitched 15 epic innings into the darkness, both pitching for the second time that day. We'll never see most of this in Major League Baseball.

Which sadly brings me to the umpires, and specifically Sally Walker. It has not been a good series for the umpires. And while Sally Walker has been one of the top softball umpires in the country for a long time, regularly advancing to the WCWS and chosen to umpire World Cup of Softball, she has had made some very bad decisions in this tournament. She ruled a fly ball to be foul, which then landed fair beyond the fence in left field, taking a home run away from Washington. She ruled no-catch on a caught line drive to the firstbaseman in one of Friday’s games, and then by umpiring decision, advanced the runners to advance a base they shouldn’t have gotten to. And she failed to call a single illegal pitch, even though it was obvious to everyone watching the Georgia’s Christie Hamilton was throwing illegal pitches by the dozens. Walker’s explanation to the Missouri coach, of why she hadn’t called any illegal pitches, was a classical example of deflecting the question. Walker told the Missouri coach that she was watching where the pitcher was starting from ... even though the rule in question speaks about where the pitcher’s foot lands and not where the pitcher starts from.

The illegal pitch problem is one softball needs to solve. While most fans, and probably many players and coaches wouldn’t recognize most other illegal pitches when they happen, this particular rule requires a pitcher to land with her foot inside or on a chalk line. When the foot is entirely outside of the line, this is an illegal pitch. This particular rule is easily understood by everyone, and easily seen on TV and I presume, at the game. Why put in lines to make it easier for the umpires to call the play, if the umpires aren’t going to call this? Softball has a real credibility problem here, and the leaders of the sport need to fix this to prevent the feeling, voiced by some fans on Twitter and I’m sure elsewhere, that Georgia didn’t deserve the success they had.

Looking forward, the WCWS continues tonight with the Championship Round. Number one ranked Florida, versus number three ranked Washington. Best two out of three. And most likely, the two top pitchers in the country will take the mound each and every game. The anticipation is killing me.

Stupidest Sign Ever

see more Fail Blog

How We Staged the Morristown UFO Hoax

A group of twenty-somethings attached flares to helium balloons, and then launched them from a vacant field, videotaping the whole thing. The result: widespread hype about the “Morristown UFO”, and local and national media covered the story. Despite the fact that there was video showing what these twenty-somethings were doing, many so-called experts decided that the UFOs were real.

According to the twenty-somethings: “Does this bring into question the validity of every other UFO case? We believe it does.” And I agree.

This Week in Global Warming

Previously inhabitable islands in the Pacific are no longer inhabitable. (Via)

An entire glacier in Bolivia has melted away, years ahead of the pace scientists were predicting. (Via)

Most distant object in the universe spotted

From New Scientist:

Astronomers have spotted the most distant object yet confirmed in the universe – a self-destructing star that exploded 13.1 billion light years from Earth. It detonated just 640 million years after the big bang, around the end of the cosmic “dark ages”, when the first stars and galaxies were lighting up space.

I Luv My New Grill

A few weeks ago, I bought a new CharGriller Super Pro grill. This grill is the absolute best charcoal grill ever! It smokes meats (something I haven’t done much of) and it grills like you wouldn't believe.

The first time I cooked on it, I made the famous Beer Can Chicken recipe. As I was not used to getting the heat to the right temperature, it took twice as long as necessary and didn't crisp up the skin. But when it finally was done, it was delicious! The beer makes the chicken moist and adds a little flavor — this is the most moist chicken you can ever imagine coming off a grill.

Next, I made pulled pork. To smoke this, you need to cook a pork shoulder for 4 to 5 hours at a low temperature. This time, I did some research to find out how to set the temperature better in this grill. Seems that the instructions that come with the grill probably aren’t the best; so based on my research, I put coals on both sides of the griller (indirect cooking), and when I put the thermometer into the meet 4.5 hours later, it hit the desired 195°F almost exactly! And what great results — I could have eaten the pork just the way it came off the grill. But, I did pull it into shreds and make the classic pulled pork. Fantastic!

Next up: brined, hickory smoked pork chops. You brine the pork chops for a few hours before cooking. This makes the pork moist and flavorful. Then you hickory smoke it for about 20 minutes, to add even more flavor. These were the best pork chops I have ever made.

Of course, the grill is great for traditional grilling too: burgers, hot dogs, grilled veggies, etc. And it is well designed too. Changing the height of the coals is easy; cleaning out the embers the next day is a piece of cake; and the grill has a “warming rack” where you can put items that are already done so that they can stay warm while the rest of your items finish cooking.

On a scale of one through five stars, I give this grill: Five Stars

The Illustrious Cat Osterman Writes Me A Note

My recent trip to Chicago included a stop to see DePaul and Northwestern play softball. Although I have been a Northwestern fan for four years now, I have also been a Cat Osterman fan for even longer. Cat is now coach at DePaul, so the game was a double thrill for me.

I posted a comment (scroll down) on Cat Osterman’s blog Cat’s Corner today. I said:

Hi, Cat. I have been following your career since you were a Sophomore at Texas. I was travelling through Chicago and saw you had a game at Northwestern while I would be there, so I finally got to see you in person. I have to say, it was a thrill to see you ... although I'm sure it would have been more of a thrill to see you pitch rather than seeing you coach first base! Too bad your team didn't have a very good day. Maybe I'll have to make a trip this summer to see you pitch.

Sometimes, you do have to take some time out and reassess your life. So don't feel bad about taking time out from your MBA program. Its something a lot of people have to do, and I'm sure you will be better off because of this. Good luck to you.

Much to my surprise, shortly thereafter was a reply from Cat herself.

paige,

Thank you very much for coming out to our game! We actually hit decently. Just a bad day. Also thanks for the support on the MBA program. I tend to fill my plate with too many things, so it was a must to put something on hold! Hope you get around to coming to see me play live rather than coach, but again thank you for coming to watch. --Cat

Watching the softball game was one of the highlights of my trip. Getting a note from the big Cat herself — priceless!

Update: Photos from the game are here.

McCain Voted With Bush and Cheney 90% Of The Time

Voting Machine Problems

Isn’t it amazing that whenever voting machines problems are documented, the errors always favor the Rethuglicans on the ballot?

John McCain on the economy, in his own words

“I might have to rely on a vice president that I select” for expertise on economic issues.

McSame: Supporting Bush All The Way

Even though he would like you now to believe otherwise ...

John McCain and the Keating Five

John McCain’s Role In The Keating 5 Scandal