I got tagged today by Shelly (aka, the Juggernaut). If you’re a Flickr user, go to the sixth page of your photostream, choose the sixth photo and post to your site.
Ironically, we used this exact same photo just two blog posts ago, after going to the Stockton Thunder opening night for the ’08-’09 season.
I’ve tagged JR and Spaguyswife.
The win streak on pink ice has ended. Tonight was game two of Thunder Goes Pink III, taking on the Victoria Salmon Kings. The near sell out crowd was more energetic then they were on opening night even though there were no real fights and we lost another one. At the beginning of the game DJ Walker asked cancer survivors in the audience stand up followed by friends and family of people affected by cancer. It was quite an emotional sight when nearly the entire audience of 9,000+ stood up. The Thunder brought out Cameron the Super Fan, a huge favorite in Stockton, who for the first time we can remember, took the mic and spoke to the crowd. He told of how he lost his mother to cancer when he was a teenager and commended the fans for the great support of this great benefit event.
Kudos to the Stockton Thunder folks for putting together another great night of hockey in Stockton!
Just as we did the last couple of years, we went to the opening home game of our Stockton Thunder. Last night they took on the Fresno Falcons.
We sat in section 107, row 9 which is probably my favorite place to sit. The crowd was very energetic and did a lot of screaming - both at our team as well as a lot of trash talking to the Fresno squad. Either my hearing is going south (I doubt it) or the PA in the arena was turned down a bit. They had a band (well, actually, a guy on guitar and another on bass) play the Star Spangled Banner but it was barely audible.
Mike Lalonde scored first putting the Thunder up 1-0. The Falcons, however, would come back and score 3 goals in just under 3 minutes of play to silence the arena a bit.
We eventually added one more goal but eventually fell to the Falcons and suffered our first home opener loss.
What about the fights you ask? Well, there were enough fights to keep everyone entertained for most of the night. The first fight came 7 minutes into the game and put our Garet Hunt against Fresno’s Spencer Carbery.
The second fight of the night came a minute or so later, just as play was resumed and was between Stockton's Milan Maslonka and Fresno's Kyle Hagel.
We also took a few pictures... check them out here.
Also, check out all of posts, videos and pictures from the last three seasons here.
Although our family website is not the place to discuss our political views, I did want to comment on tonight’s final Presidential debate. I watched the entire debate, just as I did the last two and the VP debate. The winner of this final debate? Joe the Plumber, of course! Here’s the video:
And here’s what some on Twitter are saying about Joe the Plumber: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Plumber
Disneyland really is the happiest place on Earth. We planned our vacation to Disneyland and California Adventure many, many months ago. Long before Dawn and I thought the names on our paychecks would be changing, before anyone was using the term “credit crunch” and when the Dow Jones Industrial Average was somewhere north of 12,000. Boy, those were the days! Obviously, a lot has gone on recently and the timing for our vacation couldn’t have been better! A wonderful week to unplug (a little) and just hang out! We didn’t go alone though... we did have our trusted advisor, Twitter, along for the ride. Specifically, @RMGreg! Greg, a seasoned Disneyland / Disneyworld pro, was tweeting and texting tips and trips of the park... thanks Greg.
We had an absolute awesome time at Disneyland and California Adventure. Makenzy and Dawn rode the Tower of Terror for the first time and Makenzy just loved riding the “big ones” like California Screaming and Space Mountain. Dawn, on the other hand, remembered how much she didn’t like that one as she screamed “I don’t like this” nearly the whole time.
Last time we went to Disneyland we took a night away from the park to have dinner at Medieval Times. This time we went to the Pirate’s Dinner Adventure. We all preferred this one to the horses and the jousting. Dawn, Emily and Makenzy were recruited a couple of times to join in the pirate’s adventure which might be one of the reasons we had more fun.
Check out the pics we took here.
After more than a decade, we got together this weekend with Van and his lovely wife, Christine and their adorable little boy, Evan (although the nickname “mini-Van” fits him well). The Saukams were out in California this week from Colorado so we just had to get together like we did back in the day.
We had an awesome time reminiscing about our high school days as we all took turns telling Christine about all of the crazy times we had. It was great seeing our friend Van again and getting to know his wife and son. We did finally get around to playing a little music and, as no surprise, Van has not lost any ability to sing!
Hanging out with Mike, Shauna, Shawn, Shane and Van (and all the kids that go along with this group) reminded us all that life is about the people we share it with. Great times, great friends.
I posted a few pictures here.
I spent the week in Chicago for work and actually had some fun as well. I got to catch a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, go to the top of the Hancock building and see the enormous Chicago skyline and have real Chicago pizza with Greg, Tonya, Nikolai and Caleb.
Check out the rest of the pics here.
Yesterday, we finally made it back to our favorite beach - Cowell Ranch Beach in Half Moon Bay, California. It was a little over cast but still a beautiful day. As is usually the case, there were hardly any other people on “our beach” the entire day. We had an awesome time just relaxing and just hanging out on the beach. We took a lot of pictures... here are the ones that made the cut.
Here are some pictures we took here in 2002 and again in 2005.
On the eve of the tour I made my tour predictions. How’d I do? Not too shabby! With my first and second place finishers switched and a top 10 finish for Valverde this was my closest prediction ever! It was a great race this year, except the doping by Ricardo Ricco. In my opinion, the biggest dissapointment was Mark Cavendish not finishing the race, especially after racing so well this tour!
My predictions versus actual Overall: Cadel Evans / Lotto - 2nd overall 2nd: Carlos Sastre / CSC - 1st overall 3rd: Alejandro Valverde / Caise d'Epargne - 9th overall 11th: George Hincapie / High Road - 35th overall
KOM: Yaroslav Popovych / Lotto - Bernhard Kohl
Sprint: Thor Hushovd - Oscar Freire 2nd: Fabian Cancellara - Thor Hushovd 3rd: Mark Cavendish - Erik Zabel
Team: CSC - CSC
Check out all of 2008 results here. If you follow professional cycling, check out The FredCast, the internet’s premier cycling podcast!
Recently, on Dancing with Elephants, I heard about a man trying to whittle his personal belongings down to 100 items. Greg and Tonya asked their audience to write in with what 10 things they couldn’t live without. That got me thinking: as a self-professed, but improving, pack-rat, could there be only 10 things with which I couldn’t live? So, to start, I did a rough inventory of the Outback. For those of you that are new here, that’s the name of our home office / recording studio. Our first home had a separate room in the back yard, which was the whole reason I wanted to buy that house, that served as an office and studio. When my oldest brother, Ken, saw it he instantly christened it the Outback. On a somewhat unrelated note, it was also Ken that gave Emily the nickname she uses today, Emo, the day she was born. Back to the story. These days, the Outback is inside but still serves, in addition to a home office and recording studio, as my personal junk drawer. While I was up late recently I started counting and cataloging nearly everything in the Outback. Here’s what I came up with so far:
87 shot glasses
9 century patches
4 century pictures
3 shelves hanging
3 shelves waiting to be hung
1 Paul Stanley framed pictured (B&W)
8 misc framed pictures
1 Apple Store opening shirt in tube (Arden Fair)
34 Kiss CDs
2 Kiss albums
2 Kiss 8-tracks
1 picture of Blackie Lawless
1 Yamaha synthesizer
1 M-audio keyboard / MIDI controller
1 movie poster - Gore Vidal’s The Best Man
1 framed poster with hundreds of stickers from CDs and tapes
1 framed poster with 55 concert and game tickets
1 replica "flying disc" patent drawing, framed
118 magazines
1 television (I didn't realize this was still in here)
7 guitars
2 mandolins
1 bass
5 guitar cases
3 guitar pedals
6 microphones
1 guitar amp
1 bass amp
1 bottle of Kiss wine
1 Gene Simmons bottle topper
1 double deck tape player / recorder
127 books
239 cassette tapes
3 mic stands
1 complete set of the New Yorker magazine on DVD
27 pens
1 Rubik cube
1 wireless router
1 DSL modem
2 money clips
2 computer (PC)
1 monitor
1 PowerBook G4
1 iMac
1 iCurve
3 Mice
4 keyboards
1 tape dispenser
2 cameras
1 pack of blank DVDs
1 pack of black CDs
1 corded phone
1 printer
5 surge protectors
1 bobble head
7 post cards
4 trophies
2 desk calendars
1 Roland mixer
1 MOTU ultralite mixer
1 mic pre-amp
1 DV-AV switchbox
2 set studio monitors
1 desk
2 chairs
1 barstool
1 4-drawer cabinet
1 2-drawer file cabinet
1 calculator
1 scientific calculator
3 sets of headphones
1 Zoom portable recorder
1 iSight camera
6 sets of guitar/mandolin/bass strings
9 guitar cables
17 various audio cables
1 M-audio guitar pre-amp
5 power supply units for unknown devices
3 Lacie external hard drives
1 VCR
1 magnetic dart board
5 clip boards
3 Kiss comic books
10 3-drawer cassette tape holders
8 conference badges with lanyards
139 home movies on VCR tapes
2 hole punchers
1 Yamaha 4-track tape recorder
4 Kiss matchbox cars
1 Kiss toothbrush
3 rulers
14 notebooks
1 can of Mountain Dew from the middle east
1 miniature NFL helmet
1 picture frame with 10 pictures (1 pic at a time)
1 12-drawer plastic cabinet
1 2-drawer plastic cabinet
3 guitar stands
1 set of computer speakers
1 camera cable
2 iPod cables
1 iPhone cable and dock
1 whiteboard
4 boxes of thank you cards
2 mouse pads
2 decks of cards
2 letter openers
3 magnetic clips
7 keychains
9 owners manuals
3 various packs of KC Chiefs stickers
4 unused gift certificates
9 used Moleskine notebooks
2 unused Moleskine notebooks
238 business cards
1 pocket knife
2 name tags from previous jobs
19 various buttons and pins
4 bumper stickers
1 can of Copenhagen from 1991
2 cork boards
1 box of jewel cases
190 California lottery tickets from 1987-1990
1 wireless print server
1 KC Chiefs punch puppet
2 photo albums
1 camera tripod
2 shoe shine sets
1 ziplock bag with my hair from 1992 - the last time I had long hair
1 man purse (unused since 1989)
3 cell phone chargers
2 boxes of football cards
8 binders
1 homemade "Outback" sign
2 framed / autographed Nick Lowery portraits / paintings
1 scanner
1,430 items in the Outback alone. Of course, I have all of my CDs (which I haven’t touched in years) stowed away elsewhere, another collection of books, 23 Franklin Quest / Franklin Covey storage cases and other keepsakes in my bedroom. Then there’s the garage. Two road bikes, a mountain bike and of course, the penny farthing; tools, bike accessories... the list goes on and on.
What 10 material things could I not live without? That is a very difficult question to answer. If I had to name the top 10 things I couldn’t live without, I’d have to say:
PowerBook G4 iMac Acoustic guitar (probably the nylon string one) Electric guitar (Fender Stratocaster) Guitar amp Camera Yamaha synthesizer Zoom H2 Bose headphones Kiss Music From the Elder album
Of course, as much of a pack-rat as I am, this has actually been a good exercise for me. I have too much stuff; maybe it’s time for a purge. If you want to take any of the other 1,420 things off my hands, feel free to make me an offer - iwilltakeyourjunk@mattbeckwith.com
