Lemony Snicket - The Bad Beginning

Needed something sweet and simple to read. Fun little book nothing too crazy. Kid book but all the same a good little read. Good characters and the extra little portion in the paperbook version is worth getting the paperbac. Only 12 more books in the series to read! Ha Ha

James Fenimore Cooper - The Pathfinder

A beast of a book! Started it about a month ago...it has been on my "to read" bookshelf for about 15 years :-(. Finally decided to get through it. Natty Bumpoo (aka Hawkeye, Leather Stocking, and Pathfinder to name a few) is a frontier legend. The LeatherStocking tales is Cooper's most recognized work. It is 5 books written at various times in the Pathfinder's life. Written in 1840, it is the 4th novel telling the tale of Pathfinder. It is a simple tale of leading a young woman through the woods, getting her to her father on an outpost, an adventure to a secret fort, a battle, and then the fade away. Mixed in is a love story (sort of). Decent story, a little wordy in parts, and well a little too much old English. I would shoot someone if they talked like that today...ughhhhh. Difficult to slog through as the tale wasn't gripping, the characters somewhat cardboardish, and the plot a bit see through. Interesting read as the main character has somewhat become the archetype for the American Male mythos. Natty can be traced to Hemingway's male characters which are stoic, easy going yet always prone to having life turn on them. Their resilience is always present and they take each event thrown at them with grace and honor. Good read overall just tough to read a 19th century novel.

Colorado Rockies - Week 25

A 7-0 (OMG!) week against the Dodgers and Padres. Better late than never but did the Roxs wait too long? They certainly got back into the hunt. Unfortunately they still have to hurdle over 2 teams, the Padres and Phillies, for a wild card spot and Arizona for the NL West title. Makes the season ending three game series in Denver suddenly take on greater meaning. Wouldn't it be awesome for the D-backs to roll into Denver with a 2.0 game lead over the Roxs with 3 to play? Ughhh it would be like a pre-playoff series. I'd be a train wreck. But before they get too far ahead, they've got a tricky 3 game series an LA, a notorious difficult place for the Roxs to win. Interesting stat in USAToday. The Roxs, beginning on May 22, are 66-45, 2nd only to the Yanks for the best record since that date. Not to shabby. Hopefully we can keep riding this wave...playoffs? Let's get there first then we can talk playoffs (can you say sleeper, Cardinals, and best offensive in the NL....one week, 6 wins)

Well after all that the Roxs are in 3rd place (4.0 behind) and 1.0 behind in the wild card chase. The Roxs currently stand at 84- 72. Currently 48-30 at home and 36-42 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 813-731 (expected wins is 86 versus historical wins at 73). On pace for 87 wins. Roxs graphical wins (home in Purple, away in grey).

Weekly WPA leaders (a 7-0 week sure helps the WPA numbers!)

College Football

Hey, hey, hey how about those Falcons. Beating TCU last Thursday night, 20-17, coming behind in the 4th quarter with 2 TDs then winning it in overtime. What a big game (AF opened as a 7 point underdog which moved to 8 by gameday) and now we head back to Utah for a game against our nemesis, BYU. We first played BYU back in 1956 and since that lost we have gone 6-21 against them and have only managed a 2-10 record at BYU. The glory year that was 1985, AF went 12-1 and the only game they lost? Yup BYU. So an evenly matched set of teams over the last 7 years with big blow out wins and big scores. Don't think we will see that this weekend. Once again the Post picked them to lose 27 - 17 and I had this game as another loss. AF could be looking ahead to next weeks game against Navy. A win this weekend would help AF a long way to possibly winning a conference title. Unfortunately history says to me AF's luck will run out and they will lose 24 - 21.

2000 32 - 12 W
2001 33 - 63 L
2002 52 - 9 W
2003 24 - 10 W
2004 24 - 41 L
2005 41 - 62 L
2006 14 - 33 L
2007 ???

Interesting games last weekend included...Citadel at Wisconsin (Citadel kept it close for a half). Tennessee at Florida (Why isn't Florida number 1, they haven't loss since winning the national championship??), and Notre Dame at Michigan (no tie, just a Michigan blow out).

Games of interest this weekend...Carolina at LSU (can Spurrier steal one?) and Michigan State at Notre Dame (12 1/2 favorites going into South Bend...Yikes!).

Project Oxcart

The Oxcart Story maintained at the CIA website is an extraordinary honest depiction of one of the most secret airplanes of all time. In fact I find it amazing that it is so honest. Check this section out, "Instead, a secluded site in Nevada was finally picked. It was deficient in personnel accommodations and POL storage, and its long-unused runway was inadequate, but security was good, or could be made so, and a moderate construction program could provide sufficient facilities. Lockheed estimated what would be needed in such respects as monthly fuel consumption, hangars and shop space, housing for personnel, and runway specifications. Armed with the list of major requirements, Headquarters came up with a construction and engineering plan. And in case anyone became curious about what was going on at this remote spot, a cover story stated that the facilities were being prepared for certain radar studies, to be conducted by an engineering firm." Wow for a site that isn't supposed to exist this report comes out and pretty much spells it out. What an interesting report...world's most secretive plane followed by proof of the most secretive Air Force Base in the world.

Haiku Wednesday

Haiku - Autumn

Aspens golden hue
Brush upon nature's canvas
Green lonely pinetrees

Chase Field, Phoenix, Arizona

Game 152 was good for the home team, and not so good for the Giants who appearred to have mailed it in. 3 pitchers through four innings! Yikes. To be honest I wasn't all that thrilled to be going to game with the Rox's adversaries. But it is baseball and well that is well worth the price of admission. This is my 12th ballpark. I have been to Turner Field, Camden Yards, Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Metrodome, Coors Field, Safeco, and Dodger Stadium (Also been to the Fulton County Stadium, Mile High, and Cleveland's Municipal). The ballpark is kind of quirky. It sorta of feels like a converted football stadium. The building is a big rectangular box with the roof sliding together with the crease meeting at the home plate to center field line. Thus the interior is a mirror image of one another (although it is 350 down one line and 355 down the other). Because of this you feel a bit awkward as everything is same. At least with Seattle's Safeco the roof slides over but the ballfield is situated off the centerline so there is no symmetry. Other unusual things...the home team dugout was on the right side (3rd Base side) of the plate (?) Is this unusual? Coors, Fenway, and Camden all have the home team on the first base side. There was a monitoring well in the middle of the concourse in left center (hey I'm an environmental engineer!). The game was played with roof open and there was a lovely moon with Antares. I sat out by the pool in right center. 44,000 people showed up for a Tuesday night game! And there was alot of energy...Coors Field just doesn't have this type of atmosphere. I was bit surprised as I thought Arizona was kind of like California baseball...laid back...but there was an excitement for this team. They are in a pennant chase (the Roxs are too, sort of) but this town loves the D-backs whereas Denver had an affair with the Roxs in the early 90s but then Denver is and always will be a Bronco town. Too bad because baseball in town that is excited about baseball makes the game a real joy to be at. If the Roxs don't make it, I'm pulling for the D-backs.

Colorado Rockies - Week 24

A 3-4 week against the NL East, Phillies and Marlins. Well if the Roxs don't make the playoffs this past week will be the reason. An okay 2 -2 road trip to Philly, although we could have taken a 3rd game if it hadn't been for a missed HR. Not a definite win but an extra run and who knows. This is the 3rd missed HR for the Roxs this year. Instant replay for baseball? Something to think about...with technology the way it is, how could you not want to get the play right. Although my guess is that it becomes a slippery slope...could we see the day without a umpire calling balls and strikes? Anyway, then the real slap in the face...losing 2 of 3 to the Marlins...one of the worst teams in baseball. Again the Roxs will look back over the year and see their record against poor teams as the reason they weren't playing in October. Got to win the gimmes. Well, the Roxs are in 4th place (6.5 behind) and 4.5 behind in the wild card chase. The Roxs currently stand at 77- 72. Currently 44-30 at home and 33-42 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 771-707 (expected wins is 80 versus historical wins at 70). On pace for 84 wins. Roxs graphical wins (home in Purple, away in grey)

Weekly WPA Leaders:

Well what can you say? 13 games to go, all against the NL West. 7 games with LA, 3 with SD, and 3 with Arizona. & games with LA can certainly leap frog us over them, we might still be withing striking distance of SD and the final series with Arizona (could we be spoilers at least?). Who knows at this point, the Roxs gave a good run. Let's go out swinging at least!

Game 149 - Colorado Rockies

Game 149 - Wow, I keep going to games! Everytime I think I've been to my last one then off I go again. This one was an easy one to watch...no 9th inning rally...my last two were bottom 9th nail biters. This was over early and thus was nice to watch. Todd Helton got his 300th home run. That puts Todd 114th all time home runs, one behind Roger Hornsby. George Brett sits at 100th with 317. I think Todd might get there! The Roxs previous 1B sits at 399 and his tied for 43rd. At 33 Todd probably has another good 5 years in him and at 20 a year he might get to 400 but I doubt it. He seems to have become a doubles hitter and doesn't appear have that HR power anymore on a consistent basis. Anyway good game left after 6 has the rains came and it was 11 - 0.

Heroes....or Where Was I?

Well, I loved the new show Heroes that started last fall. I watched it pretty closely up through mid season then I missed a couple of shows and then I could never get back on track. With the release of the DVD of Season 1, I finally caught up on the 11 shows that I missed! Four days of straight heroes and wow what an awesome first season. What is great with this show is that it responds to cliffhangers and then brings new ones on. Other great shows like Lost or X-files was good but the twists and turns just never completed the story. Season 1 of Heroes, like a good comic book series, had cliffhangers after each episode but they became a part of the story rather than just a plot tool to bring us back. Of the 11 shows, there was some not so good episodes but overall the series was a must-see. Characters all grew, the plot weaved through 23 episodes, and the ending was like a good Christmas gift (nicely wrapped up and having enough mystery to make us wonder but once opened satisfied with what is was!). My only complaint was Peter really wasn't all that believable about him not controlling his powers. He had controlled it previously what caused him to go nuclear with this episode...I thought that was particularly weak and the only real bummer because everything else wrapped up nicely. Season 2 starts next week...it will be interesting to see if they can launch and hold onto another season.