Go Pack Go!

I went into the game last night against the Denver Broncos trying to keep my expectations in line. Even though the Packers were 5-1, I knew that Denver was always a tough place for them to play. I just hoped it would be a good close game. One where we would limit our mistakes and try to score some points. If we did that and lost, I would be OK with that. Well, the defense had a rough night. They played tough and times, but also had way too many penalties, especially on the secondary. But hey, Grant breaks out and shows we might just have a running game by recording the first 100 yard game for a Packer running back all season. Then, what can you say about Brett Favre? An 80 yard strike to James Jones for a TD in the first half. Then, on the very first play of sudden death overtime, an 82 yard back breaking bomb to Greg Jennings to win the game. I think you could probably hear me screaming all the way to Denver! I can't believe it, the Packers are 6-1! There is much joy in Mudville this morning.

Blast from the Past

Back in the early 90's while we were living in Southern California one of Chris' favorite TV shows was the Home Show with Gary Coleman. She even got a chance to take my Mom to see a live taping during one of Mom and Dads visits to our house in Corona. During that show, as they were going to commercial break the camera panned the audience and stopped with a close up of Chris and my Mom. A few weeks later a producer from the show called the house looking for Chris. When she had signed up for tickets she had noted in her profile that she was a mother of two living in So Cal. They wanted to know if she would be interested in being on the show as part of a segment on tandem baby strollers. Even though she is kind of camera shy, Chris decided to to it. I mean how many times in your life do you get to be on National Television!?

The whole experience was pretty cool. Since the broadcast was at 7:00 am Pacific (for a 10:00am time slot in New York). They put us up in a really nice hotel in Beverly Hills. They picked Chris up 90 minutes before the show for hair and makeup. I had to get the boys there just before the show was to start. The segment went really well and Chris and the kids looked awesome! Below is a clip that my Dad had recorded in VHS all those years ago. He recently added it to his YouTube library. Thanks Dad for making this little piece of family history and Christina's 15 minutes of fame available on line.

Formula 1 Season Finale

All I can say about the season ending race at Interlagos...WOW!

Can you believe it, Kimi Raikkonen comes from third in in the standings to win the 2007 World Championship! What a great race, and what an amazing season. All Lewis had to do is finish ahead of Alanso, and within 5 places of Kimi to become the first rookie and youngest driver ever to win the world championship and he has a mechanical gremlin that drops him to 18 place early in the race. Watching him carve his way back through the field was brilliant. Alanso, coming into the race seemed to have it all for the taking if he could finish ahead of both Kimi and Lewis. As we've seen though in the second half of the season, he was not up to the task.

My pre-season predictions of 1. Fernando Alanso 2. Kimi Raikkonen 3. Lewis Hamilton were pretty close. Right guys wrong order. My prediction that the championship would be won by less that 10 points was correct, but man I would have never thought that when all was said and done, the top 3 would be separated by a single championship point! Kimi flat out proved be wrong in my statements that he could not be consistent enough to beat Alanso. In the end, Hamilton got into the reigning World Champion and rattled him to the core. Something that not even Micheal Schumacher could do in the past.

Sadly my prediction that Scott Speed would be out of F-1 at the end of 2007 was correct. Based on his consistently out performing his team mate, it was very clear that STR canned the wrong driver. This only proved that Gerhard Burger was a better driver that team boss. I'm also bummed that we have lost our home GP. Indy was never a great track for F1, but it brought F1 back to America and I enjoyed every minute of it. I can only hope that some deal can be worked out in the future to bring the F1 circus back to the States.

I look forward to the 2008 season with much anticipation. Will Alanso in fact end up back at Renault, or perhaps somewhere else? Can Lewis Hamilton follow up his fairy tail rookie season and win the World Championship? Can Ferrari continue it's strong pace and maintain the longest string of dominance in it's 57 year history in the sport? The coming months will tell the tail. I can't wait to see it all unfold.

Congratulations once again to Kimi Raikkonen, 2007 World Champion.

Rocks, Waves and Light

While Nik and I were exploring along the North Shore this week, I played around with shooting some video on my little Canon Powershot. It's not great and I sure wish I had brought a tripod. However, it does give a much better sense of the beauty and power of this amazing place.

Road Trip - Nik & Dad

The kids have off of school Thursday and Friday this week for Teachers Convention. Nik and I took advantage of the time off to do a little road trip. The weather this month has been pretty gloomy. We have had 18 straight days of rain. Today there is a storm that looked like it would create gale force winds and waves on Lake Superior. I thought this would be a great chance to see the Great Lake in all it's powerful glory. Nik and I got on the road on a dreary wet day and headed north for the 2-1/2 hour drive to Duluth. We drove in rain the entire way up, expecting to see a wicked storm on the Lake Superior shoreline. About 10 minutes outside of Duluth, the clouds started breaking up and blue sky and sunshine made their way through. Not the kind of weather we anticipated. However, the lake was still pretty active and got more so the further up highway 61 we drove.

At the mouth of the Lester river just north of Duluth, the rain gorged river raced into the storm driven waves of the lake creating a jumble of waves and muddy brown water. Further north we stopped to take in the scenery of just past peak colored trees with the rocky shoreline and crashing waves. The sound of the storm driven waves thundering against the rocks reminded both Nik and I of the Pacific ocean waves on the shore near Ventura. We just sat and took it all in until the clouds came back and the wind picked up, making the air temp seem about 20 degree's colder than it was just 15 minutes prior. We headed back down to Canal Park in Duluth. Standing near the rocky break water the wind driven waves were cresting at 5-7 feet high. There were two jet skiers in the lake using the large waves as ramps launching their watercraft over 10 feet into the air! We finished off our day with dinner at Old Chicago pizza restaurant before heading back south toward home. Nik commented that seeing and hearing the waves today make him feel right at home. I've also posted an album of photos on the family web site.

Early Fall Paddling

Fall in Minnesota. The leaves are turning from green to shades of orange, red and rust. There is a chill in the air was we begin our slow migration to winter. Well today the weather was actually warm with a high temperature of 88 degrees! It was such a nice day we decided to get out and do some Canoeing. Nik joined Chris and I today on our paddle on Lake Minnewashta. It was his first time out with us. We had a great time, paddling out with the ducks and geese. The fall colors around sunset where spectacular and it was a rare treat to be wearing short and t-shirts in October.