HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I'm 4 hours early, but Happy New Year already :)

Oberstar Taking Fight to Invasive Species

This is a long article from the Duluth News Tribune today, that focuses on invasive species that are infecting/affecting our lakes, and Great Lakes as well.

Invasive species targeted
John Myers Duluth News Tribune
Published Sunday, December 31, 2006
The incoming chairman of the U.S. House committee that oversees ports and shipping vows to head the federal government’s strongest action ever to regulate ships’ ballast water and thwart invasive species.

U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., soon to be chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he’ll hold hearings in coming months.

He promised to pass a bill in 2007 ordering ships to treat their ballast water to ensure that foreign species can’t be moved into U.S. waters or spread between the Great Lakes.
Zebra mussels.
Zebra mussels.
On the day a Michigan law targeting ballast water takes effect, and on the heels of a federal judge’s order that ballast water be regulated as water pollution, it’s the strongest sign yet the federal government will act on invasive species.

“We were in a position to start taking action in the 1980s and early 1990s, and we could have stopped many of these species from coming in,” Oberstar said in a recent interview with the News Tribune. But opponents to ballast regulations “said there wasn’t the technology. They said it was too expensive. They said it wasn’t enforceable and that we needed more science. Bullshit. We don’t need any more scientific certainty. We know how adversely these species have affected the Great Lakes. It’s time to take action.”

Oberstar called invasive species the top threat to Great Lakes ecosystems and among the nation’s most-pressing environmental problems.

“Mercury [pollution] is a problem. But mercury doesn’t reproduce. Viruses reproduce. Zebra mussels reproduce. Lamprey reproduce. We have to stop that chain now or we’ll lose control,” Oberstar said. “We’re going to move a bill that has strong enforcement of ballast water to stop the destruction of one-fifth of the world’s fresh water. … If the president vetoes it, it will be on his grave marker, not mine.”

Stars aligning for action

The ballast water issue, simmering for decades, has started boiling. The signs:

* Last year a federal judge ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to start regulating ballast water under the federal Clean Water Act by September 2008.

* A new Michigan law that demands permits for saltwater ships takes effect Monday. If ships exchange ballast, they’re required to treat it to kill exotic species. Experts predict a showdown over jurisdiction.

* On July 1, a Washington state law will begin requiring state permits for ships entering state waters and requiring ballast water exchange outside state borders. California and Oregon have similar laws intended to add teeth to existing federal policy. Minnesota and Wisconsin haven’t taken any action on ballast water to stem invasive species.

* A new exotic species has emerged in the Great Lakes in the past year, killing fish across wide areas. Viral hemorrhagic septicemia — or VHS — has infected 27 species, killing fish from Lake St. Clair near Detroit into Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River and a New York lake. The saltwater virus is expected to spread west, possibly devastating native fish stocks in Lake Superior within years.

More than 20 years after zebra mussels invaded the Great Lakes, the emergence of a virus that can quickly kill native fish has pushed the issue of invasive species control into a new era of urgency.

“We support what Michigan has done, because Congress has dragged its feet for 20 years,” said Jordan Lubetkin, spokesman for the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office. “But we really need a national solution, and it appears the stars may finally be about to align to get that. People are fed up with things like VHS killing fish. Fishermen are fed up. And this isn’t just about the Great Lakes. We’re talking Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf Coast and San Francisco Bay.”

Industry officials agree, although a fight is likely on the timeframe and methods. The shipping industry would have to spend millions of dollars to comply.

“I think we’re seeing the heat being turned up, mostly because of the change in leadership in Congress,” said Steve Fisher, executive director of the American Great Lakes Ports Association. “The Democrats appear more willing to take action on this. If this new momentum leads to federal legislation, that would be great. Our industry has been pleading for a federal law.”

The emergence of VHS also adds a controversial wrinkle to ballast water regulation, Fisher said. Michigan’s law and past federal proposals have focused on saltwater vessels. But with VHS already in the Great Lakes, protections would only work if they also applied to lakers — vessels that never leave the Great Lakes.

“We’re talking a whole new issue here that’s going to have huge ramifications,” Fisher said. “Imagine if someone decides that VHS has to be stopped and that we can’t move ballast around in the lakes? That kills your taconite industry and the Iron Range overnight.”

INVASIVE HITCHHIKERS

Ballast water is used to help balance ships so they float evenly and steer better. Ships can carry more than 2 million gallons of ballast water that must be moved quickly into and out of tanks as they unload or take on a load.

There are at least 183 invasive species in the Great Lakes, and scientists say the majority got here hitchhiking in ships’ ballast. A new invasive species is found in the lakes every 28 weeks, on average.

But it’s far from just a Great Lakes issue.

The U.S. Geological Service estimates that 45,000 vessels globally are moving some 7,000 different species in their ballast on any given day. Experts say there are now more foreign species in San Francisco Bay than native species.

Industry officials note that, even if all shipping ended, exotic species still would invade U.S waters.

The mean-looking snakehead fish found in East Coast waterways recently was imported by Asian chefs as a delicacy that needs to be transported live. The giant, leaping Asian carp now thriving in the Mississippi River system and threatening to enter the Great Lakes is spreading without any help from ships. Imported to the U.S. by fish farmers to clean fish holding ponds, it escaped during floods.

“We’d like to see comprehensive aquatic invasive species legislation, not just ballast water,” Lubetkin said. “It’s impossible to talk about restoring the Great Lakes if you don’t stop invasive species.”

Testing ballast treatment

Shipping industry leaders say nearly 40 companies have developed on-ship technology to treat ballast water. Several of those products are expected to be available to ship owners in coming months.

In the Twin Ports, the Great Ships Initiative is working to test ballast treatment in the lab at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, in giant on-land tanks being built near Barker’s Island and on vessels later this year. The effort is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Great Lakes port authorities.

“We expect to get something [in a ship] on the water this spring,” Fisher said. “We have several vendors who say they are almost there with the technology. We just want to make sure it really works before someone spends $1 million on something.”

While the Michigan law requires one of four specific technologies — two chemical treatments, ultra-violet light and deoxygenating water — Fisher said the best treatment may be by another means or a combination of methods to kill even microscopic organisms.

Other technologies are being tested at similar facilities in Key West, Fla.; Tacoma, Wash.; Norway and Singapore.

Duluth scientist Gary Glass, a former EPA researcher, said the solution might be easier and less expensive than previously believed. Glass envisions a system that would use chlorine to kill organisms inside the ballast tanks of ships and then use sulfur dioxide to render the chlorine harmless before it’s released into a harbor.

Whatever technology is used, environmentalists say it’s up to the federal government to set a standard that will keep everything from new viruses to mussels to ruffe out of U.S. waters.

“The industry has had 20 years to do something on their own. The time has come for the government to set a strict standard and then hold the industry to it,” Lubetkin said.

But Jim Sharrow, the Seaway Port Authority of Duluth’s facilities manager, said it may be impossible to kill 100 percent of invasive species.

“Hospitals aren’t even 100 percent sterile,” he said. “You can get close. But trying to make a [ship’s ballast] totally sterile, that may not happen.”

SKYPE is now available through Google Pack

Click the title of this entry to go to google pack and download some fun computer accessories. SKYPE is a program that allows you to make internet phone calls, voice (with your speakers/mic or headset with a mic) to anyone who uses the program. It is one of the most popular programs out there right now for download.

*NOW* will you please fire Glen Mason?

I didn't watch the game when I got home from a high school basketball game.. since I was told the score was 21-0 Gophers... then on the radio it was 38-7 a story said... well ESPN.com tells it:

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- Trailing Minnesota by four touchdowns at halftime, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach told his team it had a chance to make history.

The pep talk turned out to be a prediction.

The Red Raiders spotted Minnesota a 31-point, third-quarter lead, then rallied for a stunning 44-41 overtime victory in the Insight Bowl Friday night, the largest comeback in Division I-A bowl history.

The previous record for a bowl comeback was 30 points, set by Marshall against East Carolina in the 2001 GMAC Bowl.

"We talked at halftime that we had a great opportunity to make history, and the reason people come to Texas Tech is to play all 60 minutes," said Leach, who fought back tears during a postgame interview.

It took Tech more than 60 minutes to earn one of the more improbable victories in its history.

Tech (8-6) appeared finished after Minnesota (6-7) took a 38-7 lead with 7:47 to go in the third quarter. But the Red Raiders mounted a furious comeback, scoring 31 unanswered points in less than 20 minutes.

Alex Trlica's 52-yard field goal as regulation expired sent the game into overtime.

Joel Monroe kicked a 32-yard field goal to put Minnesota up 41-38 in overtime, but Shannon Woods scored on a 3-yard run to win it for the Red Raiders.

That sparked a wild celebration for the Red Raiders, who mobbed each other while the shocked Gophers trudged to the locker room.

"Everyone felt like, 'Hey, we're going to win,'" said Tech quarterback Graham Harrell, who was selected bowl MVP after throwing for 445 yards and two touchdowns. "If you believe, good things can happen."

Tech's comeback began with 4:58 to go in the third quarter, when Harrell hit Phoenix native Joel Filani for a 43-yard score to cut the lead to 38-14. That started an avalanche that buried Minnesota in the first meeting of the schools.

"We're an offense that can score in a hurry, and everyone knows that," Harrell said.

Trailing 38-35 with no timeouts, the Red Raiders took over at their own 11 with 1:06 remaining. Eight plays later, Trlica tied it.

Woods rushed for 109 yards and three touchdowns and Filani caught nine passes for 144 yards.

For Minnesota, Amir Pinnix ran for 179 yards, Bryan Cupito threw for 263 yards and three touchdowns and tight end Jack Simmons caught seven passes for 134 yards.

Minnesota set a school bowl scoring record, and Cupito, a senior, tied Asad Abdul-Khaliq's career record of 55 touchdown passes. The records were little consolation in the end.

"We just broke down," Minnesota linebacker Mike Sherels said. "You just kind of got the feeling that we were back on our heels and playing not to lose instead of playing to win."

That's not how the Gophers opened the game. They jumped ahead 7-0 after Leach went for it on fourth-and-1 at his own 45 on the opening series. Harrell was stopped on a sneak, and six plays later Cupito found Simmons for a 2-yard touchdown with 9:27 to go in the first quarter.

Four minutes later, Minnesota made it 14-0 after Sherels intercepted Harrell at Tech's 37. Pinnix capped a six-play drive with a 2-yard run.

Another Harrell turnover killed a Tech scoring drive. He fumbled on a sack by Willie VanDeSteeg, and Steve Davis recovered at the Golden Gophers' 13. Minnesota marched 87 yards -- its longest scoring drive of the year -- to take a 21-0 lead on Justin Valentine's 1-yard plunge on the first play of the second quarter.

Tech had a chance to slice the deficit when cornerback Antonio Huffman picked off Cupito's pass at the Minnesota 20. But Pinnix jarred the ball loose, and it bounded into the end zone, where the Gophers recovered for a touchback.

After Tech's Shannon Woods scored from 1 yard out to make it 28-7, the Gophers answered with an 81-yard drive that ended in a 3-yard touchdown pass from Cupito to Logan Payne in the final minute of the first half.

Minnesota looked as if it ended any Tech hopes for a comeback by opening the third quarter with a 16-play, 78-yard drive that consumed 7:13. Monroe's 20-yard field goal gave the Gophers a 38-7 lead.

"Everything was going our way," Minnesota coach Glen Mason said.

But it turned out to be a mirage.

Afterward, interviewers told Leach that his team had indeed made history. His locker room rhetoric had turned into a record.

"Didn't realize it until the end, but I knew it was kind of a big one," Leach said. "Quite honestly, despite that, I would have liked to have spotted them less points in order to come back from behind to win this thing."

Goodbye Glen Mason, don't let the Metrodome door hit ya in the ass!

Finally.. snow!

We've got almost 2 inches now I think.... the first real snow that MIGHT stick around until the end of February. They're calling for light snow almost every day until Tuesday ... but.. they never can predict that correctly that far ahead

National Sports Center, Blaine Minnesota

Today, I went to the National Sports Center in Blaine, MN for the first time, to watch a couple girls High School hockey Schwan's Cup tournament games. I'd never been down there to the complex and it's even better than I thought it would be, even though the CEC (Cloquet) girls lost to Benilde St. Margaret's 1-0.

The parking lot is nice and large, the rinks aren't bad to watch games in..and the lobby is great, with viewing windows to all 4 ice sheets in the SSR (Schwan's Super Rinks).. the concession stand is nice also.

I was told it's even better in the summer when there's soccer etc going on, so there might be plans for a trip down there to look around during summer daylight sometime.

Sports Cards for sale

I've decided to sell sports cards on eBay again more than doing the consignment auctions. The consignment auction business has been really slow the past 3 months so I've decided to list as many sports cards as possible and keep them listed in my eBay store. I'll still sell stuff FOR people but, on my own time rather than their time.

Listings are available HERE

Saddam to be HUNG within 30 days!

FOXNEWS.COM(click to go TO the article) today:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi appeals court has upheld the death sentence imposed on Saddam Hussein at his first trial, Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday, and a tribunal official said the verdict will be carried out even if the presidency doesn't ratify it.

"The appeals court approved the verdict to hang Saddam," Mouwafak al-Rubaie told The Associated Press.

On Nov. 5, an Iraqi court sentenced Saddam to the gallows for the 1982 killings of 148 people from a Shiite Muslim town after an attempt on his life there.

The appeals court decision must be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Iraq's two vice presidents. Talabani opposes the death penalty but has in the past deputized a vice president to sign an execution order on his behalf — a substitute that was legally accepted.

Once the decision is ratified, Saddam and other co-defendants sentenced to death at the trial would be hanged within 30 days.

Raed Juhi, a spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said the Iraqi judicial system would ensure that Saddam is executed even if Talabani and the two vice presidents do not ratify the decision.

"We'll implement the verdict by the power of the law," Juhi said without elaborating.

The appeals court was expected to announce its decision at a news conference later in the day.

An official on the High Tribunal court said the appeals court also upheld death sentences for Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and intelligence chief during the Dujail killings, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, which issued the death sentences against the Dujail residents.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the appeals court concluded the sentence of life imprisonment given former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was too lenient and returned his file to the High Tribunal. Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder in the Dujail case.

The official said the appeals court demanded the death penalty for Ramadan in a letter to the High Tribunal.

At his trial, Saddam argued that the Dujail residents who were killed had been found guilty in a legitimate Iraqi court for trying to assassinate him in 1982.

The televised was watched throughout Iraq and the Middle East as much for theater as for substance. Saddam was ejected from the courtroom repeatedly for political harangues, and his half brother, Ibrahim, once showed up in long underwear and sat with his back to the judges.

The nine-month trial inflamed Iraq's political divide, however, and three defense lawyers and a witness were murdered during the course of its 39 sessions.

Saddam is in the midst of a second trial charging him with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation.

The trial is in recess until Jan. 8. It is unclear how the appeals court ruling Tuesday might affect proceedings in the trial, which includes defendants who were not involved in the Dujail case.

Saddam was captured by U.S. soldiers while hiding with an unfired pistol in a hole in the ground near his home village north of Baghdad in December 2003, eight months after he fled the capital ahead of advancing American troops.

Check out my SPONSORS

On this blog, I have put up blog sponsors..Including the freebie newsletter, which is free to subscribe to and is not spam. It is a list that tells you were to find good free stuff online!

If you like what you read, take a peak at some of the sponsors :)

As always, this blog is best viewed in Firefox (see bottom left to download Firefox!)

I'm Dreaming of a GREEN? Christmas

Well, it's Christmas Day..... and it's GREEN outside still. We've got a 20% chance forecast for snow or rain today... but.. that isn't going to make it a white Christmas.

It's still a GOOD Christmas it's just the wrong color.

That brings me to this funny picture:

Wrestling websites

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Japanese catch giant squid!

The story's been in all the newspapers but Fox News seems to have the best pictures of the Giant Squid that was caught by the Japanese.::>

TOKYO — A Japanese research team has succeeded in filming a giant squid live — possibly for the first time — and says the elusive creatures may be more plentiful than previously believed, a researcher said Friday.

The research team, led by Tsunemi Kubodera, videotaped the giant squid at the surface as they captured it off the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo earlier this month.

The squid, which measured about 24 feet long, died while it was being caught.

"We believe this is the first time anyone has successfully filmed a giant squid that was alive," said Kubodera, a researcher with Japan's National Science Museum. "Now that we know where to find them, we think we can be more successful at studying them in the future."

Giant squid, formally called Architeuthis, are the world's largest invertebrates.

Because they live in the depths of the ocean, they have long been wrapped in mystery and embellished in the folklore of sea monsters, appearing in ancient Greek myths or attacking the submarine in Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."


The captured squid was caught using a smaller type of squid as bait, and was pulled into a research vessel "after putting up quite a fight," Kubodera said.

"It took two people to pull it in, and they lost it once, which might have caused the injuries that killed it," he said.

The squid, a female, was not fully grown and was relatively small by giant squid standards. The longest one on record is 60 feet, he said.

Kubodera and his team had been conducting expeditions in the area for about three years before they succeeded in making their first contact two years ago.

Last year, the team succeeded in taking a series of still photos of one of the animals in its natural habitat — also believed to have been a first.

Until the team's successes, most scientific study of the creatures had to rely on partial specimens that had washed ashore dead or dying or had been found in the digestive systems of whales or very large sharks.

Kubodera said whales led his team to the squid. By finding an area where whales fed, he believed he could find the animals. He also said that, judging by the number of whales that feed on them, there may be many more giant squid than previously thought.

"Sperm whales need from 500 to 1,000 kilograms (1,100-2,200 pounds) of food every day," he said. "There are believed to be 200,000 or so of them, and that would suggest there are quite a few squid for them to be feeding on. I don't think they are in danger of extinction at all."

Click on my blog title to go to the fox news site with the pictures.

NFL Network???? Yeah Right

The Vikings lost to the Packers 9-7 tonight ... and a large part of the state didn't even watch.... NOT because they didn't want to (well, ok.. some of us decided to do better things)... but.. because MANY of us do not get the NFL Network on our cable systems.

Instead of going some place and watching the game, I went to the high school hockey game in town and had a much better time than I would have watching Brad Childress' offense do nothing all game. Tarvaris Jackson will be a good quarterback when he's had a full preseason to learn the NFL game. Hopefully Brad Childress will put in more plays suitable for moving the ball forward next year since he'll have a much more athletic quarterback than Brad Johnson.

Make money with your blog!

Not only can you put ADSENSE (you know, the little boxes with ads in them) on your blog to make money.. you can put advertising from companies YOU choose on your blog, like I did with the uBid ad.

Click the box below and join fineclicks.com and ad small advertising to your blog entries OR ad them as HTML boxes on your blog as well with the layout editor! Fineclicks has great FREE companies such as hypersweep that offer FREE contests and drawings to people, and every new person who enters a drawing earns you money if you offer them the drawing through your blog (or website.)

I'll show a couple of their contests in a couple days, but some include winning money, or candy, or free gasoline for your car!. You can earn 35 cents PER person who enters some of the contests, besides the other great companies that use Fineclicks to let you market them.

Fineclicks doesn't charge you anything to join either so there's no risk and 100% reward!

UBid.com offers hot deals WITH warranties!

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Merry Christmas, even the BAD get a gift

Since it is that time of the year.. I'm going to share my favorite Christmas card, that I found online 2 years ago and sent a couple people:



I think this is great anyway... I took some paper that was a little thicker and printed if off as a Christmas Card!

Green Christmas?

Ya know what really is starting to suck? There's no snow! This is Northern Minnesota.. there is supposed to be SNOW on the ground during Christmas time! Sheesh

'Older Posts"

I just happened to notice, if you look to the right BELOW this post or other posts.. there's a link that says 'Older posts' where you can click it and it brings you back one post. The new template etc has some good to it after all.. (definitely lots of randomness today/tonight.)

Tarvaris Jackson hopefully playing Thursday

Even though the game is on the NFL Network and a lot of us won't get to WATCH the game against the Packers.. Hopefully Tarvaris Jackson gets to start against them instead of Brad Johnson. Johnson is old and slow, while Jackson has speed and agility that Johnson's never had!

OK, Changes finished I think

I've decided to change the blog to where there's the last post made is the one you see. We'll see how it goes like this for a while and what kind of feedback or comments I get about it.

The college women's hockey blog, I'll keep the old way for now. It's easy to go back and see what you've missed.. just click on the left where it says Blog Archive and choose the month you want!

Working on changing some blog stuff

I'm editing some shit just to see how it looks etc.. trying to figure out how to put the GOOGLE ADSENSE ads after each post in the beta templates right now.

George Karl tells off Isiah Thomas

I missed this when it happened, but Fox News has a great article up about the Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks brawl:

NEW YORK — Denver Nuggets coach George Karl used a mouthful of expletives to describe Isiah Thomas Monday after the NBA failed to penalize the New York Knicks coach for his part in the court brawl that erupted between the two teams.

Reacting to suspensions of three of his top players by the NBA league office, Karl referred to Thomas as being "... full of [expletive], he's a total [expletive] who should be held accountable for what his actions were."

The Nuggets allege Thomas called on one of his players to commit the flagrant foul which started the brawl at Madison Square Garden Saturday night.

NBA scoring leader Carmelo Anthony was suspended for 15 games and six other players were penalized as NBA commissioner David Stern came down hard on both teams for the fighting.

Nate Robinson and J.R. Smith each got 10 games, and four other players also were suspended. Stern fined each organization $500,000. But there was no separate penalty for Thomas, who had warned Anthony not to go into the lane before the mayhem started.

It was the NBA's scariest scene since the brawl between Pacers players and Pistons fans two years ago. The league is still recovering from that episode, and Stern made it clear the players must learn to control themselves.

"We're going to go after the players who aren't able to stop," he said during a conference call. "We have set up the goal of eliminating fighting from our game. We haven't eliminated it completely."

Anthony's suspension was the sixth longest in NBA history. Mardy Collins, whose hard foul on Smith sparked the fighting, was suspended six games and Knicks teammate Jared Jeffries will miss four. Also, the Knicks' Jerome James and Denver's Nene were both penalized one game for leaving the bench area during the chaos.

Ten players were ejected after the fight, which started with 1:15 left in Denver's 123-100 victory. The punishments were announced before both teams were to play Monday night — New York at home against Utah; Denver at home against Washington.

"I was very disappointed," Stern said. "Clearly, we're not getting through or players in certain circumstances just don't want to be restrained. I would suggest that those players will not have long careers in the NBA."

Stern was especially troubled by the fight between Robinson and Smith that spilled into the stands.

"My concern is actually for the safety of the players and the fans, and when things get out of hand you cannot predict or project where they're going to go," Stern said. "There were certain players who weren't going to allow themselves to be calmed."

There was speculation Thomas would be penalized for his comments to Anthony. Stern acknowledged hearing about it, but said he relied only on "definitive information" when handing out punishments.

But he was clearly annoyed by remarks from Thomas and the Knicks after the game that the problems were caused by the Nuggets still having four starters on the floor late in a blowout. And the fine showed he wants teams to be serious in helping him clean up the game.

"It's a more general message that I'm going to start holding our teams accountable," he said.

Collins prevented Smith from an easy basket by grabbing him by the neck and taking him to the floor. Smith rose and immediately started jawing with Collins, and Robinson jumped in to pull Smith away. Anthony shoved Robinson away, and Robinson and Smith then tumbled into the front row while fighting.

Just as things appeared to be calming down, Anthony threw a hard punch that floored Collins, and Jeffries sprinted from the baseline toward halfcourt in an effort to get at Anthony, but was tackled by a Denver player.

By the time security had finally contained Smith, they were nearly at the opposite end of the court from where the fighting started.

Before Stern talked, the Knicks held their morning shootaround, where Thomas didn't back away from the Knicks' postgame assertions that some of the problems were caused by Denver coach George Karl leaving his starters on the floor too long in a blowout.

"I can't speak for him, but he put his players in a tough position," Thomas said. "I think he put his players in a very bad position."

In Denver, Karl was irate with Thomas. Karl accused Thomas of a "premeditated" act, underscoring his disgust with the New York coach with expletives.

"It was directed by Isiah," he said during a shootaround. "I think his actions after the game were despicable. He made a bad situation worse. I'll swear on my children's life that I never thought about running up the score. I wanted to get a big win on the road."

"My team has had trouble holding leads at the end of games," he added. "I didn't want the score to get under 10 points because if it would've gotten under 10 points it would've had a negative feeling on my team."

Karl has bigger problems now. He'll be without Anthony until the Nuggets' game at Houston on Jan. 20, and Smith will be gone until Jan. 8. That duo combines for more than 48 points a game.

"It's going to be tough," said Nuggets center Marcus Camby, one of the five players ejected who wasn't suspended. "It's already tough being in the Western Conference, and missing guys like J.R. and Carmelo is going to make it even worse."

Anthony's conduct represents a big blow to the player, team and league. He starred as a captain on the U.S. team at the world championships this summer, and had been getting more marketing opportunities as one of the league's brightest young stars.

Stern took none of that into account when issuing his decision.

"We judged him on his actions on the court, period," Stern said. "And they deserved a harsh penalty."

FOX News' Denis King and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Somehow, I actually missed that this happened because I've had a busy week.

Superior 20 yr olds save man from drowning while ice fishing

Saturday's News Tribune had this great article about 2 Superior Wisconsin 20 yr olds saving a 65 yr old man from drowning:

Two Superior men stage risky rescue of fellow ice angler
Sam Cook Duluth News Tribune
Published Saturday, December 16, 2006
Aaron Mikulich and Norm Holt could hear the cries from out on the lake. The two men were heading out to go ice fishing on Crystal Lake near Iron River on Monday afternoon.

“Instantly, I knew what it was,” said Mikulich, who lives in Superior. “I looked over to where I’d seen a guy ice fishing earlier, and just saw his head sticking up. I heard, ‘Help! Help me!’ ”

The fisherman’s cries set in motion a daring thin-ice rescue by the two men, both 20. Mikulich and Holt were fishing for northern pike and crappies from the Mikulich family cabin on Crystal Lake. The rescue took place about 2 p.m., Mikulich said. Other than the victim, no other anglers were out.

The fisherman was Dennis Schumacher, 65, of Brule. An avid angler, Schumacher was out to fish for bluegills. He had drilled one hole and found 3½ inches of ice and another with 4 inches. But he wanted to be farther from shore and drilled another hole in 3 inches of ice.

“I heard some cracking, and I was down,” Schumacher said.

When Mikulich and Holt heard his cries, Holt grabbed an Otter plastic sled that he and Mikulich had been using and began running toward Schumacher. He was holding his arms across the ice to keep his head and shoulders out of the water. Mikulich ran for the cabin to get life jackets and a rope to throw Schumacher. All he could find were two dog leashes, which he clipped together to make a 25-foot length of line. As Mikulich went running back across the lake, he could see Holt running across the ice.

“Every step he was taking, I could see the ice, like, bouncing,” Mikulich said. “We cut back toward shore.”

Schumacher was about 70 yards from shore in about 15 feet of water, Mikulich said.

“We were worried,” he said. “The guy was screaming for help. Adrenaline took over. We knew what we had to do.”

Mikulich and Holt spread out on the ice and got as close as they dared — about 25 feet — to throw the line to Schumacher.

“The whole time this was going on, we could hear the ice creaking,” Mikulich said.

Both he and Holt weigh about170 pounds.

Meanwhile, Schumacher had other thoughts.

“All I was thinking of was, I haven’t filled out that damned living will,” Schumacher said.

Once Holt and Mikulich got close enough, they threw Schumacher the tethered dog leashes. Mikulich wrapped one end around his wrist to get a secure grip. Then they began pulling.

“We kept slipping,” Mikulich said. “There was no snow on the ice. I don’t know how, but somehow we caught an edge.”

They pulled Schumacher part way out of the hole, but the ice kept breaking under his weight. That happened two or three times, Schumacher said. Finally, the young men were able to get Schumacher out of the water and onto the ice, where he rolled onto his back. The two young men kept pulling and brought him nearer shore to safe ice.

Schumacher and his rescuers estimated he had been in the water for about 10 minutes. Schumacher was able to walk under his own power. Holt ran up the hill to start the man’s vehicle for him.

“He asked our names,” Mikulich recalled, “and said, ‘You just saved an old man’s life.’ ”

Schumacher went to a friend’s home nearby to warm up, then returned to thank Mikulich and Holt again. He said he never was extremely cold, although his chest felt “tingly” when he was in the water. Schumacher said he usually carries ice pegs — dowels with sharp points protruding — for just such a situation. But he couldn’t find them that day.

“This time I just wasn’t prepared,” he said.

Mikulich and Holt don’t consider themselves heroes. They simply reacted.

“You see someone fall in, what else are you going to do?” Holt said.

“I would hope anybody would do the same thing for me without thinking about it,” Mikulich said.

I had to post this great story on my blog

Saturday was a long day

Saturday was the one LONG road trip of the year as a 7th/8th grade basketball coach. It was a 3 hour bus ride up the north shore for the 7th and 8th grade games, then 3 hour ride back. It's not *THAT* bad a trip except that I have a 20 minute drive to GET to the school and the bus left at 7 am. That means.. getting up at just before 6 am. That may not seem early to some people, but normally I get up around 10 am ;)

Grandma's Marathon Winner Disqualified for Steroids

This article below is in today's Duluth News Tribune Why the hell would someone even show up TO race if they knew there were drug tests they would fail?

Grandma’s winner disqualified
Kevin Pates Duluth News Tribune
Published Friday, December 15, 2006

Halina Karnatsevich of Belarus was officially disqualified as the women’s champion of the 2006 Grandma’s Marathon on Thursday. USA Track and Field confirmed that she tested positive for the prohibited substance Stanozolol, an anabolic steroid.

Karnatsevich, 37, who also won the 2005 Grandma’s Marathon title, has forfeited her $8,000 in prize money from the June 17 race. Runner-up Svetlana Nekhorosh, 32, of Ukraine has been named the winner.

It was the first positive test for Grandma’s Marathon, which has included drug testing four times in 30 years.

In accordance with International Association of Athletics Federation policy, the Belarus Athletic Federation has banned Karnatsevich from competition for two years, until July 21, 2008. She is Belarus’ top-ranked female marathoner.

Ten athletes from the 2006 Grandma’s Marathon, including the top three men and women, were tested in Duluth immediately after the race by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of Colorado Springs, Colo. USA Track and Field randomly selects American road races to be drug tested annually. Grandma’s Marathon was last tested in 1994.

“I say, ‘Let’s catch the cheats.’ We want a clean sport. We want a level playing field for everyone,’’ Grandma’s Marathon executive director Scott Keenan said.

The outcome was announced by the Belarus Athletic Federation in October, when USA Track and Field reported a non-negative result in testing one of Karnatsevich’s two drug samples. Yet the official results, after tests from a second drug sample were completed, weren’t released until Thursday, nearly six months after the race.

“Our sport has cheating going on, but most races don’t have the resources to have their own drug testing,’’ said Katie Koski, 33, of Two Harbors, who has run Grandma’s Marathon eight times and was 19th in this year’s women’s race. “If you’re lucky and play your cards right, you can make a lot of money before you’re caught.

“I’m sure there are Americans who cheat, but I think it’s more likely to be Eastern European runners, who aren’t tested by their governing associations. They can come here and run in some smaller races and make a living.’’

The last 10 women’s winners at Grandma’s Marathon have come from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova or Kyrgyzstan.

Duluthian Jarrow Wahman, 45, who has raced for 30 years and run in 13 Grandma’s Marathons, said he isn’t surprised by the disqualification.

“If there’s money to be made, some runners will take the risk,’’ Wahman said. “To win $8,000 means so much more to someone from a country in Eastern Europe or Africa.’’

The lengthy testing process delayed payment to this year’s race prize-money winners and didn’t allow the Grandma’s Marathon race results booklet to have the official women’s winner listed.

“We’re interested in more dialogue to get increased testing in American road racing. We want to cooperate,’’ said Keenan, who has been with Grandma’s Marathon since its inception in 1977. “And when there is testing, we would like to get the results in a more timely manner.’’

Grandma’s Marathon asked to be tested this year, and Keenan said he already has put in a request with USA Track and Field for the testing in 2007.

Karnatsevich won the 2005 Grandma’s Marathon in2 hours, 28 minutes, 43 seconds, the second-fastest women’s time in race history, and won in June in 2:33:39, beating Nekhorosh by nearly four minutes.

Grandma’s Marathon officials have mailed Nekhorosh the additional $1,500 she earned by placing first. On Dec. 3, in the Macau International Marathon, Nekhorosh was third in 2:41:46.

Karnatsevich lives in Grodno, in northwest Belarus, and is married with a 5-year-old son. She has been running professionally for about 10 years and has a marathon best of 2:27:14.

“She is a treasure in Belarus. She is a star,’’ Grandma’s Marathon entrant Dzmitry Sivou of Belarus said of Karnatsevich in June.

I don't think she's a treasure anymore in her own country.....

Cloquet hockey boys beat East 2-1!

In a game that they mostly dominate, CEC (Cloquet Esko Carlton) beat Duluth East 2-1 at the DECC. It's about time a team I WANTED to win, won AT the DECC. The UMD Men have been miserable there, and it was great as always, to beat East.

One thing I think all of us are trying to figure out, is, at the end of the game there was a large scrum in front of the Duluth East bench which drew some major penalties and a couple minor penalties for roughing, etc. Tyler Johnson was checked to the ice and 2 players held him to the ground and were cross checking him to the ground when the fight/scrum broke out and there were penalties all over the place. Somehow, Duluth East got a powerplay out of it, with 30 seconds left in the game. In the end, it didn't matter, but trying to figure out where the extra Cloquet penalty came from would probably take a magician.

Oh well :) CEC Wins 2-1 is all that really matters.

Boring couplaweeks

This last week and half or two has been really boring with not that much stuff to post about. The weather warmed up and now the snow is basically gone aside from the larger snow banks that were plowed up. Hopefully something interesting happens with the holiday coming, that I'll have more to randomly post about :)

YUM! Roasted Chicken for dinner

Although I didn't take pictures of it... YUM.. roasted chicken breast with red skin potatoes for dinner.. mmmmmm

Took a bunch of potatoes and cut them in quarters (they weren't the little baby sized) and stirred them with a little olive oil and oregano then put 6 split chicken breasts (nice large size) on top around the pan and put Lowry's seasoned salt (Lowry's what else is there really) on top of it all and some paprika.

Roasted with the lid ON at 425 for 40 minutes then for 15 minutes WITHOUT the lid on to crisp up the skin of the chicken breasts. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM and of course we eat it with some canned corn also (Green Giant Niblets..)

damn that was good! ;)

Bring Allen Iverson to the T'Wolves!

In a story published in the Duluth News Tribune, Kevin Garnett mentioned he wants Allen Iverson in Minnesota. Iverson wants out of Philadelphia so this would be perfect for him. Garnett needs someone who can score to help him.

Obviously this would be great! The article from the paper follows, and I make no claim to it myself of course:

By Jerry Zgoda and Kent YoungbloodMcClatchy Newspapers, Duluth News Tribune
Published Sunday, December 10, 2006
MINNEAPOLIS — The notion of a trade for Philadelphia guard Allen Iverson played well in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ locker room before and after their NBA game Friday night against Utah.

Wolves forward Kevin Garnett was sitting next to his locker after the game when he was told of the latest Iverson developments.

“Where’s Kevin at?” he said, feigning a sudden move out of his chair to search for Timberwolves vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale.

His actions, suggesting he was ready to make a deal, were in jest. His words were not.

“Shoot, bring it on,” he said about the possibility of Iverson playing for the Timberwolves. “I love ‘The Answer.’ Come on, boy. There’s not anybody in here who would not want to play with him.”

Earlier in the day, Garnett said, “He’s not only a personal friend, but he’s a warrior and a soldier that I’ve always looked up to since he came into the league.”

Garnett entered the NBA in 1995 directly out of high school. Iverson arrived the next season after two years at Georgetown.

“I’ve been in the league longer than him, but we’re like brothers,” Garnett said. “He’s like my big brother.”

Veteran guard Mike James, who has been traded twice and signed and waived almost too many times to count, welcomed the possibility as well, even though he knows he, along with rookie Randy Foye, likely could be part of any deal the Wolves might strike.

“What he’s capable of doing with the basketball in his hands, man,” James said. “If he comes, I don’t know who Philly is going to get, but Philly’s going to get a lot. If I’m playing in Philadelphia, well, business is never personal.”

The Wolves haven't had someone like Iverson at point guard since Stephon Marbury went away.

Minnesota Winter Sports Stink so far

The WILD have played bad of late, the Timberwolves aren't good at all, and the Vikings, are .. to be nice.. TERRIBLE. The Gopher football and basketball teams are as bad as the Vikings.. (I won't mention their hockey because that's the Gopher sport I will not watch!) FORMER(now) Gopher basketball coach Dan Munson finally resigned so maybe that will improve some stuff. Glenn Mason should resign next so the football program can move on as well.

Mom has son arrested for opening presents early???

According to a Fox News story, a mother had her 12 yr old son arrested for opening a christmas present early.... what the hell?

The story starts:

After a mother discovered her son had unwrapped a Nintendo Game Boy Advance that was meant for him as a present from his grandmother, she called the Rock Hill Police and had the young man arrested for petty larceny, according to the police report filed this week.

Read the rest by clicking on the blog title, or the link above

Speaking of the VIKINGS Sucking

Today's Jim Souhan article on the Vikings demise in the News Tribune, from the Star Tribune:

NFL coaches and quarterbacks, we hear, receive too much credit after victories and too much blame after losses.

Baloney. As the Vikings’ season froze like a tongue to a flagpole on Sunday at frigid Soldier Field, the culprits were the Bear Market Brads.

Because Brad Johnson threw away the biggest game of the year, Brad Childress is facing the most important decision of his career.

Johnson tossed four interceptions in the Vikings’ 23-13 loss to Chicago, leaving Childress with no choice but to send in Brooks Bollinger.

That doesn’t take Childress off the hook.

Johnson’s mistakes lost this game. Childress’ mistakes might have ruined his first season.

The rookie coach so believed in the user-friendliness of his offense that he started his first season with a 38-year-old quarterback and no reputable backups.

He so believed in his ability to mentor quarterbacks that he chose the raw Tarvaris Jackson in the second round.

This week, Childress will pick between the flailing Johnson, the ailing Bollinger (who injured his left shoulder) and the unveiling of Jackson.

The Chiller had better choose wisely, or he’ll turn an already-seething locker room into the set of “Mutiny on the Bounty.”

After the game, defensive players laughed over the absurdity of holding Bears “quarterback” Rex Grossman to a 1.3 passer rating and still losing.

How bad was Grossman? If Johnson had changed sidelines, he would have improved both teams.

Viking defenders weren’t the only ones fuming. Those responsible for the running game wondered how they rushed 35 times for 192 yards and a touchdown against one of the NFL’s best defenses yet managed only 13 points.

Maybe it was attempting zero passes into the end zone, abiding by Childress’ philosophy that you take what the defense gives you, even if the defense gives you nothing more desirable than Enron stock.

“It wasn’t like we weren’t moving the ball,” center Matt Birk said. “We were gashing them. It wasn’t like they were playing Cover-2, either. They had an extra guy in the box every time, and we gashed them.

“They made more big plays than we did. That’s why, even though we felt like we outplayed them, they won.” Childress did more than the Bears to slow the Vikings offense in the fourth quarter.

The Vikings got the ball with 12:14 remaining, needing two touchdowns, two extra points and a field goal just to send the game into overtime, and yet Childress didn’t call for a time-saving, no-huddle offense.

Bollinger led the Vikings to a touchdown, but just 5:40 remained when Ciatrick Fason scored.

Childress then called for an onside kick. That’s a coaching non sequitur. If you deem an onside kick necessary, you are past the point where you should have been running a no-huddle offense.

Now Childress must fix his no-offense huddle, and he faces a coach’s toughest decision — whether to change quarterbacks when the playoffs are a mathematical possibility.

His options: Johnson, who’s playing like a victim of identity theft; Bollinger, who’s hurt; and Jackson, who sounds worried he might be asked to start.

Choose Johnson, and the defense might revolt. Choose Bollinger, and you’d better Mapquest directions to the emergency room. Choose Jackson, and you’re telling a veteran team with a strong defense and running game to wait ‘til next year.

The pick here: Bollinger if he can lift his arm, Jackson if he can’t.

The longer the season lasts, the worse the Vikings play. Blame this loss on Johnson, but it’s the other Bear Market Brad who has guided his team into this nasty recession.

Jim Souhan is a national sports columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune

Souhan's great.. and writes a lot of Minnesota Twins articles during that season, and appears on the Twins FSN broadcasts a lot.

The VIKINGS SUCK

The Vikings lost again yesterday, to Chicago. The Vikings actually ended up finally giving Tarvaris Jackson about 1 minute of playing time in the final 2 minutes of the game.. Brooks Bollinger didn't do anything before he got hurt getting tackled onto the concrete like frozen turf in his Vikings debut as a reliever.

Rex Grossman threw as many Interceptions as Brad Johnson did but his team managed to actually win...

The only Chicago sports team I like is Da Bulls.. used to be a Cubs fan.. but they've been depressing as hell over the last 5 years or so again

eBay Consignment Business can be weird

One of my consignment customers.... isn't that bright.. I was listing a bracelet for her.. and it sold.. so I call her to go pick it up and ship it. I get there and she hands me a different bracelet because she thought that one was sold and she had **PAWNED** the other one.. wtf!?!?!?

I had to email an apology to the person on eBay who won it..and emailed them a refund of payment. Well, the next morning (Saturday) they paid for it AGAIN.. so I re-did the refund again..and.. they paid for it AGAIN.. and I did the refund *again*... so far so good now.. 24 hours and not a 4th payment. Don't people read their email?

Ok, just in case you want to see what I'm selling.. click the title of the blog.

Damn it's COLD

It is officially .. colder than a witches tit outside! The windchill factor is 0!



BRRRRR

Bulldogs win!

Holy Crap.. the UMD BULLDOGS Men's team actually won a game.. beating Alaska Anchorage 7-3 up in Alaska...

Vikings playing in Chicago......

Earlier in the season, the VIKINGS almost beat the Chicago Bears, losing only 19-16 back in week 3. They've been bad the last 6 weeks, just barely beating Arizona.... but.. I'll be watching at least until the game gets out of hand. Hopefully Rex Grossman's season keeps going downhill at least through the game

Sea World Whale Injures Trainer

This article's the talk of the Internet today... a Sea World killer whale took it's trainer underwater twice during a show. This version is from Mediacom's news page:

A trainer at SeaWorld Adventure Park remained hospitalized Thursday after a killer whale grabbed him and twice held him underwater during a show, officials said.

The trainer was in fair condition at the University of California, San Diego, Medical Center, nursing supervisor Denise Thompson said. Ken Peters, 39, was "resting comfortably," SeaWorld San Diego spokesman Dave Koontz said.

Koontz did not know the extent of Peters' injuries and the hospital declined to release details.

Peters was hurt around 5 p.m. Wednesday during the final show of the day at Shamu Stadium, a 36-foot-deep tank.

The show's finale called for a female orca named Kasatka to shoot out of the water so Peters could dive off her nose. The whale is about 17 feet long and weighs well over 5,000 pounds.

As several hundred spectators watched, the whale and trainer plunged underwater, where Kasatka grabbed Peters by the foot and held him for less than a minute before surfacing, Koontz said.

"The trainer was being pinned by the whale at the bottom of the pool," Karen Ingrande told KGTV-TV.

When they came up, Peters tried to calm the animal by rubbing and stroking its back but it grabbed him and plunged down again for about another minute.

The crowd "began to realize there was not something right and the whale was down again under the water. Again they were splashing the water to try to get the whale to come to the surface," Ingrande said.

The whale finally released him and Peters was able to surface and swim away. Other trainers stretched a net between him and Kasatka, Koontz said.

He emerged from the tank with one leg of his wet suit torn.

"He tried to stand up on the stage and that's when we realized there was something wrong with his leg and his foot. He was just white as a ghost," spectator Sherri Justice told KFMB-TV in San Diego.

Mike Scarpuzzi, who oversees zoological operations, said Peters has been working with animals for 16 years, including 12 spent at Shamu Stadium.

"His skills and techniques, and close relationship with the whale played a major role in helping the animal calm down and allowed him to eventually swim out of the pool," Scarpuzzi said.

The park planned to continue the Shamu Stadium shows Thursday using other whales. The park has a total of seven killer whales, including two of Kasatka's offspring, Koontz said.

He did not know whether Kasatka would be allowed to perform.

Koontz said trainers from the San Diego park and sister parks in San Antonio and Orlando, Fla., planned to confer Thursday and review the incident in an effort to figure out what made the orca grab Peters.

Koontz said the 30-year-old orca had been performing most of her life and was familiar with the routine.

"She's been one of our strongest, most consistent performers," he said.

Koontz said a different whale dived with a trainer's foot in its mouth two or three weeks ago but obeyed commands to release the trainer and return to the side of the tank. The trainer was not injured.

SeaWorld officials reported in 1999 that Kasatka tried to bite a trainer during a show, but he was unhurt.

I'm not sure anyone really knows why it happened but I'm sure we'll find out soon why they think it happened.

DAMN it's cold

Damn it's COLD here... without any snow on the ground it seems to feel even colder for whatever reason! I may have blogged before that winter was here.. but **NOW** it really is!

Winter's finally here, It's COLD anyway

Winter's here.. as far as temperatures go. Yesterday it was freezing rain that slowed the temperature on the interstate from 70 to 35-40 at the fastest. 45+ minute home instead of the normal 20.

We're finally to the point where it won't get much warmer than 20 again until March I think... but.. if I could guess the weather temperature I'd be better than the weathermen.

They're still not forcasting much snow at all though, it'll probably be a really bare winter and more of a "brown" christmas than white christmas.

Survivor Series, predictable but not THAT bad.

The Survivor Series PPV last night was definitely predictable, though it wasn't totally bad or anything.

In keeping with the random thoughts title of the blog(for once):

It was obvious that Ric Flair would end up finishing his match and winning, but getting beat up by 5 guys after wasn't as easily seen beforehand.

The UMAGA thing was stupid.. get yourself DQ'd and be done rather than dominate the match and give your character more legitimacy.

John Cena FU'ing (a fireman's carry into a "side slam") the 520+ lb Big Show was great. Every time he gets to do that it gets better.

It's great to see Jeff and Matt (used to be Matt and Jeff) Hardy together as a tag team, at least as long as they let it last on TV. I think they're supposed to be on the ECW PPV next week.

It was great to see BOOKER T (King Booger) lose his title finally.. but damn.. can't the guy EVER lose clean without some sort of weapon etc taking him out? Booker as himself rather than "king" is a much better character, whether he's a heal or face.

Check out my eBay store!

I've opened an eBay store again, this time permanent I think, to sell sports trading cards and other items that I might get from consignment customers to sell bulk.

I'll still obviously still put auctions up as well, since that's what the eBay consignment business is about :)

Check out the *STORE*

WWE Survivor Series tonight!

WWE's Survivor Series PPV is tonight! They're going back to most of the old style Survivor Series elimination matches so this PPV should be really good!

My favorite match to look forward to is Ric Flair (captain)-Dusty Rhodes-Sgt. Slaughter -Ron Simmons vs. Kenny (captain), Johnny, Nicky & Mikey (aka the spirit fags).

Minnesotan who won Powerball sitting on their ticket?

This is weird.. the NEWS TRIBUNE today has an article about someone who won $47 Million of a $94 Million powerball jackpot not claiming their money yet. It's been 3 weeks since the drawing and the moron (MY choice of words) hasn't claimed their portion. WTF? Unless they're already a big millionaire why would you sit on a ticket worth that much?

Hopefully it's just someone who has no clue they won... but that could mean the ticket will never be claimed.

Some of the possibilities are:

Clint Harris, the state lottery’s executive director, is eager to award the Powerball jackpot — the first since his 2004 hiring.

“Maybe they’re waiting because they don’t want to impact their taxes this year,” he said Wednesday. “Maybe someone’s talking to a tax attorney or financial planner. Maybe the ticket is sitting behind a magnet on someone’s refrigerator and they just forgot about it. Or maybe it’s lost. All those possibilities are there.”

I know *I* didn't win nor did I buy any powerball tickets that day.

I've been buying $5 of 'Hot Lotto' myself since it's at something around $14 million(a record high easily) and hasn't been won in weeks. It's supposed to be easier to win because there's not as many states playing... but.. noone's won in a long time

Christmas Shopping? I don't think so

I went and bought a newspaper just to see the "big sales" for what is called "black Friday." Nothing stood out as a superb deal really. I might actually go visit some of the companies on MY WEBSITE to do my Christmas shopping. Most of the places that are selling stuff are offering gift cards to be used online OR in stores if there is an available store.

The Internet's just so much easier than dealing with the huge crowds of people, and parking at the mall.

Justin Morneau American League MVP

Congratulations to JUSTIN MORNEAU, the American League Most Valuable Player! It's amazing also that Joe Mauer and Johan Santana were in the top 7 in voting for the same award!

Even though the Twins didn't make their playoff run last, they had a huge 2nd half of the season winning the American League Central on the last day of the season. I think they just ran out of gas at the end.

GO TWINS!

Fox News Finally Gets Smart

Fox News **FINALLY** got smart and cancelled the OJ Simpson bullshit they were going to air next week titled 'If I Did It.' DUH.. *IF?????*

The moron Simpson on foxnews.com said

Simpson told The Associated Press in a phone interview late Monday he could not comment on the situation "until I know legally where I stand."

He added, "I would like nothing better than to straighten out some things that have been mischaracterized. But I think I'm legally muzzled at this point."

Screw the PS3 anyway

Screw the PS3.... I have the original X-box (before the 360) and I'll keep that instead. When they stop putting out games for the X-box, maybe I'll invest in a 360, but no thanks SONY.. you don't produce enough of the machines, so you can raise the price to amazingly high amounts for a video game system.

So much for the Duluth Nationals

I've never *BEEN to the Duluth National Snocross, but I don't suspect it will actually be happening this year. It's scheduled for the Friday/Saturday/Sunday after thanksgiving and we have no snow. They can MAKE snow on the hill etc but not when the daily forecast this week is this:



40 degrees and sunny may be nice for us all.. but not for them. Oh well, I guess ESPN will just have to stay home for Thanksgiving.

Cardboard Heroes

Playing basketball

Somehow, after 8 months, I managed to play 2 hours of basketball without collapsing from exhaustion on the court/floor. Waking up in the morning might make it a little tough to walk up the stairs to the kitchen but.. oh well :)

Went to Quiznos after playing. The first time they put my Prime Rib "steak & cheese" through .. they burned the bread.. so they put another bread through to replace that and put the meat/cheese on that.. first time I'd had the Prime Rib sub and holy shit it's GOOOOOOOOOD!

Jamie's Great Italian Escape

Jamie Oliver, host from some Food Network shows, and the British cooking star from "Channel 4" in England, has a great show on the Travel Channel, called Jamie's Great Italian Escape. He's traveling the "underbelly" of Italy learning to cook his favorite food from the start. 4 episodes were on tonight, and there are 6 total episodes in this series. The episodes aired originally in england back in October '05.

Jamie's WEBSITE profiles the show perfectly...

After the school dinners project I needed a break. I've always loved Italy and for ages have wanted to travel around the country to get inspired again by the food and the people. So I set off with my VW camper van and a specially-built trailer kitchen on the back of it so I could cook wherever I pitched up!

I had a great time exploring the delights of the busy night markets in Palermo, entering pasta making competitions with the mammas in the small mountain community in Le Marche and injecting some enthusiasm into cooking for the Benedictine community North of Rome.

O.J. Simpson on Fox News?? How he would have killed his wife

This article on fox news says they're going to broadcast an internet the end of the month, with O.J. telling how *HE* would have killed his wife had he been the killer. WTF?!?!?

Blog, trade links?

To anyone who actually comes and reads, if you'd like your blog listed on the left side where I've listed blogs I read, leave a comment here and I'll add your blog to that list.

Britney Spears sex tape?

While 2257 laws in THIS country may make the video a foreign market thing, who *DIDN'T* know Britney Spears/K-Fed made a sex tape? If you were married to her and fucking her, wouldn't you have taped it? You would know the marriage wouldn't last *that* long so you'd want proof, or maybe even $$ sometime.

Boston Herald Article about K-Fed threatening to sell the tape.

It's snowing

It's only light, small amounts, but it has snowed a little finally. The forecast is for warm weather though, so I know it won't be white after around noon. It still at least LOOKS a little like the season.

Get firefox, it's better than IE

Bloggers help files say that 71% of bloggers still use Internet Explorer. WHY? Internet Explorer contains multiple bugs and security errors that can allow people into your computer. Their stats say that only around 6% actually use FIREFOX. I would have imagined that many more would be using FIREFOX for their web browsing. It's a MUCH better program than IE ever has been.

Go download Firefox and give it a try!

Minnesota Vikings STINK!

The Vikings played like crap and lost to the Packers today, at the Metrodome. This season's basically over as far as a shot at the playoffs now. As soon as Tarvaris Jackson is 100% healthy from a small knee injury I think he needs to start a game or two to see what he can do.

Simply Potatoes... yum

I know they've been around a long time, but this is one of the best things in the grocery store.


... Simply Potatoes is a ton better than frozen crappy hash brown squares. I like to make a 1 egg hash brown omelette with them a lot of the time by just frying some of the hash browns and pouring a beaten egg over the top. Sometimes I won't be lazy and I'll actually add ham and stuff to it also, and use 2 eggs.. then ya gotta finish it in the oven though or it'll spill when ya flip it.

search box :)

Just a quick reminder that you can go to the bottom of any blog page and use the search box to find either stuff ON the blog, or stuff on the internet with GOOGLE. Just use the little bubble and choose the blog, OR on GOOGLE and find the information you want that way. :)

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin movie this spring

Steve Austin, aka the Rattlesnake, aka Stone Cold, has a new movie coming out this spring called The Condemned.

IMDB's film/plot description:

"The Condemned" tells the story of Joe Conrad (Stone Cold Steve Austin), who is awaiting the death penalty in a corrupt Central American prison. He is "purchased" by a wealthy television producer and taken to a desolate island where he must fight to the death against nine other condemned killers from all corners of the world, with freedom going to the sole survivor.

WWE.com announced the new movie on their website HERE

You Tube Funny Accidents

I'm bored, so I thought I'd put a couple youtube videos up

First is a greek motorcycle rider getting hit through a red light


Second is a snowmobiler not getting enough air.


Third is a dumbass snowmobile racer

Spears drops K-Fed, Fed Ex jokes

This shit's funny, Britney Spears dumps K-Fed as his cd is barely selling (released on Halloween), and while he's making an ass of himself on WWE Raw.

The Fed-Ex jokes have been really funny too.

From the Fox News article (click on blog title):

He had to cancel a concert this week at a House of Blues in Cleveland, Greenblatt said, because of low ticket sales. He played to a nearly empty house at New York City's Webster Hall last weekend.

Maybe now this moron will figure out he's a nobody just like millions of us around the country.

By the way K-Fed, get a better webhost or webmaster, I tried going to his website and it took 3 minutes to load just the front page intro with his initials on it. THe website's as lame as what he calls a career.

Oh well ... voting still works even if your guy loses

It turns out, a few of the people I voted for didn't win.... oh well :) I can still complain since I voted..right? The Governor election was close, but Pawlenty managed to win anyway so we've got 4 more years of not existing in northern MInnesota. We'll see what he does when it comes to the DECC arena in Duluth. He's already "promised" to make sure the money shows up in 2007, but we'll see.

Ksex Radio

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MMMMM Baked Beans

Today I actually made baked beans like Grandma used to when she was alive. I mixed brown sugar, molasses, liquid smoke, garlic powder(*NOT* SALT), ketchup,Famous Dave's 'sassy' bbq sauce, 1 large onion, 5 cans of Van Camps baked beans, and all but 4 slices of bacon from 1/2 lb of thick cut bacon. After I mixed it all together I put it in a baking dish and laid the other 4 slices of bacon over the top and baked at 250 for 3 hours then 300 for half hour. The whole house smells great and it realllly tastes good as well.

Being a guy, I do *NOT* measure my ingredients.. I taste as I go instead of measuring and writing ingredients down. YUMMMMMMY(haha)

Election day

My ballot was the 454th one entered at my polling place, as per their machine that you insert the ballot in and counts the number. Maybe the number changes, but on the counter I was 454.

Google ads

Someone told me they didn't know what a google ad was, so today, I changed the colors of them so people actually notice them. If you have a blog and don't know how to do such things... it's simple, as long as you know something about Google and a little bit of html.

The site I actually use for HTML colors is HERE. I've used it for a couple years now and as long as it's online I'll continue to use it.

One good place for help with google ads (if you want to make a little money on your blog, go read this blog

That site has good information on setting up your blog in the old format.. I'm right now searching for ways to modify a beta blogspot layout (they dont' call it a template in the beta.)

EA Sports NHL 07 SUCKS

This game started our being fun as per my blog entry that it was fun. Well, playing at MEDIUM skill level it started to become boring when I'd win games 20-10. Hockey games are *NOT* won 20-10 in real life. I tried the game on difficult and won a couple.. but now.. it's fucking PATHETIC. Every body check (even with penalties turned down) or if I take a shot and try to hit the rebound results in a penalty.

The computer teams now just ice the puck and no matter what team I play as.. skate their forwards down and beat out the icing and take control. The game doesn't even let you kill off 50% of penalties.. I just played and lost 15-10 and gave up 6 powerplay goals on 7 attempts. Not to mention going ON the powerplay myself, when they ice the puck their players are able to go GET the puck and score short handed. The goaltenders are terrible on this game as well. I used to really like the EA sports NHL franchises but after playing 18 games of this "season" it's starting to seem stupid.

You used to be able to bat rebounds into the net but now.. your damn player dives to the ice and swings his stick around.... the deek moves are terrible as well. Like the other years, you can occassionaly score from your own blue line or farther back as well. I also did some checking during game play, and the PENALTY clock moves 1 second SLOWER than the game clock. I gave up a powerplay goal 2 minutes 43 seconds AFTER a 2 minute penalty should have expired, thanks to being able to look at the game summary and sort between goals and penalties.

I guess I'll have to go back to MEDIUM skill level and win all the games easy, because difficult is impossible when the computer players skate 3 x's faster than yours.

Don't forget to vote!

If you read this on Monday, November 6th, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE Tomorrow! :) As always, if you don't vote, you can't complain.

WWE Cyber Sunday stink, stank, stunk

WWE's PPV Cyber Sunday was last night, and it stunk. It was maybe as good as a regular Monday Night RAW at best.

Umaga vs Kane again? I know this is supposedly what the fans who voted PICKED, but how are they going to prove that the fans actually picked? When are they going to end Umaga's (aka Jamall from 3 minute warning) 'winning streak?' It's getting old...fast!

The Texas Tornado tag team match was also a joke, since it wasn't a real Texas tornado match. In a Texas Tornado match, yes, all men are in the ring, and BOTH have to be pinned to be knocked out of the match. The definition on Urban Dictionary fits best what a bunch of us were talking about on Paltalk when the match was going on

In a texas tornado match, both members of each tag team are allowed in the ring. Essential, you have 4 wrestlers and 1 referee in the ring. In order to win, BOTH members of the opposing team have to be pinned or made to submit or disqualified or counted out.

The Jeff Hardy vs Carlito match wasn't that bad, but you knew Jeff was going to win before they even started the match.

The DX/Bischoff stuff also was obvious, and more than likely will set up having Bischoff on tv as the leader of the "new" NWO with Orton and Edge, and who knows who else.

The only real good thing of the night is the dismantling of the gay 'Spirit Squad' as the tag team champions. Even if the combined age of the new tag champs is over 100, it was over 120 before when "any of the 5 spirit squad members can defend the title."

Worst moment of the night is Kevin Federline on yet another WWE show....His cd must REALLY suck that bad to need the money from WWE.

I'm glad I didn't PAY for the stupid PPV anyway, and no, this blog isn't a wrestling blog, just an every once in a while thing that I'll mention wrestling :)

Firefox Browser

Just reminding people that Firefox is the best way to view most if not all blogspot blogs. Firefox's popup blocker works better than anything from Internet Explorer or running an extra program.

Wally Dupuis for Carlton County Sheriff

The News Tribune on November 2nd profiled the 2 candidates for Carlton County Sheriff. Below is the Wally Dupuis information.

Dupuis, 48, is director of law enforcement on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation. He has 19 years in law enforcement, including eight years as a patrol officer and detective with Cloquet police, as well as experience with the Scanlon police and as a conservation officer.

“My experience is with the community of Fond du Lac and understanding the diversity of these people out here,” Dupuis said. He added that one of his strengths is the ability to relate to common folks.

“I worked in a factory for 10 years; I was a construction worker. I think that’s important stuff,” he said. “I worked the trenches. I dug the ditches. I know what that part of life is about, also.”

“I should be the sheriff because I can and do work with communities well,” Dupuis said. “I have experience within these communities and larger communities, and that includes Carlton County.”

Obviously I know the guy, and yes, am voting for Wally Dupuis for sherriff on Tuesday.

Deer Hunters, be safe

In just over 6 hours, Minnesota's firearms deer hunting season begins, Just making this post to tell people to be safe... I don't hunt, I only fish. Be safe though, dont' be like our vice president.

UMD Men taking on the Goofs

As the UMD women head south to play the Goofer women, the UMD men are hosting the Goofers at the DECC this weekend. UMD men are dinged up already and with deer hunting opener this weekend, there may be a lot of Goofer fans up here...ewwwww.

McAfee Virus Scan

I was emailed this deal from McAfree VirusScan and am able to let everyone go check it out and maybe order if you like. They've combined their virus protection, firewall, and spyware checker into one product so you don't need to make 3 software purchases anymore! Click on the McAfee banner to check it out!

2006 Mid Term Election

Don't forget, no matter who you vote for, *IF* you don't vote you can't complain. So go vote Tuesday, or shut the hell up after the election.

20 Good Years on NBC

This show, 20 good years, so far is a good sitcom on NBC. John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor make the show funny, but please, keep their shirts on. Heather Burns that plays Lithgow's daughter though, she's not bad at all.

Brr, it's Winter time

Brr, damn it's cold today.

News Tribune reminder of 1991 Halloween

The Duluth News Tribune printed the article in Monday's paper taking everyone back to their memories of the 1991 Halloween snowstorm that left 3+ feet of SNOW on a large portion of the state of Minnesota. That was snowy/slushy mess for trick or treaters

The Vikings stink

The Vikings lost bad....31-7 to New England. Their 7 points were from a punt return, NOT the offense, which is terrible. They need to get a quarterback whose arm is strong enough to throw down field.

Duluth webcam sites

There are some streaming webcam sites of Duluth online, some of the ones I know about are posted below.

The Allete one today is great, with 30mph+ winds it's capturing the huge waves hitting the shore. You can go view this webcam by clicking HERE.

There's a webcam called Tower Cam, by WDIO Channels 10/13 (the local ABC affiliate) you can view pictures of the lake and highways etc by clicking HERE.

The Great Lakes Aquarium has a webcam view of Lake Superior and the Aerial Lift Bridge viewable by clicking HERE On this one, a lot of times you can watch people walking along the lake, or jogging sometimes. The road goes behind the DECC Arena/Auditorium by the ticket office and Vista Fleet offices.

I found this last one by accident... it's the University of Minnesota Duluth's library webcam. YOu can choose to see just a still image, or the live feed of people just walking around, mingling, or hurrying to class. THAT webcam link is HERE

Can ya tell I was bored? ;)

MMMMM Meatloaf

Today I'm cooking a large meatloaf :) 3 lbs of hamburger, with shredded onion & carrot, 1 slice of breadcrumbs 1 beaten egg, and some ketchup (HEINZ ONLY) in the meat and mixed by hand.

My preference for meatloaf SAUCE is a sweet sauce. I mix brown sugar and pineapple juice and ketchup together and microwave it for 45 seconds to dissolve the brown sugar completely and it's damn good. The sauce doesn't go on until the last 15 minutes though, because of the sugar and ketchup, you don't want it to burn.

I cook the whole thing at 350 degrees for around 45-50 minutes before adding the sauce to the top for 10 to 15 minutes. I don't mess around with meat thermometers normally because the temperature 350 for 45 minutes or so usually is perfect. With the meatloaf will either be baked potatoes sometimes, or like today, mashed potatoes, and ALWAYS corn with meatloaf :) YUM

Daylight Saving Time

Don't forget to turn BACK your clock(s) an hour tonight, as Daylight Saving Time ends. In the Spring you turn it ahead, in the fall we turn it back.. or as they say "Spring Forward, Fall Back."

Free laptop computer?

This is a hypersweep FREE DRAWING for a laptop computer! It's simple to enter and you don't have to join anything to enter!

New eBay consignment items

This week I've got 4 new consignment items listed on eBay for a customer of mine. They are, a .29 carat brilliant cut diamond; a matching Sapphire/Diamond chip Necklace/Earrings set; an Italian 14k Gold bracelet; AND a Sterling Silver Bracelet with a nice Turquoise stone.

You can click on any of the descriptions blogged about to go see the item :) They're all nice pieces of jewelry.

EA Sports NHL 07 is fun

Yesterday at Wal-Mart, I bought EA Sports NHL 07 for X-box (no, not 360.. can't afford that yet.) So far after playing 5 games (20 minute periods, MEDIUM hard skill level) I've done decent, but learning the controls for a game I've played for a long time now took a couple games. Normally I use the finger pad for controls and not the little joystick. In this version you have to use the joystick control to move your player(s.) At first I even tried PASSING the way they designed it, with the right joystick but that was a little nuts. I changed preferences to pass with the red B button like I'm used to and am winning at Medium with little or no problem. I'm sure it'll get a little more difficult. I might have to try the game in the next highest difficulty level next.



I bought my copy of the game, on a whim when I walked by it at Wal-Mart. You can buy it and other games at the banner above from a company called Chips & Bits.

K-Fed on wrestling is stupid

K-Fed sucks, and him on WWE RAW two weeks in a row is stupid.The guy marries someone almost as white trash as himself and becomes a celebrity, no matter how much the majority of us can't stand the guy.

Pro Wrestling gets enough press without bringing this moron in.

Clickable ads, Election time

While you're on here reading some of this stuff, which really is mostly random, click a google ad or two (after each of the first 3 posts on each page.) There some nice companies that advertise via google and help keep blogs like this one and others running. Google gives a (very) small amount of money to someone who earns clicks. While I dont' do this to earn money, god knows it's not a large amount anyway.. $3.00 in the 2+ months I've been blogging.. it's good way to know people are actually reading if they happen to click on the ads once in a while.

It's almost election time.. only 2 weeks from tomorrow we'll be voting up here for Governor, City Councilor, Carlton County Sherriff, State Attorney General and more.

I for one, know that I'm voting for Mike Hatch for Governor, Lori Swanson for Attorney General (she was Hatch's assistant A.G.), and Wally Dupuis(pronounced DuPwee) for Carlton County Sherriff to name a few. While one blog entry doesnt' make for someone winning elections, I just wanted to remind someone who reads that it's almost 'mid-term' election time, and to go vote on election day, no matter the party or candidates you're choosing.

Little People Big World

This show on TLC (The Learning Channel), Little People Big World is great. It's about a "little person" (me? being p.c.?) couple with 4 kids, only 1 of who is "little." Their WEBSITE gives a lot more information about their show than I can give in a blog entry. Their show got renewed so there's a bunch of new episodes showing this winter.

Random Pictures

Before today's women's hockey game I was bored so I decided to take my digital camera down by the lake:

The Aerial Lift Bridge(I know, there's pictures all over the net of it):


UNDER the lift bridge:


A brave seagull, the only one that didn't fly away as I walked up towards it:


I took more but this is a start. Don't forget, you can right click on a photo and select 'view image' to see it larger. If you want to use the picture, save it yourself, don't use my hosting of it and eat bandwidth. Thanks!

Cloquet Wal-Mart's customer service SUCKS

Last night, after coming home from the UMD women's hockey game I stopped at Wal-Mart to buy a few things. They had 4 'lanes' open and a ton of people trying to get checked out. I got in one line at 9:45 as did 3 other people behind me, one was a lady with a large cart full of groceries. As soon as it was MY turn to get my stuff checked out, it turned 10 pm.

The "cashier"(whatever Wal-Mart calls the girls they hire) tells the lady with all the groceries, "umm, excuse me, this lane is closed." She checks my stuff that was already on the belt, I pay, and she just walks away from the now 5 people in her line. So after waiting over 15 minutes to get to the front of a line, she now has to get to the back of one of the other lines and wait all over again.

At the least, I go to Wal-Mart twice a week. 99% of the time I go there I use the self-checkout lanes, but they close those things before 9 pm so I had to go through a lane with a person "working." Maybe the word person should be in italics also?