Assorted Christmastime Happenings

What a great weekend!

We started out in Milwaukee. A great breakfast with Annie & John, Meghan & Jason, and Kara & Lieland! Too bad that Pete had to work, but it was great to get to meet Lieland (Pete and Kara's baby). Later that night we had Christmas with the Fritschs. Thomas and Matt came over as well as grandpa to join her parents and the two of us. Here's Cocoa getting in on the present opening action, and Barb and I making a snowman.


Saturday it was back to Madison to have Christmas at the Halbergs. Mike and Sheila were in town and Claire was in full effect. Very excited for presents to be opened! Our gift was a hit. I don't think you can go wrong buying a girl of any age 5 pairs of princess shoes and a tiara!



Sunday we woke up late (a little Christmas gift to ourselves) before heading up to Green Bay for the Packers vs. Bears game. It was a great time and the Pack made it exciting at the end - unfortunately, it just wasn't your day (or year for that matter). Completely randomly, we ran into cousin Tim and second cousin Zak! Unbelievable in a stadium that size! There's more on that here.



Monday we met up with The Roos (minus Ericka) for lunch in Johnson's Creek. The highlight, of course, being the introduction of the newly engaged Emily and Rob (congrats kids). Monnie and I spent the rest of the day with Carissa and Niki - we watched some corny movies and had a great dinner at Ginza Tokyo. There's more about it here and a little here too.
Here are our leftovers (dressed more for Halloween than Christmas).


That's one great weekend and a couple more great ones coming right up. This weekend we're starting out with dinner at John and Leslie's on Friday night. I'm really looking forward to stopping in to see grandpa beforehand. After that we're headed up North for our 3rd annual New Years in Bessemer, MI (Powderhorn Mt), then a weekend or two after that: up to Mt. Bohemia for a weekend of skiing. What a great time of year!

Let's Make A Deal

Last night Monnie and I were watching Deal or No Deal. I had planned on blogging to you guys about how the game works - it's a combination of math and luck (who wouldn't like that?) and I recommend checking it out, but when I went to look up a bit more info on the game, I came across a problem that's always been one of my favorites - how big of a math nerd are you when you can call a problem "one of your favorites"?

It's commonly referred to as "The Monty Hall Paradox". If you ever watched "Let's Make a Deal" you're familiar with corny gameshows... another thing you're familiar with though is a game played on the show. You get called up to the front to play and are presented with three doors. Behind one of the three doors is a fabulous prize. Opening either of the other two doors reveals a goat. I'm not sure if you actually get to keep the goat - but the idea is that you lose.

Anyway, you select one of the three doors. Instead of opening your selected door, the host opens one of the other doors - behind which is always a goat. He then asks you: Would you like to stick with your original door? Or would you like to switch to the other door that we haven't shown?

The question is:
Do the odds say that you should stick with your original door?
Do they say that you should switch?
Or do the odds say that it's all on you and there's no difference?

The answer that most people come to initially is: it doesn't matter. There are 2 doors left. 1 has a goat and 1 has a prize: you have a 50/50 chance and switching is irrelevant. If that was your answer, you were... WRONG!

The odds say that by switching doors: your odds of getting the prize double!

The most brief explanation possible is that there are three possible outcomes when you switch and 2/3 cause you to win:
* You pick the prize right away - switching makes you LOSE.
* You pick goat 1 right away - switching makes you WIN.
* You pick goat 2 right away - switching makes you WIN.

If you don't switch, there are three outcomes. Only 1/3 make you win:
* You pick the prize right away - staying makes you WIN.
* You pick goat 1 right away - switching makes you LOSE.
* You pick goat 2 right away - switching makes you LOSE.

If I tried to explain it further I would basically be copy/pasting from here, so just check there for the details and reasoning. It takes a while to get your brain around it, even after thinking about it for a while. but that site explains it in several ways, so eventually it'll have you convinced! ... and even if you read all their logic and still don't agree: they have results from a computer simulation that demonstrates it also!

For the poker players

Up until now I've spared you posts about playing cards, but it's something I do often so it deserves it's time in the spotlight here. Especially since I have a question to ask you (or at least to ask those of you who play).

Question 1: If you finish in 4th you get nothing. If you finish in 3rd or better - you get... well... something.

Do you call here or raise?

Seat 1: Kayamucho (3535)
Seat 4: jjAKQJ10 (650)
Seat 7: jfh_pkr (2185)
Seat 9: thndrshark (1630)
jfh_pkr posts small blind (150)
thndrshark posts big blind (300)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to jfh_pkr [ Th, Ts ]
Kayamucho folds.
jjAKQJ10 raises (650) to 650
jjAKQJ10 is all-In.

Question 2: If you finish in 4th you get nothing. If you finish in 3rd or better - you get... well... something.

The two big stacks have been raising every hand (as they should) and the two small stacks have been folding for the last 10 minutes, trying to outlast each other.

NutterGBH isn't in a blind this hand (and hasn't yet acted), but next hand he will be in for 150.

Do you fold, call, or raise?

Seat 3: ReneJak (3061)
Seat 4: fireball166 (3898)
Seat 5: jfh_pkr (837)
Seat 10: NutterGBH (204)
ReneJak posts small blind (75)
fireball166 posts big blind (150)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to jfh_pkr [ Qd, As ]

Back to Wisconsin

It's been great here in Miami. In the 80s everyday - didn't rain a whole lot and the conference was great!

If you're interested in the nerdy details, I have some and there are many more here.

I'm ready to be coming back to WI though... sounds like there's plenty of new snow waiting for me. Monnie and I are going to have to get back out to Tyrol!

Welcome to Miami

It may be drizzly, but hey: it's 75 and the room has an ocean view. I'll take it!



Although I didn't hear about it until I got to the hotel and turned on the TV, this happened sometime after my flight landed - and before I had left the airport. Crazy.

Sportscenter

Maurice Williams hit a HUGE 3 as tie expired to give the Bucks a big win over the Wizards. ... and that was only 3 of the 17 he scored in the last 7 minutes!

---

Here are the preseason records this year for the NFL's AFC-South... anything jump out at you?

Team	W	L
Jacksonville	2	2
Houston	1	3
Tennessee	1	3
Indianapolis	0	5

---

Danny Heatley's streak of consecutive games with a point was broken at an unbelievable 22, but he got back on the horse tonight scoring twice against the Kings. We had season tickets in the student section when Heatley was still at UW and he was unreal, but somehow he seems to be even better as a pro. and he's still got that winning "hockey player" smile:

Open Season

Monica and I took our first trip of the year to Tyrol Basin for the year. It was a lot of fun and the snow was actually surprisingly good, considering how early in the year it is + the fact that everyone there is skiing the same run, so it's really taking a beating.



It's a good thing that we went yesterday too. Originally, we had been considering going today. As you can see in the picture... that... may... not have been so hot.

Christmasizing

We started getting some inside Christmas stuff set up today.

I think tomorrow is going to see some outside stuff... we were going to do it today but it's supposed to be about 20 degrees warmer tomorrow which makes it pretty easy to justify the procrastination!

Thanksgiving!

The first Thanksgiving of 1057 Providence Common went off without a hitch! We were very happy to host both sets of parents, Monnie's brothers, Ric, Debbie, and Stephanie.

Great food. Great company. and, of course, some football.

Pictures are out on Flickr.

Google Analytics

Those of you with blogs of your own should definitely check out Google Analytics.

Basically it's a tool that will give you a report of how many people are visiting your site and even where they are coming from: Did they click a link on someone else's site, or just type in your URL? And where is the person geographically.

Cool stuff and it's really easy to set up. All you need is a Google account (which you may already have anyway) and then you can get everything running pretty quick! Check it out: http://www.google.com/analytics/

Another Good Show

As I had mentioned previously; Brandon, Dan, and I went to check out the Detroit Cobras show on Wednesday night at the High Noon Saloon.

The Cobras were great. They sounded quite a bit like their CD which, as Dan pointed out, was really impressive since they have a fairly "produced" sound to them. It was good to see that they're actually able to pull that off without a lot of rework in the studio.

The opening band was Reigning Sound. They were quite good as well. It's always such a big boost for a show when the opening band that you've never heard of turns out to actually be good!

The venue (High Noon Saloon) impressed again too. It's one of the newer places to check out a good show in town and they've done a very good job with the acoustics. and this was the first time I've been there that the parking lot was actually paved instead of covered with construction fence!

More on the MI Tech game

I finally got the pictures from the "Tim Strom Show" on Flickr. I only had a few that turned out, as I had mentioned: our camera doesn't do so well with motion... they're out there though!

Travesty

Well, I had heard rumors of the demise of Arrested Development before, so when Emily told me this weekend that it was going off the air: I wasn't happy to hear it but I still had some hope that it wasn't going to happen. but Brandon sent me a link today that seems to confirm it.

Too bad, it really is a funny show.

Great show

As I had mentioned before, Nate and I went to the Atmosphere show last night at the Orpheum. As expected, it was great! This is the third time I've seen them... second where they were the featured act.

When they're the featured act, I think it's pretty customary for them to have two openers from their label (Rymesayers - Minneapolis based). This time around they were with POS and Blueprint. Blueprint is definitely the bigger of the two but overall I thought they were fairly equal: both started out with me loving it and ending 5 tracks later with me happy that they played, but ready for the next act.

Atmosphere was great. Started out with all 5 of them up there. Switched to just Thug and Ant (the best part of the show for sure in my book) and ended with just Thug.

Very good show! Well worth the ticket price (especially without the TicketMaster charge!).

Go Huskies!

Sorry I've been so slow on reporting on this. As I mentioned before, last Thursday we went over to the Bradley Center to see cousin Tim (and Michigan Tech) take on Marquette. It was a great game with Marquette narrowly escaping with a 6 point victory.

Lots of family were able to make it to the game: my parents, Kate, John, Leslie, Joe, Martha, JR, Monica, and I. Of course we all had seats in the nose bleeds, but that didn't stop us from sitting right behind the bench! Apparently (before Monica and I arrived) some of the aunts had gone to sit behind the bench and convinced the guy checking tickets to let them stay until season ticket holders showed up. When we arrived the guy checked our tickets and told us to take a hike, but my uncle John pointed out a couple of open seats nearby and we just sat down. I think by that time the poor guy was probably too tired of telling people that they were in the wrong seats to care anymore. It was great to get to have those seats in there though! I'm sure I'll never see seats like those again, in there!

I was hoping to get my pictures posted but our camera isn't the greatest with motion anyway, so check out Leslie's! As always she has some great pictures out there.

Back from Vegas

Monica and I got back from Las Vegas this morning and I'm very happy to report that it was an awesome trip!

My weekend was split between sightseeing (mostly in the middle of the strip, gaming and watching some football (mostly at the Stardust). Monnie built on my list with some shopping and a spa visit.

I think Steph (we were there with Mike and Steph Fox) and Monica each came in expecting to have a good time but not completely sure of what it would be like: I think they each had a great time shopping, visiting the spa, and checking out some of the incredible casino properties on the strip.

The only negative for us was on the way back home. Someone on our plane had some chest pain which caused some commotion. A doctor on the plane checked him out and we had to make a pit stop in Salt Lake City. Obviously, if the man's health was in jeopardy: we're really glad that we could stop so he could get help... but adding 2.5 hours to a red-eye flight was no fun!

There are lots of fun pictures for you to check out on Flickr! Here's a sneak preview:





One of the first things I noticed was the windows at Westward Ho had covers over them that weren't there the last time. Talking with the guy at the checkin desk, apparently they had to add them after some guy from Wisconsin reported that (before the new protective covers) the windows were "real flimsy" and could be shattered just by "knocking to see if his buddies were in there".


Mike gets caught checking out one of his favorite dolls at FAO Schwarz:

NBA Season Starts

Or should I say: "NBA Season Starts?"

I don't know what has happened to the NBA. How is it that I barely even know that the season is starting? I did know that the season was starting, but it's unbelievable to me how unceremonial the NBA opener is. Shouldn't the giant marketing machine be in full gear for opening day? If nothing else, shouldn't I be hearing about opening day for the Bucks: The premier of the first pick in the whole draft (Bogut)?

It's hard to miss the NFL opener. It's obviously on Fox or CBS during primetime. They get some huge star - or stars to do the halftime extravaganza. They've got a parade, they've got commercials on every 3 minutes: it's just a big thing.

Even baseball has a bigger opening. Nowhere near football - but chances are very good that you know someone that took the day off of work to go to the Brewers Opening Day... and they haven't had a winning season in like 100 years (or so).

To illustrate how poorly the NBA has done: last night I was at a 7-friend poker game. All male. All mid 20s to lower 30s. The primary focus is playing cards but there's inevitably a TV in the background. and what was on it? On NBA opening day? After none of us had been able to watch basketball on TV for months? ... some NFL show, clearly produced in 1998 - about NFL coaches.

Vegas

The Vegas trip is finally right around the corner and I'm definitely excited!

This is going to be Monica and Steph's first time out there so I'm trying to come up with a list of things that should get done. Of course, we won't get to all of the things on the list but here are some of the most "noteable" sites to see in Vegas.

* Fountains @ Bellagio
* Canal @ Venecian
* Voodoo Lounge @ Rio
* Light canopy @ Freemont Street
* Sirens @ TI
* Volcano @ Mirage

What am I missing?

A Bitter Bitter Man

I've been meaning to get down to the Orpheum ticket office to pick up tickets for Atmosphere. but, seeing that we now live outside of town: it just hasn't been convenient.

So, tonight I finally broke down and went out to Ticketmaster to pay their charges so that I wouldn't have to go downtown. I will be the first to tell you: Buying them online would be much more convenient for me. The question is: How much more convenient?

Well, let's see. Ticket prices for the show are a (very) reasonable $18. Again, I will be the first to tell you: this show is worth much more than $18. The second question is: How much more than $18?

So, $1 for the theatre... alright. $5.75/ticket for "convenience"! Oh man, is it worth $11 for me not to drive downtown... well... probably, I guess. If this were a $200 purchase: yes, it would definitely be worth it. but paying 1/3 of the ticket cost for convenience? Oh, and thanks for all those choices on how I am going to receive the tickets. I had no idea that it costs $25 to mail something... I guess there are going to be two tickets in the envelope though, so it probably weighs quite a bit.

Alright, so I reluctantly click proceed.

Oh, come on now! $4 more for processing? What is happening behind the scenes that is costing them $4 to process?!? They really need to put some effort into streamlining their business if they're handling millions of transactions over there and each is costing $4!

So, Nate. As the recipient of the other ticket that I am going to purchase: I swear that I am going to try really hard to get down to the ticket office and get this taken care of, but I just can't pull the trigger on this! $36 of tickets for $53. How can these guys not have competition that can beat this?

Grrrrrr...

Monniblog

Well, it isn't actually called the Monniblog (I admit it; her name is better), but Monica has started her own blog! The address is http://eatyourbroccoli.blogspot.com and you should definitely check it out!

Her first post has some pictures of our pumpkins. They turned out really well! check em out...

and they're on flickr too... click the picture here (or, as always, you can use the links on the right side over there) to see more!

For those who haven't heard...

Our wedding pics are now online! Go to www.pictage.com, register with your name, email address and password of your choice. Then search for our event (last names usually work) to see all the photos. If you see any that you like, order them directly online. To view the images enter
"135183" when prompted for the Event Key.
Enjoy! There are some really great ones! Our photographer, Jessica Kaminski, did a fantastic job!

Upcoming Shows

My Morning Jacket 10/28 @the Annex (Madison) - I'd like to see this... but it's the kind of show that I probably won't end up making it.

O 11/5 @the Bellagio (Las Vegas) - If this show is disapointing, I'm sure it will only be because I am building it up so much in my head. After attending Mystere a couple years back, at TI, + hearing that O is better... I am really expecting a lot of this Cirque du Soleil show.

Michigan Tech Basketball 11/10 v. Marquette @the Bradley Center (Milwaukee) - Absolutely no chance that I'm missing this. I hear good things about last years Bob Olson award winner (Outstanding Newcomer) Tim Strom. I've got to check out how much he's improved over the summer to make sure I can still shut him down.

Atmosphere 11/13 @the Orpheum (Madison) - This show is a sure thing. I've really liked all their albums. I really like their new album. I really liked their last show at the Orpheum. This one's a can't miss, I'll definitely be there.

Detroit Cobras 11/16 @the High Noon Saloon (Madison) - I've only recently been turned onto this group by Brandon and/or Dan but I definitely like what I've heard.

Debut Performance!

Ladies and Gentlemen... introducing co-blogger: Monica Halberg!

Check out her first couple posts below!

Puppy parents

Our friends Gina and Todd got a new puppy!
Previously Amish, her name is Madison and she's a "Puggle."

Red makes me hungry

This is the last of the painting projects for a while. We love the way it has turned out! I think this really brings the kitchen and dining room together- both have several red components- and now we have our very own accent wall. The color is called "cherry cobbler," and it actually is more of a deep red in- person.

Who Says Baseball's Boring?

From The Onion

Fox Cancels ALCS After Just Two Episodes

October 13, 2005 | Onion Sports

LOS ANGELES—Fox Entertainment president Peter Liguori announced Thursday that the network is pulling the plug on ALCS, the new three-hour drama/comedy about two rival clubs competing for the coveted "pennant," just two shows into its run. "This uninspired series featured a cast of uninteresting characters, a hackneyed plot, and more boring narration than actual meaningful dialogue," Liguori said. "We tried to find an audience on Tuesdays, then on Wednesdays, and we were prepared to move its time slot to Friday nights or Saturday afternoons before ultimately realizing that the series had zero potential." Television experts cited several other possible reasons for the early cancellation, such as the overly expensive sets and costumes, the show's subject matter, and the fact that the series' projected breakout character—a brash, outspoken black man named Carl Everett—tested very poorly with audiences. Fox remains optimistic about its other fledgling program, NLCS, but critics say the series has "very little chance" of making it past seven episodes.

MUFA

The playoffs started for the Madison Ultimate Frisbee Association (MUFA) this evening. After finishing the regular season in a tie for third, Team Predator (all teams are named after Horror movie or otherwise scary characters) took down our first opponent 13-7.

It was actually a pretty close game in the first half. I believe we were up 7-5 before we started pulling away from 'Fin Fang Foom'. I admit having no idea who Fin Fang Foom is: someone will have to fill me in.

Here are the handsome devils. Predator on the left and good ole' Fin Fang on the right.


Of course, the most frightening of the monsters would have to be Count Chocula.




P.S. What kind of spell checker doesn't recognize the word "Chocula"!?!

I've held off long enough

I've really been trying to avoid two things.
1. Complaining about fantasy football - I know it will only encourage my fellow participants to pick on me even more.
2. Avoid blogging about fantasy football - I know Rob will post some comment about sports not being worthwhile, much less make believe sports.

but since I know deep down you all really care...

League 1 consists of my brother Mike's immediate family. So, his (our) parents and sibling, Sheila's parents and sibling, and significant others.

In this league the 'SuperAwesomers' are a less than super awesome 2-3. I have a big matchup this coming weekend with the 'Brussels Sprouts', under the expert management of Sheila. My players have been really getting psyched up for the weekend already. They've been taking a lot of heat from the fantasy press; anything less than a win will be completely unacceptable this weekend and they know it. I'm sure they'll show up ready to play.

League 2 consists of a bunch (20) of my "friends".

In this league the "Yellow Snow" have struggled out of the gates to a 0-5 start. Something about this team makes the competition really step up their game. The weekly ranks of my opponents thus far (in total points) have been (respectively):
Week1: 1st (his highest single week point total)
Week2: 3rd (his 2nd highest)
Week3: 2nd (his highest)
Week4: 3rd (her highest)
Week5: 1st (his 2nd highest)

So, I think maybe I should change my business model a little bit and instead of trying to actually win games: maybe I should charge people to play me! I mean, it's pretty much guaranteeing them a great week!

Last but certainly not least is the coveted Halby. This is the Halberg family pickem league. Everyone picks every game, every week and all that matters is Wins and Losses. This league ends with the winners name added to the coveted 'Halby' - a traveling trophy.

Here I'm a middle-of-the-pack 11 of 18. 6 wins out of first and 14 wins better than last. Uncle Randy is out of front with Monnie, Mike, and Uncle Keith only one game out of first! Rest assured that on our trip to Vegas in November: Monica will be the one picking all the games to bet on in the SportsBook while I play the penny slots!

Last Weekend

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've been sick and generally no fun for the past week. The exception being over the weekend when Claire was in town for a visit!

If you've seen The Halblog in the last couple days you've already seen some pictures but I've posted a few more out to our Flickr site. It was great to get to visit with the trio from Waukesha on consecutive days in Madison! The highlight was probably Ella's Deli, where the carousel was a big hit!

Here's my favorite picture from the weekend. Check out Flickr for lots more.

Relaxing Weekend

We returned today from the last summer trip (first fall trip?) to St.Germain of 2005. As always it was a very relaxing weekend, this time shared with Mike and Steph Fox, Kevin Burg, Monica and I.

The only work of the weekend involved getting the dock and pontoon out of the water. It was probably for the better that we had the work to do as it got us in the water for one last time (surprisingly warm actually). and while Kevin and Mike returned the pontoon trailer, I got to take a lap in the kayak.

When we moved the pontoon there were several bullheads and crawfish (crayfish) scared up that had been setting up camp under there. We had a little fun with them before finishing up the work. Here's one of each up close and personal.



The only casualties were Mike getting stung by a bullhead and Kevin being attacked by a leaping crawfish. I didn't know they could jump as high as this one is in the picture.




Matt (Fritsch) paid us a visit on his way back through from spending the weekend in MN. He got to have his first in-person look at the condo, along with his dogs Goose and Sera. For some reason I feel like I got to see these dogs about 5 times in a 3 month span... but that was a year and a half ago and I hadn't seen them since. Goose is literally 4 times bigger than he was when I saw him as a puppy. He's absolutely massive now.

The Ultimate Ultimate Site

When it comes to depth of content and information available, it's next to impossible for a site to be any better than the MAUL site.

If you are at all interested in ultimate frisbee though - or actually even if you just want to see something cool: definitely check out the Ultimate Handbook. It has a lot of good information on ultimate, but by far the coolest thing is the way they use Flash to demonstrate proper flow for various offensive and defensive strategies.




Find one of the 'fields' on the site and click on it (or this one):

Click "Load Stack Flow". Then use the VCR-style navigation buttons to see the action! Awesome.

Office Space

The next installment in the condo tour: The Office.

It's so nice to actually have the room for a dedicated office. In our last appartment we sort of started with an office, but it morphed into a storage area when we realized that it just wasn't practical living without ANY storage (no basement storage, nothing!). After a while of having my bike sitting next to the desk I think we just sort of realized that we were kidding ourselves.

Not the case here though! An office in all it's glory. The desk pictured is the one that the movers told Monica was "too heavy to carry up the stairs" - only to be carried up as soon as I got home by my neighbor and I. Now, while it's true that both of us are consistenly rated top 10 in the World's Strongest Man competition... it really wasn't that bad!

A little painting

Now that I'm armed again (Monica bought a camera for my birthday) I'm thinking of giving you guys a little visual tour of the condo. Here's my first installment:

After another painful Packers loss this afternoon, Monica and I painted our downstairs bathroom. Not that you can complain about a room in your house being too large but this bathroom is kinda out of control, so we went with a darker color (brown) to try to tame it a bit. We've also added a little cabinet, some bamboo blinds, and a couple of small pictures (not in the picture below). I think we're both quite happy with how it's turned out so far.



So, while covering an amazing amount of ground with the paint roller this afternoon I was thinking: I wonder who invented this marvelous invention that is saving the world millions (? at least very high thousands) a year. And why do we not have a national holiday for him or his face on a stamp or something!?! Well, it turns out we don't have a national holiday for him because he was a Canuck! Mr. Norman Breakey not only invented the paint roller but also a better way of tapping beer kegs! Of course, he didn't get anything out of the invention since it was immediately stolen from him.

If anyone's ever deserved to be on currency...

Blogrolls on Bloglines

To start: think about some of the sites that you might visit on a regular basis. There's Leslie's blog, Sheila's Flickr pictures, BBC for news, Dilbert's comic of the day... the list is already getting too long. What if I don't want to look at Sheila's Flickr site unless there's actually something new out there? or if I just want to take a quick look at cnn headlines before deciding if I need to read the article? Well, many of these sites put out "feeds" that can be monitored for new posts - these are fairly well known as "rss feeds" although there are some other names and processes out there doing the same thing.

Bloglines is a site that you can register for (for free) and customize to listen to the feeds you care about. Now, by going to that one URL I can quickly determine where the new content is and check it out without bothering to visit a bunch of places that don't have anything new at the moment - this is VERY convenient for even 5 or 6 blogs and feeds, but now that you have this ability: you can add many more blogs than you ever could have practically monitored before: all because you aren't wasting your time looking for new content that isn't there!

As for blogrolls. A blogroll is basically the list of blogs (and whatever else) you are monitoring. For example, instead of updating my "family and friends" list on the right: I am just importing the "family and friends" portion of my blogroll. So, whenever I add something there in Bloglines (Maighie and the Hungry Roo) are the latest, they were automatically displayed in my list here... that was nice for the Family and Friends, but if you check out the "Nerd" links on my technical blog: there is it VERY helpful!

Ok, quick and easy setup:

1. Go to bloglines.com and sign up.


2. To make your life MUCH easier, once you're signed up: immediately go to the bottom left corner of the page and click "Easy Subscribe Bookmarklet". After choosing the browser that you are using, you'll have something added just below the forward and back buttons that says "Sub with Bloglines".


3. Navigate to jimhalberg.com


4. Click "Sub with Bloglines"


5. Now it'll let you add your monitored feeds in different folders (convenient) or all in one big pile if you like too!

Another option (if you're at your PC all day) is to get a little alert thing (Bloglines Notifier) to let you know whenever something new is out there - I will warn you though, it can be pretty distracting if you're monitoring a lot of things: I had to uninstall mine to stop myself from constantly seeing what new was out there!

Happy hunting and let me know if you have trouble!

A quick update.

First off, the presentation last weekend went well. There were definitely improvements that could have been made but I think all things considered Rob and I were pretty happy with it. It will be nice to have it out of my hair for a while here though. Getting ready for those presentations really wasn't taking too much time... but it will be nice to be able to spend it elsewhere for a bit.

Second (how did I save this for second!?!) it's my birthday! For anyone in the Madison area, Dan McNeil (a friend of mine and co-birthday boy) and I will be headed down to the Nitty Gritty (downtown location) for a few drinks this evening. I know Dan is planning on making it down there pretty early (530) but I think I'll be arriving shortly after 7. I'm hoping that doesn't throw too much of a wrench in the works but hey: it's my birthday I can be late if I want to!

Monnie gave me my gift this morning and we've replaced our digital camera! So, you'll probably get some more pictures out there on the Flickr site soon.


Some changes to the blog:

• New links: Definitely check out Maighie's blog and Flickr site. and the Roos have a blog now too to discuss their culinary delights!


• Some of the links on the right here are now being imported from my blogroll (on Bloglines). It's handy to have it automatically updated here, but even more handy on the jameshalberg.com blog where there are many more to be maintained. If you guys want to know what blogrolls are all about definitely post a comment to let me know. They're really handy and I'd love to share...

Huge storm over the corn fields of ... Louisiana?

I recently received some VERY impressive pictures, purportedly from Katrina rolling in. I was thinking to myself: "That's terrible that this farmer lost his entire corn crop... wait a minute, corn?"





They certainly are impressive and well worth checking out. After doing a little searching though, it looks like they are actually from Iowa! Anyway, the photographer (Mike Hollingshead) has some incredible photos on his site (and one terrible animated image of the words "Extreme Instability" but I'll give him a pass).

One of the photos looks a bit like one Sheila took in Brookfield a bit back!

Sheila's:

Hollingshead's:

Potato Salad, Potato Salad, my kingdom for some Potato Salad.

Yesterday, after a combination of checking out the Roos new culinary site (setup recently by Carissa) and finishing off the leftover potato salad: I decided to acquire more. and where better than to make my purchases than on the internet?!?

Initially I was quite excited to find some on Shopzilla. When I saw that my 'hit' was actually a book about potato salad I was kinda disappointed - that is, until I thought about how great a book about potato salad going on various adventures and solving crimes would be. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a cookbook - booorring.

So, I turned to the conglomerate that I should have tried in the first place: Amazon. Good old trusty Amazon came through for me, offering me several vendors from whom to procure my potato salad.

Right off the bat, I found the good stuff: Imported potato salad! I like the imported Guinness and the imported Hyundai is still in the driveway, so maybe it's worth giving it a try. Well, this turned out to be a CD from everyone's favorite band: Potato Salad.

Just as hope was fading, I saw a most appealing picture: King's. Things were going well with the King's and I until I read the description: "If it were any better, you'd want to eat it by itself!". Well... I kinda do want to eat it by itself, so I guess that one's out.

Well, maybe the internet isn't the best spot to get my potato salad. I guess I'll have to just check out the grocery store.

Sports Illustrated "Fan Value" baseball statdium ratings

Wow! Sports Illustrated has recently published their "Fan Value Index" for each MLB team and guess who come in at #1? You guessed it... or actually, you probably didn't: The Milwaukee Brewers!

I don't think I can provide a solid "value" list, but here's my ordering. So, it's pretty arbitrary but here you go...

I've been to home games for every team in MLB but three (San Diego, Washington, and Cincinatti) have new facilities since I saw them. I'll leave those three out.

1. Boston Red Sox
2. New York Yankees
3. San Francisco Giants
4. Milwaukee Brewers
5. Chicago Cubs
6. Los Angeles Angels
7. St.Louis Cardinals
8. Atlanta Braves
9. Toronto Blue Jays
10. Los Angeles Dodgers
11. Seattle Mariners
12. Arizona Diamondbacks
13. Texas Rangers
14. Florida Marlines
15. Pittsburgh Pirates
16. Baltimore Orioles
17. Detroit Tigers
18. Colorado Rockies
19. Oakland Athletics
20. Philadelphia Phillies
21. Chicago White Sox
22. Houston Astros
23. New York Mets
24. Minnesota Twins
25. Kansas City Royals
26. Cleveland Indians
27. Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Oh man! Straight sets?!?

If you haven't heard yet (and you're in the population that actually likes tennis), big Andy Roddick went down in the first round of the USOpen yesterday. This article on ESPN.com likens it to some of the greatest upsets of all time... clearly written by either someone that (a) lives for tennis or (b) doesn't have a very firm grip on sports-reality.

For one thing: elite tennis players lose to "top" tennis players all the time. This is especially true on the men's side of the bracket but in recent history has become increasingly more true on the women's side. I would liken this more to watching the Astros and Roger Clemens lose 5-2 in a game against Tomo Ohka and the Brewers. Is Ohka better than Clemens? Only if you're Mrs.Ohka (and even then you have your doubts). Is my comparison fair? No, not really but it's every bit as fair as some of those in that article!

On the other hand, when we went to see Roddick last year: you would have never guessed that something like this could happen. From the pre-match warmups when Andy flipped his racket around and hit balls into the stands like a baseball bat, to the match where he utterly obliterated his opponent in little more than an hour. He was awesome to watch... even if we were high enough up in the stands to require oxygen masks!

Back to work?!?

Well, we got back from Lake Tahoe yesterday and it was great! The travel all went well (although it was early AM in both directions) and the Tahoe area is every bit as beautiful and fun as advertised.

First things first, I've uploaded pictures of the wedding to Flickr. These are courtesy of Mike and Steph Fox (thanks guys). I've broken the wedding ones out into a few different sets: Rehearsal, Pre-Wedding, The Ceremony, Post-Ceremony.

As for the honeymoon photos, I have uploaded them as well and you can find them here. I apologize for having one giant set with 169 pictures in it. I did try to make it a little easier and break them out by day or something but it was really being a pain so sorry, this is what you get! I am a big fan of Flickr but it's missing a couple tools for organizing that could really make life easier (a future blog post?)! You should check out the pictures though. There are some very good ones. It's a great place!

We didn't end up on the hot air balloon ride, as we had hoped, due to weather. That's a pretty unbelievable statement since it was 80 and sunny everyday we were there. I guess they are pretty sensitive about wind though so we ended up missing out. We got a lot of site seeing in though (as you can tell by the quantity of pictures), had some great meals, and really enjoyed being out there. We're definitely going to have to get back out there in the winter to do some skiing now that we've seen it in the summer!

The Wedding!

The wedding was awesome; all the planning was worth it as there was nary a snag encountered!

We were so happy to see everyone that could make it! My only regret about it is that I didn't get to see everyone at the wedding, so if I didn't get to talk to you (or did but not much), my apologies. Although, I'm sure you understand.

I've discovered some pictures on Sheila and Mike's site, as well as Leslie's. If anyone else has pictures of the wedding, we would love to have them. If you're willing and able, just attach them to emails to jimhalberg@gmail.com. If you'd rather mail: just let me know and I can send you the address.

As for the Honeymoon... Monica has now learned the destination and it is (drull roll please)...

After some clues and guesses, Monica ascertained the destination... Lake Tahoe! This was, btw, guessed by JR - almost blew my cover! We'll be staying just on the Nevada side (in Stateline) which borders on California.

We are heading out of Madison early Tuesday morning and will be returning early Saturday evening. It's going to be a great trip and we're really looking forward to it!

Thank you all for the gifts and well wishes at the wedding. Both are very much appreciated!

Coldplay

Monica, Geer, and I saw a great Coldplay show at Alpine Valley on Saturday night. We met up with Matt (Monica's brother) and a bunch of his friends - they're a really fun bunch which made the pre and post show time (aka. sitting in the parking lot) a lot more fun.

As I said a little earlier: the camera is out of order. So, here's the best I could muster from the camera phone. It isn't exactly the best picture ever taken but it does show you just a little bit of how incredibly huge Alpine Valley is. We actually had very good lawn seats and this incredible amount of people were still in front of us. That said, I had grossly overestimated the size of the crowd. Looking on their site tonight I see that the capacity is 35,000 which is a huge concert venue... but I was guessing way more.

RIP Camera

Well, I was going to give you some shiney new pictures of the shiney new condo today but I have other news instead. The old reliable digital camera has finally given out on us. It had gotten to the point where the battery would last about 3 seconds anyway but now the LCD screen has gone out and made it officially done with. I'm sure we could probably get the LCD fixed (and a new battery) but I think it's at the point now where it is just going to be worth it to pick up a new camera.

I know some of you have recently picked up new ones yourselves so I may be asking for some advice. I think my main criteria for the camera are that it's durable and not too big. My absolute favorite attribute of this last one is that I could put it in my pocket and go for a bike ride (or whatever) without worrying about it. The size wasn't cumbersome and at the same time I didn't need to worry about it breaking with some minor bumping around.

Maybe I'll try to borrow one so that you guys can see the progress in the condo... or maybe you'll just have to wait and see the final product!

Bachelor Party!

My bachelor party was this Saturday; a big thanks to Mike and everyone else involved for a great time!

I'd never played paintball before but it was every bit as fun as everyone says it is. I've got a one nice welt in particular but for the most part I'm just really sore! I don't know what it is about activities like this that tells my brain that I don't need to stretch, but I need to get that looked at.

The club and the cards were great too, although I must admit it wasn't a huge disapointment to lose the poker game. It was just too hard to concentrate on that after all the rest of the days festivities!

Mike has a bunch of pictures on his flickr site that you should go check out (click this image).