114 year old dies

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003835233_oldest14.html
(ha! A clickable link! Must be at work on a PC)

The master's track circuit is woefully thin in the 110-119 age group. Scratch one more potential participant. Grumble. Personally this would be a nightmare for me. Do you know how much money you'd have to put aside if you planned to live another 50 years after retirement?

TOKYO -- Yone Minagawa, who became the world's oldest person earlier this year, has died at a nursing home in southwestern Japan, an official said today. She was 114.
Minagawa, who raised four sons and a daughter on her own by peddling flowers and vegetables, died of old age Monday, said Toshiro Tachibana, an official at the nursing home in Fukuchi, 520 miles southwest of Tokyo.
"Her appetite had been declining recently and her energy fading," Tachibana said. "The death was not sudden."
Born on Jan. 4, 1893, Minagawa was named the world's oldest person by Guinness World Records in January following the death of Emma Faust Tillman, also 114, in the United States.

"I just wanted to take the record from that 'Johnny-come-lately Yank', which I did" said Yone. "May I rest in peace now."

Minagawa outlived all of her children except one daughter, and had seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, according to the nursing home.
The number of Japanese living beyond 100 has almost quadrupled in the past 10 years and is soon expected to surpass 28,000, the government announced last September.

Hammer Close Call

I threw discus last week with a couple guys who were also throwing the hammer. One of whom was a sophomore in high school, and just learning how to control the beast. (It's good to live in Washington, where HS hammer throwing is supported:)

There's a very tall (around 40') retaining fence to the left of the ring. I'm left handed and for the first time ever, having thrown there for years, I released early and the discus just managed to clear the fence, and fall into the large bushes on the other side.

I went around the fence and proceeded to search for the discus in the bushes. After about a minute I suddenly heard yells of "HEADS UP! HEADS UP!"

Under normal circumstances of course I would look up and hopefully get out of the way, but being inside a large bush, there's no way to see what's coming. So I decide, in the 1/2 second I have to decide, to jump out of the bush into the open. Before I even have time to look up, I see the hammer crash down maybe 3 feet in front of me! It's a good thing I decided not to keep moving forward!

I've always preached safety in the throws, but this situation completely caught me off guard. In retrospect of course, it was stupid of me to put myself in that situation. Also, once I did know iron death was raining down, I shoulda hugged the fence, since I knew the circle and hammer release point was at least 10 feet away from the fence, and therefore would follow an arc that would make it land 10 feet away from the other side of the fence fence. And the bush might've slowed the speed of the hammer a bit.

I guess if there's a moral to this story, it's "Expect the unexpected" and think of all eventualities next time you throw the hammer. The odds of this situation coming up were extremely small I think, but tragedy almost happened nonetheless.

Whew!

Cyril

Parrotlets: Chirp chirp chirp
Cyril: Hey, can you guys turn it down a notch?
Parrotlets: Chirp CHIRP CHIRP Squack SQUACK
Cyril: Really, I'm trying to take a nap here.
Parrotlets: Chirp SQUACK SCREACH CHIRP
Cyril: QUIEEEEEEEET!

My season thus far

Sadly, I haven't plucked up the gumption to throw my flaming hamma yet in competition, but I did whirl it around the lawn a few times this weekend, terrifying the neighbors. I didn't hit the car though.

My first meet was a bust, in that yes, I woulda hit a PR, and did in warm ups (~44'6"), but alas could not duplicate the effort when it counted. My best was a paltry 41'1" still good for third, but no where near my best effort. Of course I did volunteer to OFFICIATE the event, which was a factor, dag nab it.

My bigger problem is my release, that I'm pushing the implement beyond the toeboard and toe fouling. Either that or I'm staying back on the left foot in the power position, but tightening up and releasing it early down the left sector line, and fouling. Well, I guess that's what first meets are for, getting the rust out and figuring out what REALLY needs to be worked on...

StreetLamp

It is with great fanfare and much excitement that I announce THEY FINALLY REPLACED THAT BLINKING STREET LIGHT ABOVE OUR HOUSE!

I noticed a ruckus and flashing lights outside a couple nights ago, and opened my door to the glorious sight of a cherry picker replacing the sick, flickering light that has been dogging us for the past 5 years. Nothing more distracting than watching TV and seeing the streetlamp flicker on...then off...then on...then off.

Sweet web page

Curious where I got the kick-ass graphic from the last post? Wonder no more. TAKE ME THERE, DORRET!
http://www.harrythecat.com/graphics/



This is the kind of design I aspire to.

And for a preview of MSN Games v11, CLICK HERE.

More Craig Madness

Another brilliant response to one of my Craig's List listings:
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/fur/288282764.html

"May I ask what kind of bird that is? Very Beautiful."

sigh.

ps I'm at work on a PC so I can actually style the post and put clickable links & colors 'n' stuff without having to hack the code! I love PCs. I LOVE THIS COMPANY!!!

pps see why I make a living makin' web pages?

ppps I LOVE THIS COMPANY!!!

Craig's List

I'm doing some spring cleaning and selling a few things on Craig's List, including a bird cage. Some of the people I get emails from are baffling. Like:

"I'm interested in your birdcage if you still have. I don't have internet access so you can leave me an email at xxxxx@yahoo.com. Or you could just call me David at (425)xxx-xxxx Thank you"

Just don't call me late for dinner...

Why buy a mattress...

Suzy and I caved and bought a new mattress this weekend, to replace the aging and small 7 year old full-sized model. We'll get delivery on Tuesday of the Simmons BeautyRest, and I for one can hardly wait. Because After all, as close as you are to your partner, there´s one thing you don´t need to share: Sleep motion. Each Simmons® Beautyrest® virtually eliminates transfer of motion with a patented Pocketed Coil® or Pocketed Cable Coil™ technology blah blah blah. Hee hee.

It features a "pillow top" that's cushiony and squishy, as opposed to the temperapedic mattress material we've used (and used by NASA). Hopefully I'll be able to sleep better, and so will Suzy.

Mr. SalesGuy, Skip Winkerson, said some people come into the showroom with their pillows and take naps on different mattresses.

We did take a test lie in the "Rolls Royce" of mattresses, the $5400 model. It was nice. But $5400? Don't think so.

The Acopalypse is here.

Check da bottom of da page and don't aks questions:
http://www.konami.com/edealinv/servlet/ExecMacro?nurl=control/XboxLive.vm&ctl_nbr=3810



Time to invest in Microsoft yo, because we'll be bustin' buttons faster than they can make 'em.
Plus of course the Dow dropped 416 points today. Time to invest. w00t!

More *irds

Red-cheeked Christian holds a blue-headed pionus. Close relative of Cyril:















Suzy holds a fist-full of love:















"You say 2 in the hand is now worth 1 in the bush? Shut....up!":

birdie picture

Suzy and I went to Denise's Parrot Place this weekend and played with wonderful Caiques!:

Thanks to national hero Koji Murofushi, (Athens gold medalist, beating out drug-filled Anus) Hammer throwing has become a visible part of contemporary japanese TV culture these last few years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWrL0Ip_c4U

This is what American TV should aspire to. Next I'll figure out (again) how to make a link clickable in HTML! (Stupid Mac)

Britney Mania

As I struggle to pick up the pieces following Britney and K-Fed's startling break up, I couldn't help but notice she shockingly made a typo on the front of her webpage. When will this pain end?

New Husky Stadium Plans

See anything missing in this artistic rendering? Where's the F-ing track???

And where the *^&$@ is this soccer stadium where the track will supposedly be moved to? I don't care about college football,but I do care about what this will do to the track program at UW and the (dwindling) number of meets they put on. Granted it was never fun jumping in the cold windtunnel down there, so perhaps putting the track out in the verdant pastures north east of the stadium (?) would be a good thing.

Since the Goodwill Games, the most attendance a track meet has gotten there must be under 5000, and the typical spring meet has spectators numbering in the hundreds so I suppose I see their point.

But I don't want this to be a step towards losing the track program at UW altogether. Although it's already pretty weak, since they only allow a certain caliber of athlete to join, and lose potential "walk-on" and b-class athletes blossoming. But that's another story... >:(

Picture archives continued...

here's a great picture dad took of mom, spring 1965 at Greenlake. The negative was never printed until I found it and did it a few years ago. Unfortunately it has lots of scratches and schmutz from years of not very good care. But still a beautiful shot of a beautiful lady:)

Cartoon for Libby

Oh yes! I remember now! I did a little cartoon for me boss, who is coming back from surgery. And of course I somehow have this rep now that I'm "Mr. Parrot Crazy Guy" so I like to play it up.
The yellow horned fellow is an actual xbox360 icon that Libby created. The x's originally meant they were to be replaced by various eyes and mouth versions I think.

A new post!

yes, I'm still alive. Dad, you guilted me into it:) So...what was I going to post about. Crap.

house paint'n

We're in the home stretch. This weekend was the final push and we performed admirably. I can't say enough about how appreciative and grateful I am for our friends who helped, including Chris, Rich, Angie, Lee and Tara. With Shelly kickin' in with dining and odd job assistance. Add to that our parents and parents-in-law, and that's why we're basically done after only 2 weeks. And we thought we could get it done in a week, HA!
I was a little concerned about the extra white border around our windows, making them look smaller, but in fact they look just fine and newly magnificent.

house painting

In case you're wondering, Suzy hasn't posted a blog post for awhile because she's slaving away at the house. The painting, or should I say prepping, is going moderately well, although we still haven't put a drop of final paint on the house, only some primer. And it's been almost a week! But everything is almost sanded down. Parents and parents-in-law have really stepped up to the plate and saved our bacon, and for that...we worship them, love them, and are grateful.

But oh no! It's going too far! We've decided to rip our porch off:



Tina hired these contractors to rebuild the hot tub deck, so we're using them to rebuild the rotting, sagging mess of a porch. Right now it is terrifying however...Watch that first step, it's a doozy. Must go back to work...