Into the Eye...

It's Labor Day weekend so we are doing the traditional road trip to Louisiana. This year we get to visit two daughters that are in residence at LSU. Daughter #2 is a senior. In her first week as a freshmen in 2005 Katrina hit! Welcome to Louisiana. Now Daughter #3 is a freshman and Gustav is heading straight for Louisiana to welcome her. Hopefully things will be far less mayhem then the devistation that Katrina brought.

We will get in late tonight. The govenor has order New Orleans to evacuate Saturday. Gustav is due to arrive Tuesday. So we maybe leaving early to avoid storm and traffic.

fit... wii fit!After hearing about the wii fit for so long I finally decided to get one. The boy says its fun and I know it can't end up as a clothes hanger collecting dust in the corner.

Well getting one proved quite the challenge. You can't just buy these things, they are harder to get than the wii itself. I had to employ serious technology to get one. I found a wii stock tracker page and set it up to send me a text message whenever it found one on line. The first few days I kept missing getting one. One would pop up and then be gone in seconds. But finally I scored one from Toys R Us!!

The Wii Fit arrived a few days later and I was committed. I found out rather quickly this thing was serious! And how out of shape I was :-( First time up I take the body test and it gives me my wii fit age.... 49. Ouch, even the family winced.

But me and my personal wii fit trainer have been at it for 6 days now. He keeps telling me to keep working at it, one day I'll be in shape but only if I excercise everyday.

The truth is I'm enjoying it. It's a fun way to approach excercise. It's easy to do. Whether it works or not its got to beat sitting on the couch.

Game Time!

Today the little widget thingy on this page for LSU football changed indicating this week's game! College football is here and I'm excited. LSU goes into the season with uncertainty at the quaterback position like many other SEC schools are facing. Unfortunately the loss of Perrileaux now reflects on what just could have been a much more certain repeat trip to the BCS. But none of that matters once ball is kicked off on Saturday.

My Morning JacketRock and Roll brother called Saturday to invite me to his work. My Morning Jacket was playing at the Pladium and he knew I liked them. So I headed down to the Palladium and hung out with the bro at the sound board. Very cool since the place was jammed packed. And since he is the sound man the best seat in the house is where the sound man's ears are!!

The band was great! This was a stronger set than what I had seem them do a few years ago. I really enjoyed the full 3 hours. I was really amazed by the light show, tons of lights. Erika Badu made an appearance and sang one of the songs in the encore.

Love live music, thanks bro!

The King



I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
Just a country boy that combed his hair
And put on a shirt his mother made and went on the air
And he shook it like a chorus girl
And he shook it like a Harlem queen
He shook it like a midnight rambler,
baby,
Like you never seen

- Gillian Welch, Elvis Presley Blues

Well she drew out all her money from the Southern Trust
And put her little boy on the Greyhound Bus
Leaving Memphis with a guitar in his hand
With a one way ticket to the Promised Land
Hey little girl with the red dress on
There's party tonight down in Memphis down
I'll be going down there if you need a ride
The man on the radio says Elvis Presley's died

- Bruce Springsteen, Johnny Bye Bye


Aug 16, 1977. RIP Elvis.

Nest is emptier...

Kid #3 left for college on Sunday. She drove by herself to Baton Rouge. And we are left a bit emptier. She will be fine...

But we are loosing critical mass. Down to only 2 kids in the house. One of them is a high school senior so she is rarely seen. Thus leaving the house feeling very empty. Kind of one of those things when I was a younger parent and heard about that I just didn't get. Empty nest? Woo Whoo!! But then when it starts to happen you get it...

Geekfest '08

Last week I traveled to Austin to attend NIWeek 08. This is a week long technology conference presented by National Instruments. Not exactly a household name. But for 3,000 experts in instrumentation, automation and graphical programming its mecca. This is an Austin based company that lives the moto, keep Austin weird. They take innovation, engineering and out-of-the-box all together and produce gee wiz stuff for us engineers.

This technology is exciting and spectacular. Part of NI's vision is to create more engineers and technologist. With our enormous appetite for all technology such as cell phones, hdtv, wireless internet, video games, ipods, etc. you would think ever kid in America would want to be involved. But not so. It seems our kids measure success by Derek Jetter or Hanah Montana with little room for much else. Technology is cool and so many oppotunities are out the for the taking. NI is working to get to kids into techology, primarily with their Lego Mindstorm robots. This is NI's brain child and one of their most exciting projects (slightly cooler then their fully automing the beer making process at the Spotzel brewery in Shiner, Texas).

So I applaud companies like this and really am awed but the power of innovation when its fueled. A modern day Edison lab for sure. And yes, that makes me fall into the geek squad. As Joan pointed out, "We have seen the enemy and they is us!". But I'm ok with that. Enjoy your techology!

RIP Jerry

See here how everything
lead up to this day
and it's just like
any other day
that's ever been
Sun goin up
and then the
sun it goin down
Shine through my window and
my friends they come around
come around
come around

Hail Caesar!



Last night we went to the Caesar Salad competition in Dallas with a group of friends. This competition is hosted by the American Institute of Wine and Food. Some of Dallas' best chefs and restaurants serve their Caesar Salad and an appetizer. They included:

J.W. Foster * The Fairmont Hotel
Mansour Gorji * Canary Cafe
Chad Kelley * The Oceanaire
Daniel Nemec * Kirby's Steak House
Mike Owens * Morton's of Chicago
Scott Romano * Charlie Palmer
John Tesar * The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek
Jason Weaver * The French Room
Brian Wubbena * Truluck's
Michael "Buzzy" Zeve * Sevy's Grill

There were 10 restaurants in all. We tried every one of them! So it was very filling and delicious. All of the salads and appetizers were really good. The appetizers included escargot, crab (crab, crab and more crab), filet mignon, sweetbreads, quail, duck, and others. Very much a variety.

It was lots of fun, a night out and good eats. Joan and I thought the Canary Cafe salad was the best. But the winner this year was the Mansion at Turtle Creek. They did have a great salad and their fried sweetbreads were very tasty.

So it begins....

LSU's first SEC match up will be at Auburn on Sept. 20!

I'll wait to start complaining about USC and Ohio State's soft schedule. They deserve to play each other... oh wait, I guess I just did complain!

USA Today Poll

1. Georgia (22) 0-0 1,438

2. USC (14) 0-0 1,430

3. Ohio State (14) 0-0 1,392

4. Oklahoma (3) 0-0 1,329

5. Florida (5) 0-0 1,293

6. LSU (3) 0-0 1,163

7. Missouri 0-0 1,143

8. West Virginia 0-0 1,008

9. Clemson 0-0 999

10. Texas 0-0 979

11. Auburn 0-0 888

12. Wisconsin 0-0 747

13. Kansas 0-0 714

14. Texas Tech 0-0 644

15. Virginia Tech 0-0 568

16. Arizona State 0-0 560

17. Brigham Young 0-0 547

18. Tennessee 0-0 506

19. Illinois 0-0 422

20. Oregon 0-0 399

21. South Florida 0-0 350

22. Penn State 0-0 313

23. Wake Forest 0-0 203

24. Michigan 0-0 112

25. Fresno State 0-0 91