Kymba is smart, but she has nothing on this dog. It’s a great story about a true cowboy who has the world’s smartest dog.

So, I didn’t forget, but just didn’t get around to talking about last weekend. Barbie was very nice and came up with the idea that we should go away for the weekend, and she wanted to do something that I would enjoy. Well, she decided that a cabin in the woods on the river where we could bring Kymba was the perfect idea, and I have to agree it was good. We headed up Friday afternoon to the Russian River, basically Sonoma county, the step-child of Napa for wines. Our cabin was right on the river, and had a nice big backyard for Kymba and us to play in. The only downside of the place was that they told us it was completely fenced in all the way to the river, which wasn’t the case as we quickly found out when Kymba went exploring and ended up in the neighbor’s yard.

So, now you are asking yourself, what did you do up there, and I must say we did pretty much nothing but hang out. We had breakfast on the deck overlooking the river on Saturday morning. Then, we headed down to the river to play with Kymba for a while. Unfortunately, we weren’t sure how deep the river was going to be, and since Kymba isn’t a great swimmer, we just didn’t bring her tennis ball. After we got down there, we realized it was really shallow in most part, so we started to break of some sticks from a large piece of wood by the river. The amazing part was that Kymba was actually able to figure out what we were doing, and begin grabbing, pulling and chewing off the piece of stick that we were trying to get. It was just incredible that she figured it out so quick and was actually helping get the stick off.

After playing in the river, we headed to town for some lunch, followed by coming back to the cabin and watching FSU lose yet another football game this year. After the disgraceful game and re-watching ‘Erin Brockovich’ (it just happened to be on), it was about 8:00pm, and we headed out to a recommended place for dinner. Unfortunately, when we got there, not only was the restaurant closed, but whole little town was closed. Lucky we happened to find one little restaurant that was open, so we were able to get something to eat. It must be a whole different world growing up in a small town where everything shuts down at 8pm.

Sunday we just got everything ready and headed home. Kymba was completely exhausted, and we were also somehow. Although, we spent so much time just hanging out, I can’t imagine why. Not sure why when you sleep a long time you always end up being more tired. So, a big thank you to Barbie for a great getaway.

As a producer, I can somewhat appreciate how this might have gotten through rehearsals, but it is still pretty funny.

This is one of the most emotional things I have seen or read in a long time. If you have a meeting or somewhere you have to be shortly, I would wait til later to read the story below as it will probably bring a tear to your eye.

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life;” Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an Institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want To do that.”

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore For two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, It felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

“No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a Single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”

How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you Think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.

“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” One doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.” So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

“The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

And the video is below….

or if having problems with the video above you can click here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE

It always amazes me when we find new wildlife in today’s day and age, especially something as common as a bird. I can understand when we find new sea life, or tiny insects that no one ever cared about, but an entirely new bird is pretty cool.

This past weekend was the annual Oktoberfest by the Bay celebration in San Francisco. I had never been to it before, but Jon and Kai had found it while looking for a place to fly and earn some more status on American Airlines, and who was I to complain about having to go have a few beers. So Kai and Jon flew out Saturday morning and we drove up to San Francisco and got to stay at the Ritz Carlton thanks to Jon’s points on his AMEX card. Anyways, we settled in and went up for lunch, provided for free for us by the Ritz, again thanks to Jon. Afterwards, we headed out to Ft. Mason for the Oktoberfest festivities. It ended up being quite a nice day with the sun coming out and warming everything up. Ft. Mason sits directly on the water and overlooks Alcatraz, so you couldn’t ask for much nicer of a view. When we got there there was approximately 100 people in line ahead of us, and we thought that was a lot until when we left about 3 hours later and there were probably about 2,000 people in line. Inside the hall they had it setup like a typical beer tent at the true Oktoberfest in Munich, with a band in the center, and rows upon rows of benches and tables filled with people drinking beer. The only thing disappointing about the whole experience was the lack of German speaking people. Here I thought I could practice a little, but to no avail.

After drinking our fill we decided to head back to the hotel for a little dinner, again provided free of charge, and also so we could watch some college football. After eating we headed out to the Union Street sports bar to finish watching the games. The place was packed when we got there, but the area with pool tables was free, so we proceeded to basically play pool the rest of the night while watching the end of the games. Finally, after all the beer and pool, we headed back to the hotel, but not before stopping for a quick snack at a small pizza shop. Amazingly enough, it was only 11pm, but we were beat, especially Jon and Kai who had basically been up since 2am PDT, and had to catch a late morning flight the following day. So, thanks to Kai and Jon for making the trip out, and hopefully Juan and Tim can join in the celebration next year.

p.s. Why is it that Americans can’t celebrate Oktoberfest during the actual Oktoberfest time period?

I took this online quiz a little while back just for the fun of it and to determine if I was a nerd, geek or dork. Well, apparantely I am none of the above, and am just Joe normal.

Joe Normal 34 % Nerd, 26% Geek, 17% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored less than half in all three, earning you the title of: Joe Normal. This is not to say that you don’t have some Nerd, Geek or Dork inside of you–we all do, and you can see the percentages you have right above. This is just to say that none of those qualities stand out so much as to define you. Sure, you enjoy an episode of Star Trek now and again, and yeah, you kinda enjoyed a few classes back in the day. And, once in a while, you stumble while walking down the street even though there was nothing there to cause you to trip. But, for the most part, you look and act fairly typically, and aren’t much of an outcast. I’d say there’s a fair chance someone asked you to take this test. In any event, fairly normal. Congratulations! If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you’re interested in any of the following: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Professional Wrestling Love & Sexuality America/Politics Thanks Again! — THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

Not sure if any of you have seen sidewalk chalk art or not, but it is absolutely amazing what can be done. Below is an image that someone sent me yesterday, and it is one of the coolest ones I have seen.

As most of you know, the Seminoles, Yankees and Dolphins, all teams that I support, are having a horrendous time this Fall. The Noles are a pitiful 3-2, the Dolphins are even worse at 1-4, and the Yankees already lost the Division Series and are no longer in the playoffs. What makes all of this worse is the fact that they were all supposed to be good this year, and all have seriously disappointed. So why are they losing…here is my 2 cents:

FSU
FSU has long prided itself on being the most athletic team on the field, with a high scoring offense and a defense that stops pretty much any team. Well, there has been a lot of blame this year about the offense not scoring and a lack of the running game, which is correct, but I think the main weekness is the receivers. Why? Well, we are used to seeing receivers wide open, or making fantastic plays. Our receivers are just not that fast and dominant as in years past. They are struggling to get open or break away, and simply can’t just out talent the opposition. Sure, the defensive players are better, but these are still supposed to be the cream of the crop out there, and none of them seem to be anything special. Last year we had Willie Reid and Fred Rouse, one gone to graduation and the other b/c he quit. We also had Gregg Carr, who is playing this year, but doing much other than being extremely tall. So, without wide open receivers making great plays, our running game is getting stacked up, leaving the true cream of the crop type player, Lorenzo Booker, with nothing but 7-8 defenders waiting for him.

Now, despite all of this, it is really the defense that is hurting us. The offense has scored just enough to win or at least be in games, but the defense has given up 27 and 24 points against non-ranked teams the last two games. The game against Clemson they gave up a last minute 80+ yard drive when the other team was going to be playing for overtime, but after giving up so many yards decided to take a chance and score. This last game, after FSU was leading 20-10 late in the 3rd, they gave up two Touchdowns in the 4th quarter. These are not the Seminoles of old, and are by far the most mediocre squad I have seen in Garnet and Gold ever.

Dolphins
Offense, Offense and Offense. Best change yet, and my dad called it during the preseason, was to bench Culpepper for Harrington. Culpepper had been sacked 21 times in 4 games, that is an astounding 5+ times a game. Back in the Marino days we would go seasons without giving up a sack. Anyways, our offense just doesn’t score points. There high game this year is 17 points which is pathetic in this day and age of the NFL. Harrington gave it a good go this past week, but only managed 10 pts. and a couple of INTs, but he didn’t get sacked but maybe once if not at all. It is going to be a long season for the Fins, who were predicted by Sports Illustrated to win the Superbowl.

Yankees
Pitching. You give up all your pitching for hitting and see what happens. They should have learned their lesson against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series that you can win championships with pitching. A great pitcher can shut down the best of lineups. After they let Pettite, Clemens and a few others go, all we were left with was a 40 year old Randy Johnson, an aging Mussina and a guy named Wang. The Yankees gave up an average of 5.5 runs a game against Detroit, which is a lot even for the Yankees to overcome.

So, there it is in a nutshell, why my teams this year have disappointed and left me being like a Cubs fans and saying “Wait til next year!”

Unlike when I watch a movie and have no desire to try to and figure out the ending, I definitely enjoy trying to figure out magic tricks. Well, after watching this trick, I have no idea how it works.