I buy the camera. I study photography books. I practice. I take the dial off manual and really attempt a fine understanding of the art.

And still Dana takes the best pictures.

My Beautiful Bride: Put the ladder here.
Me: On the plastic?
My Beautiful Bride: Yes. Here.
Me: Don’t you think it will slip?
My Beautiful Bride: Here. Darling.
Me: I’m worried it will slip.
My Beautiful Bride: Here. Here. Here.
Me: I’m not putting it there. It’s too dangerous.
My Beautiful Bride:
Me:
My Beautiful Bride:
Me:
My Beautiful Bride:Why do you have to be so negative?
Me: I’m not being negative sweetheart; I just disagree with you.
My Beautiful Bride:Negative.
Me:
My Beautiful Bride::
Me:
My Beautiful Bride:
Me: How bout a soda?
My Beautiful Bride: Sure.
Me: Root beer or Diet Dr Pepper?
My Beautiful Bride: Diet Dr Pepper, please.
Me: Root beer is better.
My Beautiful Bride: Just get me the Dr Pepper.
Me: Why do you have to be so negative?
My Beautiful Bride:
Me:
My Beautiful Bride: Oh… you’re gonna get get it.
Me: You’re gonna have to catch me, first.

My daughter was in a car wreck last week. She’s ok.

She was sitting at a stoplight, minding her own business, when an F150 ran directly into the back of her Lincoln Town Car. The F150 was probably doing about 30 mph when he hit her. I’ve had several requests for pics, so here they are:

Good news is I’m pretty sure State Farm just bought a slightly damaged Lincoln. With a good set of tires and a cherry red leather interior.

Got my fuel polished on Friday.

An industrious fella came by, sucked all the fuel out of the 46 gallon stainless tank on the boat, centrifuged the fuel, wiped the tank clean, and then put the clean fuel back in. And it only cost 2 boat bucks.

That’s one check off the big list.

I received a mini diesel 101 class while I was watching. I learned

• where the bleed screw was
• where the manual bleed pump was
• how to use the manual pump on the primary fuel filter
• about a valve on the diesel suction line for the engine.
• how to change the raw water impeller

I’m no expert yet.

But I will be.

Me: I’m a little worried about cruising and drinking.
My Beautiful Bride: What do you mean?
Me: I mean, I have to stay alert at night. What if the wind shifts or the anchor drags?
My Beautiful Bride: I’ll wake you up.
Me: Yea, but I’ll be groggy. I need to be able to make good decisions in an emergency situation.
My Beautiful Bride: And if you had 3 martinis before bed?
Me: Exactly. Daddy no wakey.
My Beautiful Bride:
Me:
My Beautiful Bride:
Me:
My Beautiful Bride: We’ll just have to get drunk in the morning.
Me: Frigging EUREKA baby! High five.
My Beautiful Bride:
Me: No. I mean it. That’s genius at work, right there.

See the big list (several posts ago.)

I’ve been doing a little soul searching, especially as regards my ability to comprehend and troubleshoot mechanical things. And I’d like to be honest with myself. At my current rate of progress, I’ve determined that I can do about half the things on the big list prior to leaving in October.

If I quit my job today.

And work 17 hours on the weekdays. 10 hours on the weekends.

And hire a couple guys to help me.

I am so screwed.

Due to freaky weather conditions on the bay, we only got a single race done this weekend. As per the sailing instructions however, one race consitutes a regatta. So I guess it counts. This was only my second time racing a J/109, and my first race of 2008. Rusty is not the word. More like corroded.

Prior to the start, we identified the left shift and the heavily favored pin end of the line, and aimed to start at or near the pin. A Melges 32 tacked just to leeward of us with about 20 seconds to go, but the pin was so favored that the Melges had trouble making the pin. We quickly rolled the Melges as the gun went off and pinched out the the only other J/109 in our 4 boat PHRF fleet. The rest of the fleet went over to port. We tacked to cover the fleet after about 2 minutes, and were almost laying the windward mark.

We rounded well in first, and it was a good thing too. Because our spin set was beyond pathetic. We spent the next 3 minutes fighting an hourglass, and then overstood the leeward mark. The Melges got by us on the downwind, but they had no chance of making thier time on us because the next two legs were seriously lopsided.

It was a whole lot of weekend to give up for a single race. But the rum drinks  taste better when you get off the boat. So there is that.

In spite of a strong commitment to -not- racing in 2008, I’m racing one of these tomorrow:

The repairs to More Cowbell can be delayed for one more weekend. It is, after all, just one more weekend, right?

Sure.

And if you were wondering: Yes, It feels a lot like Christmas.

I need a centralized place to put my links. I use at least 3 different computers regularly, and I cannot bear to be disconnected from my favorite internet site, just because I’ve forgotten the link, or have no direct access to the computer where I’ve bookmarked the link.

How do you manage links across multiple machines? Can someone please recommend a good free link collection/aggregation web service with convenient access?

As a stop-gap measure, I jammed some links on Bethancourt World; My Links. Some of the sailing stuff is pretty good. Most of the rest of it makes me realize just how nerdy I am.

Grotto - Crypt\ (kr[i^]pt), n. [L. crypta vault, crypt, Gr. kry`pth, fr. kry`ptein to hide. See Grot, Grotto.] 
1. A vault wholly or partly under ground; especially, a vault under a church, whether used for burial purposes or for a subterranean chapel or oratory.

This is where they filmed part of the 007 movie, Thunderball. And where we’ll be by Christmas. According to the intertubes, the entrance is completely submerged at high tide. That means you have to swim underwater to get inside.

Oooooh… we can barely wait.