This Past Week

Not too much going on here. Summer is starting to wind down. I now have to turn on my headlites when I go to work at 4:30am. Hmmm...overnite lows in the +40Fs, darkness starting to creep into our lives, breaking out the sweatshirts...yep. Winter is a comin'! As far as I'm concerned, it can't get here fast enuf.

I bought a truck last week. A '92 Chevy C2500. 5.7L V-8, extended cab, long bed. It'll work great for transporting the dogs around. We don't have trail access from the house, so I needed something like this. Ain't it purdy? We named it Mackenzie.

Sunnifa is in Whitehorse for the weekend. Her nephew down there is turning 16, so her and the folks went down for the celebration. I would have gone too but her folks didn't mention going there until Thursday evening and they were leaving early Friday morning. I need more notice than that to try to get off of work. So it's back to bachelorhood for four days. Party on man! (yawn)

That's about it. Have a good one yo!

got zucchini?

With all the daylight we get in the summer, veggies and flowers get pretty darn big.

"Hello? Can you hear me now?"

fyi

Hi there. Sorry it's been a while since I've been on here. Our phone and internet has been down for almost two weeks now. We got the phone back today, but still no web access. Sunnifa has called the phone company a few times and got a recording saying that there are outages thru-out town.

More when I have more time. I'm at work right now.

Alaskan Husky

People have asked me, "What is the difference in sled dogs? Most of the ones I see in the races aren't anything like I expected them to be. They are tiny little things. Not anywhere near the big, fuzzy dogs I was expecting to see."
Well, most of the sled dogs you find up here are Alaskan Huskies. They aren't a pure-bred anything. A person that I used to work with refers to them as an "Alaskan Mutt-ski" because thats what they are, a mutt. A little bit of this and that.
When most people think "sled dog", they picture a Siberian Husky (upper L) like the "faithful lead dog, King" in the "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" TV show. They are the precursor of today's sled dog. The Siberian was introduced in Alaska in the early 1900s. They are a great dog for this environment. With their thick, dense coats they can handle just about anything winter throws at them.
As time went on, people that were serious about racing these dogs decided that the stocky, short-legged Siberian wasn't quite what they wanted. So the cross-breeding began. Nowadays, one can't be exactly sure what they are getting when they get a husky. Some people take great care in tracking the bloodlines. For example, my dog Bert is, according to the people I got him from, 1/2 Alaskan Husky & 1/2 "hound" on his dad's side and 1/2 Malamute & 1/2 Greenland Red Inuit on his mom's side. So basically he is 1/4 of one breed, 1/4 of another, and 1/2 of "something".
The "hound" aspect is becoming more and more common. This is being bred into the husky for it's endurance trait. This is also why a lot of the dogs you see in the Yukon Quest and Iditarod are only about 40-50, rarely reaching 55, pounds. These smaller dogs are easier to care for, they eat less (more cost effective), they run faster, and they run longer without a break. Rather ideal for the serious racer. You can really see the "hound" in the dog on the upper right. She is a three year old Alaskan Husky in a Yukon Quest / Iditarod racer's kennel. I know the musher and I'm gonna guess that this dog weighs in at around 40#.

Hockey and Baseball

Holy crappers!! Both Drury and Gomez signed with the Rangers!?! The only thing that could have been worse is if they would have signed with Dallas.

I sure hope that the Wild's move in getting rid of Fernandez doesn't come back and bite 'em in the arse. Two somewhat inexperienced goalies in Backstrom and Harding. Plus they lost Todd White. At least they have Gaborik signed and they re-signed Mikko Koivu.

I think that Koivu is going to really come thru this year, that is, as long as Minnesota isn't sitting back on their heels playing defence all the time.

On to baseball. Remember, one of the XII Commandments is "Baseball Is Real Life. Everything Else Is Just A Game."

How in the world does J.J. Hardy make the All-Star team? Ahead of Renteria, Ramirez, and Rollins. What, did the N.L. already fill it's quota of "R" names or something? What a joke. Hardy had a really good first 1-1/2 months of the season and all, but an All-Star?? I don't think so! And what about Chris Young? What the hell does a guy have to do? People are calling for Peavy to start this year's game, but compare...

('06/'07) G ------ IP ---------- W-L -------- ERA ------- K/9 ------- WHIP
JP 32/17 -- 202/112 -- 11-14/9-2 -- 4.09/2.09 -- 9.6/9.6 -- 1.23/1.05
CY 31/16 -- 179/97 --- 11-5/8-3 --- 3.46/2.14 -- 8.2/8.4 -- 1.13/1.09

I'm not saying that Young should be the starter, but he should have been picked over Peavy. Actually, I think that they both should be on this year's A-S team. And actually, yeah, I do think that Young should be the N.L. starter.

Boy, am I glad that Soriano isn't a starter. Nothing worse than having someone from the Chicago sCrubs being out there in the first inning.

I'm not going to say anything about the a.l. They cheat (the rulebook says 9 to a team, not 10), so they aren't worth the effort to type anything about them beyond this.