Photographed by mmbutler

On several occasions at the early morning track sessions, while talking college football, this game came up as a topic of conversation. Jay graduated from App State, and was a placekicker on the football team. I called Jay during the game, and he said that several thousand Mountaineers made the trek to the big house. They certainly were rewarded with a big win.

There will most likely be additional changes soon. Movable Type 4 is in testing, but from what I have seen so far, I will make the jump when it is out of beta.

Emily and Maggie getting ready to go out and watch the fireworks.

Today I'm smoking St. Louis style pork spareribs and a pork loin.

Smoked BBQ Ribs
220 degrees (7 hours) or 200 degrees (9 hours)

1:00 Spritz, add wood
2:00 Spritz, add wood
3:00 Spritz, add wood
4:00 Spritz, add wood
5:00 Spritz, wrap
7:00 Pull and carve

Smoked BBQ Pork
220 degrees (6 hours)

1:00 Spritz, add wood
2:00 Spritz, add wood
3:00 Spritz, add wood
3:30 Spritz, add wood
4:00 Spritz, wrap
6:00 Pull and carve

The first column is elapsed time. For both, I've used the Electric Bill rub. An award-winning rub developed by Pete during a cold Chicago winter and captured on the back of an electric bill (duh!). The Electric Bill recipe is a secret, but can be acquired by asking nicely.

I'm using black cherry wood and my Brinkman smoker.

Tasty!

Pipe Bomb-Like Device Explodes at Disney

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A device similar to a pipe bomb exploded in a trash can early Monday at a remote parking lot at Walt Disney World, authorities said. No one was injured and no serious damage was reported in what officials called "an isolated incident."

Orange County sheriff's deputies responded to a 12:30 a.m. call from Disney. An employee heard a loud noise and saw white smoke coming from the can near the Downtown Disney shopping and entertainment district, Sheriff Kevin Beary said.

Several recent FSU recruits were unavailable for comment.

HR Data:

The Princess Pool Party was a terrific success, and the photos are now online. My favorite was the "Bob for Snow White's poison apples". Really freaked the kids out!

Comcast is usually pretty good, but it would take one busy day with limited connectivity like today for a really bad situation.

Here's the comparison:.

The numbers are off again, but as I look back at my logs, at this point last year I had run 77 more miles. The other wildcard is how poor my speed sessions have been the first half of this year as I battled the hip issues. The key is to consistently do the speed sessions.

House Republican lawmakers are preparing to fight anticipated Democratic efforts to regulate talk radio by reviving rules requiring stations to balance conservative hosts such as Rush Limbaugh with liberals such as Al Franken.

Hmm. NPR admittedly has a leftward slant, and is partially funded by the federal government. I haven't heard folks on the left complaining about the need to guarantee the diversity of views on NPR. This news is also interesting after reading a recently released report that shows in a survey of 143 journalists, 91% have contributed to a liberal cause.

Here are the finishing times for past HOTs:
2004 -- 2:50:51
2005 -- 2:49:39
2006 -- 2:37:59

Here are the HOT splits from last year:
Swim -- 34:50
T1 -- 1:31
Bike -- 1:08:37
T2 -- 0:54
Run -- 52:09

The HOT is not the ideal race to target for a PR. The swim is notoriously always long. The bike is pretty flat. In the past, the run included an annoying hill around the 4-mile mark. This year, they have made the run an out and back, and eliminated the first spur. That will put the hill around the 2-mile mark.

As long as the swim isn't crazy long, I think I can break 30:00 this year. Assuming the transitions are the same, that means I need to find a little over 3 mniutes in the bike and the run. Improving the bike average from 21.8 mph to 22.5 mph will save me 2 minutes. All that's left for me to hit the goal is a 51 minute 10k.

So, I need to maintain my bike fitness, start doing intervals in the pool to sharpen the speed now that endurance isn't an issue, and build the running fitness back up now that the hip issues are gone.

It's good to have goals.

Like I said, you don’t need to tip 20% or even 15% on take out. A good rule of thumb is between 7% and 10% percent. For example:
$20 takeout order? $2 tip.
$50 takeout order? $4 or $5 dollar tip.
$100 takeout order? C’mon, leave the guy ten bucks.

Why?

Somebody has to take the order, pack it up carefully, and make sure it gets to the right customer.

I guess that makes sense. Before you leave a fast food place you always have to check to make sure the order is right.

The difference in running fitness from last year to this year are even more obvious in today's workout. The good news is, it seems like most of the hip pain is now gone, so I'll be able to slowly ramp up the running mileage. Then again, 11.5 miles on Tuesday wasn't exactly a slow progression.

Next week we do 4400 again with a little more emphasis on the long stuff, and then some short stuff. The plan is 1600, 1200, and then 4x400. I only have last year's data for next week's track session.