The Ohio State Buckeye's win over Texas last night was one of the best football games I have seen in awhile.  Probably the most impressive display was the punters (on both sides).  I think most people thought it was going to be a high scoring slugfest.  It turned out to be more like a Woody Hayes brawl over field position.

Unfortunately, I don't think UC will have any hope this year...especially after Friday's lost to Pitt.

Madison went to her first day of 1st Grade today.  She said that kids got tired in the afternoon...it's a long day.

Recently, my 1998 Honda Passport needed a new starter.  That costed about ~$650.  They also pointed out that it needed new axels & boots.  Plus, the brakes and tires needed replacing.  And finally, the windshield was cracked.  With all of that said, it was obvious I was upside down on the repairs vs. value of the car.

I started looking at new cars.  I really just needed a good commuter car.  The ones that I considered:

• Honda Civic
  Nice car but I felt the steering wheel was too close.
• Honda Fit
  Good car and good price.  It has a lot more space than you might think.  Unfortunately, a 3 to 4 month waiting list.  I called 5 Honda dealers to just see & drive one.
• Toyota Corolla
  Ok car...great gas mileage.
• Toyota Matrix
  Good looking car and very comfortable.

I didn't consider the Toyota Camry.  I test drove one because of the my uncle knew of a good deal.  I was pleasantly surprised about the ride, size, price and gas mileage.  Unfortunately, they didn't make a good offer on my trade-in. 

After I went to test-drive the Honda Fit, I stopped by a nearby dealership to show my wife the Camry.  That dealer had a "service courtesy car" that had 9500 miles.  It was fully loaded and I was able to get it for about $7k off and a fair trade in value. 

One thing that I did learn: if you have a trade-in car that is not in mint condition, don't bring it to the sale.  I actually firmed up my deal with my trade-in sight unseen.  I was honest about its condition but they were more focused on the new car.  It also helps that it was a few minutes before they closed.

Tonight we had our fantasy football draft tonight.  I think I did pretty good.

 

Brady, Tom	QB	NE
Plummer, Jake	QB	Den
Barber, Tiki	RB	NYG
Foster, DeShaun	RB	Car
Jones, Thomas	RB	Chi
Jurevicius, Joe	WR	Cle
Moss, Santana	WR	Was
Owens, Terrell	WR	Dal
Stallworth, Donte'	WR	NO
Gonzalez, Tony	TE	KC
Rackers, Neil	K	Ari
Stover, Matt	K	Bal
Baltimore	O/D	Bal
Chicago	O/D	Chi
Denver	O/D	Den

 

This is the third year in a row that I have had TO.  The first year he did great.  The second year (last year) he did really good for a few weeks and then he got fired.  What was interesting was that everyone stayed away from him.  I was able to pick him up in the 5th or 6th round.  I think Parcells can control him no problem and will just ignore his ego.

Just finished watching the Emmy's (I could only watch the last hour) and was pleased that 24 won best Drama and lead actor for Kiefer Sutherland.

24 is clearly one of the best shows that I have seen in a long time.  I believe they can thank their writers for compelling characters and a storyline that is unpredictable and demands you to continue watching.

By the way, I think Chloe has one of those exploding Dell laptops in the picture.

ActionPack--A very Rail-ish DAL generator for .NET has been released on CodePlex.  It is definitely one of the cooling things I have seen in the code-generation world.  One thing that stands out about it is that no actually code is generated...just the binaries.  It relies on the 2.0 framework. 

I know one of the most painful gaps of bridging .NET and SQL is nullable types.  I am currently using the Nullable Types project on SourceForge with a few customizations.  I will be interested how this addresses null values.

As I was posting my last post with Microsoft Writer, I got a spell checker error:

 

 

I would think they would get that word in the dictionary.

Just got finished upgrading dasBlog to version 1.9.  The 2 most prevalent changes are the following

1. RSD support:  Really Simple Discover which allows blogging applications to auto configure...very cool.
2. MetaWeblog.newMediaObject:  which allows attachments, images, etc. to be automatically uploaded during a post. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the newMediaObject API to work with Microsoft Writer.  I see the method in the API but Writer chokes on it.  But according to Omar, it should work.

 

v1.9 was just released last night...so maybe their will be some config tuning.

The deck is nearly complete.  A few rail caps and benches and it will be done.  The door still needs to be cut out and the water moved.

Here are some good pictures:



The privacy fence looks nice.



Here's the walkout rebuilt:

Today, despite a few storms, a lot got done.  I think it is looking great.  The railing are almost done and it is really taking shape:






The only real excitement came when the builders found a bee's nest.  Overall, very happy.

As always, follow the progress @ Deck Remodel

A lot of progess today on the deck.  Most of the framing is done:

My daughter is on the new "bridge" that goes over top of the walkout and connects the two different decks.  We would have like it to have been an arched bridge; however, the chimney didn't really permit this.  If you notice I have a level on it in the above picture, the left side is a little lower than right...not sure if this can be fixed or if it is good enough.  It might just be me being picky.

Here is better angle of the bridge:


I really interested to see how the gate and rails will come together around the steps.  Also, the window to the left will have a door cut tomorrow or Thursday.

As always, follow the progress @ Deck Remodel

Today, they started to "make dirt" according to my son.  They dug all all of the holes and set the posts in concrete:


A few hiccups, though.  We originally were going to have a pergola about were our concrete pad is.  However, we expanded the original deck design to cover the whole patio and we couldn't keep the pergola without a post in front of our backdoor.  But the most important for us is to have the right design.

Also, the wood arrived late.  I guess one of the guys at Lowes was sick and they were backed up.  But here is the delivery:


So tomorrow, they start framing bright and early.

As always, follow the progress @ Deck Remodel