Lobster Boy and his new found friends....

Well, its actually me we're talking about ME here (which if you look carefully would be evident by the halo over the lobster). I got that way over the weekend, where I spent all of Saturday and Sunday out on the pitch overseeing soccer games. I was the center referee (the one in the middle who makes all the calls, gives out the cards, and chases the ball to both ends of the field), and had a good weekend other than the burn. I even took precautions to use sunscreen, which apparently does NOT last as long as it says it does on the bottle. So, after burning Saturday, I made sure to apply before every game on Sunday as to not make the burn any worse. Two areas that will really hurt if sunburned. Top of your head, and behind your knees. If you don't believe me, try it sometime.

So, my new found friends after the burning, and my doing my best (and very convincing) impression of a lobster, are the Solarcaine Aloe Gel, and Advil. Well, the Advil is more for my knotted muscles than the sunburn, but they work in the same regard. If it would not be for the sunburn, I would have felt great today, but there are my new found friends. They will also see more use later this summer as there is more soccer to referee, and more time to spend on the lake.

For those of you who have me on your soccer referee fantasy team at home, I was a strong second round selection, and I did alright for you over the weekend. I awarded 2 penalty kicks, gave out 4 yellow cards. If I'm still available in your league, pick me up because there is a weekend series coming to Huron at the end of May.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, it's only Wednesday, and it already feels like it should be Friday. We've been short people at work some of last week and now again this week, so I've been running around trying to keep ahead of all of the jobs that I get to keep doing, and add to them more as we have Jeff leaving us to go get his award for SD Sportscaster of the year. So, I'll be even more busy here the last two days of the week. Today is also the last day of April, which means that the opening to the water sports season is only 23 days away now, I can almost feel it. Double check with me on Friday when its snowing at 38 degrees. Stupid winter.

I'm also hoping the snow does not wipe out the soccer plans for the weekend. I'm supposed to be in Mitchell for 2 days for a large number of games.

Got a chance to watch the play that our class did my senior year of high school last night. It was a good time. Of course, our class did it better, but I thought it was a great job by the group, with several outstanding performances. I caught myself a couple of times quoting along as lines came back to me, but I did enjoy the evening. One disappointment to me though was the use of microphones. When we did it we were quite loud, and didn't use them. It was annoying at times when they would cut out or not get turned on in time, but ohh well. Guess I'm just too much from the old school of less technology (as I type it here on the blog). Anyhow, I'm going to get back to operating my Twins game, and keep my countdown calender going to Memorial Day. I can't wait!

The Weather is confused....and baseball

Ok, it's the last full week of April, and the weather is just going nuts. We might get more snow....Seriously, winter is just making me angry. One cold day, of 38 degrees, and then we warm back up into the 50s. As long as next weekend is better, I might get over it. Next weekend I'll open the soccer reffing season that will be around most of the summer. Also, next weekend we get to see a pro baseball game in Huron. The term "Pro" meaning these guys do actually get paid to play.

Speaking of Pro Baseball, good thing we went to see the game last weekend, and didn't see a game like today's. Liriano has been extremely poor since coming up the majors, and we got to see two young pitchers put together two nice outings last weekend.

During the time, we got to witness foul balls injuring fans. I'd not seen that before at a game, and this time got once in each game we saw. The one on Saturday was in the first inning, when a ball was fouled down into the crowd, and 3 MEN ducked out of the way and the ball smoked an older lady sitting there. Nice work wusses....way to help protect the elderly lady. It was embarrassing for those guys, and it wouldn't have even hurt that long to just stick the hand out and knock the ball down. The second day, you felt bad for the girl this happened to, but still, it was her fault. A high foul pop quite a ways down the first base line and not too far from our section. This 12-14 year old girl decided while her friends were scattering to get out of the way, she was gonna try to catch it. Mission half accomplished. She managed to slow the ball down with her hand enough that it bounced only one row down instead of the 15 rows it would have if she'd have let it hit the cement on the stadium. That ended in several tears and a trip to the EMT station. It wasn't a great weekend for the fans, and please think about the results of trying to barehand one of those foul balls. I'll leave you with one of Boston's finest here and a foul ball moment he'll never live down, ever....Click Here to see the video.(Due to Copyright Material by stupid MLB, this video doesn't get posted very many places.)

Easing the Pain at the Pump....

The past weekend trip to Minneapolis proved to be a fun time. I didn't doubt that it would, but I wasn't looking forward to the money that would be spent in travel. Well, here is how it broke down, and actually wasn't a painful time at all.

I made it my goal to run some tests with renewable fuels, and the efficiency of two things:
1.) Fuel with 30% Ethanol, and
2.) Reduced speeds to conserve fuel.

Background Info:
I drive a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer LS 4x4 (very similar to the one in this stock photo here). It has the standard Vortec 4.2 Liter inline 6 cylinder engine.

The Results:
On the way out, I stopped in Clark, SD to put in a 30% blend of ethanol. I love stopping here, and I think I've mentioned before that my vehicle seems to run far better on this blend of fuel than any other. So, I fueled up and set off, with this part of the journey also testing the milage at 55 mph the entire way from Clark, SD to Minneapolis, MN. The journey ended up taking between 1 to 1.5 additional hours because of the reduced speed. When we arrived just outside the Cities, I found that in that distance covered, 220 miles, I had gotten a personal record with the Trailblazer, 24 mpg. My friend Alan, who made the trip with me, did the math for me and figured that opposed to normal mileage calculations of around 20 mpg, this was a savings of about $10.00. We both agreed that this was good, yet the money and the time was not worth the trouble if I could average 20 mpg on the way home at the speed limits. (It should also be noted that the entire way, I was dealing with a light cross wind, which probably did reduce the milage some.)

So, after the weekend in the Cities, it was time to return home. Alan had done some driving around Minneapolis, so he had put an additional 160 miles on, and had gotten an impressive 19.5 mpg driving in the city. Alan also decided to attempt to be a blender pump himself when refueling, and screwed up (or in his version of the story "enhanced") the ratio, so we ended up having closer to 40+% ethanol blend instead. He did not tell me this however until we were about half way home, and it was evident that no warning lights or problems were going to occur, so I had no basis for being upset. On the journey home, we abided by speed limits (or close to, as I was somewhat anxious to just get home) and found that milage from Minneapolis, MN to Clark, SD was higher than I expected: 21.5 mpg. I was quite impressed by this, and was fighting a much stiffer cross wind than on the way out, and I was very pleased by the results.

Conclusion:
Overall, we ended up on the entire trip of approximately 770 miles, we got 23.5 miles per gallon average. Anytime the milage climbs over the 20 mpg mark, I'm happy, so I was extremely happy. I was extremely impressed with the higher blends of ethanol, and will be continuing to use them and maybe even blend them myself if need be in the future. But, I personally also concluded that the milages saved going 55mph is not worth the savings of $10 over 250 miles and 5.5 hours.

Disclaimer:
This is not a scientific test, and all conclusions are my personal conclusions.

Yesterday's Post

Well, they've done it again. Yesterday's post and the picture (mainly the picture) are the main focus here as gas has hit possibly the all time high here in Huron. $3.39 for the 10% Ethanol, and $3.46 for Unleaded. When will it all stop. I get a kick out of the government too, as they believe that sending us $600 is going to stimulate the economy and get us out of a recession. Well, sorry, that's not even gonna come close. In my opinion, keep the $600 and get the price of gas down $1.50 and you'll see a stronger economy again. My concern is that diesel has now risen well above $4.00 a gallon, and soon the truckers are going to have had enough and will shut the engine's down, and that will be the end. Once they strike, we will all suffer and pay premium prices for everything we need to survive. Unless things change, I fear that day is not far away....

Well, this weekend I'm still going to take my trip though, and we might be testing the Jimmy Carter Theory. It might take far longer to travel the distance, but with a 30% Ethanol blend, at 55mph (which will indeed make for a long trip) we will see what kind of milage I can come up with. I'm putting my money on 22mpg with my suv. I'm hoping for a bit better, but we shall see.

Politics....and my favorite topic: FOOD

At work, we've been having some politically based discussions, and a lot of it has to do with the economy and how energy prices are really what's driving spending down. I think this sign really sums it up.


But it will not ruin my weekend, which by the sounds of it now, will include a trip to the Cities through Watertown, which means I will get to try my cousin's BBQ resturant. Lone Pine BBQ which is over near Wal-mart and the interstate is a great place, make sure to give it a try next time you're in Watertown.

Bring it on spring...

The other night, my computer took a picture of me preparing for spring to come. The good news is winter was not too mean to me, and all my "summer apparel" fit me quite well. Today it was 75 degrees, and that is just great. Not long now, in fact, only 5 weeks until the Memorial Day season opening of the water sports season. Plus to show the greatness of the season, this weekend I'll be going out to watch some baseball in the Twin Cities. Should be a good little get away for a weekend. Someone mentioned to me the other day that I should think about bringing in another recipe for more Cooking with T-Dub. So, we might have to some checking into that.