Down to #21

Despite two recent trivia outings, I've dropped to #21 on the Santa Fe Cafe's NTN rankings. Check out Christina at #48, though!

Unfortunately, our last experience at "the Fe" featured rather disappointing food. I guess we'll give it another chance when the students clear out for winter break, but we may have to look for a new location.

Dubious Achievement

Well, with the NFL season winding down and the Redskins all but eliminated from the playoffs, I have the question of what to root for. There's beating the Cowboys and the Eagles and hurting their playoff hopes (or positioning). There's going out on a winning note -- if the Skins run the table, they can avoid a losing season.

But I'm rooting for one sort of odd achievement. How about a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl? That would mean that the Skins would have beaten both of the Super Bowl teams -- a feat last achieved in 2000...by the Washington Redskins (8-8). OK, and the 2000 Titans (13-3). Still, the Titans had something else to root for that year...they were Super Bowl contenders in their own right. So I asked the questions: How often have teams beaten both Super Bowl teams, and have they ever been worse than the 2000 Skins?

The answers: 11 and yes (thanks to pro-football-reference.com).

The complete list:

• 2000 Skins (8-8)
  
• 2000 Titans (13-3)
  
• 1996 Cowboys (10-6)
  
• 1993 Dolphins (9-7)
  
• 1986 Seahawks (10-6)
  
• 1985 Dolphins (12-4)
  
• 1981 Browns (5-11)
  
• 1980 Cowboys (12-4)
  
• 1980 Chargers (11-5)
  
• 1979 Chargers (12-4)
  
• 1978 Rams (12-4)
  

Thanksgiving in North Carolina

Looks like I've been a little lax in posting recently. Let's correct that with a couple of pictures from our Thanksgiving trip to North Carolina. The first is of Christina and myself with our nephew, Luke.



The second is of me playing Magic: The Gathering with our nephew, Witt (and with Copper).

Xpu Ha

The last excursion we took from Cancun included a stop at the Xpu Ha Palace Resort. There's been a proliferation of "eco-parks" on the "Riviera Maya" south of Cancun. One of these, at Xpu Ha, failed and was bought out by the Palace Resorts corportation. They've turned it into an all-inclusive resort. Based on the few hours we spent there, I can recommend it with the following qualifications:

• You have to enjoy the idea of an all-inclusive resort.
  
• It's a relatively isolated location.
  
• It's great if you're looking for nature, but not necessarily a natural environment.
  

The best part of the resort for us was the snorkeling, both in the freshwater area and in the coastal lagoon.



An example of how it's not necessarily natural is the coastal lagoon. There are amazing quantities of absolutely stunning fish there. There is, however, a supply of fish food which brings them there. You're encouraged to feed them -- some other guests were annoyed that the fish were biting their hands when they went in carrying fish food. Duh.

The Eyre Affair

Christina read The Eyre Affair for her book club and recommended it to me when she finished it. This is a fun book with a very unusual premise. This takes place in an alternate universe where the Crimean War is still going on in 1985. Thursday Next's father is a special operative in the Chrono Guard, which may have something to do with the changing timeline. But this, as Douglas Adams might say, is not his story.

Instead, this is the story of Thursday Next, literary detective. She investigates things like literary forgery, but things get weirder when her uncle invents a device that allows people to step into books, and it is stolen by a master criminal. I won't give away more of the plot, as part of the fun of the book is learning the twists and turns of the author's universe. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I knew more about Jane Eyre, though.

Anyway, it is a neat universe, and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Traveler's Century Club

I ran across a reference to the Traveler's Century Club on FlyerTalk. It's an organization for those who have visited 100 or more "countries". They have a fairly loose definition of the term country -- Hawaii counts, for example. I fancy myself a bit of a world traveler -- so, how'm I doing?

15. Or 16. I'm trying to decide whether airport stopovers count. I was thinking of my times through the Frankfurt airport before recalling -- oh, yeah, I was born in Germany. To be fair, I have no memory of that, so I'm just going by what it says on my birth certificate. Anyway, the one in question is the Netherlands, since I changed planes in Amsterdam once.

The rest are:

1. Alaska
   
2. Australia
   
3. Austria
   
4. Belgium
   
5. Canada
   
6. Cyprus, Republic
   
7. England
   
8. Finland
   
9. Germany
   
10. Korea, South
    
11. Mexico
    
12. Poland
    
13. Scotland
    
14. United States (continental)
    
15. Wales
    

Chicago

I took a number of pictures in Chicago, but all but one were of the Marriott, the skyline, or some combination of the two. The other one was of the Billy Goat Tavern, but for some reason Moto Photo failed to give me a print of that one. Weird.

Anyway, I had a nice time for two and a half days in Chicago. I went to the Art Institute of Chicago -- two hours was far too little time -- and the aforementioned Billy Goat Tavern (cheezeborger, cheezeborger, cheezeborger).

The Marriott (officially the "Chicago Marriott Downtown at Medical District/UIC") was fairly nice, although the high-speed Internet access never worked while I was there. I spent most of my time at the conference.

Ranch Store Center

After the Arts & Crafts Fair on Saturday, my parents took us to the nearby town of Oracle. We went to the Ranch Store Center, which had a bunch of funky artsy stuff for sale. Well, it wasn't for sale when we got there, since they had closed up shop early. We wandered around and looked at the stuff; the robot was a particular favorite.



Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice dinner at Nonna Maria's Pizza.

Grantham Get-Together

Well, on the digital pictures -- note to self: the flash can wash out features if taken too close.

Friday and Saturday my parents had a booth at the Saddlebrooke Arts and Crafts Fair. Friday my Aunt Pam stopped by, and we got to visit with her. Saturday, my cousin Stephanie visited with her son Andrew and her nephew Brayden. It was my first opportunity to meet either of my first cousins once removed, and it was a lot of fun. Andrew is almost 4, and a very sweet, bright child. Brayden is six or so months old, and very cute. We are pictured below.



Hmm. Somehow he's the mature-looking one.

I was noticing recently that I have pictures of myself in that hat all over the world.

That picture in the background is the same one that's on my father's web page.