Happy New Year 2008!

May 2008 be a prosporous and healthy year for all of us.

Merry Christmas

Joy to the World. The Lord has Come!

May all of you have a very Merry Christmas and have a Happy 2008!

Clear Channel is a sham!

For those who know me, I consider myself a pretty ardent capitalist. However, Clear Channel here in town is sacrificing long-time Sacramento institutions for the power of the dollar (which currently sucks right now, but I digress).

Clear Channel is getting rid of Paul and Lori and their program on Y92. This is the latest move in an ongoing purge of talent at 5 of the stations they own in Sacramento. I believe they drove Sacramento's favorite talk show host Tom Sullivan to leave and take the position at Fox Business and take his radio show national. Then they let go of Phil Cowan, another long-time employee and former host of the Paul and Phil show on Y92.

I just sent a scathing email to Clear Channel Sacramento GM Jeff Holden about he and his ilk are no longer welcome in Sacramento after their purge of these great Sacramentans for the value of the buck. They basically want to replace all live talent, especially on the music side, automated programming with no human voice behind the mike.

We have hit a new low as a society!

Well Again

I finally got over the flu and I am back to work. Its still raining throughout the Sacramento region. The snowfall and the rain we have received this week will help us try to avoid a drought this year. I want to start off the new year skiiing at Sugar Bowl, and wakeboarding/houseboating at Shasta in July.

Its Raining and Im Sick...

So I have been down with this year's flu since yesterday and we are getting a major storm here in Northern California. There is snow in the mountains. How I wish I could be in my Caltrans truck up there in the wintry delight instead of lying in bed with my back aching!

Wintertime

Its raining here today. I love the rain. I love lying in bed and listening to it rain when its dark out. I love the fire in the fireplace keeping the home nice and toasty. I just wish it could snow here in the valley though (not like a Buffalo snowfall, just a couple of inches here and there).

Dang it...

I got a speeding ticket this morning at 5am heading to work. I got caught going 50 in a 35. Most of the road is 45 except for this one pocket where it goes down to 35...and that's where I got nabbed by CHP.

D'oh!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now, say it with me: .....tryptophen......tryptophen.........


Be safe today and have a great day!

Moved to Marysville

Moved my office to Marysville this morning. 47.2 miles from home to office is now my commute. Im tired and am going to bed....long day tomorrow: Nevada County Trans. Commission in the morning, set-up meetings for the next few weeks, then men's hoops tomorrow night against Southern Utah.

Davis...

Once again we fell to the ags...eighth year in a row.
The double humanity of it all.....AGAIN!

I'm so bitter right now. And the aggie band had the audacity to play a song while our band played our Alma Mater. We let them play their's uninterrupted. A**holes!

Oh the Humanity....

Volleyball's conference home winning streak is over at 59 straight...dating back to Oct. 28, 1999. Our third loss in our last four games, and again, tonight, like all the losses this year, in five games. This time it was Weber State. We lost 23-21 in the final frame.

Causeway Week

All I can say is........................................





F*CK DAVIS!!!!!!


That's better. Go Hornets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tagged

My friend Mary tagged me so here we go.....

Here are the rules which must be posted on your blog if you are tagged:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random - some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names - link to them
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

#1 I was an all-Northern California honor clarinetist in 1996-97 and performed with the Northern California Honor Band that year.

#2 I played 10 years of baseball and 7 years of soccer, earning all-league honors in both sports.

#3 I own the entire series of M*A*S*H on DVD and its my favorite show.

#4 I/my family have owned three dachshunds (doxies) in my lifetime. They are the greatest dog breed!

#5 I served as Vice President of my Townhome Association from 2003-05.

#6 I am the first member on my dad's side of the family to earn a college degree.

#7 I want an iPod and the newest Microsoft Flight Sim game for my computer.

And who I'm tagging....(not sure if I can come up with 7...)

1. Rachel
2. Nate

Taken from Jen's Blog

1. your rock star name (first pet & first car). Scooby Civic

2. your gansta name (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie). French Vanilla Chocolate Chip

3. your “fly guy"? name (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name). GSch

4. your detective name (fav color, fav animal). Green Dog

5. your soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born) Willis Carmichael

6. your Star Wars name (first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first). Schwi

7. superhero name (the? + 2nd fav color, fav drink). Blue Martini

8. IndyCar name (the first names of your grandfathers). Robert Frederick

9. stripper name ( the name of your fav perfume/cologne/scent, fav candy). Safari Twix

10. witness protection name (mother’s & father’s middle names ). Mary Alan

11. tv weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter). Copeland Chicago

12. spy name (your fav season/holiday, flower). Independence (Day) Rose

13. cartoon name (fav fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie" or “y"). Cherry Jeansy

14. hippy name (what you ate for breakfast, your fav tree). Coffee Mulberry

15. your rockstar tour name (the + your fav hobby/craft, fav weather element + “tour"). The Tuba-playing Thunderstorm Tour :-p

I'm going to Marysville...a year earlier than planned.

My boss told me yesterday that instead of moving to Marysville when the new building opens in October 2008, that due to a few people being promoted to senior transportation planner (and one of them is relocating to this office in Sacramento), that there is now space available and I will begin making the 45 minute commute beginning Tuesday, November 13.

When I accepted the position, it was on the basis that I would be based in Marysville when the new building opened, which I fully understood, however, there was no space available so I got assigned to our Venture Oaks building.

I'm really looking forward to going to Marysville but Dawn isn't. I told her nothing lasts forever and to just see it as an adventure. Besides, I use to work in Elk Grove and it took me an hour to get there and back (EG is only 22 miles from the house, M'ville is 47 miles) because of the insane traffic on SR 99 (hence why we are fixing it).

Coming Back To Work

It is really hard sometimes to come back to work after a long vacation...however, I feel I got my batteries recharged. Just a quick note here...because so much work was awaiting me when I got back yesterday, I feel really eager to tackle all of it.

I'll try to post the photos up from the trip later this week.

We're Home Now

I will do a more in depth post about the rest of the trip...but we safely made it home last night. More to come. I will also post more photos as the wireless signal we had at Carm's house was too weak to upload photos.

The Trip Part II

Ok, so we are now in New York and still need to fill in about the rest of the trip. Needless to say, after the wedding, the trip on the train got really interesting and had issues kind of like an airline has. Actually, we had an issue with the flight from LAX to RDU.

So we get to LAX on time on Thursday night at about 5:30pm. We get dinner and head over to the Delta terminal (T5 at LAX) at about 7:00pm for a 10:25 red-eye departure. When we got there, it was one of those gates that are split (53A and 53B). At 53A was our plane to RDU, waiting for us for 3 hours while the plane at 53B was a 7pm departure to Las Vegas. I put on one of the kids' DVD's so they could calm down and hopefully fall asleep. We had put their pajamas on their in the terminal so they could sleep on the plane, which they did.

At about 8pm we noticed the people on the LAS flight come off the plane. They stated that their plane went mechanical with the gear lights display not working. So they took our plane to RDU and hoped the plane to LAS would be fixed in time by our 10:25 departure. It never got fixed. At 10:10, Delta announced to us that our flight would be delayed at least til 10:55 to get the problem fixed. It still was out when 10:55 came so they said "...we are awaiting a flight from Atlanta, which was also another 738 so we can keep the same crew...." That plane did not get there until 11:15 and after cleaning the plane and we boarded at 11:55 and took off at 12:30am. We got to RDU at 7:30am EDT, an hour and fifteen minutes later than scheduled as we made up time with a 145 mph tail wind (I love the jetstream going east!).

On Saturday, we had lunch with Mary and her boyfriend Eric at Carolina AleHouse and it was good to meet her and get to know her better. A good time had by all.

The wedding was very beautiful, even though the minister thought the wedding was two hours later than it was supposed to (a 2:30pm wedding, he got there at 3:30!). Got to know more of Nate's family and met Robin's while at the reception. Nate' cousin Sara also did marching band at Univ. of Washington so we traded band war stories, mostly about our archrivals!

The reception ended at 7pm and we headed back to the hotel for our 4am wake-up call and our 5:40am train departure for New York Penn Station. Got the kids to bed about 10pm and we finally got to sleep about midnight...ugh! We got up right at 4 with two wake-up calls and got showered and dressed and we got to the train station right on time.

We had an on-time departure and the kids went back to sleep immediately when the train started rolling. Lauren woke up about an hour later and I took her to the cafe car to have yogurt while I got some coffee. Headed back to our seats where Lauren then fell back asleep where Dawn was already out with Evan. I got some sleep as well when we pulled into Richmond at 9am and we all woke up hungry.

We went to the dining car to have breakfast. Dawn, Lauren and Evan split the continental and I had the breakfast scramble....not bad, but way overprice because of being on the train. We got to Washington DC Union Station on time at noon and had a 30 minute layover due to switching from a diesel engine to an electric one going onto the Northeast Corridor. Left on-time and got to Philly on schedule. Now this is when the trip got really interesting and frustrating.

As we pulled out of Philly, the engine started to have problems. Every time we started to get about 30 mph, the engine would shut down and the circuit would be tripped. We would slow to a stop, reset the breaker, and start again. It took an hour fifteen to get to Trenton in a trip that would normally take about 30 minutes!

When we got to Trenton, the engineer tried to see if they could fix the engine instead of the stop gap measures they implied while trying to get it there. Finally the call came on that we would transfer to a train across the track that was also going to Penn, yet, the baggage car, with our six pieces of checked luggage, would remain with the other train. I asked the conductors what about hooking up the baggage car to the end of the train we were getting on and they said they couldn't (I think it was they wouldn't). They told us that the train would follow, but probably get to the Penn about four hours after the train we got on would get there!! That made me really angry and the kids by this time had had enough of being on the train and just wanted to get up to NY.

Now we were contemplating staying at Penn for four hours so we could get our bags. And we still needed to transfer to the Long Island Railroad to go out to Hicksville where my cousins were awaiting to pick us up. As we approached Newark, the conductor of the Amtrak Regional came on and said they unhooked the problem cars that were causing the engine to trip and that it would be 40 minutes behind us! Thank God! We got to Penn at 4:40pm and we got a coffee and a snack for our kids and then our bags got there at 5:20. We quickly grabbed them and headed to the LIRR concourse, bought our tickets to Hicksville and got on that 5:40 train. Deb picked us up at 6:30 and headed to the house where my cousins Carmen, Mary and her boyfriend Dave had dinner awaiting. After dinner, Mary and I dropped Dave off at his house and she took me to LaGuardia to pick up the rental car at 9pm. Picked it up with no problems and was back to the house at 9:30pm and then crashed after getting back. The kids were down and Dawn waited for me to get back to go to sleep.

Never again will I do a train trip like that again. Im glad I did it once, but if I ever have to go from Raleigh to New York again, I'll suck up the extra cash to fly the hour and a half route!

I will add photos for this post later.

The Trip Part I

First of all, I was hoping to do a post while I was at LAX, however, due to no WiFi in the Delta Terminal, and I was not going to shell out $25 for a one day pass to the Crown Room Club, my first post is here now after the wedding and as well try to get about 4 hours sleep before waking up to take the train to New York City.

We got to SMF two hours before departure and going through security with the little ones was actually not bad. With all the stuff we had to bring, I'm amazed that security did not ask us for extra searches. The TSA wanted Evan to go through the detector by himself, but he was a little apprehensive about it so I picked him up to go through (and of course nothing happened I told him). One TSA guy even called my "SuperDad" for getting the brood through...ha.

We then had some lunch in Terminal A and then went to the gate area to put our stuff down and I took the bambinos over to the play area to get out some of the energy they had.

I also started taking photos at this point.....here is Lauren with her baby and water with a big ol grin!







Evan here probably saying "where is the airplane Daddy?"






Our ride to LAX (a Delta Connection by ExpressJet ERJ 145-one of the planes Daddy use to fly as I told Evan):



So the flight was perfect...not a full load, and both Evan and Lauren had fun flying...and for Lauren, her first ever plane ride! She even had fun drinking her apple juice and trying to have some of Dad's ginger ale (sorry no photo of that) though I do have a photo of Lauren with the headphones on trying to listen to the XM radio (it wasn't on for this flight...bummer):

Editor's note...ok, its now 11:21 EDT on Saturday night and my wakeup call is set for 4:00am for the train! I am going to continue this later...but for now, enjoy!

The Trip Begins.......

And so, the day is here to fly out to see Nathan and Robin get married, visit Mary in Raleigh, and to see the fam on Long Island (or as they say there...Lawng Guy-land).

I am at work now and will leave about Noon PDT. Pictures will be taken with associated commentary and notes. I don't think I will do a trip report like on airliners.net or FlyerTalk.

Hope to hear from you all.....

I Can Breathe, I Can Breathe.....

Well almost. Certainly much better shape now than two days ago at this time. Mostly I am tired just fighting this thing.

BTW, I am going to blog our trip so look forward to pics and comments.

Pressure, Pressure Everywhere.

The cold is still here, but I am winning the battle. Took Sudafed last night, slept pretty good, and woke up better than yesterday. Stupid foreign bug in my system!

This just in....

I'm flying this week and now I have a cold (drat!). For the next 48 hours, Airborne is my friend. That is all.

That and what a choke job by Green Bay tonight.

Friday Bullet Points...

Since I have so many things on my plate, its amazing what I remember and forget. So..

* Need to start packing for the trip. Taking two youngin's cross country is an enormous task for 10 days. At least they are both walking age and we don't have to take the stroller.

* Been so busy forgot that Monday is a holiday (Columbus Day) which means I can pack for the trip.

* Along with worrying about the kids, how will they deal with a 3-hour time change to the East Coast as well as transcon flights? At least the first transcon is a red-eye so they can sleep.

* Ready the band scripts for Scott Moak so he can announce for the band during next Saturday's football game (its only the 3rd home game I will have missed in the last 17 years).

* Getting my second working paper out for my CSMP project. Templates seem to change everyday from the other CSMP's (Thank God my corridor is not the lead one!) and it sets me back at least a day to change the settings.

That's it for now. Hopefully I will post what I think about the Hornets game tomorrow at Weber State. The band was originally supposed to go to it (and to think I am missing a 12 hr. bus ride today...lol). The weather is forecast to be about 45 degrees with light rain. I made a predicition earlier in the week that we would win 31-14. But now with the weather, I am going to say we win 21-10. Go Hornets!

What a week...

I had the strangest weeks, probably ever. First, I went to a two-day training called Planning on Track, put on by our OPD (that's Office of Professional Development for those posters on GDIFC).
When I went to dinner, my debit/check card was stolen out of my hotel room. I had left it there as I took my ID and cash to dinner. As soon as I realized it was gone, immediately called to cancel it and called hotel security. They called the San Jose police and filed a report. They think its an inside job.

Other than that, the training was neat. I got to learn about interregional rail, commuter rail and light rail in the Bay Area. Since pretty much all the rail systems now connect, its a great way to get around the Bay. Folks need to try it.

Then, football. Sacramento State came into the home opener 0-3 with a tough conference loss at PSU two weeks ago and got blasted by New Mexico the week before. All we did was humiliate, absolutely humiliate, Northern Arizona, 38-9. The Hornets finally broke out the offense weapons and racked up 422 yards in offense. The defense, which we knew was killer, held NAU, who came in averaging 420 yards a game, to 187 total yards!! In fact, NAU was so inept, they were 0-12 on third down. WTF!?!?! 0-12!! NAU's coach said in their fishwrap that they looked like they were a team without direction. Uh, wrong dude, you got your asses handed to you.

So I have for the past 24 hours now been basking in a great win for the program. Congrats go to first year coach Marshall Sperbeck. He is going to be awesome for the alma mater.

This week I have too many meetings and things to get done. We head to Raleigh a week from Thursday and need to start packing for things for the trip there and then onto New York.

This, that and the other...

First, what a dissapointing game last night. Sac State was up 24-21 with 3 minutes to go in the game against Portland State and they come down and score a TD with 2:06 left. We then start driving all the way down to the PSU 33 yd line only to have our freshman qb throw an interception that was returned all the way to the house to lose 35-24, our eighth straight loss to PSU....sucks.

Second, got a new personal laptop here for the house. Much better than the desktop.

Third, saw Jen at Green Tangerines on Thurs. night here in Rocklin teaching a class. Got some food after that. I proposed a trade for her: she'll teach me to scrapbook and I'll teach her a wind instrument. She agreed.

Fourth, volleyball continues to roll, beat #14 Cal Poly yesterday in four and won the USF Invite. Hornets are now 11-3 and should be receiving votes again in the coaches poll...I don't know if it'll be enough to be ranked in the top-25.

Fifth, I have two meetings tomorrow which will keep me out of the office all day..first to Loyalton (about 3 hrs from Sac), then to Nevada City. Wednesday I'm back in Nevada City for another meeting. I'm going to a training session next week on an overnight to San Jose for commuter, regional and transit trains. Looking forward to it. My CSMP working paper #2 is slow going right now, awaiting data to come in (hopefully by the end of the week).

So that's all for now. Hope to hear from you all.

Things.....

Ok, first of all, Sac State played tough in the opener against Fresno State (who, sorry Mary, got absolutely hosed at A&M and that WTF call by the replay official), losing 24-3. Our frosh qb played well in a hostile environment and did not have any turnovers, plus, a bend but not break defense. I think we can pull of the win against Portland State this Saturday, who is absolutely awful after they blew a big lead against ucdavis-sucks! this past Saturday.

Second, we have finalized our plans to attend Nate and Robin's wedding in October in Raleigh and then head up to Long Island to see my family for the week. The bummer is I will miss Homecoming (we are playing Montana so I'm sure I will not feel bad about watching a loss), which is the second home game I have missed in the past 18 years! (Note to all my friends, never, EVER, get married during football season!)

Third, I am working real hard on our Corridor System Management Plan as a result of the bond-funded projects we passed as a proposition back last November. I am doing the State Route 49 (SR 49) one. If you want to take a look, its up on the web. The first working paper of five. Here is the link: http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist3/departments/planning/csmp/csmp_corridor_sr49.pdf

Fourth, back in June bought a newer car for me. A 2003 Buick Rendezvous SUV. Pretty nice vehicle with lots of room. Also, bought a new refrigerator two weeks ago with a water and ice dispenser (will not have to rely on the Brita filter for H2O anymore...yeah!).

Fifth, the weather is actually starting to feel like fall here today. Maybe its trying to tell us that we best be ready for real "autumn" weather back east.

I'll do a post either today or tomorrow....

Just been really busy the past two weeks. I will get something up by the end of tomorrow.

Under Three Weeks

Until the Hornets and the Bulldogs square off in the Battle of the Valley!

Gooooooooooooooo Hornets!

A Different Type of Game

So I am playing a game with my blog friend Jen. Basically, she got to ask me five questions about myself and I agreed to answer them here. Here are her questions and my answers:

1. How many away games will you make this football season?
At this point, at least two. The two road games with the Sac State Band (Fresno State and the trip to Weber State ). Hopefully I can make two Niners games as well (going to SF is a roadie). And of course if the Hornets finally breakthrough and get to the NCAA Div. I Football Championships, as many playoff games as possible (out of 4 total).

2. Planes, trains, or automobiles? Why?
Planes: Because they are big, exotic and everytime I see one take off, it always amazes me something that heavy can get off the ground, especially the C-5's, 747's and now the A380's. Trains: I have always loved the sound of the train whistle. To me, riding on Amtrak is like going back in American history to the glory days of passenger train riding (although Amtrak service is far from what the private railroads use to provide). Cars: Well, you gotta have one in Cali to get around. As for race cars, I love IndyCars! They are the sleekest, not to mention the fastest. There is nothing like watching a race on a Sunday afternoon in Central Indiana. Of course I am referring to "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing," The Indianapolis 500. So I choose all three :-p

3. Musical instrument you would learn if you had to switch at this point in life?
That's a good question. Probably the trumpet. Because it is the loudest instrument of them all. But I love my sousaphone and my clarinet.

4. What is the best part of having a new baby in the house?
Watching them learn things for the first time. And when they laugh. Its absolutely precious. Also when they fall asleep on your chest. That's the best!

5. The best way to make your flight attendant happy is to....
Since I have been out of the game for a couple of years....I would say that the best way is to pay attention to the safety briefing. That and probably compliment those who do a good job because we all know there are a lot of bad apples who don't like their lot in life, yet they have one of the best jobs out there.

Want to play now? Here are the rules if you do:
1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like [the food you hate most in all the world]. Something random. Whatever you like.
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. You will update your [blog] with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

Another Year Older

Another birthday for yours truly today....29. My mom, ever the clever one, told me this morning while wishing me Happy B-Day that its "all gray from here." Thanks Mom for that.

Here's to a fun-filled Age 29!

End of an Era

Yesterday, my dear friend Jeff Edom told me he is stepping down as Associate Director of Bands at Sac State to take the band director job at Laguna Creek HS. Mostly, besides actually getting paid more money (which HS should never be higher than a university job), he will get to spend four years with his girls who enter Laguna Creek next month.

Jeff took this job in August 1996 after Jack Foote pretty much decimated the band. He convinced 37 people to be in the band that year and grew it into a 125-piece dynamic ensemble. What was once a school with no spirit, people started to care for the band again at Sacramento State.

He re-wrote Fight, Hornet, Fight to pretty much its intended original score when Don McDonald penned it in 1952. He took the band to places never before in its history: Portland, Spokane, Salt Lake City. The shows he wrote were outstanding to play: challenging, yet tunes that most people in Hornet Stadium would know or at least appreciate.

I'll never forget the Gladiator show in 2001. I had never seen our fans give a standing 'O for the band until that night against ucdavis-sucks! Even the aggie band announcer said that was the best show he had ever seen in 30 years of the Causeway Classic.

Jeff is like the older brother I never had. He is such a good friend that this one is going to be hard. I am happy for him because he will get to spend more time with his girls before they go off to school (probably Oregon). I am sad because we will lose the director who really saved the Sacramento State Marching Band.

The uncertainty of now getting a new director in 7 weeks before camp starts is going to be tough. As a member of the staff and announcer for the band, I, along with the rest of the staff will have to work together to help the new director feel not only welcome, but get him/her up to speed.

Jeff, thank you for all you have done in service to my Alma Mater. Words cannot express what you have done in my life and the lives of all of those in the Sac State Band for the past 11 years. You will always now be an alum of the Sacramento State Marching Band. You earned it. Thank you for saving "The Spirit of Sacramentoooooooooooooooooo..............."

Hey, Hey

The A's managed to break out the bats last night with 9 runs in the first two innings and defeated the Tribe in the city that is known as the Mistake by the Lake, 13-7.

Our reward, one more game against the Indians and then back to New York (weren't we just there?!?!) to play the f*ing Yankees. (BTW, great scheduling MLB. Since you had the A's playing the Mets at Shea this year for interleague, why didn't you just save travel costs and fuel costs by having the A's play the Yanks during the week instead of one weekend against the Mets, fly to Cleveland for four games, then fly back to NY for the weekend against the Yankess. Idiots!)

Auburn, Auburn, Auburn

No, its not really my hair color. And no, I am not going to the school by that name down on the Plains in Alabama.

Yesterday, I was in Auburn for the Placer Board of Supes meeting about the proposed Placer Vineyards project. Today, I was back in Auburn for the Placer Transportation Commission meeting.

Tomorrow, you guessed it .....................................................













Auburn again. But, passing thru town with my boss as we scope out Interstate 80 all the way to the Nevada border ;-)

Oakland, what was that?

Last week had to be the one of the worst weeks for the A's since 1995. First, they cut Milton Bradley for no reason other than he has been banged up a bit this year. He was supposed to be the catalyst for the A's run towards an American League Pennant.

Then, to top it off, they go and lay one giant goose egg in Queens against the Mets. Swept. Ouch. Well done guys. You can probably forget the playoffs now.

A Clean Shave

Sorry all, I shaved off the mustache and goatee. It was too itchy. But at least there is a photo of me with it.

Updated Photo

So what do you think of my new look? Yeah or nay?

To Raleigh in October

Nathan and Robin have announced the date of their wedding and it's set for Sat. October 13 in the beautiful capital of North Carolina. I am already starting to search for a decent airfare, which I know will be accompanied by a lack of service in the air. Oh well, I guess that's what the food courts in the airports are there now for if you are going domestic non-first class.

Once again I will try and delight myself with Southern BBQ and sweet tea (though BBQ in California and Texas is waaaay different then what I experienced the last time I was visiting Nate in Raleigh).

Will try and make a vacay out of it up to New York to see the fam as well.


Oh BTW, the answer to yesterday's trivia question is: The Houston Astros.

Trivia at Work

One of the things that helps us get through the day at my new office is playing trivia at work...especially sports questions. I got one today that no one else did and I'm surprised that I got it: Besides my beloved A's (who still to this day), who was the last MLB team to wear white cleats?

I'll give the answer tomorrow.

Weekend

The weekend is here....it was a hectic week (up to Marysville twice, Nevada City). Next week I have a lot of IGR letters to crank out and one Marysville trip.

During the evenings beginning Weds. thru Sat. I will be working the NCAA Track Championships at Hornet Stadium. I believe CBS is televising live again on Saturday. Keep a look out for me on national TV. Of course I will be doing media relations stuff so I will be behind the camera. Good luck to our four Hornet athletes who made the championships!

New, New, New!!

Ok, first of all I have not posted since I can't tell you when (ok it was November...and a bad rant). I have a new job at Caltrans. No longer am I slaving to those in Mass Transporation, which, though I really loved the work, it was going downhill for reasons that I can better explain in person.

I am now working for CT District 3 as a Regional Planner and IGR Coordinator for Placer, Nevada and Sierra Counties. Even though D3 is headquartered in Marysville, I work in a satellite office here in Sacramento. Our district is building a brand-spanking new building which will be open in Dec. 2008 at which time I will be up there (nothing like a 40-mile commute)....but that is still a long time from now and as they say in baseball, anything can happen.

But Will, you ask, what does a regional planner and IGR coordinator do? Funny you should ask. A regional planner is Caltrans' liaison to all the regional transportation planning agencies in those counties listed above. I attend their full commission meetings, sit as a member of their Technical Advisory Committee' (TAC) and try to answer questions as to why Caltrans does the things it does.

The other part of my job is to review any and all plans as they may affect the state highway system within 1 to 2 miles of a state or federal highway. This includes new housing developments, a new water treatment facility, temporary permits (such as: "hey, I want to hold a wedding on my 5-acre spread.."), etc. I review and comment, as well as send it out to our various offices within Caltrans such as Hydrology, Traffic Operations, Traffic Forecasting, etc.
So any and all plans that may affect the highway, we review them and comment on them. Pretty chic, huh!

So athletics at Sac State is winding down for the academic year. The only thing left to do is the NCAA Div. I Track and Field Championships at Hornet Stadium June 6-9 and then I get my summer off until football opens at Fresno State on Sept. 1.

As always, would love to hear from you with your comments.