I am finally feeling better. It took until today for me to feel 100% again. Though yesterday was more a killer headache than the cold.
I also finally took care of my truck's 'check engine soon' light. I had the code pulled when it originally came on and I looked it up online and found out that it was a Timing Valve Position Control Sensor. Say that 5 times real fast. Anyway, it's just a sensor and I didn't think it was covered by the warranty or my extended warranty, so I've put it off. Turns out it was covered by both, but the base warranty (i.e., free) expired on the truck last September. For those wondering, yes, that was after the light came on. Oh well... But the Extended Warranty through 2015 or 75,000 miles that I bought with the truck covered it.
Glad it did too because it wasn't just that sensor. There were three codes... a catalyst sensor, the valve sensor I knew about, and an oxygen sensor. All covered under the warranty with a $50 deductible for the whole lot since they were all dealt with at once. However, to put in the new oxygen sensor, Nissan requires that you have such and such a version of their computer code on your truck. Which mine was the very first version of the code they released for that year's Pathfinder. It had been updated 4 times since, so they had to do that and it wasn't covered under the warranty. But there's no parts charge, just an hour's labor. While preparing to program it though they found that my battery was cranking out a massive 9 volts and wouldn't hold much of a charge. So, a new battery is next in line... one thing after another I guess!
Work is going well lately. Our new domain and forest are finally in place. We haven't started the project of going around and adding all of the computers in Public Health into the domain yet, that'll come after the new year. We're just testing it out ourselves first to find the little things that'll need tweaking. There are two domain controllers, one webserver, and one larger file server in our rack along with the other 5 servers other groups have in there also. All told we're managing 17 servers, though not all require a lot of attention. Having the new domain and new servers is going to make life a lot easier for connecting to resources and we can offer a lot more network storage space to the users now also.
We're still waiting on word for our bowl this year too. Florida beat Florida State to finish 8-3 and I think that may end up a problem. See, we beat them this season, but they have the better overall record by a game. If Georgia wins this weekend in the SEC Championship game, then LSU and Auburn will most likely split the Capital One and Outback, leaving the Peach for us.... or Florida. Which would suck because it'd drop us to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La... where Florida belongs. So, let's just hope that Georgia loses... word still is we'll get the Outback then. Now whether or not we'll be able to afford the trip down there is another thing, but regardless of whether we go, the Outback would be better for USC, so I hope that's where we end up. But a Peach bowl and trip to Atlanta would still be fun! The offer to stay with you guys still open, Michelle?
Talk about miserable... adding onto losing to the Cowtown Tigers again this season in a game we really should have won, it's rained for a couple days straight, my lips were windburned and chapped something fierce from the game Saturday night, and I got the full blown starts of a cold last night... itchy, painful throat, sinuses, the whole nine yards.
I guess on the bright side, there's only two more days of work this week. And this day is going to probably end up short the way I feel right now. We dropped off Christina's car at the dealer for a recall notice this morning, or else I would have just taken the whole day off. We'll probably pick it up over lunch and I'll just head home... take a nap... and hopefully wake up and find out the last couple days were just a dream and it's still last Friday. ha!
Both teams looked pretty bad, but Clemson managed to score at least one touchdown and that was the difference in the 13-9 game. Carolina had the ball 5 times in the redzone and came away with 9 points. Last week against Florida we had the ball in the redzone 5 times also and got 4 touchdowns and a field goal.
Still, 7-4 isn't bad for Spurrier's first season, starting a soph first year starter QB, freshman RBs and WRs, and having lost so many key players before the season even started. I hope we can go on to win our bowl game and put together a good recruiting season... build on the 7 win season.
I haven't had the greatest luck with games that I've been shooting from the sidelines. 3 games, 3 losses. Maybe I should just stay off the field. :-)
If you want to view the scanned copies of the ads, you'll have to register (free) for their message boards. Otherwise, you'll just have to click on the stores on that main page and view the text listings.
Beat Tennessee and Florida in the same year! What a game today!
We're 7-3 right now... looking like the Peach Bowl currently... maybe the Outback Bowl. We win next week against Clemson and it's the Outback Bowl with an outside chance at the Capital One Bowl in Orlando if there isn't a 10 win SEC team. We can be taken at 8 wins over a 9 win SEC team, but we can't be taken over a 10 win team.
But it gets better. If Georgia loses to Auburn tonight (the game is currently on) and they lose to Kentucky next week... we win the SEC East and we go to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta for a shot at a Sugar Bowl bid.
Now Georgia can be beaten by Auburn.. but most people just laughed about Kentucky beating them. Until Kentucky beat Vanderbilt 48-43 tonight. Maybe... maybe they could beat Georgia next week?
Still... we're going to one of the major bowls now this year... Cotton in Dallas, Peach in Atlanta, or Outback in Tampa.... with shots at going to a better bowl. Plus, we finish at LEAST 2nd in the SEC East, the best ever for Carolina!
I went to an exhibition basketball game last night.. USC vs. USC Aiken. It's the first game of the 2005 season. Admission was free, so I figured why not, right?
Anyway, here's 5 pages of photos from USC's 95-63 win:
She won 1st place this last week in our Pick 'Em game we play. That's a $50 gift certificate!
So far this season I've won 3rd place ($20) twice and 1st place ($50) once. That's $140 between the two of us... not bad for a free online Pick 'Em game, eh?
Also, yesterday, I took a few shots on the Horseshoe of what few trees in this area do actually change color...
They're the last 2 pictures on page 1 and the whole second page in this gallery:
Carolina won their 4th game in a row and second SEC road game upset in a row Saturday at Arkansas. It's the 6th win, so we have a winning season and bowl eligibility!
Right now with 6 wins, if we were to lose out, a lot of people are saying we'll go to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA. On the same level as far as bowls are concerned is the Music City Bowl in Nashville, TN. I'd personally rather go to Nashville.
If we win 7 or 8 games it'll be between the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, or the Outback Bowl in Tampa. Any of those would be great, with the Outback Bowl being my first choice. Ybor City is a lot of fun, it'd be a great trip again. Though a lot of sources are projecting Peach Bowl instead with 7 or 8 wins. A lot of Gamecock fans would prefer that too since we've been to a couple Outback Bowls recently.
Still a lot of football left to be played. We won't be favored this week against Florida, but it's here in Columbia and I've watched a handful of their games... they're definitely a beatable team. Would that be a huge win or what? In fact, mathmatically, we're still able to win the SEC East. We beat Florida and Georiga loses to Auburn (very possible) and then loses to Kentucky (not so likely!). If that series of events were to happen, we'd win the SEC East and go to the SEC Championship game in Atlanta. Needless to say, I'm not holding my breath on that one... it'd be the upset of the century if Kentucky were to beat Georgia.
Anyway, should be a fun ride. After losing as much talent as we did in the off season and to injury so far, it's great where we're at right now. Not to mention this is Spurrier's first season. Should be a fun ride the next 5-7 years or more!
I went out to the airport Saturday to greet the team as they came back. One of the guys from our message board, Mark, who has all the nice camera equipment was there and talked to someone who works at the airport. We told him we were 'media' (technically we are because we're with our message board - owned by a radio personality here in town)... and all three of us got out on the tarmac with the team when they got off the plane. Brought my camera, so here are a bunch of pictures:
That is a new style of gallery I'm trying. It uses Macromedia Flash. If it doesn't work, you might not have Flash installed on your computer. You can get Flash here:
Just make sure to UNCHECK the thing about the Yahoo Toolbar. The Yahoo stuff isn't needed... uncheck that box before clicking Install Now.
One warning... my cable modem went down Sunday morning and I tried viewing this gallery. It's ummmm.... kind of slow on dialup. Then again, everything is slow on dialup. But I thought I'd give you fair warning.
Halloween pictures are finally up in my photo gallery. Although I don't have any of the costume construction yet. I think I'm going to make a separate webpage for those like I mentioned in my last post here.
