No, it’s not your imagination—it definitely is getting hotter. The eight warmest years on record occurred over the past decade. But staying cool this summer doesn’t necessarily mean you have to pay a fortune to keep the air-conditioning running day and night. Here are 10 tips—most costing less than $25—that will keep you comfortable and cut the typical $1,000 cooling bill by as much as half. What’s needed to get the temperature to drop? Only a little time and a few changes in your routine. Here’s 10 from This Old House.
What an amazing weekend for Hoopfest. The 19th annual basketball tournament was a huge success. It was a record breaking year for the world’s largest 3-on-3 basketball competition, more than 6,400 teams took part. It was my first year participating. I was in the media division, playing for Wired 96.9. We got crushed in our first two games but it’s all good. We had a great time. Last year I was a spectator so this year was pretty special.
On Sunday, Robyn and I hosted the championship games live from Nike Center Court and boy was it hot! I really admire the KXLY4 staff and volunteers for keeping everyone hydrated and feed and for their enthusiasm.
The games were competitive and the crowds hung in there despite dealing with the record heat. I used a thermal thermometer to measure the heat on the court… it was 136 degrees!
What’s so amazing to me is how fast Hoopfest crews tear down the hoops and clean up the streets. If someone were to visit Spokane 24 hour hours post Hoopfest, you’d be hard-pressed to convince them that more than 400 courts and tens of thousands of people had been roaming the streets. Well done, see you next year for the 20th anniversary of Hoopfest.
I’m headed to Three Forks, Montana tomorrow for a family vacation. My mom’s family is celebrating my grandma’s 80th birthday this coming weekend. The good thing about the upcoming trip: I like my family. Spending a week with people who drive you crazy is a bad way to spend your vacation. Luckily, I don’t forsee getting sick of them… well at least not for the beginning of the trip.
Vaycay pictures to come next week following my return to the grind.
Moveon.org produced and is airing this ad, taking on Senator John McCain’s “100 years in Iraq” statement. It’s a pathetic attempt to try and make McCain seem like a heartless man, interested in only war.
McCain has said clearly, while troops could be in Iraq for 100 years, its the actual combat and troop casualties that are the determining factor. (As he points out, we still have troops in Germany. We still have troops in South Korea.)
The joy of this year’s presidential campaign is seeing the spoofs of the candidates, and their messages, on YouTube. Take for instance, this guy’s ad on Senator Barack Obama’s plan to raise some taxes.
To be fair, Obama’s tax increases are very targeted, mostly to the upper-upper class, but you get the point.
I’ll be playing in the media division at Hoopfest this year. The four of us will play our first game at 9:30 a.m. at Main & Howard. If we win and I repeat, ‘if’ we win, we’ll play again at 11:30 a.m.
I started shooting hoops for the first time all year, this week. I held off practice unitl after Ironman training. I didn’t want to risk rolling an ankle or some random injury. Today, I hoop’d it up at my gym for about an hour. My shot felt pretty good but it’s certainly a different type of cardio workout compared to an endurance event such as Triathlons. I’m pretty excited to be involved and more excited to be co-hosting the championship games at Nike Center Court on Sunday. You’ll be able to watch our coverage live on KXLY and KXLY.COM from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.
It is estimated that Washington State has about a million gun owners. The landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court last week will not likely have a negative effect on any of our state laws. Attorney General Rob McKenna says a review of existing laws found nothing that appears to be in conflict with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
What could see an impact is a pending ban on handguns in buildings, parks and community centers in the City of Seattle. Just last month, Mayor Greg Nickels signed an executive order authorizing the ban to become effective in July. Second Amendment protest groups say the Supreme Court ruling nullifies such a ban, and Seattle’s must be withdrawn. Nickels won’t do that. He interprets the High Court ruling as saying a jurisdiction cannot totally ban handguns, but the justices recognized there is a need for common-sense gun laws. Nickels says that means Seattle has the ability to enact reasonable restrictions on guns in public property, and his executive order is reasonable.
While Nickels intends to stick to his guns, (pun intended), firearms advocates are ready to take him on. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling offered no legal test formula to determine what is reasonable.
Indeed the majority opinion left open and unanswered, a number of specific applications that doubtless, will now have to be litigated one at a time as the practicalities and legalities are explored. This process could of course, take many years, and many lawsuits. Litigation over unclear aspects of Constitutional law is the method by which our Constitution is ultimately interpreted. Tough it was passed in 1791, the long and tedious exploration of the Second Amendment has only just begun.
Boy, I’d hate to be the guy in HR at Microsoft who has to do Bill Gates’ exit interview today. I mean, how do you go about wishing one of the richest guys in the world who built Microsoft from the ground up well in his future endeavours?
Do you bring the gang into the conference room and surprise Bill with some Panda Express, a Dairy Queen ice cream cake and a copy of Vista signed by all his friends?
Better yet how do you write that e-mail to everyone in the company letting them know Bill has left the building?
To: Everyone
From: Abe Snake
Subject: Departure
Bill Gates is no longer employed by Microsoft. We wish him well in his future endeavours. If you have any questions please contact Steve Ballmer.
Abe
*****************
e-mail powered by Outlook Express
*****************
I think it’s probably best we leave the details of Bill’s last day to Bill himself. After all, his company did bring us CTRL-ALT-DEL, the Blue Screen of Death and Windows Vista.
Last year on the Friday before Hoopfest, Peterson gave me an orange Hoopfest onesie. At the time, the kid was still cookin’, about a month away from birth. Exactly one year later, Leialoha is sporting the outfit. She looks like a natural hooper… ready to come off the bench for mom and dad this weekend.
Just got my official pictures from Ironman. They were a bit spendy but I’m only going to do my first Ironman once. Thanks again for all your support. It’s now on to the next big challenge.
(Swim Transition: 2.4 miles in 1 hr 25 minutes)
(Bike Course: 112 miles in 6 hrs. 18 minutes)
Beginning of run: 26.2 miles in 5 hrs 10 minutes)
The official finish time: 140.6 total miles: 13:07:22)
