TMI: 3000 Hits

I guess attaining 3000 hits is a great achievement for a major league baseball player, but it is a tiny pittance for a web site that has been around for only slightly more than a year.

For Year 2 of the Chronicles, I have migrated to the Beta version of Blogger and updated my template to take advantage of the new features without giving up much of the old look at feel. The labels should allow people to limit their RSS feeds to just the topics they are interested in.

Adapting to the new template took a little less time than I thought. I just ran into a couple of snags that were quickly resolved via Google searches. Including my counters and Random Quote of the Day just involved adding HTML/Javascript page elements. Then I ran into Java Script errors trying update those HTML elements in Firefox 2. Again this was a known issue with a simple workaround of reloading the page where one edits the page element.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Finale

Congratulations to the Models for winning the Amazing Race 10. I guess it is nice to see a couple of reformed drug addicts show what people can do if they set their minds to it. My gut thought Rob and Kim would win, but as usual, I guessed wrong. I should have known the Models would win when challenges included putting a dress together and traveling between the fashion capitals of Paris and New York. Overall, this was a race full of surprises particularly after more recent editions were almost foregone conclusions after the first leg.

It would have been interesting to know how close the race really was. It would be interesting if the main key was finding a taxi driver with a fast pass versus one who had to wait in the cash only line at a toll booth. Something tells me the Models jogged the two miles faster than our bickering couple as well despite the editing. Or the taxi driver they found for the last 56-mile drive to the finish line was just driving that much faster.

At the beginning of the episode, I had a feeling the racers would have to go to the Sagrada Familia eventually. Not sure how one could go to Barcelona and not go there. As I said before it is an amazing building. Too bad they did not go inside. They would have had fun trying to race up at least one of the spiral staircases to find their next clue. My knees were shaky coming back down one of the church spires, but it was due to slight acrophobia and claustrophobia rather than fatigue. I guess hiding the clue in a nearby park was good enough, but I knew they would bunch up at the airport.

The Bama Moms were smart or lucky enough to have a travel agent send them to Orly Airport instead of CDG. I have never been through Orly, but I think it is a shorter commute to central Paris and maybe a much easier airport to get in and out of in general. It put them into first place inside Paris. The Moms went to the well once too often in trying to find a flight back to New York from Orly. It is possible that if they went to CDG first, that they could have gotten ahead of one of the other teams on the waiting list. However, somehow Rob and Kim managed to find the right person and negotiate an early checkin even though they arrived at the airport after the Models. The race was almost decided at that point.

Other Notes:
I guess the Miners' shirts were passed from the miners to the Chos to the Bama Moms. Either that or David and Mary had a bunch to pass around. I wonder if the racers had a separate laundry budget or facilities to wash their own clothes at the pit stops.

Google Earth just added new Geographic Web Layers. I noticed it when checking out the location of the Eiffel Tower and Place de la Concorde. There are some cool links to pictures of both locations and other pointers. The two locations are pretty close together but I guess the racers had to take a major detour and stop by Omaha beach for skydiving.

I think I mentioned before that I have visited Paris. I stayed at a hotel about 3 or 4 blocks SW along the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. The fancy restaurant where I dined, Ledoyen, is just WNW of Place de la Concorde. That area is also where the Tour de France traditionally finishes.

I have stayed in New York a few times as well, but I never passed by any of the places where the teams had to find clues.

Hopefully the woman in the yellow cap stayed dry in rainy weather by standing under the sculpture. Maybe there were spotters that let her know when any teams were close? I wonder what the auditions were like for that brief role. "Are you willing to wear a loud yellow top and hat?"

The woman judging when the dress was finished may have been the harshest judge in the history of the Amazing Race. There were challenges involving putting together some Ikea furniture and Greek statues with judges who were almost as serious about enforcing the rules.

I guess the teaser for next season confirmed the next race is an All-Star edition with some secret teams to be revealed while other teams have relationships that have changed since they originally raced. Oh well, until February, I'll have to find other subjects to write about.

TV: Amazing Race 10 - Episodes 11 and 12

The Thanksgiving holiday, a pileup of work assignments, and apartment cleaning prevented me from paying attention to my blog last week. Bad way to start off Year Two of my Chronicles, which is due for some minor tweaks to take advantage of the new Beta Blogger features.

Anyway, this edition of the race has remained true to form and had the teams finish in almost the exact reverse order than I predicted. The Beauty Queens were finally eliminated after being in the gun sights of every other team for several legs now. Their strategy for winning almost worked out for them, and they were a strong team that never had any conflicts, but in the end Karma demanded its pound of flesh (not camel meat) and so they were doomed. Even if the Queens had not overshot a challenge a week ago and put Rob and Kim into last, they would have still lost since Rob and Kim came in first this week and would have avoided the 30 minute penalty.

Granted the stress of having to come in first could have caused Rob and Kim to crumble this week. I totally thought they were goners once they chose to search for a clue in a pile of tomatoes while getting pelted by locals. I thought they were headed for a nuclear meltdown. Usually the "find a needle in a haytomato stack challenge" has taken down the strongest of teams, but somehow Rob and Kim and the Bama Moms found the clue to the Pitstop rather quickly.

The Bama Moms have proven that one can go fast by starting slow and staying calm. Last week they took advantage of not getting an earlier flight to study some maps of Morocco, so they did not get lost while other teams relied on sometimes unreliable locals for directions. They could have finished first last week while the Models had to run back to their car to get some good luck charm. This week they walked through a maze and were the first to find a way out of it. If they did not have such bad luck with taxis, they could have finished first again this week. Congratulations to them for being the first all-female team to get into the final 3. At first I thought the Bowling Moms had achieved that feat, but maybe they only made the final 4.

Other Notes:
The chariot races looked fun but dangerous. I wonder how they stayed in those things on such a bumpy track. Having a couple of stunt charioteers take a spill was pretty cool.

Hopefully Rob and Kim can avoid driving the rest of the race. I cannot recall another team having worse luck with cars.

Kim needs to see more of the world. This week she mistook some goats as dogs. I almost fell off my chair when that happened. Though I am not sure if those were goats or lambs. I was on the island of Nevis where a local had to teach me that goats have their tails up while sheep have tails that go down.

One pound or half a kilogram of meat is quite a bit of food no matter what animal it is. I probably would have made the camel kabobs a little too spicy.

I had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful city of Barcelona five or six years ago. On my last day there, I spent a whole day walking around the city. I started from my hotel to the incredible Sagrada Familia via the Diagonal. Then I went to the old bull ring, Magic Fountain, and Art Museum where the pitstop was this week. I went further up that hill to the Olympic stadium. Then I walked by the spot where the Olympic diving and swimming competitions were held. I recognized that site when I saw the first split second of the music video "Slow" by Kylie Minogue. From there I took an aerial tramway down to the harbor, walked along the beaches, and ended my trek by walking up Las Ramblas where one of the Detours took place. I do not recall the distance from Las Ramblas to the Pitstop being very far. With traffic it might be hard to say if a taxi would have been much faster than walking.

Next week, one of the final three teams will earn a million dollars. I have no clue who that will be, and I imagine I will be glued to the TV until the end. Plus I am already looking forward to the next Amazing Race. It is going to be an All-Star Edition featuring the return of the very loved and hated Team Romber. I vaguely recall getting an unusual cluster of hits to my website from Miami a few weeks ago too. Hmm...