I hadn’t seen Hardy, my mom’s cousin, in several years. I’m not even really sure when I last saw him – a reunion or a funeral. It all seems very weird.

[Edit: NTSB's finding]

Two die in midair plane crash at Westerly State Airport

Associated Press
November 17, 2003

WESTERLY, R.I. — Two Rhode Island men died after the small plane they were riding in collided in midair with another small aircraft at Westerly State Airport, officials said Monday.

The airplanes, a Piper Arrow and a Cessna 182, crashed Sunday about 100 feet above the runway, according to Ted Drozdz, chief aeronautics inspector for Rhode Island Airport Corp. He said the airport does not have an air traffic control tower, and pilots are expected to notify each other when they are taking off and landing.

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I haven’t road tripped in a while, and haven’t made it to any UTexas games in Austin all year, so I finally decided late friday that I’d hit the road saturday morning to Austin. I haven’t been on the road on game day in a very long time (I usually go in friday night if not earlier). I haven’t seen all the oranged and longhorned cars in caravan from Houston to Austin in a while.

Stayed with Bob & Cristen, and went to their place in NW Austin about 1 pm. We soon left for the Tialgate – in a parking garage to fend off the weather. Unfortunately, a pinched nerve (sleeping wrong?) kept getting worse throughout the afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day is sharp pain. Though beer did a decent job of muscle relaxing.

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Well, Charlie’s Big Top Lounge, the current working name for my slave labor of the past 6+ months, is coming along quite well.  Here’s some pictures from a few weeks ago.

Things done since then: most of the bathroom partitions, the front wall, solid with windows (old doors) hanging in them, the transoms are cleaned up and replaced, the hardwoods between the bar and rail are going in right now.

“Oklahoma may well be the most underrated team in America after the Sooners won their 10th in a row Saturday, treating the Texas Aggies to the death of a thousand cuts 77-0.” – Mickey Herskowitz

Yes, Oklahoma – voted unanimously number one in both the Associated Press and the USA Today polls – is underrated. Because there is likely someone somewhere that thinks there is a team that can beat them this year. They are wrong.

I am, of course, really just upset that OU beat Texas’ record for biggest whipping administered to A&M (48-0, 1898), allowing A&M 54 total yards and never out of their own side of the field in their 77-0 demolition.

Texas may well be the second best team in the Big XII this year, but that’s not going to keep them from sitting at home and watching the Big XII Championship. Likely to be yet another rout by the Sooners.

-b

Well, what was an I-guess-I’ll-make-it-an-early-night turned into a late night of club hopping.

I started at the Continental Club for the Light Rock Express happy hour. Molly & the Ringwalds picked up a private gig, so they were the stand-ins. It was fun to watch peoples’ reactions as they came in. I think they should do a tour of Holiday Inns in the 713 and 281.

Before I left the CC, I listened to a bit of The El Orbit’s new Holiday Album (cover art by Beans Barton). It’s a fun and good CD. Many family members can expect it for Xmas. Pete said it’s the second full-length Christmas CD he’s recorded. We were wondering how many musicians had done that. (Someone do the research for me).

I then headed over to Rudyard’s for the Starr Project performances. Continue reading

“Of the $1.6 billion the Corps of Engineers had allocated as of Oct. 17 to rebuild Iraq’s oil infrastructure, some $762.4 million had been spent to import fuel and repair Iraq’s fuel distribution network. Halliburton is permitted to earn a profit of anywhere from 2 to 7 percent on the cost of the assignment.”
[source]
[...]
“Given the extraordinarily high prices that Halliburton has been charging to import gasoline, this action could save American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” Rep. Henry Waxman,

We only get 2-7% on the cost it takes us to do the job? How will we make more money? Any Economics 101 student will tell you, “run up the cost”.

-b