71 thoughts on “February 29, 2012: Leap Day”

  1. Just a B squad game today, but it is still good. "Real" spring training games start Saturday and that will be on the radio.

  2. Everyone stay up way too late for the Wolves game or what? This place is a little creepy when it's empty.

    1. I had one of the worst nights in memory last night - fighting dehydration, it now seems - and completely missed the game. Now I'm at work, still fighting dehydration, still having seen no highlights of the game, and my work computer system won't allow me to do the project I'm here early to do. Wooooo.

      2. my work computer system won't allow me to do the project I'm here early to do

        That sounds like an IT problem. Let's get nibbish on it right away.

  3. My goodness, this Twin Cities weather is awful. I'm staying home today because I didn't feel comfortable driving my roommate's car in this much sloppy ice. Stay safe out there everybody.

    But special CC to cheaptoy: turns out it was just a couple of isolated parts that were causing the trouble in my car!!! Unfortunately the parts were two oxygen sensors that cost $370 each to replace.

    1. in my Southern Minnesota neighborhood, all the backyards have standing water. The rain gauge says 1.50", but I think it was more. There was lightning and thunder last night. I havent been out driving yet, but I imagine a lot of storm drains are clogged and there is water everywhere.

      1. Yup. We had the storming here in Mankato too. It was kind of fun to have a thunderstorm in February. It looks like stuff is starting to drain ok, but slower than normal, that's for sure.

    2. I think only the pre-catalytic converter O2 sensor would cause any gas mileage issues, so you could probably just get that one replaced to see if it takes care of the problem, then decide if replacing the downstream sensor is worth the money to not have the check engine light on. (you could also do it yourself, if you were feeling up for it.)

      Good to hear that it isn't anything too major requiring thousands of dollars, though.

      1. Oh I would love to just buy the part and put it in myself, but I don't think I trust myself to do it correctly. I will ask them about doing the pre-catalytic sensor first, but I'm guessing they will talk me into doing both anyway. They also said that there is a pretty good chance that the catalytic converter will need to be replaced as well, but they won't know for sure until they do the O2 sensors. I'd definitely shop around on that one until I could find the best deal.

            1. I have no idea what this site would do without you. Can you make a hj-call somehow incorporating editing software?

    3. Yeah, needing two oxygen sensors would absolutely kill your mileage. My Volvo needed one near the end of my time driving it, and as a result became thirstier than normal.

      Of course, I'm free from that particular demon now, though I may have to worry about carburetor rebuilds.

    4. I've been having odd stretches the past couple of days (usually in the late afternoon) when I feel really sick for a couple of hours and then it passes. I volunteered a few weeks ago to drive our international Macalester student to the airport this morning (he's flying to a conference in Seattle to try to find a job), so I had to get him there by 530a. After trudging around in the slush and shoveling the house this morning, I got ready for work and began feeling really sick again (worse than in the past). After driving partway downtown, I finally turned around and am sitting today out on the couch trying to figure out whatever it is that is bothering me. I'm a little bummed because I really wanted to observe a hearing that is happening right now, but oh well...

  5. its never good when George Dohrmann is investigating your program:Whats wrong at UCLA

    After Tubby Smiths comments the other day about the 'urban environment' sort of causing the poor play of his Gopher squad, I wonder if the same thing is happening here. T

    1. As a Pacers fan, I still remember where I was watching that game and then staring in disbelief.

  7. So, the Family Runner hit the Magic Kingdom at 6AM when it opened; being Leap Day, it's open 24hrs. And being it's in the 80s here, we'll be napping in the middle of the day. 'scuse me while I go lie down...

    1. There's a bat laying nearby. Are we sure he isn't just taking BP against pitches outside the zone?

  11. Well, my day could have been a lot worse. Going east on 694 this morning at about 30 MPH, some car came on from Boone Ave and started sliding into my lane. I had to quick turn left and braced myself for impact. Somehow I wasn't hit, then I did what they tell you not to do and turned against the slide. I swerved right, swerved left, and swerved right again. I eventually straightened it out, there were no accidents behind me, and I kept going with my heart racing a million miles a minute.

    1. It's so hard to fight the instinct on turning against the slide/slamming on brakes in those types of situations. Glad to hear you didn't die.

      Also, it's weird hearing about all this awful weather when it's not so bad down here. We had some slush yesterday, it all left with the rain last night, and now things are jut a little damp.

      1. Heh, now that I have a car with ABS for the first time in my life, I find it hard to slam on the brakes and not pump.

        I do agree its weird hearing about this stuff. We didn't even get any slush, just a solid rainstorm last night.

        1. I had the same problem for the longest time. I've gotten better about not pumping the ABS.

          There was a point a while back where my ABS system was going out. I started sliding and my pump-the-brake instinct kicked back in. That was lucky.

          Where you at Cheap?

          1. Just south of Madison. I feel like we've gotten off easy as far as winter driving conditions are concerned.

            1. Mankato has been easy too. We on about the same line then?

              It's been huge here, because Mankato is crap for driving normally and just pure awful in the winter. This winter has been a nice reprieve.

              1. We're a bit further south yet, below the MN/IA border. But if I remember yesterday morning when they were showing the storm warning map, that's about how far north the cut-off was for rain/snow.

        2. When I first got ABS in 2002, I had to fight that instinct as well.

          I didn't touch the brakes at all thankfully when I went into the slide.

        1. I always steer in the direction I want the front of the vehicle to go. That seems like an easier way to explain it than steer into/out of the slide.

  12. +/- per 48 before last night:

    Barea +5.3
    Beasley +0.1
    Ellington +3.0
    Johnson −3.6
    Love +2.8
    Milicic −8.4
    Pekovic +5.0
    Ridnour −2.3
    Rubio +2.6
    Tolliver +2.7
    Webster +8.1
    Williams +2.8

  15. Is it the mobile site or my Droid? I cannot seem to scroll back and forth. Deep into threads, LTEs seem to bleed off the right of the screen so that I can't see the whole things.

          1. I did recently simplify the mobile site to have less scrolling. It seems that turned into "no scrolling" though. I'll look into it when I can.

  17. ummm wow. the USMNT beat Italy in Genoa. Clint Dempsey is only the 4th American to score a goal against Italy

  18. So, I get a lot of bizarre customers coming in, but today's first one was insane. I sold an iPod Touch to a lady who was buying it for her daughter. Her daughter, who was with her, was less than two years old. The lady's explanation was "she's always eating my phone, and I want it back!"

    So, in her mind, a $200 iPod was the best solution. Not a fake phone that lights up and makes funny sounds, for no more than five bucks. A friggin' iPod Touch.

    3. To be fair, my daughter (22 months next week) absolutely loves her itouch. We didn't buy it for her (it was actually mine before I got a smartphone), but we just wiped it of everything but her nighttime music and put a bunch of puzzle games on it and it's golden. Of course, we follow the TV type rules (limits on how often she can play with it), but the i- user interface really is so simple a child (or an idiot) can figure it out.

      1. The only thing I'll comment on is that it's a running gag among those of us who work there that a ridiculously large number of people think it's called an "iTouch."

  19. So the day just gets better. We found out at about 6:45 that my father in law has lung cancer. He's been having other problems with his lung recently, which is the really scary part. He had lung surgery in December and the tumor wasn't there at that time. As of last week, when they found the thing with a CT scan, it's at about 2 inches. Wife's at the hospital now with my mother in law and her sisters.

    3. Wow. I can only try to imagine what you must be going through. You and your family are in our prayers.

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