Huskers Lose Again

Well, the Huskers lost again today. Bad. We played Oklahoma State, and were supposed to win. But, that didn't exactly happen, and we it was a horrible defeat. Ugh. For a program that had so many hopes early in the season, we're quickly tanking, and have settled back to mediocrity, something that we really wanted to avoid. Oh well, it's only a game, but still, it would have been nice to see the once mighty Cornhuskers fighting their way back to the glory days.

Aromatherapy Stinks

You may recall, awhile ago, I bought some eucalyptus oil to use in the sauna at the gym. I thought I might give aromatherapy a try at home too, to see if there's any claim to the hype. I ordered an oil diffuser, which is simply a small adobe lantern that holds a couple ounces of water and oil in the top, and a tea light candle below. There are dozens of essential oils, but the key is to find the right blend of essential oils that supposedly evoke different feelings and emotions. I ordered several samples from a mail order essential oil company, and I have to say, they are all junk. The blends I ordered were named Calming, Relaxing, Refreshing, Take 5, etc. Mostly, they are weird smells, nothing that I would choose to have in my house. So, I may just stick to standard essential oils, such as Sweet Orange, Lavender, Lemon, Cinnamon, etc. At least those are smells that I can tolerate, but the oil blends have to go.

Huskers Can't Beat Texas

The Huskers played an awesome game today against Texas. In fact, we had the game won, except for a fumble in the last 2 minutes of the game which allowed Texas to come back and kick a field goal. Ugh! But, we played on hell of a game, and even though we lost, it's not that bad. Actually, we'll probably be playing Texas again, in the Big 12 Championship game in early December.

Enjoying the Gym

I've been hitting the gym for the last 3 years or so, not to become a buff stud, but simply to stay active. I have a very sedentary job, and this is my way of adding exercise to my daily routine. I don't go everyday, but once every few days, and mainly just use the treadmill and the elliptical trainers. Occasionally, I go for a swim, but the water is very cold. One of the things I've come to enjoy the most is the sauna. The gym has both a dry and wet sauna. I've tried them both. They both are OK. The dry sauna gets to about 175 degrees, and the wet sauna gets to about 120 degrees, but with extremely high humidity.

A few weeks ago, one of the members put some eucalyptus oil in the wet sauna. It was a refreshing change, and helped to hide the gym odor that can sometimes be quite prevalent. So, I bought a bottle of oil, and now use it if I can. The problem, a lot of people are allergic to it, and thus you have to be considerate of your fellow gym members. It's such an invigorating experience. Now, I wish I could get a portable sauna for home use. They're not terribly expensive, the cheapest go for about $1000 at wholesale sites on the Internet. A pricey toy, but perhaps worth it if one can garner such enjoyment out of it.

Go Huskers

Well, the Nebraska Cornhuskers are now 6 and 1 for the season. We've got a really good team, and have finally cracked the Top 20 in the polls. I believe we're number 17 in the AP poll. Woohoo! We've got some tough teams coming up, so I'm not sure our winning streak will continue, but we've got a fighting chance.

Back in the Saddle

I made a trip across the river today to take over the Iowa deposit aluminum cans. And, it just happens that the dropoff location is just down the road from the casinos. Hmm. Plus, I had a coupon for lunch that I didn't want to waste. So, I enjoyed a grand lunch buffet, then sat down for about an hour to try my luck at Blackjack. I haven't played in a couple of months, and in fact, the last three times I did play, I lost each time. So, I was a little gunshy about trying my luck again. Ha. Well, Lady Luck returned, at least this day, and I walked away with $100 profit. Awesome! I'm getting a silver eagle commemorative coin set in a couple of weeks, and it costs exactly $100, so it's an even wash.

New Toys

We've had a DVR cable box for almost two years. It has revolutionized home recording, making the VCR obsolete. There's no need for tapes, and it's amazingly easy to record shows. However, we've found that with 3 people trying to record shows, often, there's conflict. So, I began to research options of setting up a PVR on our basement computer. I discovered Beyond TV, which when combined with a TV capture card, sets up the same capabilities on the PC. It's very cool, and should alleviate some of the bottleneck we've experienced on the DVR. And, I can convert the MPEG2 files into WMV files, so that I can take shows with me to use on other computers (laptops, work computers, etc). It's the technological age, and it's amazing at how many new toys there are
each year.