Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Carrier security outsourcing making connections

For those that wonder "So... what exactly is it that you do?" This article doesn't really answer that, LOL, but what I do contributes to this stuff. In particular some of the stuff I've been working on lately is pretty interesting and is related to this quote:
"There will always be opportunities from an attack perspective for us to take action and protect customers on the backbone, and we'll do that," she said. "We've also driven a lot of internal innovation in last three years for fighting issues such as targeted attacks; we're building out the honeynets and doing more correlation of data. Now we're in the phase of launching services as both stand-alones and value-adds."

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Tif and I on Mount Lemmon

As I mentioned in the previous post, Tif and I went up to Mount Lemmon. The ride was really nice and we actually drove through the town this time. Last time Tina and I went up there the road was all torn up with major construction.

 

 

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Cap'n Jack & The Axe: Adevntures in the AZ Badlands

Since we trailered Captain Jack to AZ; I figured I should make take the opportunity to do some good rides. Nothing too long, since I wanted to spend time with Tif and the Pea; but just get out and take advantage of the warm AZ Nov. weather. A few hours here and there.

So - the last Friday we were there I decided to head down to Madera Canyon. I had been looking for an 'M' for Harley ABCs Tour, and it had shown up. Tif and I went and got the 'M' at Mount Lemmon, but the web page had looked cool so I decided to head down. Tucson is pretty cool in that; although you'd think it was pretty much "pure desert", you can get an hour or so out of town and be in all different kinds of terrain. Another "ride up into the mountains" sounded fun.

So I did some google mapping and found a pretty good loop. South out of town, down the S Nagoles Highway, then down Whitehouse Canyon Rd and into the Canyon itself. Coming back out I'd take E Box Canyon Rd, over to Hwy 83 and north back into town. All in all a pretty good ride and shouldn't take too long.

So we (Captain Jack and I) head south out of town, and avoiding the interstate, we take Sahuarita Rd west to Nagoles... only deal is that they are graveling it and its got fresh gravel. Not to great on the bike, but we brave it - at least traffic is flowing at 25... Until we hit the one lane. So Cap'n Jack and I kick back in the 90 degree heat, Aerosmith blasting, and trying not to get too fried. After about 5 minutes I turn him off (to keep cool - or at least not get so hot) but still listen to the tunes. Finally the pilot car comes and we are on our way. I'm not sure how much longer this construction is going to last; but at least Wilmont should be soon and we can head south (not wanting to take this road all the way to the Nagoles Hwy).

We get to Wilmont... and its a dirt road - so we continue on our way. Finally we find a paved road heading south and we roar off, picking up some speed and some wind. Going along through the Pecan orchards; the temperature drops a good 10 degrees. Its awesome... until 5 miles later, yup - it turns to dirt. So we turn around, head back north and stay on Sahuarita till we hit the Nagoles Hwy, and head south on that, following the signs to Madera Canyon.

We are heading south, and then east, but it doesn't look like we are going to get that much closer to the Mountains... but then the road starts heading due south and says the National Park is about 8 miles ahead - so we should at least get into the foothills. Cool deal.

We then get closer to the park and see this sign, about 20 feet past the park sign:



Just in case you can't read that... here is a close up:



Yeah... that's right
SMUGGLING AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY BE ENCOUNTERED IN THIS AREA.
Gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling doesn't it? Especially when I've seen like ONE car so far.

Anyway, we are up for it and continue on. I get into the park and it is pretty cool. Saw: deer, wild turkeys, quail, squirrels and all kinds of birds. And there were plenty of people around picnicking, hiking, etc. Up into the canyon, dessert giving way to foothills with all kinds of trees, little stream. Very nice.

Coming back out of it we head north on the road and get to the Box Canyon turn off. "14 miles to 83".... and the road is dirt! But it doesn't look "that bad", and surely its not all dirt - so off we go.

A little nervous, given the sign and all; but we're doing 35 - 40, so moving right along. Then we see a sign (after about 5 miles) that says something like "9 miles of narrow road ahead". 5 miles back or 9 miles ahead? We continue on.

And the road just gets worse and worse. We are now doing maybe 10 MP, and sometimes almost coming to a complete stop as we cross what look like 4 wheel drive roads. Single lane, switchbacks, soft dirt or rocks everywhere. I'm expecting someone to jump out at any corner... Kind of get this "Badges... we don't need no stinkin' badges" picture in my mind.

Anyway, we continue on. And we are going slow enough to see the 3 inch flying bug things in front of us that keep slowly flying out of our way as we pass.

The road keeps switchbacking up and up. Not like going over Independence Pass or anything, since we are in the hills... but still very twisting and you can't see more than about 10 feet in front of you and some of the corners feel like they are about 5 miles wide. We did see one truck on the road. We pulled to the side and he passed us in the opposite direction and then we ate his dust for the next mile or so. Eventually we started heading back down and came to this little canyon.


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Pretty cool! The only place I stopped to take a picture. The rest of the time we just kept moving! Before we got to 83 we did hit pavement finally and went through some ranch land. Again... a different part of AZ. Looked like CO to some extent. Pasture land, windmills, cows, trees. Very pretty. Then hit 83 and roared home.

All in all, quite the adventure and it all turned out well. I wouldn't do it with Cap'n Jack every again - but a dirt bike or a pickup might be fun. It was very pretty.

Brian's response when Tif talked to him on the phone and told him I went down to Madera and then across Box Canyon on the bike by myself... "Is he nuts?"

:)

The Biker Pea - Bad to the Bone

PeaBaby's first "ride" on a Harley. OK... so we didn't actually move, but it was on so he "felt the rumble!" He told me he can't wait till he's old enough to go for an actual ride!








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Thursday, November 01, 2007

Creamed Leeks

Sunday I made a good, but very rich, dinner. Not really on my diet... but hey, it was only one dinner.

Chicken Marsala
Onion Risotto
Creamed Leeks

YUM!

1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C butter
5 Leeks, cut in about 1 inch sections, washed well! (soaked and rinsed 3 times). Used the "stem" part as well as most of the "leaves" part.

Heat the oil/butter and saute the leeks for about 5 or 10 minutes till soft. At this point I had quite a bit of liquid, so I poured some off. So you can probably use less oil/butter or more leeks.

Poured 1 C of Heavy Whipping Cream on them and let them saute until the sauce thickened, about 15 minutes or so.

Seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

That's it! Easy, rich and a great taste. Definitely something I have to keep in mind as a standard.

Just like when she was little

When Tif was a little girl (2 or less) and I had the Camero in Big Timber (1968 Camero SS with a 500HP 454 in it, 3/4 racing cam, straight-line shifter), when we would cruise the drag, the car would always lope. She would sit in the back seat and say "Hot Rod Daddy, Hot Rod!", wanting me to hit the gas and make the car rock.

I took her for a rid up to Mount Lemmon a couple of days ago. I took off from the stop-light and put it through the first three gears. From behind me all of a sudden I heard her start giggling. "I LOVE it when you do that!"

Yeah, took me right back. Some things never change. :)