Please remember that we will not be having the regular Tuesday night trivia this week due to the Christmas holiday, and it will be happening this Wednesday night, again at 9 PM.

The featured category this week will be The Year 2007 Trivia, as I will be asking 10 questions about events that occurred this year. We also be having the usual four categories as well.

Since I will not be posting on Tuesday due to the Christmas holiday, I will be posting the Sneak Peek question a day earlier. So, here it is:

"What was the name of the hit song by The Baha Men in 2000?"

I hope many of you can make it for Trivia Night on Wednesday. And please remember that next week's Trivia Night will also be on Wednesday night, January 2, due to the New Year's holiday.

See you Wednesday.

As I write this, the Red Sox are just arriving in Japan for the exhibition and regular season games they will play there. Today's Boston Globe has the complete schedule for the three-week trip that also include the games they will play in Los Angeles, Oakland and Toronto, before returning to Boston to raise the world championship flag on April 8.

Here is the long road ahead for the Sox (all times are Eastern):

March 21: Red Sox vs. Hanshin Tigers, 11:05 p.m. (Exhibition in Japan)
March 23: Red Sox vs. Yomiuri Giants, 6:05 a.m. (Exhibition in Japan)
March 25: Red Sox vs. Athletics, 6:05 a.m. (Regular season opener in Japan) NESN, ESPN2
March 26: Red Sox vs. Athletics, 6:05 a.m. (Regular season game in Japan) NESN, ESPN2
March 28: Red Sox at Dodgers, 10:40 p.m. (Exhibition)
March 29: Red Sox at Dodgers, 10:10 p.m. (Exhibition at LA Coliseum) NESN
March 30: Red Sox at Dodgers, 4:10 p.m. (Exhibition)
April 1: Red Sox at Athletics, 10:05 p.m. (Regular season) NESN
April 2: Red Sox at Athletics, 3:35 p.m. (Regular season) NESN
April 4: Red Sox at Blue Jays, 7:15 p.m. (Regular season) NESN
April 5: Red Sox at Blue Jays, 1:07 p.m. (Regular season) NESN
April 6: Red Sox at Blue Jays, 1:07 p.m. (Regular season) NESN
April 8: Red Sox vs. Tigers, 2:05 p.m. (Opening Day at Fenway) NESN

My friend Jules passed along to me today the updated Red Sox spring schedule on NESN. The network is showing just seven Grapefruit League contests, along with the two regular seasons games being played in Japan this year. Here is the schedule:

Friday, February 29 vs. Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium, Ft. Myers, FL 7:00 PMSunday, March 2 vs. Minnesota Twins at Ft. Myers, FL 1:00 PMSunday, March 9 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers at Vero Beach, FL 1:00 PMSunday, March 16 vs. Pittsburgh Pirates at Bradenton, FL 1:00 PMMonday, March 17 vs. New York Yankees at Tampa, FL 1:00 PMWednesday, March 19 vs. Toronto Blue Jays at Ft. Myers, FL 12:00 PMSaturday, March 29 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers at LA Coliseum, 10:00 PM

It's pretty obvious I've dropped off the pace in posting here a little bit. But never fear my loyal readers, I'm not thinking of abandoning the blog any time soon. I probably won't get back to regular daily posting for a while, but I'll be around.

The subject of today's post is a great new song from Frightened Rabbit. You might remember their song "Be Less Rude" which was one of my favorite tracks of 2007, and I also posted about their debut record back in June of last year.

They've got a new album, due out on April 1, called The Midnight Organ Fight. And based on this track it'll be more of what made their debut so good.

The Modern Leper - Frightened Rabbit

The Red Sox announced their Spring Training schedule today. There are eight fewer games due to the Red Sox opening their regular season next year in Japan. They are also playing the majority of their Florida games at home in Ft. Myers at City of Palms Park. Here it is:

Feb. 28 Boston College (SS) City of Palms Park 1:05 p.m.
Feb. 28 Northeastern (SS) City of Palms Park 6:05 p.m.
Feb. 29 Twins Hammond Stadium 7:05 p.m.
March 1 Twins Hammond Stadium 1:05 p.m.
March 2 Twins City of Palms Park 1:05 p.m.
March 3 Marlins Jupiter 1:05 p.m.
March 4 Pirates City of Palms Park 1:05 p.m.
March 5 Reds City of Palms Park 1:05 p.m.
March 6 Dodgers City of Palms Park 1:05 p.m.

It's now official. If you want to see the Red Sox opener in 2008 live and in person, you'll have to go a long way to see it.

The Red Sox will open the 2008 season, and the defense of their World Series championship (I love writing that) on March 25 and 26 at the Tokyo Dome (pictured) in Japan against the Oakland Athletics.

I'm off to New Orleans tomorrow morning, which is very exciting for me, but which likely means no posting here for the next week. So yes, that does mean February is shaping up to be my least prolific posting month since I started this thing. Many apologies. I do really want to talk about about some new records (most notably Grand Archives and the Magnetic Fields) but it'll probably have to wait until next week.

For now, how about some R.E.M.?

New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 - R.E.M.

Not really, but...

I was breezing right through this month. Topics were flying at me from every which way- until today. I couldn't think of a thing to post about. I think I've run out of things to say. [Gasp!] So let's see, what can I talk about?

-I've got a good bite out of my Christmas shopping. Of course, I have the hardest ones left to buy for.
-I had the sudden urge to paint something today. Not art, window ledges.
-I'm struggling with Bleak House.
-I'm enjoying Chocloat.

Leeds keep winning (hurrah!) but The Smiths lost (sorry Marcus, but booo).

During my holiday, this little chap lived outside my window for 9 days. Any arachnologists out there that can identify it? I'm hoping it's a super venomous bad boy, but somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, it's nice to be home. Hopefully I'll raise the effort to start posting slightly better and more regular content shortly.

I've admittedly been lax about posting this week. I don't even have a good excuse, except that I've spent the last five or six days in a whirlwind of board games, Bruce Springsteen, Veronica Mars, and Thanksgiving feasting.

So in anticipation of a return to some real posting soon, let me just say that Illuminati is great, The Boss is called the boss for a reason, season 3 of V Mars may not be quite as good as the first two but is still better than anything else on TV, and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Huge plates of stuffing, mushroom gravy, cranberries, corn on the cob, honeyed yams with brown sugar, ginger and cinnamon, corn bread with honey, green beans, peanut soup, pumpkin pie...it was a full vegetarian feast.

Post off-topic links, observations, and stories about the Sacramento real estate market here. Please read the comment policy before posting.

Sacramento Land(ing) will experience a short hiatus as I travel over the next week and a half. Please help your fellow readers by posting links to news articles about the Sacramento real estate market in the comments below. Please read the comment policy before posting.

You can also follow the Sacramento real estate market on The Housing Bubble blog's California thread. For commentary and statistics on Sacramento's real estate market, try the Sacramento Real Estate Statistics blog and the Average Buyer blog. To be notified when posting resumes, subscribe to Sacramento Land(ing)'s site feed here.

I wanted to thank you all for the numerous links, tips, and photos that I regularly receive. Although I don't always get the chance to respond, I do appreciate your contributions. Speaking of which, here's a photo sent in by reader LL. Thanks!

Here's a meme I saw Danielle and Kate do this week, and it is intriguing to look back at this time of year, so I'll give it a go also. The purpose of this one is to post the first lines from each month's first post, and see what results.

January: Audrey Thomas' Graven Images is one of those books that just appeared in my collection somehow; I was intrigued enough to read it, even though I'd never heard of it.

Well, I've finally found a way to combine all of my blogs and web content onto one site. Sorry for the confusion here, folks, but I'd encourage you to check out the "new" Brand Central Station by clicking here.

I won't be posting on this blogger site any more. It's been a great home while it lasted, but I'm moving to a new location where life will be a little easier to manage. All of my

Yes, I haven't been posting. Things have been crazy here with catching up after jury duty and the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm sorry for neglecting the blog. I really am going to try to get back on track. Tomorrow I'll have the monthly book club report (we met yesterday) and with any luck I'll be able to eek out another post over the weekend. Thanks for being patient with me.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Do you get on a roll when you read, so that one book leads to the next, which leads to the next, and so on and so on?

Somehow, I've survived another year.

Daily posting will resume next week -- in the meantime, I've got beers that need drinking.

It's gonna be a glorious summer.

On Tuesday night, we will be having as our special category, "June 3rd Trivia." It will be seven questions connected in some way to June 3rd. We will also have the usual four other categories up as well, and we'll get going at the regular 9 PM start time.

We will also have a special new twist to "The Q Train" this week. (You'll find out when we get going on Tuesday night.)

This week's Sneak Peek question is:
The Swingline company is most famous for making what product?

We've been getting some excellent crowds on Trivia Night, so I hope many of you can come out on Tuesday.

I am sorry I have been laxed in posting. A lot has been going on over the last couple of weeks. My mom, cousin and aunt came to stay with me the last week of February to help prepare for my baby shower. They were really sweet and helped keep the house picked up so that I didn't have to. The shower went off without a hitch with about 21 of our nearest and dearest friends in attendance. Baby got a lot of cool loot to keep him clothes and entertained. One of our friends actually quilted a baby blanket to look like the pieces from the Carcassonne game. Needless to say Dan was seriously coveting the blanket. He also was in love with the Organic stuffed monkey. The weather was really great that weekend so we went for a picnic and walk at Zilker Park. Later that night after we had all gone to bed my uncle called to tell us that my grandmother had passed away. My mom and I were up most of the night talking. The next day my mom and aunt were on their phones with my family up North trying to coordinate all the details of my grandmothers passing. They flew back to Arizona's to get some clothes and their husbands before flying to Detroit and driving to Ohio for the funeral.

“RECONCILIATION” BENEFIT!

WHEN: Tuesday, March 4th at 8 p.m.

WHERE: The Laugh Factory

PROCEEDS WILL GO TO THE WGF INDUSTRY SUPPORT FUND

To celebrate the end of the strike, Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada will host a “Reconciliation” Benefit at the Laugh Factory, Tuesday, March 4th at 8 p.m. Proceeds go to the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund to assist all those NON-WRITERS

My last official week of work was very hectic. The person who is replacing me was out sick most of the week so I was pretty busy trying to get all the final January grants and reports into the various funders. I worked a short day on Friday so that I could have lunch with someone to discuss my being a consultant to their non-profit and then later in the afternoon I went and got my hair cut. I also went to Sugar Shack, the best Candy store in the world, and bought my husband a very expensive chocolate assortment. My work has asked me to come in for a couple of hours on Wednesday and Thursday, which I have agreed to do, because that would make me have a full paycheck instead of just a half a paycheck. You can’t really beat that.

Yikes, a bit of a lull here. Sorry about that. I've been super busy in LA for the last week and a half, but I'm now safely ensconced at a friend's house in Berkeley, here to spend a few days relaxing, sampling the local cuisine, visiting relatives and generally having a fun time. So I should get back to updating on my usual (semi) regular basis.

But before I do that, let me just say that I detest LAX. It's a terrible, awful place in a terrible, awful city.

LAX - Hot Snakes

Still, at least my computer didn't get stolen this year, unlike my last trip to LA.

Must think hockey, must think hockey!

With surf of the Pacific crashing ashore and the holes of Pebble Beach beckoning, last weeks meetings of NHL executives did not produce any large scale change to the direction of the game. No ice breaking declarations and no major shift in the dynamic of the game.

At long last, the BrandBuilder blog is moving from blogspot to Worpress. (Yay!)

What this means:

1. A slightly updated look.
2. Added functionality and features for you, my readers.
3. Clean RSS, at last.
4. Comments will work smoothly for everyone again.
5. Better integration with my complete web footprint (flickr, linkedIn, twitter, seesmic, buzznet, etc.)

The Transition Schedule:

Here's an important message for all of Professor Thom's Trivia Night regulars.

We will have changes to the nights we will be doing it because of Celtics going to the NBA Finals. Trivia Night will be happening this Tuesday night, June 3rd, at the normal time of 9 PM.

But the week after that, we will be moving our Trivia Night back to Wednesday, June 11th at 8:30 PM, due to the fact that Game 3 of the NBA Finals will be happening the previous Tuesday night.

Now, stay with me, this might sound complicated. The week after that, we will be having a special Monday night edition of Trivia, on June 16th at 8:30 PM, if the NBA Finals does not conclude by Sunday, June 15th (that is Game 5). Game 6 of the NBA Finals is scheduled for Tuesday night, June 17th. (Unfortunately, I can't be at Thom's that Wednesday due to a prior commitment.) If the finals have finished by that Sunday, we will have the normal Tuesday night edition at the normal time.

In January of 2004 REALTOR® Kent snatched up a piece of prime Santaluz 1.6 acre plot at $560,000. Despite monthly mello roos, property tax, and HOA of $1,500 on an empty plot of land, this property was going to make him millions by the time he's done with the home.

Figuring the longer he hold on to the land, the more it appreciates, REALTOR® Kent then held on to the empty plot for a couple of years. This is called Kent's "maximize profits through absolutely no cash flow properties" plan.

While I had a wonderful time on my trip it is nice to be home. I was beginning to miss my husband. Who by the way bought a brand new mattress for our bed so that I could get a better nights sleep. He’s a good egg, I think I will keep him.

Here is the run down of my trip to Detroit:

Another reminder to all of you that Trivia Night will be held again this Wednesday, due to the New Year's holiday this Tuesday. Next week, we will return to our usual day of Tuesday, on January 8. So this week the special category will be New Year's Trivia, questions connected to either December 31 and January 1. And we will have the four regular categories as well, and we'll get going at about 9 PM on January 2.

The Sneak Peek question for Wednesday is:

What is the name of the process that makes it possible to view moving images on the Internet?

Have a Happy New Year, everyone!