THULE Kayak Rack

I meant to post this back in August when we were in New Hampshire. Now, with Christmas fast approaching, I figured I'd go ahead and post it for anyone who needs to find a present for the kayaker in their life.


My wonderful wife bought me a THULE rack (model 883 glide and set) for carrying my kayak on the roof rack. It consists of two front and two back pads on which the kayak rests.


The front two pads are a type of rubberized non-skid material that prevents the kayak from sliding forward or aft.


The back two pads are have a type of felt-lining, so the kayak slides smoothly across these pads.


However, the back pads also pivot. If you pull down on the back of the kayak, then you lift the bow up off the non-skid front pads and can slide the kayak on or off the top of the car.

Tilted up off the front pads.

Down and resting on all 4 pads.

This is a GREAT present for someone who goes kayaking solo (or with small kids) and doesn't really have anyone to help put the kayak on top of the car. Back when I rented the same model kayak in Hawaii and was trying to put it on the car by myself, I imagine it was comical to watch me getting the kayak on the car. I would lift the bow up onto the back of the car, then go back and try lifting the back end and pushing it up on top of the car, and it was very tricky trying to keep it from just sliding off one side of the car or the other.

Not so with this THULE rack. Now I lift the bow up onto the back of the car, and when I go back and lift the back and push it onto the car, the back felt pads guide the kayak into place and keep the kayak from sliding off either side of the car.

We bought my THULE rack at EMS in Dulles, VA, and the staff there were very friendly, professional, and helpful. After we bought it, they came out and installed it on our car for us. Plus, they taught us the trick of twisting the straps.

There is one lingering question in the back of my mind: What will I do when my boys are old enough to have their own kayak and we need to carry more than one kayak on top of the car? I suppose then we'll have to shift to something more stackable that holds the kayaks up on their side, but in the meantime, I REALLY like my THULE kayak rack.

Office Holiday Party Gift Exchange

Good evening sports fans, and welcome to another office holiday party gift exchange wrap-up (no pun intended). This is actually my third annual gift exchange recap. If you're looking for gift exchange ideas, you might want to also read my 2007 or 2008 posts. I'm happy to report that this year's gift exchange turned out much better than last year.

The gift I brought last year was a swing-and-a-miss. It was a snowball-fight-kit with a snowball-making device (sort of a scoop that made very nicely round snowballs) and a snow-fort brick mold. Hey now, I thought they were pretty cool. I even got some for us to use at our house at the same time as I bought the gift. Unfortunately, the coworker who picked up the gift I brought had just found out he was moving to Florida. He most definitely did NOT see any snow-forts or snowball fights in his future, and nobody else in the office thought that the gift was cool enough to steal, so he got stuck with it. (Sorry, Chris! I hope the weather is nice down there in Florida!)

Last year, the big hits that traded hands several times were the hot sauce sampler set and the coffee items (Starbucks gift card, bags of ground coffee, etc), so this year I went in search of some hot sauce for the gift exchange. I checked both the Fort Myer PX and the Henderson Hall MCX and came up empty handed. Wednesday evening, my wife had me stop at Target on the way home from work to pick up something for the boys, and while I was there I browsed the aisles for something for the gift exchange.

I had no luck in finding hot sauce in a gift-pack type of package. (Aside - If I wasn't such a procrastinator, then I would have placed an order with the Chiliman in time to get THAT. But alas, I didn't plan ahead.) I did, however, happen upon a good looking set of martini mix and a martini shaker. I got the chocolate-peppermint martini mix and a bag of Ghiradelli's Peppermint Chocolate candy.

Fast Forward.

We had our office holiday luncheon at Mackey's Public House in Crystal City today. I had a beef briscuit sandwich with fries and cole slaw and washed it down with a pint of Smithwicks. The food and service were excellent, although I thought it was a little pricey.

As we started off the gift exchange part of the event, I made a mental note-to-self for next year:

Self, most of your coworkers commute via public transit and they DON'T want anything big or heavy to carry home with them on the bus.

The bottle of martini mix I bought was fairly heavy, and along with the shaker was in a decent-sized box. As a result, it was in a gift bag that was probably the largest item on the table. Since people were concerned about what they had to carry home with them on the bus, nobody even touched my gift bag until about half the presents were gone. I was really starting to worry that I was having another swing-and-a-miss on my gift choice this year.

Then someone picked mine.

There were hushed "oooooooohs" and "aaaaaaahs" around the table. Flashback image in my head: Ralphy in A Christmas Story with a grin from ear to ear as his teacher reads his essay, writes on the chalkboard and exclaims, "A! PLUS! PLUS! PLUS! PLUS! PLUS! PLUS!..." No, no, my coworkers didn't lift me up on their shoulders and carry me out cheering and clapping or anything like that. However, much to my surprise and delight, the gift was subsequently stolen in the next three rounds. Gifts were only allowed to be stolen three times, so then it was stuck. After it was all said and done, it even got traded one more time with the other hottest gift: home made beer.

Here's what else was up for grabs in the gift exchange this year:
- 4 bottles of home made beer with fancy labels (stolen 3 times then traded afterwards)
- Chocolate-peppermint martini mix, shaker, and Ghiradelli's peppermint bark (stolen 3 times then traded afterwards)
- A sampler pack of little bottles of liquor (stolen 2 times)
- A Starbucks gift card and some Ghiradelli chocolate (stolen 2 times)
- XXXL adult size Superman and Batman underoos (my condolences to Brenda who ended up with these and kept trying to convince somebody to steal them)
- A handheld electronic poker game (that looked suspiciously like one that was gifted last year and never stolen)
- Christmas salt and pepper shakers
- Fancy Candles and lotion (stolen once)
- Potpourri
- The "What your poo tells you" daily calendar (stolen once - this is the gift that is going to keep on giving for the rest of the year in our office, sort of like the Chia Shrek that is still in our office from last year's holiday party gift exchange.)
- A bottle of wine (stolen once)
- A sampler pack of Jack Daniels marinades (surprisingly not stolen at all, but it was opened fairly late in the game)
- An unrated version of Bad Santa on DVD
- Texas Chili mix (I was the LAST person to draw and this was the only gift left, so I got this one, but it looks like it might be pretty good. Thank goodness there's no MSG in the ingredients!)

For those of you reading this because of a Google search looking for ideas for your gift exchange, let me offer one other tidbit of advice. Unless you enjoy the Calvinball* aspect of watching your coworkers argue about how many times the gift is allowed to be stolen each round or over the entire game and whether you can steal it back in the same round or in a subsequent round, etc, etc, etc, then I recommend whoever organizes your gift exchange should WRITE DOWN the RULES** and declare them to the group before hand. There are many variations one can do with gift exchange rules, and if you don't specify it, then Calvinball will be the result as your coworkers try to either keep or steal the gift that they want.

* Aside #1: Calvinball really deserves a Wikipedia entry of its own, doesn't it? You have to scroll pretty far down the Calvin and Hobbes Wikipedia page to get to the section about Calvinball, but there IS a full subsection devoted specifically to Calvinball.

** Aside #2: Certain members of my family will most likely post comments CLAIMING that I made the neighborhood kids sign a copy of the rules before we could play laser tag in our neighborhood. Such claims are boundless and certainly the result of some delusional revisionist history. Maybe there was some other anal-retentive kid in our neighborhood who made the kids do that, but surely not me.

P.S. Go Navy! Beat Army!

Hot Stuff

Bear with me here folks. My brain took several detours on this post.

I've noticed an increasing trend in people visiting my blog via Google searches for holiday party gift exchanges. That got me thinking to myself, "Self, what will I bring to this year's office holiday party gift exchange?" Last year, the big hits that changed hands multiple times were the coffee-related items and the assortment of hot sauces.

Tangent on Ice Pilots...


Thinking about hot sauces gave me a flashback to the 2002 ICEX. When a submarine does under-ice ops, you normally take a couple of Ice Pilots with you from the Arctic Submarine Lab. When our Ice Pilots embarked back in 2002, they brought with them a box full of assorted hot sauces. At every meal in the wardroom, we had at least two or three bottles to choose from on the table, and they brought some really good stuff. They used Sam McGee's as their supplier, and for a while after the ICEX, I continued to order hot sauces for my own home use from Sam McGee's. My favorite was the Trinidad (link is to the hot version, but they also have mild and extra hot varieties).

Tangent on Pick-Up Lines...

Lesson Learned for you young single bubbleheads reading this: After the ICEX when we pulled into Pearl Harbor for a port call, a couple of our junior officers thought that claiming to be an "Ice Pilot" would be a pretty good pickup line.

Yyyyyeah, not so much.

Girls were like, "You're a what? What's that?" As cool as we submariners might think it is, the girls at the clubs in town just didn't get it and weren't at all impressed.

Maybe they should've tried singing.


End of Tangents - Back to hot sauces...

While thinking about hot sauces, my mind also wandered over to the Chili Man. The Chili Man here in Loudoun County, Virginia, makes and bottles awesome hot sauces, salsas, sauces, and marinades from the chilis and herbs he grows at his farm right out here in Purcelville, VA. I was pleased to see you can now order his products off his website.

Tangent on Hot Sauce Humor...

I can't think of hot sauces anymore without hearing Tapatio's desperate voice shouting out, "Cholula, NOOOO!" from Hey Shipwreck Episode 13. For family members who normally skip over the Navy stuff on my blog (yes, I'm talking to you, Kelly :-) ), I recommend watching the second half of this video starting at about 3:35 or so into the video. Hey Shipwreck is a computer-graphics cartoon about a futuristic submarine with a couple of bored guys standing topside (guard) duty on the midwatch (night shift).



I never saw a sequel to that one, but I think the father was Texas Pete.

End of Tangents, returning to original topic of office holiday party gift exchanges.

Anyway, I'm thinking I'm gonna go the hot sauce route for the holiday gift exchange this year.

Do any of you have any other brilliant ideas for holiday gift exchanges that you're willing to share?

Oh! In case any of you who read last year's post were wondering, the Chia Shrek is still proudly displayed in our office. :-)

Holiday Gift Exchange Ideas

Okay, I'm sure there are some of you out there who are facing a rapidly approaching office or school or club holiday party with some sort of a gift exchange, and I'm sure there are some of you out there like me who had no clue what to bring. So I'm going to share with you the results of our office holiday party gift exchange at work today.

Our office holiday party gift exchange had the following up for grabs:

- Chia Shrek. There was some debate in the conference room on whether this was a re-gift from last year's office holiday party.
- Snowball fight kit. It was a snowball maker and a mold for snow-bricks to make snow forts.
- Sampler of four different types of hot sauces.
- Gift box from Starbucks with an assortment of coffees and chocolates.
- Jar of Jelly Belly jelly beans.
- A pair of DVD's (one was "As Good as it Gets", I forget what the other was).
- Christmas ornament.
- Gift card for Starbucks.
- Digital watch.
- A magnetic dry erase board with premade magnetic boxes with the names of the people in our office to post an office org-chart-du-jour.

So what do you think? Which items do you think were the "hottest"? In other words, which items do you think changed hands the most?

Unlike most previous holiday gift exchanges I have been to where there was a limit on how many times any individual gift could be stolen, during today's gift exchange, there was a two-steal PER ROUND limit.

The hands-down winner of in terms of being stolen from one person then another back and forth across the room was the hot sauce sampler pack. Each time it became someone else's turn, they took the hot sauce, then the person who had the hot sauce would get something else, then the person who lost that would take the hot sauce again.

The runners up were the gift card to Starbucks and the Starbucks assortment gift pack.

I suspect the jar of Jelly Bellies might have been stolen a few times if it wasn't opened so late in the game.

Likewise, I thought the dry erase board with the org-chart-du-jour magnets was an awesome idea, but it was the very last gift opened, so it didn't get stolen at all. If you work in any sort of a large organization that goes through frequent reorgs, I highly recommend it!

I brought the snowball fight kit. I thought it was a neat idea for building a snow fort and quickly making a bunch of snowballs for a snowball fight. Nobody else in the office seemed to think it such a fabulous idea though. Oh well.

The Chia Shrek was opened fairly early in the game, and it never got stolen. For as much as the guys sorta rolled their eyes about it, it sure provided a good deal of JO entertainment for the rest of the afternoon. Two of the JOs, being the good nukes that they are, immediately opened the Chia Shrek and dutifully following the procedure, they commenced searching for some form of container that would hold water to conduct the soak of the Chia Shrek head. They had their own little science project going on. Next thing you know, I'm going to find a watchbill posted for who's supposed to water and care for the Chia Shrek over the Christmas stand down.

Well, there you have it.

In summary, if you're headed to a holiday party with a gift exchange, and you're not sure what to get, then I recommend hot sauce or starbucks*.

* Note that observation is consistent with LAST year's blog post on gift exchanges.