Photo-A-Day #83 06/30/05

Photo-A-Day #83 06/30/05
Posted by: abennett96.

The other day one of my co-workers asked if I had toys all over the house like I have them all over my desk at work. Not really. They are more organized and still in the boxes at home. These are my Binaltech Transformers from Japan.

New Buzznet Gallery

I posted a new buzznet gallery. It is for the Whitewater Rafting Trip that Dad and I took last weekend. Tomorrow I should have photos up from my trip to Mobile, AL. I used all 250 photo uploads for Buzznet this month. Thans to everyone who helped me get a premium membership for free.

Penobscot Whitewater Rafting Trip - no pictures of actually being on the water. Still waiting for those.

Back from Alabama

I'm back. It was an early morning today. I pretty much slept and hour at the hotel and then headed to the airport. Out late. Up late. Couldn't sleep because stayed up too late.

In between falling asleep on the plane I finished Life of Pi. A very interesting book by Yann Martel. A story about love and god and a bengal tiger on a life raft. You'd really have to read it to understand it. I read it and don't quite understand it myself although I do have theories.

Get your own copy online or at the library.

The U.S.S. Alabama

Today I went with John and Kurt on board the U.S.S. Alabama. What a cool ship. I got lots of great pictures and will post a gallery once July hits and I have space at Buzznet. For now check out the Photo-A-Day. Well, gotta get up in 3 hours to fly home.

Photo-A-Day #82 06/29/05

Photo-A-Day #82 06/29/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Today I got to tour the U.S.S. Alabama here in Mobile, AL. What a great place. It was awesome to see the workings of the ship.

I won! I won!!

Yes, Allison is posting!! This is time #4 I do believe!

I'm very excited, I just won two guest passes to see Ellis Paul at any show we'd like - all by answering a simple trivia question! I'm very excited. I'm not really sure what the guest passes mean, if we get to meet him after the show privately or what - but I won! I never win!!

Photo-A-Day #81 06/28/05

Photo-A-Day #81 06/28/05
Posted by: abennett96.

This is part of Ft. Conde. It is in downtown Mobile Alabama.

Mobile, AL...

I am in Mobile, Alabama today. I have a demo tomorrow in Chatam, Alabama, which is about 2 hours away from Mobile. I got in around 12:00pm and got to the Mobile Bay Harley Davidson Shop here in Mobile. Then I made my way over to the hotel. The room was not ready for me to check in but no problem, there is free wireless internet in the lobby, so I checked out the e-mails I had as well as the days webcomics. Then I checked my BlogShares account, I already had $10,000,000.00 in it, if only it were real money. I've been getting more money as well as chips by trading links with other players. The game is pretty interesting and I don't know even half of the ins and outs. Anyway around 2:00pm I went to the front desk, thinking it was 3:00pm (1 hour time difference here.) and they gave me a concierge room on the 19th floor. I checked in got settled and then headed downtown. When I got there I took the free electric bus called moba. It took me on a 10 minute loop around the downtown. I saw a brewpub and when I returned to where I got the bus I decided to head there to eat. Before I did that I went to the Ft. Conde museum and visitors center. I looked around and got some nice pictures. I am right near Pascagoula and should head over there but I only got a picture of the sign on the highway. After the fort I headed to Mr. Jim's Cannon Brew Pub for a Red Amber Lager and some fried pickles. Yep, my very favorite bar food at the moment. After that I headed back to the hotel. The rest of the group should be back here in about and hour.

Photo-A-Day #80 06/27/05

Photo-A-Day #80 06/27/05
Posted by: abennett96.

So as I was driving into work this morning I noticed as I glanced in the rear view mirror that something was not right. I had taken a shower, shaved and put hair gel in; however, I never ran the comb through my hair. So I was pretty shocked to see all my hair standing up at all sorts of strange angles and see the parts that should have been standing up laying flat. Luckily I keep some gel and a comb in my desk for this sort of incident.

BlogShares

I have enrolled in BlogShares, a fantasy stock market game that uses blogs as companies. I am the owner of this blog on BlogShares and through that I can sell fantasy shares of the blog. As the blog grows in popularity the price of the shares will increase. To increase the shares I need more sites linking to this one and I will be linking to other blogs. I've created a section in the sidebar called BlogShares Sites. A randomly generated link and description will appear at the top of the section and then below that will appear some of the static links to blogs that I am linking too. Enjoy discovering these other blogs. And by clicking them you can increase the number of chips I have in my account. There are rules about appropriateness of blogs in BlogShares so if you come across something questionable, let me know.

White water weekend wrap-up.

This weekend I went to Maine to white water raft the Penobscot River. I went with my Dad, his friend Bob, Bob’s two sons, Rob and Mark, their friends Justin, Sean, and Vic. We all met at Vinny T’s on Friday afternoon, right after the free lunch from American Express Financial Advisors. I rode up with Dad, Bob and Rob. Rob drove the whole way, he had just gotten a new car and it only had 200 miles on it, so he wanted to break it in. Rob burned a bunch of comedy CD’s for our ride up. We listened to Frank Caliendo - Make the Voices Stop, Ron White – Drunk in Public, Mitch Hedberg - Strategic Grill Locations, The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, Lewis Black – End of the Universe, and part of Bill Engvall – Dorkfish.

We made pretty good time up to Millinocket Maine. When we got to Millinocket we followed the direction and that led us to a bridge being out. We turned around and got directions to Three Rivers Whitewater.

When you give directions and use Strip Clubs as landmarks…. You might be a redneck.


As we were heading back to the other end of medway road (the road that Three Rivers Whitewater is on but wraps around in a semi circle with a bridge out in the middle.) we saw two moose crossing the road. One big old bull and a calf. Moose are huge. And it was just after dusk and they are hard to see, luckily another car was coming the other way and lit them up so we had ample time to slow down.

We got to the front desk of the lodge/bar/restaurant and checked in. We were assigned a Yurt (#1) and given directions to the Yurt. We brought the cars up and parked them and moved our stuff inside. A Yurt is a circular building that have walls that look like the old fashioned baby gates, there are wooden slats that when pulled apart make a diamond shape. Then a plastic canvas is stretched around the whole thing. That is what the sides look like, the top of the Yurt has wooden slats that all come to a point in the middle. There we see five triangles of Plexiglas so that you can see outside up into the night. This was the mosquito gathering point. There were screened windows on each side of the Yurt, a small door in and another door that led to a bathroom with a toilet, sink, hot water heater and shower, (so small that each time I turned around I shut off the water or turned it up or down.)

After unpacking we headed back to the lodge and had some dinner and a couple of beers. There was karaoke happening that night. We did not sing. I for one was a little nervous about the next day and I didn’t really know the other guys very well yet so I did not get out there and sing. But the guides were singing. There were some wild guides who were singing and dancing and having a great time. We had a great time watching them and talking and having some really good food.

Sleep did not come easy. There was a rather lengthy debate about the South Park movie being a musical or not, plus a group of 40+ year olds from Boston who were up all night yelling, and drinking and causing a ruckus all evening and into the early morning. This would be a nightly ritual. That and I was again nervous about the next day. Why? Read my recap of my last Whitewater Adventure. But sleep finally came and it was morning far too early.

Saturday morning we had a buffet breakfast in the lodge and then gathered as a large group to get sign our waivers, get our equipment and be assigned a guide. We also got the safety speech, which was very very entertaining and yet didn’t exactly put me at ease about what I was about to embark upon. You see the Penobscot River has many Class V rapids. Class V is the highest and therefore the most difficult to navigate. Well we heard about all the different scenarios for falling out of the raft. Each one was when you end up progressively further away from the raft. If you come up close, swim to the raft and grab the outer rope, the people will pull you up on the raft. If you are out further someone will reach out their paddle so you can grab it; they will pull you close and then pull you onto the raft. If you end up further out that that you can hook your paddle to the paddle of someone on the raft. The part that hooks together is a 1-inch piece of plastic called a T handle. If you end out further away from the raft then the guide has a throwbag with 75 feet of rope in it. The guide will throw that to you and you are to grab the rope, not the bag, because if you grab the bag you will unravel the entire 75 feet of rope. And believe me no one likes to pull in 75 feet of rope. Got the scenarios, good. Well forget ‘em. Because when you are out in the rapids and you fall out, you scratch claw, kick and climb onto any raft you can find. And while in a rapid it is next to impossible to hook a tiny piece of plastic to another tiny piece of plastic.
Another huge safety thing to remember is that if you fall out of the raft, close your mouth and open your eyes. You don’t want water in your mouth that will make you panic and you want to be able to see the guide or any rocks you are about to smash into. Also the biggest thing is to keep your feet up. If you do not keep your feet up then as our instructor told the group, the defecation will hit the oscillation! And he is so right, because if you put your feet down and get a foot caught between a rock or on a tree branch, well, lets just say that your insurance premiums better be paid up. The force of the water will slam you to the bottom if you are caught on a rock or a tree branch. And you will not get up.

Then our instructor went over the commands we would be getting from the guides. All ahead meant that the group paddles ahead in unison, the two guys in the front setting the pace. All back meant that you paddle backwards all in unison with the front guys setting the pace. Back right meant that the right side would paddle back and the left side would paddle forward, Back left meant that the left side paddles backwards and the right side paddles forwards. Shift right meant that the left side would shit across the raft to the right side and Shift left mean that the right side would shift over to the left side. Hold on meant that you grab the inner rope with the hand that was not, at all times, holding the t grip of the paddle. This would place your body over the paddle and get into the crash position. This is another scenario where the defecation has hit the oscillation.

So we take a class VI bus ride from the lodge to the put in point at the McKay station. There all the rafts were carried by each group down to the water just above the hydroelectric plant and dam. When we all got into the raft Rob and Justin were in the front positions, The Sean and Mark were next, then Vic and Bob and Me and Dad took the last two spots. Then our guide Al was in the back. Al is a carpenter from Taunton and he does this on the weekends. Al was a great guide. So we paddled around and went over the commands. Once Al was satisfied that we had a clue we were on our way.

The first rapid that we hit was called Exterminator. Yep, a class V rapid to knock the morning cobwebs right out of your head, by way of your ass because this was pants crapping scary. We hit the rapid and Al is shouting all ahead, all ahead, dig, dig, together. We hit the rapid; Justin goes up and out of the raft. Vic and I go up, but I land between the thwarts (Thwarts are the rubber tubes that go across the middle of the raft. They look deceptively like seats but no they are not, they are the places where you jam a foot underneath as you sit on the side of the raft lean out and paddle for all you are worth.) and Vic lands on top of me. We are still in the rapids. Vic gets back up and Al shouts for me to stay where I am. So I’m sitting sideways in the raft facing the side I had just been sitting on, water is coming up and over the raft and we are taking a pounding. Dad got a mouth full of water in the first splash and he quickly learned that rule about keeping your mouth closed and eyes open very quickly. So we make it through Exterminator, and we are in a beautiful gorge. Justin was hauled back in the raft; I got back on my seat. I thought to myself, man it was really easy for me to slip off the side of the raft. I wonder why that was.

The next set of rapids we came to was called the Cribworks. This was another set of class V rapids. But rather and one big rapid it was a series of rapids. WE made it through that very well. No one went out of the raft. A thing about our raft, we were 9 full-grown men in 16 foot raft; we were basically a barge. We would see all the other rafts playing in the rapids and waves, whereas we would have to paddle really hard just to get through them because of our weight.

On the next rapid, the Amberjack falls, we went over a small class III rapid and then there were two bigger drops class IV. Well on the second drop Vic and I both flew out of the raft and into the water. I popped up to far from the raft so I swan to the rafts that had gone ahead of us and was pulled into one of them. Vic was pulled into another raft. Vic and I were clearly the two heaviest guys on the raft. And once we were out of it the raft was able to raise up. Then the remaining people on the raft had to switch around to distribute the weight better. Needless to say we didn’t do a lot of playing in the rapids. Vic ended up coming up with my paddle and his was swept down the river. So once we both got back into the raft I ended up without a paddle and had to hold on to the inner rope each time we took any additional rapids. During one of these runs Dad went up off his seat but Al grabbed him and slammed him back onto the raft. Dad was very grateful for that grab.

We stopped and had a cookout for lunch. It was nice to relax. During that time I got another paddle and we were back out on the water. Our next stop was the Nesowadnehunk Falls. These falls were 10 feet high and we would paddle up and go on over the falls. Once we got to the edge Al yelled Hold on and I reached for the rope on the thwart ahead of me, but got slammed sideways and took my hand off the T-handle of my paddle and jammed my pinky into my Dad’s helmet. And it hurt like hell. But what am I gonna say in a moment like that. We had made it over the falls, and now we turned around to go back and ‘play’ in the falls. Playing in the falls consists of paddling up to the falls, as close as possible so the suction holds the raft and the guide can move the raft back and forth and ‘surf’. So we did this a couple of times and then we carried the raft back up a giant rock between the falls and went over the falls again. Then we went into the falls and got a couple of rafts that had gotten stuck. This was a lot of fun, unfortunately the pain in my hand made me think only about that and not on how much fun this was. On our last rescue mission we got stuck, sideways at the falls, and I was on the side next to the falls. I tried to paddle but my paddle struck the rock and smacked back at me and reverberated into my hand. Not fun. Very painful.

So once we were out of the falls and were done playing I told Al about my finger and got it taped up. It still hurt but less chance of it banging into stuff indiscrimently.

The rest of the trip was a nice and quiet paddle down the river. We saw some fantastic views of Mt Katahdin. Just beautiful. The weather was awesome, warm and sunny. And the company kept us all in stitches with their Sean Connery as... bits. We couldn’t have asked for a better day.

When we get off the water and bring the raft and the equipment back up to the busses we find out that one of the busses has a flat tire. So everyone piled onto one bus and we cruise back to the lodge. One the way back I saw two more moose. They were out in the distance at the water’s edge as we drove on by.

Back at the lodge we dropped off our gear and went back to the Yurt to change. Then we headed over to the lodge again to see the slide show. We agreed to buy two of the photos and then we watched the video. Man, the video was awesome. They put together a great soundtrack as well as some funny skits between the action. So we agreed to buy one of those too. After that everybody but Dad, Bob and I went back to the Yurt to shower. I figured, one shower 8 guys, I can wait here with a beer or there with the mosquitoes. So we hung out there and had some beer and ordered some nachos. It began to pour out and there was lightening and thunder, so getting into the hot tub was out of the question. Then the power went out and the emergency lights came on. Bob is an electrician and he figured that the emergency lights only had 90 minutes on them, and he was right because at 90 minutes one of the emergency lights went out and then the other. But beer was still flowing and the kitchen could still make pizza so we stayed and ate and drank.

A live band was scheduled to perform that evening and by the time they arrived all the guys were back, Vic had gotten caught in the shower when the power went out so he got half a shower. As the band brought in their equipment we looked at the poor guy carrying in the lights and thought, “Here’s a guy who’s doing something pointless.” Because the power had been out for about 2 hours with no signs of it returning. I left and went back to the Yurt before they began to play. I guess they got a generator and began playing, then 10 minutes after the generator started up the power came back on. But I was already up in my bunk and dead tired. So I went to sleep. Actually all the guys were in bed and asleep except for Dad and Bob, they listened to the band for a little bit and then came back to the Yurt. We slept until the guys in the Yurt next to us started their nightly ritual of partying and random loud mouthed swearing for no reason. Needless to say I did not sleep soundly.

On Sunday morning my Dad and I went for a walk up to where the bridge was out to see if maybe we could see a moose. Instead we saw about six large snapping turtles that were along the roadside laying eggs. They would walk up to the roadside and dig into the sand and lay eggs and go back to the water. Then we had lunch and headed back home. We listened to the rest of Bill Engvall - Dorkfish, the Dane Cook - Harmful if Swallowed, Lewis Black - The White Album, Bill Engvall - Here's Your Sign, Mitch Hedberg - Mitch All Together, and Lewis Black - Rules of Enragement I got some great photos of the lake and the turtles and the Yurt. I did not however get any photos of the trip itself because we did not have a waterproof camera. And you know I’m kinda glad we didn’t have one because that would have been one more thing I would have had to worry about keeping track off when we went through the rapids. I’ve got a couple of photos coming so when they do I’ll show you those too.

A complete gallery of the photos I do have will be going up on the Buzznet PhotoBlog on Friday. I have reached my allotment of photos on Buzznet for the month and need to wait till next month to add more. I have just enough for Photo-A-Day. Which on Saturday I tried to upload via Vic’s camera phone but we had no connection and so that didn’t work at all. In the meantime here are a few of the pictures I did take. So check back Friday for a Buzznet Gallery of pictures from the trip.

Lunch at Vinny T's

Lunch at Vinny T's
Posted by: abennett96.

I won a lunch for 15 people at Vinny T's from American Express Financial Advisors. Here's the gang having lunch. I had my Dad, his friend Bob and Bob's son Rob and Allison and then some folks from work. Peter, John, Jeff, Joanne, Beth, Kahra and Jennifer. We all had a great meal.

Photo-A-Day #79 06/26/05

Photo-A-Day #79 06/26/05
Posted by: abennett96.

This is a snapping turtle that was laying eggs by the side of the road. Luckily the bridge is out on this road and the babies may have a chance when they hatch.

No post weekend wrap-up yet.

Okay I really want to recap the weekend's events. However one doesn't find out exactly how much a pinky is involved in typing until one breaks his. I will try and update from the past weekend very soon. I have many photos from before and after the trip because bringing my camera on the raft would be stupid. So many pictures and a full write up the rafting trip very soon.

Where's Today's Photo???

Drew is currently in Maine white-water rafting. He has photos, but is unable to post them, because he has no access to the internet, but not to fear, there will be photos tomorrow. And I'm betting there will be lots of them! So check back tomorrow.

Photo-A-Day #78 06/25/05

Photo-A-Day #78 06/25/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Dad and I after our White Water Rafting Trip down the Penobscot River in Maine. It was a fantastic day. I have lots of photos from before and after and eventually I'll be getting two photos from on the water but for now you have the after.

Photo-A-Day #77 06/24/05

Photo-A-Day #77 06/24/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Okay so this afternoon I will be heading up to Maine. I hope to find a way to post my Photo-A-Day tomorrow but I am skeptical. So today I post a picture of some of the gadgets that I have with me every day. A Lexar Memory Card Reader, so I can put up Photo-A-Day, a Generic Comp Usa 128MB Pen flash drive that keeps my Microsoft Money program so I can use it on two separate computers. I dropped the pen one day and the pen part broke, but the usb drive is working fine. And my Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks Pro. I bought this so that when I am travelling I can talk face to face with Allison. Maybe I should have bought her one too. Maybe on my next Compusa buyers binge. Well, not till after the wedding.

Tagboard

I've added a Tagboard to the right side of the Blog. This is for you to leave a message to me or to another reader. Please keep it clean. I can ban IP addresses and will do so it the need arises. I'm testing this out for the month and wanted to see if it was worth adding. So pop in and leave a Tag.

If you get any errors or see anything wrong please let me know.

Adventure, Excitement....

Ah yes today I will be heading up to Maine to go White Water Rafting tomorrow. We leave from lunch. Oh yeah, I won lunch for 15 people at Vinny T's in Dedham. So some of my co-workers are coming as well as Allison and my Dad, plus Bob and Rob whom Dad and I will be rafting with. I took a look at some of the rafting pictures from previous trips this month. Okay, I didn't see many trips where the raft made it down the river without totally flipping over. So I think we may end up getting very very wet and may see some river time. I am very excited about our accommodations, The Yurts, they sound like just so much fun. Ton's of pictures will be taken this weekend. There is also a nightly bonfire at the camp and a bunch of things to do. So I am very excited about the weekend.

In other news around the homefront, Uncle Richard is now at New England Sinai Hospital & Rehab Center, in Stoughton MA. Last night my Dad stopped to visit him on the way back from the Cape. When he got there Uncle Richard wasn't looking too well. He was turning a bright pink and having a terrible time breathing. So my Dad called my Mom who called me and Mom, Allison and I went to go see him. When we got there Uncle Richard was having some coughing fits, he had been put on a few antibiotics as well as some medication to help with the breathing. The Doctor was excellent at explaining everything that they were doing and everything that was going on. By the time we left we were able to talk with Uncle Richard a bit, he was even joking with us too. He said, "Sorry I can't talk too much." I joked with him, "Don't worry you don't need to entertain us." He smiled. He's keeping his spirits up and continuing to fight to get better. Please keep those prayers coming.

Oh and a Marlin is different from a Swordfish. I just learned that. (My supervisor's husband caught a 220lb Marlin on their honeymoon. Allison and I debated about the swordfish and marlin being the same fish, but they are not. Guess who was wrong about it, yep, me.)

Daily Dancer

Okay this made me laugh out loud. And I hope it will continue to make me laugh out loud each day. Daily Dancer is a website where a self-proclaimed Computer Geek("I am Daily Dancer, a computer geek who loves to dance!") dances each day in the morning. He has gotten tons and tons of hits on his site. And many people are commenting on his site every day. The site is very funny. Some videos have been taken down because of bandwidth issues but hopefully he will get them back up soon. I would really like to see a few of them. I mean these are laugh out loud funny. Is he a good dancer, not really. Is he having fun, heck yeah! Go check him out. He is very brave to put himself out there like that. I'm setting him up as a permanent link in my webtainment section.

The Daily Dancer

Photo-A-Day #76 06/23/05

Photo-A-Day #76 06/23/05
Posted by: abennett96.

This is a photo of one of the buildings downtown. There are quite a few older buildings around that have some fancy designs on them. You don't ever really see them because rarely does one look up higher than straight ahead while walking.

Photo-A-Day #75 06/22/05

Photo-A-Day #75 06/22/05
Posted by: abennett96.

This is one of the swans at work. Our company has two swans that make their home in a small pond at one of the facilities. One swan had been nesting up till about two weeks ago. No word on the cygnets though.

Imoods, Rafting Trip, other stuff..

You may have noticed that I have added an imood icon under my name on the right hand side of the screen. I'm not going to get into how finding out about imood has caused some issues for me on the web. But that is neither here nor there. Anyway I thought it was an interesting item to add to the page so there it is.

Why am I excited? Well, this weekend my Dad and I are going up to the Penobscot River in Maine to do some whitewater rafting. We are going with a friend of his and his sons. The rafting company is Three Rivers Whitewater, Inc. and we are staying for the weekend in a Yurt. What is a Yurt? Read all about Yurts. They sound like a unique experience. We'll be rafting the Penobscot River. Class V all the way baby!

I haven't been whitewater rafting since college. During my first year of college I went whitewater rafting with the Alpine Club at school. For four weeks in a row I went with the Alpine club to various locations and adventures across New Hampshire. My first weekend I went rock climbing at Rock Rimmon park in Manchester/Goffstown/Pinardville (It is off Kelly street.) It is only a 75foot climb but being someone who isn't that excited about heights it seemed very high. The next weekend we went hiking up and down Mt. Osceola in New Hampshire. We ended up doing a 15 mile hike that day because someone read the map incorrectly. Not me, I was just a freshman and was along for the ride with the hike. So instead of going up and down the Mt. we ended going up one Mt. and down another and then walking along a logging road till we found someone who could give a couple of the guys rides back to the cars, which by this time were another 25 miles away.

This was also one of the first of three trips where I could have died. I was standing at the edge of the trail down, which was an open rock face and while I was standing there one of the girls on the trip stumbled and fell squarely into my back. This was so sudden and unexpected and there was nothing in front of me whatsoever to break my fall or stop my rapid descent. However I didn't move, not one inch. I should have been tumbling ass over teakettle down the Mt., but I wasn't. I was lucky, she was lucky because had I not been standing there she would have gone right down the Mt.

The second near death experience happened on the next trip. It was our whitewater rafting trip down the Kennebec River in Maine. The Alpine club piled into cars and drove up to Maine and camped out on a logging trail for the night. The next day we went out with Crab Apple Whitewater Inc. down the Kennebec. When you whitewater raft you are told to grab for the person in front of you if they are falling out of the raft, so as to keep them in the boat. So as we were coming into the main flow of the river from an eddy that we had stopped at the raft dipped and the two guys in front of me fell out of the raft. I grabbed for them and was pulled out of the raft too. They were pulled back into the raft almost immediately by the rest of the people in the raft. I however somehow managed to slip underneath the raft. And I was trapped there, looking through the clear plastic floor at everyone. The water was too strong, my life jacket was pushing me up, and I couldn't move left or right out from under the raft. Finally I was able to get one hand out from under the raft. At this point my lungs were burning and I could feel my oxygen beginning to fail me. Suddenly I was ripped out of the water by the guide and one of the girls on the trip. These were the two smallest people on the boat and they dragged me into the raft as if I was a paper doll. I lay there at the bottom of the raft for a while, gasping for air, my eyes had bugged out of their sockets and I was shaking. Probably one of the most frightening experiences ever.

And I'm excited to be going back. Crazy I tell you.

And the third near death trip was to the falling waters trail. I climbed up the side of a waterfall, off trail behind one of the girls in the group, to make sure that she did not fall. More than once my hands had to reach up and catch her feet so she could step. Any one of those times when she slipped it could have been all over for both of us. Oh well, stupid freshman antics. I grew out of that in years following as I took a more active role in the club and started looking out for those who may have gotten into any potential dangers.

Photo-A-Day #74 06/21/05

Photo-A-Day #74 06/21/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Duncan by the window. I was sick of the flash making the cats eyes look really freaky so instead of turning it off I held my finger partway over it. Now it looks like Duncan is in some red tinted room. Weird Pic. But what the heck, I'm tired from Buffett last night.

A Salty Piece of parking lot...

Yesterday Allison and I, along with her father Dan, went to Great Woods to see Jimmy Buffett. I know it is now called the Tweeter center but once a year when Jimmy comes back it is Great Woods again. This year was alot more sedate for us than past years. We packed light, super light. Had two chairs, a cooler, 24 Coronas, three subs from d'angelos and a bag of pretzels from the Road Trip on Sunday. We packed light. We had so much extra space that we gave some of it to our neighbors so they could cook on it. We must have watched about 50 people almost burn themselves on those two grills. They were low to the ground and no one is looking down in the parking lot. There is just too much to see.

One of the things that people were coming to see was the Bachelorette party that was right next to us. There was the Bride-to-be all decked out in a wedding dress and sash that said, "Bride-To-Be" They had an inflate a date guy, a giant inflatable penis that they had people take pictures next to and sign. They even brought out the penis shaped cookies later on. I was asked by them to take their picture at that time.

On the other side of us was a walkway and then the people who put their grills on our Salty Piece of parking lot. There was a guy with them with a guitar and amp and a whole rig to set up and perform songs. He was very entertaining and knew alot of songs.

We took a walk over to the busses and it was pretty dead. There were the usual schemes to get the ladies out of their tops, like the Boob-o-meter and whatnot. When we went by it was empty. The police on bikes were also out and about and they politely put a stop to that. The lines for the port-a-potties were very long and even though I could have gone to the woods, I didn't because the police were out and if they catch you peeing in the woods and arrested you can be charged as a sexual offender. Not exactly something I'd like to get slapped with for free range urinating.

About 6:00 we headed over to the entrance to line up and wait to get in for the 7:00 door opening. Allison got herself a nice long sleeve t-shirt. I was going to get a shirt but wasn't thrilled with shelling out $33.00 for a t-shirt when none of the designs really caught my eye.

At 7:00 we made a mad dash for the restrooms and then up to the lawn. We got our usual seats right by the fence at the first set of stairs on the left side of the lawn (if you are looking out from the stage to the lawn.) We set up camp, which was basically us sitting down, and then Dan got us some snacks.

Here was the set list for the night.

Set 1:

01 Star Spangled Banner
02 Piece Of Work
03 Stars On The Water
04 Hey Good Lookin
05 Holiday
06 Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
07 Come Monday
08 Diamond As Big As The Ritz
09 Woman Goin Crazy On Caroline Street
10 License To Chill
11 The Horizon Has Been Defeated
12 Ragtop Day
13 Cheeseburger In Paradise
14 Volcano
15 Brown Eyed Girl

Halftime

Set 2:

Carson Tribute/WDWGDaS
16 La Vie Dansante
17 Lighthouse
18 A Pirate Looks At Forty
19 Tripping Billies
20 School Boy Heart
21 Trip Around The Sun
22 Last Mango In Paris
23 Five O'Clock Somewhere
24 One Particular Harbour
25 Margaritaville

First Encore:
26 Fins
Band Intros
27 Southern Cross


I was very happy that Jimmy ended with Southern Cross. It is my favorite song that he does. I really enjoy hearing that live.

After the concert we hit the bathrooms again and Dan and I witnessed some beer muscles gone horribly wrong. Some twenty-something year old kid was beating up on a middle aged guy and the fight got pretty heated, then the middle aged guy was knocked down and people rushed the twenty-something year old and got him off the guy. The kid was still throwing punches when he came by us. It all happened so quickly I never saw the middle aged guy get back up off the ground. That wasn't a very fun moment. Luckily Allison was in the ladies room and missed the whole thing, if she came out any earlier she would have probably walked right into the middle of it.

We actually got out of the show quickly and made our way home. I was able to post the Photo-A-Day before bed too.

Here are some photos from the concert.

Photo-A-Day #73 06/20/05

Photo-A-Day #73 06/20/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Fins Up! Tonight we went to see Jimmy Buffett at Great Woods. More photos to follow.

Road Trip Part #2

So, we are finally back from PA. We drove about 850 miles through the course of the weekend. Getting down to PA at 3:30pm on Friday and returning home to MA at 5:30pm on Sunday.

The trip down was pretty uneventful, and while driving long distances that is a good thing. Allison and I made a couple of stops, first we stopped for Dunkin Donuts and some munchkins. Then we didn't stop again till Danbury CT, to stop and get a pin at the Danbury Harley Davidson. I'll be posting that pin with my pin collection photos next month because I only have a few more pictures I can post this month on Buzznet. (Thanks guys for signing up as friends so I could get a year enhanced membership, from Buzznet.) Our next stop was in PA, where we had lunch at Marvelous Muggs Restaurant. It was a pretty nice place and they had fried pickles. In spear form not chip form, and speaking of chips they had homemade old bay potato chips. That was a special treat. As we were leaving Marvelous Muggs, Allison got a call from Elise, just checking in to see where we were. We were about 100 miles from her place. And we made one more stop, in LickDale PA for gas and some Dairy Queen. Then we made it to Elise and Charles' house.

Elise and Charles live in a great little neighborhood in PA. Outside Harrisburg. It was a great house and we really enjoyed staying there. We were only there for a little while before we had to head off to the rehearsal. Allison and Elise were both readers at the wedding. We went to the rehearsal, thanks for driving Charles, and met the rest of the wedding party. We also met Justin's 4 year old daughter Jazzlin. And Allison and Elise took right to her. The three were inseparable the whole weekend. The maternal instinct went into high gear. :-)

After the rehearsal we all went to the Beverly Hills Beach Club. What an interesting place. One side is a beach club and the other is like a rich warm and inviting pub. We were on the deck outside the pub. There we had many Lagers (Yuengling Lager for those who aren't from PA) and wings and ziti and salad for dinner. The wings were great. We attacked the wings with much gusto. After dinner we made our way back to Elise and Charles'. Elise and Charles have a beautiful spunky little puppy named Jake. He was a bundle of energy and lots of fun to play with. He was also very very cute and would lick you to death if you let him. They also have a cat named Emilee who is very petite and also followed Allison and I around and tried to lick my arm to death.

On Saturday the four of us went to breakfast at Bob Evans. That is a good place for breakfast. They serve biscuits and gravy, (my PA indulgence) and thick bacon slices with their meals. They also make some really good homemade pies, but we didn't have time for pie. Then we went back to the house to drop the girls off and Charles and I headed to the supermarket to run a few errands. They sell fireworks in the supermarkets in PA. I was fascinated by this. I also liked how the supermarket was set up, it was very well lit and the aisles were very wide. The produce aisle was also very well stocked. (We were getting fruit for fruit salad that Elise was making for Father's day.) After the supermarket we headed to a beer distributor so that we could get a couple of cases of Yuengling for Allison and I to bring home, our supply was dwindling.

Then we all headed to the wedding, thanks again for driving Charles. And made one stop at the Iron Valley Harley Davidson, Look for Picture of the Pin next month. And when we got there Allison and Elise took charge of pinning the flowers on the groomsmen and watching Jazz. Charles and I took our usual roles as abandoned husbands/fiances who held the stuff, pocketbooks, programs and whatnot. The wedding ceremony was very nice. And after that was over we headed to Stoudts for the reception.

Stoudts is a German Beer Hall that is part of a German Village. It was open and well ventilated, we felt neither warm nor cold. The temp was perfect. Stoudts also produces their own beer so we all tried a few kinds and then settled on their golden Lager, which was very good. I also had a few Vodka Collinses and alternated between both drinks. On each table was a children's book as a centerpiece. It was a donation to the local school district and each book was on the theme of Love. It was a very nice centerpiece and good conversation starter too.

There was a lot of dancing and good food, great cake and a lot of fun. We really enjoyed ourselves. Then we headed back to Elise and Charles' and hung out by the pool.

On Sunday morning we all took our time getting going, we didn't really want to leave, we had a great time and enjoyed the company of Elise and Charles very much. But we had to go so around 10:00 Allison and I headed back to MA. We made a few stops along the way for gas and food. But mostly we just kept on driving and got home not too late in the evening. Then we spent a little time relaxing and then headed downstairs to wish my Dad a Happy Father's Day.

Photos of our PA road Trip.

Photo-A-Day #72 06/19/05

Photo-A-Day #72 06/19/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Jake liked biting my feet today. Jake is Elise and Charles' puppy. He is a very cute little guy, tons of energy and very lovable. I tried to get him biting my shoe as I held up my foot and aimed the camera. Not to shabby.

Photo-A-Day #71 06/18/05

Photo-A-Day #71 06/18/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Allison and Elise at Vicky and Justin's wedding. Wedding recap tomorrow.

Photo-A-Day #70 06/17/05

Photo-A-Day #70 06/17/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Photo-A-Day is up early today. Allison and I are heading to PA for a weekend wedding. So here is a photo of Oliver.

Road Trip

Allison and I are heading to PA today. 8 hours in the car baby! Yep we are driving on down to PA for a wedding. We should be leaving in about 10 minutes. Just enough tie to read all my webcomics, take and post the Photo-A-Day and write this little note. I'll update when I can, maybe even an audio blog. Audio blog is now officially a part of Blogger. Sweet.

Photo-A-Day #69 06/16/05

Photo-A-Day #69 06/16/05
Posted by: abennett96.

My Binaltech Wheeljack figure came in the mail today. When Transformers first were released in the U.S.A. in 1984 Wheeljack was the first figure I ever had. He was originally a Lancia. Now he has been reformatted into a 2005 Ford Mustang. And this car looks sweet. I've been looking for the Alternator version of this character (Alternators are the Hasbro versions, and Binaltech are the Takara versions.) but have had no luck. Oh well, soon enough I will find one.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my Mom and Dad's Anniversary. Tonight Tara and Erik and Allison and I made dinner for Mom and Dad. We had steak tips and Tara and Dad shared som Salmon. Tara made a salad and potatoes, and sweet potatoes and we had some bread with oil and spices to dip the bread. It was a nice night.

Frank Caliendo

I recently picked up a 2 cd and 1 DVD set for my Dad for his birthday of Frank Caliendo's comedy routines. One is called Frank on the Radio which are recordings from Franks Many various appearances on radio morning shows. Nothing from the Bob and Tom shows though, hmm. If you haven't heard of Frank Caliendo you will. He is on Mad TV and he has also been on many sports shows because he has a great John Madden impression. He also does many other voices. One of the skits on the radio CD is Frank being challenged into incorporating 10 different voices into one topic. The DJ shouts out the names of the people to impersonate and Frank just cranks em out. This has to be one of the best parts of the CD. The other CD is called Make the Voices Stop this is a CD of his standup routine which is hilarious. The DVD is called Giggles Shakey Cam DVD. It is called that because the cameraman is laughing at different times and he moves the camera.

If you want to see some great stuff that Frank has done. Check out his video section of his website. Frank's Video's

I really hope that Frank continues to do well, he was a very nice person to meet and hang out with. Back when I was a student at Saint A's I worked on college orientation and we had Frank there. Then after the show we took him to dinner at Applebees, just me and Frank and the Assistant Dean of Students. Frank was very personable and he has stayed true to his mission to keep his act clean. Check out Frank. And look at who is on Frank's video page. Optimus Prime of the Transformers. Another reason Frank is great.

Photo-A-Day #68 06/15/05

Photo-A-Day #68 06/15/05
Posted by: abennett96.

This is the new grill. I've used it every night since we got it on Saturday. I love grilling!

Adsense by Google...

I added an adsense by google bar on the right side near the bottom of the screen. It is supposed to take words from the blog and put links up for targeted ads. I am supposed to be able to filter out certain types of ads. If anyone notices anything that shouldn't be on this site please let me know. Thanks.

Firefly is back... Kinda.

In rerun form at least. In July the Sci-Fi Channel is picking up Firefly! So watch it from the begining.

From the Sci Fi Channel:

"SCI FI Channel announced that it will air reruns of Fox's canceled SF series Firefly, including three episodes that never aired on Fox. SCI FI will air all 14 hours of the show, from creator Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), starting July 22, in the 7 p.m. ET/PT Friday timeslot. It will be followed by new episodes of Stargate SG-1 at 8, Stargate Atlantis at 9 and Battlestar Galactica at 10."

Shiny!

I they had only picked this up sooner and actually continued the series. That would have been much better overall.

It is complete....

The backyard clean-up photo montage is now complete. All photos from now on will be on my Buzznet Photoblog. Now that I've learned how to syndicate. Sometimes I will post them on the Buzznet PhotoBlog and sometimes I will choose the blog this option so that the picture appears here. Either way you'll still be getting all the fun photos I can take.

So here are the Backyard Clean-up Photos in order.

And here are two more videos. (Quicktime required.)

Dad on the excavator.

Me on the excavator, at night, it is too dark to see, should have turned on the scoop light.

Photo-A-Day #67 06/14/05

Photo-A-Day has changed. Oh, I am still taking a photo a day except there is a now a blog feed from Buzznet over on the right hand side of the screen. There you will see a small thumbnail of the most recent Photo-A-Day. You can click on that photo to see a full size image and my write-up about that photo. I'm trying to streamline the Benspark Blog to offer many new features in the coming weeks. This is just one of the new improvements.

Backyard Clean-up Part #5

Tonight, Tara, Dad and I worked on adding more pieces of fence to the backyard. Dad rented another machine, a small compact excavator. The excavator had a small plow on the front and a big scoop on the front. There are two rubber treads and the machine moved a complete 360. It moved alot smoother than the backhoe but it was much smaller and there were no stabilizers so it shook alot more. Dad drove the excavator most of the time because he used it this morning at a job and had lots of practice on it. Tara and I got the posts and fence panels and we all worked on getting the fence up and level and nice and straight. We still have to spread the rest of the loam over the backyard and their is the part of the fence that is around a very large tree that my Dad needs to piece in but we are coming along with the backyard clean-up. I should be getting up the photos soon.

The Benspark is syndicated.

I have explored the world of Blog syndication, and I like it. I started exploring this because I wanted a way to put the Photo-A-Day images on the sidebar. Then I got into learning about Feedburner for the Benspark Blog. Now I have a few things set up so that you can subscribe to the Benspark Blog. That's right you can get the Benspark Blog on your My Yahoo, My MSN or any other type of RSS syndication reader. It is very, very simple. At the bottom of each post there are some buttons that will help you subscribe to the benspark blog. More changes are in store as I learn and explore more about the options for syndication.

Photo-A-Day #66 06/13/05

Photo-A-Day #66 06/13/05
Posted by: abennett96.

This is our wall of engagement cards. Thanks to everyone who sent us a nice congratulations. No work in the yard today. Too hot.

Selling our life story...

The other day I discovered a couple new webcomics, Crap I Drew on my Lunch Break and Asylum on 5th Street. I sent the links to Allison and she came across this one, and then asked me if I was selling webcomic artists our life story. The artist of Crap and Asylum is named Jin wicked, just about the coolest name ever, besides Wes Molebash of You'll Have That. You put Bash in a name and it just gives it some zing.

Insert Oliver or Duncan here

And speaking of web comics. I have been updating the list with different comics that I have found in my adventures online. Please check out their websites. Some use course language from time to time so be warned. I'll have to put up some sort of legend about which ones are family friendly, PG-13 and truck driver mouth. For the most part the daily cartoon is pretty accessible to all audiences. Some of these comics have huge archives and major backstory about the characters.



PVP - Player Vs. Player. I love this comic because the characters are so much fun and Scott Kurtz really knows how to set up a joke as well as the use of the hook, where a joke is set up in a prior strip and then recalled at a later date, sometimes years later.
Artist - Scott Kurtz
Archive - Very Large, since 1998
Updated - 7 days a week.
Audience - Family Friendly, Sci-Fi geeks, Children of the 80's, Gamers
Art - Very clean, often black and white with color on Sundays.
Plot - Office full of employees of a ficticous gaming magazine. Lots of Pop culture references.
Affiliation - Independent, Image comics



You'll Have That - One of my most favorite comics. So very true to life, at least to the life that Allison and I have. Wes Molebash can create great humor from life situations. And Wes is a great guy too.
Artist - Wes Molebash
Archive - Fairly small, very new comic. Since December 2004.
Updated - M,W,F with blog entries and a very friendly forum.
Audience - Family Friendly, Couples.
Plot - The life of Andy and Katie, a recently married couple, parallels the life of the artist.
Affiliation: Viper Comics



Real Life Comics - Greg Dean has some great characters and a large archive of strips. I love how he breaks the fourth wall, or rather the roof (when his characters talk to the artist.) The website itself is so very well constructed. The most visually appealing of the bunch.
Artist - Greg Dean
Archive - Very Large, since November 15, 1999
Updated - M-F, And occasional blog entrys.
Audience - Family Friendly, some strips for couples, gamers, Sci-Fi geeks.
Plot - Paralleling the Real life of Greg Dean and his friends. When Greg gets a friend in real life that person becomes part of the strip. When he breaks up with a girlfriend, she leaves the strip.
Affiliation - Independent



Legostar Galactica - Not drawn, done entirely with LEGO.
Artist - D. M. Jeftinija
Archive - Fairly large, since August, 25 2002
Updated - M-F
Audience - Sci-Fi Geeks and fans of Lego.
Plot - Set on a fictional spaceship this comic, done entirely with LEGO pokes fun at the science fiction genre.
Affiliation - Independent



It's Walky - Character driven and has a huge archive.
Artist - David Willis
Archive - Huge. Since 1997
Updated - Once a week now.
Audience - Transformers fans, Sci-Fi Geeks, Can be PG-13 at times.
Plot - Actually the archive is so huge that a plot synopsis is just not possible. Involves Aliens, college, secret government organizations, giant robot monkeys (I mean apes)
Affiliation: - Blank Label Comics



Martin's Misdirection - Good art, needs to be updated more often.
Artist - James Burks
Archive - Small, Burk compiled the first set of strips into a book to sell and took the first 55 strips off the website.
Updated - very haphazardly
Audience - Family Friendly
Plot - About a struggling magician and his scheming rabbit.



The Mows - Comic done with Flash Animation.
Artist - Jay Dyke
Archives - About 4 years worth however not all on the website, slowly being released each day. Updated - M-F
Audience - Cat lovers, Family Friendly
Plot - Life from the perspective of Jay's three cats, Nonie, Indy and Tigey.
Affiliation: Independent



Lost and Found - Great cartoon style
Artist - Matt Milligan
Archive - Fairly large Since 2000
Updated - Haphazardly
Audience - Family Friendly
Plot - Private Investigator and his talking dog are on the case.
Affiliation - Keenspot



College Roomies from Hell - The art has developed over the years.
Artist - Martiza Campos
Archive - Huge, since 1999
Updated - M-F
Audience - College students, PG-13
Plot - Three college guys, Three college girls, wackiness ensues. Oh and mutations.
Affiliation - Keenspot



Dr. Devious Vs. Lincoln High School - Comic Book Art.
Artist - Cliff Hicks and Kris Durrschmidt
Archive - Small, fairly new comic, February 2004
Updated - Haphazardly but more often recently.
Audience - James Bond Fans, Austin Powers Fans, So far family friendly to PG-13
Plot - What if the greatest evil genius ever and his henchmen were captured and forced to teach high school. And what if your arch nemesis was the gym teacher and the man who captured you. Affiliation - Independent, site design was by Greg Dean.



Spamusement - Don't you just hate spam.
Artist - Steven Frank
Archive - Small from 2004
Updated - M,W,F
Audience - The subject lines are suggestive but the cartoons are very funny.
Plot - Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!
Affiliation - Independent



Wapsi Square - Some of my favorite art. And some very complex and deep storylines.
Artist - Paul Taylor
Archive - Large from 2001
Updated - M-F
Audience - 20-30 somethings, PG-13
Plot - Centers around Monica and her friends. The friends include many people as well as her dog Dietzel and Tepoztecal the god of alcohol.
Affiliation - Blank Label Comics



Questionable Content - Although I am not into indie music I can still appreciate this story. The art is great and the characters are fun. And the art has improved so much.
Artist - Jeph Jacques - He's in Massachusetts!
Archive - Good size. 379 strips. Since 2003
Updated - M-F
Audience - PG-13, some conversations are not for young ears.
Plot - About Marten, a young single guy and his roommate, Faye, whom Marten is infatuated with and their friends. They talk about indie music alot, but not all the time, pretty accessible even if you are not in that scene.
Affiliation - Independent



Shortpacked - Now in color.
Artist - David Willis, from It's Walky
Archive - Small, I can't find the older stuff, not sure what happened to it.
Updated - M,W,F
Audience - Toy Collectors, PG-13
Plot - About a toy collector who works at a toy store. Lots of Transformers references. Also David keeps a blog.
Affiliation - Blank Label Comics



Girls with Slingshots - Cute, nice art.
Artist - Danielle Corsetto
Archive - Small, new comic only 58 strips
Updated - M,W,F more or less.
Audience - Single Women, PG-13
Plot - Young woman and her struggles and friends and her job as a newspaper writer.
Affiliations - Independent



The Devils Panties - An interesting style
Artist - Jennie Breeden
Archive - Since October 2001
Updated - M-F, S & S sketches.
Audience - Single Women, Larpers, Sci-Fi geeks, Gamers, Anyone struggling to grow up and make their place in the world. PG-13
Plot - About a young woman who enjoys LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) and has many real life adventures. The comic involves a large cast of characters including family and friends.
Affiliations - Keenspace, a service of Keenspot, There is no Keenspot advertising So I think she is Independent.



Cigarro and Cerveja - A smoking Hare and a drinking, simpleminded Goose
Artist - Tony Esteves
Archive - Small
Updated - Not sure
Audience - No real genre here, PG-13.
Plot - A Hare and a Goose are friends. Also there is a turtle that hates the goose because he loves the Hare. Kinda weird.
Affiliation - Independent



Crap I Drew on My Lunch Break - Great Art.
Artist - Jin Wicked
Archive - Small, since July 2003,
Updated - T & T
Audience - R for occasional language. Political, Liberal
Plot - Liberal young woman and her life as and artist and worker in retail.
Affiliation - Independent



Asylum on 5th Street - Great Art. I like the storyline and hope this continues, wish it updated more often.
Artist - Jin Wicked
Archive - Small, since October 2003,
Updated - Wednesdays
Audience - PG-13
Plot - An artist is the landlord of a crazy apartment building
Affiliation - Independent



Vigilante Ho! - Fantastic art. I like the westerns.
Artist - Meaghan "Doc Vacation" Quinn
Writer - John "Calamity Sane" Troutman & Meaghan "Doc Vacation" Quinn
Archive - Very small.
Updated - Not in a while.
Audience - Could get PG
Plot - A mysterious cowboy wanders into town to right wrongs.
Affiliation - Keenspot

Backyard Cleanup Part #4

You know, after 20 hours driving a backhoe, when you get in your car, that has power steering, it feels like you are expending so much effort just to turn.

Okay Sunday! Sunday we hit the ground running and began by yanking out a bunch of trees. We saved one to replant the others are chipper fodder. Yanking out the stumps was a project in itself. I think we ate up much of the morning just digging out stumps. But once we got the hang of it things ran smoothly. While I was pulling out the stumps and Dad was cutting down the trees with the chainsaw, Tara and Erik put up 5 sections of fence. They did a very good job of it too.

We did have one of the neighbors come and complain at 9:00am about the chainsaw. Of course this was when we were done. My Dad says to her, "Oh, we're all done.... (with that tree). It wasn't until about an hour or so later that we had to cut another tree down.

Today we started the concrete slabs on the opposite side of the property. We set them up that actual property line which extends our yard about 3 feet into our neighbor's yard, which is actually our yard. At some later date we'll have to get a new fence up on that side too. No rush on that, our neighbor on that side is a good one. And on the other side too, its just the back yard, no fence high enough for the backyard. Well actually it wasn't as bad as I expected, we did meet some nice folks who were interested in what we were doing. One guy on Sunday morning asked my Dad, "Do those people mind that you're tearing up their yard to make this fence?" Dad was like, "Oh you mean my yard? Yeah, that's my house." We really didn't have too many gawkers either and that kept us on task, because we were burning daylight from the moment we got up that morning.

So I dug a trench across the back to lay the concrete slabs into. With the straps from Richard we had a much better time of moving the slabs into position. We used the scoop to swing the first two slabs into place. That offered some great control in the placement of the slabs. Then after the first two were in place we moved two more over so that I could then move the backhoe, set back up and then swing the next two in place. After that we put the rest of the slabs in with the bucket in the front. I would drop a slab with Dad and Erik guiding it into position then I would either help slide it over to the next slab with either the front bucket or the back scoop. The bucket worked best because I could drive directly into it and move the slab over.

Speaking of moving things with the front bucket. I was having alot of fun moving that dumpster all around. At the end of the night I wanted to move it way over in the corner but that wasn't happening, instead I moved it behind the trees so at least we wouldn't have to see it, and hopefully since we wouldn't be going so far back the smell wouldn't be as overpowering.

I think we had gotten about 5 slabs in place before we ran into a big obstacle. A root the size and diameter thicker than any of the trees that we took out. Erik tried to chop the root up with the grub ho. Then I tried to scoop around it with the backhoe. Then Dad took the chainsaw to it. Then Erik and Dad took turns driving a wedge through it with the sledgehammer and wedge. Finally Dad took the skill saw too it and a couple more whacks from the grub ho and sledgehammer and the root was out and we had enough room to put down another slab. That little adventure took up about a half hour or more.

Once we got all the slabs into place we cleaned up the parking lot, moved back the dumpster, left 3 5 foot slabs off to the side for the owner of the apartment house to use as he likes. Then I had enough room to drive the backhoe into the back yard. I dug a hole for the replanting of another tree. Moved one pile of rocks over to the far side of the fence for a rock garden, and then Dad pulled out the old Basketball hoop pole, which was all rusted and about 2 feet high at this point. There was about 2 1/2 feet of concrete on the bottom of the pole. So he scooped that up and put it with the other junk that we will bury.... and never have to dig up again. Ha, Ha.

After that was all done Mom took a group shot of the four of us by the backhoe. We had all cracked our beers and looking like a dirty rotten bunch. Then we got the backhoe loaded on the trailer, tied down and we all went off to take showers. Tara cooked us some nice big steaks and we had those and backed potatoes, courtesy of Tara and the new grill. We'll be getting alot more use out of that once the backyard is completed.

As promised, here are some videos of the adventures in the backyard.

Getting Started

This is Day one with the backhoe.

Transporting the Slabs

This was how we moved each slab before the strap.

Scooping

This is me doing some scooping.

Scooping 2

Digging a hole for the tree.

Bye Bye

Farewell to the backhoe.

The rest of the pictures will be up later.

Photo-A-Day #65 06/12/05

Photo-A-Day #65 06/12/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Oops! I backed into one of the 5 foot slabs and knocked it over while I ran around the parking lot this morning. Luckily no cars were parked behind it. No time for a backyard clean-up recap post tonight. We worked until dark and just finished supper.

Backyard Cleanup Part #3

This morning we started bright and early getting to work with the backyard cleanup project. At first we were unable to start the backhoe but Erik got that figured out quickly. Dad started using the backhoe first. He began by digging out a spot for us to begin laying out the concrete slabs. After a little while I took over the controls of the backhoe and spent the better part of the day perfecting my skills with excavating. Everyone agreed that I may have found a second calling in life.

A couple of trees had to come down and Erik and I took care of maintaining some tension on a rope while Dad took the chainsaw to the trees. We have a nice pile of branches ready for the chipper. After the trees were down the stumps had to come out. Stumps don't want to come out, they like it where they are, that is why they are stumps. Anyway after nearly flipping the backhoe a couple of times we finally got the stumps out.

Then we cleared a nice level path for the concrete slabs. Our next task was to get each slab to the place where it will now live on, forever. Which is what we said the last time we put in a fence. And that wasn't forever as evidenced by some of the things we dug up for the new fence. The running joke between my Dad and I was "Bury it, we'll never have to dig THAT up again." Yep, it was our own personal time capsule of crap that we buried long ago.

To move the concrete slabs first we attached a chain to the bucket in the front of the backhoe. Then we took another chain and hooked it to the small piece of rebar and a bolt, I think we went through 4 bolts today. But our neighbor Richard came over and he lent us this heavy duty strap that had rings on the end and this thing was a godsend. We hooked the strap to another thing Richard gave us (I don't know the technical term but it let the slab swing in circles so we could maneuver it better.) So Erik and I would take the backhoe over to the pile of slabs, then we would hook one up and I would drive it over into place.

We first tried lowering the slabs from above with the scoop and another chain configuration. 2 went into place not too shabby but the third one got into a position and I was unable to raise the arm anymore. So we then decided just to drive the backhoe across the lawn in the back. If I went slowly I didn't tear it up too badly. But our lawn is ripped up good, you can see that in the photos from the Backyard Cleanup.

So we got about 11 slabs into place, two high. Then we filled in behind the slabs and raised that area of the yard up to the level of the two slabs. I used the backhoe to get the stonedust and fill in the holes and then used the backhoe to pull in all the loam as well. We got alot accomplished in our 12 1/2 hour day. Anyway, Tara and Erik went out and picked up a grill for the house and we are going to break it in. Enjoy the photos from today. Once I get back on the laptop I'll format the movies that we took too.

Photo-A-Day #64 06/11/05

Photo-A-Day #64 06/11/05
Posted by: abennett96.

All day I got to play on that backhoe. You see, years of Nintendo as a child improved my hand eye coordination and my ability to think in 4 dimensions helped me discover a new skill. I rock with the backhoe. I was able to scoop and rip out roots, used the bucket to grab loam and dump it between the retaining wall and the pit. And we used the backhoe to move all the 5 foot concrete slabs. I did a couple with the scoop when we first started out then I did the rest with the bucket on the front.

Backyard Clean Up Day #2

Today when I got home from work my dad headed off to pick up the backhoe for the backyard. Yesterday we both took the day off and today we began to get into the preparation for tomorrows all day fence installation. We have 15 6X8 Spruce Stockade fence panels and 16 posts. Why will this take all day and possibly into Sunday? Well this fence is going to be special. First we are digging a 6 inch trench then we are layering in some stonedust. After that we will put in 18 inch high concrete slabs. These will be placed end to end across the entire 120 foot span of fence. We have a backhoe to dig the trench and move the slabs. I didn't get pictures of that today because I was busy helping to move the slabs but I promise to get someone to take the videos tomorrow. The slabs were moved by wrapping a chain around the slab lengthwise and hooking it under a piece of rebar that was on one side, the other side has a hole, we stuck a lag bolt in the other side for the chain to catch. Then this was hoisted off the pile by the backhoe and then moved to location. We haven't actually laid any of the slabs in place yet, but rather made a barrier to keep the people in the back from parking right on top of the equipment so we cannot work tomorrow. The was a car out there all day that never moved and it threw alot of the plans off.

So when I got home, my sister Tara and I set up a temporary fence for the dogs so they could have some backyard to play in this weekend. No way they are staying in the house in this heat. Then dad got back with the backhoe and we each took turns training on how to use it by trying to remove the stump from the half dead tree from Wednesday's photos. The stump proved a very worthy foe. It was not easily removed.

Uncle Paul D. came by just as we were rigging up the chain hoist for the concrete slabs. That was an adventure, trying to move 300lbs+ slabs with some heavy chain and the front end loader of the backhoe. After we made a good territorial marker we put the equipment to bed and had dinner. Then Dad and I went to Home Depot to pick up the fence that we will need to install on top of the concrete slabs. This should give us about 7 feet of fenced privacy. Can't wait to be able to use the backyard in peace again.

Here are the photos of progress so far. North Attleboro, Backyard Cleanup '05

I'll have video too. Maybe up on Sunday.

Photo-A-Day #63 06/10/05

Photo-A-Day #63 06/10/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Close up of the Rhododendron Bush that is behind the house.

4 years....

Yep, yesterday Allison and I celebrated 4 years together as a couple. And before I go into my usual restaurant review and movie tangent, let me say that they have been a great 4 years. I couldn't ask for a kinder person to spend time with or ask to be my wife.

Now onto my usual posts/tangents.

We went to a new Chinese restaurant in Cumberland called the Fortune House. It is right off exit 10 of 295. You get off the exit and go straight across the intersection into a small strip mall and there it is. The food was fantastic. Some of the best crab Rangoon around. Allison joked that she's going to send me there for take-out from now on. Nope, that is a strictly go and sit down for a meal kind of place. The food is so fresh and appetizing. The decor is very clean and inviting and the staff is warm and friendly. We split a Pu Pu for One and then had the Happy Family meal with the House Fried Rice. The only thing I wasn't thrilled with was the fried rice. I like my fried rice more of a Chicago style without the peas. My favorite fried rice was from Chinatown in downtown North Attleboro which is now Dragon garden, their fried rice is very good but just a little different then Chinatown's was. After dinner we had special ice creams for dessert. Allison got their ginger ice cream and I tried the green tea ice cream. We both agreed that we liked our selections but weren't thrilled with what the other person got, so that worked out well.

When we got home we watched the MTV movie awards. Napoleon Dynamite swept the awards with Best Movie, Best Musical Performance and Breakthrough performance Male. I really would have liked to see Zach Braff and Garden State win but it was not to be. It was great to see The Breakfast Club folks in the audience and too bad that Emilio and Judd Nelson didn't show up, that would have been a good thing, couldn't hurt their careers. They should have also had the guy who played the janitor, John Kapelos, up on stage with them too, he was in the audience, they shouldn't have left him out. It is also too bad that John Hughes wasn't there either, the guy practically single-handedly kept me going to the movie theatres through the eighties with his movies. And he wrote some of my all time favorites like The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes,Trains and Automobiles and Weird Science. Hughes was the king of 80's movies. If he could just capture that magic again then he'd be back on top. The last movie he is credited with was Beethoven's 5th. He made 5 movies about that dog. Where's 32 candles? Where is some movie that will make me want to shell out my $9+ to recapture the fun times, touching stories and characters I can relate to? The tribute to the breakfast club was awesome because with that movie you really could find someone in that group to relate to. I've got to watch that again.

Also Katie Holmes presented Tom Cruise with his lifetime achievement award. It was neat to watch clips of all of his movies. Made Allison and I realize that we haven't seen them all and we'll be going to the library to check out some of his older stuff that neither she nor I have ever seen.

Oh and here's a tribute to Napoleon Dynamite from Spiderman.

Photo-A-Day #62 06/09/05

Photo-A-Day #62 06/09/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Yesterday I received my Transformers Collector's Club exclusive figure. Skyfall. So today I got around to taking a picture of it.

Trace....

Okay I finished Patricia Cornwell's latest Kay Scarpetta novel, Trace. Ever since Blowfly these books have gone downhill. Albeit Trace was infinitely better than Blowfly it still was not a very good book, but I started it and refused to quit. I don't like the characters, there is not one character that has a halfway healthy way of dealing with things. And of course the book builds to a big climactic revelation and falls just so incredibly flat in the execution of the ending. I was five pages away from the end of the book and all the major players were everywhere. And then it just ended. It just went , pfffft, done. And that is to be expected because that is how Kay Scarpetta novels work, they have tons of complications throughout the entire book and in the end all the major plot points are not tied up and it leaves the reader wondering, hey well what about.... So infuriating. So it is now time to choose the next book to read. The choices are:

Life of Pi - Yann Martel
A Salty Piece of Land - Jimmy Buffett
Beach Music - Pat Conroy

Or Do I begin a series.

INCARNATIONS OF IMMORTALITY Series
On a Pale Horse - Piers Anthony

My friend John lent me the first book and it I like it he will lend me the others in the series.

Or I could finally begin reading The Anna Piegon mysteries by Nevada Barr.

Holy Crap! Someone bought some Clive Cussler books through my referral Links. That is $0.64 for the wedding fund baby. They bought Deep Six and Vixen 03 Most of the books I've read or series I like can be found on the listings at my Flatwater Bookstore.

Books referred to in this post

Photo-A-Day #61 06/08/05

Photo-A-Day #61 06/08/05
Posted by: abennett96.

This afternoon when I got home from work my father and I worked on moving the old clubhouse in the backyard away from the fence. This coming weekend we will be putting up the new fence and hopefully be able to give our backyard some more privacy. My Dad made this clubhouse when I was about 4 or 5 years old. It was a clubhouse for me and my sisters. I used to climb up the back of the roof and play adventure games. Lots of squirt-guns and cheap plastic yellow pellet guns were fired from the top of that roof. Dad eventually put a real window in the clubhouse and a door, and the clubhouse officially became a shed. So we moved the shed 16 feet through the course of the late afternoon. I took a bunch of pictures as we moved the clubhouse across the yard. They are in another gallery. The NA Backyard Cleanup '05. Unfortunately to save time I quickup-loaded these pictures and they aren't in the intended logical order and there is no way to put them in the correct order without deleting them and starting again. I figure you are all smart enough to see when something has moved.

Just Bizarre...

So, today when I read Shortpacked and David Willis' blog there was a link that said.

Fallen angels attack Noah's Ark with an army of dinosaurs, which God defeats with lasers.

It is a detailed account of what really happened to the dinosaurs and how Noah's Ark was pure fact (A Creationist's View of Dinosaurs). Apparently, you can make this stuff up. You can buy the whole comic book here along with some of his other comic books, like the one where he usess Star Wars to tell bible stories (The Great Controversy, the Real STAR WARS).

The website for Jim Pinkoski is very interesting. Obviously it is full of ideas that never once entered my head. Probably not yours either. But none the less it is an interesting website and there is just so much "real", "factual" information throughout the site.

Photo-A-Day #60 06/07/05

Photo-A-Day #60 06/07/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Tonight Allison and I went to visit Great-Uncle Richard at the hospital. He is awake, aware and healing very well. He starts physical therapy tomorrow and had actual food today, albeit chicken broth, but at least it didn't come in through a tube. He was very talkative and happy to be getting better. We were very happy to see him doing so well. Thanks for the all the prayers, keep 'em coming, he's not home yet but getting on his way.

This is the new addition to the hospital.

Will the Goonies be Good Enough?

There are rumors that there may be a Goonies 2 movie, one that would pull the original cast back together to have an adventure with the Goonies as adults. The basic premise would most likely be: Goonies have grown up and become adults, their sense of wonder and adventure has dried up with family obligations and mind sapping jobs. A new quest comes along and the Goonies must once again band together.

More likely premise. The Goonies band together to find Corey Feldman's career.

I found this fun video that some hardcore Goonies fans made.

Goonies Vacation.

Hey, it could happen. I mean most of the original cast of the Breakfast Club came together at the MTV movie awards that will be shown on Thursday.

Alot of movies are hitting their 20th anniversary.

Check out the 80's Server.

Update on Uncle Richard

My father and mother went to visit Uncle Richard today and he is off the respirator and talking. Please continue to keep him in your prayers to help his recovery continue. Thanks.

Photo-A-Day #59 06/06/05

Photo-A-Day #59 06/06/05
Posted by: abennett96.

There is a tarp covering the fence in our backyard. The fence has decayed over the years with storms and kids climbing over it and once a grandfather lept clear over the fence in pursuit of an escaping canine. So, why the tarp. Well our back yard butts up to the parking lot for a house full of seedy apartments. Some questionable characters are living there and they like to hang out in the parking lot. Well, when the dogs go out to play in the backyard they see the people in the parking lot and they bark at them. Some of the people have yelled at the dogs and this riles them up. So Tara has to get the dogs away from the fence and this is not an easy task. It is also a legitimate concern that one of these people may throw something at the dogs or try to hurt them in some way. So, to prevent this Dad and Erik put up the tarp until such time as we can build the high fence and retaining wall to block out the view of the parking lot and give our backyard more privacy. This should hopefully prevent any future incidences.

Weekend Party #2 Recap

On Saturday Allison and I went to Marcia's graduation. I took a video of the entire ceremony except for the last five minutes because the battery was getting low on the camera and I needed to take some still shots after the ceremony.

After the graduation we all went back to Dan and Marcia's for a BBQ. A couple of folks from the school came over and then Barbara and Frank, Nate and Sarah, and Megan came over followed by Alicia and Ken and then Marcin and Matt came later also. So did Debbie and Dana and Olivia and Dan. Dan fired up the grill and we had hamburgers and hot dogs. Allison made her pasta salad and we had ice cream cake for dessert. We were up pretty late. I was beat tired so I went to bed early. My timing couldn't have been any more perfect as I missed some of the more colorful guests appearances.

On Sunday we were all in recovery mode. Allison and I did not end up going to Portsmouth for Lunch with Joe and Jen. We did however get the chance to catch up with Meghan for lunch in Merrimack and then we got to check out her condo. Nice place. Bill was there and we hung out and chatted and checked out the remodeling progress that Meghan and Bill have been making.

We headed home and picked up Allison's car from work. We each got home safe and took a quick nap before church. After church we headed over to my Cousin Shaun's High School graduation party. After that we hit the supermarket, CVS and Blockbuster (to return Without a Paddle). So by the time we got home, put in the air conditioner, flipped the mattress and remade the bed, it was late and I took a very lame photo-a-day. I'll find some better subject matter for today.

Photo-A-Day #58 06/05/05

Photo-A-Day #58 06/05/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Did too much this wekeend to even begin to blog about tonight. I'm wiped. We put the air conditioner in tonight and flipped the mattress. Hopefully a cool night's sleep.

Congratulations Marcia!

Today Marcia Graduated from aestitichian (sp) school. She did very well for the year. Here is a photo from the graduation. My camera is out of batteries because I taped the whole commencement.



Allison, Marcia and Dan

Photo-A-Day #57 06/04/05

Photo-A-Day #57 06/04/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Note: Don't put helium ballons near a moving fan.

Weekend Party #1 Recap

Here is a recap in pictures of Lindsay's graduation party last night.


Lindsay and Allison

Lindsay's graduation gift, a Karaoke Machine

They even had a bubble machine.

Lindsay and Cindy doing Karaoke.

Lindsay graduated from graduate school yesterday and last night there was a party at her place in Malden. Lots of snacks and drinks and good people. There was even karaoke. Lindsay's friends got her a machine but played it off like they bought the machine for Cindy. Lindsay has a great voice and does karaoke often, so it is a perfect gift for her.

On the way home we stopped at a McDonalds in Lawrence. The poor guys working the drive thru... There was a car full of, guys, who spent about 20 minutes shouting directions to the ordering box. And since it was the late night menu there were some things missing. And they kept ordering things not on the late night menu then would get mad. Anyway we were entertained by these guys for the first 5 minutes.

Car pulls up, past the box. Back door opens.

Driver: "Three quarter pounders with cheese, yo!"

Drive-thru guy (DTG): "No cheese"

Driver: "Pfft, what! No cheese!"

DTG: "We ran out of cheese."

Driver: "Yo, yo , yo okay, three quarter pounders."

Back Seat Guy (BSG): "No pee-ckles, yo!"

Front Seat Guy (FSG): "On two of them"

Driver: "Yeah no pee-ckles on two of them."

FSG: "And one with just ketchup and mayonnaise."

Driver: "Yeah one with ketchup and mayonnaise."

DTG: "Three quarter pounders"

Driver: "No, no, two quarter pounders..."

BSG: "With no pee-ckles!"

Driver: "Yeah with no pee-ckles!"

DTG: "Three quarter pounders, two with no pickles..."

Driver: "No! One with only ketchup, mayonnaise and lettuce."

The accurate order display now shows 3 quarter pounders with no pickles, and one quarter pounder with ketchup and mayonnaise.

Driver: "Yo! This box is wrong, get rid of one of those!"

The accurate order box removes the quarter pounder with just ketchup and mayonnaise.

Driver: "No, two quarter pounders..."

BSG: "and no cheese!"

Driver: "... with no pee-ckles, and one with."

FSG: "Just ketchup and mayonnaise, yo!"

Finally the box shows the right order.

DTG: "Is that everything?"

Driver: "Yeah!"

DTG: "Drive around"

BSG: "Yo, we wants drinks and fries too!"

DTG: "Drive Around"

So they pull around and we pull up, give our order, in clear English and under the 20 minute mark, and then pull around. And the guys missed the window again. But this time they backed up, and were finishing their order, fries, yo, and cokes, yo. Then they argue over the price. "$10.00! What!" BSG shouts, "Hook me up with chicken selects, yo!" It makes sense that you would try and finagle free food after you just nearly gave the window guy an aneurysm with the initial order and then arguing about the final price.

Finally they got their order and took off. And then we got ours and headed onwards to Manchester.

Word to yo' peeps, yo!

Back in NH...

Well, I knew I wouldn't be near a computer before midnight and I wasn't. Tonight Allison and I went to Malden to see her friend Lindsay for a party. We had a good time. Lindsay graduated from graduate school today (yesterday). Congratulations! (Photos when I wake up tomorrow.)

And congratulations go out to my supervisor Christine and Marc on getting married. That is happening today.

Update...

Last night Dad and I went to see Uncle Richard in the hospital. He's been there now about 2 1/2 weeks. He is still heavily sedated but he is looking better overall. He's got some color coming back to his face and he is initiating the breathing machine to do the work. He was also opening his eyes and moving his feet when he saw that we were there. His pulse increased and his breathing also increased. He was aware that we were there and talking to him. He's probably very frustrated that he cannot communicate with us. He still needs more prayers for a healthy recovery.

My Grandmother Theresa is also in a hospital facility recuperating. She could use some prayers also. Thank you.

Our friends Steve and Erin have a new baby girl. Kathleen Erin, who was born on the 28th. Allison and I are looking forward to seeing them to congratulate them.

I just gave the Holiday Inn our second deposit yesterday. And I'm calling them today to get another block of rooms reserved. My Mom called yesterday and all they had left was a smoking room. I have no idea why there were any smoking rooms in our block in the first place.

Heading to NH this weekend to celebrate Marcia's graduation. Looking forward to a nice BBQ and good times. Then Sunday we are going to Portsmouth to see Joe and Jenn for lunch and they are giving us Buffett Tickets. So well will get to see Jimmy this year. June 20th Baby!

Photo-A-Day #56 06/03/05

Photo-A-Day #56 06/03/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Okay so I am not going to be back near a computer before midnight so once again today's photo is stuff from my desk. These are the autobots, Sideswipe, Jazz and Tracks.

Photo-A-Day #55 06/02/05

Photo-A-Day #55 06/02/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Experimenting with backgrounds on my computer and some of my Transformers Alternators. This is Shockwave.

Photo-A-Day #54 06/01/05

Photo-A-Day #54 06/01/05
Posted by: abennett96.

Today I took my bike out for a ride. No, not the motorcycle, the pedal bike. I figure that I'd get more exercise on the Pedal bike and still see the same things I can on the motorcycle. Besides I am selling the motorcycle. Look for the For Sale post soon.

The Pedal bike is a Jamis. I got the bike from the Alternative Bike Shop in Goffstown NH. Ryan at the bike shop is a great guy and gave me a huge deal on it. If you live in NH that is the guy you should buy a bike from.

D.B. Cooper... Drinking Champagne

So, last night Allison and I watched Without a Paddle. Part of the story centered around D.B. Cooper. If you don't know about D.B. check out this story at Court TV's Crime Library. It gives a great recap of the entire story which is a fascinating one. And the title of this post comes from Todd Snider's song D.B. Cooper. If you want to hear the song let me know I'll play it for you. I think a great TV show or movie concept would be about D.B. after he landed and what happened to him. There are so many things that could be done with that because it is a complete mystery about what happened.

Nuns and Creativity

There was an article that came out yesterday at work about a group of Nuns who all donated their brains to science. These nuns lived until their 80's and 90's and their minds were incredibly sharp for their age. Each day they completed many mental puzzles. So I looked for some daily puzzles that I could do to keep my mind sharp too. Check them out they are pretty fun.

Set Daily Quiz If anyone can find another game like this one please e-mail me.

Daily Brain Teasers

Braingle

Brain Bashers

May Trivia Recap

Here are the final top 10 scores for Trivia for May

64 players played during the month.

1. dbarryzzz (395 points, 5 wins)
2. abennett48 (358 points, 3 wins)
3. Emperor Wesley (299 points, 4 wins)
4. JoshZ (279 points, 0 wins)
5. johngalt (261 points, 2 wins)
6. ekstaron (252 points, 0 wins)
7. roller74 (244 points, 1 wins)
8. MaxPower (206 points, 2 wins)
9. lizap (202 points, 2 wins)
10. Ratboy (186 points, 2 wins)

Can anyone stop DbarryZZZ's reign as the top scorer. That is 5 months in a row. Even my Four wins was broken up by other players. Can anyone step up and become the June Champion!