Friday, March 31, 2006
Too excited to sleep
Have you seen that Disney commercial where two kids are too excited to sleep on the night before their Disney trip, Yeah, that is us right now. Dang commercials and their insidious attacks on our subconcious. So, instead of sleeping right now we are watching videos on VH1, which coincidentally actually still has videos, albeit only at 3:00am.
Photo-A-Day #356 03/30/06
Photo-A-Day #355 03/29/06
Photo-A-Day #354 03/28/06
Babies galore....
No we are not expecting. Just to dispel any thoughts on that subject. Before I get all sorts of hate e-mail and phone calls, NO we are NOT expecting. | |
But alot of our friends are expecting or in the case of Jen and Ben they have a beautiful baby boy named Brett who was born yesterday. Brett arrived on Monday, March 27, 2006 at 3:53 PM. (He shares the birthday with my sister Tara) He was 9 lbs.1.9 oz. and 21 inches long. Mom and Baby Brett are both doing great! Congratulations are also in order for Derek and Michelle, they are expecting and will be having a treat around Halloween. These are the babies I know about and have been given the clearance to post about. | |
Congratulations to all of our friends and their growing families. |
I'm not the only one...
Quick post...
Photo-A-Day #353 03/27/06
So, I got one more piece of equipment for the feet. Yep, I have Superfeet inserts, Toe Crests, and now the Pediflex binders. I had another doctor's visit today and I'm on icing my feet 3 times daily for 15 minutes each time plus the additional foot accoutrements.
Dont worry Im still going to give it my best shot at the marathon on Sunday. The final race details just came out and Im not that happy. The reason is that there are no buses from our hotel to the start of the race. The only hotel that is getting bus service is the Pop Century resort. I was unaware of this before we made plans for the trip. Had I known we probably would have stayed at Pop Century instead of All Star movies, but in this case well have to get a taxi to drop me off and to get Allison over to the Boardwalk to watch me go by.
The good news is that I have been reading the map incorrectly. I thought that the race route went along the road and then into Epcot then through the Boardwalk Area and then MGM but I had it wrong because I had it in reverse. The race actually hits MGM at the 3 mile mark then from MGM to the Boardwalk area and then through Epcot and out on the road. This is very good news because Ill be able to hit the parks without worrying if Ill make it inside, like the marathon last January.
Photo-A-Day #352 03/26/06
Photo-A-Day #351 03/25/06
Allison and I spent a real homebody day. We did some cleaning, laundry and then caught an afternoon movie Failure to Launch (very funny, go see it), then we went to Dick's Sporting Goods to get me a new pair of rollerblades for the marathon next Sunday. (I'll break em in between now and then.) Then Allison got a nice grown up coat at Burlington Coat Factory and we had lunch at Memphis BBQ.
Then we caught up on some of the taped shows from the past week.
Oliver and Duncan fought for the clothes basket, Oliver won. Why duncan didn't just sit in the other identical one is unknown.
Photo-A-Day #350 03/24/06
Tonight Allison and I went to dinner with Jenn, Beth, Amy and Ryan to Not Your Average Joes in Needham MA. I landed in Providence and shot up there to catch up just as they were about to order (they waited for me, very nice of them.) We hung out there till about 20 of 10 and then headed home. A very nice night out.
I am burnt and wiped out and ready to get some sleep.
Photo-A-Day #349 03/23/06
I demonstrated in Marshall, MN today and then drove back to Siouox Falls, SD. I'm hanging out at a Fairfield Inn tonight and then off to home tomorrow. This ends a marathon week of work, and travel but next week I have one demonstration over the web and then we head to Disney on Friday. It will be nice to head out on a vacation even if it is a small one.
I didn't find much today for a picture, I walked around the Empire Mall here in Sioux Falls and didn't see anyting to take a photo of and then as I walked to my hotel I saw this guy letting the water loose from the fire hydrant and decided to take this. The whole street got flooded for a bit and so I had to hop up on the curb and dash around the water.
Photo-A-Day #348 03/22/06
Well, I finished my first trade show. Finished a presentation project that I tworked on and presented with Peter. Now I am waiting to fly to my next site for a demo tomorrow in Marshall,MN. I fly to Sioux Falls, SD on a flight that was delayed and than not delayed so who knows when it will happen. Looking forward to an early night on my own timeclock. Only about one week till our trip to Disney. I also found out that Christopher Williams is going to be back at the Lyon's Den in Norton on April 6th. That will be pretty sweet to get a picture of Christopher during the final week of one year's work on the Photo-A-Day project. I'm going to continue it of course, it has become something I look forward too each day and I hope that you do too.
Tthe plane did not leave on time, big surprise. I did finish both of the Lost books: Endangered Species and Secret Identity. Both were decent reads and having read all three while Lost has been in re-runs has made me so look forward to a new episode tonight. I am now reading the next Nevada Barr book about National Parks Ranger Anna Pigeon. This book is called Liberty Falling and is set in New York on Ellis Island and Liberty Island. It is so unsettling to read a book or see a movie that shows or describes the World Trade Center in New York, still feels unreal to fly over New York and see such a diferent skyline now.
Here is a wind farm that I drove by on the way to my next hotel..
Photo-A-Day #347 03/21/06
Still in Charlotte and still obsessed with this park. I could spend all day there just enjoying the little things all over it. Unfortunately the weather is not letting me do that.
Buzznet just added a fantastic feature I can post this to buzznet and to myspace at the same time. No more double duty, until you get to blogger, then I have to do double duty but for the most part this will post to both buzznet and myspace at the same exact time.
I added more pictures to the North Carolina Gallery
Photo-A-Day #346 03/20/06
At the conference to set up early this morning, I stopped in the park to take this picture. All over the park are these signs. I really like this park, the theme is called art in the park. I added a few more images to the Charlotte, North Carolina gallery.
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan of the Apes and the John Carter of Mars series.
Photo-A-Day #345 03/19/06
Day two in Charlotte, NC. I can see why many people are moving down here. It is a great city. And it is the center of the known world, or at least according to this sign it is. I really like being in this city. The park where this sign resides is a beautiful little oasis in the city that has many nice artisitic touches including signposts that point to actual towns but when put together give the name of an author. I took a picture of the Mark Twain one, since he is great. I got a bunch more photos and will upload them as soon as I get a real internet connection instead of dial up. Maybe I'll upload them tomorrow morning before the show starts up again.
Charlotte, NC St. Patricks Day
Some Parade Pictures will be up later
Pictures Uploaded
Photo-A-Day #343 03/17/06
Tonight we had Andy and Rondi over for dinner. Tara and Erik and Mom and Dad and Elise were also here for dinner. I made about 8 pounds of corned beef and am pretty sure I ate at least a pound of it, it feels like I did. I am so stuffed. Two crock pots, and 2 large pots on the stove.
Tara made a vegetarian dish for her and Rondi and I made sure that I made the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage without any corned beef water. For the life of me I kept trying to think of the name for the carrots,cabbage and potatoes combination and I was wrong about what it was because what I called it was Colcannon, at least that was the word I was thinking about but Colcannon is more of a just cabbage, and potatoes dish.
Well we had a great meal including some Black and Tans with Guinnness and Harp and Andy made a green ice cream that was raspberry flavored that I really liked, but apparently I was the only one. Sorry Andy.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day - St. Patrick's History
Photo-A-Day #342 03/16/06
Photo-A-Day #340 03/14/06
I took my Rollerblades out for the second time this week. Glad the weather has been cooperating. I am only 19 days away from the Disney 1/2 in-line marathon. I am actually selling the protective gear seen here. They are slightly used, a few scrapes and whatnot but the kneepads are stretched out and do not fit anymore. Someone with bigger knees would be better suited to these ones. The wristguards and elbow pads are in perfect shape but you can't find just kneepads anywhere. So I bought a new set of all three pairs. They fit great and I am feeling very excited about the 1/2 marathon.
Photo-A-Day #339 03/13/06
Photo-A-Day #338 03/12/06
Photo-A-Day #337 03/11/06
So after the Buffett ticket blitz, Allison and I went to the mall so she could use a gift card from Filenes. While she was in Filenes I went to borders and got the other two LOST novels, I tried to call her and then tried to find her and eventually found her in. Then I sat on a bench to begin reading the book. All of a sudden I noticed that some little kid is barreling towards me with those light up shoes. He stops in front of my and begins to wave. I see this out of my peripheral vision, I slowly look up in my, oh so patient way, all the while thinking, "Where are this kid's parents?" when I then recognize that it is my cousin Matt's son Keith. So my expression changes and I am very happy to see Keith because he is such a happy and joyful kid, and I know him. I look over and Matt and Annie are laughing.
We made plans to have dinner together later this evening. We went home and I tested out my Rollerblades (you know because I'm doing 13 miles on them in 3 weeks and this is the first time I've had them on. I'm of the mindset that you shouldn't 'over' train.) I have to get new kneepads because these are too big, but other than that I felt good and ready to go.
We went over to Matt and Annie's for dinner around 7:00 after picking up some burgers and dogs for dinner. We got to hang out, see their new place, dance with Keith to the kick'n party next door and then chat for quite a while with Matt and Annie.
Today's picture is of Allison modeling the mini backpack that I got from Honda. You can kind of see the picture of the dog and the fence, which is for Tail - Gate. It holds a six-pack perfectly.
Ticketmaster sucks...
Marcia was 2nd in line at Filenes and she got 6 reserved lawn tickets for Saturday. But guess what? We can't even use them! So it looks like Thursday will most likely be the day that we may be looking to trade for tickets. Shouldn't be a problem.
My buddy Peter got 6 reserved lawn tickets for Thursday. We are buying two from him. We used AOL Instant messenger to communicate while buying tickets, it was a fast and frantic morning, but overall pretty fun way to do something like this.
Allison and I got blocked out of the site and got nothing.
In preparation for getting tickets this year I put on my Far Side of the World 2002 shirt and my Mardis Gras beads, a Hawaiian shirt, three Buffett books, (Where is Joe Merchant, A Salty Piece of Land and Tales from Margaritaville) and the Margarita glass Allison made for everyone in 2003. I had two computers fired up to get tickets and set up some Buffett to play on the computer as well as the 3 Buffett books up on display. All to give me some good karma in buying tickets. Apparently my seething hatred of the evil that is ticketmaster negated all my good Buffett karma.
Hulk mad and apparently constitpated.
If I could get my hands on Ticket - !@#!@'n - Master
The Buffett Good Karma Shrine
Photo-A-Day #336 03/10/06
Today's photo was inspired by today's comic on You'll Have That. Notice how it looks like Duncan is twisted all around.
The bonus photo is of Oliver and Duncan being good brothers and nice to eat other. And that didn't even end up in a fight (which happens alot)
Gonna be mushy, just warning ya...
My flight from MSP (Minneapolis/Saint Paul) went to ORD (Chicago) and from there on to PVD (Providence), spend many days in the airports and cities no longer have names. I thought to myself, if this person is who I think she is then she is from Rhode Island so if she is in the waiting area for this flight then she is definitely who I am thinking she is. Well she was in the waiting area but I still did not go over and say hello. I kept wondering if she would recognize me but she did not.
I got on the flight and saw her and her traveling companion get on the flight. I had checked my bags and noticed that she only had a backpack so she probably checked her bags too so I figured that once we got to Providence, then I would say hello.
Once I landed in Providence and made my way down to the baggage claim I saw her and went over and asked, "Is your name ....?" It was. She looked at me like she couldn't place me and so I introduced myself. She then remembered and we exchanged pleasantries and the perfunctory catching up about our respective lives.
Well after those fairly uncomfortable 5 minutes I moved to the other side of the carousel and waited for my bags. The whole time I thought about who this person was and what she had meant to me years ago. As I stood there watching the bags come around Garth Brooks' song Unanswered Prayers was playing in my head. I thought of the intense feelings of youth and how emotions had run so high at that time, but in this moment I couldn't recall one iota of those old feelings. What I did feel was nothing but a feeling of complete closure on that chapter in my life and total happiness for the gifts I have been given, most importantly the gift of my wife, Allison. I love you Allison with all my heart and thank God for bringing you into my life.
In case you are unfamiliar with the song here are some of the more meaningful lyrics.
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when your talking to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.
She wasn't quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams
AndIi could tell that time had changed me
In her eyes to it seemed
We tried to talk about the old days
There wasn't much we could recall
I guess the Lord knows what he's doing' after all.
And as she walked away and I looked at my wife
And then and there I thanked the good Lord
For the gifts in my life.
Lost, The novels
Photo-A-Day #335 03/09/06
Apple - Trailers - X-MEN: THE LAST STAND - Trailer
Apple - Trailers - X-MEN: THE LAST STAND - Trailer
Village Sim: the village sim game for palm os
Yep the Treo is for productivity. Yep it is.
Let me try this again...
On Friday Allison and I rode into work together and then up to New Hampshire. A couple of traffic snafus along the way but we finally made it to Woodstock NH by 9:45pm, actually earlier than anticipated. We spent some time catching up with Aunt Cindy and Uncle Wayne and their friend Barbara. We watched the new show Conviction and then headed to bed.
Our snowshoe trip last year took us up and downhill for a very long day ending in a steady uphill climb to the Zealand Falls hut. It was a tremendously fun trip but very challenging. This weekend’s trip was to be a vast contrast from the previous trip. This was Allison’s first venture into snowshoeing and she really enjoyed it.
We woke up and had a good breakfast to give us fuel on the trail; there is talk about snowshoeing burning 1000 calories and hour. We got to the Greeley Falls trailhead around 9:30 a.m. and began to unload the car. There were three guys in a car next to use who were getting ready to hike out on the same trail. We talked with them a bit and said that we’d probably see them as they made their way back. We were going to take it easy today and enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery during our 5.1 mile hike. We took a few pictures at the trailhead and got under way.
The trail is a very nice one for a first time snowshoeing enthusiast. Allison took to the activity very well. There were a few places where we had to go up and down but nothing at all like we saw on the Zealand Falls Trip.
About an hour into the hike we came to the first pond. This was Upper Greeley pond. There were cross country ski tracks going right across the pond. We weren’t about to do that especially after the weather has been so warm lately. We skirted the pond and the views were incredible. We were in a valley surrounded by Mt. Osceola, East Osceola and a couple of others.
We continued along after a short break at the 2.5 mile mark and I got a couple more pictures. Then we made it to the Lower Greeley pond and that was a great winter wonderland. The weather was fantastic and the snow was perfect.
We stopped about 4 miles along the trail and had lunch at a giant rock. Wayne and Cindy made some turkey sandwiches and Wayne even shared his with an over excited dog. The dog was with a group of cross country skiers and came bounding along the trail and jumped into Wayne’s lap and took a big munch out of his sandwich. Then another group of people came along and took a few group pictures of us and I took some for them too.
Starting back up after lunch is always a bit of a challenge because, you stop , take off your pack and maybe sit down. I try to keep my pack on and not sit down just because putting it back on is probably the worst feeling of a hike. Lifting a sweaty pack on your back on a warm day makes for a cold chill and in the winter it is even worse. So the pack stayed on for me and so did the snowshoes. I got them on once and that was the extent of it.
After lunch I got a little ahead of the group so I could take some pictures and video, got some nice shots of folks coming down the trail. There is a great one of Allison and the excitement on her face. She had a blast.
At the end of the Greeley Ponds trail we joined up with a cross country ski trail which was actually a snow covered road, the walking there was quick and easy. We saw a father teaching his two daughters how to cross country ski by pulling them behind him as he skied along, kids holding onto the ski poles.
We arrived at the van and headed to the Mad River Restaurant and Tavern had a couple of beers and some hot wings. Then we went back to the trailhead and picked up Barbara’s car. That night we placed a few games of Farkle and On the Rocks and got a great night’s sleep.
The weekend was a great one that we will remember for a long time. You can see the images in the Snowshoe Trip 2006 Gallery.
Photo-A-Day #334 03/08/06
Today after my demonstration today I drove back to Minneapolis and went to the Mall of America. That place is huge I walked around for hours and had dinner at Famous Daves. There is an amusement park in the middle of the mall. It is a fantastic mall. Great time.
A three story Lego store!
Photo-A-Day #333 03/07/06
I am in Redwood Falls, MN. It is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the MSP airport. The hotel I am in is a non chain called the Redwood Valley Lodge. It is a basic hotel with paper thin walls and the WWF is staying right above me, at least it feels that way. I drove for hours along a seemingly endless road through towns like Screaming Otter Gulch and Wild Turkey Gullet or something like that (not real names of town but close).
This is the famous Pizza Barn, it is a midwest thing. It is a good place to eat, they have a giant pizza buffet that also includes chicken too. Apparently they cater to the Lenten crowd. Interesting.
I finished reading Fluke today, good book.
Snowshoe Trip 2006...
Photos from Snowshoe Trip 2006
Photo-A-Day #331 03/05/06
Photo-A-Day #330 03/04/06
Tried to send a PAD via the Treo, it went to the wrong gallery, and it looked terrible. Went snowshoeing and took a bunch of nice pictures. Here is one of them from Greeley Pond
Stand in Photo-A-Day
Snowshoeing today. Real photo tomorrow. Today we did 5.5 miles from the Kancamangus Highway to Waterville Valley. Tons more pictures tomorrow and a better image of the snowshoes or a better picture.
Photo-A-Day #329 03/03/06
Not a great picture but very colorful. That is one of the things I love about my desk, it has personality. This week has been long and tough. Allison and I are heading up north after work to go Snowshoe with my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Wayne in New Hampshire. It will be nice to get out and get some fun exercise. Oh and get some great outdoor shots as well. Finally something interesting to take pictures of.
Photo-A-Day #328 03/02/06
Photo-A-Day #327 03/01/06
Trivia Standings from February
February 06
73 players played during the month.
1. Jim (555 points, 7 wins)
2. samjan (515 points, 6 wins)
3. GabbyA (493 points, 2 wins)
4. zerry (424 points, 3 wins)
5. abennett48 (395 points, 1 wins)
6. Sbowl (376 points, 0 wins)
7. angel11 (350 points, 1 wins)
8. ArubaHM (321 points, 0 wins)
9. Richmar (282 points, 1 wins)
10. prrthd (265 points, 0 wins)