Good Bye 2006

At the end of each year it is nice to be able to reflect back on the previous 365 days of your life and remember the events and the things that made up your year and how everything seemed to have worked out.

I have been a blogger now for two and a half years and this will complete the second full calendar year of being a blogger. I hope you enjoy my reflections based on my BLOG as much as I have writing them.

January

* The year started out with a great 39-35 Sugar Bowl win by WVU over Georgia. It was a great time to be a Mountaineer and probably the programs finest hour.

* I had made a decision in January to re-market myself in 2006, it turned out pretty well for me.

* Nick and Terri officially opened their second bar when they opened Nick and Terri's.

February

* The damn groundhog was once again not cooperative with me and the rat saw his shadow. Maybe I will try a different approach in 2007.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers win Super Bowl XXXX making me one happy fan.

* Morgantown lost funny man Don Knotts when he passed away in February. Best known for his role as Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith show, Knotts was a 1942 Graduate of Morgantown High School.

March

* ESRI had contacted me about being a GIS instructor. They are the inventors and innovators in my field and this was a huge compliment even though I never followed through on it.

* Jean went to Huntington to pick up Gussey, her pet African Grey with the huge vocabulary.

April

* My softball team got together and helped open up MVP Paintball park with an opening day paintball battle against local readio station WVAQ. VAQ managed to get the better of us that day, but none the less it was a lot of fun.

May

* May saw me have a job interview and have my first Primanti Brothers sandwich.

* I started working from home during May and bought a new computer. It meant I no longer had to drive 700 miles a week going back and forth to work.

* Moke and Ang had their prom and both graduated from High School and from MTECH as well as Amy and Mary.

June

* It was summer and softball season was in full force. This is my favorite time of the year.

July

* The 4th of July holiday weekend was my busiest of the year. Just a litle recap:

4 Pic Nics
3 Texas Hold Em Tournaments
Karaoke
Fireworks
Family Reunion
Paintball
Wiffle Ball Game
105 Pictures Taken
A Large Water Battle
A chance to sit and talk with Trish and Jackie
A Day of swimming

* Pam and Kim broke a silence and started speaking. Kim was having some health equipment problems and Pam was the clutch hitter who delivered.

* We welcomed the birth of Joshua Robert Nicholson into the family.

August

* The students returned to Morgantown

8 Mark Snider (Rich's son) officially started Alliance Reality.

September

* The month started with me enjoying a nice five day weekend. My longest break in some time.

* I went to a MHS football game with a couple old friends and team mates when Me, Smitty and Popeye took a trip to East Fairmont.

* We had a goodbye picnic for Moke as he was getting ready to leave for Basic Training. He has since completed it and is currently in his AIT training, although he is currently home visiting everyone for the Christmas Holiday.

October

* October was my most active month as a BLOGGER since I started blogging. I made 37 posts in 31 days.

* Moved my website from its original host to a new host (probably why there are so many broken picture links).


* The Gospel Singing Koon Family celebrated their 40th year of singing together with a concert at Morgantown High School.

* Morgantown saw the opening of two new Super Wal-Marts and a Sams's club.

November

* I started a new website, called shitzngiggles.com

* My Blog saw its 500th post since I had started blogging. It's an accomplishment I am proud of. t is something that takes time and commitment to accomplish.

December

* The softball team got together and we had a nice little Christmas party. It was nice to see the guys during the midway point of the off season.

* We celebrated Christmas at Nick and Terri's

This was my 2006 according to my Blog. It was a good year and my blog managed to end this this 258th post of the year.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year and we will see you on the other side, that is the year 2007.

2006's Goals and How I did

This will be my next to last Blog post for the year of 2006. Tomorrow, I will do a the second of what I hope to be annual yearly reflections of my life based on events that I placed in my Blog over the previous year. You can look at last years post Good Bye 2005 to get somewhat of an expectation as to what tomorrows BLOG will be.

Now, on to this post and my personal year end report to myself on the status of my goals I set for myself in 2006

Family Situation

In 2006 I wanted to complete a journey that I had initially started right after Christmas 2004. There was an unsettling family feud that I wanted to see ended. It was a failed goal of mine for 2005, but in 2006 I think things have started to resolve themselves. I really didn't need to intervene one bit, and the any emotional family walls were mutually demolished and a new beginning has begun.

There is still a small ways to go, but that 300' high hurdle has been jumped and it should be a smooth race from here on out.


Career

I addressed this a couple of ways in 2006, first was to not relocate to Frostburg Maryland and second was to re-market myself. What ultimately happened was I have been given the opportunity to work from home (greatly increasing my productivity) and with my financial goals for 2006 as far as a salary increase met.

I was offered a Job in Pittsburgh, but my current company stepped forward and did what they could to retain my services, and then unknowingly met my minimal financial expectations after they increased my quality of life by allowing me to stay at home and close to my family.

I felt I was a winner regardless of which direction I chose, but the situation that I am in would have been the ideal one for me and made me happiest even though it wasn't even an option at the start of the year.


Health

I still haven't picked out a Doctor, but I have shed roughly 40 pounds over the last 12-13 months and feel pretty good. I have walked a few miles this past year and actually feel pretty good.

There are always aging issues to deal with, but I feel good, still play softball and enjoy walking.


Personal life

How do you top what my sports teams accomplished in 2005. It is next to impossible and none of them lived up to their 2005 performances, but I am still a fan and always will be.



Relationships

Yikes. I did sign up for a dating service in 2006, but I have little to no faith in these services anymore. I think it was filled with a bunch of members who just wanted to test the market and never really push it to that next level. I met a few nice people, but how do you know if its there over the internet. I'm one who has to see the eyes and talk to them.


Overall I am very happy with three out of the four categories and will have to chalk 2006 up as a successful year for myself. I will continue to live up to my previous New Years Resolution to never make another New Years resolution again.

I will over the next month or so be once again re-evaluating my life and setting goals that I would like to accomplish for myself in the following year.

I hope everyone met their 2006 goals and will do the same in 2007.

The amanly way of getting rid of Bees

I saw this while browsing the internet today and just had to share it.

Enjoy

Sad News

This morning Mom called me and informed me that a cousin of mine had died in a plane crash yesterday. Diane Efaw was Uncle Dana's daughter and a nurse in transit to New York.

My deepest sympathy goes to Dana and his family in this shocking time period.

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2006

Dancing Elves

Gary Dancing


Me Dancing

Amy

A cute little game

I found this cute little game today. Winterbells. So far my high score is 12980

We Are Marshall

Today is the official release date of the movie "We Are Marshall". It is the true story of Marshall Universities rebuilding from the Plane Crash that killed everyone on the plane.

Below is an old file that I found done by Nate Ruffin. He was the co-captain of that team that died and stayed home due to injury and did not make the trip.

Ruffin has since passed away, but I thought it was a nice little short that will help people better understand the movie a little better.

Tibits

I am one who does not like to let a BLOG go stale, I feel that when it goes stale that you lose the interest of a readerbase. Maybe it is time to do a tiddbits.

* Christmas is coming up this weekend, the festivities will be held at Nick and Terri's bar. Bring a covered dish.

* Yesterday I looked into the possibility of renting Klaer Lodge for Christmas eve. It opened up briefly yesterday because of a cancellation, but I don't know if that option is available anymore.

* Bobby and Val helped Gary move over this past weekend. He is relocating off of the Grafton Road to a place off of Summers School Road.

* Everyone has had the flue in the past week or so. I have been fortunate enough to actually avoid it, but Erica, Josh, Val, Bobby, Hean, Rich, Gary and Kim have all been nailed with it. From the sounds of it, I am glad I have managed to avoid it this year.

* Everyone is still trying to track down a Elmo TXM doll.

* Work has been pretty steady for me the past few weeks, I am currnetly enjoying a time of waiting on some data, hence the Blog post.

* Kim and Terri have started speaking again, it has been three years and a few BS scenerios later, they have intiated conversation between the two. I haven't been able to get any details yet other than it went well. I'm sure if you are more interested, there will be a entry at Kim's Blog. Stay tuned.

* Moke will be coming in on Christmas Eve and will be home for fifteen days before he returns for the completion of his AIT training.

* The weather has been semi-cooperative as of late in regards to temperatures, but today it seems like the the temps have dropped to a winter like level.

* The Winter Solstice is but a couple days away. Other than Christmas, I hate winter and I hate snow. I prefer nice warm spring or summer weather where the air is clean and clear with oxygen generated by all the foliage.

Texas Hold Em Round 3

Last night was round three of ten of our qualifying for the San Julian Texas Hold Em Tournament. We had one surprise cancellation as my sister Kim took ill and went to bed in the mid afternoon because she has caught the virus bug and was sidelined. She slept the whole way through and no one got to even see her, I hope she is feeling better.

Kirby brought his girlfriend? who happens to be a math major at Penn State. Let's just say she pretty much cleaned everyones clocks in this round of Poker. I tried on three occasions to take players out but came up short on all three occasions, one of which was a three player showdown where my Jack that I needed just never managed to show up.

We never had a declared winner, Robert and the math savant from Penn State decided when it came to heads up and they were about even in chips to split the pot. I can't complain, I played hard and strong, but came up short on a good hand.

Another round of Texas Hold Em

It's time for round three (of ten) for our Texas Hold Em tournament tonight. I haven't been doing to well in these tournaments, and I know why. So, I am going to have to address that and show a considerable amount of patience tonight.

I'm used to playing a quick game and this game has a lot of distractions which works against me. I get frustrated and get aggressive at times I shouldn't be. That and last time I didn't get many cards coming my way, that helps even when you do get frustrated.

Wish me luck tonight.

Below smoking weight

As many of you know, I was a smoker for sometime and quit smoking in May of 2002. Well, something many people do when they stop smoking is start eating more and usually gain weight, in my case I gained weight, lost weight and gained even more weight than I had before I started losing it.

Since leaving Helmick where I worked 11-12 hours a day 5-6 days a week pouring metal, my weight slowly progressd in an upward fashion. Going from strenuous manual labor in sometimes areas where the room heat reached 120 at times to an educational and office setting lowers the amount of calories that you burn on a day to day basis.

Then when I quit smoking a few years ago after finals week, that did, but didn't really help matters. Stopping smoking is not something I would ever regret, but it added additional weight to the weight I had already gained since my Helmick days.

A little over a year ago my weight got to its highest number, and that number being about 5% more than I would have ever wanted to weigh at an absolute max. My weight topped well over 300 pounds (actually 314) and it was starting to be a concern.

This morning, I stepped on the scale and saw a very pleasant surprise when I saw that I am getting close to my weight from my days at Helmick (I've lost roughly 40 of the 50 pounds I gained). I'm feeling good.

My Feb 19 post on year goals. Not quite 100% complete, but all areas were addressed this past year.

Maybe it is time for me to start to prepare next years goals.

What a nice day

It's been a pretty good day so far. The weather has been very cooperative and actually reaching the upper 60's for a temperature. Not too bad for the middle of December, hopefully it will end up being a very mild winter this year. I actually have the mild luxury today of having my front door open to let in a fresh breeze our the cool clean mountain air. A small apartment with a heating unit can make the apartment smell well, like a heating unit. I'll take the fresh air every time.

Today at work was kind of a slow one for me. I work through a VPN that runs through Sterling Virginia and from there I access my computer in Frostburg MD. Today, for most of the day Sterling had a power outage. Meaning I can't access the network or my license that I need.

I managed to pass a little time playing the waiting game, I rented Talladega Nights, the Story of Ricky Bobby today. I am going to have to find another way around these new Blue Disc technologies. They have a strange file structure and for some reason I can't make a back up copy to this format.

You will notice that Morgantown Traffic will become less bothersome as the week goes by. This is fall Semester Finals Week at WVU and once the students finish their finals, those from out of town will be heading home for the next month to enjoy a nice winter break.

WVU Basketball

We're already off to a 7-1 start. Johnnie West is Jerry Wests son.

Softball Team Christmas Party

Last night was the first time since we drafted our fantasy Football league this September that I had a chance to spend some time with some guys from our Softball team.

Paul and Laura Gunter hosted the nights festivities at their home. It was great seeing the guys, and we had a nice little gift exchange and made a game out of it. The parameters were you needed to bring a Male/Female gift within a price range and wrapped. We then drew numbers 1-12 in our case last night. The person in position 1 had the first pick and the last play. They select a gift and they have to open it so everyone can see it. Then person 2 goes and they have an option of either selecting another unmarked gift, OR selecting a gift that was previously selected. If they choose a previously selected gift, then they take that gift and the person who lost their gift then selects another wrapped gift as a replacement.

You continue to do this until everyone has selected a wrapped gift, then as the games final play, the person in position 1 can trade his gift with any other person once all the gists are unwrapped.

It was a great time and a great evening.

Message from Kim this morning

My sister Kim and Brittany are on a one day Holiday shopping trip to New York City this morning. About a half an hour outside of the city they stopped to take a rest stop and came across a very unique sign.

What kind of a place do you have to be in where they have to post that only one person is allowed in the shower..LOL

My guess is that they have stopped at a truck stop, and to prevent truckers from trying to minimize expenses they came up with a one person one shower rule.

Not sure how I feel about this rule, you know if she's cute enough...

I know I have said that I hate snow

Maybe it's not the snow that I completely hate, maybe it is the shorter days and cold weather that prevents you from doing those enjoyable summer time activities. To try to combat a case of cabin fever, I have been visiting a few stores around town and just walking around.

Football season is basically over with, all except the rumors of Rich Rodriguez going to Alabama and the High School season is completed.

I have played around with things like second life and have seen some of the Role Playing Games that George Plays such as Everquest or World of Warcraft.

I need to find something to occupy my free time.

Happy Birthday Kim

Today is December 4th, and it is also my younger sister Kim's birthday, so I would like to extend to her a very heartfelt Happy Birthday.

Anyone wanting to shoot her a Happy Birthday e-mail you can do so by e-mailing her at
kimsanjulian@gmail.com.

Happy Birthday Kim.

What a game last night.

It has been to say a very eventful week here in Morgantown when it comes to Mountaineer Football. Last night the regular season ended with a 41-39 Triple OT win against Rutgers. It was a great game and either team had their chances to win, we just ended up prevailing in Overtime.

Over the past week, there have been numerous rumors that were circulating around Morgantown and the internet that Rich was going to leave Morgantown to accept the head coaching job at Alabama. Some internet reports even had him accepting the job as early as today and even had contract details.

However Friday Rich while preparing his team for Saturday's night game took time out of his schedule to address and deny the rumors that had grown out of control.

Greg Hunter, the author of the original article that had him accepting the Alabama job has back tracked his statements since. Listen to the audio on the previous link, Rich was to say the least pissed off.

The Mountaineers ended the regular season ranked #12, 10-2 on the season and have accepted a invitation to play Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl.