Peaceful Sunday Morning

Well, this just has not been my weekend for my teams athletically.

WVU lost to Pitt in the 101'st backyard Crawl on Friday. Morgantown and University High both lose Semi-final games this weekend and the WVU basketball team lost to Kentucky last night.

Couldn't be as bad as last year at this time when #1 ranked WVU lost to Pitt and it took away our chance to play for the National Championship.

The Steelers play New England this afternoon, maybe I can have a small chance at redemption for at least one of my teams. Hopefully the injury plagued Steelers can pull off a victory today.

Late Morning Ramblings

I know, I have been behind today on my BLOG, but I am still trying to mend my broken heart from yesterdays tragic loss to the evil University of Shittsburgh Panthers yesterday.

Oh woah is me, this is two years in a row we have lost to these ungodly, unholy, bad guys.

Last night Michelle and I went out and watched Four Christmas's. It was a pretty good movie even though Reese Witherspoon didn't get naked for me in the movie.

Big Ole Hairy Black Friday

It's once again that time of the week when we cease the labors for the week and take time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors, it is once again a big ole hairy (and black Friday too) Friday!!!!

Be careful out there, it is a shopping madhouse, beware of the deal hunters. Protect yourselves at all times. Do not get in the middle of a stampede of people trying to buy the hot item for this year....whatever it may be.

I'll be working today, but I have a big screen TV in my office so I'll be able to watch the Mountaineers crush the Pitt Panthers today at noon.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day to everyone. I will be with Michelle and her family today as they will be having a big Thanksgiving Dinner, and plan out their Black Friday Shopping Spree for tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving filled with plenty of Turkey and great memories for all.

Happy Birthday Val

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my Niece Val a very Happy 25th Birthday. Wow where have the years gone, it seems like just yesterday that Morgantown High was playing in the State Semi-Finals at Mountaineer Field and I was sitting there watching them. A few hours later, you blessed us with your presence as your Mom gave birth to you early that next morning.

It has been a pleasure watching you first grow up, then become a Mommy yourself twice.

Happy Birthday Val.

Bowling on Turkey Day Night

Terri suggested to me a couple days ago by MySpace that we gather the clan up and go bowling on Thanksgiving Night.

I know it is the eve of the biggest shopping day of the year (and I will be going to work), but would anyone be interested?

A trip to Washington PA last night

Yesterday Michelle and I drove Hayley to meet her cousin in Washington Pa so she can stay for a few days this holiday week since school is out for the week.

It was rainy and dark, but the trip was a lot of fun. Michelle bought dinner at the Ponderosa Steak House and some Krispy Kreme Donuts. It was worth the trip just for the company, the meals were just icing on the cake.

Back to the grindstone

That was a nice little break, having travels the majority of last week for work and making it back just in time for another weekend. However it's time to get back to work even though this will be a shortened holiday week for me.

Thursday is a day off for me and Friday I do have to work. Although I'm not going to tell anyone that it bothers me to be working on Black Friday. I will attempt to stay as far as possible away from any and all shopping venues until at least that afternoon.

A Lazy Saturday

It was a lazy Saturday yesterday, we didn't get into too much other than a little napping and a trip over to see Michelle's Sister to plan Thanksgiving Dinner.

We did get a chance to watch the WVU Football team beat the Loserville Crybabies 35-21 in the game.

Other than that it was a pretty uneventful and relaxing day. We did manage to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks movie though.

It will be a typical sunday for me today, Shopping and Laundry, even though the Steelers have already played this weekend.

I'm BAAAAAACK!!!!!

Despite traveling through a blizzard yesterday, we made it home safe and sound.

I did find out upon my return that Michelle was in the emergency room. She had a cat scan performed and when I arrived she was waiting for the Dr's analysis. It could have been her appendix or a kidney stone, turned out to be an inflammation of the kidney's that was causing her so much discomfort.

Anyways, there is no place like home and home is where I have returned to.

T.G.I.F.

After staying up late last night to watch my Steelers I know that I am ready to relax and have a great weekend. Ed will be home sometime this afternoon, I have talked to him several times and he seems to be having a great time. Not sure what is in store for us this weekend yet, but we always find something to do. Ed did tell me that he got a text message from Trish saying that Layla finally cut her first tooth, watch out Ed will have her eating a Milano's pizza before the end of the year. Hope everyone has a great weekend and stay warm.....

It's a Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yep, I'm writing this on Tuesday evening but I'll just have this post and pretend that it is that favorite time of the week again. The time when we cease the labors for the week and take time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is once again yet another Big Ole Hairy Friday and the start of yet another weekend.

Morgantown will be playing at home tonight in the second round of the State High School Football tournament. University will be hitting the road and Keyser will once again use University High's home field as their own field.

The Steelers would have played last night and hopefully they won, so they will be off this weekend.

The Mountaineers travel to Louisville for a game tomorrow in college football.

Have a great weekend, I'm waiting to see my sweetie later today.

Happy Thursday

Well Ed asked my if I wanted to do a Blog entry for him while he was out of town. I told him that he would lose readers if I did so, but here is goes. He left yesterday morning to go out of town on a Business trip and when they finally got him checked into his room at the hotel he realized that he was going to be sharing it with someone else, I think he was OK with that until he saw a woman's purse sitting there, so he went back to the front desk and that brat got a private suite that he said is bigger then his apartment. Does not suck to be him I say. My Steelers are playing tonight so I will be watching it by myself, I hope Ed took his terrible towel with him so he can help cheer them on to victory with me. Well I hope this was an OK entry, I guess I will find out when Ed reads it. Have a great day...

Christmas 2009

One question I'm sure people will be starting to ask is about Christmas 2009. Here is my video to 2008 that YouTube has removed that's another blog).

I won't be able to do this Christmas what I did last Christmas for a few reasons. I lost a significant amount of income over the past six months and although I have made it all back and then some, the damage needs time to recover from. Additionally Michelle and I will be moving in together after the first of the year (end of January) and there will be expenses associated with that, so my resources will be limited this year compared to last year.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what to do this year? I'll do my best to make it up to everyone in 2009.

Away at the function

Hey everyone, I just wanted to say that we made it in safely and I am at the ISER Team Building retreat and having a good time.

We're being treated like royalty and it's a blast.

Funny story when I checked in however, they assigned me to a room and I went in. The room had double queen sized beds and one was taken. I saw some clothes sitting on the bed and grabbed the other bed. I looked back and saw a purse sitting on the the nightstand....Yeah, they double assigned that room and the other person (who I never met) was a female. They correted it and I have a huge deluxe suite with a double king sized bed and all the amenities one could wish or ask for.

Day two is tomorrow, I'll try to do another blog tomorrow evening.

Out of Town

I'm going to be out of town on Business starting today through Friday. I'll be in Shepherdstown for a little team building with a bunch of other Federal Employees and contractors until Friday afternoon. I'll be back Friday afternoon.

I have arranged for something that has never happened with George's Journal. I have invited a surprise guest author to write a George's Journal Blog entry or two while I am going to be out of town. I've also did a couple blog entries for the next few days that will appear in a timely manner.

I'll try to Blog from out of town, I should be able to, but it'll be hard to say if I will have the time allotted to do so.

Have a great Hump Day.

Life's Simple Pleasures.

OK, I get amused by the simplest of things sometimes. At home I had a cheap little Emerson AM/FM Weather band radio sitting on top of my computer that I used to listen to while I was working for infotech.

I would spend my mornings listening to Eric and Kevin and then Hoppy at 10:00. Life was good, but the weather band on that radio never worked. I tried tuning it several times but to no avail.

Well last night I bought another one to take to work with me and listen to at my desk. So I can have a little live entertainment to keep me busy. I bought a newer version of that old Emerson I had on my computer.

When I got home I simply tested it out to make sure it worked and what do you know, the weather band was working. WOW was I excited, I switched radios and keeping the one with the weather band working at home and will be taking my old one to work with me. =)

I am amused by the simplest of things.

Come and Gone

Yet another fun filled weekend has came and went by before we knew what happened. I swear it was just five minutes ago that I was picking Michelle up from work on Friday afternoon and here we are back at the start of yet another week of labor.

Michelle made a great pot roast yesterday and we stayed here and made sure that all was right in the universe as we cheered the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 11-10 win over the San Diego Chargers yesterday. This was the first time in NFL history that a game ended with an 11-10 score. Pittsburgh should have had another TD on the last play of the game by the defense, but the refs must have bet on San Diego and needed to cover the spot is all I can say, because it was a bad call and should have been a TD for the Steelers.

For former WVU standout Steve Slaton it was a very good day. Steve rushed for 156 yards on 14 carries and a 71 yard TD run, the longest in Houston Texans history.

Hi Ho Hi Ho.......

What the??????

Have I ever mentioned that I absolutely hate snow. Looking out today and seeing the frozen sunshine fall from the heavens makes me a sad person.

Gameplan: I need to start real early and bribe Phil to not see his shadow in a couple months. ...arggh. I hope he's not still mad at us for winning Steelers trivia. Anyone know the phone numbers of a few cheap slutty female groundhogs I could send to him?

Mountaineer Basketball Game

Yesterday evening Michelle and I ventured over to the WVU Men's Basketball game at the Coliseum. I was quite surprised to hear that the crown had exceeded the 10,000 mark at 10,250 in attendance. I nice number for a non conference game against a school most people had never heard of called Elon University.

It was good close game at first, but WVU pulled away and dominated as their depth wore Elon down early for a 92-47 win to open the season. Da'Sean Butler and Alex Ruoff lead the Mountaineers in scoring with 19 points a piece.

The Mountaineers will be back in action this coming Thursday night against Longwood.

The YMCA dance from last night. Ryan Boyd rocks!!!

What a blaaah kind of day.

This is the weekend, the sun is supposed to be out and we are supposed to be out having fun and what do we get? A rainy day.

Michelle and I will be going to the Basketball game tonight. Chris gave me his tickets and we'll be going tonight. Nick called me yesterday afternoon and said he had also gotten some tickets and both he and Terri would also be attending tonight's game. This will be the first regular season game for the Men's team of the year. I'm kind of excited in seeing the new scoreboard operate with all its functionality tonight.

Not sure what is on the agenda for me and Michelle for the rest of the day before the game. Last night I took her to Panera's for dinner. Note to self, that is more of a lunch thing not a dinner thing. I think she still enjoyed herself though.

Have a great day.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

yes it is once again that time of the week when we cease our labors for the week and take time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors, it is once again another Big Ole Hairy Friday and the start of yet another weekend!!!


No plans are set in stone for us this weekend, but there are numerous sporting events around the city of Morgantown over the weekend. High school football and WVU Basketball are obviously the bigger stories of the days.

Is it softball season yet? We're not even out of the fall and I am dreading the winter months ahead and already looking forward to the spring. I was looking through my pictures this morning and realized we could be watching WVU play baseball at home in only four months.

Anyone else notice that they are pushing the Christmas shopping season at us a little early this year?

Have a great weekend.

Thursday Tidbits

I stopped over and visited my Mom last night, and she reminded me that it had been a fair amount of time since I had done a tidbits, so I guess I am a little long overdue in doing one.

* Last night after work, Michelle and I went to Colosantes for dinner. We both broke away from our normal Hot Sausage Hoagies we usually order and had a couple nice penne pasta dinners with Sausage and Chicken in them. Dinner was awesome.

* After dinner we stopped by Mom's for a brief visit and a chance to just sit down and say hello.

* I did find out third or fourth hand that Kaiden is tongue tied and may require surgery in a few months. I'll update everyone on his situation as soon as I can find out.

* Rich's mom has moved up to Morgantown from Florida since her Husband, Rich's Dad, passed away a few weeks back. I'm sure Jean and Rich will make her feel very welcome and at home.

* I think Michael has Next Week..er I mean Mahaley's bar and Grill Open. It's been slowly delayed for a while now, but I think they have had an unofficial opening with an official opening in the near future. He's done a great job remodeling and empty warehouse into arguably one of Morgantown's nicest bars.

* Work has been going pretty good for me, I go to Shepherdstown next week for a few days. A little team building retreat, should be a lot of fun and be a great chance to meet people.

* No WVU Football game this weekend, but there will be plenty of High School action if you want to see a little football. Morgantown will be hosting Nicholas County at 7:30 Friday night. UHS will be hosting Spring Valley on Saturday at 1:30. Friday night will also see #1 ranked AA team Keyser play Wyoming East at Mylan Pharmaceuticals Field (UHS's Home Field) and Clay Battelle will travel to play St. Mary's.

* If you are in the mood for a little basketball action, WVU will be taking on Elon at 7:30 Saturday at the WVU Coliseum in the first regular season game of the year (these count).

* Trish called me a couple of nights ago and said that Layla was running a big fever of 103.3, hopefully she is feeling much better.

* Michelle and I both saw a Wii Game that looks pretty interesting Wii Music may be a game that we may be getting. I'll need to get a fourth controller so I can kick both Hayley and Chad's butt at the Wii.

* Speaking of Hayley, she dyed her hair back to brown even though I have not seen it yet. Michelle has such a beautiful daughter, she should just go with her natural look.

* Not sure what the weekend has in store for us yet, we have talked about going to Tanger Outlets, but nothing is set in stone yet.

* How sad is it my Mother has known we are getting Hooters for about two weeks. What is wrong with this picture? LOL

Have a great day....

Hump Day

I enjoyed my day off yesterday, got a whole lot accomplished if you consider watching movies and napping as a measuring stick for things accomplished. =)

It's midweek, and hump day already and I'm pretty excited about that. It's nice to know that this week is just flying by and I hope the back end of the week goes as fats as the first part. I should enjoy it, because I will be out of town for three days next week for a team building thing at work. We're traveling to Shepherdstown for this. I've done one before, but nothing this extensive or to this level. Should be a lot of fun.

I found out last night that Morgantown may be getting a Hooters, but I also found out from this article that we are in negotiations for not one, but two Sonic's. Nothing has been finalized, but one will go on the Pierpont Road that is being developed by I-68 and the other in the new Suncrest Towne Centre near Krogers.

Have a great Hump Day.

Happy Veteran's Day

Today is Veterans Day around the US. Some lucky people such as myself have this as a paid holiday and have the day off.

Take time out and thank a Veteran for their service to this country, for without them we would not have the freedom and liberties that we enjoy.

The Championship Payoff

yesterday was our game that we got to go to when we won the 2008 KDKA McDonald's Pittsburgh Steelers Trivia Challenge earlier this summer.

The day started with a nice trip to Pittsburgh on a day Chris was on an adrenaline rush. He runs the entertainment scoreboards at both the Coliseum an Mylan Puskar Stadium. They also admitted his mom to the hospital that night also. Needless to say that we left at 10:00 AM and Chris had only had a couple hours of sleep.

We took a ride on the Duquesne Incline for Michelle's first ride on an incline and my first on that one. I had been on the one by Station Square previously.

Next it was on to Station Square for a little pre-game lunch and a chance to do a little bit of shopping. We went to Bar Louie for lunch, wow what a view and what a big bar.

After lunch, it was on to the Gateway Clipper and it took us across the river to arrive right in front of Heinze Field. It was the first time I had ever been on the water in front of Point State Park, so the ride was very enjoyable for me, despite the cold weather and us sitting on the top observation deck on the trip over.

We got to the game and were allowed to be down on the field for almost a couple of hours. Both me and Michelle had the camera's going hot and heavy and I uploaded everything to its own album located HERE.

We watched the game from one of the terrace's, and let me just say how freaking cold it was up there. I spilled a hot chocolate and the thing froze over before it hit the ground. It was briefly snowing and the weather report said for low 40's. That Geographer lied..LOL

The game? we lost 24-20 to the Indianapolis Colts, but I still had a great day.

Steelers Game Today

Today is the payoff day, the day we reap the benefits of winning the 2008 KDKA McDonald's Pittsburgh Steelers trivia Challenge.

Our round one challenge

Our Semi-Final Round

CHAMPIONS!!!!


Today, we're on the field pre-game and enjoying the game. I'm taking my Camera, my Terrible Towel, my Ben Roethlisberger AJersy and My sweetheart in her Willie Parker Jersy and heading to Heinze Field with Chris and Jenny.

Plenty to do Around Morgantown Today

This is definitely a Mountaineer sports kind of day, although Michelle and I will be running around getting things done so we can go to the Steelers game tomorrow.

At 1:00 the WVU Basketball Team will be Taking on Mountain State University in basketball. This will only be an exhibition game, it should be a good time for all.

At 7:00 the WVU Men's Football team will be taking on the University of Cincinnati in Football.

Hopefully it will be a great day and night to be a Mountaineer.

It's a Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is ONCE again that time when we cease our labors for the week and take a little time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is yet once again another Big Ole Hairy Friday and the start of yet another weekend.

Yesterday I went out to lunch with an old friend of mine that is also working for SAIC, just in another part of the plant. I went to lunch with Chris Christopher at Panera Bread, this was the first time I had ever been to Panera's. It was nice to sit down and BS with someone I had lost touch with through the years. Chris owns and pilots a local Hot Air Balloon. Maybe one day I can lend him and hand and chase him down.

Big weekend both here and for me. WVU football team will be taking on Cincinnati Saturday Evening and the basketball team will play an exhibition game Saturday also.

For me Michelle, Chris Ostein and his wife Jenny will be traveling to Pittsburgh Sunday and standing on the sidelines for the pregame of the Steelers v Colts matchup. I told Michelle I will now have watched both Eli and Peyton Manning play. Peyton this Sunday and I saw Eli light up WVU in the Music City Bowl for Don Nehlen's last game as WVU's coach.

Hope your weekend is fun filled and prosperous.

How about that election

Anyone watch the 2008 Presidential Election results? I was watching CNN as they had a countdown clock on for the polls in California as they closed at 11:00 EST. At 11:00 CNN called Barack Obama the winner.

I went to bed early and woke up to see all the festivities, I wanted to see the announcement and I wanted to hear the historic speech of our nations first African American President.

I'm quite pleased with the election results, myself. I look forward to inauguration day.

Over the Hump

I hope everyone had a good day yesterday, it's nice to have the election now behind us and we can stop listening to the campaigning for a couple years at least.

I had a great day at work yesterday, designed a 3D model that drew praise was the talk of a presentation this morning at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in DC. Worked over Monday night to complete the model and received some very positive feedback, one co worker even commented that this was the first time he had ever heard anything either good or bad.

I found out today, that next Tuesday is not a SAIC holiday, but I get it because I work at a client site and we use their holiday schedule. Woo Hoo!!!

I'll be attending my first Steelers game this Sunday. This is the game that was selected for us to attend for winning the KDKA Steelers Trivia Challenge this past fall (actually it was in June). I'll be on the field prior to the game with field passes, so this looks to be a memorable day for me and Michelle.

Have a great hump day!!!!

Election Day

It's that one time that we reach every four years, the one day when we as Americans decide WHO will be our nations leader(s) for the next four years.

My choice was made long ago, and has done nothing but grown stronger as I have watched attack after attack on him, his character, his faith and probably even what his favorite brand of Oreo is.

Barack Obama has my full support and has my vote for the 2008 Presidential Election. I have done my research and he is the better of the two candidates we have to choose from. This is NOT a slam against John McCain, I feel he too would make not only a good but a great President. I have full faith in both candidates, and feel the current bonehead has set up the next President who ever it may be to be a historically good one.

I feel after listening to the debates, watching this campaign quite closely for about 18 months and doing a good bit of extensive research on each candidate, that Barack Obama is the man best suited to run our country.

Where ever you are, make sure you do your patriotic duty and vote. If you are not registered, ask yourself why you have surrendered the biggest voice you have and register for the next election.

A realxing day before...

yesterday was a nice and relaxing day, started out going shopping and then Michelle and I ventured on a fun little journey to Valley Falls State Park between Fairmont and Grafton.

I had been there once before, but that was years ago when I drove for Mister Bee's and just went exploring more than anything else. So this was my second time here, but first time actually getting out of the vehicle and enjoyed the wonderful landscape.

For those of you without a GPS and just looking for an excuse to drive somewhere, there is another site connected to geocaching called Waymarking. A nice little excuse to visit sites that may have some kind of historical significance. Waymarks can generally just be driven up to, you don;t have to trample out in the woods looking for something someone has hidden.

Last night when I dropped Michelle off, she said she had a very important message for everyone......YO!!! She also hates the fact that we were walking through Wal-Mart yesterday and they were playing Christmas Music already. Were 24 days away from Thanksgiving and they are playing Christmas music....loudly.

Oh well, Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to work I go....

Have a great day.

A good day for a multi cache

Yesterday Michelle and I called Michael and took both Haley and Chad over to the place we are going to start renting from Michael after the first of the year. I think they both liked it as well as Michelle and I.

After that, Michelle and I thought we would try to do a another Multi Cache, which is by definition:

A multi-cache ("multiple") involves two or more locations, the final location being a physical container. There are many variations, but most multi-caches have a hint to find the second cache, and the second cache has hints to the third, and so on. An offset cache (where you go to a location and get hints to the actual cache) is considered a multi-cache.

We decided to try one called Let's Go Mountaineers that is around Morgantown and has you going to multiple WVU sporting sites both past and present to obtain clues as to the whereabouts of the final destination Cache.

It was a lot of fun and we had a great time. It gave us the opportunity to even see a few things that have been placed since I have graduated from WVU such as the old Mountaineer Field Memorial. I stood at about the spot I was at selling Hot Dogs in 1978 when Tommy Pridemore picked off a pass at the end of the end zone and ran it back 108 yards for a touchdown. I was just a few feet, literally, from him when he intercepted the ball. Talk about a great view.

It was a fun day.

Halloween Night

Once again this year we all congregated to Jean's for the traditional Trick or Treat festivities that take place every year. The evening started off with me and Michelle picking up Trish and Layla and going over to Jeans where there was a feast of Little Caesars Pizza as well as a nice assortment of soda products, potato chips and Doritos. We arrived a little after 5:00 and everyone was already there waiting on us.

Michelle has never had anyone show up for halloween (I don't think I have either since I lived at Barrington North) so she was quite excited about seeing all of the ghosts, goblins, batmen, spidermen, Mario's and all the other costumes on the night and seeing the looks on many kids faces as they would come to the porch in search of candied treats.

We were prepared for whatever amount of kids managed to show up to say the least. Everyone pitched in and brought numerous bags of candied treats to give out to the ghosts and goblins in exchange for not tricking us.

The Mohawk Bowl was also being played this night, so that took a little away from the normal crowd and appeared to bring an estimated smaller crowd this year of roughly 300. No real way to count as the candy bars were already opened and put into a bowl without a count on the numbers, but there was plenty of candy left at the end of the night (that might be due to the over abundance of the supply of it this year rather than lack of demand).

It started at 6:00 and lasted until 8:00. It was a great evening. I have put all the pictures form the nights festivities on my site in THIS album.