Monday

All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately that includes those things we love so much referred to as weekends. So it's time to take our noses and stick them back on the grindstone for another 40 hour work week so we can bring home that stuff that allows us to do the things we love to do.

I have been battling a little bit of sickness all weekend, nothing that would keep me down or prevent me from doing anything, but I just haven't felt 100% all weekend. Hopefully as the day wears on I feel better and am back to my normal self.

It was all quiet here yesterday, Chad's in Cleveland, haven't seen Laiah since she and Chad headed north and Hayley worked and ran was running around with her boyfriend Manny who she has been staying with since about Christmas. To say the household was quiet was an understatement.

It's a lifting and cardio day, so...

Hi hi hi ho

Sunday Morning

Here I am once again in a quiet household collecting my thoughts. It's just me and Michelle as Chad left for Cleveland yesterday afternoon. I'm up and watching the movie Quiz Show and just passing the time until the Tom Hanks movie Larry Crowne starts again in a few minutes. I fell asleep trying to watch it last night as I was starting to feel a little bit under the weather.

Normal day planned for us, doing our grocery shopping early and that'll probably be the highlight of our day. Yesterday we went and bought Michelle a new dress so she can wear it to her Niece Amanda's graduation from WVU coming up on May 13th. I'm still waiting to hear about one other graduation a little bit West of here.

Afterwards we stopped down at my Brother in Law ans Sister in Law's new store they just recently opened up. It's right across the Westover bridge on the Morgantown side where Bob Clay Investigations used to be. There has been some remodeling going on where Jim holds his auctions, so he has opened up a store downtown.

Do you believe that it was actually spitting snow yesterday?

Have a great one today.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit once again in a quiet household with everyone fighting a losing battle with the sandman other than me. I'm sitting here watching Big Stan on the Boob Tube and collecting my thoughts for the day.

Michelle wants to head over to a couple friends of ours today, she bought a Fondue Pot from one of them and she wants to run over and pick it up early this morning. Something tells me that Fondue may just be on our agenda sometime today or this weekend.

Chad is scheduled to head back to Cleveland to work. This has been an on going and off going issue since right before Thanksgiving. I think he will be heading north sometime today, but I'm not 100% sure on that one. He's made multiple week long trips for this contract ans something always seems to get frustrating with it all the time.

Que the coffee pot, Michelle is up and going.

Have a great day.

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday.

I have to say this has been a pretty quick week for me, hopefully the weekend slows down a little bit and seems slow, but that will never happen. I fought off an early week illness and never missed a beat this week. So, I deserve a nice relaxing weekend and Michelle does too.

Speaking of Michelle, she has a follow up appointment today to visit her Doctor from when she broke her foot last fall. All seems well and she has been using the elliptical and working out, so I imagine she will get a two thumbs up this afternoon.

Did anyone watch the NFL Draft last night, it had a little bit of a Morgantown flavor with the first pick. Andrew Luck from Stanford was the first pick, he is the son of WVU Athletic Director and former WVU Quarterback Oliver Luck. The Luck's all live in Morgantown with the exception of Andrew who looks like he will now be making his home in Indianapolis.WVU Linebacker Bruce Irvin went to Seattle in the First Round at the 15th pick. He's the first first rounder WVU has had selected since Pac Man Jones. went as the #6 pick.

Lifting and cardio day, so hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look back through all of my older pictures and select just one and tell a little bit of a story about. Sometimes this is very easy, sometimes it's very hard, but it is always enjoyable.

This weeks photo actually comes from a few years ago. When I was getting ready to leave IMCWV and getting ready to start working for SAIC at NETL. I had to run to Uniontown and take my drug test, which I obviously passed, and on my way back I decided to drive through Masontown PA to see if a restaurant that I used to love to go to was still there.

Dolphi's was always a place I loved to eat. They used to have an all you can eat land and seafood buffet on Saturday nights and I traveled up there numerous times to feast on all the seafood I could possibly eat in as much time as my stomach would allow me to consume.

It was always fairly well priced and the food was always awesome. The owners later sold the restaurant and started Back Bay here in Morgantown, but the people who bought it still keep it open and running. I've heard the food is still good, but with the population explosion in Morgantown in the times since then, there are other options that we do instead of traveling to Masontown. At one time though, many people from Morgantown would make that trip on Friday night.

If you follow the link at the end of this post, it will bring you up to a map to Dolphi's location.

It's a cardio day, so hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well that's Monday that's completed, Tuesday is completed, that means if you just look up over the noon time hum and just on the other side of a Photo Flashback you can see the dawn of another weekend off in the horizon.

I came home from work yesterday afternoon and Michelle was feeling a little bit under the weather, she went home and rested. Hopefully she is feeling better today as I had it Monday and just slept it off on Monday night and was fine by yesterday morning.

My niece Valarie has set a date for Erica and Josh's birthday party later this summer. Looks like I am going to be having a busy week in late June with this party, a Buffet Concert and probably a Rosiak 4th of July party.

It's a cardio and a lifting day for me today, thee are my longer days that I spend in the gym.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is once again in our rear view mirrors and we are looking straight down the barrel of a Tuesday, can't for the life of me think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* It's been 1,502 marvelous days since Michelle and I had our first date a little over four years ago. A magical night of Pizza Hut, a horrible movie and the start of the rest of my life.

* It's been 725 days since I got down on one knee in the back yard and proposed marriage.

* 262 days ago we partied at the Marilla Center as we said our marital vows.

* There are 245 more shopping days left until Christmas.

* We set sail on our cruise in 138 days.

* We have 66 more days until we head up north for our annual treck to Margaritaville and see Jimmy Buffet.

* I have to say that Blogger has made some back end changes that is really messing me up. I like to write my blogs the night before and then have them post at 4:00 AM the next morning. Since they have switched to this new system, nothing I am setting up to post is posting when it needs to post. If you read my blog early morning and it hasn't posted, give me a yell and remind me to post the blog. It's not me it's Blogger.

* It's a cardio day for me, the whey protein really made a difference yesterday, today it's all cardio. My guess judging by the weather is it will be inside on a treadmill as opposed to outside on our trail.

* Hi ho hi ho

Monday Morning

All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately that includes weekends. So it's time to get up and stick our noses back on the grindstone once again so we can continue to enjoy the lifestyles we have become accustomed to.

They are calling for a big snow storm in the area that was supposed to start last night and is supposed to go into tomorrow morning. I think I have stated my opinion on more than one occasion for snow, but if you are going to get a snow storm this is the way to get it. Where the temperatures will be too high for it to be around too long.

Ironically this is the start of the BOPARC Softball Season. For the second year in a row I have decided to remain in the ranks of the retired. I did have some options this season, but the boys of summer that I became so accustomed to playing with have all moved on or away. I miss the guys, but my rotater cuff has been goner and has been giving me troubles for months. I attribute it to all the years of throwing a softball through the summer. My arm did increase velocity through the years and I guess that took a toll on it. I halfway miss playing, but the last couple of seasons I did play were a couple seasons too many. The heart, desire and drive had faded over the past few years, I became too complacent and maybe that was the first sign that it was just time. Still miss it however.

It's a lifting and a cardio day for me today. I ended up purchasing a good amount of whey protein this weekend. I had started eating protein bars recently and they were really helping, so I am now starting to use dietary supplements to assist in my training. I feel much better and have been spending 7 1/2 hours a week in the gym since we got back from our honeymoon last August. I've developed an exit strategy to get off most if not all of my diabetic meds and should be exiting the actos that I take by the next time I visit my Doctor in June. My A1C was in the normal range last time and I'm eating whatever I want, so I must be doing something right.

Hi ho hi ho

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, the sandman has attacked everyone but me and I'm up watching the Green Lantern on HBO and collecting my thoughts. For some reason I turned the AX on last night and I have to say that I'm a little bit chilli this morning writing this.

Lot's of things going on around Morgantown yesterday including a murder at Wal-Mart on the 4H camp road yesterday morning. It was a domestic dispute between the victim and her estranged husbands father and something to do with Child Protective services. It was a motivated killed with a specific target, after the shots were fired the gunman put his gun back in the car and complied with all who subdued him until the authorities arrived. We were at Sam's Club on the other side of town when the shooting took place.

The Mountaineers played their annual spring game yesterday. Cold and rainy weather kept most people including me away this year. I've heard estimates of 10,000 people showing up and read where someone said it was 9,045 people. Both numbers are well below half the attendance of last years game, I think this can easily be attributed to the bad weather. The Old timers game that was scheduled to be played was even canceled due to the weather.

Overall the Defense won this scrimmage. I have no worries about the offense considering the last time they officially hit the field they hung 70 points on a favorite Clemson team in the Orange Bowl. The concern was the defense after the staff left. I like what I saw, the defenders were aggressive, hitting hard and doing something that we haven't done in a number of years and that was swarm tackle. Sometimes it takes more than one guy to bring a player down and they can break the tackle. In the past we had players who wanted to blow a player up and were too worried about making the highlight reel, now it seems like they are more team focused. Don't get me wrong, Jeff Casteel was a great Defensive Coordinator, I just see a different demeanor out there among the players.

Would you believe that the NWS are calling for snow tomorrow morning? Seriously we had the mildest winter I can ever remember, I don't want to see a late April snow fall.

Have a great day.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit once again in a quiet household where everyone else is sleeping soundly except me at this hour. I just got done watching the end of My Cousin Vinny on HBO.

Weather permitting today, I would love to go over to the Stadium and watch the Spring Game today. It'll be our first opportunity to get a look at the 2012 Mountaineer Football team after winning the Orange Bowl this January. There are a number of changes this Spring, most notably the change on the coaching staff where long time Defensive Coordinator and a couple assistants headed out west to Arizona to join Rich Rodriguez. Coach Holgorsen has brought in a new group of defensive coaches and we'll have to wait and see how this all turns out. I would imagine the 3-3-5 scheme that the Mountaineers have used for the last decade may be shelved for a more conventional defense.

My brother in law Jim will be holding an Auction Today at the Greer Building behind Big Lots in Westover this afternoon at 1:00. Chad will be helping out with the auction and spent all day yesterday helping Jim set up. He has a number of items that will be auctioned off, so if you are looking for something to do, this could be it.

Have a great day and try to stay dry today.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Good Friday.

If you are looking for a little bit of that gridiron action, this is that weekend you can see it. Tomorrow at 6:00 at Milan Puskar Stadium at Mountaineer Field the Spring Game will be played. This is the annual Spring event where you work out tweaks in the offense and see who to watch for in the fall. We're planning on attending, weather permitting, but if not it is available on ESPN3.

We really have nothing planned for this evening, we do need to head out to JB Robinsons some time this weekend, we've been putting that off for a while and just haven't gotten around to it.

Lifting and cardio day, so hi ho hi ho

I Hate the New Blogger Backside

I know many of you will never see the back end of BLOGGER unless of course you are a BLOGGER. This is the place where those of us edit our posts and submit the content. I've been using BLOGGER since 2004 and have grown accustomed to how things worked over the past eight years.

Not too long ago they introduced a new back end. I tried it out for a little while but saw it as very user non-friendly and a hassle to use so I switched back to what I have grown accustomed to.

As many of you know I write my blogs the evening before with the exception of the weekend blogs and I schedule them to post at the same time the next morning during the week. Been doing this for years on my daily blogs. Over the last couple of days the feature has not been working and I have had to go in manually and post my posts.

This morning I logged in to force the post to an unpleasant surprise of a very user unfriendly and confusing back end to the BLOG. To say that I hate it would be an understatement.

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and go through all of my pictures that I have and select just one special picture to tell a little story about. Sometimes it's easy to find one, and sometimes it's a pretty daunting task, but it's always enjoyable and fun.

This weeks picture is actually from last year and a picture that I put on Facebook, we purchased a raised garden last year and decided to try and do a raised patio vegetable garden. Growing up I had always had gardens year in and year out. My grandparents always had huge gardens that they both put a lot of time in and took a great deal of pride in.

Last year I realized it had been a number of years since I had had one, and I wasn't waiting any longer. I needed something I could plant, watch grow and take a little bit of pride in. We had a nice garden last year, but we also learned a few things last year as to what to do and what not to do.

I'm anxious to get this years started, we already have the soil turned and ready to go. Probably a few more peppers this year and less Lettuce, Broccoli and Cabbage that we never were really able to harvest.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well that's two days down, one we get up over this noon time hump you should be able to look on the other side of a photo flashback and see the dawn of another weekend in the distance.

Maybe I should talk to Michelle and see what we are planning on getting into this weekend other than having our rings inspected that we have been putting off. We bought and will buy lifetime warranties with all jewelry we buy, when you do so you need to take it in once every six months to have them inspect and clean it. JB Robinson's have been very good to us and we have been more than happy with everything we have purchased from there.

It's a lifting and cardio day for me today. I've been making a lot of progress with the lifting the last week or so after hitting a plateau where it didn't seem like I was gaining anything for a while. Weights and repetitions are up and I'm feeling very good after I leave the gym. I'm in there a little over an hour and a half on days like this, maybe a little longer to get everything done.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is once again in our rear view mirrors, it was a very busy one for me, but now I can't think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* It's been 1,495 days since mine and Michelle's first date.

* 718 days ago I got down on one knee in the backyard and proposed marriage.

* 255 days ago we all partied at the Marilla center as Michelle and I became a wedded couple.

* You have 252 more shopping days left until Christmas.

* In 71 more days we're going to see Jimmy Buffet and Margaritaville in the burgh.

* We set out on the high seas in 145 more days.

* If you have not filled out your tax return for this year, today is the deadline for doing it if you want to avoid any costly penalties.

* One show that I like on TV is HBO's East Bound and Down. I love this show and Sunday night was actually the series finale. They said they would do this final season and it concluded last night with a kind of a strange ending.

* It's a cardio day for me, the biggest decision is do I do it inside on a treadmill or outside on NETL's fitness trail.

* For you football fans who love Mountaineer Football, the Spring game is this Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium at Mountaineer Field. This should be interesting, I'm wanting to see the team that hung 70 points on Clemson on the Orange Bowl.

* Hi ho hi ho

Monday Morning

All good things must come to an end and unfortunately that includes weekends. It's time to take our noses and put them back on the grindstone for a few days and work towards another fun filled weekend.

I have to first give a special thank you to my Brother Gary, I was having some car trouble with the Taurus and needed to change the spark plugs and wires. I could get the front ones, but the ones in the back were a little bit more tricky and I needed some assistance from someone with longer arms than I have. I saw one video on how to access the rear plugs and they were talking about taking off the cam and that just seemed like a lot of trouble to just change spark plugs. Gary used to have a Taurus and with the purchase of an $8.00 extension that I didn't have with my tools he was able to reach them all and change the back three for me. I'm lucky to have a great brother who took a few minutes out of his ridiculously busy schedule and lend me a hand. Maybe I'll try to get him lei'd this summer.

It's a lifting and a cardio day again for me, loaded up on some more high protein bars to take in to work with me again, I tried a package of them and eat one on mornings that I lift if I'm running late and don't get a chance to eat breakfast. I could not believe the difference they made in a short period of time. I could increase the weight and do more reps with less struggle when I put about 30 grams of protein in me before I lift. About a half hour after I eat it's like my body goes into turbo mode.

Hi ho hi ho

Got a Real Good Deal

While shopping at Sam's yesterday, we found a nice Cuisinart Griddler that Sam's club had marked way down in price to $32.01. We asked about it and they said it was the last one and they were not getting any more of them so we asked if we could buy the display model.

Michelle noticed some insignificant scratch on the side of one of the trays that was not the cooking surface and asked if we could get a discount on that.

We did our shopping and customer service rounded up all the books we needed and marked it down to $25.00. We were looking to buy one at full price, we have fallen in love with the Cuisinart name and have been very impressed with all of their products we now own and were intending on buying one of these. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

We made Panini's for dinner and are talking about doing shrimp tomorrow night for dinner on it. We both love this thing. Hard to beat a home made panini.

Flight 93 Memorial

Yesterday we were looking for something to do and had some time to kill, so Michelle and I decided to pack up the Forester and take a little bit of a road trip. We headed out to the Flight 93 Memorial, a place that we had talked about visiting previously, but just never made it yet. We knew it was fairly close and something we wanted to see, and there was no time like the present.

The trip took about an hour and fifty minutes from Morgantown and had us in a number of back roads in Pennsylvania. We passed the Sniders of Berlin Potato chip factory, and that was about the biggest highlight passing through the area. Lot's a farms and eminessence of livestock in the area, some places much stronger than others, but still a very pleasant drive.

We did finally arrive at the memorial a little before noon after guiding ourselves there with the iPhone and GPS, the only problem we encountered was the location we used was directions to where the access to the memorial used to be, we stopped and got directions and found out that they had moved the access point and we were then on our way.

The wall that you see if the actual flight path where it came onto the property before crashing into a lot of hemlock trees. Each portion of the wall is a remembrance to each brave hero that died on that plane. Individual names as well as any engraving requested by the family are on each individual slab.

The rock that you see here is the actual point of impact where the plane hit. I zoomed in to get a picture of it, but the only people allowed out there are the family members of the fallen heroes. There was a couple attendants on location to educate you with any and all questions that you may have. I was amazed to find out that the plane was 50' above the ground and upside down as it passed by where the memorial wall is located.

There is future development planned for the park including a tower of voices, where they are going to install 40 wind chimes, one for each passenger.

If you ever get the opportunity or have the time, it was well worth the trip and one you will always remember.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit in a mostly quiet household, Michelle just got up out of bed and walked into the restroom, so I am not the only one up. I am sitting here and collecting my thoughts, watching "Don't Mess with the Zohan" on Crackle (click link).

Need to do a little work on the Taurus today, Gary is going to come over this afternoon and help me change a few spark plugs that I can't get to or don't have any of the tools needed to get to them. I tried a couple nights ago, but my arms just don't reach back behind the engine like that.

This morning we'll be heading out to Sam's and doing our regular shopping. WE really have nothing planned for this weekend. Could just be another boring blog like yesterday to go along with an uneventful weekend.

Have a good day.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Good Friday.

Going into this weekend we really have no plans in store other than our shopping and what we normally do every other weekend. It would be nice to have something to do planned, but the truth is we don't and probably won't get into too much this weekend.

The Taurus was acting up a little yesterday, it's developed a miss, so that may be where most of my weekend goes, Michelle and In changed a few spark plugs and wires last night, we had trouble getting to the back ones and even one in the front was very hard to reach without a special tool.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

It's once again that time of the week when I look back through all of my pictures and select just one small moment in time to tell a little story about. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's not so easy to find that right picture, but it is always fun.

Today's picture is from an event called Pig Stock a few years back, I'm thinking it was 2005 and it was in the spring. West Virginia ran a caravan around the state where then coach Rich Rodriguez traveled around the state and met the fans. On this day it was in Morgantown.

The man in the picture, one of my oldest and closest friends in the whole world, John "Smitty" Smith. He was at pigstock and I saw him there and took a little time to talk to him about the upcoming season.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day...Woo Hoo

Well we have the first part of the week completed, now if you just take a look over that lunchtime horizon and off in the distance you can see the dawn of another weekend on the other side of the photo flashback blog tomorrow. I have to say it has been a pretty quick week for me up to this point, no complaints from me and if the rest of the week goes like this I'll have it kicked.

I had a co-worker show me a newer version of Linux that I really liked yesterday. In the past I've used Knoppix, a version with Grass, Ubuntu, Suse and now I have seen one that I really like more than all the previous versions with Linux Mint. I co-worker installed it on a netbook and I have to say that it's probably the most user friendly version that I have seen so far to date. It will remind you a little bit of Windows 7 and is a pretty smart (as in user friendly) OS.

Michelle is starting to use an elliptical now. Michael has one out in the garage and she has been starting to use it on a regular basis. She's worked herself up to 20 minutes at a time now, we'll have her doing 4+ miles on the trails again in no time. Maybe it's time to start thinking about geocaching again. Her shoulders were a little sore yesterday however, but that was just sore muscles that you always get when you start working out again.

Speaking of working out, lifting and then cardio today.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is once again in our rear view mirrors and we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday, I can't think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* It's been 1,488 days since mine and Michelle's first date, that's a little over four years for those of you keeping count.

* It's been 711 days since I proposed marriage in the backyard at 4:00 in the morning.

* It's been 248 days since our wedding.

* There are 259 more shopping days left until Christmas.

* 152 days from now we hit the high seas on our cruise.

* There are only 78 days until we head to Margaritaville and see Jimmy Buffet in Pittsburgh this summer.

* We are starting to get the ball rolling for my 30 Year High School Reunion. I have bought tickets to previous events, just have never made it to the Reunion. Facebook is our friend this time and I think I would really like to go.

* If you haven't done your taxes yet this year, you have about a week to do them and send them in. The clock is ticking.

* It's a Cardio day

* Hi ho hi ho

Back to Work

Well the glorious weekend is once again a faded memory, it was a good one filled with family, feasts and Easter Eggs Hunts to be enjoyed by all. Now it is time to put our noses back to the grindstone for another five days of doing the things that allows us the opportunity to do the things we love.

WVU and the local schools now have their Spring Breaks concluded for the year, now I imagine traffic will be a royal pain in the butt for the next few weeks. WVU has their finals probably in about a month, so there will be relief in site for the traffic.

We did have a good time yesterday with Easter Dinner and watching the Pittsburgh Pirates have their second walk off win in a row against the Phillies who won more games than anyone last season. Things might be promising in the Burgh this year.

Lifting and cardio day, so

Hi ho hi ho

Happy Easter

I sit once again in a quiet household with everyone sleeping on the Easter Morning. We have all of our weekend shopping and chores done and had them completed before we went to Amy's yesterday for the Easter Egg Hunt. I put all of the pictures up on Facebook yesterday, but if you do not have a Facebook account and would like to see the pictures from yesterday I have them hosted on my site right HERE. I think everyone had a great time yesterday, it turned out very nice. Amy had a surprise cookie for the Birthday Girl and the kids had a very good time hunting and finding Easter eggs all over the place.

Today we have a big ham that Michelle is planning on making for dinner. We have fresh bread being made in the bread maker for breakfast, but we'll also do a dough later this morning see how we do with home made rolls out of the machine. We love this thing and it has made our lives a little better, mainly because we know what ingredients are going into it unlike any store bought product loaded with preservatives.

I hope the Easter Bunny visited all the good little boys and girls this morning and left them some very tasty treats.

Hope everyone has a great Easter Day.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, with the notable exception of the bread machine kneading dough for a fresh loaf of bread for breakfast this morning. Some movie is on the TV, I think it's the Jetson's Movie from a number of years ago.

Our schedule is a little strange this weekend due to the Holiday, we ended up going to Sam's Club yesterday and will do the rest of our grocery shopping this morning before heading out to watch the kids seek Easter Eggs at Amy's this afternoon.

Chad and Laiah are heading to PA today for Easter tomorrow, Hayley was going to go with them but she has to work today and into this evening so she'll be staying in Morgantown. Her and new boyfriend Manny will be coming over for Easter Dinner tomorrow, this will be the first time Michelle or I have had a chance to meet him. He sounds like a very young man who is a WVU student enrolled in the Engineering program.

Have a great day, hope to see lots of family today.

Happy Birthday Terri Beth Hall Rehmani

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my beautiful Sister Terri a very Happy Birthday today. Hopefully I will get to see her today and wish her Happy Birthday in person at the Easter Egg Hunt and she doesn't have to work this afternoon.

I may have lost count, but I am pretty sure this is Terri's 21st Birthday, or at least the anniversary of her 21st Birthday.

If you are fortunate enough to see Terri today as I hope I am, make sure that you take a little bit of time out and wish her a very Happy Birthday.

Big Ole Hairy Good Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Good Friday.

It's a holiday weekend, but not one the Federal Government recognizes as a paid day off, so it is the dawn of a holiday weekend for me and Michelle.

We're planning on going to Amy's tomorrow to watch the kids find Easter Eggs and have a little bit of a get together with everyone. I think Pam mentioned that Moke has to work tomorrow and won't be able to attend, hopefully Ang can still make it. It should be a great day.

Sunday Michelle and I are going to do a small dinner here, the kids are going to Jon and Laura's up in northern PA, so it will just be us. We thought about going up as well, but that would be a lot of running around on a Sunday and we would just rather stay home and rest here and do something small for our first official Easter together as Husband and Wife.

Hope everyone has a great and safe weekend, especially those who will be traveling.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and go through all of my pictures that I have taken trough the years and select just one picture to tell a little story about. Sometimes it's an easy task, and sometimes you have to look and look for that one special picture. Either way I consider it a nice excuse to look back through my images.

This weeks picture is from last year when Amy and Ralph hosted the family Easter Egg Hunt at her home. We had numerous eggs and hid them for all the kids to seek, and I don't think they really cared what nominal token was inside the egg, they just wanted to find the eggs. So much so that after all the eggs were hidden and the treats were found and opened, they they wanted us to hide them again so they could once again go and find them....again.

Amy is once again hosting the Easter Egg Hunt again at her place this Saturday. If we have half as much fun as we had last year, it will once again be a blast. This year however Ralph has the back side completed and we'll be able to confine everything to the back yard and we'll have shelter if need be.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well Monday is behind us and to be honest I took a vacation day yesterday because I was feeling a little under the weather, but today is in fact Hump Day and if you look on the other side of Thursday you can see the dawn of yet another weekend.

Trish stopped by yesterday afternoon and paid a little visit to me and Michelle. It had been a while since we really had any chance to spend any time with her for a while with the exception of Layla's birthday party. Arron is in Florida on Spring Break and the munchkin was over at her Mom's so we had a nice visit.

Did anyone see the pictures or the videos on the weather channel yesterday about the tornadoes in Houston? They were literally throwing tractor trailers all over the place, sort of like in the movie twister, but much higher, more of them and with much more force. I was stunned looking at the videos. The picture you see above is from Hail from Texas from this storm.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is now once again behind us ans we are looking straight down the barrel of a Tuesday, I can't think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* It's been 1,481 days since Michelle and I went out on our first date, that number could have been a lot higher if she didn't stand me up on our first date three months earlier...LOL

* It's been 704 days since our engagement.

* We have been married now for 241 days.

* There are 266 more shopping days until Christmas, providing that the Mayans were wrong and we do have Christmas this year. If they were right, no worries about Christmas shopping...LOL

* We are down to 159 days until we cruise to a tropical paradise.

* For the fifth time Michelle and I will be officially attending the Jimmy Buffet concert this summer. Actually come to think of it it will be the first day of Summer unless I am mistaken. What a way to start a summer.

* I got a call from a head hunter yesterday about an Oil and Gas GIS job in Waynesburg, much lower salary so I said thank you but no thank you. Prior to working for Sextant I would have jumped on it, but I have the best boss one could ever hope for. I passed the information on to a few friends who work in GIS, always nice to keep the communication and opportunities available for others.

* Was feeling a little under the weather yesterday morning, almost even considered coming home after my workout which I was not up to giving 100% on. Hopefully I'll feel better today.

* Michelle has an eye appointment today, she needs to get a new prescription for her contacts.

* Hi ho hi ho

Jimmy Buffet Tickets

Yes it is Monday, but more importantly this is the day when tickets for the 2012 Jimmy Buffet concert in Pittsburgh go on sale. It's an event to get these to say the least, you have to be on ticketmaster at 10:00 and keep hitting F5 on your computer until you get a "Purchase Now" option. That option is usually not available very long for lawn seats as they go rather quickly. When I say quickly, I mean if you wait a couple of minutes you might be out of luck to get your tickets.

This will be my sixth Buffet concert (seventh I bought tickets to) and Michelle's fifth one. She has attended with me each of the past four years, and this is usually one of our big highlights of the summer.

If you are wanting to go this year, today at 10:00 is the time you need to be getting your tickets.

APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!!

Did we get you? Did you bite on the whole moving to Oregon thing?

As Michelle and I were sitting at dinner Friday night, we tried to come up with something for April Fools Day that was at least semi-believable. We nailed a few people a few years ago claiming that we got married (we are now...LOL). Last year we told everyone that Michelle was going to have a baby and now this years April Fools joke.

I wrote both blogs (the April Fools one and this one) a little over 26 hours ago so I have no idea how this joke will play out. I'll do my best to sell it though to see of I can real any Fools in this year. The one two years ago was a classic, as I am writing this I'm hoping this one is more successful.

We'll have to see, or you will know by the time you are reading this.

APRIL FOOLS!!!!

I'm Being Transferred

I got the word from work Friday, a project that will be the vast majority of my funding over the next year require me to relocate to the Albany, Oregon location to work on the upcoming project.

Michelle and I spent much of yesterday trying to come up with a game plan for the re-location. She spent much of the day filling out some online applications and we are looking for apartments in the area for our move. Needless to say we were very busy yesterday trying to get a grasp on this whole thing.

This move will be taking place within the next couple of weeks so to say that we were a little hectic yesterday is a bit of an understatement. You just don't uproot and move 3,000+ miles away from where you know on a whim, we have known of the possibility for about six weeks and didn't want to say anything until it became official. Friday afternoon it became official.

The good news is we have AT&T so our phone numbers won't change. I have to now make arrangements for us to fly to Baltimore this September for our cruise. Any advice on finding the cheapest airline tickets?

Have a great day.