Back to Work

Well all good things must come to an end, and that includes the fun filled things that we all call weekends. Now it's time to stick our collective noses back on the grindstone and start on another work week.

Yesterday however we did have a family bowling event that went pretty well. I think everyone had a great time and I think Calvin ended up with the highest game of anyone there with a 151 in his last game, but I could be wrong about that. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, it's a good thing we went when we did because the bowling alley got crowded. Hayley and Josh showed up layer, but had to wait until we left to get a lane.

Michelle is still having a rough go at it from her surgery, I advised her yesterday to take today off as she was still hurting, something tells me she just might do that as she was not feeling very well at all. She has been an absolute trooper though in going grocery shopping yesterday with me as well as sitting and watching me bowl. She was our photographer yesterday.

Oh well, now it's time to head back to the office after being out pretty much all last week for the Conference.

Hi ho hi ho

Let's Go Gowling

Here I sit in a quiet household this morning, we have a couple of house guests for a while as Rocky and Lilly are here visiting us for a while as Mommy enjoys a European vacation. I'm up early watching something or another on  HBO and collecting my thoughts for the day.

One of my new years resolutions and pretty much the theme for 2016 is spending more time with family. Family is a very important thing to both Michelle and I, so today we're going to have a little bit of a get together and fun as everyone is going to go and have a little old fashioned fun by going bowling this afternoon at Suburban Lanes.

I think we are going to have a pretty good turnout today and I will be bringing my camera along with me. It'll also be a good day to possibly discuss the Friends and Family Picnic coming up July 3rd this summer.

Bowling is an event that I think can be enjoyed by all, we will have all skill levels there including a few beginners all the way up to someone with multiple 300 game under his belt in my brother in law Robert. There can be friendly competitions or just taking a little bit of time to watch others and see how they are doing.

I was thinking something else we could do when the weather gets nicer and if we can get enough participants is maybe a family kickball game. Draft up a couple of teams and go find a field and have a little bit of fun.

Of course this summer we can all target possibly an event where running or walking is the objective and all participate. I think I would start with the 5K walk as would many members from my side of the family, I know Michelle's sister and that side of the family runs a number of events every year. I think it would be great for everyones health to train for one even us walkers, as well as support some of the people who want to compete on the running side. These are just a couple of ideas in the near future that we can all think about doing.

Have yourselves a great day, we intend to.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Well I sit again in a quiet household, Phin and I are up and everyone else is sleeping. I'm collecting my thoughts for the day and writing my first blog in a while as all of them this past week were written last weekend.

I can't say it wasn't an eventful week, I did have a few OMG moments. The first was seeing the technology that is now being done with drones and creating 3D Models. Professionally the last time I was this awestruck was when I saw Google Earth for the very first time.

Thursday I had a my all time professional high before the days festivities started, I saw Jack Dangermond getting out of a cab so I walked over and introduced myself and had a moment that will forever be embedded into my head to speak with the man who my profession. In the GIS world. this is God so to speak and I had the opportunity to meet him. I was ecstatic.

From that high I had to call Michelle and then I hit the low for the week. I could tell something was wrong, and came to find out that her partner in Crime at work as they call themselves had just lost her 42 year old husband to a long, very hard fought and very valiant battle with cancer. Lydia is 37 years old, the same age Michelle was when she became a widow, so this was a very hard thing for Michelle. Our plans for today is to be with Lydia and her family as they lay Joe to his final resting place.

Yesterday Michelle had to be at the hospital at 5:00 for a surgery. I left washing DC around midnight on a couple of hours of sleep to drive about 4 hours through the snow in the middle of the night to avoid the heavy DC traffic around the beltway and all roads leading into and out of DC to surprise her and be with her when she had her surgery. She has lost so much weight that there is no layer of fat around her diaphragm and a bone was catching and snagging that she had to have it filed down. I made it back to take her to the hospital at 5:00 AM and be with her, I kind of surprised her that I was here as she did not expect me till after the surgery. She is resting and doing fine, but she is still in a great deal of pain. She's a trooper and will recover quickly.

I can't say that the past 48 hours haven't been very eventful for me because my life was eventful on steroids for that period of time. By last night I was just exhausted and crashed and fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow. I slept straight through until about the time I normally get up.

I'm up and rested and ready for the challenges of a new day.

Have yourselves a great day and enjoy yourselves.

Big Ole Hairy Take Me Home Country Roads 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 Take Me Home Country Roads kind of Friday.

I am going to try to be awake and well on the road by the time this blog posts. I've had a great time at the Conference and rather than trying to head back last night after a long day went and got a few hours of sleep and will be heading home in the wee early hours of the morning to avoid the rush hour around the DC beltway. Hopefully by the time this is posting I will be a good portion of the way home already and well past all that heavy traffic.

Hopefully I can get into town very early and return the federal car (Dodge Dart) and pick mine back up at work and get home. I still have to go in and work for TNG later this morning, so saying that this is going to be a very long day for me is going to be an understatement.

Have yourselves a great day today and thanks to Chad for being with Michelle when I couldn't, much appreciated.

I'm coming home!!!!!

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out, time to look through my 30,000+ lost moments in time that I have either captured with a lens, scanned or just stolen from some place on the internet. I like to post up one picture and relive it briefly for everyone. Sometimes this is a pretty easy task like todays and sometimes it is a struggle to find that special picture, one this it always is is a whole lot of fun for this writer.

This weeks picture goes back a couple of years, Michelle and I headed to Washington DC to see if we could catch the Cherry Blossoms take bloom. We went down in 2013 around the same time period, however we had no luck. In 2014 when this picture was taken we hit it just right at the peak period.

This is a picture of my standing by the Tidal Basin and getting my picture taken. Right now ironically as this picture posts, I am not too far from where this picture was taken. I chose this picture because it was a great day for Michelle and I, we spent the entire day at the National Mall and the Smithsonian. I may be at the Smithsonian this evening as my conference finishes up.

Have yourselves a fantastic day.

Hi ho hi ho

ESRI Federal Users Conference.

Well I'm here in Washington DC getting ready to attend my first National ESRI User's Conference. I have attended a couple of the smaller state and regional ones before, but this is my first multi day Conference on a National Level. This is not the biggest one, that occurs in San Diego, but this one is one of the bigger ones other than that one.

I have a full itinerary of sessions that I want to sit on and get up to date with the technology that I make a career out of. This is the opening day and the first half of the day will be filled with registration, the mass meeting where everyone attends as well as the expo where I can see so many new and exciting developments before they are released. The afternoon I have a few sessions penciled in that I want to see. As a Geographer I am going to be like a kid in a candy store both today and tomorrow.

Tomorrow is going to be the busy day, I have 7 sessions that I will be sitting in on, as well as a DOE Users Group Luncheon and the networking reception tomorrow evening at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Have yourselves a Great day, I'm going to.

Hi ho hi ho

Tueday's Tidbits

* Well that dreaded thing that we all love so much called Monday is now once again behind us and we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday. Time for a tidbits.

* There have been 19,077 days since my birth, that rounds out to 21 years if you count the same way that I do.

* It was 4,300 days ago that I Graduated from West Virginia University completing a goal that I had always had.

* 2,901 days ago I took this very special lady out for a date on the town, I must have impressed her.

* It was 2,125 days ago that I got down on one knee and proposed marriage to that very special lady.

* It was 1,662 days ago that I gave that special lady my last name as we decided to get hitched.

* I have about 2,760 days or so to go until I retire, give or take one or two hundred of course. You never know what could happen, I might get lucky and win a big lottery.

* In 2,398 more days WVU is going to kick the dog shit out of the University of Pittsburgh in football as the Backyard Brawl will be renewed.

* Phil the Groundhog will one again have his day in 345 more days.

* I still have 312 more days to write content for the Goodbye 2016 Blog that I will post at the end of the year.

* There are still 306 more shopping days left to go until Christmas, you still have plenty of time.

* The next anniversary of my 21st birthday will occur in 282 more days. I swear I am the worlds oldest 21 year old.

* The Springs Festival is in 228 more days.

* Our 2016 Cruise is scheduled in 201 More days, this is about the time we usually book our cruise for the year but it has been booked for some time now.

* Jimmy Buffett will be playing in Pittsburgh yet once again in 182 more days and we have our tickets and plan on being there.

* In 165 more days Michelle and I will be celebrating our Fifth Wedding Anniversary.

* There are only 131 more days to go until the Third Annual Friends and Family Picnic at Krepps Park. I'm getting excited and hopefully we have much better weather this year than we had last year.

* I have written a grand total of 4,375 blogs for George's Journal in the 11 1/2 years that I have been doing this.

* Nothing new on the Brother Search once again, like I have said it appears we have hit a brick wall and will need some kind of miracle for this to happen at this point.

* A little bit of work has been done to the Hall Family Tree, there are still 334 names in the database and more and more detail is being filled in.

* I will be heading East this morning, traveling to Washington DC for a Conference. I'm wanting to get an early start so I can avoid rush hour traffic on the DC Beltway.

*  I might try to stop over to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier tonight. I'm going to be busy the next two days and won't get much of a chance to see anything, so I might head over to do a little bit of site seeing this evening.

* On 9-11-01 our Country was attacked. Four years ago I went to Shanksville, PA to see the first site of three where we were attacked. This evening I am going to visit the Pentagon and that areas since it's all by the hotel to see my second site. That just leaves NYC as the only site I will not have been to.

* I am loving this near Springtime weather, I was actually wearing shorts as we got out and about this weekend. I'm ready for winter to be over with, give me the birds singing and the flowers a blooming.

* Have yourselves a Great day and hope that I can get to downtown DC in one piece...lol

* Hi ho hi ho

Back to It

Well all good things must come to an end, and that includes the fun filled things that we like to refer to as weekends. It's time to take our collective noses and stick them back on the grindstone for another fun filled week of work.

It's probably going to be a short day for me as I'm getting ready to leave on my trip tomorrow to Washington DC for the ESRI Federal Users Conference. I'm actually pretty excited about going to this and I will staying close to the Pentagon just across the Potomac in Virginia. I've got a full itinerary of sessions that I want to sit in on, it'll probably take all next weekend to transcribe my notes into evernote.

I have to remember to take a handful of my business cards with me tomorrow, we have the ones from our company but I have my own printed up from Vistaprint  that I ordered and like a little better and is a little better suited to what I do.

Have yourselves a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Sunday Morning Rambling

Here I sit yet once again in a quiet household, Phin and I are up watching the Ladies Man on HBO and collecting our thoughts for the day and just starting to wake up.

Well yesterday Michelle and I went to Best Buy to buy a screen protector for Michelle's new Apple Watch and I debated and debated and decided to pick myself up one. I'm glad that I did because unknowing to me that special price if $100 off ended yesterday, they are back to full price today, so we saved $200 buying two watches. I'm glad I decided to do it yesterday, I would have been disappointed if I decided to buy it today.

Today's agenda include us doing a little bit of grocery shopping followed by us going to the Morgantown Mall. MSnap is giving away vouchers to have your dog or cat Payed or Neutered, Phin needs fixed before she gets too much older.

I'm probably going to write a weeks worth of blogs between today and tomorrow, I leave for DC on Tuesday and won't be back until Friday morning. Packing for that trip might also be on my agenda for today.

Have yourselves a great day today.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit in a semi-quiet household, Phin woke me up to let me know it was either time for her to eat to it was just time to get up as she wanted to play. I'm up with One Flew Over the Cockcoos Nest playing on HBO and collecting my thoughts for the day.

I picked up Michelle's Apple Watch yesterday, she played around with it a little last night but was basically letting it charge to get its first full charge. It took a while to set it up and to learn where everything was and how to navigate around everything. I did find a pretty good tutorial on how to use it for her, so that will make it a lot easier.

There is a big basketball game here in Morgantown this afternoon with a battle of a couple of top 10 teams. #3 Oklahoma comes into the Coliseum to take on the #10 WV Mountaineers at 4:00 with the game being televised on ESPN. This will be the 5th and probably final regular season match up against a Top 10 team this year for the Mountaineers who are also in the Top 10. We still have 2 more top 25 match up's left, but neither appear that that will be on the top 10. Now Big XII Tournament and NCAA Tournament time we may once again start seeing top teams.

No plans on the agenda for Michelle and I today so far, probably finishing setting up her watch and some chores around the house. Traffic is going to be horrendous this afternoon.

Well with many new stores soon to be coming to Morgantown, it looks like Hobby Lobby will be coming to the Gateway Plaza in the near future. If you have never been to a Hobby lobby, you are really missing something. I call it Michaels on Steroids as there is just so much to choose from. It will definitely be a town favorite. There is also a Peace, Love and Little Donuts that will be opening in the University Towne Center in the very near future.

Have yourselves a great day and enjoy the day to the max.

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 Friday.

Well today is the day that I work the part time job exclusively (for a few more weeks) for TNG. I'll be up at the University Towne Center Servicing my store up at that location. I'll be giving them my two weeks notice next week as I start to prepare to work for Headway/RTI as a field interviewer part in March. So I have a few more times of working for TNG before I move on to greener pastures so to speak.

I do have my itinerary planned out for next weeks ESRI Federal User's Conference. There is so much to choose from and so many worthwhile sessions to attend that I finally come up with one that is suitable to me and my current career at NETL. It will allow me to brush up on a few things while exploring some new concepts coming out and introduce them to my job. I'm actually pretty excited about this.

I ordered Michelle an Apple Watch from Best Buy earlier this week. They have a great deal of $100.00 off so I took advantage of it and not only got her one, but got her the one that she specifically liked since it was out of stock in the store and we had to order it. It was shipped Wednesday Night and I should be able to pick it up for her today.

Have yourselves a great day today.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take just a little bit of time out, time to look through my 30,000+ images that I have either taken with a Camera, Scanned or just simply stolen from some place on the internet. Little lost moments of time forever remembered and relived briefly here for all to share. Sometimes this is a pretty easy task, and sometimes it's actually pretty challenging. One thing that it always has been though is a whole lot of fun.

This weeks picture goes back to the winter of 1993-4 when my Dad and Jean took a vacation to Florida. They never really went away on their own, but this is the one time I can recall that they actually did and went to Naples Florida to visit Jean's Cousins.

This is one of the pictures that they had taken and I had scanned into digital format 20 some years after it was captured. It's just a simple picture of a man who inspired so many and left us too early standing on a peaceful and serene beach in Florida and enjoying himself.

Have yourselves a Great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

OK we have made it, all we need to do is get up and over this noon time hump and it's going to be all downhill as we work towards another fun filled weekend.

I really have to start concentrating on next week at work, I'm going to have to write a few "absentee" blogs as I am going to be in Washington DC next week for a conference and don't know how much time I am going to have to be on the computer as I will be tied up at the conference or traveling for the most part of next week, so I may have to pre-write next weeks blogs this weekend to keep them going. I'll be staying in Arlington, VA, right across the Potomac and the Metro is right outside my hotel.

I will be traveling again, but I got my dates wrong as I will be flying out of Morgantown on the 17th and returning late night on the 24th. I will be staying at the Millennium Hotel in Durham, for a week training for the new part time job.

Other than that not too much going on in this mid-week. Michelle has been very busy at work being short handed, but she'll get through it I just need to make sure that she does not over do it.

Have yourselves a Great Day and enjoy it.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well my three day weekend is over with and today is Tuesday, tidbits time.

* There have been a total of 19,070 days since my birth, that's 21 years old if you trust my math or my calendar.

* It has been 4,293 days since I Graduated from West Virginia University.

* There have been 2,894 days that have gone by since I asked Michelle to go with me to see 10,000 BC

* There have been 2,118 days that have passed since I proposed marriage to Michelle.

* It was just 1,655 days ago that we celebrated our wedding in front of our closest friends and family.

* I have about 5,767 days or so to go until I retire, give or take a few hundred here or there.

* There are only 2,405 more days until WVU vs Pitt will play in Football once again and we can beat them to a pulp.

* Phil will once again take center state in 352 more days for Ground Hogs Day.

* I have 319 more days of content to write before I post my Goodbye 2016 blog.

* There are only 313 more shopping days left until Christmas, Walmart should be bringing their Christmas stuff back out about any time now..lol

* There are only 289 more days to go until the next anniversary of my 21st Birthday.

* With the actual count, there are 235 more days to go until we head over to the Springs Festival once again after missing last years festivities.

* There are only 208 more days to go until we leave on our next scheduled Cruise.

* We will be joining up with other Parrot Heads in 189 more days to see  Jimmy Buffett in concert once again.

* There are but a mere 172 days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Fifth Wedding Anniversary together.

* There are 138 days to go until our 2015 Picnic

* There are only 33 more days to go until my favorite season of the year, Springtime!!!

* I have written 4,368 blogs in the 11 1/2 years I have been writing George's Journal.

* Nothing new on the brother search, it's a dead end and we pretty much need a miracle to proceed any further.

* The Hall Family Tree still has 334 members in the database, not too much work to it this week other than filling in some missing information.

* We are going to try to do a family bowling day in a couple of weeks.

* Morgantown is getting a Fusion Steak House in the near future, it will be across from the Baseball Stadium.

* I'm going to have to pre-write a few blogs next week as I will be out of town on business travel at the ESRI Federal Users Conference in Washington DC.

* I Hate Snow

* Have yourselves a great day.

* Hi ho hi ho

President's Day

It's President's Day, meaning it's a Federal Holiday and I'm off today from my job at NETL, but I still have to make a brief appearance for TNG this morning to fulfill a contract commitment. So it's pretty much going to be a brief day/extended weekend for this person.

Funny thing about the picture that I chose for President's Day, it's obviously Mount Rushmore and the bald guy in the middle of this picture is actually me at Mount Rushmore back in the summer of 2000.

Valentines Day went pretty well for Michelle and I, we went out to the restaurant of our first date (Pizza Hut) to have a little bit of Valentine's lunch yesterday. We weren't really doing anything major, so I thought I would do something to make it special and that was it.

I hope everyone has a great day today, those of you off today enjoy your day. For those working today..

Hi ho hi ho

To My Valentine

Today I would like to ask the most wonderful woman in the world to once again be my Valentine. I
m a very lucky man and am married to a beautiful, intelligent and inspiring woman whom I love from the very bottom of my heart.

This will actually be the eight year in a row that I have asked this wonderful woman to be my special valentine. We have been through a lot through the years, we've had our highs and lows, our good times and bad and we are still going strong.

I'm not sure if we have any plans today, the weather from what I am hearing is less than cooperative outside and I'm reading horror stories of traveling around town both last night and yesterday afternoon when we were pretty close once again to gridlock. I have a funny feeling my wonderful valentine has been doing her snow dance since Phil called an early spring..lol

Michelle I love you with all my heart, you are my drive and inspiration on everything I do. The greatest thing that has ever happened in my life was when our destiny's crossed paths once again after about a decade of going in different directions. This time however everything was right and we both needed each other. Thank you for coming into my life and making it complete. I Love You and have to ask, will you be my Valentine?

Saturday Morning Rambling

Here I sit in a semi quiet household, Phin and I are up watching Tosh.O on Comedy Central and we're both collaborating on our thoughts for the day.

Yesterday was an eventful day to say the very least. First of all they pushed the time back to start buying Jimmy Buffett tickets back two hours really screwing with my availability time to be able to purchase them and still get done with my part time job in time to do what I needed to do and get home in time to feed the cats and go out to dinner with Michelle. Michelle stepped up and managed to secure all of our tickets for August. This will be my tenth and Michelle's ninth time of tailgating with fellow Parrot Heads. I was trying to do it from my phone, but it was limiting me in what I needed to do so I had to get Michelle to do it from a PC.

We put Pearl into the garage yesterday morning, it was making a strange sound Thursday, almost as if we were going to have to replace the entire exhaust system. We got lucky and this has been something that the Subaru garage has seen a lot of recently. I guess a lot of ice got up under the exhaust manifold and the axle and sits there and builds up. The mechanic said there has been a lot of this recently for some reason, I'm just thankful that was all it was. We also had a few minor repairs done as well as we had 4 bulbs go out that affected our front parking lights. Thinking it was either a fuse or a short I had no idea, but turns out they all just burned out at the same time.

Last night we went out to Dickies for dinner, Morgantown was becoming absolute gridlock again with the snowfall we were receiving. Strange though that it had nothing to do with any cars being stuck or hung up, just an excess amount of traffic for some reason.

Have yourselves a great Saturday, the WVU Men's Basketball team will take on TCU today at Noon at the WVU Coliseum and the Women travel to Oklahoma State to take on the 20th Ranked OSU Cowboys in a battle of two Top 25 Ranked teams at 6:00.

Have yourselves a great 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 Friday.

It is that time of the year again, Jimmy Buffett tickets go on sale today for his August 23rd Concert at First Niagara Pavilion in Burgettestown PA. Buying tickets is a yearly event for me, but they have pushed back the on sale times a couple of hours and that really kind of screws me up a little bit. 10:00 was fine, noon is really interfering with other things that I have to do today and is going to make it a late starting and long day for me. I may just gamble and wait until this evening as he has not been selling out the past few years like he has in the past.

It's also a Holiday weekend for me so to speak, Monday is President's Day which is a Federal Holiday, but I will have to go and do a little work for TNG Monday morning which is no big deal. I will be leaving this job in the next month or so as I have accepted a part time position with Headway/RTI doing some field work for a Government research project in this area. That job won't start until late March when I will fly down to Raleigh North Carolina for a week of training over Easter.

Not many plans on mine and Michelle's agenda for this weekend, but that can always change pretty quickly. We haven't spent much time together the past couple of weeks due to work schedules and conflicting objectives of things we had to get done for the day. So I think I may take a little time out and spend with my wonderful wife doing something tomorrow.

Have yourselves a great day and a better weekend.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take just a little bit of time out, time to look through my 30,000+ images that I have either taken with a Camera, Scanned or just simply stolen from some place on the internet. Little lost moments of time forever remembered and relived briefly here for all to share. Sometimes this is a pretty easy task, and sometimes it's actually pretty challenging. One thing that it always has been though is a whole lot of fun.

This weeks pic goes back to last year when Chad was living with us. Chad is an avid fan of reptiles and has owned some pretty exotic animals through the years. This particular little fellow wrapped around my lovely wife's neck is his Python that he is growing and trying to break the World Record for longest privately owned snake in captivity. He's a little over 2/3 of the way there to reach that 17' goal.

At last report it is a little over 11 1/2 feet and still growing. No worries though, Chad has raised this thing since it was an egg and is very tame and very child friendly as he has take it to numerous local schools and to work at Petco with him a number of times when they have the bring your pet day in. Everyone seems to love this snake and it really is a very fun snake to hold and play with.

Have yourselves a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well that is two days down, now all we have to do is get up and over this Noon time hump and it will be all downhill working towards another fun filled weekend.

Well I am now scheduled to go to Washington DC for a couple of days later this month. I will be attending the ESRI Federal Users Conference and will be staying in Rosslyn, Virginia which is just across the Potomac River and just a couple of blocks from the Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery, right across from Georgetown. The Metro is right across the street and it's like a 12 minute trip to the Convention Center where I will be attending the conference. Everything is a go, room is booked, car is reserved and I'm all registered to go now. I'm quite excited to say the least. I'll go down on Tuesday and stay until early morning Friday and head out real early to try to avoid rush hour traffic on the DC Beltway.

I did have a third follow up interview yesterday for a part time job working for RTI International. This would just be a part time job to make up for some lost coverage until it can be recovered at my regular job, it's a lot of travel and field work on a large Government Contract for the NSDUH and this study has been going on for about 20 years or so. This job wouldn't start until late March and I would have to go to Raleigh, NC for a week. They'll fly me down and pick up the tab for the week.

I love traveling on other peoples money, I think it is the best way to travel...lol

Not sure if I have ever mentioned this before, but I kind of and really hate that white stuff that they refer to as snow that has been hitting the ground the last couple of days. Phil promised us an early Spring, hopefully this is the last of it.

Have yourselves a fabulous day.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well the Superbowl weekend and the Monday that follows is now in the books, time for a tidbits.

* It has been 19,063 wonderful and eventful days since my birth, I'm thankful for each and every one of them and I feel fortunate each day that I get to add to that total.

* It has been 4,286 days since my Graduation from West Virginia University.

* It was just a mere 2,887 days ago that both mine and Michelle's lives changes forever as we went out on our very first date together.

* It was 2,111 days ago that I had made Michelle wait long enough and I proposed marriage.

* It was 1,648 days ago that I became a very luck man as Michelle and my lives were forever joined together with our wedding.

* I have around 5,774 days or so to go, give or take a few hundred here or there until I retire.

* The Backyard Brawl will be renewed in 2,412 days as WVU vs Pitt takes place once again.

* There are 359 more days to go until Ground Hogs Day, Phil is taking a nice vacation from his one busy day of work a year.

* There are 326 more days until my Goodbye 2016 blog will be posted, reliving the past year according to my blog.

* You still have 320 shopping days to go until Christmas, you still have plenty of time to plan and prepare.

* There are only 296 more days to go until another anniversary of my 21st birthday comes to pass.

* There are only about 242 more days to go until the Springs Festival. I had been guessing previously, this one is much more accurate as the dates are set.

* There are only 215 days to go until we set sail on our next Cruise providing everything falls into place.

* There are 196 days until the Parrot Heads unite in Pittsburgh to see Jimmy Buffett. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10:00

* There are only 179 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Fifth Wedding Anniversary together.

* There are 145 days until the  Third Annual Friends and Family Picnic at Krepps park. I'm trying to make this a yearly thing and this is our third year doing it. Hopefully it continues to grow.

* There are but a mere 40 days to go until Spring 2016.

* I have written 4,361 blogs in the 11 1/2 years that I have written George's Journal.

* Nothing new once again on the Brother search, I think I could probably copy and paste this status every week but I'm not giving up hope.

* The Hall Family Tree has 334 names in it and it is still growing every day. I'm also filling in a lot of missed details as the information comes available to me.

* The Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl Sunday night 24-10 over the Carolina Panthers.

* The WVU Men's Basketball team travels to Kansas this evening to see if we can beat our third straight top 15 team this season. We beat Kansas earlier in the year when they were ranked #1, so we will have our hands full this evening.

* Did you vote for Bob Huggins last week, well keep doing it every day.

* I will be traveling on business in a couple of weeks. I'll be spending a couple of nights in Washington, DC for the ESRI Federal Users Conference. I just got approved a couple of days ago to go and I'm quite excited. I've never been to an ESRI Conference of this level and this will help in the needed portion of my GISP that I do not have completed. The two hardest parts are done, it's going to conferences like these that is the easy part of the certification and I'm doing it on the Governments dime.

* I tried working on Amy's laptop this weekend, I've never admitted defeat but this may be the first time I may have to. I can;t seem to figure this one out although I am sure there is a solution.

* Have I ever mentioned that I Hate Snow?

* Have yourselves a great day today.

* Hi ho hi ho

I Hate Mondays

Yes here we are yet once again, at the most hated day of the week. The day that we start to put our collective noses back on the grindstone for another fun filled week of doing what it is we do for a living. It's time to start another workweek.

Well today is my two job day, I have to make a quick stop for TNG to do a survey and then it's off to my office to start another fun filled week of work, although things are starting to look a little brighter there than it has over the past couple of months.

I would comment about the results of the Super Bowl or which were the most memorable commercials, but as everyone knows I pre-write my blogs the day before Monday- Friday and just do two live blogs during the week.

I think we are going to try to get a group bowling date set up for later in February. Maybe someone should contact Suburban Lanes and get some rates and see if they have any specials. It would be nice if we can get a large group including Michelle's family to have a fun night out. Keglers has the best wings in town and it's all a part of Suburban. If anyone else has any other ideas (other locations) just let me know.

Something else I was thinking about doing was having everyone have fun with one of my hobbies. As everyone knows I am a geocacher and think that maybe we can work as a group to solve a multi cache somewhere around town. It gets people out and looking and gets the brain to working. I think kids would have a whole lot of fun. Just throwing that out there as an activity to do later on for family activities in the future.

Other possible activities could be kite flying, a good kickball game at some field or even work as a group ton do a 5k run or walk around town or even a nice bike ride on the trails. Smaller picnics like we used to do is also a good possibility. Does anyone have any other ideas for group activities? I'm even thinking a family picture day at a location with everyone. We have a great photographer in the family.

Have yourselves a great day today.

Hi ho hi ho

Super Bowl Sunday

Here I sit in a quiet household on a very special Sunday Morning. I'm the first one to awaken from that battle with that dreaded Sandman last night and I'm up watching something on HBO and collecting my thoughts for the day.

Well Football fans today is the day, the day when the Vince Lombardi Trophy is handed out and we officially have and end to football season for the year. It's Super Bowl Sunday.

This years game features the Carolina Panthers taking on Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in what could be the last game of Peyton's future Hall of Fame career. Carolina is a 5 point favorite as of the time of this post, but the Denver Broncos only seem to win Super Bowl when Hall of Fame QB's are about to retire and are past their prime like this year. If you are asking me, I think Carolina is just a little too good this year and will win Super Bowl 50.

Our yesterday didn't turn out as planned, Michelle ended up taking Chad to the Apple Store in Pittsburgh and I stayed home trying to work on my niece Amy's computer which I am having very little to no success with as it does not want to seem to want to boot properly. A live pen drive nor re-installing software is working, I've never seen anything like this. It should boot with the pen drive to linux even when I changed the boot sequence, but seems to look at it initially and go back into that infinite loop that prevents it from booting.

On the local Sports scene, WVU Men's beat Baylor last night here in Morgantown 80-69 giving the Mountaineers sole possession of first place in the Big XII heading into a big match up Tuesday night against Kansas at Kansas.

Have yourselves a great day and enjoy the game and the Commercials.

Saturday

Well here I sit in a quiet household, everyone is asleep including the infamous Fin who never seems to sleep. I'm up early watching something with Morgan Freeman on HBO and collecting my thoughts for the day.

Well it looks like there is going to be a little road trip on our agenda for today. Chad's touch sensor on his iPhone has went bad and thankfully it is still under warranty for another month. What's that mean? Road trip to the Apple store at South Hills village is on our agenda for the day.

Unfortunately we do not have an Apple store here in Morgantown, but there is one just South of Pittsburgh and is accessible. Our appointment is for 12:10 this afternoon.

WVU Women's Basketball is playing Kansas State at 1:00 this afternoon. If you would like to go, just print off a free ticket and your price of admission is covered, The WVU Men's Basketball team is hosting Baylor this evening in a battle of two Top 15 teams at 8:00. If you don't have a ticket for this game you are out of luck unless you can find one from a third party as this one is sold out for this evening.

Have yourselves a great day, get out and enjoy yourselves and cheer on the Mountaineers.

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 Friday.

It is Friday which means I'll be working my part time job for TNG today. I'll be on my own for the first time, but I think I have a pretty good handle on everything. Now if others can deliver what I need in a timely manner, it should go pretty smooth otherwise it's going to run a little long today as I'm at the mercy of an inexperienced drivers time.

Mine and Michelle's plans for the weekend, probably not too much as it's just that time of the year, but you never know what we will end up doing. The weather looks like it is going to be pretty decent, so we might get out and about we'll have to wait and see what we end up doing.

There will be a big basketball game here Saturday night as the Mountaineers take on Baylor at the WVU Coliseum.The game is sold out so you might want to avoid the area in the late afternoon and early evening if you can, unless of course you are going to the game...lol

Have yourselves a great Friday, we're almost there.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through all of the tens of thousands of pictures that I either have captured with a lens, scanned or just stolen from some place on the internet. Little lost moments in time that I like to post up and briefly relive here. Sometimes this is very easy, and there are times that you struggle, but one thing it has and always will be is a whole lot of fun.

This weeks pic goes back quite a few years, back to a time even prior to my own birth. Back to a time when Van Voorhis had it's own little school and it's own little basketball team. I can remember the building being there years and years ago, a little single room school house that taught the community grade school children.

This pic you see is of my own Father George Hall Sr in his glory days of playing basketball for Van Voorhis. I have no concept of what year this image was taken nor at what location this picture was taken since Van Voorhis was a very small school with no gym. His shirt is a little hard to make out, but if it were clearer I'm sure that it would reveal a little more information for us.

Have yourselves a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

National Letter of Intent Day

Today is a very big day in the world of College Football. No there are no games scheduled today or any practices anywhere. Players aren't practicing because it is the off season, but today is a very big day.

It's National Letter of Intent Day, that is the day when all the college recruiting for the last year becomes legally binding by both athlete and school. This is when players sign their name on the dotted line and officially become a member of the team that they will be playing for this fall.

WVU has a nice class set up so far, there are still a couple of players we are waiting to hear from that we want to sign, and one is a pretty big recruit. Hopefully all works out for the best for us this morning, I have a pretty good feeling about it all.

Recruiting is something I have followed for years. Both Basketball and Football recruiting, in today's age we have websites that we can follow up on. My magazine of choice in the 1970's was Street and Smiths, as they were probably the most in depth magazine at that time on recruiting. I used to get the Football and Basketball editions every year.

The world of college football will be concentrating very heavily today on where some High School Football players are going to be committing themselves to the next 4-5 years. I love this time of the year.

Have a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Thank You Phil

I lost the feed from Groundhog.org on my phone, my guess is too many people were wanting to watch the great Groundhog and weather forecaster to let us know what our weather is going to be like for the next six weeks.

Phil came out of his hole and DID NOT see any shadow which means Spring is right around the corner!!!!!!

I thought I may have sent the Vodka that was meant for Phil to his Canadian Counterpart, Woodchuck Willow, who just died this past week. Maybe Phil knew we were serious about no more snow and sent the vodka to Willow, if that be the case I plead the Fifth...lol

With the exception of one major storm, it has been a pretty mild winter and if we can escape with just one or two storms I'll be quite happy.

Thank You Phil, now enjoy your day of praise and get ready to take the next year off, you have earned it!

Ground Hogs Day

Jedi Phil

Well today is Phil's special Day, Punxsutawney Phil, the Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators will come out of his hole on Gobblers Knob sometime around 7:20 to 7:30 to let us all know in his very special language of Groundhogese what we can expect for weather during the next six weeks.

I have blogged about Phil and his prediction for the last ten years, 7 of which the rat has seen his shadow and I have allowed him to live another year and 3 he got the message and did not see his shadow. He saw it in 2015, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2006. He did NOT see see it in 2013, 2011 and 2007.

Oh Phil, greatest groundhog that there is, I hope you enjoyed the case of Vodka that we sent to you for last night. Hopefully you are so damn drunk you're not going to see that shadow of yours and give us an early Spring like I would so love to have.

For all of you interested, you can follow this mornings festivities at Groundhog.org.

Come on Phil, I'm counting on you.

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well that day of the week that we all dislike so much, and I'm looking at you Monday, is now behind us. We can start concentrating on a Tuesday and hoping that furry rodent doesn't see his shadow today. Can't think of a better reason to do a tidbits.

* I have managed to live 19,056 days so far on this earth. At one time it seemed like it was everyone I had wrestled with was dying. Now it seems like everyone I graduated High School with seems to be taking over that spot. Life is too short, enjoy it.

* It has been 4,279 days since I Graduated from West Virginia University, the second happiest day in my life next to my wedding.

* Speaking of my wedding, it has been 2,880 days since Michelle and I went out on our very first date.

* It was 2,104 days ago that I had tormented her too long and finally proposed marriage to this wonderful woman.

* 1,641 days ago in front of our closest family and friends we had our wedding at the Marilla Center.

* I have around 5,781 or so days to go until I finally retire, give or take a few hundred here or there of course.

* There are only but a mere 2,419 days until the WVU vs Pitt Football rivalry is renewed and we can go back to whipping some Panther butt.

* I have 333 more days of content to write before my Goodbye 2016 is published.

* There are 327 shopping days left until Christmas, you have plenty of time to go until then.

* There are 303 more days to go until the next anniversary of my 21st Birthday.

* 242 more days to go until we once again attempt to go to the Springs Festival, we missed last years due to the weather.

* Keeping my fingers crossed that we will be able to do our 2016 Cruise in 222 more days.

* There are only 186 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Fifth Wedding Anniversary together.

* There are but a mere 152 more days to go until the Third Annual Friends and Family Picnic this summer at Krepps Park.

* There are only 47 more days to go until Springtime!!!

* Today is Groundhogs Day. My old buddy Phil's very special day that he has to himself. Step up center stage Phil.

* I have written 4,352 Blogs in the 11 1/2 years that I have been writing George's Journal.

* There has been some work done on the Hall Family Tree this past week, the database currently holds 329 people in it and it is growing and getting more and more detailed all the time.

* Nothing new once again in the dead end that is a Brother Search.

* Not sure if this has ever been mentioned before on any of my blogs, I really dislike and by dislike I mean I Hate Snow.

*  Pete Rose spoke in Morgantown over the weekend. Charlie Hustle as he is known is one of the greatest players to ever play the game, he is also the games all-time hits leader.

* Help Bob Huggins win some money for Morgantown, vote daily.

* Have yourselves a great day today, and remember if Phil sees his shadow we are having a Groundhog Roast in Punxsutawney.

* You know a couple of things that Morgantown is missing that we used to have? A miniature gold course and a go kart track.

* Have you done anything lately worth remembering? Why not?

*  Hi ho hi ho

Monday Dreaded Monday

All good things must come to an end, and that includes those relaxing and fun filled things referred to as weekends. Now it's time to stick our noses back on the grindstone for another fun filled week of doing what it is we do for a living. 

For me it's off to the part time job before I head to my career job. I just have to stop in and check on things and probably fill out a survey before I head over to my office to start my week at NETL. 

Looking at my week ahead, tomorrow is Phil's day and I also have a Doctor's appointment after the prognosticator of prognosticators tells us what our weather is going to be like for the next six weeks. Hopefully Phil does us a favor this year. 

We did get both ours and Chad's taxes done and filed for 2015. Once again we will owe the state despite Michelle taking extra money out every pay to account for the state, we still owe about $150 or so dollars to the state of West Virginia. I have used the H&R Block Software for years so we continued to use it once again this year as I have never had a single complaint or gripe about it. 

Have yourselves a great day and Happy February. 

Hi ho hi ho