Tuesdays Tidbits

* Hmm, not really a whole, lot to say, so I guess it's time for a tidbits.

* Just a little reminder to everyone, but this Thursday Survivor starts again.

* This past weekend was a good football weekend for me.

1. Morgantown High School won their football game
   
2. West Virginia University won their football game
3. The Pittsburgh Steelers demolished the Tennesee Titans.
   

* I'm thinking about working this Saturday. Nothing definate, just considering going in.

* I started to do an audio BLOG this morning while I was waiting for the guy who rides with me to Frostburg, but he showed up before I thought about what I wanted to say.

* I haven't talked to Terri in a few weeks, I need to give her a ring sometime this week.

* I'm in a couple Fantasy Football leagues this year. My money leage with my buddies and a work league for fun. I won in both leagues this weekend. It really was a good fotball weekend for me.

* 4 or 5 months ago someone sent me a link on how to sign up for a free year of Maxim magazine so I did. Never thought it would ever amount to anything, but I was wrong. I received my first edition in the mail today. Maxim is my favorite magazine and I buy it on the newsstands anyways. Nice to get a year free.

* I see that the gas prices are continueing to drop. Not as far as I would like to see but they are getting there. I'm hoping that they will drop to FREE.

* I went and visited Jean yesterday, she had a minor printer problem I went and looked at for her. Nothing major, just needed to unload the Que.

* Have a good day

A family reunion of sorts

Today was a retirement picnic for Bill Trevillian. He had been a member of the Morgantown Fire Department for 28 years and has finally decided to hang up his firefighting boots. I hadn't seen that part of the family for a few years, so I decided to go and try to see everyone and catch up on what has been happening. When I first got there I was greated by my Cousin Sharon. She was a little busy manning the BBQ area. The Burgers were cooked to absolute perfection needless to say. A little later I my Uncle Ralph showed up and I got a chance to talk to him for a little bit. He's been retired for thirteen years now and manages to keep himself busy doing a little handy man work around town. Just enough to keep him active and give him a chance to get out of the house a few hours a week. He looks just as healthy today as he did when I was growing up as a kid.


The biggest surprise came when I got to see Lynne for the first time in probably twenty years. We mananged to work on the same hill together for four years and never did get around to having lunch or anything before I left the NRAC.

Let's see if I can summarize this.

* Sharon and Bill Sharon retired a few years ago after working for Jim Prete and Bill just retired from the Fire Department.

* Ralph and Kathy Are still happily married and have a wonderful young daughter named Katie.

* Lynne and Jimmy. Jimmy is still working at Mylan and Lynne is at the University and has been there for sixteen years now. They have twin boys who are going to be Sr's this year.

I did manage to talk to Sharon a little about maybe getting some old family pictures scanned. I don't know what anyone has, but I would like to get what ever I can scanned for the next generation to be able to see the years that have passed.


It was a great day and I'm very happy I had the chance to see everyone.

Bottled Water

This is a clip from Penn and Teller's Showtime show Bullshit.

Bottled Water

I have always thought this was funny, now I have found the file on the net.

The 2005 Prime Thyme Softball Team

What a great group of guys to have been associated with. Let's not forget we also had the best and most dedicated fans at BOPARC. It will be a year I will never forget. Let's do it again!

Audio Post Test

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OK, minus the title it posts itself to your BLOG which is rather neat. It's free and simple, all you have to do is Sign Up

End of a four day weekend.

Wow, talk about a nice and relaxing weekend and this was it. I really didn't go anywhere or do anything other than stay home and play on the internet and watch a few DVD's. Not including going out this morning and paying my property taxes do I could get my tags renewed on my car before October 1.

It's been a pretty slow weekend, nothing exciting happened other than the WVU game on Sunday and Morgantown High running their record to 2-0 on the season by beating Elkins Friday Night.

I see by my Sister Kim's BLOG that she is doing much better. She called me Sunday morning and I was attempting to talk to her and put groceries away simultaneously, I managed to do both at the same time.

I did make a slight change to BLOGGER over the weekend, I'm seeing a growing trend in spammers in the comments to BLOG's. I noticed my Nephew's Wife Kamey started getting spam and then I got one that I deleted and now I'm starting to see it pop up more and more. So, me not wanting to cooperate with the spammers made it where when you want to leave a comment on my BLOG you have to type out a word before it submits. It's a nice little distraction for the evil spammers.

* I did hear some insider information on my favorite show Survivor Guatemala, the 11th round of survivor starts on September 15th (Next Thursday) and I have already learned that there is a WVU connection for the first time to the show. Margaret Bobonich is a former WVU student of Nursing. She has to be my early sentimental favorite as for now. The most hated survivor has to be Gary Hogeboom. He played Quarterback in the NFL for ten years, six for the Dallas Cowboys. I hope he gets voted off first.

The insider information that I have heard is that two former survivors will join the cast of Survivor Guatemala. CBS is trying to keep it a surprise as to who the two former survivors are that will be playing this round but I found out already. They are Bobby Jon Drinkard and one of last rounds sentimental favorites Stephenie LaGrossa of the pathetic Ulong tribe. the only tribe that NEVER won a challenge in the history of survivor.

I'm anticipating the start of a new round.

WVU gets first win of season.

The West Virginia Mountaineer Football team started out their 2005 campaign against co-defending Big East Champions Syracuse and mananged to walk away with a 15-7 win despite turning the ball over five times.

The Offense looked a little rusty, but show some serious promise for the future. We some big time game experiance for two of our young Quarterbacks and our Heralded True Freshman running back.

The defense played a solid game all the way through.

We are now 1-0 and 1-0 in the Big East. This could very well have been our toughest in conference road game for 2005.

Some potentially very sad news

I heard some potentially very sad news yesterday. Tucker, my sister's dog of some 17 years has disappeared. I guess he was let out Thursday Night and he would scratch to get back in, but never did.

Tucker has been the family pet for a long period of time, ever since Terri first got him in the 1980's. We weren't sure of Tucker's age, but I'm thinking at least 18 Human years (That's 126 in dog years). I had a bond with Tucker and I think everyone in this family did. He was very excited to see anyone, and he was also quick to defend his family. I place his first appearance somewhere after the time of Amy's birth and before Randy's.

His health has faded over the past year or so, he had lost his sight, couldn't hear and was eaten up with arthritis and had trouble getting around. He was scratching at walls thinking he was scratching to go outside.

It's potentially a very sad end to an animal who will be so embedded into our memories forever.


RIP old friend

Started cleaning up my BLOG

There were way too many BLOG's on my sidebar of people who BLOG's who were not posting or had just seemed to had given up on the BLOG's. I have deleted my brother Gary's Sup Nute Blog since it had been a year since he had said anything at all on it past his test message.

A guy I used to work at the NRAC with (Kumanan), also had a BLOG that I had linked, but he had only had two posts withing the past six months.

I'm leaving Daniels up for now considering the circumstances and Mom's up for now also. However people want soemthing new to read every once in a while. Youhave to continue to post and add new and refreshing ideas, that will hopefully keep your readers interest up. After months of seeing the exact same thing with nothing new and refreshing to read, people stop visiting.

So, in an effort to maybe put some intersting reading up, I've added the City Of Legends BLOG to my sidebar. This is William Devault, Mark's brother, and he seems to keep a very active and interesting BLOG. He is listed in the list of Famous West Virginians and is a Published Poet, I'm hoping that this will give soem people some interesting BLOG's to read that are linked from mine.

I'm also may be adding Thornton Melon BLOG. This is a guy I post with at Blue and Gold News, some of his content may be questionable, but it is always VERY active. Maybe I'll address BLOG's like this with another sidebar menu.

The week in review

The highlight of the week was the drafting of the 2005 Fantasy Football draft Tuesday night at the Jerry West Lounge of the WVU Coliseum. I'm looking foreword to finishing this season in the top 10 in my money league, good thing there are only ten teams in the league. These are some very knowledgeable football fans who also by chance I play softball with. I always tend to really get my butt kicked against these guys. This year however I think I'm just going to throw a monkey wrench into the whole situation and win the league.

We owe a debt of Gratitude to Michael Toth and Cool Ride for supplying two free oil changes to a couple random owners.


Speaking of Cool Ride, Michael had his grand opening last Saturday. Jean and I went over to see how things are going, Mike and Mick were also having a BBQ to celebrate the opening of Cool Ride. Cool Ride is located at 1448 Van Voorhis Rd and the phone number is (304_598-COOL (2665). They have done an amazing amount of work on the old garage in remodeling it and getting it ready to open for business. Anyone needing an oil change, they are only $15.99. If you get a chance, stop in at Cool Ride and see what they have done with the place. They do everything from detailing to Super-charging a car. He has a Full detailing including the engine for $79.99.


This is the start of a holiday weekend plus one for me. Yeah you heard it, I'm taking Tuesday off as well to stretch the three day to a four day weekend. I can't say that it's not a long overdue break. I think the last time I had a four day weekend was last Christmas. I almost forgot what it was like to have a job with benefits.


Val has started working at Dairy Mart on Rt. 7. I guess she was worried about Neighbor Care shutting down that she decided to go find another job. Jean says she seems to like working there.


I need to finish Pam's resume this weekend. She's been calling a couple times this week and I have been sleeping. I'll get it wrapped up this weekend so she can use it.


Brittany is now home from Linsley. She stayed up there last weekend, and returned home this weekend. I'll have to call her or talk to her to see how she likes her new school. She seemed excited about it before she went.

How about Gas Prices? Sheesh are they getting ridiculous. I have found Gas Buddy to be very up to date and informational to me in this time of crisis.

Kim has been released.

An update on my sister Kim, she was released from the hospital today to go home. She is doing much better and her white blood count has went down significantly. It raised up later in the week and the Doctors were watching the long term trend of what it was doing. They think the count going up was stress related.

She called me when she got home and said she is making her rounds of calls. I know her and Robert are exhausted and the two of them are wanting to sleep until Monday.

It's been a stressful two weeks for her, but she's glad to be home. Brittany has went to school at Linsley this week and remains there this weekend for some school activities. She'll be returning home next weekend for the first time to visit.

The Season is Over

The season is finally over and what a season it was. For me it started out with a decision early this spring to go back and play softball with a bunch of friends and just simply go have fun. For years I was putting teams on the field with full intention of winning a championship. The Championship never came. I had a half of a dozen years over the last 20 or so years where we were the regular season champions, only to tank it in the playoffs.

This year I just wanted to go back and have fun, and oh what fun we had. The regular season saw a 16-3 record and winning a lot of close games. We finished in second place, which was nice. Like I said I had a half dozen or so regular season Championships, although BOPARC just started awarding trophies for the regular season either this year or last year. So, it was nice to be awarded the second place regular season trophy.

The excitement however would remind you of the 2005 mountaineer Basketball team by the time playoffs came around. At the end of the regular season the team had actually hit a little bit of a slump, and we fell behind 0-15 in our last regular season game. We did however manage to fight back and win that game.

A little background, I have played softball at BOPARC 20 some odd years in both summer and fall leagues. The old Sterling Faucet team I played on made it to the Championships one year, but lost both games. It was the last time I had ever made it to the Championship round, despite playing on some very good teams with some pretty remarkable talent through the years.

This year, I really thought that it would be another typical year and we would go two and out and be done in the playoffs. We won our first game and lost our second game Monday night to a team of Morgantown City Police Officers, this dropped us over to the losers bracket. One more loss and we would be done. Last night we had a 6:00 game that we managed to come back from 5 runs down in the bottom off the last inning to win and move to the next round, which was late last night. At the 9:30 game last night we rallied in the bottom of the last inning to push the game into extra innings, and managed to win it in the bottom of the 8th inning to move to the consolation round finals.

tonight we had an 8:30 game against a team that just hammered us during the regular season and were a very tough team to beat. We managed to return the favor and blow them out and advanced to the Championship round against the same team that put us in the losers bracket. This was my second time in all these years of making the finals, and this was the first time I made the finals in the ultra competitive summer league (a lot more teams play summer ball).

We lost a 4 run game giving Morgantown Honda the Championship, it was a very hard fought game and one that was great to have played in.

We managed to take not one, but two runner up trophies to our sponsor tonight. One for the regular season, and one for the post season.

It was a great year with a great group of guys. Our final record including playoffs was 20-5 and second place finishes in both the regular and post season.

All of this excitement came from me deciding to change teams and just go back and have fun this season. This was a great group of guys to be associated with, they never seem to quit or give up. No deficit was too big to rally to comeback to win. Hats off to both Chris and Paul for putting this team together and assembling a group of guys with some nice chemistry to play softball together. We may not have been the most intimidating team to look at, but we brought it to the field and played the game. We also managed to get our sponsor a couple nice pieces of hardware in the process.

For any of you who listen to WVAQ in the mornings in North Central West Virginia, we were the team that was being talked about in the Lower League Softball Reports. Helps to have a couple players on the air, maybe that's why there was a nice turnout for the championship tonight.

This has to be my fondest year playing a game that I have played over 20 years and love to play. Thanks to all my team mates, coaches, scorekeepers, and dedicated fans for making this a very special year to remember.

Weekend Wrapup

* Looks like I need to do another extended tidbits like last week to be able to touch on everything I need to address.

* First off, my softball team has started the playoffs and we split our first two games in the double elimination style tournament. We played well the first game and played the team that nay just win this in the second game.

* I went in to work for a few hours Saturday, I needed to help complete the pilot area for a project I had been working on.

Saturday afternoon saw us celebrate a few birthdays. Pam and George had a little party for Mokie for his 17th birthday, but they also had a couple little surprises lined up. First of all, yesterday was also Jean's birthday and she was unsuspecting of everything as Pam and George tricked her into thinking we were celebrating Moke's birthday. She was pleasantly surprised and thought everyone had forgotten.


The second surprise came for Moke's best friend Michael. Pam said they had to move the party up a day so that Michael could make it. It was nice that we celebrated Moke's birthday and surprised Jean with a surprise birthday, but George had grown attached to Moke's best friend and he managed to do a double whammy surprise and have another cake with Michael's name on it. Needless to say I think that everyone was pleasantly surprised.




Sunday starts out as a normal day for me with my trip to Super Wal-Mart and doing laundry. I called Kim this afternoon and told me that my Uncle Robert and his wife Michelle were at the hospital and to come and visit. Well, never let it be said that I would ever miss a photo opportunity, so I grabbed my camera and went up for a visit. I found out that Robert is currently working at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. It has been a few years since I have seen Robert, I think the last time I was able to see him was when Bonita came into Morgantown about about 10 years ago. It was nice to see him and Michelle again, he showed me a few pictures of his kids and his grandchildren that he takes great pride in.

* OK, I know everyone is wanting an update on Kim. Actually she appeared to be in very good spirits today. I had said previously that she was on a road to recovery and it seemed like things kept getting better, then drastically worse all of a sudden. She was filling up with fluids and had no appetite. When I thought she was on the road to recovery she would have a relapse and things would once again turn south.

I'm not a Doctor, and I can say this now, but I was worried. I didn't know what to expect and her health was slipping. I had seen similar incidences with my Father and two Aunts that had started doing an exceptional amount of abdominal swelling prior to taking a turn for the worst. Kim was swelling and I was getting a little scared.

The Doctor who initially did her surgery walked in today and one of the first things he asked her was "Do you have any idea how sick you were?" I think he was generally concerned, her body wasn't passing fluid and it was going into her tissues. I will let her describe what she has been through, but I will say one last time now that things really are getting better that she's on the road to recovery.

She'll probably be in the hospital another week to allow her body to heal itself, which it is now doing. It was something about the liver and proteins and did something that it was not supposed to do, but I'll let her explain it to you when she gets a chance.

She seemed to be in really good spirits again today, which is always a good sign.



On a positive note, my niece Brittany is preparing to get ready to go to Linsley this Tuesday. She has made the honor roll I think three or four straight semesters and is really looking foreword to the challenge. I have the utmost confidence in her. I know Kim's health problems could not have came at a worst time, but Brittany has been a real trooper.






Have a good week.

Quick Update on Kim

I talked to her yesterday morning and she said that Mon General was going to move her Intensive care and then they were transferring her to one of three hospitals. Ruby, Cleveland Clinic, or one in Pittsburgh that slips my mind at the moment.

She is currently at Ruby Memorial (again) and toughing this whole situation out. I don't know what the next step is, I just know she wants her life back to normal.

Another Surgery

Kim was taken in for another surgery yesterday, but this time they went to Mon general rather than Ruby. They went in and repositioned the Stent and drained over two liters of toxic urine around her abdominal area. There are tubes currently draining coming out of the kidneys or the bladder. Thye want to see how the stent is doing now and if it any more effective.

On a good note, she had had no appetite, but had one when she came out of surgery last night and is being allowed to eat anything she wants. I think she wanted a Big Mac of all things last night.

She's not quite out of the woods yet, because there will be another surgery to either go in and remove the stent in a few months, or to go in and add another tube that comes out of her back, or to just cut her open and go in and repair the damage.

She's been through a lot and she was a little scared before yesterday, but I think she is in good hands now. She was in very good spirits last night when I left the hospital.

I was present when the doctor talked to Robert and he said he could not see her getting out of the hospital any earlier than this weekend. So, she is going to staying at Mon General for a few days.

Ironically her nurse worked with Jean for a few years at Mon General, although her name slips me right now.

I would say she is now on the road to recovery.

Kim has been readmitted to the Hospital

I guess I was wrong on yesterdays BLOG. I received a Phone call at 6:00 this morning. When I looked down at the number it was coming from Kim's Cell Phone. She was re-admitted into the hospital last night again due to complications from her surgery.

I know she is getting frustrated and just wants to get everything back to normal. She did a change of pace this time and went to Mon General rather than Ruby Memorial and is in room 641.

She felt like the Doctors at Ruby were giving her the run around more than helping her get better. She was admitted last night at 8:00 and did not sleep at all last night.

During her surgery, her Kidney was ruptured and it has caused all kinds of unwanted troubles. It has been releasing toxic urine into her system and it has caused her a whole lot of discomfort and pain. She has been a real trooper through this whole procedure, but I think it is wearing on her pretty heavily.

She needs words of encouragement, because truth be known she is a little scared by the whole situation. She has her cell Phone with her if anyone would like to call her and give her a word of encouragement. The number is 685-5712.

Let's call this a weekend wrapup.

OK, I have a few things to say, but they are a little too much for a tidbits, so I'll just address everything.


Friday Night, we played our final regular season softball game of the season. It should have been a game we won quite easily, but it turned out to be one heck of a game. After the second inning, we were getting totally hammered 15-0 by a team that we shouldn't be losing to.

We managed to tie it up 16-16 in the bottom of the 7th inning to push the game into extra innings. After a scoreless 8th thanks to a couple great defensive plays, Troy Brotherton stepped it up in the 9th inning and played with pure heart and scored a run, ending the game and securing our comeback with a great victory.

We finished the season with a 16 wins and 3 losses. The playoffs will start this week, so keep your fingers crossed.

After the game we went to Prime Thyme and sat out on the deck for an aftergame dinner. We have done this a half dozen or so times this summer, and I think this is what I'll miss the most this fall. Friday night games are so much fun.


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My niece Val and her husband Bobby celebrated their second wedding anniversary this weekend. I'm thinking the actual date is Tuesday the 16th, but they had a party this weekend. If you get a chance to talk to Val, wish her and Bobby a Happy 2nd Anniversary.

I did give her a slight hand with a minor computer problem she was having this weekend, so I managed to catch up a little bit with her about a few incidents that had recent events that have taken place.


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Heard a little bit of scary news about my niece Amy this weekend. I guess a guy that Amy was dating a month or so ago committed an unthinkable act last week. I guess he was arrested for killing his girlfriend at 1:30 in the morning Wed, the part that is disturbing is that he called Amy 33 minutes after she was killed. I'm very thankful that wasn't my niece who was killed. I found it kind of disturbing that he called her right after he shot the girl. I guess he got her answering machine and not her, talk about a message that will make you think. He's in Jail accused of First Degree Murder.


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I went to work yesterday and took my camera with me. Frostburg State has some pictures. This is basically an image of what I have to look at when I walk out the front doors of my office. Kind of ironic how many pictures of me in my youth are centered around the sport of Baseball. I still play softball, and now I have an office where I have to look at things like this. LOL.

I did catch part of one game this spring.

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Talked to Kim a little yesterday, she is feeling a little better and is starting to make some progress. Robert was actually doing some canning when I talked to her. While we were talking she said there was like seven deer in her backyard. I kept listening for a boom and never heard it.

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Talk about culture shock, anyone notice gas prices lately? Last week it was $2.25 a gallon, today it is $2.55 a gallon. Since I started at VARGIS in April, gas prices have went up $0.75 a gallon. Arrgghh

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Hope you had a good weekend.

Google has just raised the bar again

Google, the best search engine on the net has branched out into other things beyond the simple internet searches.

For you geography buffs first there was mapping software like Mapquest that would allow the user to view maps of basically anywhere and get directions anywhere.

Then came Google Maps, but it was in the Beta and still being tested. It was pretty remarkable and for someone who works in the field of GIS, I was impressed with their speed of being able to display some of these maps. I have worked with Gigabyte files before, and know that some of the DOQ's (Digital Orthographic Quads) can be large enough that it's almost impossible to display them over the internet.

I've seen some other pretty amazing software out there like Worldwind from NASA. However if you don't have a pretty good video card you and it was pretty complex for the average user to use.

Now, Google has one again raised the bar with Google Earth. I just saw it this morning and was amazed. I hear that the US Military is trying to have the program taken off the net because it is somehow supplying information on the location of some of our military bases in Iraq. However, this is pretty userfriendly and I think everyone will be very impressed with it. Personally I think the military is full of it because the temporal issues of some of the local information shows that these pictures were taken pre-2000. However, it is probably 1995 Aerial Photos.

However, everything is pretty impressive and user friendly. It's definitely one to download and have on your computer. It's about 10 MB in size as opposed to Worldwinds roughly 180 MB size.

This is a definate must have piece of software for your computer. It also give people a little better understanding of what GIS is.




NASA Worldwind Screen shot





Google Earth Screen shot







The one that will really blow everyone's mind away if I pulled up my place, and did an olique view of Morgantown from my place in 3d. This image you can click on and see the full size effect. This is some pretty amazing software.

A two years silence has been broken and my job is partially done. My sister Kim and my Mother have had a period of silence for the last two years. Unfortunately it took Kim getting sick until it finally happened where the silence was broken, but it was progressing to the point slowly anyways. I guess Mom and Kim had been exchanging e-mails over the last month and there was finally a phone conversation between the two.

Ok, that' the second part done (First was me breaking the ice) and now we just have to get my two sisters speaking. I had tried to arrange a breakfast between the three of us, but Terri has been very busy trying to keep the Country Inn going that we really haven't had the best of opportunites to do this.



There has been a lot of water under the bridge and there have been silence, hurt feelings and times of emptiness that everyone has experianced. Even this past Christmas everyone was together except for my sister Kim and her family. Something was missing, because this was the one time of the year when everyone wopuld put their differences to the side and be a family.

This Christmas will be my last Christmas living in Morgantown, West Virginia. I'll be moving early next year to Frostburg. It's not that far, but I won't be in Morgantown on a day to day basis.

Hopefully by this Christmas, everything can be ironed out and we can do one more of these pictures, it is long overdue.

A new feature

I was talking to Kim earlier this week and she was telling me about a new BLOGGER feature where they host your images that you post on your BLOG. I figured WTF, I really have nothing else to talk about today so I'll give this a try and see how well it works.

The Picture is by Vermeer and is called The Geographer. Let's see how well this feature either did or did not work. I'm hoping it works because if it doesn't I'm going to have to come up with some BS story to fill the space I screwed up by testing this.

OK, I have now tested this and see it is also a hyperlink to the original picture. I think I'm going to like this feature. Chalk one up for Kim!!

Tidbits

* OK, I'm at a little bit of a writers block, so I guess I can do a tidbits to keep the BLOG active.

* Gary called me this week and was looking for a good architectural software to use, so I gave him a copy of AutoCAD 2004. After conferring with a few people with a better background in CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) than I have, what I think Gary needs is a copy of SOFTCAD, it is a little more user friendly and maybe a designed a little more specific to his needs. I'll keep looking until I find something that is perfect for him and his needs.

* Talked to Kim a little this morning. She's still experiancing a little pain and discomfort and really hasn't been able to sleep like she wants. Other than that she is slowly recovering. It's been a slower recovery process than she initially anticipated and may have to forego running the Pittsburgh Marathon in 2005. I know she's a little disappointed, but there is always 2006.

* Talked with Mom a little bit, I think she is going to call Kim this week. They have been making steps at re-opening the lines of communication.

* Hopefully my last Christmas in West Virginia will include the entire family this year.

* I think Rich is on vacation again. He and Jean talked about finding a local farmers market so she can get some vegetables to can for this fall.

* One thing I want when I move to Frostburg is the ability to have a garden. Kim has one, Gary has one and I miss having them. It doesn't have to be a big one, just something to keep me occupied during the summers since my softball future looks limited.

* Speaking of softball, we are currently 15-3 with one game remaining in the regular season. Me no longer working in a steel mill and now sitting behind a computer all day has taken a toll on my skill level. I can't hit it as far as I once did and my arm doesn't have the zing anymore, but my love of the game is still there. Worse coems to worse, if these guys still play on Friday Nights next summer I'll come down and either play or watch them. It's a great group of guys and I have enjoyed playing with them this season.

* I just noticed Gary's new MSN name. It's Death Nipple. How in the heck do you get a name like death nipple. Sounds like a horror flick for newborns. I'm sure it's all tied to an internet game we both play called Utopia

* Football season is getting a little closer now that we are in the month of August. My three favorite teams are Morgantown High (High School), WVU (College) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (Pro). I'm already a part of three Fantasy Football Leagues. First is the Money league I play in with a few guys from my softball team that I have played with for a few years. The next two are shitz and giggles leagues with a league with people from work and one with people from Blue and Gold News.

* I would like to run a little test just to see how many people are actually reading the BLOG. If you are reading this, send a get well soon e-mail to my sister Kim at Kim@the-sanjulians.com. She would love to hear a few encouraging words from everyone including strangers. I guess when it makes the recovery time a little easier to deal with.

* Have a good day

Going Home

Kim called me this morning and told me they are releasing her from the Hospital this morning. I guess her and Robert have had little to no sleep in the past 48 hours and are going home to get some rest.

Latest on Kim

I've been holding off BLOGing about Kim so that she could write about her experiences herself. However due to a few complications and setbacks, she hasn't been up to updating anything. I'll start from after the surgery.

She went home and was feeling well after her initial surgery. However about six days after the surgery she started with some serious abdominal pains and went back to the hospital last Monday.

They ran a few tests and noticed that there was a fluid built up around her abdomen and it needed to be dried up.

They ran Cat scan and noticed that there was a slight puncture in her Kidney, so they took her in last week and did another surgery, installing a stint to try to stop the fluid leakage. She would need to go back in three months to have the stint removed.

However it was still leaking and she remains hospitalized while they attempt to find a solution to the problem. It could lead to an additional surgery to repair, they are monitoring her right now to try to stabilize things.

She as always is in good spirits and her and Robert have made sure they have been very well informed on anything and everything that is going on with her situation. They have their laptop there and a wireless hookup, so she can and does see the internet.

I was hoping she was going to BLOG her situation, but just hasn't done so yet. I'm sure she'll have a lot to tell everyone when she does.

She does have an internet connection, so I'm sure that she would love to hear from any well wishers.

You can send her a get well message by either replying to this BLOG or e-mailing her at Kim@the-sanjulians.com

Get well quick.

OK, the secret is out.

I've tried to hide this as long as I could, but I have been disappearing recently to embark on another career. I've had a life long dream of going to Hollywood and becoming a Movie Star.

I have not been travelign to Frostburg, Maryland every day, that was simply a front to hide what I was really doing. I have been secretly had a Co-Starring role in a Hollywood movie.

I have been going to the Morgantown Municipal Airport and hopping on a Private jet every day and flying to Southern California. My Cell Phone with Nationwide Long Distance has given me the ability to pull off this bluff to my friends and family. I would call and my local number would show up, when in reality I was on loacation in Hollywood.

Of course I didn't use my real name and used my internet username to hide my identity. The name movie has been recently released and my $12 Million a Movie fee has been paid plus royalities. The name of the Movie is Wedding Crashers and I feel I may even win an Oscar for this performance.

I'm selling autographs for $25.00 each.

Update on Kim

Kim called me this morning at 11:30 and told me that she was going to be re-admitted to the hospital. She said she had been feeling fine and actually went to Cabella's on Sunday. However she said she has been in some pain since Monday and the doctor said there is an expected fluid build up.

They are going to admit her and possibly try to dry up the fluid with anti-biotics, but another laser surgery is a possibility at this point.

Her Doctors told her that there is a possibility of this happening and it did happen in the window of time that they thought it may occur.

She said she was still in pain and that she may get another morphine pump temporarily to alleviate the pain.

I'll keep everyone updated.

Live NASA Feed for launch

LIVE FEED

If anyone is interested and reading this prior to the launch.

I had a nice Sunday

After I got done with my chores this morning I first went over to Mark's to switch a few DVD's so he can burn. Then it was on to Jean's to fix her computer that there was nothing wrong with.

We did encounter a very scary guy that was guarding the garden.



It's a small garden, but very productive.





It's Garys first attempt at doing a garden. I do have to say the zucchini we and green tomatoes we swiped were pretty good. He's doing a very good job.

I did call Kim this morning and she seems to be feeling better and better every day. I knew she would make a quick recovery from this major surgery. The girl has too much heart and energy to be layed up too long.

Jean invited me over for dinner this evening where she made baked steak and a few other things. As usual, she's a great cook and I left with my belly all full.

On a side note, I think Rich has a terrible Towel eyed up to purchase.

Getting Organized on my Movies

Mark Devault gave me a great idea this past week when he showed me he cataloged his MOVIE COLLECTION. I liked the idea of what he did so I went looking for the same thing to organize my movies. Mark uses a MAC and I use WindowsXP as an operating system, so I couldn't use what he was using.

I started looking around the net and saw Movie Collector, but it limited you to 50 movies before you have to buy it for $40.00. I, am a cheap bastard who is trying to save up some money for my move this winter and looked elsewhere. I wanted something that had a database with images that could export to HTML. This wasn't easy to find, so I figured I would try to crack the Movie Collector software. These people make stealing their software a little too difficult. I'm sure there will be an eventual crack out there, but not just quite yet.

Today, I managed to find a piece of software that allowed me to do everything I want as well as export to an SQL database if needed. I downloaded Ant Movie Catalog and started creating my database. I never really knew how many movies I had until I started building the database. I added all my VHS Movies and all my VHS Movies that IMDB had a record for.

Now of course there are others movies that are not listed like my Girls Gone Wild Collection and anything which I may have downloaded off the net or taped from television. I just added the movies that I have actually purchased.




As you can tell, I have great taste in movies. Take a look for yourself what I have.

TGIF

Woo Hoo, once again it is Friday!!!! The week hasn't been that bad, but I am glad that it is Friday. We have a softball game tonight at 6:00 when we play the cops. This should be our last challenge of the year for the regular season and we should handidly win the final 3 games of the year. We are currently 12-3 and we play 16 games. We could be looking at either a 16-3 or a 15-4 season and a spot in the post season playoffs.

We play at 6:00 again tonight, and we will probably once again head over to Prime Thyme after then game is over.

This weekend there is the ribfest at Mylan Park. I don't know if I will go to it, trying to save my money for the next weekend when MountainFest invades Morgantown.

Not to sure what I am going to get into this weekend, but I'm sure I will have a good time. I may take a trip down to visit the Country Inn, but you never know I may spend it at the Softball Park since there will be so many game splayed this weekend.

Have a good Friday and enjoy your weekend.

A website I just found

I found a site called badtree.com today and really liked what I saw there. There is alot of classic stuff that I guess you would have to be my age to really appreciate.

I can see this guy likes a lot of similar things that I do, well at least the ones I can publish.

Update on Kim

Kim was a couple hours late going in for surgery yesterday. She was supposed to go in around noon and it was after 2:00 before they finally got her back there. The procedure was supposed to last about for hours took until a little after 9:00 last night, before they sent her to recovery.

I spoke to her earlier today and they had her on morphine, so she wasn't feeling a whole lot of pain. She seemed to be in good spirits and I think she's ready to go gome and get a some rest. I doubt that they send her home today, but tomorrow is always a possibility.

Mom was calling me last night and today for updates, so I thought maybe I should do a BLOG entry to let everyone know everything went well and she is OK.

Wishing Kim a speedy recovery

She is currently (as I type this) in surgery. I know she appeared a little nervous last night, but now she is actually in surgery and the operation is well under way.

I took Brittany home for her yesterday from Mom's and got a chance to pay a little visit. By the time she is reading this it will be all over with, so I guess all I can say is to have a speedy recovery. Sjhe had a surgery last year, and recovered from it rather quickly, so there is no reason to think she wont recover quicker than scheldule.



My thoughts are with her during her recovery.

Sunday once again (kind of a tidbits)

* Yeah, it's Sunday morning and I'm getting ready to start my typical Sunday Morning routine of going shopping, laundry and cleaning. Hopefully I can be done sometime around noon and go down and see if there are any more softball games being played down at BOPARC to watch.

* Yesterday, I helped my sister Pam get a resume prepared. I took the one I did of mine as a template and edited a few things and added a certification area for her. We still need to get a few things organized like the actual names of her licenses and her references in order (those are left over from mine for now) so we can complete her entire package. I'll start a template for a cover letter once we complete this so she can address specific jobs she may want to apply for.

* Gary called me yesterday afternoon and wanted to know if I wanted to go fishing with him. Honestly I hadn't fished since 1991. He said it had been longer for him since he had fished. I guess he and Bobby were going to go to Cheat Lake up by the dam and try to catch a few fish.

* I was talking to George yesterday and asked him if he was goign fishing, but I think he wanted to play in the mud with his new 4-wheeler rather than join Gary on a fishing trip. ( I think Hell just froze over ...LOL)

* Brittany called me yesterday. She was staying at my Mom's this weekend. Gerald told me Friday that they were going to go out to dinner at Colasessano's in Fairmont.

* My sister Kim called me last night, too bad I was busy hugging the couch and missed the phone call. I think I fell asleep pretty early last night. I remember waking up briefly to see Van Wilder was playing on Comedy Central. I can say I slept very well last night because I was zonked and never heard the phone ring. I'll have to call her back today.

* In the news section of the world. I guess the press has got a very eery picture if you think about it.



These are the four guys as they were setting out last week to Bomb London. It's amazing what we are capable of, it's just sad we can't stop the end result sometimes.

* Maybe I won't have to call Kim, she just logged onto MSN. Have a good week.

A nice Friday Evening

I had a nice start to a weekend. Played some softball and had dinner with a bunch of good friends. When I got home from work today, I had a game to look foreward to at 7:00. The team we played only had one loss this year and that was because they had to forfeit one game for their only loss. Make that two losses they have now after we managed a 7th inning comeback to beat them. I had a great game defensively making 2 key plays at the plate to prevent a couple runs and kill their innings.

After the game, the we all went out to Prime Thyme again and sat there for a few hours just having fun. I found out a couple weeks ago that one of the girls who comes and watches our team play, is the sister of a girl I met years ago that actually introduced me to Barbie. Sometimes we realize this really is a small world with the scope of who we know. Very nice girl and I enjoyed talking to her.

We are taling about all going out to Hibachi Monday night and the team has had a few cookouts over the summer. We had one last Saturday for Laura's birthday, but I didn't make it. I would probably lost another $5.00 in Texas Hold em to those guys again.

I really enjoy playing with this group of guys and have even entertained the idea of coming to Morgantown next year to play with these guys even though I will be living in Frostburg.

Switching Nameservers.

Within the next week, people may notice my website may experiance a slight time of downtime. You may have some trouble accessing it because I am switching my nameservers. A DNS or nameserver is the word address to access a site, i.e. george-hall.net is the nameserver address. You type in that address and whoever hosts it forewards that traffic to the IP Adress of 72.29.73.31. This is where my site is actually housed at. This is Mountaineer Hosting and it is where everything is stored. When you see a picture or a file on my site, it's on their server.

For the past two years george-hall.net was registered at Register.com. My registration was coming due in the middle of August and I would have had the opportunity to renew the name for $35.00 a year. I signed up two years ago and I think it was like $22.50 a year for two years ($45.00).

There has been a new domain register that has come to the forefront over the last year, GoDaddy.com, you may remember them from the Super Bowl ads was allowing me to transfer my domain for $6.95 a year. Mark Devault them and doesn't seem to have any problems with them. He actually has a few names registered through that site.

So, as the DNS servers may have to reset in the next week to know where to foreward the query, accessing my site may temporarily be hit and or miss for a day or so. It's just transferring from one account to the other, it may not even have a problem and people may not even notice it happening.

Anyways, if you do have trouble accessing it and want to see it, you can access it by going HERE to see the main site and HERE to see my pictures.

On a side note, my sister Kim saw a snake yesterday also. I wonder if she knows that black snakes eat poisonous copperheads and small rodents.

Damn Copperheads

With some assistance of my neighbor John and his snowshovel, we killed a copperhead that was siting by my front door. I was going to pick it up, but he said they are very aggressive and he trapped it with a snow shovel and I bashed it's head in.

I wonder if there are any more. I should have got a picture of him before I bashed it's head in though. LOL

Sometimes you can be empty for ideas.

One thing I try to do is make sure I keep posting in my BLOG. I know a number of people read it, so I try to keep it updated as much as I possibly can. By doing this I know that the readers keep coming back to see if there is a recent update or something new.

Sometimes topics are very easy to come by, almost as if the story tells itself. Sometimes when you get enough stories like that in a string you can tend to do a tidbits and touch up on a lot of smaller subjects that you may not have been able to write a decent entry about. Sometimes, stories develop for you like the one I posted yesterday of my cousin Bill retiring from the Fire Department and sometimes you can pick a topic and talk about occasionally. In my case, I tend to do this with the TV show survivor.

Then there is the other times, the times when you know you want to make a BLOG entry and you really have nothing to say. However, you know that people are reading and you don't want to disappoint. It keeps people coming back to read what you are writing. I also have a few BLOG's links to mine for additional reading information for the readers to enjoy.

Then you get posts like this one. One with absolutely no intent or purpose other than just simply taking up space and giving my BLOG a chance to rejuvenate itself occacionally when you have nothing really important to say.

With that in mind it is time for me to end this post. Maybe I'll leave you with just a little dancing Monkey.

Bill Trevillian Retires

Thanks to my sister Kim for sending me the link to this. The Dominishing Post wrote a nice article, but unless you subscribe you can't read it. Unless you know a trick or two like yours truley.

Click on the Title for full size picture and article.

This is in todays paper.

Good luck on your retirement Bill, it seems like only yesterday you started with the fire department.

Tidbits

* Been a while since I've done a tidbits, so I thought I would just touch on a few things.

* Last Friday night we played softball against Michael Toth's team. I had been talking trash all summer long and we exploded for 16 runs after 2 outs in the second inning to take a 16-2 lead. We cruised to a 19-8 victory running our record to 11-3 on the season.

* I spent the day Wed running around and stopped by to see mom. We drove down to visit Terri at the Country Inn.

* Jean called me last night and wanted to go down to the Country Inn, so I drove her down to hear a new band.

* I see the Country Inn is getting a little bit of publicity from Aaron Scott on his website. I think he's there every time I have went to the Country Inn, whether it be putting on a show or just hanging out.



* Happy Birthday Joey.

* Jean tells me that Moke is away this weekend at WVU. They selected eight students from Clay Battelle and allowed them to stay on the WVU campus for a few days to get the hang of college life. Moke is entering his Senior year this year.

* Talked to Kim briefly last week. I was going to suggest going out to lunch when I was coming back from Jury Duty. She was eating as I called.

* Nick said that they are going to have karaoke at the Country Inn this coming Saturday night. He said it's a good time and everyone enjoys themselves when they do it.

* Is it time for Survivor yet?

* Today is my typical shopping, cleaning and laundry day. Don't know what I'm going to get into this afternoon, but it is a beautiful day and I need to do something. Maybe I'll drive around and take a few pictures.

These are my tidbits for the week, and I'm outta here.

Morgantown as it was yesterday

I came across This site this morning while I was surfing the net. I started to read down the list reminisce a little bit about the way Morgantown used to be. I have lived here over 40 years and have watched this town grow and change through the years.

How many of these things do you remember?





* Ali Baba's in Westover
* The Underground Railroad/Underground
* Morrison's coat store down town
* Second Ward Elementary (and annex)
* First Ward Elementary
* Central Elementary
* Mistakes at Dairy Queen
* Fins, Feathers and Fur
* Health Sciences was the hospital
* Chico Dairy: Mighty Mountaineer Ice Cream Sundae

* Ray's Pastries (downtown, where the Blue Moose was as well as every other incarnation)
* Why McDonald's downtown closed
* The Theatre at the Mountaineer Mall
* Lums at the Mountaineer Mall
* When the Middletown Mall was the only mall, and actually had stores....
* Shop & Save/Foodland/Thorofare (?) downtown on Richwood Ave
* Roller Rink downtown
* Morgantown Jr High School (end of the Walnut Street bridge)
* The Vanity Shop
* The Mountainlair when:
1) you could smoke there
2) it didn't look like a mall

* Why the old stadium was great:
it was downtown
the band running out of the tunnels
Sunnyside
The Backyard Brawl
* When the Met was actually a working theatre
* Hardee's downtown--it had a basement dining room
* Wings & Things
* People hanging out in front of Massulo's Dry Cleaner (I was never that cool)
* When the fountain in front of the post office downtown worked
* When the Little Village was a red-neck bar
* The theatre next to Hills
* When Captain D's was next to Shoney's
* Burger Chef downtown

* The Foxfire
* Chalkies, when that alley had a wooden fence in the middle that made it a dead-end
* The goddam dryhouse/the machine shop
* Craig's Comics
* Space Port
* Carousel library cards
* Falstaff's in Sunnyside
* The miniature golf course/batting cages on Greenbag Road--was it Hole in One
* Montanero's in Sunny Side
* Alfredo's on Pineview Drive
* The payphones by Dairy Queen, at the beginning of that alley on the wall.
Two of them.

* Little Caesar's Pizza
* The Fayette House
* Don't forget the miniature golf course that was behind Hills.
* Scotto's Pizza on High St., where the Subway is now.
* Dr. John's (DJ's) was on street level in Sunnyside and the place to be.
* Gabe's was where the Brew Pub is now and you didn't want anyone to see you shop there.
* Mario's Pizza at the top of High Street.
* Nick's Canteen was the greatest place to get hot chocolate before the Christmas parade.
* WVU was the #1 party school and proud of it.
* The Steppin' Out guy painted on the side of Daniel's, before they painted over it with that huge Main St mural.
* BOPARC dances in the summer.
* Record Mart on Walnut St.
* Plant and Pet Shop

* Hecks--one in Sabraton, and one in Westover (Kimmie Tyer)
* St. Francis de Sales Elementary School and the Convent (yup, they're now gone)
* On the corner of Prairie Ave and University there is only the back wall left of a two story garage. That used to be Prairie Street Gym. Before that it was a garage for Wilson Chevrolet. You can still see the paint on the walls from the locker/shower room. (Chris and Connie Law)
* Lof's (John Corral)
* Dr. Pizza. They used to deliver their pizza's in an old ambulance (Susan)

* Robert CressG.C. Murphy's
* Rite Aid
* Revco
* Mc Vicker's Pharmacy
* Famers and Merchants Bank
* Morgan's (when they had hobby supplies)
* Murphy Mart
* Sterling Faucet
* Carosuel Drive -In (Mileground)
* Dairy Delight in Sabraton (Hero Hut)
* Giant Eagle In the Mountaineer Mall Parking lot

* Wayne Womble Whiteside's , a department store downtown on High St.
* Biafora's, a clothing store across the street from Masullo's Cleaners
* The Flora Dora Shop, a women's clothing store next to Daniel's
* The Olympia, a great bar and dance hall close to the Book Exchange
* The Cottage, a dirt bar where most of the football players frequented

* erin Wizard Records
NOTE: I still miss Jack and Wizard Records. Anyone remember the names of the other employees? "Chris was the guy from Fairmont with the mohawk."
* Backstreet Records (owned and operated by Eric Hansmann)
* Falstaff's

* Debra and Mark Riffon The intersection of Beechurst and University Ave. was AAA for years, but before that it was a Texaco gas station with upper and lower gas pumps.
* Across from that Texaco gas station was the Beechurst Ave. Market and the Gold & Blue Restaurant.
* Where Mode Roman and Nautilus is now, was Wilkins Motors.
* Where Vic Solomon's garage is now, was Wilson Chevrolet.
* On Chestnut St where SaraTec was, Pizzaria Italia was downstairs and the Castle was upstairs. And, before that it was the Pontiac Garage.
* Where Great Wall on High St. is now, use to be Moore - Parriott Pharmacy.
* Right beside where Great Wall is, was Bakers Hardware.
* Where BW3 is use to be Greys Cutrate Drug Store and the ajoining street of High and WAlnut use to be McCrory's.
* On Chestnut St the building where the restaurant is with the deck and lanterns and hanging lights, used to be the Sanitary Milk Co.
* Where the Human Services Dept is now, used to be the ACME Supermarket.
* Where the Dollar General is by the South High bridge now, used to be the A & P Grocery Store.
* A & P also used to be where Boston Beanery is on Patterson Drive.
* At the top of High St. where the bank is used to be Borden Burger Foods (remember the big Satalite)
* Across the street where the VooDoo Shop is, used to be Gioviani's Pizza Shop.
* To the left of the Dairy Mart on Willey St. where the parking lot is used to be the Thorofare Grocery Store. After that is was Foodland until it burned down.
* Where the Senior Center is on High St, used to be Montgomery Ward. It was 3 stories. If you look up at the building you will still see the big "W"
* If you look at the ingraving on where the Pawn SHop is now on High ST. you will see Farmers & Merchants BAnk. Also down from where Subway is now used to be Woolworth's.
* Where the bike shop is by the courthouse use to be O. B. Fawley's and beside that was the State Liquer Store. and before that it was Rogers Drug Store.
* The Mountain Peoples Co-op used to be Picketts Dry Cleaners.
* On University Ave where the parking garage is now, used to be a small white building that was Kelly Cab and Yellow Cab.
* At the end of Westover bridge where Wings Ole is now, was Firestore Tires.
* Where Gibby's is now use to be Communtzis Restaurant.
* On Walnut St. down from where the Blue Moose is now, used to be Presto Lunch (what a great place to eat)
* Where Salvation Army Shop is now, used to be Radio Shack.
* Where WesBanco is in Sabration used to be a Sunoco Gas Station.
* Where Hardee's is in Sabraton used to be a Texaco Station and a car wash.
* Beside KFC used to be Mr. Donut.
* Dominion Post used to be on Spruce St where Manpower is now.
* To the right of where manpower is now on Spruce St. is a Medical building. That used to be the Moose Lodge.
* To the left was a gas station and the building on the corner was Plaid Stamps Store.
* At the intersection of Stewart St. and Chestnut Ridge Rd and Stewartstown Rd was Chestnut Ridge Grade School (became Bed & Breakfast and then some kind of Lodge after that) and across the street was a Texaco Station.

* Matt Helmick "The Press Box" (bar) and the trailers behind it, near the stadium.
NOTE: These just went down in 2004, and much of that whole stretch is now being converted to town houses. (Expensive town houses I'm sure.)
* Dick's Hot Dogs ("Everyone Loves Dick's"), one of many drive-thru ideas in the building near the intersection of University and Patteson.
NOTE: The original building was some el cheapo drive through/walk-up hamburger joint (Rally's?). No one seems to realize that's a terrible location and they'd be better off razing it to the ground and selling the space for parking.
* Pizza Man on University Ave, all you can eat pizza buffet for (if I remember correctly) 3.99. Not a bad deal if the folks in the kitchen were actually making pizzas while you were there. The price eventually went up, in anticipation of the liquor license, which never went through, and the joint went out of business. Next it was the Alamo, some of the most expensive burritos I've ever seen.

* Randy Oleksa Ed's barber shop on Brockway avenue
* Carl's roller rink also on Brockway next to Connie's grocery building is gone now.
* This goes way back: The Commodore restaurant and department store used to set in front of Sterling Faucet along route 7 in Sabraton.
* The Hayloft bar then it was Company B dance club in Dellslow where the Dairy Mart is now
* Beckman Brothers Feed Store in Sabraton where Southern States is now.
* Cloverleaf drive in on Cheat road
* Johnnie's Texaco on Cheat road
* Whipper will on the lake (Cheat Lake)
* Sycamore lounge on Fairchance road
* LuLu Belle's on Fairchance road

* Jay Paulovicks The Columbian Dorm - on Beechurst Ave. - now an office building
* My Brothers Place - in an ally downtown
* Communtzi's Restaurant - Downtown - Slogan was "Where Dad took his girl and grandad too"
* The Armory
* The "tin can"
* Reynolds Hall
* "Bonded" gas station on Beechurst
* Shoe shines at the Met Theatre
* Pool Hall in "old" Morgantown BEFORE the BBF was built there
* Whatever was "49 steps up Walnut from High"
* Old Hawley Field drill area (ROTC) - where coliseum is now
* Tony's Restaurant - Italian restaurant near Chico Dairy
* WVU Dairy at Ag School - when it provided ALL milk and ice cream for all residence halls
* Golf course where the new Mountaineer Field is
* Mont Chateau motel and restaurant

* David Schreiber The Cantina
* RedBeard's
* Di Giovanni's on Sunnyside- old married couple ran it- home of 3 am pizza- but watch your change!
* The Old KA House (just knocked down)
* Original Mario's Fishbowl- don't curse!
* The "CI" a/k/a College Inn on Sunnyside
* The Bullpen on Sunnyside
* The Down Under
* The Fifth Quarter
* The Nyabhingi (after the Underground)
* Grant Street Block Party


* The College Inn, University Avenue, Sunnyside USA where I worked as bartender and doorman in 87-88. I believe the CI held the record for the oldest, continuously operating bar in Morgantown.
* Down the street in what later became half of the Foxfire Hot Diggity, my brother in law's (Bob Armstrong) hot dog only restaurant. It closed in the early 80's, around the time Old Mountaineer Field closed.


* The old, three-story offices of the Daily Athenaeum near the corner of Pleasant and Price Streets (am I remembering those correctly?) -- it was across the street from a sorority house... Man, that was a great old building for a geeky newspaper crew to hatch its world-domination schemes from... before putting the paper to bed every night and heading down to Mario's Back Door for a pitcher! =)

* The Berger Chef on (now) Rte 705. Was right next door to Flatts Elementary school
* Flatts Elementary School, as well as the middle school that it fed into that was out about where the Wal-Mart not-to-be was going to go. I forget the name of the school. I want to say Chestnut Ridge, but I cannot recall for sure. It would have been 5th and 6th grades and fed into Suncrest Jr High School.


* How about Fredlock's? Fredlock's used to have one of those weird Zen things that made designs in the sand. Also they used to have these raunchy mugs with women on them, and when there was condensation on the mugs the women's clothing would disappear. I would love to know if anyone remembers this.
* Grey's discount
* The Dining Room!
* Jambie's

* Remember the Morgan Theatre, it stood up from what is now the Boston Beanery, right at the alley. It became a hot dog place and beside it was a clothing store. I think the clothing store moved across the street. Where the hot dog stand was is now a bar. Actually when I was young, I think the movie theatre closed but my parents remember going to movies there as they were growing up.
(I remember the Hallmark store next to where the Beanery now is, not sure about a hot dog stand. Anyone else?)


* How about Pike's Rest. near the corner of High Street, later on the House of Cards and now a lawyer's office.


* Mom and pop grocery stores: Chester Hartley's store on the corner of Grand Street and Gordon Street in South Park (briefly became Dairy Mart, before moving to its present location on Dorsey Avenue); Bobette's store on the corner of Wilson Avenue and Kingwood Street (later located in the building behind its first location); Marvin Luckini's store on Kingwood Street (I hope I spelled Marvin's last name right); Forlini's store on White Avenue; Bailey's grocery on the corner of Arch and Green Streets; Cobun Avenue Confectionery on the corner of Cobun and Maryland (Connie Negri still has her business, but it's on Pleasant Street now); the one on Barrickman Street in First Ward which later became (and may still be) Roto Rooter; and many others across Morgantown that I don't remember because they weren't on the south side (where I obviously grew up).
* The five-and-ten's: Woolworth's on High and Wall Streets--I especially remember their record section in the basement; Murphy's, across from the court house, where the Dollar Store is now--you went through the front door, down the stairs, and the toys were on the right, pets on the left--and at Christmas time, Santa came there so you could sit on his lap and tell him what you wanted; and the ultimate five-and-ten, McCrory's on the corner of High and Walnut--so huge that a multitude of businesses now occupy its space (BW3, Z Club, the state treasurer's office, etc.)--McCrory's had great old wooden floors, a great restaurant at the back, and the ladies' underwear was segregated into a separate room where little boys weren't allowed to go so they wouldn't get any bad ideas.
* Downtown restaurants: Remember when the Acropolis was a restaurant and not a coin shop? (It was where the Discount Den now is.); Remember when {where BB&T Bank is} was the BBF before it was Borden Burger before it was Burger Chef? (and before that, it was a Chinese laundry and Olan Mills photography studio.); Bonanza steak house on the corner of High & Fayette (later Hardee's, & later still Cafe of India's old location); the Indian restaurant that was in the back of Cafe of India's old location before it became Cafe of India; Cosmopolitan hot dogs; Healthy Bites (now the Blue Moose); Hav-a-Lunch on the corner of High & Pleasant, where the Huntington Bank drive-through now is.
* The bench on the corner of High and Kirk Streets, which had "Southside Lumber" painted on it--used to be the only bench in all of downtown Morgantown, but I never saw anyone ever sitting on it.
* The pet store on West Street in Westover (at the far end from Holland Avenue).
* The bakery on Walnut Street (now a lawyer's office), next to D&A Jewler's (now the porn store).
* The house on Wall Street with the great balcony and the barber shop on the first floor, which was torn down to become Morgan's parking lot. The barber's wife was a painter, and her paintings were always stacked up so the barber couldn't use one of his chairs. The barber shop moved to the location which is now the Blue Moose's new dining room extension.
* Grocery stores on High Street! (High Street Market & Morgantown Market)--one was on the corner of High and Forest, recently torn down--the other was where Subway is now.
* The Blue Tic Tavern in the Mountainlair!
* The Double Decker bar on Walnut Street (now the Living Room), and another bar down the street, the Washington Cafe (now GARO).
* The miniature golf course on the Greenbag Road, where Bluegrass Village is now.
* Downtown newstands: Walter's News, on the corner of High & Pleasant, and before that in the middle of the block of Pleasant Street between High & Spruce; and Stenger's, where Casa d'Amici is now.
* John Marshall Records, at its many locations up and down High Street, and even on Willey Street at one point; Record Bar in the Mountaineer Mall; and Disc Jockey in the Morgantown Mall.
* The Euphorium, upstairs in Sunnyside--Morgantown's very first head shop, I believe. Speaking of head shops, where Cool Ridge is now used to be the Morgan Theater.
* The stadium bridge--no wonder I don't walk to Sunnyside anymore!
* Morgantown's first pizza delivery place, Phantom Pizza. Its location was supposed to be a secret, but it was on Beechurst.
* Morgantown's first Kentucky Fried Chicken was in a small building on Patteson Drive which today would be located in Kroger's parking lot. The "Today's Buffet" Chinese restaurant next door used to be another Bonanza steak house.
* Morgantown used to have good Chinese restaurants! The Great Wall (not affiliated with the current Great Wall) was where Fatty Loaf's is on Walnut Street; East Garden is now that tea house above Zen Clay; and Foosheen used to be called Hallelujah Chinese Restaurant and used to be good despite the fact that they were serving up cat meat.
* Independent book stores! Who can forget Stilwell's on the corner of Pleasant and Chestnut Streets? (Before it was Stilwell's, it was a bar called El Toro.)--Not to mention the cafe in back of Stilwell's. I remember it first as an oriental grocery store, then Cafe Libretto, then Cafe Catherine, then Grasshopper Locomotive--and now a parking lot. How about the book store on Foundry Street, next to the South High Street Brigde? First it was Wolf's Head, then Abshire's, and finally Books Books Books. Remember Trans-Atlantic Books on Fayette Street? Or how about Riverrun in the Garlow Building above where Kinko's used to be? (and remember when Kinko's was on Willey Street?)--well, some good news, Riverrun is back, now in the Sand Castle on Walnut Street across from the police station/parking garage.


This list has brought back a lot of memories. From the old Burger Chef's to Flatts Elementary to Scotto Pizza downtown.

...and it continues

I reported earlier today for placement on the Federal Grand Jury and was lucky enough to avoid being selected. They select a pool of 23 Grand Jurors and start eliminating form there. If one is eliminated then another one of us from the pool is selected. I managed to avoid being selected until they had their 23 people to swear in. Once they had their 23, the rest of us were dismissed.

Seemed like the 23 saddest people in the room were the ones selected to be Grand Jurors and the happiest people were those of us that weren't selected.

I guess you knew how bad it was when thye show you a movie at the start on why you should like to serve. LOL.

I Had avoided it for years

I have been fortunate the past 41 years to ever be called for Jury Duty. I have watched friends and co-workers get called and have to go through the entire process. Well, it finally caught up with me and then some.

I didn't get called for localJry Duty, no, I have to get called to serve on the Federal Grand Jury this week. I've known about it for about 2 months when my name was added to the pool.

I had to call yesterday to see if I had to report today in Clarksburg, and wouldn't you know it my name was listed. Oh well, it gives me a front row seat for a Federal Court case and also gives me a chance to learn a little something about our legal process.

I hope it's a good one, I want a book deal.

Happy 4th of July

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. --And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

--John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton





Lyman was my Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather.


Lyman Hall
1724-1790
Representing Georgia at the Continental Congress

Born: April 12, 1724
Birthplace: Wallingford, Conn.
Education: Graduated Yale College, (Physician.)
Work: Elected to Continental Congress, 1775; Delegate to the Georgia House of Assembly, Elected Governor of Georgia, 1783; Judge, 1785.
Died: October 19, 1790

Lyman Hall was born in Connecticut in 1724. He studied medicine at Yale College, graduated in 1756 and went to Charleston, South Carolina, shortly after to establish a medical practice. He bought land in Georgia in 1760 and established a plantation there, while continuing to practice medicine. Two years later he returned to South Carolina, still as a physician. In 1774, by this time partisan in revolutionary politics, he again came to Georgia and earned the unflattering attention of the Royal Governor, James Wright. He also secured election to the Continental Congress, where he was involved in provisioning food and medicine for the Revolutionary Armies. He was reelected to congress through 1780 but retired to his adopted state in 1777 when state matters, including the situation of his longtime friend Button Gwinnett, demanded his attention. A short time later, the war reached Savannah. Hall's property was burned and he stood accused of high treason. He fled to Charleston, which was also overtaken by the British. He then fled to Connecticut, some say, where he was harbored by family.

He returned to Georgia in 1782, to reclaim his lands, was elected to the House of Assembly in 1783 and then elevated to the office of the Governor. After a single year as Governor, he served one more year in the Assembly, then a year as judge. He then returned to private life & was involved in the continued development of agriculture in the state. Hall died in 1790 at the age of 66.




Happy 4th of July.

Annual Rosiak Party

Every year on the 4th of July weekend for the past eight years now I have made it a tradition to go and spend the day with some long time friends of mine.

Trish, who was Jackie's room mate for years and I have remained close friends for since the time Jackie and I broke up. Bryan, Trish's boyfriend has also been a very close friend very long time now. We played softball together for years until this season.

Every year, Trish's parents have a 4th of July cookout at their home. Every year there is plenty of good food and a very large contingent of people that migrate to the Rosiak's every year for this party.

It's usually the one time of the year I get to see Jackie, but she didn't manage to make it this year, she was in New Jersey.



Every year there is always a big water battle. I have a big super soaker that I bought for the first year there was a picnic, witht he sole intent purrpose of using it at this picnic. Today is the one day of the year that I actually break it out and fill it up. The water battle was a blast



I always look foreward to this party every year. Needless to say when I move to Frostburg this winter I will always return for this party.

Congratulations Gary

Gary took his Contactors test a couple weeks ago and told me this week that he had passed BOTH tests on the first attempt. . Can I say this was probably too long overdue. He has been working in construction since he started hanging drywall years ago when he first came out of High School with his friend Jay.

He takes a lot of pride in his work and does a great job. I think everyone has been on him for years to take his test, and he finally did it and passed it the first time.

Congrats Bro!!!!!!