Survivor

Once again Survivor fans, it's Thursday night and you know what that means. It's time for the Steph-a-holics to unite for your weekly ritual once again and tune into CBS and enjoy the best reality show on television. You have to love this as a lead in to a new weekend.

On the pre-show poll watch, the sexy Stephenie LaGrossa once again enjoys a very large lead in the most popular survivor poll. She's pulling in 45% of the vote compared to second place Bobby Jon's10%.

At the start of the show, the great Margaret was discussing the shipdits Judd's betrayal of his original tribe last week at tribal council. Obviously he doesn'tr understand the power of the WVU alum and turned his back on it once again. Personally zI think the man should be dipped in honey and fed to bears.

For the rewards challenge they were playing for dinnner and a floating crocodile proof swimming cage. Yaxha and Nakum battled through a short obstacle course to obtain four handles. Once the four handles were obtained they were to be given to four other tribe members where they formed a big crank and pulled in a big wooden cart and to the finish line. Yahxa had one of the biggest margins of victory in any challenge that I think I have seen since I started watching survivor. Jamie Newton couild not manage to complete the first part of the rewards challenge obstacle by pounding a sharp rock through a rope.

This had to be a crushing blow to our heroine Steph, who just can't seem to have any luck at any rewards challenges or immunity challenges.

Once they returned from the immunity challenge, Judd was mouthing off to everyone and I think they need to assasinate his New Jersey rear end at dawn. I think he must be a Pitt fan, becasue he really is an arrogant pigs rectum. I never have liked hima nd will enjoy the day he is gone.

At the immunity challenge, the two tribes breaks into two groups of three survivors and basically play a big game of catch with a catapult and a net. The object was to fire a ball from the catapult and try to it. This looks a like a challenge where your team needs to work as a team to accomplish this feat. At the challenge Lydia Morales came up HUGE for Yaxha and allowed them to claim immunity. This will be only the second tribal council since Steph started playing the game last round that she will NOT be taking part in! Woo Hoo, we get Steph for another week.

Now that Nakum's winning streak is over with, they now have to make a trip to tribal council. If you ask me who I think will be going hime prior to council, I would have to say Frat Boy Blake Towsley, however they don;t have the numbers to vote him off, so this could be interesting to see who goes home.

At Tribal Council I was a little surprised to see that previous trival alliances didn't really matter and Frat "Golden Boy" Blake was voted off by a 4-3 vote.

OK, I'm guilty

I laid down last night about 7:00 and made the mistake of putting the TV on ABC. The Pittsburgh Steelers played on Monday Night Football. I guess there is something in the subconscience that says the Steelers game is on...WAKE UP.

I couldn't deny that inner voice and my body woke up and just wanted to check the progress of the game and I was going back to sleep....Right.

Next thing I know it's 1:00 and I'm trying to catch up on Big Ben's knee injury. I tried to lay down and go to sleep, but when I woke up and started watching the game I was done.

My alarm was supposed to go off a half an hour ago, but I'm still wide awake. So, I called the guy who rides with me and sent an e-mail to my boss, I'm taking a personal day and realxing.

It's a long stretch between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, and we are basically right in the middle of that stretch, so I guess now is as good as a time as ever to just take a day off.

Steelers Won!!!!

Back to work

The weekend is over and it was back to work in Frostburg. It was a fairly uneventful weekend for me, however I did manage to have a good day at work. I'm writing this program at work that's going to reduce some serious manhours on a very large project that we have.

It's called an AML (Arc Macro Language) and I have written a few smaller ones, but never one with so many variables that needed to be called. I'm not really a programmer like a few I know. I was quite happy with how this is developing.

Tonight may be a late night, the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to hammer the San Diego Wannabes tonight on Monday Night Football.

Survivor Night

Yes Blog readers, it is once again Thursday night and time for another episode of SURVIVOR!!!

In the preshow I checked out the popularity poll and Steph is winning by a large margin over a distant secondBobby Jon and third place Gary Hogeboom. Not really many surprises in the polls though other than the fact that the WVU Grad Margaret isn't winning the polls. You would think that people would realize that since Margaret graduated from WVU that she obviously deserves to win the popularity polls, and the Million Dollars. I guess that since no one is going to roll over and give her the win that she'll just have to beat everyone.

In the rewards challenge which was right after the start of the show, it turned out to be a trivia type thing when people on your tribe voted for specific things. They asked who needed the most nourishment, and the two tribe member who won were given some food. They asked who was the smelliest tribe member and they were given a shower. They then asked who was most deserving of a picnic, one man and one woman from each tribe. Then it was asked who had the most tribal pride, the most loyal member remained with their tribe and remaining survivors switched tribes. It's early in the game, but that was a nice little switch to throw at them, but I personally thought it was a little early in the game to pull a move like this.

During the pic nic, Margaret asked Gary once again if he was a former football player, and he once again denied that he is a retired NFL Quarterback and tried to play off that he is a landscaper.

I think if there were one survivor I would want to punch in the nose, it would have to be that sneaky snake in grass Judd, I don't know what it is about him, but I really don't like him even though he has sort of made an alliance with Steph.

For the Immunity Challenge the tribes had to paddle out and gather three bags that were full of clubs and then paddle back in to shore. They then had to throw the clubs at three targets that were 40, 50 and 60 yards away. No single tribe member could hit more than one target. You would think that an NFL QB would be the ace in the hole in this challenge. Nakum was the first tribe to reach the beach then followed by Yaxha. However Yaxha won immunity and sending Steph and Nakum back to tribal council yet again. You would winder though why Yaxha didn't have Gary throw? Man she has to be tired of going there....lol

Prior to tribal council the old Yaxha members and the old Nakum tribes who are now Nakum were trying to position for strategy. It was just announced Steph is 4 for 21 in challenges. However, the tribes are currently tied at 4 members from each other tribe and both sides were trying to jocky for position. I think that butthead Judd is the key to how this vote goes tonight, if he is stupid enough to join the old Yaxha members, he may eliminate a few of his team matess, but he would have sealed his fate for teh game by putting his tribe down on the numbers.

When all the votes were read, Brooke Struck was voted off.

Big Bear Lake

Jean and I went up to Big Bear Lake last night. It's the first time that I have been to Patty's campground, and I do have to say that I am very impressed with all the work that Mickey has mananged to do up their this summer. He's doen a great job. It was nice sitting around the camp fire and talking about my days living down in the Valley and actually having the opportunity to catch up with Patty and Judy on what is new in the Valley and what everyone has been up to.

I managed to come home last night so I can get back to my normal routine of shopping, laundry and cleaning under way. However siing arounf the campsite that was right on the lake I felt like I was sitting ina corona comercial on the beach. It was a VERY peaceful and serene setting and I really enjoyed myself. It's a campsite, but it is far from roughing it, it was actually very comfortable.

Oh Well, I'm off to start my Sunday. The Pittsburgh Steelers are off this weekend.

The Weekend

Hey everyone I hope that everyone has had a good weekend so far. Mine has been pretty good. I woke up early this morning and Jean and I went to Clarksburg. We made a little side trip stopping and talking to her brother Mickey in Bridgeport, then it was on to Ryan's Steakhouse in Clarksburg. WOW, was I ever impressed with the place. We caught them in between serving their weekend breakfast and their lunch buffet. Needless to say I give it two thumbs up.

Afterwards we headed to the Meadowbrook Mall, Jean wanted to stop and do some shopping. We initially went up to the East Point shopping plaza because the new Sam's Club was supposed to open up, but that's not until tomorrow.

I did manage to stop by Cell One and talk to them about my Cell Phone, it seems to cut out after about fifteen minutes of conversation, I had an upgrade done to it to enable it to read the new towers, we'll see if that solves the problem.

Then we headed to Sam's in Fairmont, they are getting ready to close that one when the new one opens up.

This evening we are going to take a trip up to Big Bear Lake Campground. Patty has a double lot on the lake with a cabin on it and Mickey has done some renovations this season to the place, so I'm going up for the evening. I think jean may be staying, but I have to come home so I can do my normal Sunday routine tomorrow.

I'll be sure to grab a few pics. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

It's Thursday and you know what that means!

Yeppers Survivor fans, it is Thursday and it's SURVIVOR NIGHT!!!!!!!! Woo Hooo The one regular show that I love to watch. Funny story, two weeks ago I managed to fall asleep and miss most of the show. Last week I saw the show but slept right through my alarm. Josh, the guy who rides to Frostburg with me was pounding on my door, calling me on my cell phone and my alarm was going off....for nearly 2 hours. Hopefully this will be a little simpler tomorrow morning.



Ok, where to start. Oh, you may want to check out the Survivor Blog to see what some of the former players are having to say. Stephenie LaGrossa is winning the fan poll as the most popular survivor with Bobby Jon coming in second place in the Voting.

This week started off real quick with a rewards challenge, it was a challenge to build a tent, butt hey had to build it blindfolded. The reward was a lot of comfort items such as pillow and blankets that could be used back at their respective camps. The Yaxha and the Nakum tribes battled it out. Nakum came from behind and won the race in front of a temple that looks like the one used in the movie Beastmaster. I wonder if it the basis for the movie prop.

At the Nakum tribe Judd Sergeant had the nerve to disrespect WVU Grad Margaret Bobonich. I'm not for certain but I think it is a long standing law in Guatemala that if you disrespect someone educated at a fine institution like WVU, that executed. I'm pretty sure that this is a law, so get him the heck out of there so Margaret can keep playing.

For the immunity challenge there was a tree mail that mentioned human sacrifice, hmmm, how ironic. Maybe Nakum can lose the challenge and put Judd's head on the tribal chopping block. The Challenge was a game of cork ball, it's like an elevated game of soccer, but you have to pass the ball around and can not move with it. The object is to get the ball through a hoop. The first tribe with 5 goals wins the immunity challenge. During the basketball/soccer type game, Jeff gave a temperature update of 114 degrees. Nakum managed to win 5-3, sending Yahxa back to tribal council for the second time this game. This will leave them 1 survivor down for the game. Poor Steph, she can't seem to avoid Tribal Councils with the exception of the first round of this seasons game.

At Yaxha's second tribal council (they have lost 5 out of 6 overall challenges, I wonder if Steph feels like she's back in the old Ulong tribe from last round) the members discussed on who they were going to vote out. Brianna Varela was the one who the buzz said was the one going home. She didn't really give much of an effort in the immunity challenge.



After all of the votes were counted and at a 5-1 margin, Brianna ws sent back to shopping in the malls and off the island.

Bit's O' Tid

Yes loyal readers it's time for another tidbits post. I know how you guys love reading this stuff.

* It was a semi decent football weekend for me. Morgantown High managed to extend their undefeated record to 19 games this weekend when they traveled to Wheeling Park and escaped with a 21-18 victory.

* WVU kind of let me down this weekend, they did manage to win 20-15 against an East Carolina team that they should have beaten by 4 touchdowns. #3 Ranked Virginia Tech in next on the agenda. The Turkey hunt is now officially one.

* The Steelers lost their first game of the year against the pathetic defending Super Bowl Champions New England Patriots 20-23. That's OK, we are kicking their collective asses this January and going to the Super Bowl.

* Congrats to my Sister Kim for finally making it back to work after a couple months of turmoil. I'm sure she enjoyed the time off, but I think she enjoyed getting things back to normal more though.

* This past Saturday I worked again, that's the last two that I have woke up early in the Morning and Traveled to Frostburg to work by myself basically. If those who decide my salary are reading this, think BIG PAY RAISE. I've more than earned it.

A congratulations to my Nephew Moke, he has now passed his drivers test and is now a licensed driver. He also is studying to take his ACT in the month of October, he has shown a lot of interest and a lot of drive and I thinkt he sky is the limit for him. He's wanting to go and study engineering, hopefully he will go to WVU, but that's going to be up to him.

* Some good news on my Nephew Randy, he has decided to continue his education even beyond his graduation and is study auto repair at the Vo Tech center. I got a chance to talk to him briefly last week and see seems to be excited doing what he is doing. I think he has a real interest in the subject.

* I really haven't spoke with anyone lately except for Jean for a couple minutes this weekend and Kim for a couple minutes this morning. I've been real busy driving home a project at work. That particular one shoudl be winding up this week. I designed it from scratch with no predefined methodology and had a comment from the client that the data was remarkably clean. Makes you feel pretty good considering whot he client is telling this to.

Survivor Night

Alright, last weeks post was a little bit under written. I fell asleep and really had nothing to go on so I tried to just say something.

Like all the previous versions of Survivor, Jeff broke all the contestants into two equal tribes. Yaxha who will be wearing the buffs and Nakum who will be wearing the yellow buffs.

As everyone knows there are two previous survivors from last season returning to play this round, Steph and Bobby Jon. Steph mananged to avoid her first ever tribal council, last round she was the lone standing member of her tribe that never one a single challenge.

I did catch a little about last weeks show that I missed, I noticed that former NFL QB Gary Hogeboom wasn't going to let anyone know who he was. I wonder if anyone will figure it out. Damn Dallas Cowboy players, you got to hate them.

The rewards challenge was an obstacle course and you could tell that the survivors going four days without any water was really taking its toll on the survivors. Nakum did managed to win a very close race where the survivors needed to climb a spider web type obstacle and untie a bag and drop it into the water and return it to the starting point. Of course Nakum won because they were led by WVU Grad Margaret Bobonich.

During the commercial break, I did notice a Survivors type BLOG where some of the old players had a chance to discuss the game at hand. Johnny Fairplay (Big Asshole who faked grandmother's death) is one of the posters.

When the show came back, you could really see that the lack of water and proper food was really taking a toll on some members of both the Yaxha and the Nakum tribes.

For the immunity challenge the two tribes matched up for a tug of war in the mud where it turns out to be a free for all where you can attack members of the other team. Maybe it's just me, but I love watching women wrestle around in the mud. After 15 minutes, they had a stalemate and it came down to a series of one on one rounds with tribe members. Best if five series, Nakum beat Yaxha three to nothing. Gary Hogeboom was one of the guys who went for Yaxha, but he lost in the individual challenge. One of the girls knows who he is and happened to mention that he was a Quarterback, so his identity that he wanted to hide was blown. He'ss till denying it, but Danni Boatwright from the other tribe was a sports caster and knew him. It'll cost him in the long run though.

Losing the immunity challenge sends Yaxha to Tribal council for their first time. The pre-vote came down and led you believe that Lydia Morales was going to be the first member of the Yaxa tribe to be voted off. When it came down to the vote, it was that Morgan McDevitt was voted out with a 5-1 read vote.

Calvin's Birthday Party

I went to Calvin's 10th birthday party today. Everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. I got a chance to talk to Val and Amy, amy had confirmed that Tucker has never returned, so my initial premise is probably correct.

George did somethign unique while designing his new kitchen, he designed and made his counter tops out of concrete. Yes, all the counter tops are solid concrete that George and Moke designed, formed, stained and sealed.




Blowing out his candles



Calvin Finding the good stuff.




Someone say party?



Woo Hoo...ICE CREAM!!!!




I'm all Partied out.





Concrete Counter tops George designed.




Pam and George's new Kitchen

Tidbits

Hey, I actually have a few things that I can write about and do a decent tidbits.

* Last Thursday Night my Survivor post was rather short and insignificant. Truth be told I get up at 3:00 AM and I laid down early and set one of my Alarms to 7:45, a good 15 minutes before survivor started. I woke up around 8:35 and it took me a couple minutes to get my bearings. I'll do better this week.


Happy Birthday to my Nephew Calvin. Today, September 18th is his 10th birthday. I talked a little bit with Jean this mornign and her and I will be going up yo Pam and George's for his Birthday Party and she told me that he stayed down here with her last night. Needless to say this has me starting to wonder "Where did the Last 10 years go?" I'm feeling older and older. Anyways, I'm sure Calvin will eb having some fun today beating a Video Game or two.

* So far on the weekend, my football teams are 2-0. Morgantown High extended their winning streak to 18 games by crushing East Fairmont Friday Night. The WVU Mountianeers are starting to exceed my preseason expectations already. They manhandled the Maryland Terrapins 31-19 yesterday, but the score was much closer than the game. Maryland scored 14 quick points in the 4th quarter to make it close, but they could not stop the Mountaineer running attack.


I was talking to Mom yesterday and she told me that she had made the trip up with Kim to Linsley to pick up Brittany. She seemed to be very impresssed with the school and she also said that Brittany has adapted rather quickly to this type of dorm style school. I think this will also help to prevent any seperation anxiety should she choose to go to a school different than the one her favorite uncle highly recommends.

I called Kim this morning to see how she was doing, judging by this picture she is quickly recovering and on her way back to health. She and Robert are going away for a much needed vacationa dn also to celebrate their second wedding anniversary on Tuesday. I think both of them are looking foreward to the trip and she is actually a little excited to finally be going back to work NEXT monday. Slowly but surely her life is returning to normal.

* I said I was going to call Terri sometime this week, but I just haven't found a time where we both had a few free moments. Mom said she talked to her this past week, I need to get in touch with her to see how everything is going. She's not a phone person and we work 100 miles apart from each other and polar opposite times.

* I'll make sure to get a picture or two from Calvin's birthday so I can post it online. I got up and got motivated this morning. Getting everything done earlier and have a chance to enjoy the day.

* Kim said her and Brittany went out shopping for a Homecoming dress for Brittany. She didn't go into detail, but she said it's a nice dress. I'm loking foreward to seeing a picture or two of her in it.

* Sunday's are nice relaxing days, hopefully the Steelers will ring up win #2 on the season. Mohigans (4-0), Mountianeers (3-0) and the Steelers (1-0) have yet to let me down on the year yet! Wouldn't it be sweet if none of them lost this year!

* Have a good day and Go Steelers!

Survivor

The start of the new season started tonight. Not much to say yet, just getting a feel for the new crew. Margaret Bobonich is my favorite just because she's a WVU grad.

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.