6'6" 240 song

A lil video

Happy Birthday Val

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my niece Val a very Happy 24th Birthday today. It seems like just yesterday that I was running to the old university hospital after hearing the news that Terri had given birth to a daughter.

I did get a chance to see Val Saturday night briefly as she and Bobby came to visit Terri at the bar.


Happy Birthday Val.

In the Coaches Poll....

We're #1

Nov. 25, 2007
Rank
Team (first-place votes)
Record
LINK



1.West Virginia (37) 10-1 1,467 3
2.Missouri (17) 11-1 1,454 4
3.Ohio State (6)11-1 1,383 5
4.Georgia 10-2 1,232 7
T5.Kansas 11-1 1,161 2
T5.Virginia Tech 10-2 1,161 8
7.LSU 10-2 1,134 1
8.Oklahoma 10-2 1,126 9
9.Southern California 9-2 1,073 12
10.Hawaii 11-0 958 13
11.Florida 9-3 898 14
12.Boston College 10-2 861 16
13.Arizona State 9-2 756 6
14.Illinois 9-3 674 18
15.Tennessee 9-3 654 19
16.Wisconsin 9-3 493 20
17.Clemson 9-3 469 22
18.Texas 9-3 417 11
19.Brigham Young 9-2 327 23
20.Oregon 8-3 316 10
T21.Auburn 8-4 271 25
T21.Virginia 9-3 271 15
23.Boise State 10-2 247 17
24.Cincinnati 9-3 146 NR
25.Arkansas 8-4 145 NR

Dropped out

No. 21 Connecticut (9-3, lost to then-No. 3 West Virginia 66-21), No. 24 Texas Tech (8-4, idle).
Others receiving votes
Texas Tech (8-4) 116; South Florida (9-3) 100; Connecticut (9-3) 54; Air Force (9-3) 41; Penn State (8-4) 19; Central Florida (9-3) 18; Michigan (8-4) 17; Wake Forest (8-4) 9; Oregon State (7-4) 7; Rutgers (7-4) 6; Mississippi State (7-5) 4; Oklahoma State (6-6) 4; Michigan State (7-5) 3; Troy (8-3) 3; Houston (8-4) 2; Tulsa (9-3) 2; Fresno State (7-4) 1.

...and the waiting game begins

This has been a great weekend for being a Mountaineer fan. Friday Night #1 LSU lost to Arkansas in triple overtime 50-48 to give West Virginia a very big early Christmas gift.

Yesterday the Mountaineers been UCONN 66-21 securing the Big East Championship and a spot in a BCS Bowl Game (Rose, Sugar, Orange or Fiesta) representing the Big East this year. This is the very least that will happen this year. Because of Friday Nights LSU loss, WVU will move up into the top 2 of the BCS rankings today (we were #3) and have opened up a spot for us to play in the BCS National Championship Game on January 7th against either Missouri if they win next week or Ohio State. All we have to do is beat Pitt next Saturday and we are in.

We have had two shots at previous National Championships. In 1988 we played against Notre Dame and lost and in 1993, we were #2 in the Coaches Poll and #3 in the AP. Florida State got the nod ahead of us to play against #1 Nebraska and has we beaten Florida in the 1993 Sugar Bowl, it would have probably been a split national Championship.

Today the waiting game begins, the wait isn't whether we will be in the top 2, the wait is to see if we may be #1 for the first time in school history. #1 LSU lost and #2 Kansas lost to #4 Missouri. Because Missouri beat the #2 team and we crushed the #20 team, there is a possibility that they may jump us in the polls. The worst that we will end up today is #2 in the Country. It's just a matter of waiting to see how the human polls come out.

Black Friday

Wow was that T-Totally ridiculous. I picked Up Jean at about 4:00 AM. She was wanting to buy a Big Screen TV and was going to try to take advantage of the Black Friday sales.

We started at Super Wal-Mart, but the sales didn't start till 5:00 and she didn't see anything sh3e really liked. Next we went to Best Buy who opened at 5:00. When we got there the line went out he door, around the side of the building, all the was down the side and u-turned back up into the parking lot. Guys who had camped out since last night didn't even get what they wanted.

Next, it was Target at a 6:00 opening there, there was a nice TV I saw in an ad and told her about so we were going to try to get it. They had 10 in stock. Notice how I said had, because by the time we got back there, they were gone. All 10 in a matter of minutes.

With a one last ditch effort, we made a track to Sam's club. She wanted a 37" HD TV. We lucked out and she walked out with a 42" Flat Screen HD TV. Yesterday afternoon we were setting up and watching her HDTV, we were watching the LSU-Arkansas game (which is another story WOO HOO).

We did get a little bit of an education from Best Buy and Comcast yesterday. One of the selling points when buying a TV is the number you will see. Either 720 or 1080. There is a 720p, a 720i a 1080i and a 1080p. Obviously the best one to get would be a 1080p. There is not much of a difference between 720p and 1080i. Actually Jean's TV does both and are very high quality. Most salesmen will try to push the 1080p because it is a better quality. Here's the kicker, Comcast does not support a 1080p signal. If you have a PS3 or a Blue Ray disk player, then a 1080p TV will give you the full ability to see it at what it is designed to do. However, Comcast does not broadcast in 1080p. (JFYI)

Happy Thanksgiving

Day off, Day on, Day off

What a morning. I woke up this morning and was having some connection problems at work, I then requested the days vacation to make it a long weekend. My Boss said we are in a crunch and asked if I could work once the problem was resolved and I agreed. An hour in, and the virus that attacked the network attacked again starting with the machine I was working on.

Sooooo, it's a five day weekend.

Thoughts for Christmas Eve

Just a few random thoughts and ideas for the Christmas Holidays.

* A Chinese gift exchange has been discussed and most people like the idea of it.

* Mom came up with an idea of everyone bringing a Christmas bulb or ornament for the tree. I like the idea, I would like to have one bulb, preferably personalized for each person that will be at Klaer Lodge. It doesn't have to be a commercial bulb, it could be Styrofoam personalized for that person. That way everyone could possibly be represented by the family tree.

* Photo's. I love my pictures and very rarely do we get the chance to get everyone together at one time and one place. Like Thanksgiving a couple years ago, I would like to take a lot of pictures including at least one of every family unit as well as others. I'll bring my tripod, so if anyone has a camera and wants pictures, bring your camera. I would like to do a Christmas video again this year, maybe even two of them, so I will need pictures to go on.

* Board games and a deck of cards are a few things we may need and if anyone would have a portable radio, that would be nice. Not sure what kind of electronic entertainment will be there, so it would be nice to have a few interactive toys for everyone to spend time together. I'm open to all ideas.

* I will try to go up once before the time we have it rented to just get a few ideas. If anyone else is interested in going (not sure when) let me know. Two heads are better than one, three are better than two and so on and so forth.

Good Luck Hunters

This is the most missed day of work in West Virginia, the week that many men in the state schedule a weeks vacation in pursuit of being able to bag a big buck with a rifle. It marks the first day of deer season in West Virginia.

I would like to wish all the hunters luck and have a safe and happy day of hunting. No accidental shootings.

Mountaineer weekend

Yesterday I went to my second Mountaineer basketball game (women's too) this weekend as the Mountaineers beat Prairie View A&M yesterday 106-41 in a game that was total domination from the start. It was part of the Stub Hub Classic, WVU will advance to the semi-finals this week to play Tennessee. Both the men's and Women's teams plat the Vol's this week. The Vol's women are ranked #1 and their men's team is ranked #7.

The BCS polls came out yesterday and WVU is in better shape than I thought. I thought we would end up being #4 in the BCS rankings, but we ended up #3 in the rankings. This week #2 plays #4, so if we win, we should stay the say no matter who wins. If #4 Missouri wins, they will leapfrog us to #2 while #2 Kansas would drop.

Keep your finger crossed.

WVU Wins again

Once again the West Virginia Mountaineers went on the road and came away with another victory. This was the last road game of the year (other than the bowl) and 6th ranked WVU went into 322 ranked Cincinnati and managed to hold on for a 28-23 victory running their record to 9-1 on the season with two games remaining.

Fortunately for WVU we are ranked 6th in the BCS going into this week, however #2 ranked Oregon lost 24-34 and #4 ranked Oklahoma lost 37-24 to help out the Mountaineers. This should move us to #4 in todays BCS rankings with the Kansas and Missouri having to play each other this coming weekend. These teams should be ranked #2 and #3 ahead of us, so one of them has to lose this coming week and if WVU wins this should bring us to a #3 ranking in the BCS.

Next week WVU plays UCONN at home and this will be for the Big East Championship and the right to represent the Big East in a BCS Bowl (Sugar, Rose, Orange or Fiesta). If we win next week, we should enter the final week of the season ranked 33 in the BCS.

In the final week of the season, LSU will have to compete against probably Georgia in the SEC title game. The last time these two teams played for the SEC Title, Georgia beat LSU and then had their butts handed to them by WVU in the Sugar Bowl. In the Big 12, the winner of the Kansas v Missouri Game will most likely face Oklahoma for the Big 12 Championship. Oklahoma has already beaten Missouri once this year and Kansas is still undefeated, but have yet to beat a decent team this year.

If Oklahoma wins the Big 12 OR Georgia wins and the SEC, WVU will be playing for the National Championship if we win the two remaining games at home against teams we are will be favored to beat.

Buckle up, this could get interesting over the next 13 days.

Huggins Era

The Bob Huggins era of coaching the West Virginia Mountaineers has now officially began with last nights 81-53(Mark's new site)victory last night against Arkansas-Monticello. With many thanks to Chris Ostein for a couple tickets to see the game, I went and picked up Brittany and took her to the game with me last night.

We did get to briefly see the inside of a mobile production studio as Chris was doing instant replay for the game. He and Scott are on their way to Cincinnati today to broadcast tonight's football game.

I think Brittany really enjoyed the game.

Most influentual Professor at WVU

Congratulations are in store for probably one of my most influential professors while at WVU. Dr Kenneth Martis welcomed me into the program my Freshman year, and was basically my mentor during my tenure at WVU. He was my adviser when Dr. Elmes was on sabbatical and always had an open door for me regardless of why I would come and see him.

He was also the one who nominated me for the personal interest story among WVU grads for the 2004 Commencement. It went to an 86 year old man, but I was a finalist and it was Dr. Martis who nominated me. Our disciplines are different, I am a GIS guy and he is a political geographer, but our paths crossed numerous times as my advisor, professor, nominator, man of influence and the man who called my name during graduation.

Yesterday, Dr. Martis was named the 2007 WVU Professor of the year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Congratulations on the honor Dr Martis. As any one of his former students could tell you, "Water Transportation, is the cheapest form of transportation, ESPECIALLY for large bulk products." This was something very simple that he drilled into our heads. It also was a very helpful piece of information to many other disciplines of geography.

Coming closer

It's getting closer and closer to that Big Old hairy Friday and the start of the weekend. However we are stuck at Thursday and will have to wait another day.

I went over last night and hooked up Danielle and Mom's wireless internet up. Danielle's Router wasn't properly working and she had to have them send her another one, this one works quite nice. Once I configured Danielle's, I went downstairs and configured Mom's.

I think they both now like being wireless and have the freedom of taking their laptops away from their traditional locations and being able to use them at multiple places around the house.

Mid week

It started out as a nice day, I had work to do and my machines at work were both running well. Until about 8:30 and the network virus once again proceeded to try to take down the network.

This can make for a long day, but the weather is nice and my front door is open so I don't mind all that much. At least I can still get the fresh air in and make it smell like summer time.

First Experiance with MC OSX Leopard

Yesterday I had my first chance to look at the Macintosh OS X Leopard operating system. I had advised Danielle in not getting a Windows Vista Machine and instead going the Macintosh route. I felt as though Microsoft had really fumbled the ball on their Window's Vista Operating System, and apparently so does about everyone else.

Danielle bought hers yesterday and I was given the chance to actually have a little first hand experience using it. I have used a series of Windows OS, Unix, Linux and knoppix, and I was really intrigued by what Macintosh was offering. They did not disappoint.

It is a very trouble free, user friendly, quick and efficient system. If I did not have to have a Windows system for the VPN, I would probably buy a MAC. I may still eventually end up getting one if it is a laptop and not something I need to work with everyday.

Kim who was going to get one, had decided yesterday that they were not going to get one, only to call me last night at about 10:30 after learning of Danielle's and informed me she had just ordered one. She has wanted one for some time and I can say it will fit her perfectly.

Strange

Anyone who knows me knows I speak an offbeat language that I picked up 25 years ago from Jane. It's called Gibberish it's an advanced deviation based on the English Language.

Outside of the friends I learned it from nor the people I have taught it to have I ever really heard or used it. It was sort of like an unspoken hidden language that only a few people identified with.

I'm sitting here this afternoon watching Slums of Beverly Hills and there is a scene where two girls are having a conversation in gibberish. I didn't think much of it when they first started putting up subtitles, but then it dawned on me, they are speaking gibberish.

Strange.

The Monday After

It was a nice, long event filled weekend for me and now it is back to work. WVU Football game, Women's basketball game, Gallagher Concert and watching a great Steelers comeback yesterday made for a fun event filled weekend. However all good things must come to an end and we start another week.

My voice is slowly coming back from Thursday night, but it's not at 100% just as of yet. It will get back to normal in a couple of days.

We're still having a problem with the VPN at work, at least as far as connecting to workstations, so that means so far today the day has been in limbo. Sitting around and waiting.

Gallagher Concert

Last night was the night, the night that I finally got a chance to see one of my favorite comedians.

Gallagher had been here twice before, but both occasions I was in High School and had a scheduled football game that night. So, I never had the opportunity to see him.

Last night he did not disappoint. He did a roughly three hour show, but it wasn't one of his typical shows. There was a lot of audience participation including many kids that had the opportunity to step on stage with him.

When we first walked in, everything was basically covered in plastic, that should have been an indication what was to come. The show started off with him using a tennis racket and hitting candy into the audience, then a few hours of stand up, then a very memorable sledge o matic final.

It was a great night and he did not disappoint.

A Sad Day

Reading todays paper I noticed that Henry "Yup Yup" Drosky passed away yesterday at the Sundale Nursing Home.

"Yup Yup" as the Mountaineer nation remembers him was named by WVU Hall of Fame football coach Don Nehlen as West Virginia's Number one fan. He was legenday, he had some kind of disability that caused his condition, the only words you would ever hear him say was "Yup Yup", which is where henry earned his name and reputation from Mountaineer fans. Any time I ever went to a WVU sporting event in my youth Henry was always there. Any time I had ever been to a mountaineer sport practice even much less a game, Henry was always there.

I always said he deserved to be honored as WVU's most loyal fan.

Uncle Junior (George Koon) will be officiating the Funeral Monday Morning at the McCulla Funeral Home.

I shot this portion of video years ago with dad's camera. RIP Henry, you will be missed, but never forgotten.

I officially don't like Go Mart

About a week or so ago McBee's Exxon up here obviously changed ownership and a few policies. They no longer carry Exxon Gasoline (My preference) and the store is half empty of products. (Not to mention the bad sandwich I got this past week).

This morning I pulled in to fill up my gas tank, it was on E and needed filled, so I pull in and put in my card and choose credit. I start filling up and the pump shuts off at $50.00.. My tank isn't full, unfortunately, so I proceed to walk into the store and tell them that the pump shut off at $50.00 for some reason on a credit card purchase. I was informed it was their company policy to limit gasoline purchase credit card transactions to $50.00 and debit card transactions to $35.00.

Maybe it's just me, and I could understand if they limited that dollar amount if you paid after the purchase, but this is the same as a prepay transaction. You're limiting me to $50.00 worth of gas per credit card and $35.00 per debit transaction?

Well my tank is I believe a 22 gallon tank, the light comes on around 18 gallons though, and at the current $3.19 a gallon it's not hard to purchase in excess of $50.00 of gasoline in a single transaction, especially for those of us who drive SUV's.

So Go Mart, this individual who used to have to fill up every other day and now spends roughly $30.00 a week now or $60.00 every two weeks, is now an unhappy customer and is probably not going to be doing any more business with you. That is roughly $1,600 a year I spent at this store JUST FOR GASOLINE PURCHASES. That doesn't include the bottles of diet coke, breakfast sandwiches, or any other item I may purchase when I stop in.

To the new owners who probably paid a premium price for that prime location, you're own idiotic policies and empty store have just officially cost you a long time customer. Don't know how many pennies your policy is going to save you, but it just cost you a couple thousand dollars a year in sales to this consumer.

Very Little Voice left

Wow what a game last night. I was standing and yelling the whole night long, to the point that I really don;t have much of a voice today. WVU won a hard fought 38-31 Victory over defending Orange Bowl Champions Louisville last night on ESPN. Pat White sealed the game last night with a 50 Yard Touchdown run late in the game to break the 31-31 tie that Louisville had fought back to get.

It was a Gold Rush night where all the fans were decked out in Gold, and the team were in Gold shirts and pants. The stands were jumping and the fans were into the entire game and actually were the 12th man last night.

great night.

Bring on the Cards

Tonight, Morgantown will be invaded by a bunch of red birds that think they can play football. Rich Rodriguez will lead the WVU Mountaineers onto the field at roughly 7:30 this evening to try to dispel the red birds theory that they can play football.

It should be a great environment and Nick and I will be there sitting in section 101, we'll be wearing Gold sweatshirts, look for us.

Midweek

the VPN is acting all screwy at work, so I can't log in right now. I guess that makes it as good as a time as any to do a blog post.

I think old man winter and Mother nature have teamed up and are planning to move into the neighborhood for the next few months. I'm trying to hook Phil up with a couple female groundhogs to take his mind off his shadow this February. Of course he didn't see it last year and we got the worst part of winter AFTER that. I guess it's still too early to start asking if it's softball yet.

Still planning on going to the game tomorrow night with Nick. It should be a pretty good game and hopefully we can make things turn out in our favor. WVU is currently a 15 point favorite, but that doesn't really mean anything.

Have a good Hump day.

Did you see the Steelers last night

Wow were they impressive. It was 35-0 at one point in the first half and the steelers managed to pull out a 38-7 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. It was a game when the Steelers brought back the all time teams and all the Steeler greats were there for the game.

I hope this is just the start of a good football week for me.

McBee's Exxon

My Local gas station, McBee's Exxon where I have done a lot of shopping since I moved up on Grafton Road has sold out to someone else. Different brand of gas, the store was half empty with it's normal products and I just bought a Wedgie that I would almost wager has sat there for about six hours. Worst thing I have ever eaten from there.

They changed ownership and went downhill quick. I hope this is just a transitional period, because as is, this place sucks.

EDIT, I just tossed the Wedgie, I'm hungry and it was that bad.

The BCS

The Mountaineers were idle this weekend, and two teams ranked ahead of us lost. That didn't prevent us from getting jumped in the BCS poll though. The Mountaineers were jumped by not only one, but TWO teams that were ranked behind us last week. We went into the week ranked #7, and after sitting idle we come out of the weeks ranked #7.

I would say any chance of the Mountaineers somehow making it to the National Championship game now are slim to none.

We have to concentrate on the tasks at hand, and that is the next four games one at a time. If they do they, everything else will take care of itself.

Weekends over

It was a relaxing weekend, didn't really get into too much. Ate Breakfast with Amy and Ralphie yesterday morning at Hardees. Stopped by the bar once and visited Terri, other than that a pretty uneventful weekend.

Next weekend will be quite busy for me.

Thursday Night I'll be going to the WVU Louisville game with Nick.

Friday Night Morgantown High and University High Start the playoffs here against each other and WVU will be hosting the Big East Soccer Championship this weekend at the soccer stadium.

Saturday I'll be going to see Gallagher with Pam and George.

And if WVU is playing for the Championship Sunday, I may go watch the Big East soccer Finals.

Needless to say that there will be plenty for me to do and get into this coming weekend.

Fall Back

Later tonight 2:00 AM on Sunday we will officially be turning the clocks back and going off Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time. This means you can have an extra hour of sleep this weekend and the days are now getting much shorter.

It's Official

We now officially have Klaer Lodge for both Sunday Night the 23rd and Monday Night the 24th of December. I called and reserved it this morning after speaking with everyone the past few days. I remember I tried to do this last year and could manage to get it for one night after a last minute cancellation. No worries this year, it has been secured and it is now officially ours.

Come one come all, and make sure you have plenty of batteries for your camera, this will be one to remember.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes we are once again at time of the work week when the work ceases and the fun begins, we are on the dawn of yet another weekend.

The Mountaineers are off this weekend and will be playing next Thursday Night against Louisville. Thanks to a good friend, I now have two tickets to this game and Nick and I will be going to the game. I had an extra ticket and couldn't think of anyone else who would want to go more than Nick. I could be wrong, but I think this may be the first game he has attended since Recourse.

I think over the last couple days we have a game plan for Christmas and where we are going to have it. I am going to call today and try to reserve Klaer Lodge for Sunday night the 23rd and Monday night the 24th. It's been too long since everyone has been together. The place is spacious, private and plenty of parking with full facilities and sleeps I think 30 for anyone who may want to stay. We're talking about doing a Chinese Gift Exchange, I was involved with one last year with my softball team. I think it could be enjoyable to everyone. Klaer Lodge also has a couple fireplaces for hanging stockings.

I got a message from Moke this morning, He's in Ohio and has found a new job already and has applied to two colleges he said. We'll see.

Have a good Friday.

Halloweeen Night

It's that time of the year again when ghouls and goblins come down and visit us. They demand sweet sugary treats of enjoyment in exchange for not giving you a trick. Last night at Jean's was no different than any other year. Most of us got together and enjoyed a pre-meal of Sloppy Joe's, Pizza and French Fries.
After the feast that was provided by Jean, the kids got into their costumes and started out to seek their treats for the night. Trick or Treating ran from 6:00 till 8:00 in East Gate and to say this this year was any different than any other year would be an incorrect statement. At 6:00 Calvin and Joey were off, they wanted that sugar rush. Erica and Josh weren't far behind and Kayla, Kyle and Kayla's friend also setting out to garner the nights treats.
Pam was lucky enough to draw the "Candy Giver" role this year. I sat out there to keep her company as jean also made an occasional visit to be wowed by the number of trick or treaters that decided to pay a visit.

We started out with 200 Small Candy Bars and between Me and Val we provided another eight bags of Candy bars. Somehow Rich's stash of Candy bars managed to make it into the bowl to give out.
It would be hard for me to estimate how many Trick or Treaters we saw this year, 90% of the Trick or Treaters that stopped by stopped in the first hour of the event. I think a safe guess would have to be in the 350 range for number of visitors for the night. At 6:30 I really considered going down to Krogers and buying more Candy, wondering if we had enough. Eventually with a little help from Rich's stash, we managed to make it all the way through.

Pam and I turned the lights out and came back inside at about 7:50, it had been a good 20 minutes since we had seen our last treater.

It was a memorable night.

Happy Halloween

Tonight is All Hallows Eve or Halloween to you and me. This is the night when ghouls and goblins come around requesting a treat, and if they don't get a treat, you will get a trick.

I was talking to Jean earlier in the week and we were trying to remember how many trick or treaters we had last year. I was thinking a couple hundred, but looking at last years recap
of Halloween on my Blog, we estimated there were 400 Trick or Treaters that stopped by.

I'll be there with camera in tow.

New feature added to sidebar

I just added an RSS feed from the WV Metro News on the right side of the blog.

300 LB African Lion Loose in WV

There is supposedly a 300 pound male African Lion roaming around West Virginia in Lewisburg.

I wonder if I put a couple dead chickens out he'll come and eat the deer so they don't run into my car.


African lion alleged to be in W.Va.
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 10/29/2007 10:11:18 AM MDT

LEWISBURG, W.Va.—Using a video camera and raw chicken, state officials hope to learn whether the king of the jungle is prowling the woods of West Virginia.

Bow hunter Jim Shortridge believes he saw a full-grown, male African lion weighing between 250 and 300 pounds at the foot of Cold Knob Mountain earlier this month. The state Division of Natural Resources confirmed that at least one other person has reported seeing the lion.

Using a camera normally employed to catch people dumping trash illegally, the state Department of Environmental Protection has joined with Greenbrier County Animal Control Officer Robert McClung and exotic animal expert Jim Forga to see if they can substantiate the sightings.

Twenty pounds of raw chicken left on the site last week were devoured, but McClung said that doesn't prove the lion's existence.

"Anything could have eaten that," he said.

If officials do spot the lion on videotape, they may set a bear trap for the animal. If caught, it would be turned over to Forga, who runs Tiger Mountain Refuge in Rainelle, a shelter for exotic animals.

Trunk or Treat

Just passing this along:

WVU student groups invite children to 'Trunk or Treat' Oct. 29

Student organizations at West Virginia University are planning a special “Trunk or Treat” event to give area children a chance to trick or treat in a fun and safe environment.

The event will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. Monday (Oct. 29) at the Coliseum parking area.

WVU students dressed in costumes will hand out candy and other treats to kids from the trunks of cars. There will also be games and a costume contest for children.

The Mountaineer mascot – along with Choosy from the Choosy Kids Club, a WVU program that encourages active lifestyles based on healthy decisions, and the Chick-fil-A cow – will be making special appearances.

The WVU chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers is organizing the “Trunk or Treat” event.

Other student groups that will be passing out treats to children include the Alpha Pi Mu Industrial Engineering Honor Society; Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology Association; American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Habitat for Humanity; Alpha Lambda Delta national honor society; Alpha Xi Delta sorority; WVU Collegiate 4-H; Academy of Student Pharmacists; American Society of Civil Engineers; Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity; Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society; Lutheran Disaster Response Collegiate Corps; Lutheran Student Movement; Society of Women Engineers; Omega Psi Phi fraternity; WVU Softball; Mountaineer Campus Ministries; Association for Computing Machinery; MTNA; Engineers Without Borders; Kappa Phi Pi; Destination Imagination; and Be Choosy Kids.

All ages are welcome. For more information, e-mail WVIIE1@gmail.com or ahoffma4@mix.wvu.edu.

BRRRRRRR

I woke up early this morning, as I do any other morning, and walked outside to go and get my morning paper. I usually walk outside in shorts and a T Shirt and never thing twice about it unless it is raining out.

I walked out this morning and noticed that it was FREAKING COLD OUT. What happened? Windshields actually had a thin layer of frost/ice on them and I could almost see my breath. BRRRR

I also think me feeding my squirrels all summer has created a new species. They are now the sized of deer. I walk outside this morning and there were three squirrels the size of deer and they had horns and much smaller tails. Come to think of it, they may have been deer and not some super genetic transformation of my squirrels because of my super feed corn.

How about this for an up and coming guitar wizard

WVU looked good yesterday

WVU played Big East Conference foe Rutgers University and played arguably one of our best games of the season. The Mountaineers played steady and consistent in a 31-3 winning effort. The defense played hard and held Heisman Trophy candidate out of the end zone and kept him pretty much contained all day. Rice still managed to get quite a few rushing yards, but nothing accounting for any points. Steve Slaton had three touchdowns and Pat White had the other.

The Mountaineers will be off next Saturday and will play Louisville at home on the following Thursday. Louisville beat us last year, but have been struggling this season. We should be able to run the table the rest of the way.

Big Ole RAINY Friday

It's that time of the week again, but dammit it's raining out. I was wanting to go to the MoHawk Bowl tonight at Mountaineer Field, but I'm not going and sitting and watching it in the rain. It will be broadcast locally this evening on local Channel 3 for those of us who don't feel like sitting out in the rain.

I'm listening to Hoppy's talkline and it's my favorite part of the week, it's steam release. However Hoppy is in New Jersey getting ready for tomorrows game against Rutgers.

It's a rainy kind of day

Well it is Wed but it is also a rainy type of day here. It really hasn't been a heavy rain, but kind of a steady streaming mist of rain for the last few hours. The summer weather that we have enjoyed the last few days now fades into our recent memory as the smell of fall, when fresh leaves have fallen from, the trees and that Autumn mist is very prevalent.

For anyone who likes taking pictures, I'm sure we are just at about the right time when this part of West Virginia with it's deciduous hard wood trees have their leaves demonstrate a beautiful time of the year as they leaves change colors. It's the time of the year when it looks like Mother Nature wolfed down a big box of Crayola Crayons and then spewed it all over the area.

It's a beautiful time to be in West Virginia.

Let's Turn back the clock kinda day

Sometimes you are looking for content to add to a blog. Something that will keep a readers interest and keep them coming back. I will have to credit the West Virginia Historical Photographs collection
as the main source of my historical Morgantown Photos.

TODAYS PHOTO(Link to site rather than posting photo)

Today is one of those days that I was reaching for an idea something to do and it dawned on me, I had previously considered finding a historical photo and discussing it on the blog. I love photography, and that doesn't mean it has to be mine, but it could be.


The Photo that you see to the right was taken in 1949 when the original Star City Bridge was being built. Of course it looks nothing like it does today, even though this image was taken on the opposite side of the bridge. The old bridge was destroyed a few years ago in the early AM. I remember waking up early and going to the Texas Roadhouse with Ginger Bernholt so we could see the demolition of the bridge before we headed off to work.

I just thought it would be mice to stop and reflect a little.

Wildabeast v Tiger v Alligator

Watch it all the way through, pretty amazing video.

It's a back 2 work kinda Monday

Yuck, I hate Mondays. It's back to work.

The weekend was alright, the Mountaineers won on Saturday for homecoming. WV jumped out to a 31-0 lead early in the 2nd Quarter, but had it not been for a stupid block in the back penalty that was insignificant as to what was happening on the field, it would have been 35-0 in the 1st Quarter.

Yesterday the Steelers played the late game and lost on a last second Field Goal to Denver 31-28. The Steelers didn't look to sharp at times and dropped this game to the Broncos.

My Fantasy Football team suffered their first loss of the year after the big matchup last weekend of the only two undefeated teams. This week my top two players were in Bye weeks and I lost a close game. I should be pretty much full strength the remainder of the season.

Have a good day.

What an accomplishment

WVU Men's Soccer team achieved a nice little goal tonight, pardon the pun, they just beat the #1 Ranked UCONN Huskies at the Soccer Stadium.

Great job guys!!!

Gallagher Tickets

Anyone else wanting to go to the Gallagher show next month, Pam George and Myself have already bought our tickets for the Saturday November 10 show and we will be sitting in the orchestra section.

Anyone else interested in attending this show (concert style seating (that's first come first serve for each section)) you will need to use TicketWeb and order the orchestra seating. That's the lower section.

Something I did learn today, Gallagher used to live in Fairmont, West Virginia for six months during the 70's. He told Eric and Kevin in a taped interview that was accidentally erased before broadcast that he wrote the Sledge-O-Matic bit while he was an unknown comic living in Fairmont.

His first Sledge-O-Matic bit (Sorry, embedding disabled)

Another Big Old Hairy Friday

Once again we reach that point of the workweek that we look forward to, the day when work ceases for the week and the weekend if upon up. It's once again another Big Old Hairy Friday.

Unlike last weekend, Morgantown High School will be playing at home tonight, WVU will not only be playing tomorrow, but be playing at home and the Steelers will play on Sunday. I have to appreciate this weekend after a no football weekend last week. Yuck.

There is some very good local news, missing teen Jacob Allen, an autistic kid from Morgantown who was lost for four days at Dolley Sods was found yesterday. I guess they found him about a mile from where they had found his hat previously.

If you are looking for something to do tonight, tonight at 6:30 is the West Virginia University Homecoming parade downtown. Pardon the pun - weather report, but I hope it doesn't rain on WVU's parade tonight.

Enjoy your weekend.

This week has been dragging

Maybe it's because I really have nothing to do and sitting and waiting on data, but man has this week been exceptionally slow for me. Yikes, someone send me some data.

Well even though this week is going slow, we are at Thursday at least. Comedian Gallagher is supposed to be on Eric and Kevin's show this morning, so I am paying attention and trying to win a few tickets to one of the shows. They gave away a pair during the 6:00 hour with a 20 questions game, but I didn't have a clue to the answer until it was revealed. I have won this game before though.

Keep your fingers crossed and maybe I can still win some tickets to one of the shows today. Come on Kevin, hook a catcher up.

Josie's Birthday

Even though it has been several months since Amy and I split up, her daughter Josie is still on my mind. Today is Josie's birthday.

Happy Birthday Brittany Dae Cummings

I would like to take this chance to wish my niece Brittany, a very Happy Birthday today. I think she is starting to catch up to me in age, as I am now only four years older than her. Give it another five years and she;ll be older than me.

Anyways, have a very Happy Birthday Brittany.

It's a back to work Monday

I'm telling you the weekends just seem to fly by anymore. It seems like it was just Friday night and the workweek was over with.

Over the weekend I managed to go to Mountaineer Madness, the first WVU Basketball Practice of the season Friday night with Mark, Chewy and Courtney. Mark had the opportunity to see a slam dunk by WVU during a WVU basketball game. You would think a man who has been the teams official statistician for roughly 20 years sitting on press row would have seen a dunk or two through the years, but he doesn't actually get to see too much of the action and told me he has never had his eyes up for a WVU Dunk.

Saturday I went and did a little shopping. Went to a few stores like JC Penney's and Steve and Barry's and of course Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. In was all over the place trying to find dress shirts for someone my size. having a 20" neck makes it VERY hard to find a shirt that fits. Gerald recommended going to Daniel's here in Morgantown, he said other than JC Penny's it's really the only other place you can find big men's clothes. Belk's had a small selection and Elder Beerman's selection was very limited.

Sunday was Fantasy Football day and I was taking my 6-0 record against the only other undefeated team. One of us had to win, and let's just say about everyone on my team had a MONSTER game. The way our league is set up, teams will average between 90-100 points a game if you are half decent. I blew that scale out of the water this weekend setting a league record for points in a single week and still have one big points player going tonight. I won 207-97 and all my opponents players have played. Needless to say there is only one undefeated team left and it is yours truly. Considering the knowledge levels of sports of the guys in this league, that is one HECK of an accomplishment. I owe it all to draft research, I drew the first position for the draft, but that position traditionally doesn't even make the playoffs. I found a sleeper or two.

It's Monday morning and the weekend is now once again a fond fading memory. Back to work.

it's Big, Old and Hairy, must be Friday

Yes once again that one day of the week that we look forward to in anticipation has finally arrived and we are at the dawn of yet another weekend.

This is going to be a non-football weekend for me. Morgantown High is playing away at Parkersburg South, the Mountaineers and the Steelers are both idle this weekend.

However tonight is Mountaineer madness for the start of basketball season. Admission is free and both the WVU Men's and Women's teams will be available for an autograph session at 8:15 and will start practices at 9:00. Practice will include a new video board, a slam dunk competition, a 2 ball game and many other things. Could be a nice night to head to the Coliseum to greet the team and enter in the Bobby Huggins era of Mountaineer Basketball.

In case everyone forgot, when Gale Catlett retired Bob Huggins was the coach that everyone thought was coming home. Huggy bear chose to stay at the #2 Cincinnati Bearcats which lead WVU to hire John Beilein. After Beilein bolted for Michigan, Bob Huggins did not balk at the chance to return home this time.

Other than that Mylan Park will be hosting Oktoberfest tomorrow.

Have a good weekend no matter what you get into.

Congratulations Danielle

I got a cal from Danielle last night, she is wanting to buy a new laptop before she heads off to college. I guess yesterday she received her first approval letter from Wheeling Jesuit. I then proceeded to ask her what was her number one choice of a college to get into and I quickly found out why she was happy to hear from Wheeling Jesuit.

Congratulations on being accepted to the college that you feel is the best fit for you. It adds something to your academic career when you are accepted into your first choice.

Painball

Got eh following e-mail this morning from Sean Arthurs of MVP Paintball:


Little reminder that October 13th is Halloween Havoc 2 at MVP Park. It will be a scenario game dated way back. It was written by my co-owner Danny Williams and looks like a ton of fun. Gates open at 8am and the game starts around 10am. We hope to see you Saturday.

Thanks,
Sean Arthurs
Co-owner
MVP Park

Back 2 Class

After missing last weeks class from being in Sterling Virginia, I will return to class tonight at the Vo Tech center. I have no idea what I may have missed, but I don't think it was too much. I felt bad about missing last week, but after working 10 hours I would have had to have driven 3 1/2 hours back to make the final 30 minutes of class last week.

I had a teleconference yesterday, it was our monthly meeting and things are looking very good financially for the company. It's nice to work for a company where there is a secure future if you would choose that route.

Tuesday's Tidbits

* It's been a while since I have done a tidbits, so maybe it's time for me to do one.

* Congratulations to Nick, he switched jobs and is now working for Dick's Sporting goods.

* Jean is getting ready to go out of town for a few days, her and Mickey and Sheila are going to Huntington for a few days. I guess Shelia rents a cabin down there and their family has a reunion once a year.

* Friday Night is going to be Mountaineer Madness for the Mountaineer basketball team. It will be the official start of the 2007-8 basketball season and the start of the Bob Huggins era.

* Amy bought another car a few weeks ago, but I haven't seen it yet. Her and Ralphie were in Ohio and the transmission went out of their other car, so she bought another one.

* Val has been working at the smokeshop in Sabraton now for a few weeks. I think she likes it so far.

* There is a new shop at the mall that I like, Rocky Top Leather just opened up three days ago and looks like it might be a store that I buy from.

* It's October and that time of the year when Rich's Farms does Fright Farm. I haven't been there in years, but you never know what this season holds.

Back to Work

After a nice deserving and relaxing weekend, it was back to the ole gridiron today as a new week of work and tasks has been set upon us. Actually I'm waiting on the client to give us their final feedback, so I haven't really been that busy today. Made a few corrections that I know they are going to ask for.

At least this is one day that is down and only four more to go before another Big Ole Hairy Friday is upon us. However this coming weekend is going to be a little boring, both the Mountaineers and the Steelers are having Bye weeks and will be off this weekend.

A little catching up to do.

I have been a little busy the past couple weeks and have not had the opportunity to touch on everything that I wanted to touch on, so this will be the catching up blog.

Last week we had a big thunderstorm up here on Scott Avenue. So big that many of the leaves were knocked off of the trees and there were green leaves everywhere. This is a picture that I took of my apartment complex, and no our roof is NOT green.


Last week I had to travel to Sterling Virginia to the home office and work with an old friend. Srinu, the guy sitting down, and myself managed to get the pilot area for New York City completed. It came with a lot of headaches and frustration, but the pilot is mostly done with the exception of some minor tweaking the client is wanting us to do this coming week. They made a few changes on how they want it submitted, it's minor things. I can do it from Morgantown.

Friday I went to the balloon festivals fairgrounds and walked around for a few hours. I did manage to find a 12" Hot Sausage Hoagie that was calling my name. It's the ones like you used to be able to get from the roach coach that used to park in front of Lowes. A think meaty hot sausage link on a 12 inch soft roll with fried green pepper, onions and mushrooms on top of it. maybe I should go back up today and double check if that was the ingredients it had.

Yesterday I didn't get into too much. I watched the Mountaineers beat Syracuse on TV and a few other teams ranked ahead of us fall. Maybe we can move up in the polls this week.

This morning I started my day out early so that I could be at the Airport for the mass balloon ascension from hart Field. I think I counted twenty-one balloons that took off this morning in the last launch from the airport for the festival. There will be one last launch scheduled for today at 4:30.

Lest we not forget that the Pittsburgh Steelers will be playing the Seattle Seahawks today in a Super Bowl rematch of a couple years ago.

Have a good day.

Finally a BIG, Ole Hairy Friday

This is the last day of a twelve day stretch for me, tonight I start a long awaited weekend and finally having a day off. I'm not really that busy today, but I'm here if they need me and not out running around enjoying the Mountaineer Balloon Festival.

Mom and a couple of my siblings are planning on taking a relaxing shopping trip to the Springs Festival today in Springs PA. I'm sure they will enjoy their trip and spend a little quality time together.

In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of hot air balloons around Morgantown this weekend. Their schedule for today.


All Day Carnival Rides Field
All Day NASCAR Display Field
All Day NASCAR Simulator Field
All Day Paintball Field
All Day Chad Pitts - Glass Blowing Field
All Day Howard Davis - Chainsaw Carving Field
All Day Pre-1840s Living History Demonstration Field
All Day Gifts and Souvenirs Montgolfier Tent
All Day Cheat River Outfitters Climbing Wall Field
7:30am Garfields Race Morgantown Airport
Noon Gates Open ---
12-5 Morgantown Police Department Crime Van Field
12-6 Kid's Day ---
12-6 Pony Rides Field
12-6 Marble Shooting and Competitions Field
12-6 Raptor Center Field
12-6 Children's Museum of Pittsburgh Tent 1
12-6 Morgantown Public Library Crafts & BOPARC Sandbox Tent 2
12-6 NASA with WVU Ballooning Club Tent 3
12-6 Beekeeper Tent 3
12-6 FBI Fingerprinting Field
12-6 WVU Entomology Field
12-8 Face Painting Field and Montgolfier Tent
12:30-4:30 Tethered Balloon Rides Launch Area
12:30 Carnegie Science Center Stage 2
1-4 Jenny Wilson's Kid Concert Main Stage
1:00 Oglebay's Good Zoo Stage 3
1:30 Chip Bryant Stage 2
2:00 Carnegie Science Center Stage 2
2:00 Chip Bryant Stage 3
2:30 Chip Bryant Stage 3
3:00 Oglebay's Good Zoo Stage 3
3:00 Chip Bryant Stage 2
3:30 Carnegie Science Center Stage 2
4:00 Oglebay's Good Zoo Stage 3
4:30 Chip Bryant Roaming, Field
4:30 High School Band Launch Area
4:30 The Sign Factory Race Launch Area
5:30-8:30 Band - "Brad Crow and the Cut-Ups" Main Stage
6-9 Karaoke and More Stage 2
7:00 Second Night Glow! Launch Area

Back Home

I finished up the pilot area yesterday around 5:00 and decided to get a nights rest before I started to drive back to Morgantown. If you know me, at 3:00 AM I was up and wide awake, I had just woke up rather than didn't go to bed, so I figured that was about a good as time as any to start organizing my trip home.

I got lost once on the trip down due to a wrong turn, minor error mileage wise, and it was broad daylight then. I figured I would try my luck backwards in the middle of the night and didn't have any troubles.

Sterling was nice, I liked it there as this was my first trip to our US Geospatial headquarters. It was a very busy week, needless to say other than work on this project, drive, sleep and eat I really didn't have much free time. The two slots of free time I did have was Friday night to watch the WVU game and Sunday afternoon to watch the steelers go down in defeat. That and last night where I wanted to get to bed early so I could get a good start on the trip.

I guess that is the closest thing I've had to a vacation since I went to DC on a class trip in 2003. However this one was all expenses paid =)

Right now I am installing the latest greatest version of the ArcGIS software that I brought back with me on my home PC. I'm back to working on the VPN.

Here in Sterling

It was a busy day yesterday as we were setting up the methodologies for the pilot area. Fortunately I found out that other than me assembling the pilot area, I will only be doing Quality Assurance Quality Control on the rest of the project. Most of it will be done at the home office, I'm just here in a pinch.

Sterling is a beautiful town, it is pretty spread out and there are numerous things to do, places to shop and eat. However I have spent most of the time in the office working on this project as I am already here this Sunday morning awaiting on fresh data.

I have my camera with me so I'll be sure to get a few photographs.

My Hotel room is pretty nice, it has a full kitchen and a couple double beds. It is an extended stay hotel, so some amenities that you would find in a full service hotel are not there. However there is a Wal-Mart on the back side of the hotel, so I am good to go for anything I need.

Gallagher is coming to Morgantown

yes Morgantown, the madman of the watermelon is returning to Morgantown for the first time in 25 years when comedy legend Gallagher come to town for two shows at the Metropolitan theater on November 9th and November 10th. Tickets go on sale October 1st at Ticketweb. Gallagher is probably the one comic that personifies my generation in comedy, and is arguably my all time favorite comic from all the Showtime Specials he used to do.

Anyone else interested in going let me know and we can all go together. This is one show where I want to be front and center....with lots of plastic.

Going out of Town

I will be out of town from tomorrow morning until probably Wed of next week. I was going to leave tonight but have decided to wait until tomorrow morning to leave.

I'm not going on vacation, I'm going into the Sterling Office to complete the Pilot area of a project before Tuesday so we can submit it and get approval from the client. I just found out earlier this morning, so it was a little bit of a surprise. I guess this means no weekend for me as I will be working at the Sterling Office both on Saturday and Sunday as well as Monday and Tuesday and Tomorrow. I should return Wed.

This is a project that was introduced last month and was one of the two projects I really wanted to work on and be associated with. One of the two was inside the Country and one was building a digital image of a world known city outside of the country. I will be doing the Quality Control work of the City inside of the US. I don't want to say where it is on a blog for professional reasons, but it's the same place Kim, Brittany, Mary and Danielle went last November Christmas shopping. So, I am a little psyched to start this project to say the least.

I'll be taking my camera with me and will be staying close to Dulles Internation Airport.

What a storm last night

When I walked out of class last night is smelled of moisture. I drove home and saw a lightning storm just lighting up the sky.

About a half an hour later, a ravaging storm came through with large hail that was knocking leaves off of trees and raining acorns on my roof. This reminds me of the storm 23 months ago, I'm just very glad that the temperature wasn't below 32 degrees.

Class tonight

Once again it is the middle of the week, hump day and the day the day of the week that my class meets. Last week I did manage to obtain Business Plan Pro Premier edition, this is a really nice software that basically writes your business plan for you, you just type in what you want to say and put your figures in, it builds your charts and graphs, formats it and installs any tables that may be needed. It does it in a format that banks prefer from what I understand.

It's enjoyable being back in the classroom, I really like this one because there are no grades or anything like that to worry about. It's not like it affects a collegiate transcript. Less stress makes it more enjoyable.

A little Magic trick

What a day

This is one of those days at work that you wish you could just forget about. The day went quick but it was one problem after another on a previous project that we are trying to wrap up.

Talk about headache city, too many people have managed the data and have left the company before we got to this point. Only problem is I had to go and find all the latest greatest versions of the data and try to assemble a composite dataset for the client.

I read the clients feedback and they were not to happy with the quality of the work, compared to the data that we had submitted before. I asked for the clients latest greatest version a couple of months ago, but they did not want to do that thinking it made us look bad. Ever tried to look at as many as 10 different databases of the same data and try to figure out which ones had the latest corrections. There is a time stamp, but that isn't accurate. Talk about headache city today.


Oh well off to some other things. I checked on the availability of Klaer Lodge at Chestnut Ridge park and it is still available for Christmas Eve if everyone is wanting to start planning for that night.

Good football weekend

Morgantown High and University High both won Friday Night.

WVU looked real good against ECU, while defending Champion Louisville lost to Syracuse.

The Steelers ran their record to 3-0 on the season. Maybe I do like Mike Tomlin.

Another Big Ole Hairy Friday

Woo Hoo, my workday is over with and it is time for my weekend.

Tonight is University High School's homecoming and there should be a parade downtown, nothing confirmed on this though. That means they will be playing tonight at Pony Lewis.

Morgantown travels to Preston to take on the Knights. The Mohigans have been quite sluggish this season so far and are 2-2 on the season officially. One of those wins coming because Martinsburg was stripped of their win and the other was a late 4th Quarter comeback.

I actually hit rails to trails for the first time yesterday. It was the first time in probably a couple of months. I need to work myself back into that routine now that softball is over and the weather is cooler.

Happy Anniversary Kim and Robert

Today is Robert and Kim's fourth wedding anniversary. I would like to wish them both a happy anniversary and a speedy recovery to Kim.

Two new restaurants for Morgantown

There will be two more additional new restaurants coming to Morgantown in the following months, both will be at the University Town Center in the coming months.

One is already in the process of being built, the frame is already completed and it sits back from the entrance road a little bit. It's the new construction that is on top of the hill when you look down from best buy and it will be the first to open up. The Cracker Barrel has always been one of my favorite places to eat. It's a place I consciously look for when traveling. There is one in Fairmont, now we'll have one in Morgantown.

The next one was an announcement in todays paper and will built in the lot beside the Olive Garden. It's is a restaurant that has rumored to been coming to Morgantown for fifteen years or better, but the demographics of the area prevented us from getting the franchise until now. Red Lobster will finally have a location in Morgantown.

Happy Birthday Calvin

I would like to take this chance to wish my Nephew Calvin a very happy 12th Birthday. Pam and George had his birthday party this past Sunday, being that his birthday is in the middle of the week.

He wanted video games and received quite a few PS2 games as presents.

Sunday Morning

I have concluded my traditional Sunday Morning routine already and I am getting ready to head over to Krepps Park this afternoon for Calvin's Birthday Party. His birthday is Tuesday, but Pam is wanting to have the party today.

After that I am going to take a trip up to Mon general hospital to visit Kim. I stopped in to see her yesterday afternoon, but both she and Robert who have been through a lot were both resting peacefully and neither Terri nor I wanted to disturb them.

Hopefully she will have the chance to go home within the next few days, they are trying to reduce the fluid that she has in her right now.

Friday

Sorry I can't update anyone on what is going on this weekend. I've been doing a little running around and haven't been on the net as much as I usually am.

Anyone see the WVU game last night? WOW. We have the First Team All-American running back and Heisman finalist in our backfield, and his backup may arguably be one of the bets running backs I've ever seen. High School, College or NFL, past or present, Noel Devine has moves like I have never seen on anyone before with maybe the exception of Barry Sanders.

We're in good hands.

Update on Kim

They removed the tube in her nose today and have now given her the option of eating ice chips as opposed to before when she wasn't allowed anything orally.

When I went up yesterday morning she was still in pain and the doctors were wanting her to sit up in a chair for the first time. By yesterday afternoon she looked full of life and has started walking. She mentioned trying to walk a lap around the hospital corridor this morning. Slowly but surely she is recovering from the surgery.

I have stayed with Brittany the last couple of nights and will do so again tonight, then she is going to be with Ed for the weekend.

I left Kim my iPod buds yesterday and she has a little adapter where you can plug two sets of buds into one iPod, so yesterday her and Mom sat down together and listened to an audio book.

Don;t forget, WVU is kicking Maryland's butt tonight on TV.

Quick update on Kim

For those of you looking for an update on Kim, she had her surgery today. They had to make an incision and go in, so she is currently staying in the hospital and recovering.

For those of you concerned, Robert said he will send out a e-mail to everyone explaining everything.

Stay tuned

September 11, 2001

Off Tomorrow

I have decided to take the day off of work tomorrow so that I can help Kim out with anything that needs done during her surgery tomorrow. Mom, Terri, Robert and I plan on pretty much being there as long as needed until she returns from her surgery and we know something about her.

Steelers start today

Today at 1:00 the Pittsburgh Steelers officially enter the post Bill Cowher era when they make a visit to the arch rival Cleveland Browns to start the 2007-8 season.

I never get too excited about pre-season, but I have to say that I am a little concerned from what I have seen so far during the pre-season despite a 4-1 record during the time that games don't matter.

Today it starts for real for new coach Mike Tomlin and everything now counts.

Mountaineers win again

The Third Ranked WVU Mountaineer football team took a trip down south tho Huntington to take on the Thundering Herd from Marshall. It was a hard fought game for the first half, Marshall had held our high powered offense in check and went into halftime leading 13-6.

However depth and quality players are a trademark of this team and the Mountaineers put on a big second half effort and managed to walk away with a 48-23 win in front of what was the largest crowd to ever see a football game in Huntington.

Patrick White and Steve Slaton, West Virginia's two Heisman trophy contenders took complete control of the game in the second half. Our offense dominated the second half of the game, after a pretty dismal showing in the first half.


Freshman sensation Noel Devine entered the game in the second half to give Steve Slaton a rest and give the Marshall defense a lot of headaches. He rushed for 76 yards on 5 carries with two touchdowns. I Blogged about Noel this February when he initially gave the mountaineers a verbal commitment. WVU football is in good hands. I thought this last picture was funny, Noel is 5'8" and Wes Lyons is a 6'8" Wide receiver that we haven;t really unleashed on everyone yet.

Another Big Ole Hairy Friday

Once again my favorite day of the week, the time when the work ceases and the fun and entertainment starts to take over for the next few days.

No more free movies on Friday nights until next summer, as the summer under the stars movie series is over with.

Tomorrow WVU will play Moo Tech in Huntington. Kickoff for the game is scheduled at 11:02 A.M. WVAQ's Guru Bob has provided a little insight on what he thinks about the game.

On the High School sports scene, Morgantown travels to east West Stadium to play and University High plays at Pony Lewis.

If your looking for something different to do, tonight at 7:00 the WVU Womens soccer team plays at the WVU Soccer complex by the shell building.

Weather is supposed to be nice, so get out and enjoy the weather while you can because the days of great weather are starting to enter into their sunset for the year.

Have a good weekend.

New iPod introduced.

yesterday Apple introduced their new version of the iPod called the iPod Touch. It is very similar to the iPhone that was introduced earlier this year, it has all of the feature with the exception of the phone part of it. It does have a WiFi browser so that people will be able to start surfing the internet from their iPods.

Kim had told me about the announcement a couple of days ago so I was waiting to see what exactly it was going to be, because Steve Jobs keeps everything pretty much super secret until they actually have a press conference.

I was working on Terri's iPod yesterday (having trouble getting all the music back on it) when Kim called me with some news. She had me guess what she just bought, but it wasn't that hard to guess what she had just purchased.

The prices range from $299.00 for the 8 GB model and $399.00 for the 16 GB model.

Second night of classes tonight

Tonight we enter the second week of class, I have until the start of class to cancel the class if I want a refund, however there really enough said during the first week that could sway me one way or the other on that decision so I'll continue to stay with the class. It's one day a week and a little knowledge never hurt anyone.

For this week we had a simple assignment that went right up my ally. It was to find the demographics for Morgantown. Tough assignment for a geographer.

Back to work

It's back to work after a nice uneventful three day weekend for me. I honestly didn't get into much of anything this weekend, but it was nice to have three days to not get into anything.

I'm thinking now that the weather is starting to break a little bit, maybe it is time for me to take my lazy butt back to rails to trails as much as possible again. I have pretty much slacked off over the summer and need to get back to walking. Napping in the air conditioning during hot days is fun, but it doesn't help your health out too much.

WVU Football entrance

Nice Sunday Morning

It's a nice Sunday morning, the weather is beautiful and I have everything that I normally do on Sundays done for the day. Although I did get a little bit of a late start this morning.

I did switch things around a little this morning and committed Wal-Mart Blasphemy. My Wal-Mart seemed to be out of about everything I buy so I went to the other Wal-Mart on the other side of town to do my shopping. Oh the humanity.

Yesterday the Mountaineers handed one to Western Michigan 62-14 in front of a sold out Milan Puskar Stadium. The Mountaineers are 1-0 on the season and face Moo Tech next Saturday in Huntington.

Nothing really planned for today, man I live a boring life.

Gameday

It's finally here, the start of the much anticipated 2007 Mountaineer Football season starts today at Milan Puskar Stadium at Mountaineer Field this afternoon as Western Michigan pays visit the the #3 rated WVU Mountaineers.

The game will be on TV, so if you don't have you won't miss it.

A Bigger ole hairy Friday

Yeppers, this is a bigger Friday than normal Fridays, because this is also a three day weekend. We are getting set to celebrate the Labor Day weekend and the unofficial close of summer. Although the school years have already started locally, I have always considered this the swan song of the summer and the gateway to autumn.

Tonight BOPARC will be playing their final summer movie under the stars tonight when they will have play Disney Pixar's Cars. This was a movie that I anticipated to be released so I could get it on DVD last year. If you haven't seen it, it will not disappoint.

WVU Football will officially kick off their 2007 run for the National Title when they will play hose to Western Michigan tomorrow at 3:00. With the addition of what could be three very large playmakers that are true freshmen along with the unstoppable combination of White, Slaton, Schmidt and Reynaud this could be a very interesting year. We have added the nations best High School Running back in Noel Devine as well as big time playmakers Jock Sanders and Brandon Hogan, who will be converted from QB to WR this season. It should be very interesting this year.

High school football sees both Morgantown and University High School traveling tonight. Morgantown will be heading to Brooke and UHS will be heading to Fairmont to play East Fairmont.

The Pittsburgh Steelers closed out their pre-season schedule last night and ran their pre-season record to 4-1.

Pam has now officially accepted a new job. She will leaving Neighbor Care in the middle of September and start working at Mon General. She had an offer earlier this week and she and George sat down and made a decision as to her future. I think she has made the right choice in the long run.

Sunday at Pro Performance Center, Papa Roach and Hinder will have a concert.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate snow? Note to self, send bribes to Punxsutawney Phil now. Nothing wrong with an early start. Is it softball again yet?

Have a great weekend.

First night of class was alright

I had my first class last night and think I may end up enjoying the class. The first class was more of a rah rah session than anything else. I think I will learn a thing or two from this class.

Wow did we have a heck of a thunderstorm this afternoon. My front door was open so that I could enjoy the smell of a fresh rainfall, but there was some lighting hitting pretty close to me. I think it knocked out the offices computer, I know it has messed up my cell phone reception because there hasn't been a network for a couple of hours.

Steelers will close out the pre-season tonight.

Midweek

We had our fantasy football draft last night and I am feeling pretty good about my draft from last night. I managed to draw the Ace (meaning first draft position) and took LaDainian Tomlinson with the first pick of the draft. As it snaked back down to me I got Drew Brees as a QB. Last year with our setup, there were three players who scored 400 points (Peyton Manning being the third) and I managed to land two of the three on my team this year. I think I also got a sleeper in former Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson. I feel confident this year, hopefully I'll be in the money this season.

Tonight I enter a classroom again for the first time since I graduated college. I'm pretty sure that Gary has also signed up to take the class also. The class is one day a week from 6-9:00 on Wed.

Can you believe that there are two schools that have already started canceling classes for this school year. One in Keyser and Maysville Elementary but they canceled them because of lack of air conditioning. Give me a break, what did people do before classrooms were air conditioned? I don't know, how about opening a window?

We are now on the downside of the work week that will end in a three day weekend.

Fantasy Football Draft Night

Tonight Scott Barr will play host to a group of ten of us getting together to do a fantasy football draft for the 2007 NFL season. I have done a little more research this season and have actually prepared a spread sheet on player priority and where to draft certain positions for tonight.

I usually go into this blindly just carrying a fantasy football magazine, but I want to be in the money this year so I have done the research and can hopefully make it to the post season this year.

Another Computer problem

Nick called me yesterday evening and said that he was having trouble with his laptop. When you boot up, the BIOS was acting strange and kept asking for a password. The Bios is the initial boot that is on the motherboard that controls everything. So, nothing could be done. I even took a copy of Knoppix down to see if that could get around the problem. Much to no avail.

With phone support from Kim and Robert we all put our brains together and tried to solve the problem. Nick ended up having to call Toshiba and it is a defect that that machine has and they have to send it back to get it repaired.

WVU Football theme for 2007

New Domain name

I bought NickNTerri.com and am going to develop it for them based on the bar. I'll try to put a map, menu, beers served, schedule, hours and possibly a few pictures from band nights on it for them.

I have just started to develop it. Need to gather the information first. it is up and running though.

It's another big ole hairy friday

Once again it is time to cease the work and start the fun for the week as we are now at the weekend.

Tonight's movie on the Waterfront is Open Season. This is the next to last movie of the season, there will be a showing of Cars next Friday to close out the summer movie season.

For those of you wanting to see a little bit of Softball, Michael's team , Tailgaters, won a double header and have advanced to the semi-finals at 6:00 and 7:00 this evening at Whiston Field. They swept a double header last night running their season record to 17-4.

For those of you waiting for some football, Martinsburg will come to Pony Lewis Field tonight to take on the Morgantown Mohigans at 7:30. This game was originally scheduled to be played in Martinsburg, however they are putting down a new turf and had to move the game to Morgantown because production slowed.

Good luck to Mark Devault tomorrow in the Sprint Splash 'N Spin triathlon here in Morgantown. He's scheduled for a 9:50 a.m. start time.

For you school aged kids, enjoy your last weekend, school starts Monday.

I'm officially back in school

Well kind of. I have signed up for "Starting a Profitable Business" class at MTEC that starts Wed and runs through the middle of December. It's just one day a week for a few hours a night and it will give me a little insight on starting and operating a profitable business. I'm there just to learn the general model.

Happy Birthday Moke

If you see Moke today, make sure you wish him a very Happy Birthday, because today is his birthday. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him as of late, he is now working the day shift at Ruby.

Happy Birthday Moke

Midweek tidbits

* Nothing really special today, just a day that is a little bit blaah. We are at hump day and starting our downward motion towards the weekend. However I am thinking about taking tomorrow off so that I can go to a ESRI User's conference that I have signed up for. It'll give me a little insight as to what is coming around in the world of ArcGIS.

* Moke is now working at the WVU Hospital. He started Monday but I haven't got a chance to talk to him yet.

* Randy has a job at Back Bay.

* I haven't got a chance to talk to him yet, but I hear Nick really likes his new job.

* I've been busy this morning at work. Running a lot of processes, and they are running much quicker than they have been. I guess this means less time just sitting around waiting for it to complete and me having to do a few more keystrokes.

* This is the last weekend before school starts for all the pre-college kids. Classes start again in Mon County on Monday.

Rainy Night

I was rather rainy last night, which could have made WVU's Fallfest an interesting event, especially with 25,000 college students gathered in one place drinking beer and listening to music. I kinda miss college one day a year and yesterday was the day.

Last night however we got hammered with rain showers, I was in Wal-Mart and you could just hear the rain beating off of the roof and see flashes of light through the skylights that align their ceilings. Where was my umbrella? It was at home laying on the floor. Lot of good that did me.

I was talking to Kelly yesterday afternoon and she was ready to pull her hair out. She said that they (the students) had invaded and they are coming from everywhere.

Local schools will start their school year next Monday. Friday Night the Morgantown Mohigans will play host to the Martinsburg Bulldogs in their first high school football game of the year.