It's a Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes faithful readers, it is once again that time of the week when the labors for the week cease and we take time out to enjoys the fruits of our labors. It is a Big Ole Hairy Friday and the start of yet another weekend. It's the time we all work for all workweek long.

For those of you looking for a free movie at hazel Ruby McQuain park, they will be playing the movie Nancy Drew . So if you are looking for a little free, family oriented entertainment, Hazel Ruby McQuain Parl is the place to be tonight.

In case you missed it lasty night, Joe Alexander became the first, first round WVU basketball player to become a first round draft pick in 40 years when the Milwaukee Bucks Drafted Joe as the 8th overall pick of the NBA draft last night. Congratulations Joe, you deserve it and it was an honor to watch you this past year.

Coach Bob Huggins was there with Joe, ironically two players that even went higher than Joe had ties to Bob Huggins. The number 2 pick, Michael Beasley was recruited by Huggins last year at Kansas State and Huntington native and number three pick OJ Mayo both had close ties to Coach Huggins. It's a great night to be a Mountaineer.

In case you missed it.



Have a great day!!

NBA Draft Tonight

The 2008 NBA draft is going on tonight at 7:00 or 7:30. I'm pretty sure it will be on ESPN or ESPN2 this evening and I plan on watching.

A few years ago I watched the entire draft waiting to hear Mike Gansey or Kevin Pittsnogles name be called, but the draft came and went with Gansey listed as the best available for about 75% of the draft and neither one of were selected. I was quite disappointed to say the least.

The last time WVU had someone drafted in the first round on the NBA draft was 1968 with Ron "Fritz" Williams. The drought should end tonight when Joe Alexander becomes just the 6th First Round Pick from WVU. He is believed to be going to Milwaukee at the 8th overall pick in the first round.

Other First Round picks from WVU:

1952 Mark Workman (11th overall)
1957 "Hot" Rod Hundley (1st overall)
1960 Jerry West (2nd overall)
1963 Rod Thorn (3rd overall)
1968 Ron "Fritz" Williams (9th overall)

Joe could have come back for his Sr year, but his draft status has risen like a NASA Space shuttle as he is now a lottery pick and bank account is going to be quite full in the next few days.

Good Luck Joe, it has been a pleasure.

Midweek

Last night I saw a new cache to go and grab. Michelle was coming over and I noticed that there was a new cache at the end of Goshen Road by the interstate called Goshen Road West. So me and my sweeties decided to load up the GPS and head towards Nick and Terri's to find this cache.

The cache was a pretty easy one, Michelle ended being the one to find it beating me to it. We dropped off a travel bug in it, but ironically it was removed before I even got home to log the find. That's 30 and growing for number of caches.

Tuesdays Tidbits

* Every once in a while you have a little writers block and I just need to put our a tidbits.

* July 13 will be a dual Erica/Josh birthday party at Val's. She has decided to celebrate both of their birthdays in one shot this year.

* A Very Happy Birthday should have went out to Trish's Mom Pat Rosiak.

* Speaking of Rosiak, Michelle and I will be venturing to the Rosiak family 4th of July pic nic this Saturday. I'll make sure my biggest water gun is up and running and ready to be used. great time, great food and a huge water battle.

* I may have to make a business trip here next month to Charleston, South Carolina. July and the beach, I can't think of a better way to spend a few days, especially when it is on someone else's dime.

* I tried calling Mom this past Saturday, she was on a church trip to Columbus Ohio for the day.

Bob Gill

Back in 1974, Daredevils were the kings of the media. There was Evel Knievel who was arguably the most noted daredevil in the mid 70's, especially with his rocket car and Snake River Canyon Jump. But Evel did not hold the world record nor was he the first daredevil to ever attempt a Canyon Jump.

Both of these distinctions were held by a man named Bob Gill. He was the first the Jump a Canyon when in 1972 Bob jumped Cajun Canyon on nothing more than a motorcycle and no landing ramp.

Saturday I was driving through Terra Alta with Michelle and we were passing by Appalachia Lake. I told her the brief story of a great daredevil from yesteryear and his attempt to break his own world record with this jump. Bob is a MySpace Friend and I have sent him a few messages over the past year. I went to his site yesterday and saw a documentary on him that had some footage that I have never seen before.

HERE is the documentary, it was quite entertaining and took me back to an innocent time in my own childhood when he and Evel, the fearless motorcycle jumpers of yesterday were my heros.

Bob is planning on possibly returning to jumping later this year when he will take his jet powered Trike and make a jump in Las Vegas. I'll update everyone when I find out anything more or a specific date.

100 Days and counting

This is the 100th day since Michelle and I had our first date, so it can be called our 100 day celebration. Each day I grow closer and closer to her and am very thankful that she has come into my life. I must have done something right, because I am as happy now as I have ever been. I don't think I have ever been this fortunate in my life as far as career, education, love life, family, health and just general well being has all been this much in sync at one time.

Not to mention finding someone I love very much in the last 100 days I have been on a memorable team that competed in Steelers Trivia and been selected the the Blue and Gold News Hall of Fame, switched jobs, switched offices and have really started pursuing a new hobby of geocaching.

Speaking of, I went back up yesterday and grabbed a picture of what I was talking about yesterday. I just you need a better camera than what I have to capture the majestic view that is that location.

Have a game tonight at 8:00 and a double header tomorrow, the fun continues.

Michelle, thank you for coming into my life, here is to the next 100 days.

Start of a Multi Cache last night.

Last night Michelle and I started a multi cache, which is a series of caches to try to find the final one. The one we started doing was called shoppers delight. It started out at Mountaineer Mall and the second part is at Morgantown Mall and the two of these will provide the coordinates to the final cache. We have half of the coordinates for the final cache, we just need to find the second half today to get those final coords.

In our adventures last night, I found a great desktop shot for you photographers of the city of Morgantown. Just go behind target and you will see one of the single most picturesque views of Morgantown that I think I have ever seen. Going at early dusk when lights are starting to come on is the ultimate time to grab this picture that I did not grab last night.

Later on my sweetie and I stopped at Wal-Mart and got the guilt free size versions of Ben and Jerry's ice cream before we came home and retired for the evening.

You have to love a girl who is channel surfing and finds a 0-0 Pittsburgh Pirates game on in the 10th inning and says ooo ooo.

Have a great day.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes fans, it is once again that favorite time of the week that we all look forward to, when the labors of the week cease and we take time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is once again a Big Ole Hairy Friday and the start of yet another weekend.

I would first like to point out to all the readers who have some kind of a tie to the great state of West Virginia that 145 years ago today, we told Virginia to kiss our rosy red butts and formed our own state. Happy Birthday West Virginia.

There is no movie tonight at the Hazel Ruby McQuain park, but Nancy Drew will play next Friday night. However there will be a few bands playing there throughout the weekend if you would like to slip down for a little entertaining music.

If you are looking to get a little out of town, the West Virginia Folk Festival is this weekend in Glenville. There are actually a couple fiddle and banjo contests, one for over 50 and one for those under 50 years old.

Michelle will be kidless this weekend as Haley and Chad are going to go and see their Uncle for the weekend. I'm sure she and I will find something to do or get into. maybe a geocache or two or maybe even a movie or something.

Weather should be semi-nice for the weekend, calling for a thundershower Saturday though. Sounds like nice nap weather if you ask me.

Have a great day and a greater weekend.

Happy Birtthday Erica Jean Nicholson

Man does time fly by, Erica Jean Nicholson is four years old today. To me this is a significant age, it is the time in my life when I can place a time period on my fourth birthday and is arguably my oldest memory that I can actually put a specific date on. It's hard to realize that four years has went by awfully quick.

Not sure what Erica Jean is going to be getting into today and the specifics of Val's birthday plans (she mentioned them to me but I can't recall specifics right now, but I am pretty sure she is wanting to have Erica and Josh's B-Day parties together.

Happy Fourth Birthday Erica Jean.

Had a pretty funny website sent to me yesterday.

I had a pretty funny website sent to me yesterday at work. I didn't get a chance to really look at it other than a few things yesterday, but when I got home last night I found it to be quite entertaining to say the least.

Failblog.org. Some stuff may be not real safe for work because of the language.

A small sample.

Josh Judy kicking some butt

I decided to check up today how Josh was doing pitching for the Indians A affiliate the Lake County Indians.

Well, I don;t know why I am surprised once I checked his stats, he is currently 7-0 this season and just mowing batters down left and right as you can see by the youtube video.

I did manage to find an article on the net that seems to think that Josh will make it to the Majors, and I will have to say I concur. I went and watched him play in High school and he was hitting the low to mid 90's pretty consistently.

Keep going Josh, I'm waiting for the major league debut.

Back 2 Work

Alright, I had a great weekend but it is time to now stick the nose back to the grindstone for five more days and return back to work. This will be our first full normal day in our new office and there is a little bit of excitement to get everything finally situated and get back to normal.

No softball game tonight or tomorrow night, but we return to action next week with a double header.

Happy Fathers Day

Sunday Morning

Great weekend even though the weather was a little less than cooperative yesterday. The day started out with a great breakfast at IHOP, let me just say I have a new favorite breakfast restaurant and it is definitely the IHOP. Butter Pecan Syrup on Pan Cakes, yumm.

The we went to Mon Valley Paintball Park for a little fun with the guys shooting each other. There were another softball team, March Westin, that also showed up to play. Maybe we have had a little trouble beating them on the field of Softball but Paintball is a whole different story.

The weather however was raining all day so we were soaked to say the least. The day ended up being cut a little short, but a great day. You have to love Michelle, she was the only significant other that showed up this time and she sat out in the rain with an umbrella looking great. How can you not love a girl who who do that for you. What a sweetheart.

Last night we ventured out to watch the West Virginia Gladiators show the people of Huntington how to play football. They were down 0-6 and eventually fell behind 0-13 on a muffed punt return, but then with the exception of one kickoff return it was all Gladiators in a 50-19 whipping of the boys from Huntington. I have it on good authority, there are no good football teams in Huntington and even Randy Moss is wearing custom made WVU gear these days.

Today, it's back to my normal schedule before returning to work tomorrow at my new office in Fairmont.

Hope you have had a great of a weekend as I have.

It's a Paintball Day

Woo Hoo, it's the first BOPARC MVP Softball team Paintball outing of the season. Whenre we as a team get together and take a trip to the best paintball park in the tri-state area, were going to Mountain Valley Paintball Park and going to go shoot each other with Paintballs.

This will be the third year of us playing paintball together, there will be a few new players added that we have never played with before, but that doesn't matter I'm just a big immobile target who gets blasted.

Come out if you like, $25.00 gets you your rental equipment and 500 paintballs.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes, it is once again that favorite time of the week when the labors of the week cease, and we take time out to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is the Start of yet another weekend!!!

It's going to be a short day for me on the first day in our new office in Fairmont. Tuesday saw us pack everything up in our old office and today we will be unpacking and sorting things out in our new office.

I did get a great little present from Michelle and Hayley yesterday, they bought me a 7" digital picture frame that I have taken my old SD card and have used as the pictures. I'm going to put it on my desk at my new office rather than putting up multiple picture frames. I was very surprised and grateful of the gesture, I am going to put it to good use.

Tonight Boparc will return it's Family Night Under the Stars Drive-in Movies with a free showing of teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tonight at the Hazel Ruby McQuain Amphitheater downtown.

Michelle and I went to Black Bear last night for dinner. I think she was impressed with the food, I've always loved the place and enjoyed the food. If you are going to go to the movie tonight, stop in at Black Bear before you stop down. Sam Lamont, a guy who I used to work with at the NRAC will be playing at 6:30.

Does anyone realize that it is Friday the 13th?

Have a great day.

Satire test

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

High Street, the Street that Never Sleeps

A Team we competed against at Steelrs Trivia

Nice little article on a team that my buddy Phil, it's bad enough he screws with me on the weather, was with.

LINK






Local Steelers fans set to compete in KDKA trivia event
Written by Jillian Deasey
Thursday, 29 May 2008
Image
(From left): Doug Lyle, team captain Bill Grinder and Mike Stello study up on their Steelers’ knowledge as the team -- the Groundchuck Nollhogs -- prepares to compete in the Steelers Trivia Challenge this weekend at the KDKA-TV studios in Pittsburgh. (Photo by Jillian Deasey)


PUNXSUTAWNEY -- Pittsburgh is about to get a taste of Steelers pride from Punxsutawney this weekend, as the Steelers Trivia Challenge -- sponsored by McDonald’s and KDKA-TV -- kicks off on KDKA-TV. The contest begins Saturday.

Local residents Mike Stello, Doug Lyle and team captain Bill Grinder will be among those taking part, and have dubbed themselves the “Groundchuck Nollhogs,” a team name dedicated to Punxsutawney and former Steelers coach Chuck Noll.

The trio was selected by audition from a total of 250 applicants to face off against 18 other teams of three.

Grinder stumbled across the contest online, and with years of trivia contest experiences -- such as radio contests for the past eight years -- between the three of them, they are feeling confident.

The Groundchuck Nollhogs have strategically split up Steelers trivia among themselves for study.

Stello’s five inch binder is full of information and stacks of index cards covering anything from every player who ever wore a Steeler jersey, to player statistics, among other facts.

When asked how long he studies daily, Stello said, “About four to five hours every day.”

Explaining his Steelers-studies, Lyle explained he has reviewed “mostly Wild Card games, a couple of the Super Bowls -- early Super Bowls and players’ numbers.”

Grinder has studied more recent Super Bowls and other statistics to round out the team.

Considering that the trivia is in the KDKA contest covers anything Steelers-related from 1933 to the present, the “Groundchuck Nollhogs” have their work cut out for them.

“We’re going to have to get about 90 percent of the questions right to win it,” Stello said.

Besides competing to be the Steelers Trivia champions, each team is competing for thousands of dollars in prizes, including three 42-inch Westinghouse televisions, Steelers tickets, McDonald’s giftcards, and of course, a trophy, with a gold football on top.

“We play the Iron City Boys and the Steel City Teachers in our first round,” Lyle said.

“Are you scared that they’re teachers?” Stello asked.

All of the rounds will be filmed this weekend, and the Saturday winners will compete in the remaining games Sunday, which are split up into three rounds each.

The first round is a speed-based round, while the second round -- a “Stat Pak” round, based entirely on statistics -- is answered by one team at a time. The final round is based on statistics and played between all three teams.


= = = = = =

The Groundchuck Nollhogs will compete in the Steelers Trivia Challenge -- sponsored by McDonald’s and KDKA-TV -- this weekend, and they seek fellow hometown Steelers fans to cheer them on in the live audience.

Saturday’s filming begins at 3:30 p.m., at KDKA-TV, One Gateway Center, Pittsburgh. Audience members must be seated by 2:30 p.m. Parking is at the responsibility of those attending.

Tune in to Channel 2 KDKA-TV at 11:30 p.m. July 13 to watch the first game of the contest. One game of the challenge will be aired every Saturday night through September.

Log onto kdka.com and search for “Steelers Trivia.”
Last Updated ( Friday, 30 May 2008 )



Another team we competed against was Steeler Fury.

LINK

Moke's First Day of College

Moke caled me a couple times yesterday morning, the first was on his way to his first college class. He seemed a little bit nervous, but more so he seemed to be excited.

After his first class (it was English) he called me again and seemed pretty happy. He had finally started to accomplish a dream he has, he has taken the first steps on campus.

Later yesterday he had a Math Class and an online College 101 class where they will probably be covering the basics on being a college student and exposing him to all the possible majors that are out there.

Needless to say that I am very proud of him personally as I am sure his Mom and Dad, his Brother, Grandmother and Aunts and Uncles are also very proud of him.

I remember years ago seeing a definition for the word genius that I have never forgotten and believe to the fullest. Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration. Anyone can dream big, it's making those dreams reality that people will remember, respect and look up to you for.

Good Luck Moke.

Great Weather Weekend

Wow, what a great weekends worth of weather, suck it Phil, it was in the mid 90's all the time. Saturday's pleasure turned into Sunday's suffering however as I have acquired a pretty good sun burn and am going through a whole can of Solarcaine with Aloe, but I'll take it. I'll take sunburn over frostbite any day of the week.

Today should also be another day in the Mid 90's before the temps drop to the mid 80's tomorrow. We have a softball game tonight at 6:00, so hopefully it cools down a little bit by then.

Deep Creek

We had a great day yesterday at Deep Creek Lake. We started out by doing two easy Geocaches on our way to Deep Creek. Both were simple and located at overlooks on the way to Deep Creek, so they were nice relaxing ones that allowed Hayley to get a couple scenic pictures on our way there.

We packed up a cooler and fired up the BBQ grill and enjoyed mid 90 degree weather at the lake. The water was cold at first, but it was a nice counteraction to the heat. I think all of us got a little bit, me moreso, of sunburn. My shoulders and back are burnt, but I'll take the sacrifice.

Today I am getting ready to start my normal routine, but I'm going in to work a few hours this afternoon. We're moving the office this week and will be off Wed and Thursday and I figure Friday is basically going to be a throw away day as we will probably be organizing and putting our stuff back together.

Have a great Sunday, get out and enjoy the weather, mid 90's again today and tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Hayley

Last night we started to celebrate Michelle's daughter, Hayley's birthday with a nice relaxing dinner to Cheddars and a movie afterwards. Michelle and I took Hayley and her boyfriend Wyatt out to dinner and then out to see a pretty good movie called Kung Fu Panda with Jack Black.

Today the three of us are going to take full advantage of 90+ degree weather and are heading to I believe Deep Creek Lake for the day. Going to get out and enjoy the nice weather with some great scenery and maybe have a little bit of a cookout at one of their many pic nic areas.

It should be a great day.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes fans, it is once again that time of the week when the work for the week ceases and we sit back and take time to enjoy the fruits of of labors, it is once again the start of the weekend and Friday!!!

Last night Michelle and I went over to see Gary for his birthday. Renee made a Lasagna Dinner (three thumbs up if I had another hand) that was awesome. Jean, Val and Bobby and the kids were also there. Renee did a very nice job of organizing a nice little party.

There is no movie tonight at Hazel Ruby McQuain, but the Mon Big River band will be playing.

Tonight Michelle and I will be taking Hayley and Wyatt out for dinner to Cheddars for her birthday. Afterwards there will be a movie in the works for us, it will be Kung Fu Panda.

No definitive plans for Hayley's Birthday tomorrow, but since it is calling for temps in the 90's all weekend, you can bet it will be outdoors and somewhere close to water.

Have a great day.

Look what we have here

Look at the name and signature of the Lobbyist and the Name and Signature of the Employer.

Happy Birthday Gary

If you get the chance today, make sure that you wish Gary a very Happy Birthday. Let's see, I am still 21 so that makes him.....

A few images from this past weekend

Early Morning Ramblings

Good Morning, it's early Wed morning and we are at hump day. The mid point of the week and the start of the downhill ride to the weekend.

Big news out of WVU, five prominent WVU Alumni have called for President Mike Garrison to step down and for the BOG to do a self evaluation of itself over the last year since David Hardesty's retirement announcement. They question the BOG's decision to hire the unqualified man and their continued support of him throughout this process. When we talk prominant Alumni, we're talking 5 people who donate seven figures a year to WVU. Even though Ken Kendrick and myself have had our differences (he is also a B&G News Poster) I fully support him on this issue. HERE is the letter.

Mike Garrison is damaging this University every day that he refuses to resign, if he truly loved this University, he would don the right thing and allow the entity that is West Virginia University to start the healing process with him stepping down. As long as the cancer is present, there is no healing. The Faculty, Staff and prominent Alumni have spoken. Time for the good ole boy network to remove itself. Joe Manchin, as much as I think you are one of our state's best Governors, you are next this November.

On the softball front, Mark Devault suffered an avulsion fracture Sunday night. He's hoping to be ready Monday night, hurry back Mark.

Tomorrow night Michelle will meet my final sibling when she and I will be venturing to Gary and Renee's. Seems like he is going to be a year older tomorrow.

Back to above .500

Our softball team which had dropped two straight games has pulled the record back to above .500 at 3-2. We won both games over the past couple of days when we returned a couple of older players. Dan has come back from double elbow surgery and is back to form of a few years ago and Casey has found a job in Morgantown and will be moving back home, but was here for the two games.

For me however, I told Michelle before the game started that I felt like I was throwing a shotput when I threw the ball and I was swinging a 10 pound bat. Everything was the exact opposite the night before, but I knew prior to the game this was not going to be my day.

However it is a team game and the team won which is the main thing. We'll return to action next Monday at 6:00.

Weekend's over

I had a great weekend this past weekend. It started Friday evening with Michelle drilling me on Steeler's trivia and ended with a nice little softball win last night.

An old team mate has rejoined the team. Casey now has a job at WVU and will be moving back to Morgantown, he was there last night and played. Last night's game was a good game against a team we have played for years that includes Rich's grandson Brandon. We won last night and played arguably our best game of the season.

Yesterday was a long day, today will be a long one too as I'll be working longer shifts this week to make up hours for when we plan on moving our office to Fairmont. To top that off, I have another softball game tonight at 6:00.

Have a great day.

KDKA Steelers Trivia Challenge

We taped our first round game yesterday morning, it will air July 19 at 11:35 PM on KDKA. I'm not going to talk about any results, but I have to be back at KDKA this morning at 8:00 AM.

Congratulations Graduates

Congratulations to all the local High School Graduates as they finish their regular schooling and on to the next phase of their lives. Some will move on to jobs and careers, so will go to Technical School and some will be heading to the college of their choice this fall.

University High will be graduating two people of interest today. Danielle Mascioli and Amanda Paugh will be taking their walks this morning.

I'll be heading to Pittsburgh for Steelers trivia this morning, but Michelle will be there to cheer them both on in my absence.

Thanks to Rich for allowing me to borrow his Terrible Towel. Let's see if I can win a TV this weekend.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

It is once again that time of the week that we all look forward to, the time when the labors of the week cease and we sit back and once again enjoy the fruits of our labors, it is a Big Ole Hairy Friday and the start of yet another weekend.

I found a cute little entertaining toy today, it was an idiot test and to be honest with you it starts off very easy and gets harder. You can beat it, as I have but it may take a few times and if you mess up you will have to start over from the beginning.

For those of you looking for a little free entertainment tonight, BOPARC will be showing the movie Shrek 3 at the Hazel Ruby McQuain amphitheater tonight. Bring a law chair and your favorite food and beverage and sit down to a nice movie under the stars.

I on the other hand will not be under the stars, I will be at home getting drilled by Michelle (the good kind too if I'm lucky) on Steelers trivia. This is the weekend that I go to Pittsburgh and we tape the Steelers trivia show that will play later in the summer. I can't say any of the results or where we place, so if you are curious you'll just have to tune in later this summer to KDKA =)

I heartfelt congratulations goes out to Danielle and Michelle's niece Amanda who will be closing one book of their lives tomorrow and getting ready to write another one when they both Graduate from High School. I would like to congratulate all area High School students and wish them a safe, happy weekend and good luck in their future endeavors.

Mike Garrison has called an emergency meeting later today with the WVU Board of Governors. Hopefully Mike will show a little integrity and step down like everyone else thinks he should before WVU loses any more professors like they have these past few weeks.

Weather looks like it is going to be good once again this weekend, so take some time out and get out and enjoy the nice weather.

Tomorrow's BLOG

OK, I woke up this morning and took the easy way out on blogging. I googled up a youtube video and posted it, so I have to apologize to all my readers who were in any way, size, shape and or form, for such a quick and horrible decision. Michelle got on me for taking the easy way out, so I am doing this secondary blog to make up for this morning's blunder.

Michelle did however remind me that tomorrow it will be a big ole hairy Friday though, so I guess there is some good news this morning.

So without further ado, here once again is a few dancing monkeys.

2008 Mountianeers

Rainout last night

We were scheduled to play a softball game last night at 6:00, but the umpires were as cooperative as mother natures. The two teams did manage to scrimmage a few innings in the muddy field while it was raining and thundering. Once the lightning hit though, we decided to call it an evening. It was semi-hilarious watching people running and sliding in the mud.

After the mudfest, Michelle and I came back to my place and went over the Steelers trivia again to help me prepare for this weekend.

Great Weekend

It's back to work today after a nice, long and relaxing four day weekend. I can't say I sat around bored this weekend, we found eight caches, and drove all around the tri-county area.

Yesterday afternoon Michelle and I went over to Chris's for a nice BBQ and a little bit of study time for this weekends filming of the Steeler's Trivia Challenge. Michelle was drilling me with trivia questions all weekend, so I was semi-ready. Chris is a walking, talking ball of steelers knowledge.

Hi Ho Hi Ho, it's back to work I go. Its also off to to visit my new office today. I'll be moving into it in a few weeks and I have to go and get all of the security information taken care of so it will be ready when we are to move.

Have a good day.

Michelle is a Great Aunt.

A little after 9:00 last night, Michelle became a great aunt when her Nephew Jimmy and his wife Dreama had a 7 pound 7 oz baby boy. They named him Aiden James Paugh.

A little more geocaching

Yesterday Michelle, Hayley and Myself took a nice day to drive around and try to find a couple more easy caches and spend some relaxing time together. The day started out with a trip to Prickett's Fort to feed the hungry fowl that were in the area. It's a place that is somewhat populated with Donald and Daffy's distant cousins. We took a couple loaves of bread and made sure our fowl friends were fed.

After that we did a couple small geocaches in Fairmont and then we headed to Grafton to look for a couple more. Neither of which ironically we could find. We did manage to stop by at Tygart Lake and relax for a little while. As you can see it is a big beautiful lake and there were quite a few boaters out and about the lake. It was very relaxing and a very scenic view.

Earlier we had stopped at the Maple Ave Park in Grafton. Hillary Clinton spoke across the street from the park on Mother's day this year. After a nice relaxing day, we called it a day.

For more pictures of our adventures, check HERE

Michelle is home and a little geocaching

Michelle was released from the Hospital yesterday morning and was tired of being couped up and wanted to get out for a little bit.

I suggested doing a couple cache's (VERY easy ones) just to get her out and about. Two of the tree we could drive to within a couple feet of the cache, but we ended up doing three yesterday.

The first cache of the day was named Obezag, I think the hardest part about this cache was selecting the right road to drive on to get to it. If you are looking for a hint to this one, spell the name backwards and it may give you a little indication where it was Hidden.

The second cache of the day had us driving back and forth between two spots (see third cache) to find this one. It is called NW3-See and was a pretty easy find....for Michelle. I was looking everywhere and she just started standing still. She found it.

The last cache was sending us all over the area to find, of course I need to mention I got the largest ice cream cone in my life (honestly about a foot above the cone) at Dairy Creme Corner in Fairmont.

Anyways the third and final cache of the day was a place we had been at multiple times that day. It was called Catch a Wave and was also in Fairmont. The name alone should give you an indication of where it was located, if you are at all familiar with Fairmont. However we kept driving every insignificant road to get to it. We did drop the geocoin that we were holding in there for the next cacher to grab.

I don't think I pushed Michelle too hard, but she was in a little bit of pain from the bumping around in the car. She took a few Aleve and it seemed to ease her pain and make it bearable to an extent, considering that she had just had surgery. She appeared to have a great time and enjoy herself.

Today, I told her to get together with Hayley and decide what they would like to do. Don;t know what today holds, but I can bet it wont be sitting in front of a computer on a nice holiday weekend. =)

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes reader, it is once again that time when the work for the week ceases and we sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is once again the weekend.

For me, it is the start of a four day weekend as I am off today and Monday. Woo Hoo!!

Update on Michelle, she was feeling much better yesterday and was getting up and around, she should be heading home this morning and she is feeling much better. She was happy yesterday that she was finally able to drink her coffee and get up and walk around.

Trish is finally on the internet and has a Myspace page. Welcome back to the wonderful world of the World Wide Web.

If you are looking for things to do this weekend, they are a plentiful.

The WV Three Rivers Festival is in Fairmont this weekend.

BOPARC is starting it's summer movie series under the stars with Surf's Up tonight at the Hazel Ruby McQuain Ampitheatre, price of admission is fair, it's free.

Mayhem on the Mountain is this weekend at Indian Meadows Campground.

Have a great weekend.

I'm Speechless

I post at a website called Blue and Gold News. It is WVU's largest online community and arguably the best source of information about WVU athletics. Every year we among ourselves and our community bestow honors among posters. I have been nominated for numerous awards before, and up until this year I had never won an award.

Last week, I was bestowed my first honor when I was selected from amongst my roughly 25,000 peers as the Most Under Rated Poster. I had been nominated for awards numerous times, but never won one.

My biggest honor came today. Once a year they name a single poster into the Hall of Fame. On a site where I have seen upwards of 10,000+ posters online at one time, I was the lone inductee into the 2008 Hall of fame, making me only the sixth member of this club. One is deceased, one never posts there anymore and the other two are long time online friends and a site administrator.

I was inducted by fellow Hall of Famer Mustang65 in this thread.

I am speechless to be named a member of the Hall of fame in West Virginia Universities largest online community.

Michelle's Surgery

Michelle had her gall bladder removed this evening, she went in for surgery around 6:00 and they finally took her back and she was in and out in no time. According to the surgeon everything went OK and she should recover quickly.

Happy Birthday Pam

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my sister Pam a very Happy Birthday today. I'm not sure if Pam is working today or not, but make sure you take some time out and wish a very loving and deserving person a very happy Birthday.

For sale, one Gall Bladder

Well, we found out yesterday that Michelle is going to have to have her gall bladder removed. They called her yesterday and she went home and packed a bag and and got herself admitted into Mon General.

They are going to try to get her into surgery this morning, or this afternoon and tomorrow morning at the very latest. They are going to try to remove it lapriscopically to reduce the amount of recovery time.

Keep her in your prayers and dreams as she goes through this surgery today.

On the lighter side of things we're taking bids for the gall bladder, it is slightly used so we don;t expect the full black market price. =)

Vote for David Archuletta

I need to win a pizza, so I am suggesting stuffing the American idol ballot box for me tonight. Diane and I have a pizza riding on this, Boo David Cook, Yeah David Archuletta. =)

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Kim is going to walk in the American Cancer Societies Relay for Life. She is helping raise money for cancer and needs your sponsorship. You can Sponsor her on HER PAGE for the event. It's a good cause.

* The WVU Board of Governors had a surprise executive Emergency meeting yesterday afternoon to discuss the future of WVU's Lying worthless piece of shit University President Mike Garrison, but no actions have been taken as of yet. Hopefully they will give the piece of shit a map to the door since the asshole doesn't want to do the honorable thing for the university. I am however slightly biased on this situation. I feel if you bring into question the integrity of my school, you can NEVER regain my trust or respect, as if he ever had it to begin with.

* I'm going to try to work four ten hour shifts this week and have a four day weekend.

* Joe Manchin released a statement yesterday on the whole Heather Bresche / Mike Garrison / Bogus Degree issue that is putting WVU in the negative spotlight. I agree with his statement and I have fully supported Joe during his entire time as Governor, but I'm not going to vote for him this fall. To suggest that your daughter did not known the extent of her degree, well that just insults the common intelligence of West Virginias. Show me one kid at any school past pr present who does not or did not know EXACTLY how far they were from obtaining their degree. Joe you have lost my vote, even though I think you have done a great job.

* I have always held onto the believe that if something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quack like a duck, it is probably a duck.

* Speaking of geocaching (LOL) I have called in some help to try to bring down a VERY Challenging Cache called Cache on the Mon. Evidently there are numerous geocachers trying to bring this quest home. People are actually even the internet for resources to break the clue. I called Kelly yesterday to recruit her help. This cache will be brought down.

* I have run into a Morgantown Geocachers Forum this past weekend that can be helpful.

* In a few weeks, I will be spending the weekend in Pittsburgh for the Steelers Trivia Show. I found the footage of my team from last year. I will be replacing Chris's Dad on Uncleated Steam. HERE is their record setting round last year. We will be called "Poised to Strike" this year.

Have a great Tuesday.

Happy Birthday to Trish

yesterday Michelle, Hayley and myself stopped over to see Trish, she was having a birthday cookout and invited many friends and family to come over. Michelle and Hayley got a chance to meet some of Trish's family and enjoy a little bit of conversation. Unfortunately I was starting to have a minor health problem and needed to leave. Nothing to be alarmed about, but something that needed attention and a little bit of rest.

Layla was looking as pretty as ever, she has to be the world's best looking four month old. You would love to see the look of joy that little girl gives Trish and her Mom Pat. You can tell this child is definitely loved.

After leaving Trish's last night, I came home and found out that the Pittsburgh Penguin Hockey Team has advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals with a 6-0 win over the cross state rival Flyers. This is the third time in franchise history that the penguins have advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, they won their two previous chances and won the Stanley Cup both times. I guess it is time for me to start watching a little hockey. Go Pens!!!!

Huggins signs a potential one and doner

What a one and doner is HS basketball player who enters college and will only play one year before most likely entering the NBA draft. Over the past few months, All American Devin Ebanks is a recruit who uncommitted from Indiana and was granted his release opening his recruiting back up.

I've always said never count Bob Huggin's out on any recruit, he signed his letter of intent to play at WVU today. Welcome aboard HS All-American Devin Ebanks.

A great day of geocaching.

Yesterday Michelle and I set out to find a few geocaches, we decided to pick a few with a less challenging terrain and more challenging to find. We managed to find six yesterday and have a challenge for another one.

We started out with Dent's Run Covered Bridge. This was a fairly easy find and a time to reflect at an old covered bridge still in Morgantown. If anyone would like to try to find this cache on your own to see what we do, I will tell you where it is located, just contact me. It will give everyone an introduction into what we do. We dropped off the Travel Bug Dog Tag at this cache.

Then it was on to our third Cache, Micro at the Lair. This cache is somewhat challenging, but findable. It is a 1" by 1/2" micro cache container that merely fits a piece of paper for the log.


After finding this one, it was off to find cache fourth for the day in Smithtown called BarbieGirl's Quick Cache. Once again this was an easy find and only a couple miles down the road from Terri's Bar and right along the road surface. It was a very quick and very easy find.

Then it was off to Pricketts Fort to find WVWarlok's 1st Stash. I have to say that the walk out to the cache was pretty easy and very scenic. For the second time today we cached at a historical place with a nice little story behind it. Prickett's Fort is a very educational place and an enjoyment to visit. Ironically as I told Michelle yesterday, this was the location of me catching my first fish, on our Nation's Bicentennial.

With four down it was off to cache number five for the day at Almost Nashville. This cache was located at Sagebrush RoundupSupport Our Troops 19 Geocide Geocoin and will rehide it on our next journey geocaching. Also in this location was a very funny travel bug that we did not take. It's called Key to my Ex's Car. This travel bug was absolutely hilarious. A guy stole his wife's car key and made a travel bug out of it. On the paper it says if there are any keys you want to get rid of, feel free to add them to the keychain. There were roughly 15 keys on that chain, I added one of my old keys to that cache for enjoyment. This cache started in Portland and so date as traveled 9,282.7 miles. I am watching the progress of this bug.

After finding our first five, we accepted a very challenging cache that we will continue to try to find. Cache on the Mon is one that is driving local geocachers batty. To date, it has been thirty-one weeks and this cache has not been found yet. Even the very experienced cahers are having a tough time with this one, I'll get it eventually though. We DID NOT find this cache.

However then it was off to find cache number six for the day called The Lion's Den. Michelle found this micro cache very quickly for our sixth and final find of the day.

On my side bar if you can see it, I have added a geocaching widget with my history as a geocacher.

This was a great weekend.

Is it going to be nice today?

Of course I have loaded a few Geocaches up on my GPS in hopes that we may have some nice weather today. No big runs like over the past few weeks, maybe one that is not such a tough terrain and just a little more challenging more than anything. I do have a travel bug I need to drop off in one cache or another today.

NOW it is a Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes fans, it is once again that time when we cease our labors for the week and sit back and take a chance to enjoy the fruits of of labors, it is once again the weekend.

Had a little scare yesterday afternoon, Michelle was in the Emergency Room at Mon General. Minor health problem, everything is going to be fine. I took her and Hayley out to dinner last night after we left the Hospital.

I'm sure if weather permits, Michelle and I and maybe Hayley will get out and do a little bit of geocaching. Maybe do some more local stuff this week, looking into maybe Valley Falls in Fairmont and that region.

I'll be the only one in the office today, just me upstairs as everyone else is either working remote or going fishing for the weekend. I am thinking about working four, ten hour shifts next week and take Friday off. That will give me a four day weekend with Memorial Day the following Monday.

Trish is having her birthday party this weekend with a cookout at her place. Gotta stop by and wish her a very happy birthday.

There are two anniversaries today, the first is the 31st Anniversary of Grandpa Hall's passing. The second is that this is the fourth anniversary of me Graduating College. Man how time flies.

Have a great weekend.

It's a Big Ole Hairy.....

OK, I'm kidding and it is not Friday yet.

I guess the big news of yesterday was that 569 WVU Professors voted that President Mike Garrison do the right thing and resign because of the Heather Bresch scandal, but Garrison is going to end to make the directors at this school continue to give it bad publicity by not stepping down.

There is a petition our started by the faculty to have Garrison resign that includes faculty, staff, students, alumni, former students and friends of West Virginia University. My sister Kim sent it to me yesterday morning, and both she and I have added our signatures calling for Garrison to step down.

Mike, do the right thing. The only fix for this situation and have any attempt at returning to academic integrity is without the current, never qualified to begin with President. Step down and resign.

Mountaineers for Integrity and Responsibility

Product Review: Magic Jack

I have recently purchased a product called Magic Jack, what Magic Jack is a portable VOIP that runs off of a jump drive and uses a normal telephone with all the features such as call waiting, three way calling, call forwarding, caller ID, Voicemail and unlimited usage.

Start up costs were minimal, it was $39.95 and that includes the first years service, and $19.95 for each year you may want after that and that is it.

It works much the same way Skype would like a normal phone, but other than your yearly fee there are no other costs associated with Magic jack.

There are no WV numbers, but there will be in the future just not at this time, so I selected a Uniontown PA exchange. If anyone without a cell phone or Comcasts phone would call this number, it would be a toll call for you being that it would be long distance, so please continue to use my cell phone number to contact me.

My new Home (yes my cell is still the same) phone number using the Magic Jack is 724-550-1328. If you see that number come up on your teller ID, it's me.

It's very portable and easy to use, so if you have a broadband internet connection and need to make a long distance phone call, feel free to ask to borrow it.

Happy Birthday Dad

Even though it will be going on nine years this summer since my Dad passed, I can't forget to point out that today, May 13th, is the day that would have been his 63rd birthday.

He was a very influential person in my life as well about anyone and everyone he came into contact with. For some reason a lot of the conversations about him also include the word feast, because that is what you ate any time you sat down and ate a dinner that he had prepared. He always seemed to cut his finger three times making the Macaroni or Potato Salad too. =)

Happy Birthday George Edward Hall Sr, you are missed.

Election Day

Alright West Virginian's, this is one of the few times that your voice can and will be heard. It is election day here in West Virginia. Today is when you get to select and choose who your leaders are going to be over the next few years, or at least get to select who your party names as it's representative in the general election this November.

If you are not registered to vote or don't have your voters registration up to date, do yourself a favor and get it all up to date before the general election this fall so that you have a voice.

Have a good election day.

It's back to work

Yeah, I know. I hate Mondays too. I spent most of the day yesterday running around doing errands and visiting family for Mother's Day or helping someone out with a computer related issue.

Oh well, then fun for the weekend is over with and now it's back to putting the nose to the grindstone and start another week of work. I had a great weekend, so I guess to have another great weekend I have to work for the week, maybe that's what makes the weekends so great.

For Mother's day yesterday, Democratic Presidential Candidate and former First lady Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea made a campaign stop in the town that Mother's day originated in, Grafton WV.

Have a great day.

A day geocaching.

Yesterday was a day of geocaching for me, Michelle, her daughter Hayley and her boyfriend Wyatt. The day started off with us taking our travel bug from the previous week, All Smiles and Hugs, and dropping it off at another location. We dropped it off at our first cache of the day, Cooper's Rock TB Dropoff where we dropped off that travel bug and found multiple other ones at that location. So, we left ours and removed the Melvin the Christmas Martian Travel Bug to place it at another location.

Our second stop of the day was a really easy cache in Deep Creek Lake called Run Cabin, Run. This would be a great cache for anyone who has never geocached before to start with. Very simple, easy to get to and pretty easy to find. I did manage to drop my camera at this cache and didn't realize it until we were a few miles down the road. So, we were parked at the Honi Honi Bar in Deep Creek and realized I lost my camera back at the previous cache. After backtracking to the previous cache, we found the camera and it was off to thee next cache.

Our third Cache of the day was called Deep Creek Lake View and was high atop the mountain beside Deep Creek Lake. I knew this would be a tough terrain, so we limited tough terrains caches for the day to one and this was the one we selected because of our proximity to the previous Cache. When we arrived at that cache, we dropped off Melvin the Christmas Martian and picked up another travel Bug called Travel Bug Dog Tag and took it with us to place at another cache (at a later date, we still have it).

After finding this cache it was a long hike back down the Mountain back to the car and a chance for everyone to enjoy a little bit of time at Deep Creek Lake. This was the first time Michelle or Hayley had ever been there, so it made me feel pretty good for being able to introduce them to a place of such serenity and peacefulness. I think they had a great time.

After leaving Deep Creek, I treated everyone to dinner at Smiley's Pizza before we took off to Springs PA to try to get Kim's Cereal before or if the Springs Store was open. We were not that fortunate, the store was closed by the time we had reached it.

Then it was off for our fourth Cache of the Day, the FSU Micro located at Frostburg State University. This was the smallest cache I have seen, most are ammo boxes, this was a 35 MM film container, but it was an easy location and Michelle beat Wyatt, he had found the previous three, at finding this micro cache.

After four successful cache finds, it was back to Morgantown after a long and successful day of geocaching. Last night I purchased a few Tags to create our own travel bugs that we will make and place in caches in the near future. This will allow us to track the travel of our own persoanlized travel bugs.

Have a good day.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is a special day, it is a holiday that it is celebrated around the entire world, but it's origins are right here in West Virginia. It is Mother's Day here and everywhere else. Mother's day was started by Anna Jarvis in Grafton West Virginia when she first celebrated it in 1907.

I would like to take this opportunity to say happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there who may be reading this. Mother's are very special people, enjoy your day.

We're going to try geocaching today.

Michelle, Hayley, her boyfriend Wyatt and I are going to be taking as trip east this morning and doing a little bit of geocaching in the Western Maryland area. I have quite a few cache's loaded up on my GPS (not that we will get to them all) that we are going to see how many we can find today. A couple are pretty easy on the way to Deep Creek Lake or Swallow Falls near there. I have loaded one cache up that is on FSU in case we make it over that far east.

I'll be taking my camera with me today (of course) so I will try to get a few pictures of the trip. and hopefully a few pics of the caches we find. We also have our beloved Travel Bug All Smiles and Hugs that we have to do something with today. last week we bought a few plastic spiders to change into the cache, but Michelle and I are talking about doing our own specialty item to leave.

It should be a memorable one today!

Price of Hops is starting to skyrocket

My sister Kim called me last night and asked if I had talked to Terri. It seems that there is a world wide shortage on Hops, a key ingredient in the brewing of beer. The price of Hops has went up 400% in some cases, and in some cases twice that. Hops was being sold at $4.27 a pound in February and the price is currently $12.96 a pound. Some sellers are selling it for as much as $22.00 to $25.00 a pound.

I did a Google Search and found numerous articles talking about the increase in this. With rising fuel costs, and the exponential rising cost of hops, expect to see a drastic rise across the board in beer prices in the very near future.

If I were a bar owner, stocking up now might be a smart move.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes readers, it is once again that time of the week when the labors for the week cease, and we take time to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It it once again the start of the weekend and another Big Ole Hairy Friday!!! That one day of the workweek that we all anticipate and look forward to.

Once agin, it looks like the weather forecast is calling for rain this weekend, but if this is anything like the past two weeks it will only rain when I am far away from my car and deep into the woods doing a geocache.

Michelle, Hayley, her boyfriend Wyatt and I will be going to hide the travel bug that Michelle and I managed to come across last weekend. We have discussed about traveling to Deep Creek Lake and going to Swallow Falls to see if there are any geocaches up in that area. I did find a nice little KML TOOL that you can load into Google Earth and it shows you all the geocaches and links to them in your extent.

I finally had my new Employee Orientation Yesterday. Just went over everything and filled out a few forms for my insurance, life insurance, etc. It seems like a pretty good plan, and is actually free to me. I originally thought my insurance with Infotech was better, but after doing a little research that could now be debatable.

If you are looking for something to do this weekend, the WVU baseball team will be playing the University of Louisville Saturday in a double header. Go out and cheer the Mountaineers, I'll be geocaching.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Something new I ordered

Recently there has been an increase in VOIP broadband type phones. Over the past few years with the inventing of Vonage and Skype and more recently Comcast haws started offering their own brand of VOIP that many of my family members have tried and like.

Today, I found one that I think I may like and I have ordered it to give it a try. It's something a little different, it's called Magic Jack and I heard about it at work yesterday from Chad. He has a friend who has been using it for two years now and loves it and swears by it.

It's very economical, only $19.95 a year after the initial start of cost of roughly $39.95 which includes the first years service. It offers call waiting, three way calling, call forwarding, voice mail, and teller ID all included in the yearly price. You can call anywhere in the US with this device, you just plug the small portable USB device into a Computer's USB port and long as it has a high speed connection and then just plug your regular phone into the other end.

I'll give everyone an update once I try it out.

A walk on the trails

Yesterday Michelle and Hayley decided to get me off my fat lazy rear end and get me out and exercise a little bit. In the evening we all met at Aldi and took a nice little stroll along the rails to trails. Needless to say it has been a while since I have been on the trails and let's just say I am feeling the extra weight I put on over the winter.

It was great to get out though, back on the scenic view of the trails where there is much less traffic and less undesirable people that you may have to encounter than you would have going through the main section of the trails.

I owe both Michelle and Hayley a big debt of gratitude for getting me away from the computer and out into the world a little during the week. Of course we'll be looking for and another geocache this weekend, we also have to hide the travel bug.

I did get a nice little present from the girls, a thing of Silly Putty. =)

Oh and a Congratulations are in order for Michelle's niece, Amanda Paugh, was named Valedictorian at University High yesterday. Congratulations on a very honorable and memorable academic achievement.

No Confidence

The West Virginian University Faculty Senate met last night and gave a 77-19 no confidence vote in President Mike Garrison as a result of the Heather Bresch scandal where she was awarded a Masters Degree that she did not earn.

Garrison has indicated he will not step down because he loves WVU, but I say if he truly loved this School and this state, he would do the right thing and resign the office of the Presidency. West Virginia University is taking a hit on it's integrity as long as this man who was never qualified to hold the position to begin with sits behind the desk of the President.

As an Alumnus of West Virginian University, I am also calling for Mike Garrison to do the right thing and step down so that WVU can recover and move in the right direction. I don;t care if you are sorry, or if you made a mistake, do the right thing.

First loss of the season

Last night we played a good game against REM, but it just wasn't quite enough as we dropped an 18-14 game for our fist loss of the young softball season to pull our record even at 1-1.

It was a hard fought game that we fought from behind the entire game as REM seemed to hit about anything we were putting across the plate regardless of location. Needless to say that they are a very good team and also beat us last season, but they were just the better team last night.

We'll regroup next Monday and play Morgantown Surgical next Monday at 9:00 on Whiston Field.

It's Monday already?

Where did the weekend go, it seems like it was just Friday and I was getting ready for the weekend. The weekend is now over and it's back to work, argh.

The WVU baseball team lost the third of a three game series (got swept) against league leader St. Johns yesterday. WVU was leading 5-2 going into the bottom of the 9th and gave up 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th to let the lead slip away into a 6-5 loss.

Are you ready for a "What is happening here?" type of story. Whitnall High School in Milwaukee is going to issue random alcohol breathalyser tests at their prom . Imagine that, kids going to a prom and drinking a beer. What a concept, some school administrators don't need to be administrators. I sometimes wonder how society even developed from us straight laced, walk 10 miles to school in 3' of snow uphill both ways generation ever even developed. Society gets a little stupid sometimes.

Have a great Monday.

A Weekend Tidbits

* I knew I had to do more than one post this morning, the one where I found the geocache and uploaded a series of pictures needed it's own post, so I guess I will address the est of the things in a Weekend tidbits.

* Mom passed word to me yesterday morning that Wilma Newbraugh (She was married to my Grandfather up he until he passed) had passed away yesterday morning. Viewings will be from 3-5 and 7-9 On Monday and the Funeral will be Tuesday at 11:00 at McCulla Funeral Home. Uncle Jr Koon will be officiating. Her obituary is posted online at the McCulla website. RIP Wilma.

* Gary and Renee took a trip yesterday to the Pittsburgh and to the Carnegie Science Center yesterday. I had went there earlier this year and Gary and Renee were supposed to make it the same day,but some of us aren;t afraid of a little inclemate weather and made the trip that day.

* Of course Gary took my advice and no trip to Pittsburgh is complete without a trip to Primanti Brothers where Gary took Renee and Joey yesterday after they were done at the Museum.

* I do have to say that after yesterday's excursion, my body is very, very sore. It was well worth it though, I can use the exercise. I feel sore, but I feel great if that makes any sense.

* We have a softball game tomorrow at 6:00 on Ogden field against REM. If this is the same REM team as last year, MVP Paintball is going to have to be on top of our game.

* Slinky's are great to play with. OK, I am a big kid =)

* Trish said that Arron has a makeup game this afternoon at 3:00. I may try to get my lazy butt up and go down and try to watch.

* Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo for any of you looking for a good excuse to drink a beer. It's a Mexican Holiday, but we celebrate it here in the US. Look for drink specials at your local watering hole tomorrow.

*Weekends are great, but they all have to come to an end. =(

Pedlar's Glory

Yesterday my better half, Michelle, and I decided to take another day and do a little bit more geocaching. I let her pick and choose a few and she found three and we randomly chose one of them. It was called Pedlar's Glory and was actually about 1/3 of a mile from Pam's or so, and that is as the bird flies not the path you had to go. Needless to say it was about a 400' difference in elevation from Google Earth and about 500' climb in elevation according to the Topo Map of the location. This rise in elevation came in 8/10ths of a mile.

We searched for the cache and then found it, and much to our surprise it had a travel bug contained within it. What a travel bug is is a marked object that has an identification number. If you remove the travel bug, you are supposed to go to the internet and log where you found and removed it and once again when you re-hide it for the next person to find and take with them. The little yellow man off to my side is the travel bug that we removed. The one we found was called All Smiles and Hugs and I have logged that we have found it and will be trying to find a place to hide it this week. This bug was placed in it's current location in January. It has been From Ohio, To PA to Ontario to West Virginia. So far it has traveled 406.7 miles, of course that will go up when we rehide it.

As we were walking out, I told Michelle I was going to look over the other side of the Hill and see how close it was to Pam's house. As you can see by this picture, it was a direct shot to her house, only with a little bit of elevation. I called her and spoke to George. I told him he would never guess where I was at, I don't know how, but he did in one guess if you believe that. He must be psychic.

We took our time before we left to enjoy the scenery that we had worked so hard to get to. This picture is the route we walked back, but we walked up though the woods. Needless to say the view was breathtaking. What a great day.

We parked where the pond is located, if it looks like I am standing on top of something, I wasn't standing on top of anything but the hill. It just was almost straight up to where I was standing until you see the ground at the bottom of the picture.

Layla Rosiak Part II

Last night after my news, Michelle and I stopped over to visit Trish so we could see the "Wee One", Layla. Of course I took my camera with me and grabbed a shot or two.

A great invitation

Last night Michelle and I were sitting down and eating dinner at Wings Ole when my phone rang. Last year Chris, Randy Page and Chris's dad took part in the Steelers trivia challenge and set the single round record for points. They should have won the whole tournament, but they missed a question late in the semi-finals and were eliminated. This year Chris, Randy and another Softball team member Chewy were going to participate, but they moved the date of the taping and Chewy had to drop out. Last night I was invited to take part in this years competition that will be taped in about a month but won't air until about the time the Steelers Pre-season starts. I'll let everyone knows when it will air. We'll tape it May 31, June 1 and maybe June 2 if we advance far enough.

Needless to say I was pretty excited when I found this out. I may have to go up May 13 for an interview at KDKA prior to the taping. Michelle and I were originally planning on going up and watching them, now it seems like I will be a participant. We need a cheering section, anyone interested?

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes readers it is once again that time of the week when the labors for the week cease and we take time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors, it is once again the start of the weekend! It's that one day of the week that we all look forward to with great anticipation.

Weather is calling for it to be sunny and 80 today, 74 tomorrow with thundershowers and 63 Sunday. Hopefully we can have nice weather like we had last weekend considering they called for it to rain last weekend.

WVU baseball is playing away at St. Johns this weekend. They are going to play a three game series with Big East Leader St. Johns, let's hope coach Van Zandt can bring home two or three victories over the weekend.

Boparc has released their Under the Stars schedule for the summer. This is when on Friday Nights oat Hazel Ruby McQuain Park you bring a blanket or lawn chair, your own food and drinks and enjoy a free movie under the starts on the portable outdoor big screen.

May 30th – Shrek the Third

June 6th – Surf’s Up
June 13th – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
June 27th – Nancy Drew

July 11th – Unaccompanied Minors
July 18th – Evan Almighty

August 1st – Bee Movie
August 8th – Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
August 15th – Mr. Bean’s Holiday


Not sure what Michelle and I are going to be getting into, we have a few geocache's picked out and may go seek a few of them. It all depends on how cooperative the weather is.

Have a great weekend.

After Work Today

This afternoon I am going to go over and help Trish hook up her computer to the internet. She recently go a computer for Arron to use for his school work, so we'll help her get online at home with her PC. I'll take my camera with me and get a few new pictures of Layla.

Trish, don't forget your disc tonight when you get off work. =)

I stopped down at the bar last night for the weekly drawing. No carry over this week, as someone's number was pulled and he was there to take the entire jackpot.

Is it Friday yet? I've told Michelle to find a few good geocaches that we can go and try to find this weekend.