Drawing a blank.

It happens to the best of us, days when you sit down and try to write something readable for your followers and you just struggle to even come up with a topic to discuss other than what day of the week it is, or the weather which has been rainy thank you.

Sometimes you just need to reach down and come up with something entertaining to break the monotony. I could always start being a twitter, but I have committed myself to being a BLOGGER, even though I am sure some people may confirm I am a twit.

It's been a long week at work so far, so I'll just leave you with a little bit of entertainment for the day. Enjoy.

Happy Hump Day

Man has this been a very busy week. Between things going on at work and me trying to meet some deadlines to all the distractions associated with that and to having softball games right after work the last two nights, I am happy as a frog on a log that we are now at Hump Day and on the downside of the workweek. It's went fast, but I have been busy as heck to say the least.

Michelle has been battling with a bought of Bronchitis the past few days, but she is starting to feel a little better. We stopped over at MiHALEY'S last night and sat on the deck with the guys watching the Pen's Hockey game from the deck before a thunderstorm shortened our night of fun.

Oh well, it is hump day so Hi Ho Hi Ho off to work I go.

Tidbits

* It's been a long day for me and my brain is a little bit fried, so I'll do todays posy as a tidbits.

* When I first started writing tidbits, it was on Tuesdays and they were called...Tuesdays Tidbits.

* Softball team lost last night, it drops our record to 4-2 now with one more game left tonight at 6:00.

* I'll have an all hands meeting today at work. All SAIC employees in our business unit will be meeting simultaneously through a teleconference.

* Amy and Ralphie have set their wedding date as August 8th. It was going to be later in the month but one of Amy's close friends is coming into town and that is the only weekend she can make it. As I recall she lives in Augusta Georgia, where yours truly first blessed this world with his presence.

* After last night's game, we saw the aftermath of what appeared to be a very bad motorcycle crash downtown. Lot's of police cars, ambulances and rescue squads arrived right as we were coming onto the scene. Possibility there was a fatality. Check your local news this morning.

* Tidbitted out, have a great day.

General Pics of 2009

I have finally regained control of my software and at the request of my Mother, I am placing a new album called General Pics of 2009 on my site.

Graduation Dinner

Last night, Brittany's grandfather and Grandmother John and Rita hosted a graduation dinner for the recent graduate.

Dinner was at Oliverios's Restaurant in the Wharf distric in Morgantown. A beautiful location located on the rails to trails, Oliverio's offers a very nice selection of fine Italian foods that we all dined on.

I think Brittany had a great time, surrounded by friends and family. Hopefully it will be a memory that will last her a lifetime.

Graduation weekend

It has been a weekend full of graduations. From Brittany's Night to Kayla's and a few of Hayley's friends Saturday.

A few walks:



Brittany's Walk




Anthony Brown (a friend of Hayley's) and Kayla Brown (Jean's neice) were back to back.




Josh Cayton (A friend of Hayley)



Lynn Grainger (Brittany's Boyfriend) I forgot to zoom.

A Special Thanks

Now that Michelle and I have a car up and running I would like to extend a few special thank yous.

Jean. Thank you very much for all that you have done. Loaning us your car while we got one on the road yesterday was has been very appreciated. We were looking everywhere and you once again came through.

Scott. A coworker who unselfishly loaned us his truck for a couple of days so that both Michelle and I could get back to work during the time our vehicle is down.

A heartfelt thank you to all who helped and assisted us this past week.

Congratulations Brittany

Wow how the time flies by, Brittany Dae Cummings is graduating from High School this evening.

I can't express how proud of here that I am. Michelle and I will try to be there tonight (car situation) for her graduation ceremonies at Clay Battelle High School. I have been to the school, but never been inside of it, so this will be a little bit of a surprise for me.

Congratulations Brittany.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week when we cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is once again the dawn of yet another weekend and once again a Big Ole Hairy Friday!!!!

Both Michelle and I are actually off today, we're going to try to get another car on the road while mine is out of commission in what could be a period of time. So we are going to make sure we have at least one mode of transportation here.

I spoke to Pam who spoke to Angela, Moke will be returning home from June 26-28 before he deploys.

Have a great day and the start of another weekend.

Car Broke Down

yeah I know, this has to be the story of my life. My car is broke down and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is not a major issue, but we are preparing for the worst.

We were coming home Tuesday evening and the car started making funny noises and had absolutely no power. When I say no power, I mean 3-4 MPH top speed down hill. I'm afraid this may be something major.

We're looking to buy one of the older fleet cars from where Michelle works. I'll keep everyone informed, but right now I am borrowing a coworkers car to get me and Michelle back and forth to work.

I've had better weeks.

Moke is off and away

The day has come, Moke has finally flown out of the area and en route to his destination, Ft. McCoy Wisconsin for I believe about six weeks of training, before returning home for a couple days before he is deployed to Afghanistan.

Pam mentioned something about Kuwait, as a possible initial place he will be shipped to, but I'm sure we have about a month and a half to find out more information about his departure.

Pam, Angela and George all traveled to Benedum airport to see him away yesterday. I never did get the chance to talk to him before he left, but I'm sure I'll see him when he returns prior to his deployment.

I'll ley everyone know his contact information where he is stationed as soon as Pam or Ang hears something.

You mean the weekend is over?

It was nice to have a relaxing three day weekend, I know I needed one and I am quite sure Michelle appreciated having one also. It was a weekend of geocaches, visiting family, grilling out and a nap or two during the process.

Now however it it time to put the nose back to the grindstone and get back to our daily grind. I do have to say that I did have a chance to relax. I am refreshed so I guess that that helps me on how I face the day before me.

Memorial Day

I guess you can call this the unofficial start of summer. The Memorial Day Weekend is the starting point that many refer to as the start as opposed to labor day being the end.

The weather has been very cooperative the entire weekend. Little to no rain, in a weekend that basically called for rain all weekend. Nice enough that Michelle twisted my rm hard enough to force me to take her to Dairy Queen. OK, maybe it was the other way and I twisted her arm, but who cares. We had Dairy Queen.

If you do nothing else today, take a few minutes out and give thanks to those who have served and died protecting our freedoms. Sometimes the timing and weather of holidays cause us to forget why we have a holiday to begin with.

Enjoy your day and remember a soldier.

A day of visiting yesterday

Yesterday was a day of visiting Michelle's family in Ohio and a few Ohio Geocaches. The day started out with us finding three geocaches in Est Liverpool Ohio. One of which was cleverly hidden at the Lou Holtz Museum downtown.

First visit of the day included Michelle's Aunt Charlotte who we saw as we drove by. We stopped and talked to her a few minutes and then it was on to stop number two, Michelle's grandmother Gigi. 87 year old women who was outside in the 80 degree weather planting flowers.

The third stop of the day was at Michelle's Dad's to pick up a Iron City Beer collectible sis pack to commemorate the Pittsburgh Steeler's six Super Bowl Champions. I guess the CEO of Iron City is a good friend of Michelle's Dad and brought him a few of the collectibles.

Final stop of the day after a lunch break at the Hot Dog Shop was her Mom's to visit with her for a while. Her sister Danni just bought a new convertible Mustang, so of course Danni and Michelle went cruising around looking for good looking guys. She however got stuck with me taking her home.

It was a nice relaxing day to get out of town, I'm very happy the weather has been holding up.

Happy Birthday George McClain

If you see George McClain today, make sure you wish my brother from another mother a very Happy Birthday. If My count is correct this is either 41 or possibly 42 for George.

George is one that has always been there for me, especially on car issues and I still owe 1,00,003 favors to.

Wow this is cheap

Just saw this mini laptop on the internet for $279. Mice cheap price if you are looking for a cheap laptop.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week when we cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is once again the dawn of yet another weekend (three day one at that) and another Big Ole Hairy Friday.

I have to love it and to me this is the unofficial start of summer, even though softball has already started for the year. No snow and warm days ahead.

Tonight Michelle and I are going to have Colasessanos Pizza for dinner. We had our first one last week, but tonight we have a couple frozen kits we are going to make at home.

Bright and early tomorrow morning Michelle, Hayley and I will be heading to East Liverpool Ohio to visit Michelle's Dad. We'll also stop and visit her mom and sister on either the trip up, or the trip back.

Hopefully the weather holds up all weekend.

For those of you who have never ridden the PRT

The PRT is down for the summer for maintenance. For those of you who have never had a chance to ride it, here is a Ride from end to end. From the Medical Center to Walnut.

Not much to say today, just looking for a little educational video for some of you who may never have ridden it.

Happy Birthday Pam

I would like to take this time and wish my sister Pam a very Happy Birthday today. She was off yesterday taking Moke to Camp Dawson, but today is her day. The day that is all hers and may all good things come her way today.

Make sure you wish Pam a very Happy Birthday today.

Tidbits

* Well there was a change of plans and assignments, Moke is reporting this morning at 5:30 AM and will be deployed to Afghanistan for a tour of 14 months. Pam called me again yesterday and gave me the latest update. I would have liked to have seen him before he left, but conflicting and changing schedules unfortunately prevented this.

* Trish, Layla and Arron stopped by yesterday evening. I felt bad because the birthday girl brought us some birthday cake to share.

* It's Humpday, the weekend (and a three day one at that) is getting closer.

* This is going to be a short BLOG, not too much to say beyond what I have already said.

Testing a feature

Testing Microsoft Virtual Earth

Happy Birthday Trish

Happy Birthday Trish!!!! It's no too often you find a friend like this, so when you do you definitely keep them around. She is a joy to be around and a trustworthy friend. Happy Birthday Trish.

A Good Night for Sports

Yesterday was an awesome day for sporting events. There are days when the planets just align perfectly and everything works your way, yesterday was one of those days.

The day started out with the softball team returning to form and picking up our third win of the young season to run our record to 3-1. This years team has gotten back the the fundamentals that we seem to had forgotten last season and guys are having fun once again, or at least having fun during the game AND post game.

After the game we headed to MiHALEY'S to watch the end of the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 victory and taking a 1-0 Eastern Conference Finals lead in the best of 7 series against the Carolina Hurricanes.

To close the night out, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals 12-7 to give me a nice sports tri-fecta on the day.

Back to work kind of day, how about a tidbits

* This would be a lot nicer if this was NEXT Monday instead of today, a day that I have to return to my labors so I can enjoy myself.

* Just a little clarification from a critic. Kayla, who I blogged about a couple of days ago is Jean's Niece. It is Jean's younger sister Sandy's daughter. They managed to finish as first runner up in the states tennis tournament over the weekend.

* I have a softball game tonight at 8:00. This my least favorite time to play, because it is too early of a game to take a nap before and too late of a game after work. It's kind of the worst of both worlds for me.

* Pam left me a message and clarified that Moke was being shipped out to Wisconsin next Tuesday rather than Monday.

* I stopped over at Farida's this afternoon to help her hook up her TV set. She bought a TV stand with 16 WRONG pieces and a small separate note at the bottom of the box saying not to use the pieces in the bag. Too late, they should have told me that before it punched up through. Her and Jean will return it later this week and we'll do it again...with the right parts.

* Michelle planted a bunch of flowers around the house this afternoon. We moved all the firewood we had stored and she planted a flower garden in the planter behind it.

* Ran into Mom yesterday morning at Wal-Mart. Just like us, she was doing a little grocery shopping on a Sunday Morning.

* Hi Ho Hi Ho, it's back to the grindstone I go.

Moke is going to be deployed

Pam called me yesterday evening with a little bit of news. I guess Mokie has received his orders and is to report to Camp Dawson this coming Saturday morning and will be shipped to Wisconsin for two months for training before being shipped overseas for 18 months in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I spoke briefly with Pam and she had a friend who had someone deployed the same way and said this could mean either he is going to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

He will report to Camp Dawson Saturday Morning and be in Wisconsin by Monday.

A Day of Geocaching

Yesterday morning Michelle and I were contemplating what we could do for the day and she mentioned Geocaching. I know you have to twist my arm to get me to go out with a GPS and find things, but I was willing.

We decided with all of the things that were going on around town that that there would be too many muggles around for us to effectively do it so we decided to go out of town to do it.

After a little bit of thinking I decided that we should go to Philippi, a place Michelle had never been to Philippi nor had she ever seen its historical covered bridge
.

ON our way we decided to also stop at the International Mother's Day Shrine to find a cache and as we were on our way to Philippi we stopped by the Anna Jarvis Birthplace.

Now I do have to confess that driving to Philippi I managed to see something standing right beside the road that I had to turn the car around and drive back to get a few pictures of it. How often are you driving along the road to see a goat standing on the side of the road? after I turned around and turned around the second time to return on our trip to Philippi, our roadside goat's mate also decided to stop by for an appearance after she heard there were photo ops. I mean seriously if you are a goat and someone is taking your mate's picture to post all over the world wide web, wouldn't you also want some of this exposure?

I know a goats life probably isn't that exciting, so this has to be the highlight of their lives.

On the return trip home we took the scenic route of the scenic route and stopped at Colasessanos Pizza for dinner. I have to say it was the first time I have ever gotten the chance to try it and both Michelle and I gave it two thumbs up and a very good pizza. I think I will have to add it to one of my favorite Pizza's that I have ever eaten.

Good Luck Kayla

I got home last night and had a chance to log onto facebook and saw a very pleasant surprise. Kayla Brown has advanced to the State Finals as ha;f of the number two doubles team and will be playing for a State Championship .

This is is not the first time Kayla and a doubles partner have advanced to the state finals, she did it last year also playing number 3 doubles.

Good Luck Kayla and bring a State Championship home with you.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

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

We were supposed to have a scheduled make up softball game for when we were rained out on May 4th against Team Budweiser, however no one has heard anything about any games this weekend so my guess is that we will not be making them up this weekend. When we were rained out, they specifically targeted this weekend to make them up, but like I said no one has heard a word about it yet.

This weekend is the 140th Commencement for West Virginia University. Eberly College will be hosting their commencement Sunday Afternoon. This years guest speaker is former WVU Academic All-American Quarterback Oliver Luck. The guest speaker when I graduated was David Selby, but I ahve also heard E. Gordon Gee and Governor Joe Manchin speak as well. I may pop in to hear Ollie speak.

This evening we will be venturing over to the Ostien's for a little weekend kickoff BBQ. Chris had tossed around the idea of us defending our Steeler's Trivia Champions Trophy, however we have decided to be like Jerome Bettis and retire on top.

Hopefully there is a little break in the weather this weekend, I hate the rain but not as much as snow.

Way to Go Penguins

I'm not a big Hockey Fan, but when I do watch it involves the Pittsburgh Penguins and the playoffs. Last night was supposed the be the climax game of a classic series. A game seven to win this memorable and hard fought series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals. This was supposed to be the rubber match and the winner was to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The game didn't meet my expectations, but the Penguins won pretty handily 6-2.

The Penguins now advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, if they can manage a win in this best of seven series they will be playing for the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row. Maybe this is the year they win it all, the Steelers did.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today 64 years ago George Hall Sr started his life right here in Morgantown West Virginia. A simple and loving man who fathered five children, seven Grandchildren, and three Great Grandchildren while spending his life working in the coal mines and having some of the most memorable cookouts of my lifetime.

Cookouts were often and plentiful, along with water battles which lead into food fights and were were even lucky enough to catch it on tape when we were lucky.

It'll be going on ten years since he passed away this summer. Ten years and a lot of things have happened, times I would have loved for him to see and been able to share with him as so many of the rest of his children and grandchildren would have like to have done.


We have had Graduations, marriages, births, Proms, Career beginnings and changes and quite a few holidays that just missed that George Hall Sr element. I know I miss him as I am sure everyone else does also.

So, Happy Birthday dad.

We have a winning streak

Yep, I am starting to think we have found that winning form that just hasn't been there the last two years in softball. We have added some new personnel, but with Casey coming back and adding a few solid players, we have found our fundamentals that helped us win so many games over few year stretch.

We won last night 6-5 with solid defense, teamwork, a few strategic coaching moves and hustle. It seems like we are actually good again.

After a nice hard fought 6-5 victory over Mylan Pharmaceuticals, we headed over to MiHALEY'S for a few beers, some good food and a little bit of a trivia battle between Chris and Ryan.

These are the times that I look forward to all year. These are also the days I will look back upon when years after I have played my last inning.

I love this team and this game.

Michelle says to tell everyone hello. Maybe she can do a guest blog sometime (hint hint)

OK, I'm a Geography Geek

I just found this, Wikimapia.

Possible Softball/MiHALEY'S kind of day

Well, weather permitting we will be playing softball this evening at Libratore Field, the after the game the team will be heading to MiHALEY'S for a few beers and some food.

Like AI said this will be weather permitting, because the weather has not been too softball cooperative in the past couple of weeks. You could say it has been down right bad weather to play in if they did try to play.

For what it is worth, I did cut my hair this past weekend, so it if gets cold or snows it was my fault and I apologize to everyone.

Had a Nice Mothers Day

We had a nice, but long and busy Mother's Day yesterday. It started off with Me and Michelle grocery shopping and then us visiting her Mom at the Flea Market, Mom, Jean and then her Sisters for a great cookout in which her sister slaved all day over fried chicken. Of course it was in a box from Wal-Mart with todays date on it, but she did a great job.

Stopped by Mom and Gerald's first for a little bit of conversation about how nice Brittany looked for her Prom the night before. We caught them before they went out to lunch.

Then it was on to Jeans to say hello to her. Gary was on his motorcycle and getting ready to take a ride when we first got there. Rich's Son Rick and Trudy were there too, it was nice to see them.

Then it was over to Chris's for a cookout on a nice Sunday afternoon.

Great day, can't believe the weekend is over with. Doctor's appointment this afternoon for me. Just a routine visit.

Happy Mother's Day

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the mothers around the world a very Happy Mother's Day today.

This is a holiday that's very origins are right here in North central West Virginia in Grafton. Father's Day was first observed in Fairmont, but Mother's day started it all off as far as celebrating the Mothers.

So to My Mom, Jean, Michelle and everyone else who is a Mother, I wish you a very Happy Mother's day.

Brittany's Prom

Tonight I got to see Brittany before her prom and also had the chance to meet Brittany's boyfriend Lynn for the very first time. I was very impressed with this dapper young man, I know Brittany is pretty fond of him and Kim and Robert just can't enough good things about him. I can see why everyone was impressed. They made a very good looking couple as we met them on their way into the Erickson Alumni Center for her Senior Prom.

Kim has also taken a number of pictures, so I would look for her to publish them somewhere.

Up early on a Saturday Morning

I'm up early this morning, long before anyone else even thinks about getting up. I guess this comes from me going to bed last night at about 8:00, but these are the results. I have always been a and probably always be an early riser, something that was bestowed to my by my grandparents from my youth. I am, was and always have been an early morning person. I'm usually the one who wakes up the rooster.

Let's see, todays weather is calling for a high of 78 which I like, but a 40% chance of Thunderstorms which isn't exactly to my liking considering it has been raining for some time now.

This evening is Brittany's Prom and I'll try to meet her at the Erickson Alumni Center to get a few pictures. I have not been to the new alumni center, but it looks very nice.

I would like to wish Jenny Ostien a very Happy Birthday. Chris has a dinner planned for her in Pittsburgh, but Michelle's Mom is coming in and I want to get some pictures of Brittany's Senior Prom, so unfortunately we won't be able to make it this evening.

I wonder if I can get a geocache in before it really starts to rain today?

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week we all look forward to, when you can take a little bit of time of and cease your labors for the week and take some time and enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is the dawn of yet another weekend and another Big Ole Hairy Friday!!!

This is going to be an event filled holiday weekend to say the least, whether Mother Nature cooperates or not.

WVU Baseball will be playing a Double Header tomorrow at 3:00 against Cincinnati and play the rubber game on Sunday Afternoon.

Tomorrow evening I am going to go to Erickson Alumni center to see Brittany. She will be attending her Senior Prom and I would like to get a few pictures of her at this memorable event. Seems like just yesterday they were wheeling her out of the delivery room.

Michelle's Mom will be paying us a visit this weekend. Sunday is Mother's Day and two of Susie's three daughters live here, so she is making the trip down to visit.

Sunday is Mother's Day.

Don't let the weather ruin your weekend.

Rain, rain go the heck Away

Anyone else tired of all this rain that we have been having? I mean it's bad enough that we flooded a few days ago, and that we had to play softball in the rain, but it is still raining?

OK, we get it, our local water table is full and has plenty of H2) for a while, you can bring on the sunshine and nice weather. I'm ready for the 8o degrees and the birds singing. I'm ready to see girls running around in bikini tops and shorts, I'm ready for it to stop raining and bring on the nice weather.

The students are leaving or getting ready to leave town, now is the time to be out and driving around town and stopping at dairy Queen for that extra large ice cream cone.

I know it's on the other side of this rain, but I just love the sunny weather.

Dumbest iPhone application

First Win of the Season

Even thought we played in Lake Morgantown last night, we managed to pull out a 15-9 win for our first victory of the 2009 season. A day after all of the rain had set in to Morgantown and everything was water logged, we played a good seven innings of softball last night.

After the game the team wanted to go to MiHALEY'S for Cinco de Mayo. As most of you know I write this the night before so it posts in the early AM, at the time I am actually writing this I still haven't decided on whether I am going to walk across the street yet.

Maybe sometime in the near future the weather will warm up and dry up.

OK who ordered the rain with an extra helping of flood.

Wow was yesterday a day, flooding everywhere around town including Michael next door. It got so bad in his back yard he even went out and moved his boat. He has a 16'-18'boat in his backyard that he had to move to his front yard. Needless to say it floods quick down there.

I actually didn't really see or hear the rain. I was busy working and I was listening to a few of the comments on the Eric and Kevin Show on WVAQ and how everyone was calling in and talking about it. After I got out of an 8:30 meeting I walked outside to hear a few people comment on how badly it rained out.

We did have a scheduled 10:00 PM game last night, but it was cancelled so no game.

Time Moves Too Fast

Is the weekend already over? Are you kidding it seems like it just started and now I am a couple of hours from returning to the office for the week. Yuck, I guess it to the grindstone.

Yesterday was a good day however, Michelle and I stopped by to see Nick and Terri at their new abode for the first time since the day she actually moved. She has everything organized and you could just tell that they were happy to just be able to finally relax and not have to worry about everyone else.

After we left Nick and Terri's, Michelle and I brought out the iPhone and programmed the GPS and grabbed a couple easy geocaches. It was a short three day weekend, but a productive and memorable one, that's for sure.

Saturday Afternoon Baseball

Yesterday Michelle and I finally made it to our first WVU baseball game of the year. I usually try to get a few games in each season where I can go and cheer the WVU Baseball team. I guess we picked the wrong day to go, because we lost to Rutgers 7-12 on the Dollar Day Saturday. I guess we should have went the night before when WVU hammered Rutgers 13-1, but when it came to Saturday Rutgers was the better team.

The two teams will play their third and rubber game of the series this afternoon at 1:00 if anyone is interested in going. Maybe WVU can salvage the better part of the three game series against the Scarlet Knights.

Dinner at MiHALEY's

Gary called me yesterday afternoon and said he would like the chance to try MiHALEY'S for dinner, so him Jean, me and Michelle enjoyed a nice dinner and a little entertainment from Floyd Cowger.

Floyd used to play down at Nick and Terri's and was a regular down there, but since they closed my opportunities to see him have been very slim. However he has started playing MiHALEY'S as well as a few other bands who used to play at Terri's.

I had my Hot Sausage Hoagie, Michelle has wings, Gary had a super thick Mushroom and swiss burger amnd Jean had Fillet Mignon and Seafood Alfredo. Everything was absolutely perfect and Michael once again hits one out of the ball park with his food.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that favorite time of the week that we all look forward too, when we cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is once again the dawn of yet another weekend starting with a "Big Ole Hairy Friday".

This has to be my favorite blog of the week, it's always delivering news we all want to hear and reminds us to take a little time out of our busy schedules.

Speaking of busy schedules, like mine last week where I was working late every day, I started my weekend yesterday afternoon as I am off today. I can only bill 80 hours and I have them all in. I'm salary which means AI could work more, but I won't make a nickel more so I'm staying home and relaxing a little bit.

Michelle has to work today, but she has a Doctor's appointment this afternoon to follow up on the issues of a few weeks ago. She has been feeling fine, so no worries. We'll have her out finding a geocache or two this weekend one way or another.

Speaking of geocaching, is anyone ready to give this thing a try and go with me and Michelle? We can look for easy or hard ones if anyone would have some free time and would like to go. We can do easy terrains or ones that make you have a heart attack, we can customize the search to your wants or needs.

It's calling for rain all weekend, I'm wanting to clean out the inside of the Rodeo this weekend. Give it a little bit of a spring cleaning since I just got it inspected and it's a the start of summer.

If anyone is looking for a little cheap but fun entertainment, WVU baseball is playing at home this weekend against Rutgers. 7:00 tonight, 3:00 tomorrow and 1:00 Sunday. Admission is $5.00 at the door and it really is a good time with fairly priced concessions.

Enjoy yourselves, life's too short and make sure you live it to the fullest.

Tidbits

* Been a little bit of time since I've done one, so maybe it is time for me to put together a tidbits.

* Prayers go out to Larry Everson's family after his tragic boating accident last weekend at Tygart Lake. Larry and I have lost touch through the years, but we used to BS all the time at Sterling Faucet when we both worked there.

* Anyone on Facebook? I used to like MySpace, but Facebook seems to have more people I know and less computer intensive BS like MySpace. If you don't have a Facebook account you should get one to keep up with everyone.

* If it were not for facebook, how else would I have known Kim went for a 45 minute walk yesterday? Think about it.

* The school year is starting to wind down. WVU is closing out dead week and is just about ready to enter finals week next week. Soon the class of 2009 will be graduates and alumni.

* The regular schools are entering their final month before summer vacation. Brittany Dae will be graduating this year from Clay Battelle and Michelle's Nephew Tommy will be graduating from WVU as an RN.

* Congrats to Tommy for landing a job in Clarksburg.

* Hayley is helping Morgantown High do the play "Wonderful Town" starting tonight and running till Sunday. She has been busy all week with rehearsals and it is now showtime. She has been working on set design and set up.

* Our softball coach is out for the season. I don't know how, I think it was from drinking a cold one at MiHALEY'S, but he has injured his elbow and may need surgery. No Golf or Softball for Chris this year.

* Speaking of Chris, he has three video's up for a few awards. The Pat White Tribute, Alex Ruoff Tribute and the Meinke Car Care Bowl Highlights.

* I wish the weather this weekend is going to be like last weekend's weather, but I'm not that lucky.

* I'll leave this BLOG with a little bit of final wisdom. Show the person next to you you love them next time you have to fart, hold their nose for them while you pass gas.

Back from the Burgh

After a couple weeks of knowing about it, but having no time to prepare for it, I had to give a presentation yesterday at the DOE in Pittsburgh. We were allotted 30 minutes, but doubled that and took up an hour discussing things.

It was nice to get out of my office for the day, and it was a perfect day to be out. Rest of the week however, the weather is going to be less than favorable so yesterday was a great day to be out and about.

Today however, back to the office with a long list of e-mails to respond to.

Start of the Season

Well we started out our season last night with one in the loss column as we dropped our opening game 5-8. USSSA is now using a .40 core mush ball that just does not fly anymore.

After the loss we all took a trip to MiHALEY'S to drown our sorrows and have some great food. I tried a Mushroom and Swiss Burger and oh my was it awesome.

Oh well, out early today and I'll be in Pittsburgh all day on business. I actually have to give a 30 minute presentation at the DOE about the GIS capabilities within RDS. Wish me luck.

Can you say slackers?

Does this really look like softball practice? Does it? This is a nice shot of Ed (psycho), Phil and Paul standing in right field just shooting the breeze with each other. I think we need to seperate the 3 stooges. Come on guys let's move it.....

PLAY BALL!!!!!!!!

It is now officially official, as opposed to being kind of official, our 2009 softball season is upon us and starts tonight at 7:00.

In 2009 we will be MiHALEY'S after playing the last two seasons as MVP Paintball. We will be wearing our MVP shirts the first game or two, until our new uniforms arrive. I will once again be donning my old number 33 this season. It's my old number from high school football that I have never abandoned and kept through the years.

I have to say anyone who knows me, knows that been playing softball at BOPARC for quite a few decades now. There are guys on my team who were not even born yet when I first started playing softball as the Fun Quads (what ever that means) and the Press Box some years ago.

I no longer have that spring in my step that I once had, but I think over 25 years we have all lost a step or two. I'm still out there and still doing what it is I love so much and look forward to right after the last pitch of the last game of the previous season.

It is once again...Softball!!!!!

What a Day

Talk about a very long, productive and event filled day, that was yesterday for both me and Michelle. It was a full day to say the least.

In the early AM I woke Michelle up and we headed to rails to Trails where we had a nice brisk walk including an uphill climb at the turn around point for us, we ended up on Collins Ferry Road and on the outside property of the DOE where I work.

After that it was home and I changed my brakes and rotated my tires on my car. I figured it was going to be nice out and I wanted to do it before it got hot, with Michelle's much appreciated assistance I changed by brakes and rotated my tires.

This was just the begining og the day, we then started out and did not one, not two but three geocache's where we also retrieved a travel bug that we will place in another cache in the near future.

The final cache was Dorsey's Knob where the picture was taken after we met another couple up there. It had been five years since I had been up there to do my Senior Thesis in College. This was the first time Michelle has had a chance to go to this summit. I will just say it is not for the weak hearted as it is a 120' incline in elevation in about a 500' range. If you make it to the top, you have earned it.

After that we came home and I had a steak dinner with a baked potato and steams broccoli. I must have been a very good boy because I have had a great weekend so far.

A Nice Relaxing Evening

After a very long and stressful week at work, I welcomed the warm spring weather on a Friday afternoon and felt it was my responsibility to myself to get out and enjoy this wonderful weather.

I picked Michelle up after work and we went and shared one of our favorite pizza's, voted the best in Morgantown, Milano's Pizza.

After coming home and allowing Michelle to change into shorts and sandals, we took a little trip downtown to the DQ and had a teeny bot of ice cream. We sat down at the rails to trails and sat and enjoyed the serene setting and spent a little quality time together.

Of course as we were leaving I pulled out the iPhone and checked to see if there were any close geocaches in the area. We decided to try to get the Do 2 cache without my GPS, my compass and just using my iPhone. Ironically the cache was hidden by an older couple who I took my diabetes education class with a couple years ago, I come to find out they are big time into it now.

I love these kind of Friday evenings.

Update pn Josh Judy

I guess he has still been tearing them up, they have now bumped him up to the Akron Aeros. I guess his 0.00 ERA and three saves this early in the season has drawn a little bit of attention.

Great job Josh, keep going.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes readers it is once again that favorite time of the week, the time we take time out to cease our labors for the week and take a little needed time to just sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is yet once again the dawn of a beautiful weekend and yet another Big Ole Hairy Friday.

Wow has this been a very long and very busy week for me. There has not been a traditional day of work for me yet this week. I have been swamped from the get go and been working late every day. It's times like these that you learn to appreciate vacation time. I'm so glad the weather is going to be nice this weekend.

I noticed last night that the trees in the back yard are starting to take form with their leaves. Not just a few, but they are starting to get filled up and plentiful with the aesthetically pleasing colors that is spring time.

The weather is going to be nice this weekend, you might as well get out and enjoy it.

Softball Practice was canceled

Yesterday Morning I anticipate the worst, I packed my softball gear with me and planned on changing at work and picking Michelle up in order to get there in time. That way if I had to work over I could still make it.

Good thing it was canceled, because if it were not I would have still been at work when practice was over with. The worst part about all of this is I am Salary and I don't make any more money staying late than I would if I didn't even show it.

However I have projects and side projects out the ying yang and more stuff getting piled on top of everything that I don't even have time to prepare for a 30 minute presentation I need to make Tuesday in Pittsburgh about the GIS capabilities of RDS, the company SAIC is contracted under.

There is no immediate relief in the immediate future, I'm sure Michelle would like to see me sometime. I guess it is better than the alternative of not having a job. Oh well, Hi Ho Hi Ho off I go again.

I guess I was right

I looked at Mary's computer last Friday and saw that she had a very serious power problem. I knew it could be one of two scenarios, one her power supply had went bad and two there could be a problem with her motherboard.

As you can tell by my previous Best Buy thread, they were little to no help. Premier Computer on the other hand were more than willing to test her power supply and confirm that it was bad and install it for her with no hassle, BS, or sales pitches.

Mary had nothing but praise for them, I guess Best Buy with a Geek Squad that I have never been impressed with, has lost a few customers for lifetime over nitpicking.

Long Busy Day

Boy do I hate Mondays, it is the worst day of the week, it was raining yesterday and all of a sudden I am absolutely buried in work with deadlines. It wasn't exactly my typical Monday.

I even brought some work home with me yesterday, but for some reason my portable Hard Drive didn't sync properly and I did not have the appropriate files that I needed. I had two options, go back into the office at 8:30 last night after a long day or go to bed.

I chose going to bed and approaching it this morning with a clearer head.

A Sunday Afternoon Cookout.

On a nice pleasant Sunday afternoon, Trish Arron and Layla came over and we had a nice little cookout to close out the weekend before it is back to work today.

Trish made some potato sidedish that was actually quite awesome. We did have the opportunity to take a few dozen pictures of Layla put in the yard playing with flowers and having a whole lot of fun.

Hamburgers, Brats and Trish's side dish (plus Hayley's Portabella Burger now that she wants to be a vegetarian) were the main courses that we grilled. It was a good time, with some good food and some good friends and a great way to end a weekend.

Overall I would say it has been one of my better weekends in a while. Weather was great, had a great deal of fun and spent some quality time with Michelle.

Spring Game and Geocache

Yesterday was a great day, it all started out yesterday morning when we had some great weather. It was a great day for Mountaineer football and Michelle and I decided to take in the spring scrimmage, the final practice of the year for the WVU football team.

There was a nice crowd and the weather was just absolutely awesome. It was the starters vs the second string basically. The starting offense looked unstoppable and the starting defense wasn't budging an inch against the second stringers. Blown assignments and bad decisions made this kind of a boring scrimmage to watch. Some people were excited, but when you are performing against the scout team there is no reason to get excited. It was a lot of fun and Michelle's first spring game.

After we got home the weather was just a little bit too nice, so we decided to conquer the last geocache we attempted in 2008 (it got dark and we did not get it) and started the 2009 campaign with the West Run Cache for this year. Hayley went with us and managed to find it first, so she was the one who got her picture taken as you can tell.

It was an awesome day filled with nice sunshine, Mountaineer Football, geocaching and spending a little quality time with the love of my life.

Britain's got talent

This turned from funny to OMG in about 0.265 seconds.47, nearly 48 and unemployed trying to get a job as a singer.




Review


Won't get Makeover


If you have made it this far, I wonder of she is still unemployed? My guess is someone will hire her at least part time, but that comes with a bit of sarcasm.

Best Buy has the absolute worst customer service.

I am now officially boycotting Best Buy. They have to have the absolute worst customer service I think I have ever seen.

It all started off with me going and working on Mary's computer, she was having power supply problems. So, I called Best Buy to price a power supply, and the very non customer service friendly associate must have felt like I was inconveniencing him by calling and actually asking if they had one in stock. He didn't even bother even asking what I needed.

So, with what I think it a bad power supply we head to Best Buy to either purchase one or find maybe a laptop for Mary so she can have a computer. I go to the Geek Squad and ask if they could simply test the power supply and the girl said sure and walked in back with it. She comes out with this story that in case their tester breaks our power supply, they would have to charge us $30.00. What? Are you kidding? So we were a little upset and asked to talk to a manager and explained we just wanted to test it, if it came back good we it meant a motherboard was probably bad and if it came back bad we would be purchasing a new unit. Couldn't help us and pretty much arrogantly refused to be any assistance.

Dear Best Buy, you lost a sale from tonight of possibly even a new computer, and any future business from me.

Your geek squad has never impressed me as being the slightest bot knowledgeable either before tonight, but tonight just confirmed my original impression.

Horrible and I have already spent my last dollar there.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

How about that, it is once again that time of the week when we actually get a chance to cease our labors for the week and take a little bit of deserved time out and enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is the dawn of yet another weekend and a Big Ole Hairy Friday!!!!!

Mom called me yesterday and asked me to come and look at Mary's computer, which I am planning on doing later tonight. It just doesn't seem to be functioning and probably needs a little bit of attention and routine maintenance. Not exactly sure what the problem is as of yet.

Tomorrow at Mylan Puskar Stadium at Mountaineer Field will be the yearly Spring Game for the WVU football team. Admission is a $5.00 donation to Children's Hospital to get to see the Mountaineers in a regular scrimmage this season. The last couple of years it has been just the offense versus the defense, but this year I guess the team elected to go with a two team scrimmage against each other.

Weather should be nice and cooperative this weekend, get out and enjoy yourselves a little bit.

Kaiden

 

Hi all, Amy is thinking about putting Kaiden into the 2009 Baby Idol contest. She has a picture that she wants to use, but she wants to be able to crop out the Easter Bunny out of the picture and I told her I would assist her.

She actually has a better, less pixelized picture that we are going to use, she is talking about coming over tonight and cropping the full version of this picture. This picture is cropped out of the one that she wants to use to submit, but this is a draft of the edited picture.

The one we submit will be much higher quality.

Stress test

Michelle is going to have a lot of fun today, last weekend she was not feeling to well so we took her to the Emergency Room. Her BP was quite elevated and it caused an great deal on concern on my part. Fortunately all of her tests came back normal and she was released.

Today she has another test, this being the stress test administered at the Hospital. It can last anywhere between four and six hours and should be able to tell us a little more once we get the results back.

I took had taken her to her Dr's appointment yesterday and they will follow up with her sometime tomorrow about the overall results and to see what else may need to be done or tested.

Can't be too careful, I just found her, I have to keep her.

Midweek

Man is my BLOG starting to get boring if I'm doing tidbits and midweek reports. I have to apologize to everyone as my creative juices just are not flowing right now for some reason.

I could talk about this blah boring weather we are having but I think that is a little obvious here in Morgantown.

Here is a bit of advice, if you have not filed your tax return, you may want to get on it because it has to be postmarked by midnight tonight. Today is tax day.

Michelle does have a Dr's appointment today at 3:00. Tomorrow she is going to go in for a stress test.

Not much to say, but keeping it active for the day.

Tuesday Tidbits

* As you can tell, I'm out of material for today and have nothing really to say, so I guess a tidbits will be nice to fill in for today.

* First of all Michelle is doing fine, she will go in Thursday morning at Mon General to have a stress test. This will be a follow up from Saturday evening and we should know a little more by then.

* How about those Pittsburgh Pirates, they actually threw a two hit shutout yesterday against the Houston Astros.

* I did hear back from Josh Judy, he just picked up his first save of the weekend and pretty much lit them up with two strikeouts one no runs in his inning of relief. He mentioned that He did get a chance to go against the Major League Chicago Cubs in Spring Training for two innings. He threw two innings, had three strikeouts, no hits, no walks and no runs. He'll be a Major Leaguer before it's all said and done. Go get em Ace. light em up.

* Brittany has been in Europe the last few days, if you want to see how she is doing and want to send her an email it's Brittanydae@yahoo.com, I'm sure she would love to hear from everyone.

* I hope the weather breaks, I'm ready to do some outside stuff. The winter stuff by the fireplace is getting old and I'm ready for summer.

* Have a great day.

Easter Dinner

Well we have had our first holiday dinner since we moved in together and needless to say it Michelle did an awesome job. Ham, Home made noodles, fresh rolls, corn, real mashed potatoes and gravy, deviled eggs and a nice carrot cake for dessert made this one meal I will remember.

Saturday night however, this meal may have been in a little bit of jeopardy as Michelle was having some chest pains and dizzy spells. We take good care of ourselves with multi vitamins and low dose aspirin daily, but I wasn't going to take any chances. She's too important to let anything happen to.

I hope everyone had a good weekend, it's back to the grindstone today.

Picasa

I downloaded Picasa earlier this week and finally have had a chance to play with it. I have to say it really impresses me and is not only one of the easiest, but one of the best simple picture editing software that I have used.

My Kodak came with some nice software, but nothing like Picasa as you can see by the collage I created above. It was really simple and quick, and it even can upload it to my google and Blogger account pretty easily.

I give it two thumbs up, everyone should give it a try.

Hoppy Easter

I would like to take this opportunity to take a little time out and wish everyone a very Hoppy Easter.

Take a little time out today and spend with family and see if anyone can find the tracks that that Easter Bunny left. I hear he is like a Ninja Type Easter Bunny, can sneak in and leave the baskets and hop back out without anyone catching him.

Only He and Santa Claus have this kind of stealth. The too fairy is right behind these two, but she works more than one day a year.

Anyways, I hope everyone has a Happy and memorable Easter.

A later BLOG

I know, this BLOG is posting a little bit later than I usually post. We went out grocery shopping for tomorrow's Easter dinner Michelle is going to prepare.

She's planning on a Ham, Mashed Potatoes and gravy, corn, fresh baked rolls, cake, Easter bread and colored deviled eggs. We haven't colored any eggs yet, so we got Hayley a Kung Fu Panda coloring kit to color some easter eggs before we turn them into deviled eggs.

We were shopping at Wal-Mart this morning and ran into Amy, Ralphie and Kaiden. They were out themselves doing a little bit of shopping for themselves and for Easter tomorrow.

I think Val is also going to have an Easter dinner, Terri talked about going up a couple of days ago when I talked to her.

Sherri Toth is in for the Holiday weekend, I was talking to her last night when I first got home from work. I'm going to put a little music on her MP3 player before she goes back.

Kim's out of the Hospital

Kim has been released from the Hospital, just a couple of days after her surgery. She called me just now on her way home from the hospital. She is very glad to have checked out of the hospital, judging by her facebook the nurses are also probably glad to see her go. 3:00 AM and she is playing with the nurses call button...just because she can.

Anyways she is in good spirits and hopefully will have a quick recovery.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time we we cease the labors for the week and take a little time out for ourselves to actually enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is yet again the dawn of another weekend and a Big Ole Hairy Good Friday.

Yes today is in fact Good Friday , a very religious time of the year for the Christian Community. It all culminates at the end of the weekend with Easter.

Not too sure what Michelle and I are going to o for Easter, she mentioned getting a ham and preparing it here for us. I think that would be kind of awesome, and I'm actually looking forward to it.

Brittany either has or getting ready to go to Europe with a class trip. She'll be traveling abroad for 10 days and will get to see much more of the world than I have ever seen. I'm a little envious that she gets to make the trip.

This has been a quick week at work, but I am definitely ready for a weekend to enjoy myself. We never made it out last weekend to go geocaching, but this weekend with any luck will change that.

Have a great good Friday and a wonderful Easter weekend.

It's Baseball Season, time for a Josh Judy Update

It's once again baseball season, and I will once again continue to update the status of and old softball team mate who has went on to greener pastures again.

After a few years of being an under aged kid with a whole lot of talent on a few of our softball teams Judies Lounge, Recourse a couple of years and the Old Walnut Lane Inn and all while he was still in HS or younger, Josh Judy was a young kid that we all knew was something special.

I first wrote about Josh during my first month writing a blog and have written about his progress through the years. From him making All-American at Indiana Tech to being drafted by the Indians to him just tearing up the league last season.

Now it is 2009 and I have found a couple of interesting articles on Josh for everyone. There is a Scouting Report on him and how he has done. Rating his performance quite high and showing me that I may have to keep a closer eye on him and try to go and watch him if he pitches anywhere local.

He is also listed #43 on the Cleveland Indians top 100 Prospects. Pretty impressive considering there are 25 guys in the Majors, 25 or so in AAA, 25 or so in AA and he is pitching in the upper division of A. It looks like he could very well have a nice long career in front of him.

I'll keep everyone updated on his 2009 progress throughout the season. He is currently with the Kingston Indians in the Carolina League and their season opener is tonight.

Good luck Josh, go get em.

Kim is Out Of Surgery

It's 2:45 and I just got the call from Robert, Kim is out of surgery and doing fine. They were able to remove it laparoscopically so her recovery time should be minimal. maybe in a couple of days she'll out of the hospital and back home.

They did find a couple of Stones that had been hidden in previous tests, they were removed and everything went fine.

They did biopsy her liver, but the Dr said it appeared to look fine.

1,500!!!!!!!!

I have once again in my life of being a BLOGGER reached a historic milestone. There are some posts that just need to have the post be about, well that blog.

My first post, where George's Journal was first born was on September 11, 2004 . Who would have ever imagined when I tried writing my first blog that it would have evolved into what it has today.

On November 22, 2006 I celebrated what I called my first milestone, my 500th Blog post.


It was last year that I celebrated my 1,000th BLOG. Man I wish I could find another picture like that with a bunch of naked women laying down and forming the magical number.

I would like to thank my readers, without you no one would be reading this and I would have nothing to do every day.

Here is to the next 1,500

A little reminder

Kim is scheduled to have her surgery today. I have asked Kim to have Robert contact me and I will attempt to keep everyone updated as to her status and how the surgery went right here in my BLOG.

So, I'll update as soon as I know anything. Keep watching.

Hump Day Rewind

I was thinking earlier today of something that I could do when I run out of any material for my blog, to just give my blog a little life and a little boost.

I looked at my blog and it was right there in front of me, staring me right in the face and I just didn't see it.

A rewind. I have been blogging since 2004 and all the material was right there in front of me. Nearly 5 full years and close to 1,500 blog posts, my material was my previous posts from that day in my BLOG.


Last year on this day I started working for IMC and we had our first softball practice of the season.

Two years ago I had fun and wrote a blog about surprising Terri for her 40th birthday....er I mean her 29th again.

I'll try a rewind and an occasional tidbit to go with my Bog Ole Hairy Fridays and hopefully we can add a little more life to the blog by just simply looking back at what I have done.

I Have to Take Full Blame for this

OK Phil, I chopped off my hair Sunday night and was joking with Michelle that every time I cut my hair it seems to want to snow. Now listen rat, this is April and long after your six weeks of winter. Heck, we have even has a softball practice and two scrimmage games, winter is over with.

I think you and Mother Nature got together and just because I cut off my beautiful golden locks (OK I chopped off the non bald parts) that you two have gotten together and decided to bring this down upon me and everyone else.

I thought I saw your little Groundhog butt watching Michelle cut off my hair, I said to myself watch that little rat run and call Mother Nature and bring snow upon us. Phil you need to come over and visit me sometime soon, I hear BBQ'd groundhog tastes pretty good smothered in garlic.

Have I ever mentioned I HATE SNOW!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Terri Beth Rehmani

I would like to take this chance and wish my sister a very and Happy Birthday. I do believe that she once told me that she was 29 and holding, so I wonder if she is still holding onto 29?

If you get the chance today, make sure with wish her the very Happiest of Birthdays.

Tidbits

* How about we start our week off right with a little tidbits.

* Stopped over yesterday morning and saw Kim in the hospital. She is doing good and may be scheduled for her Surgery one day this week. She did manage to get up and walk a couple of laps with me and Michelle while we were there.

* Had our softball scrimmage last night against arguably a team that could win the league above us. They are a loaded team and we were just batting practice for them. My team ais a great group of guys, but sometimes I think they struggle a little with the fundamentals of the game trying to do too much.

* Never did get a chance to do any geocaching this weekend. I think Michelle and I are going to tackle one we did last year and never got to finish because it got dark on us first this year so we can finish a little unfinished business.

* After practice last night the team went over to MiHALEY's for a few beers, dinner and to watch wrestlemania. There was only one person working and she was hustling and a bustling to keep up with everyone.

* We're going to try to have practice again tonight, weather permitting, with just our team. We are in desperate need of batting practice before the season starts.

* If anyone wants a CD of my Grandfather's Music, just let me know and I'll make one for you.

* Watch for a milestone post this week.

Have a great Monday.