Happy Halloween

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

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

I'll be there with camera in tow.

New feature added to sidebar

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

300 LB African Lion Loose in WV

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

"Anything could have eaten that," he said.

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

Trunk or Treat

Just passing this along:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BRRRRRRR

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

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

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

How about this for an up and coming guitar wizard

WVU looked good yesterday

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

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

Big Ole RAINY Friday

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

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

It's a rainy kind of day

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

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

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

Let's Turn back the clock kinda day

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

TODAYS PHOTO(Link to site rather than posting photo)

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


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

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

Wildabeast v Tiger v Alligator

Watch it all the way through, pretty amazing video.

It's a back 2 work kinda Monday

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

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

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

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

Have a good day.

What an accomplishment

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

Great job guys!!!

Gallagher Tickets

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

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

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

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

Another Big Old Hairy Friday

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

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

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

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

Enjoy your weekend.

This week has been dragging

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

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

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

Josie's Birthday

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

Happy Birthday Brittany Dae Cummings

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

Anyways, have a very Happy Birthday Brittany.

It's a back to work Monday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other than that Mylan Park will be hosting Oktoberfest tomorrow.

Have a good weekend no matter what you get into.