Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday.

Well the weather looks like it is going to be more than cooperative this weekend, temperatures are going to be in the just right to oh yeah range. That is the 90° F range to everyone else. It was supposed to be sunny but the weather forecast is calling for some showers. I don't mind a little bit of rain, but I would like to get my garden planted and my brakes changed on the Taurus tomorrow morning.

Now for a public service announcement. Want to lose weight, don't want to do all the hard things it takes to do so. All it takes is a couple of easy steps. One, like her page on Facebook right here, this gets her some attention and gives her a chance to get some wrap parties going. Two, shop her product line. Michelle is the first Independent Distributor for ItWorks and is trying to get the word out. She first tried this product last fall when we went to her High School Reunion and a friend of hers from High School was Pittsburgh's distributor  for the product line. She ordered and has been using it for some time and the results really show with the tape measure and how her clothes are fitting her. She has used one of their products and has revitalized her fingernails. The stuff is pretty amazing, people will have to get together for a wrap party and see the results on your own bodies.

Other than that, I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through all the pictures that I have stored on my computer. Lost moments in time that were captured with a camera to live on forever. Sometimes it's pretty easy to find that one special picture, and sometimes it's not so easy, it is always a a lot of fun however.

This weeks picture goes back a few years, back ton a day of water battles, pic nics and fun times with friends on at  the Rosiak 4th of July Pic Nic.

I grabbed this picture of Trish and my wonderful Wife Michelle early in the day, I think at this point they were both still pretty much sober. There is actually a video of me going down a slip and slide and doing a flip at the end of it as Trish about killed Kenny again. It was a great day and one I look forward to every year.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

OK that is two days down even though one of them was a holiday and now if you look up over than noon time hump, just on the other side of a photo flashback, you can see the dawn of another weekend off in the distance.

Well our house is now back to normal, Shawn safely made it back home yesterday around 5:30. He sent Michelle a message when he got home to let us know that he had made it home safely. Rocki and Lilly are now back home with Ashley and Michael as they have finally returned home from an extended weekend at Myrtle Beach.

I'm, struggling to come up with something creative to write, so I just grabbed some of Michelle's delicious home made potato salad she made this weekend for the pic nic (remember I write this the night before). Not sure if it will give me any inspiration talking about those wonderful chunks of potatoes, peppers and sweet gherkin pickles just swimming in Marzetti's Slaw dressing that my dad got me addicted to in years gone by. Yummmm.

Is it too early to start planning this upcoming weekend? I'm thinking Frank and Pat Rosiak are going to have a graduation cookout for Arron this weekend.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Now that the three day holiday weekend is now behind us and we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday, I still can't think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* 1,901 days ago Michelle and I went on our first date.

* 1,124 days ago (our 777th day of dating) I proposed marriage.

* 661 days ago in front of our closest friends and family we tied the knot at the Marilla Center.

* There are 211 days left until Christmas.

* Down to 103 days left until our cruise (I think we are about half way there from us booking it)

* 51 Days away from Partying down with Jimmy Buffet and the rest of the Parrot Heads when we all meeting in Pittsburgh.

* Only 25 more days until we see Kenny Chesney at Heinze Field.

* 24 More days to go until Summertime.

* 18 days to go until we got to Pittsburgh's Stage AE to see Peter Frampton.

* Shawn will be leaving today and heading back to the Pittsburgh Airport to make his way back to Nebraska.

* Rocki and Lilly our other house guests will be returning home today as Mommy and Daddy made it back from Myrtle Beach late last night. Gotta love those puppies, they are both a bundle of joy.

* Michelle got her ThirtyOne order Sunday from Amy's party. She loves all of her new bags and we have the beach bag personalized.

* Michelle has had a great deal of success with a product called It Works, she was introduced to it this past fall at her HS Reunion, now she she is going to start selling it. She'll have her website up sometime in the near future.

* Chad's Python that he first bought right after birth is now a little bit over 7' long. Relax, it is hand tamed and the kids lover to play with it.

* Hayley's boyfriend Manny is getting ready to leave for Mexico for a few months to do his internship. He's studying Mechanical Engineering and he wants to follow in both of his parents paths and work for NASA.

* My brother Gary took his Harley down to DC for a ride this past weekend, he kept messaging me all weekend and then late yesterday morning said he was returning home.

* Hi ho hi ho

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. I hope everyone takes a break from their pic nics to take a little bit of time out today to remember why we have this day. It is a day that we honor all fallen veterans who have fought and died for us.

We had our little get together yesterday afternoon and had a great time. It was nice to see a group of close friends reunited for the first time in a number of years. Shawn stayed in Maryland last night at Paul and Lynn's home, but will be back here tonight so he can go out to dinner with Michelle's niece before returning to Nebraska. The man is full of personality and it has been my honor to meet him. In know Paul was trying to convince him into coming back here to work, but he has found a really nice deal on a house in Nebraska.

Our plans today is do a little more BBQing, but smaller scale. If the weather was nicer I would pack up a grill and go somewhere, but I am content just staying here and cooking.

We will be making a couple of trips to a couple of graveyards today. Today is as good as any day to visit my Father and Grandfather.

Have a great day.

Sunday Morning Rambings

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, I'm the first one to recover from a losing battle with the Sandman and am up early once again watching somethingoranother on the TV (shows you how much I am paying attention).

Shawn made it in from Nebraska and we are going to be having a cookout for him and some friends today, and anyone else who would like to show up. I've got corn soaking for roasting ears and Michelle is going to make Potato Salad and we're probably going to grill just burgers and dogs on the grill. Hopefully the weather will hold up for us today and allow us to have this outside. I don't see any rain in the forecast but it was once again a bit on the chili side last night.

Michelle and I have to get out this morning and do our grocery shopping, mostly shopping for things today and the little things to get us through the week. We have 15 cubic foot and a 56 cubic foot freezers that are pretty well stocked, so our grocery needs are limited.

Have a great day.

Saturday Morning Rambings

This was the scene last night as Arron Hill Rosiak culminated his scholastic journey with his final walk and received of his High School diploma yesterday evening. He had a large following as you can tell. Trish brought an air horn that they tried to remove from her, but she wouldn't give it up. 

Ok on to today. Michelle's friend Shawn will be arriving from Nebraska sometime this morning. He's coming in for a visit for the Holiday and we're planing on doing  a cookout for him and some of his their friends tomorrow afternoon. Paul and Lynne are coming in from Maryland so it will be nice for Michelle to get back together with a few of her old friends. 

I have to say this is the coldest Memorial Day weekend that I think I have ever seen. I still haven't planted my garden, and was talking to Trish's parents last night and they haven;t planted theirs either. It's supposed to be hot and sunny, not cold and wet. 

Have a great day and stay safe.

Congratulations Arron Hill Rosiak

Tonight it will mine and Michelle's honor to share a very special day in the life of a little boy that I have watched grown up into a 6'7" man as Arron Hill Rosiak gets to listen to Pomp and Circumstance as he walks down the isle once his name is called to culminate his scholastic career at University High School. 

I have had the pleasure of being a part of this young man's life and watching him grown into a man, I have enjoyed every moment of it and consider it an honor.

Last night his Aunt Michelle the great Aunt that she is, made him his favorite cookies, and mine too, the Butterscotch Cookies that he loves son much. It's no surprise as I sent him a picture of them being made and he replied Yumm.

I'll have my camera in tow to grab a few pictures from tonight. I can't believe that you boy who years ago used to refer to me as Ed Hall Dumb Dumb, he just turned four is now Graduating High School.

Congratulations Arron.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday and it's Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of SUMMERTIME!!!!!!!!

Three day weekend on the agenda, Michelle's friend Shawn will be coming in tomorrow ton visit us. It's a friend of hers who lives in Nebraska that she hasn't seen in a few years, so he's coming in for a visit.

Tonight we'll be going to the WVU Coliseum to see Arron Hill Rosiak graduate from High School. University High's commencement is this evening at 6:00 and neither of us would miss it for the world.

I'm working today, but I'll be boot scooting early so

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to taken a little bit if time out and look through all of the pictures that I have stored on my computer. Little lost moments of time that I have stored in some kind of a digital format and safely protected on an exterior drive. I like to select one captured moment in time and write a little blog about it. Sometimes it's pretty easy finding that one special pic, and sometimes it's not so easy. It is however always a whole lot of fun.

This weeks picture I do not know the origin of, other than than it was on an old disposable camera in my Sister Terri's tub of pictures that we had developed last week. She has 13 disposable cameras with pictures from the past 15 or so years that were laying there undeveloped.

This weeks pic is one of those pics, it's a picture of a couple of my nieces that were developed from those pictures. I have no idea of a times frame but I would guess somewhere in the early 2000's but that is about as close as I can come to narrowing it down.

I just thought it was a very nice picture of them.

Hi ho hi I'm off today. =)

Happy Birthday George McClain

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my Brother from Another Mother and Brother in Law George McClain a very Happy Birthday today.

George is a hard guy to get a photograph of so I had to look through some of my Christmas Photos to find one.

George is a brother in law that I still owe a million and three favors to for all of the times through the years he has helped me with any car problems that I may have had.

My sister was lucky to find him and I was luckier that she did, because I gained a first class brother in law.

If you see George today, make sure you take a little bit of time out and wish him a Happy Birthday.

Hump Day

Well here we are once again, couple of days in the work week done and on cruise control. Now if you take a peek up over that noon time hump, just on the  other side of a photo flashback, you can see the dawn of not only a weekend but the Memorial Day Weekend.

If you like the little picture that I'm using in today's blog,  I have to confess I stole it from my mother's Facebook page. I thought it was cute and appropriate.

I know everyone knows about the story of the tornadoes in Oklahoma, there is always a nice human interest story that brings back hope in humanity every time something like this happens. It could be the WVU Baseball team who was arriving in Oklahoma while the F5 was hitting, they volunteered some relief effort to help assist all the residents who had lost everything.

My favorite human interest story was one I came across yesterday morning, it kind of leaves you a little speechless. LINK It was the story of a woman who lost all and was talking on live TV about her lost dog, and that lost dog appears from out of all the rubble during the interview.

I'm sure there are and will be others, but it's getting that time so it's...

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbit

* Well Monday is once again behind us and in our rear view mirrors, we are now staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday and I still can't think of a better reason than that to a tidbits.

* 1,894 days ago a very special lady agreed to go out on a date with me. We did dinner and a movie and she is still brightening up my days.

* 1,117 days ago I got down on one knee and proposed marriage to this special lady.

* 654 days ago Michelle and I entered into a lifetime together of marital bliss. We had a non traditional ceremony in front of our closest friends and family at the Marilla Center.

* There are only 218 days left until Christmas, it's never too early to get a start shopping.

* We're 110 days away from our cruise to the Carribean.

* 58 days until we party down with Jimmy Buffet and the rest of the Pittsburgh area Parrot Heads.

* 32 days away from  seeing Kenny Chesney at Heinz Field.

* 31 more days until Summer.

* 25 more days until we go and see Peter Frampton for the first of our scheduled three concerts this season.

* My niece Amy found a baby turtle yesterday, I don;t have the heart to tell her that is a very dangerous Alligator Snapping Turtle. Chad has one much larger in his room and they need to be handled with extreme caution.

* Speaking of Amy, she won pick your park passes last Friday. My suggestion would be Idlewild Park.  They have Story Book Forest for kids, shows for the adults, attractions for all to see and they have the Soak Zone with the wave pool and the new Lazy River in 2013.

* Graduation is coming up this weekend for the local High Schools, We'll be attending University High's Graduation Friday night to watch Arron get his diploma.

* I've two blogs for today, this is number 3,228. =)

*  Hi ho hi ho

Happy Birthday Pam McClain

I would like to take this opportunity out to wish my beautiful Sister Pamela Sue McClain a very happy birthday today. If my Math serves me correct, she will be celebrating an anniversary of her 21st Birthday today, so we'll call her 21.

Pam is a hard one to get pictures of, at least ones where she is not giving me the Hall Salute with a select finger from  either one of her hands, but I've noticed she favors the right hand when saluting me.

I'm very fortunate to have a Sister like Pam, never any drama and would give you the shirt off of her back to help someone out. She is a rare bread of person.

My guess is she is working today but I could be wrong. If she's scheduled to work she will show up, I'm even convinced that she would not call off work to attend her own funeral.

If you see this special person today, make sure you take a little time out and wish them a very Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday Pam.

Back to Work

Well my long event filled weekend is finally over with. It consisted of a lot of running especially Saturday and Sunday for the Steelers trivia show. I'm not allowed to tell everyone how we did, but I'll say we did tape the maximum number of shows we could have been in. We will be on in week 5 and then a couple weeks after that date.

We did have a good time on the set and it was nice to hook up with some old friends again, but that is now all behind us.

Now it's time to stick our noses back to the grindstone for another fun filled week of work. It's time to get back to doing what we do for a living and earn that living for another week. This coming weekend is a Holiday weekend, so that will make it nice.

We're having a house guest from Nebraska in this weekend as Michelle's friend Shawn is flying in to see everyone. She hasn't seen him in a few years, not since she last went to Myrtle Beach the first year we dated.

Hi ho hi ho

Sunday Morning Ramblings

Here I am once again up in the early AM, as I am the only one in the household who has recovered from a losing battle with the sandman from last night. I don't even know what is playing on the TV as I have to get ready and get out of the house early this morning. We did our grocery shopping last night, because of what happened yesterday.

I'm not supposed to say what happened in our trivia round, it's to keep the suspense going and out there. We were not ready missed a whole lot of questions and were way off of our game. There was a lot of things we didn't know unlike last time when we knew anything and everything. I can't say how the first round went, but my name tag and the teams banner are at KDKA studios where I have to be early this morning. We'll see how today goes, but I didn't expect to be there this morning.

Michelle didn't make the trip yesterday due to how she was feeling, she is not going to be with me once again today. I'll be flying solo once again this morning.

Did you guys see that storm yesterday? I didn't, we were taping as it was going on but it was sunny in Pittsburgh. Michelle called me and told me to be safe on my way home and I had no idea what she was even talking about. She took a few pictures on Facebook, but these pictures are from the Monongalia County Homeland Security Emergency Management Agency and some of the pictures they had taken. The first one is Van Voorhis Road and the second one is West Run, both of these close to our home, just depending on which way you turn out of the driveway. I guess you could say that we were right in the middle of the storm damage. The creek in our back yard got higher, but not to our yard. Patty's backyard got hammered. I'm not sure if it got inside the basement or not.

I hope everyone has a great day today, I should be back home in Morgantown by early afternoon at the very latest. Now I get to drive to the heart of Pittsburgh again. There was some kind of a festival going on yesterday at the point, maybe today I can find out what kind of a festival that was.

Have a great day.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit early in the AM, so far I'm the only one who has recovered from a losing battle with the sandman and am up early collecting my thoughts for the day. I'm up watching some movie on HBO, I think it is Club Dread.

I got a real good nights sleep and Michelle needing some rest is still in there sleeping. I don't think she got up too many time through the night as her laptop is sitting right where I left it.

This afternoon we'll be at KDKA studios to tape the 2013 edition of Steelers trivia. We played in 2008 and never trailed once the entire series and won the whole thing. In 2007 my team mates set the single show record but didn't win the tournament.

This year was supposed to be 18 returning Champions going at it, but we were the only Champions to enter for this year and we are more or less a fill in so they can get their 18 teams that are needed. With that being said, we have not studied, reviewed old shows or built a database of questions that could be asked. In 2008, it was given that we were walking away with it, this year we really don't have any plans to make it back to the second day of taping but you never know. Randy Page is a walking ball of sports knowledge, and Chris is no slacker. It could very well two trips to KDKA studios this weekend with those guys. We are scheduled to tape at 4:00, so unlike last time when we were the first show taped, we'll be the last show taped today. Meaning this will appear in the sixth week.

Have a great day.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday.

I'm off again today, going to be doing a little running around and shopping as well as a few other things.

Tomorrow we will be taping the Steelers Trivia in Pittsburgh, I hope the other guys are ready because I really haven't studied much of anything, but Randy Page was the man last time for our team. Hopefully he will be up to his normal self and ready. We won this competition the last time, but neither Chris nor I am that confident this time. We'll have to wait and see. We were "Poised to Strike" last time, but I guess we are the only returning Champions so they are changing our name and retiring the Championship name. I think we are the Fat Polamalu's this time around.

Have a great day.

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through the thousands of digital pictures that I have stored on my computer. Little lost moments of time captured in an image for eternity. Sometimes it is pretty easy to find that special pic, you know what you're going to use before you even start looking and sometimes it's not so easy. The one thing it always is however is a whole lot of fun for me.

This weeks picture is a picture that hangs in my home to this day. This is my Grandfather on the left, Bill Addis in behind and they made up the Green Mountain Boys. The man to the right of the picture is Steve Shoals, the Hall of Fame Member who signed Elvis Presley to the RCA label, but that is another story.

Today is May 16th. 36 years ago Ellis Hall a man known to me as pappaw passed away. He was a very influential figure in my life, as he took over the role as my Dad and raised me when my own parents were experiencing some tough times.

Nine years ago, 27 years to the day after Grandpa Hall died, I fulfilled his wish for me when I graduated from West Virginian University.

Have a great day.

Hump Day

If you look up over that noon time hump, just on the other side of a photo flashback you can see the dawn of another weekend off in the distance.

Michelle brought work home with her again last night, meaning she was occupied and I had control of the remote. What was I watching? A great movie? No, the food network.

Something I did run across yesterday was a TV shown that really looked like something I could get into. The Blacklist will be coming to NBC on Mondays this fall. It was an ad for another video that I was watching and it really captured my attention. Maybe I'll watch one or two this fall, it's kind of Silence of the Lambs meets 24.

Other than that, just another boring day in our life, no excitement today, which I guess is a good thing.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well Monday is once again in our rear view mirrors and we are staring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday, I still can't think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* Day 1,887 since I first went out on a date with my wife, she hasn't killed me yet so I must be doing something right.

* 1,110 days ago I got down on one knee and proposed marriage, lucky for me she said yes rather than knock me upside the head,

* 647 days ago in front of our closest friends and family, we exchanged our wedding vows.

* There are only 225 more shopping days left until Christmas, get with it.

* 117 more days until the cruise, I'm ready for it and I think Michelle is as well. I'm ready to do some snorkeling.

* 65 more days until we see Jimmy Buffett in Pittsburgh.

* 40 days until we see Kenny Chesney, although we will no where near as close as my niece Amy was years ago when she saw it at Jamboree in the Hills.

* 39 days until SUMMERTIME!!!!

* 32 more days until we head north to see Peter Frampton.

* It was nice to look through old pictures this weekend, I'm suggesting a scanning party when we work as a team to get as many scanned as we can and organized for future generations.

* I have to start studying for Steelers Trivia, we tape our first round match this Saturday afternoon at KDKA studios. We won it the last time we did this, but not as confident this time. I have one team mate that is just a walking ball of knowledge.

* Michelle brought some work home last night and worked from home for a few hours. She's trying to get caught up on a few things.

* What is up with all of this cold weather in mid May? Come on, I want to plant my garden, hurry up and make this cold front pass. I looked at a heat map yesterday and it was in the 80's in North Dakota and in the low 30's in Minnesota. What's up with that?

* Hi ho hi ho

Happy Birthday George Hall Sr

It will be 14 years this summer since you left us, a time that was way too early because we did not get enough time to spend with you. You were only 54 years old, when you passed in 1999. Today we would have been celebrating your 68th birthday.

I'm sure that there would have been one of those infamous George Hall cookouts, all while you trying to ignore the fact that is was your birthday.

The cookouts of yesteryear, the ones that are still spoke about 25 years later that you hosted for not only the family but the extended family as well. You just liked being around your family, your kids and your grand kids whose souls you have touched even to this day. I was at Terri's yesterday looking over some old pictures as Amy was scanning them. I remembered your birthday was close to Mothers Day, but Val was the one who reminded us all that your birthday was today. Even more evidence of the people you have touched.

If I could have one with today, it would be to tell you Happy Birthday, Thank You for all you have done for us and we miss you.

Happy Birthday Dad.

Monday Morning

All good things must come to an end, and that includes the fun filled weekends that we have. So it is time to stick our noses back on the grindstone for another week of work.

I stopped over and spent the day with my Mother yesterday as Michelle went back home and spent time with hers. Mom and I drove down to Terri's who was going through a number of pictures with the kids and grandkids. Amy started to put an album up on Facebook  of the scans.

It was a lot of fun to spend some time with a lot of very special people in my life. We were all looking through a tub of pictures and reflecting upon a lot of them. It's memories like yesterday that I think I hold more dear than the actual pictures. It was a chance to relive lost moments in time with the people who were either involved or someone who could explain something about the picture.

That was yesterday, not it's time to get back to work.

Hi ho hi ho

Happy Mothers Day

Here I am up early again, as I am every morning and collecting my thoughts for the day. Michelle woke up about the same time I did, but has went back to once again lay down and go back to sleep. Sandman really got to her I suppose. I'm up watching Head Office  on HBO, a movie I used to love back in the 80's but haven;t seen since.

I would like to take this opportunity out and wish all of the Mothers in the World a very Happy Mother's Day today. Mother's Day  is a very special holiday in North Central West Virginia, since it's origins start here with Anna Jarvis in Grafton West Virginia.

Speaking of Anna Jarvis and her home or birthplace, here is a picture of my wife, a Mother of two, at the home where this entire holiday started. We took a trip to Philipi a few years ago and we stopped by the Anna Jarvis House just outside of Grafton. So we stopped and grabbed a few pictures, this one in particular of the porch and a few of the tools that were used at time when she lived there.

There is also a shrine in downtown Grafton to commemorate that this was the birthplace of this wonderful holiday.

I am fortunate to have a number of people in my life who are either my Mother or Mother figures. One of which was my grandmother who left us in 1980, but will always be remembered. There is my Mom who I will visit sometime today, there is Jean and Nana who we stopped by for a visit yesterday, there is Michelle's Mom and Grandmother who both walked her down the isle on our wedding day. Then I can't forget my wonderful wife as she is a Mother of two herself.

We're going to do our normal grocery shopping here this morning and then we may both go say hello to my Mother, then Michelle is heading up north to visit her family for the day. There will be bouquets of roses to go all around for six wonderful women in my life today.

I would also like to extend a very Happy Mother's Day to my Sisters, wonderful Mother's their own right and to my nieces who are wonderful  Mother's as well. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there, it's you that keep us in line.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit once again in a quiet household, I'm the only one here who has recovered from a losing battle with the sandman. I'm up early and watching Mallrats (love Kevin Smith movies) in the background as I surf the World Wide Web and collecting my thoughts to write this very blog.

Michelle went to Amy's Thirtyone party  yesterday and helped her out a bit. She ended up buying four things including this bag ton the left that we are going to use on the beach on our cruise, She's going to have our name embroidered on it and this is going to be our beach bag for days we arrive at ports.  If you didn't get time to order, I guess that show is now closed so you are SOL. Michelle said she got a good turnout and people were buying a lot of stuff, giving Amy quite a few things to choose as gifts. I'm glad it turned out pretty good for her.

I did hear from my sister Pam a couple of nights ago, she said she was in another fender bender on my voice-mail as she called after I was already in la-la land (I go to bed early). I'll try touching base with her this weekend and see how she feels.

We gave Chad his birthday Present a little early yesterday, he smashed his phone and AT&T was giving a $100 trade in on all working older smart phones. I had a 3GS that stayed in an otter box from the beginning and was in pristine condition so we traded that in on a new iPhone 5 for him. I got him another otter box for that phone so he is set and good to go again. I think he was amazed with the connection speed capabilities of the 5 since it is 4G LTE enabled where the iPhone 4 was not. He said he sent a picture to his cousin Jon and it was lightning quick. He has an iPad but he mostly uses that here or tethers a connection on his iPhone. We switched over to the family share plan earlier this year allowing all of us to create a personal hot spot. I can think of a few times in the past few years where I considered surrendering my unlimited data plan for a tethering plan, the shared plan allows us to do this and we have plenty of data to share.

I talked to my brother Gary briefly. I gave him my old computer because he quite frankly needed one since he is going out on his own for contracting and really needed something with a little bit of power and was reliable. He hasn't had much time to work on it as he has been busy.

Michelle said my sister Terri is looking real good. Terri said she was a little sore from her surgery still, but is able to get around and still be functional at work. She is a real trooper and like my sister Pam, I think they will both go to work even after they are dead. Hard workers to say the very least.

Not sure what we are getting into today if anything, I'm holding off planting until next week and it's supposed to rain all day.

Hope you have a great day.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday.

Well at 6:00 this evening at the Mountain View Jamboree, my niece Amy is having a thirty-one party . I'm a guy and I'll have to be honest I have little to no clue as to what they are, but I know it's a product that is starting to catch on and the reviews I hear are pretty good. If you can make it, head on out there today at 6:00 or if you can't just click the link. Make sure that you spend lots of money so Amy gets the rewards. I know Michelle is going to be going, so she'll probably buy something off of her and I know she is going to give my Sister Terri a ride up as well. Hopefully this goes well for Amy and she has some sales to help her get some rewards.

I'm off today, so I'll probably do our Sam's Club shopping and running around. We usually go out to dinner on Friday Nights, but I'll be on my own to find something. I'm anticipating a pizza in my future. =)

The weather appears to be less than cooperative this weekend, even calling for it to be below freezing on Monday Morning. I'll be waiting another week before we plant our backyard garden with this cold front coming. This should be the last one and it should be good planting weather after that.

Have a great day.

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through all of the pictures that I have stored on my computer. I like to find one lost moment in time and relive it briefly in my blog. Sometimes this is pretty easy, sometimes it's a little challenging to find one, however it is always a whole lot of fun.

This weeks picture is probably one of if not my absolute favorite picture of Erica Jean. It kind of captures that precious age if innocence that we all used to know some time ago. A  time where you were worry free and living for the moment.

This picture was taken at my Niece Amy's wedding reception. She and Ralph were actually married the day before, but had the wedding reception the next day at their home.

I guess every once in a while you capture a picture that has a life of its own, something that makes you stop and relate and for me I feel this one captures that. I get lucky every once in a while with my picture taking and capture that special moment, this was one of those times.

Have a great day.

Hi ho hi

Hump Day

That's two days down, now if you just look over that noon time hump, just on the other side of a photo flashback, you can see the dawn of another weekend off in the distance. It's the time that we are going up over the hump in the week filled full of work.

I just  wasn't getting used to my keyboard with my new computer, you could almost say that  I was getting a little bit frustrated with it to say the least. I bought the cheap one that came with the computer because I didn't really care for the ones that they had to offer as an alternative. So I decided to go back to an ergonomic keyboard and chose this one  from Office depot. I used to have an ergonomic keyboard when I worked at the NRAC and in college for my home computer, but have gotten away from them in the past six or seven years. I just figured it's time to get a new one since I switched computers, so I got what I wanted.

I also decided to clean up my blog a little bit, the twitter feed that I had hadn't been working in a while so I updated it with a new widget. I still can't seem to get my blog to syndicate to Facebook anymore, but my twitter feed feeds both Facebook and here. My Facebook also feeds my twitter account, so maybe it was time to connect the two again.

Michelle has been under the weather with a some stomach problems. I told her if she is not better by today to head on over to  WVU Urgent Care and see what they have to say about her condition.

Have a great day.

Tuesday's Tidbits

* Well, Monday is once again in our rear view mirrors and we are starring straight down the barrel of a Tuesday, I still can't think of a better reason than that to do a tidbits.

* 1,880 days since mine and Michelle's first date a few years ago.

* 1,103 days ago I proposed marriage to the love of my life.

* 640 days ago in front of our closest friends and family we exchanged our wedding vows.

* There are only a mere 232 more shopping days left until Christmas 2013. It's never too early to get a good start on the season.

* 124 more days left until we set sail once again on our cruise to the Carribean. I'm ready to do a little snorkeling in some crystal clear blue ocean water to see what I can find this year.

* 72 days from now we will be partying down with the rest of the Parrot Heads when Jimmy Buffet makes his way to Pittsburgh for his 2013 concert at the Post Gazette Pavilion.

* In 46 days we'll be at Heinz Field watching Kenny Chesney on his 2013 summer tour.

* It's only 45 more days until it's Summer in Morgantown!!!!

* In 39 days Michelle and I will be going to our first of three concerts this summer when we go and see Peter Frampton at stage AE in Pittsburgh.

* WVU will lose it's student population in 3 days as the students finish up their final examinations this week.

* We had a bit of a water leak when I got home from work yesterday. Nothing on the inside but an outside pipe had busted, so Michael worked on that early in the evening to repair that problem. I think he's coming back today to finish the job.

* We did have a little bit of a problem as the main shut off to the house is in Chad's closet, the glue did not sit long enough initially and started to lean all down on to his clothes. Needless to say Chad will be doing his laundry again.

* My new computer is up and running great still, I managed to get my old one fixed and reformatted before passing it along to someone who needed it. It's still a good system, and can be upgraded quite easily if they choose.

* Did I mention the students will be leaving after this week? Less traffic problems, but of course it will be the perfect time to tear up some more roads around town. I guess you can't win for losing sometimes.

* Hi ho hi ho

Back to Work

Well that fun filled weekend that we have just enjoyed is now behind us and it's time to stick our noses back on the grindstone for another week of work. I love the weekends, but it is what we do during the week of work that affords us our opportunities to do the things that we want to do.

I have to say that I am loving my new computer more and more with each passing day. This thing is very quick, and has 4x the resources that my old computer had, and I spec'd that one out a few years ago to be a pretty good computer to do GIS work on from home. This one is lightning quick and the graphics are much better. I use Window's 7 on one of my three computers at work and I have a laptop here that has it, so it was nothing new for me to get acclimated to. I'm still running XP on two of my work computers, but since the end of life for XP will be next year, we will probably be upgrading those machines to Windows 7 as well.

I've found an ap for my iPhone that I am absolutely loving, I have Office 2010 at home and really like the program one note, but my work computers do not have it installed and I wanted something that I could use universally and including my iPhone. I've installed Evernote on my work computers as well as my home computer. I have an ap on my iPhone for it and all my notes sync together using this ap. We had a powerpoint for Friday's meeting and I attached it to my notes and walla, I synced it and everything was available on my iPhone. Really impressed this this and highly recommend it for any professional or anyone with a smart phone.

To wind the weekend down yesterday, Michelle and I had a little cookout on the back patio of Hamburgers, Hot Dogs and you can;t have good times without noodle salad. =)

Hi ho hi ho

New Computer

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a new computer from Dell, I spec'd one out that I like and ordered it after I was having so much trouble with my other one. I've reformatted the old one numerous times and tried to install windows numerous times and keep getting the same hal.dll error over and over again, so rather than keep fighting with it I ordered a new system that was more up top date.

Yesterday my new computer arrived and I got everything up and running, you can see me actually writing this very blog in the picture that I have posted  with this blog. I like the new monitor, it's a HD wide screen monitor, so I decided it would have just been overbearing to put two monitors on my desk and have my lamp, so I'll stay with one monitor for now.

The little block box you see on top of my computer is my 1 Terrabyte External drive. That's where I store all of my pictures and store everything there, that way when something happens to a computer I still have everything.

I'm pretty happy with it, now I can fight with the other system without it affecting my daily life and try to get these errors fixed the  the system up and running.

Congratulations Trish and Joe Donaldson

Yesterday after work Michelle and I went to Jackie's home in Preston County to witness the marriage of a long time friend of ours and her Fiancee Joe.

It was a small and informal ceremony, but a very nice one hosted by her long time best friend Jackie Thompson. It was nice to see our extended family grow with the addition of Joe and it was nice to be there for the new Mrs. Donaldson.

It was very windy up there and a little colder than in Morgantown, I managed to capture it on video for everyone to enjoy, the only problem was my microphone was very sensitive and caught all of the wind, screwing up the audio part of it.

After the wedding a reception was held at the same location, where old friends and new friends sat around and reminisced about a number if things.

Congratulations to Joe and Trish,  may you have a long, happy, loving and fulfilling life together. Thank you for allowing Michelle and I to be a part of this special day.

Video below.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend, and a Big Ole Hairy Friday.

Well tonight's plans I think are already in store. Trish will be getting married to her Fiancee Joe this evening in Preston County. They will be having the wedding at Jackie's house and Michelle and I will be heading up take a few pictures. It'll be nice to see Trish as we have not seen her much in the last year. We're both a little excited to see Layla whom we also haven't seen in some time. I've met Joe a couple of times, once at her Mom's 4th of July Picnic and once at one of Arron's football games. I know they have been doing a lot of running around, I've lost count on how many pirate games they've been to in the last year. It will be mine and Michelle's first chance to meet Willow, Jackie's little girl.

The weather is looking super nice for the weekend, might be a good time to do a little planting and running around having some fun. Whatever it is I get into, my wife and best friend will be with me right by my side. I'm very lucky to have her.

Have a great day.

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through all my pictures. I like to find just one lost moment in time to select and write a little blog about and reliving it briefly. Sometimes it's pretty easy to find that picture and sometimes it's not so easy. It is always however a lot of fun.

This weeks picture goes back a few years, back to a time when I went to Thanksgiving dinner at my niece Val's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. Most of the family migrated to her place and of course Gary went up early that day to give her a little assistance with the Turkey.

After dinner and the tryptophan kicked in, Gary decided to smoke an after dinner cigar. The only problem is the tryptophan got the better of him that day before he could finish his cigar. Me the loving brother that I am, snapped this picture of him while he was fighting his losing battle with the sandman.

As I recall, Moke was away at basic training and even called to speak to everyone and just hit the jackpot when he called Val's.

Have a great day.

Hump Day

If you look up over the noon time hump, just on the other side of a Photo Flashback, you can see the dawn of another weekend off in the distance. Hold strong, we're well on our way to that enjoyable time once again soon enough.

You have to love this weather that we have been having, nice and warm and doesn't appear to be any rain in the near future. It looks like we are going to be having favorable weather clear through the weekend, this means it's time to make some plans to do something.

There is always planting the backyard garden, but that won't take very much time at all. Plant the plants and go, the soil is already broken up and ready to go, now comes just sticking the starter plants in the ground and watering them. I've just got to come with an idea to keep the deer away from my peppers this year. They never touched the cucumbers, but my pride and joy was my peppers last year and they ate them. They didn't just eat the peppers, they ate the plant right down to the stem. I hope they choke on them if they try that again.

Maybe we'll just do a few geocaches, that's always a fun think to do that gets you outside and having some fun. There are a number of new ones around Morgantown this year, maybe it's time to seek a few of them out. Maybe do a multi cache or something.

Have a great day.