Happy Birthday Joey

Today is Joey's birthday. Gary and Renee are going to have a small party for him tonight at 6:00. I can already see Gary and Renee are going to spoil this little boy, I have heard that he has gotten a little motor bike for his birthday. Of course I have to wonder if that present if more for Joey or for Gary.

I'll be sure to try and take a few pictures of tonights festivities and make them a Kodak moment.

Happy Birthday Joey.

Ribfest 2006

For anyone looking for something to do this weekend, this Saturday is the annual WV Ribfest at Mylan park. I've never been there, but it may be worth a drive to Mylan Park for a days activities and Ribs. Did I ever mention I hate snow?

It's amazing what you stumble across sometimes

I'm posting on an internet message board and a guy is looking for a file that I happene to have of the 1981 Peach Bowl. As the file is uploading I visit his site which I'm already a member of. WV Gameday.com

As the file is uploading I see a 15 questions list and see a Familiar face.

I guess I should plug Mountaineerstats once again.

Softball team does it again.

The Prime Thyme softball team once again hit the field tonight and managed to hold on for a victory in a very hard fought extra inning game against Summers. It was by far our lowest run total of the year as we managed to pull out a 8-7 victory and move into a first plave tie with a 10-1 record on the season.

I think Mark has already updated the Standings on the year. The game runs the winning streak to a very impressive nine games on the season.

Weekend's over

Another weekend has come and gone. This one was quite relaxing for me, I didn't do much of anything until today when Terri called me and told me to come up and swim, Nick was firing up the BBQ.

It was a pretty good day, as you can see Amy showed everyone that she has that unique ability to walk on water.

However when Terri tried to attempt the same fate she must have stepped in a hole in the water and fell trough. Actually that is the final culmination of Randy, Ralphie, Bobby and Amy throwing her butt into the pool. She did try to resist, but she didn't have too much success with her resistance.

Randy decided to show everyone that he could still manage to do a flip from the deck. It's one thing that I never really had too much success doing when I was younger, I always seemed to land flat on my back and after a half dozen or so attempts of doing this from the high dive it tends to smart a little bit. So I never really developed the talent to jump up and do a flip.

I did get a brief chance to talk to Kim this morning, her and Robert had just returned from a nice relaxing weekend from their campsite high atop the hill of Ron and Dreama's farm.

The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.--Allan K. Chalmers

A Lazy Day

Every once in a while you need a lazy day. That's just a day you really don't do a damn thing other than lay around and watch TV. For me, that is what today is and has been. I haven't anything and I'm even watching the Paintball Championships on ESPN.

I did manage to play a couple Texas Hold Em Tounaments on partypoker.net today, I came in second in one and went out early on a stupid move on the other one. I just wasn't getting any cards in that game and had to get aggressive before I got choked out of the tournament by the chip leaders.

Not too much planned for tonight either, maybe watch a movie or two. Tomorrow starts a typical Sunday for me.

Maybe I'll watch a couple episode of the Red Green Show that comes on in a couple minutes on PBS.

You have to love short workweeks

Workeeks that contain a couple holidays are great. Three days this week, one in Frostburg and two from home and the week is once again over with and we are facing yet another weekend.

Unlike last weekend, I don't have a long list of things lined up to do. I ran around all last weekend, so maybe we will slow it down a little bit this weekend. That's not always the case though, so you never know what will happen.

I think once I get off work today, I may go spend a little time down on the ole rails to trails and get a good walk in. Fire up the iPod and start moving along and it'll be a good day.

This evening BOPARC's Blanket and a Movie will be playing March of the Penguins tonight if anyone is looking for anything to do. It's free entertainment with another family style movie for anyone who is interested.

I hope everyone has had a good week.

Cherish forever what makes you unique, ‘cuz you're really a yawn if it goes.--Bette Midler

Softball Update

We finally got a chance to hit the field again today after the long layoff. We played Frank's, a team that Bobby Teets is the pitcher for. They jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on us in the top of the first, but when it was all over we pulled in a 21-4 victory to run our record to 9-1 on the season.

Mark Devault built a small SQL database for the Standings. It felt good to see the entire team back together again, no real superstars tonight just everyone played asa team and we scored a decent number of runs, but that is about par for the course for the team.

Prime Thyme was closed today, so no after game team dinner.

Do we get to play softball?

We are scheduled to play tonight, but we have been rained out for every game since June 15th when we played against my old team. I'm really wanting to play tonight because it has been a good while since we have all been together and played together.


Current Boparc AA Standings are as follows and recaps on our status with them:

March Westin 10-0
Prime Thyme 8-1
Webworks 8-1 ( lost to May 8)
John Howard 7-2 ( defeated on May 22 )
Summers/University Towing 7-3
Chestnut Ridge Blue 5-3
Advantage 6-4 ( defeated on June 5)
Frank's 5-4 ( play tonight)
Suncrest Gym 5-4 ( defeated on May 1)
Nutty C's 6-5
Panrell Construction 6-5 ( defeated on May 21)
Chippy's 5-5
Jackie's Place 4-5 ( do not play them )
Morgantown Honda 4-5 ( do not play them )
Wendy's 4-5
Colasante's 5-6
The Backdoor 5-6
Kountry Kreme Hillbillies 4-7 ( defeated on June 15, our last game)
Progressive Industries 4-7 ( defeated on June 12)
Finish Line Motors 3-7
Mylan Express 3-7 ( do not play them )
Sunnyside Suprette 3-7 ( defeated on May 22)
Town Hill 0-8
DP Dough 0-10 ( defeated on June 1st)

A day back in Frostburg III

The fourth of July Holiday is now behind us and it was back to work. Today was the last day for two co-workers, Mary and JES (both on the right) are leaving the company after today. Mary has accepted a job with the Girl Scouts of America as a coordinator. She is the third of the original five hired at the VARGIS facility to leave the company. One was terminated, one moved out of the area and Mary has left for a job more along her job skills.

JES just got married and he and his new wife are moving to Georgia while she starts work on her Doctorate in Philosophy. JES has been a big part of the companies success from the very day he started there.

Both JES and Mary will definately be missed. I wish both of them much success in any new ventures they may face in life. Both were huge assets, great people and people I considered very good friends.

Fourth and Final day

Today i the 4th of July and I hope everyone has had a safe and Happy 4th. My four day weekend is coming to a conclusion, and I will say I wasn't bored.

Today we went to the Mon Valley Paintball park and had a lot of fun playing Paintball. To say that I am physically exhausted is an understatement, I am completely worn out. They opened up a new field that is a woods field with all kinds of natural obstacles including high brush. Games last much longer on that field because you basically have to find your opponent and he could very well be crawling right beside you. I think that is my favorite field to play on because it adds additional challenges.

Tomorrow I will head back to work in Frostburg to say goodbye to a couple associates that tomorrow is their last day.

I will say me 4th of July weekend has been eventful and memorable. Let me recap:

4 Pic Nics
3 Texas Hold Em Tournaments
Karaoke
Fireworks
Family Reunion
Paintball
Wiffle Ball Game
105 Pictures Taken
A Large Water Battle
A chance to sit and talk with Trish and Jackie
A Day of swimming

Wow, did I have one busy four day weekend.

That's three days down so far.

Well, this makes four different pic nics in three days so far and we haven't reached the 4th of July yet. Today, was the Barnes family /Prime Thyme softball cookout. It was another great day filled with some good friends and lots of food again.

There was all sorts of entertainment, we started out with a 3 inning wiffle ball game that was announced play by play over the loudspeakers. This was followed up with many doing Karaoke, but that's not really my thing when I'm sober so we played three games of Texas Hold Em. I won money in the first game but tanked out in the last two games of the evening.

There is even something planned for tomorrow, but we will have to wait to see how the weather pans out first.

Day Two down

The second day of my four day weekend is done and over with. I spent the afternoon swimming at Nick and Terri's. Val also came up with Bobby and Erica Jean and we had a pretty good day. The day started out pretty hot and the pool made the heat more than bearable.

This evening everyone went to the fireworks in downtown Morgantown. They were scheduled to start at I think 9:00, but it was 10:37 before the first one went into the air because they were having a few small technical difficulties.

A few pics from today, enjoy.

One day down

First day of my four day weekend has been completed. I ended up having four things I planned on doing, but I only managed to get through with two today. If I had a chance I wanted to go and play paintball but that never materialized. I was also invited to Ron and Dreama's with Kim and Robert to watch fireworks. Unfortunately I couldn't make either event today and I offer my humblest appology to Ron and Dreama and thank them for the invitation.

The day started with me going to my very first Newbraugh/Koon family reunion. This will Junior's last year preaching at the church, and he will be retiring at the end of this month as the pastor.

Next came my traditional 4th of July weekend activity and that was to go to the Rosiak 4th of July party. I always look foreward to this, for it is the one day I get to bring out and use my Extra Large Super Soaker for the traditional water battle. Usually every few years I get to catch up with Jackie and see what is or has been going on in her life. She was there this tear and we managed to set an hour and a half or so to catch up with each other.

I also was able to sit down and spend some quality time with Trish, which was pretty nice because it seems that the 4th of July Pic Nic is the only time we manage to do this. Pat and Frank mentioned inviting me over for the next cookout, so maybe I'll get another chance to sit down and spend some quality time with her again.

Over all it was a great day. I wish there were 48 hours in it, but there aren't.



Family Reunion with Nick, terri, Vicki, Paul and Mom



Trish



Frank (Trish's dad)



Trish and Jackie



Me and Pat (Trish's Mom)



Me and Trish



Me and Jackie

Holiday Weekend

I'm on the verge of a nice long weekend. We have Monday and Tuesday as Holidays so it will be a nice long four day weekend. I will be traveling to Frostburg on Wed after the Holidays to get a few pictures more than anything else. We will be losing two employees that day. One has accepted a job with the Girl Scouts and will be working from home and the other just recently got married and will be relocating to Georgia as his wife starts work on her Doctorate.

I've been swamped the last couple weeks, but yesterday and today are and have been very slow for me because the guys who provide me my data that I process are all visiting New York City. They are from Indian and work 6-7 days a week, so they have more than earned a little break.

Hey, since it's the 4th of July weekend I can do a shameless plus of a webpage I did a few years ago with Fireworks at Mountianeer Field. Don't know why I thought of that, but right now is the appropriate time to put it up.

There are quite a few things going on this weekend, so I'll need to have my camera batteries fully charged.

Screw the NBA

I sat and watched the NBA draft last night, hoping to see and hear a couple WVU players name's being called out by commissioner David Stern. After about 23-24 picks, they had Mike Gansey listed as best available player. I'm excited, I don't know when the last time was that WVU had someone drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. There were six or seven picks remaining in the first round and I felt Gansey was going to be next....for about 36-37 picks.

Not only did he not go in the first round, but he didn't even get drafted in the second round. He spent about 60% of the NBA draft as the best available and never heard his name called.

I figured Kevin Pittsnogle, a 6'11" sharpshooter, was a no brainer. He would also get drafted. After the 60th and final pick, his name wasn't selected either. Sad part was, he was listed as 2nd best available by the end of the draft.

With Alumni like Jerry West and Rod Thorn or WV native Mike Dantoni making the selections for their teams that one or both of these players would have been selected.

No wonder no one watches the NBA anymore.

NBA Draft Today

Today is the day of the NBA Draft, it will be held on ESPN starting at 7:00 tonight. Unlike any recent years in the past, this year we have two graduates of West Virginia University that have a very likely shot at being drafted. Kevin Pittsnogle, the man who's name became a verb and Mike Gansey

This could be the first and second players drafted from the John Beilein era of basketball. I've watched Mountaineer Basketball since the days of Lowes Moore and Joe Fryz here in Morgantown and I've followed it a few years longer even. This class that has just graduated is the one I will most remember and the one I will always call my favorite. They came in when the entire program was in termoil and left with it in 2 straight sweet 16's and a final 8 and almost a final 4. It's not at the programs highest point, but it was pretty close to the days of Jerry West.

I wish these two guys the best and look foreward to watching them pllay in the NBA for years to come.

File Sharing Revolution

I mentioned this weekend that I had found a file sharing software that I liked, that the download has disappeared and the software no had an option to download. File Sharing Revolution is one that I found recently and liked.

They have a Website, but now they offer K-Lite Pro as the download. K-Lite is the spyware free version of Kazaa.

Of course there are other file sharing programs out there such as imesh, Kazaa, Morpheus, edonkey, emule, Bit Torrent, Napster and probably a few more that I have let slip my mind.

Rainout

We were scheduled to play softball this evening, but ole Maother Nature just decided she wasn't going to cooperate today. We're still 8-1 on the season, but now we have had four rainouts that we are going to have to make up. Last year we didn't have a single rainout, this year we already have four.

Our next game is scheduled for next Thursday, the last time we played was a couple weeks ago when we played against my former team.

I'm ready to hit the fields, I hear Boparc was 150 games behind because of rainouts, I guess we just added a few more games to that list.

Poker Night at the SanJulians Part 4

Well, tonight was the fourth Installment of Poker Night at the SanJulians. I went into the game with much confidence, I told everyone I had purchased my shirt from a Tibetan Monk and that it was hand woven by the dahlia Lama himself. He didn't bring me much luck, because out of ten players, I tied for eighth place. Kirby won his second of the three tournaments that I have been to. My game turned when I forced Ron to go all in and I had three kings with an Ace kicker. He had a Full House and that put me into a corner I couldn't play my way out of.

It was a great evening and I want to thank Robert and Kim for being such great hosts. I'm ready for Poker Night at the SanJulians part 6 and already have my seat reserved.

A few Random pictures and a video of the final hand, enjoy.

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Talk about a nscary looking picture. Actually this is JB, the man who taught me GIS at the NRAC while I was in college and beyond. He left a few months before I did to work in Frostburg, MD where I guess my office is officially at, even though it's my kitchen table now. he left to work for the Appalachian Lab and I work for Infotech (formerly known as VARGIS).

He has been wanting to establish his own domain name and has asked me about mine a few times. He now has JBChurchill.com and WesternMdBirding.com also. He is probably the foremost expert that I have ever met on birding.

He has been very influential to my in my career, he also went to school later in life, but earlier than me. I'm 9 days older than him, we both are GIS people, we both have worked at the NRAC and in Frostburg and we both drive Chevy Cavaliers, although his is new. I'm glad to see he has his own domain, he's also a pretty good programmer, so his site might get interesting.

How about a little humor

Hey everyone, since it's Friday, I thought I would just post some entertaining links.

Brittany Spears

Mythbusters Tree Canon

Fat Kid on a Diving Board

Octopus vs Shark


Border Patrol Game

Larry the Cable guy before he pretended to be a redneck. Redneck wearing Khaki's?


Have a good weekend

One to go!!!

It's Thursday and we are peeking at the weekend again. Four days down and one to go. I will have to say that I have been quite busy this week at work and this week has basically flown by as if it hadn't happened. It still feels like it's monday morning, I guess that's better than it being Thursday and it feeling like monday.

Let's see, what is up for the weekend coming up. First of all BOPARC will be playing another in their series of free movies Friday Night. Zathura: A Space Adventure will be playing this Friday night for anyone who may be interrested in some free family entertainment.

Gary and Renee will be camping this weekend at Chestnut Ridge Park. Gary has invited me to come up, so I'll try to make an appearance at least once this weekend.

I am going to go and win a Texas Hold 'em tournament this Saturday Night. Kim and Robert are once again holding a little tournament and I'm going to go and beat everyone and take their money. I've played in two of their tournaments, and have made it publically known by showing everyone that I don't bluff. I make the point known on every hand that they think I am bluffing that I don't bluff. I guess big question is am I honest or am I setting everyone up to win some money. We'll have to wait and see.

It should be a good weekend, the weather report is calling for heavy thunderstorms tomorrow and a thundershower saturday, so we shall see how the weekend goes and how everything ends up.

A little entertainment for you

Sometimes you don't have much to say, but you still want to keep the BLOG fresh and interesting to give people a reason to keep coming back. Today is one of those days, so just enjoy:




How about an encore

Happy Birthday to my Home

West Virginia is 143 years Old Today

Happy Birthday Erica jean Nicholson

Today is Erica's birthday, but Val and Bobby had a nice little party for her yesterday because it was the weekend. It was just like last year and very, very hot.


Just a few random pictures












I did manage to get a few pictures of Gary's foot and his stitches from where he got his foot caught underneath of the lawn mower. If you want to see that picture though, you need to look HERE

Happy Fathers Day

Pretty Amazing

This makes you think. He can drive 100 miles on 4 oz's of HHO, that is 25 miles per ounce. There are 128 oz's in a gallon, so if you multiply 25 miles times the 128 oz's in a gallon that is 3,200 miles per gallon on the HHO fuel aka WATER.

Woo Hoo It's Friday!!!!

Once again we have made it through another work week and are approaching yet another weekend. It's time to celebrate and have a good time. The weather is nice and it looks as if it is going to be a nice weekend weather wise also.

* Sunday is Fathers Day.

* Sunday is also Erica Jean's 2nd birthday party. The party is going to be at Val's at 2:00 and it'll be nice to see everyone in the same place again. Monday is actually her birthday, but the party will be Sunday.

* Looking at the Morgantown weather report for this weekend, it looks like it is going to be 90 degrees and sunny both days. Have I ever mentioned I hate snow?

* BOPARC finally announced it's Rain Out Schedule. It looks like both of our rainouts are scheduled for Saturday July 29th. It's nice that they have finally put the entire schedule up for everyone to see on the internet.

* Tonight BOPARC once again does it's free movie at the Hazel Ruby McQuain amphitheater and they will show the Disney movie Madagascar. It's free admission, just bring yourself a lawn chair, blanket or sit on the bleachers and bring your favorite snack and enjoy a free movie outside by the river.

* Saturday the Hillbilly Gypsies will be performing at Chestnut Ridge Park. There is a small fee of $5.00 for a general admission seat. Bring your own lawnchair.



Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.--Albert Einstein

And the winning streak continues

Tonight we played against my old team and managed to extend our current winning streak to seven games and run our current record to 8-1 on the season. It was nice to see quite a few former team mates that no longer play but have an association to both teams show up for the contest. We were a little of our pace in run production only scoring 14, but we still played a solid game all around and manged to pull out the win.

After the game, most of the team went out and ate dinner on the deck at Prime Thyme, our sponser. It was a great time to be had by all and as usual it was nice to be around this group of guys.

A little heads up for anyone who is interested. Mon Valley paintball is running a special for the 4th of July weekend if anyone is interested in the thrill of paintball. Either day Saturday or Sunday, play all day for $4.00 and this includes your rental equipment and free air. You will have to buy your own paintballs on site, but if you get enough people to pitch in and buy cases it lowers the cost significantly. A few team mates went out a few weeks ago and between four people went through two cases of paintballs (that's 4,000) throughout the entire day. I've played a lot of sports in my life, but I have never played anythign this intense.

When it rains it pours

Talk about a strange year. Earlier this year I decided to remarket myself just to see what my marketability would be on the open market. To make a long story short, I turned down an offer from a Company in Pittsburgh last week. I've been contacted this year about jobs in Tyson's Corner Virginia, New Hampshire, Charlotte NC, Pittsburgh and now add Raleigh, North Carolina to the list.

I just got off the phone with a company in Raleigh, NC about an Analysts job down their. To end any and all speculation I told them thank you but no thank you. I'm quite happy with the company I am working for now and the quality of life that I am now enjoying being able to work from home.

It's nice to know that I have very good marketability now. Something I did not have either time I was working in a Steel Mill that was shutting down or relocating.

I think it's another Rails to Trails day for me.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.--John Lennon

Some technical stuff

Every once in a while, I guess I should do a little bit of a geeky post to help keep informed on what's new in the world of computers and maybe a few suggestions for everyone to try.

I think my first piece of advice that I could give to anyone is choosing a browser that it the most trouble free and least likely to get tou into any trouble. For any of you who I have not set up your internet account and you are still using Internet Explorer as your browser, I would suggest possibly getting away from browsing using IE and start using Firefox to surf the net with.

Firefox is an open source browser and you can pretty much customize it any way you want with different themes and extensions to fit your surfing needs. I personally use a couple extensions, one is forcastfox and that is a customizable weather station built into your browser.

Another extension that I tried today and actually like is Customize Google. As many of you already know, Google is arguably the best search engine out there on the net. They are at the forefront of internet technology with many of their innovations.

I was talking to Kim, the Queen of the Podcasts yesterday and she told me about a site that I bookmarked and really liked. It's a real estate search engine that ties in with google maps called Zillow that is pretty nice. It is something kind of similar to some things I have seen with some Assessors offices using ArcIMS (Web based GIS), but not to that extreme.

Some more technical stuff for some of you if you either don't have Microsoft Office, don't want to shell out $500 for a full copy of it or don't know anyone who has hacked it (looking away innocently) but would like a software that is just as, if not more powerful. I would suggest Open Office. Like Firefox and most non-microsift related products, it's an open source program (means they publically publish the source code unlike Microsoft) and is free to download and use. Of course if you need a full blown copy of office, I know a guy who has a Website that may help hook you up with a copy.



Let me leave this post with a little humor:


The Procrastinator's Creed:

1. I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already.

2. I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses.

3. I will never rush into a job without a lifetime of consideration.

4. I shall meet all of my deadlines directly in proportion to the amount of bodily injury I could expect to receive from missing them.

5. I firmly believe that tomorrow holds the possibility for new technologies, astounding discoveries, and a reprieve from my obligations.

6. I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

7. I shall never forget that the probability of a miracle, though infinitesmally small, is not exactly zero.

8. If at first I don't succeed, there is always next year.

9. I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind.

10. I shall always begin, start, initiate, take the first step, and/or write the first word, when I get around to it.

11. I obey the law of inverse excuses which demands that the greater the task to be done, the more insignificant the work that must be done prior to beginning the greater task.

12. I know that the work cycle is not plan/start/finish, but is wait/plan/plan.

13. I will never put off until tomorrow, what I can forget about forever.

14. I will become a member of the ancient Order of Two-Headed Turtles (the Procrastinator's Society) if they ever get it organized. --Author Unknown

Softball team does it again.

I'm going to have to get some more team pictures, these ones are getting old. Anyways, we entered tonights game with a 6-1 record and a five game winning streak in Boparc softball. We have managed to mercy rule a few teams in a row and have a bit of confidence going for us right now. Tonight's game started slow in the first few innings, but we caught fire late in the game and won 20-7. This extends our winning streak to six games and runs us to 7-1 on the season. I have missed one game this year and it is the one game we lost.

Thursday is going to be interesting because we are playing against not only mine, but three other team members former team. We play the Kountry Kreme Hillillies thursday night at 7:00. That is the old remaning remnance of the Walnut Lane-Recourse-Judies Lounge-Sports Page softball teams that I used to play for for years, so it will be interesting for me to finally get a chance to hit against a pitcher I worked with for about 15 years. Thursday Night at 7:00 if anyone is interested.

I played pretty decent tonight going 2 for 2 and making a hustling catch on a popup. As a team we are playing pretty decent and aren't making too many if any mental errors.

After the game a group of us went up to Prime Thyme, our sponser, for dinner and a few drinks. I love this time of the year and I am on a team that everyone gets along with one another. It's almost as if it were an extended family.

It was also nice to see Mark Devault's mom and dad make the game, they have always been very supportive of our team and it is a pleasure when they, and actually all of our dedicated fans come out and support this team.