Early Morning Ramblings

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

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

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

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

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

Back to above .500

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

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

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

Weekend's over

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

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

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

Have a great day.

KDKA Steelers Trivia Challenge

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

Congratulations Graduates

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

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

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

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

Big Ole Hairy Friday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tomorrow's BLOG

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

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

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

2008 Mountianeers

Rainout last night

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

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

Great Weekend

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

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

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

Have a good day.

Michelle is a Great Aunt.

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

A little more geocaching

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

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

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

For more pictures of our adventures, check HERE

Michelle is home and a little geocaching

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Big Ole Hairy Friday

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

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

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

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

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

The WV Three Rivers Festival is in Fairmont this weekend.

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

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

Have a great weekend.

I'm Speechless

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

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

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

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

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

Michelle's Surgery

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

Happy Birthday Pam

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

For sale, one Gall Bladder

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

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

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

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

Vote for David Archuletta

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

Tuesday's Tidbits

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great Tuesday.

Happy Birthday to Trish

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

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

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

Huggins signs a potential one and doner

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

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

A great day of geocaching.

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

This was a great weekend.

Is it going to be nice today?

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

NOW it is a Big Ole Hairy Friday

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great weekend.

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

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

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

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

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

Mountaineers for Integrity and Responsibility

Product Review: Magic Jack

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Birthday Dad

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

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

Happy Birthday George Edward Hall Sr, you are missed.

Election Day

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

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

Have a good election day.

It's back to work

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

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

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

Have a great day.

A day geocaching.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a good day.

Happy Mother's Day

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

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

We're going to try geocaching today.

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

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

It should be a memorable one today!

Price of Hops is starting to skyrocket

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

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

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

Big Ole Hairy Friday

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

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

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

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

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

Hope you have a great weekend.

Something new I ordered

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

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

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

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

A walk on the trails

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

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

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

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

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

No Confidence

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

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

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

First loss of the season

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

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

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

It's Monday already?

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

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

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

Have a great Monday.

A Weekend Tidbits

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pedlar's Glory

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

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

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

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

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

Layla Rosiak Part II

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

A great invitation

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

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

Big Ole Hairy Friday

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

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

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

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

May 30th – Shrek the Third

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

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

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


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

Have a great weekend.

After Work Today

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

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

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

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

WV Gladiators Schedule

For any of you who may be suffering from Football withdrawal syndrome, have no fear the WV Gladiators will start their season May 31. The schedule features six home games with the first game against the Defending National Champions Lima Warriors.


Visit the Gladiators Website for any further information.

A good start to softball season

The 2008 MVP Softball season has started and it has started off with a nice little bang. After jumping to a 14-0 second inning lead, we won 18-3 tonight in four innings due to the mercy rule.

It was muddy and mucky and the field was horrible, but it didn't seem to bother us as we actually played quite well.

I have posted our 2008 schedule below:


2008 MVP Paintball Schedule


Mon Apr 28 vs Bucket Heads Pub 1 Liberatore 7 pm
Mon May 5 vs REM Ogden 6 pm
Mon May 12 at Morgantown Surgical Whiston 9 pm
Sun May 18 at Finish Line / R & E Electric Liberatore 1 pm
Tues May 27 at Secure USA Ogden 6 pm
Mon June 2 vs Koval Supply / Transmissions Plus Ogden 6 pm
Mon June 9 at Keglers Whiston 6 pm
Tues June 10 vs Sports Page Liberatore 6 pm
Mon June 23 vs Bent Willeys Doub Header 6 pm
Mon June 23 at Advantage Health & Wellness Whiston 7 pm
Mon June 30 at Classic’s 3 Liberatore 9 pm
Tues July 1 vs Mountaineer Scuba Liberatore 6 pm
Tues July 8 at Morgantown Honda Ogden 7 pm
Mon July 14 vs John Howard Motors Liberatore 10 pm
Mon July 21 at Classic’s Liberatore 6 pm
Tues July 22 vs Hewitt’s Detailed Painting Whiston 6 pm
Mon Aug 4 vs Bucket Heads Pub 2 Ogden 6 pm
Tues Aug 5 at Augusta Apartments Ogden 6 pm
Tues Aug 12 vs Panrell Construction Liberatore 6 pm

Tidbits

* It's been a while since I have written a tidbits, so I think I am long overdue.

* I had a great weekend, Michelle and I attended the WVU v Ustin..I mean UCONN baseball game yesterday. WVU won a close game 17-3, well at least I thought it was close. We had commented that we hadn't seen WVU hit any long balls in all the games we have attended, WVU responded with three long ball shots.

* The recent class of WVU Sports Hall of Fame has been announced. A little special interest, Marty Pushkin (Kathy's dad) will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this fall.

* In the WVU front, one of WVU's best Professors has called for the resignation of President Garrison and Provost Gerald Lang because of their involvement in the bogus Heather Bresche MBA degree that was retroactively issued this past fall. Dr. Edward's who teaches Physics and has been named Multiple times as WVU's top professor wrote letter to the Editor in Sunday's Dominion Post. It's a great read by a man I have a lot of respect for.

* Today is Sherri's first day to work at BFS. I told Michelle on Friday to enjoy her last day without my spy in place. Bwahahahahahaha

* Softball season is now officially upon us, the games start to count tonight as the regular season is scheduled to start for us at 7:00 on Liberatore Field (across from the ice rink) against Bucketheads. I'm ready for the season to start, hopefully it will start off on a good note. We had an 8:00 game scheduled also, but it has been moved to Sunday, May 18th at 1:00.

* How did you like the local Morgantown weather this past weekend? I loved it even though they called for rain all weekend, I think they got it a little bit wrong.

* Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to work I go.

A Great Day

Yesterday Michelle, her daughter Hayley and I decided to take advantage of some nice weather and get out and about. I wanted to get out and enjoy nature a little and Michelle was reading my mind with the idea of going geo-caching. It was something I started doing last year running around a little, but it was something I wanted to start doing more for other reasons, such as getting out and having fun and of course health reasons.

Neither Michelle or Hayley had ever done any geocaching, not that I am any expert or anything, so I started them out with one I had found called the Johnny Cash Cache. This is one I had found before with Kelly and knew exactly where it was. I turned on the GPS and told Michelle to navigate us to it. She put us right on the spot and I showed them where it was based on the clues. Everything then made sense, so it was then off to find our next geocache.

Like I said I wanted to get out and have a little fun, so we headed to Ohiopyle State Park. Neither had ever been there so I showed them around to some of my places I like to go. We saw the big falls, Cucumber Falls, the Overlook at Kentuck and the natural waterslide. I had to take my camera with me to make a few Kodak moments, I have uploaded the picture for the day to HERE picture site.

After I had showed them Ohiopyle, it was off to search for the Cascade Cache. As we started down into the forest to seek the cache, we were hit in the middle with some thunderstorms, but we were already down the hill far enough that we couldn't turn back.

We got to Cascade Falls and started looking for the cache. We were in the area for probably an hour trying to find the cache. We were looking everywhere and couldn't seem to find it. When we got to within 13' of it for the umpteenth time, I handed my wlaking staff to Hayley and she walked a few feet and I heard those magical words.."I Think I Found Something". Sure enough, she had found the cache that we sought out to find. After Hayley's find we all logged into the log book and placed the cache back where we found it and started our journey back to the car.

Needless to say we were about a mile and a half in walking (about a half mile as the crow flies) and there was an extreme amount of relief (elevation change)from where we parked to where the cache was. Unfortunately, the downhill part was going in, not coming out. I did manage to get out of the hilly humid area and get the car.

Once we left there and started our tract back to Morgantown I treated the girls to Pizza Hut by Nemocolin and then we headed back to Morgantown. Last night I introduced Michelle to Kim, Robert and Roki. Brittany had already met her.

Game yesterday

Last night Michelle, her daughter Hayley and I went to the WVU v Ustink er I mean UConn baseball game at Hawley Field.

WVU jumped ahead very early as the first seven batters got a hit and scored to give WVU a 7-0 lead in the first inning that they never released. They added three more runs in the bottom of the 8th to win the game 10-1 on Josh Whitlock's two hitter into the eighth inning where he walked the first two batters. It was a great night to be a Mountaineer as the Mountaineers won their 30th game of the season.

It was a great evening as Michelle's daughter Hayley decided to accept my invitation and join us. Prior to the game we went out to dinner at the Chinese Restaurant at the University Town Center in Granville, then it was into the Rodeo and off to Hawley Field for the game.

Not sure what's on the agenda as of yet for the day. I'm sure I'll be keeping an eye on the NFL Draft throughout the day.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes Readers it is once again that time of the week when we cease our labors for the week and take time out to enjoy the fruits of our labors, it is one again the start of the weekend.

I came across something last night that may be of some interest to a few sisters, a meatloaf AT&T Commercial. I thought it was kid of cute, so here it is.



For anyone wanting something to do this weekend, Friday night at Hawley Field (beside the Coliseum) WVU Baseball will be taking of Ustink..I mean UCONN at 7:00. Here is the kicker, tonight the price of admission is $1.00 to get in and certain concessions are only $1.00 also. Come out and cheer on the Mountaineers and have a little fun at the ballpark heckling Ustink I mean UCONN and have a little fun. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Fir you football fans, this is the funnest weekend of the year outside of when teams actually play. It is when you see how your team is going to look in the future and dreams are fulfilled. It is the NFL Draft both Saturday (Rounds one and two) and Sunday (rest of the draft. A few players from WVU will be hoping to hear their names called.

Next week Trish is going to need a favor from everyone, she has entered Layla in the WVAQ Baby Idol contest. We're going to try to win it for her if we can manage to get her into the top 10 for voting. I'll post details as they become available. If anyone else has their child entered, let me know and we'll try to rally support around all of the wee ones.

The Master copy of our softball schedule has been released. Once I get MVP Paintball's schedule seperated from the master list, I'll post it.

I'll leave you all with a humorous website I found. PassiveAggressivenotes.com go and check them out, makes for some interesting reading.

Have a great weekend.

Running behind

I'm telling you, you wake up a half hour later than normal and it seems like you spend the rest of the day trying to catch up. I was thrown a little out of my routine this morning, that's why I have waited until now to actually take time to do a Blog post.


A Thank you to my sweetie Michelle and a congrats to Sherri. She has been offered a job at BFS working with Michelle and will be starting this coming Monday at 8:00 AM. She has been looking for a job to get her out of the Valley and this is her opportunity. Thank You to Michelle and congrats Sherri.

First Scrimmage

Last night was our first scrimmage of the year. I ended up playing for the other team because they didn't have enough guys, so me and a couple other guys laced them up for them and playing.

I hit the ball well a few times, but my timing is still way off and I am definitely not in Softball shape. I need to shed a few pounds and start getting in game shape. I think I am finally starting to feel my age. ouch.

We're losing one of our better players for most of the season. Dan Barnes is having surgery this morning on both of his elbows and will be out for some time. Let's hope for a quick and speedy recovery.

Let's lace em up and play two

Tonight, after just two practices on the year, our softball team will take to the field in a double header scrimmage against March Westin from 6-8:00 at Ogden Field. Hopefully for the first time this year we should be at full strength at sometime during the scrimmage. We have a couple guys coming a little late because of other commitments.

We have had a few changes since last season, hopefully Chris can find the right group to give us the best chemistry before the start of the season next week.

This is the time of the year that I most look forward to, however I am a little behind in my training this season. I'm still looking for my timing on the year, but it will come.

Bacl to work kind of Monday

It's Monday morning again. The weekend has passed us by and it's time to put our noses back to the grindstone and return to the offices or places we work.

Those cheating bastards from Notre Dame won two out of three this weekend from the Mountaineers in baseball. Have I mentioned that they cheat?

The Pittsburgh Pirates are also off to a regular start. They are horrible once again this year. They just dropped a three game series with the Cubs. I had faith in them last week when they reached .500, but have managed to lose the last four games. The glory years are decades behind us.

Hi Ho....

Spring Game Yesterday

Yesterday I went to the WVU Spring game in the afternoon. I do have to say that I have been attending Mountaineer Football Spring games for some years, and yesterdays game was probably the biggest crowd I have ever seen for a spring game at WVU. I would guesstimate the crowd to have been roughly 25,000 fans. The lower deck was full, the upper deck appeared to be full and they started letting people go to the other side of the field.

I thought the defense looked very good, they were swarm tackling and appeared to be very quick. I think this years defense should be an improvement on last years defense, and that is saying a lot. Great job by the defense, they carried us at times last season and will be much improved this season despite losing so many players to graduation.

The Offense didn't impress me too much beyond the first team and with Pat White and Noel Devine. With these two players on the field we will always be dangerous. Jarrett Brown is solid as a backup QB, but depth at other skill positions at this time are a concern a little. However we have a couple running backs coming in this fall who I would guess will be #2 and 3 on the RB depth chart behind Devine.

Terrence Kerns



And Mark (Snoop Dogg's Cousin)



Both appear like they will be quality fits to the program and will add depth ton the running back position after Steve Slaton's departure to the NFL.

Yesterday afternoon, I took Michelle to meet Mom and Gerald and then we went down to Nick N Terri's to see the Weed Hawks. They are everything as advertised. If you get a chance to see them, take advantage of it. I give them an A+++ for ability to entertain.

On a side note and I did not go to the game, WVU baseball beat the Cheating bastards of Notre Dame 11-6 in baseball yesterday afternoon.

Hillbilly Hotdogs on food network.

A West Virginia restaurant down near Huntington (yeah they are Marshall fans) called Hillbilly Hotdogs has made the food network.

I'm going to have to try one of those burgers someday.

No good cheating bastards

Last night, me and Michelle went to the WVU vs (No good cheating SOB's) Notre Dame for a baseball game. It started off as a great night, but those cheaters paid off the umpire who's grandmother must have slept with Knute Rockne on a daily basis and we got royally screwed by a cheating, no good, rookie, satanist, Notre Dame fan that was behind the plate. Notre Dame cheated their way to an 8-4 stolen and cheating home plate umpire helped victory.

In other news the WVU Football game is this afternoon. Michelle promised to help her Nephew's wife with her baby shower, sucks to be her. I'm going to the Gold-Blue game to watch a little Mountaineer Football and listen to Rich Fraud stories in the parking lot. Rumor has it he is going to lose in his $4 Million case against WVU meaning he will have to pay, so I hear Rita will be in the parking lot selling "Pay Up Rich" T-shirts to the true Mountaineer fans trying to earn a few extra dollars to help pay WVU their $4 Million plus interest.

I'll be going to the game with future WVU great Arron Hill-Rosiak, I will be trying to influence him to sign with the Mountaineers at his earliest convenience. Being he is coach Stewarts sons friend, my job should be easy.

O)h well, I think I am going to swing by the softball fields for a few before I go pick up Arron. Enjoy the sun and a nice day, I know I will. (I don't have to go to any baby showers!!)

Last Minute Booking

Terri just called me and said she could not get it into the paper on time, but there was a late booking for Nick N Terri's this Saturday Night at the Bar on State Route 73. (call her at 304-290-3407 if you need directions to the bar)

The Weedhawks came into the bar last night and played for about an hour. They ended up booking a show for tomorrow night, and get this, PBS is going to be there to film the occasion. Needless to say she is quite excited and wants to get the word out about this this booking.

A few samples of their music:







Come out and enjoy some great music and the best wings in Morgantown.

It's a Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes readers it is once again where the work for the week ceases and we take out time to enjoy the fruits of our labors, it is once again the start of the weekend. It's time to sit back and relax a little and enjoy this nice weather we are having.

There were a few things that broke in the past couple days in the Rich Rodriguez case. There was an allegation this past fall by former WVU assistant coach Calvin Magee about racism at WVU and why he was not offered the job at WVU. He stated that a WVU administrator made the statement that he would not get the job because the color of his skin, although I would imagine getting on the plane with Rich to go to Michigan at the initial Press conference had more to do with it than that. However WVU asked that Calvin name names on who made such a statement. I guess the guys name was Larry Aschebrook who they named as the source. I have obtained a copy of Aschebrook's Sworn statement that pretty much lays it on the line and identifies what was happening behind the scenes during the entire fiasco. It will make very interesting reading.

The WVU Spring Game will be held this Saturday at 12:30 at Milan Puskar Stadium at Mountaineer Field. It's a chance to watch the last football scrimmage of the year and donate to a great cause. Admission is just $5.00 a person and 100% of the proceeds goes to WVU Children's Hospital. Come out on a nice sunny day, help a good cause and watch a little football. Trish called me last and I'll take taking Arron to the game.

If baseball is your thing, WVU will be playing a three game baseball series against Notre Dame (Boo) this weekend at Hawley Field. Admission is only $5.00 and it will be a good time for all. Games are at 7:05 tonight, 3:00 tomorrow and 1:00 Sunday.

Michelle and I will be getting into something this evening, not sure as to what yet, but it will probably be something memorable.

Have a great weekend, get out and enjoy the weather.

An interesting Human Interest story

Yesterday Kim sent me an e-mail a man who had pancreatic cancer who was getting a lot of attention on the internet. His name is Randy Pausch and he is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University .

This is the video Kim sent me yesterday. This is the 11 minute short version.




Here is the full 76 minute lecture that is on Youtube.



It all makes you think a little. HERE is his daily update page. Kim heard he passed away a couple days ago, but I can't seem to confirm this.

A trip this morning

I wil be leaving the office this morning and heading to our corporate headquarters to get my security badge taken care of and made.

We had softball practice last night, it was a good night of practice and I think we have added a few good players this year that should fit in quite nice with the team chemistry.

Hi Ho Hi Ho.....

A Picture from Saturday Night

Saturday Night, Michelle and I went to her nieces birthday party. There were many flashbulbs flashing and we ended up having our first pictures taken together.


This is one of if not the first picture taken together of the both of us.

Congrats Robert

Last night my Sister Kim called and was very happy and somewhat ecstatic. She even Blogged about it. The state bowling tournament was this past weekend and Robert, as he does every year, was bowling in it. This is probably the states biggest bowling event, and on a big stage.

Earlier this year Robert had gotten 11 strikes in a row and just missed a 300 game. Well, I guess he can finally lay that memory to rest now with his perfection that he threw yesterday.

Every sport has a moment of perfection, where it is the dream that everyone wants to accomplish. In Baseball it is the walk off home run, in Football it is that game winning Touchdown. Every sport has its moment of supreme accomplishment, some are more easily obtainable than others. In Bowling, it is to complete the ever elusive perfection of throwing twelve consecutive strikes in one game and rolling a 300. It is a rare feat that is a lifetime accomplishment. Robert now can claim that achievement with his first career 300 yesterday.

Congrats to Robert and Thanks to Kim for catching it on Camera. She has the whole game captures, and she is planning on putting all ten frames into one movie file. The Final ball.

Meeting a lot of Michelle's Family

Last night I went to Rt 18 Bar to help celebrate Michelle's niece Samantha's birthday. It was the first time I got to meet the majority of her family and they all seemed to be a fun loving bunch of Steeler fans. A great group of people to meet and be around even though my head is still thumping from the sounds of the DJ from last night.

I met quite a few of her nephews and nieces, her sister Chris and her husband and they all were all having a great time. I've already been invited to watch Steeler games this fall, it will be nice actually watching the game around a lot of enthusiastic Steeler fans.

Today

I haven't gotten into too much today, other than just doing a little paperwork for my bills and paying them. Yes I know, fun fun.

This evening Michelle and I are going to go to her nieces Birthday party. I really haven't met any of her family yet other than her son and daughter and her mother briefly. So, tonight should be interesting and meet a few members of Michelle's family.

How about this weather? No snow, it's warming up, trees are starting to bud and bloom and I think we can officially call winter over and done with.

It's a Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes readers, it is one again that time of the week where the labors for the week cease and we once again start to enjoy the fruits of our labors. It is once again that most anticipated time of the week, the start of the weekend.

The only thing I have planned is Michelle's cousin is having a birthday party Saturday Night and that's about it so far. It's going to be Saturday evening at some at some bar past the mall, I think it was the old Gambino's /Ladie Godiva's/Players building.

I just checked the4 WVU baseball schedule and they are away all weekend at Seton Hall. They managed to come back from 9 runs down again on Wed for the second time in a week. There is a lot of young talent on this team that is having a great deal of success. If you get a chance, going and checking them out may be worth the $5.00 price of admission.

I got a call yesterday from BlueMountainEngineering, I of course had to tell them that I had accepted employment elsewhere. This was my #2 choice, my #1 is where I was offered for the record.

Have a great Friday and a great weekend.


You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.--Eleanor Roosevelt

An evening Blog

Most of the time I Blog, it's usually in the morning. I think my creative juices are running more after I wake up rather than at the end of a day. Although writing at the end of the day can give you something to reflect upon as you are looking for the words to scribe.

Today however, this is an evening blog. Running a little behind this morning for what I wanted to do to get out of the apartment and get to work, so I didn't blog at all before my drive to work.

Work has been great, learning a new piece of software that I really didn't have a whole lot of experience in prior to this job. I had used it before, but not that much. It's nice to be able to expand my skill set.

The people I work with are great and I think I will really enjoy working for this company. I can see big things happening within the company and our department if we're on top of it, Chad really seems to have a handle on things and is trying to explore more options.

I actually reached in my closet this morning and realized that since it's been a couple years since I worked in an office, it was time to go do a little shopping. After work I made a track up to JC Penney's to see what kind of sales they were having. For some reason I can't seem to find some of my casual business attire. I had it when I went to Sterling, but I couldn't seem to find it. No problem, time to shop!

Have a great evening.

WVU Men's Basketball finished season #17

The WVU Men's basketball team, with the help of a Sweet 16 finish this season, ended up ranked #17 in the final ESPN/USAToday Poll released yesterday. This is the third time in the last four years that WVU has been ranked in the final poll, the only year we were not ranked was last year when we won the NIT tournament.

Congrats to Coach Huggins and every member of this years team, they were fun to watch and I eagerly anticipate the next season. It seems like only yesterday that we attended Mountaineer Madness this past fall.

The final Women's Poll should be released today.