August Recap

As I realize I've forgotten to post a lot of photos this month, I figured a recap was in order. So enjoy.

The end of July saw the completion of the deck replacement. It also meant we would finally close on the Round Hill house in August. It was our first home. And while I would love to say that we could keep it forever, our move to Fort Max was the right thing to do. Even though we've had struggles here, in the end, it's a far superior house.

I mean, how could NOT take a photo of a weeener out in public?!

Elizabeth helped create a Whomping Willow tree at the local book store. And I was supposed to find out if these books are worth reading.

I mean, it's Mike Wardian. What else do I need to say? And a fellow Oil Creek runner. And the last place finisher accepting the Musical Caboose award.

The first day of school.

Aside from a bunch of research, I'm also reliving my childhood when I see stuff like this at Goodwill.

And speaking of research, I get to learn about all sorts of stuff. Like Prince Michael Romanoff used to live in the area. He ended up being a Hollywood legend and was even a pallbearer for Erroll Flynn.

Despite the traffic, I actually enjoy picking Elizabeth up at middle school. Keeps reminding me of my high school days.

I mentioned the nostalgia of my childhood in the 80s, right?

A local surveyor lives in the neighborhood. Keep looking until you see it.

William appears to be reliving my childhood too.

Yes, I was in a band called the Fried Egg Yolks. No, I won't say who was in it with me. Not because it's a big secret, but more to protect the innocence of the other person. After all, we played together like two times and, well, let's just say I had no idea what I was doing with a guitar. Since he may not want to be associated with that particular moment of history, I'll allow him to keep his dignity. Not worried about mine. Make sure you read the paragraph again Yvonne. It's to protect him, not because I want to keep secrets from you.

So what does all of this lead up to? September. Where I can hopefully get my stuff organized enough to write the Prologue of my story. Here's a hint. My childhood home in Oxnard, CA.

The Weekend Getaway

Yvonne and I just spent a long weekend in the mountains. Without the kids. Or the dog. Soooo relaxing. We don't normally take vacations so this was a nice break from work and the daily grind of life. Special thanks to the in-laws for coming to visit and entertain/babysit the kids (and dog).

Wednesday started with the arrival of the in-laws and presents for Yvonne and Elizabeth. Gotta love those spring brithdays! (click here to see all the photos)



So, we left Thursday afternoon and made the trip in a few hours. We made a pit-stop in town to get a pedicure (Yvonne, not me) and socks (me, not Yvonne). I also picked up some new books. Once we made it to the resort, we checked in, unloaded our junk in the condo, and went into the "big" town of Elkton. They had a spring carnival/fair/flea market. I knew we were in the "country" but wow. Mullets, camo wife-beaters, and well, stuff that looked like it "fell off" the delivery truck. But we had fun. We had dinner at one of the resort's restaurants and headed back to the condo dodging deer and groundhogs galore.



Friday morning was our "tour." It had a tour, but it also included a sales pitch. Since we weren't interested in a time share and just wanted a free vacation, we listened politely but declined. The sales guy was doing his best to be professional, but his persona was still that of a high school guy getting drunk and having fun. And by having fun I mean being stupid. We also reported our ant problem and snagged lunch before heading into Luray Caverns. Yes, into. I had been there some time ago and it looks like they've developed it a bit more. They also had a car museum and a hedge maze. After that we headed to downtown Luray and hit a used book store, did some walking, and found an awesome place for dinner, West Main Market. Best food we had all weekend.



On Saturday we slept in, which was nice. But odd. After all those days and weeks of getting up so early, it's hard to break that habit. Anyway, we headed to Staunton and visited the farmer's market in Dayton on the way. It wasn't the farmer's market we expected. They had a few food items, but was mostly craft stuff. But the choices of beans, grains, etc. was amazingly like the old days (except with plastic containers instead of metal. Anyway, we visited the Frontier Culture Museum which had several farms from several eras and form different places. Nice to see how they shear sheep, clean the wool, run a smithy, and generally just how they lived back then. While the exhibits weren't that far apart, we splurged and rented a golf cart. Yvonne had a blast driving it. Then we went to the Virginia Hot Glass Festival at Sunspots. They had a ton of blown glass, people blowing glass, and some jewelry kiosks. Yvonne picked up a nice bracelet with some hedgehogs. We also stopped at Pufferbellies, a toy store, to get presents for the kids (and me). And we stopped at the best antique shop I've seen in ages (the Jolly Roger Haggle Shop) after lunch at the Beverly Restaurant (food was okay, but service was very slow).



Sunday was the worst day. The last day of vacation is always hard. It's great to get back home and sleep in your own bed, but man that drive was just way too short. All in all, we had a good time. I think we'd both go back to Luray for the food and Staunton for the shopping.

All the vacation photos can be found here.

John Robbins 8k Race Results

Yes, yes, I'm excelling quite well at punishing myself. I honestly think I should start telling myself I make an effort to abuse myself everyday. By running. And to think of all those miles I ran as a kid that I hated it.

Anyway, this race actually has more story to it than my previous ones. I got up early (around 0530) because the night before I had a nightmare that I forgot to set the clocks forward an hour and was half an hour late to the race. Needless to say that I didn't sleep well the night before the race. I got there super early which put my mind at ease. I grabbed a horrid cup of coffee at the local Hardees and sipped it like it was mud. Even sugar and cream didn't help.

Once I was semi-awake enough to process where I was and what I was doing, I began to mentally prepare for the race, mapping it out in my head. And it was a doozy. I checked in, got my number, got my timing chip, and reviewed the map. Feeling I might get lost (5 miles is a long ways to run), I kept it in my pocket the whole time.

Anyway, I warmed up, stretched a little, and patiently awaited for the race to start. I ran into the father of the fellow high-school graduate again. We chatted for a bit until the race started. It was great to see the police escort, but they only escorted the race leaders, so I saw it for about 2 minutes before it was gone.

Mile 1 Split = 10:29
I did great for the first mile, but it ended going up a steep hill. And that's where I hit my first, small wall. I was keeping a great pace, but couldn't keep it.

Mile 2 Split = 12:35
After walking a bit to rest, I alternated between running and walking. People were still passing me and I lost sight of the people I wanted to stick with.

Mile 3 Split = 12:33
This was a very hard mile. As we neared the halfway point, there was a very, very long stretch of road. And the worst part was it looked like it went on forever. Once I turned the corner, then I new I was near the end and could see people ahead of me. I was closing on some of them. Another uphill section, but it was nice because a young girl (maybe 12 or 13) was running with her dad. He was trying to encourage her to keep running and to catch the old guy in front of them. As I passed them I said "don't let the old guy beat you" (meaning me and the older guy in front of both of us.

Mile 4 Split = 11:53
After the uphill, I knew I was close to the end. But I couldn't push myself much more than I was. Still alternating running and walking, I was feeling pretty old. And out of shape. And fat. Anyway, the young girl and her dad were passing me towards the end and mentioned she had the same shoes as I did and I should keep up with them. I did my best. And as they were just a little in front of me as the finish line was in sight, I began to sprint. So did she. And I beat her. Barely, but I did. Made me feel great. At the awards ceremony afterword though, she won second place for her age group. Me? Not so hot.

Mile 5 Split = 11:15

And here's the map in Google if you'd like to see it. I passed a DeLorean and a giraffe. Can you find them in the Street View?

Congratulations Neil you finished the John Robbins 8 km on March 8, 2009 with a time of 00:58:28. You placed 228 of 241 runners, 138 of 142 Male runners and 8 of 8 in the Men's 30-34 division. Your pace per mile was 11:46. You scored 726 Grand Prix points in this race. Weather on Race day was 62 degrees, mostly cloudy.

Rogue Jedi on the loose

That's right folks, our very own Fredericksburg, VA has a Jedi on the loose. And he's not afraid of showing off his lightsaber skills on the rooftops in the city.

You can read the article here.

Friday Friday

Old World meets New

Saw this via Virtual Globetrotting:

This Weekend

The local high school plays a rival tonight. Our home team has actually been doing well this year (scored over 60 points last week). Dallas plays New England Sunday. Both are undefeated, but I'm rooting for Dallas (because I hate New England, I hate cheaters, and I hate the Redskins).

I also have a decent amount of chores on my To Do List. Hopefully I'll get through everything I'd like to get done. And, if my sister-in-law is willing, Yvonne and I might even get to go out on a date. Haven't done that in awhile.

Today

I need to hit the post office to mail some packages. The first is to get a replacement DVD from HBO. One of my Deadwood discs is cracked and chipped in the middle. Luckily I've already watched it. My second package, and more important one, is sending my copy of The Name Of The Wind off to Patrick Rothfuss to get signed. I'm enclosing some goodies (per his requirements). And I feel like a kid trading baseball cards. "I'll trade you these two autographs for yours." Hope he's okay with that.

Weekend Report

If you're looking for photos, you can stop reading now. I haven't had the time to upload them yet.

If you're not looking for photos, or still want to know what I did this weekend, then READ ON!!!

Friday we (meaning Yvonne, Elizabeth, William, Henry, and I) got loaded into Dad's new Suburban (or "burban" as Elizabeth calls it) and headed north. Everyone traveled well in the car. We stopped to feed William once and of course took several bathroom breaks. We arrived in Pittsburgh (have you noticed that I love Google?) around 3 in the afternoon and unloaded. And unloaded. And unloaded. I never thought a Suburban could hold that much. I gave up and told Yvonne she had to finish the rest of it since she loaded it the night before and I was dripping in sweat (temps were in the 90s the whole weekend).

Once the magical bag of holding was emptied, we relaxed and had dinner. Saturday was another early day out the door as we loaded up (not as much this time) for the short trip to Edinboro. We met Dave (my old roommate), Jenn (a good friend), her sister Heather, and Jeff and Lindsay (both friends) and their two kids. In all we had 7 EUP graduates. Not too shabby. After parking and visiting, we headed out to find a spot to watch the parade. We got a good spot in the shade and even had some chairs provided. The parade was shorter and later in the day than we remember, but it was still fun.

From there we stopped at the campus bookstore, bought some goodies, picked up lunch, and headed to the lake for a picnic. After enjoying our food (and seeing an alarming number of naked toddlers playing in the water and sand), we took the kids to the playground (which I remember playing on when I was a kid. Well, when I was in college acting like a kid.

Then we stopped at my mom's house for dinner. Elizabeth got to see some cows and play the piano. Mom was also nice enough to pass along a rare family heirloom. Volume 5 of John Newton's Letters and Sermons, with a Review of Ecclesiastical History and Hymns (circa 1796). Turns out this guy wrote Amazing Grace. It's missing the front and back cover, but is in great shape considering its age.

Then we headed back to Yvonne's parent's place. Sunday was an easy day with no traveling. Yvonne's cousins, aunts, and neighbors came to visit and to see William. Easy enough for me as I got to say hi and be left alone. And I got to watch the Steelers beat the Seahawks on a huge flat screen.

Monday we loaded up again (gotta love that magical bag of holding) and headed south to our place. Got in around 3 or 4 safe and sound. Overall, not a bad trip, just a ton of laundry to do and chores to catch up on. And it was reasonably cheap as there was a gas station in Pittsburgh that had E-85 gas for about $2.39 a gallon. Which means I could fill up a rather large SUV for under $50. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

So, what did you do this weekend?

Birthdays - Yuck

I was a big fan of birthdays as a kid. When I turned seven, I still remember the chocolate chip cookie my Dad got with white and chocolate icing on it. It was so big we couldn't finish it. So we put it in the freezer in the garage. Where I repeatedly snuck to in order to take a bite before or after school. I think I also got a shirt with a big number 7 on it.

I know I got other neat and cool gifts, but for some reason that one sticks out.

And I remember my 18th birthday. Mostly because it was two days after I started dating Yvonne. I think the greatest gift she gave me then was the fact that she stuck around long enough to hold my hand (and no, she wasn't drunk). And there was my 21st birthday I was surprised by my Mom and Dad when I was in college. That was pretty neat (but I'm still not big on surprises).

But my birthdays have long since run together. There was even a period of a few years where I would have to stop and do the math to figure out how old I was. Is it 27 or 28? Well, thirty hit last year and I was not excited. Which means 31 is less than a month away and I'm still not excited. Hell, I'm more excited about the afore mentioned anniversary of dating Yvonne (it'll be 13 years on October 1st).

The idea of getting gifts at my age is, well, fun and sad at the same time. I love free stuff. But I hate asking for it.

Maybe this year I'll ask for $500,000 dollars. Yes, that's 5 zeroes after the 5. What would I do with it? Buy the family farm to ensure it would continue to stay in the family (123 years so far). But I would donate the house to the local museum or something so they can help me store and research family history, Nebraska history, pioneer history, and everything else under the sun that applies to the area.

I guess that's why I don't get big presents anymore. I tend to give them away.

Maybe I'll just ask for a Lowe's gift card instead.

A Challenge-edited-

So, my cousin's wife Melissa, issued a challenge on her blog a few days back asking for anyone that found this particular blog (or post) to post a message.

But I want to take it a bit further.

So here's my challenge:

Simply post your name and where you are (geographically, not emotionally or mentally......unless you really want to).

I'll start.

My name is Neil and I'm either -edited-

Status Update

So, where are we now? Hopefully out of the woods. But to get out, I'll need to lead you on a long path from topic to topic, so bear with me. Or skip ahead. Whatever tickles your pickle.

School
I've finally finished all of my assignments for my last week of class (Managerial Communications). I still have another week of posting and responding to do, but the writing is done and turned in. The professor was, well, a bag of hot air. I could get more information form a pile of shit in the street than from this guy. But my fellow students were great and I learned a lot from them. I'll be sitting out the next couple of months due to the pending baby and lack of money and will start again in October.

Weddings
Well, really only one wedding, but anyways. A good friend of ours gets married this weekend. We both want to go, but neither of us feel comfortable being that far from the doctor if the baby decides to come early. So, we're sitting tight and playing it safe. And with Yvonne having contractions everyday, I'd rather play it safe. So sorry, Hutz and Molly, we'll be thinking about you. Guess I have to start calling you Dave now. Or should I call both of you Hutz?

Work
Well, some things don't change. That's good.

Reading
I finished S. M. Stirling's Dies the Fire and promptly took up the next in the series, The Protector's War. Way, way too much Wiccan in it for me, but seeing as one of the main characters is Wiccan, I slog through it. So far The Protector's War has started slow, but there's new characters coming in from Britain, so it should be interesting. After I finish this, I don't know what's next, guess I should look into that. I've also been listening to the Essential Lewis and Clark in the car. Not too bad as it keeps to the interesting parts of their journals, like York getting frostbite on his, well, that "certain male anatomy." I'll listen to Captain Blood next courtesy of LibriVox.

Writing
Ha. No update here. Haven't written a lick in a long time, but I have resolved my issue of where to go next with War Wagon. Epheros, the Chinese invade. That's all I'm saying until I write more. Hopefully soon. And I came up with another idea for a story. Not sure how long it would be, but it's interesting enough to make me curious how everything would work. Think Waterworld meets BioDome. But without the humor.

Survivorman
Les Stroud is back on TV tonight with Shark Week (I'll be skipping that one) and back with new episodes of Survivorman next week. He's the real deal folks, not the faker like Bear Grylls with his conjured bear attacks. I hate to badmouth the guy, but Les humps his own camera gear while Bear has someone else do it for him.

Watching
I've been re-visiting Deadwood lately. I picked up Season 3 on DVD and felt I needed to go back to the beginning to make sure I caught everything. It's been my lunch-time addiction of late. At home, I've been revisiting Firefly. Just a hands-down great show. Dad also picked up a few new movies (Shooter - not so hot, Davy Crockett - decent Disney, and the entire series of Daniel Boone - haven't seen it yet). As for "regular" programming, it's been Hell's Kitchen on Mondays with Monk and Psych on Fridays. Not too much worth my time at the moment.

Waiting
Dad's away shortly to Nebraska for a family reunion and to visit the family farm. I'm eagerly awaiting the goodies he should be bringing back as well as new information for the family tree.

Well, that's about it for now. Catch you all later.

Update

Couple of updates on a few things.

My uncle's house in Enterprise, AL appears to be intact. While he doesn't live there, he still knows quite a few people there. Sounds like everyone is okay, so that's a good thing.

Writing has taken a bit of a backseat. I've been mulling over the next steps in the plot and haven't had time to clearly "not-think" about it.

And I have the excuse of some newly scanned photos from an album my grandmother had that's been keeping me focused on family history. I like this one because she's wearing a pistol.

And, yet another excuse, I've been trying to get some videos online of Elizabeth (via Revver and YouTube). So cutting and laying tracks takes a bit of time.

And of course there's work. Which is why I'm here on a Saturday afternoon. But I did spend some time this morning helping my dad make waffles for the local home show. Might go back tomorrow to help him with lunch. We'll see.

Outside of that, I'm just about fully recovered from my sickness (a good 8 days after I got it). I'm off tomorrow, so, in the immortal words of Epheros, good night and good fight!

Almost forgot, my Mom had another cow (well, her cow had one). Now, before you click on the link, be warned, there are some very graphic photos (all natural, but not something I'd look at while eating a hamburger). Here's the link.

See? Told you it was graphic.

Les Stroud in the Amazon

As I sit here at my cube on a Sunday afternoon, I wonder what life would be like if I had made different choices in life. Like, if I had learned that my some-time hero as a child (Richard Dean Anderson) bicycled across Canada as a teenager. Would I have done something similar to discover myself? Would I have taken an interest in the outdoors more and looked for a job in that arena?

Well, we can dwell in the past, but we must excel into the future.

On that note, the fans of Les Stroud can finally read about his latest adventure into the jungles of the Amazon where snakes are just as dangerous as the local tribes.

You can read more here about his trip, but I'll give you the highlights.

He's taking the following supplies:

• 3 feet of fishing line
• one can of soda
• one match
• fire "dust" [not exactly sure what this is]
• mosquito hat
• multi-tool
• dugout canoe
• blowgun*
• machete*
• spear*

*The last three items are included so he can "live like the tribesmen."

He's in Ecuador.

There are vampire bats that pee on him.

He leaves his camp on the night of the sixth day (early by his standards) because of a jaguar.

Thanks Les for doing what the rest of us are too afraid to do. And thanks for being intelligent about it too.

Not like that idiotic Man vs. Wild guy. Now there's proof that natural selection isn't working.

Sharon Stone visits Edinboro University

Sharon Stone will be visiting her old college, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania (EUP). Back in the 1970s, Stone attended school here before going on to a major acting career.

While attending school at EUP, there was a rumor floating around that she used to live in Rose Hall. I never put too much weight into it until I heard it from many different sources. Not exactly the biggest claim to fame for EUP, but it was about as close to celebrity as I could ever get.

Yes, we have Bruce Baumgartner, but to me, the biggest celebrity to come out of EUP was Mister Rogers. No, he never "officially" attended school there, but he spoke at my graduation ceremony. That was big. That was bigger than big, it was huge. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

While Sharon Stone paying a visit to my alma mater is good news, the sad news in this article (after you read between the lines) is that President Pogue will be retiring this year. Bummer. He was always very nice and I felt like he took EUP in the right direction.

Thanks for the info Mom.

Weekend Report

So I had a pretty busy weekend. Fortunately all worked out well in the end.

Quilt

We started our weekend with a chill. My mom sent Christmas presents in two huge boxes which garnered me some dirty looks from the mail-lady at work. Everything was wrapped except the new quilt and matching bed skirt she made for us. I couldn't believe how big it was but it ended up fitting great (I'll post more on the quilt later).

But anyway, Friday we woke up to a chilly house. The weather was quite cold (below zero with the wind chill) outside, so I wasn't too concerned with the heat in the house. Friday night we still had a chilly house, so I added some extra blankets to the bed to keep us warm.

Heat

And Saturday we woke up to an even colder house. We had the thermostat set at 74 degrees (warm enough for me to walk around in shorts and a t-shirt and cold enough for Yvonne to walk about with a blanket and flannel pajamas). When we got up Saturday, it was a nice, cool 60 degrees. So the trip to see Santa was postponed and Yvonne went to town to do the usual shopping while I held down the fort awaiting the arrival of the Robert B. Payne guy (from whom we purchased a new Trane heat pump two years ago and have a service contract with).

Needless to say, his arrival was most welcome. After a couple hours of searching, poking, and prodding, he located the source of the issue. An electrical wire was shorting out inside the air handler that runs the electric heat. Thus, no emergency heat. Nor any auxiliary heat. Essentially, no heat at all. A quick fix and nice, warm, toasty air was pouring out of the vents. Started to feel like Clark Griswold huddled over the vent to warm up.

Fruitcakes

While waiting for the heat to get fixed, Dad delivered some insulation for the shed. Hopefully I'll get out there to mark the electrical outlet locations so we can drill and insulate this summer. After storing that, Yvonne, Elizabeth and I went down to a local church (Oakland Baptist) to see our friend's production of Fruitcakes. It was pleasantly funny and entertaining. While you could see the moral of the story a mile away, the acting was pretty good and the story was even better. Almost wish the Riverside would get this for a main stage production. Or the Christmas Story.

Uncle Randy

Yesterday we (Dad, Yvonne, Elizabeth, and I) ran up to Dulles to meet Uncle Randy. We had a good dinner and a visit afterward. Always nice to see family, no matter how short the visit is. He's doing well and looks like he's lost some weight. Had some photos of his new granddaughter and plenty of stories.

Microsoft taking on Google?-edited-

So I'm reading up on my RSS feeds and find a little blurb about Microsoft's Local.Live site on my cousin's blog.

Interesting that I noticed the same thing that day. I was a bit too pre-occupied with looking at Charlie Batch's haunts to think much of the countdown clock. Why did I care about Batch? I'm a Steeler fan and my wife is from neighboring West Mifflin.

Will Google remain the champ? I don't know. I love the close-up shots on Local.Live (-edited-), but the regular sat images are dated (like this one with the golf course that has been removed for some time). Google does have better click functionality (double left to zoom in and double right to zoom out) and more current images. Plus the ability to see the same thing only better in Google Earth is great. But Local.Live lets you draw on the map and add to a collection.

Anyway, I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out more about this change.

Looks like I'm a bit ahead/behind the times. Microsoft has just rolled out their new mapping system. They have the hybrid (road and sat maps) option and 3D maps. -edited-

Pizza and Heroes

House of Pizza

On my way to work this morning, Dad and I were talking about development and how the county (King George) has changed. One of the old memories that was brought up was the old house (or building) that served pizza on the corner by the High School. It was an old white building, was a little bit of a general store, but mainly sold pizza. They had simple tables and chairs (and maybe a few booths) inside. I vaguely recall a counter at the back with a glass front, almost like a deli. This is where you placed your order. There were steps to enter. Small lot. And I don't remember much else.

Heroes Back Door

For those that follow Heroes on NBC (see my previous post here), I've discovered the backdoor into the downloads and videos. The video link works, but there are no videos to watch (when I checked). But there are downloads available. I've already graced my desktop with Hiro, my favorite Hero.

She does not deserve this car-edited-

[For those that are familiar with the Fredericksburg, VA area, I was travelling on Truslow Road - the end nearest Route 1 - in Stafford County]

As I was driving home yesterday from -edited-, I was, as usual, in my own little world. I did have enough wits about me to notice a -edited- was taking the same route, but beyond that, I was simply driving home and listening to the radio.

Out of the blue, a car passes me in the only section available to pass. The car nearly hits an oncoming car before getting back into the proper lane. All while driving at least 60 mph in a 35 zone. As it turns out, the car passed my -edited- as well.

The driver? A young female, clearly under age 20.

The car? A pink, 1965 Ford Mustang Coupe with white Shelby stripes (and a 289 engine).

This is the best picture I could get of her with the limited time I had. She was quickly lost in traffic, despite my best efforts to catch up to her (after she was in traffic and we were both well under the speed limit).