Drag Racing Nationals

I think I forgot to mention that I went to the Drag Racing Nationals a few weeks ago. It was awesome! We got to see funny cars, top-fuel, motorcycles, etc. We even got to walk through the pits and check out what was going on. It was a lot of fun.

Anyway, here's a picture of hte funny cars taking off. Notice how great our seats were...
 

Michigan State

Wow, they lost again. Absolutely amazing.

Whew

Ahhh..... thank goodness for the Colts.

Michigan State

Okay, what do we have to do to get MSU to get their head out of their bum? I swear we don't know how to maintain a lead. Every time I've ever seen us get a lead over a good team we blow it. It's like we can't believe it's happening so we get all wussy and let them come back. We need to learn to BURY THEM! AHHHHHHH!!!

I now hate Notre Dame even more. Hopefully the Colts will win today. Hopefully...

Lawn of the Century

Well, thanks to the rain and my laziness the lawn has reached an all time record length. It's been two weeks since I've had a chance to mow. Okay, not "since I've had a chance", just since I've done it. Eventually the neighbors should go ahead and do it for me.

I also haven't managed to bike in over a week. I tried this weekend but I had problems with the tube in my rear tire. First I got a hole in the original tube. Then I realized my replacement tube was the wrong size. So by the time I finally got a new one I didn't have time to ride. Then we had cruddy weather the rest of the weekend. Oh well.

Class is going okay. We have a test next Wednesday. We haven't covered anything terribly difficult yet so things should go okay. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Dish Network HD

Jen and I decided to switch from DirecTV to Dish Network satellite. We wanted to get a DVR (digital video recorder, think computerized VCR) but we also wanted it to be high definition.

DirecTV's current stuff like that is definitely lacking. They only have five HD channels, plus their DVR is old and soon to be obsolete. They say that they will replace it, but you never know.

So Dish Network has something like 27 high definition channels and a brand new DVR that looks pretty cool. Plus it's something like $20 less per month. Not bad.

So the Dish Network guy is supposed to come this morning and set everything up. I'll let you know how it all goes.

Another spoke goes down

I broke another spoke on Wednesday. I went out for a 30 mile ride and broke a spoke at 22 miles. At least this time I got more than 4 miles in before it happened. Oh well.

The guys at the shop told it might happen again. Apparently they usually have issues when replacing a single spoke like that. It's hard to get the wheel properly aligned and tightened, so sometimes another spoke will end up breaking.

So now they're in the process of respoking the entire wheel. It's done (finally) but I can't pick it up until tomorrow. Three days without riding is killing me!

Bicycle Mania

I've been all about bicycling the past few weeks. For some reason I've really been into it. I've ridden at least 500 miles in the last two months. My longest ride has been 50 miles, but most of them are between 20 and 30. I just met the goal I set for myself when I bought the bike: 20 miles at an average speed of 20 mph. That was tough, I almost puked. Next up: 25 miles at 25 mph. That will be much, much tougher.

Anyway, it's great exercise and pretty darn fun. There's nothing quite like putting the hammer down and hitting 40+ miles an hour down a hill. Of course, it's not so fun when you break a spoke at 40 mph like I did on Saturday. I heard a loud metallic PING and realized that something broke. Luckily it wasn't anything catastrophic. I was able to ride home (slowly) without any trouble.

So right now I'm wishing I was outside riding while my bike is getting fixed. I might be able to go get it tonight, but not in time to get a ride in. Oh well, tomorrow I'll be back at it.

P.S. I do, in fact, wear the little biker shorts and jersey. Yes, I look like a tool. I'll have to take a picture next time so everyone can have a good chuckle.

Long overdue update

A whole bunch of little stuff has been going on recently. The two main things are plumbing problems and bicycling.

We had some sort of plumbing issue last weekend. Jen realized on Friday morning that our downstairs bathroom ceiling was full of water. Ugh. It hadn't collapsed yet but the drywall was definitely shot. I called some guys out and the four days of fun began.

When they came out they couldn't really figure out what was going on. They thought it might be condensation, because everything was damp. After a bunch of hemming & hawing we decided to dry things out (with the water & air conditioning off) and do some tests.

Well, once things were dry I turned the air back on. No problem. Then I turned the water back on and the drip came back. So it had to be a pipe, right? Apparently not.

When the guy came back he cut a hole in our upstairs bedroom to look at the pipe behind the upstairs tubs (which are above the downstairs bath). When we started investigating we realized that the shower had a leak where a hand bar met the tub. This was all cracked and leaked like a sieve. So we fixed it with some silicon caulking and all was well. Or was it....

As it turns out, we also had another leak. There was a pinhole leak in one of the copper pipes. So they guy had to come back on Monday and fix that.

What are the odds that we'd have two leaks in the same spot at the same time? Weird. Anyway, all's fixed now.

Everything else has been about bicycling. I'm loving my bike right now. I twisted my ankle pretty bad in basketball so cycling is one of the few things I can do at the moment. Plus, the Tour de France is on, so I've got all kinds of motivation watching those guys fly through the mountains.

That's pretty much it. I'm just glad it's the weekend now. Score!

Jen and I on the hotel beach 

A gator in the Everglades 

A man-made pond in the Everglades 

Giant grasshopper in the Everglades 

Looking down South Beach. It's huge! 

Jen as we arrived at South Beach. The beach was huge! 

So tired...

Well, it's 3:45 am and I'm getting ready to drive to Cleveland for work. We're going to drive 5.5 hours, have a 2 or 3 hour meeting, and then drive back 5.5 hours. Sounds fun, huh? Anyway, I'm waiting for my ride to show up so I thought I'd finally get around to posting again.

The bike is doing nicely. I haven't been able to ride as much as I'd like, because I have to wait until 7:30 or 8:00 in the evening so the roads are cleared off. By then I'm usually in the middle of something else. It's really nice to go out and ride, though.

The vacation was great. I'll put up some pictures in a bit, but suffice it to say we had a good time. It was good to see our Aunt Casey. She seemed to be doing really well. Jen hadn't met her yet and really liked her.

The only real things we did in Miami were visit the Everglades and go to South Beach. Other than that (and including South Beach I guess), we just layed around by the pool or on the beach. We each read two novels, so you can guess that we were nice and relaxed.

Okay, now I'll post some pictures before my ride shows up.

I got a new bike!!!

Well, I dropped the hammer on Thursday and bought a new bike. It's a Raleigh Grand Sport 2005. Aluminum frame, carbon fiber front & rear forks, carbon fiber seat post, and lots of goodies. It's got all the upgraded gear stuff, brakes, shifters, etc. My neighbor is also a biker and he's pretty jealous. That's how I knew I got a good bike., jealous neighbors. :^)

I got a good deal because it's last years model. Plus, since I work with the guy that owns the place I got 15% off of the bike and 25% off of the accessories. Gotta love the good deals.

Anyway, I've riden twice now. Ten miles on Thursday and 11.5 miles today. Today I averaged 16.7 mph. I know this because I bought a computer that attaches to the bike to tell speed, mileage, etc. Like a true engineer, I'll be keeping a running log of my distances and speeds. I'll be a geek later and post my progress.

Updates to come...

Hail Damage

Wow, did we ever get the mother of all hail storms! I've never seen anything like it. It started really quickly, building for about 5 minutes, until it proceeded to pound us with golf ball (& bigger!) size hail for about 15 minutes. Check out the picture below.

Unfortunately, the storm caused quite a bit of damage. Both of our cars were outside. Currently the damage is estimated at $2800 on Jen's car and $3500 on mine. Of course, we have a $500 deductible on each, so there goes a quick 1000 bucks. Ugh!

The storm also nailed the house. The guy from All-State came out about a week ago. The entire roof, all the siding on all sides, all gutters and downspouts, some screens, and other small stuff all needs to be replaced. We haven't gotten the estimate yet, but I'm guessing well over $20,000 by the time it's all said and done. Of course, another $1000 deductible on that. Nice.

The only saving grace of the whole situation is that I might be able to save on the replacement costs of the house and pay the deductibles. The siding was aluminum, and we're thinking of replacing it with vinyl, which is cheaper. That could be a good $3000 or $4000 in our pocket. It doesn't effect the resale value of the house at all so it's probably a good option. I might also be able to do some of the repair work myself, or at least help. We'll see how the financials all work out.

It was definitely a cool storm, but now it's a pain in the rear to try and deal with everything. Oh well.

Look at all that hail! They're the size of golfballs. 

You Don't Know Jack

Most everybody knows by now that we have a new cat, Jack. We adopted Jack from the city shelter about a month ago (I think). He's a four year old gray and white short hair. Check out the picture.

Jack and Mosby didn't get along so well at first. Basically, Mosby is a spoiled jerk and kept bugging Jack all the time. He'd tackle him, bite him, chase him around the house, etc. Jack would just whine and run away as much as possible. We were wondering if it was going to work out.

Fortunately, Jack has come around and is now just as rambunctious as Mosby. In fact, half the time Jack is the one that initiates the wrestling. Just last night they were going at it on our bed. I think Jack had the upper hand, but Mosby did get a couple good tackles in. All that weight packs a punch.

We have noticed that Jack is immensely smarter than Mosby. Jack figured out how everything works in about a week. Mosby is still working on it after almost two years. Mosby is the "special" kitty and Jack is the smart kid. They're both lots of fun, though.

Hopefully this is it for while on the cat front. Grandma warned us about some lady with 41 cats being arrested. Hopefully I can get Jen arrested if she tries to get another cat. :^)

Jack and Mosby sitting in the window. 

Mark Faces the Enemy

Those of you that know me know that I hate mustard with all of my soul and all of my being. Seriously, I think mustard was brought forth from the gates of hell itself. It is the spawn of satan and represents all that is evil and bad with the world....

Plus, it tastes and smells horrible.

Well, my lovely wife thought it necessary to make me face my worst enemy the other day. We were at BW3's enjoying some very tasty mini-corndogs. I had some nice spicy BBQ dipping sauce and Jen had some spicy mustard dipping sauce. Everyone was happy and the corndogs were finished off nice and quickly.

Being the testosterone-infused man that I am, I pointed to the spicy BBQ sauce and asked her what she'd give me if I drank the rest of it. She gave me the "jackass" look and told me that I was an idiot. You know, the usual. But then she noticed the mustard and the wheels started turning. A deal was to be made and Mark was to face his enemy.

The deal was this: drink the mustard sauce, taking as much time as I need. Rule 1: No vomiting. Rule 2: No drinking anything for 1 minute after the last of the sauce disappears. The Reward: A road bicycle (which I've been wanting for about 2 years).

Here's how it went down:

I worked up the courage and tipped back the small plastic cup. I thought I was okay until I tried to swallow. At this point the mustard swooshed around my mouth and throat. I then proceeded to vomit into my mouth and nose. I had to plug all major orifices to make sure Rule #1 was not violated. I then swallowed all of this down and claimed victory. Yes!!!!

Jen then informed me that there was, in fact, more mustard left in the cup. That's when I realized she hates me. What loving wife would make her husband face his enemy twice in one sitting? Mine, that's who.

Anyway, I saddled up again and took down the rest. Gagging all the way, but I took it down.

Then the minute of Rule #2 started up. This is when the burning started. I couldn't tell if it was the mustard of the vomit, but something in my throat and nose was trying to burn off through to the surface. Seriously, it was bad. Even when the minute was up and I got to take a drink it didn't stop. It took a good hour for everything to calm down.

The Result: I get a new bike. I hate mustard even more. Jen thinks I'm a wus.

So I'll be buying a new bike pretty soon. More on that when it happens.

Tony the Tiger

I'm really liking my job now that I've been doing it for a few months. It's certainly different than my old job. My last job was concerned with well-defined situations. This job is more about taking everything in from everywhere and trying to make sense of it all. It's quite a bit higher paced.

The latest news is that I've been recruited for a "Tiger Team". A Tiger Team is a team of people that is given quite a bit of leeway to get the job done by whatever means necessary. Kind of like Jack Bauer on 24, except we don't shoot people.... usually.

The team was formed to expedite some parts we're having made for an engine test this next January. I was working on the parts before, so my job hasn't really changed, except that I now have a guy directing things that really knows his stuff. We've nicknamed this guy Tony the Tiger because he pretty much is the Tiger Team all by himself. The rest of us just try to keep up.

Anyway, it's a great experience and I'm learning a lot. These next few months are going to be very, very hectic. Lot's of overtime. Of course, I still won't be working nearly as much as Jen, so I shouldn't complain. I still will, but I shouldn't.

Finals are done!

Well, I think finals went okay (knock on wood). The first one seemed the best. There were 7 questions and I had a pretty good idea on 6 of the 7. The 7th one was pretty vague, so I could have done well or not. We'll see I guess.

The second final was more of a pain. There were a ton of detailed questions with lots of room to screw up little things. Luckily, that was the class I don't think I had to do as well in. She's an easy grader, which helps.

Anyway, now it's nose to the grind stone at work. More on that later...

I'm going in!!!

Well, finals are about 15 minutes away. Am I prepared? Tough to say. There's a lot to know. I'll let you know 5 hours from now how it went.

Wish me luck.

Speaking of Legos...

Jen and I have been mildly addicted to a new video game lately. It's based on all six episodes of Star Wars, but everything in the game is made from Legos. It's really neat. Here's the website if you want to check it out: Lego Star Wars.

Best Lego Project Ever

Those of you who remember my younger days will know that I had a bit of a Lego obsession. Well, it turns out that other people do too.

The link below shows off a gigantic Lego aircraft carrier. This thing is mammoth! And cool. WARNING: It's a pretty big site with lots of pictures. Dial-Up modems beware, it could take a while to load.

Anyway, here's the link.

Bugs Begone!

Well, as everyone who visited this past weekend knows, we have a big of a bug problem at the moment. Ants have infested our kitchen and front entryway. They march across the tile in search of cat food, leftovers, or dirty plates.

Mosby has been quite distressed about the competition for his food. Luckily, he scarfs it down so fast the ants don't get much of a chance to get in there.

Anyway, the Terminix guy came yesterday and broke out the chemicals. He did the whole general spray thing, but he also did some targeted things to kill the ants full stop. He's got this stuff that the ants eat and then take back to the nest. There they feed it to the queen, who promptly dies. This wipes out the entire colony pretty quickly. He also had other things he did, like traps and other poisons.

I already noticed a reduction in the number of ants this morning. I'm hoping the little buggers go away because they've been annoying us for about a month now. If they do it will be well worth the money we had to pay the Terminix guy.

Visit From The Family

We had a nice time this weekend when my family came to visit. Basically, we ate a whole bunch of food. We also had time for a movie (Failure to Launch) and some cards (which the girls kicked butt at), but mostly we just ate. I don't think I was hungry the entire weekend.

It was fun to see everyone. Next time I think we'll be taking a trip to Michigan. We're going to have some cow pieces to pick up in late April so it will probably be around then.

Updates Galore

Okay, it's been a while since I've written anything so I'm going to have to give everyone the super-duper double-dose update.

First off, I'm on spring break this week. That used to mean fun in the sun with my friends. Now it means that I just don't have to go to class after work. Woo-hoo! Look for me on the next episode of "Engineers Gone Wild!". I'll be the one sleeping in, sitting on the couch, etc.

Second, I've decided to go on a caffeine detox this week. I was getting headaches last week from the amount of caffeine I was drinking. I'd put my daily coffee intake at right around 1.5 pots. Considering a "normal" cup of coffee is about 1.5 cups, that would mean that I drink about (12*1.5/1.5) 12 cups of coffee a day. Holy cow! I didn't realize that until I just did the math. I drink my coffee in big 24 oz cups, so I guess I didn't notice just how much that was. Twelve cups is a lot.

Anyway, I'm on caffeine detox now. No caffeine all week. And I'm draggin'. I swear my brain only works at half capacity when I'm not hitting the coffee. But I've got to get my tolerance down so I can still get the benefits without ingesting so many cups. Since I don't have to go to class this week I thought it would be a good time to do it.

Hmmmm, what else... Oh yeah, I went up to see Pat this past weekend in Angola. His soon to be X-wife (cough-psycho-cough-cough) and he signed the papers on Friday so all the boys went to cheer him up. We had a good time.

Jen's having a good month at work. I'm mildly jealous because she gets to sleep in every day and is usually home before me. But, I guess the 100 hour weeks she normally puts in should make up the difference.

I guess that's pretty much it. See-ya!

Mosby After His Bath

I'd promised a picture of Mosby after getting a bath. So, this is him looking like a rat. A very fat rat.

  

Pacers Game

My brother-in-law Philip got some free tickets to the Indianapolis Pacers game last night. We saw them get beat by the third worst team in the league, Atlanta. It was still fun though. You can't beat free tickets in row 19, right behind the Hawks' bench. Plus, parking was only $2. Awesome!

Indianapolis vs. Atlanta (2-24-2006)


Mark (looking like an idiot) and Philip at the game.

Wet Cat

Mosby got his first ever bath last night. Jen decided that he was getting a little too smelly for her liking. He actually did pretty well. He didn't bite her or anything, but he was pretty scared if she wasn't holding on to him. I think he didn't quite know what to do.

Afterwards he looked pretty funny. He's actually somewhat skinny when you get all that fur wetted down. That night he curled right up to us so he could warm up. He mostly curled up next to me. I think he was a little miffed at Jen because she was the one that washed him.

Anyway, Mosby is smellin' good and lookin' fine. We'll see how long it takes him to get dirty again. Maybe he'll finally realize that he's supposed to clean himself. Nah!

Some more funny pictures of Mosby

Mosby was doing one of his funny poses yesterday. Check out the pictures and laugh at our fat lump of a cat.


Mosby looking absolutely hilarious.

Some fat piece of crud on our couch. 

Mosby looking like a lazy bum. 

Fun weekend

Jen and I have had a pretty fun-filled weekend. Friday night we went to a Christian music concert at the Pepsi Colloseum. There were five bands in total, but the two headliners were Toby Mac and Newsboys. They were awesome! Jen's brother Philip and his daughter Nicole went with us and then stayed the night.

Yesterday Jen and I went to Geist Christian Church to see our friend Mark Briley get ordained as a minister. That was really neat. He and his wife, Carrie, also had their new daughter Morgan dedicated to the church. You might remember that Mark and Carrie sang at our wedding. There were lots of people from our old church, Third Christian Church, there to see Mark as well. It was fun to see them.

A well-trained monkey

As the title implies, I'm beginning to feel like a well-trained monkey. I think I mentioned that I've started a new position at Rolls-Royce. It's not a promotion or anything, but it is a position with more responsibility. It's also a position that has very little to do with my previous work for Rolls. That means I've got a whole lot to learn.

I've been spending half my days since Christmas taking an online training course for a computer aided drafting program called UniGraphics. That's four hours a day of clicking and dragging, clicking and dragging, clicking and... ugh. I'm taking an 8 hour class at the training center on the same thing all of this week, too.

I've also started an 18-week class that meets for two hours every Tuesday on GD&T. GD&T is Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing. It basically just lets you read all of the shorthand notations on drawings and prints. These let you know exactly how the part is made and what its tolerances are. It's actually very useful.

Finally, I'm also taking two classes at IUPUI this semester. The first one is Database Systems and the second one is Introduction to Distributed Systems. I won't even try to explain those because, trust me, you don't care.

So you see, I really am going to be a well-trained monkey. Instead of just a monkey.

Colts..... Ugh.

Well, it's been almost a week now and I'm just getting over the Colts loss. I've sat down to blog about it a couple times but I just didn't know what to say. Tragic. Sniff.

Seriously, though, what a crap game. I watched it with a couple buddies of mine and had a good time up until we lost. I think this was the Colts year to win it all. Next year they probably won't be as good.

Oh well, I guess that pretty much frees up the next couple of weekends for me.

Death to the Patriots!

Well, I'm sitting here watching the Patriots getting their butts handed to them by Denver. And I'm loving it.

As you may know, the Patriots have been the bane of Indianapolis' existence over the past few years. Well, now they're gone. Yes!

Now if only Indy can win tomorrow I'll be a happy man.

Yea Capitalism!

I've been pretty much obsessed with selling stuff online the last couple days. I had mentioned that I put up my camera on eBay for auction. Well, the final price paid was $97. Isn't that awesome? I never thought it would get that high.

Anyway, now I've been selling lots of other stuff on either eBay or Amazon Amazon has a higher commission, but you get to set a fixed price and only pay if you complete the sale. Ebay, on the other hand, has lower fees but carries the risk of a possible low selling price. You definitely will make more using eBay. Unfortunately, for things like textbooks Amazon is a better resource. Pick your poison I guess.

It's kind of fun to sell stuff. It's kind of like an online garage sale, except people usually pay more for stuff. All in all, you've gotta love capitalism.

P.S. Jen doesn't know it yet, but all of my old stuff that I'm selling is going toward an Xbox 360. Mmmmmmmm... gaming goodness.

Digital Camera

I just got our new digital camera in the mail. It's a Canon 450 with 5.0 Megapixel resolution, 3X zoom, and just general digital goodness. It's small enough that I can't even notice it sitting in my pocket. It's a sweet little piece of electronics. I'm pretty psyched.

This means that I'm trying my hand at selling my old camera on ebay. I haven't sold anything on ebay before, so we'll see how it goes. I'm expecting to get around $60 or $70 for it. That's what other cameras like mine have been going for. If you're interested just click here.

Long Overdue...

Okay, I realize that I'm severely delinquint on my postings. I'm also severely delinquint on my laundry, dishes, cleaning, oil changes, thank-you's, and anything else that requires moving off of my oh-so-comfortable couch or taking my eyes off of my oh-so-enthralling television.

You see, I came down with a case of the holiday lazies, a rare disease that requires absolute apathy for a period of at least a week. Luckily I've now recovered and will be joining the rest of society again.

I've been moved out of my funk by my new job. I've moved from my old heat-transfer position to the design group. Basically, instead of telling people how hot things are I'll be deciding how parts look and how they'll get made. Then I'll be asking my old workmates how hot those things I just designed are. It's going to be a much more fast-paced position. I'm certainly not going to have any spare time, which is a good thing.

Anyway, I know I still need to post some info about our trip to Rome. I was waiting for the pictures we took on our regular camera to come back. Hopefully I'll get some info up in the next couple of days.