February 28, 2007 by jon.

  No not THAT March Madness.  This one has to do with CoCoRahs.  Please see the below email from Nolan Doesken, the founder of CoCoRaHS.  Every March they have a drive to sign up as many volunteers as possible.  They do an informal competition between the states.

  If you are interested at all in weather, I strongly suggest checking this out.  This is also a great thing for teacher and scouting groups to get involved in.

From: Nolan Doesken [mailto:nolan@atmos.colostate.edu] Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 12:40 AMTo: CoCoRaHS Mailing List

Two more states join the CoCoRaHS team on March 1. That also marks the beginning of our annual “March Madness” competition. With 17 states on board, we expect lively competition this year to see which state can sign up the most new volunteers. Our newest states — Nevada and Wisconsin — will be duking it out, but don’t be surprised to see Illinois, Indiana and Montana making a run for it. And what about all of us here in Colorado?I’m sure we haven’t exhausted the pool of potential weather observers.

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February 27, 2007 by jon.

Our family went to training last night for CoCoRaHS at the local Illinois Extension office.  While I have had the training before in Colorado, Kala and the kids did not.  This was good for them to be able to see why I am taking all of the various measurements and where they are posted.

If you have any interest in the weather, I strongly suggest signing up for this network.  They have expanded into many states including Colorado, Illinois and soon into Wisconsin.

Check it out
CoCoRaHS - Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network

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February 24, 2007 by jon.

Well I guess I made a good decision in coming back Friday instead of Saturday from Denver.  All flights on American and United into Chicago were cancelled due to the weather.  Right now it’s pretty windy and is sleeting/snowing. 

I’m glad I’m not stuck in an airport somewhere.  I just LOVE Chicago airports and how they handle weather. 

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February 24, 2007 by jon.

I just got back from a trip to Colorado.  I spent the week there helping out with Lisa’s kids while she had surgery.  The surgery went well and Lisa is back home resting.  Eric is able to take a few weeks off to help out around the house so we dropped Maddie and Ethan off yesterday.

This was a great opportunity to get to know Maddie and Ethan better.  Maddie is a character.  She is very sweet and also very opinionated.  I also found out she likes to bargain a lot like her cousin Robyn.  (No Maddie, only 1 cookie!)  Maddie has her own digital camera and was snapping all kinds of pictures.

Ethan was a bundle.  I found out when I arrived that I would be sharing rooms with him at night.  Remember, it’s been almost 7 years since I last had to wake up to feed a crying baby.    It was fun, but I’m tired!   :-)   Ethan is a great little kid, he likes his binky and to be played with, but he also likes being left alone so he can stretch out.  I enjoyed meeting him this week.

Kala also stopped in because she was on her own Colorado trip.  Grandma Pep’s brother passed away last Friday and Kala flew in Tuesday for the funeral.  Wednesday she stopped by my parents house to see the kids before flying back Thursday.  So we both got to know Lisa and Eric’s kids a little better. That was fun.

I also spent some good time with Mom, Dad and Rob while there.  It looks like Rob is really enjoying his work at Starbucks and Mom is enjoying UoP.  Dad is still working on a project so they are all busy. 

Due to pending weather, I ended up cutting my trip short by a day.  Chicago is notorious for not being able to handle weather and I didn’t feel like staying in an airport all night waiting for a flight.  So I grabbed a Friday night quick flight to get home.

So I had a very good trip and thankfully, Lisa had a successful surgery.

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February 22, 2007 by jon.

Check out our photo page at 2007 in Pictures

I’m starting to upload stuff from recent weeks including my trip to Colorado.  This trip was to help my parents watch Lisa and Eric’s kids while Lisa had surgery.  It became our trip when Kala came in to attend the funeral of her Grand Uncle Elton.

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February 19, 2007 by jon.

I was interviewed for an article today on the CoCoRaHS network.  The article appeared in the Lisle edition of the Daily Herald.  The article looks pretty good excpet they quoted me as saying we record to the Thousandth of an in rather than Hundredth.  Don’t remember saying that, but it’s a small error.

Again, I will urge anyone who has even a passing interest in weather to sign up for CoCoRaHS.

Here is the article:  Daily Herald | DuPage County

And here is the link to CoCoRaHS

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February 16, 2007 by jon.

Robyn attended a cheer clinic last weekend and then this Friday all the girls in the clinic performed during half time at the Geneva Jr Varsity Basketball Game. She did a great job and looked like she had a lot of fun even though she said she was nervous.

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February 16, 2007 by jon.

Grandma K and Uncle Kevin arrived safe and sound yesterday.  Of course we’ve been inside the whole time because it’s darn cold out!  Brad already got Kevin to play MS Flight Simulator X with him.  Pretty cool that they can share a cockpit and work together to fly a plane.
We found out this morning that Kala’s Great Uncle Elton passed away this morning.  (Uncle Elton was Grandma Pep’s brother)  So, we’re working on flight plans to come back to Denver.   I’m coming out anyway to be with my sister while she has surgery on Wednesday but it looks like Kala will be coming out as well.

So prayers please for Millie (Elton’s wife) as well as Denny and Judy and family as they work through this loss.  Also prayers for us as we travel back to Colorado please.

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February 13, 2007 by Kala.

Good afternoon one and all! Well, we’re having a bit of a winter storm so the kids’ school was cancelled today (all for 4 inches of snow….these people don’t know what snow is :)) and they ended up at work with me for a few hours. Jon’s drive time was double from normal but he said all in all the roads were decent. Brad is now at a friends’ house and Robyn has a friend over.

My mom and brother are suppose to fly in Thursday so pray that the snow stops…and more importantly the wind….and that the airport begins to function normally tomorrow. This is their trip from December that didn’t happen due to the major snow fall in Denver and power outage in Seattle.

I guess that it’s for now.

ttfn - K

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February 11, 2007 by jon.

I had to do it. I went out and ran yesterday morning.

I had to do it. The temp was below 0. (-3)

I had to do it. I haven’t run in more than 2 weeks due to my cough.

I had to do it. There was fresh snow and I was able to cut a trail in some places.

I had to do it. Even though my back is still sore.

I had to do it. I only ran 3 miles but it was great!

You see, I just had to do it.

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February 6, 2007 by jon.

We haven’t posted in a little while.  Honestly, I’ve been sick and because I was sick, I couldn’t run and because I couldn’t run, I was slightly depressed and so on.

How’s that for an excuse?  Actually, it’s sort of true.  As a previous post stated, I started the year with Shingles then developed a cough.  Well, I’ve had the cough for close to 4 weeks now.  It also caused my ears to stay plugged after my last flight home from Richmond.  It was only yesterday that I was able to hear clearly from both ears.  (Imagine wearing ear plugs for 2 weeks.  That’s how it sounded.)

I also haven’t run due to the cough.  I ran once in Richmond with Diane and it was ok, but the cough got a little worse.  Ran the first day back and had a coughing fit for 30 minutes.  Don’t want to go through that again so I’ll wait until the cough subsides.  May try tomorrow, but you never know.

So, I especially am glad to see February.  Lord willing, I’ll have some good health and can get things back to normal.

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