August 23, 2007 by jon.

Talk about some rain.  We’ve had two storms this afternoon and so far they’ve delivered over 1.6 inches of rain.  Add that to the 5.57 inches of rain so far this month and animals will start lining up 2 by 2.  And it’s not over.  We should get more rain maybe tonight and tomorrow before things slow down a bit.

CoCoRaHS has some interesting reports showing Intense Precipitation and total acumulation. 

Check it out if you get a chance.  Better yet, sign up so you can contribute to the data!

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August 20, 2007 by jon.

I was Tagged by Diane recently and had no idea what that meant. So I checked with her and it seems I answer a number of questions about myself. So here goes:

Jobs I’ve Held:

• Walgreens - Clerk through Assistant Manager
• USNR - Quarter Master - My Job was to steer ships but in 6 years in the reserve I was on a bridge for 15 min…
• Round the Corner Restaurant - Burger flipper to Shift Mgr
• Barnes & Noble - Clerk through 2nd Assistant Mgr
• Abracadabra Antiquarian Bookshop - Booksearch Specialist to Mgr
• Bit by Bit Comptuer Rental - Assistant Mgr
• Ciber Inc. - Contracted to IBM Global Services to do deskside support at Xcel Energy
• HRH - Local IT Mgr Denver to Regional IT Mgr Midwest Region
• Volunteer for CoCoRaHS

Movies I can Watch Over and Over:

• Saving Private Ryan
• Lord of the Rings
• Moulin Rouge
• Harry Potter movies  (What a range of interests)

My Guilty Pleasures:

• Wasting time on the computer…
• Carribou Coffee Large Skim Mocha  (Yum!)
• Panera Asiago Cheese Bagel (Hence Coffee & Bagels at

Places I’ve Lived:

• Roseville, MI
• Sanford, MI
• Monrovia, CA
• Diamond Bar, CA
• Littleon, CO
• Ft. Collins, CO
• Thornton, CO
• Geneva, IL

Shows I Enjoy:

• Mythbusters
• Dirty Jobs
• Any other geeky Discovery Channel shows - Esp concerning weather!

Places I have Been on Vacation:

• Colorado (Before we lived there)
• California (Again, before living there)
• Cancun
• Chicago & Circle tour of Lake Michigan (Again….Before living there…Gotta be careful where our next vacation is…..)
• Estes Park, CO (Great place for a honeymoon)
• Philmont Scout Ranch (That’s a vacation, right?)
• Government Sponsored (USNR) Tokyo, Japan  Hawaii  Norfolk, VA
• Las Vegas

Favorite Foods:

• Cafe Mocha  (See above)
• French Fries
• Pizza
• A good Filet Mignon

Website I Visit Daily:

• Coffee & Bagles at 8
• CoCoRaHS
• RealClearPolitics.com
• MyYahoo.Com
• LinkedIn

Body Parts I Have Injured:

• Stitches in 2 different places (Head, Thumb)
• Various running ailments (Shin Splints, Achillies Heel, Lower Back problems)
• No broken bones although I did chip a joint playing basketball a while ago
• I do have a BB lodged in my left hand from a stupid stunt in 7th grade

Awards I’ve Won:

• Eagle Boy Scout
• Employee of the Year for HRH Denver (2000)
• Top bowler in bowling club, Senior year high school (Yipee!)
• Fantasy Football Champions (2001???)

Nicknames You’ve been Called:

• Snurk
• Other bad ones from when I was younger that left emotional scars 

Pick 5 Other Bloggers:

• Don’t really know any others, but I’ll pick Kala

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August 20, 2007 by jon.

As Kala knows, Global Warming really gets me.  When reading articles or seeing shows, there usually is evidence that is left out and it irks me.  A prime example is the Discovery Channel show Can We Control the Weather.  While they talked about some interesting stuff on how cloud seeding might help change hurricane courses, what got me was an early statement that hurricane strength and frequencys are increasing since 1970 as proof of Global Warming.  They implied that this hasn’t happened before.

In reality, hurricane seasons run in cycles.  The last time we had a cycle of increased activity was from the 1920’s - 1940’s.

Cal Thomas has a good opinion piece today that discusses how the current Global Warming scientists conveniently leave out or just don’t look at all of the facts.  Cal Thomas

I just find this all interesting and sometimes frustrating.

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August 16, 2007 by jon.

It seems all of my friends (That I grew up with) are turning 40.  Today is Steve’s turn.  Steve and I met almost 20 years ago when the girl I was dating at the time (Heidi) brought him to our weekly volleyball get together.  Since then we’ve roomed together, he stood in my wedding party, got married within a month of each other (Obviously I didn’t marry Heidi), we’ve done vacations together, helped each other move, played football (And fantasy football) and many other things.

Steve married Rachelle who has been Kala’s friend since 2nd grade (Yes, that long) and they continue to be great friends even though we’ve moved 1000 miles away.

Back to 40.  Jodi started the march by turning 40 last July (Jodi is another of Kala’s great long-term friends) Karl then hit 40 in January (Another friend that I’ve known longer than Steve!) and Rachelle hit the big four O in July.  Kala is next in October then we take a break for almost a year when Heidi (We still keep in touch) hits in August, I’m in September along with another friend Kevin.

It’s amazing, looking back, to think of all of the time that we spent with these people and the fun we had growing up together.  Most of them have been in my life or Kala’s for 20 years or more.  There’s something to be said about that.  Even though we’ve moved to Illinois, we still see most at least occassionally.

Here’s to friends and doing life together.

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May 23, 2007 by jon.

For those interested, we are soon to be experiencing the emergence of Brood XIII Magicicadas. They show up ever 17 years and we are lucky enough to live in the Midwest where they are stopping by.

To get up to date information for sightings, go to the below link.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about (and I didn’t know about this until 2 weeks ago) go to Cicadamania.com to get the scoop.

Cicada Mania Message Board » Magicicada Sightings

Here is a pretty cool map that’s interactive and real time.  Let’s keep it updated.  Of course, I just put in that we have yet to see any.

Lake County Cicada Map

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May 23, 2007 by jon.

May 22nd will go down as the night of the perfect storm….sort of.  Talk about busy.  Brad and I had the last pack meeting the the school year.  Brad officially is now a 2nd year Webelo

and he can’t wait to be a Boy Scout.

Brad also had a game but he didn’t go.  They won by 1 run.

Mom (Kala) went to Robyn’s Pony Tail softball league meeting.  She met her coaches, got the rules and the schedules.  Robyn has wanted to play ball for a while since watching Brad and now she gets a chance.

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May 22, 2007 by jon.

You gotta check out this site. The goal is to create a page for every species of organism on the planet.  Using Wikipedia technology, anyone can upload photos, audio and video to this site and anyone else can edit and refine. This will be a great resource for school reports as well as just a place to go to get lost.

The demo looks COOL! Makes me want to go out and find some type of organism to document and upload…Only problem is that it won’t be functional for a year or so. Keep checking back!
Encyclopedia of Life

Jon

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April 3, 2007 by jon.

  Has it really been that long?  I see it’s been over 3 weeks since our last post.  Sorry.  It’s been quite busy and I honestly haven’t wanted to sit in front of a computer.  We had a virus at work that had me working late every night one week.  Then I’ve been traveling to different places with my work.

  We’ve also been to a concert (TobyMac at House of Blues).

  Actually, the family also saw By The Tree Sunday but I was traveling.  Robyn had her final cheerleading class (You gotta see the video…soon to be posted).  And Brad started Baseball.  It’s been busy.

   This is just a filler post until I get up enough gumption to put somethting real in.  For now, hang tight.  We’ll be back.

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March 6, 2007 by jon.

Our Dryer had kicked the bucket…or so we thought.  It was making on messy noise on start up and squeeked for quite some time.  After doing some internet searching, we found the Fixitnow.com site.  Lot’s of good repair information if you ever need it.

Fixitnow.com Samurai Appliance Repair Man - SlideFrame_1

So does our dryer still squeek?  Actually yes, we need to lubricate the motor.  But now we know we can take it apart in 10 minutes thanks to this website.

 Check it out.

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March 3, 2007 by jon.

Not quite watching grass grow, but close. 

Actually, the Phenological Network tracks when plants bloom and other Phenological event across the country.  Like CoCoRaHS, they have volunteers who input data into a web site.  If watching plants is more your thing as opposed to weather, you might want to check this out.

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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 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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January 18, 2007 by jon.

It’s been a rough start to the year for me.  The first week I had shingles and had to stay home due to being contagious.  Luckily I could work from home just as well so I didn’t really miss any work, but it sure messed up the rythym.  Thank the Lord that I had a mild case and wasn’t to uncomfortable.

Then my son decided to share his cough with me.  I started coughing around Friday and have been since.  Of course I am traveling all this week which has made me more miserable.  After 3 trips to CVS I gave in and called my doctor to call in a perscription.  Once I got the good stuff in my, I slept well.  Thanks Doc!

I have also been chronicling my problems with my back.  I am learning more about it but I also had a weird episode.  Last Thursday night driving home, my back under my left shoulder felt “Tight”.  Got home and Kala started working on it when I had a spasm.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a spasm like that before.  I had trouble moving (But not breathing) and was stuck in some weird positions. 

Called Dr. Mark and they told me to ice it and see them in the morning.  My lovely wife went to scouts for me and I kept the ice pack on.  Friday morning it actually felt a lot better.  The spasm was gone but even to today, it is tight.

BUT, I’ve figured out my lower back problems aren’t caused by running.  Dr. Mark has given me some stretches to put my hips back in place.  So I did some experimenting to see what causes it to go out of Whack.  Running…No, Sleeping….No, Driving to work and a full work day…Yep.  So I need to work on ergonomics at work and find the best positions.  It’s all a learning process.

The good part is that I have run a few times without much problem.  I’m really glad to be able to do that and even ran with my old boss/friend Diane in Richmond while on a business trip.  Very enjoyable to good to run with her.

So it’s been a rough start, but with some stretching, proper eating and exercise and the Lord’s help (Ok, it’s mostly him!) I should be getting back on track.

Have a great day!

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January 15, 2007 by jon.

I’m in Richmond and spent all day Sunday with Richard, a friend I used to work with.  We are both history buffs and he took me to some Civil War sites.

Our first stop was the Petersburg battlefield.  This was the site of a 10 month siege of Petersburg by union troops.  We were able to tour some of the old fort earth works and see some period cannon. 

The battle of Petersburg included the famous Crater Battle where union forces hoping to punch a whole in the confederate defenses dug a 511 foot tunnel under a fort.  They then put 4 tons of powder in the fort and blew it up.  It was a great success in that the fort ceased to exist and over 200 confederate soldiers were killed.  Union soldiers ran up to continue the attack but ended up being shocked by the carnage and never pressed the advantage.  This gave the confederates time to mount a counter attack and they regained the fort/crater.

The union won the battle in April 1965 and headed North to Richmond.  This was just before Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House.

We then returned to Richmond and toured the Museum of the Confederacy next to the Confederate White House.  Pretty cool stuff that documents the timeline of the war.  There are a lot of personal items of Lee as well as models of the various naval ships and maps of engagments.

Side note - There were a lot of the officer coats on display.  Those must have been some small guys as there is no way a average sized person of today could squeeze their shoulders into them.

By this time things were closing so we took a quick walk around Belle island to finish our day.  Most of the island is just a park with trails but there are some markers showing where the prison was as well as the gravesite for the union priosoners.

It was a great day exlporing Civil War stuff.  My first time being on an actual battlefield.

Thanks Richard!

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