Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
So more good news.
Greetings blog fans, So it seems that no one even has a guess on the song title, and also no one has made any Iditarod picks. Hmm.. I know that updates are coming fast and furious, but I is a busy guy with a lot to do and much to blog.
So, my TV functions again. As it turns out the maintenance types cut the cable and it had to be replaced. However the apartment complex is gonna bill the maintenance people for the cost to replace the cable. And I got my no service credit and that will cover just about all of the cost of having the dude come out and do the service call. So all in all, it works out well. Plus I can again enjoy the History channel. Hooray History!
Other then that, well, I have some correspondance to take care of this evening. So beware! There maybe a letter coming to you. I know how important mail is. And on that note, I would advise all of you to go to the post office and buy stamps, make sure to ask for the forever stamps. The rates are going up again. They always do, but stock up on forever stamps.
So, my TV functions again. As it turns out the maintenance types cut the cable and it had to be replaced. However the apartment complex is gonna bill the maintenance people for the cost to replace the cable. And I got my no service credit and that will cover just about all of the cost of having the dude come out and do the service call. So all in all, it works out well. Plus I can again enjoy the History channel. Hooray History!
Other then that, well, I have some correspondance to take care of this evening. So beware! There maybe a letter coming to you. I know how important mail is. And on that note, I would advise all of you to go to the post office and buy stamps, make sure to ask for the forever stamps. The rates are going up again. They always do, but stock up on forever stamps.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Hooray!
Ok, so this is an amazing post from my desktop. I am working on getting it synced back up with the laptop. I have to move calendars and such and transfer pictures. I'm gonna have to move some musics eventually, but that can happen later. The pictures and the calendars are the big things that have to be moved. And then we have the problem that I love having the play button right on my keyboard. I may have to get a new keyboard with such buttons, cause that is super sweet.
But now we get into the big news of this post, because on March 1st there will be a big event. It is the beginning of the 36th Iditarod! For those of you who don't know, this is the amazing dogsled race across Alaska. Dogsleds have been used in Alaska for a long time, however this trail dates back to the diphtheria epidemic in early 1925. The town of Nome was struck by the epidemic and the nearest serum was in Anchorage. The only name brave/crazy enough to try and fly it was in the lower 48. The answer was dogsled.
This year being an even year the race will follow the northern route. The teams must cover 1132 miles of ice and snow. The object is to see which team can complete the course in the shortest amount of time. But they must complete this under their own power and without aid from others. To stop your time the nose of the first dog in your team must cross the finish line.
Now, since I figure that most of you don't know that much about the Iditarod, I shall let you know some of the basic rules. First off you must be at least 18, and completed in a qualifying race before th Iditarod. The race begins at 10 Am in Anchorage, Alaska, regardless of weather.
Now then, for the race. The musher must personally sign in at each checkpoint before continuing. The team must take one mandatory 24 hour stop, but it is up to the musher where to take it. The musher must stay at that checkpoint for the entire 24 hour period. The musher must also take one eight hour stop on the Yukon and one 8 hour stop at White mountain. But you cannot combine any of the stops.
There are restrictions on your sled and a list of mandatory items. But as a note, one mandatory item is 8 booties for each dog. Also you have to always carry emergency dog food on the sled. Also, for navigation you are restricted to traditional means. Map and compass, no gps, no night vision goggles...nothing electric or mechanical to measure speed and direction.
Oh, and just so you know there are several pages of rules regarding the dogs. Mandatory vet checks, you have to carry your vet book, if they think you've been cruel to your dogs you can be detained for 8 hours.
You are allowed to ship food and gear to certain checkpoints along the trail to resupply.
Now then, since I haven't followed as closely in years past , mostly due to not realizing when the start is until its is nearly over, this year I will be rooting for Lance Mackey of Fairbanks Alaska. Mostly this is based on the fact that he is the defending champ. He is starting in position 10 this year. There are 96 people starting this year. Most hail from the USA and Canada, but there are mushers from Norway, Germany, Belgium, and a musher from France and Italy. There are 74 male mushers signed up and 22 female mushers starting the race. 64 of them are veterans and 32 are rookies.
Now, here is the fun part. I said that my pick was Lance Mackey for the veteran and I'll be pulling for Rudi Niggemeier from Germany as my rookie pick. I'm willing to wager a couple beers on this. So here is how this will work, any one who is up for it, make your pick for veteran and rookie musher. At the end of the race the person whose pick ranks highest for their category will win a beer from the person whose pick is lowest in that category. If mushers are disqualified, each person picking a disqualified musher must buy the winner a beer. Anyone who wants to be part of this by all means leave your pick up as a comment. You can find the list of mushers here.
But now we get into the big news of this post, because on March 1st there will be a big event. It is the beginning of the 36th Iditarod! For those of you who don't know, this is the amazing dogsled race across Alaska. Dogsleds have been used in Alaska for a long time, however this trail dates back to the diphtheria epidemic in early 1925. The town of Nome was struck by the epidemic and the nearest serum was in Anchorage. The only name brave/crazy enough to try and fly it was in the lower 48. The answer was dogsled.
This year being an even year the race will follow the northern route. The teams must cover 1132 miles of ice and snow. The object is to see which team can complete the course in the shortest amount of time. But they must complete this under their own power and without aid from others. To stop your time the nose of the first dog in your team must cross the finish line.
Now, since I figure that most of you don't know that much about the Iditarod, I shall let you know some of the basic rules. First off you must be at least 18, and completed in a qualifying race before th Iditarod. The race begins at 10 Am in Anchorage, Alaska, regardless of weather.
Now then, for the race. The musher must personally sign in at each checkpoint before continuing. The team must take one mandatory 24 hour stop, but it is up to the musher where to take it. The musher must stay at that checkpoint for the entire 24 hour period. The musher must also take one eight hour stop on the Yukon and one 8 hour stop at White mountain. But you cannot combine any of the stops.
There are restrictions on your sled and a list of mandatory items. But as a note, one mandatory item is 8 booties for each dog. Also you have to always carry emergency dog food on the sled. Also, for navigation you are restricted to traditional means. Map and compass, no gps, no night vision goggles...nothing electric or mechanical to measure speed and direction.
Oh, and just so you know there are several pages of rules regarding the dogs. Mandatory vet checks, you have to carry your vet book, if they think you've been cruel to your dogs you can be detained for 8 hours.
You are allowed to ship food and gear to certain checkpoints along the trail to resupply.
Now then, since I haven't followed as closely in years past , mostly due to not realizing when the start is until its is nearly over, this year I will be rooting for Lance Mackey of Fairbanks Alaska. Mostly this is based on the fact that he is the defending champ. He is starting in position 10 this year. There are 96 people starting this year. Most hail from the USA and Canada, but there are mushers from Norway, Germany, Belgium, and a musher from France and Italy. There are 74 male mushers signed up and 22 female mushers starting the race. 64 of them are veterans and 32 are rookies.
Now, here is the fun part. I said that my pick was Lance Mackey for the veteran and I'll be pulling for Rudi Niggemeier from Germany as my rookie pick. I'm willing to wager a couple beers on this. So here is how this will work, any one who is up for it, make your pick for veteran and rookie musher. At the end of the race the person whose pick ranks highest for their category will win a beer from the person whose pick is lowest in that category. If mushers are disqualified, each person picking a disqualified musher must buy the winner a beer. Anyone who wants to be part of this by all means leave your pick up as a comment. You can find the list of mushers here.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
"Life changes like the weather, but a legend never dies"
Ok blog fans! I start this post out with a challenge, can any of you name the song title and the artist of the quote from the title of this post? I realize that the easy way is to just google it, but hopefully someone might know it on their own.
Anyhow, lets do a bit of an update first off. First off, the truck. It is once again running fine, which is good. Stella comes this Friday and I have a functional vehicle to show her around here. I did have to ride my bike into the base to pick it up. But that was kinda fun and a bit of a work out, so it had some pluses.
Next, the desktop. Well as it is rather old, it turns out that the battery on the motherboard finally died. But being a simple watch battery, it really wasn't that hard to locate a new one and now the desktop is back in action. Of course I have to update some stuff on it and then move things from one computer to another and all, but at least it is no longer dead.
It does bring up problem three. There seems to be a virus on my computer. Both norton and windows defender have claimed to have caught it, and quarantined it and removed it. But I still get windows popping up and such. So that is a bother. I will continue to work on it.
And as for the satellite, well, I'm still waiting for their guy to come out on Tuesday and poke things with sticks and do a little voodoo dance to return my dish to a happy functioning receiving state. But I will keep you all updated. I am gonna be getting a no service credit for the time I have no tv, so I'm not paying for tv right now. I continue to watch movies.
As for this weekend, well, it hasn't been too bad. Friday I had to work the desk. Plus I had to ride my bike into base and get the truck, but I had mentioned that already. Then after work several of the people from the office came over and we ordered up some pizza and watched some episodes of SeaQuest, because the captain had pasted away. I forget his name right now, but he was also in Jaws. He said "We're gonnna need a bigger boat."
Saturday was our grand adventure in Las Cruces. We got a few people together to run some errands and then attempt to see the rock crawling stuff. Well, we ended up hitting up several stores and then tried to find the place. But we had directions to where it was headquartered, not the tracks, so we got some iffy directions and then headed off. The road turned to dirt and then it got sandy. The car we were in got stuck, so we had to push it out to more solid ground. We gave up on trying to find it, so we went to get lunch. Then back across the desert to home. Luckily we all managed to get through boarder control.
Saturday night we were back here for another movie and some drinks. We had chocolate-tinis and such, since we are classy like that. And of course after that it was time for sleep.
Today was dull, just some cleaning and a few little errands around town. Plus a nap. However I do have pictures for your viewing pleasure.
When you get stuck on a dirt road in the middle of the desert, what else is there to do but take a group photo?
Oh, perhaps we should push the car out, this one is just a stagged photo, note the solid ground and lack of driver. But we were a bit to busy to take the real picture while we actually had to push it out
Anyhow, lets do a bit of an update first off. First off, the truck. It is once again running fine, which is good. Stella comes this Friday and I have a functional vehicle to show her around here. I did have to ride my bike into the base to pick it up. But that was kinda fun and a bit of a work out, so it had some pluses.
Next, the desktop. Well as it is rather old, it turns out that the battery on the motherboard finally died. But being a simple watch battery, it really wasn't that hard to locate a new one and now the desktop is back in action. Of course I have to update some stuff on it and then move things from one computer to another and all, but at least it is no longer dead.
It does bring up problem three. There seems to be a virus on my computer. Both norton and windows defender have claimed to have caught it, and quarantined it and removed it. But I still get windows popping up and such. So that is a bother. I will continue to work on it.
And as for the satellite, well, I'm still waiting for their guy to come out on Tuesday and poke things with sticks and do a little voodoo dance to return my dish to a happy functioning receiving state. But I will keep you all updated. I am gonna be getting a no service credit for the time I have no tv, so I'm not paying for tv right now. I continue to watch movies.
As for this weekend, well, it hasn't been too bad. Friday I had to work the desk. Plus I had to ride my bike into base and get the truck, but I had mentioned that already. Then after work several of the people from the office came over and we ordered up some pizza and watched some episodes of SeaQuest, because the captain had pasted away. I forget his name right now, but he was also in Jaws. He said "We're gonnna need a bigger boat."
Saturday was our grand adventure in Las Cruces. We got a few people together to run some errands and then attempt to see the rock crawling stuff. Well, we ended up hitting up several stores and then tried to find the place. But we had directions to where it was headquartered, not the tracks, so we got some iffy directions and then headed off. The road turned to dirt and then it got sandy. The car we were in got stuck, so we had to push it out to more solid ground. We gave up on trying to find it, so we went to get lunch. Then back across the desert to home. Luckily we all managed to get through boarder control.
Saturday night we were back here for another movie and some drinks. We had chocolate-tinis and such, since we are classy like that. And of course after that it was time for sleep.
Today was dull, just some cleaning and a few little errands around town. Plus a nap. However I do have pictures for your viewing pleasure.
This is the desert. Note the way there are plants, but not those really big cacti.
When you get stuck on a dirt road in the middle of the desert, what else is there to do but take a group photo?
Oh, perhaps we should push the car out, this one is just a stagged photo, note the solid ground and lack of driver. But we were a bit to busy to take the real picture while we actually had to push it out
OH NO!!!! The radiation from the nuclear tests around here has created a GIANT MUTANT ROADRUNNER!!!!! Run for the hills!! No one is safe.... oh wait, its artwork, never mind.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Hmmmm
Ok, so lets do a quick rundown.
First up, the truck. As it stands now it is rumbling funny and backfiring. This is not good. I do not like it. I'm gonna have it looked at and hope that it works out.
Next up, my desktop. It has stopped booting up. Currently it comes on, does a check of the memory and then tries to start booting, it then beeps and says "Boot Failure: System Halted". As it turns out I can not boot from a windows CD, this makes me mad.
And then, when I got back my directtv didn't wish to find signal. So I have no television right now. I have called direct tv and they went through a bunch of stuff, none of it worked. So now a technician has to come out and look at it. But he won't be able to get here until next Tuesday. However, they are going to give me a credit cause I have no TV. This particularly ticks me off, cause not only did I miss the new Simpsons, but History Channel was gonna do a history of the joke on Monday, and I wished for to see it.
Luckily however I do have a laptop, which I am very glad that I got. And it looks like the only thing I have to watch till next Tuesday is DVD's, so its good that I have quite a collection of them. Also I'm happy that this is a three day week. Hooray RDO, even if I have to work the desk for the afternoon. I still get to sleep in. And while it does mean that I'll have a full day of work the day that I have to go pick up Stella, it also means that I get to have a full day off while she is here, and that is a good thing.
Oh, and I may be going to a rock crawling thing on this Saturday, now, I will not be entering, I will only be watching. So don't think that I'm gonna mess up the truck anymore then it already is. Any how, I'm thinking now is a good time for some dinner, and then I shall watch a movie. There will be more posts later.
First up, the truck. As it stands now it is rumbling funny and backfiring. This is not good. I do not like it. I'm gonna have it looked at and hope that it works out.
Next up, my desktop. It has stopped booting up. Currently it comes on, does a check of the memory and then tries to start booting, it then beeps and says "Boot Failure: System Halted". As it turns out I can not boot from a windows CD, this makes me mad.
And then, when I got back my directtv didn't wish to find signal. So I have no television right now. I have called direct tv and they went through a bunch of stuff, none of it worked. So now a technician has to come out and look at it. But he won't be able to get here until next Tuesday. However, they are going to give me a credit cause I have no TV. This particularly ticks me off, cause not only did I miss the new Simpsons, but History Channel was gonna do a history of the joke on Monday, and I wished for to see it.
Luckily however I do have a laptop, which I am very glad that I got. And it looks like the only thing I have to watch till next Tuesday is DVD's, so its good that I have quite a collection of them. Also I'm happy that this is a three day week. Hooray RDO, even if I have to work the desk for the afternoon. I still get to sleep in. And while it does mean that I'll have a full day of work the day that I have to go pick up Stella, it also means that I get to have a full day off while she is here, and that is a good thing.
Oh, and I may be going to a rock crawling thing on this Saturday, now, I will not be entering, I will only be watching. So don't think that I'm gonna mess up the truck anymore then it already is. Any how, I'm thinking now is a good time for some dinner, and then I shall watch a movie. There will be more posts later.
Monday, February 18, 2008
A plethora of posts
Well, while others maybe lacking in their postings, fear not blogfans! For I endeavor to keep new posts coming. And lucky as you are, there be pictures!
So I thought I'd put up a few pictures from the ASBC graduation party and then seeing downtown Montgomery.
Yes, eventually there will be posting again with all the words and the sentences and full thoughts and the like.
So I thought I'd put up a few pictures from the ASBC graduation party and then seeing downtown Montgomery.
What a cutie!
Yes, eventually there will be posting again with all the words and the sentences and full thoughts and the like.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Engagement Pictures!
So we finally got the engagement pictures that were taken over the summer. I figured that I would post some of them such that you may all see them and know of our engagement.
Yes, it is a butt picture.
Yes, it is a butt picture.
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