Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Well they say on St. Patrick’s day you’re supposed to plant your potatoes. I got that done! I planted those and my yellow onions, and my garden is already half full! I think I’m going to have to tear up some more ground for the pumpkins and watermelons for sure. Plus I still have corn to plant, and peppers, and… yeah, my garden is going to be too small I think. And tearing up all that ground took me three days! Haha. Roto tillers are for wimps.
Funny story, a co-worker of mine and I were talking and I told him that I was planting a garden. He asked how it was going and I said pretty slow because I’m just using a spade to do all the cultivating. He said that the local hardware store was renting tillers pretty cheap. ”I’m communing with my ancestors,” I said.
“Oh, you mean you’re cheap!” he said.
Ha ha. Well, ya, I guess that’s no secret. But honestly there is something pretty therapeutic about sticking the shovel in the ground and breaking through all the years of roots. Does kind of make you think of how many years people all over the earth lived like this. There were no part-timers to schedule, or mufflers to change. It was a very basic way of life, and to think if my survival was penned on my gardening skills… God help me!
So afterwards I felt like I deserved a reward. And after all it was St. Patty’s Day so…
Which I am still enjoying now. It’s a medium dark beer, and QUITE hoppy. Boulevard makes some great beer, and this is definitely my seasonal favorite. Not a beer you want to sit around and drink a lot of, but a nice treat.
Now gonna kick back and relax for the rest of the evening. Might even bust out the telescope and take a look at Venus and Jupiter!
Holidays are over, it’s 2012.
Well I’m finishing up my last day off before getting back into the regular world. This time of year is always crazy with all the people there are to see, so there’s just not much of a routine. It will be nice to get back into something consistant and being able to spread out all my work over a whole week. It just doesn’t pay to take time off because I have to do all the work either before or after I leave anyway. But anywho.
It was a really nice holiday season as far as I can ascertain. Doesn’t seem like as stressful as those of the past few years. Even with Luke here, it just felt like everything kinda fell into place. We made it out to Cimarron, Wichita, Kansas City… all in less than a month. It kinda blew our gas budget, but we made a little extra money with side jobs to come up with the difference. Seems like the Lord still finds ways to provide!
This last quarter of 2011 has really rekindled my excitement for gaming. I got Zelda around Thanksgiving and the new Mario Kart for Christmas. On top of that I got back into Guild Wars for the Wintersday, getting hundreds of holiday items that I need to consume now. Let’s just say I’m not too worried about Death Penalty for a while! I still need to get Super Mario 3D land, but I think that can wait while I work my way though Zelda and Mario Kart.
I’ve been having more fun with Mario Kart 7 than I’ve had with any game for a real long time. Honestly after the Wii and GameCube versions being so similar, I really didn’t expect this to be so compelling. But I’ve really been enjoying the new courses.. a lot. Online mode has been pretty fun too. There’s no communication between you and the other players, but it’s clear that you’re not just racing the computer. Mostly because there’s so many more cheap shots in Muliplayer. In the context of Mario Kart though that’s a good thing. For everytime you get screwed at the finish line, there’s an equal chance that you’ll be able to screw over somebody on the next race, and really that’s what Mario Kart is all about. Haha. I haven’t played a whole lot of Time Trials yet… but the couple ghosts I raced were very fun. I’m not quite ready to give a final review of the game yet, but initial impressions are very good and I’d already recommend it if you have a 3DS.
I’ve been getting into retro gaming more too. I’d like to bolster my collection some dating back to the Super Nintendo and before. I have the N64 pretty extensively covered, and besides a few more brand new controllers, there’s really not a whole lot else I’m looking for right now. I want to go real old skool. In fact at the top of my “retro list” right now is an old “Vectrex” console from the early 80′s. I never had one. And until a few months ago I didn’t even know one existed until I started watching some reviews from Classic Game Room on Youtube. I think I like it because it’s so far and different from anything that is still around today. It really hearkens back to the day when the real games were in the arcades, and if you had something at home that could approximate that experience… man you were living.
Well, happy new year. Hope yours is a good as mine is going to be. I’ve pretty much made up my mind it’s going to be awesome.
Merry Christmas 2011
Merry Christmas! It’s 9:30 Christmas Eve and little Lucas just woke up from another nap. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get one in today too. Luke’s first Christmas will be exciting as we’ll be in Wichita for Andrea’s family’s Christmas. I know Santa has some presents waiting for him there!
I’ve played quite a bit of Guild Wars the past couple days. It’s been exclusively the quest Strength of Snow which is only around during the Winter’s Day Festival going on now. It’s pretty mindless, but sure has netted me a whole stash of holiday items. I figure I’ll play some Guild Wars while the festival is around, and once it’s gone, get back to beating Zelda Skyward Sword.
I hope your Christmas is a joyous one. Thank the Lord for his Son born on this day! God Bless!
Status Update
What a windy good for nothing day. You know those pictures NASA sends out of the Martian landscape they get from the rovers up there? Desolate, windblown, frigid… yeah, that’s today here in Great Bend. I opted out of walking to work today. Take away my street cred if you must, but I just wasn’t feeling it.
Andrea and I have been talking about whether or not to get our free membership to the gym going again. I’d hate to get it and not use it because it costs the station money whether we use it or not once we sign up for it. I know it’d be a good thing, but that place just closes too early. If you’re not wrapping up your workout by 8:30 then you’re liable to get locked in. And heading down anytime before 7:00pm is just madness. I know I’d be good for us though.
Everything at work is really starting to come together. It’s hard to believe the hell we were going though back in September with the whole system change. There’s another radio station here in town that has been stuck on the wrong satellite all day. Been giving Charlotte traffic reports all day. Nice to know that we’re not the only place in the world that’s had a rough time.
Other than that, just plugging along. I’m so darn proud of myself. I’ve got almost all of my Christmas shopping done already. Between the radio auction, and Black Friday deals online, I’ve knocked out about 90% of the Christmas list. It’s a big stress reliever actually. The money is spent already, so that’s behind us, and I don’t have to fret about what I’m going to bring as gifts for that trip to someone’s house we’re making THE NEXT DAY. I know nobody’s suprised, but there’s been several years I’ve been wandering Wal-Mart at 8PM Christmas Eve hunting with all my might to find a somewhat reasonable gift. This year… a breeze!
So keep on keepin’ on. And I’ll try to do the same on my end!
Christmas Time
So glad that Christmas is finally here. Get a nice 4 day weekend. Then New Year’s will be here and I will get another 4 day weekend. Thank goodness for floating holidays and PTO time. We would get paid at our regular hourly rate for the floating holidays, but I figured I might as well use them if they’re there, right?
Going to try and enjoy my day off tomorrow. Got a lot of stuff to do around the house though. I guess I’ll try to get those out of the way ASAP so I can get back to being lazy. Hoping to be able to sleep in tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.
Safe travels for everyone that is travelling this holiday season – us included. Pretty icky weather out there to be driving in.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Let the travels commence!
Well tis the season to hit the road and visit all the family. Andrea’s been down to Wichita the past two weekends while I had to work. But either tomorrow night or Friday morning we’re both heading to Cimarron to make the rounds.
It all depends on the weather. First they were calling for a Blizzard Watch, then cancelled the Blizzard Watch, then this morning they re-instated it. Doesn’t sound like we’re going to get a lot of snow, but the wind will be the problem. It sounds like it’s going to all be wrapping up Thursday evening, so if the roads are fairly clear we’re going to make a break for it. If we can get out there, the trip back should be a piece of cake!
Got all my Christmas shopping done except for one person. And that Christmas isn’t until January, so I’ve still got time!
Merry Christmas, everybody!
Black Friday Experience
Well today was my first ever participation in Black Friday. I’ve always heard the news stories, and talk to people that have gone shopping at that insane hour in the morning. But I’d always just shrugged it off as a sort of niche thing that “normal” people didn’t really have much to do with. But apparently (once again) I’M the one who’s far from normal.
I had a live broadcast today from Orschlen’s. It’s a new personal record for earliest remote I’ve ever done (6AM – 9AM). And as I was driving across town, I first noticed the cars lined up and parked around the block from Sears. “Wow,” I thought. Must be some deals there or something. THEN I drive past Wal-Mart. HO-LEE-CRAP. There wasn’t an empty space in the entire parking lot. Infact people were parking at the stores and fast food joints next to Wal-Mart just to get in that place. I can’t even imagine what it was like on the inside. And this is just Great Bend, Kansas! I mean good greif!
So I pull up to Orschlen’s about 30 minutes before they opened to start setting up equipment. Sure enough, there were already people lined up outside the store. I’ll be honest. I assumed that Orschlen’s would be 2nd or 3rd on people’s priority list. But that place was jam packed for a good 2 hours and then pretty steady after that.
I mean they had some good deals. Pretty much everything I didn’t really need. But they had a really nice mounted work light set that I snatched up for $20. I figure for $20 that will help working on stuff after dark. With the shorter days, it’s a shame to let all that time go to waste.
So that’s my Black Friday introduction. After seeing that Wal-Mart parking lot though I can’t imagine I’ll ever be bold enough to run in THAT crowd.
Happy T-givin’. And a re-detication.
Well, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope everyone’s had their fair share of food by now. Taken a nice long nap, and just generally been able to enjoy the day. It’s been a nice day around here just for Andrea and I to spend together. Seems like we don’t do that as much as we should. Went bowling last night (where I beat her all three games! hehe). Then we slept in today, I rolled out of bed around 8:00 and realized a few things we forgot at the store.
Oh how I LOVE the small Dillon’s here in Great Bend. They don’t have the huge selection and six brands of everything. But they’ve got everything you need, and as long as you’re not there during the peak hours, it’s not too busy. Plus it’s super nostalgic to walk through that place. I grabed some pineapple slices for the ham, and some evaporated milk for the pumpkin pie, and it was off to the short drive back home.
We REALLY need to have home cooked food more often. Even with the tons of stuff we made, it wasn’t too hard, just had to take the time to let it cook. Preperation really wasn’t a sweat at all. And it was just downright delicious. I’m gonna be eating ham sandwiches, pork and beans, ham and eggs, etc. until Christmas probably!
And geeze, almost Christmas already. Time really has been flying. And I mean supersonic jet speed, flying. I don’t really know what my holiday plans are other than Christmas at my Aunt’s house over the New Year weekend. I need to make the Cimarron rounds, as well as the Wichita/Winfield rounds. It’ll be fast and furious I’m sure.
One thing from now until 2010 at least that I want to do is get back into the blog. It’s fun to go back and read my daily ramblings, and much of them are just little inconsequential things, but fun to read and remember none-the-less. So until at least the New Year, and hopefully longer, I intend to resurrect my “one post a day” rule. Unless I’m completely without internet access I’m hoping that forcing myself to write SOMETHING will get me back into the swing of things around here. It’s been truly pathetic, I admit and apologize.
SO. I hope you all had a great holiday. I’m off to bed because I’m up early tomorrow to be at a Orscheln’s remote at 5:30 AM. See ya then black friday shoppers!
A few random pics.
Well I haven’t been blogging much lately. I guess it’s just been pretty dull lately. So for lack of anything better to post, heres a few recent pics I pulled off of the digital camera.
My halloween costume. Whatever that's supposed to be.
Andrea's nieces up to visit. Annie and Lyssa.
Andrea's nephew Nick.
Covered in animals.
Andrea and Sydney
Invisible pilates ball.
Invisible pogo stick.
Enough sun for both of us.
Bored-ing
Source: Spoofshadow
Welp, just hanging out at the station tonight as I have most Fridays so far since football started. I’m running the board for the Great Bend High School game. It’s not too stimulating, it makes for some long days, but I suppose the extra money is worth it.
Andrea’s sister and family are heading up for the weekend to go trick or treating. I asked around at work here and have some good leads on the “sweetest” neighborhoods in town. Should be fun!
September 11th
Put the flag up this morning in rememberance of Septermber 11th. Thanks to everyone who is or has been taking the fight to the other guys, and keep all us softies safe here at home.
God Bless America!
Scenes from the Labor Day weekend.
Well Andrea and I hadn’t been back to Cimarron since April of this year. Which is really kinda sad since we’re only two hours away. We really have to do better. But we took the three day weekend and made the rounds to see everybody. Had a great time! I don’t know about Andrea but I know I ate WAY too much the whole time. But it was awesome to see everybody and I even got Dad to weld up Andrea’s fuse block bracket for her car. I really gotta get him to teach me how to weld.
But here’s a few highlights of the trip. Check out my Picasa Gallery for a ton more pictures!
Solving the world's problems.
The Duncan cookout.
Opening turns of the Duncan Invitational Croquette Tournament.
Playin' Wii Sports Resort
White girl
It was a blast. Should have got some pictures of the ribs from Mom and Duane’s. MAN those were tasty. I got about a half slab in my fridge, just waiting for tomorrow night!
Thanks to everybody that was there. It was an awesome time! And we’ll be back sooner next time.
Holidays officially over
Well, wrapped up the last of the holiday visits with the Althouse family Christmas this past weekend. Got some very nice gifts from everyone. But I’m glad the season is over. Even though I’ve begun my first FULL work week in almost a month, it’s still a sigh of relief knowing that I don’t have any plans for the week ahead!
Here’s to a long, boring, uneventful routine!
Happy New Year! (Year in review)
New Year in Sayuri. Courtesy of biebsworld.com
Andrea and I spent New Year’s Eve in La Crosse at Biebs’ place. A couple of his friends showed up and we had ourselves a “Wii Party”. It was a good time. Found out I’m quite the fencer in Mario Olympics! And as the time ticked down, Biebs fired up his Animal Crossing town and we counted down with Tortimer and his very cool marquee board. He handed out party poppers and at midnight fireworks filled the sky! It was very neat in that cute and subtle Animal Crossing way.
2008 was quite the year for us. Getting married, new town, new jobs all in June. Went to Hawaii in August. All along with the assorted hailstorms, new Wiis, promotions, birthdays, holidays, and highs and lows that came our way. It started out tough with Grandma Pat going into the hospital for her stroke. She’s had perhaps the toughest year of all, but Grandpa said she was able to come to the house for Thanksgiving, definitely something to be thankful for! The beginning of the year also meant saying goodbye to my 1977 El Camino, as the landlord chopped down a limb and it smashed in the roof of the car. On the bright side, the insurance company ended up paying me more for the car than I bought it for!
Spring for me meant job hunting. I applied to a lot of places for a lot of different jobs. I wasn’t even sure I’d be staying in radio at the time. I had even applied for a job as far away as Georgia. Job hunting is seriously one of the least fun things a person can do, and with the tough economy, I feel for all the people out there that are looking for work. Looking back on it in retrospect without all the stress, there were some cool adventures. Like the trip out to Gove, KS where I stopped by the small little town where my car was sold and got to talk to the guy that actually sold it! Something I’ll remember and hopefully he will to for quite a while!
Once the job hunt ended life REALLY started to fly by. My last day a Platinum Broadcasting was on a Wednesday in June. Thursday we moved to Great Bend. Friday we were in Udall, KS for the wedding rehearsal. Saturday we were Mr. & Mrs. Althouse. Sunday we got back to our “home” that we had yet to even sleep in. And Monday I started work at Rocking M Radio. We never could have done it without all the help we got from our family and friends, and it was a time that we both were reminded how many absolutely fantastic people we have in our lives, and how blessed we are.
From this point on the year has FLOWN by! Getting settled into our new jobs and the general disorientation that comes with it really makes you lose track. It seems like no time and we were on the long flight to Kauai. Hardly a day goes by I don’t think, “Man, I wish I were sittin’ at Duke’s with a cold drink in my hand.“ While I realize living there is a bit un-realistic, I sure as heck plan on going back a few more times before I kick the bucket. That whole trip we had a whole lot of nothin’ planned, and had the time of our life!
I hope they're still holding our table at Duke's.
Everything from the wedding to the honeymoon seemed so surreal, that it took a little bit to adjust to our new reality. But things are finally starting to seem “normal” around here. I’m starting to get the hang of my new Program Director position, and I feel like 2009 is going to be a good year for growth for the stations I’m working on. The holiday travels are almost over, and I’m looking forward to settling in to a long boring stretch of steady progress. We’re looking to get Andrea’s car painted this spring, and maybe even investigate buying a house. Who can say what will happen? God only knows. But I have a feeling this year will be almost as action packed as the last one!
The gift exchange
First off… Sorry about the sporadic posting lately. I have no excuses.
We had our gift exchange at work today. Our limit was $5. There’s not a lot you can do with $5 these days, but Chris Elsen from the Nightshift sprung for a very….practical gift. I’m now the proud new owner of a 9-pack of Charmin Ultra Soft toilet paper.
First off, I think he forgot to get something so he just grabbed something he saw laying around the house. Let me be the first to say at least I didn’t get USED toilet paper. But the more I think about it, it’s not a bad gift at all. It’s practical. It will defiently get used. And I always hate having to spend some of my hard earned money on paper to wipe my ass with. So I have a couple weeks’ reprieve from TP buying.
Thanks, Chris! Merry Christmas.
Under our tree
Waiting for Santa Claus.
Halls be decked
The "family". Note extra tiny stockings.
Well we got our tree up tonight. It was Andrea’s idea to get a real tree this year. Sure does smell good. And we’ve got PLENTY of water down there, so it should be good. Already shed quite a few needles, but nothing we can’t deal with. As long as it doesn’t make too big of a mess when we haul it out, I’ll be super fine with it!
Sure does look pretty though. I enjoy the holiday season quite a bit. So it warms my heart to see a sparkling Christmas tree in the house. Nothing can compare to tromping into the house, kicking off your snow covered shoes and grabbing a cup of hot chocolate and a Calvin and Hobbes book and reading by the light of the Christmas tree. Just reminds me of those magical times when I was a kid I guess. I always looked forward to this time of year. Yes the presents, but it meant I got to see all sorts of family too. Grandmas and Grandpas, that sort of thing.
Real tree in all its glory!
We had a bit of a time getting the tree to stand up without falling over. Again one issue you usually don’t have to worry about with a fake one. But a little tree surgery and we were in business! We picked up a wreath for the front door. Even though nobody really uses the front door. And pulled out what little other holiday knick knacks we have. And what geek tree would be complete without some friendly Nintendo characters?
Yoshi. Joined by Mario, Bowser and the rest of the gang.
So happy holidays everybody! Here’s wishing you all trees that don’t catch on fire!
Halloween
It’s that time of year again! I love being able to carve pumpkins, but I haven’t done it in years. Now, it’s time to break that streak!
Spider Pumpkin
Scary Spider Pumpkin
I know that the quality is crappy, but we left our camera in my sister’s car. So, we had to bank on the video camera’s abilities to take pictures.
I also made a video so you can see the effects of the candle light here.
Pumpkin ale and cars for sale.
Ahh, it’s good to be home. It was a busy day. Not strenuous or anything, don’t get me wrong! Had to fill in for the “office manager” and do my own work. Suprisingly did very little of Dan’s work. It made the day go by pretty fast, but it’s still nice to be home.
Since the beginning of October, I’ve been trying to find this Blue Moon Pumkin beer. It was time to restock, so I stopped by the liquor store and they FINALLY had it! I picked up a six pack and my regular supply of High Life. The new beer is actually very good! Nice and smooth at first with just a hint of pumpkin spice as it goes down. Sweet, but not too sweet.
While I was checking out a fella asked me where I found my Oldsmobile. Said I’d had it for a while and he asked if it was for sale. With a grin on my face I said, “Sorry not right now.” Made me feel good. I’ve been kinda down on the car since the hail storm. Nice to know it still gets some looks, if only from a distance.
A day off!
Since we worked all day Saturday, our boss told all of us to pick a day this week to take off, as long as we didn’t all pick the same day of course! And here it is, another three day weekend for me! The great part about it is I got paid for Saturday and now I’m getting paid today too! Geeze, Platinum Broadcasting never would have done that.
So I’ve been lazy so far. Slept in an extra hour. Now I’m just relaxing infront of the computer with some piping hot coffee. Black. It’s a good day so far. Lots to do though. I need to do the dishes and some cleaning up around the house. A friend from work is coming over tonight, and Bryan and Jamie are headed to town tomorrow morning. Maybe I’ll FINALLY get everything unpacked.
I’d do some painting today, but the landlord hasn’t got the paint yet. Although she DID get ahold of me to tell me she couldn’t find it anywhere. At least she’s thinking about it I guess.
Going to play some Guild Wars today if time permits. But the more I sit here on my butt, the less time to do that later. Fire up the grill tonight for some brats and beers, and just kick back and enjoy the day. Life can be up and down, but right now, it’s pretty good.
Look for me on CNN!
I’m doing the New Years broadcast for the radio station tonight in Aggieville. It’s gonna be a cold mo-fo. Lots of people. Lots of confetti. If you see me I’ll be a little blip on the screen to the right of the main stage, shivering my ass off!
Hope everybody has a fun New Years Eve! Don’t get too crazy!
Now that I got it, what do I use it for?
You know, I can vaguely remember thinking several times that I needed a printer hooked up to this computer. But, for the life of me I can’t remember what I wanted to print. Now I have one hooked up and can’t think of anything I need printed out!
The printer you picked up in nice. I tested it out on photo printing and it works great. I couldn’t for the life of me think of anything to use the regular printer for so I could test it out and see if it worked after I hooked it up to the computer. It works on it’s own, as a photo printer and a scanner/copier, but wanted to make sure the usb cable I got was right. I finally just went into the word processor program and wrote “Test” a few times to see if it’d print. It did. I can remember going onto the ign site and printing out game walkthroughs. Maybe I should try something like that.
Oh well, it works. I’m sure it’ll come back to me what all I needed this for. I’d just hate to think I have an expensive photo printer! (If that’s all I ever use it for!) Remember the dvd burn drive I SWORE I’d never need? I’m sure this is going to be the same and I will wonder how I lived without it in a month or so!
Merry Christmas!
We’re down here in Wichita at Andrea’s sister’s place to do Christmas with her family. Just wanted to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and hope everybody has a great day!
Guitar Hero-ific
I figured since Duane would head out on the road right after Christmas I would let him have his PS2 and Guitar Hero early, while he is home for a few days and can play. He loves it.
I’m just not sure that ‘Guitar Hero’ is the right name for the game. I am halfway across the house while he is playing right now and I don’t hear any music. There’s just a “clack, clack, clack, clack-clack, clackity-clack-clack” resounding in the house.
I think it should be called “Clack Hero”. Ha-Ha!!
