I was tagged.  Again.  Thanks Bill. This happened once before and I don’t like it any more this time.

Each person posts the rules before their lists, then lists 8 things about themselves.  At the end of the post that person lists 8 other people they want to tag, then visits each of their sites leaving a comment that they have been tagged & to come to your space & read the post so they will know what to do.

I’m not going to tag anyone back, but I’ll play too:

(1) I am getting back into gaming.  I am currently playing the game City of Heroes.  I am really enjoying the game, btw.

(2) I dream about winning the lottery on a daily basis.  Even though I don’t normally play the lottery.

(3) I have not ran a single mile in over a month.  That fact is not sitting very well with me right now.

(4) Three of my favorite movies are Smokey and The bandit, Real Genius and War Games.  In case your wondering, refer to #12 of the previous tagged post.  :)

(5) I love to watch racing.  it really does not matter what is racing.  Cars, trucks, lawn mowers, what ever.  I once was up late and could not sleep and found myself watching lawn mower racing on TV.  People were doing 85 mph on a freaking lawn mower.  It was great.

(6) I got married to Z when I was 21 and remain happily married today.  I count myself extremely lucky. Even though she still drives me absolutely crazy on a daily basis.

(7) One of my biggest life mistakes is I never joined the Marine Corp. I actually feel embarrassed that I never served in the any of the armed services. It drives me straight to rage when I hear / see anyone saying or doing anything that even remotely implies anything negative about anyone in the armed forces. Those people should be made to sit in an outhouse in the middle of Texas in the middle of August for a week.  With the outhouse full of fire ants and rattlesnakes and scorpions. Then given to the Navy Seals for “play time”.

(8) I hate getting tagged.  Which is why it has happened twice so far.

Today was by no means, anything special.  I had trouble sleeping last night for a bit and ended up sleeping in until around 9:30a.  I did some FaceBook time as well as read a few more blogs on spaces.  I am still catching up on all the blogs I have been following since I was out for a couple of weeks. 

I did go and pick up my father.  We went to the Amateur Radio Show and the Woodworking Show.  Both were expensive to get in and were, for the most part, a bust.  At the Amateur Radio show there were half as many booths as normal and half as many people.  Dad felt this was due to the cost of gas.  Even Icom, who normally has a massive booth, only had a little dinky case showing their products.  And only the handhelds and mobiles.  No HTs or base stations.  TenTec did have a nice display. They are based about 5 hours from Charlotte.  Dad and I have been to their facilities.  While there, they actually took us on a guided tour of their manufacturing floor.  Just the two of us.  I still remember that trip as being a good one.  Anyway, the Amateur Radio show was a complete bust.  I bought nothing.  The woodworking show was just as much a bust.  i saw many things that were pretty cool.  But everything was so freaking expensive.  And many things were computerized.  I do woodworking because it is not computerized.  it is something that lets me work with my hands and does not involve computers at all.  Oh well.  Sign of the times I suppose.

I did get to have dinner with the wifel unit.  We went to PF Changs.  It was good as usual.  We enjoyed just being able to have a conversation between the two of us.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend.  Weird weather it seems all across the US.  I hope those with cold are staying warm and those with wet are staying dry.

Ever wonder how people find your blog?  Just out of the blue they are there.  Some come through friends, whether online or in person.  Some come from online searches.  From the likes of Live Search, Google and AOL Search.  In my Live Spaces Stats I can see what people are searching on when they came across my blog.  Some are pretty funny.  This is what people were searching for when they came across my blog just today.

• Frosty 5k charlotte
• Blonde spaces
• Space shark
• Sasquatch pictures from space
• Shark runner
• Air taking up space
• Shark runners game
• 5k race shirts
• Space pudding
• Coldest temperature on earth right now
• Frosty 5k charlotte
• Dog that came from space
• squirrels russia dog

Pretty funny.  A Russian Squirrel Dog that eats space pudding wearing a 5k race shirt in the coldest place on earth who has Sasquatch as a friend.  :)

Maybe I will post frequently what people are searching for.  I, personally, find them rather funny.

What a weekend. It was severely jammed pack with things to do. Both things I wanted to do and things I have been putting off. It was so busy I could not really blog about it until this evening. I pretty much rode my motorcycle everywhere. Which the weather worked out beautifully for motorcycle riding. Not too hot and not too cold. No rain. Sunny, blue sky.

I ran in a trail run on Saturday morning. It was a 7 mile run at Lake Norman State Park. I was targeting 1:15 for the run and did well by finishing the run at 1:05. I started off a bit too fast but corrected myself in the middle of the run.

Sunday morning I went out on my rode bike with Clif and Marcus. We rode our bikes for around 26 miles. It was a good ride but afterwards my legs were toast. After the running on Saturday and the riding on Sunday, I think they were at their max capacity to handle exercise.

Overall I enjoyed the weekend but missed my family since they headed out to Hilton Head to hang out at the beach. J

Serve my wife right. She left me….to go to Hilton head with the ungrateful daughter of ours. They are there for spring break. Some of us has to work. You know, that thing we have to do to generate positive cash flow for the greater good. Well, anyway, she left the house missing many things. So I took on the responsibility to go to the grocery store. Well, I have been banned from going to the grocery store for many years now. I went once, spent well in excess of $100 and came home with no milk. After much yelling I was banned. Like I cared. I hate shopping. Anyway, I went to the grocery last night. Now I have to say that I have been getting pretty upset that we have been running out of the waters that I like to drink. So I bought everyone they had in the store. About $50 worth. I also bought a ton of pretzels. Nothing is better after a long run than a good pretzel and a cold water. Overall I spent about $80. She was, well, less than pleased. Oh well. I guess she should come home from the beach to yell at me. At least I bought toilet paper. J

Could be worse. I have a friend that whenever his wife goes out of town he buys a new computer. The last one had to have Duke Power certify his power grid for power capability just to turn the thing on. It was that big.

Serves her right for leaving me. Everyone knows I can't be left to my own devices. Next thing you know I'll be feeding the dog steak at the dinner table. Because I roll like that. ;)

So I finished watching both the NASCAR Busch and Nextel Cup Bristol races last night. I saw something and wanted to post it somewhere but really did not know where the best place would be. So I decided that my MSN Space would suffice fine. No, it has nothing to do with the Car of Tomorrow, Super Car or Car of Today or anything else to do with the flying brick they are starting to drive.  Before the race begins they have the typical pre-race events. Autographs, driver introductions, driver interviews, etc. Well, one of the pit reports for ESPN interviewed Kyle Busch while he was standing next to his #5 Hendrick Motor Sports car. Right when they cut to the reporter and the driver for an interview most drivers take a swig of either coke, Gatorade or whatever drink manufacturer is their sponsor. For example coke sponsors many of the drivers. Kyle Busch had a bottle of Aquafina in his hand. Right when they switched to the reporter and Kyle he took a swig of water. He even went so far as to swish it around his mouth before swallowing. I must tell you at this point nothing really seemed out of the normal. That is if you were watching a standard definition TV. I have a High Def TV. I love my high def TV. Because of situations just like this. What I saw on high def when Kyle brought the bottle down was that the cap was still on the bottle. A white cap with blue lettering to be specific. I could see the writing on the top. I recorded the race so I was able to go back and watch the scene again as well as freeze the picture right when he brought the bottle down.

So my question is - "Was I the only one who saw this?" He tried to play it off but really looked pretty stupid. I wonder what the marketing folks at Aquafina think. I am sure they pay big dollars to have it take a drink of their water when he is interviewed. Only to find out he never did what he was suppose to do. Now that I think about it, I wonder if he gives those sponsorship dollars back? Somehow I think that just will not happen.

BTW, I really do love my high def TV. Although, ESPN is horrible at broadcasting live events in high def. Fox does a much better job.

EnduranceFest is over. It was a really long day. Up at 4am and not back into bed until around 11:30pm. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great day. Just long. Not as long as it was for the participants. For the ones who did all three events, it was nuts. A Time Trial Road Race, A Mountain Bike Race and then a 7 mile trail run. And yes, it was hot outside. Only one person had to be attended too by the paramedics for dehydration. I was asking everyone, “You OK?”, “Are you good?”, “Getting enough water?”. I was worried about a few participants. My hats off to everyone who participated in the events. I was so impressed by their stamina and just raw will power. A couple came to mind. Two guys were trying to attempt all three. After the first two events they both looked wiped out. Both also doubted is they were going to be able to finish the run. Both decided to try and both finished. Jack Crouch and Mason Zimmerman. Both completed all three events and was still able to walk afterwards! I think both sought out a quiet corner of the coliseum to pass out afterwards. I got sun burnt. By the time I realized what was happening it was too late. Tim kept telling me, get in the shade but I am not really one to just sit there. Especially when the events were in progress. I tend to just pace back and forth at the finish line. I yelled so much my throat hurt. I kept yelling, “Dig Dig Dig!” , “Pedel!”, “You got it. Finish strong!”. I was trying to give them some motivation for finishing. I asked one of the participants if they could even hear me. They said they could. Some would dig deep and push a little harder. Others looked at me as if to say, “If I could move I would come over there and beat the crap out of you.”.

All in all the event was fun. I am glad I helped out. I enjoyed watching everyone do well. It was pretty neat to see the satisfaction in the faces of the ones who completed the event(s). You could tell. They did something really big and even some surprised themselves.

Well, the week is almost over. I got back from visiting with my brother Monday evening. My allergies went nuts right before I went up there. Even though I was not feeling 100% it was great to get to spend some time with him. We did not do anything special. Just hung out. A couple of the evening we went to David’s to watch the fights. Other times we just hung out at his Motorcycle shop. That was fun. Lots of people coming by to get their bikes or four wheelers serviced. Both David and Eric gave me slack for not remembering anyone. I guess that’s just life. Other than the two of them is there anyone I need to remember from the area? Not really. I was hoping to go for a motorcycle ride but it never materialized. Maybe next time. I do not intend to let as much time go by until my next visit. I did not do much exercise while in Indiana. I went running Sunday morning but it was a short run. One important part of running is breathing. If you can’t, don’t even think about running.

This week at work has been fairly easy. Did some work on my tablet to get it working a bit more stable. This time of year is our review time so I have been pushing hard to get reviews delivered to my team members in a timely manner. Next week I am going to NYC and DC to deliver the remaining reviews. I try to do every one face to face but have had to deliver two so far over the phone. I think both employees were OK with doing the deliveries via the phone. At least, that is what they told me.

This weekend I intend to relax. Tomorrow is the EnduranceFest. I am helping Tim out with the event. Other than that I intend to smoke some pork shoulder and just relax and watch TV. I might go get a DVD for us to watch. If I feel up to it I might try to bribe Marcus into a Mountain Bike Ride. The weather turned cool so hopefully I will feel like going for a run. In my mind I want to. I just need my body to catch up with my mind.

I have been waiting for today to come. Today is my first day on vacation and I am flying to Louisville, KY to visit my brother. I have not seen him in a couple years. We plan on just hanging out in his motorcycle shop and riding motorcycles. Should be a blast and a good break from work. Although it is just a long weekend vacation, it should suffice to get me through to the end of the year.

One thing though, I have not felt 100% this week. I even went to the doctor. Hopefully I will start to feel better although my head is really congested today. I wonder what will happen on the plane. Flying with a congested head is not always the best idea.

One thing to note, L started school this week. She seems pretty excited. She is really growing up. Far to fast for my likes. I must say, she is getting more pretty and more pretty each day. I think I am going to need a bigger gun. Maybe get a tattoo that says something to the effect of “I am imbalanced in the brain, own guns and hate boyfriends of my daughter” or something. Any ideas? Please. Seriously. Any ideas? I have thought about a steel reinforced concrete bunker out back. Pizza delivers and you can learn via the internet. Really no need to be outside any more. Sunlight you say? Well, they have those artificial sun lights for lizards. If it works for them should work for L.

Anyway, I am on vacation today. I will take plenty of pictures and post them either while I am away or as soon as I get back.

I know. I am a slacker. So much has been going on that I just decided to try and take a step away from electronic for a bit. I was fairly successful. At least for the most part.

Since my last post Z and L went to Ecuador. I was pretty stressed out with them out of the country. When they are down there I cannot directly get in touch with them whenever I want. I have to wait for them to either send me an email or log into Live Messenger. The phone lines are so bad that is the only way we can communicate. It drives be absolutely nuts. I was cranky and generally had a bad attitude the whole time they were out of the country. I did not sleep very well either. When they got back the stress was gone and I slept that night for something like 14 hours. I guess it all catches up to you sooner or later. I’ll post their pics once I get them fixed. The dorks put a big finger print right in the middle of the camera lens so for the next week or so my photo editing software is my new favorite app.

I also had a quick trip to NYC. Not much to say there. I hate going to that city. It is nothing but a major hassle. Yes, the architecture is very cool to look at but I was there for work. Not for play. I saw the same architecture that I see up there every time I go. I did stay in a new hotel. Flatotel. Do you know how to say that? I don’t. Hell, I stayed there for two nights and still have no idea how to say it. I did workout when I was there. I lifted weights one evening and ran on the treadmill the other evening. Nothing fancy but it was exercise. I was happy to get home. One thing to note, the airports were very surprising. I went through security faster than I ever have. Since everyone is checking their bags the security lines were not getting clogged with people trying to get their kitchen sinks through security. I hope we stay in this state. It actually made travel nice.

Right before I went to NYC I got a new bike frame. It is a used Trek Fuel Full Suspension frame. I have the bike together now with much help from Arleigh (sorry if I spelled it incorrectly) at Black Sheep Cycles and Tim of Sharksbite. The two of them spent a considerable amount of time with me getting the bike cabled and a new chain installed. It is pretty cool that a bike shop will let you come in with your bike, use their tools and even teach you how to work on your own bike and not charge you for anything other than the parts. Pretty smart move by the owner. When I get my upgrades finalized, they will be the shop that gets my business for the work. I’ll post a pic of my new bike tomorrow in another post.

This coming week I will be on more vacation. I am leaving Thursday to go see my brother in Louisville, Ky. I have not seen him in a while. It will be good to catch up with him. He started a motorcycle shop which seems to be doing pretty good. It will be very nice to hang out in the shop and even go on a ride with him.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

L had surgery today. I just heard from Z that she is now home and resting. She had to have surgery to help with the correction of two of her teeth. Evidently the ride home from the hospital was less than pleasant for both of them. It was good that she is now home. She just needs to rest and relax and she will be back to her bouncy self in no time.

At the work conference, Microsoft rented out Universal Studios for the attendees of the conference. That was pretty cool. They also arranged for Jewel to put on a concert. That was even better. I was right up front about 5 feet from the stage. She has an amazing voice. The concert was a big time highlight of the event. I created a photo album titled Jewel – 2006 and posted some pictures. I have video but have no idea how to post it on MSN Spaces.

Sorry about not catching up on my blogging. I have been traveling extensively through the week and very busy during the weekend. Over the last couple of weeks I have been in Orlando, DC and New York. I finally got my camera situation fixed. I did something to it. Not entirely sure what but resetting the phone to factory defaults seemed to correct whatever I messed up. So Now I am back to taking my camera with me everywhere. I will post some pics of NYC that I took.

This weekend L is swimming in Shelby, NC at the Shelby Sharks Invitational. This is her first meet with the new team. L was going to swim three heats. She did awesome! She got AA times for two of her strokes and qualified for the Stat Junior Olympics on both. Her 50 M Free and 50 M Butterfly were the two and she just blew away her previous times. She was pretty pumped up on the way home last night. She had every reason to be that way. Getting an A time is great. Getting an AA time is even better. They go all the way to AAAA or quad times. She is in just the first year of this age group. We fully expect her to see a quad time by this time next year.

Today we are back to Shelby for the second day. L is swimming the same three strokes (Free, Breast, Fly) but this time she is swimming 100 M. I hope she has just as good of a day today as she had yesterday.

So I have a dilemma. I signed up to run a 5k that is this evening. Just a few minutes ago my friends asked me to go on a mountain bike ride with them. I really want to go on the mountain bike ride but I have already paid $13 to run in the 5k.

Do I run or ride? Someone please help me make a decision.

Check out the picture of the day!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0606/volcanoplume_iss_big.jpg

Very cool pic of a volcano erupting.

My office is on the outer perimeter of the office building. My window overlooks the retaining pond for the small office park. I have only been in this location for just under a year. I have seen hawks, deer, turtles, etc. So much so that I brought in a pair of binoculars.

All mourning I have had a aerial battle going on. A big Osprey vs. a little black bird with some red feathers. The Osprey would fly around and around with the little black bird constantly grabbing or pecking at its tail and wings. Seemed like a very one-sided battle. This has been going on for over 4 hours. Just now, I saw what the Osprey was up too. He was searching out fish in the retaining pond outside my office. Personally, I did not think there were any fish in the pond. It’s pretty nasty. The Osprey sort of hovered high in the air then shot straight down and grabbed a big fish. The osprey sort of just sat there for a bit on the water and then flew off. It made a couple circles around the pond. A victory lap I guess and then flew off to eat lunch! The really cool part, I saw it all through my binoculars. I just happened to be watching the Osprey when it decided to dive into the pond. Very cool thing to see right outside my office.