Goals 2005

These are in random order and a quick draft because I have to go work on a couple of them :-)

- Loose 30 lbs that I have gained the last 6 months.
- Excercise More
- Eat Healthier
- Make a decision about where life is headed next.
- Complete the execution of a successful ODK Province X Conference in February.
- Be more prepared for Bible Study
- Have Fun, but not too much
- Save money for that next life decision
- Read More
- Finish 1 of 3 Cross-stitches for my cousin's kids in 2 weeks, and hopefully finish the other 2 by end of year :-)

Okay I better go start working on this list.

Car Woes Continue

So I get home after church and decide to attempt to get the grime off my windshield. I am still not sure what it is and it doesnt come off easily. There is still a bit stuck on the windshield but I was tired and hungry so I quit. Any solutions are welcome.

As I cleaned the windshield, I found a nice chip out of the passenger side of the windshield. So how long til this goes from a small chip to a nice crack? Guess I am going to have to figure out how to get that taken care of as well in the next few months depending on how fast the crack grows.

I definitely dont have luck with cars but I will take these woes over mechanical woes like my other cars have had.

Rental Frustrations

Wed Night, I took my car in to Don Jacobs to get the rearend repainted (Accident on 12/11) as well as get a clearcoat patch on the front bumper fixed. In this whole process, you already have the frustrations of taking your car in and having to find another form of transportation. Thankfully the person who hit me insurance paid for the rental car.

I get a nice size rental car which surprised me because the lady said that the insurance had paid for something in the class with Cavalier, Corolla, and Focus. I ended up with a Chrysler Siebring, 4 door. It was okay no big shakes and definitely had no power behind it.

I leave the parking lot and go the Catholic Bookstore maybe a block away. Find some nice books and come back out to notice the front right tire low. Being a rental there is no tire gauge, so I really cant tell what the pressure is. So I go to the nearby the, surprised to find FREE Air :-) Granted no tire gauge so I fill it up as much as I think it needs and go on my way to Bible Study where I knew someone would have a tire gauge.

25 lbs of air. :-( So I call the rental 800 line and they send out AAA to fix the tire. All they do is put the donut on the car. Now what the heck good is that going to do me trying to get to Louisville in the morning. Absolutely none. But I was in the middle of attempting to lead Bible study so I went back in to finish. Afterwards, I called the rental company again. All the branches were closed. The one in Gtown opens at 8 in the morning. They can replace the car.

Great, now I am going to be late to work. I already left early Wed and had to leave early on Fri to handle all the car issues. Plus my officemate was going to be late. Unfortunately nothing that I can do about it.

So I go to the Gtown branch, Thurs morning. They have a new Mazda 6 in the parking lot but the paperwork is not completed, so they cant send it with me :-( Probably a good thing. Instead they take the car next door and get the flat repaired. The flat had not 1 but 2 nails in it. How the heck do you give a customer a rental with 2 nails in the front tire? The guy at Gtown was really nice and helpful. So the tire was fixed and I went on my merry little way to work.

Thankfully I made it safely to work, stayed in town, and made it safely back yesterday afternoon to get my car back.

Big Blue...has two nice and shiny bumpers now, along with some chips filled in on the hood. And it cost me nothing, thankfully. No the fun of keeping it cleaned in this weather and not using the automatic or high pressure washes. That could be fun.

Happy New Year - Welcome 2005

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe evening last night to ring in the new year.

May this year be full of blessings and wonderful memories.

Christ Blessings be with each of you.

UK Basketball

I have now been spoiled for the entire basketball season and I am going to be lost for the next month and half. My dad came across some UK tickets on Ebay around Thanksgiving time. It was a set of 2 tickets for the next 4 home games. Though they were not big name teams, its always worth going to watch a UK game in Rupp. That is for the right price. I am not one to pay over the top for tickets unless they are really worth it. I then still have my limit.

Thanks to those who accompanied me to the games. I had a blast and hope you did as well. If you find me outside Rupp, next Wednesday, please show me the way home. (Okay you wont next Wed but the following Sunday) Please show me the way home because those tickets will be way out of my price range.

GO CATS!

Back Home

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am back home safe and sound. The WK was still basically one lane and it wasnt always the best. And the fast lane was so messed up that you couldn't go fast enough to pass anyone at least not without a 4wd in my opinion.

Thankfully it only took me 4.5 hrs to make the trip. .5 hr extra isnt bad.

Safe Travels to all those left to head back.

Christmas Allergies

I really dislike whatever allergies I have around this time of the year. We believe it is live Christmas Trees. After the third evening this season spent with a Christmas Tree, I think it might have finally taken over. Please pray that I will not feel too bad tomorrow or at all this season.

Tomorrow I plan to start my journey back east. I spoke to my cousin who left today for the 'ville and it took them 5 hrs in a 4wd vehicle. The WK is apparently still really bad so I am trying to pump myself up for a 6 plus hour drive back tomorrow.

The Heartache

I know I left you all in midstream of my travels. Sorry about that. It was late and I figured the previous post was long enough.

So I hit the WK at Beaver Dam..oh my goodness...at first it was fair but not great, and then it turned worse. I was holding on and fighting the car ever inch of the way. Both lanes had been grated off smooth...smooth as glass almost. The snow was packed down tight and you could see the ruts from the day before. It wasnt chunky or broken up but smooth top with ruts. It was almost like glass. I kept telling myself I was dreaming. The car was shaking and bumping so bad.

At one time I was talking to my aunt and she asked me if I was cold I was almost in a chatter. It was the car shaking and bumping that bad.

I thought to myself on numerous occassions..."How far has it been since the Natcher, can I turn around and go back, how many more miles is it going to be this bad, should I keep on going?" I battled with myself for probably a good hr.

Three times I found myself sideways and having to catch myself and straighten back up. I saw cars in front of me get squirly as well. Luckily, I never hit anything, anyone, or got stuck.

We did stop once outside of Beaver Dam because a car had slid off and someone was helping them back out. I had my foot on the break and felt like I was still moving. I looked at the car and determined I wasnt. But then I put it in park and after a few minutes. I noticed that I was starting to slide down the road. Plus I saw a guy get out of his car and he about slid straight down the road. I knew at that pt it was really really slick out there.

It took me an 1.5 to get from Beaver Dam to Providence/Dawson Springs exit. Which encompassed approximately 40 miles of road. I have never wanted to go back home so bad and not worry about it. I started to think how crazy was I. Apparently pretty crazy.. Though I also thought that maybe I was just being a wimp, but I think a few others have confirmed that I wasnt just being a wimp.

So I finally made it to Paducah around 2 pm CST Christmas Eve. After Providence, the parkway was clear and I-24 was clear at least one lane. The first part was only one lane that went from the right to the left to the ctr and back to the right. Even the section of 2 lane did that as well. Driving along two lanes of traffic and next thing I know I am crossing the white center line going into the other lane with a car to my right following the same path to the shoulder. It was crazy.

The interestate in McCracken Co was clear and dry almost. I was going 70+ and so excited.

Well that was my journey. Now I have another day plus before I hit the roads again.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

May your day be merry and bright. The Lord has come to save us, Let us rejoice and be glad.

I hope everyone has made it safely to their family. If the weather has kept you away, don't be sad but rejoice that you are safe and sound, wherever you may be.

God Bless Each of you.

Holiday Travels Take 3

First of all, I am safely at my parents house in Paducah. I arrived around 2 pm CST yesterday. (Merry Christmas)

This journey took about 26 hours to complete. (It was not all spent on the road so don't worry) Thanks to N for agreeing to let me follow him from Lexington to the Natcher PKWY off of the WK PKWY. As we left town on Thursday afternoon, the interestate to Paducah was closed. But I figured I would brave the roads to the exit to Owensboro and then make a call from there, to continue or make a pitstop.

The roads to the WK where passable at least one lane and went fairly smoothly. The WK was definitely down to mostly one lane and a lot more snow covered and I dont think had been touched by the plows. It was nearly 4 CST when we hit the Natcher and darkness was starting to fall upon us. A rough calculation of at least another 3 hrs ahead of me by myself, sent me on up to Owensboro to hang out with my friend Rachel and her mom.

The Natcher wasnt too bad minus being only one lane and a red Chrsyler Lebaron driving 25 miles per hr and no way to pass. They had only scrapped one lane the other lane still had a foot plus of snow.

We arrived safely in the 'Boro around 5 CST and then the world became small again (Story to follow in another post)

After a nice nights sleep, some Nertz and speed, it was back on the road. After a slight adventure getting out of the street, I made it successfully back to the Natcher. It was now double clean though the outside lane was less traveled than the inside. It went smoothly and pretty much on target.

The heartache .....

Storm 2004

Wow what a storm the state of Kentucky is getting hit with, at least parts of the state. Personally I have been in the rain slicked areas of central KY all day. Luckily, I took today off work to run errands prior to going home tomorrow.

But as I look towards my drive tomorrow, I see alot of obstacles in the way and the worst thing is I am not sure where the obstacles will be starting. Granted tonights location and tomorrow morning's locations are going to be totally different.

What I do know is that Paducah has already been hit by a foot of snow and its still coming down. The worst thing is that the wind is blowing so bad that its drifting really bad.

Talked to a friend who is in Owensboro at the moment and she says the crews there have gone in for the night because the plowing is helping because of the drifts. She made it to almost the Natcher before running into major trouble. Though she had sleet and rain a good bit of the first half of her journey.

For those who are safe and sound with their family, glad you took off early and made it there safely. For those of us still to leave, I pray for your safety, patience, and mindset when its all said and done.

Though the weather is frightful, I am glad that I stayed around today and this evening. The journey home will be slow but worth it. Though I was really hoping that Thanksgiving got the travel blues out of the system, but apparently not, tomorrow is going to be quite the trip.

Talk to you next from the foot plus of snow.

Car Wash!

I go out this morning to pay my car registration and licensing. Afterwards, I decided that it would be nice to wash the car prior to putting the new license plate on.

Arrived at the usual car wash in front of Wal-mart. Nothing abnormal there, until I put in the money and push "Pre-Wash Soak". The water is dribbling out of the spout, so I try the "High Pressure Rinse". Still just a dribble. Well by now I have already put $2 in the machine and am not interested in wasting it. I figure that all the guns cant be that bad, so lets see if the foaming brush works and wash the car and then move. After soaping the car down, I drive to another slot and put $1.5 in. Again no water is coming out, but the one next to me the guy was having luck. So I rinsed my car the best I could with the dribble and when he left switched spots.

YEEPEE....Initial success. Get the car rinsed off but it still has a few dirty spots. So I get the foaming brush out and brush down a few spots. Turn on the "High Pressure Rinse". Maybe 10 secs of high pressure and it dies again. By this point, I am rather frustrated so once the time was over. I drove down the street to another car wash and successfully rinsed the rest of the car off.

Hopefully nobody noticed me driving down the street with soap on my car :-(

Now Big Blue is cleaned and decked out with a new license plate, supporting my alma mater "GEORGETOWN COLLEGE". It looks sweet, now I just need to decide what I want to put on the front end.

Weekend

What a Weekend........Awesome, Great, Okay, and Bad

Friday Night:

I made dark chocolate chip cookies for the first time. To my knowledge it is the first time in which I have made cookies from scratch by myself. I am sure I have helped my mother in the past but that doesn't count. They turned out great and I hopefully making a lot more cookies before the night is over.

My friends and I have started a Christmas jigsaw puzzle as well. I am trying to avoid the living room because I don't want to get trapped working on it.

Saturday:

GO CATS!

As you all know from the blogs, it was my birthday on Saturday. Yikes another year older. It was for the most part a wonderful birthday.

Saturday evening, I had a birthday celebration. 9 friends came out for dinner at Johnny Carino's and then bowling afterwards. I had a great time. Thanks to all who made my birthday wonderful.

Though the birthday did not come without the bad, as I was headed to Carinos early to get our reservation in, I was sitting at a red light when thump went my car. The only thing I could think was "No this just didn't happen and not on this particular day of my life." Unfortunately, it had happened, though fortunately, it was not a hard hit and the damage looks to be minor and it wasn't my fault. We will see the pain that I have to go through to get it fixed though. My poor car might as well have a full paint job at the rate its going because soon it wont have any original paint on it :-(

The rest of the evening was fabulous and we hadn't been seated by the time that I gotten there, though the entire party was there awaiting dressed in their favorite country attire. Some did a lot better dressing than others, though everyone did put some thought into the evening which is all that matters.

Sunday:

With the two fun evenings and little sleep, I did a lot of sleeping with work and church squeezed in the middle. Work is another story. Apparently, my password expired at work and my account was locked solid. Not good when you have a deploy to complete nor when the pager goes off at 12:30 am and you have to wake someone else up. Though we got it all done and I finally got my account unlocked so hopefully noone will have to be awaken tonight.

Happy Birthday to Many!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Callie!
Happy Birthday to Lindsey R and L2's Mom!

Exercise

Okay so I have been the biggest slacker since I started this new job. Though I wasn't doing the best prior to the new job, at least I was walking about 4 times a week during lunch with some officemates at my last job. It wasn't speed walking or anything like that, but it is amazing the difference that it does make.

Now I ride, sit, ride, sit, and sleep. Definitely nothing in that routine that burns too many calories. So I have been debating on how to fix this. I am always so tired or it is way too late when I do finally get home that getting dressed and going down to the gym in the apt complex seems to be too much energy. My parents have an XL Glider, which they purchased a few years ago. It has no motors and can be packed up and put to the side fairly easy taking up little room. I kept debating about ordering one but they are fairly expensive. While I was home over the holidays, K's Merchandise had them on sale for the cheapest price that we had ever seen. I decided that was a sign for me to get one and start working out again.

I put it together last Sunday evening though tonight was the first night that I actually got on it to work out any. It was nice to get some exercise for a change. Hopefully, I can keep doing this several times a week and loose the 20 lbs that I have gained in the last 5 months.

By the way, though you may not think the little walking at lunch or on breaks does any good. I am here to tell you it definitely over times makes a big difference. You don't have to do anything major just get some nice brief exercise and your body will be appreciative.

UK Game and Randomness!

As I stated on Ash's blog, my first Ebay purchase occurred this past weekend though I am not sure it was my exact purchase since I still dont have an ebay login but I was apart of the bidding process. This process ended up winning me tickets to the upcoming (and now past) UK ballgames, for slightly below cost.

A college friend of mine and current co-worker of mine joined me Tuesday night to watch the UK vs Tennesse Tech game. After work, we got in the car to head towards Lexington in one of the slowest by not the slowest ride down 64. People cant drive in the rain (side note). Because of the slow traffic, we were running slightly behind. I decided that I would take S to Sawyers downtown. She had never been there and I quite enjoy it.

Nothing random for me occurred at Sawyers though S was quite puzzled that everyone there seemed to know me. Its because the sport car club goes down there once a month for our meetings and one of the members is the owner of the establishment. It is fun going into a restaurant where the people recognize and know who you are as well as what you are going to order. Darn people of reputation and readability :-)

Because of the drive and dinner, we ended up a bit late to the game, but successfully found our seats and started watching the ballgame. Oblivous to those around me, I watched the majority of the first half, when I turned to my left. There were several open seats btwn me and the next individual in the row. The first glance caught me by suprise and I had to take a second look to verify the first glances sitings. Sure enough sitting to the left of me was K. K worked at the last company though not directly with me. He and M (my American officemate) were good friends and K usually joined M, others, and I for lunch almost weekly. K also had not realized that I had come in and was sitting next to him and his father. It was fun times.

The game: Yikes that was a close game for the first half. And they still have not learned the art of blocking out yet. This seems to be a continual problem for Tubby Smith's teams in my opinion. I dont know how many times I saw players basically underneath the basic trying to get rebounds. Trust me that doesnt work for getting rebounds just the ball after its count on the scoreboard. Players these days rely way too much on there jumping ability and arm stretch to get the rebounds. Its not going to work against better teams. The true first test of the season comes this Sat at noon.

Afte the game, S and I headed back to the car, trying to stay dry and warm. Luckily it wasnt really raining when we left like it was on our way to the game. We briskly walked towards our car through the crowd. As we crossed through a parking lot in attempts to shorten our route, we walked by two individuals. The young man looked at us and we looked at him and not until we passed one another did we realize that we knew one another. So we stopped to say a friendly hello to J and finished our journey to the car.

It was an overall fun and exciting evening and I think one of the first times that I have ever gone to a UK game and actually ran into someone that I knew. I have always known of others who are in attendance but never see them. It seems quite odd considering the number of people there. I am half way guaranted to see K again as his father has season tickets just a few seats down from where my tickets are for the next few games.

Go Cats!

Additional: When I sit down in my seat, I check my phone to make sure the fam had not called and I had a text msg. Not sure who it was from I checked and Ash had messaged me, telling me if I stayed up to watch the game that I might see her. I replied to say Im here as well so I wont see ya on the tv though maybe on the big screen. I never saw her :-( . Maybe next time Ash :-)

Traffic Take Two

Okay so I just thought that the trip to Paducah was long. It was nothing like this evening's trip back from Paducah. Around 4 pm CST, I headed out and back to my humble abode. Though it was a rainy and soon to be dark ride back to the bluegrass, it really was uneventful at least I thought. When I hit I-65, I debated whether or not to go the BG or on up to Louisville. Considering that the BG would have taken me along some wide backroads through Versailles and Midway, I decided it was safer to go through Louisville. Though the change in scenery would have been nice, a good break from my day to day driving of I-64. Plus there was this person (known as my father) in my head telling me that Louisville route would be safer, though I would prefer you wait til morning. So I headed up and through the outskirts of Louisville, half and hour from home and that is when trouble hit.

Luckily for me, I had not left a few mere minutes earlier because about 1 mile pass Graefenburg/Lawerenceburg exit everything came to a complete halt. Not really knowing what was happening except that traffic was not moving at all. After a few minutes of no movement, the car was put into park. Thinking that something might happen soon, I waited a few more minutes and still no movement. So I decided to turn the lights out and the car off. Four state troopers came down the side with there lights flashing. I few more minutes went by and I decided I needed to find something to do. So I got out and found the cross-stitch that I was working on in the trunk and started working on it using the overhead light. Half and hour had passed and still no movement. I could see the lights from an ambulance or firetruck flickering off of a semi up ahead. I figured the wreck was not too far ahead of me. I called a friend to say hello and continued work on my cross-stitch. Every now and then I turned the car on to warm up and make sure the battery wouldnt run down with the light on. Minutes upon minutes passed by....a half an hour later or so, a flatbed tow truck drove by. I figured that was definitely a good sign that the accident was starting to be cleaned up. Another half an hour went by, as I talked to my friend and worked on my cross-stitch. Then all of a sudden the guy in front of me turned on his lights and put on his brakes. First in a bit of shock and disbelief that we might actually get to move again, I put away the cross-stitch and started up the car.

Next thing, I knew we were going 30, then 40, then 50, and soon about 60. It only took a few minutes, maybe 2.5 miles until I was driving through a bunch of broken glass. It surely didnt excite me to drive through all that glass, though I was glad to be moving again. And extremely glad that my bladder was still making it. Since the last stop was at Beaver Dam and I got a drink to go at that time. Yikes... that could have been really bad, especially being alone in the dark stuck. Luckily, I made it home safe and sound and it actually wasnt raining when I got home. So I was able to unpack the majority of my car without it getting wet again.

This adventure took 5.5 hrs to complete. I think this is two of the longer trips that I have had in my many journeys back and forth. Definitely, the first trip to have problems going both ways.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope everyone has a safe and blessed holiday weekend.

Addition #1 4:48 pm CST:

Two Thanksgiving Dinners in one day...how do I keep on doing it? I am ready to explode. I had one decent size plate of food at my aunts house around 1 pm CST and in less than a half and hr I will be eating a second plate of food with my dad's family here at my parents. This plate will be small and hope that there will be leftovers for me to eat the rest of the weekend.

Though when I was younger, I know I could eat a lot more food at both places and never feel so full. I guess its a good thing that we cant eat as much as we get older because we get sedentary and dont work all the food off.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful time with their family.

Thanksgiving Travels

Jeff I hate to say its not always big cities that have traffic issues though most of the time you only get the troubles you had around bigger cities.

So now that I work in Louisville, it means that it only takes a bit over 3 hrs to get from work to my parents in Paducah because I am already an hour closer than usual.

So today I head out of the big city of Louisville around 1 pm Eastern expecting to hit Paducah around 3 pm Central TIme. All was going smoothly until I hit the rest stop outside of Beaver Dam. Next thing I know there is only one way to go upon reaching the Beaver Dam exit. Which is down the exit ramp and into Beaver Dam. :-(

It was then off on an adventure with no map. The first part of the detour was not too bad because I was following all the traffic. Took a right on 231 and headed towards town. Hung a left onto 62 and figured if all else fails, I can just follow 62 all the way home though it might be quite a lengthy ride. Then I hit Central City and a four lane rd and all of a sudden everyone dispersed and I was not seeing any clear way to go. I kept following the normal route and next thiing I know I am on 189. Okay now I am truely confused. Luckily at that time, I was on the phone with my cousin making sure he wasnt headed this direction to warn him about the situation. He was already in Paducah but was willing to help me find out where the heck I was.

Apparently 62 turns into 189 and then runs back into 62. I finally found 62 again and which ran into the Pennyrile just south of the WK. Woo hoo I was back on the main rd and headed home. Unfortunately that put me an hour behind and much need of a restroom. Should have made that full stop outside Beaver Dam but who would have known.

So 4 hrs later I arrived at home. Guess it was a good thing I left earlier that I had anticipated.

By the way apparently there was a double accident outside of Central City and WK was closed from Beaver Dam til the exit past Central City.

Christmas Decorations

Early I stated that I finally made the big purchase of a Christmas tree. This past weekend I put my first personal Christmas tree up with the help of my parents. First we had to rearrange the living room to find place for the tree and I actually like the new layout of the living room.

So I know that you are all screaming because I have put my Christmas decorations out prior to Thanksgiving. If you really want to know the truth, I totally agree. So you ask why did I put it up. Here are the reasons:
1. Needed help rearranging the apt and getting the tree out and up and my parents were here to help.
2. My mom is looking for an artificial tree herself and wanted to see what mine looked like once it was put up.
3. My mom also wants me to stay this coming weekend at home to help her put there Christmas decorations up and if mine wasnt up I was planning on coming back early to put it up.

So my Christmas Tree and decorations are up at least what parts of them are here. But I have not had the Christmas Tree lights on yet and havent pulled out the Christmas music. That will all happen after Thanksgiving.

I do have a stipulation of the latest day that Christmas decorations can be put up. I request that the decorations are up prior to my bday. Its been a tradition and one I plan to continue.

Go Cats!

Yesterday afternoon, I attend my first UK basketball game of the season. It definitely was a new experience for me. In the past, I have been extremely lucky to obtain tickets in lower arena. This was the first time to be setting up in upper arena, and it wasn’t just upper arena but the second row from the top. Definitely took me several minutes to figure out where I was sitting and get my full bearings about me. But once I figured out where I was, the seats really were not that bad. The view from the top is not a bad view. I could actually still see the players and they were not ants running around on the court. I would definitely take the opportunity again to attend a UK Men’s basketball game in about any seat in Rupp Arena.

This was also the first time that I was able to snatch up 4 tickets together for a UK game, so I invited the ‘rents up to watch there first UK game in Rupp Arena. I think they enjoyed the experience. Even my mom seemed to enjoy it and she is not a huge sports fan.

I know the 4^th ticket did not go to waste J You are very welcome for the opportunity, Ashlee. I totally agree with Ash about the player intro music. It was about to lull me to sleep. There is definite need for a change in player intro music. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens the next home game.

Granted this was the first game of regular season, but I felt that the crowd was definitely energized with this team. I was impressed with their 3-pt shooting abilities though I will wait to see if they can do it consistently week after week, against all caliber teams. I feel confident that this will definitely be a good basketball season. If Kentucky fans need anything, it is a good basketball season after the lousy football season.

Go Cats!

Late Nights and Early Mornings

It is 5 o’clock in the morning and for almost the 10^th straight night, I am up doing something for work, earlier or later than normal. The first several days of this stretch were okay because it was mostly dealing with something that I had implemented on Friday last. There were a few complications not in my implementation but in differences btwn test and production environments. All issues were resolved by Monday evening and things were running a bit smoother.

So you ask why am I up tonight? Well you see, this past week I did some analysis of drive space on some of our servers in particular production. Come to find out that a drive was getting low on space and a database needed to be moved. The only timeframe to complete is of course early in the morning or late at night on the weekends. Since I found the problem, I get the joy of fixing the problem. It’s really not too bad except that I really need some major sleep. Unfortunately, I will not get that needed sleep this weekend because the parents are in town.

YAACK Amazing Race

Saturday afternoon at 3 pm, 13 young adults and the activity leader met at church for a couple hours of adventure. The young adults were split into two teams (several unexpected people showed up and there was only enough clues for 2 teams, but that was okay, all had fun), Blue Team and Red Team. Each team split into their respective automobiles and were given their first clue, keeping in mind that no clues would take them outside of New Circle, with the exception of the final eating destination.

Teams came prepared with maps, phone books, and cars full of gas. J even brought Trivia Pursuit for his team to have continuous entertainment. Apparently, the game became a bit more involving after reaching the 2nd clue and Trivia Pursuit was put away, until later in the evening.

I was part of the blue team which consisted of 6 team members, 2 female and 4 males. The red team also consisted of 2 females but 5 males. The red team split up into two cars while the blue team packed into CM's Explorer, 2 in each row.

Other key things about the race, the first team to arrive at the final destination received 5 pts, the team with the fewest miles received 5 pts, and there were 3 bonus pts for 1 pt each. The next clue was found inside a brown envelope that was attached to a stake in the ground.

First clue took us to the intersection of St Ann and St Christopher.

Second clue took us to Memorial Coliseum with a bonus question.
The teams were neck and neck heading towards clue number 4.

Third clue landed us at the Newman Center at UK, unfortunately the clue had disappeared from this location. After searching by multitudes of individuals, we called the organizer and she gave us the 4th clue.

Clue four took us downtown to the library to get a magazine from circulation. Inside the magazine was taped clue number 5.

This is were things got a bit interesting. Car number one of the red team took off a good bit prior to us. As we set there trying to decode the clue and figure out where to go, car number two of the red team took off. We decided that we might better start heading in some direction.

Clue - 1775 the Frontiers set up a camp after hearing about some victory, and the bonus was to find the woman in which the fountain was dedicated to. (The clue was actually written better than that but those were the main pts) The only fountain we could really think of was at Triangle Park though that didn't sound right, but we headed in that direction anyway. Not seeing the stake with the next clue, we drove up to the Hyatt and set in the parking lot across the street.

At that pt, a couple great ideas came out of the group. KK suggested calling the commerce dept, CM reminded us about the phone books in the car. I had totally forgotten that we had phone books, since I didn't bring one. Who would have ever known that in the front of the Alltell Phone Book was a section devoted to historical museums, parks, seating for all the major complexes, and etc. As I started scanning through the section, KK called the commerce dept. Suprisingly on a late Sat afternoon, someone actually answered the phone and she tried to explain to her best ability what we were looking for. About that same time, I came across a park that had something to do with frontier in the 1700s. After double confirmation of the correct solution, we were off to get clue number 5.

As we were headed that direction, CM's phone rang. It was his wife calling to verify that we were not lost and had resolved the last clue. We informed her that we were on our way to get it now. (Reason why she called...car number two saw us sitting at the Hyatt, and one of the guys thought that MM might want to call us to make sure we were not lost.)

Clue number 5 then took us to Gratz Park on Translyvanias campus. Since the Newman Center, I had been sitting in the far back of the explorer. At this pt, I couldn't take sitting in the back any longer, especially after the guys couldn't seem to follow the instruction of going to the middle of the park to find the clue. So I said forget this and jumped out the car and went sprinting (well as fast as I possible could). The guys in a big group (3) all ran in front of the bldg and around, while the clue was stationed actually on the other side of the park. As they came around the right side of the house, I had already emerged around the left side and was headed towards the clue. Upon grabbing the clue, I started running back towards the car. I was accompanied by 2 of the guys, who said that DP had ran back to tell CM to come pick us up. I knew that would take too long plus put too many miles on the car because of all the one way streets. I said no we are running. We can get back to the car before he can even attempt to come get us, which proved to be totally true. Upon arriving back at the Explorer, I kicked SK out of the drivers seat and took over as navigator in the front, instead of navigating in the back. I have no clue what the next clue was because my lungs were ready to collapse (YES I am horribly out of shape. It was quite pathetic. And I spent most the rest of the event coughing up my lungs or at least trying to :-)

Clue 6 took us to Red Mile
Clue 7 then to Landsdown
Clue 8 to the final destination

By this pt, we assumed that we were way behind in terms of time and all we could do is try to keep the mileage as low as we could. The last 4 locations the red team had beaten us to the punch. Upon arriving, at the Z's for dinner, we were immediately asked if we had gone to McConnell Spring's. We responded well of course, didn't you guys? The answer from the Red Team was No. Apparently, they picked a park with a fountain and it just happened to be Gratz park were clue 6 was found and kept them on the correct path to the finish. But they missed the correct clue that would have taken them to Gratz park.

Therefore the Blue Team was victorious by finding all 8 clues and completing a half an hour behind the Red Team, who skipped a clue.

It was a blast and stories were flying once we all got into the house. You could feel the competitive juices and psyched up people, ready to go again.

Unconciousness

I promise no clarity or continuity in this post but I thought for those who actually read my blog that I might actually update you on the happenings of my life.

Last weekend was definitely a busy weekend. I attended two ODK initiations, in which I presided over the second one. (Transy and GTown) We had a nice going away party for Fr P who has been assigned as a pastor at another church in the Diocese. The other big thing was attending the last autocross of the season though I did not participate. It was a sad though I did ride with several individuals which was a lot of fun. I had to leave early and ended up sleeping in. I really have no recollection of what I did last Sat. Oh well.

This week has been an insane week at work. Lots of things to be done. I got two new projects which put me into mtgs all day Thurs. Friday I had to finish wrapping up another large project which is why I am up still tonight :-(. Its all working great just a couple small quirks. The speed increase is awesome so I can handle staying up a bit longer to fix the small quirk and then get some sleep. After only 5 hrs of sleep last night, I am beat tonight.

Today has been an awesome day. Thanks to so many people.

A special thanks to Ashlee who came over and helped me reorganize my pantry/utility closet. It looks 100% better. Plus I finally rearranged the closet to get the winter stuff towards the front bottom and the summer stuff pushed towards the back/top. Make finding clothes a bit easier.

The rest of the day was spent at YAACK functions. First of all, we had a YAACK Amazing Race. Then we all went to the Z's for potluck dinner and hung out til late playing several different games. It was all a total blast. I did manage to make it home safely though I am not totally sure how. I think part of it was my mom on the other line talking to me to make sure I made it home safely. She had called 6 times totally trying to get ahold of me all afternoon so I figured it would be good to call her back and let her know that I was still alive.

More info on the YAACK Amazing Race to come.

Jaguar Rally Weekend !! (Day 2)

Sunday morning brought day 2 of the Jaguar Rally. Thanks again to DM for being my driver. By the way both events started out from Franklin Square plaza in Frankfort, KY.

Day 2 was a much better day than Day 1. We again were car number 1 and headed out at 9:31 am for our adventure. We hit the first timing control 14 hundredths off, which equates to about 8 secs. All scoring is done by hundredths of a minute. For every .01 or 1/100 of a minute off you get one pt. The second and fifth legs were both DIYC (Do it Yourself Controls). At DIYC, you get to calculate what you believe should have been the exact arrival time at that control and that is your in time for that leg. Your out time for the next leg is exactly 2 mins after your in time. We received 0 on both of our DIYC legs. Leg 3 resulted in 24 pts and Leg 4 resulted in 15 pts. Leg 6 ended out being thrown because of a mileage error in the directions. First of all, we hit Washburn and figured that was most likely the right spot though the directions said Wash. We completed our DIYC Leg 5 and headed down the rd but never found the next turn before we had hit two stop signs and a major rd. Thinking well maybe there was another rd pass Washburn called wash. We headed back the other directions. Passing every single other car in the rally. Of course all asking what the heck is going on. We backed tracked and found no other rd in correct proximity so we whipped back around and headed back where we first became confused to recheck the mileage. In the meantime, two others had followed us. Amazingly the same two cars that followed us yesterday. Apparently they did not learn there lesson from day one. We got back to the lost spot and were still rather confused so we took the rd to the left following what was the next instruction and following another car who had stopped and asked a local something. Apparently the local was of no help because we had to turn back around and head the other direction. Finally we found where we were in the instructions and continued at lightening speed to follow the directions. Not knowing at that time that the last leg had been thrown. We passed the last leg some 10 mins behind schedule according to the numbers on the rally sheet.

But in conclusion, we finished the weekend with the best one event score. I am not sure where that put us overall for the weekend. We concluded with 53 pts and the next team had 150 something pts.

1st place day 2 and 5th place on day 1. Overall not a very bad weekend and a lot of fun, minus the whole working Saturday night thing.

If your interested in participating in a Road Rally, let me know. I am currently usually in need of a driver for the events and we are always encouraging more teams to come out and participate. I am not sure when the next event will be but I will let you know.

Jaguar Rally Weekend !!

What a wonderful weekend this was. I got to spend both days of the weekend not only in a Jaguar but also competing in one of my favorite activities, Road Rally.

So yes you are all asking what the heck a Road Rally is and assume its one of those crazy car things that I do. Well I guess in some ways you are correct, but I tell you its a whole heck of lot of fun.

Simple Description: A road rally is an automotive event in which two people, driver and navigator, attempt to follow an unknown route and arrive at timing controls exactly on time (Unless a Monte Carlo Rally these are at unknown locations).

There are a lot of different types of road rallies. This weekends set of events were both Tulip Rallies. Tulip rallies have drawings to depict the direction which you are suppose to go while non-Tulip Rallies are worded directions (Ex/ Turn Right at the T). All speeds are below speed limit, and the rallies occur on back country roads with very little traffic for the most part. Usually, all rallies end up somewhere for dinner or lunch and last 2-4 hrs depending on the setup plus eating time.

How did I do?
First of all, I was lucky to find a gentleman in the Jaguar club who attended the events without a Navigator. Since I was unable to find a driver, it would have been a bit difficult to actually compete in the events without this luck. So Thanks to DM who was my driver for the weekend.

The first day was a bit rough. Driver missed one turn during the ODO run which luckily doesnt cost us anything but some prep time. Combo mess up during the first leg of the race took us about a half mile out of the way and cost us almost 2 mins on the first leg. The second leg was a lot better minus the navigators miss of a .5 min pause (I didnt miss this once but twice). First during the rally and the second time last night trying to determine where we landed.

The Third Leg.....
We were headed down through the main road of Midway and we were tinkering on the edge of having no gas. I knew of a close gas station. So we kept going straight instead of hanging a left. Interesting to watch the two cars behind us as they continued to follow us straight pass the turn. Fortunately they did realize they had missed the turn and went back. We continued on to get gas and ended up about 6 mins behind. We headed back through town and got our bearings straight and took off at about 90 mph on some old country rds. Catching up to the two cars that had followed us and passing them. Then catching up to the now first car since we had gone through leg 1 as the second car instead of the first. Realizing that they were also behind we went passed them and made up basically all of our time before the end of the 3rd leg. I think our final score was about 315, 190 (Leg 1), 57 (Leg 2), 68 (Leg 3).

We ended up at Woodford Reserve, where we went on tour and had a sample afterwards. Very nice though small facility. I learned a lot that I was not aware of.

The rest of my evening was not as exciting as I spent most of the night on the computer with work.

Mozilla FireFox Security Bulletin

I know several of you use the Firefox browser. I came across this security bulletin in my emails today and thought I would pass the information on to you.

Security Update for Firefox Preview Release
If you're using the Mozilla Firefox Web browser, you might need to
install an update to protect your systems against possible attacks. On
September 29, Alex Vincent reported a vulnerability that might let
intruders delete files on a user's system. Mozilla issued an update
for the browser on October 1.
http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/44139/44139.html

Christmas Tree

For the past year plus, I have leaved in an apartment that was finally potentially large enough for a Christmas tree. I have debated back and forth about purchasing an artificial tree, but really didn't want to give in because I love real trees so much. The thing is that I am highly allergic to real Christmas Trees , which is not a good situation.

Since Christmas is my favorite season of the year, I decided that I should take the leap and purchase my own Christmas Tree for my apartment, especially if I found a good deal. Today my mother calls me to tell me that their is a 7.5' tree on QVC with 1200 lights (600 multi color and 600 white). I looked around briefly on the internet and back in my mind from the last time I really looked at trees. It seemed to be a pretty good deal for less than $200 so I took the plunge and bought myself a Christmas tree. It will be arriving in a short week and by Dec 11 it will be up and hopefully full decorated :-)

Which File Extension are You?

Okay here is another one for the geeks in us. I dont know that I totally agree with this one. These are definitely not as realistic as our other personality quizzes but oh well.


Which File Extension are You?

Which OS are you?

For the true Geeks in each of us, here is just the quiz. Found this on H's blog this evening. I am not sure I should be in this Geek world with the OS I am. :-) I am a bit outdated.


Which OS are You?

Survival

Wow that seems what the past month has been all about, Survival. Sleep is very lacking in my life right now. I did crash this evening around 6:30 and was awakened by a dear friend at 8. I really did not mind the awakening though it did bring me back to reality and the mess my apartment is in.

A brief synopsis of my life in the last 3 weeks.
Sunday Sept 19 was one of the longest days of my life in a long long time. I was awake though barely at times and at work for 22.5 hours. I know this seems insane and you all probably think that's just crazy. Though I do agree, I will have to say it was nothing like the 26 hrs and the atmosphere at my last job. On Monday, Sept 20, after going to bed at 5 am in Louisville (Thanks to my dear friends), I awoke 4 short but hard sleeping hours later to go back into work. I totally crashed in the late afternoon, though not after making it back home safely. The rest of the week was a very long week with the total lack of sleep.

The next weekend, I went and helped with kids games at Oktoberfest with my church in Lex. That was a lot of fun and someone mentioned to me that all these kids would keep any young person without kids from wanting them. Maybe I am strange but all the little kids were so cute and just made me more aware of how much I really want kids of my own. I continue to wait patiently for God's calling in that aspect of my life. Saturday, was then a fun filled day at KY Kingdom with Ashlee and so many others. Though that did not happen until after I spent several hrs on the phone with work. The reason for going to KY Kingdom was because of a work Family Day Picnic. It was great to have a family picnic sponsored by my work. I really don't understand companies, especially large companies that do not do things like that. (Maybe that will be another story one day) It was a great time and the food was very filling. Sunday became a day of rest and relaxation for part. I set down and watched TV for the first time in ages. I had taped Friday night TV and watched it. Then I spent the evening planning for the upcoming YAACK Retreat, with the other individual helping me.

The week was a very busy week getting many things down at work for the upcoming release, retreat planning, and ODK Newsletter completion. It was a successful week though a bit crazy. Those who know me, know that if I am not busy with some sort of organization or group then I am out of my element. I enjoy the church and ODK things, I just wish that work wouldn't always take away from the time to do those things.

Then we come to the crazy of all crazy weekends. I knew going in that it was going to be a long weekend, though I had hoped by Sat night, things would be done and I would be at home. Unfortunately that was not the case, though I did get to Lexington on Sunday for the last Autocross pts event of the year. (Another story)

The original release for the weekend was postponed but since we had new hardware, plan B which we were not aware of came to be. It was to swap out the current hardware with the new hardware. This required two stages from the DBA staff. First stage was to take all of the databases down and hand over to networking to get the new hardware up and the files copied. Because of the process and unknowing of when we would have to go back into work, they put the other dba and myself up in the nearby hotel. It was nice not to have to worry about driving far or bothering anyone. Luckily though maybe not so luckily, we got to sleep from about 12:30 am Sat morning til about 8 am. Though it was not a solid sleep since I kept waiting for my phone to ring and afraid that I had missed it. Saturday was a very long day again, working from about 8:30 am til 1 am Sunday. I did get one more night of sleep in the hotel and awoke early Sunday morning to drive to Lexington for the last pts autocross event. It was great though very tiring.

As I spoke a couple posts ago about OE, thus far OE has not been an issue and the week was rather quite minus Wed when I was by myself, nothing seemed to work right. The week was busy though calm. Another post to come is dinner Thursday night. I was busy every night either preparing for retreat or doing some other organizational thing.

Then this weekend, I took Friday off though it was not much of a day off. I got up early and packed my car with all that I had thus far for the retreat. Met some friends for lunch before doing the final grocery shopping and heading off to Lebanon, KY for the retreat. It was an awesome weekend and I will tell more later. Though again it was a weekend with very little sleep, but it was totally worth it. I am relieved that it is all over now though that just means time to plan the next big or little event.

So that has been my life the past 3 weeks and why you have not seen or heard from me in ages. Not sure how much my life is going to slow down the next few weeks but we will see. I do know my living room has no walking space because of everything piled up from retreat and other things that just haven't been put away. So that I guess is the next big project.

Take care and God Bless

Welcome Baby Abigail

This morning I received a phone call from my mother telling me that my cousin's wife is in labor. I am really excited for M and R and the arrival of their first child. Abigail was born around 2:30 this afternoon. With a full head of black hair. I forget the dimensions and sizes those are sitting at work. She is cute as a button.

I am also excited of the fact that I can actually see this little one grow up, unlike the rest of my cousins children who only see me on holidays.

Mom and baby and Father are doing very well.
Congrats and welcome to the family!

Safe travels to all the family members who are headed back home tonight.

Two Weeks have Passed

Wow it has been over two weeks since I posted and this is going to be short.

Work has been insane the last 2 weeks. Hopefully this week is going to slow down but I dont expect that to be the case with OE starting tomorrow :-) (OE - Open Enrollment, the time that you start applying for all of your benefits for the new year)

Besides work I am planning a retreat for the young adult group which I am apart of at church. The retreat is this upcoming weekend. ODK Province Leader has been keeping me busy as well planning a conference in February and getting a fall newsletter out, which did hit the mail on Friday :-) Plus the other everyday parts of life.

So that explains a bit why you havent heard from me much the past two weeks.

I have tons of stories but no time to write. I will try to get to it as soon as possible.

Here are a few things:
1) Drug Stores
2) Work Experiences
3) Autocross Pts Event #6
4) Retreat
5) Homecoming

Have a wonderful day and week!

What's Your Animal Personality?

Thanks to Chris for another fun quiz!


What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

What Happens when the lights change the road directions??

Tuesday afternoon, I was headed to a doctor's apt off of Nicholasville Rd. For those of you familiar with Lexington, you understand that Nicholasville Rd has different traffic patterns depending on the time of day and probably a few other things like UK Football games.

So it was Tuesday afternoon around 4 pm when I got onto Nicholasville Rd. I realized that the traffic was not setup for afternoon rush hour. There was still too many lanes heading in town and not enough for heading out of town. I wandered to myself how do they change the lanes and when they do what happens. Well it did not take long until I found out what happened.

The first thing that happens and is the green arrows and red X's change around. Then once, the traffic at the stop light is let through the lights change around. So that's the traffic lights but what happens to the people. Evidently, only a few people pay attention to all the Arrows and X's and the stoplights. When I had pulled up towards the lights, I had realized that the X's and Arrows had changed so I stayed in what I assumed was going to be the new turn lane. Though I was really debating on what really was going to happen because the light to the left was still on. But as I sat there the light on the left went out so I knew that I was in the correct spot. All at the same time, people trying to go straight piled up behind me and people trying to turn decided to get in the lane to the left of me, which was for through traffic now. Everything worked itself out in the end but I really don't know how more accidents don't occur during this lane switch. Mostly because so many people are not paying that much attention to what is going on around them while they are driving. They are too wrapped up in other things or just going with the flow.

So always be aware of what is happening with all the lights around you. You never know what might happen.

Hotmail Issues

Okay for almost two straight days now, I have been unable to log into my hotmail account from the internet. I get the login page and type my login information. Then when it tries to redirect to another website, it times out trying to get there. It is passing the login section because I can go to msn.com and I am logged in. The other thing is I can download my email to my outlook express at home and trillian recognizes I have new email. This is occurring on two different computers under two different isps. I can get to another hotmail account via the web from this machine as well.

It is all very interesting and very frustrating.

Dish you LOVE, Ingredients you DON'T Like

Last week, I was in my kitchen cooking for a change because I was really craving Mexican Bean Dip. I don't like to cook as much anymore because I am not a big leftovers person. And when cooking for one person, there usually is a lot of leftovers.

So as I put the ingredients into the the mixer, I kept thinking to myself I don't like refried beans, nor do I like cream cheese, nor do I like sour cream. With these three things being the main ingredients, in Mexican Bean dip, one would ask oneself why the heck do you like Mexican Bean Dip so much? I really have no answer to that question. All I can think of is that it is well blended together with some Enchilada mix and hot sauce and then topped with grated cheese, which I do like those ingredients. Then it is baked all together and becomes a delicious Mexican Bean Dip that I ate for the past week.

Have you ever thought about something that you eat but if you ate the ingredients separately or not well mixed that you would never eat it?

There is one other dish, zuchinni strognaff, that I love as well that has sour cream in it. I guess because its all cooked in the taste is not as strong and so its manageable.

Life is about to be real crazy

I know, I know...you haven't heard a lot from me lately and well don't really expect that to change much. I am enjoying life, maybe too much at times. I am trying to enjoy the younger years of my life and have fun with friends. Plus as winter approaches, I will start to hibernate a lot more. I can already tell as the days are getting shorter that my inclination to go climb in bed and go to sleep has gotten earlier and earlier. I mean its not quite 9 and I am having that inclination to get ready for bed. Though I havent accomplished anything that I had planned on accomplishing tonight, except for making plans for tomorrow night. Oh well.

Besides enjoying life, work is about to become or actually already has come extremely busy. The one thing about being in IT and especially in development, is that when you change something in an existing project, you have to deploy those changes in off hours. Which means for the next two weekends, I will be working some part of the weekend. This weekend is an early 6 am on Sunday morning. Eeek. It wont be too bad as long as we are actually done in 6 hrs like the other DBA says we should be. The last time he said that we were there for another 3-4 hrs. So we will see. As long as these deploys go well and production is still smoothly running. I wont have to worry about anymore off hour deploys because development halts for Open Enrollment Season. It will just be making sure the databases are up and running and that they are not all locked up with so many transactions hitting it at once. So we will see how that goes.

Then my normal busy life involved in different organizations. I really enjoy my involvements and wish I could put more time towards them. I am really looking forward to concentrating more on my ODK Province Director duties and visiting some schools now that I am not as concentrated on the circle at Gtown.

Well I need to get to some of these other tasks and then to bed. Have a wonderful day, week, month! I will try to say hi, every now and again.

Autocross Points Event #5

While the University of Kentucky Wildcats football team was out playing football, the Central Kentucky Division of SCCA was having its on game of sorts at Commonwealth Stadium. 91 drivers participated in this holiday weekend event, which was on a shortened course per normal for the UK site. Unfortunately, students did not read or were not made aware early enough about needing to clean out the lot. So we only used half of the normal full size parking lot.

Though the course was short, it definitely did not slow down the speed much, making it an extremely fast course. FTD (Fastest Time of the Day) was set by LB at 24.9 in a Modified Miata. I heard a few people say they were going close to 60 at the finish, which is extremely fast for one of these events. I say usually the fastest spot in a course the max speed is about 40 mph.

The course started with a couple lane changes into a sweeping curve, followed by a tight u-turn into another curve that probably was sweeping but I never got out of the u-turn smooth enough, into a very fast finish.

Though I was not overly pleased with my time and overall positioning, some of the more experienced individuals in the club said that I did will considering my car and the street tires.

For the most part, I did steadily improve the entire day with a couple lapses the worst coming on the last run. I lost my focus and blew it. I should have been able to break 30 but instead I slowed down on the last run.

Times in order of runs:
32.133
32.113
31.202
31.340
30.738
30.916

My main competition was down to 1 for this event. (Please pray for BR's father who is not doing very well. And that she will be able to make it to the next event.)

GR finished her last run in 28.943 with her previous fastest being 30.419. I was on her tale all day just not quite fast enough. Though it is exciting, I am becoming a bit more competitive with at least one of the ladies in my class. Makes me feel like a have a chance.

G-Stock class beat my tale as well. Congrats to RR for winning G-Stock not only in this event but for the season. Go MINI! His winning time was 27.46 with a PAX of 11th out of 91. The slowest in G-Stock was 30.557 just squeaking past my best time of the day. CS in the Honda Accord Coupe finished with a time of 29.194.

Scary thing is yesterday after I finished, RR said that if wanted to check out tires to let him know and he would help me out. (By the way RR is taken and has children my age. So dont get any ideas. I know what some of you all were thinking out there.) The true scary part of that conversation is what was going through my head about how nice it would be to get some race tires. I AM HOOKED :-) Maybe that will be my present to myself next year. We will have to see how much it would cost me.

List of things I would need:
Tires
Rims
Jack
All the tools for getting the tires off easily. (I know there are several things needed there)
Jack Stands
And of course a garage to store all of these supplies.

So it would be a bit of an expensive adventure.

THANKS to Ashlee who came out to cheer me on for the first couple of runs. I think she had a lot of fun though I couldn't get her into the car for a ride, maybe next time :-)

In Memory

This post is dedicated to a high school classmate, who lost his life this past Sunday.
Prayers and Sympathy go out to his family.

From the Paducah Sun:
Christopher Lucas Martin, 26, of Black Mountain, N.C., formerly of Paducah, died Sunday morning, Aug. 29, 2004, in a bicycle-automobile accident in Black Mountain.

Mr. Martin was a 1996 graduate of St. Mary High School, where he was a member of the St. Mary Soccer Team. He was also a member of the State Soccer Olympic Development Program Team in 1995. He was a 1999 graduate of Heartwood Institute of Massage Therapy. Mr. Martin was a painting contractor and artist with his wife in the Black Mountain community. He was also skilled in the art of batiking. He had a passion for life and the environment and will be dearly missed.

Thoughts keep flowing

Okay so this next paragraph was actually part of the last post, but I got carried away on another topic and felt that this no longer fit.

Yes I know I dont post all week and then I bombard you with posts. Those of you who have seen my busy schedule, understand why you dont hear from me very much all week. I am going to attempt to try to keep a better log of all those things I want to share so that when I do have time, I dont have to unwrap my mind to find what I wanted to talk about.

Tonight my mind is fully unwrapping itself. Two of the 5 posts tonight were not planned but developed as I was typing. So please dont stop reading here. There are 4 more new posts below this one.

Have a good week because I will most likely not post again til at least next weekend.

Parts of Life

Balance: A balanced life is key in a successful life. How do you find balance btwn church, work, personal life, and alone time? It is not easy and sometimes your life gets very full of a little bit of all of them. Hopefully, the first three do not take over the latter. It is very easily done.

Organized: Organization helps lead to a balanced life. Those, who know me, probably see me as a very organized person. But I look at my apartment today, and wonder where the heck the organization has gone to. I feel like everything is piling up around me. I do know where to find most things that I am looking for but some have been hidden in the small holes of the apt. I see part of my lack of having time to blog and do a few other things related to my lack of organization.

Time Management: Life without time management is living life by the seat of your pants. Today I find myself in a similar situation that I was in the end of my sophomore year and most of my junior year. Lots of free time to hang out with friends and have fun. But still responsibilities to accomplish that homework (Todays homework is not schoolwork but being a leader with responsibilites in extra curricular organizations.) The homework still gets done but not to its fullest potential. I am one who thrives on having a lot of responsibilities and time commitment. When I have too much free time, the management of time goes out the window and is lost.

New Solution for your Bad Build Code

Ever wanted a new way to find out that your code build was busted. Try this solution out that I found on the Pragmatic Programmer website: Bubble, Bubble, Build's In Trouble.

Quite creative use of Red and Green Lava lamps to enlighten you that something is busted or all is working just as expected.

Getting Older Faster and Faster

As I started in a comment on Ash's page, my youngest cousin, T, on my mother's side has now started his Freshman year of college. It seems not long ago that I was teaching him and several other youngsters at VBS. I was in middle/high school and they were in kindergarten. I actually moved year to year with them for several years. Now they are all grown up and in college. I think just recently I've realized that he is not the little kid in the family anymore. He is actually grown up, into a nice young man.

With him being so close now, I've also done a lot of thinking about calling him and seeing if he wants to get together for dinner or something. But then I think: Would he really want to be caught hanging out with his older cousin? Would he see me more as a adult figure in his life instead of just a cousin to hang with? On the flip-side, I would like to be in better connection with some of my cousins. It seems so hard sometimes because we are all very different and have different lives to leave. Plus we were not always that close back home, which makes it harder to be close later in life. Though we are a lot closer than most of the rest of the family.

On the flip-side to all of this, I am actually called the kid or the young one in my young adult group. I am one of the youngest ones though most of them are within 10 yrs of my age. There are a few older than that but not many. But still with the small difference in our ages, I am the kid or the little girl. Gives an interesting twist.

Time Flies and Where are we Going

Time flies by faster and faster everyday and every minute it seems like to me. 5 short years ago, I was beginning my final year of college, with a lot of unknowns and questions about the future. How have things changed today? I am really not sure that they have changed much.

Where is my future headed? - Still Unknown

What will I do upon graduation? - Okay, I do have a job and it is actually in my field of study, but is this where I am suppose to be? (Still somewhat unknown)
Who/where is that gentleman that God wants me to spend the rest of my life with? - Still as Unknown as it was 5 years ago. But God has given me a lot of patience in this area and constantly reminds me that I must prepare myself in Gods love. When we are both prepared in His Love, then the time will be right. (Relates to the books "Boy Meets Girl" and "When God writes your love story")

What is my purpose in life? - To live God's Word and share it with others (But how?)

The list could go on and on and on. These are all questions that we all face day in and day out. Some find the answers faster than others. We have to look to Him for those answers and ask for His guidance in our lives.

What to write

Okay this is the second or third time that I have attempted to write a new post. I am just not sure what I want to write about so this may be a bit random.

I have spent the last two nights at home with the fam watching a lot of olympics. Another reason why I am not succeeding at writing a new post. Every time I start to write something, the Olympics are back on and my eyes are glued to the TV. This is definitely not a hard task considering the tv is sitting up above the computer monitor.

Its hard to believe that once the Olympics are over, the start of the new tv seasons starts. This has been one of the fastest summers that I can ever remember. I guess thats what happens when you are busy and having a lot of fun. So I shall not complain. I will save more on this for the next post.

This has been a good relaxing weekend. Not had to worry about making sure a lot of thngs are getting down. Thoguh that will be a different story as I prepare to leave tomorrow and head back to the apt and the list of things that need to be done before starting the next week starts come to mind.

Well its now over 40 mins since I first started this post. The olympic mens 4*100 medley relay is complete and the US win again in World Record time. Though it is only about 11 here. It is way past my bedtime back home so I will signoff for now.

Wow Accomplishment!

It is very amazing what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it and stay on task. Saturday morning, I was writing to you about my total unproductivity. When I woke this morning, I still was not sure about my productivity, but I have quite amazed myself. It is now almost 9:30 on Sunday night.

Yesterday, I made a few modifications to this site. Added some additional links. The ODK Province X link is actually a new blog which I created in those 3 hrs yesterday before heading to Lex. Though I just realized that my comments section on that site are missing again, I guess I will have to go hunt down the culprit after making this post.

The Legends game was a lot of fun, even with only one other person joining me. Unfortunately the Legends lost, but there was quite a spectacular fireworks show afterwards, which made up for the bad game.

Today, I slept in after staying up til 1 last night. So that made it for a late start to any productivity. But I have accomplished, my goal of getting all the ODK documents ready to go for hand over to the new leaders at Georgetown and am ready to send out the first emails of the new year to the ODK Circles in Province X. Two big things can be checked off my list. Yeepeee!

So maybe after all of this you will actually hear from me more often now. At least I wont feel as guilty, typing posts and comments as I have been in the last few weeks. Granted I have created a new task for myself in keeping up with the ODK Province X blog :-).

Well I better see about packing a lunch and getting ready for a new week of work. Never thought I would be saying something like that.

Have a good week!

PS For those of you who have been gone all weekend, I have 5 new posts including this one :-) So keep on reading down the page.

How does your favorite city rank as a Sports City?

Sporting News Magazine has ranked the top 368 sports city's in the country. They reviewed all city's for the past year from July to July. Here is a synopsis of what they were looking for: "Taking into account not only the sheer quantity of courses in its year-round sports feast and the depth and breadth of fan fervor (OK, and often angst), but also the quality of the teams in the sports we cover, Boston is our Best Sports City for 2004."

So how did your city rank? Here are a few of the local city's of interest. I was quite amazed at how well some of our local cities faired.

27. Cincinnati
81. Louisville, KY
87. Lexington, KY
302. Georgetown, KY (GO Bengals! Go Tigers!)

Additional KY Cities Round 2: (Sorry to all those who I missed the first time)
134. Murray, KY
151. Bowling Green, KY (Go Hilltoppers!!! Go Hilltoppers!!! Go Hilltoppers!!!)
175. Morehead, KY
189. Richmond, KY

The rankings were also based mostly on cities with Professional or NCAA Div I teams.

Full Article: The List: How does your city rate?

Test your Math SAT skills vs the New SAT Format

Another fun math quiz SAT Quiz: Math Sampler by MSN Encarta. This test is apparently suppose to show you the new math section of the 2005 SAT. I was rather impressed out how much geometry and algebra I still new. Though as a high school student, I would definitely need to do some studying in order to do well. Actually, I am not sure that I even learned some of those things in the lower level math classes in HS. Maybe it's just been too long and I dont remember.

Career Buzzwords

Have you ever set in a presentation or on a conference call and wondered what they were talking about? Maybe this MSN article 25 Hot Buzzwords will help you understand. Some of the terminology is far fetched while others are quite interesting. I am not sure that I have heard the majority of them, but thought you guys might enjoy.

Still Alive and Kicking

Now that noone reads my blog. I thought I might put another post out here. Truthfully, I should not be working on this but working on some other things that need to be done, but I wanted to attempt to get some of my faithful readers back before they had no clue who I was anymore.

It has been a very crazy couple of weeks. I will say that driving 2+ hrs a day in a car does take a lot of time out of your day. Granted if I sit down and really think about it, which is not hard for me to find time to sit in think, being in the car so much already. Most of the days that I spend in Lex, I would have never gone home anyway so whats the real difference besides the actual driving.

Last weekend, I probably could have tried to blog but I was so tired that I slept the majority of the weekend. Including 14.5 hrs Friday night through Sat afternoon. Accomplishing none of the things besides grocery shopping that I had on my list.

Today I thought would be a productive day, but I am not totally sure about that. It is already 12:30 and I have barely been up for an hr thus far. I am sitting here debating what I should accomplish in the next 3.5 hrs before I head to Lex, for a Lexington Legends game with some friends.

Though I have not posted in the last couple weeks, I have found some interesting articles on MSN that I wanted to post so those will be following or preceding this here shortly.

Autocross Points Event #4

Two weeks later and I am at it again. Wow today was an awesome day. I really enjoyed the course at EKU. It was full of nice turns, including almost a figure out, plus a lane change followed close with almost an S shaped pattern. It was tight in spots but you could definitely get into the horsepower at spots as well. I was finally getting the hang of it on my last couple of runs. Here is my run breakdown:
1) 35.7
2) 35.175
3) 35.832 -- Tried a bit different technique here that didnt work.
4) 35.684 -- Still a bit rattled.
5) 35.042 -- Ready to go again :-) (The third place driver in my class got a 35.046 on this same run. She had been running in the 36's. Fortunately for me her last run she DNF, and I dropped another half second.)
6) 34.527

It was quite an impressive run for me. I finished 2nd in GSL (G-Stock Ladies). You combine us with GS (G-Stock) and I finished 6 out of 10. Two events in a row, I have defeated what I consider my most equivalent competition, though only by .093 of a sec. C drives a '04 or '05 Honda Accord Coupe V6 6-Speed Manual. Its a big ole car like mine :-)

Overall after the PAX (Index Modifier to make all cars equivalent), I finished 47 out of 83 drivers today. Close to the midway pt which is my best performance thus far. We have two pts events left. I am still pretty far back in pts, hanging out in third place.

New MSN Web Messenger

I am actually rathered shocked that noone has beat me to the punch on this one, but I thought it went along well with Chris question about what Messenger program do you prefer. Granted you all might be waiting on the actual ability to test it out. I actually had free time to do some reading of all the things going on in the tech world and sign up for a bunch of newsletters and updates. Maybe I am finally becoming a true computer geek and keeping up with the latest technologies.

You can check out an article for
MSN Web Messenger at Windows & .Net Magazine. Apparently, the MSN site was getting too many hits because it no longer works. Its a great concept. The only thing is that corporate America not only blocks messenger services but they also track everything you are doing on the web. Also, my last job not only stopped messenger services but they also blocked a lot of websites as well. So I am not sure how much this really helps except the fact that you will be able to get on temporarily at least.

Also for those interested, the SQL 2005 Beta 2 has been released to select individuals. More on that later.

I'm Kermit! Which Muppet character are you?

This was a forward, results will be in the comments:

Ever wondered which Muppet character you are most like? Well, a team of researchers got together and analyzed the personalities of Sesame Street characters, and put the information gathered into this quiz.

Answer each question with the answer that best describes you and then add up the points that correspond with your answer. Then send this to all your friends, including the person who sent it to you with your Muppet character in the subject line.

Get a pen and paper because you'll want to keep track of the question number and your answer. You'll need both to unlock the secret code at the end.

1) What describes your perfect date?
a) candlelight dinner for two, b) amusement park, c) rollerblading in the park, d) rock concert, or e) see a movie

2) What is your favorite type of music?
a) rock and roll b) alternative c) soft rock d) classical e) popular

3) What is your favorite type of movie?
a) comedy b) horror c) musical d) romance e) documentary

4) Which of the following jobs would you chose if you were given only these choices?
a) waiter/waitress b) sports player c)teacher d) policeman e) bartender

5) Which would you rather do if you had an hour to waste?
a) work out b) read c) watch TV d) listen to the radio e) sleep

6) Of the following colors, which do you like the best?
a) yellow b) white c) sky blue d) teal e) red

7) Which one of the following would you like to eat right now?
a)ice cream b) pizza c) sushi d) pasta e) salad

8) What is your favorite holiday?
a) Halloween b) Christmas c) New Year's d) Valentine's Day e) Thanksgiving

9) If you could go to any of the following places, which would it be?
a) Paris b) Spain c) Las Vegas d)Hawaii e) Hollywood

10) Of the following, who would you rather spend time with?
a) someone who is smart b) someone with good looks c) someone who is a party animal d) someone who has fun all the time e) someone who is very emotional

Going into Hiding

Okay if you dont hear from me in awhile at least no new posts, it is because I have several things that I should have already had done and dont. So I am going to force myself in the few hours that I am actually home to work on them. So I apologize now if I fall off the face of the earth for a few days or weeks. I cant believe its time for school to start again. Eeeek I am so not ready. So Ill catch you again when I am more prepared :-)

Autocross Points Event #3

This past Sunday was the CKR SCCA Autocross (Solo II) Points Event #3 for the season. For those who don't know, I do participate in my 2003 V6 Automatic Honda Accord Sedan :-) Yes it is a big car especially when the other cars in my class are Mini Cooper S's. Though I am not doing too bad, I actually received numerous comments on my ability from more experienced soloist this past weekend. I finished 2nd in my class which is G-Stock Ladies. If you combine us with the guys (G-Stock), I finished 6 out of 9. And I did beat the guy who drives an '05 Honda Accord Coupe Manual, which was very exciting.

My new helmet was wondermous along with my new magnetic numbers and class leaders for the car. :-)

The course was at EKU and was a very tight more technical course. Its a smaller parking lot so its not as fast because the turns are much more sharper. My best time was 35.815 with the fastest time of the day a 29.183 for a C-Modified car. Once you pax all the scores to even out the classes, I finished 53 out of 72.

Next event is August 1 at EKU. Anyone who wants to come watch or actually run let me know and I can give you more details.

8th Grade Math Exam from Illinois

Test your math skills with this 8th Grade Math Exam which is given to Illinois Students.
 
Magna Cum Laude! You clearly have a handle on what the Illinois State Board of Education thinks an 8th-grader should know. You got 10/10 correct.
 
[Addition] I actually remembered most of the logic behind it which was impressive. But does it count that I was lazy and used a calculator instead of doing it by hand. Or did you all use a calculator as well?

Go St. Louis Cardinals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cardinals defeated the Cincinnati Reds tonight 7-2 at Cincinnati.

So I found out this morning that the Cards where in town and for those who read Chris's page, you know that is my favorite team. So I was really excited and really wanted to go to a game this weekend. Unfortunately, the only free night I sort of had was tomorrow night. My next problem was thinking of friends that were not already busy to my knowledge, who had money, and liked baseball. My list was extremely small okay, I could only think of two people. The first person was unable to go because he has to go to a wedding which is understandable. The second person, Chris, was not answering though he did call me back on his cell phone. He too already has plans for tomorrow night but his are not so excusable, except for the fact that a friend invited him and there are only 2 tickets. But he is going to the game tomorrow night and on top of that he was at the game tonight. I am rather jeolous. Oh well maybe next time, except the other times St Louis is in town its during the week. I might just have to suck it up and go.

R and L will be happy because I can help them move if they are really moving. Though I would rather sleep :-) Mentioning of sleep I should go to bed now.

Out of Tiredness

Okay I really should have been in bed hours ago but instead I am blogging. It has been a very very long week for me. It all started Tuesday night. As the storms rolled in and everyone ran for cover, I sat at my cubicle at work working. We had a large deploy that was basically a lot of database backups and restoring to different environments. Some databases were quite large and took a long time to backup and restore. Finally at 2:30 am Wed morning, I headed to my friends R, L, and C to get a few hours of sleep.

On my way to their apartment, i saw a magnificent lightning show. It was quite impressive. I almost felt like I was in Kansas or somewhere else in the plains because you could see these large lightning bolts in the distance though not always so distant. They were going straight to the ground and lighting up the whole entire sky which was good since half of Louisville was without power. As I got to the apt, it started pouring down rain. Being as tired as I was I gave on finding my bag with my clothes in it and just ran for the apt. There I crashed on the couch for about 4 hrs before getting up and returning to work.

At least we didnt, break too many things and there was not much screaming because nothing was working. It was apparently a major change of structure. Im glad it wasnt horrible because I was flying solo until after 11 am.

I am Still Alive

Yes Everyone I am still around as you probably notice with me commenting on some others pages. Its been a crazy week and next week sounds like its going to be even crazy. Please pray for me Tuesday night as I will be working all night til the depths of the darkness. Not really sure how late thats going to be but it sounds to be interesting and crazy.

Updates:
My helmet is in...Yippeee. Just in time for the next Autocross which is July 18 at EKU (Basketball Stadium). If anyone is interested in coming out, things start around 11 and last til about 4. Hard to say when I will actually run until that morning.

Called about the recall on the transmission. They dont have the parts in yet. Probably be mid July when I can take it in to get checked out. Hopefully nothing breaks too bad btwn now and then.

By the way, all my friends dont try to call me before 9 during the week on my cell because my minutes are already almost all gone for this month which isnt over til July 26. And I went over last month 80 minutes so no more going over. At least Ill try not too.

Okay I am sure there is more but I need to head out and back to the 'Ville for a Bridal Shower.

Louisville Bound

Well tomorrow starts a new day of a new journey in my life. Its been a long anticipated journey into new waters, though unexpectedly into new horizons. The new waters bring new challenges, people, and experiences. I ask God to guide me tomorrow as I journey up to Louisville that all the paperwork is correct and that the transition into new employment goes smoothly. (Definitely cant afford not having a job after this weekend :-) )

Amazingly I am a very very calm person at 10 pm. My outfit is picked out. My lunch is half packed. There is gas in the car (Wipes the sweat from the brow: Had a moment of doubt). I believe I am set.

Dear friends who have put up with me the last multitude of years, know that I do fully appreciate each and everyone of you. I hope that our future mtgs and gatherings will be much more upbeat and joyful. Rather than some of those dreary days after hrs and hrs of work. I know that since I received word of a new job, I have been much more upbeat person.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders and there is excitement again in my life. I can actually feel the kindness and love in the air again. I can taste the joy and happiness. I see a great change in my disposition, especially now that it is really over. Though I would say not til tomorrow, when I start my new job, will I really feel the full weight lifted and the joy of a new job. Even if it is going to take me away from where I call home today.

Well guys. This may be the last you get for a few days. Then again maybe not. We will see how life and traveling goes. It is time for bed so that I can arise fully refreshed in the morning.

Updating Mozilla Web Browser!

All ye computer people out there. Has anyone ever updated their web browser from Mozilla Firebird to the Firefox? Seems like its a bit risky but at the same time, the Firebird is currently giving me some issues. I guess the main thing I dont want to loose is all of my bookmarks. So if anyone knows an easy way to install the new Firefox without loosing my bookmarks, please let me know.

Autocross Helmet

I have finally took the plunge and order my own helmet for AutoCross. It is a HJC CS5 - Flat Black Helmet.

Description:
Comfort, convenience and value describe the CL-5 open-face helmet. ~ Lightweight injection-molded thermoplastic alloy shell ~ Adjustable forehead vent allow flow-through ventilation ~ Plush brushed nylon interior for a comfortable fit ~ 3-snap smoke bubble visor ~ Sewn-in crown pad ~ Nylon strap-retention band neatly secures chin strap ~ Snell 2000/ DOT approved

Hopefully it will make it in before the next Autocross on 7/18. Also hopefully, my transmission will not fail before then. If your interested in coming out, let me know and I will tell you when and where.

My Luck with Cars!

My luck or lack of luck with cars continues. I first had two Taurus SHOs (93 and 98 models). Both cars had issues with the window mechanisms.
'93 Taurus SHO
- AC went out.
- Driving the BG to West. Ky, the computer chip overheated and the car refused to start back up.
- The ignition switch had to be replaced.
'98 Taurus SHO
- Some mechanism which kept the car from actually starting unless it was jumped.
- Brake Issues
- Cylinders Stuck Open (Okay I know there is another term I am looking for here but my brain is dead. I will fix as soon as I remember.)
- Faulty Wiring-resulting in the heat not working
- Dead Battery (probably from all the jumping)

So the winter of 2002, I decided that I wanted to get a new car that would be more reliable. I looked and looked and looked. It came down to two cars: 2003 Mazda 6 or 2003 V-6 Honda Accord. I went with the Honda because of the reliability feature over the Mazda. Maybe I made a mistake because I have had several issues with it as well.
- Brake Issues (Resulting in new brake pads just a bit over a year.)
- Radio cover falling off.
- Now there is a major recall on the transmission in the V-6 Accords along with several other Honda cars.

I just cant buy a break. Excluding things that are breaking on the car. 5 months after having the car, it received chips in the hood from hail. And then this spring, I had a flat tire. Though it is my first flat tire and there was no other damage, which is always good.

Freedom!

On this Fourth of July weekend, we remember our Freedom in this country. Thanks to all of those who have helped us maintain our freedoms.

Ironically, this weekend means more than just my country's freedom. Today marks the end of a nearly 4 year journey, which took a lot of my freedom away. Dear Friends who have listened to me gripe, stress, cry, and scream. Thanks for being such good supportive friends. There were good times, do not get me wrong, but times were tough a lot as well.

It was relieving to hand over my badge and fob and walk out those doors. It was weird to be walking out of what has been my life since graduating from college. But at the same time it was very liberating. There will be people that I will miss. Granted most of those people have moved on as well.

I also worked way too hard the last two days of my job. Not really sure the purpose of giving two weeks notice because nobody decides that they want to talk to you until the last two days. And at that they wait until the last minutes of those two days to talk. I finally shut everything down and escaped while the ADSM was answering a phone call. Otherwise, who knows I might still be there attempting to explain something that he just cant comprehend.

Thank you Jesus for my Freedom! I plan to enjoy these few days of freedom before starting my new job on Tuesday.

Dont Ask!

First of all, I am really going to have to start jotting down my blog ideas when they come to me. Because when I actually get around to writing in my blog, I have no clue what I was going to write about. Three or four things have come to mind in the last few days but currently I dont remember but one of them and its not really pertinent anymore.

Second of all, why the heck cant I sleep. Its after 1 in the morning and I was up til 12:30 last night. My eyes are ready to shut but my brain does not want to shut down. And my allergies are killing me. Remembered a post idea. :-) Jotting it down before I fall asleep.

Thirdly, two more days of work and I am free :-) Thanks to all of my friends who have supported me throughout the last few years. I know some of you have had to endure a lot. I really do appreciate it. Now you dont have to worry about me as much. I will hopefully get part of my sanity back as long as I survive these last two days.

Always three points to a sermon so maybe I should quit here :-) Then again,

Fourth, I am glad that some of you dont have constant free time to update and comment on blogs. Though I was disappointed on Monday, when I had nothing to keep up with because everyone was gone and nothing was happening. The one day that I am free and able to keep up and actually do a lot of thinking and nothing was happening. Glad to see that you all do have lives and/or jobs to work at.

Okay, my eyes are really shutting now. Maybe I will make it to sleep this time.