New Truck

Well we bought a new truck yesterday, and it's not black. Mel has insisted on three things about the vehicle she drives.

1. It has to be a truck.
2. It has to be a Dodge.
3. It must be black.

Well, she test drove a couple of trucks. One of them was a black Dodge Dakota and the other was a silver Dodge Ram 1500. She like the feel of the Ram much better, and it was roomier inside. While the Ram was more expensive than the Dakota, there was a better cash-back offer on the Ram, so they ended up being about the same price. So for the first time in quite a while, Mel will be driving a truck that is not black. Personally, I like the silver color better. I think it won't show dirt as well and it does look nice.

When we got the Ram home, we just managed to squeeze it into the garage with about three-quarters of an inch clearance between the top of the truck and the garage door. Today we need to clean out the garage so it fits better lengthwise.

Truck Shopping

Now that Mel and I will be having an addition to our family, we need to look into getting a vehicle with more seating for Mel. Right now she drives a Dodge Dakota with regular cab. Putting a baby seat in the front of the truck isn't ideal. Today we're driving to Des Moines to see her truck guy about getting an extended cab truck. For some reason my wife insists on driving a truck, and it has to be a Dodge. I suppose I can live with that. Now if I can just get her to compromise on the color. She insists that it be black, but I think she's open to negotiate on that issue.

Hayden Fry Endorses Nussle

Hayden Fry is endorsing Jim Nussle's campaign for Iowa governor. Is this really supposed to impress anyone?

I'm Gonna be a Daddy!

I have been waiting to write this blog entry since July 30 when Mel and I found out that she was pregnant. She's eleven weeks along now so we are beginning to tell people outside of our family. Oh, we had each told a few people at work and a couple of close friends, but we're now ready to tell everyone we know. Mel had her first appointment with her actual OB doctor this week. We had previously met with the OB history nurse to supply background information about each of us and to get information about what Mel should and should not be doing. Today we got an ultrasound and received some photos of our baby! According to the sonographer, the due date for our baby is April 6. We are very excited as this is a first child for both of us. He or she is going to be the first grandchild for my mother and the fifth for Mel's parents. My mother was especially excited when we told her last month as I think she was wondering if this day would ever come. Anyway, I'm sure I will have a lot more to write in the future about the baby, but until then, here are a couple of the photos we got today.

A Difficult Time

I hate to write this considering what my next blog posting is going to be, but I feel it is something I need to day. A friend of mine since high school came back to Cedar Rapids from Las Vegas this week to visit her family. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer about a month ago, so in addition to visiting her family for the week, she wanted to help out around the house as well.

Mel and I had planned on getting together with her for dinner some time this week. I hadn't heard from her since she got into town at the beginning of the week, so I called her and left a message for her to call me. Well, last night she gave me a call and I could tell right away that things were not going well. Her mother's doctors initially thought they could remove the cancer surgically, but they then determined that was not possible, so they were going to try chemotherapy instead. She was to begin chemo yesterday, but the doctors realized then that the cancer was too far along to respond to chemo, so it seems like they are out of options. It seems that all they can do now is try to make her comfortable.

I would like to think that I can relate to what my friend is going through since I lost my father about fifteen months ago, but I don't think I can. Her situation is just so different from mine. When my father had his heart attack is was sudden and unexpected. There was a lot of initial shock, but then we had to deal with the fact that he was gone. In my friend's case, her mother is still here and all her family can do is wait. Despite my father's passing, I can not begin to understand how my friend must be feeling right now. I just hope she and her family can find a way to cope with what is happening with them. Of course, I'll be here to offer any support I can.

Elect a Pirate to Congress

I was looking at the Cedar Rapids Gazette's voter guide online the other day when I came across an interesting candidate for Iowa's first congressional district. The candidate's name is James Hill and the party he is identified as belonging to is Pirate! On his website, he claims to be the only drunken pirate seeking office in the U.S. I have to day that I don't doubt that one bit. And I have to say that is quite a shame. If there is one thing our government needs more of, it's pirates. They certainly couldn't do any worse of a job than some of our current elected officials. Of course, if the pirates then decided to plunder our booty by raising taxes too much, then I'd have a problem with it. Other than that, a pirate congress could be fun to watch.

Weight Loss

I have started watching what I eat again. This includes increasing the amount of exercise I get. Once again I am using the Weight Watchers program to watch what I eat. I'm not going to the meetings though, I am just using the books that we have at home. My goal is to lose thirty pounds. I plan on adding something to the sidebar of my blog to track my progress. Since I won't weigh in until Monday, don't expect to see anything until then.

Extended Weekend Vacation

I hope no one has been concerned about my recent absence of blogging, but Mel and I started our weekend early on Thursday, taking a trip to Kansas City. Our drive to our hotel was fairly uneventful until we got to downtown Kansas City, Missouri. It was there that our directions from Map Quest failed us. We did end up finding our hotel, a Holiday Inn in Overland Park, Kansas, without too much difficulty though.

When we got to the hotel we were disappointed to find that the pool was closed for repairs. What was especially disappointing about this was that I booked the hotel on Travelocity. They have a commercial where they warn some people that the hotel pool at the hotel they have booked has been closed. Now where was that damn gnome to let us know our pool was out of service. Anyway, we survived the weekend without the pool.

On Friday we went to the Kansas City Zoo. Going to the zoo on a weekday after Labor Day had the advantage of making the zoo a lot less crowded. There just weren't that many people around. However, because it was less busy, many of the food service areas were not open. I think there were only two places in the zoo where we could get food. We had a good time looking at the animals. The Kansas City Zoo is nice, but personally I like the Omaha Zoo better.

On Saturday we went to the thirtieth annual Kansas City Renaissance Festival in Bonner Springs. This was the main reason we chose to go to Kansas City for a vacation. We had a lot of fun wandering around the grounds all day. We had considered going to the Twin Cities to the renaissance festival up there, but we chose Kansas City instead so Mel could see a band she likes, the Jolly Rogers. The photo below shows her with the band.



The only photo we took of me on this trip was with the SPAM Mobile which was parked outside the gates to the ren fest. What was really ironic was that I was wearing the SPAM T-shirt that I had purchased at the SPAM Museum in Austin, Minnesota, this past spring. This is one of three SPAM Mobiles that roam the United States promoting SPAM (the luncheon meat, not the junk email). People all over the festival were commenting on my shirt, many of them singing Monty Python's SPAM song.

A Short Work Week

I went back to work today after the extended weekend, but it's going to be a very short week for me. Tomorrow is my last day of work for the week. Mel and I are each using some of our vacation time this week. She had to work the past eight days straight, so it's good that she's going to have about a week off now.

This morning when I was at work, I got a phone call from a friend and former coworker of mine. It was someone I taught with at Highland Junior/Senior High School in Riverside, Iowa, a few years ago. She is taking a graduate class and needed to interview a teacher or someone who was recently a teacher, so she called me up. She needed to ask someone about a school they taught at, so I told her about my experiences at Waterloo West High School. The questions were mainly about the attitudes that students, staff, and parents have toward the school, the administration, and the counseling staff. Some of the replies dealing with student attitudes reminded me of why I decided to leave teaching. Anyway, I hadn't seen her in a while so it was nice to get together. She, her husband (who works for the same company that I do), and I all ate lunch at Bob's Your Uncle in Iowa City. The past few times I have been there, the service has been terrible, but it was better today. I still don't think I would go there if I wanted a quick lunch though.

I Am Chewbacca

I took this same quiz in May last year and I ended up being C-3PO then. I have to say that I wasn't too thrilled with that. Well today I decided to retake the quiz to see if my Star Wars personality has changed to someone else, and it has.

Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Labor Day Lunch

I just got back home from having lunch with my good friend Homercles. As we often do, we went to the Metro Buffet for some fine Chinese buffet food and for the variety of freshly made sushi. I always end up walking away from that place with too much food in my belly, and today was no exception. Besides enjoying the food, it's always nice to catch up on what's going on with Homercles. After our meal, we took a trip to Target to do a little shopping. Wandering around the Super Target was probably just what we needed after stuffing ourselves at the buffet.

New Blog

I just started a new blog to showcase my Yoda collection. It's not completely up to date at the moment. Hopefully I will be able to get to that in the next month or so. Maybe I'll get it all done tomorrow, but don't hold your breath for that.

Today in Church

I really shouldn't be doing this, gossiping about someone in church, but I am going to anyway. Today at church, a couple walked in a couple minutes late. That really isn't an issue. People arrive late to church all the time. What I saw this morning that surprised me was the the man in the couple was carrying in a large Styrofoam cup of coffee from a local convenience store! I have never seen anyone bring beverages to church, except for maybe something for a young child to drink. What's next? Maybe people will begin bringing soft drinks and popcorn to keep them occupied during the service.

Comment Problems

I was talking with Homercles on the phone last night and he mentioned that he had a problem leaving a comment on my blog. After a little investigation, I discovered that this is a known issue with Blogger in Beta. Apparently, users who haven't switched to the beta version can not currently leave a comment while logged in as themselves. They can however select Other or Anonymous and then leave a comment.

One Final Posting for Today

It's going to look like I spent all day on my computer, but that really isn't the case. I actually got quite a bit done around the house today after getting the car's oil changed. My wife got home from work a little while ago, but she was tired and is taking a nap. As there isn't much to watch on TV, I've been checking out videos on YouTube. I was looking through a search of Leonard Nimoy when I came upon this video by a rap group called Lords of the Rhymes. This group apparently gets most of the material for their music from The Lord of the Rings. I have tried downloading the MP3s of their songs from their website, but I keep getting an error. For now, I guess I'll just have to settle for the video of their song "The Lords of the Rhymes." Beware, there is explicit language in the video. So make sure the little kiddies aren't around.

The Fields Medal

Last month, mathematician Grigori Perelman turned down the Fields Medal, which is a prestigous award in mathematics. He won the medal for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture. I'm not going to attempt to explain the conjecture. Instead, this video of Steven Colbert should do the trick.

Answers to iPod Songs Quiz from Thursday

I have posted the answers to Thursday's list of iPod Songs in the comments section of that posting. So, if you want to know the answers, check it out.

Good Morning

I am writing this post to my blog from the waiting area of Saturn of Cedar Rapids. The change oil light on my VUE came on late last week, so here I am getting the oil changed and the tires rotated. Later today, I need to take my snowblower into a Toro dealer so I can get it checked out. Fortunately, that won't cost me anything as it's getting repaired due to a recall on the gas tank. I figure that is something that should be fixed before winter arrives. This will be my first winter using this snowblower. It was my parents', but my mom moved into a condo a few months ago and snow removal is provided, so she had no need for it anymore. This was pretty good timing as the snowblower I had been using started falling apart last winter. By the end of the winter, one of the wheels had fallen off! It never worked too well for me. The machine was fifteen years old. My parents had given it to me when they bought their new one in 2003.

I hope everyone likes the new layout of the blog. Besides chosing a new template for the blog, I did a little tweaking to the HTML code to make some other adjustments. It just didn't look the way I wanted it to. I haven't added the Photo of the Week yet. I haven't decided if I am going to keep doing that or not. I may just post photos periodically. Besides, I hadn't been doing too good of a job at getting them up weekly. There may be a few other changes to the content of the sidebar, but I don't know what yet. I was going to work on it some here at the Saturn dealership, but the keyboard on this computer isn't too good, making it harder to type. Also, this computer is running Red Hat Linux and the Blogger Beta doesn't seem to completely support the Mozilla web broswer with this operating system. I'll probably work on it after doing a few household chores once I get home.

Blog Changes

I am going to be making some changes to my blog this weekend. First of all, I am changing my profile photo to a drawing of myself. I feel like I am copying Homercles by using a similarly designed character, but I don't think he'll mind. I tried to get the photo to look as much like my photo as I could. I didn't include the drink, but that's alright.

Old Photo

New Drawing

I've also considered starting fresh by clearing out all of my old blog entries, but I think I have decided against doing that. I can't think of any reason why I should remove the old blog entries. The new ones won't be much different from what I've already posted, so those will all remain.

I may change the general layout of my blog, so don't be surprised if you come back next week and see a completely different-looking blog.

Blogger Beta

I just moved my blog to Blogger Beta. I haven't looked at it enough yet to take advantage of any of its features. I may work on that some time this weekend. So far, everything seems pretty much the same, although the interface is slightly different.

iPod Songs

After hearing a song for the twenty-fourth time today on my iPod, I decided I would list the songs that have been played most frequently on my iPod. However, instead of listing the songs my name, I am going to list the first line or two of each song. Can you name the songs and the artists or where they are from? No cheating! I don't want anyone Googling the lyrics to find out the title. If the title of the song, or part of the titleof the song, appears in the first line or two, I will replace it with a blank. Please be aware, there may be some obscene lyrics below.

1. Played 24 times:
__________
If he was here right now,
He'd make a plan
And he'd follow through,
That's what __________.

2. Played 17 times:
One two three uh!
My baby don't mess around
Because she loves me so
And this I know for shooo..

3. Played 16 times:
Woo Hoo Hooooo?
Woo hoo wooooo!
Debbie just hit the wall
She never had it all

4. Played 15 times:
My gift is my __________
And this one's for you
And you can tell everybody
That this is __________

5. Played 14 times:
__________
__________
__________
Coming again, to save the mother __________ day yeah
__________
Freedom is the only way yeah

There is a for-way tie for sixth place.
6a. Played 12 times:
I know there's something in the wake of your smile.
I get a notion from the look in your eyes, yea.

6b. Played 12 times:
Fuck, fuck, fuck
Motha motha fuck
Motha motha fuck fuck

6c. Played 12 times:
God has smiled upon you this day.
The fate of a nation in your hands.

6d. Played 12 times:
I get up, and nothing gets me down.
You got it tough. I've seen the toughest around.

Finally, there is a two-way tie for tenth place.
10a. Played 11 times:
Never knew I could feel like this
Like I've never seen the sky before

10b. Played 11 times:
Ladies and Gentlemen
As you know we have something special for you
At Birdland this evening
A recording for Blue Note Records

So, if you know what these songs are, write a comment with the titles.

I Never Thought I'd Do This...

but I am now posting a YouTube video on my blog. Here is one person's response to Stephen Colbert's Jedi Video Editing challenge.

Iowa

I found this quiz through Sara's blog. Of course, there were a few questions that none of the answers really fit me, such as the one about the state fair. I know about it, but I've never been. And what about the Hawkeyes or Cyclones question? The answer Panthers was missing!

You have 81% Iowa in you!

Nice score! Are you embarrassed or proud of being so much Iowa? I would be proud, it's great being so closely tied to the Hawkeye State.

Do you have Iowa in you?

Dress Code

We got a reminder at work today that this Friday is the last day we can wear shorts to work for the year. The dress code in our building allows us to wear shorts between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Because of this, I am going to take advantage of the final two days of shorts-wearing season no matter what the weather is like. Then after Friday it will be 269 days until I can wear shorts to work again. Of course, I can get around that rule if I work at home for a day. Heck, then I don't even have to get dressed at all!

Exercising Again

I haven't gotten much exercise since completing RAGBRAI one month ago today. So tonight I got on the elliptical trainer for a workout. I had planned on exercising for twenty minutes, but the phone rang with three minutes remaining in my workout. It was my wife. So I talked to her for a bit on the phone. I didn't end up finishing the last three minutes of the workout. Tomorrow night I plan on going back to the Bowflex. If I can get back into a pattern of exercising most nights, I should be able to get in better shape and shed a few more pounds.

On My Own

Mel is working second shift this week, so I am stuck home alone to fend for myself in the evening. During this week I'll hardly get to see her. I usually try to call her from work some time in the morning, but we can't talk long since I am working. She'll call me in the evening as well. I usually try to stay up to see her when she gets home from work shortly before midnight, but I barely made it last night. I'll probably be asleep before she gets home tonight. She also has to work this upcoming weekend. At the end of next week, Mel and I will be going on a vacation to Kansas City. We plan on going to the zoo and to the Renaissance Festival. Mel's been to the renaissance festival before with her friend Heather. It should be a fun, extended weekend.

Who's the Idiot?

One of my pet peeves is signs that have incorrect spelling, grammar, or punctuation. One of the punctuation errors that I see quite often is the inappropriate usage of apostrophes. Here is one example of such an error. In this case, Marge Trowbridge, a supporter of President Bush, is holding a sign that says, "HELP! I'M→SuRRounded By Idiot's!" I noticed that she chose to use an apostrophe with the s, indicating that something belongs to an idiot. Of course, she means "Idiots" without an apostrophe. What's really ironic about this sign is that in trying to call others idiots, she pointed out her own ignorance regarding the correct usage of punctuation. Don't get me started on the use of the arrow. I don't know what the hell she's trying to accomplish with that.

Trying Out Another Church

Yesterday morning, Mel and I tried another church. This is the second that the two of us have gone to together since moving to Cedar Rapids last year. I went to another on my own on Easter, but that church isn't for us. Anyway, we went from trying a church with a very small congregation to what is probably the largest church in town of the type we are looking for. I have to say that I did like this church. It was big enough that we can blend in with everyone else if we want to and they have four services every week, three on Sunday, so we will have some choices about when to go. I'm not sure if we'll be checking out any other churches or not before we make a decision, but I think this may be the one.

Kernels Game

Mel and I went to a Cedar Rapids Kernels game last night. This was actually the first time I had ever been to a Kernels game. I had been to plenty of Cedar Rapids Reds games, but I hadn't attended any games at Veterans Memorial Stadium since the team was renamed the Kernels in 1993.

The reason we went was that my company was offering tickets to the game at a discounted price. These tickets included unlimited food and drinks through the seventh inning. So it was a pretty good deal. What I didn't realize until I went to get food though, was that the selection of food available at no additional cost was limited to hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, popcorn, and peanuts. We also had a selection of Bud Light or Miller Light as well as a fairly good selection of sodas. What Mel really wanted was nachos, so at one point during the game, I ended up wandering around the stadium to get her some. Our seats were in the Randy Kuehl Honfidence Pavilion behind the left field wall. It provided a different view than what I have been used to in going to baseball games. Most of the time we went when I was a kid, we sat along the first base line. Anyway, we had a good time watching the Kernels beat the Beloit Snappers 4 to 1.

Strange Encounters at Hy-Vee

Last night Mel had some coworkers, a former coworker, and the friend of the former coworker over. After chatting for a bit, we got around to ordering some pizza a little after 8:00. Well, we didn’t have a whole lot in the house to drink, so on our way to get the pizza, Mel’s coworkers Anita (who is a former student of mine), Penny (Anita’s sister), and I went to Hy-Vee to get some beverages and ice cream. While we were trying to decide which type of beer to purchase, two men approached us and tried to help us make a decision. One of them grabbed a bottle of beer from the shelf and started plugging the beer—one that included chocolate as an ingredient—as if he was a representative of the company! This was a bit odd. Eventually he and his partner started to walk off when they struck up a conversation with another man—one who was wearing a University of Georgia shirt bearing just the G logo of the school.

The man who promoted the chocolate beer said, “Go Bulldogs,” as the older man in the red University of Georgia shirt passed. The older man then said that he only bought the shirt because it was cheap. In fact, he had bought it quite recently and this was the first time he had worn it. The chocolate beer guy was apparently the first person who had recognized the shirt as representing the University of Georgia Bulldogs. The older man then told us that he says it’s a Green Bay Packers shirt for the color blind. Anyway, the other two men left and we were stuck in a conversation now with this other man. Meanwhile, we still had not picked out a type of beer to drink. Penny then indicated that she’d drink anything, except for Guinness. This new guy than said that he literally would drink any beer since he collects beer labels. He had recently been to some beer festival in Madison, Wisconsin. At this point we quickly picked up a six-pack of beer—Killian’s Irish Red—so we could get out of the Hy-Vee and get to Pizza Hut to get our pizzas.

Running into strange people when buying beer at Hy-Vee wouldn't have surprised me too much if it had been later at night, but it was only 8:30!

Rebecca the Liberal Pirate

My sister, Rebecca, emailed me this photo of her with her birthday cake; her birthday was earlier this month. As I haven’t changed my Photo of the Week in quite some time, thus making the title “Photo of the Week” somewhat inaccurate, I am going to make this photo this week’s Photo of the Week. I’ll try to change it next week, but who knows.

Anyway, Rebecca—who turned thirty this year—and her friends like to decorate a cake for her each year. I am assuming that was this case this year as well. So here’s my sister, wearing a Liberal T-shirt with her cake bearing the message “Happy Birthday RRRrrrr!” The Rs not only relate to the sound that pirates make, but also can be thought of as representing Rebecca.

Violent Video Games = Free Speech?

A judge in Lousisiana has blocked a state law that bans the sales of violent video games to minors claiming that the law violates free speech rights? Four other states have had similar laws blocked on the same constitutional grounds. I don't understand this. So a video game is speech? What about movies? Can the government prevent minors from seeing or buying movies just because they are violent. Several months ago, my wife and I, who are both in our thirties, had our IDs checked before we went to the R-rated movie A History of Violence. There were no sexual themes in this movie. It was simply very violent. Why did the theater need to verify our ages. If we had been minors, wouldn't the free speech rights of the movie company have been violated if they couldn't get their message across to minors? What about Playboy magazine. Why isn't prohibiting their sale to minors also a violation of the First Amendment? I guess it will be completely up to parents to monitor what video games their children play, not that I think they shouldn't be, but keeping minors from buying some video games would make things a little easier for parents.

Damn You IAU!

Ok, I don't really wish to damn the International Astronomical Union, but they sure caused me some inconvenience at work today. Who would have ever thought that a decision by a group of astronomers would cause me any problems whatsoever? Of course I am referring to the whole demotion in the status of Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet. I can't go into details due to confidentiality issues, but we had to make some very last minute changes to ensure scientific accuracy in one of the products we produce where I work. The item is now immune to any additional meddling by the IAU.

Back to Work

I went back to work today after staying home sick for two days. I'm feeling quite a bit better than I was earlier in the week, although I wouldn't say that I'm back at 100%. Hopefully once I complete my course of antibiotics, I'll be feeling as good as I usually do. It didn't seem like my being gone for the past two days created much additional work for others. That's good as I would have felt bad if it had done so. I even had a piece of birthday cake waiting for me upon my return to work. The cake was from a coworker's fiftieth birthday party which was Monday.

A Visit from the Plumber

Last week I mentioned that we had some plumbing problems at home. Well, the plumber just left and I am very pleased with the service. The bill wasn't nearly as bad as I was fearing it would be. He even fixed a couple other things while he was here. After he called his office to find the price to charge me, he asked me if anyone in my family was a teacher because the name was familiar to him. I didn't think he was referring to me, so I mentioned that my dad was an orchestra teacher. The plumber was a percussionist at Kennedy High School in the late 70s and early 80s when my dad taught there and had him as a teacher for symphony orchestra. It still seems like I can't go places without running into people who knew my dad.

Still at Home

I stayed home from work again today. I just didn't feel well enough to go to work. I am feeling a bit better now, so I will be back at work tomorrow which is good, since I hate having to have others pick up for work that I should be doing. I spent much of this morning sleeping, then I watched the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner from Sunday night. It was pretty funny, but it seemed that a lot of the jokes focused on George Takei's recent coming out as being gay. One more thing I have to say about the Roast is that Andy Dick is quite bizarre, licking the faces of Farrah Fawcett and Carrie Fisher, and attempting to lick Nichelle Nichols as well.

Sick Day

I'm staying home sick from work today. This is the first time I have used a sick day since spring 2003. I just find that I am not sick too often, at least not enough to stay home from work. Either that, or I'm always sick on a non-work day, which is such a waste of a day to be sick. I must say that calling in sick to work is a bit less of a hassle now that I am not teaching. It seems that it is more work to get ready for a sub than it would be to just go to work and deal with feeling like crap all day. That said, I don't have any plans on calling in sick for work more often now just because it's less convenient. If I were still teaching, I'd be staying home today as well.

Now I am sitting at home waiting for a call from my doctor's nurse so I can schedule an appointment today. I'll be seeing a new doctor for the first time today. On my previous visit earlier this year for a physical, I found out that the doctor I was seeing, also for the first time, was leaving the practice there to work for a local hospital in a different role. So my second trip to this doctors' office will be to see a second doctor.

Wiretapping

So the Bush administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program has been ruled illegal by a district judge. This ruling will of course be appealed. I'm sure it will end up going all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. It's very possible that this program is helping in the "war on terror" but the president is not above the law. If this program is helping, he needs to find a way to make this program comply with the law. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows for warrants after the fact, but if this is not enough, he needs to get his minions in Congress to pass laws allowing this warrantless wiretapping.

A Leisurely Drive

Our meetings here in Minnesota were scheduled to finish up today, however we worked at a quicker pace than anticipated and we wrapped up our meetings yesterday afternoon. We considered returning to Iowa last night, but by the time everyone was done it would have been at least 11:00 before we got home. Besides, it was too late to check out of the hotel without being charged for the night and to top it off, I wasn't feeling the best, having a headache and pressure in my head. As I was going to be the one driving, we decided we might as well stay the night and leave in the morning. I really prefer this as it will be light during the entire drive home. The four-and-a-half-hour drive, not including stops, feels quite long when it is dark most of the way. And after working a full day, it is very tiring. So I will be having breakfast in the hotel restaurant this morning before taking off for home.

IDed for Drugs

I just had my ID checked for the first time for buying over-the-counter medications. I've been kind of achy the past few days. Besides that, I've had a bit of a headache and my head has felt a bit stuffy, so this evening I left my hotel to go to Target to buy some medication. I ended up buying Aleve Cold & Sinus which contains pseudoephedrine. I was hoping that having an out-of-state driver’s license wouldn’t cause any problems, and it did not. I of course understand the purpose for the pharmacist’s recording of my personal information and I completely support it. If this helps to make it harder to produce methamphetamine, I am happy to comply.

Why Do Things Happen When I'm Gone?

I am once again in Minnesota for a few days for work. This evening when I called home, my wife told me that there is a small leak into the bathroom in the basement. It seems like things like this only happen when I am out of town for work. It doesn't sound too serious for the moment, so hopefully repairs can hold off until I return later in the week.

On a somewhat related topic, yesterday I got a phone call from the company which provided our home warranty for the first year we were in the house. They tried to get me to renew the service, but I declined. I am beginning to regret that right now.

Time for Bed

I have not stayed up this late in quite a while. I'm usually in bed by 10:00 at the absolute latest. This past week though, I was staying up until just before midnight so I could see Mel as she worked second shift this week. Yesterday after work she went to Ankeny to help her sister with a garage sale for the weekend. She will be returning tomorrow afternoon. So, how did I spend my Friday night without my wife? Did I go out with friends? No. I put up a curtain rod and cellular shades. Then to make the evening even more fun, I just spent the past three and one half hours checking over test items for work. This task is due on Monday, but late Monday morning, I will be leaving to office to head for Minnesota for a few days for work.

I timed my work really well tonight. After watching Match Game on GSN, I put Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith into the DVD player to watch. And just as I am finishing writing this blog entry, the credits are drawing to a close. So good night everyone!

Do They Think I'm Stupid?

One of the credit cards I use regularly is my Discover Card. I like their Cashback Bonus. One of the things I like about it is the ability to get my $20 cash bonus as a gift card worth more than $20. One offer they have is to get a $25 Red Lobster/Olive Garden gift card for $20 worth of cash bonuses, but that's not all, they also offer a $45 card for $40 in bonuses. Maybe some people would go for that, but only people who can't do simple arithmetic. Why not get 2 $25 gift cards for $20 each?

Burglary

I was reading the crime log in the newspaper this morning and I discovered that a house just around the corner from our house was burglarized last week. Now the log doesn't provide any additional details besides the address, so I don't know if the thieves got away with much or not. I suppose it could have been as simple as someone stealing something from an unlocked garage. Of course, it could have been much more. You can bet that I am going to be certain that my doors and windows are all locked. Of course I keep them locked all the time anyway.

eBay Auctions

Please excuse me for this little advertisement, but I have just listed some Star Trek: The Next Generation Galoob action figures for sale on eBay. I'm guessing that my regular readers really wouldn't care to buy these, but I thought it would be worth a shot. However, if you are interested in action figures of Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, Geordi LaForge, Data, Tasha Yar, Worf, or a Selay alien or a die-cast Starship Enterprise please feel free to follow the links to eBay and place a bid.

I have about twenty or so Playmates action figures from all of the various Star Trek series as well, but they don't seem to be getting any bids on eBay. My wife is going to help her sister with a garage sale next weekend. Perhaps she can take them along there to sell.

No More XM

This morning I was driving to Ankeny for my niece's birthday party. After listening to some music on my iPod, I decided to switch to the XM satellite radio. Unfortunately, the XM radio in my Saturn is no longer functioning. I had called several weeks ago to let them know that I didn't want to continue the service beyond my free trial. However after that call, I still received the service. I guess they finally got around to shutting it down. That's alright. It was nice to listen to, but I guess I can live with the regular radio, CDs, and my iPod which can be plugged directly into the stereo.

New Photo of the Week

I haven't changed the photo of the week in quite some time, so I figured I'd do it this morning. The new photo of the week is from Mel's and my vacation to Jamaica this past June. It shows Mel and myself at a restaurant at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios, overlooking the beach below.

Whoop Dee Freakin' Doo!

Tomorrow and Saturday are the days of Iowa's back-to-school tax free days. Calling them tax free days, as many stores do, is a bit misleading. The only things that are sold without sales tax, in addition to things that normally do not have sales tax, are articles of clothing priced at under $100. This sounds like it could be a really good deal, but the savings don't necessarily add up to all that much. In locations where the sales tax rate is 5%, buying clothes tax free results in a net savings of about 4.8% (not 5% as some journalists would have you believe). Instead of paying $105 for a $100 purchase, the final price would be just $100, a savings of $5 out of $105, which is slightly less than 5%. Anyway, I wonder how many people would rush out to a store if they were having a sale where clothes was a whole 4.8% off, or even 6.5% (the amount of savings in parts of the state where sales tax is 7%) off.

Now I have bought clothing on the so called tax-free weekend before, only to find store have better sales the next weekend when sales tax was again being charged. By buying clothes during the tax-free weekend, I actually ended up spending more money than I would have if I had waited a week. I guess the feeling of sticking it to the state is appealing to some, but I for one would look for the better deal.

Happy Happy

I am really happy right now. I finally have the speed from my DSL connection that I should have had all along. I called Qwest yesterday to complain about the slow speed of my connection. It was no faster than a dial-up Internet connection. A technician came out this afternoon and fixed the problem. Now I am cruising on the net.

Also, our new windows (the glass kind, not the Microsoft kind) were installed in our house. They should help with the heating and cooling bills as they have a higher R-value than our old leaky windows. They also block noise better than the old windows did. Now we just need to get some new window coverings for the new windows. Hopefully our rebate from the gas company will cover much of that cost.

Reflections on RAGBRAI XXXIV

The final day of RAGBRAI XXXIV on Saturday went quite well. It was hot, but I was able to make it from Coralville to Muscatine by 9:30. The final day's ride wasn't too tough. I only rested for a total of 20 minutes that last day because I really wanted to make it to the end to dip my bike tires in the Mississippi River.

This year's ride definitely had its ups and downs. The first few days were quite hilly, there was the heat and humidity, and let's not forget the violent thunderstorms Tuesday night. Then of course there was the appearances of Lance Armstrong in Newton and Coralville with his riding on Wednesday and Thursday.

While riding on Monday and Tuesday, I was thinking that this would be my final RAGBRAI, at least for a while. I thought that I should take next year off. This is a thought that I frequently have in the early days of each year's RAGBRAI. However, by the end of the week, I had completely pushed that thought out of my mind. I am really looking forward to riding on my eighth RAGBRAI next summer if I can. Of course, if the route is through southern Iowa, I may have to reconsider that.

It's amazing that a group of over 10,000 strangers can get together for a week of bike riding and completely trust each other. In every town we pass through, cyclists leave their bikes unlocked as they go to get something to eat or to use the restroom. The hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bikes that sit around unsecured just boggles the mind.

Even those who would not normally get along . . .

can end up getting along.

I do have one regret about this year's RAGBRAI. I really wish I would have ridden the century loop on Thursday. At the moment I got to the loop during the ride, I didn't think I'd have the energy to make it. However, as the clouds covered the sun later in the day and it got a little less hot, I think I would have been able to make it. I can always try it next year.

I am looking forward to riding on RAGBRAI again next year. I only have 356 days to get ready for RAGBRAI XXXV!

Hot and Humid

Today's ride from Marengo to Coralville was fairly easy, but it was pretty hot and humid. I left our campsite shortly before 6:00 and was in Coralville by 9:35. The only really challenging part of today's ride was a steep hill going into Cosgrove. That hill was awful! To make it worse, we had to turn before going up the hill, so we lost much of the momentum that we already had. I only stopped once today. That was for breakfast in Williamsburg, where I had some breakfast pizza.

Tonight we are staying at the house of one of my coworkers, and the hospitality is fantastic! Her husband picked up a keg of Bud Lite from Hy-Vee, and they even cooked dinner for us. I did not partake of the dinner because my wife came down from Cedar Rapids to see me. We went across town to dinner so we could avoid the crowd from the RAGBRAI riders. I can't wait to see her again tomorrow morning when she picks me up in Muscatine.

Here are some photos I have taken so far on the ride. Once I get home I am going to fix them up so they load faster.

The first photo is of the Superior Hawgs team bus as we are loading it in the parking lot of the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.


Here I am dipping the rear tire of my bike in the Missouri River near Sergeant Bluff.



The Cookies Barbeque Sauce guy was cooking up food in one of the towns on Tuesday. I think it was Redfield.


Here's Lance Armstrong as he spoke in Newton on Wednesday.


Riders were encouraged to wear yellow on Thursday in honor of Lance Armstrong and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Seeing Lance Armstrong

The rest of yesterday's ride was pretty good. It wasn't too hilly, but it was warm. I went to downtown Newton early last night to see Lance Armstrong when he appeared at 8:00 p.m. He gave a short speech after receiving a proclamation from the state's first lady. In his speech he spoke about how more money needs to go to cancer research. He also indicated that he planned to ride all of RAGBRAI next summer.

Today's ride from Newton to Marengo wasn't too bad. There were quite a few hills early in the day and it was hot and humid, but at least the sun was hidden behind clouds for a good portion of the ride. Also, the last 14 or so miles from Victor to Marengo were fairly flat. It is still really hot this afternoon. The temperature is only 85 degrees, but it is very humid. Hopefully it cools off for sleeping later.

Stormy Night

I am a bit tired today after not getting much sleep last night. Two big thunderstorms came through Waukee while we were camping there. The first one was around 11:00 in the evening. I stayed in my tent during the storm, watching the lightning and the people who were running down the sidewalk for cover. That storm seemed to last a while, but I don't think it was more than 20 minutes or so. Then right around midnight, a announcement was made over loudspeakers that another storm was coming in about 15 minutes and the emergency shelters would be opened. I opted not to go to the shelter, after all, it was just a thunderstorm, not a tornado, but I did leave my tent to sit on the bus, which was located a few feet from my tent. The storms seemed to miss us for a while, but after a couple more announcements about storms, one came through around 2:30 a.m. that lasted until around 3:00. It was then that I finally got some sleep. My tent did withstand the 20-mile-per-hour winds that came with this storm better than my tent survived the big storm on last year's RAGBRAI. I just heard that more storms are expected for tonight. Great!

The ride today hasn't been too bad. There aren't as many hills, but we have had head winds much of the day. Right now I am in Elkhart, after passing through Granger and Polk City. I am about 30 miles into the ride today with another 40 to go. Stay tuned for more coverage of RAGBRAI XXXIV from Mathman.

RAGBRAI XXXIV Days 1 through 3

I'm writing this post to my blog from a Iowa Telecom trailer in Waukee. I'd post some photos with this blog entry, but I don't want to mess with plugging my camera into the computer. With is attached to the table, it's hard to reach the USB ports.

Anyway, I thought I'd update everyone on how my first few days of RAGBRAI have gone so far. We had a long bus ride from Cedar Falls to Sergeant Bluff on Saturday. We had to stop twice for repairs. The first time coincided with our lunch in Fort Dodge. The generator, which we haven't yet used, was leaking some oil. We spent an hour or so getting it fixed. Then later, we stopped in the western Iowa town of Early to fill the water tanks on our bus. It was then that we discovered a leak in the hose for the shower. We spent an hour or so there as well. Fortunately, we were parked at Crossroads Restaurant and Lounge. We spent some time enjoying margaritas and other adult beverages as the hose was being replaced. We did eventually get to Sergeant Bluff by 5:00. A couple of other members of our team and I made the mistake of going to dip our bike tires in the Missouri River. After riding five miles, three of which on very bad gravel and sand, we got to the river. We then got to repeat the trip to get back to our campground.

Sunday morning, some of us departed from Sergeant Bluff around 6:15. Our ride took us through the towns of Bronson, Anthon and Battle Creek. I had been told that this would be one of the hardest days on the ride, but it wasn't too bad. The nice tailwind we had throughout the day made out eastward journey fairly easy, despite the hills. I arrived in Ida Grove by 11:30 a.m.

While Sunday wasn't bad, Monday was brutal! We had strong headwinds most of the day. Our only respite from the wind was for the brief parts of the ride when we headed east, and by then we were so exhausted that I didn't feel much difference. The hills were just as bad as the day before, but the wind made it so much worse. On Monday we passed through only three towns, Boyer (which was barely a town), Arcadia, and Manning, before arriving in Audubon. The 77-mile ride took us from 6:00 until 3:30 p.m.!

Today was much better. Despite being hilly as well, we didn't have a headwind. I was able to make it to Waukee by 1:00. The bus however, didn't arrive until after 3:00! Needless to say, some of our team were quite upset. Hopefully the bus arrives before us tomorrow.

I may post some more later in the week if I get the chance. I'll also put up some photos once I get back home.

Returning the Tent

I tried to set up our new tent last night so I would know how to do it when I am on RAGBRAI next week, but one of the parts was damaged. So after work today, I have to stop by Scheels in Coralville to exchange it for another one. Aside from the damaged part, the tent is really nice. It's pretty big, almost too big for RAGBRAI. However, the size will be good if Mel and I ever go camping together or if she joins me on RAGBRAI next year.

Because I'll be on RAGBRAI, I may not be blogging much next week. I may try to find a computer to post some entries to my blog while I gone though, but don't be surprised if I don't write regularly next week.

My Damned Honesty

Once again, trying to do the right thing doesn't pay off. As I have previously written about, my wife and I bought a new car at the end of January. This car came with an XM satellite radio with three free months of service. We enjoyed listening to the XM radio, but we decided it wasn't worth paying the $13 or so each month that the service would cost to continue after three months. April ended and I was expecting the XM radio to stop working. It continued to work. Recently I decided that I had better call them because I would hate to get a bill for months of service. Apparently the ID connected to our XM radio was not associated with any other information, so they had no idea that the radio was working I guess. We could have continued listening to the XM radio for free! Anyway, the customer service representative said it would be deactivated soon. Maybe he did something wrong, because four hours later, when I was driving home from work, I noticed that the radio was still working. If it continues to work I can be comfortable with the fact that I tried to do the right thing and be honest. It's not my fault if the customer service representative didn't properly deactivate my radio.

Getting Ready for RAGBRAI

Mel and I bought a new tent this past weekend for me to use on RAGBRAI. I was going to set it up last night so I could seal the seams and so I'd know how to set it up when I need to next week. However, just as I was thinking about doing it, I saw that there was a storm in Benton County, just west of my home. Therefore, I held of on setting up the tent. I'd like to treat the seams before it gets rained on. Hopefully I can take care of that tonight.

My Sister and President Bush

My sister is in Germany for a few weeks for a program of some kind. I'm not exactly sure what she is doing there, but anyway, I got an email from my mom last night urging me to check out this AP photo on Yahoo! My sister is the head at the center of the bottom of the photo, the one with the outstreached arm clad in black.

Here's another photo of President Bush in Germany. My sister is not in this photo, I just found it amusing and thought I'd share it.

License to Steal

It looks like if you want to shoplift items valued under $25 from Wal-Mart, you not have carte blanche to do so. According to an article on CNN.com, Wal-Mart will now only prosecute shoplifters who are caught taking merchandise worth $25 or more. So carefully add up those prices before walking off without paying at your local Wal-Mart.

Stuck

Well, I'm stuck at the place where I am having meetings this week. I would have liked to return to my hotel 45 minutes ago, but I have to wait for a couple other people to get done with their meetings for today. At least this gave be a chance to get caught up on the 55 email messages that I missed at work since leaving for Minnesota yesterday.

Back to Minnesota

I'm back, in Minnesota that is. It's time for another few days in the Twin Cities for work running committee meetings to look at test questions. I usually enjoy these meetings, and I'm sure this time will be no different. Driving from Cedar Rapids to Saint Paul does make for a long day though after spending four hours in the office in the morning. We used to stay at a hotel in Bloomington in which all of the rooms were suites with separate living rooms and bedrooms. This hotel does not have that, but this time I am in an executive suite which is just a standard room with a refrigerator and a microwave hidden in the armoire. The room also has a Sleep Number bed. From previous stays here, I think I have determined that my Sleep Number is 40. And of course, the dining out is always nice while here on business. We usually go to places we can't go to back in Cedar Rapids. I am really going to try to be good with not overeating this time.

Beer, Beer, Beer

Last night Mel and I went to the wedding reception for her supervisor from work. We went with a few other of her coworkers, one of whom happens to be a former student of mine from when I taught at Highland in Riverside, Iowa. It was a lot of fun, considering that I knew neither the bride nor the groom. We all pretty much sat at our table at the back of the reception hall. I kept walking across the room to the tap to keep our pitcher of beer full. I much say that we had plenty to drink.

I had been thinking about relaxing a bit this morning before starting to work on cleaning the basement, but I think I will go out for a bike ride instead. I could use some exercise to burn off the calories from all that beer. Besides, today will be the last day I have a chance to go cycling as I'll be in Minnesota for work all this week. My goal is to ride at least 25 miles today. I was hoping to reach that point yesterday, but I came up 1.12 miles short. At least I didn't get a flat tire this time. In fact, I think I will follow the same route I was riding last Monday when I did get a flat tire. This time I'll keep a better eye out for glass!

Excellent Movie!

Mel and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last night and we both loved the movie! It was packed full of action and humor. The special effects and costumes were fantastic. Some of the fight scenes were great. I have to say that I had never before seen a three-way sword fight in a movie (or in real life for that matter). I think Mel and I may have to go see the movie once again before it leaves the theaters. Now I really can't wait until next summer when the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean is released so I can see the resolution of the movie's cliffhanger.

She Wants to be a Pirate

In honor of today's release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, this week's photo of the week is of my wife standing behind a pirate skeleton (or is it a skeleton pirate) at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We already have tickets to see the movie tonight. As soon as I get home from work, we are heading over to the theater for what should be a great movie. Mel has been really excited about seeing this. We had considered going to the midnight showing of the movie this morning as she doesn't have to work today, but I didn't think I'd want to show up at work exhausted. That's why I took a personal day from school last year for the opening of the final Star Wars movie.

Jamaica Part 5 - The Final Two Days

It’s been a few days since I have blogged about Mel’s and my trip to Jamaica, so I suppose I should finish up with the posts on Jamaica. For most of the last two full days we were in Jamaica, Thursday and Friday, we were at the resort’s beach. After having breakfast at the buffet at one of the restaurants, we went to the beach. For about six hours both of the days, we alternated between lying in the beach chairs and swimming in the sea. Leaving the beach on Friday was difficult as it would be the last time we would be there on this trip.

Friday evening was the bon voyage party in the pavilion on the Manor side of the resort. We enjoyed the buffet and the drinks. However we didn’t stay for the main festivities of the party. At 8:00, we headed back toward our cottage on the Riviera side of the resort. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:13 Saturday morning, and with a two hour drive there as well as needing to get there a couple hours before the flight left, we wouldn’t be getting much sleep.

We checked out of the hotel at 2:00 in the morning and by 3:00 we were on a bus to the airport. We really enjoyed our trip to Jamaica and our stay at Sandals Grande Ocho Rios. We are hoping that we will have a chance to visit again. If we do go again, you can be sure that our flight back home will not be leaving at 7:00 in the morning!

Happy Independence Day!

I hope everyone is having a happy Independence Day. Mel and I took the opportunity to relax most of the day. We did go see Superman Returns this afternoon. It was a good movie. I am really glad that I watched the 1978 Superman earlier this weekend on the satellite TV. Some of the lines from this movie were taken directly from the original movie and other parts made references to parts of that movie. I also liked how the opening credits were similar in style to the original Superman, and even though he didn't compose the music for the movie, John Williams's original Superman theme was of course used. We enjoyed the movie, even though it was a bit long. It seemed to me that there were parts that could have been cut some.

This was the second movie we had seen in four days. We saw The Da Vinci Code on Saturday. It was also a good movie. It was full of action and I really liked Tom Hanks's character. He wasn't the typical hero from an action film, but it really worked in this movie. The movie also brought up some interesting ideas. Now I think I should read the book.

We'll be seeing another movie next weekend when Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opens.

No-Work Monday

I really enjoyed not having to go to work today. I was able to sleep in come, getting up at 7:30 instead of my usual 5:30. I then went for another bike ride. I rode 25 miles before I got a flat tire. Unfortunately I didn't have a spare tube with me. I was still a few miles from home, but Homercles was kind enough to come pick me up. The two of us had a nice lunch at Bennigan's. I had hoped to buy some spare tubes for my bike after lunch, but both bike shops in town were closed for the Independence Day holiday, so unless I drive down to Scheels in Coralville tomorrow, I won't be out again on my bike until at least Wednesday.

A Beautiful Afternoon

Mel is off shopping with some friends today, so I thought I'd take advantage of this beautiful afternoon to get some cycling in. I just got back from a thirty-seven-mile bike ride, and it was great! I'd have ridden longer, but Mel should be home soon and we have plans for the evening. We are going to be watching Mel's friend's four-year-old son while his mom plays softball this evening. Perhaps I'll be able to get out for another lengthy ride tomorrow morning.

The Superior Hawgs

This week's photo of the week was taken before last year's RAGBRAI. It shows the team bus for the Superior Hawgs, the group I ride with. This year the bus had a fresh coat of paint. This was a very good thing, as the year before, we got pulled over for having a bus that was school bus yellow. Apparently only busses used to transport students to and from school can be school bus yellow.

Jamaica Part 4 - The Dunn's River Falls Jeep Safari

On Wednesday, Mel and I went on another tour. This time we were headed to Dunn’s River Falls, but we didn’t go there directly. Instead, we took Chukka Caribbean Adventures’s Jeep Safari to Dunn’s River Falls. Our resort was about twenty minutes away from the falls, but first we had a ride in a jeep for about four or five hours. Our guide, Gene Lilly, was awesome! He told us so much about what we were seeing. First we drove through Ocho Rios. Our driver/guide taught us all about local plants. While on a street in Ocho Rios, we pulled to the side of the road, and Gene bought some fruit from a man on the street. He passed the fruit around so we could all see what it was. It was an ackee, the national fruit of Jamaica. The fruit is only edible if it opens naturally. When it is cooked, it looks like scrambled eggs. I confirmed this when I had ackee and saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish, for dinner that night.

We also stopped in a schoolyard where Gene taught us about some of the national symbols of Jamaica that were painted on the school wall. He also told us about Marcus Garvey, National Hero of Jamaica, as the schoolchildren gathered around the jeep and listened in.

Our tour then continued to take us through Fern Gully. Fern Gully used to be a river, but an earthquake hundreds of years ago caused the river to change its course. Now it is a three-mile-long windy road with hundreds of species of ferns located on the sides of the road. It was beautiful.

Gene offered us some refreshments during our tour. He handed out plastic cups and then passed back a one-gallon jug of rum punch while he was driving. The punch was good, although it was hard to get it into the cups while he was driving quickly on the rough roads. I think everyone got some of the punch, which he called “cough medicine,” on themselves.

Our next stop was on Murphy Hill, 2000 feet above sea level. If it had been a clear day, we would have been able to see Cuba from the top of the hill. Unfortunately, it was a bit overcast, so we couldn’t see Cuba. We also drove through a cattle pasture. This involved a lot of stopping as the driver had to keep opening and closing gates to keep the cattle penned up. We also drove alongside a very long conveyor belt that carries bauxite to a port.

On our jeep safari, we also stopped for a snack of some fresh fruit. We were served pineapple, watermelon, oranges, mangos, and coconut milk. We also got to try the jelly of the coconut. The local who helped serve us told us that the coconut jelly would help us men “put lead in our pencils.”

After hours of driving around seeing various sites in and around Ocho Rios, we ended up at Dunn’s River Falls. There, we climbed 600 or so feet up the waterfall. It was a lot of fun, even though it was a little challenging at times. We spent about an hour at the waterfalls. I only got one photo taken at Dunn’s River Falls. As we would be in a waterfall, I only brought along the waterproof, single-use camera. By the time we got to our final destination, I only had one exposure remaining, and here’s the photo that was taken.

After returning to the resort, we spent some time at the beach before having dinner. We were pretty tired out from our day’s trip that we didn’t do much else in the evening.

Jamaica Part 3 - The Blue Mountain Bicycle Tour

Mel and I had to get up a little earlier on Tuesday than we had the previous two days. On Tuesday we went on a tour away from the resort. A little after 8:00, we got on a bus headed to the Blue Mountains. We went on the Blue Mountain Bicycle Tour. We had a bus ride of about three hours to get from Ocho Rios to the Blue Mountains, the highest mountain range in the Caribbean. On the way, our bus driver pointed out several landmarks, from Ian Fleming’s estate Goldeneye, to Noel Coward’s house Firefly, and even the James Bond Beach. Our bus driver also told us about the different parishes of Jamaica that we passed through. We stopped at a restaurant for breakfast.

The drive on the main roads was scary enough, and then we hit the mountain road. The road was very narrow and carried two-way traffic! At one point, our bus driver told us that if we all did exactly what he said, he’d show us a pink rooster with purple wings and white legs. All we had to do was to look to the left and not look to the right. Naturally, we all looked to the right to see that we were at the very edge of a steep drop-off down the side of the mountain. Later we went over a very narrow bridge. It was so narrow, that our guides insisted that we walk our bikes across it. This is the bridge shown below.

After driving up the mountain for a while, we got off the bus and got our bikes and safety equipment. After being told the rules of riding down the mountain – whenever we heard a whistle it meant that there was an oncoming car, so we had to pull to the left side of the road to stop – we began our ride down the mountain. The ride was about 18 miles with 95% of it downhill. So I did get some RAGBRAI training in during our trip to Jamaica. Now I am all ready for going down hill!

We stopped occasionally for our guides to tell us about the area. We learned about how the coffee is grown, picked, and prepared on the mountain. We also learned about many of the plants that we saw going down the mountain.

Once we reached the stopping point, we went for a swim at the bottom of a waterfall. The water was pretty cold, but it was refreshing. On the way back to the resort, we stopped for lunch at the same restaurant we had at breakfast at.

It was around 5:00 by the time we got back to the resort. We didn’t do much else that evening. But, we did have dinner at the restaurant the resort has on the pier that goes around the swimming area of the beach. It was pretty good food. After that, we went back to our room. I was feeling a bit dehydrated, and the rum I had at dinner probably didn’t help, so we didn’t do much else that night.

Number Icosahedron

Thanks Matt for finding what has got to be one of the geekiest quizzes I've seen in a long time. I actually got my favorite die as a result.

In case anyone is wondering about the title of this entry, in my line of work, we generally avoid using the term "die" for various reasons, and instead use the phrase "number cube." In this case, number cube wouldn't be correct as the twenty-sided die is not a cube, hence the title "Number Icosahedron."

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Jamaica Part 2 - The Beach

Once we got out of bed on Sunday, June 18, our first full day in Jamaica, we went to the beach at the resort. We spent most of what was left of the morning and the early afternoon on the beach and in the sea. The water was very nice. Besides relaxing on the beach and in the sea, I did make a few trips to the bar that was located on the beach. Most of the drinks I had contained Appleton rum. Yum! At 5:00 in the afternoon, we attended an orientation session at the resort’s amphitheater where we learned about what the resort had to offer.

In the evening, we went to Valentino’s, one of the two Italian restaurants at the resort, for dinner. This restaurant required more formal dress than the rest of the restaurants at the resort. The food was pretty good, but the service was terrific! I really enjoyed not having to worry about what the bill would be, since there wasn’t one. Also, there is no tipping allowed, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

In the evening we watched a reggae band featuring the singer Maristo perform at the amphitheater. They were really good.

We spent most of Monday on the beach as we had the day before. We also rode the water trikes in the sea. That was fun. In the evening, we attended the resort’s beach party. Unfortunately, the weather was such that it could have stormed any moment, so the beach party was not held at the beach. Instead, it was at the pavilion on the other part of the resort. Despite the party not being on the beach, it was a lot of fun. They had a buffet with lots of good food, including many delicious deserts. They also had several bartenders who were all too happy to serve us some alcohol. I had a few rum and cokes and a few Red Stripes as well. We stayed a bit once the band started performing before returning to our room.

Lance Armstrong to Ride on RAGBRAI

According to the Des Moines Register, Lance Armstrong will be riding part of RAGBRAI this year! Not many details have been released, but he says this may not be a one-time thing either. He's free now for the ride now that he is not riding on the Tour de France. Perhaps I'll bump into him on the ride.

Jamaica Part 1 - Getting to Jamaica

Our trip to Jamaica began around 5:30 in the morning on Saturday, June 17, as we headed to the Eastern Iowa Regional Airport. This was our honeymoon. We got married in November, but for various reasons we were unable to go on a honeymoon until now. Our first of three flights of the day went well. We even arrived early at our first stop, Chicago. It was in Chicago where we had a problem. Once everyone was on board the plane, we learned of a mechanical problem with the plane. They tried to fix it but were unable to. Everyone on the plane then had to get off and board a different plane. We ended up departing from Chicago about an hour late. This caused us to miss our connection from Miami to Montego Bay, Jamaica. Fortunately, we were easily rebooked onto another flight that evening. However, now instead of arriving in Jamaica at 2:30 in the afternoon, we arrived at 8:30 at night. We then had a two-hour bus ride to get to our resort in Ocho Rios.

Once we were there, we got checked in and then were driven to the other part of the resort. Our resort had two sides, the Manor side and the Riviera side. We were staying on the Riviera side, but the main check-in desk was at the Manor side. We soon got to our room and were able to get some sleep.

The photo that is included in this post is of the cottage that our room was in. Our room was the rightmost room on the first floor. It was the room behind the chess set.

I’ll continue blogging about our vacation in Jamaica over the next several days, but this is all for now.

Irie

Yeah mon! Our luggage has been located. The airport's delivery service will be bringing it by tonight. They should be here by 11:30. I would like to get some sleep, as I have been up for nearly twenty hours now, but I would really like to get the baggage. I could have gotten them delivered tomorrow instead, but then I would have had to get up early. I just want to get this done with.

I'm Back!

And amazingly, I'm quite awake at this moment. My wife and I got back to Iowa from a week-long trip to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, this afternoon around 5:00. We had to get up a little after 1:00 this morning to get ready to check out of our hotel room by 2:00. We then had to catch a bus at 3:00 for a two-hour ride to the airport in Montego Bay for out 7:13 flight to Miami. When we got to Cedar Rapids, we discovered that our luggage did not follow us the entire way back home. We saw it in Miami, where we had to take it through customs then re-check it for the remainder of our journey. We had a flight from Miami to Dallas-Fort Worth. There we barely made it to our flight to Cedar Rapids. By the time we got to the gate, they had just started boarding. So, I am assuming that our luggage just didn't make it to that plane.

Hopefully our bags will be on the flight from Dallas arriving in Cedar Rapids at 9:15 tonight. If it is, the airline will deliver it to our house tonight. This wouldn't be too much of a problem, but tomorrow we are going to dinner for my grandparents' sixth-fifth wedding anniversary, and we would like to wear something nice. Unfortunately, all of Mel's nice clothes are in her suitcases. If we get it early enough, we can do some laundry so we will look decent tomorrow.

I'll be blogging about my trip during the upcoming week. I'd do it tonight, but I have other things I need to get done.

Time Off

I'm going to be taking some time off from blogging. I should be back a week from Sunday.

Greg LeMond

I'm posting this a little early, but I don't want to worry about doing it tomorrow morning. The photo of the week for this week is from RAGBRAI XXXI in July 2003. In the photo are my dad and Dave Plummer, who runs Dave's RAGBRAI Page, with three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond. He was along on the first day or two of RAGBRAI that year. Here we were in a bar in Shenandoah, Iowa. We went there after Dave got released from the hospital. He had collapsed a few hours earlier when we were in line at Godfather's Pizza for dinner. Dave had become dehydrated and was taken to the hospital.

Bank Robbery

Yesterday afternoon, around the time I was returning home from work, one of the three banks around the corner from my house was robbed. I may have seen this happening if I had taken a different route home. The robber was a six-foot-three, 230-pound white man in his 20s. Now I am six feet three inches tall and weigh about 220 pounds, however I am in my 30s. I could maybe pass for 20s (ok, probably not) and the weight is only off by ten pounds from me. Too top it off I don't have an alibi, but I insist it wasn't me. I don't own a white suit coat, which is what the bank robber was wearing.

** UPDATE **

See, I look nothing like the suspect:

Suspect		Mathman

Training

I've been getting some bike riding in the past couple of weeks, training for RAGBRAI. The RAGBRAI web site recommends riding at least 500 miles prior to RAGBRAI. I have never gotten in that much riding before the previous RAGBRAIs I have been on, and I am sure this year will be no exception. After my 13.57-mile ride tonight, I have ridden 137.87 miles so far this year. I have ridden longer than I did before RAGBRAI last year. Of course, with moving, the new job, and other distractions, I had a difficult time finding time to ride. What I really need to do is get in a couple of long rides some weekend. So far, the farthest any of my rides have been this year is 16.66 miles, and that was my first ride of the year, in April. I really wanted to get out this past weekend, since Mel had to work, but the weather did not cooperate. Perhaps the weekend after we get back from Jamaica, Mel and I can go for a ride together.

The Animated Star Trek Series

The animated Star Trek series will soon be released on DVD, although the date and other details are not yet available. Let's hope that Paramount offers these episodes at a more reasonable price than they offer most of their TV series on DVD.

To Waterloo

I went to Waterloo after work this evening to visit my mom and to help her move some things around. She didn't want to be alone this evening as it was one year ago today that my father passed away. She made it through the day pretty well, as did I. I had been worried that I would have a hard time getting through the day, but I was so busy at work, that I didn't have time to think about anything else. My mom and I went to Olive Garden for dinner. She had said that it had been a while since she had been there. She doesn't like to go there by herself, so she hasn't had much of a chance to go there recently.

It's hard to believe that it has been a whole year now that we have been without my dad. It still seems like just a short time ago that I answered the telephone on that Sunday afternoon to hear my mom screaming hysterically. We have all gotten along pretty well since losing him, but it hasn't always been easy. I wish he would have been able to be at Mel's and my wedding in November, and as he died the day before I was to start my new job, I was never able to talk to him about it. I suppose things will get easier over time, although there will still be occasions that we will wish my dad was still with us.

80s TV

Mel had to get up around 5:00 this morning to get ready for work. Unfortunately, I was not able to get back to sleep after her alarm went off, so I ended up getting out of bed around 5:30 or so this morning. Even with all of the channels that I can get on the satellite dish, there wasn't much on, so I ended up watching a couple of shows on the Sleuth Channel - an episode of The A-Team from 1984 and a Knight Rider episode from 1983. While watching The A-Team, I noticed that everyone on that show is just awful at firing automatic weapons. It takes a long time for anyone to hit anything and no one dies! I still found the two programs entertaining after all these years, but I'm sure not to the extent that I did when I was 11 and 12 years old when these programs first aired. Now I have shifted my TV viewing to the Game Show Network where I am watching the Bill Cullen game show Blockbusters. Match Game airs at 10:00 this morning. So once I finish this post, I'm going to plan on working at cleaning the garage, which I didn't get to yesterday. I'll be taking a break at 10:00 so I can watch Match Game, the best game show of all time!

Aaron needs...

Following the lead of Side Notes and Detours, I went to Google and entered "(My name) needs". Below are the first ten results. When multiple results of the same thing occurred, I only listed the first occurrence.

• Aaron needs a tracheostomy.
• Aaron needs you!
• Aaron needs to learn how to count. (Interesting since I am a former math teacher.)
• Aaron needs to lose some weight in this pic. (Hey, I'm trying!)
• Aaron needs to understand that he is not "dumb." (Ok, I'm not dumb.)
• Landon Aaron needs our help. (Apparently a high school student is in trouble for promoting National High Five Day at his high school. The event fell on April 20, a date associated with smoking weed, so the administration at his school thought that was what the day was about and he got in trouble at school. It would seem to me that maybe April 20 wasn't the best day for National High Five Day, unless of course it were about smoking weed.)
• Aaron needs the most help with nutritional assistance and learning proper biomechanics in weight training.
• Aaron will need to be fitted for new prosthetics approximately 3 - 4 times per year.
• Aaron.Needs.Love (I thought I had found that.)
• Aaron needs a job. (I actually have one I usually enjoy, and it pays well.)

This sounds like some good advice. I'm not sure how I can implement some of the advice, but it sounds good.

Cleaning

I am trying to get myself motivated enough to go out and clean my garage. It is a bit of a mess, and with recently acquiring some belongings from my mother's house before she moved, I need to find places to put things. This is probably a good day to work on this. I had originally hoped to go on a long bike ride today, but the weather isn't cooperating. It's a bit cool outside and it is raining. If it were just raining lightly but warmer, I'd still go out for a ride. However rain and 49 degrees, is just not good cycling weather. I don't think it will take too long to reorganize the garage, so I suppose I should get to it.

Cy and Me

The latest photo of the week is also from last year's RAGBRAI and was actually taken on the same day as last week's photo of the week. This photo is from Wednesday, July 27, 2006, in Lake Mills, Iowa. Lake Mills was the last pass-through town on the day's 83-mile ride. We stopped there for a while to rest a bit before riding the final 18 miles to Northwood. Standing in the middle of the street of Lake Mills, was Cy, the Iowa State mascot. While I am no Iowa State fan, I did go to the University of Iowa for a year plus some for grad school, my wife and her family are, so I stopped to get my picture taken with Cy. I am however wearing an Iowa shirt. Actually it's a blood donor shirt from the DeGowin Blood Center at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, but is makes a nice juxtaposition.

Bruce Eilers
June 7, 1945 - June 12, 2005

The End of Today's Workday

The last hour of my workday today was pretty unproductive. I spent much of it sitting in a conference room with several others, taking shelter from the tornados that were hitting Johnson County. I don't know if there were actually any tornados, but I don't think any damage was done. This actually worked out pretty well for me. I was about to look for something to work on for my last hour of the day, as I had just finished up what I had been working on, and the tornado warning was lifted pretty much at the time when I usually leave work.

Decision Time

Now's the time I have to make a final decision as to who to vote for in the primary election. I am still conflicted between voting for the candidate I think has the best chance of winning in the general election versus voting for the candidate who most represents my views. There are some aspects of the candidate who I think can win in the general election that I do not like, but I am sure they are minor when compared to issues I'll have with his opponent in the general election. I won't be voting until after work, so I still have a few hours to ponder my decision.

Donating Blood

I stopped by the Red Cross to donate a pint of blood today. It had been January since I had last donated blood. I had an appoint for a couple of months ago, but I didn't make it back from a business trip in time to keep my appointment. I used to give blood fairly regularly and I fully intend to resume doing so. I have already made another appointment to give blood as soon as I can. I really don't like giving blood as I do not like pain and having that needle stuck in my arm hurts a little. However, I feel that giving blood is something I can do to help others, and as my blood type is O-, it is always in need. It does a lot of good, and it really doesn't hurt all that much.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

(As seen at Side Notes and Detours)

High School Reunion

This weekend I got an invitation in the mail for the Waterloo West High School 15-year reunion. I will not be attending the reunion. First of all, I'll be on the other side of Iowa, the night before RAGBRAI begins, when the reunion is taking place. I could get together with people the night before at a bar, but I don't really have much desire to go. I only went to West High for my senior year of high school. The prior three years, I went to Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids. My dad had only been teaching part time for the Cedar Rapids School District, so when he got a full-time position with the Waterloo Schools, he took that, and in September 1990, my family moved to Waterloo. I really didn't get to know many of my classmates at West High, and one of them is a friend of my sister still. I occasionally see her when I am in the Twin Cities for work, so there's really no reason for me to go to my high school reunion. Now if my class from Jefferson has a 15-year reunion, I'd like to go to that. I was invited to the 10-year reunion, but for some reason I didn't go. I kind of wish I had.

To the Beach Again

Last weekend Mel and I went to Sandy Beach near Shueyville for some sun and fun in the water. Today, we went to the Coralville Lake instead. I have to say that the beach at the Coralville Lake is much better than Sandy Beach. The beach is bigger and much cleaner. The water was also better. It was less dirty, and the bottom of the lake has sand within the entire swimming area. We didn't have to contend with a muddy bottom. The swimming area also gets deeper than the lake at Sandy Beach. I was unable to touch the bottom of the lake about three-quarters of the way to the end of the swimming area. It's nice to be able to swim without worrying about hitting the bottom. Besides, the deeper area isn't as crowded as shallower parts of the lakes. I don't know if we will make it out to the beach again for a third weekend in a row, but it would be nice. We'd like to get a start on our tans before we head to Jamaica for our week-long delayed honeymoon later this month (oh Homercles, I'm going to be asking you for a favor :).

X-Men: The Last Stand

Mel and I went to see X-Men late yesterday afternoon, and I want to thank Captain Creative for telling me that there was more to the movie at the end of the credits. It was only a few seconds, but it was very important, although I had a suspicion that what was revealed at the end had happened. It was a good action movie. I don't want to say much else because I wouldn't want to spoil the movie for anyone, but I can say that I recommend this movie for people who enjoy this genre, and I have to say STAY FOR THE CREDITS!

Bloody Marys

With RAGBRAI just seven weeks away, I think I will turn the focus of the photos of the week to RAGBRAI photos. This photo was taken at Racers bar in Titonka, Iowa, on day four of last year's ride. Last year's RAGBRAI was typically a bit cold in the morning, so Wednesday morning around 8:00 we stopped in the first pass-through town for bloody marys. I had never had one before, and I have to say, I really didn't find them all that great. Anyway, it was one of only a couple of times in my six years of riding on RAGBRAI that I had an alcoholic beverage during the day's riding. Now drinking at night is a whole other story.

You Are Cyclops

Dedicated and responsible, you will always remain loyal to your cause. You are a commanding leader - after all, you can kill someone just by looking at them. Power: force beams from your eyes

Which of the X-Men Are You?

New Windows

Last night we had a salesperson at our house selling us replacement windows for our home. A few months ago, Mel had seen a TV commercial advertising a company that was giving away free windows or siding, so she filled out the form on their website. Shortly after that, we received a phone call from someone with the Acri Company asking us if we would like to have someone come to our home to give us an estimate. Last night was the night he came. We have known since buying our house that we would need to replace the windows, and this winter we learned just how drafty some of them were. The price we were quoted was very reasonable, and the windows seem to be very high quality, so we are going for it. Much of the cost of the windows should be offset by savings in our heating and cooling bills. I guess we'll see if that happens.