August!!! A month long Birthday celebration. (Aug1st)

It's my month long celebration of my birthday. So I am going to do something a bit unique. Give you the month of August day by day. I may miss a day or two, but will see how it goes. Birthdays, this day in history. Holidays you may never have know about. I think it will be fun. Don't worry, I blog about things I am doing as well. So here goes. August was named after Augustus Cesar for taking down the Egyptians. So to give him a month that was equal to Julius Cesar(July) with the same amount of days they gave august 31.
The flower for the month is the Gladiolus(splendid beauty)
The gemstone is the Peridot, Jade.
August is golf month, catfish month, water quality month, eye exam month.
The first week of august is breast feeding week and clown week.

On this day we observe sister's day and respect your parents day. so i expect all of you to give you sister's and parents a call.

Events happening on this day are:
Columbus lands in south America(1498)
Colorado becomes a state(1876, yeah Colorado people)
Hitler opens the 10th Olympic games(1933)
First world war erupts in Europe(1914)
GW suspended from flying in the Air Force national guard(1972)
Bert Blyleven becomes 10th player to strikeout 3,ooo batters(1986)
Reggie Jackson gets inducted into the Hall of Fame(1993)

People born on this day:
Francis Scott Key(1779)
Dom Delouse(1933)
Jerry Garcia(1941)

So this is just day one people. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Numero 50.

Well we had to save something somewhat monumental for post 50. As I have been riding I have set some goals for myself. remember back in may when I started it took me 30 minutes to get to work and about 24 to get home. I said if i could get those down to 25 minutes to and 20 home I would be thrilled. Well I have crushed those marks. yesterdays ride home was 18 minutes. That is cruising at a 3:40 clip per mile. The Italian Stallion has picked it up. Now If I could figure out how to time those darn stop lights, will really be cooking.

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Well Barroid Bonds is in town and he has brought his cream with him. I don't think we should even let him see the ball. Maybe throw at him. Nobody will charge the mound anyway. His teammates don't even like him. If he gets the record, do it somewhere else, Barroid. You are not welcome to do it in the town that Aaron built.

Check it out!

We have made some adjustments, ala Dave and Ceci's blogs. The changes are fun. I added some things as well. So we are getting more advanced day by day. More to come I am sure.

More pics from Minneapolis.

Here they are, more pictures from our Minneapolis trip. Sorry for the delay, but we were having some problems with uploading pics from our computer to Blogger.

Some time coming

Well it's been awhile, but we went to a ballgame in Minnesota to see the Brewers stomp on the twins. Visiting the glad bag dome was an intersting experience. The staduim was buit for football. So lets play ball in there. It gets real loud in there to. Real hard to make out what there saying on the speakers. We won the game 5-2. Not real eventful. Watching Prince in batting practice was great. He launched some magestic shots way back in the second deck in the outfield. Here are some photos of our day.

End of June.

Time is flying by. Well not at work per say, but out of work time flyies by. You are aware of this, but to me it is just fascinating, how I have dropped my second job, and still I am running, or biking, like a pack of wild chickens with there heads cut off. The end of June is here. We are scheduled for a "small" family gathering in Michigan territory. Johnson's, Labarge's, Young's oh my. So this weekend will go by quickly. I will try to stop and smell the tulips, if there are any left. Maybe also grab a picture or two for those of us who will not be there. July's right around the corner.

Family Golf outing.

This past weekend we had a family golf outing/cookout to celebrate my Uncle Phil and my cousin Cassie's birthdays. We played on a par 3 course, pretty small one at that. So Saturday we took a practice run, Becky, Mike, Ben, my Dad, and myself. It was Becky's first time ever golfing. She did awesome for a first timer. Got right into the spirit of golfing by getting frustrated a lot. She finished with a 76. My dad bested us with a 63. Well on Sunday was the big gig. We had 20 people playing. All ages, male and female. Well the defending champ, my uncle's brother-in-law didn't show up. so it was wide open. Now there was no way I could win my dad was to tough. Also he was in the group behind us, so know way to know his score. So Ben, mike , Becky, and I played. I was lights out. Making shot after shot. Chipping with good precision. Ice in the veins when it came to putting. I finished with a 59, 4-over par. That was stellar. Come to find out my Dad six putted on one green and had a bad day as well. I was the winner. Ben came in second with a 62. Becky brought her total down to 74. She finished in the top 10 which for a second time out was great. Good job babe. So know I go into next year as the man to beat. No pressure!

Who would have thought, biking, frusterating.

OK, so I have been biking for a month now and boy I have learned a lot, beaten some odds, and continue to get better, at least on my way to and from work. Lately we have been doing some tweaking as you say. Know this bike is probably one of the first ever made, so it's not top of the line stuff, but it fits the job none-the-less. So we got new handlebar grips. We also got knew pedals that you can fit your shoes in. We purchased gloves, necessary after the first few days I realized it was hurting my hand right below the thumb area. of course we has helmets and thank goodness for that today(that story coming up). So last week we tried switching the pedals. The right side went like a hot knife through butter. Next we started work on the left pedal. Easy factor, not so much. It wouldn't budge. Not an inch. We torqued on it, pounded it, soaked it in all sorts of concoctions, We ran around it, through it on the ground, the pedal didn't come off. So we let it sit for a few days till I could get a socket to remove the pedal arm from the bike. So Friday we gave it a try again. We got the bike pedal off the frame and started to pound on it again. We used Brut force as our clamp, and pliers and a hammer. Now a few days ago I had a notion that the pedal had to be unscrewed differently than when we did the other one, but I blew that idea off and continued in my stubborn manner. Well after struggling, we decided to check the Internet to see what we were doing wrong. Well we found out that the left pedal unscrews opposite the right. So we have been tightening the pedal for hours. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well By this time I am a weeeeeeeeeeee bit frustrated. So I grab the pedal and start hammering it the other way. The pedal goes flying out of my hand flush off the ankle bone. OUCHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Well that was it. I was done. To which in about three minutes Becky gets it off and unscrews it. So She takes the bike and moves it. As she puts down the kickstand, she plants it into her big toe, right on the bone. She could barely deal with the pain. She is a tough cookie, but even that amount of pain is overbearing. So fortunately we are back up and running. Which brings me to this morning. I tried the new pedals for the first time. I found it very tough to get both feet in the strappy things. However I finally got it to work. I made it to me first stoplight at a very busy intersection. Low and behold I didn't have the ability to get me feet out and i lost my balance and fell off my bike pretty hard. In front of I'm sure dozens of laughing car drivers. I was super embarrassed. I twisted my wrist in the fall as well. So it has been a bit of a troublesome last couple of days. I may just want to walk to work now.

Getting up there....

The oldest man in the world told the paper he was sorry for being "so old" in a report I read. That is a long time. What do you do when your that old? Do you get super discounts at Mcd's? Do you get free bus fare? do you need to live in a super old persons home? A lot of questions come in to play when you think of someone that old. The oldest know person was Jeanne Calment who new Vincent Vangooh. She lived to be 122yr, 164d. Sarah Knanss was the oldest US citizen at 119y, 97d. Christian Mortensen is the oldest confirmed male at 115 years old. The oldest living male and female know live in Japan. I wonder if eating sushi may have something to do with it? I think that if you live past one hundred you must be doing something right.

What????????

If you are eating, wait to continue you this post. I was riding on my way to work and came to something I would soon forget. ROADKILL!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh man! I nearly retched my guts out. I don't know of anything that could smell much worse stuff you could smell, but fermented yuck. Enough said.

Biking.

Well we got the road bike fixed up last Thursday and today was the first day I was able to ride to work. I was flying like a semi-warm knife through butter. 24 minutes on the clock. I may just shoot for 20 minutes. We started out at about 35 minutes and have cut it down big time. Twenty more years like this and I might pretend I'm riding in a big race. HEHEHEHE.

Road trip.

So about seven of us from our Church go down to Bloomington, IL, to help get some support for our missions in Senegal. This was about a 3 1/2 hour trek. On the way you know there will be at least one stop. It's expected with females, and people who just put down a thermos full of coffee. Well we stop in this "interesting" little town called Tonica. I'm not sure they celebrate Hanukkah.
So you know there is trouble when you go about three miles off the road to find the nearest gas station. Problem two you know it's bad when it looks somewhat deserted. Yea, I'm getting that creepy movie feel two. Well I am sure you can guess how there restrooms looked. I may have taken the outhouse option. Lets just say when the call of duty comes in, I can handle most anything. This was sad shape. No need for details. Let our mind take you whereever. So we make it out unscathed. Now the females mentioned how bad those were. All the rest of the way. Well on the way back were cruising, I am napping as best I can in the back of a jeep with 5 people. When I feel the car rumbling over a gravel section of road. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We stopped again in Tonica, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My thoughts and prayers go out....

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Smith family in Kansas who lost there daughter this past weekend. It what appears to be a ha nous act of manslaughter, she was found dead yesterday. It is times like these where I say why, why? But this is not mine to question or to search for the answer. it just reminds me that the family and Friends in your life, are important. They need to be reminded of that. We just don't have a guaranteed life time on this earth.
we may never see tomorrow. We will have the memories and the love to carry us on. there is a phrase which goes " That which will not kill us , will only make us stronger". It appears the Smith's will grow and come out OK, but it's hard to see right now. So call your friends, family and just tell them you love them. You care, and if they need lend them a hand. "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord". (from Job).

Behind the eight ball.

I am sorry vivid readers and others from across the globe who randomly tune in to read my thoughts for the day. I have been super busy. I will say that riding to work is an interesting adventure in itself. Today while it took me 31 minutes to trek the 5.4 miles to work I was stopped at a busy intersection. Now I was stopped short of the light so as to let some cars turn right onto the busy intersection. Well this one car stayed being me about 25 feet. As soon as the light turned green for me to go and I started pedaling, he peels right in front of me and turns right. WHAT IS UP WITH THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!! You had more than a minute to turn while my light was red. It wasn't a no turn on red because the 5-6 cars ahead of you had already turned. I have noticed the lack of respect cars have for bikers. Let's grow up people. I understand we may be a slight inconvenience to your road ways, but last time I checked I have as much right on them as you do. so with that being said, I am trying to make this bike thing a workout thing, and improve my bile times. My goal is to make it in around 26-27 minutes. so will see.

What am I doing?

So I am feeling much better now that the turbinates are trinated or the trinates turbinated, or well it got fixed. I am starting to breathe a bit better every day. So last week I noticed on a sign at a bar it was bike to work week. Now I figured Chris would have taken the opportunity to let us all know this, especially since it was bike month. So I learned about it from a bar sign in Milwaukee. Since gas has gone up to a biggillion dollars a gallon, I figured this was a good idea. So yesterday I went to work on my bike. About 72 blocks to work. From 116th street to 154th street it is all up hill. Not one of those gradual climbs, but a giant mountain. So I was able to trek up this gargantuan hill. I was pooped to say the least. Good news for the ride home. Well today I did it again. When I got to the hill of difficulty I knew I was in trouble. My butt hurt, My legs screamed of burnout. I still had 40 blocks of this to go. I remember the great Marni's speech. How she wanted to quit. Near tears. So I forged through. Wind blowing in my face. Somehow I did it. yeah. Day two in the books. Can't wait for day three.

Young's visit Holland.

For the first time the Young's visited the land of Tulips. I thought it was amazing to see tulips lining the streets everywhere you looked. I was able to play euchre for the first time in the LaBarge family tournament. I came in fourth. Now i have been in online boot camp for the last week trying to set a strategy, which for this time worked pretty well. That was fun. I got to bowl in Dave's youth group outing which was an overnighter. I got five games in before I called it a night. Two times I held the lead, but someone around three a.m., who was impelled by 18 mountain dews came in with a 230. The weekend had it's funny moments. My favorite is 1/2 percent milk. This milk is native to only Michigan, I guess. Never heard of it before. We are the dairy state you know. I think we should know about our dairy products. Don't worry. Soon to grocery stores everywhere. 1/3 milk, 1/100 milk and 2 3/4 milk. Look for it.

Bowling season roundup.

Well the season is over. I would like to report that we won the championship, but that is not the case. While it was a good season, I feel sorry for the guys because for them it was an opportunity that comes not very often. I bowl with three guys who average under 150. Over the course of the season it all adds up. We struggled down the stretch, and just didn't have it in the end. Championship night the lanes broke down and the night didn't go all to well, and it seems like an excuse, but it is so easy to look for those when things don't go well. Your focus is lost, but it takes stronger person to fight through it and get it back. We couldn't. On the flip side I finished with the high average of 197, high game of 280, and second in series at 721. One of the other guys ion the tam finished third in high game with a 264. Our team finished first in series with a 2534. So it was a successful season. This weekend I am off to state to see what I have left in the tank. Saturday is singles and doubles. Sunday we bowl team event. These guys I have bowled with in our league over the last couple years. Even though there not on our team, it is fun to bowl with better competition.

Thoughts and Prayers.

This is just a quick thought and prayer for the families and friends that lost loved ones in the shootings at Virginia Tech University. While alot still has not been answered, it all seems so senseless I guess. It just goes to show that you should live every moment to it's fullest. Nobody is guaranteed time here on earth.

Opening day part two.

Well as promised here our the opening day pictures. I forgot one key component that day, more batteries, but we still got some good ones. The game was a great time. it was warm sunny. Things we don"t equate with baseball in April. It was fabulous game as well. Ben Sheets pitched a complete game two hitter. At one point in the game he retired 22 batters in a row.

This is to be the first of several games this year with scheduled stops in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Chi' town.