Hello there fellow readers...

Checking back in, to let you all know I finally got the route entered in at USATF's site tonight from my bike-ride on Saturday the 13th. The ride on Saturday wasn't anywhere near the trek I took on Sunday, but it was another long ride. I wasn't gone on the ride for over 3 hours on Saturday, so I knew the distance wasn't as great. If I hadn't been messaged about going down to the Art-Fest that was going on downtown, I probably would have ridden much more. Ultimately, I wanted to get on the bike trails out on the south end of town, south of 32nd Avenue!

That would have been another very long ride - just as, or perhaps, longer than the ride was on Sunday!

As you can see, the trek on Saturday went a grand total of 9.08 miles!
http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=299513

So, my grand total for the weekend was a whopping 27.64 miles! Impressive, I'd have to say - especially, given I haven't ridden my bike much at all over the past couple of years I've had it up here.

In other news, our first couple of days after that beautiful weekend we had, have been slightly gloomy. Cooler and much cloudier, for sure. But, not too bad, really. We had some rain this evening, but it wasn't anything that caused too many problems. I was over at Victor's place tonight for a little grilling and hanging out with friends. The rain pushed back the scheduled grilling a bit, but it was still sufficient so that most of us were able to get something to snack on.

Unfortunately, due to some recent lifestyle changes, I had to resist the urge for anything grilled. As some, perhaps, many of you know already, I've made the decision to cut back on the meat intake. It's something I've thought about before in the past and if anything, it's mostly just something I want to see if I can do, at all. I could see some people looking at this as me succumbing to peer-pressure (3 of the 4 people I'm gardening with ARE vegetarians!), and it may be to some extent, but really it's more of just a little kick in the pants to something I've actually wanted to try for a couple of years.

If you asked my family, they could probably tell you that I grew up eating a lot of veggies and fruit. I remember eating strawberries when I was younger until I'd get stomach-aches and would eat radishes until I stunk everyone out of the house! Hah! Actually, when I put it that way, it isn't all that much different today. Tee-hee...

Anyhow, so yes, it's a big commitment and a major lifestyle change, but it is something I am going to try. I began a few weeks ago and have slowly cut back the intake. I was down to maybe 3-4 meals that had meat in it a couple of weeks ago, last week, I may have splurged on a couple of meals, but so far, this week, I haven't ate a thing with meat in it. I've consulted with Tim, Kalli, and Justin and they've helped me quite a bit... On things I can try, what to get, what not to get, and they all have helped me find vegetarian recipes that are well-balanced. I'm not sure exactly if vegetarianism is really what I'm after... I guess that is something I'm really going to have to think about. I've found out that people that do decide to go that route that decide later to go back to meat after years and years, their bodies can reject the meat, and can actually cause problems. So, I'm not exactly sure what I want to accomplish quite yet. Right now, I just want to see how long I can go. From there, I'll see what happens. Either way, I'll keep you all updated. ;)

Other rumblings, since the last time I really updated all of you? Not much else, really... The new position at work is going fairly well. We haven't had a lot to do up until recently. The traveling between Grand Forks and Crookston has slowed down considerably over the past few weeks and actually, with the Minnesota contract now shut down for the summer, I will mainly be working on developing training modules for the MDSS application. This week, I'm hoping to get many of them done.

My fantasy sports teams are both performing poorly... Much like my Chicago Cubbies. They have disappointed me this year - and I'll just leave it at that. Maybe sometime in the near future, I can elaborate a little further - I just don't feel like it tonight. ;) In fact, I don't really feel like writing much more, anyway.

It's getting late and I want to get a little snack before I hit the sack.

Anyway, so there's a little bit of an update on my life the past couple of months. I'll have a couple of chase reports to post to the Chase/Wx-Blog here soon, so stay tuned there, as well.

Take care, folks! Have a great week!

I've had a lot to be happy about lately...

First, the MLB Spring Training season has officially begun. I can't believe that the Cubs will be playing games by this time next week. Even though, I will not be able to watch them, I still can't wait!

Secondly, I released my National WeatherCam Network to the world, by advertising on StormTrack last week and it's really taking off. I've had all kinds of people checking it out. Just looking at the stat-counter for the web-site, it's had over 750 visitors in just the last 8 days. That's nearly a hundred hits to the page per day! Impressive... and incredible!

I just need to invest in some time to work on the thing. I've got a lot to do on it, still. I need to give some love to those people down south and start filling up those states in the south with some webcams. I know, I'm letting them down. ;) I've got this entire weekend off, so I'm going to set aside a bunch of time Saturday and Sunday to work on it.

And finally, I received some very good news at work this afternoon. I can't exactly get into much detail at this time, so I'll just say, I got the news I was hoping for!

I'm sure most of my friends and family will learn about it soon enough. ;)

So, having said that, I'm gonna go eat some ice cream and watch a movie. Both of which, will put me in an even better mood.

To 2009... You've really started out with some extreme ups and downs...

I'll apologize ahead of time, if my language offends anyone. As I'm sure this post will come out as one of the most evil I've ever written...

I think I have earned this right to fucking bitch out the Cubs and every one of the players on that field tonight in Los-fuckin-Angeles.

I didn't even know who the hell those players were that stood on that field tonight wearing the white and blue pin-stripes. Those players that wore those red, white, and blue "C's" on their chest. Those players that stood on that field with those blue hats.

They looked completely different than they did in May, June, July, August, or September. How can an entire complete team go cold when it matters most? It makes no sense to me.

Sure, they pressed, it was as clear as a thumbprint on a windshield. But, when everyone in the god-fuckin' forsaken world knows a low-and-away slider is coming, why swing? Soriano has got to be the dumbest shit-head in Major League Baseball.

Jim Hendry, I very doubt you read fan blogs on the Internet and even if you do, I very doubt you read this one... But, may I suggest something to you. Force Lou to drop Soriano in the batting order... Or ship him (Soriano, that is...) out of Chicago altogether. He clearly is not clutch, especially when we need him to be.

Place Reed Johnson or Ryan Theriot in the leadoff position and plug-in-play Derosa where we need him. It's as simple as that.

Enough of this horse-shit Soriano crap, that says he's a born leadoff hitter. Bull-fucking-shit!

But, listen to me going off on Soriano... Getting swept by the Dodgers (yeah, the fucking Dodgers!) was not entirely his fault. Lou, you should have pulled Dempster in Game 1 by the end of the 5th... When clearly, by then, you could tell his control was not on and he had thrown almost 90 pitches. Lou, I put Game 1 entirely on you. You fucked up the first game in Wrigley. Game 2, I put on the entire infield. Aramis Ramirez, Ryan Theriot, Mark DeRosa, Derek Lee... You all fuckin' blew that game with your errors. All year, you four were the foundation to a great defense. You let us fans down...

And Game 3? I don't know who to put this game on... I want to leave a steamy pile on Harden's front door-step, but he really wasn't the problem. He pitched a decent game - he just happened to give up the two-run double tonight in the first. He clamped down and the rest of the way he got out of jams and kept the team in the game. It was the bats and the entire offense unit that let us down. Karuda, while he has good stuff, isn't a dominant pitcher. Yet, this Cubs team, that lead the National League in runs - even lead the entire Majors for a short time, were shut down. It's god-damned amazing that an entire lineup can struggle like this after having a season like they did.

Jim Hendry, Lou Piniella, and the entire Cubs lineup - I will tell you one thing - you'll always have a fan by the name of Matthew Hartman, but you'll also have one, by the same name, that wants to rip your paychecks to shreds, mix it with cyanide, and force it down your fuckin' throats.

That's how frustrated and disappointed I am with your 2007 and 2008 versions of this Chicago Cubs team.

To the guys in blue - have a pleasant winter...

Congratulations to the Chicago Cubs for clinching the National League Central Division today... What a great season this team has had all year.

It's definitely an awesome time to be a Cubs fan.

Much like Eddie Vedder says, someday we'll go "All the Way." That someday may be coming real soon...

Not exactly in the context of Mr. Rogers... But today turned into one of the best days.

Not only did my Indianapolis Colts pull off a great come-back this afternoon, but Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs, pitched the first no-hitter from a Cubs pitcher in over 30 years!

After trailing 15-0 at half-time, Peyton Manning came out and carried the Colts on his shoulders. Making play after play, he lead the team on a couple good series that led to a rushing TD from Joseph Addai that made it 15-7. A great play from Anthony Gonzalez (a backwards lateral to a streaking Reggie Wayne) put the Colts at the Viking's 1-yd line that setup the score from Addai. It was definitely one of those highlight reel plays that none of us Colts fans will soon forget. In the 4th quarter, Manning zipped a pass to a wide open Reggie that made the score 15-13. A successful 2-pt conversion by a diving Dominic Rhodes then tied the score at 15. A dramatic play that backed the Vikes up to their own 2-yard line closed the door and as Manning and the team milked the clock down to 20 seconds, Vinatieri came in to knock home the winning field goal with 3 seconds left in the game.

It wasn't the prettiest game, but they toughed out a defensive gem by the Vikings and a dominant game from Adrian Peterson to pull out the win. Still, we need to figure out how to stop the run. We've now allowed two running backs to tally up 100 yard+ games against us. Hopefully, we'll get some guys healthy and get them back on the field. And hopefully, Bob Sander's injury isn't anything major... He left the game with an apparent ankle or foot injury.

The Cubs? What can I say about the season they're having that hasn't been said already? They're having an incredible season and it's something I've never experienced before. They had been in a losing skid over the past couple of weeks, but over the past several games now, they're turning things back around. Hurricane Ike caused a couple of games with the Astro's to be postponed, so both teams have had several days off. Playing in a neutral site was agreed upon by MLB, so they finally met up in Milwaukee to make up for the games lost. Tonight's game was nothing short of spectacular, especially for Carlos Zambrano. After being sidelined with a minor injury in his rotator cuff for a couple of weeks, he looked healthy as ever. It was his first start in nearly two weeks...

Zambrano has had no-hitter stuff before and I can recall, at least, one instance where he had a no-hitter into the 8th inning only to have it ruined. But, I know he had, at least, went into the 7th inning one other time.

Even though I only saw action during the 9th inning (when ESPN picked up the game), "Big Z" looked very composed and focused on the mound.

So, yes, it has indeed been a beautiful day in the neighborhood... Hugs and kisses to everyone! :)

I'm updating the weatherBlog and the Version blog for the WCN tonight and figure I may as well enter a post here as well.

Boy, you know, you'd be surprised how much a few great days in the weather department can do for your spirits. I had the weekend off and with the weather being so nice, I have been taking the opportunity to spend a lot of time outdoors. Over the course of the past week, I have, actually.

I've been doing a lot of walking, running, jogging, riding the bike, and yesterday enjoyed my first afternoon of basketball of 2008. Shaw, Darren and I met up at Prime Steel Park to shoot around. Honestly, I thought more people would show up since it was so nice, but considering I didn't get an E-mail out at work until Thursday, I imagine some people received the message late. It was nice, either way, to get out and enjoy the weather. Also of note, I've had the windows open in my apartment for the last two days straight. Even though we've been dropping back into the upper 20's at night, it hasn't been all that bad in the apartment. I turned the heat down a little, but it is still on. It has been comfortable and refreshing.

I'm back at work tomorrow, but out of the 4-day stretch this week, three of the shifts are Office Shifts. I'll be taking plenty of this time to work on the WeatherCam Network. I have many, many cams to add, a lot of others to edit or remove, and need to update the database. I'm beginning to catalog all the cams I have (active or not) so I can keep them all straight. It's going towards a collaborative effort, as well, with a guy down in Kansas that I'm working with sporadically. I need to get an updated file to him. I haven't done so in probably a month or more...

So, otherwise, I'm feeling good, yes. I've been in a pretty good mood lately. The Cubbies are winning and my chase trip is getting closer! Can't beat that...

Speaking of, I saw a sign at Wrigley today, while watching the game on WGN.

Three things I want:
1.) A Cubs win
2.) Girlfriend
3.) A new job

Hahaha... With the exception of #3, I pretty much agree!

Yes folks, I have returned... The world can go back to spinning the way it did before I left, the sky can turn cloudy, the temperatures can go cold again, the air - cool and stenchy, and happy people everywhere can return to their gloomy outlook on days ahead.

Heh.

What a negative way to start out a post.

Nah, deep down I'm actually in a fairly good mood. I'm just not showing it very well. I have mixed feelings right now but don't really feel this is place to share that. I desperately want to write about certain things that have transpired over the past few days and why these feelings are bubbling up.

The only thing I can do is live my life - enjoy "The Office" tonight on TV (yippee!!), eat dinner the way I always did before, drink my water, blog occasionally, and listen to the Embassy CD I finally got in the mail last week.

Boy, you know, if only more people knew about these guys. What a great CD. It's been playing non-stop in the car, on my Chocolate, and in my head since I opened the thing. Since I was in direct contact with the band, they even sent me a song that's coming up on a future album. If there was a legal way to post it to the blog here, I'd do it. It's that good. Also, apparently, they are undergoing somewhat of a a transformation; attempting to rename the band and getting a new web-site together and so forth. The main reason it took so long for them to process my order and get the CD mailed out. Busy times for them, I suppose. I can understand that. I hope they are still playing gigs in August when I get home, because I really want to check them out live. I really do.

The workshop went really great. Lots of great presentations, lots of notes I want to go back through, and lots to information I have yet to really mull over. The "Frontogenesis during the warm season" presentation was very interesting and the Northwood, ND tornado re-analysis case was one I enjoyed very much. I saw some familiar faces, got to reacquaint myself with them, met some new people and made some friends. They didn't announce where next year's workshop will be held, but I'm pulling for Rapid City to step up. That would make for a longer trip next April, but that would be awesome to take a few additional days off and stay out there and enjoy the area. Do some hiking in the Black Hills or Badlands, maybe? Bismarck was very new to me. I hadn't ever been out there. We familiarized ourselves with the area around the Ramkota, though and Turcotte, Lawson and I had a pretty good time. We were able to upgrade the room to a poolside one, so we enjoyed some time in the pool and especially in the hot-tub both nights.

I WILL own one of those one day. Just wait, you'll see.

Hey, you know what, I'm finishing up here during the commercial break. I'm gonna sit down, enjoy my Lean Cuisine and "The Office."

And look, the Cubbies are winning! Ahhh, the Earth IS spinning, once again.

It's the end of a day-full of Major League Baseball... And I couldn't be in a better mood. Well, okay - maybe if the Cubs would have actually came out of their game with that white flag flying in center field.

Either way, I missed most of the early afternoon action since I worked the day shift today. The rain delay worked to my advantage, as I was able to catch most of the second half of the Cubs/Brewers game. It turned into a pitcher's duel through much of the game as Sheets and Fantastico matched each other through much of the game. A run didn't score until the 9th, when Kerry Wood came in for relief. It's never a good omen to hit a batter on your very first pitch of the season. It quickly went downhill for Wood from there. He ended up allowing three runs. Gagne came in for the bottom of the 9th to save it for the Brewers and given his record over the past couple of years in Boston, I felt optimistic. A single and a walk, however gave some life to Wrigleyville and when Fukudome worked the count to 3-1, he turned on a fastball and drilled it into the right-center seats.

Yet another reason to never take numbers during Spring Training seriously.

Fukudome had hit only around .200 for the spring and seemed to take the transition to American ball a little slow.

Opening Day, 2008 was much different for him. He went 3 for 3, with a single, double, and home-run. Add to that a walk and a stolen-base attempt. He was caught stealing, but at least he's running.

They have the day off tomorrow, but play again on Wednesday to begin a 5-game homestand with Milwaukee and Houston.

Ahhh, baseball season... Gotta love it!

It's so great to see those "damn" Yankees finally get what they deserve. Goes to show all you Yankee fans out there that all the money in the world can not (and I stress that!) buy you championships. They're now suffering from a 7-game losing streak! It's more funny than anything to see this "best lineup in the history of baseball" struggle so much so that the Cubbies are doing better than they are. Despite the teams are both in last place in their respective division! At least the Cubs can say they aren't in any kind of losing streak. In fact, they have won consecutive games for the first time now, since April 6-7.

Anyhow, I just had to take an opportunity to take a few jabs at those Yanks. Go Cubbies!

Two and half more hours of work here, then I get to go home and enjoy the rest of the weekend off. Don't really have any plans for today (Saturday), but maybe continue some work on the WCN this afternoon. Soung apparently is now in town, so I expect she'll call me sometime today... So her and I may do something later today. Sunday, I'm hoping to get out and play some basketball since it'll be nice, then will heading to Fargo for a concert Sunday evening with Shaw. Social Distortion will be at Playmakers, so we're going to check them out! Hopefully, it'll be a good show.

Well, I better get back to finishing up my GF Area Forecast...
More later!

Hey folks,

As you probably have noticed I've changed things around in here... The old template I was using for the layout of the blog didn't look quite right with the switch-over to the new "Blogger Beta." I hope you like it!

Anyhow, not much is happenin' today. I have the day off (kinda!) so I decided to make today, "laundry day." It just so happens that mama nature wanted the day off, as well. It's fairly moist, cool, and raw out there today, so it's been a good day to just stay in and get some things done. I've vacuumed the floors, done the dishes, picked up some things, made the bed... ;) It seems like I clean this place about every other day! But, well, what else is an anal, neat-freak to do? hah!

It's getting about time to fix something to eat here, so I suppose I'll log off this silly thing for now. I'm hoping everything is well out there across the rest of the world!

Oh, and by the way, I hear the Cubbies hired Lou Pinella as their new manager today...! I'm not quite sure on how I feel about their choice, but we'll see if it makes any difference. Now, I'm just hoping that JP (Juan Pierre) decides to stay with the Cubs. Apparently, he's flirting with the idea of testing the free-agent market, but I'm hoping he doesn't go anywhere. He's been about the best lead-off hitter we've had in years... and I love his base-stealing abilities. Small ball is the way to go, Pinella! Talk him into staying!

And also, I read just last evening that the Hoosiers hosted their "midnight madness" the other night. It's sounding like Coach Sampson is actually making the 2006 recruiting class somewhat respectable. Eric Gordon (originally committing to Illinois) changed his mind and is now signing on with the Hoosiers. This guy is one of the top recruits in the nation and now he will be playing in Assembly Hall! I'm getting anxious to see how they do this year with a brand new coach and, hopefully, a whole new approach to the game.

More later...

The Cubs are pissing me OFF! In the last 5 games they have scored a combined 5 runs and own a record of 1-4. Tonight, they're a grand total of 3 for 16 with an error. Yes, their offensive leader (Derek Lee) is out with an injury, but you can't blame this shitty play on just one person. They've had runners on tonight, but they still as of yet, been able to get anyone across home plate. This is getting pathetic and it's pissing me off. I'm sitting here at work with my Cubbies hat on... Why? I have no idea...

Well, I told myself and my readers that I'd try to refrain from posting too much weather-related content in here, rather than in the WeatherBlog but I just had to share here, as well, how wonderful the weather has been up here over the past week. Mild temperatures have been contributing to the snow-melt and the flooding up here over the past few weeks, but on the other hand, it's also been great to experience, personally. I'm loving this mild weather. Over the past couple of days, I've actually been able to open up the windows in my apartment and allow some fresh air into this place.

Since I'm back on mid-shifts (midnight to 8:00am) this week, I'll unfortunately be sleeping through much of the day, but I should be able to still experience the afternoons and early-evenings. Today, I managed to get my ass out of bed around 3:00pm and after a shower, I grabbed the basketball and made my way to Prime Steel Park to shoot some hoops. It felt good to be outside for once. And it was even warm enough to wear shorts today! We did hit 69° F this afternoon! Very near 70 degrees! Isn't that just sweet?

We'll have to see what's in store for the overnight... we have some weak thunderstorms out there developing over north-central portions of the state, ahead of an upper-level disturbance... and as it drifts eastward, we could see some of that action. Probably nothing spectacular, but we could see some flashes of lightning or hear some thunder later on tonight. I'm taking the camera and tripod to work just in case anything appears photogenic enough.

Not much new has been going on, otherwise. I went out with Amanda Sunday night for dinner and a movie. We decided to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown... I'd recommend anyone to go see this movie, if they haven't yet. It's a really great movie and is just as good (and funny) as the first one. I just can't get enough of "Scrat," the little squirrely dude with the acorn! He's just too cute and funny! I hear that Wal-Mart has a little stuffed "Scrat" that you can buy that makes all the funny little noises and everything. I'm gonna have to drop by there sometime this week to see if they have any left. That'd be great...

I've been trying to catch the Cubbies on TV, as well, this past week. Yep, the baseball season has officially started. And thus far, the Cubs have been playing pretty well. Their starting pitching hasn't been the greatest, but well, I don't think many teams are having great luck with their starting pitching quite yet, either. The bullpen has been doing awesome though, and their power has really shown up this spring. Derrek Lee already has 3 homers and Michael Barrett also has a couple. Both of Barrett's dingers came on consecutive days, the first tying the game on Saturday against the Cardinals (Lee hit his third of the season (a solo shot) to win that game), and the second, a grand salami on Sunday to take the lead over St. Louis. It's been an exciting season already and hopefully, they can carry over this great play through the rest of the season. I'd love to see them make the playoffs this year, and of course, would really love to see them make the World Series! If we can get Mark Prior and Kerry Wood back and they could just stay healthy the rest of the year... you never know. Anything is possible - as long as we keep that damn Bartman kid out of Wrigley Field!! heheh

Anywho - I'll try to keep this thing more updated... I realize I haven't been doing a very good job of that over the past few weeks.

More later!