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 was quite surprised to have received my federal tax refund yesterday in the mail... It came a little quicker than I had anticipated!

Initially, I was planning on using the check, along with my state refund, to purchase a new couch, but had to get a new laptop a couple of weeks ago. As a result, most of the funds will likely go into paying the Credit Card off.

Or never, know, I may just change my mind and get the couch. It's desperately needed, that's for sure. ;)

So, I contracted a cold like 3 weeks ago... I take my typical "prescription" of NyQuil and a good 7 or 8 hours of sleep and viola, the cold is gone. But, here it is three weeks later - and I'm still hacking away. It's definitely not the way I'd like to be enjoying my days in late June or early July.

So, what have you all been up to? It's been a while, I know... While I've been fairly active over in the WeatherBlog over the past several weeks, my activity here in L.C.C. has suffered some. I apologize.

Random thoughts still swirl around in my head, believe me. I just haven't been motivated to write them out and explain them further. I may just decide to do just this, this weekend.

I have this weekend off work and really, it couldn't have come at a better time. If any of you have followed along, at all, over on the WeatherBlog, you've noticed that the last couple of weeks have been very active on the chase-front. So, as a result, I've been doing a lot of driving and traveling lately. I certainly don't mind (I always enjoy a good road trip, especially if it involves storm chasing), but it can burn out a brother, you know! :) Especially when you've done it 3 out of the last 5 days and five times over the course of the first eleven days of July!

Case in point, we were chasing Thursday out in central portions of North Dakota and had to bust ass to get back Grand Forks by midnight because I had to work the 12 to 8am shift! For the record, I was ten minutes late, I'll confess, but it didn't really affect my work for the rest of the shift. I then woke up Friday afternoon, only to head East - this time, to chase storms into Western areas of Minnesota. Needless to say, it's been a long past 24-48 hours for your's truly. I'm going to get some much needed rest tonight and plan on heading down to the Farmer's Market downtown to check out the local fare with Mr. Shaw during the afternoon. I'm hoping there will be some kind of selection of vegetables or maybe some fruit. The produce will probably be slightly limited given the time of year, but we'll see.

Tomorrow night - the only plans I have set involve myself, my couch, my television, a few DVD's and a gallon of ice cream. ;)

Sunday, I need to head down to Fargo to pick up my Debit Card that has been sitting at Thai Orchid. We went for Thai food a few nights ago and I left the card sitting on the table. I called the place and they were nice enough to seal the thing up in an envelope for me and told me they would hold it for me for as long as I needed. Which was great, since I didn't particularly want to drive all that way just to pick up a stinking credit/debit card. It will give me an opportunity to maybe get more Thai food and a reason to drop by the Asian Market. I'd love to get that Vietnamese Soup I used to get from my mom all the time. It's the only place I know of around here that stocks the stuff, so I really want to get some. Shaw wants to come along, as well, to check out the place and since he may come, I may as well invite Lawson and Heather, since they love the Thai.

It should be a good day - Thai food and Vietnamese soup. Two of my favorite foods, ever! Until then, though... I'll be working on post-processing and uploading of photos. I have four chase-days worth of photos I need to go through and get uploaded to my photo gallery. So, the weekend off will give me an opportunity to get that done...

Stay healthy, everyone else... And stay tuned...

Yeah, that makes no sense to me... It rained here early this morning and yet, I was still woken up by the sound of weed-trimmers and mowers. The landscaping company that takes care of this place really has no clue, I guess, that people actually sleep with their windows open.

Granted, I got out of bed an hour ago! ;)

I have errands to run today, anyway. I need to get to the Post Office, since I have yet to drop by there to pick my mail from the past week. Rent is also due and a trip to the store is desperately needed.

These evening shifts just don't seem to work well for me, when I have things to get done. I'm always up late (I don't get to bed until 3 or 4am, usually, when working until midnight). Thusly, I'm never able to get up early enough to have a full day. Then again, I tend to turn the computer on as soon as I get out of bed - and that really doesn't help!

Dear Mr. "I-stole-your-debit-card-number-and-tried-to-charge-over-$800-to-it," you are a dipshit!

How the hell someone got a hold of my debit card number is beyond me, but it happened. A couple of days ago, my bank calls me to ask if I had authorized a charge of $860 to Photo Vista (a photo service, of some kind) in Paris, France... I've never heard of such a place and likewise, had the card canceled right away.

So, while it actually does me a bit of good, it has been a little inconvenient. I do need to save money for my vacation in a few weeks! But, I now have to wait for a new card... and a new account number. Of which, I'll have to change with every bill I pay online. Which happens to be all of them.

If I ever was able to meet this person, I'd personally take my shredded card and feed it to him by shoving each little sliver down his throat.

On a brighter note, things are looking up - as your's truly may just have a little something cooking on the relationship front. I met a woman about a week ago over the Internet and since, we've been enjoying E-mails and have, twice now, talked on the phone. The first call, last evening, went nearly two hours and tonight's conversation went almost an hour and a half. We seem to find things to talk about and it seems that we both have become rather comfortable with each other rather quickly. So, hopefully, that means something... We've planned a dinner-date for tomorrow evening, so we'll see how it goes.

I'll certainly keep you all up-to-date... On the debit card and dating situation!

Or it may appear so... Going through my stats today, I found the following:

Quite intriguing, to say the least...

I don't necessarily feel that someone would actually look up their own biography on the Internet. On the other hand, I have personally "Googled" myself from time to time. I'm sure others have done the same. If she, did indeed, Google "tera blake bio," and came across my post, I hope she, at least, felt honored to have made it on my blog.

It could very well have been her - considering I never received the "friendly hello" nor a phone number. Random women are never nice (at least, that I've come across) and almost never just send their phone number, on a whim.

I sure wish they would. ;)

Oh, and by the by - concerning my post early this morning...


Happy April Fool's Day!

Did you get your free fries or milk-shake? Hah!

So, I'm looking for some Valpo Alumni this afternoon in the general media and I continue to come across some beauties out there. I'm thinking maybe I should have went that Broadcast Meteorology direction.

I'm going to have to ask Lawson at work if he knows this one... Apparently, like him, she's an NIU graduate:

Tera Blake is a young woman that provides weather forecasts to the Charlotte, NC audience during morning and weekend broadcasts. The Fox Charlotte station has a reputation for the wacky style of news they give and, probably are most famous for when crazy-man, Mark Mathis, once provided his lively, quite entertaining, but often ill-involved forecasts. Ironic to see Tera forecasting there, but given her enthusiasm, it doesn't surprise me to see here there.

I've never been shy about my appreciation of the attractive ladies - and well, I can't just let Tera, or her video biography, to be forgotten among my hundreds of bookmarks or otherwise, the millions and millions of web-sites on the world-wide-web.

Sit back, watch her bio and you'll see exactly what drives me crazy about her. I've been looking for a lot of twins lately, I may as well add one more. Of course, if you find this Tera - and you're reading, you have a new viewer on MyFoxCharlotte.com from Grand Forks, ND. Oh, and if you're single and looking, or dating and not happy, I'd certainly accept a friendly hello or a phone number! Hah!

This may just become a weekly or monthly installment...

Way back in October I just so happened to get stuck working the overnight shift when we had to "fall back" to standard time... So, tonight, I guess I'm getting reimbursed for having worked that extra hour.

I get to work a seven hour shift tonight, while getting paid for eight! I can't complain about that, now, can I?

So, don't forget to change your clocks tonight. Spring forward an hour at 2:00am CST (3:00am EST, 1:00am MST, etc...) tonight.

It's emanating from the bathroom and unfortunately, the kitchen as well. Has lingered for 2 weeks now and is originating from the least expected place. The water!

It's an annual thing in this part of the country, to have these episodes in the early spring. I remember having a similar issue last year at this time but certainly don't remember having dealt with it this long. It's been in the paper and on the news over the past week, so apparently I'm not the only one around the area complaining to the city utilities. I can't really describe the smell, but it's very similar to the smell of chlorine. Imagine smelling it every time you go to take a shower, every time you go to wash your hands, brush your teeth or wash the dishes. It's very much annoying.

Apparently, the snow melt contributes to the problems - and how the water treatment plant here treats our water. Some sort of chemical they use results in the putrid smell. It, obviously doesn't do any harm, but either way, it's a pain in the ass.

So, I'm hoping everyone out there is doing well... I'm wicked sorry for taking so long between posts, folks! I feel it's been forever since I last wrote anything in my blog. I feel horrible, because there are times when I have strange (and such random) thoughts trickling through my mind and just KNOW you all would love to hear about them. Believe me, I've had some very strange things rattling around up there in that empty shell, lately... ;)

I'm hoping I can most past my laziness and become more proactive with my blog. And I'm seriously reconsidering my WeatherBlog. Even though my participation really fell off with that, as well, chase season is just around the corner up here in North Dakota and really, I'd like to have a place I can share all my chasing adventures and mis-adventures with you all once again. We're hoping for a great chase season in these parts!

What else has been going on here lately? Not much really new. Work has been a little stressful lately. I came off the midnight shift (12am - 8am) this morning and now have a couple of days off. I've had to deal with Alberta for 5 days straight and that's never fun. I used to enjoy working on the Alberta forecasts, but anymore, I get real tired of worrying about the precipitation forecasts up there. It's so large of an area and you're forced to have to work off of satellite imagery to locate your initialized precip. Canadian radars suck freakin' ass and just never pick up precipitation like it should. On top of that, verification is nearly impossible since surface observations are so sparse up there, especially in the central and northern portions of the province - and that the observations we do get are questionable, at best, most of the time. The one advantage - the westerly Chinooks have finally subsided and that makes the temperature forecasts MUCH easier over the southwest foothill regions.

Anyhow, enough about work... I now have a couple of days off and I'm going to enjoy them as much as possible. I'm going to relax some this evening and have some chores to attend to tomorrow. Laundry is piling up and so are the dishes. And I want to work on my web-cam project some more. That has been progressing rather well lately. I've finally put forth the time to really work on it... I've struck a deal with a buddy of mine and he is now helping me with the project. He is currently working on getting cam's plotted in Illinois and Oklahoma. I'm currently working on getting the remaining cams from the TRIMARC network in and around Louisville, KY. Then I'll be moving on other states - namely, South Dakota and Kansas. I have a few I need to edit/plot here in North Dakota and Nebraska and have other states I want to get a good start on, as well. I have several days off here over the next week, so I'm hoping to work on this a lot more. It's progressing and I think once I get it all done (if I ever do!) it will be something very unique. Something that just isn't available anywhere else. And will be something that everyone can use!

It's a very tedious thing, but I have confidence it's something I can work on and complete. I've already approached the boss at work on possibly assigning Office Shifts this summer to working on it even further. It is something that directly affects our responsibilities at work (we already have something fairly similar in place, just not using the Google Map API functions) so I don't see why I wouldn't (or shouldn't) be allowed to work on it. The only problem I see is that I need a PC that has Google Earth installed on it - so I can actually do the work, and that has connectivity to the Internet. I'm not so sure Doug (our Sys-Admin) will be too happy with having another computer on the network. But, given the validity of the project, he "should" allow access for me. We'll see how that goes!

Anyhow, that's probably enough writing to make up for the past month that I haven't written anything. I'm off to find something for dinner.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Ah, and go Cubbies! - it's so great to see a return to baseball season! ;)