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!

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!

It sure does... After having difficulties getting the car started twice over the past week and a half I decided (finally!) to get a battery replacement for the car. This, the first time I've replaced it in the 5.5 years I've owned the car. We can blame the insane coldness we've experienced here lately on the fact it wouldn't start. The ambient temperatures have been cold enough themselves (see the weatherBlog for details!) but the winds have been the main culprit. We've experienced the -20's here over the past month on several occasions and the car has started up, albeit slowly, but it hasn't had that much trouble. It's when the winds result in -40 to -50 wind-chills that I've found the car had problems.

Anyhow, so I went to get a new battery the other day and today, it's in the low to mid 30's out there and what's that I see? Melting snow? Ahhh... It's a great sight, let me tell you. I was out doing some running around yesterday and it didn't feel all that bad. Today is even better. I cracked open the windows here in the apartment for the first time since November of 2007. It's really nice to have some fresh air circulating around in here. It gets pretty stagnant and stuffy in here after 2-3 months, quite honestly.

So, while I'm not necessarily asking for it, I'd like to see at least, a few more -10 to -20 ambient temperatures around here to see how the car handles with the new 540 cold-cranking amps... ;)

Also, wish us good luck tonight in our volleyball game. We're in week 4 now and into the stretch for our tournament. We didn't win a single game in the first 3 weeks, so we are now in the "Silver" division. It's frustrating, especially since the last two weeks I've actually been trying to play better. We were over-matched during week two, but the others, we probably should have won. A few bad bounces here and there and we may have been able to sway the momentum. Hopefully, tonight we can play better and pull out a win. I guess it's all in good fun, but it would be much nicer if we could just get a digit in that win column - other than a zero, that is.

This is what happens, folks, when you aren't paying attention while driving down the interstate in the middle of a raging winter storm:



I happened to catch this on one of the web-cams in northwestern Indiana earlier this evening.

Yes, I'm saying goodbye to the weatherBlog. Over the past several months I haven't had much to add over on the WeatherBlog and after going through the visitor stats over on StatCounter, I realized that over the past month I've only had a total of 9 hits on the blog. And out of those 9 hits, none of them were from an end-user. They were all from Inktomi, spidering the blog and indexing it.

So, even though I do use it much more frequently during the spring and summer when there is severe weather to monitor and write about, I find it useless to put an effort into keeping it around if no one whatsoever is reading it.

If not for StatCounter, I wouldn't even know that people are reading this blog. No one ever leaves comments - so I really have no idea. I'm not complaining, though, don't get me wrong. I definitely do not need the validation that comes along with a shit-load of comments. I know there are people out there that read this thing.

Yes, I can see you! IP-Address and all - where you're coming from to read this thing and everything... Heheh...

So, anyhow, again the weatherBlog is gone and since it is, you may see an increase in weather-related posts in here. And hey, that will probably make me a little more active in here. We'll see...

Take care everyone and maybe I'll write a little more in here this week.
More then...

...those little hairs on the inside of your nose start freezing together! Damn skippy, it's sure been happening today! A low temperature of -26°F with a high today of only -9.4°F! If you don't know, that's flippin' cold, folks!

I waited until this afternoon to go about my grocery shopping for the big party tomorrow, but it wasn't much better than it was this morning. I had to get up this morning and get to the bank since it closed at noon and almost just wanted to wait until tomorrow morning to go about my errands. I decided to brave it!

I'm all stocked up for the festivities tomorrow. I'm hosting a Super Bowl party here at the apartment tomorrow afternoon. I've decided to go with some burgers, beer, and a variety of other snacks. The George Foreman grille will get a nice workout, but that's quite alright. Actually, I haven't used it in quite a while... It should be pretty nice, though - I got a relish tray to fix up, some fixin's for the burgers and some chips and pretzels. And plenty of beer for the evening!

Yeah, I only have a 1-bedroom apartment, but we'll make it work. I don't think too many people from work are going to show up, but we'll see. I know of a few people for sure who are coming for sure and a few others that are "maybe's..." So, I'll probably cook up enough for at least 6 people and we'll go from there.

So, what's up with the rest of you?? I realize it's been a while since I last wrote in here, but I've been a little busy lately. I've been working on my web-cam page a lot more lately and have been looking for a second job.

Check out the web-cam page... It looks completely different now. The new layout will make it much easier to update and integrate more states into the network - which is planned, eventually. I have a good friend of mine that is now working with me on it and he is currently getting cams around Illinois and Oklahoma plotted. So, slowly but surely, it will become more and more complete. I've added several new cams to Indiana and have plotted a few for Oklahoma and Kansas. I'm hoping over the next week or two, I'll be able to sit down and get more plotted.

As far as the job search is concerned... It hasn't gone as well as I had hoped. I ran into some financial issues about a month ago with my car. After some self-reflection, I finally grew a pair and actually started applying at a few places around town. I tried the Texas Roadhouse (which just finished getting built) but was turned down... Happy Harry's (they were hiring at the north location) and was turned down... and had an interview of sorts over the phone for GF Wireless... They're not exactly hiring, but they seemed very impressed with the computer/tech support/networking experience I have. After explaining to them what all I did for OnlyInternet, they seemed fairly interested for my resume. I sent one there and received a response about a week later. They didn't have anything open (part-time) right now, but will keep my resume on file. So, we'll see how that goes. I've been wanting to apply at Target, as well, but keep forgetting to drop by there. I need to do that! So, I don't know... It sure would be nice to have some extra income to help pay off my god damn credit card and my one student loan.


I so can not wait until the end of 2007. Not only will my Stafford Loan (through Valpo) be paid off, but my car will be, as well. With the both of those paid off, I'll be pocketing almost $400-500 a month. I'll certainly be able to start saving, finally...

Anyhow, I need some food in this body of mine... Take care folks and root those Colts on tomorrow. I'm getting very excited and anxious for the game tomorrow!

As my little friend here would say, Go Colts!!!! Isn't he the cutest!?!

My own personal prediction:
Colts: 27
Bears: 13

So this is what it feels like to be truly sunburnt. I haven't felt this in a while. It isn't quite as bad as it looks, but my skin feels fairly warm on the back of my neck, on my ears, my face and my arms. A couple co-workers and I went out to the Grand Forks Air-Base this afternoon to catch the "Thunder Over the Red River" air-show. It was pretty neat to walk around the tarmac and check out some of the US Air Force transport jets, the classic planes, and the fighter jets. The air performances were entertaining as well. We made it out there around 12:30pm and caught a few solo performances and walked around looking at exhibition aircraft, then watched the USAF Thunderbirds perform their manuevers. They were very entertaining... I hadn't been to an air-show since I was probably 10 years old, so it brought back a lot of childhood memories of seeing the US. Navy Blue Angels. My parents took me up to the Fort Wayne International Airport on several occasions to see them when I was younger. Ah, the memories... It was fun for something different. We were out there until around 3:00pm, so figure 2 and half hours in the scorching sun and yeah, that's about how red we all are.

It's not hurting yet... but I may need some aloe vera or some calamine lotion over the next day or two if starts burning at all. After I got back to the apartment, I went directly for the pool. That felt so damn good I didn't want to get out. Of course, though, I virtually have no food in my apartment, so I had to hit up the grocery store.

Otherwise, not much new is going on up here in the wonderful city of Grand Forks. It's been a very warm last couple of weeks and with the exception a few interspersed days of slightly cooler temperatures, it's mostly been in the 80's and 90's. We experienced a stretch of 6 days straight of 90°+ temperatures and even hit a record high on Sunday the 12th and 16th. I'll have more information over in the WeatherBlog shortly, regarding the recent warmth and the continuing drought conditions we've also been experiencing over the past month or so.

In my personal life, not much new there either... CT and I have been talking much less than we used to. This woman finally (again, I repeat, FINALLY) gave me a phone number so that I could call and talk to her. But, get this, it was some 1-800 number. Apparently, because she had so many problems with her previous ex that she had to get some sort of security service that transfers phone calls to her. It sounded rediculous, but I gave in to the $1.89/min charge (yeah, totally insane!) the once, just so I could, at least, talk to her. We didn't really get anywhere and from what I gathered, she had no other way for me to communicate with her, besides our continuing e-mail correspondence. So, that turned me off immediately. I don't know what it is with me meeting these total spaz-oids... I'm beginning to think meeting women off the Internet is a waste of time and that I should just grow a pair and actually try to meet a woman the traditional way. You know, the way that normal men do.

I'm kind of tired of being alone and single... but at the same time, it's probably better that I am. Especially, now, when I can hardly afford to support myself on the bills I already have. I can't really afford to be going on dates every weekend or so. It's sad, I know. I just wish I could get a few things paid off. Getting my car paid off will help tremendously... and getting the one student loan of mine paid off, will be nice, as well. I've got about a year left on my car loan, so I'm very excited about that!

Anywho, I have more to write over in my WeatherBlog before I log completely out of this Blogger thing. Maybe I'll drop by in here again tomorrow to show off some pictures from the air-show today. I took a bunch!

Ta-ta for now...

Well, I'm sitting here stewing in my own sweat, but I figured I would post to this damn thing. Especially since I haven't in quite a while. Nothing much new around these parts. After a short bout of cooler temperatures, we're back into the 80's around these parts with 90's likely by the end of the week. About time to turn on the AC, once again, I suppose.

Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. Mine wasn't all too exciting. I went downtown after work yesterday, but didn't end up spending too much time there. The car show (the one event I was actually wanting to see) ended at 4:00pm, so I caught the very end of that. The event was actually done with by the time I got down there, but there were still a few cars sitting out on 3rd Street, so I was able to walk around looking at a few of them. There were a few older muscle-cars down there, but the only one that was really nice was an old Pontiac GTO. The rest, you could tell, were still under restoration... There weren't as many vendors down there and the only funnel cake stand had a line a mile long, so I couldn't even get the funnel cake I went down there for! Grrr... But, it was still nice to walk around, watching all the kiddies play around on the rides (mostly of the inflated slides and moon-walk type). I took the digi-cam along, but didn't get any new material. I don't know, I guess nothing really caught my eye - except for a few hotties, I suppose. hahah...

So, what have I been up to? Well, I've been working on my web-site... I've been wanting to go with a new design, so I've been working on it for almost 2 weeks. It's still not completely finished, but I figured since it's mostly operational, I decided to go live with it all Monday night. If you're curious, I have a link to the site above and to the left. I've also applied a new template to the photo gallery. So, that will look a little different, as well, if you visit it sometime soon. I went storm chasing last Friday, June 30th... Went out with co-workers, Adam and Turcotte. We got suckered east from a storm that fired up along the convergence boundary over in MN, but made back west to Walsh County (ND) to intercept a couple apparently tornadic storms near dusk. I have photos I need to work on and get posted and a chase log to write up... Thursday will be a day off for me, so maybe I'll sit down and get those done up so I can get them uploaded.

I plan to get out swimming some more tomorrow. Hell, I feel like going for a dip now, for as a hot as it is in my apartment right now. We reached 83° F today, but it felt much warmer with the humidity. Plus, our soil moisture content around here has been VERY limited lately. So, not much of that heating is going into the ground... so that's allowing for more heat, as well. It's odd that just a couple of months ago, we were battling one of the highest crests along the Red River ever... and now, we're battling drought conditions. We haven't had much rain up this way at all, over the past month and a half. Darren and I went down to the river last week and took pictures to compare to those we took from this spring's flooding and last summer's flooding. The river now is about as low as I've ever seen it and a lot of the locals are saying this is about as bad as they've seen it. A lot are comparing this to the severe drought of 1988.

Anyhow, I think I'm gonna hop off here for now... I need to fix up something for dinner and find a way to cool off. I guess I'll just shut all the windows and turn the AC on high. My electric bill was already $10 more than usual for June... if temperatures like this continue, my July bill will be twice that! Ugh...

Hope all is well...
More later!

Oh, what a couple of days of beautiful weather and days off work can do for the body and spirit. I had yesterday and today off of work and with the weather cooperating, I've been spending a lot of time outdoors. Yesterday, I finally moved past my insecurities and tried out the pool here. If you can believe it, I've lived in this apartment complex for a year and a half and haven't once used either pool here. (Yeah, they have two!) The water wasn't half-bad and I enjoyed it so much that I took a dip again today. We had a little rain early this morning so I thought that the water may be a little cooler, but it really wasn't. It was perfect!

I layed out and got a little sun, as well. I need some color desperately. I'm full-blooded caucasion, what can I say. It felt nice, though... To be laying out there and feeling the sunshine on my back and shoulders and, of course, my bare tummy. ;) Yeah, ladies I'm not one to go hitting up tanning salons...

On top of all that, I've been taking walks. They have a bike/fitness path that stretches through much of the city and it's relatively close to my apt complex here. If you take a look at the map here the 1KM marker just northwest of Columbia Mall is about where I started. I actually live on 34th street (about where the "34" is labeled on the map) so, really, that's where I started. I took this entire path northward to Demers Ave. then back south to 11th Ave. where I walked back west to 34th street and walked back south. In all, just by going the map here, I probably walked 4 or 4.5 miles. I tried running small portions of it, but for as out of shape as I am, I couldn't run for very long. I probably only ran about 10% of it. ;)

I had my ceiling fan installed today, as well. That was exciting! With my lease renewal coming up in August I was offered an upgrade for my apartment. Most of options were little things, like new blinds or a carpet cleaning or something stupid like that... but a ceiling fan was one of the options and I thought that would be really neat. Maintenance showed up today and installed it in my kitchen. It looks pretty nice and I already have it running. I'm sure it's going to help quite a bit for when I have my AC running in here. I'm hoping it will help circulate the air around the apartment and help to cool the entire place down, rather than just my bedrooom. ;)

Anyhow, I'm extremely hungry, so I'm gonna go find something to eat. I just figured I would update this thing, since I haven't in quite a while. Working 7 days straight of those E8's (8:00pm to 4:00am) just doesn't make you wanna jump on the computer much. I have a fairly easy week this week, so I'm gonna try to take it easy... I'm gonna try to work 7:00am to 3:00pm for my office shifts Wednesday through Friday. That way I can open up my afternoon's and evenings for hopefully, more dips in the pool and more walks. We'll see how long of a kick I go on for these walks/short runs and swimming. Hopefully, I can get a sort of routine going here. ;)

I do need the exercise! Especially, when I'm eating all this junk food. Ahh, junk food - I'm gonna go find some.

Take care, everyone. Hope all is well!
More later...

I'm up at 5:30am again... I was extremely tired after getting home from work yesterday afternoon, so I ended up taking a nap. After the nap, what else did I do? Well, went to bed, of course. What else? So, I suppose my getting up early this morning is justified, to some extent - much the opposite from yesterday.

I've been pulling the day shift at work (8:00am - 4:00pm) which is good in a couple of ways. I've had some things I've wanted to get done around here, plus I have errands I need to complete. I missed my appointment for my car last Thursday, so I still need to get it in for maintenance. Yes, I'm still having issues with the cruise control.

I've also been checking around for prices on enlargements for the lightning photos I shot during the evening of the 7th. I'd really like to get an enlargement or two to hang on my walls here. I have some interest at work to get some enlargements made to hang up there, as well. If you can believe it, we're a private weather forecasting company, yet we have not one weather picture hanging up in that office - anywhere! So, maybe I can start a trend here - and start getting some photos up on those walls. We have plenty of people in that office, especially among us forecasters, that chase and take photos. So, I'm sure we could all contribute.

Anyhow, it's been a little cool around these parts and especially rainy this morning. This upper-level cut-off low is still spinning around the Great Lakes and extending this shield of rain/showers over the eastern part of the state. It should taper off this afternoon, but it will likely keep things a little dreary through a good part of the day. It will, at least, be a good day to be inside at work. I'd rather have it that way, than have a beautiful 80° day and have to work.

I'm looking forward to this next week. A friend of mine will have her week-long vacation and I'm hoping we'll be able to get together and hang out. I managed to meet this woman a couple of months ago and have been e-mailing her back and forth for a while now. She's a little paranoid when it comes to sharing phone numbers and everything, which I can respect and can understand... But, it has been over 2 months now! Hopefully, we'll be able to find a time and finally meet each other.

I haven't talked to Amanda in a while... I should call her to see how she's been and what she's been up to. You know, I'll be honest here -- I understand that some women think that it's the "right" thing for the man to make the first move in a relationship... and to be the one responsible for "calling back..." In very nearly every relationship I've ever been in, that's been mostly true. But for you women (if there are any that actually read this) I'll let you in on one little secret. Us guys like it, too, when you call us! We like to feel wanted too, from time to time. I can recall a relationship while I was a Sr. in high school where this woman, in particular, would call me (out of the blue) and ask me if I wanted to come over, go on a walk, or simply to go out for ice cream... Don't get me wrong, I would call her plenty - but I'll just say, I enjoyed that. It's sad that it doesn't happen anymore - and especially sad that it hasn't in over 4 years.

Anyhow... Any more of this and I'll be forced on anti-depressants for the rest of my life. What I need is to be around my real friends... and I wish I could be. I'm getting very anxious for my trip home in August. I miss Brian and Amy. I miss Justin. And I miss my family. I can't wait to see Brian and Amy's little girl. They sent me a picture the other day of little Zoey... She's getting big and she's staying healthy! Check out this little cutie:


More later...

So, I realize it's been like forever since I've updated this thing... Sincerely apologize, by the way!

Anyhow, not much new up this way. Work has really slowed down lately. Our contracts with Alberta and Iowa ended about mid-April and our responsibilities shifted only to the Northern Indiana districts about the same time. The contract with Indiana ended at the end of April as did Wisconsin. So, we're pretty much into our quiet season at Meridian. My schedule is fairly reflective on that. I only work two seperate shifts the whole month (8:00pm to 4:00am and 8:00am to 4:00pm shifts) and work 4 days of office shifts. So, at least there's some consistency with this month's schedule.

I've really been under a serious crunch financially. After a few unexpected expenses over the past couple of weeks, I'm literally broke. Even though I got my raise a couple weeks ago, it really hasn't helped much in the short-term. Hopefully, it'll start to make more of a difference in a couple of months, when (hopefully) I can get back on my feet. In the meantime, I've been trying to cut back on a few things. Amanda and I are still seeing each other off and on and even though it makes me sounds like a cheap-ass, I'm trying not to just go out everytime, when we do see each other. I've been trying to find ways to spend time together without having to spend money. I had her over the other night and I cooked dinner for her and stayed in to watch a movie. So, see... We can find things to do that don't cost money! Plus, it was something a little different for me. It was (if you can believe it) the first time I've ever cooked dinner for a woman! Neither of us keeled over, so I guess the food turned out alright. The grilled chicken could have been better had I started the rest of the food sooner!

The trip down to Aberdeen for the Convective Workshop went great! The presentations were top-notch and were very interesting. I was very impressed with it. Even though a majority of the folks that were there were NWS employees, I still had a great time. It seemed like they accepted me as an employee of the private sector, so it wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. There were a lot of nice and intelligent people there. I learned quite a bit from the presentations and I honestly feel I left having taken something away from it. The only part of the whole experience I could have done without was who I went with. The guy is a co-worker and I get along with the guy for the most part, but I'll be brutally honest (can't help it), he was simply embarrassing to be around. I don't know what it is, but he has some serious beef with the NWS and he deliberately criticized the NWS and many of it's practices - AND openly. He criticized the Grand Forks office on numerous occasions when it was clear that the Grand Forks employees were standing very nearby. It was embarrassing and it made me feel very uncomfortable. I don't know if he actually realizes that what he says sometimes can be very offensive or not, but frankly, it is. So, yes, if you haven't taken anything from my rant here, I am implying my attendence next year will not be with him. Which, by the way, I learned that the Grand Forks WFO will be sponsering next year!

Thursday, April 20th, I also attended the basic and advanced Skywarn training here in Grand Forks. Adam Lowe (a co-worker of mine) and I went down to it. Even though we're both rather extensively trained in the science of meteorology, it was still nice to be at a training session up here. I'm not sure, but it may have been the first session that Adam had been through. This will make the 8th or 9th time I've been through Skywarn training and the 2nd time I've been through the advanced session. I met a couple of the Hams at the session and also met the vice-president of the ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) network up here. He had invited to their monthly meeting, but I couldn't make it because of work. I haven't looked close enough at the work schedule, but hopefully I don't work the last Tuesday of this month... They hold their monthly meetings then. I've never been a part of ARES, so I'm a little green on how it runs and all. It would be interesting, however, to sit down and meet everyone and see what it's all about.

Since then, not much more excitement to speak of. The cruise control on my car has been malfunctioning over the past couple of weeks... and I should probably have it looked at. Which I would, if I could afford it - or if I had the time. With me working these 8pm - 4am shifts, I haven't been getting up until 3 or 4pm and by the time I get around and get my shower and everything, the dealership is closed. One of these days, I need to get my ass up and drive it over there.

Anyhow, speaking of which... I still need to get my shower and it's getting to be about that time. Hopefully, everyone has been doing okay and hopefully you're not mad that I haven't been updating this more often. I apologize. In the future, I'll try to get in here and write more.

More later...

In the meantime, though, for you guys out there... You better be voting for your Hometown Hotties for Maxim. Their annual contest has been going on now for 10 weeks!

C'mon, you have to support these hotties: http://www.maximonline.com/hotties/

Personally, I think it's a toss up between the two "Christina's." Christina (Dallas, TX) from Week #1 and Christina (Orlando, FL) from Week #8. You're votes will decide!

Edit: 19 May 2006 @ 1:35pm CDT

Hey folks,

I just thought I'd let you all know that I'll be out of town Monday through Wednesday. I will be attending the Northern Plains Convective Workshop down in Aberdeen, SD. If you need to reach me, I'll have my cell phone on me. You may want to double-check the workshop agenda, as well. It will, in general, let you know what I'll be doing and when.

Hope all is well!

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!

I'm so freakin' tired, I really don't feel like writing in here tonight, but since it's been a while, I suppose I should. The past several days, I've been pulling the 7am to 3pm shift and even though I love getting off of work at 3:00pm, I hate getting up so early. You know me, I'm always up late, and this week hasn't been any different... So, as a result, yes, I've only managed 4-5 hours of sleep each night. I have Monday and Tuesday off, so I'm planning on getting caught up on some sleep.

Over the course of the past week, we've gradually been losing our snow-cover. Our temperatures have been remaining above freezing for the most part (especially over the past several days) and it's been raining as well, so that's helped. The negative is that with the rapid snow-melt and the fresh rainfall, the Red River is now threatening to flood. The Grand Forks forecast office upgraded our flood watch to a warning and is forecasting the river to crest at 47 feet. If that occurs, that'll make it the 6th highest it's ever been. The cool thing about this, is that if this indeed occurs, they'll have to place a new watermark on the monument down by the river.

Had some frustrating times yesterday... We've got apartment complexes going up in front of the building we're housed at work and as I was leaving work yesterday, I managed to snag a big ass screw in my right-front tire. I thought I had heard something "pop" but it didn't register, initially. About a half-mile down 42nd street I noticed my car was severely pulling to the right. After pulling over in the Valley Dairy (gas-station) I quickly found the tire completely flat! What a pain in the ass... So, I had to jack up the car, throw on my spare, and drive over to the Firestone. Since I had driven on the tire, they couldn't just patch the tire up, so I ended up having to purchase a new tire. Another $100 down the pooper... This car has been nothing but bad luck over the past year for me. First, I manage to drive the damn thing 30 feet into a mud-filled ravine last spring. Second, I end up having to replace a windshield after finding it cracked last summer. Third, the thing is broken into inside my garage a few months ago, and now... this! I suppose, these are all just that: bad luck. I couldn't have done anything to control any of these occurrences. They just manage to happen to me.

The one good thing to come out of all this: things seem to work out in the end. And thus far, I suppose I can't complain. Nothing major has happened to this car... and I guess I should feel lucky for the fact. I don't know what I'd do without my car. It's my baby...

Oh, and speaking of "babies..." I learned that Brian and Amy's little girl, Zoey, will be coming home from the hospital very soon. That's wonderful news... She was born about 2 months premature and even though she was as tiny as tiny can be, she's pulled through. I'm anxious to get home in August to see her.

Anyhow, I have some other things on my mind... maybe I'll share more later, when I'm a little more rested up. I'm off to take a nap!

Take care!

I learned yesterday at work that over the course of the 3-4 day snow event over the central and northern plains this past weekend, that we received over 300,000 calls on our 511 system. At one point, supposedly during the morning hours of Monday, we were receiving calls at the rate of one every 3 seconds for our customers in Kansas and Nebraska. I don't have the exact numbers, but if I remember correctly, it was close to 345,000 total calls, give or take 2-5,000. Damned if I've ever heard of so many phone calls! That's just crazy...

I completed my 10:00am to 6:00pm shifts yesterday, have today off, then work a couple of mid-shifts (12:00am - 8:00am) tonight and Friday night, then pretty much have the weekend off. I don't have any major plans for the weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to get out and do something. I feel guilty for spending money, but I need to get out of this apartment. Last weekend, I was just feeling miserable (battling some sort of cold, I suppose) and was just too lazy to get out and do anything. I felt I accomplished some things - I got all my laundry done, cleaned up the apartment, and filed away some bills and some papers (something that's needed to be done for a couple of months).

I also received my federal tax refund check in the mail Monday. So, I've now received both my state and federal refunds. I guess I can say, that I'm fairly proud of myself for that. This is the first year I've completely done my taxes on my own. I went out and bought TurboTax, but for some reason it wouldn't let me complete my state forms... So, I took it back to Best Buy and decided to fill out the forms manually. Call me old fashioned, but it's cheaper (you don't have to pay for some stupid program or pay extra for e-filing). I'm sure Chris (my brother-in-law) would be proud to hear that! heheh... Anyhow, both of the refund checks are going to my credit card to pay off the purchase of my Digital Rebel XT. The federal check should take a good chunk of the balance off the credit card. I hate using my credit card because the interest rate is so frippin' high, but well, if you knew how bad I wanted this camera, you'd understand why I finally decided to use it. ;)

I've decided to attend the Northern Plains Convective Workshop down in Aberdeen in a few weeks (April 17-19). Initially, although I knew about it, I wasn't planning on going - mostly because of financial issues and, of course, getting the time off of work to go. I realized, however, Monday that Mr. Russ Schumacher is giving a presenatation on Extreme Rain Events... Russ and I were colleagues at Valparaiso University, so it'll be kind of neat to see him again. Hopefully, I'll be able to run into him and see what he's been up to after all these years. I'm going to eMail Erik Zarnitz, as well, to see if he's going to be there. He's living somewhere in South Dakota (I can't remember where...) so I'm wondering if he's considering it. It should be a fun experience and hopefully an informative and educational one, as well. I haven't attending any conferences in a couple of years, so even though I'll probably be spending $50-80 on the trip and for hotel accomodations (it's a 2-day event) I think it'll be worth it. I should know by tomorrow if I'll be able to get the time off work, but if I do, I'll be heading down with Justin Turcotte, a co-worker of mine. Which will work out even better... That way, we can split the costs of traveling and accomodations. I'm getting anxious for that, it should be fun!

Well, as we "Hartman's" tend to say... I'm running out of gab... LOL!
Have a great day, folks!

Sunday, March 12th certainly was a day for "march madness..." Selection Sunday was yesterday. It's the college basketball fan's favorite day of the year - a day when college teams celebrate, console, and cry over who makes it to the "big dance..." But, this year, this great day for sports fans was overshadowed by something no one could ever expect. Something that no one could control...

The largest and likely, one of the most destructive severe weather outbreaks struck the Midwest, the Missouri Valley, and parts of the South Sunday, resulting in widespread damage. Unfortunately, 2 fatalites were reported in Missouri Sunday evening as twisters ripped across the landscape there... and more than 20 injuries have been associated to other tornadoes that struck communities in 4 states.

For more information on the deadly outbreak that struck Sunday, head on over to my Weather Blog. I have provided more details there.

Here, on the other hand, I have to express my excitement to see Indiana in the NCAA tournament this year. They've missed out the past couple of years, so it's about time for the Hoosiers to make a little noise. Even though they lost to Ohio State in the Big 10 Tournament Semi-Finals, Saturday, they have still won 5 out of their last 6 games - and Marco Killingsworth, along with a few other Hoosiers' has been playing well of late. While I don't think they'll quite make the Elite Eight, they definitely have an opportunity to, at least, make it into the Sweet 16... Which is something they haven't done since their run in 2002 when they reached the National Title game against Maryland. Even though, I figured they would make it into the pool of 65 teams, I was still surprised to learn of their #6 seed. With an 18-11 record, is a #6 appropriate? I guess, when you look at several of their losses, they were close ones - and were to teams they played tough. The game with Duke early in the season, for instance... the Hoosiers made that a game, and Marco Killingsworth simply dominated his showdown with Sheldon Williams, lighting it up for 36 points. And their game with Connecticut; where the Hoosiers came back in the second half and made UCONN scrap for that win... The #6 seed may not be appropriate given the record, but I think it's deserved for the way they've played tough teams this year. They really slumped in Big Ten play, but finishing the conference season with 5 straight wins can certainly garner some attention from the selection committee. And... it seemed to have worked!

The Hoosiers will face their first-round opponent, 11th seeded San Diego State, at 9:40pm EST Thursday night in Salt Lake City in the Oakland Regional. Go Hoosiers!

Edit: 03.14.2006 at 10:35pm CST

Whats up, everyone? Not much has been going on up here. It's been pretty nice up here over the past week. Temperatures have been up some (into the 30's) so we're finally starting to melt away some of the snow-cover we've had since early February. Of course, it looks like we have another system approaching for tomorrow that may drop another 3-6" of snow. The Grand Forks NWSFO has a snow advisory up through tomorrow evening... So, I'm not exactly looking forward to that.

Yesterday we even had a whole day of sunshine. It felt so nice outside, I finally went and got my car washed. It's probably the first time it's been washed since last fall. Washing your car in the dead of winter up here is pointless. That sand crap they put down on the roads up here makes your car dirty again, by the next day. I'm always afraid too, that if I wash the thing when it's cold out that the doors will freeze shut. Supposedly it shouldn't happen, but I'm always paranoid about it happening. Today, it felt even warmer, but I haven't checked to see what our high was.

I ended up going to Fargo with a friend of mine to go to the Fargo Air Museum. Even though they insanely overcharged for entry, it was still pretty cool. They had a lot of military aircraft there and a lot of memorabilia from WW-II and WW-III. It was pretty interesting to look at it all. The place wasn't very big at all... it was practically a small airplane hangar with several planes inside. Plus, they had a crap-load of motorcycles in there - which I didn't understand. This was the "Air" Museum, right? ;)

Anyhow, it was nice to get out and do something a little different. Lately, all I've been doing is going out to eat or going to see movies when I go out. Next time, maybe I'll check out some of the other historic places around here. I enjoy things like that...

I also went to Wal-Mart yesterday to process 6 rolls of film I've had sitting around since last fall. I had pictures from when I moved into my apartment on one of the rolls! So, I have several new pictures in the Photo Gallery for your viewing pleasure... I don't have too many, but most of them have been posted in the photo-scapes albums. I added a few photos in my chasing albums, as well... It's kind of cool in one aspect, because thinking about it, this will probably be the last film I'll ever pay to have processed. Or that I will ever own! Since I have the XT now, it'll be likely that I won't use my film cameras much anymore. We'll see...

I'm also still in the middle of our fantasy baseball draft. So far, I think I'm doing pretty well. If your curious, here's my team, thus far:

Position Players:

Ca_ V. Martinez (Cle)
1B_ D. Lee (ChC)
2B_ M. Ellis (Oak)
3B_ M. Ensberg (Hou)
SS_ J. Rollins (Phi)
OF_ B. Abreu (Phi)
OF_ J. Pierre (ChC)
OF_ J. Francoeur (Atl)
UT_
Be_
Be_
Be_
Be_

Pitchers:

SP_ C. Carpenter (StL)
SP_ B. Colon (LAA)
RP_ T. Hoffman (SD)
RP_ S. Shields (LAA)
P_ B. Webb (Ari - SP)
P_ J. Garland (CWS - SP)
P_ B. Howry (ChC - RP)
P_
P_
P_

We'll see how this season goes... but I'm hoping for a better result than last year. I finished near the bottom of my league. I can't remember exactly where, but it may have indeed been second to last. In other news, I'm still leading in the Fantasy Hockey League I'm in. Luck, is really the only way I'm leading that league. I'm serious when I say I don't know shit about hockey. I really don't...

Well, folks, I'm gonna go flip on ESPN and see how the Hoosiers did tonight in the Big Ten Tournament. I totally forgot to tape the game tonight. I've tried to avoid checking the scores online tonight - cause I'd rather see them on TV and on ESPN or ESPNews, where I can also get some highlights. I saw that Illinois was upset by Michigan State, though. That's just crazy! I'm getting anxious for March Madness to start! Which reminds me, I need to sign up for the WPTA (the NBC-affiliate in Ft. Wayne) March Madness brackets. My dad fills those out every year just for fun and, hey, why not have some friendly competition between my dad and I? ;) The overall winner actually wins a TV or something like that... I doubt I'd win the thing, but if I did - there would be some problems. I think you have to be an Indiana resident to receive the prize and as far as I know, no relatives can accept the prize for you, either. I dunno, if I did happen to win the thing, maybe I can talk them into having my dad accept it somehow. Heheh... Anyway, I seriously doubt that would happen anyway.

Well, I guess this sums up my last few days here. Hope you all are doing well.
Take care!

Yes, this sucks... So, I'm supposed to be at work at 10:00am... it's 7:00am and I'm wide awake. Something is seriously up with me. Yesterday I worked until 7:00am, so I ended up sleeping through much of the day. Until around 3:00pm, in fact. I tried getting some sleep, but I've only slept a total of like 2 hours. If you know me at all, you know I'm always up late, so I didn't go to bed until 2:00am, then tossed and turned and didn't really fall asleep until 3:00. I wake up again at 5:00, and ever since I've been wide awake.

I have a feeling I'm going to be dog-tired by the time I get home from work today. I'm seriously going to check out some of those sleeping pills my mom mentioned to me. Either that or tell Cory to not schedule these M11 shifts and D10 shifts back-to-back. This is killer on my sleeping schedule.

Anyhow, not much is new around these parts. Temperatures have been slowly on the increase over the last week and it looks like we should continue in the 30's through, at least, the next week. I'm hoping that puts a dent in the snow-pack we have on ground. I'd love to see all this friggin' snow gone by the end of the month. If that happens remains to be seen, but it sure would be nice. I'm really looking forward to warm weather. I set a resolution at the beginning of the year to start running this summer and whether I keep that, depends on when it warms up. Hopefully, it'll be soon... Within the next month, maybe? ;)

Well, I think I'm gonna hop off here. Maybe I'll actually eat something for breakfast before I head into work. I'm never up early enough before work to eat breakfast. This will be something new!

Oh, and for you Reality-TV enthusiasts, you gotta catch this season's "Apprentice" and "Real World: Key West." The Apprentice is actually pretty good this go around - maybe as good as the first season, and the Real World: Key West season should be interesting to watch. They were filming the show down in Key West when Hurricane Katrina struck southern Florida and were there filming, as well, when Wilma made landfall along the southwestern coast of Florida. I'm not typically into watching "Real World" on a consistent basis, but this season has my interest. ;)

Newest favorite song: Better Days - Goo Goo Dolls
Newest crush: Allie (from The Apprentice) *grin

Hey folks,

I haven't written in here in a while, so I figured I'd drop a note. Things have been pretty busy at work the last few days. We had a fairly potent system push through the upper-midwest this week, resulting in all different precipitation types and some heavy snows, as well. Especially over Iowa and Wisconsin, where some reports have up to a foot of snow.

I've been working day shifts most of the week and since I'm a night-owl, I've been going to bed late and getting up early for work. This hasn't done much good to my health lately, as I haven't been feeling very energetic or motivated lately. And the weather hasn't helped.

We're finally experiencing winter up here in the Northern Plains... I guess we should have expected this - coming off the warmest January on record here in Grand Forks and many other locations across the country. An arctic front finally dropped through the region Tuesday, simply dropping our temperatures like a rock. We dipped to as low at -19 Wednesday morning and hit -21 this morning (Thursday morning). Tonight, we'll likely see temperatures even colder with clear skies and deep snow-pack. We'll probably see temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees below zero. In fact, as of right now (2:13am), it's -22 at the NWS office here in town. Wind Chill Warnings are in effect until 6pm this evening, for possible values of -40 to -60 degrees. That's just down-right hellish...

My car had an extremely hard time starting tonight when leaving for work. It struggled... I had to hold the key for several seconds before it turned over, but at least, it did... And even after letting it warm up for nearly 40 minutes, the heat still wasn't as warm as it typically is by that point.

God, I hate the cold! Someone please explain to me why I moved up here, again... It reached well into the 50's and 60's back home in Indiana on Thursday. And they saw a bit of severe weather, as well. Oh, what I wouldn't give for just one 50-60 degree day up here - or a good thunderstorm! ;)

Other goings on... Not much else has been happening up this way. Amanda and I are still seeing each other off and on. While I'm still having personal issues of how far I want to take this relationship, I think I can say that I'm beginning to like her. I finally met her two daughters, Noel and Anna... and they seem like they're good kids. Amanda and I went out for Valentines Day to Fargo, to check out a restaurant we found over the weekend. It was more formal than I expected... they wanted reservations - something I didn't think about until the last second - and when ordering wine for the both of us, they brought out the whole bottle and a bucket of ice. That's something new for me... I hadn't ever been to a restaurant where they did that. But we had a good time and ate some good food. I spent a little more money than I really wanted to, but seeing to it that I haven't had a reason to celebrate Valentines Day in years - I felt it was justified and deserved, to me and her...

And while I haven't been taking as many pictures with the new camera, I still have some new ones to post in the Gallery. It's been too cold to go out and take pictures lately, so that's the main reason why...

Anyhow, this entry is getting a bit long, so I'm gonna hop off here for now.
Hope everything is going well for everyone!

GrLevelX has once again risen the bar to radar visualization tools. GrLevel2, the Level-2 Doppler data viewer now has an Analyst Edition that will be soon available. With it's new volume explorer, users will be able to "peel" away layers of a thunderstorm cell to reveal it's inner workings. Here's a screen-shot of what one of these features will look like. Isn't that amazing?

I'm one of the few professional/operational meteorologists out there that have yet to jump on the GrLevelX bandwagon (mainly due to financial concerns). The software itself is near $70 and if you use the Level-2 viewer, there are additional fees for real-time Level-2 access. I may be sold, however, given the new capabilities. Apparently, the Analyst Edition will be available by the end of the month... so we'll see where I'm at financially.