Monthly Archives: June 2009

Local Bands

1 Reply

My friend Leonard apparently started a record label, Digital Xtreme Media, with a friend of his in Columbus. I went to pick them up at the Kent airport to see a show in Kent.

Since I was the driver for the night I got treated to dinner at Rockne’s, which is fantastic. We drove to the place in Kent where the show was being held and stragetically parked, because even though it was doubtful that I would end up getting towed you just never know with Kent. They can be real jerks about it.

We went to the show and it was pretty good. My opinion on the bands does not really matter, but I sort of dug the band that they were here to see. Got to see some local bands and none of them were terrible.

Riding to Class

Leave a reply

I’ve been using the Garmin Edge 305 all week. I could link to every trip I have taken, from the Garmin Connect site, and then by clicking through anyone could see the trip I took on a particular day, but I would rather have it displayed on the site the way I have already done. The problem is that the Garmin site shows the results the same way, but, as far as I know, you can’t take those results and display them on your own site and I am getting kind of tired up of uploading all my trips to two sites. One just so I have it recorded with my other activities and the other site so I can display it here. Honestly, I am just hoping that Garmin does something to their own site that allows for what I want.

I’ve been riding my bike to the University and other places as well. I got a little sunburn and I have a little bit of soreness in my legs, but I feel good. This week the weather was hot and it did not rain or anything, so I still have to see how I fair when the weather is not “ideal”. This week I rode about 28 miles. I think I can do more.

On something completely not related to bikes I sent in my Xbox 360 for repair, a full week and a half after the initial call. I finally had Microsoft mail me the shipping label, since waiting for the new Xbox Support website to actually work the way it is supposed to did not seem to be a very good option. The Xbox Support website that the email links me to is still completely broken. It does not claim to have a console on record that I have registered, even though I registered on the phone and on the site. When I put in the reference number and my zip code it claims that they do not match. I have called about it, and the answer I get is that they can cancel my current repair and give me a new email, with a new reference number, that will not work just like the last three that they sent. I would say the new Xbox Support site is completely broken from my experience.

Bike Ride to Storm’s House

Leave a reply

I decided to take a bike ride today, because I was feeling kind of restless. It was nothing like most of my trips as far as distance goes, but I feel like even though the bike ride was relatively short I got a lot out of it going on such a hot and humid day.

I went over to Storm’s house and taking Brown Street was a good idea, because there is a bike lane all the way up to his house for the most part, so that worked out pretty well. While I was there we watched some videos and I looked at some pictures of when he was in Iraq. He has this video of him chasing a little tornado in a pickup truck. It is sort of hilarious.

I decided, as I often do, not to go home the way I went there. There was a bike lane for most of the trip back. If you look at the speed I managed to get going kind of fast going down a hill by my house. It was fun.

Weekend Visit

Leave a reply

Michelle came to visit for the weekend. It was fun as always having her here. She did not get to spend as much time with Patty as she would typically have liked, since Patty was out helping a friend of hers babysit. Patty considers herself something of an expert since she helped take care of my sisters kids last summer.

Michelle was playing Rock Band 2, and she was doing really well, and then something terrible happened. The front USB ports on the Xbox 360 all stopped working. There was an Xplorer guitar plugged in and a controller and neither of them work now either. I called Microsoft and the Xbox 360 is under warranty, but the controller and the guitar are garbage.

Michelle went home today after spending two nights here. She teased Eddy and generally found ways to entertain herself. It was nice having her here.

Bike Trip

Leave a reply

I just got the Garmin Edge 305 in the mail today, which was quite a surprise because they had said on the website that I ordered it from that it would not be here till Saturday. I decided I needed to test it, even though it has been raining quite a bit today. I loaded up some stuff in the bag on the back of the bike and started my journey to Wal-Mart, where I needed to return something.

I was just starting my trip and I ran into Eddy. I asked him what he was doing and he said “following you”, so he went as well.

The beginning of the trip was fine, but then again we were on back streets. That was fun. The main streets like Arlington and Main are not so good. There really isn’t enough room on the side for the person on the bike and there is a great deal of garbage and gravel. There are no sidewalks for a good part of the trip as well, so we did have to ride on the side of the street.

We got something to drink at a gas station on Arlington. I forgot to bring Gatorade or something. We also got barked at by a dog who was smart enough not to run into the street. We saw a pig in one persons front yard. It was really big. We also saw a badger when we were coming back on main.

We made it to Wal-Mart, made the exchange, and got a screwdriver for Eddy’s bike. The front derailer wasn’t going down into the bottom gear so I bought a 88 cent Philips screwdriver and fixed it. We headed home and we only got rained on a bit at the end of the trip.

Internet Recipes

Leave a reply

I had another cookout on Saturday. This time I tried some Italian sausages. I sauteed different colored peppers and onions on the stove. Tim came over. It was pretty good, but I think I could do better, and with that in mind I have been searching the internet for more recipes. I had a better fire in the grill this time, because I went with more lighter fluid and waited longer this time. That was a suggestion from Derek that ended up panning out.

The kids both passed and they will both be going on to the next grade. Where exactly they will be attending school this year is another matter entirely as I’ve enrolled them both in private schools, which is the alternative you get in this area, because the schools are doing so poorly, and I just have to see if that is going to work out.

Cookout

Leave a reply

We had a cookout yesterday. I invited Derek and Jo over. I invited more people, but it was just sort of a general invitation, so I didn’t really expect anyone else to show up. The kids and Grandma were here as well. I got a new grill and it went pretty well. I did hamburgers and hot dogs. I also did zucchini and squash, but a good deal of that ended up in the driveway, since neither I nor Derek could seem to get it from the grill to the table without dropping them. We had watermelon for dessert and I found out that I’m the only one who likes watermelon. I didn’t think anyone didn’t like watermelon.

Summer is Near

1 Reply

Tomorrow is the midterm for the Maps and Map Reading class I’m taking this summer. I have no idea how I’m going to do that, because up till now it’s been working with groups on worksheet after worksheet and it is hard to imagine sitting there completing a test by myself. I’m not even sure we were supposed to be working together on the worksheets, it’s just that the entire back row of the classroom is education majors, and one history major, and we all sort of think the same way about these types of assignments, which is to say, that we all think we should do it together.

Maps and Map Reading is a lot of math, but the professor is pretty cool about it. When it comes to miles she only wants us to sort of round up or down depending on where it falls on the mile marker on the map key. This really helps when you are trying to do the area for a building on a map, because instead of reaching for the ruler, which is my first instinct, you can just put the dots on the edge of a piece of paper and then line it up with the key and just sort of guess.

Tomorrow is also the last day of school for the kids and then they are on to summer break. I think they are happy about that. The weather has been pretty bad this week, but I’m sure it is going to warm up soon and they are going to get a taste of summer weather. I still have to get their grades and then it is on to a few months without having to worry about waking them up in the morning.