Monday mornin, it was all I hoped it would be

For a Monday it was a pretty decent day.  I managed to get 5.5/miles in.  It is pretty easy to get the miles in when I walk to work and back.   This is the first time I have made this walk both ways in a couple of weeks.  It was cold and icy in some spots from the left over snow.   I was dressed for the cold so it didn't bug me.

On the way in I caught up on several technical podcast that I had been meaning to listen to for a while.  These podcast were on the IBM InfoSphere products.   More of a sales pitch on the products and not so much a technical presentation.

Had a good day at the office and got several items off my To Do list, but I think I added just as many new ones.

I left the office at 4:45pm as I wanted to get home before dark.   On the way home the sun was just setting behind the mountain    I took the picture above but it looked better through my orange tinted sun glasses.

Today's Hiking Route

Happy Hiking

Poop in a jar

I was looking for some new music this evening and came across a band named Hayseed Dixie.  They do covers of bands like Queen, AC/DC, Black Sabbath but with blue grass sound.  I came across this video and song.  It was new to me and just felt like I had to share.   Made me laugh!

Here is a link to the Hayseed Dixie website if you want to check out some of their other video's.
http://www.hayseed-dixie.com/Video%20Evidence.html

More Snow?

We tried a new recipe, this one was a Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole by Iowa Girl Eats.   It cooked all night in the crock-pot on low. It was pretty tasty and had hash-browns, sausage, eggs, cheeses and onions, see recipe below.   It was like a thick quiche.   I got up at 8am and had a piece then I went back to bed until 10am.  Guess I was tired.

Last week at the office on the entry table someone had left tickets to the Home and Landscape EXPO.  There was a stack with a note that said "free tickets".   I grabbed four of the them with thought that we could go.   So instead of going for our hike we decided we would hike over to the Norris-Penrose Event Center and check out the EXPO.   From our house it is about a mile and half.   We cut through the BCP and the snow was still pretty deep.   We made our way over the creek and up past the stables and then to the Events Center.  Made a tour through the isles and checked out the various vendors.  Anything you needed for the home or yard was being represented.   Pretty much the same thing they had last year.  We grabbed some information from a painting company, stucco and a handy-man service.   Being that it was lunchtime we ordered and split a cheese burger and an order of fries.  Sat and ate and watched the people.  That was almost more fun than the EXPO it's self.  Made our way back home the way we came.

The weatherman is saying that we are going to see 5 to 8 inches of snow tomorrow.  Supposed to start early AM and snow most of the day.

Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole
Ingredients - (serves 10)

• 30oz bag frozen hash browns
• 1 lb sausage, browned and drained
• 8oz shredded cheddar cheese
• 8oz shredded mozzarella cheese
• 6 green onions, sliced
• 12 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

• Spray a large crock pot with non-stick spray then place half the hash browns in the bottom.  Layer in half the cooked sausage, half the cheeses, and half the green onions.  Then repeat hash browns, sausage and cheese layers.
• In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper, then drizzle over top.  Cook on low for 8 hours, or until eggs are set.  Serve with salsa or guacamole.

Happy Hiking

Scratch Insulation from the list

Hooray, it is done!  The insulators finished up this evening about 6pm.  They were at the shop this morning at 8:30 and I had everything ready to go for them.   By 2pm they had the ceiling done and just had one wall section remaining and then around the garage doors.   Anyway it looks great now that it is done and I can already tell the difference.   Once the ceiling was done the shop really started to warm up, just from the single kerosene heater that I have.

Before

After

I helped out where I could as the gopher and kept the place cleaned up.   Glad it is done and now I can move on to the last section of wall that I need to sheetrock.  Going to have to call ADT and have them relocate the alarm.  That’s next on my list.   

This afternoon it started snowing again off and on, looks like we got about another inch.  I caught part of the news and I think we could see snow most of the weekend.   Bring it on!   Candy and I were talking about going hiking in the morning and we will need to dig out our STABILicers.  Don’t think we have enough snow to go snow shoeing but if it keeps up, we might get lucky.

Happy Hiking!

Snow Day

I would say that we ended up with a total of 5 to 6 inches of snow over the night.  Candy was all abuzz this morning.   They closed her office so she got a snow day.   She already has Friday’s off, so she ended up with a 4 day weekend.

The insulation guys called me around 7:30am to let me know they were going to be late.  That wasn't a surprise, they estimated 9:30am but I knew that was going to be tough to make with the weather and the roads they way they were.  I left the house around 8:15am, the side streets were bad but the main roads were in pretty good shape.

Stopped for a coffee and got to the shop around 8:30am.   Turned on the kerosene heater and setup a place to work on the work bench.  I have a wireless card for my laptop, problem is that at the shop I get two bars at best.  I had a calls scheduled at 9:00am and 9:30am.  I went and sat in the truck with the heater on so I could keep warm.   The kerosene heater makes a lot of noise so that wasn't going to work.

Come 10:30am the workers showed up.  We chit chatted and went over what they were going to do.   They unloaded what they needed and got right to work.  We were able to keep the doors closed up so we could keep the heat in.   Watching these guys today I could have done this myself.  Difference is that they had all the tools, scaffolding and everything needed.   It would take me a couple of weeks if I did try to do it.   They made pretty quick work of it today, they finished up half of the shop and were done by 3:30pm.

Basically they ran all the straps first, starting in the middle and then to each wall.  Then they came back and did the beams between the middle and the wall.   Once all the straps were up they then pulled the insulation above the straps.   I could go into much more detail but I am lazy and it has been a long day.

Once they wrapped up I moved the two trucks under the completed section and moved a few other things so that when they get here in the morning we can get going.   We just need to finish out the other half and around the garage doors.  I think this is going to work out really well.  

Hey it's snowing!

Well we are getting some snow this evening, not sure how this is going to impact my work that is being done at the shop tomorrow.   The installers are coming from Denver and are supposed to arrive around 8am.   My guess is it will either be around 9am or they cancel.   We will see.

Tonight we made our weekly visit to the Village Inn Restaurant for dinner.  We have been going on Wednesday’s for about 5 weeks.  On Wednesday they have free pie.  A car friend of mine and his wife join us.  Makes for a fun evening!  On our way, It was snowing heavy and the streets were slick in some parts.  Coming home around 8:30pm they had closed 21^st Street.   It is a pretty decent incline and I have seen a many rear and front wheeled drive cars stuck trying to get up the hill.   We had to go about 2/miles around to get home.

When we got home we had about 3 to 4 inches of snow and I decided to go ahead and get the driveway shoveled.  Will probably have to shovel again in the morning, but I would rather shovel two light loads instead of one heavy load.  Candy came out and took my picture as I was finishing up.

Happy Snow Day!

More work to do.

Yesterday I got a call from a company that I am working with that is going to insulate my ceiling and some area of walls that I didn’t sheetrock at the shop.   They said that they could start on Thursday of this week.    I now have some work to do in order to get ready for them.

Today I had to drive up to Denver for meetings and worked out of our office there.   Needed to be home before 5pm as I needed to get some kerosene for my in door heater that I use at the shop.   Got what I needed and spent about 30 minutes getting everything moved so they can get around installing the insulation.    I drove the Rav over and drove the vette home and parked in garage.

So I am ready for Thursday.  This is really going to help keep the heat in and allow me to work in the winter and get a few projects done.   I have several projects in play, but with the cold just haven’t worked on them.   One that I want to get started is a bench that I am refinishing and have some plans to incorporate some decoupage on the seating area.   Going to look pretty cool, don’t want to give too much away yet.

You probably saw my post about our dog Max.    Max was about 12 years old and was one of our first dogs as a family.  Clark was around five and Eric was about nine when we got him.   Max grew up with the boys and loved playing with them.   He wasn't the smartest dog in the world and could be hard headed when he wanted to be, but he was always ready to snuggle and be with you.   For the most part he minded and came when you called him.   He loved the water and dog treats, didn't like having his nails trimmed or shots and was only good for about a 2 to 3 mile hike at most.   He will be missed around here that's for sure. 

Happy Hiking

President's Day!

I have today off for President's day, which is a nice needed break.   I still have work that I need to get done, even though I am off.   Will work on that later today.

Made a quick trip out this morning and did a couple of miles.   I had planned on a longer hike being that I had the day off, but need to do some house work along with my real work.   Yesterday Candy and I went out and did a couple of miles.  Mostly to get our mind off of Max.

On Saturday we celebrated Valentines day.   We had reservations at Spring Orleans for dinner and then we had tickets for the fine arts center to see the play "Prelude to a Kiss".   The play was great and we had fun.  It was a nice night out.

Happy Hiking!

Maximus Judge

In memory of Maximus Judge Robinson, we loved you and will miss you.

Sunday Afternoon

This weekend has come and gone.   I didn't get much done around the house or the shop.  Come to think of it I don't think I did much of anything.   I have been feeling really tired, this last week tore me up.   I don't see this coming week being any better.  Not sure why but I have really been stressed as late.   Work has been really busy and we are growing and this is creating some new challenges to deal with. I have got to get off my ass and get serious about walking.  I think a lot of it is the cold weather and short days.  The days are getting longer though.   Looking out the window and it we are really starting to get some snow.   It has been snowing off/on most of the day but not enough to stick to the street.   If it keeps up like it is now we may get a little accumulation.

Friday night we went to Rasta Pasta with Eric for dinner.  Eric snapped this picture of Candy and I and I felt obliged to include in this blog posting.   We had a great time and the food there is great.  You should try it out if you haven't already.

Candy has been cooking up a storm this weekend.   She made a orange cake that was great, too great as I ate two pieces already.  I cooked up a batch of green chili yesterday and it turned out decent.  Candy and Eric said it was the best I have made to date.    I only have one bag of frozen chili's left from last year and will have to get two bushel's this fall.  Today she is cooking a brisket and just finished making banana nut muffins.

I am on my last two episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".  If you are into raunchy drunken comedy then you would probably like the show as well.   Danny Devito stars in it and he is pretty damn funny. 

Happy Hiking

Nice Rack!

I managed to get out after work this evening and did 3.2/miles through BCP.   The sun was just starting to set on the other side of the mountain and it started to get cold.   No one was out this evening, pretty nice having the trail to yourself.    Did come across this buck who was busy foraging for food, he minded his business and I minded mine.  Need to update my mileage log and am thinking about just starting over from today forward.   I don't think I have any trips planned for the next couple of weeks so I should be able to rack up some miles if I get off my ass.

Happy Hiking


PS.  I included a picture of the fat boy on ski's.  Not sure when I will be back out on ski's again so figured I should include a picture that I actually did it.

Back in the groove

Hey I am back for a few days.   Sorry I left you with the image of that kid who attempted to sing Don’t Close Your Eyes.   I was up in Denver last week and had meetings Monday through Thursday.   Made for long days but I feel we got some things accomplished but you can always do more.

On Thursday night we drove up to Breckenridge CO. to do some Skiing.   This was our team outing.   We had rented a big house and when we arrived we ordered up some pizza’s and sat around.

Friday was a great day to be out skiing.  It has been a couple of years since I was on the slopes.   Got home Saturday afternoon and was glad to be back after being gone all week.

Other than the skiing I really didn’t get any exercise in.   I figured if I got a blog entry in that might spark me to get off my ass and walk tomorrow.

Happy Hiking