Kevspace

New Years 2012 Celebration

2012-01-03T19:05:00.001-06:00

I had a great New Years trip to Gatlinburg, TN, with my friends, Chris, Cara and Jayne Wesner. We got a cabin up in the foothills near Pigeon Forge, only about 10 miles from Gatlinburg and just down the road from all the amenities of the touristy Pigeon Forge area. Our cabin was comfortable with three beds, a pool table and a hot tub. The view from our cabin was spectacular to look out on every morning and evening.

Our first night there, we headed up to Gatlinburg for a meal at Dick's Last Resort restaurant. It's a funny place where the waiters and staff treat you kinda of poorly, mocking you and making jokes all in good fun. They make crazy hats and write silly things on them. It was lots of fun and the food was great.

After dinner we walked the Gatlinburg
strip, checking out the shops and
other festivities. Jayne and Cara
met a lively, scary Santa on the way.

The weather was uncharacteristically mild and beautiful the first few days we were there. We decided to head in to the Smoky Mountain National Park on Friday due to the pleasant weather. We drove through Cades Cove and stopped off at a primitive church and a few old log cabins along the way. We also took a walk down a short trail by a beautiful rocky stream. It was nice for my friends, because they could walk their dogs on that trail.

After our hike we went back to the cabin for some home cooked chili that Cara made for us which was perfect after a day of hiking and enjoying the outdoors. That evening we went to an attraction called Wonderworks. The outside of the building is this huge upside down mansion. It's wild looking. Inside are all sorts of fun interactive games and activities, like standing in a hurricane simulator or testing your mental skills. Cara and I both did the Space Rope Walk which involved being harnessed up and climbing up open stairs and across tight ropes and rope ladders 30-50 feet above the floor. It was awesome, but a little terrifying. Needless to say, I conquered some of my fear of heights that night.

New Year's Eve was another beautiful day. It was a little cooler and got very cold after dark, but we were all bundled up well for the evening. We headed up early to Gatlinburg to get a descent parking spot because an estimated 60,000 people or so were expected in the tiny city. We got an all day pass to the Sky Lift that took us up to the top of a mountain for an incredible ride and view.

I rode with Jayne on the way up. She was a bit unsure of the heights, but she handled it like a pro after the initial nerves were settled.

At the top we had a spectacular view with the setting sun looking down on the valley and crowded streets below.

When we got back down the mountain we headed to do an "Old Time Photo" of the 4 of us as runaway outlaw gangsters. It was a blast.

After dinner, we decided to load up on New Year's Eve party favors, tooting horns, 2012 LED glasses and more. Then we decided to go up the Sky Lift again in the dark to see the city lights. It was really a brilliant sight.

By the time we headed down the mountain a second time, we decided to walk the strip a bit. Eventually, the time came to push our way through the throngs of people to get a good spot of the space needle tower in central Gatlinburg where they would drop a ball for the new year.

We wound up standing shoulder to shoulder in a closed off street right below the tower. It was a great spot. We were surround by thousands of people and the energy was amazing. The ball took a while to drop, longer than the standard last minute of 2011. But once the ball hit the bottom, a dazzling display of fireworks and lights shot out from the tower in all directions. It was so impressive for the little town of Gatlinburg.

Fireworks even shot out from the tops of the surrounding buildings as well. It went on for a good 15 minutes. It was so worth the wait and having to put up with the crowd.

It was one of the best New Year's celebrations I've been able to participate in. Plus it was nice to be able to spend it with close friends. We had a blast. By the time we fought the crowds back to our car and made it through the terrible traffic and back to the cabin it was nearly 2:00 am. Jayne had to leave the next day, so Chris, Cara and I just took it easy and enjoyed our last full day up there in our cabin and also checked out a local outlet mall.

We had lunch at the Mellow Mushroom pizza place in Pigeon Forge where we had an amazing Caesar pizza. It was chicken pesto with a caesar salad on top. It was one of the best pizzas I've had. Apparently we're getting a Mellow Mushroom pizza place in Bowling Green. Can't wait!

That evening, we took one last trip up to Gatlinburg to have dinner and take in a few more shops including stopping by the candy shop for some homemade sweets! All in all it was an excellent trip.

May 2012 be a good year to remember.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T20:05:00.001-06:00

Yet another Christmas has come and gone. It's been a good one this year. Lots of excellent family time. It was great spending time with Miranda, Ben and the boys. I had the boys continue their scavenger hunts each night to find a little gift. Each night had a slightly different set of puzzles or clues as to where things were hidden that all related back to Christmas. The word search game was particularly popular. They even had a little buddy over that night to help them out with the clue.

Another night they found some model jets which perhaps was their favorite. The last night I hid some paint brushes and a couple canvases so they could continue their artistic endeavors.

Mom and Bill got to come down Saturday night. It was nice to have an evening visiting with them before the rest of the family came on Saturday. Lorna and Clint and their families all came down Saturday. Miranda cooked a nice meal and we opened gifts. Lots of festive fun.

The boys slept well Christmas Eve and didn't rise until 5:00 am which is great compared to last year's 2 am rise. They took their time opening gifts this year instead of just tearing through them. It was all fun and games until poor Cody cut himself pretty nastily with his new pocket knife. All was mended though and he was back to smiling in no time.

I want to thank all the family for my special gifts this year. I got some very good items that I'm sure to use. Ben's mom even knitted me a scarf and hat this year as well that are fantastic. Thanks again everybody! Happy Holidays!!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Christmas Vacation (not the movie)

2011-12-22T00:14:00.001-06:00

I've been lucky this year to have a bunch of days saved up for vacation. I've taken all but Monday off this week and have gone to Miranda's as usual for the holidays. When I got here I put Caleb and Cody to work on making Christmas decorations for the house out of construction paper. We made snowflakes to hang from the ceiling and a few festive things for the windows.

I went to the dollar store before I came and got the boys a few fun items that they have to play a scavenger hunt each night to find. Last night they found a trail that led them to silly putty.

Tonight they had to search for letters placed around the house that spelled out snowman. Once they figured out the word "snowman" they had to search the house for a snowman where they discovered a new gift. They got magnify glasses. As a bonus I led them under Rosie's dog dish to find a fart sound machine. I think they liked that more than the magnifiers.

Miranda and I spent the evening making yummy sweets. We had the christmas music blasting and Cody helped a bit. Then we finished the night playing Wii.

More busy fun tomorrow. Only a few days till Christmas. Hard to believe its almost here!

Christmas Tree 2011

2011-12-06T18:25:00.001-06:00

Christmas time...

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T19:39:00.001-06:00

I had a good Thanksgiving spent with family and friends. Miranda, Ben and the boys came to Bowling Green the weekend before and Ben's parents were gracious to invite me for a big delicious dinner.

I took Wednesday off and headed to Henderson for a long weekend. Miranda, Ben and the boys got to mom's later that night. Lorna, Shyanne, Steve, and Clint and his family all came over for a big dinner on Thanksgiving. The turkey was good as always with lots of yummy sides and dessert.

Miranda got me up early at 5am on Friday to go Black Friday shopping. Thankfully the real crazy crowds had already been out since midnight when a lot of stores opened but there was still a lot of people. We saw a few outrageously festively dressed groups of people.

Friday and Saturday had very mild, pleasant weather. I convinced the boys to go explore the creek and woods behind mom's house. They were hesitant for some reason and wouldn't go explore without me but they had a great time. Cody was soon at home climbing vines like a monkey.

They made a small dam in the creek and dug around under rocks for tiny Isopods and other water critters. We hiked up through the woods stomping around like giants in a tiny forest.

It was fun watching the boys and exploring the creek and woods myself. It'd been years since I crossed the creek to the woods. It was a nostalgic experience considering that was where I spent the majority of my time as a kid. The boys were fascinated at the adventure. It was something new for them that had never occurred to them to do. Too busy playing video games I suppose.

The boys still felt nervous to explore on their own until later Saturday when I caught them meandering carefully through the woods using their imagination with silly cardboard box helmets on their heads.

Halloween

2011-10-31T23:27:00.001-05:00

Fall is in full swing here and Halloween has come and now nearly gone. I had a good weekend up in Henderson. The drive up was gorgeous with setting sun and vibrant colors in the trees and vegetation along the roadside.

Mom and I took advantage of the cool temps and beautiful sunshine on Saturday as we walked the pond trail at Audubon State Park. It was a perfect day for it, not too warm and not too cold. The colors were in full swing of golds, reds and orange.

It was a good hike and a memorable time spent with my mom.

That evening I met up with friends at Chris Stone's. We had a little costumed get together. Then Wesner's showed up along with Nickie and Todd and Megan Mortis and Mark Stone.

Everyone got a kick out of my Star Trek outfit.

Chris was his usual goofy self in penguin costume and Cara was a cat.

Chris Stone pulled out his Santa outfit and Mark was a naughty nurse.

We had a good time that night and I met up with then Chris and Cara again on Sunday along with Amanda and her husband Mike at Moonlite BBQ in Owensboro.

It's hard to believe Halloween has slipped by so quick. Before you know it I'll be posting my Thanksgiving and Christmas blogs on here. Best get your shopping done soon!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Fall is in the Air

2011-10-23T11:24:00.001-05:00

Fall is in full swing here in Kentucky. We've had a beautiful weekend here on the last real weekend before Halloween and the weather has been great. It's been cool at night and a pleasant high in the low to mid 60s with bright sunshine.

Mom came down to visit yesterday and I took her to the excellent Japanese restaurant, Yuki's here in town, which she loves. We had sushi, and Mom actually even tried some raw fish sushi which was superb.

After that wonderful lunch, we headed up to Mammoth Cave National Park and hiked Cedar Sink trail and the Heritage boardwalk trail. The sun was shining and the air was just cool enough to be warm and comfortable in a hooded sweatshirt. The leaves aren't as vibrant this year because of lack of rain, but we did see some pretty golds and a few bright red trees in the mix of brown and green and already bare branches.

Cedar Sink is a beautiful trail that ends in a giant caved in sink hole full of blue holes (spring pools) and impressive sandstone rock overhangs and cliffs. We took our time exploring and taking in the scenery, stopping from time to time to listen for any critters we might come across.

Later, we checked out the Heritage trail which tends to always host sightings of birds and other wildlife. We didn't see much, but squirrels and a few birds, so we decided to drive a scenic gravel road along Joppa Ridge within the park where we caught sight of deer and a flock of turkey scurrying across the road in front of us.

It was great to spend some one on one time with Mom, especially doing something we both love out in nature. It was a treat to have her come visit for the day.

After she left, I met up with a few friends of mine from work and we went out to Skeleton's Lair, a spooky haunted forest attraction way out in the boondocks in Allen County. We took a spooky hayride in the dark through a creepy corn field where a chainsaw wielding maniac came rushing out behind us, with our backs facing the field. I was on the end of the trailer, so it was especially spooky.

The hayride circled around through a ghost town set, complete with zombies and undead spooks leaping out terrifying you around every dark corner. After the hayride we were let out and corralled through the walking part of the adventure. We meandered in out of a dark woods, through old shacks and spooky scenes, with gruesome monsters, zombies, witches and other evil creeps leaping out at us and chasing us through the the maze of frights.

Here is a video from last year's event that I didn't experience, but there are similar scenes especially in the hayride portion from what we saw last night.

We all had a good time and were happy to have spent a fun Saturday night out doing something besides sitting on the couch and watching TV.

Fun Family Fall Time

2011-10-02T18:38:00.000-05:00

Spent another fun weekend with the family. Miranda had her 20th year high school reunion in Henderson so she came down with the family and I met them at mom's Friday night. Saturday we made it out to Cate's Farm for an awesome fall time spent wandering in a corn maze, going on a hay ride and picking out pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.

The maze was very difficult. The corn was so high and thick that we couldn't even see or barely hear one another when we separated off on different nearby trails. We had the opportunity to find birdhouses hidden through the maze in a scavenger type hunt, out of ten we only found three. It was the hardest corn maze I'd ever been in, but we had a blast.

Cody sporting a corn silk goatee

We're lost!

Corn bunny

The weather was beautiful for it, cool crisp fall afternoon with bright sunny skies. The boys had fun playing with the corn stalks and corn silk. Mom, decided to pass on the maze, but we finally made it out and decided to take a hay ride around a field.

On the hay ride we could see the big pumpkin patch and we spotted a few locations to go check out after the ride had ended.

Miranda and the boys picked out an enormous pumpkin that we had to haul and roll all the way across the patch to our car. It was insane how heavy that thing was, but the boys didn't want to pass up such a great find. I grabbed a cool warty one and we packed up the car and headed home.

The pumpkin they chose was twice as big as this!

Miranda went out to her reunion with Ben that night and I hung out with Amanda and Mike. On Sunday, we went and checked out the Audubon State Park fall craft fair and then I met up with my buddy, Chris and spent the rest of the afternoon with him.

Great weekend, and so happy to start my favorite month of the year and enjoy the coming crisp cool fall season.

Family Camping Trip

2011-09-27T18:46:00.002-05:00

Finally, my favorite time of the year has begun. Fall is fantastic with the cool crisp air, changing leaves and exciting holidays to anticipate. This past weekend, I went camping with Miranda, Ben and the boys and Mom and Bill down at Canal Campground, Land Between The Lakes. The weather was perfect, minus some rain showers and misty mornings.

I stayed at a site with Miranda and Ben and the boys in their large tent which kept us dry and cozy. Down a few sites from us, Mom and Bill set up camp with their camper. We sat around the campfire and cooked hot dogs, smoked sausage and burgers the first night. Later, the kids got out the s'mores. I passed on those. They are just too sweet for me.

Saturday morning was a bit chilly and drizzly, but it cleared up to turn out to be a gorgeous afternoon. We headed down to the Nature Center where we got to take advantage of free admission to see the coyotes, wolves, bobcats and other critters. The boys had a blast checking out all the wildlife.

We also got free admission to enter the elk and bison preserve. Unfortunately, the beasts were all hiding off away from sight, except for one large bison who held his back to us in the distance behind some trees.

That evening, Mom, Miranda, the boys and I took a long walk around the campground to the boat dock to check out the view of Lake Barklay. Later, Ben played ball with the boys on the beach while the rest of us rested.

After bed that night, the rain came and it poured heavily, but thankfully, Miranda and Ben's tent kept us good and dry. We had to rush in the morning to pack up the wet supplies before the heavier stuff came our way, but all in all it was a great weekend.

Fun times with the family is always a blast.

A Fruity Get Together

2011-09-18T13:45:00.002-05:00

My friend, Vanessa Ulm and her husband, Alex, invited us out to their beautiful country home in Edmonson County for a Fruit of the Loom work friends cook out. They provided BBQ and we brought the sides. It was fun to get together with friends and get to know some new friends from work as well.

Ralph and QuyDao cuttin' up for the camera.

We played corn-hole, billiards and bocce ball and sang some crazy karaoke.

Ralph, Justin, Alex and Barb's son, Payton figuring out bocce ball.

Alyson and Michelle showing off their corn-hole toss skills.

Justin trying out the karaoke.

Vanessa Stuart enjoying a glass of wine.

Vanessa S. and I playing a round of corn-hole toss.

Alyson and Kristen

Vanessa Ulm has a couple daughters, one is about 4 months old, the other about 3 years old. They were both adorable fun to watch.

Quydao acting like a pro holding the baby.

Barbara checking out baby Samantha.

Poor Vanessa Ulm, the hostess, didn't end up in any of the pictures because she was so busy taking care of the youngest baby trying to get her fed and down for the night.

It was a good, fun time. Lots of awesome food and great to unwind with friends without having to think about the daily grind at work.

9/11: Ten Years Later

2011-09-11T14:59:00.000-05:00

I'll never forget that morning of Sept 11, 2001. I had Good Morning America on as I was getting ready for a class and I heard Diane Sawyer mention a plane had hit one of the towers. It was an unusual event, but no one had started to panic yet, until the second plane hit. I remembered watching the footage of the smoking towers with helicopters swirling around and the poor people on the rooftops hoping to be rescued. I was captivated with the news footage but had to get to class.

On the drive up to campus, I listened to the radio, and all that was on every station was that horrible coverage. I sat and listened as the radio host, shouted that the South tower was falling. I couldn't believe it. I was imaging all the lives being lost and the terrible loss of lives on the ground level.

I ran up to campus as fast as I could and entered the first building I could get to, knowing there'd be a TV to see what was going on. Sure enough, the first building I made it to, I walked in with people surrounding a small TV someone had pulled out to watch the events unfold. I found out the Pentagon had been hit. I wanted to stay, but I still had to make it to my class at the Fine Arts building, so I ran up there and still had some time to spare before class. I found another group of students and instructors centered around a TV and we watched the second tower fall. It was like watching a movie I'll never forget.

Panic was in the air all over the news about other potential targets and news of United 93 crashing was revealed. It was a surreal experience. I'll never forget my drawing class instructor told us that day, that "this day will change everything". That fact didn't quite sink in then, but after the following years that horrible day's impact on our nation became more and more clear.

It turns out that terrible event was certainly this generation's Pearl Harbor. Sadly, we've become more of a nation of government sponsored fear, than a nation of freedoms. We are still a proud nation and one which supports our troops, but the state of our politics and the creation of various government groups and initiatives spawned from the terrible day's events have forever changed the course of our country's path and position in the world.

Ten years later, it'd be nice to think we'd be in a better place, safer, and our country more liked around the world. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Maybe, future politicians of our nation will get elected that have better visions that will work and turn this country on a better path. The hope that we all felt seeing those stunning beams rise above lower Manhattan in place of the towers after 9/11; that hope that Obama spoke so much about in his campaign that he never could muster results on, will spawn into something more than just hope and into something more concrete with results that will see a brighter future for us all.

Cody's Birthday

2011-09-05T21:44:00.001-05:00

I had a great Labor Day weekend spent with Miranda, Ben and the boys. Cody's birthday was Saturday, Sept 3rd. He turned 7! I can't believe my youngest nephew is that old!

The boys were both thrilled to see their Uncle Kevin come to visit. I was greeted with cheers of "KEVIN!!!" as I walked through the door and two hyper children jumping up and down like Mexican jumping beans.

Saturday was spent preparing for Cody's big birthday party. Miranda made a hilarious cake of Cody's choice that he wanted to be the cartoon character, Pokemon. She had limited ingredients to make a true yellow cake, so the thing looked more like Gizmo from Gremlins, than Pokemon, but with the finishing touches of the eyes and face, I think Miranda came close to her subject.

Soon the house was full of adults, including Ben's parents, and dozens of children running around screaming for the party. It was a fun afternoon topped off with a cook out and good conversations with Miranda and Ben's friends and family.

On Sunday, Cody got to participate with Caleb in lighting the candles at church; only his second time doing it. He did a really good job and thankfully didn't burn down anything or anybody.

That evening we were invited over to some friends of theirs from church for a big cook out with a bunch of other church friends. It was fun and such splendid food, plus I met a lot of interesting, cool people.

Today, I got a chance to spend some good quality time with Miranda and the boys. We went for a hike around Hematite Lake at the Land Between the Lakes area near the Nature Center. It's such an awesome, scenic, short hike that the boys could handle. We had a blast taking pictures and exploring all the cool wilderness around us.

It was such a wonderful long weekend that I hated to get back to the routine of things. My family mean so much to me and I feel grateful to have such a wonderful relationship with my sister and terrific brother-in-law that allows me to be so invested in the lives of my silly, lovable nephews. They mean the world to me.

FIRE! EXPLOSIONS! OH MY!

2011-09-01T20:30:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted much in a while. Been too busy with work and just relaxing on the weekends to bother filling everybody in on my boring routine life, but check out this excitement I encountered today on my drive home from work.

I was talking to my mom on the phone and I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye and heard a small explosion. I saw a bunch of birds fly up from a bush nearby in a hotel parking lot. I didn't see any gunmen or anything strange, so I kept talking with my mom. When I pulled up further at the stoplight I was stuck in, I suddenly heard another explosion and turned to see a power line falling across one of the access roads along Scottsville Rd.

It was on fire and sparking in front of cars. Wild! So that was my adventure for the week.

I Heart New York

2011-08-04T18:28:00.021-05:00

So I finally got a chance to fly up to New York again for my job to shop at a print show. We flew past Lady Liberty on the descent into LaGuardia. You can see her waving just behind the plane wing above. Then past the island Manhattan.

Check out the video below of our fly by of Manhattan with Central Park stretching out behind the top part of the wing. Such a HUGE park!

We stayed in a hotel just around the corner from the Empire State Building. Such a beautiful piece of 30s art deco influenced construction.

Can you spot Kong?

Jeanann, a Fruit of the Loom client, joined us in the city to help shop for prints and samples. After a long afternoon of shopping we headed down to Times Square and Jeanann treated us to an awesome Italian dinner at Carmines.

After dinner, my colleague, Vanessa, and I got to enjoy a fantastic performance of Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.

This was my first Broadway show to see and it was astounding to see the impressive and brilliant props and stage work tricks. Not to mention the wonderfully talented cast who all had terrific voices.

On Tuesday we bought some prints at the print show then headed down to Soho on the subway to do more inspirational shopping.

It was super hot and humid in the city. The subways were even more suffocating with the trapped heat and stuffy, crowded cars.

Native Long Islander, Jeanann, was a gracious guide in the city. She led us to Little Italy where we were treated to a genuine New York style brick oven pizza and delicious cannoli for desert.

I loved the classic New York look of the buildings in Little Italy with the fire escapes cascading down the brickwork.

After shopping in the intensive heat in Soho, we took a cab ride through the Village to the Highline. The Highline is what remains of the elevated train rails that used to snake through the city in the early 20th century and late 1800s. Below you can see a section of how the elevated train rail appeared before the renovations.

They were dilapidated and due for destruction when a group of volunteers got together to save it by remodeling it into a footpath park lush with trees and flowers.

It stretches some 20 blocks or so, snaking through and around buildings with stunning views of the cityscape and Hudson River.

Beautiful works of art in the form of colorful windows and modern architecture braced against century old brick buildings were a photographer's dream.

Check out the Empire State Building peeking out below in the center.

Stunning modern architecture looked like a city of the future.

Then below was a distant view, under that bridge, of Lady Liberty. Unfortunately, it was too hazy for the picture.

This was probably one of the best trips of to NYC. Definitely one to remember.

Family Vacation

2011-07-11T21:55:00.001-05:00

Dad and Lori have been up visiting for their yearly trip up north to Ky the past few weeks. Troy couldn't come this year unfortunately due to his work schedule. It's been a fun filled busy couple weeks. I took a week off and went to Miranda's where we all spent time miniature golfing, playing games, swimming and entertaining the boys.

We went to the local drive-in one evening and watched the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It wasn't a good movie, but the drive-in was a fun nostalgic visit.

One evening we all went out for one of Caleb and Cody's swim team meets. It was crowded, hot and sunny, but those boys swam like fish and both did excellent jobs. We also had a good couple days to refresh in their pool at home which was always a delight at the end of a hot day. The boys loved doing back flips and tricks off the side of the pool.

Caleb was an Acolyte at Church Sunday, where he had to light all the candles up front.

That afternoon, we went over to a party hosted by Miranda and Ben's friends, the Petites. They set off fireworks and cooked up some delicious food.

On the 4th of July, we headed to Calvert City where we watched a fun parade and sat back to watch a big display of awesome fireworks.

Lori, Dad and I headed back to Bowling Green last Tuesday and they stayed here for the week. We went to a Bowling Green Hot Rods baseball game one night. It was a nice evening and a good game to watch. We also played games at my place, even Scout joined in on a round of dominoes.

It's been a good family visit this summer. Although it's been sweltering hot. I'm ready for fall!!!

Family time

2011-06-26T13:37:00.001-05:00

I got to spend a good chunk of time with my mom and nephews the last week. Miranda and Ben went to the Cayman Islands with another couple to celebrate nearly 15 years of marriage the past week and mom kept the boys for nearly the whole time. I went to Henderson to help her out a bit last weekend. We had fun drawing and playing games and I took them to go see The Green Lantern.

Mom had them in a camp for most of the week hosted by Audubon State Park which gave mom a break but also provided the boys some fun entertainment. Friday, I took a half day off and met mom and the boys up at Mammoth Cave. We took a Historic tour. The boys loved it and I enjoyed sharing my stories to them of when I used to work there.

I got to keep the boys myself Friday night which was a blast. I kept them entertained with Nintendo Wii, drawing and watching "Ren and Stimpy" cartoons. I think Caleb and Cody really enjoyed playing with my cat Scout the most though. He enjoyed the attention just as much as the boys.

On Saturday Caleb cooked breakfast (scrambled eggs) which he was so proud about. Then I took them to see their great grandpa, Burrell, who was thrilled to see his great grandkids. Then I drove the boys down to Nashville to meet back up with Miranda and Ben who flew back in from their vacation.

So it was a great time spent with those crazy boys. I'll be heading to Paducah this next week when my dad comes in to visit us at Miranda's. So lots more fun family time ahead.

Weekend at NashVegas

2011-05-30T14:30:00.001-05:00

It was a fun weekend in Nashville spent with my friends from Henderson. Friday night Chris, Cara and I headed down to the city. We had a room booked for the weekend at the Sheraton downtown on the 20th floor. It was an awesome view.

That night the three of us ate at a wacky restaurant called Dick's Last Resort. It's a lively place where the staff wait on you and treat you somewhat rudely with sarcasm but all in fun. Kinda different, not necessarily for the family crowd but lots of fun. Our waiter did magic tricks and gave us silly paper hats with funny sayings. The food was excellent too. Later that night, we headed over to Margaritaville restaurant where a member of Jimmy Buffett's band was holding a concert. It was a fun night.

The next day, our friends from Henderson, Nikki and Todd as well as Chris Stone and his new girlfriend came down for the evening to join us. They were all going to the Jimmy Buffett concert later that night that I opted out on but we ended up spending most of the day down at a block party for the concert downtown. Lots of fun.

So all in all it was a fun weekend long weekend for Memorial Day.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Apple TV - The Digital Revolution

2011-05-22T18:58:00.006-05:00

I've gone a little tech wild lately. Of course I already have the iPhone, but I have recently ordered the Ipad 2 which I should be getting in the mail this coming week and this weekend I went on and picked up the Apple TV device.

Many people don't know what is an Apple TV. It's not a TV, it's a small device that connects to the TV through HDMI cable and syncs wirelessly (WIFI) with your iTunes account on your home computer. From there you can access all your iTunes music, movies, podcasts, audiobooks and other files and play them over your HD tv set. On top of that you have access to play Instant Watch Netflix as well as rent movies through iTunes. For sports fans, you have the ability to watch live MBL games and keep up with NBA scores and highlights. On top of all that, you can watch YouTube videos. You can also connect to look at your pictures and other features.

That's basically the gist of Apple TV, and I am sure it'll update with more features in the future. I promise you, it may not sound like much for every person, but now owning one, I see the beauty in having such a device.

For one, it gives the opportunity to have all your movies, music and pictures planted squarely into the digital age, meaning no more CDs and DVDs filling up shelves. Just buy them online, or download to your computer and you have digital access with Apple TV to sit on your couch, press a button on your remote and watch anything in your library at any time.

One other thing to mention, is the design. It is the smoothest design of any video technology that I've seen like this. The cool thing to, is if you have an iPhone you can download the free remote app that turns your phone into the remote for the Apple TV; which is a smooth seamless touch screen activity. Frickin magic! (Apple TV comes with its own remote too if you have no iPhone)

So I highly recommend it if you like movies and want a seamless effort in watching movies, listening to your musical library and other things of the sort. Plus, the best part is... it's fairly affordable at $99 and sometimes goes on sale for $10-$20 less.

http://www.apple.com/appletv/

Oh... and in a few days, I'll probably be freaking out about my new Ipad 2. So stay tuned for that geektastic celebration.

Nature Hike at Mammoth Cave National Park

2011-04-30T20:04:00.010-05:00

It's been so rainy and damp this spring that I've not gotten a chance to make it up to Mammoth Cave to hike like I love to do this time of the year. I missed my chance to beat all the overgrown weeds and bushes in the woods as well as the ticks and other bugs that are usually more dormant in the colder months. However, the past two days have been amazing, not too hot and not to chilly and NO rain.

So I took my chance to drive up to the park and go for a hike on my own. I decided to hike one of my favorite trails, First Creek. It's a long, somewhat strenuous hike down a ridge then back up it in the end, but it's worth the scenery.

Unfortunately, at the bottom of the ridge there is a lake that the trail circles, but due to all the rain we've had, it was very flooded and the trail was impassable at that point. It was a disappointment, but I actually did a good chunk of the trail so it was still worth the trip. Down near the flooded lake, I noticed a trail of small mammal footprints, probably raccoon or possum, although beaver are also seen down in that area.

The forest was full of birds chattering and woodpeckers hammering high in the trees. There were several wildflowers and tons of insects buzzing about.

It was a very breezy day so it felt good when it started to warm up on the trail. I hope to make it up there for another hike before it gets to hot this season.

Owlthropology: Three Brother Owls

2011-04-28T08:13:00.002-05:00

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Birthday Bash

2011-04-19T17:57:00.004-05:00

I had a pleasantly surprising birthday weekend. First off the weather was no real surprise with the typical drizzly chill that I've gotten used to on my big day for the past several years now. So that part wasn't fun, but I was able to go home with my bday falling on a weekend this year. I got to celebrate with Mom and Miranda and the boys came in as well.

I had a good time cuttin up with the nephews, they appreciate my quirky humor as much as Miranda. Mom and Miranda both cooked me a yummy seafood primavera dish that was delicious. Mom also cooked up a rum cake that was amazing!!!

I got a cool messenger bag from mom with lots of useful pockets and compartments and Miranda got me a hydration backpack for my long hiking adventures I hope to do more of this season.

Saturday night was eventful, I had planned on just chilling out with a couple friends at my buddy, Chris' house, but when I got there, he said he wanted to go to Evansville. However before we went there, he said he had to stop by Chris Stone's house to drop off something. I was like, whatever okay. So when we got to Chris Stone's, I realized a small group of people were there in honor of my birthday. So that was a surprise.

We had a fun time visiting and drinking mixed drinks and dancing to some good tunes. It was like old times when I was much younger and didn't care about staying up till 3 AM. Needless to say, staying up that late now isn't kind to this older body, but it was fun all the same.

St Louis, Janet Jackson, Indian Mounds and the family

2011-04-04T21:33:00.009-05:00

I went to St Louis for a mini-vacation this past weekend. I visited the St Louis Arch Monument. All the tours were sold out to the top, unfortunately, but it was still an impressive sight on the outside up close.

Later I met up with my friend, Christa, who lives in the city and she and I wound up seeing Janet Jackson in concert. It was an amazing show where Janet sang all her number 1 hits from the 80s to now. Plus we were only about 30-40 feet from the stage. Very cool! I only had my iPhone so the pics didn't turn out to good, but the experience was memorable.

The next day I went to Cahokia Mounds. It is the largest Indian mound creation north of Mexico. It was created around 800 AD and the civilization there lasted until the late 1300s. It was nearly as big as the Aztec Empire, only most of it's evidence that it existed were lost, because their compounds were made of earth and lumber, not stone.

It was impressive. The tallest mound was called Monk's Mound standing at about 100 feet. At the top I could see the St Louis skyline and the Arch about 30 miles away. It was breathtaking and the Visitor's Center had a very nice museum with lots of artifacts on display and dioramas.

I took a pit stop off in Paducah on the way back to visit my sister and the boys. We spent one afternoon in a nearby park to enjoy the spectacular weather. The boys had a good time riding bikes and acting like hyper monkey children.

Hunchback

2011-03-17T17:40:00.001-05:00

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Flash Mob Video from Facebook

2011-03-07T07:05:00.003-06:00

Here is that flash mob video that was posted on facebook. You can see it a little better here since it was put up on YouTube.

I Came! I Flash Mobbed! I Conquered!

2011-03-06T09:55:00.004-06:00

If you've checked out my facebook page lately you may have seen a few crazy postings about a wild event I participated in at a local Home Expo show here in Bowling Green. For the past several months, me and several friends from work, have practiced with a ton of other folks from around town a choreographed dance to the song "The Time (Dirty Bit)" by the Black Eyed Peas.

It's been a blast getting together and learning the routine each week. It was a bit nerve-racking when the big day came and we stood around at the Home Expo waiting for the music to start so we could jump in, surprising the crowd with 70 some odd people dancing in a line in sync. So much fun!!!

Check out these articles from the local paper and news network. The news network, WBKO, was there to film, but naturally they and the newspaper didn't get an actual shot of the side I was on. But there is a video of me dancing my ass off on my facebook page, so check that out. There should be more videos that pop up too later, that I'll post on here when I find them.

Here is a video I found on YouTube of the performance, of course, I am not seen here either, I am farther down the line. But it gives you an idea of what it was like.

The cool thing is that there are talks to do another impromptu performance later this season. So I'll keep you posted.

Ribbet

2011-03-01T20:38:00.001-06:00

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Doodle

2011-02-25T23:22:00.001-06:00

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Happy Birthday Miranda

2011-02-07T22:58:00.001-06:00

I got to spend time with my sister on her actual birthday for the first time in probably 15 years. Mom and I traveled to Paducah to visit her and the fam all weekend.

It was a typical cold nasty weather birthday for Miranda but we had fun entertaining the boys and catching up on much needed family time.

Miranda turned 38 this year which worries me because I am only 4 years behind her!!! Slow down Miranda!

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New app

2011-01-25T06:58:00.001-06:00

I got a new video camera app for my phone that is called 8mm. It let's you film using old looking techniques like 8mm film from the 70s like in this short vid of Sydney I did below.

YouTube Video

There are other styles too like one called 1920s that makes the video look like an old silent film. You can also use added filters to give more aged looks plus a button that makes the slide bump around like I did in the video above.

Pretty fun app. I recommend it for those that have iPhone.

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RIP Seeworthy Movies Blog

2011-01-13T18:54:00.002-06:00

Yep, I deleted my Seeworthy Movies blog. Thanks to the three family members and 2 friends, the only people on Earth, to ever check that blog of mine out. It was a cool idea for a while, since I used to see way more movies in the theater than I do now. But things have changed, and I don't make it out often enough to review the films in theater. So sorry to my fans, but you'll have to look elsewhere for the stellar movie reviews.

I may toss out a review from time to time on this blog here, since next summer has a trillion blockbusters coming out, but for now, my online movie reviewing is dead. I'm still keeping this blog and my mysterious/sciencey happenings "An Enigmatic World" blog going. So check these out from time to time.

A White Christmas

2010-12-27T15:26:00.012-06:00

Well Christmas has come and gone yet another year. It was another fun filled family affair for me. I had a few days off for the holiday and was able to go to Miranda's like I usually do to celebrate with the family.

I had a great time baking sweets, drawing with the nephews and playing games. One night we were all down in their basement playing Nintendo Wii and pool. The boys were typically excited for Christmas to come being out of school and having family in, with the prospect of Santa on the way as well.

Christmas Eve, we were delighted to have Mom and Bill come in and stay. We were even more delighted to see a white Christmas after all with heavy snow showers all evening into the next morning. It was beautiful; big and fluffy. It snowed all night and covered the trees in at least a couple inches and the ground had probably 3-5 by morning.

The boys were up at 3:00 am to open presents, but I couldn't budge out of bed to watch them check out their Santa gifts. Thankfully, they went back to bed later and waited to open the other gifts when we were all up and awake later that morning.

After presents, Mom and Bill had to go home, so we said our goodbyes, and headed out the door ourselves to go sledding down the hill. Ben got out the four-wheeler and dragged us around on the sled a while too. We all got a chance to go around. It was awesome fun! Later we built a dirty, leafy snowman before I had to head to Henderson.

It was a wonderful, but quick Christmas. I always enjoy my time at my sister's and it was good that Mom was there as well. Everything I got for Christmas was terrific and just what I wanted. Thanks to all for those and have a happy and safe New Year!

My Best Friend's Wedding

2010-12-21T18:48:00.004-06:00

No, as the title to this blog might imply, I am not talking about the hit Julia Roberts movie, but I am referring to my dear close friend Amanda Blohm who got married this past weekend. Amanda is my oldest friend. I've known her for a little bit over 25 years now. We grew up across the street from one another and although we didn't always get along splendidly growing up, as we matured, we grew up to be wonderful lifelong friends.

She's like a sister to me and it was a pleasure to see her so happy on her wedding day. Several years in the making, she finally married Mike Thompson, who treats Amanda the way she deserves, with utmost consideration and love.

I'm very happy for them both and wish them the best of luck with many, many happy years together.

Random scary work doodles

2010-12-16T13:51:00.001-06:00

Sometimes my mind needs a break from business so I doodle. Sometimes these doodles come from a scary twisted place in my mind.

Such as here with my cute little mutant puppy. He has his eye on you!

Or here with my moon flying ant man.

Or here with a bah humbug.

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Tis the Season

2010-12-14T15:18:00.001-06:00

Tis the season for winter weather apparently. We've had wild wintry mixes of snow, sleet and freezing temperatures this week. We got about 2-3 inches of snow that built up to foot deep drifts in some places due to blustery conditions.

It's been pretty but bitterly cold with highs in the 20s and lows in the single digits. This weather normally doesn't hit until January so it's a bit of a shock.

YouTube Video

I took the time to stay indoors though and put up a small tree and finish this year's Christmas cards. I've also had the chance to enjoy two office parties.

It's hard to believe almost a week until Christmas. Man time flies fast. Stay tuned for more holiday news.

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Festive Weekend

2010-12-05T20:57:00.010-06:00

I had a very busy and festive weekend. Starting out Friday, we had an ugly Christmas sweater/outfit contest running all day, where we were allowed to wear the most tacky shirts and sweaters we could come up with for the holiday season. That evening, our head VP held a Christmas party at his house, where we voted on who had the best or ugliest Christmas outfit. It was a lot of fun.

I wore a shirt that I had ironed on an original design showing Santa with a little "bling". As cool as that was, I couldn't compete with some of the girls who went all out with crazy things attached all over their sweaters. In the end, Kristi (the blonde with the wild headpiece) won the vote, although I put my odds on QuyDao who was just as wild looking.

It was a fun office Christmas party. Our boss's house is beautiful and huge! We were all impressed. We had lots of good food and played around of a Dirty Santa game. Of course I ended up with the lamest gift in the end, but it was all in fun.

Today, I got a chance to meet my cousin, Kimber and her boyfriend, Trent, up at Mammoth Cave to go on a Historic cave tour. They had never been, and were thrilled to get the chance to go through the world's longest cave. It was a snowy, cold day, so not a lot of people were on our tour, only about 10. So it was a nice intimate trip and our guide even had time to take us up to Gothic Avenue where they had smoke candle writing on the ceiling and other cool historical elements.

It was great to see Kimber and add my two cents of knowledge about the cave from time to time. It was great being back in that part of the cave. I hadn't been in that section since I left there for Fruit of the Loom six years ago.

Wonderful to see Kimber and a good time had by all. Now only about 20 more days until Christmas. So much to do in such little time!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-01T21:49:00.004-06:00

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend spent with family and friends. Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures this time around, so I've snagged a few from Miranda's blog here. Mom cooked a delicious meal as usual with turkey, sweet potato casserole, green beans and more. Bill's daughter, Lorna and her family (Steve and Shyanne), as well as Clint and his family (Michelle, Paige and little Heath) all joined us for dinner. We had a fantastic assortment of dessert, chocolate cheesecake, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and Shyanne brought cute little pilgrim hats (chocolate dipped marshmallow on a fudge stripe cookie).

Miranda, Ben and the boys were able to come in Friday. She had made her own Thanksgiving spread for Ben's family the day before which turned out great she said. I had a great time with the nephews this time around. They really wanted me to draw with them. So I drew some silly things in a less than artistic style, to show them what I used to draw as a boy myself, so they could try that too. Silly things like sharks eating people and such. I had a demented mind as a kid.

It was a good visit and a quick but fun weekend. I'm looking forward to Christmas and the fun I'll have with the fam again.

Game Day

2010-11-20T21:36:00.001-06:00

I got the chance to go to a WKU football game this evening. A friend from work had won special tickets for the game and asked if I'd like to join.

It'd been years since I'd been to a game at my old Alma Mater. The new stadium looks great. The tickets we had were for club seating which put us in special seats high above the field near the 50 yard line.

We were shocked to enter into a private clubhouse with free food and drink. They were serving stuffed turkey, green beans, pasta, hamburgers and hotdogs and for dessert... TIRAMISU!!! Very fancy football game food. It was awesome and all FREE! Plus free popcorn and peanuts. So cool!

The game was great too. Western did great against UT until the last quarter when they lost to one point. But it was fun and good to be on my old college campus.

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Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T18:17:00.009-05:00

I had a great Halloween weekend. Lots of fun with family and friends. I went to Henderson and visited with my Mom. We went for a walk downtown on Saturday. It was nice and cool with lots of colorful fall leaves to crunch through. The peak of the fall season has passed, so most of the trees have either dropped their leaves or turned brown by now, but it was still pretty.

Chris Wesner's sister, Jayne, was in town by surprise. She lives in Florida and made a special trip up here to surprise her family and friends. It was fun seeing her family get so happy with her surprise visit. Jayne showed up at Stephanie and Mark Stone's Halloween party wearing a mask and disguise. Stephanie didn't couldn't place her until she turned her mask up. It was hilarious.

I created this wild burlap mask to be an evil scarecrow. The mask was a challenge to design, because I've never done anything like that before, but it came out pretty awesome. Although it's very itchy and got hot fast, so I didn't wear it long. My friends were pretty freaked out by it so that was cool.

Chris was the character Alan from The Hangover movie which was a pretty spot on costume and Cara was Meg from The Family Guy show. So their costumes looked great. Jayne just had this bizarre mask on to hide for the surprise. Here I am strangling her. Mark and Stephanie were a nurse and patient which looked great together.

It was a fun party and I'm glad I got to go home for it. Hard to believe the holidays have started. Time sure flies. Here's a video below of my mask up close.

Happy Fall Weekend

2010-10-25T17:59:00.012-05:00

I had a great weekend with the Peterson fam and Mom. Saturday was a busy, busy day. We all went out to watch the boys play individual soccer games. Their last games of the season. It was chilly that morning, but gradually warmed up, although it was very windy all day. I got a kick out of watching the boys play soccer and run around like little maniacs. It was fun having Mom there too to help control the boys while Miranda and Ben helped coach. That's right, Ben coached Caleb's team while Miranda helped.

After the games, we went out to a very difficult and large corn maze. It was really awesome. The maze was designed into a witch and a haunted house. There were three mazes, an expert level, intermediate and easy. So naturally I chose the Expert level one, and later we did the intermediate as well. We had a map, thankfully and we had to go to checkpoints throughout the maze and hole punch our map. It was really difficult but a lot of fun. There weren't many people there either and it was a little eerie with the hard wind shaking the corn around.

The boys loved it. We were having a great time, until we spotted a black widow cross our path. This was toward the end, after Cody had been crawling around through the stalks. Thankfully, we stepped over the poisonous critter and made our way out.

After the corn maze, we were all pretty tired, but the boys wanted to go to their school Fall Festival, so we turned around and went there. It was a madhouse and the boys had bad luck with the games. They barely won anything, but they had a blast still with their school buddies.

That night we watched Frankenstein, the classic Boris Karloff version and later we watched The Bride of Frankenstein. The boys were really into the movies, to my surprise, although they did keep wishing they were in color instead of black and white.

Sunday, we capped off the weekend by carving and painting pumpkins. I had a lot of fun painting my white ghost pumpkin. Caleb and Cody were so excited to have me help them prepare their pumpkins for Halloween. Cody's becoming such a good little artist. His drawings keep getting better and better each time I see them. Caleb's not as in to the art as Cody, but he still had fun painting the pumpkins as well.

It was such a good weekend. I'm glad I got a chance to be with them this time of the year before the holidays. Good times!

Mammoth Cave and the Petersons

2010-10-17T08:24:00.010-05:00

Miranda and Ben came in town this weekend to pick up Caleb and Cody who had been staying with Ben's parents all week on their fall break. The boys were so happy to see their uncle Kevin, almost more than their parents which was sweet.

Caleb had been wanting to go to Mammoth Cave for a long time especially since I told him the next time he was here we'd go. So we all decided to go on a tour up there Saturday morning. The Visitor's Center looked a lot different from when I worked there. They're redoing and modernizing the whole place finally. It looks like a big lodge with giant wooden rafters and stone walls everywhere. It's beautiful. I only saw a couple people I knew up there on this visit. Being gone for 6 years, there's a lot of new faces I didn't recognize, including our tour guides.

We decided to take the New Entrance tour (which when I was there was called the Frozen Niagra). The boys loved the tour. Caleb said it wasn't like what he imagined. He kept saying he thought that we'd need to wear gas masks to breathe underground. The cool thing about the cave is that you can take several different offered tours through different parts of the cave and see completely different environments. So I told the boys they'll have to come back and do a different tour next time.

On the way home, we took the scenic 31W drive back and noticed the fall leaves changing. Mostly golds and browns though, too little rain lately to see much reds and other varieties. We stopped by Papaw Burrell's house when we got back to Bowling Green so they could visit with him. It had been so long since they'd seen him, the boys didn't remember him.

It was a good visit with them as always, but they had to go back to Paducah Saturday afternoon. Today, I plan on possibly going to buy some pumpkins at Jackson's Orchard and maybe starting construction on my Halloween costume. I love this time of the year!!!

New Stop Motion Animation

2010-10-14T17:47:00.002-05:00

I made this on my iPhone using a nifty stop motion animation app.

I call it Office Predator

Mammoth Cave Guide Reunion

2010-10-10T20:43:00.003-05:00

I attended a 5 year Mammoth Cave Guide Reunion last night. They have them every 5 years for all former tour guides that worked at the park. I missed the last one in 2005, so it was good to be able to attend this one. I stopped working there when I got hired at Fruit of the Loom in December 2004.

Sadly, I rarely keep in touch with my old friends from there except the occasional shout-out on Facebook. We all just get tangled up in our own lives and move on with things that makes it hard to get together.

It was a good evening spent with friends. There were a lot of people I wished would have been there that weren't, but I had a good visit with the ones that did show up. They made professional pictures of us all individually and in a group. So hopefully, I'll hear about how to get a hold of those copies and I'll post them on here.

It made me really miss the cave. I'll have to make a trip up there this fall and perhaps see some of my buddies.

Gatlinburg Trip

2010-10-04T16:17:00.013-05:00

Chris, Cara and I took a trip to Gatlinburg, TN, this past weekend. We stayed in a cabin that overlooked the valley. We had a great time. The cabin was descent, a little old, but not bad. The best part was the view and the hot tub. The color in the trees wasn't quite fall-like yet, but as we were leaving today, we noticed a lot of color springing up. So a week from now it'll be beautiful.

Saturday was a gorgeous cool day. The temps were in the upper 60s and the sun was shining. We took the opportunity to go hiking and drive through Cades Cove. Chris and Cara brought their boxer, Fred along on the trip too, and he was relatively well behaved the whole time.

Later that night we went down to the Gatlinburg and walked around in and out of the shops. We went to the Hollywood Wax museum which was hilarious. We took lots of pictures of us posing around the wax figures (most of which can be seen on Facebook). We also had an "Old Tyme Photo" taken of us as Old Western cowboys and Cara was the Tavern girl up on the bar. That was great fun. The guy taking the picture was super cool and comfortable to be around.

Sunday was a bit of a dreary day. It was only in the 50s, which was nice and fall-like, but it was drizzly all day which was not fun to be out in. We decided to use that day to go to the cool Titanic museum. It was a great experience with lots of artifacts on display and interesting info about the Titanic disaster. In the beginning, we were handed Boarding Pass cards that had the story of a real passenger that was on the Titanic, whether it was a crew member, 1st class passenger or second or third class passenger. In the end of the tour, we could read on the Memorial Wall to see if your person survived or not. I was a crew member, and the guy I had did not survive the sinking. Pretty impactful. I really recommend it if you are in Gatlinburg.

>

I took Monday off, so we didn't have to rush home Sunday. It was a good mini-vacation and I had lots of fun with my buddies, the Wesner's. On our way down the mountain from our cabin this morning we got the added bonus of seeing a black bear running down the road ahead of us. He ran off the road and leaped over a cabin wall before I could get a clear pic of him, but there he is below.

Not much news, but check out these movies about aliens

2010-09-29T18:38:00.006-05:00

So not a lot of news here. I'll be going to Gatlinburg this weekend with Chris and Cara, so I'll have more to post after this weekend. But check out this new alien movie trailer for Skyline. It looks pretty cool. Kinda verging on SyFy generic with the actors and some of the effects, but there are some pretty wild visuals here.

CLICK HERE

Also check out this other alien thriller movie Monsters ON DEMAND if you get that. It's going to be released at the theater soon, but there is a pre-release right now if you get ON DEMAND with your cable.

In some REAL UFO news, check out my blog (An Enigmatic World) to read about the military officers who just this week released information about UFOs visiting U.S. nuclear missile sites.

We are not alone guys, and it's time you opened your mind up to the possibilities. In a universe filled with hundreds of billions of stars, more stars than we have pixels on every computer screen on this planet. The odds are too great. The Milky Way alone (our galaxy), has at least 100 billion stars. The Hubble has detected about 125 billion or so galaxies to date. The Hubble's view is far limited to whats really out in the universe. Do the math.

A Visit from an Old Friend

2010-09-13T18:09:00.010-05:00

I got paid a fun visit from an old friend, Michelle, that used to work at Fruit of the Loom when I first started there about 5 years back. She and I spent a lot of time with each other back then and it was good to see her since she moved away a few years ago.

She was out in Colorado for a while, but is now back to her home near Cincinnati. We had a great visit, just like old times. We met up with Chris Butler and spent most of the afternoon, Saturday at his house, hanging out, and reminiscing about the fun we had when she was in town.

That evening, Chris set up a fire in his pit out back and we shared spooky stories with Michelle, which I think thoroughly creeped her out. I don't think she'll be sleeping in the complete dark for a while.

That night, when Michelle and I got back from hanging with Chris, I could barely get in the door at home because something was blocking it. Turns out, my evil cat, Scout, had knocked over an entire plant stand that stood next to the door, dumping out a huge potted plant (soil everywhere) and somehow flinging another potted plant 4 feet away from off where it sat onto the floor. How he did this? I do not know, but needless to say, I was pretty pissed off. He's a wild beast.

But, I had good visit with Michelle and I hope to see her again real soon, now that she lives closer.

Labor Day and Cody's 6th Birthday Celebration

2010-09-08T17:56:00.016-05:00

I had a fun long Labor Day weekend with the Peterson's. Miranda and the boys were especially excited to see me and have me visit for three days. Cody turned 6 on Sept 3rd and Miranda said all he really wanted was art supplies. He's become quite the little artist, very good for someone his age. So I got him some fancy drawing pencils and a sketch pad to empty out his creativity on. He and Caleb both enjoyed the cool art supplies.

Mom and Bill were down at the lake camping on Saturday, so we drove over to visit them for a bit. Mom got Cody some cool artsy activities as well that both the boys were excited to break open and play. Bill drove the boys around in his golf cart and we went to see replicas of the Nina and Pinta (two of Columbus' ships) that were docked in a marina nearby.

The ships were smaller than you'd imagine, especially considering these were out on the open ocean and heading to unknown lands. The boys really enjoyed the boats, although Caleb was a bit nervous the ships would capsize (vivid imagination).

That evening, Ben and Miranda hosted a big cookout birthday party for Cody. They invited a bunch of their friends and kids. Ben smoked some beef and pork roasts and we had hamburgers, hotdogs and lots of yummy sides. It was a lot of fun, although the kids were as rowdy and loud as the opening scene of Home Alone. Unfortunately, it was too cool to venture into their pool, which was disappointing, so I guess I'll have to wait until next summer to enjoy their pool.

Sunday morning, we went to church and Caleb got to be the Acolyte (lights the candles). He did a very good job, although he had a little trouble blowing out the lighter. Cody reminded me of myself at church as a kid as he sat quietly and drew in his new sketchpad.

Later on Sunday, I went with Miranda and the boys to a nearby park to ride bikes. We tried to teach Cody how to ride a bike without training wheels. He still needs a little work. That afternoon, we spent some time exploring and discovering some of the wild critters we found around their house, like these big garden spiders and a cool, yet feisty, walking stick that the boys got a good kick out of.

It was a good weekend, although very exhausting. Thankfully, the weather was pleasant, in the lower 80s, and the company was much loved. I love those nephews of mine and only wished I lived closer.

Praying Mantis

2010-08-18T19:53:00.000-05:00

While leaving work today my friend , Chris, and I spotted a cool looking praying mantis on the side of our office. He was about 5 inches long. Pretty big guy.

Our building was built a year ago and where it stands used to be a field. So there are a lot of cool critters we've discovered around the building.

I love mantises. I think I'd study them if I were a biologist.

YouTube Video

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A Birthday Party Without the Birthday Host

2010-08-02T20:50:00.012-05:00

I made it home to Henderson this past weekend to visit Mom and my friends. It had been since Mother's Day since I'd been home, so it was good to spend some good quality time with Mom. I got to see all of mom's flowers blooming in her yard, including this beautiful bizarre Passion Flower. Her hummingbird population was out of control as well. The little guys were buzzing all over her feeders. We met Chris and Cara for lunch on Saturday. Mom had a good time cutting up with the two of them.

Later that evening, we were throwing a birthday bash for Jared, but he called and said he wouldn't be coming in town because he was feeling sick. It was a bummer, but we decided to go ahead and celebrate anyway, without him. Amanda Medcalf hosted the party at her house with her two little daughters (the youngest one pictured on Cara's hip below). We had margaritas, daquaries and Pina Colada's. It was a blast. Chris, Cara, Chris Stone, and Amanda Blohm and her fiance, Mike, all showed up.

It was lots of fun even though Jared couldn't be there. Cara and I had probably the most fun of all. We sang and danced and acted like fools, but it was such fun. It's a shame that Medcalf will be moving to Louisville for a new job because we all love her parties.

I also got to talk to Amanda Blohm about her wedding invitations. She wants me to design them like I designed Chris and Cara's. So that's a project I will be working on pretty soon.

It was a good visit home and I miss my Mom and friends a lot, but it was good to get back and check on my beasts. Sydney is now officially off the insulin shots. She wasn't doing well with those. She kinda hated me for having to give her those twice a day. Now I have medication that I just rub into the tips of the ears. Hopefully, that'll do the trick and she won't have to stress over it too much.

Na'vi Me

2010-07-25T16:01:00.002-05:00

I've been inspired by some excellent tutorial sites online for photoshop effects and graphics lately. I dabbled a bit today in creating a Na'vi image from the film Avatar from a picture of myself.

It's pretty amateurish, but I was just playing around with the tutorial. Kinda surreal looking in the end result. I think I look good as an alien.

PRANK - a short film (starring ME!!!)

2010-07-21T18:33:00.005-05:00

So this is a short film my pal, Chris Butler (aka IsoBan), created last fall around Halloween, starring myself and friend, QuyDao. I tried to share it with you guys last fall after it was put together, but it was set to Private on YouTube for a long time, until now.

I must say that I look like a pretty excellent actor here, QuyDao included. However, it's more like, Chris is a good EDITOR! So here it is in all it's brilliant glory. ENJOY!

Howard Visit in Paducah

2010-07-19T17:53:00.013-05:00

We had a wonderful visit with Dad, Lori and Troy at Miranda's this past weekend. I was able to take a couple days off and drive over to the Paducah area to visit when Dad and them came in. We had a blast eating good food, playing games every night and down in the basement and swimming in the pool.

Each night, we got a chance to play games like Apples to Apples, Mexican Dominoes, and cards. The winner of Mexican dominoes always gets to wear the goofy hat. Dad even won a round.

One day we got up to Metropolis, IL, home of a giant Superman statue and souvenir shop. It was cool to see, even if Metropolis is more like Mayberry, than the big city of Superman's home in the comics.

Metropolis is also the site of Ft. Massack, an old Revolutionary War fort replica rebuilt along the Ohio River. It was very hot that day, but we had a picnic in the shade and toured down by the river where there was a breeze.

We had a great visit and I'm only disappointed that it all went by too fast. It's always good to be around family.

Family Time

2010-07-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

So it's that time of the summer when my dad, Lori and Troy come up from Florida. So for the 4th of July weekend I met them down at our cousins Bill and Paula. We had a great weekend with wonderful food, fireworks and fun with the family.

Dad and them came on up to Bowling Green Monday so I took a few days off this week to be with them. We played games every night and helped Papaw out around his house. Our cousin Victor even came in to hang out with us.

We got to meet cousin Doug at Barren River State Park which was a treat because I hadn't seen him since I was a kid. It has been super hot out but it was nice to get out and enjoy the outdoors and with the family

It's been fun with he family and next week dad, Lori and Troy will be at Miranda's next week. I'm excited to take off a few days next week to be there with them.

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NASA

2010-06-09T16:46:00.000-05:00

Our trip to the Kennedy Space Center was fantastic. The rockets on display were so cool especially the giant Saturn V rocket they used during the Apollo missions to the moon.

The giant vehicle assembly building with the NASA emblem and American flag down the side was impressively huge. One star on the flag there is 6 feet across.

We also got a great look at the launch pads where they shoot off the shuttles that are about to be retired this year. In the distance we could see older launch pads used during the 60s.

It was a great place with so much inspiring history. It's unfortunate the space program has been virtually put on hold. It would be great to see Americans on the moon again.

YouTube Video

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Lions and Gators and Rhinos Oh My!

2010-06-08T19:38:00.001-05:00

Well we've seen quite a wide variety of critters down here in Florida. The condo is full of lizards outside and Dad took us down to see some gators in Okeechobee Lake.

Most of the animals were seen on the Lion Country Safari drive through we did yesterday. We saw lions and giraffes and ostriches and rhinos and zebra. Plus a ton of antelope varieties including Kudu, impala, wildebeasts and gemsbok.

The gibbons were hilarious as they swang around like Tarzan from ropes and the chimps were avoiding the horrible heat in little huts.

YouTube Video

The boys had fun and we also got to visit Aunt Pam and Uncle Freddie plus our cousin Allison and her husband. Today we went to Nasa but I will write about that later.

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Florida

2010-06-05T20:40:00.000-05:00

Well we've made it to Florida. Miranda, Ben and the boys picked me up Thurs night after work and we drove just to the other side of Atlanta before heading down to Port St Lucie, Florida, to our condo.

The condo is nice with a great pool area that the boys are thrilled about. The weather has been hot, humid and typical Florida with afternoon thunderstorms so intense the rain is blinding.

We made our way over to the beach for just a short while this morning. The boys played in the gentle waves while us adults looked for shells and waded just along the waters edge.

Dad and Lori and Aunt Pam and Uncle Freddie came over later and we went back to the coast to eat some yummy seafood before coming back to go swimming.

I'll update more as the week goes on.

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Chris Butler is Published

2010-06-01T17:42:00.004-05:00

One of my best bud's, Chris Butler, who I've known for ten years now, has just recently had one of his pieces of artwork published in a mainstream art magazine. He's been trying hard to get his art out there and it's great to see the recognition of his talent published in ImagineFX.

I've known Chris since we worked together back at Mammoth Cave as tour guides. Chris kinda got me into the graphic design field and we both ended up getting jobs side by side at Fruit of the Loom 5 years ago. I've been a huge fan of his work all along. I take quite a bit of inspiration from what he teaches me with his digital paintings and other works.

It's fantastic to see his work in a magazine that I frequently get for other artist's inspiration. Excellent work, Chris! Congratulations!

Click here to see Chris' personal art gallery. Also, that's his website to the right for more casual bits of a daily art that he does under "Isoban's Journal".

Campin

2010-05-24T20:09:00.000-05:00

I went camping this past weekend to Land Between the Lakes with Chris and Cara and Mark and Chris Stone. It was a pretty weekend, but a little hot.

It was nice to relax around the fire and just share stories and chat. Chris and Cara brought their wild young boxer dog who didn't quite know what to think about all the stimulation in the outdoors.

Poor Chris sprained his ankle bad Saturday morning. He had to go to the hospital to get it fixed up and x-rayed. So that kept us from getting out and doing much, but we had a good time.

I also got to swing by Miranda's and visit them for a while since I was so close. When I got home last night I got to watch the series finale of Lost. It was sad to see such a well written compelling series to come to an end, but it ended with a relatively good resolution for the most part.

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Sydney isn't Well

2010-05-16T13:49:00.009-05:00

I took my cat Sydney in for her annual shots and check up at the vet the other day and got a call from them after dropping her off that her heart and lungs didn't sound well. They told me her heartbeat was 180 beats a min last year and now its up to 240. On top of that she had some harsh sounding lungs.

The vet said a heart beat over 200 was considered a problem. So he ran a bunch of tests and $300 later discovered she has a heart condition of some kind that might also be causing fluid and junk to build up in the lungs. He said it's fairly common in older cats and dogs; Sydney is now over 12 years old. That's well into senior age for cats which have a general lifespan of 15-22 years.

It's sad news, but the vet said with medication, it can be treated. So I have to dose her up with oral liquid twice a day, which she detests and struggles with. So that's no fun. Then she goes back in for more testing to see if the meds are working in a month. So hopefully, she'll get better.

It's weird, I've had Sydney pretty much my entire adult life. She's like a kid to me, so even though I know she's getting on up in old age, it's still depressing to hear news that she's ailing.

I asked the vet too if having a younger cat in the house, Scout, who constantly badgers Sydney and stresses her out would be an issue. He acknowledged the added stress, but seemed to think they'd be okay together still.

Well keep Syd in your thoughts and hopefully she'll be healthier with the next vet visit.

AMAZING VIDEO of Icelandic Volcanic Eruption

2010-05-12T23:11:00.004-05:00

Such an amazing video of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, that just erupted disrupting all those European flights. Full Screen this sucker to watch bigger!

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-10T22:18:00.004-05:00

I had a great visit with Mom this past weekend for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, I failed to get any recent pictures to share from this weekend on my blog, but here's one of Mom at Audubon Park a couple years ago.

She and I had a good visit. I took her out to eat at her favorite Chinese restaurant and I bought her some nice flowers to plant outside in the yard and in the pots on the back porch. Mom loves flowers and so it was nice to spruce things up a bit around with new flowers even though there were already lots of vivid colors blooming all over the yard. It was a good Mother's Day and I think Mom would agree.

Thanks mom for all you do and being such a loving, thoughtful mom. I hope you had a happy weekend too!

Happy Technology!

2010-05-01T15:59:00.002-05:00

Watch my new video!

Birthday Weekend

2010-04-20T18:11:00.009-05:00

Let me share with you my experience of turning 33. It BLEW! Actually, it was a fine weekend, until the end. I had a great time in Henderson, visiting mom and my nephews and my friends.

Mom and the boys and I went down to the Tri-Fest carnival in Henderson for a bit. The boys had a good time riding a couple overly priced rides and eating a messy snow cone icy. Mom and I could only stand about 30 minutes of that environment before we trotted the boys down to the riverside playground to play.

We also went shopping and ate out at the wonderful Italian restaurant, Biaggi's, in Evansville. The boys were actually well behaved there and we all had a good time.

Later that night, I went over to Chris and Cara's and we cooked out with Amanda and Mike, Jared and a bunch of other old friends. It was fun, but my allergies declared WWIII on me. That part was not pleasant and it only went downhill from there.

Sunday was the worst. I woke up in an allergy induced coma and when I went to leave, as I was pulling out of the driveway, I realized I had a flat tire. This is where the real fun began.

A huge nail was stuck in the tire, thanks to Cody's excellent eye who picked that out. As I attempted to change the tire, a lugnut broke clean off. The only place open that day (Sunday) was the Walmart garage. So I got the tire off and put on the spare, which was deflated, but thankfully, Bill had a compressor to air it up.

I drove into town, and had Walmart plug the hole in the tire, but they refused to mount it for me, due to the broken lugnut. So I had to mount the thing myself, in the Walmart parking lot. While doing that... I broke ANOTHER lugnut off! (Damn I don't my own strength!) So two out of five lugnuts were broken off on this thing.

I drive it home, fuming and nervous that the tire would blow off and I would die. When I got home, Bill told me I'd be fine, if I got a lugnut off the back tire and put it on what remained of one of the bolts on the front tire, that way I'd have at least 4 lugnuts to drive home on instead of just 3. So I drove all the way home to Bowling Green (100 miles) with the radio off and white knuckled on the steering wheel, listening to every sound just in case all chaos broke out.

Thankfully, I made it home safe in one piece and the next day I was able to go to the Nissan garage and explain to them that the wheel was defective and I needed the thing fixed free of charge, which they graciously agreed to, much to my high relief.

So anyway, I survived, and the tire is fixed, but it sure was a miserable experience. Let this be a lesson to you, make sure your spare tire is aired up always and Walmart is open on Sundays, but only does the BARE minimum of jobs.

Nonetheless, minus the crappy ending, I did have a happy birthday. My mom made it fun and I love my crazy nephews!

Web Cam

2010-04-13T22:27:00.000-05:00

Furry Orange Chips

2010-04-08T21:05:00.001-05:00

I was a bit startled to find a creature in my potato chip box tonight.

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Family Easter

2010-04-07T20:20:00.001-05:00

I spent some great time with my nephews, Miranda and Ben over Easter weekend. We spent time playing outside and helping to get their pool ready for summer.

We had a great time coloring eggs. The boys were so excited for the Easter Bunny to come. Easter morning came quickly. The boys awoke bright and early to find the treats the bunny had provided.

The weather was beautiful and unseasonably warm. We spent a long time working on the pool. Ben also cut down a tree that was half rotten and in danger of falling toward the house.

It was a stubborn tree that didn't fall as planned, but Ben got worked out.

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New Computer!!!

2010-03-27T16:19:00.003-05:00

Happy! Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! Joy!

The day has finally come where I can retire my 7 year old prehistorically slow PC and enjoy the beauty of a new home built super powered computer. I spent the past few days building my own computer, with the help of a friend of mine, Chris Butler.
It's big, it's fast, it has tons of storage and I can finally do the things I've been wanting to do on a home PC for a long time. This thing is even faster and cheaper than the iMac I use at work. I'm so thrilled!

Back to the 80s

2010-03-14T14:17:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine at work hosted a wild 80s prom themed party this weekend. It was lots of fun. We all dressed in our best formal 80s attire and danced to the good old 80s tunes. Here are a few pics of me and my friends. Others can be seen on my facebook page.

Today I had a slight run in with a possum my Papaw had caught in his backyard. I also had to help him remove a dead skunk down by the hole that goes beneath his house. Yuck! They are both such nasty creatures.

They love to try to get under his house. When I lived there a possum got into his vent ducts and into the house, eating trash from the kitchen. What a nightmare that was to deal with. But this one, we set free away from his house.

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Sketches

2010-03-10T20:19:00.001-06:00

I haven't done much sketching lately, but I intend to get more artistic juices flowing once I get my new computer built.

Here's just a couple sketches I did tonight. One, a self portrait. The other one is my idea of what a Goomba from Super Mario Bros video game would really look like.

Here's a pic of my new computer case. I am slowly buying the parts to build an awesome new computer that will be powerful enough to do video and all my artistic applications on. I'm very excited!

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Cat Toy Revisited

2010-03-03T19:27:00.000-06:00

Many of you commented that my video with the new cat toy was too dark. So I captured a new vid that's a little better. Still not the best light because it's dark outside and my living room is too dim at night.

But here you can get a better idea of what it looks like. Scout loves it!

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Happy Birthday Caleb

2010-03-02T00:29:00.000-06:00

I had a great weekend spent at my sister's in Paducah. My nephew Caleb's birthday is tomorrow, March 2nd, and he had several buddies over to stay the first night I was there. It was loud and wild as you can imagine a house full of 6 boys would be, but it was fun entertainment.

Caleb had a great time and was thrilled to open presents. I got plenty of uncle time the rest of the weekend. Cody and I painted rocks because he loves arts and craft activities. Miranda said he wants to be an artist like uncle Kevin when he gets older.

I brought my food dehydrator to make deer jerky too. Unfortunately we left it on all night and ruined it. So hopefully we can try it again another time.

It was such a fun weekend I hated to see it end. It always sucks to have to leave the my sister and her fam. I wish I lived closer.

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New kitty toy

2010-02-23T22:41:00.001-06:00

Chris and Cara were generous enough to give me their unused cat play house since their cats seemed to ignore it. It was a bit of a puzzle to put together and Scout kept jumping in the pieces and scattering them all over, but in the end it worked out.

Scout immediately jumped into it when I had it completed and set up. Even Sydney was too curious to ignore it. Thanks from my cats to the Wesners! Much enjoyed.

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More Snow

2010-02-09T21:44:00.001-06:00

Well yet again we are having another winter snow storm. Not nearly as much as last time but still beautiful. We should have 3 inches by morning.

It's freezing cold too. I can't remember the last winter we had this frequent amount of snow. It's been awesome. Of course I love snow. This mornings snow had huge
snowflakes that reminded me of the giant flakes I saw falling when I was hiking on Mt St Helens years ago. Beautiful!

Snow Storm

2010-01-30T11:56:00.005-06:00

So Bowling Green finally got hit by a fairly significant snowstorm that dumped approximately 4-5 inches here total. Due to wind, however, we have drifts over a foot deep in some places.

It was an unusual storm because the snow came down in bands of heavier snow in some areas and lighter amounts just a few miles down the road. Given that case, surrounding counties near us got more than Bowling Green which is typical. Henderson even got more, and they were forecasted to get less than us. It was strange how the snow fell in such different amounts.

Sadly, I'm stuck in my apartment, not because the road outside isn't clear, but because my parking lot has huge drifts in it preventing me from pulling out. So I guess I'm stuck in for the day. Good time to catch up on my reading perhaps. The video below starts out with the same footage from my previous post, but I have added more footage from today.

Snowstorm

2010-01-29T21:45:00.000-06:00

More snow! This time possibly 6-10 inches! We'll see...

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Weird Weather and Kitties

2010-01-27T22:29:00.007-06:00

We have had some odd January weather for Bowling Green, Ky, this year so far. January started out bitterly cold with a bit of wintry precipitation in the mix, but nothing too intolerable. That was followed by a very mild couple weeks where we saw peculiar spring-like temperatures in the upper 50s and even lower 60s. We even had some wild thunderstorms roar through a couple evenings back.

Then this week comes a long and after a pleasant weekend, it dipped back down in the 30s and we had intermittent snowfall. It was the most odd occurrence. It would snow like a blizzard for 20 minutes with big fluffy snowflakes, then that would dissipate and the sun would pop out for a half hour, melt off that dusting of snow, before another round of snow showers would come rolling back through. It was very strange to look out the window one minute and see sun and no snow on the ground, to the next minute, barely being able to see 30 yards out due to a blinding snowfall.

Well in the next couple days it's supposed to get worse with a winter storm headed our way. For once, it looks like Bowling Green will get a good chance to have more snowfall than they are going to get up north. We are forecasted to receive anywhere between 4-7 inches.

I'll believe when I see it, but still... that's pretty exciting. Granted, many people hate the thought of inclement weather like this, but I for one welcome it with excited glee. Snow is beautiful when its falling and freshly laid down. It's a wonderful, magical sight. So I'm looking forward to the potential.

In other news... Scout is growing in leaps and bounds, literally. He is an energetic fur ball that is nonstop play when he's not resting. He is perhaps the most mischievous little bastard I've ever owned and I feel sorry for Sydney for being the target of relentless attacks. Whenever I'm at my computer desk, he's gotta be right there, sometimes rolling around on top of the keyboard, much to my aggravation. But, she's surviving, and despite all his pestersome behavior, Scout can be pretty sweet too.

Walking in Woods on a Snowy Day

2010-01-13T18:29:00.016-06:00

I got a chance to get out and enjoy the snow covered wilderness of Mammoth Cave National Park last weekend. Some people think I'm crazy getting out when it's below freezing to hike in snow, but to me, that's my favorite time to hike. Especially, if you're the first to walk through an area of newly fallen snow.

The winter storm that blew through here last week only dropped about an inch and a half of the white stuff, but it stayed so cold for 5 days that it didn't melt. On top of that, there were only two sunny days in between there and it still continued to snow or flurry off and on for 4 days. I can't remember a time recently when the snow that fell here didn't melt off the next day or certainly after 2-3 days, but we still have snow on the ground and it's almost been a week.

Nonetheless, despite the small amount of accumulation, it was a pretty sight to see up at Mammoth Cave. I hiked Turnhole Bend trail, a relatively small loop to a lookout over Green River Valley. The beauty of the winter however, is that it makes it easier to get off the trail a bit and hike through the woods without fear of ticks, spiders, snakes and battling the tangled undergrowth that usually impedes your path in warmer months.

So I got off trail a bit and walked down the steep snow covered ridge to the Green River where a beautiful sandstone bluff is exposed with giant frozen ice falling off it's edge. The sandstone sinks back under into a small cave where a bluehole, or spring, can be found that feeds out into the Green River during higher water levels.

It was breathtaking and all the more enjoyable seeing everything covered in fresh white snow. It was so silent too and I could hear every bird and animal scurry. What was so enjoyable, being out there, was that I apparently had been the only one to walk out there since the snow had fallen days before, because I saw tiny animal tracks all over the path... deer, rabbits, squirrel, probably turkey tracks too. It felt so good being out in such solitude.

The hike back up the ridge, was tough. I'm out of shape from sitting at a desk for 5 years, but I survived it and had homemade beef jerky to give me the energy to make it up the hillside. It was a wonderful hike and I hope I get another chance later this winter to get out for another one before summer arrives again.