Running Across Iowa
Mickie and I recently acquired a treadmill and in the interest of not being fat have decided to have a contest. We are going to run across Iowa. I made up a couple of charts where we'll keep track of our progress.
The incentive just to win and get fit wasn't enough as we have also decided that the winner will take home a fabulous prize!
But we haven't decided on the prizes yet. It can be one thing that we both would want or it could be a different prize depending on who wins.
Tell us who you think will win and give a suggestion for a prize. If we choose your idea maybe you'll win something too!
The All Consuming Consultant
The folks over at Simply Youth Ministry put on a great podcast every week or so. Their tag line is "just enough youth ministry so you don't feel guilty for listening." The podcast is very informative and is a lot of fun as well.
One of the running bits is about Matt McGill (one of the one-air personalities) and his current job search. Two of the talents he has procured are that of consultant, and as we found out last week, he could be an "all consuming fire" to those kids who would disrespect their youth leaders.
Based on this I whipped up a business card for him to hand out to prospective employers.
Seven Years Ago...
Seven years ago I was...
- Playing with something called GeoCities…
- Bemoaning the retirement of John Elway
- Getting my first computer with a DVD player
- Buying my first DVD (The Ghost and the Darkness)
- Seeing the Phantom Menace for the 9th time…
What were you doing?
Spring Cleaning
As you have noticed, the site has a fresh new look. I've been using Blogger for the last year or so and I think I am ready to graduate to bigger and better things. Enter Word Press. It is a free publishing platform that is very easy to use and has tons of really cool features and extensions.
You'll notice that you can now view all of our photos on the site again due to a sweet plug in that pulls our Flickr data into the site. There is also a [insert supurlative here] feature that allows y'all to view the pictures in the posts in a whole new way. Click on the pic to the left and prepare to have your world rocked!
Those of you who subscribe by email and rss should be getting the new posts in your inbox as well. The previous feed broke. If you aren't receiving regular updates after this please let me know so I can fix the problem.
We're having a garage sale this weekend and while normally I am a very optimistic person I don't think more than 10 people will show - but hopefully I'm wrong. Mickie's family is coming up so I'll at least get some golf in for the first time this year. My goal is to not lose all my balls and to legitimately break 110. My father-in-law got some brand new Taylor Made irons a couple months ago so I'll probably be drooling all over myself.
Wow, who would have thought President Logan was that shrewd? Was the lame duck stuff all an act??? I have to hand it to 24 - you got me again...
Blowout
So, what's with the title? I would be interested to hear what your initial thoughts were when you read the title? Did I have a bad tire, did I get really mad, did Mia's diaper leak? Nope, none of the above. Believe it or not is has to do with a sporting event.
I was invited to go with Pastor Dave to the Drake UNI football game tonight. And so I went. The game was really close for the first 5 minutes and then UNI put up 42 points in the first half. So while the game wasn't that exciting there were a few things that were. Let me share them with you. First of all it was my first experience "in the dome." This is a big deal in Iowa. We have a dome. The UNI-Dome. Nothing real spectacular, but it is a fun place to watch a game. They obviously play on Astro-turf which brought back fond memories of high school football and rug burns. The second exciting experience was the fact that I bought a hot dog inside the stadium of a live sporting event for under $10. In fact there was a special going on for these "Dome Dogs." They were only $1. No, they wern't little weinies. (Is that how you speall weinies?) You know the little minature sausage things on a toothpick? By the way I normally suck on those toothpicks for awhile cause they still have the taste of BBQ... Anyway, back to the hot dogs. Yes $1! I got 2. And that was about it for the exciting experiences. Sorry if I got your hopes up and now you are disapointed. If so then you can add in: the roof of the dome blew off and we were exposed to a bright light which looked like an alien craft after which the players were switched for alien counterparts, yet the dome dogs were still only a dollar.
Next. I think I am really sick or something because I am not pumped up for football season like I should be. Maybe I'm too depressed after watching nothing but baseball hightlights for what seems like 30 years. Someone tackle me.
There are a few spots left for my Yahoo Fantasy Football leasgue if you would like in. Email me by tomorrow morning and I will get you the details.
One interesting side note: On the way home from the game we stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and they had Coke imported from Mexico in glass bottles. Huh? Yeah, that's what I said. When I asked the cashier about it, she replied nonchalantly that they always have them. Hmmm, well alrighty then. I bought 2.
The Coveted iPod
Earlier this year I entered a t-shirt design contest on Sitepoint.com. The winning design would win a 40 gb iPod Photo. So I entered. I entered about 20 different designs pretty early in the competition and had to sit back and wait as entry after entry came in. I would check the post fairly often to see how the competition was stacking up. Every once in a while an entry would come that would worry me a little.
In early July the contest was closed and the members of the forum were asked to nominate entries for voting. I had four designs nominated. (the most of anyone) Now all of the members 
would vote for their favorite design. The voting started off slowly for my designs but I was consistantly in the top 5. Near the last day of voting one of my designs picked up steam and chugged into second place. And that was how the voting ended.
A few days later administrators on the forum posted an announcement that the 1st place vote getter had cheated and was losing nearly half of his votes - which vaulted me into first place.
I hadn't won yet. The top five designs were sent to the Sitepoint administrators for the final desicion. At this point I really didn't know what would happen but I felt I had as good a shot as the other four.
We were in Winter Park on vacation when I checked my email and found out that my design had been declared the winner! Oh the joy, oh the joy! ipod! ipod! ipod! Whooohooo!
Okay, after I collected myself I informed my family of my accomplishment. They all said cool, good job and then went back to whatever they were doing. Hey! Shouldn't there be a parade or something? Come on - I just won an iPod!!
It took awhile for me to realize that not everyone considers this a world changing event but for those of you out there with iPods let me feel the love.