Broken!

If for some reason you hadn’t notice. My website isn’t quite all it used to be anymore. Unfortunately it is broken. You may ask, “but I’m on the site now how can it be down?”. Well that is true. But I can not upload new photo galleries and for a while the blog was down too. Then recently my whole site was down for the weekend. I know there are maybe 40 people who even know about the site, and maybe 4 that actually visit it even on a semi regular basis, but still I would like to keep it up and current. So I have cobbled it back together – barely – so at least the blog works again, the site is accessible again, and the old galleries are available.

The problem is I don’t know what the problem is. I think that it is one of two things. Either a Microsoft update made the freeware I am using out of date or the software can’t handle the size of the database of photos. There are more than 4000 decent sized photo’s already available. I thought about just installing a second gallery but I keep run into conflicts with the software. So that is probably out until I want to rebuild the whole server. This is going to happen but probably not until mid spring. I have one more Idea to try and get around the software problem but it will be weeks before I have time to try. So for now I guess I will just keep adding to the blog and looking for other solutions for the gallery.

I think about the time I rebuild the server I should also redesign the site a little. I am going to drop everything I think except the Galleries and Blog. At one time I thought it would be fun to add a message board. But let’s face it who would use it! So I will have to keep on the look out for clean and simple designs that I like. I haven’t updated the look for 3 years so there we go! Maybe by summer I can start adding more content too. We shall see.

New Furniture

When you grow up I guess you have to buy real furniture. I think that people have different ideas of what is nice or what is needed but I think at some point everyone has to suck it up and by some new decent furniture. Or in my case let someone else do it! Haha. But that is ok. Just recently I was shoved, pulled, dragged, however you want to say it a little further into the adult world. I mean I already have a pretty grown up job or career even and I’ve owned a house for more then ½ a decade, but that doesn’t mean I have to grow up. Though I guess I do have to concede that it is very nice to have new furniture, as opposed to hand me downs, garage sale, or goodwill gear.

I did try to argue with RB that it would be a lot cheaper to go to good will and spend a 100 bucks at goodwill and 30 bucks at target for sheets to furnish the whole house! It wouldn’t even be hard to match all the colors as we would be throwing sheets over everything. But then idea – for reasons, I think, beyond me – never gained much traction. Most of my buddies agreed with me but I never did find anyone else that did. So I relented; though it helped, that I wasn’t actually going to be paying for the furniture myself. I did get to help pick it out, which is nice. And now that it is in the house, well I’m glad that we went the way we did.

We ended up with a new sectional, a chair, and a complete dining set. I would not have thought that I would get a sectional but we found one that had a very unique look, fit the house perfectly, and actually had a very good price tag. We found it at Wicke’s furniture while looking at some other couches we saw in the ads. RB was actually tired and just wanted to flop down for a minute and headed in that direction. We both saw it we though hey! That’s pretty different and I like it. It has dark brown vinyl paneling on the sides, back, and below the cushions and everything else is a tan micro fiber that is textured to look like leather but feels like suede. It’s also so comfortable you end up falling asleep on it without even trying. It has a matching chair that is really nice as well that is both a rocker and swivels. It is round in shape and made from the same materials as the couch. We did skip out on the ataman though.

The Dining room is even more impressive. We had originally looked at Thomasville Furniture’s Bogard collection; after looking at the price tag several times could not even begin to justify it. In fact the entire dining room we ended up with was the cost of the Thomasville table sans chair or other amenities. The collection we did get was also at Wicke’s, which was nice as we saved on delivery charges, called the Scarsdale collection. It has a very similar look at the Bogart collection with a few changes. The table is not as glossy as the Bogart but it has really nice metal accents on the feet, edges, and lower section that are not in the other table. The chairs are also simple and I think look nicer than the Thomasville. The buffet/hutch is the most similar piece with even hardware that is a close match. Everyone who has been over loves it.

The only crazy part of the whole deal is that we bought so much furniture. The hutch is nice but takes up a lot of the room and since we also purchased the service and leave the leaf in the table it is a lot. Still I think it works. We just need to finish decorating the room and it won’t be so lop sided. Man though, I worry about everything now though. I don’t wan the table to get scratched or the couch to get spilled on. It’s crazy it was almost nicer to just have the old stuff! If something happened to it you just went ahead and threw a new sheet over it!

Getting Behind

Apparently while this blog has few - probably more like a couple - readers they do tend to get grumpy when it takes a couple of weeks to actually post articles. I normally am a little behind in my writing I will try to get back on top of it. Of course that is not the only thing I am getting behind on. Because of some work that I need to complete on my house I have done very little but work and then work on the house. I spend 10+ hours a week traveling, 45 hours working for the client, 5 or so hours working for the company on administrative stuff, and then spend 15 or more hours a week (at least for the last couple of months) working on one of the bed rooms. Seems like I am always under a time constraint and basically other things are getting behind.

Though if all goes well the room will be in good enough shape this weekend for someone to move in, and with in 2 weeks hopefully all the work will be completed on it. Then I can get around to the hundred other things I need to get around to. One thing that is a high priority is getting my gallery up and running for new photos again. I think it has been at least 3 if not 4 months since I was able to use the bulk update feature. But now I am 4 or 5 galleries behind. But I will get to it. I certainly need to spend some down time and quality time engaged in other activities. So maybe once this big project is done I can spend more time updating this blog, get a few of the little items done, and possibly start on a more relaxed project on the house.

ACE – Rafting in West Virginia

“Stay to the right and you’ll be fiiiinnnnneeeee…….” says the raft guide to Akhil, Mike, and Matt. A river guide for more than twenty years he wears at least a week and half’s growth of whiskers as comfortably as he does the old t-shirt, ripped shorts, and beat up sandals that he has used to float down the ‘New’ river at least a couple of dozen times. This river is dangerous not because of the amount or speed of the water but because of the softness of rock. As the current has raced by over the last couple of hundred years it has created small cutouts in the rocks below the river. These are big enough however, to pin a full grown man and drown him. So when the Big John – that is our guide’s name – says to stay to right we do!..

The Gnu River in West Virginia is claimed to be one of the oldest on the continent and ACE Adventures has been guiding trips down the river for decades. Ace is a an outdoor destination high in the mountains that has offerings ranging from rock climbing to river rafting, and provides camp grounds or fully appointed cabins for guests. Their compound serves as a base for all of the tours they give but also has a decent sized man mad lake filled with toys such as a 3 story water slide, zip lines, water trampolines, paddle boats, kayaks, and a large blob used to launch people in the air.

Several months ago while looking at a very cold and ugly site from out of the windows at my clients sit in Dayton Ohio Mike, Akhil, and myself hatched a plan to get a little R&R. The original plan was South America. Well that was a bit too ambitious. Next it became Florida. Then possibly Vegas, and finally Mike came up with the crazy idea to go river rafting. What a great idea. It was settled. In all honesty he did most of the work and research; including making the reservations and pushing us to decide a date. And I’m glad he did. It was an unbelievable trip.

Some how I lucked out and Avis gave me a free upgrade the week we were going camping. They gave me a brand new Dodge Durango! It was perfect a good sized SUV to take into the mountains. It’s a good thing they did to because we had way to much crap to fit into a normal sedan. The back seat would have been full and Akhil would have to ride on the roof (only because he smokes other wise we could have taken turns). Luckily this wasn’t necessary we got a big truck. So we packed it up Thursday afternoon and hit the road.

The road trip up was fun, though in all honesty the two hours on two lane highways was a pain. We did stop a couple of times and we were hooting and hollering so loud we didn’t even notice the radio only played static for hours! So after getting lost in Beckley West Virginia for 40 minutes or so we found the hotel and got about 5 hours of sleep.

The next day we had rock climbing at 8am and needed to be on site by 7am so we needed to leave about 6:30 in the morning. Believe it or not Akhil was up. Normally we’re lucky to see him at 8am but some how he managed. We all had the gear on that was recommend to go caving. After getting to ACE and having break fast we found the meeting point, got our gear, signed our waivers, and loaded up the van. Some how Akhil slept from the hotel to ACE, then from ACE to the cave, and again from the Cave to ACE! I can normally sleep in strange circumstances but this guy has it on me!

The cave was a lot of fun. A river ran through it so it was incredibly humid. On top of that it was in the 90s and even though the cave was under ground it was hot and sticky. So for several hours we followed our guide and squeezed through tight spots, crawled across ledges, and were blinded several times by one of our counter parts! Man some guys just can’t listen to instructions. I had brought a polar fleece and by the time I left I wish I hadn’t it was hot. I must have sweated a gallon or more running around in that cave. It was cool though, not so for the amazing formation underground (there weren’t that many), or the crazy graffiti on the walls(not everywhere but in a few places, but for the various obstacles and ever changing rooms. By the time we left the cave we were quite tired and glad to be back at the top of the hill and out from under ground.

The rest of the day we didn’t do much except swim, eat, and drink. We did try to launch each other off of the blob in the ACE lake but never had a lot of success. It took us a long time to figure out how to even climb on the thing. I have to admit it is embarrassing when you are struggling to climb this inflatable amusement object and 5, 6 , and 7 years olds are climbing up with no problem! More embarrassing even because it took us that long to figure out there was a rope step to help you! Once we found this getting up wasn’t much of a problem. The next big challenge was the blob it self. If you jumped on it feet first you slid off (again we were shown up by little kids). Then when Mike tried to launch Akhil, Akhil went straight up and land back on the blob launching Michael off! Unbelievable we had so much trouble – and as much fun – with a big kids toy.

After swimming for a while we went back to camp and changed, then headed to dinner and spent the rest of the night at the bar. Why not? We were just going to go white water rafting the next day. That night we didn’t get a lot of sleep. Part of it was from being at the bar to bar close, part of it was that the tent was way to small for 3 guys –props to Mikey for sleeping in the truck-, and part of it was because the neighbors were so noisy. They didn’t even quite down when Akhil threatened to come over and show ‘em a thing or two! Even though I don’t think he was getting up for anything. The biggest result of that’s escapes though was being slightly hung over at 7am the next day when we went rafting.

Rafting – The whole point of the Trip. After getting up early, getting some grub, loading our gear, and riding on a bus to the launch point we were introduced to our guide. Big John. Big John was probably 6’ 2” and had some heft to him, not fat mostly muscle from guiding a raft through rapids all summer. Big John looked, smiled, and had an accent a little like Matthew McConaughey. Of course Big John talked more like a sailor, told dirty jokes, and had been banned from guiding church and school groups down the river! Big John was also a veteran rafter of more than a decade, maybe even two, and new the river very, very well. He also liked to have fun at other people’s expense. Big John had also gained control of a special boat. It was shorter and skinnier than the normal 6 person boat, but longer and fatter than the 4. I also had relatively small tubes for more performance in the rapids, though this also made it much less stable. Really he was the perfect guide with the perfect boat for us!

Now Akhil had also doomed us to some degree. During our caving experience he didn’t always listen so well – something he did during rafting a lot too – and blinded the guide several times. She actually had already talked to Big John about us. If that wasn’t enough when we were asked what kind of a ride we would like he told Big John that he “wanted to go swimming”, even if he was scared of snakes swimming around in the water – what a Pony. So our trip was going to be eventful. The first thing we did was sacrifice ourselves to the river gods. There was a large rock formation just a few feet down river from the launch so Big John pulled the raft up to it and said it was better to go in voluntarily. So we did. It didn’t help; we still didn’t stay in the boat the whole trip.

Rivers always have fun names for the rapids. The ones on this river are called things like nose bleed, cartwheel, Surprise, Big Baloney, Pin Ball, Lost Lunch, Piece of Cake, Hip Kick, Double Z, and so on (See Map Below). Most of the rapids were 3s, 4s, and 5s, not because they had a lot of water but more because they were dangerous due to the cutouts mentioned above. Rapids are graded either on the amount of water or the danger they present. Most of the rapids on this river were pretty dangerous because of the nature of the rock formations. No one on the trip was hurt however. Just a little shaken up. We were tossed from the boat two or three times. The first time was our guide warming us up for the river and intentionally turning the boat into an ejector seat. So we were the only raft to loose people at that particular rapid. I only fell out one more time but the other guys I think fell out 2 more times each… Though one time might have been voluntary for Michael.

The second time I fell out was the first time we tried to surf. Surfing is a ton of fun. What happens is you try to enter the rapid from behind or the side facing the oncoming water. If all works correctly the raft slides into the hole created by the water rushing over the rock and surfs over the water as it goes through that whole. You basically stay in the rapid until you want to leave, someone kicks you out going through in another raft, or the guide gets tired of keeping the raft in place. The first time we tried this maneuver I look over and watched Michael and Akhil slide out of the raft. It seemed to happen in slow motion. Then I looked over and the guide had been tossed out as well! So I stopped trying to stay in the raft and was tossed. I held onto the paddle so hard through the rapid that it bent, it was also a wild enough ride that the supports in my helmet broke! Most of the people in the other boats were amazed at the end of the trip that we had a wild enough ride to break a helmet and paddle.

We did finally successfully surf later on the trip. In fact at first we were the only raft to get into the hole successfully. Then we were in there for as long as 15 minutes at a time. We spent as much time surfing as all the other boats combined. We certainly lucked out with our guide. He let air out of the raft in just the right way, moved weight around, and had us all move back in the raft – it also probably helped that we were in the special raft. We did have to save a few people that fell out of their boats a few times. It was a ton of fun. We even did some stunts with the raft where we walked it across the face of the rock.

The one other event of the trip was our guide being himself again. Toward the end of the trip he set up bid time. We started heading toward what he said were very dangerous rapids. While we floated toward them he told us some stupid story and kept point toward shore off to the right of the boat. He pretended to not notice how close we were getting to the rapid. Then he got really excited and said to paddle one way, then another, then another, and we missed the route we were supposed to use. Also I need to mention that earlier when he was telling us commands – yes it seems he had been setting us up for a while – he said that if he ever yelled oh Sh(ir)t to hold on as tight as possible we were in for a ride. So as we went through the rapid he yelled “oh sh(ir)t!” and jumped into the middle of the boat. That certain freaked all of us out and he just started busting out laphing. He had really played us well even his nephew (the 4^th rider in the boat) didn’t know he was full of it!

That pretty much covers our fantastic ride down the river. We then drank beers and road the bus back to camp, went out for the best BBQ around, picked up some liquor, and relaxed the rest of the night. The next day we slept in, then drove to see a really big bridge, had a 3 hour breakfast (due to the slowest service ever!), and drove back to Dayton. It was easily on of the best trips I have ever been on and we plan some sort of repeat performances again. Hopefully Soon.

Rolling off… What a difference

Well every project is different that is for sure. After 10 months on the same project you certain get used to things. The interesting part about being a consultant is that you get a new job on a pretty regular basis. At first I didn’t want to roll off. I had carved out a good role for myself, the client didn’t want me to go (even if they weren’t will to pay so I could stay), and I had a routine down. But now that I have moved on it I do have to say that location can make a huge difference, clients are really different, and while the work is similar each role is quite a bit different.

Starting a new project for me is pretty much like starting a new job, or new semester in college, or moving to a new neighborhood. While it is exciting and I enjoy doing it I get stressed out for a little while. Most of this revolves around getting my mind wrapped around a new role and defining the tasks that I am supposed to accomplish and learning my surroundings. Unlike most occupations as a consultant part of the reason you are brought in is because the client needs help figure out how to do something. So while there isn’t a lot of heads down work to do there is a lot of mental preparation to be done. The days are long and you need to make an impact immediately. You have no idea what you are supposed to be doing, you are supposed to tell the client how you are going to do what you don’t know you are doing, and you have to have tools and documents setup with in the first week to help do what you don’t know you are doing. So I get a little stressed. After two weeks though I am normally pretty happy and back into my comfort zone.

The next fun part of rolling off one project and onto another is simply finding your way around. Normally we try to stay in hotels just a few miles from the client, but now you have to find your way through an airport, to the client, to the hotel, and find some food. Later on so you can have kind of a normal life you want to find some entertainment as well. I also tend to get lost the first few times around an area. But this is also the best part of going to a new area; new sites, new places, new attractions, new bars, new restaurants, new clubs, new museums, new sports arenas, and so on. I love to travel (thx for the gypsy blood dad!) and explore so this is one of the biggest perks of the job. I especially like being in a new downtown where I can walk around for a few miles a day in different directions. In fact this is my first week on the project and I have maybe five places already I want to check out, and that list will continue to grow!

Now so far it has been a major difference between these two projects. Starting with flying to the client where I now take one flight instead of two and I get to leave an hour or so later in the morning. This mean more sleep! Next after close to a hundred flights I got upgraded on both my flights this week. So I got that going for me which is nice! Next at the airport it is a shorter walk to the rental car (which I don’t have to share anymore) and an easier drive to the client; that is much shorter than the drive in Dayton 10 min vs.25 min. So these things are nice. The hotel is nicer, a full service Hilton in Downtown Milwaukee vs. a Courtyard in a suburb of a suburb(Dayton). And finally last but not least the client is cooler. Not just what they sell but the way they run their business. I didn’t have to wait 2 weeks to get my computer access (1/2 day), they want to be involved in everything, and everyone really cares about the company. The corporate site is absolutely amazing – this may all be do to the fact that my current client is the manufacture of an American Icon. To top it all off the client actually knows what they are doing.

I think once I get comfortable and my role is more defined this is going to be a great project. Though, I will miss the project team from BPE (my last project). In fact because the team is so bid there are actually less activities going on after hours, most people have settled into a routine and that is too bad. But I think I can light a fire under everyone, maybe I just need to start an entertainment committee. I think after the next couple of weeks this will become a great opportunity even if I get a little stressed from time to time.

Sporting the color of a lobster

Okay….. Okay…. Okay…. I do know better but what can I say. Three times this summer I let myself get sunburned. I know it’s not good for you, I know it is avoidable, and I know I should always use sun block. In fact I did use sun block the first time. It just didn’t last long enough. On the 4^th of July weekend I went out on the boat for the first time this year, and probably the first time in two summers actually. It was a great time. I really just went to ride around. My sister got up and did some water skiing, as did my dad, and her BF. Though the BF had one of the funniest ways of water skiing I have ever seen. He doubled over at the waste locked his knees together and looked like a horse jokey! But he did stay up and for a good amount of time. The reason I got sunburned wasn’t my dad insanely trying to through me off the tube, even if I did take a drink or two the sunscreen was water proof. No it had to do with the fact that I expected to be out for two to three hours and instead we were out for five to six hours. I just had too much sun and didn’t use enough block. So I spent a week bright red looking like a cooked lobster.

The second time I this summer I burnt was actually just dumb. It was JC bachelor party and we went golfing south of PL. Had a great time. The problem is CQ and I started drinking. Actually we didn’t let the drink girl pass by once. By the time we had finished the front nine we weren’t 3 sheets to the wind but maybe 2 to 2 in 1/2. sheets! We weren’t golfing all that well anyway so we proceeded to hoot, holler, and cause a general ruckus. A Lot of fun to say the least. Colin at one point tried to drive our cart over JC’s cart! That didn’t really work out either. All in all it took us probably 4 to 4 and ½ hours to finish the course and I just wasn’t in the state of mind to put on sun block. So once again I looked like a lobster for a week or so. Though to be honest at least it didn’t peal much this time so I had that going for me which is nice.

The final time I got burned was last week. Again the catalyst was golfing. Which I have to say I am probably one of the worst golfers ever! I would have to guess at my handicap but even with a positive spin it would be in somewhere in 80s at best. This time it wasn’t an outing for a bachelor party, or even golfing with friends. It was a work sponsored event for networking. Everyone in the office gets a chance to golf with a partner and practitioners aligned differently in the firm. I was the most junior person in job title but there was a new hire that was a senior consultant from the Strategy practice. Lucky for me everyone else was a poor golfer as well even if I was still the worst. Though the partner did make a few shoot that were absolutely amazing, but he was pretty in consistent and sent plenty into the weeds as well. We had to pick up the balls a couple of times to move on as we were taking to long. So I have to say it wasn’t drinking or the amount of time we were on the course. No it was just pure stupidity. I thought I had a good enough tan base and didn’t think the sun was that strong so I just didn’t put it on. I didn’t feel myself burn until it was to late. And again and to this day I am a nice bright lobster red! So I have learned my lesson again…Like Baz Larman (sp?) says I will make sure to always use sunscreen!

Red’s Game

While Cincinnati is currently 4 games out of second place in the National League Central Division, it wasn’t but a month and ½ ago when they were consider unstoppable and in first place. During this time I got the chance to attend a game in their new and gorgeous home stadium over looking the river that separates Ohio and Kentucky. This stadium put the wonder-blunder that is the Metrodome to shame. I think after going to see a game in an open stadium of the caliber of Cincinnati’s, Twins baseball would be much improved. The drive to Cincinnati from our normal location was only about an hour and ten minutes and we stayed in Cincinnati at the Hilton, a converted 4 star from years before. All in all it was a great game.

The design of the stadium seems to take inspiration from many different places and has a lot of different elements that really keep it from having an overall theme. Though compared to the dome, it actually has personality. The colors were typically the team colors all of the seats and appointments were red or white. The general architecture was very open and though there were a lot of people it did not seem crowded. As you enter the park there are several nostalgic appointments statues, plaques, and displays. There are the general baseball decorations as well, large concrete baseballs along with the shapes of balls and bats all over. Inside the stadium was typical and really nothing special. In the outfield there was a mock paddle wheel boat that launched fireworks whenever a Red’s player hit a homerun. Other than that the stadium is just a very open setting with high angled roofs that allow for the best outdoor experience.

There were several different seating options from the expensive lower level seats to the club level (where we had seats) to the several different types of sky boxes, to the upper deck nose bleeders. Much like the Excel center in St. Paul the stadium was designed for the best possible view experience and there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. I especially liked the fact that the seats faced the field instead of strait out. That means that our seats were turned toward home plate instead of facing the outfield. The seats themselves were larger than most stadiums (at least on the club level) and spaced out so you didn’t feel like you were sitting on top of the people to either side of you. Another great part of the club level is a large glassed in Bar/Restaurant area; it is filled with comfortable seating and large TVs that are displaying both the game in the stadium as well as other sporting events going on around the world.

The game it self was pretty uneventful. The score was less than five runs between both teams. There were a couple of double plays and a few homeruns – pretty typical stuff. My Project Manager was the real entertainment. He had been a season ticket holder in the past but quit buying them when the rates were doubled so the Reds could acquire Ken Griffey Jr. Since that point he has been jaded about the Reds and tends to heckle a lot more then he is willing to chair. Many times over we heard him shout out to Ken Wiffey Jr about this or that. It was more fun to listen to him yell about what was going on in the game than to watch the game itself. Especially considering that he is normally the most professional – though not reserved – person you may ever meet. It is always interesting to see your boss acting in new and crazy ways.

One of the coolest things about the stadium was the beer guys. And not because I love the beer guys at all sporting events or because I wasn’t the one who had to pay the guy! No, it was cool because they used a different method than I have seen at any other park. Instead of a guy (or gal) walking up and down the stairs yelling cold beer, cold beer here, GET YOUR BEER HERE!! There were actually people more like waiters (now again this was the club level so I am sure you get extra special treatment) who came around an took your orders. In fact that is all these people did, they had handheld wireless systems that they entered the order on and recorded payment with. Then the order is zapped through the air to some centralized location where it was put together and handoff to a food runner. After a few minutes you got you whole order beer, dogs, candy, chips, whatever. This was nice because you didn’t have to go anywhere and you didn’t have to wait for different people to come by. Plus it was cool because I love technology and the wire handhelds are something I have never seen used at a sporting event.

The other interesting part of the game was actually the trip to the park and lodging. The only reason I say this is because the hotel was built in the twenties and recently modernized so it had all the amenities and comforts with great art deco features. The rooms were a little small but very comfortable. It was at least as nice as the Grand Hotel in Minneapolis. Now it is pretty much a strait shoot down I75 from Dayton to Cincinnati and to be honest it was pretty uneventful. There was however a very large church just a few minutes out of Cincinnati. This may sound pretty common but this is the first church I have ever seen with a statue of Jesus in front of it. And not just any statue, this one was two stories tall in the middle of a big pond! It was one of the craziest things I have seen. Now I personally don’t really think that is appropriate, but then I don’t live in that area or go to that church. So I guess live and let live. But it was still a crazy site.

Oh BTW the Reds lost that night. Bummer