Answer after last foto...
courtesy of... somuchpun.com
30 June 2011
29 June 2011
Stormy Weather
We had a short, but powerful storm move through last night. Here is a tree limb that was torn off of our neighbor's tree...
Although this storm packed some pretty powerful winds, it did not hold a candle to the thunderstorm we had last week. That storm lasted for well over 30 minutes and some of the thunder was so loud, that it actually shook the house.
Although this storm packed some pretty powerful winds, it did not hold a candle to the thunderstorm we had last week. That storm lasted for well over 30 minutes and some of the thunder was so loud, that it actually shook the house.
24 June 2011
22 June 2011
20 June 2011
Building Your Retaining Wall: Now on Kindle
Well, I've been thinking about doing this for some time and I now actually had the time to do it: I've taken my articles on building a retaining wall and I've compiled them into a Book.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment on my site and I will do my best to answer your question.
17 June 2011
The Berlin Wall and Me
For the final History project of the year, my oldest has to put together a children's book called the ABC's of history. It is to cover the period from 1900 to present. So, this got me thinking about something that could possibly be included in this most noble undertaking and I thought about a picture that was taken of me in East Berlin.
In the summer of 1988, I embarked upon a European Finance Tour with Boise State University. We went through England and Europe visiting with the CEO's and other top officers of companies such as Lloyd's of London (England), Heinz (Belgium), Hewlett-Packard (Germany), Daimler Benz (Germany), and Credit Suisse (Switzerland), to name a few. While in Germany, we had a free weekend where the only stipulation was that we meet back in Zurich by Sunday night. While most of the class decided to go skiing in France, a friend of mine and I decided that we would like to travel to East Berlin (you see, we were the only social science majors in the group). So, we notified our fellow travelers of our plans (in case something happened) and boarded the train for East Germany.
Me, looking dorky as usual...
On the train, we were finally able to find a compartment and settle down for the night. Around 2:00 in the morning, the train suddenly stopped and bright lights shined through the windows. I got up, left our compartment, and tried to find the conductor to see what was happening, but when I came to the end of the car, the door was locked. Our car was essentially isolated from the rest of the train. I later found out that every car was locked down until later cleared by the boarder guards. Laura and I looked out the compartment window and we saw armed guards and dogs checking underneath and outside the length of the train. A few minutes later the door to our car was unlocked and 3 guards and a dog entered. When they came to our compartment, the guard opened it and 2 of them stepped inside. One came towards us and the second, who was armed with a machine gun, stayed by the door. The guard who approached us had piercing blue eyes and I have to admit that he used them to great advantage. He turned and faced me and said, "Passport!" Staring at me the entire time, he took my passport. Then, he quickly looked at my picture, looked at me, then at the picture again. He asked what I was doing on the train and why I was coming into East Germany. I told him that we were going to Berlin for the day. He then, not saying a word, looked back at me and just stared for what seemed like 30 seconds or so; He then closed my passport and gave it back. He repeated the same process with my friend and then left. After about an hour, they released the train and we were on our way.
We arrived the next morning and made our way to the Wall. I know, not a very difficult thing to do, but we needed to try and find an area that currently did not have any soldiers around (trust me when I say, they were everywhere: I'm talking driving around in troop trucks and carrying machine guns everywhere). You see, taking pictures of the wall or even stopping while walking by, was forbidden and we really didn't want to end up in jail, but we also really wanted to have our pictures taken there. Eventually, we found a semi-blind spot between guard towers (although you can see the top of one tower in the photo) and took each other's picture. After taking our pictures, we began walking away and immediately discovered that we were being followed by two soldiers. They were several blocks behind us, but they were taking the same turns as we were. After about fifteen minutes or so, they stopped following us, but I have to admit that we were both pretty scared.
To end this short story, just a little over a year later, the Berlin Wall was torn down and whilst everyone else was skiing in France, Laura and I were able to capture and become a small part of history.
In the summer of 1988, I embarked upon a European Finance Tour with Boise State University. We went through England and Europe visiting with the CEO's and other top officers of companies such as Lloyd's of London (England), Heinz (Belgium), Hewlett-Packard (Germany), Daimler Benz (Germany), and Credit Suisse (Switzerland), to name a few. While in Germany, we had a free weekend where the only stipulation was that we meet back in Zurich by Sunday night. While most of the class decided to go skiing in France, a friend of mine and I decided that we would like to travel to East Berlin (you see, we were the only social science majors in the group). So, we notified our fellow travelers of our plans (in case something happened) and boarded the train for East Germany.
Me, looking dorky as usual...
On the train, we were finally able to find a compartment and settle down for the night. Around 2:00 in the morning, the train suddenly stopped and bright lights shined through the windows. I got up, left our compartment, and tried to find the conductor to see what was happening, but when I came to the end of the car, the door was locked. Our car was essentially isolated from the rest of the train. I later found out that every car was locked down until later cleared by the boarder guards. Laura and I looked out the compartment window and we saw armed guards and dogs checking underneath and outside the length of the train. A few minutes later the door to our car was unlocked and 3 guards and a dog entered. When they came to our compartment, the guard opened it and 2 of them stepped inside. One came towards us and the second, who was armed with a machine gun, stayed by the door. The guard who approached us had piercing blue eyes and I have to admit that he used them to great advantage. He turned and faced me and said, "Passport!" Staring at me the entire time, he took my passport. Then, he quickly looked at my picture, looked at me, then at the picture again. He asked what I was doing on the train and why I was coming into East Germany. I told him that we were going to Berlin for the day. He then, not saying a word, looked back at me and just stared for what seemed like 30 seconds or so; He then closed my passport and gave it back. He repeated the same process with my friend and then left. After about an hour, they released the train and we were on our way.
We arrived the next morning and made our way to the Wall. I know, not a very difficult thing to do, but we needed to try and find an area that currently did not have any soldiers around (trust me when I say, they were everywhere: I'm talking driving around in troop trucks and carrying machine guns everywhere). You see, taking pictures of the wall or even stopping while walking by, was forbidden and we really didn't want to end up in jail, but we also really wanted to have our pictures taken there. Eventually, we found a semi-blind spot between guard towers (although you can see the top of one tower in the photo) and took each other's picture. After taking our pictures, we began walking away and immediately discovered that we were being followed by two soldiers. They were several blocks behind us, but they were taking the same turns as we were. After about fifteen minutes or so, they stopped following us, but I have to admit that we were both pretty scared.
To end this short story, just a little over a year later, the Berlin Wall was torn down and whilst everyone else was skiing in France, Laura and I were able to capture and become a small part of history.
16 June 2011
Friday Fotos: 6/17
courtesy of... somuchpun.com
This could explain a lot...
courtesy of... hahastop.com
And the Darwin Award goes to...
courtesy of... failblog.org
Tis a cool cat...
courtesy of... icanhascheezburger.com
15 June 2011
12 June 2011
Let Sleeping Ducks Lie
Here is the photo that I wanted to post yesterday...
Here's what happened to my site...
Somehow the coding got messed up. When I tried to post a photo (proper sized), it would bump the sidebars down to the bottom of the template. It would also not display anything after the photo-code. Also, it would not let me enter any coding.
I think (????) I know what happened. I enabled the new mobile-friendly code they (blogger) offered, but I did not continue reading that it is only for traditional blogger templates; mine has been highly altered.
So, how did I fix it? Well, I have a few testing blogs that I use to test new templates and new coding configurations. Currently, one of these blogs has the same template (minus all the widgets),as my main site, so I just deleted the template on my site and replaced it with the one on my testing site which solved the problem.
10 June 2011
Quake Attack Part Deux
***NOTE: for some reason, when I placed this photo (properly sized) after the first paragraph, Blogger did not show the rest of the content AND it threw my sidebars to the bottom of the template, so I had to delete the photo until I can figure out what the heck they are doing. I will post the photo in a separate post when I get this mess sorted out. Thank you for your patience.
This is one pair of at least two that frequent our yard several times a day. This time, instead of sleeping in the grass by our back door (one of their favorite spots) they chose the feeder itself. Based on my vast duck-keeping experience, this is one way I know that they are probably out of food. However, last Saturday, they let us know in a more direct fashion.
Last Saturday, my wife was planting our veggies in the garden, when the ducks decided to pay a visit. They flew in and waddled over to the feeder to begin their mid-day meal. Unfortunately, there was not enough food, so Mr. and Mrs. Duck decide to take matters into their own beaks and go straight to the top...my wife. She watched them come over to the berm and then Mr. Duck climbed the stairs and, while looking directly at my wife, began quacking at her. He then walked down, looked back at her, then walked right back up and quacked again. Seeing that his point had been made, he walked back down where both he and Mrs. Duck gave a final admonitory quack and then flew off.
Needless to say, after my wife told us about this, she went ahead and restocked their their food supply. Later that afternoon, they came back and were perfectly content to enjoy their repast and settle down in the grass and rest.
This is one pair of at least two that frequent our yard several times a day. This time, instead of sleeping in the grass by our back door (one of their favorite spots) they chose the feeder itself. Based on my vast duck-keeping experience, this is one way I know that they are probably out of food. However, last Saturday, they let us know in a more direct fashion.
Last Saturday, my wife was planting our veggies in the garden, when the ducks decided to pay a visit. They flew in and waddled over to the feeder to begin their mid-day meal. Unfortunately, there was not enough food, so Mr. and Mrs. Duck decide to take matters into their own beaks and go straight to the top...my wife. She watched them come over to the berm and then Mr. Duck climbed the stairs and, while looking directly at my wife, began quacking at her. He then walked down, looked back at her, then walked right back up and quacked again. Seeing that his point had been made, he walked back down where both he and Mrs. Duck gave a final admonitory quack and then flew off.
Needless to say, after my wife told us about this, she went ahead and restocked their their food supply. Later that afternoon, they came back and were perfectly content to enjoy their repast and settle down in the grass and rest.
09 June 2011
02 June 2011
01 June 2011
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