Internet, sweet internet!

Just got my internet hooked up at my house so instead of heading back to work I am writing a blog post. One thing I didn't think about when buying a country house was the internet situation. We aren't all that far from town so I was thinking that I would just call up Time Warner or someone else and have them hook us up. Well even if they served the people right across the street they probably wouldn't serve us since we are over 300 yards off the road. We wouldn't generate them enough income to run that wire for one house. I checked out mobile hotspots from verizon and sprint and they got good reviews but they capped the amount of data and charged lots of money once you went over. Then a friendly coworker pointed out Amplex, they are for rural northwest Ohio.  As long as you have a good line of site to one of their towers you are golden.  I guess I have a great line of site and the network admin uses the same tower.  I doubt that tower will have to many problems, and any that they do arise on that end they will be fixed promptly.  My coworker who has the same service has told me their customer service is excellent so all problems will probably be fixed quickly anyway.  It is still nice to know that the folks use the same service so they will want the best for themselves.
I will probably be surfing late tonight to catch up on everything.  Maybe I will blog extra too.

I finally know someone

I know someone that tried out for one of those talent shows. The guy plays with a college roommate of mine and I have seen them play a few time and partied with them a few more times.  Here is a promo trailer where he is flashed up there for about a second at 15 seconds in shortly after they say "We are here to find a superstar." That is his gravelly voice singing at that point.

This is the guy:

His name is Josh Krajcik, pronounced like magic but with a Kr instead of m.  He is a great singer and guitarist.  They did well in a battle of the bands contest in Cleveland a couple years ago and one of the judges compared him to a new Stevie Ray Vaughan, article here.  Of the bands my roommate played with (that I heard) this is the one that I thought would have the best chance of making it.  They made a couple CDs I enjoy them both, they are on Amazon and iTunes. 

The internet rumors say that he made the top 32 on the show.  I wasn't planning on watching but I will be now, and voting.  I do hope he does well.

I survived

I also enjoyed it.  Sure there were a few periods where I asked myself why I decided this would be fun.  It didn't take long after the finish line for me to be happy that I did do it.  Here is me jumping over the flames. It is amazing the vertical you get when flames are involved.

Next is me crossing the finish line.  These pictures are only about a hundred yards apart and that is the same t-shirt.  There was a big mud pit that I had to get down and dirty in.  My feet felt like lead bricks due to fatigue and lots of mud and water.

The best part about finishing was the free beer that I was about to drink!

They have already said they are coming back next year, I guess I better keep the training up.

Ready to become a Warrior

At least as ready as I will be for the Warrior Dash this Sunday.  For some odd reason I have decided to subject myself to some torture and run the Warrior Dash.  I am going to be good and the beer drinking after the Dash, I have been training for that one for years and never quit.  The running part on the other hand I don't know about.  I spent many years not running, unless I had to beat someone to the fridge for the last beer.
The last time I ran in a organized event was in college, the first group of years in school, when I ran in the Beta500.  It was a relay race that you had to push a cart that a person rode on and steered.  It was a big deal to a lot of fraternities and sororities, besides mine, so we decided to try and make some waves.  We put together a team and trained, sprints, distance running, handing off the cart.  We had to borrow a cart when most of the other groups had their own. We took third and surprised a bunch of people.  Before that event I ran the "Fat Mans Relay" in Track and Field in High School.  The relay was all the discus and shot putters running the 4X100.  It didn't really count for anything but pride for the big guys.  One team was promised free pizza for a victory, they didn't get it our "fat men" weren't so fat.
So when my friend Bob (friend status may change mid-race) said, "Are you interested?"  Why wouldn't I say yes?  I have been exercising and getting fit anyway. Umm... yeah, getting fit, and running 3.1 miles in the July heat over and under obstacles aren't the same thing.  I must have been delusional thinking it would be fun.
I will probably get tricked into doing the September 10th one also, as long as they wait for the memory and pain to fade.

Remember that one post?

You know that one post from way back in the day.  Yeah the last one that I made as a matter of fact.

Well in that one I talked about our rain barrel and it was full and we didn't have anything to water.  Well it is still full and it probably has spent more time overflowing than it has been used to water stuff.  It overflows even faster now that I cleaned the gutters too.   I even had to just drain it into the street one day.  We have had soooooooo much rain it is crazy!  I have used it on the inside plants and the one outside that is under the porch roof but they don't need enough water to keep up with the rain.  Little b has had fun filling a bowl and dumping it causing a "big mess" in on the back patio but even he gets bored with that well before it is empty.  Maybe I should filter it and bottle it and sell it at the Quik E Mart, I am sure it will sell faster than the rain can keep up with.

I have a rain barrel

We just diverted our rain spout to drain into one of these fancy rain barrels.  Our doesn't have the foliage in it yet, it isn't quite the growing season yet.  Our drain was linked into the sewer system and the city sewer project made us unhook it, and a rain barrel is the option we decided to go with.  We figured we would try to be environmentally friendly little hippy types and use the rain to water our plants.  Well we have a full barrel and no plants to water yet.  Once we plant some grass we should be set.

New Snack!

We went out grocery shopping while we were a little hungry, and that may have been a mistake.  We ended up with a bunch of snack foods.  The good part of this is I found this delicious snack that I had never heard of.  Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles.  I love them.  I am not eating anything else ever again.