Get Ober It

Vacation

2005-07-06T13:11:00.000-04:00

Just got back from a 6 day vacation. I went to the zoo on Thursday with my son, my brother and sister in law and my two nieces. We got there just after opening and saw the first Dolphin Show. Then we went and saw the Elephant bathing with special guest appearance of two Colts Cheerleaders.
Friday I headed for Nebraksa with my girlfriend, a friend of mine (Russ) and his wife(Jen). It was about a 14 hour trip to Jeffery Reservoir where we stayed at Russ's parents cabin and spent the time out on the lake, fishing, or just hanging out. There were some great fireworks on the lake Sunday night, but rain pretty much limited viewing on the fourth.

A night on the town!

2005-06-23T10:14:00.000-04:00

My Girlfriend and I went out last night to meet with some friends of hers that were in town. We started at the bar at the Oceanaire Seafood Room, with Shrimp Cocktail, Escargots Bourgogne, and a Stoli Gimlet. I had dinner there last fall and it was incredible.
After that we headed up the street to Nicky Blaine's a new experience for me. We were back in a corner in a room away from the band so I couldn't hear them, but we had fun sitting and drinking. I really really was craving a cigar but passed one last night.

Stuff and such

2005-06-08T10:43:00.000-04:00

Hmm I need to get in the habit of updating this more often if I am going to be serious about it.

I just finished re-reading With A Single Spell by Watt-Evans, Lawrence. I pulled it out of a box of old paperbacks I had along with The Magic of Recluce by L. E. Modesitt Jr. which I just started re-reading. This is a series of books, but I don't remember reading any of the others.

I recently bought a sushi cookbook with DVD and bamboo mat. I'm going to buy some supplies and try it out this weekend.

Links and stuff

2005-06-01T13:24:00.000-04:00

I added some links on the side. As you might have guessed I am a web comic junkie. The ones I posted are just some of the ones I read daily.

Dinner Last night

2005-05-26T13:35:00.000-04:00

Recipe thingy:
Ingredients
potatoes
onions
peppers
red hot sauce (frank's)
pepper
chili powder
salt
wash and cut up potatoes (enough to fill baking pan half full)
sprinkle peppers on top of potatoes
saute onions in separate pan, add other ingredients, mix
pour mix over potatoes and peppers
cover with foil
bake 450 degrees for 45 min or so (till potatoes are done)

Star Wars Episode III

2005-05-26T09:19:00.000-04:00

I found this comentary about takng kids to see this movie ****Warning Spoilers**** I will probably take my son to see it this weekend.

What I'm reading today

2005-05-25T11:16:00.000-04:00

I finally finished 'Crown of Slaves' by David Weber and Eric Flint. 700 pages in 6 days? That is fairly slow for me, but I've had a busy week. The book was very good even if it didn't have any of the do or die space battles of Weber's other books. It definitely sets the stage for a continuing series with these characters and the battle to bring down Genetic Slavery and MESA. I'll be watching for the next book in this series

I also recently reread Deathworld (Deathworld Trilogy)by Harry Harrison I probably read this for the first time in Jr High. Written in the late 60's this classic has aged well, and doesn't suffer too much from real life technology advances outstripping the technolgy in the book.

quote of the day

2005-05-24T14:22:00.000-04:00

"Never understimate the power of stupidity."
I found this gem, in a thread on Slashdot about people getting injured.

Star Wars Episode III

2005-05-23T15:14:00.000-04:00

The question has been when I would see Episode 3, not if I would see it. The other question is weather I should take my son to see it, he is under well under the 13 of pg-13. I have talked with other parents, one of whom took his 4 year old. Everyone said that violence was the only reason they saw for the pg-13 rating (no adult content or language) and that the violence was all ‘Star Wars violence’ no gore just clean bloodless light saber wounds or blaster hits . My son says that he knows that movies are just pretend and he has seen Lord of the rings and other shows that are fairly violent…..

Physical Labor

2005-05-23T11:10:00.000-04:00

I helped a friend of mine put in fence posts for a new fence this weekend. I expected it to be a long weekend of hard work followed by pain and stiffness Monday morning when it came time to get up and go to work. The work this weekend consisted of installing 8 foot long 4x4’s. The plan was for 2’ deep holes, filling every other hole with concrete. We rented a small one person gas powered post hole digger. We powered it up and started our first hole. We dug about 12 inches and bogged down when we hit clay. We broke out the manual diggers and finished the hole off. This repeated for all but about 2 of the 30+ holes we dug (we got lucky and didn’t have clay twice). I managed to get sunburned on my neck, the back of my hands, and my scalp. I was dreading getting out of bed this morning, figuring I would be stiff and sore. Happily I was only a little stiff and managed to make it in to work with minimal effort. I can think of more difficult work, but am pleased that I made it through the weekend without serious injury.

CSI Season Finale

2005-05-20T09:38:00.000-04:00

The finale for CSI (the original) was last night. I don’t watch it every week but try to catch it most weeks, even if I just have it on in the background as I do other things. This finale was directed by Quentin Tarantino. Overall, it was an excellent edge of the seat, is he going to live or die, episode. I only counted two short scenes that were flash backs and one dream sequence (complete with black and white gore J ) which is pretty tame for a Tarantino effort, but is probably a lot easier for the audience to follow. I also liked that there wasn’t a real cliff hanger at the end, other than will Grissom get ‘his guys back’.

Games I'm playing

2005-05-19T10:35:00.000-04:00

Currently I am playing World of Warcraft on the Alleria server. My main character is Ober a dwarf paladin. I am about halfway through level 59. I really am enjoying the game, especially the fact that I can get on and immediately play, or play for 30 minutes to 40 minutes and get something accomplished, something I could not do in EverQuest. I have a couple of other characters 'toons' between level 10 and 20 that I am playing around with other trade skills. Ober is maxed out in Mining, Cooking, and First Aid. I am within a few points of maxing out Goblin Engineering. I have yet to fight anyone PVP and don't have any big desire to do so.

Battlefield 1942 is another game I play, but don't have any favorite server or groups I play with. I'm also a Civilization addict (since the first one came out) and usually have a CIV 3 game in progress.

Exercise

2005-05-19T08:57:00.000-04:00

I was recently the Best Man in a wedding. My girlfriend took about 8 rolls of 'candid' photos, and most of them turned out really well. Personally, I've usually hated pictures of myself and generally don't like getting my picture taken. When looking at pictures of them selves I have heard many women say, ‘I look fat’ not matter how much they weigh or if they are in fact in need of a sandwich. Looking at some of these pictures I had to say it myself, ‘I look fat.’ As an adult I have never been skinny, I am about 5'11" and fairly broad (I blame it on my German peasant stock). I finished Army basic training at 180 pounds and was in shape, but definitely not skinny. Currently I weigh in around 240 and am definitely not in shape. So I have decided to do something about it. My girlfriend and I have started walking. For the last three days we have walked for 25-30 minutes at a decent pace (stepping out not just strolling). Our goal is to walk 5 days a week. I am also thinking back to that army training and am considering adding alternating days of push ups and sit ups. My goal is not to 'loose weight' per se but to get in shape and loose most of my beer gut.

What I am reading today.

2005-05-18T14:44:00.000-04:00

Today's book is 'Crown of Slaves' by David Weber and Eric Flint. A friend of mine loaned me this paperback, and I'm only a few chapters into it, but so far it is excellent as is the norm for these fine two authors. Quite a few of their books can be found online at Baen Free Library or purchased online from Baen's WebSubscriptions. The book is set in the Honorverse and according to the back is the beginning of a new series.

I tend to read 2-3 books a week sometimes more than one at a time. I finished 'Medal of Honor: Profiles of America's Military Heroes from the Civil War to the Present' by Allen Mikaelian, and Mike Wallace a few weeks ago. It definitely wasn't a light happy read, but was well written and moving.

Last week I picked up 'Atlantis Found' (A Dirk Pitt Novel)by Clive Cussler. I think I may have read other Cussler books in the past but none them stuck out in my mind. With the movie Sahara out and lots of people talking about it I figured I'ld give him a read. It was fairly entertaining, a little weak on science, but overall pretty decent. I'm not going to go out of my way to read all of his other books, but may pick some more up if I see them.

What I am and what I'm not.

2005-05-18T10:39:00.000-04:00

I am a middle aged, Desert Storm Army veteran, divorced, father of one, geek.....
I read a lot (although not as much as I would like. ).
I am a gamer (PC games, Board Games, RPG's ,Cards, wargames, miniatures,....

While I have a lot of German ancestors, I am not German, and definately not a neo-nazi. (Maybe I'll rant about nazi's another time.) I took some basic German in school, but am no where near fluent.

Here I am!

2005-05-18T09:43:00.000-04:00

Well here it is the beginning of my blog, where I will be witty, charming, insightful, and seem like a genius. Well probably not, but I can dream can't I?