Drive Safe

So we saw this crazy bad accident tonight on the way home from NJ. At least 10 cops and fire vehicals and a car that looked in real bad shape. Just a reminder to drive safe this holiday season...

New Ride!

So check out my new board, I picked it up from REI tonight. It is a 163 Arbor Roundhouse to accommodate my big size 12s. The bindings are Burton Cartels, which are solid mid-range bindings. I am going to put the new rig to good use tomorrow night at Blue Mountain in the Poconos.

Unique Gift Idea

So if you need a unique gift idea this holiday season, and there is someone on your list that:
1 - drinks water
2 - is concerned with climate change

A great option would be the 1 ton carbon offset Nalgene bottle from Native Energy you can find it here. And I will be waiting for the tree hugger comments once I post this...


You can also check out the lifestyle carbon calculator they have on the site by clicking here and you can see how much impact you are having on the environment.

National Championship!

So fate has struck and the mighty BUCs will be playing in the Big Game on January 7th. I do like the image below (which I completely ripped off from espn).
On another note even through all the snow melted in Chicago yesterday morning my flight was still delayed almost 3 hours because of rain in Philly. Rain, really? That was enough for a 3 hour delay. Anyway I took the opportunity to read most of the book I AM LEGEND, originally published in the 1950's and a forth coming movie staring Will Smith. It is right up my alley with the apocalyptic/vampire/survival story line. Turns out that if you buy the book I have linked to above it is a compilation of many stories by Richard Matheson, the first 160 pages is the I AM LEGEND story, and not to ruin the movie, but if it holds true to the book it is not a happy ending...

Snow!

So here is Kristin and Andy's place. And only an hour ago there was not a flake in sight. Now there is almost an inch on the ground and it is now turning to rain. Flights home tommorrow should be fun.

Fantastic Sausage

So Andy took me to maybe the best food place ever, Hot Doug's. They specialize in many kinds of hot dogs and sausages, including the one here. I had to try it because how many times can you get a bacon sausage. And it was delicious. Highly recommend it if you ever get a chance.

New googe maps for your smartphone

So I continue to be impressed with all the crazy cool apps that google offers for free. The lastest is version 2.0 for google maps which offers what is essentially a GPs functionality for phones without GPS. In addition the google calender which you can share with another person, such as a fiancee, it makes scheduling meetings so much easier. If only it synced with Outlook.

First turns

So I got my fried turkey on Thanksgiving and I even got some turns in at Big Boulder today. With my stylin new helmet, thanks to Amy's early Christmas gift. The snow was pretty good for this early in the year. And the 165 Rossi board I rented was brand new. Not a bad holiday weekend at all, I hope it was good for you also.

Thoughts of snowboards and fried turkeys

So with any luck this weekend will be an excellent one with me getting two of my most favorite things in the same weekend, fried turkey and snowboarding. The fried turkey is no big surprise, since it is Thanksgiving, but the Poconos got snow earlier this week and with cold temps Friday and Saturday I am holding my breath for one of the resorts (most likely Big Boulder) which right now has one trail open, to make snow and make it worth my while to drive up the 1.5 hours on Sunday for some early season tune-ups on the board.

We will have to wait and see if Mother Nature comes through.

For all the sad, sad Michigan Fans

Well all I can say is the best team won. And the coach that has lost 4 in a row has been pushed into retirement. My take on how the post game conversation went. There is always next year for the sad little Wolverines.

Smoked Turkey

So in doing my research to ensure I had the best methods for smoking turkey I found this video podcast of BBQ Bob smoking his turkey. This might be one of the best cooking "shows" ever. While being informative and educational it is also hilarious, mostly because he is BOMBED out of his mind by the end. I guess that is one of the upsides to smoking - it leaves plenty of down time in the middle that you can use for beer drinking.

Check it out here (press the green play button on the page to get the video to come up)

GO BUCS!

It seems only right that I post about the game this weekend since I started this blog while watching OSU in a bowl game in 2006.

And with the shame of last weekend behind us, I am gearing up for a great Wolverine whomping this Saturday. Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes will bring a little pain to the entire mitten shaped state of Michigan. Rose Bowl here we come.

Pulled the Trigger

So I finally pulled the trigger, and asked Amy to marry me. For those I have not yet spoken with I am sorry, but give me a call. I am getting lots of requests for pictures of the engagement ring, which is asscher cut with micro pave side stones, so I wanted to get one posted:

And I have been told the other relevant info is: I asked her at our house over sushi dinner with Argentinian wine, she was surprised, but not totally shocked - I had been acting suspicious since we got home from Africa, and we have no idea yet on wedding plans. Looking forward to a wonderful engagement and a happy wedding at some point that has yet to be determined.

Album of Pictures from South Africa

So Amy helped out quite a bit earlier this week and got the picture highlights loaded onto a Picasa album. You can check it out by clicking here. Enjoy.

CSAs

So just to let people in Philly and anywhere really b/c you can find them all over by clicking here, but CSA, community supported agriculture, is a great thing. Amy and I did GreensGrow Farms here in Philly this season and while every great once in a while you get some odd stuff (kohlrabi) 99% of it is amazing, vegetables, fruits, and meat like chicken and even ground bison. And I have to admit I was a little sad today when I picked up the last week until next spring.

Well until next year.

Home Safe and Sound

So we made it home safe and sound yesterday and after downloading over 1,200 pictures from Amy and I's camera last night and I am going to be working on a slide show of the highlights of the trip. I was able to get some pictures saved down in lower res for the blog. So over the next couple of nights I will be posting pictures from the different segments of the trip. First and probably the best part of the trip was the 5 days/4 nights we spent on safari at Tanda Tula.

Below is a picture of Amy & I with Allister our ranger beside the Land Rover we rode around in the back of for 5 days. As you can see there are no windows doors or a roof. Keep in mind when viewing the animal pictures below as you can see how close we were and how easy it would be to have a lion leap into the truck with us.
Below are a couple of pictures of the "tent" we stayed in while on safari, as you can see not shabby accommodations.
And finally some of the animals we saw. And this is just the beginning, we saw not only all of the "Big Five" but we saw all five multiple times each, as well as many other very amazing and cool animals.

Baby Elephant- probably about 4 months old we were told.
Another couple of Elephants, we must have seen nearly 50-60 over the 8 game drives - very cool creatures and so different in the way they act vs. the ones you see at the zoo, which always seem to move so slowly.

Cape Buffalo - does not look like you should be afraid, since it kind of looks like a cow, but one killed a worker at another camp the week before we got there - very dangerous.
And this is one of the coolest things we saw, a leopard with an impala she had killed two days earlier in a tree.
And here is a White Rhino close up - this shot is without the zoom lens.
This one uses the 300mm lens. That bird is a red billed ox pecker.

And here is a family of warthogs that came walking up the road one afternoon as we were driving along.
We did see 2 prides of lion, here are a couple of shots. As it turns out lions for all thier fame as King of the Jungle, sleep about 22 hours a day. So catching some of them awake, even if they were laying down was pretty lucky.

And we did see Zebra, they might have been the most skittish of all the animals we saw in the bush.
And to leave Tanda Tula our first plane was on Chili Pepper Air, a 6 seat Cessna plane, Amy actually did quite well on the flight even through Ian, the pilot was text messaging during the flight.
So that is some of the very quick highlights from Safari, next is Cape Town.

Finally Pictures

So finally we were able to get to somewhere that allowed us to upload some pictures. We saw all the big five and many more. Take a look at the pictures below. Will post more later, but the process is VERY slow, these two took 20 minutes. And we have better things to do.

Lens upgrade

So the reservation for the lens got screwed up and they did not have another 70-200 mm image stabilized lens. Instead we got this upgrade (120-300 mm) for the same price.

Sign at the gas sation

So this is a sign at the gas station, and while I may be a bit of an aggressive driver, I believe that this program places the blame on the wrong group of drivers. Instead it should be the ''I'm a crappy slow driver, and I'm going to speed up!" Just my thoughts for improvement for this public service campaign.

Although the video on the website is pretty good.

New Camera

So I did end up buying a Canon Digital Rebel XTi for the trip to Africa, but for good zoom I am renting a 200mm 2.3 image stabilized lens. But to practice I rented it this weekend and Saturday morning, which was very foggy here, I went down to the river a took some shots of singles and the dragon boats. See below. I can not wait until I am snapping pictures of lions in less than a week.

BW3 - Best Wings Ever

So to counter Amy's book club which meets on a nearly monthly basis I have created a wing club that is open to all male significant others - or really anyone that wants to attend. And for the last two months we have made a pilgrimage to Delaware for the best wings on the planet BW3. If you live in the mid-west and have one of these fine establishments down the street from you - shame on you for taking it for granted. We drove over 2 hours to partake of the many delicious sauces, boneless and bone-in wings, cheese fries and hamburger dippers (a truly great invention).

Car Trouble

So Saturday evening plans were a little side tracked when we encountered a little car trouble right after our friends Seth and Sheri picked us up. After a slight encounter with a curb the rear passenger tire went flat - sidewall busted right open. So being men we did not want to wait for AAA, so out came the jack and spare tire. All was well until there developed a leak in the gas line.

AUTHORS NOTE: always listen to that little voice in your head that tells you to pull out the owners manual and verify the jack points for your car. -otherwise you might puncture a gas line.

So after the tire was changed, the smell of gas became over-whelming. Not equipped to handle this we did have to call AAA, but they would not come until the fire department determined that the car was not going to blow up. The firemen did come and besides making fun of us, they determined all was safe. See below.
Seth and I are working to try and resolve the issue at hand and and meanwhile Amy and Sheri and enjoying the cool fall evening.

And finally AAA did arrive to tow the car to safety and repairs at Center City Toyota. And in the end the evening was not lost we still made it out to dinner.

Flight delay

So this is a new one. On the way to Seattle our flight was delayed from taking off in Philly by about 2 hours, pretty normal. The kicker came 3 hours in we had to land in Minneapolis because both toliets broke. Turns out no one in Philly unloaded the tanks. Once they got them unloaded we were on our way. This is a picture of the guy that came onboard to figure it out.

Monkey Video

Check out this video on YouTube, it is work appropriate. Best video from a zoo ever.

Michigan Who?

So all I have to say is Go Mountaineers!













Any team that can put Michigan 0-1 out of the gate this season deserves a post from me. And Casey I hope you leave a comment here, because I am curious as to what you have to say for your little Wolverines....Bring it on Michigan!

Whitewater Kayaking

So we were in Western PA whitewater rafting, kayaking, and camping this last weekend. And I had the good fortune of having my first run of Cucumber Falls, a class III-IV rapid on the lower Yough in a kayak captured on film by a professional photographer. So I wanted to narrate the pictures below.

This is me looking very hardcore entering the rapid.

Here I blast through the first hole of the rapid.

Here I am coming out of the waves at the bottom of the rapid, looking slightly off balance.

Guess I was a little more off balance than I thought, no worries my roll is pretty good.

Maybe a little too good, I rolled myself right back over.

That's alright I rolled right back up.

And finally here I am having a little fun in the waves attempting to surf.

Overall, the trip was fantastic. I was pretty happy that my 2nd ever whitewater kayak run was on a river like the lower Yough, which is a class III-IV river.

Movie From Kruger Park , South africa

So not sure if anyone else caught the show i-caught on ABC tonight. The premise is essentially a rehash of popular video clips from youtube. But instead of just replaying them, they interview the people that shot them and tell the stories behind the video, if you will. Anyway the first one on the show was this movie from Kruger National Park where Amy and I are going in October.

So that along with Lew's insight to Air Jaws, it seems that the wildlife on on this trip could really kick ass, or at least bite it off!

South African Trip

So in case anyone is wondering why Amy and I are not traveling too much this summer it is b/c we are saving up time and money for our big South African trip in October. For two weeks we will be out on safari's, tasting wines and hanging out on the Cape Town beaches. The one piece of equipment we do need to get before going is an excellent camera with good zoom. I have visions on putting together slide shows for the plasma at home that will look like planet earth images, I am talking HD quality. Does anyone know if that is possible for a camera that is less than $500-1,000?

I want a picture like the one below while sitting safely in a truck 100' away.

Windy ride to work

I took this on the way to work the other day and while I am sitting on the runway here in Tampa waiting for the 2 hour ground stop to be lifted in Philadelphia I thought I would take the time to post it. It probably was not the smoothest ride to work for these guys but I am guessing they did not have many other options.

Boxing in old city

Not something you see every night, but there was a truck with live boxers and even a ring girl driving in old city (Lew you missed out man). I can not remember what the fight was that they were promoting b/c I was to busy trying to get a picture standing in the middle of 4th street.

Fireworks & the 4th

So the rain yesterday in Philly deyaled the fireworks. They had announced they were cancelled, but amazingly as soon as I was in bed they decided to shoot them off anyway. And being d blocks away I could hear them, but not see them. I hope the weather and fireworks were better where you were. The best part about this holiday is the day off in the middle of the week. You have to love that it is already Thursday.

Great Day for Baseball

Looks like the Phillies are going to pull out one game in the series with the Mets. And at sunny and 78 degrees it was a great day at the park. The chickie and pete's fries were good as always.

Snow in may!

Getting ready to hike the east wall at a-basin. Pretty amazing skiing for this late in the spring. I will save the snowboard for tomorrow.