Twas the night before Christmas 2008

Here's a shot at my modified Night before Christmas poem:

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When in the house there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to his room I flew like a sled,

His belly was rumbly, tumbly, and full of dread

I picked him up and held him tight

Off to the bathroom and turn on the light.

Next thing I know I'm lying on ground still holding him tight.

With pains in my ankle and pains in my tush

I get to the toilet for another "pa-loosh"

Look around, look around to assess the situation

when much to my consternation

The results of the evening glisten like dew

all over the house is my son's first spew.

Mama takes over and I'm left to clean

I hobble to the shower to wash off the glean

little did I know this would spread through the clan

no one was spared not woman or man

through strong constitution this could only be beat

by none other than Pappy and Pete!

No updates...

Sorry I have not updated in a while but, I've been busy with school. The end of semester is always fun! Kris usually is not too happy with me at this point in the semester...I'm pretty grouchy, or is it cross, or a curmudgeon...

Anyway, I had a presentation tonight for one class that went pretty well. On the way out of class someone called us the "dream team." I guess we did ok.

I still have another presentation and 2 papers due.

Here is one thing I've been working at work, that I learned in school. We're proposing putting up a wind tower. So, I used my new 3D visualization skills and came up with this simulation video along with some photos.



The video took so long to make that my screensaver kicked in at the end...oops.

Only two more weeks and the semester is over!

more kits...

by request (Yo Gava, Gava!):


and tweeked the request:

new kits?

OK, I really should be spending my time working on my mid-terms that are due next week... but I couldn't resist.









Some of the fonts are not correct, but remember these are quick mock-ups. What do you think?

First MTB ride since...

...the Fair Hill race in July. Actually, I have not been on any bike since then. Unless of course you count cruising around the neighborhood with Sophie on the back of my cross bike.

Needless to say my first ride since mid July was kind of eventful. I went to the Deer Park section of Allamuchy and three cars pulled into the parking lot as I was unloading the bike. The guys in two of the cars dropped one car off and left in the other car together. Couldn't quite figure that one out. The other guy was getting ready for a trail run, I knew he was serious because he was actually stretching! I left the parking lot and had to stop and adjust my shoe, and catch my breath. I got to a fairly technical uphill and my breathing doubled... actually it was the running guy, he caught me, yes and passed me. In fact that was the last I saw of him the rest of my ride. What a great way to start a ride, getting passed by a guy running! Ugh. Most of the ride went ok, I did kick up a boulder, yes a boulder, and it was the size of a truck, I swear! Anyway, this boulder whacked me in the shin pretty good. Yeah, it left a mark.

So, I'm finally on my way back towards the car and can't decide whether to do the last section of trail. I hopped a log and... I grabbed the wrong pair of shoes, because the cleat is all worn out and my foot releases from the pedal, I fall off the bike and my thigh ends up getting wedged between the tire and the brakes. Yes, I'm still riding v-brakes and yes it left one heck of a mark! I could barely pedal the last section of trail!

I usually stop and grab a bite to eat on my way home after I ride in Jersey. Well, you Delaware folks may have all your fancy-smancy, authentic, awesome Mexican restaurants for your post ride meals. Jersey has this:

How's that for a post-ride meal? I forgot how slimy they are.

The next day I could barely walk up and down the stairs! And my butt is quite sore from sitting on the saddle! In fact, I'm standing right now as I'm typing this.

busy, busy...

Last weekend and early in the week has been pretty busy. Kristen's birthday was last weekend. So, Saturday night we had her favorite meal at her parent's house. Yummy!

Sunday morning it was off to NYC for a surprise play, or at least I thought it was a surprise... my Mom spilled the beans! We saw Gypsy. Which was OK, definetely not one of my favorites. We stayed at my parents time share. It is really cool waking up in NYC and strolling around while people are heading to work. We drove around nyc for fun, yeah I got back into the city driving grove pretty quickly. I guess it is kind of like riding a bike... (I wonder what that's like?)

I got home, hooked up the large format printer, cranked out a couple of maps for class, showered (apparently, city driving makes me sweat), and heading to campus to get my parking pass. I was only a little late to class.

Tuesday morning, I jumped out of bed and ran the grocery store to get some food for Krissy's birthday breakfast. Taylor Ham, egg and cheese on an everything bagel. (Why didn't I buy bagels while we were in the bagel capital of the world???) After breakfast I headed down to the shop to fill in for Rick. He was vacationing.

Man do I miss working in the shop. I spent most of the day laughing! That Gavigan is one funny dude! YO GABBA GABBA! We got El Jefe for lunch. Boy was that some good mexican food! Anyone notice how much Gava turns red and sweats after he eats spicy food? Had me laughing! I told him he should get a sweatband for the next time he tackles "the pot" at el jefe

After a great day in DE I even made it to class on time without much traffic! What a nice way to spend a vacation day!

School's back...

I'm taking two classes this semester... ugh. I have anticipated so much time is going to be taken up with school, work and family, that for the first time since '97ish, I am not going to race cross. I think I had raced at least one cross race since '97, crap that is a 10 year streak... Oh well.

I've been pretty busy trying to get stuff done before school starts, but not much has actually gotten done.

I have a fan going in the storage room to try and blow the smoke back to the neighbor. I'm planning on installing an exhaust fan and sealing up the louvered door to try and pressurize the room. Hopefully keeping the smoke out.

Oh yeah, I got a new game for ps2. Over vacation my niece was kind enough to bring her wii. We played a lot of Guitar Hero. So, after much debate I purchased my own for the ps2! Lots of fun!

I have a new nephew! Welcome Henry David! (I think his middle name is after me, not that Thoreau guy.)


He also goes by "Hank the Tank" because he is going to be a fullback and run people over! Go HANK!

Jacob played some soccer this summer and he had a great time!



Sophie enjoyed the beach...



...not sure if she really enjoyed eating sand though?

thumping bass...

Apparently yesterday the Comcast truck was visiting our new neighbors. I guess they got their cable box switched to our common wall, because when they are watching tv you hear the bass through the walls like it was in our living room. Terrific! I guess we might have to start thinking about moving sooner rather than later... this really sucks!

On a lighter note, bocce was awesome! We made it up there for happy hour, the beer was not really on special, unless you call $3.50 coors light a "special." The other tap beers were $5.50. A little rich for my blood. The pizzas were on special, in fact you could get a pizza for a dollar more than a coors light. I wonder if I could byob?
Bocce was a ton of fun, my team won the first game 12-1, Crushed them! We won the second 12-10, closer but we still beat them! The funny thing was, I was the only one who had ever played bocce before. Everyone really had fun and can't wait for the next match!

smoke 1

Well, my first attempt at reducing the smell of smoke was to cram a bunch of insulation into the rafters along the common wall. I thought it was working for a few days, but I smelled it again! So, more insulation, still smell it. In fact, I am getting a little bit of a headache from the smoke smell down here.

The second phase of this endeavour was to cut a hole in the drywall to see if the builders didn't crack seal at the base of the beam. It looked like they did seal it with that spray foam stuff, but now there is a 2'x2' hole in our wall. I am by no means a dry wall guy. It turned out awful! At least it is in the laundry room-closet. I used a 2 year old tub of spackle, and a 1 inch putty knife. I think it would have gone a lot better if only I had some better dry wall tools! OK, maybe not, probably operator error...

I need to go to bed, I have to get up early to run... and we have a big bocce ball tournament after work at the Mohawk House.

done...

...no more bike racing for a couple of years. At least until I finish my masters, shorten my commute and have some time to train. Maybe I'll take up golf, or fishing, or hiking, or drinking, or running, or hunting...

our new neighbors in the townhouse right next door smoke, a lot. So much that the smoke is seeping through the common wall somewhere downstairs. So, when you walk in, you are greeted by the smell of smoke... splendid.