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foo: that is my birthday. please name her after me.

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Brad: Tim for the name game. Kinda Super Notaoutgoin But ...

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My name is Bean and this is my blog. Hence the name. If you have comments or questions, just leave them in the comments area.

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For those of you with whom I do not speak on a regular basis, here's a news flach: A few weeks ago, I was in a car accident and my trusty Nissan truck was badly dammaged.  Here's the whole story:

Stef and I went to Louisville for our first set of dance lessons.  We are going to be hip-hop superstars.  Afterwards, about 7pm, we went to Osaka, a little sushi bar down the street from th edance studio.  We ate a lot fo sushi, and before we left, the sushi guy convinced Stef to take home a container of ginger.  He assured us that if we ate one piece a day, it would make us skinny.  Whatever.  Next, we went to Wet Willys for a drink.  Stef had an Erdinger, and I had a Bell's Two-Hearted Ale.  Being as full as we were, we decided to leave it at one beer and head home.

Our standard route home from Wet Willy's goes through one of Louisville's "Urban Housing" areas.  Because of this, the lights along the street are timed such that once you enter the "Urban Housing" area, you don't really have to stop, so long as you go 30 mph (too fast to get carjacked).  So there we are, cruising down Jefferson, hitting the lights as they turn green.

Then, as my nose is about to enter the last timed light intersectio9n, I glance at the light and see that mine is still red.  I can see that the opposing light is yellow.  Crap... I must have gotten ahead of the pattern... but it's too late now.  Better to try and get through the intersection than to slam on my brakes and stop in the middle of it.  As luck would have it, there was approximately one (1) other car on the roads of downtown louisville that night, and the driver was trying to beat a red light.

Stef and I were in the intersection before we saw th eother car.  We were almost through it before he hit us.  He was driving a little coupe of some kind, and he was driving it fast (hence my mention that we was tryign to beat the red), because when he hit us in the passenger side rear wheel, we flipped up on our side, spun a bit, and slid 50 feet or so before my tired caught and plopped us back up on all 4.  It happend pretty fast.  My engine was still running and there was pickled ginger all over the cab.  My windshield was broken.  Even while th eaccident was takign place, I was asking Stef is she was okay.  Luckilly, we were both fine, a little startled, but physically fine when I shut off my engine and got out to go check on the other people.

They were both out of their car, a guy was driving his girls car from what I could tell.  I repeatedly asked if they were okay, but all they said to me (over and over again) was "My car!  my car! (the chick)" and "Man, you had a red light (the dude)".  I did have a red light... but so did he.  By the time I was through, there is no way his shits were still yellow.  At any rate, I went back to my truck to asses the dammage.  It was dammaged on about 70% of the body panels and the windsheild was broken.  The frame around the cab was knocked slightly off kilter.  The other car was crushed like an accordian.  Good thing they had airbags. 

An ambulance was there in about 90 seconds... somehow.  And police and firetruck soon followed.  The other car was leaking fluids, so the moved it out of the intersection (I drove mine up on the curb) and flooded the street with a nerby hydrant to wash off the debris and fluids.  Everyone but Stef and I was gone within 20 minutes, and traffic resumed.  We waited on John to come over so he could follow us home - my tail lights were out.

On the ride home, my truck drove fabulously.  I don't know how, but there didn't seem to be any dammage to the frame other than the cab, and the allignment was spot-on.  The next day I reported it to insurance and took it in for an estimate.  10K in dammage, so they declared it a total loss.  After a 1k deductible and buying back the salvage (still driveable, for $1750), I got a check for 10.5K and sold the wreck for $2250 for a total walk-away of 11K.  I had just paid my truck off in January.

Last night I bought a 97 Nissan Sentra for $2650.  88K miles, runs like a champ so far, and gets 35 mpg.  The rest of the payoff went to zero out ALL of our credit card debt.

All in all, things could have been a lot worse.

Old Comments

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with my friend John's good friend Jeff. He agreed to rehash some of the good stuff for interview number 3.

Q: Are you a minister?

A: Yes, I've been officially ordained by the Christian Church (an independent nondenominational denomination (oxymoron I know, but what can you do?))

Q: What do you do (at your job)?

A: There's a lot involved... I work with G.O. Ministries, Inc. Our organization is a non-denominational Christian non-profit 501c3. Our core work is partnering with nationals (we develop relationships with Dominican/Haitian Christian workers and connect them with American churches who in turn envision these nationals as their missionaries on the field). We further those partnerships by coordinating short-term teams of individuals who go and serve for week-long stints in various capacities: construction, medical/dental clinics, sports clinics in each of those communities where we have established partnerships.

I represent these Christian workers and the needs of their broader communities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The work that we do I consider to be "holistic Ministry." We make an effort to serve the people by meeting all of the basic physical and spiritual needs as we are able: food, shelter, clothing, medical treatment, clean water, education, and instruction in a life characterized by following Jesus (if they so desire, it is not necessary to adopt our understanding of faith to be served by us). We currently finance (through the various partnerships mentioned above) 5 feeding centers on the island in terribly impoverished areas where we are able to feed about 600 children one hot nutritious meal a day. We have one in Quanamenthe Haiti, Guan Dules DR, Hoya de Bartola DR, La Mosca DR, and Batey Nuevey DR.

In addition to representing the ministry in various churches, conferences, schools and other organizations state-side, I take frequent trips to the Dominican and Haiti to help facilitate some of the teams that come down. I also lead a few "exploratory trips" a year with leaders from new churches or businesses who have developed an interest in our work.

I also coordinate the on-going training for our national pastors. Many, because of poor education and difficult economic realities that led them to work full time at a very early age, have little more than an 8th grade education. They have very little formal ministry training due to lack of availability and the cost of what is available. We provide what we can for them free of charge. Training topics range from Biblical studies, theology, to church history.

In the midst of all this I am also a fundraiser. I help raise funds for the organization in general as well as for my wife, Vicki and I. 100% of what is raised for the ministry's various projects: feeding centers, child sponsorship, etc. goes towards that project. We take nothing off the top for overhead as we raise all of that separately. All of the staff working with G.O. raises 100% of their own funds. It is a continued work in progress.

Until we get back to the Dominican (living there full-time, a reality largely dependant on how well our girls to with their therapy) I keep regular office hours Mon-Fri 9-5 at our Ministry headquarters here in Louisville. If you want a little taste of what some of our work looks like check out www.heartsinhispaniola.blogspot.com

Q: A man of many hats, I see. So what does the "G.O." stand for?

A: Great Opportunities in Global Outreach. It should be GO GO ministries but as you might imagine that could make fundraising tricky among some more conservative churches :)

Q: Your twin daughters were born deaf, but can now hear. Explain:

A: Our daughter's, Sophia and Rena, were born deaf. This was verified for us in November of 05 (the girls were born in July of 05 two and 1/2 months premature, the deafness as it turns out is unrelated to the prematurity)when we had a follow up with an audiologist after failing the hearing screening at the hospital. Since then we have discovered the root of our girls' deafness thanks to genetic testing. The girls' test results came back and it turns out that it was as we suspected, Vicki and I are carriers of a rare recessive gene for deafness.

So, above is our Punnett Square. Remember those from science class in highschool. Remember thinking, "When am I ever going to use this stuff?" Well it just goes to show that you never know what might prove to be useful in your life. Anyway, as I said, Vic and I are carriers which means that our hearing genes are Rr (R=Typical Hearing, r=hearing loss and/or deafness). So combine the two above and we're left with the 25% chance to have a child with typical hearing who is not a carrier of Connexin 26 (our sneaky recessive gene), a 50% chance of having a child with typical hearing who is a carrier of Connexin 26, and a 25% chance of having a child with significant hearing loss/deafness.

So, there you go. And so what's the bottom line you ask? Well, quite frankly, we're a family of X-Men! So all you regular o'le humans, don't be haters!!

Anyway, the girls' deafness is nearly identical which is not a surprise really since they are identical; they both started hearing at 110 decibels in their left ears and 90 in their right. You and I start hearing at 5 decibels and the whole range of human speech is from 20 to 40 decibels.

We started out right away with hearing aids. It's not easy keeping those boogers on 6 month old babies. We think that with the hearing aids we were able to bring their hearing down to 60 decibels, still not even close to hearing speech but they would respond at bells wringing and pots being beaten together.

We had to get cat scans done to check out the anatomy of the girls' ears. There was no deformity which meant we could move forward with a device called a Cochlear Implant. And what is that you ask? Well, time for a science lesson...

Your natural ear takes in sound. The sound waves pass through the outer/middle ear to the inner ear and at last the cochlea. The cochlea is a snail shell shaped part of your inner ear that has millions of microscopic hairs (cilia) lining its walls. These walls are intertwined with nerve endings stemming from the auditory nerve which is the bridge between the ear and the brain. The sound waves are naturally transformed in the cochlea to electric impulses that are picked up by the auditory nerve which carries this information to the hearing part of the brain which then gives us the sensation of sound.

The Cochlear Implant is an electronic device that bypasses your natural ear to artificially stimulate the auditory nerve which in turn stimulates the hearing part of the brain. There is an internal device that is implanted behind your ear. A small hole is drilled through the skull behind the ear, being cautious not to come in contact the facial nerve (which could lead to paralysis in the face) in order to get to the cochlea. A small whole is then drilled through the back wall of the cochlea. The internal device contains a receiver that is connected to a little probe that is spotted with 32 electrodes. This little probe is threaded through the cochlea and winds itself around the cochlea. A small area of the skull is hollowed out, enough to make a little seat for the receiver, and the receiver is placed there and the incision is sown back up. After four weeks the device is activated with its external hardware.

The external device consists of a controller (about the size of a very small mp3 player) that is used to change various settings on the implant, a processor that is programmed by the audiologist that picks up environmental sounds and transforms them into digitized information, and a coil which magnetically connects with the internal receiver implanted on the surface of the skull. The coil transmits the digitized information from the processor to the receiver via radio waves across the surface of the skin. The receiver takes that information and transforms it into electrical impulses that then pass through the electrode making contact with the auditory nerve in the cochlea. The auditory nerve receives these impulses and carries them to the hearing part of the brain which then creates the sensation of sound. All of this happens within fractions of fractions of a second.

Thus, the girls are able to hear artificially. It is a different kind of coding from natural hearing. The quality of hearing compared to our natural ear is quite crude. They do not hear with the distinction or nuance that is a privilege we naturally hearing folks enjoy. But they can hear music, wind, language, etc. With the implant they are able to hear as low as 20 decibels now which is a blessing to be sure. Our therapist tells us that the girls are at a point in four months of hearing that it takes most implanted children a year to get to. We are grateful for how far they have come so quickly.
It is important to remember that at the end of the day the girls are still deaf. When the magnet falls off they are immersed in silence. They do not wear the device to bed. They can't wear it in the water or while doing water sports. With this in mind we are going the route of total communication with the girls. We are teaching them to use sign language (Signed Exact English rather than American Sign Language) as well as speech because we want them to be able to "hear" us and others who are able through our hands in contexts where the implant can't be used or, God forbid, if our world should go to hell in a hand basket and batteries or electricity becomes something difficult to come by. When they have gotten old enough and have mastered English we will learn American Sign Language as a family so that we and especially the girls will be free to move about the deaf community with ease.

Sorry it's a rather lengthy explanation but brevity has never really been a gift of mine. Here are links to some pictures of the Cochlear equipment if you're interested in using them.

• side view of internal device
  
• top view of internal device
  
• electrode that wraps around cochlea
  
• diagram of internal device implanted
  
• external hardware

All pix are available at http://www.cochlear.com/Corp/Press/186.asp

If anyone's interested in following the girls' progress from implantation to date they can check out www.bionicduos.blogspot.com

Q: Fascinating stuff. I wish you and your girls nothing but the best of luck in the future. Okay - last question: What's the funniest joke you've heard in the past month?

A: I heard this on NPR on the Prairie Home Companion a few weeks ago. It was their joke show. And as a bit of a disclaimer, I realize that some might find such a joke inappropriate for a "minister" to be telling but you asked me about the funniest joke I heard recently and this was it. It's the only honest answer to your question. Hee hee. Enjoy.

A man and a woman are in a bar. They are strangers to one another but strike up a conversation. After a little small talk the guy gets around to asking, "So, what's your name?" "Carmen," she said. "Wow, what a beautiful name, is that a family name or what?" "Oh no," she said. "I changed my name to Carmen because it's a blending of the two things I love most in the world, cars and men. So, what's your name?" she asked.

"Golftits," he said, "Pleased to meet you."

Well, It's been done since July, and it's been in a few pictures from SDP and Hallobean, but I still haven't blogged a solid blog about it, so, now I am.

Beanblog followers may recall that I (with the help of some friends) built a cold room back in early 2004 to keep the beer I brew and keg cold. I put some taps through the wall and mounted them on plywood. It worked, but it looks Spriglered (People that live in my neighborhood will know what that means). 3 taps were installed initially, with room for expansion, and 3+ taps pretty much means you need a bar! Luck for me, my dad (quite the handy fella) was onboard with not only helping me build it, but even buying some of the materials.

But slow down! First I'd need the basement to look halfway decent. A nice bar is a shitty basement isn't worth much, so I started putting up drywall. My basement is a walk-out, so anywhere there were studs, I slapped drywall up and anywhere there was foundation I painted it with polyurethane concrete sealer/paint. I left half of the basement unfinished and partitioned it off with adjustable curtains. It's not quite a fully-finished basement but it's close enough for me!

Then came the bar. I wish I'd have kept detailed construction notes and taken lots of pictures like I did with the cold room, but I was in such a rush to get it done I just forgot. My dad and I put the whole thing together over the course of 3 evenings. It's basically a cabinet with a short-studded wall built out from it and a couple solid-core doors laid on top. There were a lot of other details involved (wiring, plumbing the sink, the under-bar shelf, trim, handrail, paint, stain), but it was not really what I would call "hard." In fact, it was pretty easy, and fun to boot! A few pics of the finished product can be seen in this gallery or live and in person the next time you come to visit me. As you can probably tell, I've added an additional tap for a total of 4 - more than a lot of restaurants in my area.

My dad made the tap backer and shelves out of some oak planks he had left over from his old barn. I put in some stools, brewed some beer, and stocked the cabinet and under-bar shelf with bar-related items. End result: a nice bar with good beer and seating for 6 - all just 16 steps away!

Ah naw, hell naw, I done up and done it. Snowshoe is booked! There will be 5 of us (me, Stef, Brad, TP, Brad's co-worker), from January 19 (Thursday) - 23 (Monday).

Now for the monies:
We have a 2-bedroom suite at the Mountian Lodge, and it comes with 5-days of lift tickets for 4 people. It costs $1636.72. Then we'll need to add in lift tickets for the fifth person. Since I'm not sure whether or not we'll actually ski on the day we get there or leave, I only pre-purchased lift tickets for the fifth person for 3 days. If we end up wanting to ski more, we'll all have to pitch in to buy his ticket. No big whoop. Anyway, the 3-day ticket runs $171.00. Next, we'll all need rentals. If we pre-purchase them before November 1, they will be $26/day. If we buy them when we get there, they will be $30. So, assuming that we all ski for 4 days, that's going to run a total of $520.00. So, it's kinda broken down in a funny way. After taxes and whatnot, I have a $966.20 fee already on my card which is holding the room and lift tickets(5 days for 4 of us, 3 for the other). $811.43 more will be due when we get there. Add to that the $520 for rentals and another day's lift ticket for that 5th person ($42) and we are looking at a grand total of $2339.63, or about $468 each. I'm sure the end amount will vary slightly, but I trust everyone will hold up their end and not eff me over on this one.

Lastly, we need to decide what our arrival/departure schedule should be. Check-in is 5pm (or when the room is ready) and check-out is 11pm. We can ski the day we get there or the day we leave, or both. What do you all think?

Color me STOKED!

In true copy-another-blog's-subject style (spanks m3), Stef and I decided to try an all you can eat sushi place last night. We headed to Ichiban Samurai in Louisville, KY and shelled out about $57 total (with tax and tip). Here is what we ate.

• Rolls (large, 8-pc rolls)
  
• Salmon skin roll
  
• spicy salmon skin roll
  
• spicy yellow-tail roll
  
• California roll
  
• Ichiban roll
  
• Nigri Sushi (biggest pieces I've ever seen)
  
• 4 x Masago (smelt egg)
  
• 2 x Scallop
  
• 2 x Red snapper
  
• 2 x Kani (crab)
  
• 2 x Smoked salmon
  
• 4 x Unagi (eel)
  
• 2 x Albacore

This place didn't fuck around with giving you little bits of fish on big rice balls. The nigri sushi was easily 4 inches long. It dangled over the edges of the rice ball. Needless to say, we were both stuffed. Now, the question is, did we get money's worth? Someone please do a price breakdown and let me know.

My mom's mom's maiden name is Hess. Saturday, 4 generations of Hess decendants gathered for a reunion.

I wont go into a lot of details, because surely, you don't care, but here are some funny notes.
There must have been 300+ people there. Keep in mind, this is basically just my mom's cousins and their families, along with my grandparents and my grandma's siblings. Here is a picture of my mom and 48 of her 63 cousins. And this is JUST ON HER MOM'S SIDE! (total cousin count: 120+) Hayride? Hell yes. But one wagon just wont do, so we used two. The whole shebang was held in a barn. My mom's cousin, Father Tom is a Catholic Minister, and the extended family (all Catholic) more than constitutes enough people for a church service, so we had one - complete with communion, holy-water-flingin', and lots of singin' and prayin'. At one point, my nephew Justin came up to me and sat on my lap... he looked around during a prayer and said "What is this?" I said "Church." Puzzled, he looked around again then said "But it's a barn." He's right. Stef and I made another watermelon pig. Here's a picture of an unknown relative of mine not knowing what to think about it.One branch of my mom's mom's side is also on my mom's dad's side, due to a pair of brothers marrying a pair of sisters. Father Tom is in that branch. Stef came up to me at one point and said "I could have sworn Father Tom was on your grandpa's side" and I said "Yeah, he's on both." "I don't even wanna know..." she replied. My grandpa's brother's name is Bud. At the last family reunion I saw him at, he was wearing a "Bud, King of Beers" hat.
PS - This weekend is SummerDuckPlunge 2005. You should come. If you are reading this, you are invited.

My dad and I are building a bar in my basement. We've got the base started, and some ideas, but we are pretty much making it up as we go. Tonight, we are going to put in a few outlets and run some cold water to it (for a small sink). The biggest problem we have in the near future is what to top the bar with. The following options have been proposed:
Hollow-core door: This is a very cheap and very "pretty"option. Total cost for the top would be about $36 and with some stain and poly, it would look great. The problem is that it won't take abuse (since it's, uh, hollow and made primarily of thin veneer). Solid-core door: similar to above, but the cost would be more like $200, and it would be strong. Plywood and tile: 2 sheets of 3/4" plywood (cost?) covered with backing and tile. It wouldn't look as nice as finished wood in my opinion, but I think it would be very durable. Plywood and veneer: 2 sheets of 3/4" plywood covered with some thin, pretty wood. Granite: BigD's dad could donate a large chunk of tombstone granite to me. Hella-sweet! Any suggestions? Who out there has built a bar? Right now, I am leaning towards plywood and tile.

It's been a while. Here's alittle something for everyone.

For sufferers of Nintendo-thumb:
Been playing Super Mario Bros. 3 a lot lately. Beat it twice over so far, and I'm on world 7 with the third go-round. I was hoping that something would happen as I continued on, but the only thing I have seen so far is that when you start back at world 1 you can get 20 or so p-wings by pressing A+start when you begin. Good tims. World 7 is much harder than world 8, by the way.

For Caleb and other nerds:
Two big technologies I use at work are PHP and MySQL. I got an email for the MySQL User Conference and took a look at it. It would be neat to go to just to sharpen my skills (girls only like guys who have great skills) and take some free certification tests. Unfortunately, the conference has already started. I then decided to look up the PHP User Conference. Some type of benefits, but this one is in Amsterdam. Sweet. Unfortunately, it's the same weekend as my upcoming race. Oh well. Maybe next year I'll look them up in the winter.

For runners:
My plan was to shed 10 pounds between the Cherry Blossom 10-miler and the Mini. So far I have dropped a total of 0. On the up side, though, my times have gotten better. I ran 5 miles in 36:24, which is 7:17 per mile. Not too shabby. I am going to try a longer distance run tonight and see if I can keep a sub-8-minute pace. Love this weather.

For beer brewers and drinkers:
I kegged and dry-hopped 5 gallons of CHIPA and 4 gallons of Nessie-Wee last week. The CHIPA is top-notch, very bitter. The Nessie is a little on the sweet side. At 8% though, the sweetness is nicely balanced by the alcohol warmth and carbonation. It definitely a sipper. In upcoming brewing news: I am going to brew a light ale this week and a group of us are getting together in Indy to brew next weekend. Anyone wanna help/watch? Did I mention I love this weather we've been having?

For SDP-enthusiasts:
SDP 2005 is tenatively scheduled for July 16. I am probably going to relinquish the summerduckplunge.org domain and move things over to sdp.beanblog.com. Once things are a little more finalized, I'll update the site. I am just now starting to grow grass where last years slip'n'slide was.

I spent last Friday binging.  For 16 hours straight, I stuffed my body full of food and alcohol to the point that I could barely walk (not sure if it was the food or alcohol, though).  I will outline the day/evening/night as best I can recall:

11:00am - Arrived at BW3, met up with Stutz, Irwin, Welch, and Dooley.  Began drinking off existing pitchers and ordered 12 wings (6 medium, 6 jerk) and a large order of chips.  Food was delivered in about 10 minutes and eaten promptly.  When pitchers ran out, we began ordering "keep the pitcher" pitchers  of Miller Lite... more on this later.

12:00 noon - Dooley ordered nachos.  I ate a good amount of them.  Beer continued to flow.

12:30pm - Paul ordered fried shrooms, I had only one.  Soon after, I ordered my first round of mini-corndogs.  Excellent.

2:00-9:30pm - This time can best be summed up by examining my bar tab:

6 Pitchers Miller Lite
2 Black velveteen
1 order chicken nachos
3 orders mini-corndogs
1 Fish sandwich w/wedges
1 order onion rings

...The total bill was just over $70.  Not too bad for for 13 hours of self-defilation.  I distinctly remember eating a variety of other peopls food, including but not limited to: more wings, multiple nacho orders, enchilladas, potato wedges, and LOTS more wings.  Also during this time, I watched a total of 16 NCAA tourney games, though I do not recall details of any of them.

9:30-12:00 midnight - Stayed at BW3 for the rest of the games, realized that about 20 people had showed up for the festivities.  Became thrilled with myself for taking a half day.  Wrapped up tab and headed out the door.

12:15am - Walked down the street to a local "establishment".  Stutz carried our stockpile of "keep the pitcher" pitchers (17 total) high in the air like they were war trophies.

12:15-2:00am - Spent a few $1's.

2:00am - Left to go back with Stutz to close his tab at BW3.  Stopped at White Castle on the way and split a 10-sack.

2:30am - On the way back from BW3 to meet up with the other and head home, Stutz and I see something interesting.  It's called a Gyrito, and it has 2 major ingredients: love and lamb.  It was a giant burrito-style gyro stuffed to the brim with yummy, yummy lamb.  It took the guy 10 minutes to make (thats where the love comes from), but it was worth it.  Stutz and I split it, along with a large side of potato salad, then headed back to catch a cab.

3:00am - Cab ride home sucked.  Dooley, the high-fivin' life of the party, took a sharp downhill dive into passed-outedness.  Forgot our pitchers.

3:20am - Back to Welch's place... found a nice place on the floor... out.

All in all, it was a great day/evening/night.  Of course, I pretty much slept for the next 24 hours and missed Saturday, but it was worth it. 

Old Comments

Tomorrow is the big day.  I'll be in my starting corral at 7:30 and start running at 8:03.  The distance is 13.1 miles, and I hope to run at an average speed of 8 miles per hour or better.  This equates to a pace of 7:30 per mile and a total race time of 1:38:15.

I feel good.  I think I have prepared myself pretty well in the last 4 months or so.  I have run 191.7 miles since January 1st of this year.  My only concern is that I weigh about 10 pounds more this year than I did last year during the race.

So look for me on TV Saturday morning.  I'll be the one running behind some hot chick in short Speedos, watching her butt bounce up and down.  Of course, I'll pass her at the end cause I don't wanna get beat by a stinkin' girl!  Maybe I'll give 'er a slap on the ass as I pass... a "thank you", if you will, for the race time entertainment.

Old Comments

Us ducks got together to lose some weight. 100 pounds between the 6 of us is the goal. We are 5 pounds away from reaching that goal. Below is a chart of our percent body weight dropped since December.

We are coming down the home stretch... final weigh-in is April 4th at DA's wedding. The person who loses the most (by percent) gets to decide how we spend our entry fees... which total $240. If for some strange reason we don't make our collective goal by then, m1 gets all the money.

Besides helping relaxed-fit m1 move to Indy this weekend, I was able to knock two items off of my project list:

Garage - I insulated the garage and put pegboard up on both of the unfinished walls.  I used 256 linear feet of 15" wide R-13 fiberglass insulation and 10 4'x8' sheets of pegboard.  The total cost was $120... not bad.  I had to cover all parts of my body with clothing and wear a SARS mask while handling the insulation, so as to not inhale bits of shredded glass and whatnot.  Tonight, I am going to buy some pegs.

Garden - I put in my garden outline yesterday afternoon.  I made a retaining wall out of 44 12" brick peices.  I had to double them up in the back to account for the downward slope of the yard.  I'd say it's about 5' wide and 9' deep.  I have two tomato plants and a green bell pepper plant in it already.  I still need more dirt before planting the rest of the veggies.  Total cost (not counting plants) was about $65.

And speaking of projects... When Stefanie and I were packing up her apartment, my parents came up to help out one evening.  Stef lived in The Woods of Eagle Creek... it's a pretty big complex with a somewhat 'urban' mix of people living there.  My dad took note of all the people just hanging out outside, listening to their car stereos, gathering on the corners, etc. and said "Stefanie, does anyone else who lives in this project have a job?"  Luckily, Stefanie saw the humor in the statement and was not offended by my dad insinuating that she live in the Projects.

Old Comments

One evening, probably about 18 months ago or so, I was out in Broadripple with IndyCool and had an extremely lucky experience.  We were all sitting at a large wooden table at OPTs, drinking beer and shootin' the shit, when Nate walks up to the table next to me and says something about the ATM.  I walk over to him and ask what he's talking about, and he says that when he went to get $40 from the ATM (which only put out multiples of $20), it gave him a $20 and a $50.

Approximately 3 seconds later, I was standing in line to withdraw money.  Koji was in front of me, and when he tried to withdraw $100, he ended up getting a few $20's, two $50's and a $100.  I said "If you got the last of it, I am gonna kick your ass" to Koji as I was swiping my ATM card.

English or Espanol~: English
Enter you PIN: ****
Action: Withdraw
From: Checking
Amount (in multiples of $20): 100.00
Do you accept the $2 fee: Yes
Do you want a reciept: Yes

After a few seconds, the bills came out: $100, $100, $100, $100, and $100.  Jackpot... now for the reciept.  Unfortunately, the printer was jammed and no reciept came out, so I was left wondering if the extra $400 was "free" or whether my withdrawl would total $502.  Undaunted, Koji and I drove to the bank down the street to check our ballances.  It was a great moment when we both realized that only $102 had been withdrawn.  We went back and tried to withdraw more, but by this time the free money had been tapped and it was spitting out plain old $20's again.  Several other IndyCool folk got some extra from the defunkt ATM, but I think I came out the most ahead. 

We treated ourselves to many drinks that night, and Koji and I went to the most expensive steak house we could find the following evening for a celebratory feast.  My guess is that the ATM was simply loaded incorrectly.  Some schmuck mixed $50's and $100's in with the $20's and made my friggin day.  Boo yah!

Old Comments

In my search for a new house in southern Indiana, I have been able to come up with three basic directions I can head.  Please read them and then offer me some advice by leaving a comment.

1. Buy a nice house.  I consider the house I am in right now nice, and I have looked quite a bit for one in New Albany with a similar layout.  The only problem is that houses are quite a bit more expensive down there.  A house like mine, with approximately the same square footage (1800) and atleast 2 floors (some have basements) run about $160,000+.  Note also that they are on slightly larger lots and have more brick in them than my current abode. 
2. Buy a small house.  For about what I paid for my house here in indy (sub $120,000), I could buy a 1-story ranch on a slab or crawlspace with about 1300 square feet.  It may or may not have brick, and would have about the same size lot I have now (<.25 acres).  There is one house in particular that I think I may be able to get for $110,000, fix up over the course of 1-2 years, and sell for $140,000+ (it's going into forclosure).
3. Live in a barn.  This was a shocking idea at first, but as I talked it over with my parents, friends, and Stef, it's seems very feasable.  I could buy 2-3 acres from my grandpa (on the cheap) and draw up plans for a nice house and a large (1200 sqft) pole barn.  Once approved, I could put up the barn first (before the end of 03) and finish off about half of the inside of the it as an apartment for us to live in while we build the house.  I think this would be an exciting project, and I could be moved into the apartment by 2004 with a total cost less than $30,000.  Come next spring, I could take out a building mortgage and break ground on my house.  The major fallback of this plan is that the land is 10-15 miles outside of New Albany.

So there you have it: Expensive big house, cheaper little ranch, or a barn.  What do you think?

Old Comments

Q: What do Acterna, Paris Hilton, and Playdoh have in common?
A: This blog.

So I worked a total of about 7 weeks for Acterna after I left, on a contract basis.  I have only recieved one paycheck, and it was for weeks 3 and 4.  I have decided not to work any more until I get paid up to date, and even then, I probably wont put too much more time in.

So I watched the Paris Hilton sex tape.  It was blurry and green.  But I still liked it.  You see... I have this resentment for people like her, who are famous simply because they are rich.  I had never heard of her until about 1 year ago, now she is all over the news, magazines, and, well, the Internet.  She obviously has a severely skewed sense of what the world is like (as can be seen in her TV show) and probably doesnt realize how lucky she is to be a billionairess socialite.  But anyway, I figure since I, along with the rest of the world, got to see her poonanny, we are even.

Most kids I know had Playdoh growing up.  I opened a can of it the other day because my nephew had some.  The smell took me back.  It was at that point than I knew I had to lick it.  The taste took me back too.

Old Comments

In less that 11 hours, 2003 will be gone forever.

I remember thinking that 2000 seemed so far away, so far in the future.  Now it seems so far back.  Crazy how time goes by faster as you get older.  I guess since each passing year is by definition a smaller percentage of total time passed, we perceive it to be that way.

So what will I look back and remember about 2003?  Well, at the top of the list, I'll remember fact that I lived like a gypsie for the whole year.  I've lived in 4 places in the last 12 months, and am looking to jump to number 5 as soon as possible.  I'll remember that it was the year I bought my first house, and how great that felt.  I'll remember that quit Acterna and took a new job with Tony.  I'll remember the wars, and the pictures of Saddam's capture and his dead sons.  I'll remember Stef, and the trips we took to Chicago, Florida, Toronto, and Vegas.  I'll remember the duck, the blogs, and all of the fests.  I'll remember finally being back home, and being able to see my family every day.  And most of all, I'll remember Werner Gohl, the elderly homosexual german drunk who hangs out at The Spot in Bloomfield yelling "Come to me with your pants in your hand" at Rachael and delacring that his "Momma" told him to "Shop around."

So cheers to 2003, a good 365 days by my book, and cheers to Werner Gohl.  Here's hoping for another great year to come in 2004.

Old Comments

I took the Plunge.  That's right, the Polar Bear Plunge.  Saturday afternoon, before heading out for a night of birthday party shenanigans, Stefanie and I jumped off of the warf at Joes Crab Shack into the 38 degree Ohio River.

The 2004 SOKY Polar Bear Plunge was a benefit for the Special Olympics of Kentucky... Stef and I raiesed $111 combined and earned the right to throw our bodies into thermal shock in front of a crowd of onlookers.  There were about 700 jumpers total, and probably a few thousand spectators.  Every jumper got properly introduced to the crowd before plunging.  It went something like this:

Announcer: "Here's Ben Schy and Stefanie McClain from New Albany, they raised $111 dollars and decided to do this because it sounded like a good idea at the time.  Does it still seem like a good idea guys?"
Stef: "No."
Announcer: "Okay... read to go?  One, two, three!"
[JUMP]
Me (underwater, thinking): "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!"

Needless to say, it was much colder than I was expecting.  Now, I like the cold, but this was really darn cold.  I did a classic cannon bean, and the second my scantily clad body hit the nasty Ohio River water, my brain became scrambled.  I popped up, looked around, and spotted a volunteer who was waving me his way.  As I tried to swim to him, I realized that I could barely move.  I eventually made it to the ladder, but had trouble getting my foot up on the rung... none of my joints wanted to bend.  There were several volunteers shouting at me by this time, telling me to step up with my left foot, grab their hand with my right hand and step up and out to the right.  After a few seconds, I was able to comply and get out.  Once out, the shock faded quickly (it was a nice day).  Stef and I dried off and immediately drove home and took showers.  The Ohio river water stinksted.

Good times.

Old Comments

Spring time is upon us, and Summer is right around the corner.  Us ducks have been discussing our fest options for the upcoming months, raning from trips to Kings Island or Cedar Point to campouts and barn-raising parties at the BarBigD ranch.  It got me thinking... what kind of gathering could I have once I am moved into my new place?  Then, a light shown down for the heavens and an idea sprouted in my mind. 

Regular readers will remember my recent post about the Polar Bear Plunge that I participated in.  I thought it was fun, and would like to do it again... but why do it in the winter?  I mean, shit, who wants to get out of cold water only to be greeted by even colder air?  Not me, that's who.  As the wheels churned in my mind a little more, it hit me: a polar bear plunge in the summer, specifically, the 2004 SummerDuck Plunge.

The gathering will center around the Plunge Pond.  The Plunge Pond will be 4' wide by 6' long and about 5' deep.  I'll fill it with tap water at (I am assuming) 55 degrees.  This is about 898 gallons of water.  I probably won't fill it all the way up, we'll go with 85%, which leaves us with 763 gallons.  Now, cooling aside, that's a lot of effin water, and building something to contain it will be no small task.  I have a design drawn up that is based on the old Lambda Chi Pig Pond.  It'll be beefed up, obviously, but the "tarp-on-wood" concept will be at the core.

As for temperature... I'd like to get the water down to about 40 degrees.  This should be cold enought to make a dip in the water a memorable experience.  Using some online tools (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/cice.html and http://www.onlineconversion.com/), I arrived at the fact that it would take about .83 pounds of ice per gallon of water to cool from 55 to 40 degrees F.  This means I'll need approximately 633 pounds of ice, or about 76 frozen 1-gallon milk jugs.  I can easily store 30-40 (we'll say 30 for now) gallons of ice in my chest freezer, leaving me 46 gallons, or 384 pounds short.  The running rate on 25-pound bags of ice is $2.99, I believe, which means I'll have to shell out about $61 for the additional ice... not to bad.  Unfortunately, this is only the ice required to get the water to 40 degrees... I have no idea how hard it will be to keep it there.

Note that adding 76 gallons of ice to the existing 763 gallons of water puts the total volume at about 95% the capacity of the pond.  Knowing this, I may downsize the initial amount of water (and required ice)... but to stay on the safe size, I'll stick with my initial calculations.

The Plunge Pond will reside on my back patio, on a level slab, conveniently located next to a 6' high retaining wall to facilitate entry.  As for exit, well, I guess I'll just play that by ear.

In addition to the Plunge Pond, there will also be standard party type activities... pong, poker, grilling, drinking, etc.  I should have my cold-room (a blog for another day) finished and serving draft homebrew and domestics.  Also planned: a slip-n-slide.  My back yard will have a slight slope, perfect for drunken-slip-n-slidin' ($10 says we see a naked butt-slide from JCTMH).

So there you have it... no date set just yet (open for suggestions), but I hope that I can generate enough interest to make it all worth while.  I'll probably get some shirts printed up for it if I can get 15 or more people comitted.  Leave me some feedback... let me know what you think.

Old Comments

Took a half day Friday and headed to Home Depot at noon.  I would have preferred Lowes, but HD is on the way home.  My buddy Steve met me there to help me round up materials:

• 4 - 4x8 sheets of 1/4" plywood
• 3 - 4x8 sheets of 1/2" Foamular rigid foam board (extruded polystyrene, r-3)
• 3 - 4x8 sheets of 2" Foamular rigid foam board (extruded polystyrene, r-10)
• 2 - Rolls (80 linear feet each) of paper-backed fiberglass insulation (r-13)
• 10 - tubes of Liquid Nails (For Foamboard type)
• 2 - Cans of Great Stuff expanding spray foam
• 1 - 10' 2x4 (treated)
• 2 - 10' 2x4s (untreated)
• 8 - 8' 2x4s (untreated)
• 2 - Rolls of 4mil vapor barrier (25x10 each)

The total, after my 10% off coupon, was about $240.  I think they forgot to charge me for the plywood, though.  Steve and I loaded up my truck and headed home.  We took everything into the basement and set up a few saw horses.  I gathered the tools we'd need:

• Battery powered drill
• Hacksaw blade
• Circular saw
• Measuring tape
• Level
• Hammer
• Staple gun

I snapped a few pictures (here, here, and here) of the empty canvas.  We decided to split the warm and cold sides of the closet along the 4th stud from the right.  We'd need easy access to the small warm room, so we removed a stud and put a temporary header in place (I later added a 2x10).

Now, the insulation.

We ripped down the drywall that ran along the stairwell ceiling and filled the space with rolls of r-13 fiberglass insulation.  We stapled them in place and then covered them with vapor barrier and 1/4" plywood.  We then glued 1/2" foamboard to the plywood and secured it with a few screws.  I'll remove the screws in a day or so to reduce the heat-leak along the highly conductive metal.  Approximate r-value of the ceiling: 15.

The back wall that butts up to the exterior wall of the house was next.  It already had some rigid foam board outside the house studs and r-13 rolls in between.  We ripped down the existing vapor barrier and put up a new one.  We ran the new one back along the studs to allow for more fiberglass rolls in the cavity since there were a second set of studs framed for th estairs.  I wanted the vapor barrier as close to the "hot" side of the wall as possible, to reduce the chance of condensation getting into all of the fiberglass and degrading/roting it.  Material on the inside of the vapor barrier will stay dry via the dehumidifier that will be inside the cold room (more on this later).  Before we hung anything nrigid, we wanted to go ahead and frame the divider.

We took measurements and created a simple wall with a hole cut out to fit my air conditioner.  We made the hole about 1" bigger in each dimention to allow us to move things around easily, run cords, pull out the AC, etc.  We also put a small ledge on the back to help support the weight of the AC unit.  After putting the wall in place, we secured it to the existing studs and set the AC unit in to make sure everything looked right.

It looked fine, so we began to insulate the dividing wall and back wall.  Inside the cavity left by the vapor barrier on the back wall, we hung more r-13 fiberglass insulation.  We also stuffed the divider wall with fiberglass and some 2" rigid foam board along the top.  We then covered both walls with 1/4" plywood to provide something to mount the upcoming foamboard to.  Here's a shot of the back plywood up and Steve making some measurements for the next cut.

We glued 2" fomaboard to the divider wall cold side.  I'll be puting a vapor barrier on the hot side once that room is finished.  On the back wall, we only used 1/2" foam, since there was alread quite a bit of insulation in place.  In both cases, we used a few screws to hold the foam in place wile the Liquid Nails set up.  In the end, th eapproximated r-value of the back wall (from cold room to house exterior) was 30 and the divider wall was r-20.

Once we had had everything secured on these walls, we filled the imperfections (gaps) with Great Stuff.  Here's a shot of the AC sitting in the finished divider wall.

Coming soon - Part 3: wiring (and more insulation, of course).

Old Comments

My sophomore year in college, I decided to rent a house off campus with two other guys (non-fraternity folk).  About 2 weeks before school was going to start, JCTMH and I drove up to the Haute to get the keys, move in a few bits of furniture, and check the place out.  While there, we decided to get drunk and crash in the new pad for the night.  We didn't have cable set up yet, so when we went out to get beer (thanks to Jeans fake ID) we also picked up a few movies to watch.

After downing the first few beers, we realized that there was a problem.  The water was turned off.  This made it difficult to pee.  Outside was not an option due to the close proximity of neighbors and total lack of privacy, and indoor urination was limited to 2 times, since there were 2 toilets with full resivours.  A few hours into the evening, and a few pisses in each toilet later, we decided to flush it.  For the rest of the night, we peed in the toilets knowing that we would not be able to flush.  Bad move.

We left the next morning and headed home.  2 weeks later I came back to the house (which had no AC turned on) to discover a repulsive smell throughout the entire place.  That rotten piss smell almost made me vomit when I opened the door.  Even after airing the place out for a few days, the smell was still there.  It was perhaps one of the nastiest smells I ever done smellt.  Definately low on the trach-bang scale.

Old Comments

This past weekend, I bought a sushi kit and book from Waldenbooks for $9.99.  After a visit to an asian market in Louisville, I made my first attempt at some sushi rolls (Maki-zushi). 

Last night, I went for attempt number two.  I made the vinegar rice, sliced some avacado and cucumber, and layed out some seaweed sheets (Nori).  I made a total of 4 1/2 rolls for Stef and I to feast on.  They were a mixture of inside-out and regular rolls, with various combinations of avacado, cucumber, imitation crab, fried imitation crab, wasabi, and cream cheese.  Tasty.

I want to try some fish at some point, but I am not real comfortable with the freshness of raw fish this far inland.  I have a tuna steak that I plan on searing next time I make sushi.  Anyone have any other suggestions?  How about a hotdog-burger-roll.

Old Comments

Here is how my brew day (evening) went last night.

• 5:00 - Begin heating 3.5 gallons of water in my kettle.
• 5:05 - Set up brew table, assemble mash tun, manifold, heat exchanger.  Fill heat exchanger and turn it on.
• 5:15 - dump 11 pounds of grain into my mash tun.
• 5:20 - pump 3 gallons of 170 degree water into the mash tun and stir.
• 5:30 - Connect hoses to pump, mash tun, and heat exchanger and begin recirculation.  Monitor the wort temperature and adjust the heat exchanger to keep mash at 150 degrees for 1 hour.
• 5:40 - Begin heating 4 gallons of water in my kettle.  Clean and sdanitize various peices of equipment that will be used later on.
• 6:30 - Adjust heat exchanger to increase the mash temperature to 170 degrees for 20 minutes.
• 6:35 - Turn up/down/off kettle flame so that the 4 gallons is around 180 degrees.
• 6:50 - Stop recirculation.  Disconnect hoses from mash tun and heat exchnager.  Reconnect pump to kettle and transfer 4 gallong of 180 degree water to HLT.
• 7:00 - Assemble sparge arm, place in mash tun.  Connect HLT and begin a slow sparge.  Drain mash runoff into 1/2 gallon container and transfer to kettle.  Repeat.
• 7:20 - After 2 gallons is collected, turn on the gas to the kettle.
• 7:50 - A total of 5 gallons is collected from the mash/sparge.  Top off kettle to 6.5 gallons and crank up the gas.
• 8:00 - Empty the spent grains from the mash tun and rinse it out.  Drain and dry heat exchanger.
• 8:10 - Kettle hits boil.  Add first batch of hops.  Assemble post-boil equipment and connect everything in a big loop.   Fill the loop with sanitizer and let the pump run to clean/sanitize system innards.  Sanitize primary fermenter.
• 8:55 - Add rehydrated irish moss to boil.
• 9:00 - Add second batch of hops.  Drain the sanitizer out of the pump loop and fermenter.  Connect sanitized tubing to kettle, pump, and chiller.
• 9:10 - Turn off flame.  Turn on pump and beging to pump wort from the boil kettle, through the chiller, into the fermenter.  Monitor outflow temperature and shoot for 75 degrees.
• 9:20 - Kettle is empty.  Move filled carboy inside and place a sanitized airlock on it.
• 9:25 - Begin cleaning up the kettle, chiller, pump, and hoses.  Cycle cleaner through the whole system for a few minutes, then rinse.  Stack equipment on brew table and move inside.
• 9:50 - Get a sample from the fermenter for testing and pitch yeast.
• 10:00 - Done.

Old Comments

Saturday, Stef and I were at a loss for things to do. The backyard project was rolling into completion and we were just plain bored. So we made a trip to run some errands that didn't really even need to be run. We set out to find a few simple items (twine, tree stakes, Rubbermaid bins) but ended up finding a lot more. We went to the Dollar Store, Big Lots, The Home Depot, CiCi's Pizza, and then Bridge Liquor. At Bridge Liquor, we bough a variety pack of new (and newly packaged) beers to try out, and BAM: we finally had something to do.

The first thing I tried was a Bud Select in the cool new aluminum "bottle". It was overpriced and tasted the same as every other Bud Select I've ever had. The saving grace was that it was kinda neat to hold - very heavy duty (3x the aluminum of a can). I received a nice surprise when I discovered (after drinking it) that it was actually a pint, not a measly 12 ounces. Bonus!

The next "beer" was Tilt. It's basically the exact same thing as Sparks, but a little cheaper and with 6.6% ABV instead of 6.0%. What's not to like?

And then, there was the Weidemann. Stef had never actually tasted one, so we grabbed a sixer. She said it tasted like water. Personally, I like it just as much as any other low-cost domestic.

The star attraction for beer night was a new malt liquor called Four-O. I've never seen it before, but when I saw a guy grab a few and checkout, I was intrigued. It comes in 40's, but they were out, so I opted for a 24 ounce can. The labeling is reminiscent of graffiti, and it's obvious that they are marketing towards the... um... low end. It's 10% ABV (what the?) and the 24 ounce can only cost 99 cents. HOLY BANG! 99 cents for the approximate equivalent of 5 normal beers. Ready for the down side: it tasted like ass piss. Not only that, I woke up at 6am the next morning cold, clammy, and on the verge of vomiting. Close call.

TTags: beer, four-o

Stef and I have been on the Dave Ramsey plan for about 15 months now. As of yesterday, we've finished step #2 - we are debt free except for our home - no car payments, no student loans, no home-equity line, no credit cards, NO NOTHIN'! We paid off around $25K total.

Math nerds and naysayers often think that the plan outlined here (warning: PDF) is a bad one - because it doesn't always make sense when you look strictly at the numbers. But I can tell you that it does work for me, and when it does, I get stoked, and when I get stoked, it works even mo betta.

TTags: dave ramsey, baby steps

I am in a bad motherfucking mood. Ever since vacation, nothing has been going right.

First off, I came back into a shitstorm of stuff to do at work. I knew this was coming, but it's stressful nonetheless. I had a grand total of 8 days (4 left) to create an application from scratch that is capable of managing a brand new aspect of our company. Did I mention that there are absolutely no design specs for this project, and that the requirements are still not defined? Luckily, I like my job, I like my coworkers, and I like a challenge.

Then, a few nights ago, we got a letter from our condo landlords from vacation saying that they were keeping our $300 security deposit because the condo was "extremely dirty" (this is an outright lie), somebody put liquid dishsoap in the dishwasher (Stutz, I'm looking your way), and their cheap folding door that hid the washer and dryer was "broken beyond repair" (not true). Great.

Yesterday, I came home to an 85 degree house. The thermostat was dead... no power coming to it. No AC on the hottest day of the year (so far). We couldn't get anyone to come out that late, so we had to sweat it out until today. Someone finally came and replaced the transformer in the furnace to the tune of $110 for 30 minutes of work. He was supposed to be here first thing in the morning... which turned out to equal 1pm and a wasted day for Stef (she had to wait for him).

Last night, my GameCube finally quit working. No more MarioKart for me.

Today, I went Churchil Downs and bet on every single race. I did not win even once. $BEAN-=50.

This evening, I got the escrow statement from our bank showing our newly-assessed taxes. Simply put, due to poor planning and mistakes (on my part), our monthly mortgage payment is going from $750 to $1250. That is not a typo.

And our kitchen light bulb burnt out. Goddammit goddammit goddammit goddammit goddammit goddammit goddammit! I think I may explode.

We woke up to downpour, but checked to tubes and found that it was supposed to clear up by noon. We hit up the buffet for breakfast, then went to the hydrotherapy pool (indoor) to wait out the rain. Around 11am the clouds broke and we made our way to the lagoon, snorkled with some fiches and drank 5 million pesos worth of liquor. We met up with some trip advisor folks for a lunch buffet and another million pesos of alcohol. With a total of 6 million pesos in drinks, an early night ensued. Room service and Real Sex 31 on HBO rounded out the night. Tomorrow morning: zipline and cenote.

TTags: aventura

Room service delivered our breakfast at the buttcrack of dawn. We had to eat early and catch a shuttle to our one and only planned excursion of the trip: Selvactia. A "luxury" van (air condiftioned) took us, along with 6-7 other tourists up to the Cancun area and then down a 20-mile, desolate, very remote, and very very bumpy road. The ride was not great, but the adventure that awaited us was definately worth it.

After meeting our guides, we harnessed up and climbed a rickety steel ladder up into an even ricketier steel treehouse. Everything was suspended by steel cables wrapped around big Mexican jungle trees. One by one, we clipped onto the cables and zipped away to the next tree. It was a blast, and once I got over my initial safety concerns, I was able to actually look around and enjoy myself. I did manage to get one good shot of stef coming in to landing #7 or 8, which I will post when we get home. We did a total of 11 ziplines over about a 1 mile course. When we were done, we deharnessed and biked a mile or so to a cenote. We swam in this beautiful, clear, cool, DEEP freshwater sinkhole for about a half hour and there was nothing I would have rather done in the 95 degree heat. There were cliffs to jump off from, ziplines to drop from; I did both. The highest cliff required 35 feet of trecherous climbing and put a lot of trust into the guide that helped me to the top. Though if I would have slipped, I don't think he could have done anything about since he only weighed a buck ten. It was definately not OSHA approved. We swam for about 30 minutes, then headed back for a light lunch, then back into the van for the trip back to the resort.

We got in around 3pm and headed straight for the bar to get caught up on drinks. We found a nice spot next to the lagoon and fed and snorkled with the fishes. Then it was back to the room so I could smoke my Cuban cigar on the balcony (StevieP are you jealous?). Around 8:30pm we headed to the steakhouse, La Mendaca, for dinner. I got the NY Steak and Stef got the grilled seafood platter. Mine was woot woot and Stef had a few pieces of seafood we were unable to identify. She also noticed that the "seafood soup" had large octopus chunks in it. Not zesty.

We toured the various nightclubs and bars, sampling drinks along the way. We ended up staying up to 1am which allowed for a hangover (the first of the trip) the next morning. All in all a very fun day. And tomorrow, we get massages!

TTags: aventura, selvatica

The Cheesy Gordita Crunch is back at Taco Bell. Honestly, I'm not sure it ever left, cause I've had them on and off even when they aren't on the menu - but at any rate, they are being advertised again. The CGC is far and away my favorite Taco Bell item. It's a gordita shell with melted cheese on it wrapped around a taco - essentially a grilled cheese sammich merged with a taco.

So let's make one at home! I can make grilled cheese. I can make tacos. Surely, I can wrap one around the other. I figure the best way will be to make a grilled cheese in the standard fashion (don't spare the butter), then pull the two pieces of bread apart and wrap each piece around a prepared taco. Hell, I think a grilled cheese half on a taco sounds better than a gordita. BANG! I'm trying it tonight.

But here's the deal: I want YOU to make one as well. I mean, you know it's gonna taste great, so you might as well give it a shot. When you do, take a picture of the finished product, or yourself enjoying it, or both, and send them to me. I'll post the pictures (and associated notes) here for admiration and review, and the creator of the best Grilled Cheese Taco will win an AWESOME prize! Deadline: Friday AM.

Update:
I made a total of 3 GCTs last night... 2 for dinner and 1 later on for a snack. Divine. I highly reccomend any taco loving person to give it a shot (SS). Have a look.

TTags: taco, grilled cheese

We hit up the all you can to eat sushi joint in Louisville (Ichiban) again last night. Here's a breakdown of what 4 of us ordered and consumed:

• Nigiri:
  • 1xOctopus (total of 2 pcs)
  • 3xCrab (total of 6 pcs)
  • 2xShrimp (total of 4 pcs)
  • 2xTuna (total of 4 pcs)
  • 5xYellowtail (total of 10 pcs)
  • 3xScallop (total of 6 pcs)
  • 5xEel (total of 10 pcs)
  • 1xSalmon (total of 2 pcs)
  • 1xTilapia (total of 2 pcs)
  • 3xAlbacore (total of 6 pcs)
  • 2xMasago (total of 4 pcs)
• Maki:
  • 1xTuna (total of 6 pcs)
  • 1xSpicy Tuna (total of 8 pcs)
  • 1xSpicy White Tuna (total of 8 pcs)
  • 1xSpicy Yellowtail (total of 8 pcs)
  • 2xShrimp Tempura (total of 12 pcs)
  • 1xPhiladelphia (total of 8 pcs)
  • 2xSalmon Skin (total of 16 pcs)
  • 1xDeep Fried Kentucky (total of 8 pcs)
  • 1xDeep Fried Philadelphia (total of 8 pcs)

That's 138 pieces total (56 nigiri, 82 maki)! Using the conservative $3/$5 rule established in the comments of my last sushi blog, that's about $139 of sushi. The sushi bill, excluding tax and tip (since the $3/$5 doesn't take it into account) came to $88.

TTags: sushi, ichiban

I've become somewhat of a lunch regular at Rocky's Italian Grill in Jeffersonville, IN. As a general rule, I'd say the food is not very good. But if you know what to order and how to exploit the system, you can have a great experience!

For $5.99, you can get all you can eat soup, salad, and bread. Their salads are simple, but really good... lettuce, pepperonchinis, red onions, carrots, croutons, parmesan cheese, and 1 of 3 dressings (all of which are good). Their bread is a big round loaf, freshly baked, and comes with parmesan cheese and oil for dipping - a tasty combo! Their soups suck.

For a dollar more ($6.99), you can sub in an entree for the soup. Unfortunately, out of the 5 or 6 entree's to choose from, only one of them is any good... and it's not great. The baked ziti is basically penne pasta topped with mediocre marinara sauce and mozzerella cheese, baked in an oven for 10 minutes. It's decent reheated, on par with homemade pasta and Prego.

And now: the exploitation. When Stef and I go, we both get the ziti, but we eat the salads and bread there and get the ziti to-go. Since the salad and bread is endless and tasty, you always get enough, and the ziti makes for a decent lunch the next day. They throw an extra loaf of bread into the to-go bag too! Total cost, after tax and a hefty tip is $20. So for $20, we get 4 lunches. On top of that, they have a lunch club card that get's you a freebie after 5, effectively reducing the cost of each lunch to about $4. We get off with dirt cheap lunches at a fairly fancy restaurant, and the waitress gets a $5+ tip.

The best part is that this place is about 1/2 mile from work, so we can drive there, order, eat, and get back in 30 minutes.