I’m not much an exerciser, but I do have a friend, Biray, who is fanatical about it. I’ve always complained about having time and the damn hot desert summers (which don’t end until Halloween!), but when she decided to offer an online jogging class I didn’t have any excuses left so I signed up. I’ve actually been doing pretty well, and I feel great! I’ve been fighting some Crohn’s issues recently so as long as they aren’t on the day I want to exercise, then I am ok.

Recently Biray invited us all to run a 5K with her (3.2 miles), and I signed up without really letting myself chicken out. I knew I wouldn’t run it, and I begged my friend Joe to go with me because I figured he was out of shape too and wouldn’t make me look too bad.

I had no idea what to expect, and I was totally out of my element. I would’ve never done it alone but Biray, Coop, and Joe were there with me. We got there early, registered, got out free shirts, and then waited until 8AM. There was a huge crowd there, and when they said “Go!” I was just like “Oh my God, here we go!”. The first part was grass, and I’m not use to grass. Then we had some rolling hills. Joe said he’d jog til he needed to walk, and he went way farther than me. But then I caught up and we were near each other for more than half, and then he fell behind and I began playing games where I’d pick a point and jog to it, then slow down and walk. Then start over. It was a great strategy for me! I finished in 41 minutes and I felt great! I feel really good.

Here’s the video Coop shot of me finishing the race!

As you can tell, if you’re here we have a whole new look. Mostly that’s my fault because a) I didn’t think outside the box, and b) I can get lazy. Be patient with me as I tweak this design.

See, when I began this journey of blogging I was in blogger back before Google bought it. I knew nothing, and I am still far from a CSS guru. I had a little blog, but I wanted more. We wanted to make mad money for blogging like Heather Armstrong does (maybe not mad money but she lives on it!) At the time Movable Type seemed like the way to go, but I didn’t have the time to learn MT. When I realized they had their own little powerful (remember this was before you had control over blogger) blog system, I was ready to jump on board. It was $14.95 a month, and we agreed. MT was what Heather and Jon used, so it must be the way to go we thought.

We logged into TypePad and created an account. Bought the domain Nooccar.com and off we went. Donna, who I think is wildly hilarious, slowly fell off the blog wagon as I plugged away. Life happens and I could never blog as much as Heather (but hey I have a day job!). Even when it was that life I wanted to blog about, it didn’t happen as much as I wanted but we keep going. I know people read it because my Mum references things, my mother in law emails us responses, and my friend at work tells me she already knows everything about me. So that was that. I kept going.

Somewhere along the line I also bought www.dcamd.com for work and for my more professional proclivities. I have my own space and learned about something called Word Press. I’d seen it on my cpanel before, but I really didn’t realize what it was all about. I didn’t think much about it until I began hanging out with several techie people who love (read adore beyond word!) Word Press as a blog platform. I quickly flipped my dcamd.com domain into a Word Press blog and learned how to customize it for what I wanted.

As some point down the line my wife was trying to figure out why she was paying $14.95 for TypePad and another $14.95 for my webserver space. Couldn’t I put them together somehow? I was scared to do this, but my friend Alan said it shouldn’t be too hard. I really didn’t want to lose years worth of blogging now. Eventually, I got online with my Host Gator, my hosting service, and asked how I could get a deal on a 2nd domain. They said since I owned whatever level service that I have, that I could add-on a domain for free! They sent me the video tutorial link, and I switched the DNS servers. My wife about had a cow when www.nooccar.com took us nowhere, but I just giggled and told her why. After 24 hours of waiting, the site was propagated and it was time to try to import our TypePad blog. Exporting it from TypePad was pretty simple, and it went to text file with all sorts of formatting. I then installed Word Press and went into the settings. I found the import command, chose my file and clicked “OK!”. After a few minutes everything looked good. I could pull into the pages and all my pictures from Flickr linked correctly, but anything I uploaded directly to my TypePad account obviously wasn’t there. I’ll need to fix them later. Next it was time for a theme. Word Press is cool because there are thousands of free themes all over the web. I knew I wanted a static width, 3 column theme that linked pages across the top (not categories sinc I have so many!). I did pick that had categories across the top and it was terrible for my need! I looked and looked and looked some more until I discovered www.jauhari.net/. He had really nice themes and my idea of design meshed with his. I found this one, and I uploaded it to my server. Now I know it’s not perfect, and I still haven’t done any widget tweaking and didn’t change the graphics yet, but hey, it’s here.

Stop back and check it out.

The love story of Ralph and Edna…

Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.  Ralph and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital.  One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool. Ralph suddenly jumped into the deep end.

He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there.

Edna promptly jumped in to save him.  She swam to the bottom and pulled him out.  When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now considered her to be mentally stable.

When she went to tell Edna the news she said, 'Edna, I have good news and bad news.  The good news is you're being discharged, since you were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of the person you love.  I have concluded that your act displays sound mindedness.

The bad news is, Ralph hung himself in the bathroom with his bathrobe belt right after you saved him.  I am so sorry, but he's dead.'

Edna replied, 'He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry.  How soon can I go home?'

Jogging the Canal, originally uploaded by nooccar.

Every so often I think (read: I know) I need to exercise, and recently I became friends with an exercise freak. She bugged me (read: ecouraged me) all of the time to get out there, but part of my problem (read: excuse) is that it’s damn hot in the summer. Well, two things happened recently. 1) It’s cooler in the fall/winter. 2) She began teaching an online jogging class.

I know how funny that sounds, and I’ve gotten some odd looks. Well tonight I began my class officially. I did a run through last week with the dog, which I loved. All weekend I promised my daughter, Claire, that I would take her on a long walk up to the park where there’s a pond. I figured we could walk the canal after that and then come home the same way the dog and I walk.

Claire wanted to bring her wagon to carry her water and doll. Dante hates the wagon and won’t ride it it. Claire won’t really ride in it either since she’s pretty active. She runs a lot and never gets winded too. I ended pulling that damn thing 2.5 miles while she walked the dog, ran around, and had a good time at the park. I finally convinced her to let me pull her when we hit the highway on the other side of the canal, but as soon as we were off the frontage road, she was out of the wagon and running down the sidewalk with the dog. Even thought it was kinda fun, I think next time the daughter and wagon get to stay home.

SUBJECT:
DEQ File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County

Dear Mr. DeVries:

It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that
there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of
property.  You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or
contractor who did the following unauthorized activity:    

Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream
of Spring Pond.

A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity. A review
of the Department’s files shows that no permits have been issued.
Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in
violation of Part 301, Lakes and Streams, of the
Natural Resource and Environmental Pr otection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts
of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled
Laws, annotated.

The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed
during a recent rain event, causing debris and flooding at downstream
locations.  We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and
cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist
all activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow
condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the stream
channel.  All restoration work shall be completed no later than January
31, 2009.  

Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that a
follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff.  Failure to
comply with this request or any further unauthorized activity on the site may
result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action.  We
anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter.
Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions.
 

Sincerely,
David L. Price
District Representative and Water Management Division.

2088 Dagget LanePennsylvaniaRe: DEQ File No.
97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County   
Dear Mr. Price,
Your certified letter dated 12/17/07 has been handed to me to respond to.
I am the legal landowner but not the Contractor at Trout Run, Pennsylvania.   

A couple of beavers are in the (State unauthorized) process of constructing and maintaining two wood
‘debris’ dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond.  While I did not
pay for, authorize, nor supervise their dam project, I think they would be
highly offended that you call their skil lful use of natures building materials
‘debris.’   

I would like to challenge your department to attempt to emulate their dam
project any time and/or any place you choose. I believe I can safely state
there is no way you could ever match their dam skills, thei r dam
resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam
determination and/or their dam work ethic.      

These
are the beavers/contractors you are seeking. As to your request, I do not think
the beavers are aware that they must first fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this type
of da m activity.

My first dam question to you is:
(1) Are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers, or
(2) do you require all beavers throughout this State to conform to said dam
request?    

If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, through the
Freedom of Information Act, I request completed copies of all those other
applicable beaver dam permits that have been issued.   

(Perhaps we will see if there really is a dam violation of Part 301, Inland
Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act,
Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of
the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.)

I have several concerns.  My first concern is, aren’t the beavers entitled
to legal representation?  The Spring Pond Beavers are financially d
estitute and are unable to pay for said representation — so the State wi ll
have to provide them with a dam lawyer.  The Department’s dam concern that
either one or both of the dams failed during a recent rain event, causing
flooding, is proof that this is a natural occurrence, which the Department is
required to protect.   In other words, we should leave the Spring Pond
Beavers alone rather than harassing them and calling them dam names. 
 

If you want the stream ‘restored’ to a dam free-flow condition please contact
the beavers — but if you are going to arrest them, they obviously did not pay
any attention to your dam letter, they being unable to read English.   

In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their
unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green and water
flows downstream.  They have more dam rights than I do to live and enjoy
Spring Pond.  If the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental
Protection lives up to its name, it should protect the natural resources
(Beavers) and the environment (Beavers’ Dams).   

So, as far as the beavers and I are concerned, this dam case can be referred
for more elevated enforcement action right now. Why wait until 1/31/2009? The
Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice then and there will be no way for
you or your dam staff to contact/harass them.

In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention to a real environmental
quality, health, problem in the area.  It is the bears! Bears are actually
defecating in our woods.  I definitely believe you should be persecuting
the defecating bears and leave the beavers alone. If you are going to investigate
the beaver dam, watch your step! The bears are not careful where they dump!
 

Being
unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your
dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam office.

THANK YOU,   

RYAN DEVRIES
& THE DAM BEAVERS

My father isn’t the most social or warm person in this world, so the times in my youth where he was focused more on his children were those memories that held tight in my mind. Two large parts of this included camping/fishing and skiing. He’s already been dragging Claire off to the slopes for two years now, but we’re not typically anywhere near Pittsburgh in the milder months.

This became my quest. Take Claire camping & fishing. I really miss the GREEN of nature from my youth, so anything to get out of the desert was great for me. We’ve just not gotten around to taking her and when she was younger she was too young.  Her babysitter had been up to Christopher Creek, and the photos she posted online were great. I was ready to go!

Last week we headed north, and we were impressed at how close some of this beautiful nature really was to us. It only took 90 minutes to get to Christopher Creek campground under the Rim. The forest ranger told us it may snow that night, and the temperature would be in the low 40s at best. I’d packed the car, and realized we didn’t really bring coats, hats or gloves. Ooops.

Claire was dressed in an old pair of jeans, Merrell shoes I’d bought her, a Grand Canyon sweatshirt we rummaged from day care, and my Smart Wool cap. She ran around the campsite while we unpacked and put up the tent. I was eager to get to the creek for some fishing, and the ranger didn’t really gave a good idea of where to fish. We decided we’d walk down creek and look for a spot. The four of us (Dante too!) headed down the creek. I had the fishing stuff, and Donna had the kid. Dante was a real good sport about walking over rocks and through water. We found a hole around the creek bend and dropped our lines. Donna took some photos of me teaching Claire how to fish with the new pole I bought her. Donna and Dante sat against some trees so Donna could read while we fished. I enjoyed myself, and Claire was relatively and surprisingly quiet. She didn’t really dig the whole fishing thing because we didn’t catch anything.

At dusk we headed back to cook some hotdogs and marshmallows. Donna made up a fire and we unlocked the food from the truck (bear & elk are common in this area). Claire wasn’t really into the whole idea of Smores, but she liked the marshmallows. After a bit, Claire announced she was ready for bed. Donna took her into the tent, and Claire went right to sleep. Donna beat me in a game of Continental before we headed into the tent ourselves.

When we moved to AZ we bought this perfect little "tent in a bag", which was perfect for two skinnier newlyweds. Now that there are four of us and we’re thicker, this tent was squished! It’s 6′ X 6′, and I quickly realized that I need a new tent. I didn’t sleep well and was up at 6AM. We cooked coffee in a french press and boiled water for oatmeal before deciding to hike down the creek a few miles. We packed up a backpack with jackets, an axe, tons of water, snacks, a compass, etc… and off we walked. I had Dante and Donna had Claire. We found a few people who pointed us towards a scenic walk south along the creek. The weather was beautiful even if they now called for rain, and after about 2 1/2 miles we climbed onto a huge rock to have a nice lunch.

One thing that was a bit of an event was that Claire would not go to the bathroom in "the hole" (outhouse), so we were a little concerned she wouldn’t "go" until we got home in the next day. After modeling what she needed to do, she finally went! It was really funny, but after that first time, for the rest of the trip she’d just drop trou wherever she was! Later on a trail, near a road, she just began pulling down her pants to pee!

After our nice lunch, we walked back up the creek, grabbed our gear and drove out toward the general store. The cashier pointed us up the Rim to Woods Canyon Lake, and she said they’d stocked the lake with trout. As we rolled up to the lake, the clouds rolled in. I tried to get Claire to fish some more, but she wanted nothing to do with it. Donna, on the other hand, saw some crayfish (the call ‘em crawdads here!) in the lake. She grabbed the net and began catching crayfish, which she wanted me to use to fish. We didn’t really catch anything and eventually it began to pour. My rain coat was in the tent back at camp, but I wanted to catch my kid a fish so I stood there fishing in the rain while my women waited under a pine tree.

We were all wet, and I didn’t bring Claire clean socks or panties! The nice woman in the store found Claire some socks in the back, and we bought some dry wood. Back at camp the rain had dissipated somewhat, so we began dinner while I dressed me and Claire in our rain suits. I mostly put my rain pants on so I could sit down! We threw some corn in the fire, roasted some dogs and sat soaking went and happy for a few hours. We were soaking wet, and that night the tent felt wetter than ever.

The next morning Donna was up packing at 6AM, and we were off to Phoenix at 7AM to get home in time for Claire’s first bowling league. 

I don’t know what’s with me lately, but I cannot sleep. I am use to going to bed around 9-10 and waking at 5. This is pretty much how it goes, and we’re happy when we can sleep until 6am on the weekends. Now recently something shifted. I’m not sure what it is, but now I can’t sleep. I still go to bed around the same time (but now on break it’s more like 11pm), but now I can’t sleep much after 3:30AM. I’ve taken to rolling around in bed for awhile and then getting up; I’ll go into the living room and stretch out on one of our couches. Sometimes I can fall back asleep, but I still roll. My body’s been agitated. I can’t stop moving around. Why? I’ve tried Melatonin, and I’ve even doubled to dose. I bet Tylenol PM would put me to sleep (since Benadryl puts me down like a dead horse), but then I can’t get up in the morning. I’ve tried Hydrocodone, but this isn’t a great way to sleep. I have Mecalizine, which nails me harder than Benadryl. I just don’t know. Any ideas?

Claire Kyrene Lanes, originally uploaded by nooccar.

A couple months ago I saw a Dora ball and other information at Kyrene Lanes where I bowl Sunday evenings. The worker told me they were starting a kid’s league on Sunday mornings. I immediately signed Claire up, and this Sunday we showed up for the league. We were the only ones there. The manager said 3 other teams signed up, but no one else showed. She told us that she was fine with us bowling with one team in our league, since Claire’d been looking forward to this for a few weeks. I wholeheartedly agreed, since she also gets a Dora ball and bag when she finishes her league in February.

This week it was just the two of us since Mama had homework. I had several instructions I had to give Claire at the same time. I had to pick and choose what to tell her and what to omit. A few of the biggest things were 1) stay behind the silver line when it wasn’t your turn, 2) keep your fingers away from the ball return. Both of these rules were broken. Two others needed to quickly be taught. 3) Use your fingers in the balls, and 4) you only get two turns before someone else gets to go (this confused her every time I got a strike).

Claire bowled a 77 & 61. Not too bad for her first time bowling.