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Boy, this weather is nice. While I miss skiing and I’d like to get Scout out skijoring with the kids on a sled (sled-joring?), it’s nice to open the windows and let some fresh air in. It’s just about 60° now (58.8, to be exact) and expected to peak today, before dropping back into the 30’s next weekend.

It’s also nice to actually be able to OPEN the windows! We’ve had windows opened that haven’t been opened since we moved into the house! The new windows are great

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 9:58 am and is filed under Outdoors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Laura dragged us suggested we go to the Letchworth craft fair yesterday, so I figured I’d try to find a geocache that avoided me last year.

Geocaching is best described as using billion-dollar US Military technology to find Tupperware in the woods.

So far, my finds have either been with Rob, Ray, or Steve. The cache I was going after was What’s the Point by Road Kill, one that I attempted last year without any notes. Well, I needed the notes, as the first line reads: “The coordinates are not the final cache”.

So while Laura & the girls were looking for crafty things, Jason, Scout & I went out looking for this cache. We had a good time finding it… I just have to teach Jason that everyone isn’t out geocaching, and muggles don’t understand.

I’ve found 11 so far… quite a bit behind the near-500 Rob has found. Maybe I should do a few that are near home.

This entry was posted by Eric on Sunday, October 7th, 2007 at 7:51 am and is filed under Family, Outdoors, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

This past weekend I ran in the Letchworth 5K, known to me as the longest 5K race. Since I run with my Garmin, I’m able to track how far I actually run, compared to how the race officials measure the course. This time, it was 3.25 miles. Either way… still a hard race.

This was a 5K race, not a 5K run. There’s a big difference. I need to get into more races, if I want to do the Turkey Trot in 40 minutes.

You can see the course and details of my run here. My official time was 0:27:30 which is an 8:51 pace. I finished 76th overall, and 7th in the Male 20-29 group. Andy (now engaged!!!) crossed right behind me. Tom was with me for the first mile, then took off, finishing in 25:05, while his girlfriend kept up a 10:18 pace finishing in an even 32:00.

There’s another race at Delaware Park this weekend… I may do that to get more race experiences.

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 8:54 am and is filed under Fitness, Outdoors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I’ve learned how to take the blame… sometimes, there’s no getting around it. So, I’m publicly taking the heat for the following:

1. The new iPods. I was waiting many months before I bought my iPod, just knowing Apple would come out with something spectacular for the next round. But, a couple months ago, I could wait no longer and bought myself an iPod. Steve Jobs was waiting for me to buy one, before he released these updated iPods. Looks like my daughter is getting a used iPod to watch High School Musical (1 and 2) over and over and over and over, so I can get a new one.
2. It’s going to be 90 in Buffalo today and tomorrow, because I took the air conditioner out of my office (which is on the 3rd floor of my house). If I left it in, we’d be shoveling snow today.

I would apologize for certain stocks that continue to rise, after I’ve sold them (GRMN, NVT, NTDOY, DLB to name a few) but I also have my fair share that are below my original buying point, so there’s no hard-set rule there.

I’m sure there are other things that I’ve caused… sorry (or, your welcome… whatever the case may be).

This entry was posted by Eric on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 11:35 am and is filed under Outdoors, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Sunday night, I plan on laying in the hot tub looking up at the stars, watching for meteors. The Perseid meteor shower August 12-13 should yield 90-100 shooting stars per hour.

While space.com says to look Northeast, last weekend, during the block party, I saw a shooting star due South. I think there are three good seats in the tub that’ll let us see the night sky.

Ever since the last Cub Scout campout, I’ve loved looking up at the stars. Hopefully I’ll see some good meteors this weekend.

This entry was posted by Eric on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 10:10 am and is filed under Outdoors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

I got a lot done this weekend, which is good because I hate wasting life away doing nothing.

On Friday, I got some pool chemicals & took off the winter cover - the water was BLACK. Remember back in October we had a little storm? Well, that threw tree branches through the winter cover, allowing leaves & other stuff in the water. We tried cleaning it in November, but didn’t have enough time. However, since the pump wasn’t hooked up, I couldn’t do anything with it.

On Saturday Mr. Bishop & I hooked the solar heater up to the pool. I think it’s going to work great, since I burned my hand on the roof while up there. The temperature up there was at least 120°, if not as high as 140. There are now 72, 1/4″ black tubes that carry the water along the roof, heating up before going back into the pool. Photos coming soon. Of course, we get that hooked up, pump going, and a hose breaks - after all the pool stores are closed. So I had to stop the pool from draining into the backyard, and turn off the pump.

Since Mr. Bishop helped me on Saturday, I went up to the cottage on Sunday with Jason and helped cut the grass & dig up a new garden. Nothing mind-blowing… just lots of manual labor. We did, however, find a stone path leading to the cottage that’s at least 35 years old, since Mom Bishop doesn’t remember it being there, but we dug it up while putting in the garden. That slowed us down a bit. Can’t wait for harvest time to eat the veggies that we worked so hard to get planted.

We got home Sunday just in time to fix the pool, get the pump turned on again, and watch it POUR outside. I figured (incorrectly) that it’d take 3″ of water to fill the rain barrel. Here’s what I thought:

It’s a 58 gallon barrel
58 US gallons = 13 398.0001 cubic inches
My roof (back 1/2) is about 20 feet by 30 feet. That’s 600 square feet, or 86,400 square inches.

That’s where I screwed up the first time… I took 600 * 12, not 600*12*12. So now,

13,398 / 86,400 = 0.155. Really, it only takes .16, or far less than a quarter inch of rain to fill the barrel. Needless to say, after yesterday’s rains, the barrel was overflowing & I switched the bypass on & put the water into the storm sewer. And now I have 58 gallons of rainwater stored up, ready to use for the lawn & gardens.

The pool is now a blue-gray color, with just a few leaves in the middle that need to be scooped out. We should be swimming in there next weekend, if the weather’s nice!

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 8:49 am and is filed under Energy, Family, Outdoors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.