Snow & Sunshine

Well as I said before, Laura and I had a goal to reach 400 caches before December 5th. We reached that goal and have gone beyond it. As of this morning we have 414 finds, the reason we have so many more is because we did some locationless caches. These are caches where you try to find something, like a historic building, or a water tower and then you post where the location is. We usually arn't as interested to do such types of caches, but as of January 1, 2006 they will no longer be allowed and we won't be able to count them as a find. So we have started trying to get as many done as we can...

It has snowed the last two nights, and we have recieved around 2-4 inches on the mountain here. Nice to have the snowfall, but I could do without the snowmobiles flying past our house in the streets. I got out this morning and scooped the driveway and sidewalk - along with the deck - in hopes the sunshine would melt away the thin snow and allow for easier travel around the house. Other wise things are still slow around here - probably for the best right now. We leave for Wyoming and Nebraska is less than three weeks and that will keep us busy enough!I weighed in at 189 this morning - I attribute that to the fact that we didn't run yesterday due to lack of time and the roads are covered in snow... One of the bad things about winter running is that one bad step and you and fall down or slide in a bad way and pull a muscle or worse, break something... I did that several times in my competative days, and I am thankful I can just relax a few days before needing to hit the roads to stay in shape.. I don't know how missing a few days will influence my training program, but we'll see - I am not too worried.. Until again

-=Nolan=-

What a Mess!

Take a look at the NOAA weather map showing the national weather! What a mess that is huh! For those of you who want to jump on the global warming band wagon, I say go ahead - that train is headed down a one way track that isn't coming back... Sure the climate is changing, but guess what, the Earth had an ice age at one time too, and our industrial chemicals didn't warm the place up then.... I won't deny the fact that the industry doesn't help though, infact it even seems to be speeding it up, but this isn't anything that Earth hasn't been through before...

Check out these pictures my brother sent me from Kearney, Nebraska from the blizzard. I wish I could have been there to see it, I like blizzards when you are stuck at home and have no where to go! They arn't as much fun when you have to get somewhere though.


I forgot to mention in my blog from yesterday that our GPS has 22,000 miles on it - we will see on Dec. 4th how many it has, that will be the one year anniversary of owning my GPS... Think about that - my truck has just over 23,000 miles on it in three years, and here I went 22,000 miles in one year - shows how little I use the truck I guess..

I forgot to weigh myself this morning, but I will be sure to do so tomorrow and get a report. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Geocaching Goal Achieved

Laura and I decided that we would go Geocaching today and try to get out 400th cache. Our goal for our first year was 400 caches, and at the end of the day we are at 401 caches found. We would have found more, but we had to give up when we discovered that one of the caches was under 2 feet of snow on the pass between Idaho and Montana. So we managed to go to Idaho today, and that was a fun drive.

We had to climb a short ways to find our 400th cache. The trail was iced over and slick from snow - we fell a few times and when we got within 130 feet of the cache we had to climb the moutain without a trail - no easy task in snow, ice, and cold - but we made it. Laura took a couple hard falls, but she is tough as nails when it comes to this stuff. Sure it hurt a little, and she had to hang out a minute before moving on, but she wanted to find another cache! We got to the top of the pass into Idaho and realized there were no gas stations for quite some distance into Idaho, and we figured we only had enough gas to go 50 miles - which we pretty much did before getting gas back in Lolo, MT for $2.12 - it's slowly going to get under $2.00 by Christmas...

I also have managed to get my weight down to 186 - Laura checked it to be sure. That is nearly 10 pounds in just over 3 weeks. At this rate I could be down around 180 by Christmas - but I will have a tough time keeping it there with my mom's cooking, I will be spoiled with delicious treats! That's one thing I have missed around here, Laura likes to eat healthy foods as often as possible! EWW! However, it is good for my health right now, and once I am running everyday I won't be as worried about my health because I will run everything off anyway. I think that's all for now. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Black Friday

Laura reminded me that I havn't blogged for a few days, and I took the hint. I don't have much along the lines of anything exciting happening, but I will give you a rundown of what has been happening the last few days.

Wednesday we had planned to climb to the top of Mt. Sentinel and get some pictures of the fog in the valley, but that didn't happen because Laura had to do some work at the lab, so we decided to try on Thursday. Well Thursday we made up a Thanksgiving meal and decided we were going to just be lazy for the day and we went for a car ride around the mountain in the pickup. So not much activity yesterday. Today we awoke at 4:45 to do some shopping. We got everything we wanted and then a little more, so that was exciting. We came home and watched the Huskers destory Colorado at Folsom Field - what a disgrace of a student body... Really, who throws stuff on the field? The CU student body... Way to go folks, you really look like the true jerks you are now! To finish the day, Laura and I went for our 3 mile run in the freezing rain. It was a sleet/freezing rain mix, but we managed to get the run in and enjoy the cool evening. The fog is slowly leaving the valley, so maybe we will get some sunshine soon! However, the roads were slick tonight, as my truck was sliding around as we slowly crept up the moutain home. I will weigh myself in the morning tomorrow and give a report - I am thinking it will be 192 or less... Until again

-=Nolan=-

Shootin' in the Fog

Whoa, it's Wednesday morning - I thought I would run a quick update on my blog so everyone can get caught up with my Tuesday... It started Monday night actually - I tried to get to sleep around 10, but wasn't able to until 1:30 am. At 5:00 am my alarm when off, time to go hunting! That was a short night.. I arrived at my spot at 6:00 and walked the half mile out to the blind. I sat there about 45 minutes waiting for legal shooting time because there were 200-300 ducks sitting on the pond infront of the blind...A quick overview of the day goes like this: I harvested two greenheads, should have had a limit which is seven though. Had a goose I should have gotten too - poor shooting. I crippled my second duck and chased it around the marsh for 30 minutes before I finally chased it into a culvert with water flowing through it - I crawled in and got the duck and went back to the blind to recover from my retrieve. I hunted for 10.5 hours, sun up to just before sun down. I didn't take anything to eat, so when I got home at 5:30 I was ready to eat!!! I cleaned the ducks and Laura made supper, we ate at 7:00 and then I sat down for a few minutes before showering and heading for bed to get some sleep. I didn't weigh myself until after supper last night, and I was at 189.

I will report on my happenings of today this evening - there will be some pictures too - so check back. Until again

-=Nolan=-

The Sun Don't Shine in Missoula

I declare the following statement true until proven otherwise false: The sun does not shine in Missoula. The following statement is as described by Nolan regarding the condition of Missoula, Montana for the weekend on November 19 & 20 in the year A.D. 2005. The first picture was taken around a month ago in our backyard. You can get an idea of what the tree looks like that I photographed today. We have had thick fog and freezing conditions for the entire weekend, this causes quite an interesting look to the surrounding vegitation. Anyway, we havn't seen the sun here in Missoula for a few day, nothing new there, but yesterday we went hunting in the Bitterroot Valley south of town and it was bright, sunny, and warm the entire time. We were only 20 miles from town where we were hunting, but it was far enough away to feel a little at ease and enjoy a nice relaxing afternoon.

You might have to click on the pictures to get a good detailed picture of the ice crystals that formed on all the leaves and branches this weekend. The photo of the pathway I took at a local recreation spot known as Kelly Island. We were geocaching in the area and I thought this was a nice picture with the frost covering everything!

We spent the morning yesterday catching up on things we wanted to get done around the house and then headed out for our hunt. We didn't shoot any ducks or geese, but I did manage to find a few decoys and that's good enough for me. Laura even found a shell that hadn't been shot, but it was a 3 1/2 inch shell, too large for my chamber, so I will have to make a trade with someone. After our hunt we headed down the road and found a geocache quickly before the sun went behind the mountains. We went back into the fog about ten miles before getting back to town, and it was like we had passed into another rhelm. We made a Wal-Mart run around 10:00 pm last night to get the last minute Thanksgiving dishes we will be having on Thursday. We were surprised to see that it was actually quite slow for a Saturday night, but that did not hurt anyone's feelings.

Today we spent the morning catching up on things again and then spent the afternoon bundled up in our coats and hats while we found five more geocaches around the area. We are slowly eliminating one cache at a time from the nearby places and we eventually will have them all.

I think as a bonus today, I will include a few pictures Laura took of me as I was decoy fishing for the decoys I found... Now let me enlighten you on the art of decoy fishing. The concept is simple, throw a line out and hook the decoy to bring it back to you to retrieve it. Here's the tricky part - the water is freezing cold, you are chest deep so your ability of throwing is limited to overhead and side arm throws, and you are slowly sinking in mud - in this case mud was up to my knees at some places... Not to mention the weight at the end of my line would drag on the bottom of the marsh while I pulled it back in, thus collecting mud, weeds, and lots of fun disgusting and cold items which make it that much more fun! Did I forget to mention that decoys don't have anything to hook onto them, other than their heads? Just like roping a calf, only much much much smaller... Take note that I am only about ten feet, at most, away from the side of the marsh, but it appears we set up at a warm water spring, making the mud soft and the walking very difficult to do.

But look at the wonderful form I use in my patented method of decoy fishing. As you can tell, this isn't my first time! That's right, I have saved many decoys from cold ponds and deep marshes where they were hastefully placed by fellow waterfowlers. I think, between my brother and I, we have found over two dozen decoys now, making for quite a unique collection of old, beat up, worn out decoys, but they do just as good as any new ones - you just have to know how to use them. This is all the more fun for me though, a good challenge is exactly what I am looking for. If I wanted to have things easy I wouldn't be a hunter...

Well enough of my long winded talk.

Morning weight: 190

Until again

-=Nolan=-

An Afternoon With the Ducks

Yesterday afternoon I was supposed to pick Laura up from the campus at 1:00. I was a little bored here at home so I decided to grab the camera and head down to the park to watch the ducks and to get some pictures. I was hoping to get some photos of the ducks taking off and landing, but they didn't have much interest in fulfilling my wish. That's fine though, I can make the best of what they do. Here's a few pictures from my collection. There are some good looking ducks at the park and it looks like there have been a good number of ducks arriving now that cooler temperatures have arrived.

I believe Laura and I will be heading out for another afternoon hunt today. I have a feeling things will be slow, but it never hurts to go and see what the results will be.

I will try to post some pictures of our afternoon hunt later. Enjoy the pictures.

Morning Weight: 188

Until again

-=Nolan=-

Thai and Quack-ers

What a delicious dish. Laura cooked up some Thai noodles and added vegetables to it. Then we added our ducks and TA-DA a wonderful meal. You can see Laura decided it was nice to eat with chop sticks while I decided the trusty fork would satisfy my hunger needs. We have been trying different meals lately, which has been nice, we could use some variation from our bowl of cereal or sandwich. It just seems that we stay busy enough that we decide there isn't time to make a meal.

We have also been trying to do some geocaching when we get some free time. One of my favorite parks in Missoula is just down the mountain from where we live. It has some ponds that ducks like to hang out at. While we geocache I love to take pictures of any and everything. Here's a few pictures of ducks at the park. I was hoping to get a picture of a BIG hen mallard, but there were people all around the ducks and she wouldn't hold still long enough to get a good shot.

If you have never watched ducks walk or land on ice you are missing out on one of the funniest things on Earth! When a duck lands on water the are able to use their feet to stop themselves when they land. But ducks are a clumsy on ice as we humans are. When they land they slind along, usually on their fronts, sometimes for several feet depending on how fast they are going! I always get a good laugh out of it! You can see in the picture of the single duck there's a slide mark across the picture, just above the duck. He must has slide nearly six feet! I wish I would have gotten a picture of him landing, it would have been a great laugh!

Morning weight: 190

Until again

-=Nolan=-

Late Nite Cartography

Yesterday I blogged the new arrival of 1,000 cachers with 1,000 finds. Well after jestcaching sent me some extra information I decided I needed to make a map for this historic event. I havn't produced a map of this nature in nearly two and a half years. I made a few maps last year while I was doing research on Nebraska Ghost Towns but none like this... Here is just another example of how maps can make everything easier in our lives. Like I always say, you can make a map of anything, and Geography is the basis of EVERYTHING that happens. You name it, I can tell you how Geography and maps relate to it... It's nice to know I can still make a map, even though this is slightly wrong, it still produced the same idea across the board.

The first thing I notice from this map is that the majority of the cachers are on the West Coast and Southwest United States. My guess is this is because Geocaching is popular with retired folks who have time to Geocache more often that working people, and you don't need a map to know there are a lot of retired people who live or move to these locations.

The most interesting thing to note is that Tennessee falls into the 41-50 cachers category. Perhaps the information was incorrect, but I doubt it. Why so many in Tennessee? I would think Illinois or NewYork would be higher... But infact Tennessee doubles New York when it comes to cachers with over 1,000 finds.

Interesting information here. Feel free to chime in and make some observations as well. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Geocaching continues to grow

As reported by jestcaching there are now 1,000 Geocachers who have found 1,000 or more geocaches! I for one am impressed. I have been geocaching for nearly a year. We started Dec. 5, 2004 so our caching anniversary is approaching, but we are currently at 382 caches, just a little over one cache per day. We still have a long way to get to 1,000 caches but I believe we will eventually be there. If you have found 200 or more caches check out the ranking of geocachers worldwide and you can see how you rank. We, XC_Tracker, are currently ranked 4,227 worldwide. By location we are ranked under the Nebraska group at 16th, but in Montana we are 11th.

The list if fun to see where you stack up against other cachers, however it isn't the name of the game. Sure, finding more caches than everyone else might look good on your profile, but the real name of the game is getting outside, enjoying the great outdoors and on occasion getting your brain in gear to do some thinking! With that in mind I think Laura and I will be doing some caching soon, we are going to make an effort to reach 400 caches by the end of one year and we need only 18 more in less than three weeks...

Switching to other news now, Laura confirmed that the scale read 189 this morning. We ran our 2 mile route nearly a minute faster than last weeks fastest time and felt great while doing it. This evening we cooked Laura's duck for supper and made an interesting Thai dish with it. I am still in debate over the overall satisfaction from it, but I would definatly consider making it again. That's all for now. Until again

-=Nolan=-

A Rabbit.... Or A Duck?

So my wife forwarded an e-mail to me today with eye puzzlers. I think most of us have seen this e-mail around... Every time I get this e-mail I am deeply concerned about this puzzler. As you can see from the picture, it is suggesting A) a rabbit or B) a duck. Choose as you will, but I see neither. Oh sure, I can pretend to see a rabbit and I can pretend to see a duck, but REALLY what I see is a terrible rendition from a starving artist who probably didn't make it past the 1st grade art class. He, or perhaps she, tried to draw A) a rabbit or B) a duck and failed miserably but thought perhaps they could pawn it off as an eye puzzler. Thank you for sharing your terrible art with me, I am forever greatful that I can wonder what animal this truely is!

Look at the rabbit, her poor ears appear to have been cut off from a freak lawn mower incident and her nose has been cut short from one too many run-ins with a sliding glass door. Not to mention she has no whiskers, who knows what happened to this poor creature! Where is PETA!*

*Stay away PETA!

Now take a look at that pathetic looking duck, which really looks nothing like a duck at all. If I am ever sitting in a duck blind and something like this flys by, I will either A) shoot it for my own protection, it looks scary or B) let the crazy thing fly away and have nightmares for the rest of my life. The poor thing has a bill that just seems to be amazingly uncomfortable to eat with and look at the back of its head! My gosh, that thing looks like ran into a tree, a big tree, repeatedly!

People please, don't burden me with your terrible art and pretend like you intentionally did this! YOU don't even know what it is when you draw it, and there is no one on this planet, or any other, which can identify this ugly excuse of a... a... a THING!!. I have much more important things to do than try to decide what you have drawn. Until again

Morning weight: 190

-=Nolan=-

Super Sunday

After a slow Saturday of relaxing and recovering from our Friday night fun at the laboratory, we decided around noon today to hit the road and do some hunting. I took Laura to the same place I hunted on Friday, however we went across the pond to get out of the wind and stay away from other hunters who were about a half mile away.

So before I had even gotten back into the blind and had the gun fully loaded we already had a duck fly by, well within range, however we were nowhere near being prepared and he managed to make it another day. About fifteen minutes later a group of five mallards came at us low on the horizon. After they circled over us the first time I feared they had spotted us and we were busted, so I told Laura to let 'em have it! She stood up, and blasted a single shot off and then excitedly yelled "Did I get one!!??" 'No' I said... She had simply raised the gun up into the air and fired away, not even aiming. No surprise there, that happens to everyone, especially on their first real hunt, when those ducks are so close you can see their eyes, the excitement and adrenaline can really make you a bad shot. So Laura's excitement soon turned to disappointment when she realized she had only hit some air with her shot... not long after that there was a single drake mallard flying by which I called and it circled down to us. It was a beautiful approach and he cupped his wings and tipped and turned and he approached the decoys against the wind. Laura jumped up, aimed and missed... Nothing like sending a good warning shot I guess, because the next shot was a beauty. She lined it up and folded it like she had been shooting for years. I was impressed by how well she handled the second shot and very happy to see her excitement when she hit it.

The weather couldn’t have been better today for duck hunting either. A wind at our back, cloudy with scattered rain, and a low cloud base. Duck hunters pray for such conditions and I was delighted to see Laura could enjoy the day with me and harvest her first duck.

In other news, there really isn’t any… I weighed in at 190 again this morning and I think that’s the first day in awhile I haven’t lost a pound. I was surprised that I actually haven’t gained a pound back here and there since we have only been running a week and only six miles total thus far. Well I will stop to keep this from getting lengthy. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Busy Friday

Here is the view from my hunting blind yesterday. This was looking west, out of the front of the blind. Nice morning for a hunt while it snowed on the mountains.

I was glad to get out and see some open country here in Montana. There were fair amounts of ducks around. The geese stayed away from us, off in the trees there was plenty of river for them to enjoy.

After the hunt I returned hom around 3:00 pm and made some dinner. Laura came home from the school at 6:00 and we returned to the school at 7:00 pm to keep working on her experiment. We sat up a digital projector and watched three movies while we waited for the results of the experiment to arrive. Finally at 4:00 am we gave it up and headed for home to get some sleep. Currently it is just before noon and this has been my first chance to sit down and get a blog posted.

We already have gone for our 2 mile run this morning. We have another busy day ahead, so perhaps I will post again this evening if I get a chance.

Morning weight: 190

Until again

-=Nolan=-

Another day, another run

Laura was up early this morning to go to the lab at get some research started. She has an experiment which will take around 40 straight hours to complete, so she decided the earlier the better. She doesn't have to be there all day, so she came home around 8:30 and we went for our two mile run. We improved nearly 45 seconds this morning. I attribute most of that to the fact there was no ice on the ground and we knew exactly where we were going.

I jumped on the computer today, just before noon (MST) and "what's this?" msn.com is running an article about losing weight by running! Click on the link to read about it - it's pretty good actually. And guess what, it's exactly like MY PROGRAM! May I say it? Ok, I will - I AM A GENIUS! They highlight three different programs, but that is under the assumption that you have already been runing 20-30 miles per week... Well guess what, I have been running zero, nada, none, 0, nothing, I have not ran on a weekly basis since the first week of May 2005.

I find it interesting that after ten years of competative running I have discovered many things from running, such as weight management, my capabilities, and mental integrity. I may not know the number crunching or scientific reasoning for such occurances, but I consider myself to be highly knowledgable when it comes to such matters. However, I can bet that if I went to any physical fitness center and were to look for a job as a running instructor or coordinator I wouldn't be considered just because my education background doesn't meet the standards - you would think experience would count for something even if you havn't had the education - but not here. This is Missoula...
Morning weight: 193
Until again

-=Nolan=-

My new boat

Here is my most recent purchase for the hunting world. This is my new duck boat! WOOT WOOT! It is 11 feet long and seats two. There are movable seats in it, and the guy even sold it to me with a paddle. It drafts in less than 6 inches of water. This was a custom boat he had made from Louisiana, but he was moving to Reno, NV and couldn't take it with him. So guess who said could take it off his hands!? ME! I think I can put this to good use.

I think Laura and I should be able to sit comfortably in it. The guy I bought it from said he and his buddy could sit in it easy and the dog would sit in the middle. I will have to get some camo covering for the top of the boat, just for a cover up. The bottom is concave, so it sits flat on the water and is nearly impossible to flip over. He also said he would sometimes stand in the boat to shoot ducks and geese. I don't know what Laura things of this great new toy, but I know I am excited to get out on the water and begin using it. Oh yeah, it is a fiberglass boat and it weighs just a little over 100 pounds. I think a rope on the front of the boat would make it easy to tow along when not in the water, especially if there is snow on the groud --oh look there is snow on the ground! Until again

-=Nolan=-

Sorry, no picture

I usually try to post a picture along with my post. I think it makes the post a little more interesting when you can have some visual reference to go along with what you are reading. However, I don't have any new pictures right now, but perhaps I will entertain the thought of a second post this evening with a picture, just for good measure. However, my topic of concern right now needs no picture...

As some of you know, I have been searching for a job here in Missoula for two months now. I have a BS in Geography so I am not thrilled about joining the local Wal-Mart for the Christmas season. I want a job I can do some thinking and use my skills. So last week, after checking the newspaper, I found an opening for a part-time graphic artist in a small town south of Missoula. I sent in my resume and included a letter in my e-mail to the company. The next day I have a message that reads:

Thank you for your interest. We will contact you shortly to set up an interview.

I am thinking this is good news. I have applied at nearly a dozen different places, and only one place has had the courtesy to inform me I was not selected. So this message sent me to cloud 9! Well, yesterday I recieved another e-mail saying:

Dear Applicants,
We received an overwhelming response to our ad for a graphic designer. Although we initially wanted to interview each applicant, it was impossible to do so.
Thank you so much for your interest and good luck in your job search.

Here is a blog post I took from Matt Dente: At the Spine Tour Journal Fall 2005:

Missoula is a great town that is influenced by its blue-collar history and the University of Montana, a lot of pick-ups and students basically. Bicycles are surprisingly everywhere, and according to the locals, poor city planning makes getting across town quicker on a bike than in a car. The spot we played had a few bars in the vicinity and there were about 25 bikes lined up in front. I’m not sure if it was the simplicity of using a bike in a small town, or the environmentally friendly nature of the whole thing that made it so nice to see. Most likely it has something to do with the fact that we are guzzling fuel while carting a van full of equipment around the country. A bike sure seems simple in comparison.

So I have started to grab at straws as to what a career will be worth here. I am trying to stay positive and believe that something very good is just awaiting me around the next corner. Well, you can only go around in circles for so long before the corner is just the same thing over and over.

Morning weight: 195

-=Nolan=-

Morning Run

Well, we were not able to run yesterday, the streets were slick and it was dark, so we decided to run this morning for our safety. We set no world records, and our running time at 18 minutes for 2.2 miles with a GPS. We have around an inch of snow on the ground, and this time it will take awhile to melt.

I forgot to mention... We did manage to go out for a 1.5 mile walk last night, just to the top of the hill and back. We were sliding around just walking along on the road, so we were glad we didn't try to run. The snow was falling still, and made for a nice walk, we couldn't see the valley below and the snow always makes for great walks during the night. It lights up the ground enough so you can see things around you, not just the darkness. We commented that it felt a little like Christmas, but knew good and well that it wasn't the case. The scale this morning stopped at 195. Until again

-=Nolan=-

I'm not phat, I'm FAT!

This is gonna be lengthy... and as a disclaimer please understand this is not intended to put anyone else down, it's simply a view which I carry of myself.

Here it is, my new worst enemy. In the physics world my weight has reached nearly 195 slugfeet/second squared (or 195 pounds) HOLY MOLY! Considering the weight on my drivers license, issued two years ago, was 160 pounds, I have really put on the pounds. During cross country season last year I was around 165 pounds average, once track season rolled around I was 170 - since I become a distance sprinter in the spring I have to have more muscle - thus the result of more weight. Ok, so that still means I have gained 25 pounds since the end of my collegate running career in May, just six months ago. The reason for this is because I have not ran more than a dozen times since then - definatly not enough to keep my weight where it usually should be.

Here's the plan for the pounds, so to speak. I gained the weight because I was not running - true.. but I wanted to get out of shape to have a purpose to be in shape. It might sound crazy, but it's true. There is nothing more motivating that not having something. I also am going to prove a point about todays weight loss craze. You don't have to take pills, do 8 Minute Abs or Buns of Steel and then eat next to nothing - all you have to do is exersice enough on a regular basis. So my goal weight is to hit 170 pounds again, that will be a little difficult, but I WILL do it... and you can follow my progress from the comfort of you chair, or feel free to join me, do what I do, and you are guarenteed to be able to eat whatever you want and never have to worry about gaining weight again. I would know about the eatting, because I am a human garbage disposal. During competative racing seasons I have witnesses who have seen me eat four (4) full size plates of spaghetti, ten (10) pieces of garlic bread and wash it down with three (3) sixteen ounce (16 oz.) helpings of Hawaiian Punch, all in one meal. BELIEVE IT, I put most football players to shame.

So here's what is gonna happen. Starting today, Monday November 7, 2005 I am going to begin the process of running all over again. Weight loss probably won't come for about a month or so from now, but once it starts there is no way I will be able to put the pounds back, as long as I follow MY program I created. Remember, this is going to happen over the holiday season too! Now we really have a challenge huh! So the plan for today is to run, non-stop, for two (2) miles. That's it. No more, no less, two miles and DONE. Sure, throw some push-ups and sit-ups in there too, but I won't exert myself. I'm going to do this the comfortable way. Rain, snow, wind or shine, I will follow my program. OH, and by the way, my wife is going to join me in this, it's always more fun to have someone to exersice with.

I will give you a brief overview of how this is going to work. If you want to do this, but don't think you can run the distances or feel it is uncomfortable, try to walk these distances at a brisk pace. It is actually better for your body to run & walk when you are beginning a running program. To begin, we are going to run three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday - this will give us 2 days off on the weekend from running, but a walk or hike is suggested. For the first two weeks (6 runs) we are only going to run two miles, the next two weeks we will move to 3 miles, then to four miles. Once we are comfortable running four miles every three days, we will begin running four times a week and begin with three miles for those runs. We will build up to five miles over time, like the cycle before, then begin running five times a week at four miles and build up from there. By this time running will be comfortable and we can continue to run more miles everyday - eventually ten miles will be nothing, just like it was six months ago. So by that shedule, I won't be running more than 25 miles per week until the week of February 6, 2006 - that's three months from today. This is coming from someone who put in three times that amount per week in college...but the point is not to show how fast I can get in shape, it is to prove that anyone can lose weight that follows a running routine.

Here's the dietary side. I am sure most of you are thinking. "But Nolan, you said I could eat whatever I want!?" That's true, eat whatever you want, however you will find there are foods you won't want to eat, just because you will want to avoid them when running. Here's the only rule I am going to follow - drink water. Drinking water will actually add weight, but it is water weight and it will help you more than you think. I am going to drink a glass of water before eatting meals, this fills your stomach and you tend to eat less also.

Ok, so that's all I am going to do. Easy breezy Japanezy. Follow a running routine, drink water, and I will probably go for a 1-2 mile walk every evening/night just to keep my muscles limber - thight muscles are annoying and when you are as out of shape as I am a walk doesn't hurt either. Here's proof for you 'non-believers' that I actually tilted the scale to nearly the 200 mark - fully clothed.

I will try to post daily on my progress. Until again

-=Nolan=-

A caching we will go!

First off, I must retract my statement for yesterday regarding the chemisty group. I had a great time with everyone. After a great meal we headed out to a local bar and played shuffleboard. We managed to beat the crowd in because we were there by 7:00 and once the smokers and regulars showed up, we were out the door and on our way home sometime around 9:30. Yes we are party animals...

By the time we made it home we had snow on the ground, and around an hour later there was a quarter inch of snow covering the deck. We awake this morning to discover it has all melted. Thus resulting in the highlight of my day - GEOCACHING! Laura and I took a 3-4 mile walk around the Clark Fork River and geocached for most of the afternoon. To date we have found 381 caches (but actually have 2 more which were deleted before we could log them, GRR!) This wonderful picture shows the coordinates for Missoula, Montana. There was also a cache hidden nearby, so it made for good photography while hunting around the area. Our downfall was the temperature outside was only 35-40 and we were a little damp from rain, this isn't a fun time when the wind starts blowing either. Yet we managed to find three caches and a benchmark - by accident - along with a stray penny to add to our 'found money' fund. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Saturday's happen'ins

Yesterday evening a good snow storm was working it's way into the valley. It had developed south of us in the Bitterroot Valley and put a lot of snow on Lolo Peak and North Peak to our south. The photo to the left was taken looking west, showing the leading edge of the storm, the blue sky to the north, and the valley below. I thought this was a nice picture to show the snow on the moutains.




So this morning, at 7:30 - it's the weekend mind you - my wife gets up, looks out the window and yells "OH LOOK! THERE'S SNOW!" I don't quite share the enthusiasm she does when it comes to snow in the mountains. We live on the side of a mountain and driving on a mountain in snow is not what I call fun... When I lived in Nebraska the snow wasn't something of concern for me, it was just a great source for hours of entertainment. However, add the factor of skidding off off a road and down a steep inbankment and now the snow just becomes a pain. Fortunatly there was very little snow and it melted quickly, the valley below didn't recieve nearly as much as we did, and that was minimal to begin with.

This afternoon and into evening is to be spent in the company of chemistry grad students. HELP! It really puts me in my place as far as common sense goes however. You would think people who are able to do math equations far past my geography degree level would have some common sense not to touch a hot surface with a bare hand, however this has been proven time and time again this semester from my wife and her labratory partners who commonly show up with blisters and burns... yet somehow I trust my future existence and health to people who have trouble understanding things I knew when I was three. Ah, thus I continue on though..... Until again

-=Nolan=-

Here's one for Dad

Contratulations to my pickup. 121,000 miles on my Ranger today. I bought my trusty truck nearly three years ago on January 1, 2003. At the time it had 98,000 miles exactly, so here I am 23,000 miles later.

My family has always loved to travel. It's not uncommon to take a 2 week vacation and drive 5,000 - 6,000 miles and have a good time... and no matter what we were doing my dad would inform everyone in the car when we hit a new milage number in the car that ended with atleast three zeros. The big ones were four zeros. Who doesn't like having a new number front number on their odometer though? That's part of my goal everytime I drive on a long trip - see how many miles you can drive!

Note to observant people: I pulled over to the side of the road to take this photo - I wasn't driving anywhere, even though the truck was in D...

First Friday Blog

Believe it or not, I spent 640+ minutes listening to internet radio - this was straight through playtime, not in segments or different times - ALL together. That's 10 hours 40 minutes of music... but who can complain, it's Radio Free Colorado! I even listened for most of my morning too, so add another 3 hours onto that that I am sitting somehwere around 14 hours of music for the day!

Along with other things newsworthy in my world... If you are a frequent user of blogger.com then you realize that my format is different for this particular template - that being my sidebar is now on the right side of my page along with other small changes. However, if you have never visited before, I hope you enjoy the look of my page. I took computer programming 4 years ago in college and I didn't realize I still remembered that stuff - I nearly failed the class so how can I do this??? I guess I was a freshman and thought I knew things... Until again

-=Nolan=-

What a picture!

Ah, the wonders of Photoshop. I can spend 20 minutes messing with a picture of myself and BOOM I have a crazy looking picture of your's truely in black & white and color.. Neato burrito!

I have also done some tinkering with my page. As you can see, the font is a little larger and I have capitalized my text, that lowercase stuff is for kids... and check out the weather gidget I added - you can check out the time and weather for Missoula, Montana now.

A little info about the picture: This was taken during July 6, 2004 while visiting Yellowstone National Park, with my then girlfriend, now wife. We were awaiting an eruption from a mudpot, but no luck. The original picture was taken with a digital camera and had both of us in the frame. Some cropping and editing leaves us with this interesting view. You can see that my glasses are colored, along with the pine tree to the upper right. I added my hair color in for some of the picture, but you can hardly tell because I have dark hair anyway. I thought this was a fun way to display a picture, so here it is. If you look close enough, you can see the reflection in my glasses of my wife Laura sitting to my right.

-=Nolan=-

The start of a blog

This shall be the first blog entry for my newly created blog. It's amazing what a little late night surfing and nothing to do can help someone accomplish. I put on my headphones and listen to late-nite internet radio, lately it's been Radio Free Colorado - a small station in Boulder, CO that is really making a big impact on the internet radio world. They play my kind of music, that being classic rock and better yet, it is 100% commercial free - you gotta love that!

As I begin to learn more about the blogging world I will be adding more things to my blogs, but until then I am a newbie and might be for awhile. Until again

-=Nolan=-