Thursday, April 27, 2006

Rest

Geez, blogging has become quite a task for me the last week, if you couldn't tell. Yesterday I worked a full day and arrived home at 5:20. I grabbed a few crackers and packed my backpack for ultimate frisbee which started at 6:15, but I usually try to show up between 5:55 and 6:00. So our game lasted for almost 3 hours last night. We had to cut it short because of darkness, but we did beat a team which had not been beat yet. They were very good and gave us quite a run. I scored four times, I think, it might have been five, but I didn't keep track. Anyway, I got to outrun some people and I always like that. Even when I am out of shape I am still in better shape than most... Perhaps my idea of being out of shape is different from most though - if I can't run for 30 minutes without stopping or I break a sweat during a jog then I consider myself to be very much out of shape.. I guess that's what I get for running for 10 years and always wanting to get better - when I get worse I know I have to work HARD to get back... Anyway, that's another rant for another time. For now I just wanted to get a little word in about my long day yesterday... I forgot to mention - after ultimate I arrived home and helped our neighbor move a huge couch into her house, which required us taking it up stairs and around a corner. It was quite a pain, but at 11:00 pm what isn't? Ha ha! That's all for now. Sorry no picture today. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Where Have My Days Gone?

*Yawn* Well, well, well... Laura has finally got me where she wants me... I am getting up semi-early and going to bed WAY too early. My schedule right now looks like this:

7:20-7:30 am - Wake up time.
7:50 am - Start the computer while getting breakfast
8:18 am - Work boots on and round up my gear for the day
8:30 am - Arrive at work with 3 layers of shirts
9:37 am - Take off coat and get a drink
9:51 am - Remove sweatshirt and get a good stretch before continuing work
10:30 am - 15 minute break which is much welcome
10:45 am - Round up gloves and hat and back to work
1:15 pm - Lunch time
1:45 pm - Lunch time over
1:55 pm - Finally remember what I was doing before lunch and continue working
3:30 pm - Afternoon break - set down and look at shoes. Realize sweat is soaking through leather shoes and make comment to fellow employees.
3:45 pm - Back to work shortly after recovering from break
4:45 pm - Start cleaning up the work gear: shovels, hammers, wheel barrels, and such.
5:00 pm - Drag myself to my pickup and head home
5:20 pm - Stumble in the door and take off shoes
5:30 pm - Jump in shower for quick rinse off
5:37 pm - Out of shower and head for the couch for rest
6:15 pm - Laura rings the dinner bell and I muster up some energy to go round up some food
6:45 pm - Take dishes to sink and head for the couch again
6:46 pm - Flip through channels for 14 more minutes until something 'good' comes on TV
7:00 pm - Realize nothing good is on tv so flip through channels for4 more minutes
7:04 pm - See something 'interesting' on PBS and watch it
8:00 pm - Wake up and realize the 'interesting' segment on PBS was perfect to put me to sleep
8:08 pm - Head for computer to see what has been happening around the world via Internet
9:30 pm - After catching up on websites and chatting I realize I need some sleep because I am mighty tired from the day
9:32 pm - Dish up some ice cream because I can't sleep without a good snack
9:46 pm - Try to update blog - sometimes that doesn't happen because I am WAY to tired
10:04 pm - Laura yells "Are you coming to bed soon" and I actually reply "Yes"
10:17 pm - Head for bed and turn on TV to catch the end of the news - just the weather please
10:30 pm - Realize Leno and Letterman is on so I better watch that too
11:00 pm - Jimmy Kimmel is on so I better watch that too
11:30 pm - Connan O'Brian and Craig Ferguson is on now, better see who they have on the show
11:45 pm - Think about falling asleep
11:57 pm - Really start thinking about sleep
12:11 am - Start falling asleep while watching tv
12:14 am - Grab drink of water and turn off tv - it's time to sleep
12:15 am - Zzzz Zzzz Zzzz (Until 7:20)

So that's where my days have gone... Honestly I have been trying to keep my blog updated but it's been rather difficult - especially on Wednesday because I get off of work at 5:00 and Ultimate Frisbee starts at 6:15 and usually goes until 8:30 so 12 hours of my day is spent at work and playing Ultimate. I have to say, I am really liking the landscaping work. We don't do any mowing or anything. We just put in new landscape and it's all hard work, but I am having a great time being outside. It's exactly why I got into geography, I didn't want to be inside all day! Plus this is stuff I can really do quite easily... Like today - I dug holes, took apart some wooden planters, helped run the sod machine, rolled sod up, dug more holes, and removed fence posts. Repetative work, yet never exactly the same thing and always a new challenge to something... At the end of the day today the boss commented on how hard we worked all day and was very impressed with how much we got done... I will try to post something more related to Laura and I when I get my next chance - right now it is 10:00 pm and I am starting to wear thin on energy. Here's a picture of Laura while we were geocaching this weekend. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Working and Sleeping

Well, since yesterday (Wednesday) my life has been in overdrive! I got the job with the landscaping company and started Wednesday morning. We are starting around 8:30 right now so the cooler temps arn't such a problem, but later in the summer we will begin working earlier and earlier... Yesterday we worked on a house that wasn't too far from our apartment. We worked on a patio the entire day yesterday. We layed pavers the entire day and did a very nice job considerering we had to have one inch of slop over eight feet. That's not exactly an easy task when you havn't have much experience with it. Today we finished up the patio and I worked on a retaining wall. I was working on cap-stones for the wall for most of the day. I even learned how to cut blocks with a chisel and hammer. That was a lot of fun and I got pretty good at it VERY fast. I was making near perfectly straight cuts on my second block. I think I may have found my calling as a mason in the future. Other than that, I played Ultimate Frisbee last night and our team won and tonight I am at the school with Laura. I am working on a computer for her lab and she is doing some work. I did mow the front lawn this afternoon - I had to get the mower running, which I managed to do - then I used the trimmer and the lawn is looking really nice. That's all for now. I will try to get a MUCH better posting when I get some more free time. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

I'm Speechless.

The title says it all, if it does say anything at all that is. Ha ha! Get it? Speechless - says it all! That's a good one, I might right that down.

Let me bring everyone up to speed on what has been happening in the last week... I havn't said too much about it, because honestly it was no different than the usual... Well about a month ago I sent in a couple applications to the DNRC. That's the Deparment of Natural Resources and Conservation here in Montana. Well, after a few weeks of not hearing anything I am figuring this is no different than the last two dozen applications I have sent in. So I checked the paper two weeks ago and found a position as a youth mentor for outdoor recreation, doing hikes, camps, fishing, climbing, that kind of stuff. So I called the place and left a message. Five days go by and no response from the company so back to the newspaper. An ad for a local landscaping company caught my eye - it said NO MOWING - so I sent in an application on Tuesday and the landscaping guy called me Thursday for an interview on Friday! HOLY SMOKES! I'm thinking FINALLY! Well, I interview for the job on Friday afternoon and around 6:00 that night I get a call from the outdoor company asking me to send a resume - which I did yesterday. Less than five minutes after I sent my resume to the outdoor company my phone rings and it's the DNRC from Anaconda, Montana - about 100 miles away - and they want me to interview on Thursday for the position I applied for so I told them I would. Now I am thinking, "Wow, two interviews in less than a week huh.!?" So this morning I recieved a call around 9:30 and it's the landscape guy - "Hey, congratulations. You've got the job if you want it." So that's my good news for today - I accepted the job. The story doesn't end there. Oh no! Just as I am sitting down to write this VERY blog my phone rings again. "Hi Nolan, This is the Missoula DNRC calling about the position you applied for. Are you still interested?" Is this for real? I recieved four (4) phone calls in response to jobs I applied for. I have been trying for 7 months to get something, sent in well over 25 resumes and applications and all in one week I get four phone calls asking for interviews and additional job information.

So I have gone from thinking jobs were going to be impossible to get to now turning down jobs I really wanted!!! But I already told the landscape company that I would accept the job and I am not going to go against my word after he was so nice and quick to respond to me. Afterall, the other positions were still open for interviewing and there is a chance I wouldn't get those - although I am sure I would have gotten one of them. Oh, let me clarify the DNRC job.

I applied for that job here in Missoula. It was for a Look Out position in a fire tower out in the wilderness. That's when the Anaconda office called me first about the position and THEN the Missoula office called today. I would have liked to do that job, but I think I will be just as happy with the landscape work.

That's all for today. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Monday, April 17, 2006

Easter Snow

Usually the words "Snow" and "Easter" don't go together, but around here nothing surprises me anymore. As I have mentioned before, we have recieved some form of moisture almost every day this month and as of this morning snow has joined the list. We recieved snow yesterday as well, however it was more of a snow/freezing rain combination and it didn't stay long.

Our Easter weekend was nice. Saturday was cold and wet so our hopes of going hiking were crushed. Laura did get a lot of homework done so that was a good thing. Easter Sunday wasn't much better. The high was around 45 and the clouds have lingered in the valley for the past several days. When the sun does show up it is almost too bright to go outside without sunglasses. I feel like I live in a hole in the ground, only the hole is the entire valley!

We did have a nice dinner with everyone in the chemistry program and we returned home so Laura could do some more homework. Our weekend wasn't too exciting as far as doing exciting things but as far as productivity we really had a good weekend. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Friday, April 14, 2006

Good Friday

Good Friday has been pretty good for me thus far. However, it is only half over so I can't say that it will be a completely good day...you never know what could happen. Tonight I have an ultimate game - it's just a pick-up game for fun with some of the guys who play on the league, but they asked me to play with them on Monday and Friday evenings so I decided that would be a good way to get out of the house and get some exericise as well. So that is my plans for the evening. Today was the first time in two weeks that I havn't gone running in the morning, but I think I might go run before or after the game tonight. It will be a nice easy run and I won't have to run around on the mountain because the game is played right next to the Clark Fork river. There is a trail that runs right next to the river and the field so I will have an easy time jumping on the trail and I won't have to worry about cars either.

On Easter Sunday, Laura and I are going to join some of the chemistry people for a mid-afternoon dinner. I think it's going to be the usual crowd - the people who usually come and hang out who don't go home. Maybe a better way to phrase that is 'people who can't go home.' Laura and I are some of the closest people to home when it comes to the chemistry group. There are a couple guys from Oregon who a closer to home, but other than them there are people from Minnesota, Indiana, & Maryland just to get started.

I havn't posted in a few days because there hasn't been much news to share and as you can see our weekend isn't too busy either. However, that's just about how we like it, no need to fill the weekend with more things that we don't have time to do - that's for when we both have jobs and can't find the time! Ha ha! Have a great Easter and wonderful weekend. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

The Garden

So it is a quarter to nine post meridiem and I just realized I FORGOT TO POST today... I didn't have much to say, but wanted to show off the 'garden' I put together. It's a joke by Nebraska standards, but it's all we've got to work with right now. As you can see from the picture, there is grass along the sides. That grass was actually out in the middle of the garden, but I dug it up and put it along the sides to allow us to walk around the edges. It kind of looks like a gravel pile when you look at it now! We have a few potatoes we plan to plant, along with carrots, green peppers, cucumbers, and pumpkins. We don't have a real long growing season here, but long enough we should get some good crops as long as we fertilize and keep the squirrels, dogs, deer, and bears out of the garden then we should have a nice crop. You can see some of the rocks I pulled out of the dirt too, a did bury a few down deeper such as the larger ones, but the medium sized ones I threw to the side. Short blog tonight, but enough to keep me happy anyway. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Monday, April 10, 2006

In The Garden

Our weekend was fun filled and very productive. Saturday Laura and I were able to do some geocaching. We only found two caches but that was enough to satisfy our weekend craze. Yesterday we worked outside most of the day on the flowerbeds and garden. Laura did some other work indoors while I finished up the outside work, but we are looking to have a nice yard (granted the dog doesn't rip it ot shreds again). I have some before and after photos I took to show our work. We dug up the grass in the planters and transplanted it into the backyard where the dogs have dug holes for the past few years. Hopefully it will grow back, but it's hard to know right now. We have already done some trimming last weekend so we decided it was time to shape them up and make everything look good. Here are some photo's of what we did!
BeforeAfter
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BeforeAfter_________________________________________
BeforeAfter
Here is the garden that I worked on most of the evening yesteday. As you can see there is only a border around the outside, but as of this morning I have finished tilling the entire area BY HAND! Yes, I took a little garden shovel and dug up the grass that was in the area and planted it along the sides of the garden to create a little walking area around the outside. I managed to bruise the palm of my hand as well, from the short-handled garden shovel. I will try to get a picture of the new garden this afternoon and post it tomorrow.
Finally, here is a picture of a little friend who stopped by while we were working in the garden. I have seen the bee flying back and forth from the flowers. These are actually right out our front window and at eye level (we live in the basement) so it's really easy to watch and see what is happening.As you can see we had quite a busy weekend doing outdoors work and we were happy to have temperatures near 60 degrees to keep us warm! Rain is in the forecast for the next 10 days so we have a good start to our spring season! Until again

-=Nolan=-

Friday, April 07, 2006

The Rain Has Stopped

I nearly forgot to post today! I got out for a run this morning and really enjoyed the nice weather. We saw highs around 55 today and it felt warmer with the humidity from the moisture in the air after three days or rain! We usually only get a little over an inch of rain in April, and so far we have already recieved 3 inches or rain!

I got out and took some photos of the flowers blooming in our front flower garden.I also played some catch with Brooklyn and worked on the fixing a decoy I found a few months ago while I was hunting. It was a great day to be outside and do stuff I had been waiting to take care of until the weather warmed up and it is starting to feel like spring! Have a great weekend. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Thursday, April 06, 2006

And Now With The Weather....

Take a look at the national radar at 7:11 EST.In Missoula it started raining last night before 9:00 and it is still raining here around 5:30 pm. We broke a record for rainfall at over 1.75 inches so far. It has been raining for the last three days as well, so we are getting more than enough rain. I love watching the local news and the weather man/woman who has no clue what is going on but read the prompter and just blabber away. They have no clue what is actually happening with the weather... I'm no meteorological expert but I atleast know how to read a weather map.

I got out for a run this morning. It was only about 35-38 degrees so I was a little cold after I got soaked from the rain...but I do enjoy a good run in the rain even if it's a little cold. It was snowing a few hundred feet above me on the moutains and I had a few snowflakes hit me in the face as I passed by them.

Staying on the weather theme, the hurricane season is still alittle time off, but fast approaching. Predictions are that the hurricane season will be even more active than last year and we all know that we had quite a time with the hurricanes last year. Which by the way several hurricane names have been retired because of their destruction. Obviously Katrina is one of them, along with Rita & Dennis plus several others. Yesterday while listening to the radio the DJ was explaining how they have already named all the hurricanes for this year... It was all I could do not yell at the radio because the hurricane names are listed several years before the season even arrives. Here are the names for the Atlantic 2006 season.

Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debby
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Rafael
Sandy
Tony
Valerie
William

The only change on the list is that Kirk has been replaced by Keith because Kirk is a retired name. It should be another interesting year for storms. Only time will tell though. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Ultimate Frisbee

Today Ultimate Frisbee begins. What's Ultimate Frisbee you ask? Well to put it simply it's like Football (American Football) but at the same time it's the total opposite of Football. You have two teams, 7 players for each team on the field at once. The object is to advance the frisbee all the way into the endzone to score a point. However, you can't walk with the frisbee - once you catch it you have to stop and throw to another player on your team. Basically you are not allowed to contact another player, although contact is unavoidable, but as long as the contact is not intentional and dangerously made then no one will complain. Here's 10 Simple Rules to the game - there are obviously more, but these are the general rules. I got these from the Ultimate Players Association webpage.
  1. The Field -- A rectangular shape with endzones at each end. A regulation field is 70 yards by 40 yards, with endzones 25 yards deep.
  2. Initiate Play -- Each point begins with both teams lining up on the front of their respective endzone line. The defense throws ("pulls") the disc to the offense. A regulation game has seven players per team.
  3. Scoring -- Each time the offense completes a pass in the defense's endzone, the offense scores a point. Play is initiated after each score.
  4. Movement of the Disc -- The disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. Players may not run with the disc. The person with the disc ("thrower") has ten seconds to throw the disc. The defender guarding the thrower ("marker") counts out the stall count.
  5. Change of possession -- When a pass in not completed (e.g. out of bounds, drop, block, interception), the defense immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes the offense.
  6. Substitutions -- Players not in the game may replace players in the game after a score and during an injury timeout.
  7. Non-contact -- No physical contact is allowed between players. Picks and screens are also prohibited. A foul occurs when contact is made.
  8. Fouls -- When a player initiates contact on another player a foul occurs. When a foul disrupts possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player committing the foul disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.
  9. Self-Refereeing -- Players are responsible for their own foul and line calls. Players resolve their own disputes.
  10. Spirit of the Game -- Ultimate stresses sportsmanship and fair play. Competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of respect between players, adherence to the rules, and the basic joy of play.
So that's a quick overview of the game. The frisbee that we use is 175 grams and are excellent for throwing. They are not the cheap frisbees you get at Wal-Mart. They usually cost anywhere between 10-15 dollars. I happen to get mine on clearance at Target for $5 about three years ago. I didn't take this picture, but this is the exact frisbee I have and practice with.

I am excited to get started, mainly because of the level of activity and exercise I will get. Usually I run around the entire time and try to make the other team tired. Well, that's how I used to do it before I got out of shape, so tonight might be a little more a challenge to run the entire time. However, I will do my best.

And in final news, I JUST recieved a phonecall from the repair shop informing me that my truck is done. FINALLY! Only three weeks after taking it in too. Geez, talk about quick service huh! Oh well, in all honesty I am glad it is fixed and it probably was good it hasn't been here because I probably would have driven it around and then I would have been spending money on gas - nevermind that the repair costs far outweight the gas to keep it on the road, but I think you understand... Until again

-=Nolan=-

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Coloring In The Map

The rain has arrived. It started raining overnight and nhas continued for most of the morning. It will be a nice amount of water for the flowers and trees that need it around here. I was actually a little unhappy to see the rain though. I was looking forward to another run this morning. At one time the rain would have been great to go run in, but I don't have much ambition to go run in the rain when it's 40 degrees outside and the rain makes it colder! I will probably try to run later once the rain has stopped, although it is predicted to rain until Wednesday night when the rain will turn to snow!

I have also updated our travel map after our trip to Oregon and Washington. It seems to me that we traveled a lot more than the map indicates, but it is accurate. Hopefully we can add a few more counties this summer on our trips.

And for you useless trivia types... Keep in mind that tomorrow you will have the rare opportunity to see the time and date read 01:02:03 04/05/06. WHOA! Amazing huh! You can catch it early in the morning or early in the afternoon, whichever tickles your fancy. If you miss it, don't worry. Just set your clock to that time and you can see it over and over. Some places of the world have already experienced this phenomena and they seem to still be operating under normal conditions. There doesn't appear to be any Y2K scare here... Yes, Y2K the biggest joke of the millenium. Until again

-=Nolan=-

Monday, April 03, 2006

April Showers

We havn't seen any rain today, but it is predicted to arrive. However, I don't think it will. Seems the local weather stations have as good of chance telling me where lightning will strike before they get the weather correct. Oh well, I have taken meteorology classes and I understand how weather works so I will cut them a break... Another thing for everyone to know is that you don't say Daylight-Savings Time it is Daylight Saving Time (NO S on Saving). I am watching the local news on Saturday, the 6 & 10 o'clock editions and both times the anchor said 'savings' and it was even shown on the monitor that way. UHG! I know there are more pressing issues in the world, but please please don't say 'savings' it make you sound like a six year old, except it's not cute any longer! That's my rant for the day.

If you take a liking to the arts, particularly painting, then you better take a look at "A Painting A Day...Miniature Masterpieces" by Darren Maurer. I know Darren very informally through internet converstaion and because he does such awesome work I wanted everyone to see it. He's an artist out of Sioux City, Iowa and you may have seen his work before. He has been featured on the Iowa Duck Stamp several times - 2001 & 2002 and will soon be displaying his work on the 2007 Iowa Stamp as well. If you would like to see those paintings then you can go >>HERE<<. He is currently working on doing a painting everyday for a month so make sure you check back to the first link daily to see the newest masterpiece. Here is a sneak preview of some of the great work he does with oil paint. I am going to add a link under my "Links" section so you can get to the page from mine as well.

As far as news goes around here things have been slow since we arrived home from our spring break trip. It's hard to believe that another year of school is almost over for Laura. With the jobs hard to come by around here, I have started looking into starting my own business of repairing and maintaining computers. I believe I have submitted well over two dozen applications to various business' around town and only Home Depot has given me an interview - but evidently my Bachelors Degree doesn't quite qualify me. So it's time to take matters into my own hands....the problem is I am not sure where to get started.? I will try to keep everyone up to pace with that new idea.

Otherwise the weekend was good. Yesterday Laura and I got outside and cleaned up the front yard. We cleaned up the flowerbeds and found flowers in them! They were covered in leaves but now we have flowers everywhere! I also moved some large rocks around into the flowerbeds. They were rocks that Laura and I had to put in the back of the truck about 2 months ago when we got stuck in the snow and I just put them along side the house expecting to return them eventually... Well the truck is STILL at the repair shop so I decided they would look nice out front. I also fixed up a bird house that was broken, so maybe we will have a bird nest to take some pictures of this summer! Until again

-=Nolan=-