---

!!!!!!!! remember life is short, so try to enjoy every chance you have !!!!!!!!
Disclaimer: this is without hurting others!

---

It's our independence from those rogues the Britian's...lets not forget what Marcus and the rest of our troops have and are doing for all of us....

I didn't get any biking done last night...got side tracked... ...but I did make it home at a descent time.

SO TRUE “If I was this inventor and I died knowing I made this world a better place- even if I made not ONE cent from the invention - I will still feel extremely satisfied…more satisfied than the BASTARDS raping this planet and it’s people to hoard the booty that they cannot take with them once they leave this place.” came from this article about Turning Salt Water into Fuel.

Driving pet peeves…stupid f*cking motorcyclist today…..weaving in and out of traffic…not leaving much more than a car length in between the cars….you know what; people are following at that distance for a reason, especially during rush-hour. If you want to die and cause havoc for everyone then do it! Just don’t blame others. Don't think I don't love motorcycles, been riding since I was 8...you're not the only one on the road...same to some of you bicyclists that think people should automatically yeild to you....
PEOPLE! That turning signal isn’t suppose to automatically part the traffic lanes for your hunk of junk….Think ahead or yield! Some of you act like you're Moses... The one thing I actually picked up from drivers ed class. I’d been driving since I was 12, but this really stuck with me…..When passing someone, before pulling back-over make sure you have their headlights(plural form) in your review mirror…….Done with the soapbox today….

Tonight…going to try to take the kids to The Transformers movie…actually looks pretty good, then maybe find a place to watch fireworks.

4th of July we'll probably get the Stang up and going in the morning, then probably the Milo parade…one of the biggest around…usually takes an 1 1/2 hours for the parade. Mud volleyball after that…….play everything by ear…

Added THREE songs for the 4th, Neil Diamond's America. The classic We're An American Band by Grand Funk Railroad. Also added a jazzy This Land Is Your Land by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

Deep Thought for the Day: Instead of trying to build newer and bigger weapons of destruction, we should be thinking about getting more use out of the ones we already have.

"This week a Deloitte study has shown that high on the agenda of CEOs around the world is the shortage of tech talent. Is a shortage of talented geeks in the market seeing a return of the dot-com culture with foosball tables, beanbags, and inflated salaries used to entice talented workers? Welcome to Web 2.0 work culture, the future of yesterday. 'Global recruitment companies were telling prospecting employees that they were no longer going to be employed just because they were a technical guru. They were going to have to learn to dress, communicate, and adapt all the traditional corporate ideals that IT has been exempt from during the dot-com boom. Fast forward to Web 2.0 and while workplaces aren't as cheesy with their decor as they were were in the late '90s, and developers aren't getting paid $100K for being HTML and JavaScript jockeys, geeks just aren't chuffed with corporate culture.'"

I don't see this happening here...............

!!!!!!!! MARCUS will be back this month !!!!!!!!
20 days until RAGBRAI XXXV!!!
Training miles: not going there, but ample opportunity to add to it tonight.....

Quote for the Day: If there has come to us the miracle of friendship, if there is a soul to which our soul has been drawn, it is surely worthwhile being loyal and true. Hugh Black

Austin had All-Star practice Friday night, we got home and they scarfed down some food then we went outside and covered the haystack. They weren’t thrilled. A pyramid of 6 bales tall about 75 bales. It was a nice night to do that. In the morning we tried to get things cleaned up at home…..bills, laundry, dishes, etc…before we left…

Saturday we went to the Art Festival….the boys painted the dumpster supplied by Artistic Waste. There should be about 5 fully colored dumpsters floating around DSM for sometime, so keep your eyes open.
I wasn’t overtly impressed with much I saw, but the boys didn’t really allow me to study much of anything. Sure most of these people were talented…I’m saying I didn’t see much that really moved me…..

When we were there we also walked into the American Dream Machines , the food venders were on the street in front of it…. the car selection was nice, Austin was salivating and I had to give him a tour that last about 30-45 minutes about what kind of cars they were, why or why I wasn’t interested, what I thought that car was worth, how, if any connection to a similar car I had…..I pretty much had some type of connection to almost all of them or a least a story….It actually brought up a lot of memories and made me want to get another one fixed or buy…I always keep my eyes open, but realistically I don’t have the time or funds…… They sold the 66 Mustang fastback when we were standing there. Things I told Austin about it….it had a 65 gas cap, the hood scoop wasn’t original along with the side scoops. It also had Leman stripes…basically someone was trying to make a Shelby look-alike but stopped without the side stripes and the Cobra emblems…..It looked good, but I wouldn’t have spent $30k for it……

The boys and I went to Even Almighty afterwards…they loved, I thought it wasn’t bad. It’s hard for me to give my honest opinion on this one….I will say it wasn’t a rehash of Bruce Almighty….totally different story line.

Saw Oceans 13 yesterday with Julie, it was a good movie, I thought it was better then Oceans 12, definitely something for me to see again….
Last night I went to the Jordan Creek 4th of July festivities around the lake….It was extremely relaxing…I can’t remember being that relaxed for sometime….the weather was perfect they had a wine and beer garden…Like normal no cash for Andy…. and then he disappears....
Stacy, Beth, Joe, Kim, Nicole, Justin, & Andy were there…Sedi showed up later, but I have no visual proof of it….The fireworks were ok, when they got to the end they were good….They needed to let them off faster at the start….the ones over the water at the end were very cool……

Deep Thought for the Day: If you're a boxing referee, it's probably illegal to wear a bow tie that spins or changes colors.

Quote of the Century
"The American Indians found out what happens when you don't control immigration" --- Richard Lang
Golfing last night was relaxing once I remembered my swing….putting was however disastrous for me.. We played at Copper Creek. Suzanna was working (She’s the event coordinator), she was like what are you doing here?....ummm playing golf….didn’t I tell you last night I was playing today….etc. There were several times I had ample opportunity for a birdie or par….and my putts sucked sooooo much! Probably the worst I ever putted, usually have a least one lucky one….Playing a little more golf will probably improve my game.....Enough of that, Beth had a 62 foot putt WOW!!!

Went to Legends afterwards…then headed down to the Function in the Junction, was suppose to make The Longest Yard…ran into someone walking there and ended up going to Lloyds’ instead and actually making it home semi-early. I’m sure that’s why I can’t keep my eyes open.

Oh yeah……Andy will probably want to beat me up after last night, but I think I can take him….as long as he doesn’t bleed on me.

Had a nice conversation about life with Stef on the way…...I had a little alcohol in me, so I was probably non-coherent. I think we came to the realization that I’m looking in the wrong place for a nice girl. After discussing this with Mark, he says he's actually finding all kinds of nice ones online. Not being sarcastic….but that’s just not for me. We both are looking for 2 different things, but the girls he hangs with don’t realize that…….not worth worrying about….back to work

Song of the day is Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World…this might actually be my all-time favorite song….so relaxing. Sometimes it’s hard to remind myself where I want to be. Listening to this totally reminds me where I want to be, unfortunately It can’t tell me how to get there. I do think its time to go back to where I was about 2-3 months ago, I was actually less stressed and had less on my mind.

Tonight will be an early night for me; I’ll be sleeping when the boys are. Tomorrow the farmers market and Art Festival ….and hopefully a quite weekend, maybe get some stuff done.

Deep Thought for the Day: If you ever teach a yodeling class, probably the hardest thing is to keep the students from just trying to yodel right off. You see, we build to that.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!!

23 days until RAGBRAI XXXV!!!
Training miles: more then yesterday……

Looks like some refuse tooting chica struck again yesterday.....

Right before I left work yesterday someone…came to me asking me to write some code to perform a function before I left…so I was at work an extra hour, when I was planning on getting a new tube for my bike and some other things. I did find time to run to Bike World, got a tube and ended up buying a light. Never had a light before usually just ride by moon light or follow others with a light and yes it can be dangerous, but that’s my middle name.

Steak Night:
Last night was a beautiful night for about 50 people at The Rendezvous, enjoying a nice piece of meat. The local cop didn’t like Plummer letting off fireworks in town…..He also was displeased with my smart-ass remark…gave me a warning. Guess, Barney can’t take a joke.

Ran down to the Kinnick Tavern to talk to Pete about the website and gear etc...of course he was in DSM playing volleyball.

Surprised Spaulding when he came up behind me a grabbed my back, twisted his arm and flipped him to the ground….he actually learned something new.
It was kinda scary listening to Spaulding and Cribb discussing Cribb’s new bike…..I mean come on, its a bike….they made it sound like they were talking about a car…Yeah has a Holly 4-barrel, 302 bored 4 over with a Elderbrock intake…etc…

We let alot of fireworks off at the sweet spot last night...need to keep them away from Mike P, he can't aim well.

…..so I actually got some miles in, finally! No other Kami's made it last night.

Also made the fastest trip from the sweet spot to Orlando’s. It was Mark’s(Temp) b’day and I had told him I’d see him. It was extremely hard to pull myself away from Adel. When I finally did it was getting late..he calls me …where the hell!....on my way….20 minutes later…..Had a beer or two at Orlando’s…got Suzanna, Mark, & Tom’s friend Michelle all flushed and speechless before I left.....It was funny, would have had to be there for that one.

Song of the Day is Blister In The Sun by Violent Femmes….it’s the first song in the player…..

A little too much ultravilot rays over the weekend...peeling...and it was cloudy the whole time.... Don't forget to protect your skin in winter and on cloudy days. Reflection from snow and water can increase the intensity of the sun's rays by up to 80%. Clouds block only a small fraction of the sun's rays, making it possible to get sun burnt even on a cloudy day.

Tonight… a little golf at Copper Creek. Don’t feel like clubbing/bar (same old same old) afterwards with the others tonight. So that is still open....Of course the farmers market in Valley Junction could be a good thing .

Why is bra singular but panties plural?

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou

Deep Thought of the Day: Frank knew that no man had ever crossed the desert on foot and lived to tell about it. So, he decided to get back in his car and keep driving.

Have an awesome day! Weather should be nice.....