15 days until RAGBRAI XXXV!!!
Training miles: unspeakable...hopefully knock some off this weekend..

Useless Information for the day: Aglets - those plastic sleeves at the ends of shoelaces, which stop the ends unravelling and assist with lacing.

The I-Cubs won last night 9-2…nice win, I was more surprised we scored 3 runs in the first…two of those homers. Ron, Linda, Kailey, Mark, Laura, Julie, Shelly, Jamie, Scott, Sara, & Sedi were there last night. Of course Scott & Sara were wearing there ever so fashinable Croc sandles. It was National Guard night…there was no fly-over….disappointing….but we won….and the weather was very nice! Most went to the High-Life afterwards and several before.

Ron and Linda did not look bad at all for the motorcycle accident they had a month ago…Linda gets her cast off in 5 days….Instead of buying another bike they bought a boat…so I got to hear all about that from Ron.

That Dodge Avenger Laura has until her Libby is fixed is a fun little car to drive, even for a 4 popper with 4 doors....

Austin has his first All-Star game tonight at Raccoon..

Austin has a couple games this weekend during the day. Maybe the Good Guys Car Show this weekend. I was suppose to take my 61 GMC pickup up to the swap meet, so I could get rid of it. Looks like I ran out of time. Other than that no plans as of yet for weekend. Maybe hang out with Sedi Sat…..of course that bike thing is looming over my head....

River Phest Saturday, July 7th: This year we will start at Van Meter & float to Booneville. The Booneville Bar is planning on having a band on their patio -- camping will be available. River Phest is an annual river float on the Raccoon River started by Van Meter, Iowa locals in 1996. The first float started with under 30 people and last year we grew to over 200. River Phest is the first Saturday after the 4th of July. Take off from the Wildwood boat ramp in Van Meter @ 1pm and end at the Van Meter two rivers access. There is no charge for floating the river, BYOB and BYOTube. Everyone is welcome except stupid people (you know who you are). We are trying to break 300 people this year so invite all your friends.
Sounds like Sedi may be helping FLOAT the team this year on RAGBRAI

Girl, 11, charged with DUI after high-speed chase

COMING UP: Ankeny Summerfest , SPAMALOT, RAGBRAI, JIMMY BUFFETT......
August: Blaster Ride, Chicago Cubs rooftop,State Fair Pub Crawl, State Fair, Softball......

Deep Thought for the Day: After I die, wherever my spirit goes, I'm going to try to get back and visit my skeleton at least once a year, because, "Hey, old buddy, how's it going?"

IT TAKES 5 MILES TO STOP AT FULL SPEED.

The ship is named Emma Maersk .
The command bridge is higher than a 10 store building and has 11 rigs that can operate simultaneously.
Additional info:
Country of origin - Denmark
Length - 1,302 ft
Width - 207 ft
Net cargo - 123,200 tons
Engine - 14 in-line cylinders diesel engine (110,000 BHP)
Cruise Speed - 31 mi/h Cargo capacity - 15,000 TEU (1 TEU = 20 ft3 container)
Crew - 13 people First Trip - Sept. 08, 2006
Construction cost - US $145,000,000+
Silicone painting applied to the ship bottom reduces water resistance and saves 317,000 gallons of diesel per year.

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Life goes by pretty fast.
If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

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We ate at Battles BBQ before we saw The Transformers Tuesday night…..Great place to eat, I had the Turkey....Wow it was AWESOME! The movie was good, great action! My only complaint which still holds up from the trailers, it was kind of hard to tell who was who for the Transformers….seeing it several times would alleviate this problem….Coloring the Autobots helped some….. I would see it again….and of course a sequel is inevitable…..

Had a nice 4th!!!

Slept in till 9….very nice!!!!!

Got the Mustang started…it started right up (drove it a couple times last fall)...and we went to the Milo parade. A lot of people from Indianola and DSM area there… lasted a little less than a 1 ½ hours.

The mustang did run rough any time we were starting out going…bad gas…some of that gas has been in that tank for 3-5 years….and I haven’t got it burned out, I keep topping it off, I’m afraid to run out of gas…gas gauge or the sending unit quit working on me when I restored it…..I plan of driving it several more times this summer, most likely after RAGBRAI



Went and watched mud volleyball at Raccoon River….Blaise enjoyed the mud and water…Austin just wanted to go….looked like there was a lot of talent out there…..and of course Joe made sure I got some mud….

Later we went to Cindi’s in Ankeny and hung out with her family for a few hours and headed home….and we watched the Milo fireworks from home…..and saw the Pleasantville fireworks too……

I-Cubs tonight... looks like Andy is wussing out tonight...nothing new there....hopefully the temp is decent!

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

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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...............