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

!!!!!!!! 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.