Welcome To My Life

2008-12-10T20:45:00.003-05:00

I got this from Ben's blog and thought it was neat. Things I have done are bolded.

1. Started your own blog (Duh)
2. Slept under the stars (Every chance I get)
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (does a Lake Count? I might get some “street cred” if I mention it was in an aluminum canoe)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (piano)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (I am sure I had a good reason)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (Like everyday in Oswego, nothing beat watching the sunset over the lake)
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (Dinner Cruise from Alexandria Bay, in the Thousand Islands)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person (I live like 20 min from them)
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (Germany)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (some ASL, Some German, and some Spanish)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (it doesn’t take much)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (on a rock wall)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (in a pool)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (a toy... I saved all my toys)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (probably at least heard it all in church throughout the years)
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating <---- I could never ever ever do that 88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit 99. Been stung by a bee
100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person
101. Learned to play an instrument (Trumpet, Clarinet, Piano, and French horn)

Give it a try, post to your blog, and comment here, or if you don’t blog (why not?) you can do it in a comment here.

Typing Test

2008-12-10T20:39:00.001-05:00

69 words

Typingtest

I got memed

2008-11-18T20:02:00.004-05:00

So I got memed (if that is really a word) by Jon. Here is what you do:
-find a book
-go to page 56
-create a new post on your blog
-write the 5th, 6th, and 7th sentences from page 56 on your new blog post
-tag 5 other blogger buddies to participate

Here is mine, I chose the Bible:
From Genesis:
"Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Joesph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, "It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household." The second son he named Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."

Since I am new to this blogging thing, I don't have any blogging buddies that haven't already received this, so no passing this along for me.

Quick Update

2008-10-17T21:27:00.002-04:00

A lot has changed since my last post. We are busy packing things up and moving to Buffalo because I was offered a job out there. More details on that in a week or so when I start. Until then wish us happy packing and moving!

Defending 1st Place

2008-09-29T21:15:00.015-04:00

This weekend that guy and I went out to K1TTT's station in Massachusetts to help operate during the CQ RTTY contest. If anyone is into contesting you would know who K1TTT is and understand that now I am on my way to being kinda well known! Well that is if I continue doing contests.

So about his amazing station and lovely antenna farm. He has several operating positions set up in his station, each for a different band. Each position is equipped with a Yaesu 1000, or Kenwood TS 2000, both very cute radios (more about that on an upcoming post) amps, antenna rotators, etc. Basically you name it, the station had it.

I had never ever done RTTY before so I was overwhelmed with the thought of using RTTY for the first time in a contest to help defend their 1st place win from last year. I quickly learned I had nothing to worry about because it is pretty easy to opporate, and easy to learn especially when you have hams that are great at explaining it.

Once I got a crash course on RTTY, I was put on 15m. It was pretty dead, only a few contacts per hour, but it was good to start slow. Then it was over to 10m which was even slower, then when I thought it couldn't get any slower I went over to 20m, where I was lucky if I got 1 contact per hour. I sat there for a few hours searching the whole band just for that one station that might be out there. Apparently some hams were quite impressed with my persistance and dedication (on dead bands) because I was given the opportunity to opporate on 80m in the middle of the night when the band was open and stations were calling at rapid speeds! It was insane.

At 2am it was time to get some zzzz's in, then back up and and got on 20m at 8am. Thatguy rocked a rate of 150 contacts / hour on 20m when the band opened up to Europe (around 6am) which I am sad I slept through, but way to go babe :-)

Where was I know??

Oh yes

The Antenna Farm.

I am not sure what bands these antennas were for, but he had 10 towers all around that size (70ish - 170ish feet tall).. yes folks--- t-e-n.

Oh how I would LOVE to have an antenna farm and a lovely shack like that. Yes it would be oh so lovely!!

On a completely different topic this was the scenery just outside of his house. How beautiful.

And yes there are really moose that live near K1TTT's. Sadly we didn't see any. That's ok I probably would have screamed because well they weigh like 12 times as much as me. Thanks hunny for driving REALLY slow the whole way down that lonngggg road so we could find this sign, turning around after we passed it, and then stopping in the middle of the road, getting out of the car where a large moose could have potentially come out and attacked you, and took a picture of the moosey sign. Yup that's love.

On our way out of Mass., I saw an Irish Pub. I spot me Guiness anywhere!

For more information on our contest results go here. That's where I become ~~famous~~ well known because my callsign KC2PNE is listed on the web for all other die hard hams to see.

Anyways I want to thank K1TTT for his generosity along with all the other hams for their patience while I learned RTTY. I hope to contest with all of you again sometime. It was an amazing opportunity to learn more about the wonderful world of ham radio that I will never forget!

TV networks discriminate?!

2008-09-26T16:32:00.007-04:00

The Paralympics is similar to the Olympics, but for elite athletes with varying physical disabilities. It occurs shortly after the Olympics, and in the same city. Athletes compete in number of sports including archery (my fav), cycling, football, powerlifting, shooting, swimming, wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair rugby just to name a few. For more info go here.

So here is my beef.

They are not on tv. At least around here. But the Olympics are on the air basically 24/7 and on multiple channels! Oh and you can't forget about the reruns. I don't have anything against Michael Phelps, I mean he is an amazing athlete, but seriously how many times did they need to air his press conferences, and his winning swims?

8,465,298,731

Ithinknot!

I don't care about seeing his winning swim that earned him his 8th medal, or Shawn Johnson and Nastia Luikin's gymnastic performances at 1, 2, 3, and 4:00 AM on like every channel. When I couldn't sleep it would have been nice to have variety.

But I digress.

In Europe the Paralympics are aired regularly. Not as much as the Olympics, but still something. Every night on the news the daily results would be mentioned, and stories would be published on them in the newspaper's sports section. Or at least that's how it was when I was there 5 years ago.

So what is going on in the US? Do they just not care? Well it's discrimination then in my book!

I wanna work there

2008-09-21T22:44:00.001-04:00

So I was reading the local paper the other day at work since that is one of my duties. I was skimming through the tv lineup for tonight and saw the show "The Office" would be on. We just started watching that show a few months ago and are having regular marathons of the show to get caught up on the past 4 seasons so we will be ready for the new season which starts this Thursday.

***Do not read below if you are a fan of "The Office" and haven't gotten caught up to the end of Season 4 yet. ***

no peeking

I don't want to spoil it for you.

The title for the episode said "Goodbye Toby." For all of you that aren't fans of the show well you should be because you will be ~~laughing~~ , no I mean crying you are laughing so hard. Yes my friends it really is that funny. Toby is their Human Resources guy, and well if you are a fan you know that Michael isn't so nice to him. I feel bad for him so he is one of my favorite characters, well and the fact he is in HR. I am sorta partial to those people. So all day at work the other day I was almost in tears because of Toby's departure. I was so sad {andstillam} I couldn't get myself to watch the episode yet because really I am just not emotionally ready. It is sort of depressing that I get that upset over a tv show. I know I have no life. On the bright side their HR position will be open. Maybe I should apply cause well who wouldn't want to work for Dunder Mifflin. Michael keep your eyes open for my resume. If it was a real company it would totally make it in the top 10 best places to work at.

Oktoberfest

2008-09-20T21:30:00.008-04:00

Today that guy and I went to Oktoberfest to celebrate my family heritage {anddrinkbeerofcourse}. Why Oktoberfest was in September I will never understand. Now you are probably wondering how my family heritage is German right?!?! Well, my mom is from Germany --- like off the boat German. She was an exchange student in the US when she was in high school, met my American father, and to make a long story short they got married, started their life together in the US, and had my siblings and I.
I digress.
We had a lovely time at Oktoberfest eating authentic German potato salad with tiny bits of sausage, a coney (white hot.. Hoffmann's brand of course, which by the way if you never had YOU MUST at some point in your life, yeah they are that good) with saurkraut, black forest cake, and a chocolate half moon cookie Yummm!! It was all washed down with Spaten beer, because you can't go to a German festival without consuming beer. We sat and listened to some German folk band, and talked with some Germans for a bit. It made me feel like I was back in Germany for a few minutes. Oh how I miss it :-(
While sitting around there that guy and I were chatting about my family {nothing bad}. Mainly how both of my grandfather's were fighting against eachother during WWII. Now their children are married to eachother. Fifty years ago that would have been unheard of. It made me start thinking how times have changed.

Where oh where did it go???!!!

2008-09-19T07:50:00.002-04:00

So I was writing up a post last night when I found out that either tragedy struck, or I was having a blond moment.... the strikethrough feature is gone/hiding from me!!!! If anyone can help that would be lovely because well I can't post without it!

And the topic today is....

2008-09-10T21:09:00.005-04:00

So after much pondering of what to fill your brains with today, I chose ham radio. For those of you that have no idea what the heck I am talking about, basically it is using radios to communicate with other licensed hams. I am not talking something like those little walkie talkies that you had when you were little to talk to your friend that lived 2 houses away. With these radios you can talk to people all over the world. If you want more info on it go here or here .

There are currently 3 different levels (1. technician, 2. general, 3. extra) of an operator that you can be. In order to reach each level you must pass an exam. A few years ago that guy was studying for his technician exam, and I was very intrigued, so I began studying too. A few months later we took the exam, passed it, went to Dayton, OH for one of the biggest hamfests in the world, and I purchased my first radio. I quickly learned that there was more needed than just a radio, and that this was an expensive "hobby." I started having negative opinions about ham radio and thinking that it is MUCH cheaper to just speak to someone over the phone then to buy all the equipment etc.

It wasn't until recently, when we had a large phone outage in the area that I started seeing how useful ham radios can be. Even when the phones didn’t work, I still had my radio to be able communicate with other operators.

In many counties ham radio operators also serve as emergency communicators for the county in the event of a power or phone outage. In addition there are often local races and other community events that hams can volunteer at as the communication component. There are endless opportunities in amateur radio, something for everyone. So if you are in need of a new hobby, go check out ham radio. It is fun, as well as rewarding!

Happy Belated Anniversary Zipper

2008-09-09T17:06:00.001-04:00

: Zipper

Happy 1 year and 5 days anniversary to Zipper our little (well not so much anymore) mini rex. Our dog is Velcro, so get it Velcro, Zipper, yeahh we are creative like that.

It was 1 year and 5 days ago that I went and bought "her". I went in the store very adamant (and trust me when I make up my mind that I want something, I don't change it) that I wanted a male rabbit. I don't really know why I wanted a male rabbit, but I just did. So there. We (me and that guy), went to the cage of rabbits to see what lovely one we wanted to bring home. The woman that was working that day told us that there was only one male left in the cage, so we said that we wanted him.

All was wonderful for many months with our male rabbit, until it started to show some ~~notsomale~~ features. Yes that is right. Apparently she was the only female left in the cage at the store, not male.

I was in denial that I had a ~~notsomale~~ rabbit, and therefore continued to call it he, him, any other pronouns you can think of that would be used to describe one that is of the male gender. That guy however began to interchangeably use both he and her in the same sentence while talking about the rabbit.

It wasn't until a month ago that I finally called her a her. So happy anniversary to her, she, and any other pronouns you can think of that would be used to describe one that is of the female gender.

New To This

2008-09-09T15:48:00.000-04:00

So I am new to this whole blogging thing. I read several blogs regularly, and have been told by some to start a blog of my own. Being in college, I didn't even want to think about having to write more, but now that I graduated, I don't have that problem anymore. So here it is. You will find my opinions, stories, and anything else that I feel is blog worthy. Enjoy!