Rowan is 3

Playing with party toys

We had a very busy week last week with Rowan turning 3 on Thursday and Brooke and I celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary on Friday. To be honest, it's been a pretty busy summer with everything going on around the Stables and our preparation for Lincoln's arrival at the end of September. Haven't been keeping up with the blog much, that's for sure!

The party on Sunday was a great time. The weather was nice, but a bit windy. We had a great Toy Story cupcake cake that everyone loved and the hot dogs and snacks idea worked out well. Rowan loved it.

Here's a collection of items I've gathered over the last few weeks.

Check out the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the Tidal Basin in Washington DC. A very impressive monument. The official unveiling was to be Sunday, the 48th anniversary of MLK's I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial. Hurricane Irene has thrown a wrench in those plans and it's been postponed indefinitely. [Washington Post & NOAA]

The Redskins are one of a handful of teams installing renewable energy sources at their stadiums. Seems like a pretty good idea to me. [Washington Post]

Yoda shirt from Disney

I guess it has been a while since the last update! I saved this article from when the heat wave was stuck over central US most of the summer. It was a very hot July, the hottest in recorded history here in Fort Wayne and the 5th driest month ever. The grass suffered.

When the LA freeway was closed a few weeks back, a small group of people wanted to mark the occasion with a dinner...on the highway. [LA Times]

Cities are taking back old rail line areas and making them into urban parks and walking trails. One in particular is High Line park on Manhattan. [NY Times]

Hiking the Appalachian Trail in record time. [Atlanta Journal Constitution]

A cure for cancer? This gene therapy has worked to destroy leukemia cells...that's a good start. [Fox News]

Earthquake warnings from the animals at the National Zoo. They had a bit of a head start on this week's temblor. [Washington Post]

Have a great weekend!

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Rain, rain...go away?

Ready to go fishing!

Heard on the news last night that this is the wettest May in Fort Wayne's recorded history. Already over 9" this month with three days left. It's the 8th wettest month ever in Fort Wayne. Could be why the horses are floating? Not really, but they're close. The pond is at the brim and using the overflow pipe toward the field in back liberally.

We had our Ash trees treated this morning from the nasty Emerald Ash borer. Hopefully we can hold them off for a while, unlike many other cities across the nation. [EAB site & Time]

This week's News Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

This tornado season has been unbelievable, from Alabama to Missouri and everywhere in between. [Washington Post]

Here's an informative Fact or Fiction write up on tornadoes. [New York Times]

Another amazing animal story from Depune. A dog crawls home after the Alabama tornadoes week's ago. Oh, he has two broken legs! [CNN]

The storms that ripped through Missouri also hit Bloomington pretty hard this week. Hundreds of trees downed on the IU campus, many of them old growth trees. [IU News Room]

The Tohoku region of Japan continues it's recovery from the March 11th megaquake. This town had a longsighted mayor who built a wall that saved his community. [Japan Times]

Saw this video linked to Twitter from the tsunami that wiped out Minamisanriku in Miyagi prefecture. Almost 6 minutes long and pretty incredible. [YouTube]

It is Memorial Day weekend here, a time to remember those who gave everything so that we could be free. The traditional Memorial Day will be the same as the day we observe it this year, May 30th. [MemorialDay.org]

Memorial Day weekend in Indiana means it's Indy 500 time. For the first time ever, a Type 1 diabetic will be in the race. That's a pretty good reason to root for Charlie Kimball, right? [WTHR]

Have a great holiday weekend and hope that summer is just around the corner...

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Happy EARTHQUAKE New Year!

Strike a pose!

There was an earthquake this morning in INDIANA! It's epicenter was near Greenwood, IN and we felt it at our house around 7:55AM. Not a very common occurrence in this state to say the least. I experienced a few in Japan, so this one wasn't much compared to those. It felt like a heavy truck was rumbling by the house. Rowan didn't even wake up for it. Of course, I did my duty to file an incident report with the US Geological Survey. That was a first. [WANE.com & Christian Science Monitor & USGS.gov]

We had a great Christmas weekend last week. Over to the Sheridans on Christmas day and the Taylors on Sunday. There's over 60 new photos added to the Picasa site for December. Check them out! [Picasa]

Rowan with bows on!

The massive Christmas snowstorm on the east coast makes for interesting stories. These are great pictures showing how some people marked off their shoveled parking spots in Boston. [New York Times]

Have a Safe and Happy New Year!

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Summer Weather in October!

An oldie, but a goodie

This is what fall weather is all about! Going to hit the 80's again tomorrow, but then have the nice cool evening. Love this fall weather!

I think the horses don't mind it as well. They're starting to get a bit fuzzy with their winter coats coming in, but the cool evenings are nice in the barn for them. We've even been closing the doors at night, which might take some getting used to for them.

Football last week was a 50/50 experience. With me and Uncle Dave in attendance, IU came up short vs. Michigan on Saturday afternoon, but the Redskins took care of the Eagles in Philly on Sunday afternoon. We'll mention fantasy football again when my team actually wins a game! Ugh, it's going to be a long season there. Happy 50th to 17th Street Stadium, now called Memorial Stadium, in Bloomington. [Inside Indiana]

An early Happy Birthday to my brother Christian. He turns 36 Thursday and will be in Fort Wayne to celebrate! Don't hurt yourself running about Chicago this weekend, bro!

This week's News Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

The new Nissan Leaf is a 100% electric car. The government and the company are piling up the incentives to get people to make that purchase. [Nissan & New York Times]

The US Army scientists and university entomologists may have found the reason for the sudden honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder. That's a pretty neat collaboration there. [New York Times & Wikipedia]

Indiana University baseball coach Tracy Smith and IU Athletic's 24 Sports - One Team philosophy. [Indiana Daily Student]

Have a great weekend! IU vs. Ohio State and Washington vs. Green Bay could get ugly, but that's why they play the games!

Driving the grocery cart at Kroger

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Halfway through the Tourney - Friday March 26th

Blog's been redesigned a bit this week. If you get the post from email, I encourage you to click the post title and go to the blog online. I think it's a cleaner look. Rowan's ready for cruising the neighborhood in her new power wheels ATV from Aunt Lynnette. She's not real gung ho about pushing the button and going, but I'm sure she'll get the hang of it.

Lots of big basketball games last night, tonight, and this weekend, the Pools are heating up. Go Butler!

We've been checking out movies with our Netflix subscription. Last week we finally saw Bond's Quantum of Solace. We both liked it but are eager for the next Bond movie when they reset the story and go in a new direction. This movie was a continuation from 2006's Casino Royale. Next week I think we'll hit the multiplex for Hot Tub Time Machine. It's getting good reviews (and another) and the commercials are working me over. A 1980's period piece, how old am I again? [IMDb.com & NY Times & Chicago Tribune]

A Happy Anniversary to my parents on Saturday: 40 Years! Awesome.

Adding something new this week. To shorten the main page of my blog, I'll be adding a jump to the middle of my longer posts. You can catch the rest of the post by clicking the Read More link below. I'm not sure if this will be included on the emails, if so, click it and you'll go the the new and improved web site! From now on these jumps will be detailed as follows: News Quiz and more after the jump...

Friday February 19

Back from a break. Rowan had a pretty good day yesterday. She's got that nasty cold from a few weeks ago licked and I think the longer days will get her itching for trips outside. She's practicing riding her tricycle around the living room, so maybe she'll hit the ground running come Springtime.

Check out the favicon on SpydeysWebb.com and the SpydeysWebb Blog. Brooke made me one for Valentine's Day. A favicon is the small icon that appears next to the web site address in your browser's address bar. Mine is pretty appropriate...[Wikipedia]

Cubbie tickets went on sale today! The second annual Poppa Day at Wrigley Field will be Saturday May 15th vs. the Pirates. This is year two where Rowan takes her poppas up for a baseball game, and Brooke and I get to ride along. Let's hope it's a little warmer than last year! That was a cold and windy day and even though they tried to blow it, the Cubbies beat the Astros 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th. [Wrigley Field & Baseball Reference]

Speaking of the Cubbies, Spring Training kicked off yesterday with pitchers and catchers reporting. The position players are set to arrive on Monday for the first full team workout of the 2010 season. Here's a guide for what to look for with the Cubbies in Spring Training. [Cubs.com & Chicago Tribune]

News Quiz and more after the jump...

Friday January 15th

Spring-like weather this week! I know that winter will blast us again, but it was nice to be above 32 degrees for the last couple of days. I know Butsu enjoyed it more outside as well. That's Rowan up there in her new rocking chair from her Omoe. She really likes rocking away!

Uncle Dave got me and my buddy Jason some killer seats for the Pacers/Suns game this last Wednesday. Check out our view in the bottom photo! Like I told a few friends via text that night, our feet were ON the floor. Very sweet seats and an even better victory for the Pacers. [NBA.com]

Big football weekend starting tomorrow...I'm taking all the home teams this round: Saints over Cardinals 45-35, Colts over Ravens 31-20, Vikings over Cowboys 24-21, and Chargers over Jets 31-17. [NFL.com]

This week's News Quiz, I only missed the Teddy Pendergrass one. [Chicago Tribune]

Award season kicks off this weekend with the Golden Globes. That can only mean the Oscars are right around the corner. I plan on doing my Oscar pick 'em again this year, so study up with this per-Oscar award show rundown of potential winners. [Golden Globes & LA Times]

The movie Avatar keeps doing boffo box office. Have you seen it yet? There's yet another article this week that asks if the way it was made will change the movie industry. [IMDb.com & Box Office Mojo & NY Times]

The Spider-Man movies that we've known are no more. They've decided to go in a different direction. Not yet sure what I think about this. [LA Times]

Cubs in the news again this week with the hiring of future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux to the front office. Great move in my humble opinion, only 79 days until Opening Day (Spring Training begins Feb. 17th)! [Chicago Tribune]

Set your DVRs as Day 8 of the show 24 kicks off with the first two hours of Jack's day on Sunday night. [Fox TV]

Haven't played football in Wrigley since the Bears left in 1970, but there could be some games there as soon as this fall. [Chicago Tribune]

Some good news for Type 1 Diabetics from the money raised on our Walk to Cure Diabetes from last October. [JDRF]

Enjoy the warm weekend!

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Friday November 13th

With the Friday updates, we seem to run into this quite a bit, don't we? It's the 3rd one we've had this year! [Examiner]

Rowan had a great time at the IU football game last week. It's so nice to be innocent and not care who wins and loses! The picture at the top is in preparations for the day and the one at the bottom is her and mom enjoying kettle corn in the concourse area of Memorial Stadium. One more game this season and it's the Bucket Game next Saturday. [Wikipedia]

IU's basketball season officially tips off tonight in Bloomington vs. Howard University. Brooke and I are making the trip for opening night very shortly. We're favored by quite a bit in this one, so it should be fun to see. Might be another long season this year, but it has to be better than last year! Still have the two tickets to each game, so if anyone wants to see a game let me know. [Howard Bison homepage]

Fall movies are kicking into high gear this weekend. Several wide releases that are good for action or drama. Two in particular are the back home from war drama The Messenger (90% fresh) and the Earth going down in flames 2012 (36% fresh). I've been reading lots of reviews on 2012 (review 1 and review 2) and it sounds like what you'd expect from the guy who did Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. The Earth is destroyed over 3 hours, which seems a bit long to me. The Messenger sounds like a timely drama about soldiers that tell next of kin that their loved one has died in the war overseas. Solid actors Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster play the lead roles. Pirate Radio (56% fresh) also sounds like an entertaining flick, it starts this week as well. [Miami Herald & Chicago Tribune & NY Times & Rotten Tomatoes & IMDb.com]

This week's News Quiz and Pop Culture Quiz. [Chicago Tribune]

For Veteran's Day this week, I found a great collection of videos showing dogs welcoming their owners home from war. Good stuff. [Mental Floss]

Quick interesting read about smells and childhood. Why do we remember smells so well from our early years? [New Scientist]

Home remedies and dealing with being sick. [Miami Herald]

Web Site of the Week: A blog that has every contract in Major League Baseball, in detail: Cot's Baseball Contracts.

Enjoy another warm weekend!

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