Off to See the Phantom

Hey hey! I know it's been a slow week in my blog but that's just because it hasn't been so slow around here.

As usual, Liz and I had our share of sports for the week. Softball practice on Tuesday, a soccer game on Wednesday, and a softball game last night (Thursday). That by itself doesn't leave much time for much else.

Of course, Liz had her birthday on Wednesday but, due to the fact that we had so much going on that day, we're going to be celebrating this weekend. The plan is to head to see Phantom of the Opera tonight, crash at a hotel in Eagan (just south of the cities), and then do something in the cities tomorrow - I think Liz wants to check out the zoo in Apple Valley.

That's about all we have planned, for the time being. Personally, I could use a day or two at home without anything going on. I hate to say it, but next week is our last softball game and I can't wait. I like playing ball, but it's been a frustrating year (we lost last night in extra innings) and it's been so busy that I could use some time off.

Oh yeah - Liz and I went to visit her aunt and uncle, Sharon and Steve, in La Crosse last weekend. Well, the last time we had gotten together (for a family reunion, I think), I had been teaching some of the folks to play Sheephead. Steve really seemed to like it and I can never find anyone to play with, so we came up with the grand master plan. We're going to play online. Now, all we need are some other suckers to play with us.

I play fairly often online at www.yahoo.com so it would be easy enough for us to set up a table there and keep it private for ourselves. So, if you're up for playing some Sheephead, let me know. We'll set up some time to get together and we'll have card night - from across the state. :)

Well, that's enough blabbering for me. I need to get some stuff done so I can take my hot date up to the cities. Later y'all!

Everyone wish Liz a Happy Birthday!

So it's Liz's birthday today. We're really celebrating her birthday this weekend more than today. Today, we've both gotta work and then, tonight, we've got a soccer game. So, with all that, it'll be around 8:30 or 9 by the time we get home. Not really a whole lot of time left to celebrate. This weekend, however, I'm taking Liz up to the cities to see Phantom of the Opera. Since we'll already be up there, we're just getting a room at a hotel and then, on Saturday, we'll hang out downtown. I'm not sure what we'll be doing yet, but we'll figure it out.

This last weekend was a busy one. Liz and I had a wedding to attend on Saturday and, as soon as that was over, we hopped in the car to head home for Gavin's birthday party. After 9 hours in the car and about 18 hours in C-Ville, we arrived back in Rochester on Sunday night.

Monday was pretty low-key. Liz and I did some housework and finished off the night by playing some games with Nate. Then, last night, we had softball practice. I'm pretty sure that the only reason the guys called a practice was because it was 30 cent wings night at Buffalo Wild Wings - we did that after practice.

Like I said before, tonight is soccer and tomorrow is softball and you've already seen the plans for the weekend. Sometimes, I can't wait for summer to be over.

Regardless, happy birthday, Lizzy. :)

Fantasy Football, anyone?

I ran a fantasy football league last season and I've got it up and running again this year. We run the league through Yahoo! and it's free to join. This year, it sounds like quite a few of the folks want to throw in $10-$20 so we have some prizes at the end of the season, but that's still up in the air for the time being.

We're planning on doing a live draft on August 29th (date still subject to change) at my place. If you can't attend in person, we can get your picks via the Internet that night along with everyone else.

Anyway, if you're interested in playing, shoot me an e-mail. We've got room for more teams so just let me know.

Cheers,
Corey

Oh yeah...
 

Happy Birthday, Gavin!

So what the heck has happened to Metallica over the last few years? Man, they really suck now. They used to be the best metal band out there and now they're songs are all over-repetitive, uninspired pieces of crap. I wonder if they ever listen to their own music and try to figure out where they went so wrong.
 
On a slightly brighter note of the music industry, I just got a new CD - Coral Fang, by the Distillers. It's not bad. There are certainly some good tunes on there: Drain the Blood, Die on a Rope, Beat Your Heart Out. Unfortunately, they had to put some god-awful piece of garbage at the end of the CD. Certainly not the way you want to close a good CD. All in all, it's pretty good, but most of the songs seem very similar in feel and tempo - not much variation. However, if you're in the mood for some hard and "in your face" punk music, it's pretty good.
 
Getting away from the topic of music entirely, Liz and I got our passports last night. I guess we really can go to Ireland now. I suppose it's probably about time we started planning some more details, like where we're going to be staying, etc.
 
Liz and I had another soccer game last night. The game went pretty well, but it was so hot out that people were going through water like there was no tomorrow. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, but, in all honesty, we were lucky to get that. They had a number of shots that we awfully close and a couple that went off the posts. We've got another game tomorrow but, from what I've heard, we're going to get crushed. Apparently, a lot of the people on that team played through college on soccer scholarships. Huzzah!
 
Anyway, I suppose I'll get back to work for a bit. Take care, all.
 
Corey

Hey hey,
 
I hope everyone had a good weekend.
 
Friday night, Liz and I didn't do a whole lot. We hung aroud the house, got some Greek food for dinner, and played some games with Nate.
 
Saturday was a pretty long day. We left around 8 in the morning headed for Baraboo. We met Angie and Chris Lau (Angie was Liz's maid of honor for anyone that doesn't know) there and set off for Devil's Lake state park.
 
Devil's Lake is a nice park, all in all. It's got some great hiking trails. So, after a bite to eat for lunch, we set off for some hiking. The trails are very nice and very pretty, but it's some rough hiking. A lot of up and down and a lot of sheer cliffs along the way. I got some good pictures - you can see them here. (I have some thumbnails, but I haven't published them. If this means of viewing the images is too slow, let me know, I can get the thumbnails in place.)
 
A number of hours and a few miles later, we set off for some dinner and that was about the end of the day. Liz and I made it home around 10 Saturday night.
 
Yesterday was pretty lazy. We finally have a full day off and, for the most part, we made the most of it. We went to chruch in the morning and then went over to Wal-Mart and bought a new patio set for the deck. Liz is quite pleased - she's wanted one for a long time. After that, we sat around and played game with Nate.
 
I should mention that Nate found a great little toy on comedycentral.com. Y0u can make your own South Park characters (South Park is a cartoon on Comedy Central). So Nate, Liz, and I spent an hour or so making pictures of people we know as South Park toons. You can see the results here. 
  
Anyway, now it's back to work. Liz and I have a soccer game tonight so we don't have much planned for the day outside of that. I'll catch y'all later.
 
I'm out,
Corey

I'm becoming famous!

Hehe - well, not really, but I got another article published this month in an online journal and I was quoted in an article on Sun Microsystem's website.

This Month's Journal
Article

I doubt you'll find either of those to be especially stimulating reads, but I just think it's cool.

Anyway, soccer could have gone better last night. I actually played a pretty good first half, but I did so much running and it was so hot that I made myself ill. We didn't have enough subs so I tried to stay in much longer than I should have and, by the time we made it to halftime, I was so exhausted and dehydrated that I didn't make it back for the second half. :( We need more subs.

I'm still feeling the effects of it this morning, but it's getting better. I'm supposed to play softball tonight - I'm hoping I'll be feeling much better by then.

Son of a $*#&%!

So I've been beating my head against the wall all day today. I've been trying to copy a file through an ASP application (this would be an Internet based application, for those who care). I've been able to build entire applications in ASP but, now that I wanted to copy a file, I couldn't get it to work. Every time I'd access the page in which the file copy was to occur, the browser would just hang.

So I scoured the net looking for something to do with IIS rights or settings that must be confuigured. No dice.

Finally, I spotted something that helped. Copying files via a web page is considered by most virus scan apps to be "suspicious." I turned off my virus scan software and voila, it worked like a charm. Like I said before, Son of a!

Hey folks,

Not much new to tell you about today. Liz and I spent the night at home taking care of baby Owen Barber last night. It was fun taking care of him but, at 5 months, babies are still a lot of work and not a lot of fun, but he is cute.

Anyway, I've updated my links a little bit on the side of my blog. There are a couple new links there to other blogs on the web. I've got a link to Nate's blog (I always had the link to his site but now, for the exceptionally lazy, you can link directly to his blog). I also put up a link to Dan Frommelt's blog. For anyone that doesn't know, Dan was my boss at UW-P and is still the University Webmaster. He's quite the character and his blog is worth a read once in a while.

Well, like I said, not much new today. Liz and I have our first soccer game of the season tonight so I'm sure we'll be tired when we get home.

Ta-ta!

Corey

Hey, hey!

Well, it was a fun weekend. Liz and I were entertaining company this weekend. My sister came up to visit with Dean and Gavin and my dad came along with Carol, so it was a full house. All in all, it was pretty low-key. For the most part, we just stayed around the house and did plenty of visiting and laughing at the 2-year-old (Gavin, not my father).

With the family leaving on Sunday, it was most definitely nap time. I crashed for a couple hours after everyone left. Liz and I went to the nursery to pick up some mulch for our landscaping and, after Liz put all of that in (I was lazy and hung out inside, where it was cool), the two of us played games with Nate over the Internet for a while. I tell you, it sure is nice to not have to drive for once. Too bad it'll be a few weeks before we get a chance to do that again.

I was supposed to play basketball after work yesterday, but barely anyone could make it so we didn't play. That was fine because I had plenty to do at home. I got home and mowed the lawn and did the edging. The lawn sure looks better now, but it was so hot last night. I was just dripping with sweat by the time I was done (heck, I was dripping by the time I got outside, much less finished mowing the lawn). Liz set up the tent last night, as well - we're supposed to go camping this weekend so we needed to air it out. I'll have to take it down tonight because it's supposed to rain soon.

After we were done outside, we grabbed some dinner and worked on our plans for our Ireland trip. Here's the rough schedule:

Day 1 - 2: Killarney (Rock of Cashel, Waterford, etc.)
Day 3: Cork (Blarney Castle)
Day 4 - 6: Ennis (Cliifs of Mohr, The Burren, Clanmachnoise, etc.)
Day 7: Galway City
Day 8: Genealogy research in Mayo County
Day 9 - 11: Belfast (Giant's Causeway, etc.)
Day 12 - 14: Dublin

That might not be exactly correct, but it's fairly close. The idea is that we'll start in Dublin (which is on the East coast) and travel around the whole country clockwise, starting in the Southwest. You know, for such a little country, there sure is a lot to do there.

After we were done with that, Liz went to bed while I stayed up and worked on genealogy research. I was up until about 2 going through all of the information I've got. I was comparing notes from my sister (who had gotten them from grandma McGlone and our dad) with some genealogy information I had found online with pictures I had taken at St. Mark's Cemetary in Bear Creek. I got quite a bit done, but there's plenty more I can do, I'm sure. Nonetheless, the family tree is starting to fill out and I can go back about 6 generations to Michael and Mary McGlone, who first came to Wisconsin from Ierland. Mary died in Bear Creek, but I'm hoping to find some more information about Michael, who was born and died in Ireland, when we go over there.

Anyway, tonight should be a fun night. Liz and I are babysitting Owen so that Dawn and Eric can go out for dinner and a movie. I think they're dropping the little guy off around 5:30 so we'll have to get home right after work to take care of him. That should be fun.

I suppose I'll be going now. Cheers, I'm out.

Hey everyone.

I hope everyone is doing well. The last couple days have gone pretty much as expected. Soccer scrimmage on Wednesday night and softball last night. For a nice change of pace, however, we had a cookout at a teammate's place last night after the game. Many beers and brats were had and a good time was had by all. To quote a good friend, "Huzzah!"

Besides that, there hasn't been much new going on around here. There just hasn't been time for much else. I've got a gob of things I want to get done, but I just haven't had the time.

I borrowed a Nintendo game from Nate last weekend and I've played that for maybe an hour or so since. It's quite fun, but I just haven't had time to tinker with it.

Kara has been helping me get some genealogy information together and I've been meaning to get it on the website (as well as give my site an overhaul), but that hasn't happened, either. I've got a lot of the information and I've even gathered the pictures of a lot of the graves, but nothing put together, as of yet. I did download a genealogy program that Liz's dad recommended, though. I suppose I've at least made it that far.

I also took some pictures with our new digicam that I want to get online to show off, but I haven't had the time to do that, either. :-(

Meanwhile, Bob McMillin asked me to update the site I built for him (link here, if you haven't already seen it) and I just haven't gotten around to that, either.

*Sigh*

So much to do and so little time to do it. Such is life, I suppose. The upcoming week won't be much better, I'm afraid...

Kara and the fam should be arriving in Rochester tonight around dinner time so we'll probably spend most of the weekend entertaining the Gavinator. I've got some things planned out that I hope he'll enjoy but, like the average 2-year old, he'll probably put the kabash on my plans and play with a box.

And after that, here's the outline for next week:

Monday - Basketball
Tuesday - Babysitting Owen (our friend's baby - they're going to see Spiderman 2)
Wedensday - Our first Soccer Match
Thursday - Softball
Friday - Leave for Camping with Ang and Chris

Yeah, so we'll be staying busy, I guess. And to think, I still need to mow my lawn. :-/

Ahh well. It's the same way for everyone. We deal.

I got a bit fo news from Tron last night. His sister's, Laura's, water broke last night so I imagine she went into labor last night. That's a good thing because she was already about a week past due and they were planning on inducing labor this weekend if she didn't go into labor naturally. I just checked naterohan.com for updated information, but no dice as of yet. I'm expecting something soon. It sounds like Nate will be down in Sheboygan to visit them this weekend so, by next week, I imagine we'll have new pictures and the whole 9 yards.

Well, I suppose that's enough belly-aching and babbling. I could really use a beer, though.

I'm out. See y'all next week.

Cheers.

Hi all. I hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend.

Liz and I were back in Clintonville for the weekend to see friends and family. Let me give a quick play-by-play...

Friday afternoon, we piled into the car and set off for home. We stopped off at a place near Wittenberg to pick up some fireworks for Dave's party and made it home around 9:30. By then, my mom had already gone to bed (she was working 1st shift) so that was pretty much it for the night.

Saturday, Liz and I took off to New London to grab some lunch and catch Spiderman 2 with Nate and Andy Heckman. It's a great flick - check it out if you get a chance. It was easily as good as the first, if not better. After the movie, Liz and I returned to my mom's place for dinner and some visiting time with her, Dave, Kara, Dean, and Gavin. Gavin sure has gotten a lot bigger - I got a few pictures, but I haven't gotten them online just yet - they'll be here soon, I'm sure.

On Sunday, Liz and I headed off for New London once again. This time, we stopped in to see my dad. We were going to go out to see Grandma, but we couldn't get a hold of her. She's been doing some genealogy research and we were going to go out and see what she had come up with. Instead, we bummed around the St. Mary's cemetary in Bear Creek and I took pictures of any headstones I could find that said McGlone (or McClone and even one that said McGloin). There are quite a few there, actually, included Mary's - she's the oldest relative I know of in the US from my dad's side of the family. I believe she came to the states around 1870 from Mayo County, Ireland.

Sunday night, we (Liz, Dad, Carol, and myself) went out to Dave's place for the 4th of July party. It was great to see Dave again. Unfortunately, the 4th of July party is beginning to be the only time I actually see the guy. He's working on Wolf River Lumber now and just recently got back from a training class down south. He was there for a few months at the beginning of the year. Now that he's back, he's got a new job and he seems pretty happy there.

The party was a lot of fun, but we had too many fireworks. Nate and I had picked up a lot (probably a little more than we needed), but Stacey's brother brought over just as many, if not more. There was so much junk there I got awfully tired of setting them off. By the time we finished, I think everyone was just happy to be done. That was a bit of a downer, but it was still fun. We all ate and drank a lot and got a chance to hang out for a while.

Monday was pretty low-key. Liz and I had lunch at Mom's and then headed over to Nate's for a bit. We just chilled out and played some video games for a while until Liz and I took off for home.

Anyway, now we're home and it's back to work. Oh, joy. Liz and I have a pretty full week ahead of us. We've got a soccer scrimmage tomorrow night and softball on Thursday. Then, Kara, Dean, and Gavin are coming up to visit this weekend and should be here Friday evening. That means we'll have to clean the house at some point this week, as well. Tonight is really our only night off so we might get some work done around the house. Then again, we might just play games with Tron. We'll see, I guess.

Well, I'm out. Take it easy, folks.

Hello all,

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. It's been so busy here that I barely have time to think. Let me try to recap what has been going on this week...

This weekend, we were in Valders for a Clarke family reunion (this is Liz's dad's family). As usual, we spent most of our time driving and very little time actually visiting. :-/ We made it back Sunday evening and tried to relax a bit before the work week started.

On Monday, I had work and then basketball afterwards. I didn't get home until 7:30 or so. Liz had a pretty rough day at work so, needless to say, not much got done at home.

Tuesday was a work day all around. After work, Liz and I went to the grocery store. Once we got home, I worked outside for quite a while - I got the lawn mowed and fertilized and washed my car. Meanwhile, Liz worked inside on things like laundry and dishes. Once again, it was probably around 9 or 9:30 before we got done and managed to sit down for a bit.

Yesterday, I had a thoroughly crappy day at work. I was so frustrated by the time I left that I could barely stand it. Sometimes, things just shouldn't be as hard as they are. I won't go into it in greater detail, but if anyone knows how to deploy an undocumented Web Application through JRun 4, please let me know - I could use your expertise.

After work, Liz and I had the pleasure of sitting in gridlock traffic for about a half an hour so we could get to sportsmart. We had picked up some shin guards (for soccer league) and they turned out to be too small. Well, seeing as we had practice last night at 7, we had to get to the store and exchange them for some that actually fit. Of course, the only way to get to the store is to drive down the busiest road in town during rush hour when the construction has bottlenecked the road to one freakin' lane. Grrrr.... The day was not going especially well.

Anyway, we eventually got our new shinguards and made it home so we could get ready for practice. Practice wasn't bad - it was actually more fun than I had expected it to be. We'll see how the actual season goes, I guess. We've got a scrimmage next week against another team. Practice would have been even more fun, I suppose, if the mosquitoes hadn't been so bad that they could carry you away. Honestly, I'd often swat at one and hit one or two more "by accident."

Fortunately, soccer practice gave me a chance to sweat some of the bad day off. Hopefully, our softball game will give me the same opportunity tonight.

Tomorrow, Liz and I are back in the car and headed to Clintonville. We'll be home for the 4th - Dave is having our annual fireworks party as his place again this year. Unfortnately, it's becoming the only time each year that I actually get to see Dave. Regardless, it's nice to get together.

Well, that's enough belly-aching for me. I should get some work done.

I'm out,
Corey